NP, HT 3/26/1861

From the Houston Telegraph
 
March 26, 1861
 
Removal of the Capital
   Our Austin correspondent mentions a proposition to remove the seat of government. Should this proposition be carried into effect, the new locality should be selected with a view to accessibility, and also to an immediate, if not a present connection by rail and telegraph with the other Confederate States.
   There is no point now in Texas as accessible to every other point as the city of Houston. Its railroads extend in every direction. In a year or two more, scarcely any person in the State will need to travel more than seventy-five or a hundred miles to get to a railroad terminating in this city. The {Houston Tap &} Brazoria road already reaches the heart of the lower country. The B. B. B. & C. {Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado} Road, pointing to San Antonio, is now within striking distance of the whole West. The Washington county road, pointing to the centre of the State, can be reached by all Northern Texas between the Brazos and Colorado, while the {Houston & Texas} Central is rapidly progressing to the heart of Northern Texas, affording facilities to all between the Brazos and Trinity. The Houston{, Trinity} & Tyler road will give us a connection with all the counties East, and bordering on the Trinity, while the Sabine Pass and Nacogdoches road {Eastern RR}, via the {Texas &} New Orleans road, will open all the balance of the East to us. It will also, in a year or two, be the depot for all foreign travel, having the only road that will connect Texas with New Orleans, the emporium of the South.
   If the seat of government is to be changed, the city of Houston is by all means the proper locality, and we invite the attention of the people to the facts as they exist.
   But, should this be done, we must ask for a constitutional provision, prohibiting any of the broken down politicians of Austin from practicing politics in the new capital. Let the capital be removed away from them, and if they follow it, let them come, pledged to abjure politics, on pain of banishment forever.

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