David Crockett_ The Lion of the West - Michael Wallis [122]
“I do think within one year that it [Texas] will be a Sovereign State and acting in all things as such,” Houston wrote on April 24, 1834, to James Prentiss, a New York land speculator who in 1830 founded one of the first of two land companies to speculate in Texas. “Within three years I think it will be separated from the Mexican Confederacy, and will remain so forever…. Texas, will be bound to look to herself, and to do for herself—this present year, must produce events, important to her future destiny…. The course that I may pursue, you must rely upon it, shall be for the true interests of Texas.”10
Later that day, after Houston wrote to Prentiss about the untapped potential of Texas, he somehow managed to convince Crockett to come along with him to meet a young woman who was then apparently the toast of European capitals and the talk of Washington City. That afternoon the two Tennesseans paid a social call on Octavia Claudia Walton, the consummate Southern belle who, at the time, was considered the most vivacious and talented hostess in America. She was the paternal granddaughter of George Walton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the daughter of George Walton Jr., a territorial governor of Florida.11 Besides impeccable English, she spoke seven languages, including Seminole, and could sing, dance, and play the guitar and piano. As an adolescent she had charmed Lafayette with her French conversation, and after Edgar Allan Poe met her in Baltimore, he was inspired to write “Octavia,” a poem of unrequited love.12 During her travels around the globe she was received by Queen Victoria and Pope Pius IX, presented to Napoleon III, and dined with Robert and Elizabeth Browning. Some of her admirers included U.S. presidents and Edwin Booth, Washington Irving, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.13
If there was any truth to the story that Houston was attempting to court Walton, it is a loss that no record has been found of the visit between them. It is known that both men signed Octavia’s autograph book, but Crockett did not relate any details in his autobiography, and if Houston had an amorous interest in the young woman he failed to forge any meaningful relationship. “I take great pleasure in recording my name in Miss Octavia Walton’s Album as a testimonial of my respects for her Success through life and I hope she may enjoy the happiness and pleasures of the world agreeable to her expectation as all Ladys of her sterling worth, merits,”14 Crockett scrawled in the book. Walton took the album with her in 1835, when her family relocated to Mobile, Alabama. George Walton Jr. later served as mayor of Mobile and his daughter met and married Dr. Henry S. Le Vert, an esteemed French physician.15
On April 25, following their visit with Octavia Walton, both Crockett and Houston took their leave of Washington City. After spending several days together, Crockett undoubtedly was impressed with Houston’s prolific stories of the immense opportunity that waited in the vastness of Texas, where game was plentiful, the weather tolerable, and land could be had at little cost. All that remained was to wrest it away from the Mexicans, who had abolished slavery and placed many restrictions on the Anglo colonists who left the United States to become Mexican citizens. Later that day Houston struck for the Southwest, all the while, as he wrote to a friend, “making plans for the liberation of Texas.”16
When Crockett left Washington, Congress was still in session. With Houston’s seductive talk of Texas still resonating, Crockett faced the first of his back-to-back trips. He plunged