MUSEUM RECEIVES TEXIAN NAVY SCRIP

On September 26, 2018, the Brigadier General John C. L. Scribner Texas Military Forces Museum at Camp Mabry received a gift of two pay warrants issued to sailors and marines of the Texian Navy. They are now part of the museum’s permanent collection and will soon be on display. The pay warrants were donated by Michael E. Marotta, who serves as a petty officer 2nd class in the Maritime Regiment of the Texas State Guard within the Texas Military Department.

Both warrants are dated April 23, 1841. On the orders of President Mirabeau Lamar, $200,000 in promissory notes were printed, signed, and distributed to sailors and marines in Galveston. The notes are signed by the Comptroller, James R. Shaw, and the Treasurer, James W. Simmons. They are endorsed on the back by the men who whom they were given. Both notes are cancelled. The $25 promise carries the endorsement of John Deziel. The $50 note was paid to a Navy Yeoman. To be paid, the holder had to travel back to Austin, Texas, 200 miles away.

Like other Texas Republic paper money, the promissory notes quickly lost value and few were ever redeemed. The pay warrants now owned by the TMF Museum were actually cashed in and cancelled.

The only hard money available came from $8,000 in silver coin paid to the Texian Navy by Mexican federalist rebels at Yucatan. Most of those pesos went to refitting the fleet. Little was left over to make good on the warrants. In addition. very few promises were honored because as soon as Sam Houston was re-elected President on December 21, 1841, he repudiated the notes. Soldiers serving in the army were given land grants in November 1841, but once in office, President Houston ignored the articles of the law that included the sailors. Houston distrusted the Navy because its victories upset his plans for a helpless Texas Republic to be rescued and annexed by the United States of America. During his first term of office in 1838 Houston declared them all pirates, ordering any lawful ship to arrest them and bring them to Galveston for trial. That did not happen.

Texas Military Forces Museum director, Jeff Hunt, and museum supporter, Mike Marotta (PO2 TX), stand in front of a Texian Navy display with the pay warrants. (TMF Museum staff photo.)

For more information on the Texas Military Forces Museum, see:
Texas Military Forces Museum (http://texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/)

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