WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1842
235
all which he submits without remark, further than to request of your Honorable Body that the documents may be read previous to their being referred to any committee. It is to be regretted that important information is often com- municated to Congress and without reading, is referred to com- mittees where it is frequently permitted to slumber until the close of the session; whereby a knowledge of facts is frequently suppressed, which, if known to the Congress, would often give rise to necessary and highly useful legislative action. For this reason the Executive has appended this request to the informa- tion desired by the resolution. Sam Houston. 1 Execut·ive Record Book, No. 40, p. 171; also, "Messages of the Presidents," Cong1·essional Pctpers, Seventh Congress, Texas State Library. Journals of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas, 1st Sess., 7th Cong., p. 70.
To WILLIAM HENRY DAINGERFIELD 1
,vashington, Deer., 17, 1842
Hon Wm. Henry Daingerfield Sir It is important that there should be great care taken so as to keep up the character of the Government funds. To do this we will have to sustain, our credit by not making contracts at two for one. Nor will any draft be given under the custom house, but such as are unavoidable, and they will be endorsed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and the President. Every means is resorted to for the purpose of depressing the Exchequer Bills; and lessening the credit of the Government. It is contrary to the law to pay in "equivalents," and it can not be tolerated. To do this would be to aid in giving a death blow to all our hopes, for the restoration of our currency, and would sustain the plans, of the shave1·s for its destruction. I wish to have a free conversation on this subject wTth you. Drafts, which were issued on the custom houses, I was not apprised of at the time, nor was I in possession of the fact, until I learned it thro' the newspapers. It is not only the duty of the President to see that the laws are faithfully executed, but to see that they are executed in such manner, as will prevent injury to the service from the waste of
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