The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 10, July 1906 - April, 1907 Page: 166
ix, 354 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
Twenty-one votes being a majority of the vote cast, the speaker
proclaimed the town of Houston as duly selected. This decision
was embodied in an act, approved by President Houston on De-
cember 15, 1836, which declared that "from and after the first day
of April next, the seat of government for the republic of Texas
shall be established at the town of Houston, on Buffalo Bayou,
until the end of the session of congress which shall assemble in the
year one thousand eight hundred and forty"; and the president
was authorized "to cause to be erected a building for the temporary
accommodation of the congress of the republic, and such other
buildings as may be necessary for the accommodation of the differ-
ent departments of the government, at the said seat of government:
provided, the sum or sums so expended shall not exceed fifteen
thousand dollars."
The location having been made by a bare majority, much dis-
satisfaction existed with regard to the choice of Houston. Presi-
dent Houston, although he approved the bill, claimed to have dis-
approved -of the location; Anson Jones characterized -this act as one
of the three that "constituted a perfect 'selling out' of Texas to
a few individuals, or, at least, of everything that was available in
1836."
Congress adjourned on December 22, 1836, and one would be
inclined to suppose that this subject would have been permitted
to rest for the time. However, the Telegraph of January 3, 1837,
finds occasion to make the following editorial remarks:
We have just understood that it is proposed the heads of the
departments of our government should remove to Groce's Retreat,
upwards of ninety miles above this place. To this remove many
objections might be urged. Want of houses and accommodations
for the different departments, as well as for persons having busi-
ness with them. The great distance it would be from the army,
the inconvenience which would necessarily attend the navy, aud-
itor's and pay-master's departments, whose several duties are more
connected with persons in the lower part of the country.
Intelligence, as well as supplies of provisions, munitions of war,
&c. are much easier of attainment near the coast, than at so great
1Jones, Republic of Texas, 18, 19; cf. statement of Thomas J. Rusk, in
Weeks, Debates of the Texas Convention [1845], 206, and Thos. J. Green,
Reply to the Speech of Sam Houston, delivered in U. S. Senate, Aug. 1,
1854, p. 60.166
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 10, July 1906 - April, 1907, periodical, 1907; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101040/m1/186/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.