Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/176

 from the treasury commenced on the first of November. They bore on their face, by law, that they were receivable for public duties. Immediately thereafter, on the 5th of November, the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Smith, sent instructions to collectors of customs forbidding them to receive these notes in payment of duties. Seven days afterward, the 13th November, Secretary Henry Smith revoked his order of the 5th, and instructed collectors of duties to receive the treasury notes as gold and silver. For this change of instructions Secretary Smith invoked the orders of President Houston, who assumed the whole responsibility. General Houston herein acted on the principle laid down in his address to Congress, adverted to above, "the maintenance of our integrity and just redemption of plighted faith."

The issue of treasury notes was restricted to the limits imposed in the act creating them. And these notes, when paid back into the treasury for taxes and duties, were, as has been already stated, canceled. They passed in business at par. They were as good as the notes of banks of most of the States of the American Union. There was thus, on the whole, a wholesome condition of the currency we had, practically, a good currency of our own. With every allowance for the newness of our situation and for political animosities, the people were cheerful and confident.

To place Houston in a proper light, it is necessary to relate an incident which occurred at this time. It is in connection with one of the bank charters alluded to above, as having been granted at the first session of the Congress,—"The Texas Railroad, Navigation and Banking Company," with a capital stock of five million dollars, to be increased, if desirable, to ten millions. It is not necessary to our present purpose to recite its vast franchises. Times were prosperous, prospects flattering. In the phrase of today, " there were millions in this bank charter." The capital stock was divided into eight shares, and one share each, conveyed—(the wise do call it "convey")—to eight stockholders. One share of the eight was sent to General Houston. Single shares were sold for $12,000 and upwards, and were in demand at such prices. It was a condition in the charter that before the bank could commence business operations it should pay into the treasury of the Republic a bonus of $25,000 "in gold and silver." This sum, $25,000, was formally tendered to the Secretary of the Treasury in treasury notes. Though these notes were receivable as gold and silver in payment of taxes and duties, they were neither, it was alleged, in the contemplation of the act of incorporation, nor in its words, gold and silver. The bonus of $25,000 was neither a tax nor a duty. Accordingly President Houston ordered the Secretary of the