544
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
law partner, George W. White, he published A Digest of the Gene1·al Statute Laws of the State of Texas. At first he was not a believer in secession, but was a member of the Secession Convention of 1861, and there voted for the secession of his state. He became a member of the Provisional Confederate Government, and after the provisional government was made permanent, he was elected to it as one of the senators from Texas. He was ever afterwards a cham- pion of State Rights. After the close of the Civil War he returned to Texas, but soon had to flee to Mexico, and afterwards to Canada. After several years he was allowed to return to Texas, but he refused to apply for pardon, and remained an "unreconstructed rebel," a strong believer in State Rights, until his death of typhoid fever at Houston. See Andrew Phelps McCormick, Scotch Irish in Ireland and in Ame1-ica, p. 58; Ful- more, The History and Geography of Texas as Told in County Names, 254-260; Dictiona1·y of A nierican Biography, XIV, 12-13; Lynch, Benck and Bar of Texas, 254.
To CLEMENT R. J oHNs 1 Executive Department, Austin, March 24, 1860.
Honl. C. R. Johns, Comptroller Sir: My attention has been called to your circular 2 issued with- out the knowledge of, or conference with the Executive, containing instruction to the Assessors and Collectors of the State. You are required by law to ascertain the "average value of the Lands in each and every County in the State for the year 1859, and furnish the same to each Assessor of the State before the 1st day of March in the year 1860." This clearly means that you shall ascertain from the Tax Lists in your Office the "average Value" of the Lands in each county whether rendered in or out of said County; that you have not done so, but have merely ascertained the average value of the Lands rendered in the County is evident. Such a construction is unwarranted by law. It is oppressive in a great degree and calculated to prevent the collection of taxes, for many citizens have already declared their determination not to render the Lands owned cy them out of the counties in which they reside. This will involve litigation and great losses to the State. That portion of your instructions which declares a portion of the Law impracticable and your order to assessors to disregard it is arbitrary and unauthorized. I sincerely trust that you will recall those instructions, and furnish to the assessors of the State, at the very earliest possible period, the average value of Land in each and every County of this State for the year 1859. Unless this is
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