While a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Lincoln co-authors a letter to Secretary of State James Buchanan. Lincoln and Representative James Houston Thomas of Tennessee request that Buchanan make available to them, "one democrat and one whig," some documents that Mexican leader Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna apparently sent to President Andrew Jackson in 1836 or 1837. Lincoln and Thomas are interested in "copies of the treaties or conventions, which he [Santa Anna] entered into with Texas." Lincoln and Thomas want to view the information "to clear up some misunderstanding in relation to that matter." In a postscript, Lincoln and Thomas write that they "do not insist upon" Buchanan's compliance with their request for the information if it "will impose any considerable amount of trouble upon" him. Abraham Lincoln and James Houston Thomas to James Buchanan, 4 August 1848, Record Group 59, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC; CW 10:10-11.