Over the last year, the library has worked hard to scan House and Senate journals to make them available on our website. Part of this project included scanning congressional journals from the Republic of Texas. These journals date to the period between 1836 and 1845, just before Texas became a state. At that time, the Republic of Texas had formed as a separate nation after gaining independence from Mexico.
Reading through the journals of the First Congress gives you a sense of how much things have changed:
- The Congress that year consisted of 14 senators and 29 representatives, as opposed to the 150 representatives and 31 senators that make up today's state legislative body.
- Since no capital had yet been established, the First Congress met in Columbia, TX (today's West Columbia in Brazoria County).
- In his State of the State address, ad interim President David C. Burnet told the members of Congress, "To you is committed the beginning of legislation, and as you shall lay the foundation, so will be reared the superstructure." He stressed the importance of adopting a plan for "permanent and certain revenue," and for building up the military organization, whose "strength has been fluctuating on account of the frequent accession and discharges of volunteers under short enlistment."
The journals include familiar names like Sam Houston, twice President of the Republic of Texas and later Governor of the State of Texas (1859-1861), and J. Pinckney Henderson, Attorney General and Secretary of State in the early years of the Republic, and later the State of Texas' first Governor (1846-47).
Journals for all nine congresses of the Republic of Texas are available online at: http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/collections/journals/journals.cfm#republic
The library wishes to thank the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History (University of Texas at Austin), the Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission for generously lending us individual congressional journals not present in our own collection.
