Ebook The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar

The Lamar Papers printed herein include only those documents preserved by President Lamar and his heirs which were acquired by the State on July 20, 1909. They consist mainly of Lamar's state papers and personal correspondence, and of manuscripts collected by him relating to Texan and Mexican history. In his own words he intended to write a faithful account of the origin and revolutionary struggles of the Republic, that the children of the patriots, while they are in the full enjoyment of the independence bequeathed to them, may the more watchfully guard and valiantly defend the precious boon purchased with the price of their fathers' blood. Since he had this definite purpose in mind, and since he was at successive periods attorney general, secretary of war, vice-president, and president of the Republic of Texas, he was able to make a collection whose value is readily appreciated. In addition to the material for Texas history, there are a good many papers of interest bearing upon Nicaragua and Costa Rica during the years 1858 and 1859, the period in which Lamar was United States minister to those countries. Lamar's plans for publication were never brought to maturity, though some specimen pages of his life of James Long are in this collection. Now that his papers are at last appearing in print, it may not be amiss to trace some of their wanderings. A portion of them went to Central America with Lamar, and it is highly probable that they were conveyed in the chest which finally brought them to the State Library. The old chest itself is possessed of no slight historical interest. Constructed of three-quarter inch pine, bound at the corners with heavy iron braces, and provided with two ponderous locks which take an enormous key, it seems devised to withstand any and all assaults. One element, however, it could not resist; for in a letter written at Punta Arenas in November, 1858, Lamar complains of a careless native who delivered his books and papers thoroughly soaked and in a terrible muss. The present condition of a good many of the manuscripts would indicate that they were among those which suffered this mishap.