WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1838
296
R. D. Johnson,1· 1 Notary Public, Port of Galveston. Thoma.s Harvey,1~ Notary Public of Matagorda. John Alex Newla.nds, 10 Notary Public of Houston. W. Fairfax Gray,1 7 Notary Public of Houston. H. L. Cooke, 18 Chief Justice, County of Matagorda. Lysander Wells, 10 Promoted to Colonel of Cavalry. Ralph Kellog,~ Consul for Port of Boston, U. S. A.
Nathaniel Amo1·y, 21 Secretary of Legation near the Govern- ment of the United States in place of Fairfax Catlett resigned. Sam Houston 1 E. W. Winkler (ed.), Secret Journals of the Senate, Re1mblic of Texas, 1886-1845, 113-114. 2 Anson Jones. See l'o Anson Jones, June 12, 1838. 3 George W. Hockley. See Houston to D. C. Barrett, January 2, 1836. •Charles S. Taylor. See Houston to Albert S. Thruston September 30, 1838. 5 John Willis was a merchant of considerable wealth. He was notified of his appointment as consul of Texas for the Marseilles Consulate while he was in New York on business. It seems that he sailed for Marseilles soon afterwards, and a year later seems not to have known what action was taken by the Senate on this nomination. The fact was that action had been deferred on this nomination· unfl the new President, Lamar, was in- ducted into office. According to the Sec1·et Journals of the Senate, pp. 113, 116, we know that on the next day after Lamar's inauguration-that is on December 11, 1838-all nominations before the Senate were submitted to him for ratification. Nothing else is found concerning this appointment until December 30, 1839, when Willis wrote from Marseilles that he was still waiting for his exequatur, instructions, laws and harbor regulations. (See Willis to Secretary of State, December 30, 1839, Executive Letter Book No. 2, Texas State Library.) It is supposed that he finally received the exequatur, as there is no record of another appointment's being made for the consulate at Marseilles until 1842. The indefiniteness of this matter is due to the fact that the setup of consulates for the Texas Republic seems to have been made reluctantly and upon somewhat doubtful authority during the first years of the Republic. As we see, the appointment of John Willis was made to become effective after commercial treaties had been effected between Texas and France. The delay in making and ratifying the treaty necessarily delayed the authoritative setup of the consulate. See The South- western Historical Quarterly, XXXIII, 299-301. 0Albert S. Thruston. See Houston to Thomas Toby, January 20, 1837. 7Wil!iam G. Cooke. See Houston to William G. Cooke, January 17, 1836. sGeorge W. Poe. See Houston to George W. Poe, February 28, 1837. SThomas Toby was the senior member of the firm of Thomas Toby & Brother a firm of merchant-brokers at New Orleans, who took the contract to act as agents for Texas during the latter days of 1835, and in 1836. He had been commissioned consul at New Orleans on September 20, 1838 (a recess appointment) and had taken over the business of the office. This,
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