Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 11.djvu/37

Rh the request of the president a vice-president was ordered to be appointed, and John D. Steele, of Leon county, was thus honored. On February 5th the convention adjourned temporarily, to meet again on the 2d of March.

The president issued an address to the people, stating what had been done by the convention and the legislature, and that Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina had already seceded from the Union, and that our position as a Gulf State made it necessary that we should join them in a common effort for the protection of our rights and liberties. A sufficient number of the committee of public safety to transact business remained in session, nine of whom, including the chairman, left Austin and went to Galveston, partly to prevent their presence in secret meetings from being made a ground of irritating excitement by opponents of the convention, and partly to superintend the embarkation of Col. John S. Ford's troops, to go by water to Brazos Santiago, to perform his mission on the lower Rio Grande. They sailed on the steamship General Rusk, commanded by Capt. Leon Smith, and on another vessel.

While at Galveston, Gen. Jas. H. Rogers was commissioned to visit Louisiana to endeavor to procure arms to be sent to Texas. He reported his success in obtaining from General Moore 1,000 stands of muskets, with an assurance of an increased loan if necessity should require it. He shipped half of them to Messrs. Murphy & Co. at Jefferson, Tex., and the others to Gen. E. B. Nichols at Galveston.

The legislature, on March 8th, passed an act appropriating $25,000 to pay the State troops, and on the 9th adjourned to meet again on Monday, the 18th of March, which was designed to give the convention time to adjust the status of the State before the second session of the legislature.

During the recess of the convention the commissioners at San Antonio were engaged in their negotiations with