PREFACE.

THIS work is designed further to promote the mutual acquaintance of the North and South. The great extent and capacities of Texas, as well as its distinct position and history, have induced the author to devote to it a separate volume.

It has not been thought necessary to load the narrative with extended remarks and deductions upon the economical experience of the young State, but while the facts presented are suffered to speak for themselves, some of the more obvious conclusions to which their examination leads have been thrown into the form of a letter, for the reader's consideration.

Owing to the pressure of other occupations, the preparation of the volume from the author's journal has been committed, with free scope of expression and personality, to his brother, Dr. J. H. Olmsted, his companion upon the trip.

NOTE BY THE EDITOR.

THE editor's motive for this journey was the hope of invigorating weakened lungs by the elastic power of a winter's saddle and tentlife. His present duty has been simply that of connecting, by a slender thread of reminiscence, the copious notes of facts placed in his hands, and in doing this he has drawn frankly upon memory for his own sensations. The lapse of two years may have breathed a little dullness on the pictures thus recalled, but it has served, also, to cool and harden any glow in the statements.

A sort of alter-egotism in the book was unavoidable, and some details that may seem rather trivial and spiritless have been preserved, because a traveler's own impressions depend so much on those unconsidered but characteristic trifles. The notes upon slavery in the volume are incidental, but the extraordinary effect upon federal policy produced by fluctuation in the local market, where ownership in forced labor is the principal investment, imparts to observations within these new limits a peculiar interest.

In an appendix will be found condensed tables of such statistics as are most useful for reference.

A LETTER TO A SOUTHERN FRIEND.

NEW YORK, December 29th, 1856.

MY DEAR FRIEND :-I regret that I cannot respond to the congratulatory, nor yet entirely to the conciliatory, expressions of your recent letter.

The character and reputation of the nation, and with it the character, the social claims, and the principles, of every individual citizen, have been seriously compromised in the eyes of the civilized world, by recent transactions growing out of the unsettled state of our policy with regard to slavery-extension. The recent Presidential election decided nothing with respect to this, as you seem to suppose, because the vital question which really divides the country was not presented in its integrity by the party which triumphed. No person, therefore, claiming for himself a respectable and responsible position in society, can, with decency, it seems to me, when brought near the field of discussion, affect to be indifferent, or avoid a respectful expression of his own judgment upon the grave issues in debate. For instance, the extension of slavery into Texas, commenced, for good or evil, in our own day; and when we of the North had the power and the constitutional right to prevent it. Our interest in its results cannot of course be deemed impertinent by its most jealous partisan. Offering to the public a volume of recent observations in Texas, I do not, therefore, see how I can, as you seem to suggest I should, avoid all discussion of slavery.