Secretary of State executive record books, 1835-1917.

ArchivalResource

Texas. Secretary of State. Secretary of State executive record books, 1835-1917.

Secretary of State executive record books, 1835-1917.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/713879125

Each constitution of the State of Texas has required the Texas Secretary of State to keep a fair register of all official acts and proceedings of the Texas Governor and to provide these to the legislature when required. The executive record books contain correspondence (mostly outgoing) of the Presidents of the Republic of Texas and Governors of the state, primarily with other Texas and U.S. officials; inaugural addresses; executive messages; Indian treaties; proclamations; appointments and resignations; passports; pardons and remissions; extraditions; rewards; etc. Some Dept. of State (later Sec. of State) records are also present, consisting primarily of election returns. Dates covered in these records are 1836-1917. Republic of Texas figures represented include Presidents Sam Houston, Mirabeau B. Lamar, and Anson Jones; David G. Burnet, Thomas J. Rusk; Thomas Toby; and Robert Triplett. Records of governor's actions are present from each administration covering the years 1846-1917. The earlier volumes contain a variety of materials, as listed above, with the books from 1887-1917 containing mostly proclamations and pardons. Of particular interest is Rusk's oration given at the burial of the Goliad victims and the text of the $200,000 loan negotiated by Stephen F. Austin in New Orleans, found on reel 3472; and on reel 3474 is considerable material on the attempt to annex "Santa Fe County" prior to the Compromise of 1850. Correspondence in the late 1850s-1860s concerns frontier defense and other military affairs. Executive record books were created to preserve a permanent record of the official acts and proceedings of the presidents of the Republic of Texas, and the governors of the state of Texas, whether through correspondence, addresses and messages, proclamations, etc. Note: Some confusion may arise from the fact that the term Executive record book has also been applied to volumes that were exclusively dedicated to pardons and to rewards. When Executive record books (14 reels) were microfilmed, Pardon books (9 reels) and Reward books (3 reels) were also included, totaling 26 reels. To add to the confusion, volumes properly called Executive record books usually also contain pardon records and reward records; these have been described in separate finding aids, which can be linked from the Related records section later in this finding aid. To prepare this inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to delineate series, to confirm the accuracy of contents lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types.

15.18 cubic ft. originals14 reels microfilm duplicates

Texas State Library & Archives Commission