230 WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1838 one hundred and fifty, or two hundred thousand dollars would not be adequate to meet their demands against this government. The Executive has, heretofore, in conformity with the regu- lations of the United States directed that no demands upon the treasury should be paid to individuals whatever, who had govern- ment means placed in their care until they had accounted for the same. The Executive, therefore, respectfully invokes the Hon. Con- gress to enact such laws and regulations as will ensure a safe- guard to the treasury. Thousands have already been paid out of the treasury by con- gressional enactments, in cases where individuals drawing money yet remained defaulters to the government to the amount of thou- sands. GENTLEMEN.-For these reasons, I respectfully return this bill without approval. Sam Houston. 1 The Jom-,ial of the Ho11se of Revresentatives of the Re1n1blic of Texas, 2d Cong., Adj. Sess., 1837-1838, pp. 139-141. The Journal of the Srnate of the Rcp1,blic of Texas, 2d Cong., Adj. Sess., pp. 81-83. 2 Sidney Sherman. See Houston and Rusk to the People of Texas, April 19, 1836. 3 See Gammel, Laws of Texas, I, 1112-1113. •See Houston to James A. Sylvester, August 3, 1836. 5 Thomas Jefferson Chambers (April 13, 1802-March 13, 1865) was born in Orange County, Virginia. He was the youngest of a family of twenty children, his father having married twice. The father died when Thomas Jefferson was only thirteen years old, and left nothing with which to educate the youngest of his large family. But the boy loved books and managed with the help of an older brother to acquire a fair education, and by the time he was twenty-one years old was ready for the bar examinations. He went to Kentucky to take these examinations under Judges Jesse Bledsoe and James Clark, two of his father's old friends. But the young man did not like Kentucky, and decided against setting up his law practice in that state. After hunting for some time for a suitable location, he settled in Alabama. There he was compelled to take the bar examinations again before beginning the practice of his profession. He was not satisfied in Alabama, so when an opportunity was offered in 1826, he went to Mexico with the view of practising law there. He became an inmate in the home of Don Manuel Larrainzar who had been a Minister from Maxico to the United States, and was by Larrainzar introduced to the best Mexican families, and became a law student under the tutelage of Don Carlos Bustamente (see William Chambers, A Sketch of the Life of Gen. T. J. Chambers (1855), p. 8). Chambers remained in Mexico for three years, and became a favorite with many of the influential men of Mexico City. In 1829 ho was appointed Surveyor General of Texas, and was made a full citizen of Mexico by the Congress (see Fulmore, H1'story and Geography of Texas as Told in Cot1nty Names, 29), and though he held this office for more than
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