The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 40, July 1936 - April, 1937 Page: 310

                                
Southwestern Historical Quarterly

the Consultation, while the governor, the lieutenant-governor, the
commander-in-chief of the army, and the three commissioners to
the United States were chosen by that body. Moreover, the organic
law, or constitution, of the Provisional Government was prepared
by the Consultation.
The preparation of the organic law is of interest here. On
November 7, Henry Millard, representing the municipality of
Liberty, moved the appointment of a grand committee to draw
up a plan for a provisional government. Millard was made chair-
man of this committee, and saw fit to divide it into two sub-
committees: one to prepare a plan for the proposed civil organi-
zation; while the other was to present a plan for the military
establishment. Henry Smith, a representative from Columbia,
and soon to be provisional governor of Texas, presented the report
concerning the civil organization, while A. Huston, a representative
from San Augustine, presented the report concerning the military
establishment.2 Both reports were ordered to lie on the table,
with the understanding that they were to be discussed in the
afternoon of the same day. When the reports were taken up, Smith
read the preamble to his proposal, and on motion of Don Carlos
Barrett, representative from Mina and soon to be a leader of the
council, the entire preamble was stricken out. The content of
this preamble remains a mystery, but was probably too independent
in tone to please Barrett and the majority party of the Consulta-
tion, since Smith was one of the leaders of the independence party,
while the assembly declared itself in favor of the Mexican Con-
stitution of 1824.3 The entire report was then referred to a select
committee of five, of which Barrett was chairman.4 Following
the report of this committee the Consultation resolved itself into
committee of the whole, and considered at length the two reports.
The report presented by Barrett was chosen as the basis of dis-
cussion, and was adopted section by section with few amend-
ments.5   It is entirely possible that this seemingly insignificant
event marks the beginning of the enmity which clearly existed
between Smith and Barrett.
John Henry Brown, a distinct partisan of Smith, declares the
"Ibid., I, 527.
'See the Declaration of November 7, 1835. Ibid., I, 522.
'Ibid., I, 528.
"Ibid., I, 530.

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