Details
RUSK, THOMAS JEFFERSON. Autograph letter signed ("Tho J Rusk") to Thomas Ward as Commissioner of the General Land Office in Washington, Texas; Nacogdoches [Texas], 23 September 1843. 3 pages, folio, address panel on verso of second leaf with free frank in an unidentified hand, docketed, remains of two wax seals.
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE "ARCHIVE WAR"
Thomas Rusk had been one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836, and had fought bravely in the Battle of San Jacinto, serving for a time as Secretary of War under Sam Houston, before resigning to practice law in Nacogdoches. He served as Chief Justice to the Texas Supreme Court from 1838 to 1840, and in 1843 he held the office of major-general of the projected campaign against Mexico (a post that he later resigned in frustration over Houston's successful attempts to delay the expedition). In this letter to his old friend Ward, whom he had recently visited in Washington, he relays news of local elections and the general temper of the countryside--"great apathy prevails amongst the people here on all subjects owing I think to the extreme hardness of the times, crops are fine but cotton bears so low a price that the prospect of better times is rather dull"--and urges Ward to complete the formalities for the resolution of the "Archives War": "I hope the question of the seat of Government and the Archive matter will be settled at the next session of Congress. The people here are anxious to obtain their patents and much inconvenience results from their not being able to do so." Austin was officially redeclared the capital a few months later.
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE "ARCHIVE WAR"
Thomas Rusk had been one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836, and had fought bravely in the Battle of San Jacinto, serving for a time as Secretary of War under Sam Houston, before resigning to practice law in Nacogdoches. He served as Chief Justice to the Texas Supreme Court from 1838 to 1840, and in 1843 he held the office of major-general of the projected campaign against Mexico (a post that he later resigned in frustration over Houston's successful attempts to delay the expedition). In this letter to his old friend Ward, whom he had recently visited in Washington, he relays news of local elections and the general temper of the countryside--"great apathy prevails amongst the people here on all subjects owing I think to the extreme hardness of the times, crops are fine but cotton bears so low a price that the prospect of better times is rather dull"--and urges Ward to complete the formalities for the resolution of the "Archives War": "I hope the question of the seat of Government and the Archive matter will be settled at the next session of Congress. The people here are anxious to obtain their patents and much inconvenience results from their not being able to do so." Austin was officially redeclared the capital a few months later.