69
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1837
to north Alabama and opened an office for the practice of his profession, but in 1830, decided to go to Texas with a band of immigrants from north Alabama. His public service to Texas began in 1832 when he was elected a member of the Convention held in that year, and was a member of the committee (two members from each Texas district) to report the expediency of petitioning Mexico for a state government free from that of Coahuila (see Gammel, Laws of Texas, I, 479-483). He was a member of the Con- sultation which met November 1, 1835, and served on a committee appointed "to make a declaration setting forth to the world the causes that impelled us to take up arms, and the objects for which we fight." See Gammel, I, 507-514; also E. C. Barker, "Declaration of Causes for Taking up Arms Against Mexico," in The Q11a,·terly, Texas State Historical Association, XV, 175. When the Constitutional Convention met at Washington, Texas, on March 1, 1836, William Menefee was there, a delegate from the municipality of Colorado, and he became a signer of the declaration of Texan independ- ence. Subsequently he was a member of the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Congresses of the Texas Republic. He was the first Chief Justice of Colorado County, and was one of the commissioners who selected the permanent site for the capital city; it was largely on account of his influence that Austin was selected. He lived at several places in Texas during his service to the country. First, he settled on the Navidad in Jackson County, removed to Egypt on the Colorado, and, after annexation, to Fayette County, which county he represented in the State Legislature in 1853. He died October 28, 1875. See E. W. Winkler (ed.), Secret Jom'"llals of the Senate, Republic of Texas, 1896-1845, 34, 190. S. H. Dixon, Men Who Made Texas Free, 228-231. Thrall, A Pictorial History of Texas, 389. William C. Binkley, Official Correspondence of the Texan Revolution, 39, 78, 202, 467, II, 613.
To HENRY SMITH 1 Columbia, Texas, 16th March, 1837.
Sir: You are authorized to make sale of 100,0Q0 acres of Scrip, and to draw on T. Toby & Bros. for the same which has been disposited with them. They report that they cannot dispose of same. The army must be supplied. It may be that Scrip has advanced above the Minimum 9f 50 cents per acre, if so you will provide for contingencies in the contract- It is desirable to obtain the proceeds, so as·to meet the requisitions made on the Commissary Genl. 2 as his last report represents Messrs. Toby as unable to advance any aids to the Country. Sam Houston. Hon'ble Secy of the Treasury [Addressed] : Gov. H. Smith Present [Endorsed] : President's Order 16th of March 1837 author- izing Sale of 100,000 Laud Script- The Same was drawn for
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