WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1836
432
1 Niles' Registe,·, L (1836), 350. Natchez (Mississippi) Com-ier, July 5, ]836. Grand Gulf Adve,·tiser (Mississippi), July 7, 1836. The copy for this work is taken from Niles' Register. It differs from the newspaper copies in paragraph division in two or three places. 2 Richard G. Dunlap was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, 1793. He was said to be the first male white child born in that town. His education was entrusted to the Rev. Samuel G. Ramsey of Ebenezer College, and the young man-nineteen years old-was still a student of that institution when the War of 1812 broke out. The enthusiastic youth raised a com- pany of cavalry and tendered it to General Jackson, who gladly accepted it. Dunlap served at Mobile and Pensacola with spectacular credit, and became one of Jackson's most highly favored young men. The affection between him and the old general was retained to the end of his life. As young men both Houston and Dunlap were favorites of Jackson; they were intimately associated in the social and political life of Tennessee, and when domestic troubles seemed, for a time, to have wrecked Houston's political career, Dunlap stood firmly for him and used his influence to turn aside much of the slander that was being circulated against his friend. After the close of the War of 1812, Dunlap returned to Knoxville and began the study of law. In due time he was admitted to the bar, and proved to be a succe~s- ful practitioner, but he did not like the law, because it did not require enough physical action. He, therefore, organized a volunteer company of light horsemen, of which he was elected captain. Eventually he held the rank of brigadier general of the East Tennessee militia, and was active during the troubles with the Seminoles in 1826. In 1831, he was elected to the Legislature from Knox County, and became a champion of public improvements, and Ramsey (his old teacher) later referred to him as the "father of the Tennessee common school system." For a short time in 1835 he was a candidate for the Governor's office, but withdrew from the race because of ill health. He went to Texas in the late summer of 1836, arriving just before Houston became the first President of the newly- formed Republic. In 1838, Houston appointed him Secretary of the Treas- ury. On July 9, 1839, Dunlap presented to the President (by that frne M. B. Lamar) a proposition for a loan of $285,000 at 8 per cent to mature in ten years; this he pointed out was absolutely necessary for the main- tenance of the Republic. In the latter part of 1839 he was appointed minister to the United States to assist in negotiating the loan he had pro- posed. Letters from various men in public life show that Dunlap was generally liked, and that he exhibited real ability in the diplomatic field. He was married while in Washington, but survived this marriage hardly a year. See Wooten (ed.), Comp->·chensive History of ·Texas, II, 340. Gar- rison, Texan Diplomatic Correspondence, I, and II, passim. E. W. Winkler (ed.), Secret Journals of the Senate, Rep->1blic of Texas, 116, 117-118, 122- 124, 135, 150-154. Lcmw,· Pcipe,·s, II and III, passim. Telegraph and Texas Registe,·, September 18, 1839. ssumner Bacon (January 22, 1790-January, 1844), pioneer minister of the Presbyterian Church (Cumberland) in Texas. For biographical sketch, see William Stuart Red, The Texas Colonists and Religion, 136-141.
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