286
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1838
The letters and correspondence of the Treasurer with Genl. Hunt, I sincerely thank Maj. Brigham 10 for, and admire alike his good sense, and good temper, the fault was not mine, and if Congress fails in its duty, I am not to be assailed for it, nor will any man but a simpleton make the attempt. The letter alluded to by Dr. Irion, which he supposed was be- trayed was never in my possession, but the package was rifled before it reached me, was broken and the Dispatches taken, from the War and State Departments, as well as Col. Thruston's ac- ceptance of his appointment, all the letters which did arrive were broken and their contents known. Genl. Douglass 11 handed the package to the person who brought it to me. I hope to be home from the 20th to the last of October. I am making every ar- rangement here that I can possibly, previous to my leaving. If the Commissioners of the Loan have not power to visit London or Europe to effect it, let it be given at once, that no unnecessary delay may arise, from the want of it. When the additional issue is made let the most pressing de- mands be met with it. Let Genl. Hunt 12 be paid a part of the amount due him, if not the whole &c on my arrival home, I will make out all the forms necessary to confer the powers contem- plated and directed in this memorandum. Sam Houston 1 Executive Letter Book No. 2, p. 189, Texas State Library. ~Albert S. Thruston. See Houston to Thomas Toby, January 20, 1837. 3 Charles S. Taylor was born in London, England, in 1808. His parents died while he was very young, and the boy was reared by an uncle who gave him the best educational advantages available at the time. The young man was studying law when his twenty-first birthday arrived; eager to see the world, he decided to go to New York to visit relatives. Arriving in New York in the early months of 1829, he spent several months visiting and seeing the eastern part of the United States; then, in the spring of 1830, he decided to travel on to the southwest. He arrived in Natchitoches in June of that same year, and remained there for a few months. In the fall of 1830 he moved on to Nacogdoches, and secured board in the home of Adolphus Sterne. While an inmate of that home, he married Mary Ruff, the young sister of Mrs. Sterne. In 1832, he was among .the Texas soldiers who drove the Mexican garrison from Nacogdoches, and in that same year, he became a delegate to the convention of 1832 (see Gammel, Laws of Texas, I, 480). At Nacogdoches, this young Englishman became a partner of his brother-in-law, Adolphus Sterne, in the mercantile business, but in 1833, he moved from Nacogdoches to the Ayish District (San Augustine), and in 1834 was elected the last alcalde of the Ayish District. In 1836 he was a delegate to the Washington Convention of March 1-17, and bec~m~ a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and of the const1tut1on of the Texas Republic (Gammel, Laws of Texas, I, 480, 1067). On December I ' t r i
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