in any case, on the grounds that, as a member of Congress, Green was constitutionally ineligible to serve in that capacity. Several of Houston's allies voted against the nomination, leading Green to suspect that the president's desire to award him the post was less than genuine. Angered by the rebuff, Green refused to consider other positions, including that of adjutant general, offered to him by the Houston administration.24

But it was the failure of the Texas Railroad, Navigation and Banking Company, of which Green was a major stockholder, that seems to have been the principal source of the animosity between Green and Sam Houston, sparking a bitter feud that would span the next twenty-five years.25 In December, Congress authorized the company to build an internal improvements network of canals and railroads linking the Sabine River and the Rio Grande. According to the terms of the charter, the company would also commence banking operations when one-fifth of the $5,000,000 in capital stock had been purchased. The government was to receive two and one-half percent of all fees and tolls collected by the company, plus an initial bonus payment of $25,000, to be paid in specie.26

President Houston signed the bill into law, but the following year, in the wake of the Panic of 1837, which brought about the virtual collapse of the banking industry in the United States, public opinion swung sharply against the proposed bank. Many Texans, long-time admirers of Andrew Jackson, had not forgotten his war on the Second Bank of the United States, and like the former president they were equally suspicious of "the money power." These fears seemed all the more credible when a letter from Green to the founder of the company, Branch T. Archer, fell into the hands of Anson Jones, a staunch opponent of the scheme. In it, Green injudiciously estimated that the potential profits of the corporation were "beyond arithmetical calculation," and called upon the directors to buy up a million acres of Texas lands with company assets. Under the pen name "Franklin," Jones published the letter along with his own scathing indictment of the bank.27

With the power to issue bank notes as currency, manipulate land prices, and set transportation rates, the company would have exercised virtual control over the financial and economic affairs of the young republic. Faced with rising opposition to the scheme, Houston and other Texas politicians spoke out against the operation. But it was the directors of the company, not its critics, who were chiefly responsible for the collapse of the enterprise. Lacking the capital to begin operations, Archer, Green, and the other sponsors no doubt intended to make the $25,000 bonus payment by selling stock in the company. But in the prevailing climate of economic uncertainty, they were unable to raise the sum in specie, as the charter required, and offered instead to pay the government in depreciated Texas paper currency. The Houston administration refused to accept the payment, thereby nullifying the company's charter.28