USA > Texas > A pictorial history of Texas, from the earliest visits of European adventurers, to A.D. 1879. Embracing the periods of missions, colonization, the revolution the republic, and the state; also, a topographical description of the country together with its Indian tribes and their wars, and biographical sketches of hundreds of its leading historical characters. Also, a list of the countries, with historical and topical notes, and descriptions of the public institutions of the state > Part 39
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HOUSTON, SAM .- Was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, in 1793. When fourteen years old, his father died, leaving his family in destitute cir- cumstances. The widow, with her nine children, removed to Blount county, Tennessee. Young Sam spent his time alternately at school, at farm work, and as a clerk in a store. Without any assignable cause, he left home and joined a band of Cherokee Indians hunting in the neighborhood. Having contracted some debts for clothes, he returned home and engaged in school- teaching until he made enough to pay his debts. In 1813 he enlisted as a soldier in the Creek war, and greatly distinguished himself at the battle of the Horse Shoe, on the Tallapoosa river, March 24th, 1814. Major Mont- gomery, the first to ascend the Indian breastworks, was instantly killed. Ensign Houston, who was just behind him, was severely wounded with an arrow, and also by two rifle balls. His gallantry won the admiration of General Jackson, and a life-long friendship sprung up between the two. It was nearly a year before Houston had sufficiently recovered to return to his home. In November, 1817, he was appointed Indian Agent. Complaints were made by dissatisfied contractors, of Houston's management, but after a full investigation he was honorably acquitted. He soon afterwards re-
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signed the agency, and at the same time surrendered his commission as & Lieutenant in the army.
He now determined to devote himself to the law, and commenced its study. In 1819 he was elected District Attoney of Davidson county, and at the same time Major-General of the militia. In 1823 he was elected to Congress, and re-elected in 1825. At the close of his second term he was elected Governor of Tennessee; and in January, 1829, he married a Miss White. No man ever enjoyed a higher degree of popularity than did IIous- ton at that time. He was elected by an overwhelming majority ; and there was scarcely a breath of opposition to his administration in the Legislature. To all outward appearance he and his beautiful bride lived in perfect con- jugal felicity. One morning in April, the citizens of Nashville were thunder- struck with the announcement that Mrs. Houston had returned to her father's house in Gallatin, and that Houston had resigned the Gubernatorial chair and fled from the city in disguise. But it was so. He had taken passage on a steamer, and gone to rejoin his old companions among the Cherokees, then living on the Arkansas river, in the Indian Territory. Curiosity has in vain attempted to ascertain the cause of the domestic trouble. The lips of the two persons most deeply involved remained sealed until they were forever closed in death; and the mystery is still un- solved.
On the 29th of October, 1829, Houston was formally admitted to citizen- ship among the Cherokees. In 1832 he visited the city of Washington in the interest of the Indian tribes, and secured the removal of some un- worthy agents. This provoked opposition, and Houston had a personal rencounter with a member of Congress from Ohio. He was arrested and fined five hundred dollars; but President Jackson remitted the fine. When he left the Capital he bore in his pocket a commission as Confidential Indian Agent among the tribes of the Southwest, to whom he was sent to negotiate treaties.
This opens a new career in Houston's life. A man like him, conscious of his own abilities, and who, in early life, had been so remarkably success- ful, could not long remain content in the solitude of the wilderness, with no companions but the half-civilized aborigines. His visit to Washington, and the cordial reception given him by his former commander, had revived his love for civilized life, and his ambition to re-enter the political arena. The circumstances were auspicious. He had already been meditating a settlement in Texas, and the establishment of a stock ranche on some of her beautiful prairies. IIe determined to visit the Province, partly to look for a new home, and partly to fulfill his mission to the Indian tribes within her territory. He crossed Red river, at Jonesborough, December 10th, 1832, and proceeded to Nacogdoches, passing but two houses on the route. At San Felipe, he met James Bowie, who invited him to visit San Antonio and have a "talk " with some Comanche chiefs, then camped in the neigh- borhood of that city. From this period Texas became his home, and for thirty years his character forms her principal historical figure; and her soil entombs his mortal remains. Houston had his faults-and who has them not ?- but with all his faults he was the man for the times; the man that
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Texas needed at that period of her history. He had had experience as a legislator, as an executive, and as an officer in the United States army. His youth had been passed in severe struggles with poverty, and nearly his whole life had been spent on the frontier. He was a pioneer among those hardy adventurers who are constantly enlarging the boundaries of civiliza- tion. He was still in the prime of manhood, and his fine physical form pointed him out as one born to command. Around the camp-fires, in the company of his comrades in arms, he was jovial-perfectly at home; could barbecue his own meat, and, if he enjoyed such a luxury, could prepare his own cup of coffee. Self-reliant and self-helpful, he exacted no service from his soldiers that he was himself unwilling to undertake. When planning a campaign, or conducting a battle, he was equally self-reliant, but more reticent, seldom advising with his brother officers. He also possessed the rare and wonderful gifts of a popular orator. He could sway the multi- tude as the trees of the forests are bent by the passing tornado. He could, on any occasion, on a moment's notice, address his fellow-citizens, or his fellow-soldiers, in such strains of convincing eloquence as inspired his auditory with his own lofty sentiments. The advent of such a man into Texas properly forms an epoch in our history.
The first service he rendered his adopted country was as a member of the Convention at San Felipe, in 1833. He was the chairman of the com- mittee that drew up a Constitution for the State as it was to be, when sepa- rated from Coahuila. It was a brief, but model document, and might even now be studied with profit, though, owing to the subversion of the Mexican Constitution by Santa Anna, it was never adopted, and Texas never be- came a Mexican State.
In 1834, a project was forined for introducing into East Texas a large number of Creek Indians. This, Houston assisted in defeating.
Houston did not at that period think it best for Texas to attempt a sepa- ration from Mexico. As late as August, 1835, he introduced a series of resolutions, at a public meeting at Nacogdoches, declaring for the Consti- tution of 1824. He was a member of the General Consultation at San Felipe, in 1835, and still opposed a declaration of independence. But Coa- huila was in a state of revolution, and Texas was almost without the semblance of civil government until this body organized a Provisional Government. This was on the thirteenth of November. Hostilities then actually existed, and Houston was elected commander of the forces in the field.
Houston remained for sometime at San Felipe, assisting the Executive Council in framing ordinances for the efficient organization of an army. An immediate Mexican invasion was not anticipated, and many Texans thought a descent upon Matamoras both practicable and expedient. While other par- ties were getting up voluntary expeditions, Governor Smith, on the 17th of December, formally ordered General Houston " to make a demonstration upon Matamoras; or at least to secure Copano, and harass the enemy in that direction ; " and Houston, says Yoakum, ordered Colonel James Bowie to raise, if possible, a sufficient force and march upon Matamoras. Again, on the 6th of January, 1836, the Governor ordered Houston, says Yoakum, " to
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repair to Bexar, or such other point on the frontier as he might deem most eligible, and establish his headquarters." Houston, instead of going to San Antonio, went directly to Goliad, reaching that place on the 16th of January. On the day he arrived there, he ordered Major Morris to Refugio with his command, and sent Bowie with thirty men to Bexar, with a letter to Col- onel Neill desiring him to demolish the fortifications of that place, and bring off the artillery, as it would be impossible to hold it. When the General arrived at Refugio, he was shown an act of the council that empowered Colonel Johnson to lead an independent force against Matamoras, and learned that Coloned Fannin had similar authority. Considering that his au- thority had thus been set aside, he immediately returned to Washington and made his report to Governor Smith. The few citizens and soldiers at Refugio elected Houston to the Convention which was to assemble in March at Washington.
Among other acts of the Council, it passed a solemn decree to secure the confidence and respect of the civilized Indians in East Texas : that they would guarantee to the Indians the peaceable enjoyment of their rights to their lands; that all surveys, grants and locations made within these limits, after the settlements of the Indians, are, and of right ought to be, null and void. On Houston's return to Washington, Governor. Smith gave him a furlough till the first of March, and directed him, in conjunction with Messrs Forbes and Cameron, to bear this solemn declaration to the Indians, and enter into a treaty with them ; and added: " Your absence is permitted in part by illegal acts of the Council, in superseding you, by the unauthor- ized appointment of agents to organize and control the army, contrary to the organic law and the ordinances of their own body." He and Mr. Forbes proceeded to the east and effected the treaty-a treaty which un- doubtedly kept the Indians quiet during the exciting period which immedi- ately succeeded.
Houston took his seat in the Convention which met on the first of March. The declaration of independence took place on the second ; and on the fourth, Houston was elected Commander-in-Chief, and two days later left for the army, then on the bank of the Gaudalupe. We need not repeat the inci- dents connected with the retreat from Gonzales, and the march to the battle-ground.
On the morning of the ever-memorable 21st of April, Santa Anna was re- inforced by the arrival of Cos with five hundred additional troops. Hous- ton sent Deaf Smith, with a few companions, to burn Vince's Bridge on Simms' Bayou. This was done to cut of the retreat of the Mexicans. About 12 M., a council of officers was held at Houston's headquarters, and a plan of battle arranged. A little after three, the bugle sounded and the troops paraded for action. Burleson's regiment occupied the center; Sher- man was on Burleson's left; and the artillery, commanded by Hockley, and the regulars under Millard, with the cavalry under Lamar, were on the right. Spontaneously, as the men rushed impetuously to the charge, the shout ran along the line, " Remember the Alamo-remember Goliad ! " The fine form of the Commander-in-Chief was conspicuous in the front of the ranks. Some of Houston's enemies have stated differently, but Ben.
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M'Culloch, who was in command of one of the cannon, stated that on one occasion, when about to fire, he withheld the discharge of his piece until Houston could pass, as he was immediately in front. Among the compar- atively few Texans injured on that day, so glorious in our history, Houston was severely wounded in the foot. The enemy, after a few rounds, fled in the utmost disorder from the field. The victory was complete. Six hundred and thirty Mexicans lay dead on the battle-ground; two hundred and thirty-eight were wounded, and seven hundred and thirty were pris- oners in the Texan camp.
The loss of the Texans was inconsiderable : eight killed and twenty-five wounded. The day after the battle, Santa Anna was brought a prisoner into camp. Notwithstanding the recent massacres at San Antonio and Goliad, the captive chief was treated with great magnanimity ; liis personal baggage was restored, and he was permitted to have the society of his per- sonal staff. General. Houston's wound proving very painful, he obtained leave of absence, and on the fifthi day of May, embarked on one of the Gov- ernment vessels for New Orleans, for surgical aid. On the 4th of June he wrote as follows to Lamar: " My wound has improved; some twenty or more bones have been taken out of it; my general health improves steadily, but it is only within the last four or five days that I have been enabled to sit up any portion of the day.". When sufficiently restored, he started back to Texas, reaching San Augustine on the fifth of July. His talents, his for- mer experience in political life, and especially the splendid victory achieved under his command at San Jacinto, pointed him out as the most suitable person to fill the executive chair of the young Republic; and at the election held in September, he was elected President of the Republic. It is hardly necessary to review the various measures of his administration. Towards the Indians he always pursued a liberal and pacific policy. He enforced the most rigid economy in the various departments of the government, even first furloughing and then disbanding the army to curtail expenses: The English was substituted for the Spanish system of judicature. By the con- stitution, the first President held office only two years, and was inelgible at the next ensuing election. He was succeeded by Vice-President Lamar, but was re-elected President in 1841. When he again became President, he found the public credit at the lowest ebb; the Indians hostile; the seat.of government on the extreme frontier, at Austin, and the Mexicans threat- ening another invasion. He soon succeeded in improving the financial situa- tion, in quieting the Indians and improving the general tone of feeling throughout the country. But in March, 1842, a Mexican force under Vas- quez captured San Antonio, and another party took possession of Goliad. Houston, thinking the public archives were too much exposed on the fron- tier, removed the seat of government, first to Houston then to Washington, on the Brazos. This provoked great opposition to his administration in the west.
The Navy was another source of trouble. It had cost an enormous sum, and had been of very little advantage to the country. A bitter personal controversy arose between the President and Commodore Moore, which finally resulted in the suspension of the latter from his command. By
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Houston's recommendation, Congress had passed a secret bill for the sale of the ships. When this was known at Galveston, it produced such a state of excitement that the law was repealed. Again: the prisoners in Mexico, taken first in the Santa Fe expedition, and afterwards in the Mier expedi- tion, caused trouble; many thinking that the President did not exert him- self for their release. Added to this, the miserable failure of the expedi- tion sent out by his authority, under Snively, added to the annoyances of his second administration. Again: the subject of annexation to the United States was now becoming the question, in Texas. It was thought Hous- ton, if he did not oppose this measure, was at least indifferent to its success. In this he was undoubtedly misjudged. He was in favor of annexation, but he thought the best way to secure that measure was to appear comparatively indifferent. In the meantims, he did secure an armistice with Mexico, which continued until annexation was consummated during the administration of his successor, Dr. Jones. Jones had been Secretary of State under Houston, and was the choice of Houston's friends as his successor.
General Houston was elected a member of the Annexation Convention, from Montgomery county, but for some unexplained reason never appear- ed and claimed his seat. At the first session of the State Legislature, in 1846, he was elected to the United States Senate, and was re-elected in 1847, and again in 1851. An old Jackson Democrat, he naturally associated with the dominant party in Congress, the party that had annexed Texas to the Union, and was carrying on the Mexican war. He was in favor of a rigid construction of the Constitution, and opposed to banks and a paper curren- cy ; opposed to all monopolies, and in general to all subsidies by the general and State governments. He opposed giving State aid to railroads, asserting : 1st, that the money would be in danger of being lost; and 2d, that if so used, it would create such powerful moneyed corporations as to endan- ger the liberties of the people. In a speech, in Austin, in the latter part of 1853, he declared, " that he would rather see every dollar in the Treasury sunk in the Colorado river, than to see it loaned to railroad corporations."
As early, however, as 1848-49, he began to be suspected by some of his Southern friends, as having a leaning towards the North. The question was upon the extension of the Missouri Compromise over the newly- acquired territory on the Pacific coast. He voted against the extension of the thirty-six degrees thirty minutes line across the Continent, thus virtu- ally excluding slavery from the Pacific coast. In a speech, in the Senate, he said: "It could not be for the interest of the North to destroy the South. * * The intelligent and manly spirit of the North would rise up to defend the Union. He wished no separation of the States. He had too much confidence in the North to fear any injury from that section, and he thought the South, (and he was a Southern man), should make some sacri- fices for the purpose of reconciliation." Long before this, Houston had taken a decided stand for the Union. He was in Texas during the Nullifi- cation excitement in South Carolina. He wrote to President Jackson: "I. have with much pride and inexpressible satisfaction seen your message and proclamation, touching the Nullifiers of the South, and their peaceable
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measures. God grant that you may save the Union! It does seem to me that it is reserved for you, and you alone, to render millions so great a blessing. I hear all voices commend your course, even in Texas, where is felt the liveliest interest in the preservation of the Republic."
In 1854, Senator Douglas introduced into the Senate, in his Kansas and Nebraska bill, his famous doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty; giving Territo- rial Legislatures the right to say whether slavery should, or should uot exist in their respective Territories. Houston, and John Bell, of Tennessee, were the only Southern Senators who voted against Douglas' bill. Hous- ton opposed the bill on the ground of expediency; admitting, however, that the principle was correct, that the citizens should decide whether they would tolerate or exclude slavery from their State. Houston contended that if this bill passed, which was a virtual repeal of the Missouri Compro- mise, the new Territorities would exclude slavery. The North, being the most populous, would pour into them a tide of immigrants, who would never consent to the existence of slavery. The result vindicated this view of the Senator. Both Nebraska and Kansas became free States.
About this time, Houston, for a period, affiliated with the Know-Nothing party. His course was severely condemned by many in Texas, and he was often called upon to defend himself. We copy some extracts from one of his speeches delivered at Nacogdoches, December 21st, 1855. The 'first extract refers to the bill for the naturalization of foreigners, allowing every one to vote on a six months' residence in the country. He contended this was in contravention of the laws of the United States, which required a longer residence. " This bill," said he, "relinquishes the acknowledged right of the South to slave States south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes. It was a concession of every benefit the South might claim from the Com- promise of 1820. It gave to aliens the right to suffrage in six months after they came to the Territories, no matter where they came from-whether fresh from the prisons and poor-houses of Europe, with the mark of the fetters or the parish garb upon their limbs,-they stand upon the soil as free as the American who has shed his blood in defense of his country; and with such privileges given such a class, the fallacious hope was indulged by Southern gentlemen that slavery would go into the Territories. The son of the soil, with his slaves and his sturdy boys, all capable of advancing and defending the interests of the Territories, are to be weighed in the balance with the pauper or the felon, who has been hurled from European society as a blot too foul for endurance ; and by this means, slavery is to go into Kansas! The South repudiated this, and stood by Mr. Clayton's amendment on the first vote upon the bill, but receded from its position when the bill came back from the House with the amendment stricken out, and swallowed the bill. I could not do it. The times have changed. Europe is emptying her vials of wrath upon us in the shape of thousands of her worst population, and it is time that a more cautious policy should be adopted. There are honorable exceptions, but the mass is a vile compound of all the dangerous tendencies ol trans-Atlantic society. The South found herself powerless to check the evil, and it gave way. I could not do it, and whether I am to stand alone, or not, I will always be found resisting
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the encroachments of foreign influence upon our government. My vote shall never be found in favor of allowing the vote of the foreigner, who has been on our soil but six months, to weigh against the vote of a native or a naturalized citizen, in moulding the institutions of a sovereign State of this Union. Never!
" Southern men are expected to embrace the Nebraska bill because it pro- claims a correct principle and establishes the doctrine of non-intervention. I accept no guide for my action but the Constitution and my constituents. Because the entire South was wrong, should I be wrong too? I saw in that bill what the results have proved to be in it-disruption and disunion. I told them that generations yet unborn would reap the direful consequences if they repealed the Compromise. What is the establishment of an empty principle, if nothing is to be gained by it? What does the South gain by having the right to carry slaves to Nebraska, if slavery cannot go there? Nothing. The affirmation of a correct principle, when evil will grow out of it, is worse than nothing; and can any one point out the benefits which have accrued to the South by this means? Under the Missouri Compro- mise the South did realize benefits, by the accession of slave States; but now that there is no line between slavery and free soil, where will it end? Population, with anti-slavery tendencies, will make free States at your very doors. You can point to no compact by which the limits of free soil were fixed, and Texas will be like Kentucky, with a receptacle for her runaway negroes on her borders. True, the Missouri Compromise did not compel States south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes to be slave States, but have any free States been found south of that line? And has it not always been conceded that they were to be slave States? The standard of free soil was not planted in Louisiana or Missouri; and why? Because the Missouri Compromise was a line of demarkation between slavery and free soil, and the North, aggressive as it has been, never has crossed that line. Who can foretell the result of the Compromise of 1850? I stood side by side with the statesmen North and South, in the support of those measures. And did they not soothe the waves of discord that dashed at the foot of the Capitol? As if a Savior spoke, so calm and smooth became their glassy surface! Did it not quiet the discordant croakings of the Abolitionists, and lull into security the fears of the American people? It was a re-affirma- tion of the faith of compromises; and when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was asked, I would have been untrue to every political act of my life, untrue to the repeated instructions of my constituents, had I not resisted it. A thousand kind memories cluster around the Compromise. It was hallowed by the devotion of the valiant defenders of the Constitu- tion. Under its rule the country had witnessed peace and prosperity. I told them I would stand astride the line of thirty-six degrees thirty min- utes, if needs be, and there would do battle, and there I would perish in defense of the rights of the South."
Houston, judging correctly, from the tone of public sentiment in Texas, that he would not be returned to the Senate, in 1857 announced himself an independent candidate for Governor. He was beaten by Hon. H. R. Run- nels, the regular Democratic nominee. We believe this was the only time he ever was defeated in an election before the people.
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