WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1844
524
by the resignation of the Honorable Anderson Hutchinson,!? which has been received and accepted. This is the only vacancy within the knowledge of the Department. Sam Houston. 1 "Messages of the Presidents," Congressional Pct7Jers, Eighth Congress; also, Executive Record Book, No. 40, p. 311, Texas State Library. Journals of the House of Rep1·esentatives of the Republic of Texas, 8th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 278. :?Anderson Hutchinson was born in Greenbr'.ar County, Virginia, in 1805. He acquired a common school education in his native county, and in assisting his father who was the Clerk of the County Courts. In 1826 he removed to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he began the study a::id the practise of law. In a few years he had won an enviable reputation at the Tennessee bar. From Knoxville he removed to Raymond, Mississippi, in 1835. In 1840, in collaboration with Volney E. Howard, he published a digest of the laws of Mississippi, for which he and his partner received $12,000. He came to Texas in 1841, and was soon appointed one of the distr:ct judges of the Republic. While engaged in holding court in San Antonio, in 1842, he with other officers of the court and citizens of the city, was captured by General Woll while on his raid in Texas. Hutchinson was carr:ecl to Castle Perote, and suffered many hardships, but was released in 1843. through the influence of Waddy Thompson. He returned to Mississippi and took up the practice of his profession in partnership with Henry S. Foote. He died in Mississippi in 1853. Hutchinson County in Texas is named in his honor. See Lynch, Bench and Ba1· of Texas, 74-75; Henry S. Foote, Bench and Bctr of the South and the Southwest, 84-85; Z. T. Fulmore, The History and Geography of Texcis as Told in County Names, 200-201. TO THE TEXAS CONGRESS 1 . Executive Department, Washington, January 22nd. 1844. To the Honorable, the Senate and the House of Representatives: For reasons satisfactory to the Executive, and such as he thinks will be approved by the citizens generally of the Republic, he deems it his duty to lay before the Honorable Congress his views and recommendations touching a matter which has hitherto pro- duced considerable interest and excitement. A law was passed on the first of February, one thousand eight hundred and forty, authorizing the sectionizing and sale of that district of territory, commonly denominated the Cherokee country. No appropriation, however, was made at the time for the com- pletion of this design, and all subsequent efforts for this purpose have failed of success. At the commencement of the present administration, the Executive recommended the placing of the said lands in such a
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