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ANGLO-AMERICANS 323
Thomas Jefferson Devine was delegated to represent the City of
San Antonio in law Suits, Sept. 9, 1844. The following year (March
15, 1845) he entered into a.contract with the City Attorney. He resign-
ed as City Attorney, Sept. 6, 1850, to which position he had been elect-
ed, Feb. 23, 1850. He was elected District Attorney and was re-elected
to that office until 1851, when he was elected District Judge of Bexar
County, which office he held until the breaking out of the Civil War,
1861. “He was appointed associa‘e justice of the Texas Supreme Court
by Governor Coke, at that time Hon. Oran M. Roberts being its chief
justice.” Judge Devine was closely associated with John James in the
Claiming of lands for the city, against unlawful squatters; he attend-
ed to many legal matters, while Mr. James engineered the survey,
and was instrumental in plotting the new town map. He owned The
Western Texan newspaper (until Dec. 23, 1852). He was a promoter
and corporator of the San Antonio and Mexican Gulf Railroad, charter-
ed in 1850, J. W. Clarke of New York, President, which railroad was
destroyed by the Confederates in 1863 under Magruder, and con-
Sequently never reached San Antonio.
As a Southern sympathizer, Thomas Jefferson Devine was a pro-
minent figure in the Texas secession convention of 1861. He was one
of the committee of safety to confer with General David E. Twiggs
(headquarters in the Veramendi House) in the demand for the sur-
Tender of government stores and ammunition at the post of San An-
tonio (which surrender was made in the Veramendi House). The other
Confederate commissioners were Samuel A. Maverick and P. N. Luckett,
who became a Colonel of a Texas Confederate Infantry regiment and
Served throughout the Civil War. Judge Devine was also one of the
Confederate commissioners to receive all property seized in Texas by
the Confederacy. He was appointed by the Confederate States as judge
of the district of Western Texas. “In 1863 the threatened troubles be-
tween Mexico and the Confederate States called for an adjustment
and at the request of General Kirby Smith, Judge Devine was sent
aS a mediator to the City of Mexico, where the matter was amicably
adjusted.”
“After the close of the Civil War Judge Devine removed to Mexico,
but remained only a few months. On his return he was arrested by
the federal authorities and confined at Fort Jackson for four months
but was finally released [early in January 1866] on giving bond that
he would confine his residence to San Antonio. He became very ill
in prison. In San Antonio he was twice indicted for high treason. “He
enjoyed the distinction, together with Jefferson Davis and Clement
Clay of being the only three who were charged with treason during
the Civil War and the only ones to have been pardoned without trial,
accused of such offence. He, Maverick and Luckett, the three Con-
federate commissioners, were sued by the United States Government
for $2,500,000 the valuation placed by the United States upon the seiz-
€d property placed in their charge as such commissioners. This suit
Was dismissed by the late United States District Attorney Andrew Jack-
Te fet