WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1837
117
TO THE TEXAS CONGRESS 1
Executive Department, City of Houston, 7th June, 1837. GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRE- SENTATIVES: In reply to your resolution of the 26th ultimo, making enquiry upon what authority I stationed soldiers upon the Sabine &c, I have the honor to state, that the post of Galveston was in a state of mutiny, in consequence of the want of provisions, and that complaint was made to the executive that persons, who were disaffected towards the government, were driving all the cattle over the Sabine, out of the country, to prevent the govern- ment from getting beef cattle to supply the different posts; and upon these representations the executive thought it best that persons should be stationed on or near the Sabine, to prevent the citizens of the country from driving ·the cattle out of the country, and thereby depriving us of the means of furnishing our army with beef; and that as long as we apprehend an invasion, and expect to supply our army with the beef in the country, we must have a guard to keep the cattle in the country. The quarter master general has contracted for five hundred beeves, in Shelby County, which will be sufficient to supply the present wants of the army; but we will be deprived of these, if there be no guard to prevent cattle from being driven out of the country. The scarcity of supplies in Texas exists to an extent that can- not be anticipated. The executive has taken particular pains to ascertain, as near as possible, the number of beeves in the country, and he is compelled to believe that out of the county of Liberty, there does not exist five hundred that could be procured. Six hundred troops are to be immediately armed and provisioned, independent of those that will be in the main army. Our ves- sels of war have to be supplied from Galveston with beef. ·where there are no bread stuffs, there is much meat consumed. It requires three pounds and a half per day for a ration for one man. I have thus respectfully submitted to your honorable body a few of the many reasons which could be adduced to show why I placed guards on the Sabine, to prevent those who might wish to deprive the country of means which were essential to its
Powered by FlippingBook