WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1835
306
so long as there is subsistence in the neighborhood, the enemy will command it as well as you! So that by the time they are starved out, you will have nothing to subsist the Troops or the People. I hear our friend Col. Bowie 3 is at the Head of the army. Bid him God speed. I am Glad of it! I congratulate him and the army. You may shew him this letter! Salute Dr. Richardson• and say to him the appt of Surgeon General of the Army is for his acceptance if it will be agreeable to him ! Remember one Maxim, it is better to do well, 'late; than never! The army without means ought never to have passed the Guada- lupe without the proper munitions of war to reduce San Anto- nio.- Therefore the error cannot be in falling back to an eligible position. Sam Houston To Capt J W Fannin 5 Bexar Texas [Addressed]: To Capt. J. W. Fannin Jr. Army of the People Bexar Texas Express Mr. H. M. Hanks 1 Army Papers, Texas State Library. 2 La Bahia-Goliad. 3 Houston was misinformed; it was not Colonel James Bowie, but Colonel Edward Burleson who was elected to take General Austin's place as head of the army when he was appointed a commissioner to the United States. For biographical sketches of James Bowie see the Dictionary of American Biography, II, 509-510. Southwesteni Historical Qua1·terly, XXXVII, 90-103. •Beyond casual references, no biographical information about Richardson has been discovered. · 6 For biographical sketches of James Walker Fannin see the Dictionary of Am.erican Biog,·aphy, II, 263-264. Texas Histo1·ical Quarterly, VII, 318. Southwestem Historical Qum·terly, XXIII, 79-90. Henry Stuart Foote, ·Texas and Texans (1841), II, 201-'218. RESOLUTION TO ANNUL LAND GRANTS 1 [ No date given, evidently before November 13, 1835~] Whereas certain extensive Grants of land have been made by the Congress of Coahuila & Texas since 1833, and the same has been purchased by certain individuals under the most suspicious circumstances of fraud; Therefore, be it Res'd that we recom- mend to the Consultation, at their meeting, the consideration of this matter, and that, they declare all the said Grants null and void, and if moneys have been paid by original purchasers and contractors for the land, upon evidence being adduced ( satisfac- tory) for the purchase of same; in good faith, th~t the amount
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