295
PAPERS OF :MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
a state Govt. at the same time making the necessary statements Peti- tions &c. to the genl. Govt. of the Nation = These procedings on the part of Texas was answered in the fall of that year by an invading army of 1100 men under Brigadr. Genl. 1\Iartin Prefecto Cos and was responded to by the People of trexas by a new Convention and a volun- teer army to repel the invasion. This Convention repeated the reso- lutions of the first one - Authorized the repelling of the invasion by force - pledging the resources of the Country for the expenses of the war = invited (in effect) foreign volunteers = and established a Pro- visional Govt. under the (1st. Organic Law) This Convention appointed Saml. Houston Commander in Chief of the Armies raising & to be raised in Texas = General Houston had come to Texas as well as I recollect about 18 months previous to this time & had occasionally practised his profession of lawyer It was however understood that he was a speculator in Lands = He had the reputa- tion of a fine orator was a man of considerable dignity of appearance and possessed of great suavity of manners with a most consiliating ad- dress to men in the ordinary waks of life = as these notes however are written in reference to myself as connected with the affairs of Texas I shall proceed to state what at the time of the election for members to this Convention were my views of the man and they were formed on this ground That I was or thought myself intimate, with having slept in the same chamber and mostly in the same bed with him for the space of six weeks at an time when as surveyor for the Colonies of Zavala Burnet & Vohlein [ ?] Business kept me in Nacogdoches for that length of time = I thought him a man of uncommon natural abilities = But I fancied perhaps that his acquired ones were in a great measure super- ficial = I thought him in the main a man of an excellent heart but dissipated, eccentric, and vain = and on the whole I ranked him among the first men in Texas and was at that time his Political as well as warm personal friend = However he delayed taking the Command of the Volunteer_Army and staid in the Convention employed in Legis- lative. matters when I thought that his honour as a soldier was hourly getting dimmed = He promoted and carried in that Convention an Act to be passed wherein he himself was to be the Commissioner pledg- ing in the most solemn manner the faith of the People of Texas to make to the Cherokee & 12 other bands of indians a fee simple right to all the Country north of the St. Antonio road to the Sabine lying between the Angeline & Neches rivers = This resolution had it taken effect in the spirit evidently intended by the words of the Act would have deprived at least 150 families of their [Endorsed] I W Burton's Journal No. 1670 [183-?], EDWARD PURCELL, [HOUSTON? TEXAS?l, TO 1\f[IRABEAU] B[UONAPARTEJ LAJ\IAR, [HOUSTON? TEXAS?] Returning papers handed him for translation. A. N. S. 1 p.
Powered by FlippingBook