Thomas Hart Benton to Colonel James Patton Preston, December 22, 1821

Senate Chamber, Dec. 22nd, 1822.

Dear Sir:

We arrived here on the 9th ins. myself, Elizabeth and the child. We are very well, but had a narrow escape on the road, the carriage being overturned, and pitched with violence on its broad side down a rocky hill. Happily no one was hurt but myself. I got a cut of four inches on the head which is not yet well.

The President enquired very kindly after you, and expressed great apprehension for your health in your new situation, and was fully satisfied at your not going to Pensacola last summer, as it would have been a risk to your life, without benefit to the public.

Messrs. Crawford, Clay and Adams are the persons chiefly spoken of here for the Presidency, and of these three, the two former are deemed to have the best chance by all with whom I converse.

Nothing of any moment is yet done here.

Yours most truly & sincerely,

Thomas H. Benton.

Col. James P. Preston.

SOURCE: William Montgomery Meigs, The Life of Thomas Hart Benton, p. 130-1

Thomas Hart Benton to Colonel James Patton Preston, December 16, 1821

Washington City, Dec. 16th, 1821.

dear Sir:

We left Missouri 13th Oct. We were all very well there during the summer, Elizabeth better than she had been for several years. We staid two weeks in Kentucky, and left all our friends well there. Mr. and Mrs. McDowell travelled with us from that place. In the Cumberland mountains we were stopped five days by some alarming symptoms in Elizabeth and afterwards travelled slowly to Abingdon, where I left her to proceed leisurely with her father and mother, and I came on in the stage. She has wrote to me several times since, the last from Mrs. Madison's, on the 7th, having left your house the day before. Your mother, wife and family were well, but suffering an excessive solicitude on your account, not having heard from you for a great while. Mrs. Preston expected you might be here, but I have written to her to the contrary.

I expect to be at Col. McDowell's at Christmas, and again about the first of February. My dear Elizabeth expects to be a mother at that time.

Nothing essential going on here. The Captain General of all the Floridas* has resigned. A letter from Nashville states he is now bestowing his inconsiderate and intemperate abuse upon his old friend the President.

Pray write to us, and let us know how you are and when we are to see you.

Your sincere friend,

Thomas H. Benton.

Col. Preston, Athens, Georgia.

SOURCE: William Montgomery Meigs, The Life of Thomas Hart Benton, p. 130

Thomas Hart Benton to James Patton Preston, December 20, 1820

Washington City, Dec. 20th, 1820.

My Dear Sir:

I could not have forgiven myself for crossing the Allegheny without calling at your house, if it had been any way in my power to have done otherwise. But the vortex of business in which I was swallowed up in St. Louis detained me there to the last moment, and when I sat out it was to go by the shortest road to see one whom I find inexpressibly dear to me under every circumstance of my life, and thence to this place to attend to my duties. In the spring I shall take your house in my way home, and anticipate a great deal of pleasure from the happiness of being again for some days under your roof. Since coming here I stole a few days (during the progress of a battle in which I found myself a soldier without arms) to go back to Col. McDowell's, where I learnt that you had gone to Norfolk, and would remain there for a month. I also learnt from Mrs. McDowell a circumstance which I regret that I had not known sooner, that is, that you think seriously of going to Missouri, and that some appointment there would be agreeable to you. Two had just been disposed, those of Receiver and Register of the land Office in St. Louis. You could have had either from Mr. Monroe (I am certain) by naming it, and we could easily have made the appointment acceptable to the people.

I wish you to do me the justice to believe that I shall take the greatest satisfaction in discharging a part of the obligation which your uniform kindness to me has laid me under, by promoting any object that will contribute to your happiness and prosperity; and if any thing suggests itself to you which my present situation would enable me to do for you I hope that you will write to me and command me without reserve.

The fate of Missouri is not decided, nor will not be until some time in January: the members who inhabit the neighboring states are dispersing at the approach of the Christmas holidays, and a full house is not expected again for some weeks. — I believe that the Resolution * from the Senate will pass.

Yours truly,

Tho. H. Benton.

Gov. Preston.

_______________

*This resolution, which passed the Senate on December 11, was for the admission of Missouri, provided that such admission should not be construed as giving the assent of Congress to any provision in her constitution, “f any such there be,” which contravened the clause as to the rights of citizens in different States. It failed at once in the House.

SOURCE: William Montgomery Meigs, The Life of Thomas Hart Benton, p. 128-9