The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 71, July 1967 - April, 1968 Page: 421
686 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Notes and Documents
thereafter began to depreciate, fell notably below par and served imper-
fectly as currency.
I may here state that Gen. Houston, then President vetoed the Act of
1838 authorizing the issuance of a million and a half, but it was affirmed
by an overwhelming majority over his veto. President Houston was em-
phatically a hard money democrat; he regarded paper such as the 'Star
Money' as only a temporary substitute until the proceeds of taxes and
imposts could be covered into the Treasury.
Such was the condition of the currency of Texas at the close of the
Adjourned Session of Congress late in May 1838; and it continued with-
out any notable change till the convening of the Third Congress, in the
following November, 1838, and until the close of Houston's Administra-
tion a month afterwards, to wit, in December of the same year.
A new Administration was then inaugurated under General Lamar
. . . recently elected President of the Republic, and the Congress then
assembled consisted of a Senate of which one third of its members had
been newly elected and of a House of Representatives of which all the
members had been newly elected.
Politically the new Administration under Gen. Lamar was opposed to
that which had just closed under Gen. Houston, and the new Congress
was in full accord with the new Administration. The opposition of policy
between the outgoing and incoming Administrations was general; it was
sharply accentuated in the adoption by the latter of a hostile policy
towards the Indian Tribes in our borders; by an actively aggressive, policy
towards Mexico and most notably by a wide departure from the sound
financial policy pursued under Houston. I have to deal at this time only
with the latter policy . . . but the changed course towards the Indians
and towards Mexico was fraught with the gravest consequences on the
currency, on the finances, on the Public Debt and national credit of
Texas. These consequences were appropriations of large sums for expedi-
tions against Indians, for the purchase of a Navy and its maintainane
[sic], for an Expedition into Mexico as well as for the protection of the
frontier. Besides these appropriations there were others for miscellaneous
matters as well as those indispensable for defraying the expenses of the
government.
The first step downwards of the Republic of Texas in the career of
financial folly was unquestionably the Act of Congress of May 1838 au-
thorizing the reissue of the printed notes styled 'Star Money' a half mil-
lion in amount and also of an additional million adverted to above;8 but
the fatal system of almost unlimited issue of irredeemable paper seemed in-
augurated in force and permanence under the Congressional legislation and
the Executive which ruled from December 1838 to December 1841. . . .
In 1837, in June, Congress passed an Act for Consolidating and Fund-
ing the Public Debt of Texas, under which all just liabilities of the Re-
public, that is all Notes and audited Scrip could be funded in stock
8lbid.421
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 71, July 1967 - April, 1968, periodical, 1968; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117145/m1/471/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.