Washington City Jan 24 1845Mary,

Page 1

I have nothing new to write which would be to you of interest. We have had a long and exciting debate on the annexation of Texas which closed yesterday and the vote was taken & decided in favor of annexation by 22 majority, an unexpected number. It now goes to the Senate and though I have heretofore considered it would not pass that body this winter yet the large majority it obtained in our hour may have such effect in the Senate that it may pass but enough of that.

I am now quite as well as usual but my troubles me very much. That you will know is much more troublesome than dangerous. The weather is much more mild here than it was last winter and society & intercourse is dull. That troubles me not. I am pleased with my quiet quarters but am pleased to remember that considerable more than half the session has passed and the time of returning to my family approaches.

Mary, I look back at my services of last summer and fall and resolve I will not so the next. I am resolved of life & health is spared to us and ours that next summer shall

be one of some rest & relaxation. It is not however for myself merely that this is . It is for the peace & enjoyment of my family.

I have occasion of gratitude to God for the manner in which I have been undeservedly blessed in my family relations in life. With the wife of my youth, faithful affectionate, prudent, judicious, bearing with kindness all my peculiarity. With her I have occasion of satisfaction and content & her in no respect different except one, that is, I wish her as happy as she is deserving & that is greatly. I would she was as well satisfied as I am satisfied with her and that she would always feel & speak & act to me as becomes a wife who has her husbands entire confidence and affection, which is truly the case.

As to my children, the children of this wife of my affections, they have been much better than such a father deserved, and I commend them all to God for his and direction.

Mary, I could not let the long Texas debate pass without speaking & both Mr Marsh & myself have spoken and I spent about one week in preparation and must now spend a few days in writing it out for publication.

The navigation on the Potomac has stopped for the winter though the river has no ice. This prevents having anything from Edwin Wright or Mary Johnson.

Nothing further occurs to me at present, which I wish to write. Only to send my love to my children and my respects to my friends.

Mary N. Collamer

Affectionately YoursJ. Collamer