WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
485
To ROBERT B. WELLS 1 Executive Department, Austin, February 20, 1860.
Mr. R. B. Wells Dear Sir: Replying to your letter of the 16th giving me in- formation of recent depredations committed by the Indians, I have to say that the Executive does not feel authorized to call out more troops at present, the Legislature having failed to provide sufficient mearis to sustain those now in the field. Cap- tain J. W. Embry is now enroute for your county with a company of twenty men, two other Companies of twenty men will l;,e in the field and upon the frontier immediately. The people of the frontier counties have a perfect right to raise companies for their own protection and defence, and for the expense and pay incident thereto they have also the right to apply to the Legis- lature. But the Executive has no earthly authority to call out more men than can be sustained. The troops now on the frontier will in two months exhaust every dollar appropriated for their pay and subsistence. It is protection that the people have asked for, and that protection is now being afforded them by sending men from the interior, each man sent being so much additional strength to the means of defence they now possess: The Ex- ecutive regrets exceedingly the dangers and embarrassments which surround our frontier inhabitants, and he will continue to use every means within his power to give them protection and security. I would recommend that if such parties are raised, they should not be composed of more than twenty men and that they be scat- tered along the frontier as much as possible. Sam Houston. 1 Goven1.01·s' Lette1·s (1859-1861), Texas State Library. Robert Barnard Wells (August 27, 1812-May 11, 1872). was born in Sumter District, South Carolina. His elementary education was obtained from private instruction; he was admitted to the bar at Hamilton, Georgia, in 1834. He moved to Alabama in 1836, and then on to Mississippi in 1836. He settled at San Augustine, Texas, in 1839. There he joined the Methodist Church, and became a preacher of that denomination. His first charge was at Liberty, Texas, but by 1846, he was preaching at Bastrop. In 1847, he began pub- lishing the Texas Christian Advocate at Brenham. In 1854, he moved to Gatesville. Throughout his ministry in the Methodist Church, Wells never gave up his practice of Jaw, and always had some sort of publication on his hands. He is said to have managed all three professions successfully.
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