Agency History
The Texas Constitution of 1845 required the Secretary of State to
keep a fair register of all official acts and
proceedings of the Governor and to provide these to the legislature when
required. This duty (and others) were reiterated in the act
to define the duties of Secretary of State,
approved May 9, 1846. This authority was reconfirmed by the Constitutions of
1866 (Article V, Section 17), 1869 (Article IV, Section 17) and 1876 (Article
IV, Section 21), and subsequent amendments.
The Secretary of State is a constitutional officer of the executive
branch of state government, appointed by the governor and confirmed by the
senate for a term concurrent with the governor's (a two-year term at first, a
four-year term since 1974). The office was first created by the Constitution of
the Republic of Texas in 1836 (Article VI, Section 10), and has been continued
by each succeeding Constitution.
The only duty of the Secretary of State specified by the Constitution
of 1836 was to receive returns of all elections for
officers who are to be commissioned by the President (General
Provisions, Section 2). The 1st Congress approved a Joint Resolution on
December 13, 1836 defining the duties of the heads
of departments of the government. However, the duties of this cabinet
(composed of the Secretaries of State, War, Navy, and Treasury, and the
Attorney General) were expressed in extremely vague terms, i.e.:
to conform to and execute the instructions of the
president, whether general or particular; and to give respectively and
collectively, such needful aid and counsel whenever required so to do by the
chief magistrate of the republic, as may be requisite to a firm, wholesome and
harmonious administration of the government. Much of our knowledge of
what the Secretary of State did during the Republic period derives from the
existing records themselves. Although never so stated in law, obviously a major
function of the Secretary of State under the Republic of Texas was diplomatic,
a function unique to Texas' history as an independent nation.
During the next nine years of the Republic's existence, Congressional
acts added little in the way of explicit duties: to receive from the chief
justices of the county courts a description of their
county boundaries, and such other information and observations relative to the
same, as they may conceive conducive to the convenience of their
citizens (December 17, 1836); to furnish Texan consuls with instruction
for the proper regulation of foreign trade (December 18, 1837); to contract for
the printing of the laws and journals of the Republic of Texas, and to arrange
for their distribution (December 18, 1837 and later dates); to contract for the
translation and compilation of Republic laws into Spanish (
the Castilian language) (December 18, 1837
and January 12, 1842); to become the depository for a Library purchased for the
Republic of Texas (January 24, 1839); to create a Patent Office, as a bureau of
the office of Secretary of State, and to grant patent rights
for any new and useful art, machine, instrument or
composition of matter, liberal arts, sciences or literature, books, maps or
charts, or any new and useful improvement of the same . . . invented or
discovered (January 28, 1839); to draw from the war department funds
appropriated to run a boundary line between the Republic of Texas and the
United States (November 26, 1840); to assume the duties of the Postmaster
General, appointing and supervising a clerk for a bureau called the
General Post Office, and to receive from the
former Postmaster General all records of the abolished Post Office Department
(January 18, 1841); to issue writs of election to fill certain vacancies in
counties (December 7, 1841).
Except for its diplomatic duties, most of the functions of the
Secretary of State under the Republic were apparently continued during the
period of early statehood following annexation. An act of the 1st Legislature
(approved May 9, 1846) to define the duties of
Secretary of State included the following: to maintain a register of all
official acts of the governor, and to provide the same to the legislature when
required (this duty had also been spelled out by the first state Constitution,
1845); to keep a complete register of all officers appointed and elected in the
state; to commission all such appointed and elected officers when not otherwise
provided for by law; to record depositions and affirmations required by law to
be made by resident aliens wanting to hold real estate in Texas; to arrange and
preserve all books, maps, parchments, records, documents, deeds, conveyances,
and other papers belonging to the State, that have been or may be properly
deposited there, and sealed with the state seal (which copies shall be
considered admissible as evidence in the state's courts of law); to attend
every legislative session to receive bills which have became laws, and to bind
and maintain such bills and enrolled joint resolutions in the office of the
Secretary of State; to deliver a certified copy of these laws (with indices and
marginal notes) to the public printer, and to edit and correct them after
printing; to distribute the printed laws and journals to a list of state,
local, and federal officials specified; and to furnish forms to county election
officials for election returns, and to receive certified election returns from
these officials for members of the legislature (this last duty included in
an act regulating elections, approved May 11,
1846).
An act of February 11, 1854 created a Board of Commissioners composed
of the Secretary of State, the Comptroller, and the Attorney General,
to superintend the arranging and filing of the
archives of the late Republic of Texas and of the State Legislature, and also
the recording of the Journals of the said Congress and State Legislature ... to
be deposited in the General Land-office of the State. An act of December
14, 1863 made the Secretary of State the custodian
of the records of the Senate and House of Representatives. And an act of
March 25, 1887 provided that the entire archives of
the late Republic of Texas, ... together with the records, books, and journals
of said Congress would be deposited in the
Office of the Secretary of State, and declared to be Archives of said office.
Scope and Contents of the Records
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.
Types of records contained in executive record books include 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; reports
of state agencies; etc. Some Department of State (later Secretary of State)
records are also present, consisting primarily of election returns, plus a
couple of annual reports. These records comprise the executive record books
maintained by the Texas Secretary of State, dating 1835-1917. Republic of Texas
figures represented include Presidents David G. Burnet, Sam Houston, Mirabeau
B. Lamar, and Anson Jones; Thomas J. Rusk; Thomas Toby; and Robert Triplett.
Records of governors' actions are present from each administration covering the
years 1846-1917. The earlier volumes contain a variety of materials, as listed
above, while the books from 1887-1917 contain 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.
Preferred Citation
(Identify the item), Texas Secretary of State executive record books.
Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives
Commission.
Appraisal Information
These records were appraised as archival by an in-house appraisal of
Secretary of State (Republic of Texas) records on January 16, 1998. See that
appraisal report online at
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/arc/appraisal/sosrepublic.html#33
or in paper in the State Archives reading room.
Processing Information
Processed by Archives staff, various dates
Finding aid encoded in EAD Version 2002 as part
of the TARO project by
Tony Black, June 2003
Links added and other changes by Tony Black, February 2011.
Accession Information
Accession numbers: 1932/002, 1938/008, 1968/094, 1990/158
These records were transferred to the Archives and Information
Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission by the
Texas Secretary of State on September 28, 1932 and January 3, 1939; and by the
Records Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission on February
9, 1968 and June 21, 1990 (this last accession being the microfilm).
Other Formats for the Records
The originals were microfilmed (on 35 mm microfilm) in 1990 by the
Records Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. The reels
are available through interlibrary loan; contact your local librarian for
details.
They are also
available for purchase (scroll down to Executive Record Books); contact the State and Local
Records Management Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
The following equivalency chart will be helpful in matching Archives
reel numbers listed in this finding aid with TSLAC Catalog reel numbers:
Archives reel number
TSLAC Catalog reel number
3472
353.91 T312E EX-1
3473
353.91 T312E EX-2
3474
353.91 T312E EX-3
3475
353.91 T312E EX-4
3476
353.91 T312E EX-5
3477
353.91 T312E EX-6
3478
353.91 T312E EX-7
3479
353.91 T312E EX-8
3480
353.91 T312E EX-9
3481
353.91 T312E EX-10
3482
353.91 T312E EX-11
3483
353.91 T312E EX-12
3484
353.91 T312E EX-13
3485
353.91 T312E EX-14