From John Claiborne, 14 June 1850
New Orleans June 14th. 1850
Bv. Capt. T. Claiborne, Rifles
Oregon City
or Ft. Vancouver
Dear [Bro],
I embrace the opportunity offered by the departure of a friend on the Ohio tomorrow to write and send papers.
I was glad to receive your long letter and hope that it was soon followed by another, I am also glad to hear that notwithstanding all the obstacles surrounding you you have got along so famously. I trust that good luck will stick by you. As for your proposition that I should go to Oregon to reside it came some months too late. I am now I trust in a position in which I shall be able to count upon a good living and something besides I have a very good chance I think to get into a lucrative business as notary in the course of a year or two, and then make up lee way. By far the greater number of those notaries appointed by Gov. Walker are entirely ignorant of the duties of the station which in this state are important and multifarious.1 Attention to one’s business is therefore with a capable man the only requisite to success. That I am determined to follow as my rule.
I hope that something may be done towards bringing the Virginia business to a close this summer and that we may all touch the portion coming to us and which has been so long delayed. This would put me before the world and enable me to begin a course of money making.
The Cuba invasion is now the only staple of home news. It was an illjudged affair and ought on that account to have failed, if for no other reason, than to give the future and inevitable conqueror of the Island some useful lessons The papers will give you an idea of what is going on. In this city Gen. Lopez the leader of the expedition is now undergoing an examination before a Commissioner of the United States for a violation of the act of 1818, the Dist. Atty’ has managed the affair very bunglingly hitherto. His first witnesses have been the very persons who were the immediate friends and aides of Lopez in the getting up of the expedition from this point. Of course nothing will be got out of them, for they will not criminate themselves or their friend.2 With the exception of the Conservative Whigs and the foreign population here the movement appears to have the almost entire sympathy of the Community. The English take it very hard and talk largily about piracy &c. forgetting their own beautiful career in India.
Among those who went from here to Cuba, was your old friend Roberdeau Wheate, he behaved very handsomely at Cardenas receiving a wound in the shoulder.3 He has returned to this city. The followers of Lopez appear to entertain a feeling of the most unbounded attachment for him, praising him highly for his courage &c. He was not however the right leader to have selected, as he was ignorant of the language of nine out of ten of his followers, and has many of the qualities of the Spanish race which are not appreciated by the Americans or more northern European races. The course of the Administration in displaying such an undue energy in the prosecution of Lopez and others engaged in the scheme of revolutionizing Cuba has lost it very many friends. The truth is that our people want Cuba free not only because they detest the Despotism of its government, but for reasons of the strongest political necessity. If the Cubans wish to become free and to be admitted to share our civil rights very well. If not they must go away from Cuba which must be ours whether its present inhabitants desire it or not. Such is the reasoning of the great mass of our Southern and Western men. It is the expression of a will on this subject which a score of such administrations as the present could not control. Prosecution after prosecution may be set on foot but they will fail as none but a jury of Boston Federalists or Spaniards could be empanelled who will convict a man of any violation of the law of 1818 so far as regards attempts at securing Cuba for us.
In Europe affairs are beginning to wear a threatening aspect. Russia and England are on the eve of hostilities about the affairs of Greece, the Government of which country has lately been bullied by England into paying a very equivocal claim of one Don Pacifico, a Spanish Gen, who claims to be a British subject, upon the faith of having once resided in Gibraltar. It appears that the Greeks have a custom of annually forming a procession to express their hatred and contempt for the Hebrews, and on the occasion of the last at Athens, the house of Pacifico was rifled as he states of a very valuable quantity of plate, and of certain vouchers which he had proving his claims upon the Government of either Spain or Portugal. Thereupon the British minister at Athens orders up the British Admiral Sir Wm. Parker who proceeds to make reprisals in the most approved John Bull mode, much to the bewilderment and dread of the poor Greeks and to the ire of Russia and France.4 Out of this occurrence the Diplomaticts have managed to get things to such a pass that the French minister some time since left London, and the Telegraph of the advices by the Canada received here today state that the Russia Minister had been ordered to quit the Kingdom. Indeed everythings looks as promissing just now for a general war, as the most belligerent subaltern in any army could desire. So if you are ambitious of military titles and fame you had better resist all temptations to resign your commission, as in the nature of things we shall have “a finger in the pie” soon or late in the even of England and France or Russia getting by the ears.
I send files of the latest papers which will inform you much more fully than I can with the limited time at my command.
I have not heard from Nashville for several weeks except indirectly that James MCall had left it for California where I hope he will do something of which there seemed to me d—d little prospect for him at it. I have not heard lately from our brother James whom I have advised to go to Oregon.
Unless MCall desires me to go to Virginia on account of the suits, I shall remain here until Sept. when I shall pay a short visit to N[ashville] and see how things get along.
I saw Mary the other day looking quite well.
Wm. Walker who was unfortunate in his newspaper speculation here goes to California by the Ohio.5 His view is to establish a newspaper somewhere in that country where I trust he will be successful—George Seay of Nashville also goes out he is connected with a mining company and trusts to make a fortune.6
Your advice as to my marrying V.L.B. can’t be followed. We have not spoken to each other except when accidentally meeting in the street since last August. I am very glad that I got out of the scrape. The next time I hurt I shall make a better selection.
Write whenever you can as I shall always be happy to hear from you.
With kindest regards to all I remain
Yours affectionately
John Claiborne
1. Joseph Walker served as the Democratic governor of Louisiana from 1850 to 1858. See Alcée Fortier, A History of Louisiana, 4 vols. (Paris: Goupil & Co., 1904), 3: 250-53.↩
2. In 1850 Narciso Lopéz attempted his first of four invasions of Cuba, hoping to overthrow the Spanish government there and make the island available or annexation to the United States. His efforts were widely publicized and popular among Americans, and his campaign coined the modern term “filibusterer.” As John Claiborne explains, Lopéz was indicted in New Orleans in June 1850 for violations of the Neutrality Act of 1818, but after three mistrials (thanks in part to his wide popular support) he was acquitted. See Tom Chaffin, “‘Sons of Washington’: Narciso Lopéz, Filibustering, and U.S. Nationalism, 1848-1851,” Journal of the Early Republic 15 (spring, 1995): 79-108.↩
3. Robeerdeau Wheat served in the Mexican War and then joined Lopez’s Cuba expedition. When that ended in 1850 he attempted filibustering in Mexico before returning to New Orleans in 1852 to practice law. See Charles L. Darfour, Gentle Tiger: The Gallant Life of Roberdeau Wheat (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1957).↩
4. This incident became known as the “Don Pacifico Affair.” See Sara B. Bearss, “Henry Clay and the American Claims Against Portugal, 1850,” Journal of the Early Republic 7 (summer 1987): 175.↩
5. William Walker (1824-60) went to California and again took up editing, but in 1853 began a career as a filibusterer in South America. See Albert Z. Carr, The World and William Walker (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1963).↩
6. Unidentifiable.↩