252
TEXAS STATE LIBR.\RY
Ko. 258
1835 Nov. 13, J. FbRBES TO J. W. ROBINSON
Dr. Sir Nacogdoches Nov. 13, 1835 l\fatters continue here nearly the same as when you left the same lndividuals managing affairs for their own pleasure l\fr. P. Menard, when her~ a few days a:,?o on his own authority appointed John K. Allen Receiver of Public illonies. One of the most Important snbjects that can and doubtless will, claim the attention of your Body, is the imrnediate organization of a Land Comrnissioners Office, for all Texas with 2 Land offices con- nected there with in each of the Departments to wit, Nacogdoches Brasos, and Bexar, in this Department there are three Commissiont>rs. their offices ought to be abolished, and the whole Land busines.c; done in one office under proper regulations, such as have been adopted in the United States. the money to be received for Lands to be paid to persons authorized to wit as receivers for the Government, establishing in this'manner a proper system of Checks and Balances- Altho vast Bodies of Land have been surveyed yet there remains for the Use of the State an immense quantity of good Land yet which can be made to appear by an examination in to those 11 League claims pritended Spanish and Mexican Grants. Lands said to be held by officers now in the Mexican Service such as Paydres l\fedina and others, and the enormous.quantities of Land that have been snrrendered under Smith and Taylor, for old Settlers for whom 8 or 900! Orders of Survey have been given when it is well known that not 2 or 300 families (if that) can be found in their boundaries entitled to Lands under the act of the Legislature the establishing of Land offices iu the several Departments and tJ10 uniting of them under one general Head which would form a Depart- ment of the State Government on the plan of the U. States would im- mediately remedy those evils as those Offices would arrange the busi- nes.c; properly <leteet the impositions practiced, ascertain the nature of the Spanish Mexican and other Grants, and make regular records and plots of what have done in their several Jurisdictions A number of our Citizens here on the Ayish Bayou, and as far as the Sabine arc preparing with all possible dispatch to join the ~lain Army, and some volunteers from the States, are on their ,,:ay to the scene of action, but I trust before this that the War is endl'd for the present by our army taking San Antonio I hope your next letter will announce the pleasing intelligence. Texas can become n powerful State. its permananey an<l brilliantcy will in a great measure depend on the Action of the Convention
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