What was the archives war

Regardless, Smith was compelled to surrender the archives, which were dutifully returned to Austin. Others say he declined. Either way, the bloodless conflict was, for the time being, over. An attempt to take them by force would have precipitated a civil war. Many threats have been made against me…but however dangerous or unpleasant my situation may be I will not complain if I can do a service to the Republic.

A Senate committee concluded that Houston had no legal reasons to attempt move the archives. While the archives stayed in Austin, the seat of government continued to stay in Washington-on-Brazos , and Austin, without the status associated with capital cities, turned into a ghost town.

Throughout the first half of , after repeated failures by Ward to reclaim the archives for his agency, he created a new Land Office in Washington-on-Brazos, where new archives were already being created as the government went about its business.

On July 4, , at last and without much strife or anguish, the two archives were reunited in Austin; the Republic of Texas joined the United States of America a few months later, on December 29 of that year.

Austin, perhaps more than any other city in the U. Its position as capital city was cemented with yet another, this time final, statewide vote in , marking the end to a very strange, very long journey.

Angelina Eberley fires off the cannon at the agents attempting to move the archives from her hometown of Austin. She turned a six-pound cannon toward the men at the General Land Office and fired it.

Photo: Wikimedia. Though the Archives War started in , it ended on January 1, some sources have said December 31, Captain Mark B. The archives returned to Austin, though accounts dispute whether Smith or Lewis brought them back. Wikipedia: Texas Archive War. We are your resource for Hill Country travel, things to do, places to eat, places to stay, tourism, events, lodging, and we feature Texas Hill Country info of all manners.

Our Texas Hill Country Facebook page is growing by over 1, fans per day! We also run the premiere real-estate site in the hill country at HillCountryRealestate. President Houston called the Seventh Congress into session at Washington-on-the-Brazos and at the end of December sent a company of rangers under Col.

Thomas I. Smith and Capt. Eli Chandler to Austin with orders to remove the archives but not to resort to bloodshed. The Austin vigilantes were unprepared for the raid, and the rangers loaded the archives in wagons and drove away, but not before Mrs.

Angelina Eberly fired a cannon at them. Forty wagons carried the government archives from Houston to their new home. Over the next several years, the archives would become a highly visible symbol of a tug-of-war for government power in Texas.

In , Sam Houston again became president. He often described Austin as "the most unfortunate site on earth for a seat of government," and refused to move in to the official residence, preferred instead to take a room at a boarding house run by Mrs. Angelina Eberly. Click on image for larger image and transcript.

Eberly's servant.