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Coxsackie, NY, 1842. Bifolium, 12.25” x 8”, 3.5 pp. in ink, address panel postmarked Coxsackie, N.Y., April 7. CONDITION: Good, .375” hole from sealing wax at left side of p. 3, partial loss to one word; separations at folds expertly repaired with Japanese tissue.

A heartfelt letter written by a Hudson Valley resident discussing an acquaintance who was captured and imprisoned by Mexican troops during the disastrous Santa Fe Expedition, but who, thanks to the personal intercession of former President and fellow New Yorker Martin Van Buren, would soon be liberated.

The letter is addressed to “Mrs Elizabeth M Miller,” probably Elizabeth Mygatt Miller (1817–1890), who had recently married dry-goods merchant Henry L. Miller of Oxford, in Chenango County, New York. After some playful remarks on the names of New York towns (the letter is postmarked from Coxsackie), the author turns to “the disastrous fate of the Santa Fee expidition” which “has doubtless met your observation”:

and you will probably recollect in connection with it that Mr Hoftelling when at your house mentioned that a brother of his was one of the party, what do you imagine must be the feelings of the parents of those young men, who have been thus captured and treated with such canniballike barbarity? I have in one instance witnessed that agony of heart. Truly man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn. Have you never on hearing of such heart sickning and refined cruelty, recoiled at the consciousness that you belong to the species? The young man I refer to was evry way calculated to adorn society, to a heart devotedly pious he united a mind highly cultivated and manners the most gentlemanly and refined. He went out as a merchant but led more by a passion for traveling than the love of gain. His parents expected him home last January, instead of it, if living, he is enduring the most abject slavery. Martin van Buren has written personly to Santa Anna for his release, claiming it in return for the influence he exerted in his favour, when a pris[o]ner to the Texans. But tyrants are not apt to be grateful—And it seems war between Texas and Mexico and perhaps the United States also is to be the result.

The brother of “Mr Hoftelling” of whom the author writes is probably John Beach Houghtaling (1812–1863) of the New York State Houghtaling family, a branch of which settled in Coxsackie after emigrating from the Netherlands in the 17th century. Accounts of the Texan Santa Fe Expedition list him as “J. B. Houghtaling,” a merchant. Although ostensibly undertaken to open trade between the Republic of Texas and Mexico, the expedition was actually formed by Texas president Mirabeau Lamar to annex parts of Mexico and gain control of the lucrative Santa Fe Trail. After an unexpectedly long and dangerous journey, however, the expedition was met by Mexican forces, captured, and nearly executed. The group was then marched to the Perote Prison in Veracruz, over 2000 miles from Santa Fe, and held until diplomatic efforts by the United States eventually secured the release of most prisoners.

This letter’s reference Martin Van Buren’s personal plea to Santa Anna on Houghtaling’s behalf is accurate: while advocacy on the part of foreign minister to Mexico Powhatan Ellis (1790–1863) was vital to the lot of all the expedition’s non-military prisoners, it was evidently the former President’s plea for his fellow New Yorker that tipped the scales. In his reply to Ellis’s farewell address (made at the end of his ministerial term in April of 1842), Santa Anna stated:

Anxious to oblige an illustrious citizen of the U. States, Martin Van Buren, who, through you, communicated his prayer for the liberation of Mr. Houghtaling, I concede it with great pleasure, more especially as I wish to give a solemn and public testimonial of the esteem you have gained by a conduct alike wise, prudent and noble. I promise you then, that you shall return to your country with the six citizens of the United States, who have not yet obtained the benefit of liberty.” (Niles’ National Register, p. 210)

Houghtaling and his group were released on April 21st, just a few weeks after this letter was written, and sailed for New Orleans on May 12th aboard the ship Woodbury along with Ellis. A second group of prisoners was liberated on April 27th, thanks to the efforts of Ellis’s successor, General Thompson, and a third group, this time of soldiers, was freed on June 13th. Still in suspense about Houghtaling’s fate, the author of this letter eventually takes up the topic of other mutual friends and greetings from the unfortunate Houghtaling’s relatives, “Mr and Mrs Hoftelling,” who “send their respects to yourself and family, and would be happy to have you when you come east, give them an oportunity to make you better acquainted with their unspellable name.”

A gregarious and thoughtful letter from one New Yorker to another on the uncertain fate of one of the merchants captured during the Texan Santa Fe Expedition.

REFERENCES: Niles’ National Register, June 4 1842.

Item #7792

Price: $650.00