452
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1860
your consideration, and respectfully asking your action upon the application. The subject of it, Captain Antonio Menchacha, 2 was a member of the army of San Jacinto, and was an officer distinguished for his valor and his soldierly bearing, throughout the War of our Revolution. He is a native Mexican, and was among the first to espouse the cause of freedom in Texas. He has been true to the present administration and truly conservative in his principles. It is a fact worthy of 1·emark, that the native Mexicans have been overlooked in San Antonio, in all the Federal appointments made in that section of Texas. Captain Manchacha is a gentleman, in bearing & feeling, and can write and speak both languages. That he is capable of filling the office and discharging the duties of it, I have no doubt. From long acquaintance and having been comrades in the hour of trial and peril, I can most cheerfully lend my testimony to his worth, his integrity, and many noble qualities, and giving ex- pression to my sincere desire, that he may be appointed. Sam Houston. Hon. Howell Cobb, Secretary of the Treasury, Washington, D. C. 1 Governors' Letters, Texas State Library. For good brief sketches of Howell Cobb (September 7, 1815-0ctober 9, 1868) representative, and senator from Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury in Buchanan's Administra- tion, general in the Confederate army, who wa~ born at "Cherry Hill," the estate of his uncle, Howell Cobb, and died in New York City, see Bio- graphical Dfrectory of the Anierican Congress ( 1928), 826; Dictionary of American Biography, IV, 241-242. 2 Antonio Menchaca. See Volume III, 107. To THE LEGISLATURE CONCERNING PRINTING CoNTRACTS 1 Executive Department, January 27, 1860. Gentlemen of the Senate, and House of Representatives: I desire to call the attention of the legislature to the present contract made with John Marshall for the public printing. Section 17 of the act to regulate the Public Printing, declared, viz: • Section 17. That no bill shall be accepted by the Secretary of State for the public printing, exceeding the rate of one-sixth· of a cent per page for the laws, and one-fourth of a cent per page for the journals; one-third of a cent per page for five hundred copies of the message of the Governor, reports of the
Powered by FlippingBook