The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945 Page: 10

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7Nepaouceoa A lmnote
cbruary 1--April 16, 1836
With an Introduction by
SAMUEL E. ASBURY
Introduction
T HE PRESENT publication of Juan Nepomuceno Almonte's'
Journal is from photostats of the original issues of the
New York Herald, obtained from the New York State Library,
Albany, New York, and the Library of Congress. The Telegraph
and Texas Register, October 4, 1836, published part three; and
about a third of part six was published in William Kennedy's
Texas, 1841, pp. 218-220. This Journal and other documents
were sent to the Herald because of its strong support of the
Texian cause, and the long friendship of Sam Houston and
James Gordon Bennett, the editor and owner. The original
documents are lost. The space required for the Journal itself
and its accompanying notes limit present notes. Many questions
arising remain unanswerable or speculative. The writer wel-
comes correspondence.
'Juan Nepomuceno Almonte was born in Valladolid, Mexico, 1804, and
died in Paris, France, March 20, 1869. He was reputed to be the son
of the patriot Mexican priest Morelos. Almonte was a typical Mexican sol-
dier of fortune and statesman. Educated in the United States, he became a
lifelong follower of Santa Anna. In the 1836 campaign against the
Texans, his services were manifold - something more than an aide-de-
camp's, and more than a confidential secretary's. Almonte's brief,
apt style is worthy of note; there is not an ideological phrase in it. For
his life, see Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, I, 59, and for
a more extensive account see Helen Willits Harris, The Public Life
of Juan Nepomuceno Almonte, Ph.D. dissertation, The University of
Texas, 1935.
2James Gordon Bennett, Sr. (1795-June 1, 1872), had established the
New York Herald, May 6, 1835, a penny daily. He was still "editor,
reporter, proof-reader, folder, carrier," etc., in June, 1836, when he pub-
lished Almonte's Journal in the Herald from a cellar at 20 Wall Street.
Bennett was a Spanish translator but did not translate this Journal.
His staunch support of Texas from the Revolution onward deserves a
memorial far more than many who received it. See Dictionary of American
Biography, II, 195-199.