LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 December Signature Texana Auction #661  / 

56273

David G. Burnet; ALS; Texas; 1839

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:875.00 USD Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,500.00 USD
David G. Burnet; ALS; Texas; 1839
<B>David G. Burnet Autograph Letter Signed</B></I> "<I>David G. Burnet</B></I>" as Vice President of Texas, two pages, 8" x 10", front and verso. Houston, January 25, 1839. Accompanied by 8" x 10" leaf addressed by Burnet to "<I>Andrew Neill Esq/Atty at Law/San Antonio</B></I>." In full, "<I>I avail myself with pleasure of your kind offer to attend to my law certificate. Some months ago I committed my own head right for a league and labor and a certificate issued to a Mr. Hammiken and assigned to my infant son William E. Burnet for 640 acres to Mr. Trimble for location. He told me some time ago that he had located both certificates on the San Christoval - but no returns have been made at the office and I am somewhat anxious about it. I am an old settler in Texas and have been traduced as a speculator - but I have not yet a title for one league of land in the County. You will confer a particular favor upon me by inquiring into the condition of these certificates and if possible facilitate their location and the return of the surveys. The accompanying pamphlets contain a reprimand which my duties in the Senate constrained me to administer and also my address to the Senate on taking my seat - you will please distribute these among your friends in the West - it is late - near midnight and I write in great haste." </B></I>Burnet adds, "<I>Address to me at this place</B></I>." <BR><BR>Burnet was elected provisional president of Texas and served from March 16, 1836 until Sam Houston's inauguration on October 22, 1836. He was President Mirabeau B. Lamar's Vice President from December 10, 1838 to December 13, 1841. Head right grants were issued to individuals by Boards of Land Commissioners in each Texas county. A First Class Head right was issued to those who arrived before March 2, 1836. Heads of families received one league (4,428 acres) and one labor (177.1 acres). <B>Major William E. Burnet</B></I>, his sole surviving son, was killed on March 31, 1865, at the battle of Spanish Fort, near Mobile. David G. Burnet enclosed pamphlets in his letter to Neill containing "<I>a reprimand</B></I>." This was the reprimand Burnet, as President of the Senate, delivered by order of the Texas Senate on January 13, 1839 to Sen. Robert Wilson from Harrisburg for having made "most profane and objectionable statements" in the Senate on December 26, 1838; he was expelled as a result. There were also pamphlets of his "<I>address to the Senate on taking my seat</B></I>." This was his address to the Senate on December 12, 1838 the day he took his seat as presiding officer. He asks Neill to distribute these among his friends in the West, meaning the area around San Antonio. Scottish-born <B>Andrew Neill</B></I> served in the Texas Army in 1836 and 1837. He practiced law for a brief time in Gonzales and then moved to Seguin, where he was an original shareholder in the town laid out in 1838. <B>George Hammeken</B></I> was granted a charter from Texas to build a railroad from Galveston Bay to the Brazos River. He later became president of that road, the Brazos and Galveston, and a landowner at Austinia, the town planned as the principal office of the company. The letter, in apparent fine condition, has two holes just nicking letters in three words. Lightly toned, there are remnants of a mounting strip at the right edge of the second page. There is also slight show-through on each page. The second (signature) page is matted with a color photocopy of the first page and framed to 28.5" x 28.25". The original address leaf, in fine condition, is present in a pocket affixed to the verso of the frame. <I>From the collection of Darrel Brown.</B></I><BR><BR><B>Reference:</B></I> Streeter 344. <BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Framed - with Glass, Medium (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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