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Independence, Republic of Texas, Sept. 1, 1838. Bifolium, 31.5 x 19.5 cm. 4.5 pp. (1 p. cross-written), 1700 words, in ink, including address leaf; posted via New Orleans, received, N.Y., Oct. 16. CONDITION: Very good.

A remarkable letter by a pro-slavery Northerner who emigrated to Texas in 1837, shortly after the Revolution, and settled in Independence, located in Washington County, in southeast Texas. 

Independence, founded in 1835, is about 80 miles northwest of Houston. Edward Wyllis Taylor (1814–1886), born in Sunderland, Massachusetts, was a self-exiled Northerner who detested abolitionists and, to fulfill his conversion, moved to Charleston, South Carolina before coming to Texas sometime after January 1837. A slave owner from the beginning, he was as fervent an advocate for the institution of slavery as any native son of the South. This feisty letter, full of bravado, is a sensational example of early Texas chauvinism—by one who did not participate in the Revolution but imbibed its spirit instantly. It is also an equally passionate defense of slavery and a bitter tirade against abolitionism. 

Taylor quickly became a successful merchant in Independence and a participant in civic affairs. Independence was the original home of Baylor University—before it moved to Waco, Texas in 1886—thanks to Edward Wyllis Taylor whose large personal donation made its construction possible. Taylor was one of the members, and secretary, of the original board of Trustees when the new school was chartered by the Texas legislature in 1845. That year, at a sheriff’s sale, Taylor acquired the property of Independence Academy, founded in 1837, and donated it to the newly chartered Baylor University (Texas State Historical Association online). Taylor also played a role in local politics and served as secretary of the committee that promoted the nomination of John P. Coles as the next president of the Republic of Texas in 1843. In 1846 (some sources give 1848), he settled in Houston where he and his younger brother Horace Dickinson Taylor, who came with him to Texas, founded a cotton merchant enterprise which eventually became the long-lived firm H. D. Taylor & Sons. 

This letter is written to a former fellow merchant, a cousin by marriage, and acrimony notwithstanding, a friend—a sparring partner, to be more precise—Jeremiah Wilbur, who worked in his family’s mercantile firm Masters, Markoe & Co., in New York City. Wilbur (b. ca. 1805) was a practicing abolitionist, every bit as dedicated to support of abolitionism as Taylor was to its opposition. This led to an ongoing exchange of blows, albeit always girded by friendship, as they corresponded on the inflammatory subjects of slavery and the new Republic of Texas. Taylor was something of a flamboyant character judging from his gritty style replete with colorful sarcasms and bizarre colloquialisms. Wilbur was pretty good too, with his barbed epithets, for example, branding Texas a “receptacle of lazy loons.” We give below a good sampling of Taylor's response to the most recent challenge—a duel without live ammunition— delivered by his friend. We should also note that Taylor’s handwriting, like his character, is eccentric, compounded by the fact that the first page is cross-written, and that his idiosyncratic use of language limits the extrapolation of particular words from their context. However, the letter is accompanied by a complete transcription, with less than a dozen words out of 1700 escaping the transcriber and never affecting sense. Transcription is supplied in both line-by-line typed text keyed to the manuscript and in continuous typed text. 

Taylor begins teasingly as he addresses his letter “Abolitionist Jerry,” complaining that he does not hear from Wilbur as often as he used to. “It seems as though because I have [gone] to Texas I am no further use… So be it. I will now commence…with your letter…” He sallies forth: ‘O receptacle of Lazy Loons’ hay? ‘disgorged by the U.S.’ —Call such men as Sumner, Genl Rusk, the Austins & thousands of others who pride themselves on being citizens of Texas as Outcasts from your boasted land. & Could you see the thousands of acres of corn & cotton which are even now ripening for their harvest never would you again use that ungenerous untrue epithet “Lazy Loons” as applying to the hard working yeomanry of this land of the brave & free—& she will remain too. If the little band of patriots that were spread over this wild and outstretched land were ever since able to withstand the shock of what the Mexicans consider an overwhelming force & they commanded by such a man as Santa Anna & could beat them back & compel them even to sue for peace—what then would all the armies of Mexico be before the present population of Texas, composed of the very bone & sinew of the inhabitants of the various statesmen who have come to Texas to escape from party strife—from persecution—exiles from Civil War brot [sic] about by men who call themselves Christians…you poor fellows seem to think that our ‘salvation’ depends upon being linked to a nation who are on the very brink of ‘awful judgments’ as you express yourself in a former effusion. No Sir We stand on our own bottom. When we open a trade with England direct & she declares our independence, then Sir prosperity goes hand in hand with the industrious Texian & she will spurn the humiliated supplicant… when the U.S. conscious of her folly shall be the entreating party…” 

He takes a momentary break from Texan patriotism and turns to slavery: “Thank God I am too far from the hot bed of fanaticism now to be in danger of life and property from their machinations.” He cites Biblical passages that condone slavery. Deploying a few of his many colorful expressions, he continues: “I have not the time or inclination to argue the right or wrong of slavery. This much could I come in for 20 or 30—here's at them—hip and thigh.” 

Returning to the cause of Texas: “never talk to me about a fever & ague country & never say anything about a land you never saw. ‘Home keeping youth have ever homely wits.’ … though separated from all I hold dear in the world, still it has been a lovely healthy delightful summer to now. The nights in the country are cool always cool and throughout the day Sir could you behold what beautiful wild grapes—plums &c. abound here & see to what perfection the peach, the orange & the fig are brot [sic] to here you would yourself methinks almost forsake that scorching city & come where the mercury stands at—75 to 80 in the heat of the day…as for Frank if I had a boy that had no more gumption than he has I would transmogrify him into a soldier where he must either fight or die—he will no doubt like farming until the novelty is gone, then for something else he will never do much unless “Black germs” do it for him. Again you speak of our being squatters upon a soil that belongs not to us, twould not do to say that here…” 

Here begins a rhetorical pace-setter for Texan bravado: “No Sir never more will this Elysian land be held by Mexican power—nay rather will our Union boys volunteer & carry the sword to the very gates of Mexico yes to the heart of its chief Alkalda—Nor stop the tide—nor check the current until all shall bow the neck & consent to be govern’d by the laws of Texas. This may seem to you a wild chimera, but Sir you know not the spirit that pervades the heart of the men of Texas—Almost every day do I hear the cry—Why are we not in arms? Why not carry the sword into the heart of Mexico & compel them by force of arms to declare our Independence—why not pour a company of resolute men into the [?] & well you may pity me though not express it quite so…” He continues with a political aside: “Our election takes place tomorrow for President. Lamar is the man” (he called it right). And a playful one: “How would you like to step into my little doggery & take a drink of corn meal Juice aye aye Sir—Nothing like dealing it out in small quantities. You make drunkards by wholesale & we small fry by retail, aint it so? Ah, ‘consistency my navel—& Miss Grimke don’t ‘got spliced [i.e., married] Nay’? Whew”——— This concludes p. 4 written on the margins of the address leaf. Taylor continues with a “second letter” cross-written over the first page: 

“In my former epistle I gave you a slight sketch of my ideas of this country… It undoubtedly at the present moment presents greater inducements for immigration than any other portion of the world— It is rumored that the coming session of congress intends contemplating recommencing allowing a man a head right if he settles in the country—heretofore the quantity allowed a married man or himself and family was one league—now 4500 acres to a single man 1/3 of a league. Now that was too much… Since last Oct. or after the Dec. of Independence & present to the 1st of Oct 39 a head right was reduced to 640 acres. Since the 1st Oct. no land has been granted immigrants — & those who hold land on settlement are asking from 6 to 8 per acre.” In his final remarks he changes the subject: “We have more at present to fear from Indians than from the pious Mexicans some 2 or 3 lazy tribes from the states who have taken up their residence among the pleasant groves of Texas by right you of the states ought to take care of them—though the way you manage the Semenol men—is enough to satisfy any reasonable man that you have more on your hands now than you know how to manage.” Finis.

An exceptional early Texas letter by an ardent advocate of the fledgling republic.

REFERENCES: For Taylor’s role in the founding of Baylor University: Benjamin Franklin Fuller, History of Texas Baptists, Louisville, 1900, 139-141. Also, Benjamin Franklin Riley, History of the Baptists of Texas, Dallas, 1907, 54-57. For Taylor’s political activity, Anson Jones, Memoranda and Official Correspondence relating to the Republic of Texas, N.Y, 1859, 265. For Horace Dickinson Taylor, with reference to Edward Willis Taylor, History of Texas Biographical History of the Cities of Houston and Galveston, 1895, transcribed online at Harris County, Texas Biographies. For other correspondence between Taylor and Jeremiah Wilbur, see Gilder Lehrman online for a letter written by Taylor from Charleston, Jan. 250h, 1837. For Edward Wyllis Taylor’s son, Edward Ruthven Taylor, see Houston Chronicle online “Historic ranch lies in Houston’s Shadow.” Taylor fought for the Confederacy. When he returned home wounded, his father bought him a slave, Ann George, to care for him. They married and led a successful life, with six college-educated children, as an interracial couple living openly in Houston. Their ranch survives to this day, the celebrated Taylor-Stevenson Ranch, home today to Mollie Stevenson Jr. She and her mother are history-making heroines of the Black presence in Western cow country. For Jeremiah Wilbur, abolitionist, and his role in buying the freedom of six slave children, see the “Masters – Taylor-Wilbur papers” at the Clements Library, description available online. Paper copies of the above are supplied. 

Item #8231

Price: $5,250.00