PERMANENT COUNCIL. The Permanent Council was the governing body of Texas for only three weeks, from October 11, 1835, until a quorum arrived for the Consultation early in November. The council consisted of the committee of safety of San Felipe and representatives from other communities, including Richard R. Royall of Matagorda and Joseph Bryan of Liberty, two men who answered Stephen F. Austin's request to come to San Felipe to be part of the interim government. Royall was its president and Charles B. Stewart^qv its secretary. During its brief existence the Permanent Council served well. It sent supplies and volunteers to the army in the field, commissioned privateers, set up a postal system, ordered the land offices closed and surveying discontinued, authorized Thomas F. McKinney to go to the United States and borrow $100,000, and appealed to the citizens of the United States for men, money, and supplies. A journal of the council was kept from October 11 through October 26, and the group was active until October 31, 1835.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Eugene C. Barker, ed., "Journal of the Permanent Council," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 7 (April 1904).