186
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860 .
you to certify the worth of your own securities, the certificate does not show them to be worth a dollar. The evidence of the worth of parties should be furnished, but if the signatures are procured in another county, and are un- known to the Executive, they should be witnessed as well as authenticated. The bond also purports to be signed and delivered in the pres- ence of parties, but none appear upon its face. It is also without seals. In requiring a bond drawn in accordance with the law, I do not more than my plain duty. In requiring the certificate of the Chief Justice, or of the County Clerk, as to the solvency of the securities, I do nothing unusual or of which you can com- plain, and on reference to your bond given to my predecessor, Governor Runnels, I find that the worth of the securities is certi- fied by Henry T. Davis, Clerk of the County Court of Hays County, under his official seal. I ask no more. It gives me pleasure to state as an evidence, that I have re- quired at your hands nothing more than the law plainly demands. Hon. C. H. Randolph, State Treasurer elect, has presented his bond, witnessed in due form and with securities residing in this County, and kn·own personally to the Executive to be worth an amount equal to that which shall at any time be in his hands. In returning the papers presented by you as your official bond, the Executive will also say that there has been a manifest dis- position on your part to force this issue upon him, else why ascer- tain his desires in reference to the same. The language used by you in presenting it to Mr. Holland, Chief Clerk in the Office of the Secretary of State, "that it is the only bond I will ever give-let ·him (the Executive) reject it at his peril," shows your endeavor to force him either to submit to your illegal conduct, or pursue that course marked out by law. The twenty days allowed you to give your bond expired on the 3rd inst. The Executive will, notwithstanding the threat accompanying the presentation of your bond, exercise a due discretion and grant you until the 15th of November instant, to file your official bond properly vouched for and the signatures authenticated according to law. Sam Houston. 1Executive Records, 1859-1861, pp. 246-246; also Co1nptrollers' Lett.ers, Texas State Library.
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