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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1842
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authority to remove the archives of the government from the City of Austin to the City of Houston. If your orders to do so are resisted, you will immediately 1·e- port the same to the President. Facts are accummulating upon the Executive which render the removal of the public records not only important but imminently pressing. ·I shall rely upon your energy and discretion to secure, in this behalf, the best interests of the government. A force competent to effect this highly necessary object will be furnished upon your requisition. Sam Houston lExecutivc Record Book, No..40, p. 76, Texas State Library. ~Thomas William Ward was a native of Ireland; he came to Texas in 1835, a member of the New Orleans Grays, and at the Storming of Bexar, December 5-10, 1835, he served as captain of an artillery company. He lost a leg in that engagement. From this time until his death Ward was in one way or another an official in Texas. During the days of the Republic, and four years after Texas became a State, he was the Commissioner of the General Land Office. In firing a salute, at Austin, on the anniversary of the independence of Texas, March, 1841, he lost his right arm; but thus doubly maimed, he continued in public life. In 1853 he was appointed American Consul at Panama; in 1867 he was made Collector of Customs at Corpus Christi; in 1869 he was defeated for the office of Land Commissioner, the office that he had held so long before giving it up to become consul at Panama. Ward's public service was marked by promptness and fidelity. He died at Austin, November 25, 1872. See Baker's Texa.s Scrav Book, 272; Thrall, A Pfr.torial Histol'y of Texas, 629; E.W. Winkler (ed.), Secret Journals of the Senate, Republic of Texas, 1836-1845, pp. 184-186, 191, 283.
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To COLONEL HENRY JoNEs 1
Executive Department, City of Houston, April 4, 1842.
To Colonel Henry Jones/ City of Austin, &c Sir-Certain information having reached the Executive of acts of insubordination and opposition to the authorities of the gov- ernment in a matter involving, seriously, the future welfare of the nation: Therefore, in the name of the constitution and the laws of the Republic of Texas, you are hereby specially enjoined and com- manded in no wise to interfere with or obstruct, the fulfilment of the Executive order heretofore issued, directing the removal of the government archives, from the city of Austin to the City of Houston. Any such interferences either directly or indirectly, by yourself, or through any agent or agents, acting- under your
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