227
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1842
From the great weight of the archives, it will require at least some ten or fifteen wagons, with strong teams, to remove them. It would, also, be well to conduct your operations with the utmost secrecy; and by all means raise a sufficient force to take possession of and guard the archives, before any rumor of your intended visit could possibly be received there. You might raise your men as if for an Indian excursion; and by no means let your object be known till you are ready to act. Threats have been made, that if the archives are ever removed, they will be in ashes. The loss to the country in such an event would be infinite and irreparable. You can determine which would be the most eligible route- down the Colorado, or across the country to the Brazos. The latter would likely be the safer-particularly from Mexican at- tack. The government offices being now here, the archives and all the public property, at the City of Austin, will be brought to this place. You will report to Col. Thomas William vVard, Commissioner of the General Land Office, at Austin, and special agent in charge of the archives, who will give you all the facilities in his power. Sam Houston. 1 Executive Record Book, No. 40, pp. 169-170; Domestic Corres])ondence (apparently the original), Texas State Library. The Morning Star, Feb- ruary 4, 1843. 2 See Houston to Major Thomas I. Smith, March 25, 1842,. and to Captain Eli Chandler, May 13, 1842, 1·espectively, for brief biographical information concerning these men. Manuscript records of this period form the capital letters J and I so nearly alike that unless a reader happens to know certainly the name of a man in whose name those capital letters occur, there is large chance for confusion. Even the newspaper editors of the day were often confused in writing the capital J's 01· l's from manuscript copy. The an- notator of these letters fell into the same error in writing this name Thomas J. Smith in The Writings of Sctm Houston, II, 536. PROCLAMATION ORDERING THE REMOVAL OF THE ARCHIVES FROM AUSTIN 1 Executive Department, ·washington, December lOh., 1842. I, Sam Houston, President of the Republic of Texas, reposing special trust and full confidence in the prudence, energy and ability of Thomas I. Smith and Eli Chandler, do, by these presents authorize, empower and direct them the said Thomas I. Smith and
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