The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 15, July 1911 - April, 1912 Page: 150
382 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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150 Texas Historical Association Quarterly
hundred yards to a point near the river, to the Treasurer's house,
and there left without any person to care of them.
"Inanediately after the President and his Secretary and Treas-
urer left for Washington, and I think on the 11th of September
about 2 o'clock in the morning, the house was discovered on fire
and the flames issuing through the windows from the inside, vet
no one lived in the house nor near it.
"In the morning after the burning, the person having the key
to the house reported that there was nothing of value in the house,
yet the Treasurer had stated to Dr. Haney that the whole Treas-
ury Department is burnt, together with a cart load of red backs."'
No satisfactory discovery has yet been made of the perpetrator
of this base transaction [the burning of the Treasurer's Office], or
of his motives. The archives destroyed were those of the Treas-
urer's Office, from the commencement of the Government to the
first of January, 1840, all of which had been reported to other
offices, and the evidences there are yet to be found. None of the
papers, vouchers, or records of recent date were in that building,
and whatever may have been the object of the villain who com-
mitted the crime the Government will probably suffer no pecuniary
loss. The principal sufferer is Dr. [Moses] Johnson, the present
Treasurer, who was the owner of the building.2
We have learned with pleasure that the Treasurer intends to
publish a statement of the vouchers and public documents de-
stroyed in the Treasury Office that was burned at Austin a few
weeks since. It appears that a large package of Promissory Notes
that had been redeemed was in the Office at the time it was burned.
These notes belonged to the Office of the Secretary of the Treas-
ury, but had been removed to the Treasurer's Office by the request
of the Secretary. We understand that these notes had been
marked across the face with a pen and had been clipped in one
or two places with scissors to denote that they had been cancelled.
They were not deposited in an iron safe, but in a wooden
box."
In the annual report for the year ending October 31, 1845, Sec-
retary of the Treasury, J. A. Greer, says:
In the short time during which the archives formerly left in
this city have been again in the possession of this Department, its
officers have been too much occupied with its closing business to
ascertain with certainty the amount of the national debt.
1The Morning Star, November 8, 1845.
2Texas National Register, November 15, 1845.
'The Morning Star, December 2, 1845.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 15, July 1911 - April, 1912, periodical, 1912; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101056/m1/155/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.