TEXAS RAILROAD, NAVIGATION, AND BANKING COMPANY. The Texas Railroad, Navigation, and Banking Company, chartered by the First Congress of the Republic of Texas on December 16, 1836, was authorized to connect Gulf ports by canal, to construct railroads wherever desirable, and to have banking privileges as soon as one-fifth of its capital stock of $5,000,000 had been subscribed. Among the incorporators were Branch T. Archer, James Collinsworth, Thomas J. Green, Thomas F. McKinney, A. C. Horton, Augustus C. Allen, and Moseley Baker. Apparently Sam Houston, who signed the charter, and Stephen F. Austin, who was persuaded only at the last minute not to enter the company, both sanctioned the enterprise, and the charter was approved by Congress without opposition. The charter did become an issue in elections for the Second Congress, however, particularly in the election of Anson Jones, who attacked the venture mainly because of the banking provision. Unable to sell its stock because of public opposition aroused by Jones and because of the panic of 1837, the company collapsed. Its brief existence aroused personal antagonisms that were reflected in Texas politics for a long period of time.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Charles S. Potts, Railroad Transportation in Texas (Austin: University of Texas, 1909). S. G. Reed, A History of the Texas Railroads (Houston: St. Clair, 1941; rpt., New York: Arno, 1981). Herbert Gambrell, Anson Jones: The Last President of Texas (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1948).