The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961 Page: 177

The Texan Archive War of 1842

then when you come to Austin and found out the boys would not
let you do it you sed you never was going to move it. Now Sam you
told a dam lie for you did promise the people in Houston that
you would move it, and I heard a man say that you told Hockley
not to bring all his servants because you would all go back soon.
But the truth is that you are afeard you Dam old drunk Cherokee
we dont thank you becase we would shot you and every dam wag-
goner that you could start with the papers you cant do it and we
ax you no odds Travis and Bastrop Fayette Gonzales can bring
looo Men out and Ned Burleson and Lewis P. Cook have promised
that you shant budge with the papers I heard them myself and you
know Burleson and Cook can make you squat you dam blackgard
indian drunk Now old fellow if you want to try Ned Burleson spunk
jist try to move these papers, and old Ned will serve you jist as
he did your Cherokee brother when he took the Hat what you give
to your Daddy Bowles You shall hear more from me when I am ready
John Welch.6
W. D. Miller, private secretary to Sam Houston, wrote to the
President on March 16 that the citizens of Austin probably would
not let the archives be moved and that they "would much rather
take their rifles to prevent a removal than to fight Mexicans."'1
Sam Whiting, chairman of the committee to protect the archives,
wrote to M. B. Lamar on April 12, 1842, that, "We are holding
on to the Archivs like death to dead negro & are determined they
shall not be taken from here 'till ordered by a higher power than
Sam Houston."8 The general feeling, according to one Austin
resident, was that "old Sam might go to h-1 but he should not
have the archives without a fight."19 Feeling in Austin had reached
violent proportions against any removal of the archives, and a
meeting of the vigilance committee was called for March 16.20
Resolutions were drawn up stating that an attempt to remove the
archives was unnecessary, arbitrary, and a violation of the law.
t1"President's Message with Documents in Reference to the Archive War," July
9, 1842 (MSS., Archives, Texas State Library), Special Session, 6th Congress, Republic
of Texas, File No. 2620o; Harriet Smither (ed.), Journals of the Sixth Congress of
the Republic of Texas, 1841-1842 (3 vols., Austin, 1940-1945), III, 48.
17W. D. Miller to Sam Houston, March 16, 1842 (MS., W. D. Miller Papers,
Archives, Texas State Library).
18S. Whiting to M. B. Lamar, April 12, 1842, in Lamar Papers, IV, Part 1, p. 5.
1oBrown, Annals of Travis County (transcripts, Archives, Texas State Library),
Chapter III, 8.
2zSmither (ed.), Journals of the Sixth Congress of the Republic of Texas, z84z-
z842, III, 18-2o.

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