The Archives War

Twelve days later, a select committee of the Texas House of Representatives investigated the attempted removal of the Texas Archives and the events surrounding it. From the information they gathered, presented a massive typed report that was highly critical of President Sam Houston and his conduct. One part of the committee’s report suggested that a Civil War would have been in danger of happening, if the Texas Archives had not been returned, the report also declared several other excellent arguments. However, the committee’s report was rejected by the full House, with a vote of 19- 18 (Texas House).

That was essentially the end of the Archives War. The conflict of it is evident: when President Sam Houston ordered the removal of the Texas Archives, when the citizens of Austin caught up with President Sam Houston’s men, and at other times. The compromise, however, might not be so easily seen. That one brief moment when President Sam Houston’s men handed over the Texas Archives to Austin’s populace was the compromise. Unorthodox, but whatever the case, it was still compromise.

As a conclusion, even though the Texas Archives had been in Austin ever since 1839, the government itself was not moved back to Austin until 1845. The matter of the location of Texas’s capitol wasn’t settled until 1850, but when it was, the Texans voted by a large majority to make Austin (decided capitol of Texas) the undeviating seat of government.So now, in Houston, a full-size statue of (now former) President Sam Houston, which is only natural, the city of Houston being his namesake. But, in Austin, on the sidewalks of historic Congress Avenue, rests an over sized bronze statue of the savior of Austin in all her glory- Mrs. Angelina Eberly.