WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1837
173
TO THE SENATE, PRESENTING A TREATY FOR RATIFICATION1 Executive Department, Republic of Texas, City of Houston, Dec. 18th 1837. To the Honorable Senate of Texas. Gentlemen: I take pleasure in offering for the ratification of your Hon [orable] body the enclosed Treaty~ concluded be- tween the Tonkoway Indians and Colonel Karnes on behalf of this Government. Sam Houston. 1 "Messages of the Presidents," Cong1·essional Papers, Texas State Library. E. W. Winkler (ed.), Secret Jom"?tals of the Senate, Republic of Te:x:a-s, 1836-1845, 102. The first named source contains the text of this treaty as an enclosure, and it is printed in the Secret Jounials of the Senate, Republic of Texas, 1836-1845, 103-105.
TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 1
Executive Department, Republic of Texas City of Houston, Dec. 18th, 1837 To the Hon[orable] House of Representatives of Texas, GENTLEMEN: I have the honor of communicating the lat- est intelligence in the enclosed document,2 from the western frontier, which arrived by express late on the evening of the 16th instant. The Executive solicits the advice of the Hon. House of Representatives, as he can arrive at no conclusion, owing to the general confusion which has hung over that frontier. Sam Houston. 1 The Jou1"1tal of the House of Rep1·esentatives of the Republic of Texas, 2d Cong., 2d Sess., pp. 286-287. 2 The "enclosed document" was a letter from John F. Kemper. The full text of the letter is not printed in the Journal, but we are told that it was read and referred to the Military Committee to be reported back at seven o'clock that same day. It was at the afternoon session at three o'clock, that the letter was put into the hands of the committee. Before seven, Thomas J. Rusk, Chairman of the committee, reported that although the information conveyed in Kemper's letter to the effect that Mexican cav- alry two hundred strong was advancing on San Patricio, was somewhat vague and uncertain, still in matters of this kind it was best to be on the safe side; therefore, the committee 1·ecommended that some responsible individual be forthwith dispatched to make purchases of powder and lead,
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