The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Sam Houston - Dec. 22nd, 2003

www.tsha.utexas.edu ^ | Thomas H. Kreneck

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
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for all those serving their country at this time.

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Samuel Houston
(1793-1863)

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Sam Houston is the only man in U.S. history to serve as a teacher, soldier, shop keeper, lawyer, Indian Agent, Congressman, General, President, and was the 7th Governor of both Tennessee and Texas.

Sam Houston, one of the most illustrious political figures of Texas, was born on March 2, 1793, the fifth child (and fifth son) of Samuel and Elizabeth (Paxton) Houston, on their plantation in sight of Timber Ridge Church, Rockbridge County, Virginia. He was of Scots-Irish ancestry and reared Presbyterian. He acquired rudimentary education during his boyhood by attending a local school for no more than six months. When he was thirteen years old, his father died; some months later, in the spring of 1807, he emigrated with his mother, five brothers, and three sisters to Blount County in Eastern Tennessee, where the family established a farm near Maryville on a tributary of Baker's Creek. Houston went to a nearby academy for a time and reportedly fed his fertile imagination by reading classical literature, especially the Iliad.



Rebelling at his older brothers' attempts to make him work on the farm and in the family's store in Maryville, Houston ran away from home as an adolescent in 1809 to dwell among the Cherokees, who lived across the Tennessee River. Between intermittent visits to Maryville, he sojourned for three years with the band of Chief Oolooteka, who adopted him and gave him the Indian name Colonneh, or "the Raven." Houston viewed Oolooteka as his "Indian Father" and the Cherokees much as a surrogate family. He henceforth maintained great sympathy toward Indians.

At age eighteen he left the Cherokees to set up a school, so that he could earn money to repay debts. After war broke out with the British, he joined the United States Army as a twenty-year-old private, on March 24, 1813. Within four months he received a promotion to ensign of the infantry; in late December he was given a commission as a third lieutenant. As part of Andrew Jackson's army, he fought at the battle of Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River on March 26, 1814. During the engagement he received three near-fatal wounds. One of them, from a rifle ball in his right shoulder, never completely healed. For his valor at Horseshoe Bend, Houston won the attention of General Jackson, who thereafter became his benefactor. Houston, in return, revered Jackson and became a staunch Jacksonian Democrat.

While convalescing, he was promoted to second lieutenant and traveled extensively-to Washington, New Orleans, New York, and points between. While stationed in Nashville, he was detailed in late 1817 as sub-Indian agent to the Cherokees. In that capacity, he assisted Oolooteka and his clan in their removal to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River, as stipulated by the Treaty of 1816. Houston, by then first lieutenant, resigned from the army on March 1, 1818, and shortly thereafter from his position as subagent, following difficulties with Secretary of War John C. Calhoun.


Portrait of Sam Houston, by J. C. Buttre, 1858, after a daguerreotype by B. P. Paige (n.d.).
Senator Sam Houston

Still in poor health, Houston read law in Nashville for six months during 1818 in the office of Judge James Trimble. He subsequently opened a law practice in Lebanon, Tennessee. With Jackson's endorsement, he became adjutant general (with the rank of colonel) of the state militia through appointment by Governor Joseph McMinn. In late 1818, Houston was elected attorney general (prosecuting attorney) of the District of Nashville, where he took up residence. After returning to private practice in Nashville by late 1821, he was elected major general of the state militia by his fellow officers. He was likewise prominent in the Nash Masonic order by the early 1820s.

Houston's rapid rise in public office continued in 1823, when, as a member of Jackson's political circle, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives from the Ninth Tennessee District. As a member of Congress, he worked mightily, though unsuccessfully, for the election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency in 1824. In 1825 he was returned to Congress for a second and final term. In 1827, ever the Jackson protégé, Houston was elected governor of Tennessee. He was thirty-four years of age, extremely ambitious, and in the thick of tumultuous Tennessee politics. Standing six feet two inches tall and handsome, he cut a dashing figure wherever he went.



On January 22, 1829, he married nineteen-year-old Eliza Allen of Gallatin, Tennessee. Houston subsequently announced his bid for reelection to the governorship. After eleven weeks and amid much mystery, the marriage ended. Eliza returned to her parents' home. Extremely distraught, Houston abruptly resigned from his office on April 16 and fled west across the Mississippi River to Indian Territory. Both parties maintained a lifelong silence about the affair. Houston's exit brought the Tennessee phase of his career to an end. As a possible heir apparent to Andrew Jackson, he may well have given up an opportunity to run eventually for president of the United States.

He made his way to the lodge of Oolooteka in what is now day Oklahoma to live once again in self-imposed exile among the Cherokees, this time for three years. Among the Indians he tried to reestablish his tranquility. He dressed Indian-style and, although he corresponded with Andrew Jackson, initially secluded himself from contacts with white society. Initially, too, he drank so heavily that he reportedly earned the nickname "Big Drunk." He quickly became active in Indian affairs, especially in helping to keep peace between the various tribes in Indian Territory. He was granted Cherokee citizenship and often acted as a tribal emissary. Under Cherokee law, he married Diana Rogers Gentry, an Indian woman of mixed blood. Together, they established a residence and trading post called Wigwam Neosho on the Neosho River near Fort Gibson.


Legend has it that the Sam Houston Statue in Hermann Park is pointing to the San Jacinto Battleground.

Gradually reinvolving himself in the white world, he made various trips East-to Tennessee, Washington, and New York. In December 1831, while on the Arkansas River, Houston encountered Alexis de Tocqueville, the latter on his famous travels in the United States. Houston impressed the Frenchman as an individual of great physical and moral energy, the universal American in perpetual motion; Houston undoubtedly served as an example for Tocqueville's composite description of the "nervous American," the man-on-the-make so pervasive in the United States during the Age of Jackson.

On the evening of April 13, 1832, on the streets of Washington, Houston thrashed William Stanbery, United States representative from Ohio, with a hickory cane. The assault resulted from a perceived insult by Stanbery over an Indian rations contract. Houston was soon arrested and tried before the House of Representatives. Francis Scott Key served as his attorney. The month-long proceedings ended in an official reprimand and a fine, but the affair catapulted Houston back into the political arena.

Leaving Diana and his life among the Indians, Houston crossed the Red River into Mexican Texas on December 2, 1832, and began another, perhaps the most important, phase of his career. His "true motives" for entering Texas have been the source of much speculation. Whether he did so simply as a land speculator, as an agent provocateur for American expansion intent on wresting Texas from Mexico, or as someone scheming to establish an independent nation, Houston saw Texas as his "land of promise." For him, it represented a place for bold enterprise, rife with political and financial opportunity.


"Houston's Address To His Army," from The Devil's Comical Oldmanick, 1837. With Comic Engravings of All the Principal Events of Texas. New York: Fisher & Turner [1836]. Texas Collection Library

In a cartoon typical of the cheap comic printing that enjoyed great popularity in the United States from the 1830s through the 1860s, General Houston addressed his army as follows: “Soldiers, there is the enemy—do you want to fight?” “Yes,” “Well, then,” “Let us eat our dinners and then I will lead you into the battle.”

He quickly became embroiled in the Anglo-Texans' politics of rebellion. He served as a delegate from Nacogdoches at the Convention of 1833 in San Felipe, where he sided with the more radical faction under the leadership of William H. Wharton. He also pursued a law practice in Nacogdoches and filed for a divorce from Eliza, which was finally granted in 1837. As prescribed by Mexican law, he was baptized into the Catholic Church, under the name Samuel Pablo. In September 1835 he chaired a mass meeting in Nacogdoches to consider the possibility of convening a consultation. By October, Houston had expressed his belief that war between Texas and the central government was inevitable. That month he became commander in chief of troops for the Department of Nacogdoches and called for volunteers to begin the "work of liberty." He served as a delegate from Nacogdoches to the Consultation of 1835, which deliberated in Columbia in October and at San Felipe in November. On November 12 the Consultation appointed Houston Major General of the Texas army.

During February 1836, Houston and John Forbes, as commissioners for the provisional government, negotiated a treaty with the Cherokee Indians in East Texas, thus strategically establishing peace on that front. In March, Houston served as a delegate from Refugio to the convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos, where, on his birthday, March 2, the assembly adopted the Texas Declaration of Independence. Two days later Houston received the appointment of major general of the army from the convention, with instructions to organize the republic's military forces.

After joining his army in Gonzales, Houston and his troops retreated eastward as the Mexican army under Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna swept across Texas. This campaign caused Houston much anguish because the Texan rebels suffered from a general lack of discipline. He likewise fretted when the citizenry fled in the so-called Runaway Scrape. Despite these problems, Houston and his men defeated Santa Anna's forces at the decisive battle of San Jacinto on the afternoon of April 21, 1836. During this engagement, his horse, Saracen, was shot beneath him, and Houston was wounded severely just above the right ankle. The capture of Santa Anna the next day made the victory complete. At San Jacinto, Sam Houston became forever enshrined as a member of the pantheon of Texas heroes and a symbol for the age.



Riding the wave of popularity as "Old Sam Jacinto," Houston became the first regularly elected president of the Republic of Texas, defeating Stephen F. Austin. During his two presidential terms he successfully guided the new ship of state through many trials and tribulations. His first term lasted from October 22, 1836, to December 10, 1838. The town of Houston was founded in 1836, named in his honor, and served as the capital of the republic during most of his first administration. During this term Houston sought to demilitarize Texas by cannily furloughing much of the army. He also tried, with limited success, to avoid trouble between white settlers and Indians. One of his biggest crises came with the Córdova Rebellion, an unsuccessful revolt in 1838 by a group of Kickapoo Indians and Mexican residents along the Angelina River. In late 1836, Houston sent Santa Anna, then a prisoner of war, to Washington to seek the annexation of Texas to the United States. Although Houston favored annexation, his initial efforts to bring Texas into the Union proved futile, and he formally withdrew the offer by the end of his first term.

After leaving office because the Constitution of the Republic of Texas barred a president from succeeding himself, Houston served in the Texas House of Representatives as a congressman from San Augustine from 1839 to 1841. He was in the forefront of the opposition to President Mirabeau B. Lamar, who had been Houston's vice president. Houston particularly criticized Lamar's expansionist tendencies and harsh measures toward the Indians.

On May 9, 1840, Houston married twenty-one-year-old Margaret Moffette Lea of Marion, Alabama. A strict Baptist, Margaret served as a restraining influence on her husband and especially bridled his drinking. They had eight children: Sam Houston, Jr., (1843), Nancy Elizabeth (1846), Margaret (1848), Mary William (1850), Antoinette Power (1852), Andrew Jackson Houston (1854), William Rogers (1858), and Temple Lea Houston (1860).


The Republic of Texas Capitol

Houston succeeded Lamar to a second term as president from December 12, 1841, to December 9, 1844. During this administration, Houston stressed financial austerity and drastically reduced government offices and salaries. He and the Congress even tried to sell the four-ship Texas Navy, an effort forcibly prevented by the people of Galveston. Houston reestablished peace with the Indians by making treaties with the bands that still remained in Texas. Although many Texans clamored for action, President Houston deftly managed to avoid war with Mexico after the two Mexican invasions of 1842. After the first incursion Houston directed that the government archives be moved from Austin, an order that ultimately resulted in the "Archive War," in which residents of Austin forcibly prevented removal of the files. After the second invasion Houston authorized a force under Gen. Alexander Somervell to pursue the enemy to the Rio Grande and, if conditions warranted, to attack Mexico. Part of Somervell's legion became the disastrous Mier expedition, an escapade that Houston opposed. In 1843 Houston approved of the abortive Snively expedition, which sought to interdict trade along the Santa Fe Trail. In 1844 Houston found it necessary to send the militia to quell the Regulator-Moderator War in Shelby County, an East Texas feud that presented one of the most vexing problems of his second administration. Houston was succeeded to the presidency by Anson Jones, whom the electorate viewed as a "Houston man." Sam Houston's name had become synonymous with Texas. Indeed, Texas politics during the republic had been characterized by a struggle between Houston and anti-Houston factions.

When Texas joined the union, Houston became one of its two United States senators, along with Thomas Jefferson Rusk (see SENATORS). Houston served in the Senate from February 21, 1846, until March 4, 1859. Beginning with the 1848 election, he was mentioned as a possible candidate for president. He even had a biography published in 1846 by Charles Edwards Lester entitled Sam Houston and His Republic, which amounted to campaign publicity. As senator, Houston emerged as an ardent Unionist, true to his association with Andrew Jackson, a stand that made him an increasingly controversial figure. He stridently opposed the rising sectionalism of the antebellum period and delivered eloquent speeches on the issue. A supporter of the 1820 Missouri Compromise, which banned slavery north of latitude 36°30', Houston voted in 1848 for the Oregon Bill prohibiting the "peculiar institution" in that territory, a vote proslavery Southerners later held against him. Although he was a slaveowner who defended slavery in the South, Houston again clashed with his old nemesis who led the proslavery forces when he opposed John C. Calhoun's Southern Address in 1849.


ANDREW JACKSON HOUSTON (1854-1941)

Houston always characterized himself as a Southern man for the Union and opposed any threats of disunity, whether from Northern or Southern agitators. He incurred the permanent wrath of proslavery elements by supporting the Compromise of 1850, a series of measures designed to ensure sectional harmony. In 1854, Houston alienated Democrats in Texas and the South even further by opposing the Kansas-Nebraska Bill because it allowed the status of slavery to be determined by popular sovereignty, a concept he saw as potentially destabilizing to the nation. He likewise embraced the principles of the American (Know-Nothing) party as a response to growing states'-rights sentiment among the Democrats. In 1854, he joined the Baptist Church, no doubt in partial response to the troubles of this period of his life. His career in the Senate was effectively ended when, in 1855, the Texas legislature officially condemned his position on the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

As a lame-duck senator, Houston ran for governor of Texas in 1857. He was defeated in a rigorous campaign by the state Democratic party's official nominee, Hardin R. Runnels. Predictably, the state legislature did not reelect Houston to the Senate; instead, in late 1857, it replaced him with John Hemphill. The replacement took place at the end of Houston's term, in 1859. So concerned was Houston about sectional strife that during his final year in the Senate he advocated establishing a protectorate over Mexico and Central America as a way to bring unity to the United States.

Out of the Senate, Houston ran a second time for governor in 1859. Because of his name recognition, a temporary lull in the sectional conflict, and other factors, he defeated the incumbent, Runnels, in the August election and assumed office on December 21. As governor he continued to pursue his fanciful plans for a protectorate over Mexico, and envisioned the use of Texas Rangers and volunteers to accomplish that end. He likewise tried to enlist the aid of Robert E. Lee, Benjamin McCulloch,q and some New York financiers for his scheme. Because of his staunch Unionism, Houston was nearly nominated for the presidency in May 1860 by the National Union party convention in Baltimore, but narrowly lost to John Bell. His possible candidacy received favorable mention by people in many regions of the nation who longed to prevent sectional strife.


Senator Sam Houston

When Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States, the clamor of discontent in Texas prompted Houston to call a special session of the state legislature. Adamantly opposed to secession, Houston warned Texans that civil war would result in a Northern victory and destruction of the South, a prophecy that was borne out by future events. The Secession Convention, however, convened a week later and began a series of actions that withdrew Texas from the Union; Houston acquiesced to these events rather than bring civil strife and bloodshed to his beloved state. But when he refused to take the oath of loyalty to the newly formed Confederate States of America, the Texas convention removed him from office on March 16 and replaced him with Lieutenant Governor Edward Clark two days later. Reportedly, during these traumatic days President Lincoln twice offered Houston the use of federal troops to keep him in office and Texas in the Union, offers that Houston declined, again to avoid making Texas a scene of violence. Instead, the Raven-now sixty-eight years of age, weary, with a family of small children, and recognizing the inevitable-again chose exile.

After leaving the Governor's Mansion, Houston at least verbally supported the Southern cause. Against his father's advice, Sam, Jr., eagerly joined the Confederate Army and was wounded at the battle of Shiloh. Houston moved his wife and other children in the fall of 1862 to Huntsville, where they rented a two-story residence known as the Steamboat House, so called because it resembled a riverboat. Rumors abounded that Houston, though ailing and aged, harbored plans to run again for governor. But on July 26, 1863, after being ill for several weeks, he died in the downstairs bedroom of the Steamboat House, succumbing to pneumonia at age seventy. Dressed in Masonic ceremonial trappings, he was buried in Oakwood Cemetery at Huntsville

[SAMWolf]

The Battle of San Jacinto

The Battle of San Jacinto lasted less than twenty minutes, but it sealed the fate of three republics. Mexico would never regain the lost territory, in spite of sporadic incursions during the 1840s. The United States would go on to acquire not only the Republic of Texas in 1845 but Mexican lands to the west after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War in 1848.

By early April, Santa Anna had divided his forces in a three-pronged attack: a northern army, under General Antonio Gaona , the central army under Santa Anna and General Joaquin Ramirez y Sesma, and a coastal army under command of General Jose Francisco Urrea.

The Texan army, meanwhile, had been in retreat since March 13, when it left Gonzales after learning of the Fall of the Alamo. On March 25, news of the massacre at Goliad led several men to leave the army to assist their families to flee before the advancing Mexican army. The resulting "Runaway Scrape" involved most of Eastern Texas, and panicked the government. Sam Houston spent the next few weeks attempting to train the recruits into something resembling a disciplined army, then continued his march toward the Sabine.

On April 16, learning that Santa Anna had isolated his army, Houston pursued him to Buffalo Bayou, arriving there at midnight on April 19, and continuing their march toward Lynch's Ferry on the 20th. That afternoon, General Sidney Sherman engaged the Mexicans in a skirmish that almost resulted in a full scale battle. Mirabeau B. Lamar's heroic actions in that conflict earned him a battlefield commission as Colonel.

The next day, Houston learned that General Martin Perfecto de Cos had crossed over Vince's Bridge with reinforcements. Houston ordered Erastus "Deaf" Smith to destroy the bridge-a move that prevented further swelling of Mexican ranks, and likewise prevented retreat by both the Mexican and Texan armies.

About 3:30 in the afternoon, during the Mexican siesta period, Houston distributed his troops in battle array, bracketing the line with the "Twin Sisters" cannon. Shielded by trees and a rise in the terrain, the Texans were able to advance with some security. Then with the cries "Remember the Alamo" and "Remember La Bahia" or "Remember Goliad" ringing along their lines, the Texans swooped down on the dismayed Mexican army, pursuing and butchering them long after the battle itself had ended.

630 Mexicans were killed and 730 taken prisoner. Texans lost only 9 killed or mortally wounded; thirty were less seriously wounded. Among the latter was General Houston, whose ankle was shattered.

Surrender of Santa Anna, by William H. Huddle

On the day following the battle, a small party discovered Santa Anna and brought him into camp, unaware at first of the importance of their prisoner. As part of his surrender agreement, the president/general ordered the Mexican troops remaining in Texas immediately to retreat south of the Rio Grande.

On May 14, 1836, the public and private treaties of Velasco, were signed by Presidents David G. Burnet and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. They confirmed the Mexican retreat and declared an end to the war. Neither the Texas nor Mexican governments accepted the treaties, however, and a state of war existed throughout most of the Republic of Texas' existence.

[SAMWolf]

General Information and some fun trivia....

Houston's military records show that he was 6 foot 2 inches when he was 19 years old. His Texas legend puts him at 6 foot 6 inches on his death. His family holds that he was a bit shorter.



Sam had a bit of a drinking problem. In his early life, he drank quite a bit, and it was certainly no secret. Later in his life, after he married Margaret (his 3rd wife), she is reputed to have "reformed" him and stopped his drinking. However, Sam still consumed 'bitters', which were considered medicinal alcohol. While Sam was a drinker, probably for most of his life, most men in Texas were drinkers of a sort as well, so he did not stand out in that respect as heavy drinkers tend to do in today's society.

Sam Houston settled in Huintsville Texas because The hills there reminded him of his boyhood home near Maryville, Tennessee.


President Houston's Official Residence, 1837

Sam was married three times. His first wife was named Eliza Allen. They were married January 22, 1829. Sam Houston's second wife was a Cherokee Indian woman whose name was Tiana Rodgers, also known as Diana Rodgers. They were married in the summer of 1830. Margaret Moffette Lea was Sam Houston's third wife. They were married May 9, 1840 and remained married for the remainder of Sam Houston's lifetime.

He was seventy years old at the time of his death on July 26th, 1863. He died at 6:15 pm.


Sam Houston
1856 photo by Frederick of New York City

Sam Was Buried in Huntsville, Texas in the Oakwood Cemetery. Houston chose this location. It was across the street from where the Steamboat House once stood. To access the Grave site, Exit right on 19th Street as you leave the park. Go to Avenue O (the first stop sign) and turn right. Continue on Avenue O until 11th Street. At 11th Street turn right. Travel six blocks to the intersection of Avenue I and 11th. Turn left and go three blocks to the grave site.

Additional Sources:

www.lone-star.net
www.tsl.state.tx.us
www.museumofhoaxes.com
www.lsjunction.com
www.cah.utexas.edu
www.ci.houston.tx.us
www.texashero.com
www.cemetery.state.tx.us
www.vic.com
www.rose-hulman.edu
www.pbs.org
www.texancultures.utsa.edu
www.neosoft.com
www.rare-maps.com

[SAMWolf]

Sam Houston on Education...

"I would not be gotten into a schoolhouse until I was eight years old. Nor did I accomplish much after I started. I doubt if I had gone to school six months in all when my father died. I was fourteen at the time."

"It is a matter of great satisfaction to me to hope that my children will be in circumstances to receive a good education. Mine was defective and I feel the inconvenience, if not the misfortune of not receiving a classical education. Knowledge is the food of genius, and my son, let no opportunity escape you to treasure up knowledge." Sam Houston

Sam Houston, before the battle of San Jacinto...

"We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the contest, and must conquer or perish. It is vain to look for present aid: none is at hand. We must now act or abandon all hope! Rally to the standard, and be no longer the scoff of mercenary tongues! Be men, be free men, that your children may bless their father's name."

Sam Houston on Texas...

"Texas will again lift it's head and stand among the nations. it ought to do so, for no country upon the globe can compare with it in natural advantages"

"All new states are invested, more or less, by a class of noisy, second-rate men who are always in favor of rash and extreme measures, But Texas was absolutely overrun by such men."

"Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may."

Sam Houston on Indians...

"I preferred measuring deer tracks, to tape-that I liked the wild liberty of the Red men better then the tyranny of my brothers".

"I am aware that in presenting myself as the advocate of the Indians and their rights, I shall stand very much alone".

Sam Houston on The Civil War...

"To secede from the Union and set up another government would cause war. If you go to war with the United States, you will never conquer her, as she has the money and the men. If she does not whip you by guns, powder, and steel, she will starve you to death. It will take the flower of the country-the young men."

"In the name of the constitution of Texas, which has been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. I love Texas too well to bring civil strife and bloodshed upon her."

"I declare that civil war is inevitable and is near at hand. When it comes the descendants of the heros of Lexington and Bunker Hill will be found equal in patriotism, courage and heroic endurance with the descendants of the heroes of Cowpens and Yorktown. For this reason I predict the civil war which is now at hand will be stubborn and of long duration."

[SAMWolf]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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Tribute to a Generation - The memorial will be dedicated on Saturday, May 29, 2004.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

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[radu]

Good morning all at the Foxhole!!

Howdy service men and women, past and present!
THANK YOU for your service to our country!

[Soaring Feather]

Good Monday morning everyone in The FOXHOLE!

[snippy_about_it]

FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!



Good Monday Morning Everyone

If you would like added to our ping list let us know.

[WhiskeyPapa]

bump

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, snippy and everyone else at the Freeper Foxhole.

[snippy_about_it]

I had no idea Sam Houston was involved in so much. He certainly led a colorful life. Seems he was born to be a politician, too. LOL.

He wanted less government yet he was a unionist. I would have never guessed a Texas leader to side with the North. Then again, all I don't know a lot about Texas.

Thanks SAM. Good read.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning radu. Nice big flag today, thanks.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning feather.

I'm up a little late today. Too cold to rise and shine lately. :)

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning EGC. We're supposed to have a little warm up today, out of the 20's and maybe up to 42. Yeah!

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning WhiskeyPapa.

[The Mayor]

An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid." —Matthew 1:20

You don't need to know where you're going if you let God do the leading.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Mayor.

[SCDogPapa]

Mornin' Snippy,,,Mornin' Sam!

I had no idea Sam Houston was involved in so much

Me either.

It was very interesting to find out his love of and his attachment with the Cherokee.

"Big Drunk",,,lol,,,he obviously liked to pull a cork.

[Darksheare]

State of war between Texas and Mexico seems to exist toay as well, but many people won't even acknowledge it's existence let alone try to fix the underlying problem.
The patented 'head in the sand' fix.

Interesting that they caught Santa Ana out there and had no idea who he was until they brought him into camp.
He wouldn't happen to have been sitting in a hole shivering?

[Colonel_Flagg]

Morning, all!

Getting close. The tree is trimmed, the Foxhole is wonderful and Sam's tagline made me snort my coffee. Hope everyone is well!

[rustbucket]

I would have never guessed a Texas leader to side with the North.

He was a Union man but a Southerner also. He preferred to wait and see whether Lincoln enforced the Constitution against unconstitutional laws in the Northern states that prevented the return of fugitive slaves. He cautioned the people to stay in the Union until it was clear that Lincoln was not going to enforce the Constitution. That part of his position usually gets left out of history books.

Here are some excerpts from a December 1860 letter he wrote to the people of Texas.

In remembering the many evidences which a portion of the Northern people have presented of their willingness to disregard their constitutional obligations and infringe upon the rights of their Southern brethren, I am not in the least surprised at the indignant responses now uttered by Southern men. It shows that if the time should come when we can no longer trust to the constitution for our rights, the people will not hesitate to maintain them. It will be well if those States which have yielded to a fanatical sentiment, so far as to interpose between the Federal authority and the constitutional rights of a whole section of the Union, will now, inspired by a spirit of patriotism and nationality, retrace their steps. Upon a citizen of their own section, and one of their own party, they have now placed a responsibility he cannot avoid. As the Chief Executive of the nation, he will be sworn to support the Constitution and execute the laws. His oath will bring him in conflict with the unconstitutional statues enacted by his party, in many of the States. Elected by that party, it is but natural that the conservatism of the nation will watch his course with jealous care, and demand at his hands a rigid enforcement of the Federal laws. Should he meet the same resistance which our Executives have met, it will be his duty to call to his aid the conservative masses of the country, and they will respond to the call. Should he falter or fail, and by allowing the laws to be subverted, aid in oppressing the people of the South, he must be hurled from power.

From the moment of his inauguration, there will commence in "irresistible conflict" different from that which the party of Mr. Lincoln is based upon; it will be an "irresistible conflict" between the Constitution, which he has sworn to support, and the unconstitutional enactments and aims of the party which has placed him in power. He has declared the Fugitive Slave Law is constitutional. In its enforcement the conflict is with the North alone.

I need not assure you, that whenever the time shall come when we must choose between a loss of our constitutional rights and revolution, I shall choose the latter; and if I, who have led the people of Texas in stormy times of danger, hesitate to plunge into revolution now, it is not because I am ready to submit to Black Republican rule; but because I regard the constitution of my country and am determined to stand by it. Mr. Lincoln has been constitutionally elected, and much as I deprecate his success, no alternative is left me but to yield to the constitution. The moment that instrument is violated by him, I will be foremost in demanding redress, and the last to abandon my ground.

Whenever one section of this country presumes upon its strength for the oppression of the other, then will our constitution be a mockery, and it would matter not how soon it was severed into a thousand atoms and scattered to the four winds. If the principles are disregarded upon which the annexation of Texas was consummated, there will be for her neither honor nor interest in the Union – if the mighty, in the face of written law, can place with impunity an iron yoke upon the neck of the weak, Texas will be at no loss how to act, or where to go, before the blow aimed at her vitals is inflicted. In a spirit of good faith she entered the federal fold. By that spirit she will continue to be influenced until it is attempted to make her the victim of federal wrong.

As she will violate no federal rights, so will she submit to no violation of her rights by federal authority. The covenant she entered into with the Government must be observed, or it will be annulled. Louisiana was a purchase; California, New Mexico and Utah a conquest – but Texas was a voluntary annexation. If the condition of her admission is not complied with on the one part, it is not binding on the other. If I know Texas she will not submit to the threatened degradation foreshadowed in the speech from the Senator from New York. She would prefer restoration to that independence which she once enjoyed to the ignominy ensuing from sectional dictation. Sorrowing for the mistake which she had committed in sacrificing her independence at the alter of her patriotism, she would unfurl again the banner of the Lone Star to the breeze, and reenter upon a national career, where, if no glory awaited her, she would at least be free from a subjection by might to wrong and shame.