WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1838
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two years, he seems never to have assumed the duties thereof. In 1830 (February 12), a contract to colonize eight hundred families in Texas was granted to Juan Antonio Padilla and Thomas Jefferson Chambers (see Translations of Empresario Contracts, 188-189, General Land Office of Texas). Upon investigation, however, the grantees found that the territory granted, lay in the territories. of Oklahoma and Kansas, consequently, nothing came of this contract. Chambers then applied for permission to practise law in Mexico, and Decree No. 277 (see Gammel, Laws of Texas, I, 364-380) which created a Supreme Court in Texas, also appointed Chambers its Superior Judge. This decree was promulgated in April, 1834. Chambers hastened to Texas with his credentials, but untoward circumstances pre- vented his holding a session before the outbreak of the Texas Revolution. When Texas was threatened by Mexican invasion in 1836, Chambers went before the Provisional Government and proposed to hypothecate his lands and raise $10,000 to be used in securing arms and men for the defence of Texas. These lands (some 30 leagues-about 132,840 acres) had been patented to him in lieu of cash payments for services as Judge of the Superior Court of Texas, at a salary of $3,000 per year. On January 7, 1836, the Provisional Council accepted Chambers's offer, and pledged the public faith to repay the loan and any other obligations incurred in the undertaking. Chambers, with the rank of a major general, was to command the men whom he might enlist. This ordinance was passed on January 7, and sent to Governor Smith for his approval (see Gammel, Laws of Texas, 1, 747, 1027-1029), but was never returned by him to the Council. This was the time that the quarrel between the Governor and the Council was at its crisis, rendering the Provisional Government of Texas a thing of chaos. Strictly speaking, of course, this failure on the part of the Governor to return the bill to the Council, left Chambers without authority to carry out his plans. But the Council did not deter him, and he went to the United States to raise troops for the Texas army. On June 3, 1837, he made a report to the Texas Congress concerning his activities in behalf of Texas. He stated that he had sent to Texas by December, 1836, as many as 1,915 men, and had spent his own money in the enterprise to the amount of $9,035. On June 12, 1837, Congress passed a bill approving his course, and directed the Auditor to settle with him. But Chambers furthermore claimed that since he had faithfully fulfilled this contract in accordance with his commission, he automatically became a major general in the Texas army and second only to Houston in rank; and, moreover, since Houston had been elected President, he (Chambers) should come to the command of the Texas army. A long, bitter newspaper controversy ensued in which David G. Burnet insinuated that, in the first place, Chambers had left Texas in 1836, in order to avoid participating in the war, and criticised Congress for recog- nizing any claim he might have made against the Texas Government. For, argued Burnet, Chambers had received his commission from the Provisional Government while Texas was still fighting under the Mexican Constitution of 1824, a fact that rendered him a Mexican officer. The Convention on March 2, 1836, had declared Texas independent, and the constitution adopted at that time provided that all civil appointments of the Provisional Government should remain temporarily in force, but that no such provision had been made for 1nil·itary appointments; therefore Chambers had no
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