 Lamar's successor as President of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston, ordered the national archives transferred to Houston for safekeeping after Mexican troops captured San Antonio on March 5, 1842.Convinced that removal of the republic's diplomatic, financial, land, and military-service records was tantamount to choosing a new capital, Austinites refused to relinquish the archives.Houston moved the government anyway, first to Houston and then to Washington-on-the-Brazos, which remained the seat of government until 1845.