USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 2 > Part 9
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REPRESENTATIVES.
Austin County, Moseley Baker, died November, 4, 1848; Bexar, Thomas J. Green, died in North Carolina, January 12, 1864; Bastrop, John W. Bun- ton and Jesse Billingsley; Brazoria, Dr. Branch T. Archer (speaker of the adjourned session, died September 22, 1856), and John A. Wharton (died in the third congress, December 17, 1838) ; Colorado, John G. Robison, killed by Indians early in 1837, and in the adjourned session, Jesse Burnham ; Goliad, John Chenoweth; Gonzales, William S. Fisher; Harrisburg, Jesse H. Cartwright; Jackson, Samuel Addison White, died in 1869; Jasper, Samuel S. Lewis, died in 1838; Jefferson, Claiborne West; Liberty, Edward T. Branch; Matagorda, Ira Ingram, speaker of the first session, succeeded by D. Davis D. Baker, in the second; Milam, Francis W. Wethered, whose seat was contested and finally given to Samuel T. Allen; Nacogdoches, John K. Allen, died February 12, 1847; Haden H. Edwards, in the first session and Haden Arnold in the second; Red River, Dr. Mansell W. Mathews, George W. Wright (died August 1, 1877,) Wm. Becknell (for a short time Becknell's seat was contested and, on his own motion, awarded to Collin Mckinney, who died in Collin County in 1860, aged 94 years); Refugio, Elkanah Brush; San Augustine, W. W. Holman, died in October, 1873, and Dr. Joseph Rowe. died in 1865; Sabine, John Boyd; Shelby, Richard Hooper and Sidney O. Pennington; San Patricio, John Geraghty; Victoria, Richard Roman, died in California in 1876; Washington, Wm. W. Hill and W. W. Gant.
OFFICERS OF THE HOUSE.
Thomas Blackwell, Recording Clerk; W. T. Hendricks, Door-keeper at the first and Abner S. McDonald at the second session; William D. Thompson, Engrossing Clerk at the first and Thomas Green at the second session; Augustus Parker, Sergeant-at-Arms at the first and George S. Stratton at the second session; Elisha M. Pease, Assistant Secretary at the first and John S. Simpson at the second session; M. J. Falvell, Reporter.
CHAPTER IX.
Induction of Houston and Lamar into Office - Lamar's Tribute to Zavala - The New Cabinet - The Labors of the First Congress - Selection of District and County Officers.
The constitution provided that the President and Vice-Presi- dent should be inaugurated on the second Monday in Decem- ber; but the anomaly was now presented of the constitutional Congress being in session, while the President and Vice-Presi- dent ad interim were still in office. Mr. Zavala resigned his office on the 21st, and on the 22d, President Burnet sent in this, his last official communication :
" EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, COLUMBIA, October 22, 1836.
" To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives;
" GENTLEMEN: The period having arrived when, in the esti- mation of Congress, the constitutional government may be completely organized, and, as I conceive such organization to be desirable, I request that the Congress will not consider my incumbency as any obstacle to the immediate inauguration of the executive officers elect.
" Sensible of having discharged my duty to my adopted coun- try to the utmost extent of my abilities, and with a faithful- ness unmingled with a selfish feeling, I shall retire from office with the inmost approbation of my own conscience, which I esteem more than the plaudits of men.
" DAVID G. BURNET."
On the same day, in the presence of the two houses of con- gress and a number of distinguished invited guests, among (105)
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whom were ex-Governor Henry Smith and many spectators, Sam Houston was installed as President, and Mirabeau B. Lamar as Vice-President of the Republic. The oath of office was administered to each by Ira Ingram, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
General Houston, being called upon somewhat unexpectedly to assume the office, on that day, delivered a short impromptu address, abounding in patriotic sentiment, and deferred till another occasion a general expression of his views and the submission of recommendations. Until that hour he was major-general and commander-in-chief of the army, and on the day of his inauguration wore the sword he had carried at San Jacinto. The following description of the concluding part of his address is from the official report, House Journals of 1836, page 87.
" Here the President paused for a few seconds and disen- gaged his sword and continued :
"It now, sir, becomes my duty to make a presentation of this sword -this emblem of my past office." The President was unable to proceed farther; but, having firmly clenched it with both hands, as if with a farewell grasp, a tide of varied associations rushed upon him in the moment; his countenance bespoke the workings of the strongest emotions; his soul seemed to have swerved from the hypostatic union of the body, to dwell momentarily on the glistening blade, and the greater part of the auditory gave outward proof of their congeniality of feeling; it was in reality a moment of deep and exciting interest. After this pause, more eloquently impressive than the deepest pathos conveyed in language, the President pro- ceeded : " I have worn it with some humble pretensions in defense of my country; and, should the danger of my coun- trymen again call for my services, I expect to resume it and respond to their call if needful, with my blood and my life."
Vice-President Lamar then delivered his inaugural, beautiful both in diction and conception, and breathing a spirit of
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patriotism so pure and elevated as to deserve preservation among the forensic gems of our archives. Passing the merely formal parts the following is reproduced :
" As Vice-President merely, I shall not be invested with official means to accomplish much, either of good or evil. The positive power, the active authority which might fall to my lot by an unhappy contingency, I sincerely pray I may never be called upon to exercise, since it could only devolve upon me through national calamity (i. e. the death of the President ). Upon you, gentlemen, and not upon any branch of the executive department, rests the good or evil destiny of this Republic. Mine is a station of honor ; yours of action and responsibility. You have been convoked for high and solemn purposes, with duties to perform and obliga- tions to discharge involving the most sacred principles of liberty and the deepest interests of humanity. A brave and virtuous people, struggling for freedom and independence, have made you the depository of their highest gift; and the permanent weal or woe of our country depends upon the fidelity or selfishness with which you shall execute the trust reposed. If, discarding all the meaner propensities of falli- ble nature, you shall approach the task assigned you, with reason for your guide, rectitude your policy, and the public good your only end and aim, I doubt not that you will, under the auspices of Divine Providence, be able to pass such laws and adopt such a system of measures as will result, not only in honor to yourselves, but in great glory and happiness to your country. You have it now in your power to open a fountain of legislation which, though a little stream at present, fertilizing as it flows, will continue enlarging with the lapse of time, as a rivulet of water widens as it wends its way to the ocean. But if you should prove recreant to the trust confided- if, listening to the whisperings of ambition and cupidity, you should depose the authority of conscience and yield your- selves up to the dominion of selfish passion, making the demons
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of gold and glory the gods of your idolatry, it will be impossi- ble to estimate the extent of mischief which must enevitably flow, not only to the living, but to many a coming generation. The evils may be boundless and irremediable ; and at a crisis like the present, when the hopes of your countrymen and the eyes of all civilized nations are turned upon you, any derelic- tion of duty and sad betrayal of confidence, cannot fail to draw down upon yourselves the scorn of earth, and upon our country the wrath of Heaven. If ever there was a time when all selfishness should be sacrificed upon the holy altar of patriotism, now is that time.
" We are in the midst of a revolution, - struggling for a separate national existence - laboring under many serious and alarming disadvantages - almost destitute of civil govern- ment - trembling as it were upon the verge of anarchy - with too little credit abroad and too much of the fiery ele- ment of discord at home. To extricate ourselves from this fearful condition, will require not only our mental ener- gies, but an exertion of the very hightest order of moral worth. The least deviation from the direct path of wisdom and virtue may bring woes innumerable upon our country, and lose to us forever all those blessings which we hope to gain by the restoration of peace and the erection of a free and inde- pendent government. Hence, gentlemen, those venal indul- gencies and selfish motives of legislation which under ordinary circumstances, might be productive of temporary mischief only and passed by without punishment, would, under the existing condition of things, in our present attidude to the world, be in its turpitude of the deepest dye, meriting the chastisement of universal execration.
" Gentlemen, I should be doing injustice to my own feel- ings if I were to resume my seat without paying to my predecessor in office that tribute of respect to which he is justly entitled, by his public as well as his private virtues.
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Through the period of a long life the ex-Vice-President, Governor Lorenzo de Zavala, has been the unwavering and consistent friend of liberal principles and free government. Among the first movers of the revolution of his native country, he has never departed from the pure and sacred principles upon which it was originally founded. This steady and unyielding devotion to the holy cause of liberty has been amply rewarded by the high confidence of the virtuous portion of two republics. The gentleman, the scholar and the patriot, he goes into retirement with the undivided affections of his fellow-citizens : and I know, gentlemen, that I only express your own feelings, when I say that it is the wish of every member of this assembly that the evening of his days may be as tranquil and happy as the meridian of his life has been useful and honorable."
This just and merited tribute to the pure and spotless Zavala was unwittingly, on the part of its eloquent author, a virtual eulogy upon the dead. On the 15th of November, only twenty-four days later, at his home on Buffab Bayou, Zavala's soul peacefully plumed its flight to join the good and great who had gone before. In his native Yucatan his memory is enshrined in every heart. By the redeemed multitude in Mexico he is venerated as one of the most illustrious of those heroes whose names adorn the pages of the history of their country. To the old citizens of Texas his memory is dear ; and to those of a later day it should be. .
Promptly following his installment, President Houston sent to the Senate, and that body promptly confirmed, his nomina- tion of men to compose his cabinet. They were :
Stephen Fuller Austin, Secretary of State ; Henry Smith, Secretary of the Treasury ; Thomas J. Rusk, Secretary of War; Samuel Rhoads Fisher, Secretary of the Navy ; James Pinkney Henderson, Attorney-General; Robert Barr, Post- master General. General Rusk soon resigned, his private
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affairs requiring attention, and William S. Fisher succeeded him Rusk's appointment left General Felix Huston in command of the army then on the Lavaca.
The labors of the first Congress demanded the highest exercise of wisdom and prudence. They were herculean in magnitude, involving the enactment of primary laws embrac- ing within their scope the entire machinery of civil govern- ment under a written constitution. Not only were the general principles pertaining to such a form of government to be securely embedded in the laws, but the rights of individ- ual citizenship defined and protected. The rights of citizens to land as immigrants ; and of the soldiers who had fought the battles of the country, or were yet in the army ready to take the field if farther occasion demanded, were to be secured by equitable headright and bounty laws. These grave re- sponsibilites, embarrassed by the confusion incident to the times, were met with a wisdom that challenges the admiration of after times.
Under the constitution of the Republic, Congress was clothed with power to organize counties and county govern- ments. In exercising it, that body reserved to itself the power to elect the county judges, surveyors, and boards of land commissioners to issue land-certificates to those who, upon proper proof, should be found to be entitled to them. Only the acknowledged patriotism of this Congress and the tem- porarily unsettled condition of the pupulation can excuse this centralization of power. So far as known, the Congress made safe and judicious selections. This is especially true with reference to its selection of county judges.
On the 16th of December, 1836, the two houses assembled in joint session for the election of sundry officers under the Republic.
James Collinsworth was elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by 25 votes to 18 cast for Richard Ellis.
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Shelby Corzine was unanimously elected Judge of the first, or eastern district.
Benjamin C. Franklin was elected Judge of the second, or Brazoria district, by 23 votes to 19 for J. D. Woods.
Robert M. Williamson was elected for the third, or Wash- ington, district, by 30 votes to 7 for Thomas R. Jackson and 5 for W. L. Underwood.
James W. Robinson was elected for the fourth, or western, district, by 34 votes, to 8 for W. D. Jarvis.
The District Judges, with the Chief Justice, composed the Supreme Court.
The following prosecuting attorneys were elected :
First district, Richardson Scurry, by 38 to 3 votes.
Second district, Augustus M. Tompkins, by 31 votes to 6 for Henry P. Brewster and 5 for Fenton M. Gibson.
Third district, H. C. Hudson, unanimously.
Fourth district, John Ricord, unanimously.
For Auditor, John W. Moody, received 23 votes ; E. M. Pease, 18.
For Treasurer, Asa Brigham, was elected unanimously.
County Judges: Austin County, Thomas Barnett; Bexar, Joseph Baker ( Don Jose) ; Bastrop, Andrew Rabb ; Brazoria, George B. Mckinstry ; Colorado, William Menefee; Goliad, W. H.McIntire ; Gonzales, Bartlett D. McClure ; Harrisburg, Andrew Briscoe; Jackson, Patrick Usher (died in Perote prison, 1843) ; Jasper, Joseph Mott; Jefferson, Chichester Chaplin; Liberty, Daniel P. Coit ; Matagorda, Silas Dins- more; Milam, Massillon Farley ; Nacogdoches, Charles S. Taylor ; Red River, Robert Hamilton ; Refugio, John Dunn ; San Augustine, William McFarland; Sabine, Matthew Parker ; Shelby, George V. Lusk ; San Patricio, John Turner ; Vic- tora, John McHenry; Washington, John P. Coles.
William H. Wharton was appointed Minister to the United States, and soon left for Washington City.
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On the 21st of December, after a session of two months and eighteen days and the enactment of many wise, and a few imperfect or unwise laws, and selecting the new town of Houston as a temporary seat of government, the Congress adjourned to meet in that place on Monday the first day of May, 1837.
CHAPTER X.
President Houston's Wise and Patriotic Action - Zeal of Gen. Austin for the Public Weal - His Death and the Universal Lamentations of the People - Ceremonies attending His Interment - Gen. Hamilton of South Carolina invited by Congress to become a Texian and Commander of the Army - Santa Anna to President Houston.
In the selection of his cabinet and William H. Wharton as minister plenipotentiary to the United States, President Houston manifested a most generous spirit - wisdom in states- manship - and a sincere desire to harmonize hitherto discord- ant elements - elements represented by men whose antagonism grew out of differences of opinion as to the true policy to be pursued by Texas, during the period of the revolution, with reference to a declaration of independence. It was an inspiration worthy of the chief magistrate of a newly-born and sorely-tried republic of free men, to seek to heal the wounds inflicted in the discussion and settlement of that issue. He felt that the virtue and intelligence of the country should combine and act unitedly for the promotion of the common happiness and prosperty. Ignoring apparent rivalry in the presidential election, he urged the selection of Stephen F. Austin as Secretary of State, and ex-Governor Henry Smith as Secretary of Treasury, leaders respectively of the opposing parties, on the primary question of independence. This action was hailed by the patriots of the country, of all for- mer shades of opinion, as eminently wise and just. Other selections, especially those of General Rusk, Mr. Henderson and Mr. Fisher, strengthened the public gratulation. To see those men sitting around the same board, forgetting the past and striving unitedly for a brilliant future, sent thrills of joy and hope through the anxious hearts of the people.
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The multiplied labors for the moment cast upon General Austin, in regard to our foreign relations, and the internal organization of the civil departments of the government, national and municipal, were met with a zeal and courage worthy of his best days. He labored almost incessantly (though still in feeble health ) in inclement weather and in uncomfortable quarters without fire. It was too much for his feeble frame. His self-sacrifice attested his courageous devotion to duty. Suddenly he was stricken and compelled to yield - to seek repose on his couch. Speedily pneumonia developed, in malignant form, and in two or three days after ceasing his official labor, at 12:30 p. m., on the 27th of December, 1836, the soul of Stephen Fuller Austin followed that of his father, which had taken its flight in 1821. As the news spread, lamentation was universal over the land.
From the first day of January, 1822 -the feeble dawn of American civilization. on the Brazos - he had been identified with every movement having as its object the public good. He had. toiled, in sunshine and in storm, for the prosperity of his colony, and, indirectly, had given aid to other colonies. His long imprisonment in the dungeons of Mexico, from the effects of which he never recovered and which, as the incipient cause, doubtless hastened his death, excited for him the sym- pathy and affection of his fellow-citizens. At the time of his decease he was in his forty-fourth year. While he had but reached manhood's meridian, in the latter years of his life, owing to innumerable hardships and sufferings that he had encountered, he presented the appearance of an old man. His mistakes in public policy were forgotten. His moral virtues, conceded by all, and his patriotism, denied by none, were alone remembered by the people.
It has been a misfortune to the fame of Stephen F. Austin, but not to as great a degree as to that of General Houston, that inconsiderate biographers, in the exuberance of an over- weening admiration, have attributed to him merit that he did
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not possess. The attempt to make it appear that he was the father of Texian independence is of this character. It has been shown that he was nothing of the sort. His course on the subject, however, in nowise detracts from his claims to patriotism. History is instructive and valuable only in so far as it is a record of facts, with results springing from them. Stephen F. Austin, in 1822, assumed the position of his deceased father in a contract with the Mexican government, to introduce into Texas a number of American families for a specific consideration in land. He complied with his contract as a business transaction. In this matter patriotism had no part, De Witt, Sterling C. Robertson, Power and Hewitson, McMullen and McGloin, Milam, Burnet, Vehlein, Zavala, Beales, Cameron and others entered into similar contracts, some to succeed and some to fail, and with them too not patriotism but self-interest supplied the motive force. Nor was the exercise of this sentiment manifested until there were in the country a sufficient number of Anglo-Americans and Europeans to need a distinct political organization for their mutual protection against the evils of constantly recurring civil commotions, and internecine strifes in Mexico. This was in 1832. Thenceforward Stephen F. Austin's claims to the respect of posterity as a patriot become a part of our political history. The succeeding events have been given with an impartial reverence for truth; and by that test, the name of Austin must be handed down to posterity as a patriot. He was in other respects, more than this; he was a painstak- ing laborious man of business, just in regard to the rights of his colonists, an exemplar of personal and public virtue and the most tender domestic affections - a plain common sense man, without brilliancy of mind or genius, but eminently safe and prudent in all that engaged his attention. Let his mem- ory be imperishably preserved on the brightest history of Texas.
General Austin died in the house of his friends, Mr. and
-
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Mrs. George B. Mckinstry. His remains lay in state from the 27th to the 29th, on which day they were escorted from West Columbia, two miles, to the steamboat Yellow Stone, at Columbia. Colonel George W. Poe acted as marshal of the procession, headed by the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate and House. Then followed the hearse, with his colleagues of the cabinet, Henry Smith, Wm. S. Fisher, James P. Henderson and S. Rhoads Fisher, as pall-bearers ; his relatives ; President Houston and Vice-President Lamar ; officers of the civil list, officers of the army, officers of the navy and clerks of the departments and citizens.
On arriving at Peach Point, on the river, the home of James F. Perry, his brother-in-law, and the place of interment, the procession was met by a detachment of the first regiment of infantry, under Captain Martin K. Snell, who paid the last honors to the deceased patriot, on his interment. His only sister and other kindred were in after years buried beside him.
On the day of his death the following order was issued :
" WAR DEPARTMENT, " COLUMBIA, December 27, 1836.
" The father of Texas is no more. The first pioneer of the wilderness has departed. General Stephen F. Austin, Secre- tary of State, expired this day at half-past twelve o'clock, at Columbia.
" As a testimony of respect to his high standing, undeviating moral rectitude, and as a mark of the nation's gratitude for his untiring zeal and invaluable services, all officers, civil and military, are requested to wear crape, on the right arm, for the space of thirty days. All officers commanding posts, garrisons or detachments will, so soon as information is received of this melancholy event, cause twenty-three guns (one for each county in the Republic), to be fired, with an interval of five minutes between each ; and also have the garrison and reg-
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imental colors hung with black, during the space of mourning for the illustrious deceased. i
" By order of the President,
" WILLIAM S. FISHER, " Secretary of War."
A similar order to the navy was issued by S. Rhoads Fisher, Secretary of that department.
Among the touching episodes connected with the death of General Austin, was the presence with him in the hour of death of perhaps his oldest living friend in Texas, Major James Kerr, of the Lavaca, who had served with him in the ter- ritorial legislature of Missouri twenty years before, and who had ever been his warm and confidential friend in Texas. There lies before me now an entry in the private diary of Major Kerr, written on the day of Austin's death, beautiful in its tender lamentation over the sad event.
In the Senate of the United States, on the first of August, 1854, after referring to the American fathership of Texas, General Sam Houston, in the fullness of a great heart, said :
" Stephen F. Austin was the father of Texas, This is a designation justly accorded to him, as will be testified to by every man who is acquainted with the primitive history of Texas, or its progress, as long as he lived. He is entitled to that honor. *
* Posterity will never know the worth of Stephen F. Austin, the privation which he endured, the enterprise which he possessed, his undying zeal, his ardent de- votion to Texas and her interests, and his hopes connected with her glorious destiny."
It should have been stated a little earlier that on the ap- pointment of General Rusk as Secretary of War and the com- mand of the army falling upon General Felix Huston, a joint resolution of Congress invited General James Hamilton, of South Carolina, to become a Texian and commander-in-chief
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