The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 13, July 1909 - April, 1910 Page: 38

Texas Historical Association Quarterly.

partment yesterday. ... . Your proceedings personally, and of
Courts Martials, specially, are approved, and the latter confirmed.
Concerning the order for the recall of the navy, Houston in his
speech before the Senate of the United States, July 15, 1854, said:'
The new President2 was inaugurated on the 12th of December
following and we find by the records, that on the 15th of that
month the navy was recalled forthwith, and ordered to the port
of Galveston. The orders ought to have reached the navy in ten
or twelve days. A pilot boat was dispatched to carry the orders
to Commodore Moore, the commander; but that vessel, owing to
peculiar influences at Galveston, or some other circumstances, was
not permitted to reach Campeachy until the 10th of March fol-
lowing. On the first of May, I think it was, the fleet returned.
In this connection, it is necessary, in referring to Houston's
order dated December 15, 1841, to correct a very gross error on
the part of historians which has, so far as I am aware, never been
challenged by critics. Yoakum,4 in closing the chapter devoted
to the year 1840, says:
The President's5 health had been for some time ver; bad; and,
getting no better, he obtained from the Congress a leave of ab-
sence, and about the middle of December retired from his official
duties, leaving them to be discharged by the Vice-President.
That is all true, but in the succeeding pages Yoakum does not
state plainly that Lamar afterwards resumed his duties as presi-
dent, and the inference is left that his retirement was permanent,
which was not the case. Thrall" makes a palpable error. He says:
The cares and responsibilities of office weighed heavily on Presi-
dent Lamar, and the severe strictures of political opponents af-
fected his deeply sensitive nature, and he applied to Congress for
permission to absent himself from the Republic. The request was
granted, and during the last year the Government was administered
by Vice-President Burnet.
Cong. Globe, 33d Cong., 1st Sess., Appendix, 1081.
"Houston.
81841.
'A Comprehensive History of Texas, I, 368.
'Lamar's.
'Thrall, A Pictorial History of Texas, 137.