The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 14, July 1910 - April, 1911 Page: 116
348 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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116 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
that in October, 1839, houses for the accommodation of most of
the various departments of government had been erected.
The United States Census of 1850, taken five years after annexa-
tion, gave for Austin a population of 629. Two years after that I
first saw the city and then the population did not, I think, exceed
800. The slowness of its growth resulted not only from the fact
that it was on the very border of the upper settlements and ex-
posed at all times to Mexican invasions and Indian forays, but
because of continued opposition from prominent public men, and
from other sections of the Republic to the location. Commission-
ers had been appointed three times by as many sessions of Con-
gress to locate a State Capital. The first Commission1 was
created under a resolution offered by Thos. J. Rusk, in October,
1837, then a man of great influence and afterwards a colleague
of General Houston in the United States Senate. He was a
member of the House from Eastern Texas, and his influence pre-
vailed to incorporate in the first act to select a seat of govern-
ment the provision that the place chosen should not be over
twenty miles north of the San Antonio road. In this policy of
going north of the San Antonio road, General Houston never
concurred.2 No mention was made of the San Antonio road in
the joint resolution under which the second set of commissioners
were appointed, though President Houston vetoed a bill which
located the seat of government under the report of the Commis-
sioners, on the Colorado River below La Grange, and Congress
,continued for a time at Houston. But the Act of January 14,
1839, approved by President Lamar, did provide for the location
north of the San Antonio road, and shows that the influence of
Eastern Texas, combined with the West, led by General Ed. Bur-
leson and John Caldwell, was too strong for those who desired
the seat of government to be established in Houston, or at old
Washington, on the Brazos.
Edwin Waller, protected by a company of armed citizens, be-
gan in Austin the work of building houses for the use of the
Republic of Texas in May, 1839; and though no lumber mill
'The Acts of Congress and action under them to select a seat of gov-
ernment have been carefully reviewed by Ernest William Winkler, A. M.,
in THE QUARTERLY, X, 185-245.
2House Journal, Second Congress, 38-39.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 14, July 1910 - April, 1911, periodical, 1911; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101054/m1/130/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.