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

56279

Sam Houston; Message from the President; 1838

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Paper Start Price:4,375.00 USD Estimated At:7,500.00 - 10,000.00 USD
Sam Houston; Message from the President; 1838
<B>Sam Houston: </B></I><B><I>Message from the President of the Republic.</B></I></B></I> Houston: <I>Printed by order of the Senate</B></I>, Telegraph Press, May 12, 1838, 9 p., verso blank, blank leaf, Octavo. President Sam Houston gives the House of Representatives his reasons for not signing the bill entitled, "<I>An Act to Define and Limit the Issue of Promissory Notes</B></I>."<BR><BR>This lucid and well-reasoned message on the evils resulting from currency inflation is as applicable today as it was to the Texas of 1838. Houston comments that under the present "<I>depreciated value of our currency ... the prices of merchandise in Texas, are from one to two hundred per cent higher than in the United States of the North, or Mexico, or, probably any other country</B></I>."<BR><BR>The bill, which provided for the issuance of promissory notes for the current expenses of the government and other purposes, should be distinguished from an act relating to a limited amount of promissory notes approved by President Houston on May 18, 1838. This bill was passed over the veto by the House, but failed in the Senate.<BR><BR>The message is preceded on p. [3] by the bill which Houston vetoed. On May 15, 1838, the Senate ordered the printing of 500 copies. The message, but not the bill, is reprinted in the <I>Writings of Sam Houston</B></I>, Vol. II, p. 220-225, from the manuscript in the Texas State Library and newspaper sources, this separate publication apparently not having come to the attention of the editors. It is one of the messages reprinted in <I>Messages and Other Communications, Made to the Honorable Congress</B></I>, Houston, 1838, entry No. 291, and is printed in the House Journal of the adjourned session of the Second Congress at p. 119-124. There is no known reprinting of the bill. Contemporary cloth covers, gilt lettering on spine. Moderate age toning throughout, but otherwise in fine condition. Extremely rare. <I>From the collection of Darrel Brown.</B></I><BR><BR><B>Reference:</B></I> Streeter 289, this being Thomas Streeter's personal copy. Sabin 95013.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Books & Catalogs (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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