A common occurrence amongst the Records Management Assistance (RMA) unit is seeing Records and Information Management (RIM) concepts in everyday media consumption. We like to share our thoughts about the relationship between entertainment and records management in our RIM Brain articles. This same phenomenon has led me down the path of seeing RIM concepts in history.
One of the earliest moments that would define the importance of records management in Texas was a little-known event: The Archives War. Taking place between December 30 and 31 of 1842, it featured an explosive release of building resentment between President Sam Houston and the citizens of the newly appointed capital of Texas, Austin. At the center of the conflict were the Archives located in the auspices of the General Land Office (GLO) in Austin.
Background: Capital or Frontier Village?
The Mexican army had seized San Antonio in September of 1842, which created an air of precariousness for the relatively undefended nearby settlement of Austin. The invading army had retreated by the end of that same month, but this did not assuage President Houston’s concerns about the safety of the government Archives.1 Due to the recent uncertainties, the 7th Congress convened in Washington-on-the-Brazos in December of 1842.2 The retreat of the Legislative branch from Austin gave the President the impetus to use his executive powers to wrestle control of the Archives, expressing concern for their safety. The President was also outspoken against the move of the capital from the city of Houston, which had access to maritime trade and established infrastructure, over to Austin, a planned community in the middle of nowhere.3
Houston and his supporters’ concern around the safety of the records was not without merit. The Archives contained important documents such as: treaties formed with foreign governments, land purchasing documents, military records, and other mundane documents necessary to run the Republic of Texas. The already meager population of Austin had been further diminished after a prior invasion by the Mexican army and brief occupation of San Antonio in March of 1842. Most of the residents fled, leaving about two dozen families and a handful of single men in Austin.4 The houses sat abandoned, no businesses were left, and the conditions were dire.5 The small community would not be able to withstand the dangers of the western frontier. However, the citizens of Austin had made it clear to Houston that they were willing to fight and keep the Archives. The few remaining citizens of Austin set up a watch specifically to prevent the removal of government papers.6 Lacking the support of the Legislature, Houston leaned on his executive powers and ordered men to take the records in secrecy.7
Figure 1. Letter from Sam Houston to Thomas I. Smith and Eli Chandler, December 10, 1842, tasking them with the removal of the Archives from Austin, copied from the holdings of the Texas State Archives.
The Diplomacy of Cannon Fire
Having received their confidential orders, Houston’s men showed up to Austin on December 30 of 1842. As wagons were being filled with records, Angelina Eberly, the innkeeper of the Eberly House, took records management into her own hands. When she noticed what was taking place, Mrs. Eberly raised the alarm by firing a loaded six-pound cannon into the GLO offices. No one was injured.8 Houston’s men left expeditiously with the records they had collected but they were followed by about twenty poorly armed Austinites.9 The two parties collided about eighteen miles away from Austin in the early morning of December 31. According to reports made after the fact, negotiations took place at gun point, tensions were high, but the men acting under executive orders ultimately acquiesced and returned the records safely to Austin.10 Thus, the Archives War ended without bloodshed.
Figure 2. Pat Oliphant, Angelina Eberly, 2004, bronze, 633 Congress Ave, Austin TX 78701, https://publicartarchive.org/art/Angelina-Eberly/7f5c08f5.
After the events of the Archives War, James Webb, statesman of high esteem and one of the few remaining people in Austin at the time, wrote a letter to former President Mirabeau Lamar in which he noted the conditions of Austin as well as their resolve to keep the Archives:
“Poor Austin has sadly changed since you saw it… We have now but a small population, -no business,- and are living under great privations- We have however held on to the “Archives”, and will battle for them to the death…”11
Figure 3. Letter from James Webb to Mirabeau B. Lamar, May 3, 1843, copied from the holdings of the Texas State Archives.
Why “Battle to the Death”?
The citizens of Austin protected the Archives for a myriad of reasons, some we may never know, but it’s likely they understood that an essential aspect of running a government is having access to the records that form said government. When we think of important documents required to govern, we likely find charters of formation, constitutions, treaties, and other foundational documents looming large in the conversation. These records are necessary to establish a government, have symbolic import, and should be treated with care. However, what President Houston and the men and women of Austin knew was that it’s the day-to-day documentation that give government its relevance. Fiscal reports, plans, audits, mundane correspondence, etc., all of these may not share the glamor of a declaration of independence, but they are required to uphold the goals and aspirations of the constitutions that form a government.
Where records are kept is where the authority and sovereignty of any government is also safeguarded. The people of Austin understood that without the Archives, the hub of influence would shift to wherever the government documents ended up. Any chance for the struggling frontier town to succeed was dependent on keeping the status as capital of the Republic of Texas, hence why the paltry citizenry of Austin was willing to “battle for them to the death,” as James Webb put it.
Conclusion
To be the capital of a country or state, you need the apparatus of government to meet on location and fulfill its duty as administrator in service of the people it governs. In December of 1842, Austin was capital in name only were it not for the fact that it held the Archives. Insecurity and war meant that the Legislative branch was convening elsewhere and the sitting head of the Executive branch was issuing orders from Houston.12 The beleaguered Austinites were armed with nothing but paperwork13 to defend their status as capital. History tells us that’s all they needed.
Fortunately, records management in Texas today requires a lot less cannon fire. The Archives War however, serves as an example of the importance of the records you manage in your day-to-day functions as an expression of the political will that formed your government. So, next time you are fed up with the oversight of routine paperwork, I hope you find solace in the idea that records management is part of Texan history. Even better, when you are excited about records management, know that you carry the same passion Angelina Eberly had for records in 1842.
I want to extend a special thanks to the Archives and Information Services (ARIS) for assisting me in my research. Without their guidance and dedication this article would not have been possible. Below are links to the finding aids used to make this blog happen. If you are interested in researching the history of Texas, you can reach out to ARIS to start your journey!
Finding Aids:
Relevant reading:
The Archives and Information Division has also written about the Archives War and you can find it at the link here: https://www.tsl.texas.gov/treasures/republic/archwar/archwar.html
Do you have a plan in place to protect your records from stray cannon fire? Here is an article about Information Disaster Plans to make sure you have a thought out plan in case of any emergency.
If you are a local government housing permanent records and find yourself wishing for another entity to whisk them away in wagons to save money on storage then here is an article just for you: Transferring Local Government Records.
Footnotes
- Dorman Winfrey, “The Texan Archive War of 1842” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 64, no. 2 (1961): 178, The Portal to Texas History. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid, 172. ↩︎
- Ibid, 178 ↩︎
- James Webb to Mirabeau B. Lamar, May 3, 1843, 1909/001, box 22, folder 2151, Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar Papers, Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, TX. ↩︎
- Winfrey, “The Texan Archives War,” 178. ↩︎
- Sam Houston to Thomas I. Smith and Eli Chandler December 10, 1842, 2-22, box 184, folder 2762, Andrew Jackson Houston Collection, Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, TX. ↩︎
- Frank Brown, Annals of Travis County and of the City of Austin (From the Earliest Times to the Close of 1875): Volume 4, chapter IX (Date Unknown), 42. ↩︎
- Ibid, 43 ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Webb to Lamar, May 3, 1843. ↩︎
- After leaving in February of 1842, Houston would not return in any capacity to Austin until November of 1855. Brown, “Annals of Travis County,” vol. 4, chapter IX, 48. ↩︎
- And a six-pound cannon. ↩︎
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Sebastian!!!
This is a wonderful article and I really enjoyed reading it. Thank you for reaching out to ARIS and taking the time to come down and look at the original letters from the Sam Houston and Mirabeau Lamar records.