WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1860
471
enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that a failure has not arisen from any delinquency of his own. Sam Houston. 1 Journal of the House of Representatives, State of Texas, 8th Leg., 1st Sess., pp. 678-693.
To XENOPHON B. SAUNDERS 1 Executive Department, February 10, 1860.
X. B. Saunders, Esqr Dear Sir, Your letter of the 8th in relation to the remission of the fine against Daniel Mays, is this morning before me. The facts in the case are not set forth, and in as much as the Executive is unwilling to act in such cases in the absence of facts, relating thereto, the petition will remain on file in the Department until the facts are submitted. Petitions without the accompanying facts are of no avail with the Executive, hence you will perceive the necessity of setting them forth clearly and concisely, until such is done the Executive declines taking action. Sam Houston. 1 Gove1·nors' Letters, Texas State Library. ~Xenophon B. Saunders, son of Joel Boone and Mary Lewis (Kennedy) Saunders, was born in Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee, in 1831. His paternal grandmother, Elizabeth, was the youngest sister of Daniel Boone. He attended Jackson College at Columbia, Tennessee, and Hanover College, in Indiana, then, finished his law studies in the office of Hon. John Trum- ble, at Nashville. He set up his law office at Memphis in 1854. In 1856, he came to Texas and settled at Belton, Bell County. In 1860, he became the mayor of Belton, and took a prominent part in the anti-secession movement, stumping the state in the effort to prevent the secession of Texas. But when the Civil War had begun, he entered the Confederate army (1861) as captain of Company A, 16th Regiment of Texas Infantry. He was promoted to the rank of Major in this same regiment, and par- ticipated in many battles of the war. He was paroled at l\Ii}liken, Texas, in June, 1865. After the war he returned to Belton and resumed his law practice, and in 1866, was elected a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, representing Bell, McLennan, and Falls counties. In 1875, he was elected judge of the Fourteenth Judicial District, but resigned the position in 1877 to resume pri- vate practice. At that time he formed a partnership with A. J. Harris. Besides his law practice, Judge Saunders was interested in farming, and acquired large acreage of real estate, both for farming, and in city prop- erty in Belton, he was also one of the leaders in the organization of the cotton press at that town.
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