WRITINGS OF SAJ\'1 HOUSTON, 1836
482
1833 and voted for the Constitution then adopted by the Conven- tion. Within the last year, he supplied at New Orleans, and paid the passage of a Company, (I think) of Sixty men from New Orleans to Natchitoches on board a steamboat. It is due to these nominations to say that I used these names without the slightest authority from them and without their knowledge. I owe this much to the Gentlemen and to myself. I regard it of importance to the safety of the frontier, that a Treaty should be speedily held, and today I have learned that is more than probable and almost certain, that Isaac W. Burton will not be enabled to act as Commissioner. I would therefore respectfully suggest the names of Kelsey H. Douglas and Henry Millard with authority for any two of the Commissioners to hold and conclude a Treaty, etc. Sam Houston 1 Secret Journals of the Senate, Republic of Texas, 1886-1845, p. 22. "President's Messages," Congressional Pap6rs, Texas State Library.
To· THE TEXAS SENATE 1 Executive Department, Columbia, 15th Novr. 1836.
To the Honorable The Senate: I have the honor to transmit to you the report:i of the Hon. James Collinsworth, one of the late Commissioners from this Government to the City of Washington. It contains a succint account of his reception and doings in our behalf, and of the prospects which may await a duly. em- powered minister fully accredited. His opinion in regard to the propriety of dispatching such an envoy to the United States, clothed with complete authority to negotiate with that Nation upon the interesting subject of our nationality and relations, is well worthy your attention- And I cannot forebear·my reiterated assurance that all the ends of our social happiness are to be pro- moted by that measure. It is due to the character of those gentlemen to state that a3 commissioners, they have reflected credit upon their fellow citi- zens, and have acquitted themselves faithfully so far as the total want of necessary powers would admit. Sam Houston [ Rubric] l"Messages of the Presidents," Congressional Papers, Texas Stat~ Librarr :?Firmly sewed to Houston's message to the Senate was Collinsworth s report. It is printed in Garrison (ed.), Texas Diplomatic Co1-respondonco, I, 125-126.
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