The New International Encyclopædia/Houston, Sam

HOUSTON, Sam (1793-1863). An American soldier and political leader, who was instrumental in securing the independence of Texas. He was born near Lexington, in Rockbridge County, Va., March 2, 1793, of Scotch-Irish parentage. After his father's death in 1806, the family emigrated to Tennessee, where he entered an academy, but left to try a clerkship in a store, and wearying of this, went to live among the Cherokees. He remained with them three years, when he returned to civilization and taught school. In 1813 he enlisted as a private in the United States Army; served bravely in General Jackson's campaign against the Creeks, being wounded at Tohopeka, and soon rose to be lieutenant. In 1817 he was appointed agent to aid in negotiations with the Cherokees; incurred hostility for attempting to prevent the smuggling of negroes from Florida into the United States, and resigned his commission, 1818, and began the study of law at Nashville. He soon opened an office at Lebanon, was made Adjutant-General of the State in 1819, and major of the State Militia. He was elected to Congress in 1822, was reëlected in 1824, and in 1827 was elected Governor. In January, 1829, he married Miss Allen, a Tennessee lady, but three months afterwards left her, and, resigning his office without giving either public or private reasons for his course, went to live among his old friends the Cherokees, who had emigrated to Arkansas. He championed their cause before Congress, incurring by this much enmity, especially from the ‘Indian ring,’ and becoming involved in an encounter with William R. Stanbury, Representative from Ohio, who had accused him of fraudulent attempts to obtain a contract for Indian rations. For beating Stanbury he was reprimanded in the House of Representatives, and was tried and fined, but President Jackson remitted the fine. The incident served to give Houston once more a national notoriety.

Visiting Texas in December, 1832, he was invited to settle there and become the leader of the American colonists in their struggle for their rights. He complied, and was elected a delegate to the convention held April 1, 1833, to form a State Constitution and seek membership in the Mexican Republic, separate from the State of Coahuila, with which Texas had hitherto been joined and in which the anti-American party was predominant. The rejection of the Constitution and the attempt to disarm the Americans led to open warfare, and Houston was then chosen general of the military district east of Trinity River, and soon afterwards commander-in-chief of the Texan army. At the head of a small force of undrilled volunteers he led in the military movements which resulted in the defeat of Santa Anna on the San Jacinto, April 21-22, 1836, and in the independence of Texas. In September he was elected President of Texas, was inaugurated October 22d. and served again from 1841 to 1844. The annexation of Texas to the United States, in 1845, was due to his negotiations, and he was one of its representatives in the Senate from 1846 to 1859. In 1859 he was again elected Governor of Texas, but opposed secession in 1861, and refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederate States, for which, on March 18, 1861, he was deposed. He then retired to Huntsville, Tex., where, on July 25, 1863, he died. Consult: Williams, Sam Houston and the War of Independence in Texas (Boston, 1893); Crane, Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston (Philadelphia, 1884); and Bruce, Life of General Houston (New York, 1891), in the “Makers of America Series.” See Texas.