WITH SAM HOUSTON
IN TEXAS
_The American Trail Blazers_
“THE STORY GRIPS AND THE HISTORY STICKS”
These books present in the form of vivid and fascinating fiction, the
early and adventurous phases of American history. Each volume deals
with the life and adventures of one of the great men who made that
history, or with some one great event in which, perhaps, several heroic
characters were involved. The stories, though based upon accurate
historical fact, are rich in color, full of dramatic action, and appeal
to the imagination of the red-blooded man or boy.
Each volume illustrated in color and black and white.
INTO MEXICO WITH GENERAL SCOTT
LOST WITH LIEUTENANT PIKE
GENERAL CROOK AND THE FIGHTING APACHES
OPENING THE WEST WITH LEWIS AND CLARK
WITH CARSON AND FRÉMONT
DANIEL BOONE: BACKWOODSMAN
BUFFALO BILL AND THE OVERLAND TRAIL
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH
DAVID CROCKETT: SCOUT
ON THE PLAINS WITH CUSTER
GOLD SEEKERS OF ’49
WITH SAM HOUSTON IN TEXAS
WITH GEORGE WASHINGTON INTO THE WILDERNESS
IN THE RANKS OF OLD HICKORY
[Illustration: AND AMIDST A GENERAL CRY, OVER SHE WENT]
WITH
SAM HOUSTON
IN TEXAS
A BOY VOLUNTEER IN THE TEXAS STRUGGLES FOR
INDEPENDENCE, WHEN IN THE YEARS 1835–1836
THE TEXAS COLONISTS THREW OFF THE UNJUST RULE
OF MEXICO, AND BY HEROIC DEEDS ESTABLISHED,
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF THE BLUFF SAM HOUSTON,
THEIR OWN FREE REPUBLIC WHICH TO-DAY IS THE
GREAT LONE STAR STATE
BY
EDWIN L. SABIN
AUTHOR OF “ON THE PLAINS WITH CUSTER,” “BUFFALO BILL
AND THE OVERLAND TRAIL,” ETC.
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY_
CHARLES H. STEPHENS
_PORTRAIT AND MAPS_
[Illustration]
PHILADELPHIA & LONDON
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
SEVENTH IMPRESSION
PRINTED IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO THE
AMERICAN SPIRIT OF FREEDOM
AND ITS STARS
IN THE AMERICAN FLAG
When Freedom from her mountain-height
Unfurled her standard to the air.
She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there.
――DRAKE
FOREWORD
Sam Houston should justly be regarded as a great American. He laid his
course and steered by it utterly regardless of the opposition. Strong
characters are known as much by the enemies that they make as by the
friends that they retain. When they launch into a course that they
deem is right, they do not depend upon fair winds. They go ahead, if
they have real faith. Threats, ridicule and dangers do not daunt them.
Sometimes they may pause, to renew their courage; but they proceed
again on the same line.
Such a character was Sam Houston. To his friends he was loyal; to his
enemies he was unyielding; his ideals were high; and he loved his
country.
Whatever he undertook, he undertook with his whole might, in spite of
censure and discouragements. This book deals with him chiefly as the
six-months’ general who, out of seeming defeat, achieved the triumph of
Texas arms, and at one stroke established Texas independence. But we
ought to admire him as a patriot statesman, rather than as a military
commander.
Some other commander could have won the victory for Texas. Freedom,
well or poorly led, cannot be conquered by oppression. Justice cannot
be combatted, forever, by injustice. But few other men have had Sam
Houston’s rugged courage.
We see him opposed by virtually all the people whom he was seeking to
benefit, while he played the humble waiting game, and gave the foe
false advantages until in his own good time he struck and roundly
defeated them. He endured being called a coward――although he well knew
that he, with an arrow wound and two bullet wounds in his body, was
no coward. We see him generous in victory, and always looking beyond
the present. We also see him, as president and as governor of Texas,
stanchly insisting upon the right as he viewed it, and which time has
proved to be the right. And as United States senator he continued to
fight for his principles of honor and wisdom. That he was unpopular
among his people, and was marked for punishment, made no difference to
Sam Houston. The welfare of Texas, and of the American Republic with
which it united, was more to him than his own welfare.
It is a wonderful thing to know that one is right, and then to stick to
the compass.
Sam Houston had his weaknesses. All men have weaknesses. The greatest
men rise above them. The strength of Sam Houston was his faith in
himself; his weakness was his pride in himself. When his pride was
injured, by accusations and by home troubles, he went to the other
extreme, apparently tried to see how low he could sink, and as if in
revenge set out to throw away his career. This was no revenge. It never
is. It benefits mainly one’s enemies, and harms mainly oneself and
one’s friends.
Weak natures do not accept that verdict, or they take more pleasure in
pitying themselves than in aiding themselves. Sam Houston sank; the
world, disappointed, said that he was a failure, after all――he could
not hold his course, and had abandoned the helm. But he could, and he
did. He rose, he grasped the wheel again, he retrimmed his sails, and
he forged on, with faith and will, to fulfil the capabilities with
which he had been entrusted.
Of the boys in this book, James Monroe Hill, Leo Roark, and Sion
Bostick appear in Texas history under these very names. Without doubt
they had a friend and comrade like Ernest Merrill; many boys marched
and fought beside the men in the Texas struggle for independence
from Mexico. Names amount to very little, anyway; they simply are
convenient. It is deeds that count.
EDWIN L. SABIN
CALIFORNIA, June 1, 1916
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
THE RISE OF TEXAS 13
SAM HOUSTON――THE BUILDER OF TEXAS 20
I. “I AM SAM HOUSTON” 27
II. ON THE ROAD TO TEXAS 42
III. SANTA ANNA PROVES FALSE 58
IV. “WE MUST DEFEND OUR RIGHTS” 71
V. ERNEST CARRIES THE ALARM 82
VI. GONZALES KEEPS ITS SIX-POUNDER 92
VII. THE MUSTERING OF THE TROOPS 104
VIII. THE MARCH ON SAN ANTONIO 116
IX. WITH JIM BOWIE AT THE HORSESHOE 130
X. AN APPEAL TO THE UNITED STATES 144
XI. SAM HOUSTON COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 157
XII. HOUSE TO HOUSE IN OLD BEJAR 172
XIII. GENERAL HOUSTON DESPAIRS 188
XIV. INDEPENDENCE IS DECLARED 202
XV. THE SIGNAL GUNS OF THE ALAMO 216
XVI. MESSENGERS OF DISTRESS 229
XVII. RETREAT, AND EVER RETREAT 242
XVIII. TO FACE THE ENEMY AT LAST 253
XIX. FINDING SANTA ANNA 267
XX. “WILL YOU COME TO THE BOWER?” 280
XXI. THE NAPOLEON OF THE WEST SURRENDERS 295
XXII. PRESIDENT HOUSTON RESIGNS HIS SWORD 307
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
AND AMIDST A GENERAL CRY, OVER SHE WENT _Frontispiece_
GENERAL SAM HOUSTON AT THE BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO 13
ERNEST BARELY DREW REIGN TO SHOUT AT A FIGURE IN THE
DOORWAY: “GONZALES ATTACKED! THEY NEED MEN” 84
DOWN SANK THE LAST CANNONEER 143
“HERE WE GO!” CALLED JIM. “HOIST HIM IN, QUICK” 186
TEXAS IN 1835–1836 AND MARCH OF THE TWO ARMIES EASTWARD
TO SAN JACINTO 262
BATTLE GROUND OF SAN JACINTO 290
“WHY,” ROARED THE GENERAL, “YOU ARE THE GOVERNMENT,
YOURSELF, YOU ARE DICTATOR” 304
[Illustration:
Courtesy Harper & Bros.
GENERAL SAM HOUSTON AT THE BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO
From a painting by the Texan artist S. Seymour, exhibited at the Paris
Salon in 1898]
THE RISE OF TEXAS
1513–1519――The Gulf of Mexico explored by the Spanish.
1521――Following upon the conquest of Mexico by Captain Hernando Cortes,
Texas forms a part of that indefinite New Spain.
1528–1536――Texas first entered by white men when the shipwrecked
Spaniards, Cabeza de Vaca, Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado, and Andres
Dorantes, with the negro Estavanico (Stephen), cross the interior. They
assume it to be a part of Florida.
1540–1684――Penetrated by Coronado, de Soto, and other Spanish officials.
1685――Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, in the name of France
takes possession of Matagorda Bay, deeming it one of the mouths of
the Mississippi River. Erects inland Fort St. Louis, the first white
settlement.
1689――Captain Alonzo de Leon and Father Manzanet, dispatched from
Mexico to expel the French, find Fort St. Louis abandoned.
1690――The Spanish from Mexico establish the Mission San Francisco among
the Tejas Indians, in East Texas, southwest of present Nacogdoches. The
country begins to be called the Land of the Tejas; or “Tejas” (Texas).
1691――Don Domingo Teran de los Rios appointed first Spanish governor of
the provinces of Coahuila and Texas.
1714――Captain Louis Juchereau de Saint-Denis is sent from the French
post at Mobile into Texas, to report upon colonizing it.
1716――The Spanish captain, Domingo Ramon, and party of sixty-four men
and women, are sent to locate missions and colonies in East Texas and
oppose the French, who have advanced to the Red River.
1718――The Spanish presidio of San Antonio de Bejar (Bexar), the site of
the storied town, is founded. Here arises also the mission San Antonio
de Valero, predecessor to the famous Alamo.
1720–1722――Other missions and forts are established, along the Sabine
River, the Spanish frontier in Texas.
1721――The French claim to the Sabine River, from the east. Captain
Bernard de la Harpe is ordered to reoccupy Fort St. Louis at Matagorda
Bay. The landing party are driven off by Indians.
1722–1762――The French out-posts along the Red River and the Spanish
out-posts along the Sabine River are separated by only some twenty
miles; but the Spanish hold Texas.
1744――The mission later known as the Alamo is rebuilt at San Antonio.
1762――France cedes to Spain all the Province of Louisiana as presumed
to be the country from the Mississippi River to the Rio Grande River
and the Rocky Mountains. Under Spanish and Mexican rule for virtually
seventy-five years, Texas progresses little except through the efforts
of American settlers.
1782――By the Revolutionary War the United States succeeds England in
North America east of the Mississippi, and becomes the neighbor of
Texas.
1797――Philip Nolan, an Irish-American at New Orleans, enters Texas with
a party to capture wild horses and to report on the country.
1800――Nolan and a party again enter Texas, in defiance of Spanish
protests. Nolan is killed by the Spanish troops and the others are
imprisoned.
1800――Spain cedes the Louisiana province back to France.
1803――France sells Louisiana province to the United States. Spain
claims that France was under contract not to deliver the province to
any other power, and protests the transfer.
1804――The United States claims that the province extends west to the
Rio Grande River; Spain denies the right of the United States to any
territory west of New Orleans. War is threatened.
1806――United States troops encamp on the east bank of the Sabine River,
in Louisiana; the Spanish troops encamp on the west bank, in Texas. By
a truce the United States forces retire to the Red River in Louisiana,
and pending a settlement of the Texas boundaries dispute, the strip
thirty miles wide between the Red River and the Sabine River is made a
Neutral Ground.
1806–1819――The Neutral Ground is the resort of desperadoes, who much
annoy the Spanish authorities of Texas.
1811–1812――Lieutenant Augustus Magee, a young American army officer,
joins with a Mexican revolutionist, Colonel Gutierrez de Lara, in an
attempt to seize Texas from Spain. The project fails.
1817–1821――The freebooter, Captain Jean Lafitte, Frenchman, occupies
the Island of Galveston; reigns there under the title “Lord of
Galveston.”
1818――Generals Lallemand and Rigault, French officers under Napoleon,
establish a French colony, entitled the Champ d’Asile (Field of
Refuge), twelve miles up the Trinity River. They are soon driven out by
the Spanish troops.
1819–1821――Dr. James Long, an American merchant of Natchez (Mississippi),
with a company of seventy-five adventurers, invades Texas, declares it
an independent republic, but finally is defeated and shot.
1820――Moses Austin, from Missouri, petitions Mexico to be permitted
to bring into Texas 300 colonists from the United States, but he dies
before he can complete his project.
1821――Mexico separates from Spain, and Texas is now Mexican territory.
1821――Stephen Fuller Austin, son of Moses Austin, and to be known as
the “Father of Texas,” brings in from New Orleans the first of the
American colonists, who settle on the lower Brazos River.
1823――Mexico issues a general colonization law, encouraging the
settlement of Texas by foreigners, upon tracts granted by the
government.
1823――The town of San Felipe de Austin in the Austin colony on the
Brazos is founded――the first American town in Texas.
1825――The State of Coahuila and Texas (as the two Mexican provinces
were known) passes a more liberal colonization law, and settlement by
Americans proceeds rapidly.
1827――The United States, still wishing to acquire Texas, offers Mexico
$1,000,000 for the province to the Rio Grande River, or $500,000 to the
Colorado River, about half-way. Mexico rejects the offers.
1828――The United States accepts Mexico’s contention that the Sabine
River shall be the boundary in the south between the two nations.
1829–1830――Alarmed by the increase of settlers from the United States,
Mexico passes several laws much restricting immigration and the rights
of colonists.
1832――The American colonists support General Antonio Lopez de Santa
Anna, who aspires to supplant the unfair Anastasio Bustamante in the
presidency of Mexico. They rise against the Mexican commandants at
Nacogdoches, and at Anahuac and Velasco on the Gulf, and expel them.
1832――October 1 the “people of Texas” meet in first general convention
at San Felipe, and ask for a state government separate from Coahuila.
1833――Santa Anna becomes president of Mexico.
1833――Hoping now for aid from Santa Anna, on April 1 the Texans meet in
another convention, and draw up a plan for separate state government.
Stephen Austin bears the petition to Mexico. He is arrested.
1834――Coahuila, with which Texas is still linked, is torn by quarrels
between its Mexican factions, in which Texas is little concerned except
as an outsider. Santa Anna grants an audience to Stephen Austin, the
prisoner, but decides that Texas cannot be separated from Coahuila, and
that 4000 Mexican troops should be sent in, to preserve order.
1835――The local revolution in Coahuila continues, and Santa Anna
appoints a governor of his own making, for Coahuila and Texas. The
Americans in Texas are much incensed at such dictatorship, and Mexican
officials, driven out by Santa Anna’s policies, join with the colonists.
1835――June 30 Captain William B. Travis, of the Anglo-Texans, leads
a party against the port of Anahuac, where import duties were being
collected. The Mexican officers there are expelled.
1835――August 31 Stephen Austin is landed at the mouth of the Brazos,
after a year and a half imprisonment by the Mexican government. At
a banquet at Brazoria he advises a general consultation to insist
upon the rights of Texas to be governed under the liberal Mexican
constitution of 1824, which granted that the Mexican states should
be administered by elected officials, like the states of the United
States. The consultation is called for October 15.
1835――At the close of September the town of Gonzales refuses to
deliver over a six-pounder cannon, demanded by the Mexican officials
at San Antonio de Bejar. On October 2 the Texas volunteers drive off
the Mexican troops sent to take the cannon. This Battle of Gonzales
is styled the Lexington of Texas. The colonists continue to gather;
advance is made against San Antonio; the Mexicans are defeated, October
28, at the battle of the Horseshoe, near Concepcion Mission; on
December 11 San Antonio is captured. In the south Goliad and Victoria
have been taken. As the result of the campaign, not a Mexican soldier
remains in arms in Texas.
1835――November 1 the general consultation meets at San Felipe. It
declares for the rights of state government under the Constitution of
1824, draws up a plan for temporary state administration, elects state
officers, appoints Sam Houston commander-in-chief of the Texan army
to be raised, and delegates commissioners to get aid from the United
States.
1836――Santa Anna organizes an army to subjugate Texas. Volunteers from
the United States continue to arrive, to help the Texan cause, but a
quarrel arises between Governor Smith and the council, over the conduct
of the war.
1836――February 22–23 General Santa Anna appears before San Antonio; the
few Texas troops there, under Colonel William B. Travis and Colonel
James Bowie retire to the Alamo Mission, adjacent, and are closely
besieged.
1836――March 2 the Texas delegates in convention at Washington on the
Brazos declare for Independence from Mexico. The Republic of Texas is
organized.
1836――March 6 the Alamo is taken by storm, by the Santa Anna columns.
Of the garrison of 180 or more only three women, a baby, a little girl
and a negro boy are spared.
1836――March 11 General Sam Houston arrives at the army camp at
Gonzales, and in the night of the 13th, following the news from the
Alamo, a retreat is ordered.
1836――March 20 Colonel James Fannin, attempting to retire from Goliad
with 400 men, is surrounded, and surrenders, on promise of good
treatment.
1836――Palm Sunday, March 27, Colonel Fannin and 320 of his men are
massacred, while prisoners, by order of Santa Anna.
1836――April 16 the Mexican column under Santa Anna, having marched
clear across Texas, burns Harrisburg, the temporary capital, near
Galveston Bay.
1836――April 20 the Texan army under Houston front Santa Anna at the San
Jacinto River and Buffalo Bayou, northeast of Harrisburg, and cut him
off.
1836――In the afternoon of April 21, by the battle of San Jacinto the
Texan army overwhelm the Mexican force and on the next day capture
Santa Anna, president of Mexico.
1836――May 14 President Santa Anna signs the treaty by which he
recognizes the independence of the Republic of Texas, with boundaries
extending on the west to the Rio Grande River.
1836――In September General Houston is enthusiastically elected
president of the Republic of Texas. Annexation to the United States is
also endorsed by a large majority.
1837――In March the United States recognizes the independence of
Texas. Mexico declines to accept the treaty as signed by Santa Anna.
Hostilities threaten to be actively renewed.
1839――France acknowledges the Republic of Texas.
1840――Holland and Belgium acknowledge the Republic of Texas.
1840–1843――Texas and Mexico invade each other’s territory, in a fresh
series of hostilities. Several forces of Texans are captured and
severely treated.
1842――Great Britain acknowledges the Republic of Texas.
1843――Texas and Mexico agree to a truce until commissioners can discuss
terms of peace between the two republics.
1843――Mexico announces that the annexation of Texas by the United
States would be viewed as a declaration of war.
1844――In April a treaty drawn by President Tyler and the Texas
government, providing for annexation, is defeated in the United States
senate.
1844――The negotiations for peace between Texas and Mexico having
failed, Santa Anna, again president of Mexico, announces that war to
recover the “rebellious province” is resumed.
1845――February 28 the Congress of the United States adopts a joint
resolution inviting Texas into the Union. President Tyler signs, March
1.
1845――In March the Texas secretary of state has submitted to Mexico a
treaty by which Mexico shall recognize the independence of the Texas
Republic, on the agreement that there shall be no annexation to the
United States. Mexico signs the treaty in May.
1845――June 4 Mexico declares its intention to fight for possession of
Texas.
1845――June 18 the Texas Congress, convened in special session to
consider the offer of the United States, unanimously rejects the treaty
with Mexico and votes for annexation. October 13 the Texas people, in
general election, enthusiastically endorse the action of their congress.
1845――July, the American Army of Occupation, under General Zachary
Taylor, is ordered to enter Texas and advance to the Rio Grande River.
1846――Hostilities by force of arms open: by the United States to
establish the claims of Texas to the Rio Grande River boundary; by
Mexico, to retain possession eastward to the Nueces River.
1848――By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed February 2, closing
the war, Mexico definitely loses Texas to the United States.
1850――By protest from the people of New Mexico, following the close
of the war, the state of Texas, whose southwest and west boundary
was assumed to the Rio Grande River from its mouth to its source, is
rebounded and confined to practically its present generous limits.
Released from Mexican misrule, free to turn its arms against the
marauding Indians, and by the payment of $10,000,000 by the United
States soon made financially independent, the great State of Texas, 800
miles long, 750 miles wide, has prospered abundantly. The spirit of the
Lone Star Republic still lives in the words, always proudly spoken: “I
am a Texan.”
SAM HOUSTON
THE BUILDER OF TEXAS
March 2, 1793, born at Timber Ridge Church, near Lexington, Rockbridge
County, Virginia, of Scotch-Irish ancestry.
Father: Major Samuel Houston, soldier of the Revolution and Assistant
Inspector-General of the frontier troops.
Mother: Elizabeth Paxton Houston, a large woman of fine physique and
strong character.
At eight years of age young Sam attends country school in the “Field
School,” which occupied the old building out of which Washington
University had removed to Lexington.
In 1807 his father dies, and his brave-spirited mother, now left with
six sons and three daughters, crosses the Allegheny Mountains and
resettles eight miles east of the Tennessee River in Blount County,
Tennessee, here to build a cabin and clear the land.
Sam hunts, traps, works on the farm, is fascinated by the battles
and adventures in the Iliad as translated by Alexander Pope, and
intermittently attends the Maryville Academy, where his especial
pleasure is to drill his mates in military tactics.
Apprenticed to a blacksmith, and later hired out as a clerk in a
general store, he runs away and joins the Cherokee Indians, across the
Tennessee River.
Is adopted by the sub-chief Oolootekah or John Jolly. Refuses to return
when found by his brothers, and spends his time living as an Indian. Is
now almost six feet tall, and of large frame.
In 1811, when aged eighteen, returns to white civilization. Wearing a
calico hunting-shirt, and his hair in a pigtail, he teaches country
school, in Eastern Tennessee, to pay off debts contracted while he
played Indian.
In 1813 enlists at Maryville, with the approval of his mother, as
a private soldier in the war against Great Britain. He is promoted
to sergeant, in the 39th Regiment, Tennessee Volunteers, serves as
drill-master in Tennessee and Alabama, and soon is appointed to ensign,
by President Madison.
March 27, 1814, under General Andrew Jackson and General John Coffee,
engages in the desperate battle with the Creek Indians at To-ho-pe-ka,
or Horseshoe Bend, at the Tallapoosa River, in Alabama; is badly
wounded by an arrow while leading his men over the breastworks, and
again by two bullets.
Slowly recovers from his wounds, and, December 31, 1813, is promoted
and commissioned third lieutenant.
May 20, 1814, commissioned second lieutenant.
May 17, 1815, transferred to the First Infantry of the regular army.
May 1, 1817, commissioned first lieutenant.
Serves in the adjutant-general’s office at Nashville, Tennessee.
November, 1817, being still incapacitated by his wounds, is appointed
sub-agent for the Cherokee Indians, whose language he speaks. Conducts
for them the negotiations by which they sell to the government their
lands in Eastern Tennessee.
In Washington is rebuked by John C. Calhoun, secretary of war, for
appearing in Cherokee Indian costume; is acquitted of misconduct in
office.
March 1, 1818, resigns from the army.
June, 1818, studies law in the office of the Honorable James Trimble,
at Nashville. Admitted to the bar in six months.
Practises law for about three years at Lebanon and Nashville,
Tennessee. Gains a reputation for his high-sounding phrases, his
self-esteem, and his honesty.
In 1819 appointed, through the influence of his patron, General
Jackson, adjutant-general of Tennessee, and is elected prosecuting
attorney with office at Nashville. Resigns this office because of
insufficient income from it, and resumes general practice.
In 1821 elected major-general of the Tennessee militia.
In 1823 elected as representative in Congress from the ninth district
of Tennessee. Serves here four years, and is thrown in contact with
Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, John Randolph, Nathaniel
Macon, and other distinguished American statesmen.
September 23, 1826, severely wounds General William White in a duel
fought in Simpson County, Kentucky, just across the Tennessee line.
Thereafter declines to engage in duels, although many times challenged.
August, 1827, elected governor of Tennessee; appears at the polls
mounted on a fine dapple-gray horse, and wearing a tall black beaver
hat, high patent-leather stock, ruffled white shirt, black silk
trousers with legs cut straight and full, embroidered silk stockings,
pumps with silver buckles, and a long Indian hunting-shirt of red
figured calico belted about with a beaded red sash.
In January, 1829, marries Miss Eliza Allen, of Sumner County,
Tennessee; after three months separates from her, for cause unknown to
the world; resigns his governorship, and joins the Cherokee Indians
again on their new reservation in Arkansas, near Fort Gibson of the
Indian Territory.
Is welcomed as a son, by Chief Oolootekah, resumes his Indian life
and receives the title of Col-lon-neh, or the Raven. By his dissolute
habits earns also the name “Drunken Sam,” from the whites, and “Big
Drunk,” from the Cherokees.
During 1830–1831, while attempting to protect the Cherokees against
frauds from traders and contractors, is falsely accused of the same
improper practices, himself.
April 13, 1832, while in Washington assaults and beats with a
cane Representative William Stanberry, of Ohio, as retaliation
for an insulting public speech. Is arraigned before the House of
Representatives, and employs as counsel Francis Scott Key, author
of the “Star Spangled Banner”; is reprimanded by the House, but is
commended by President Jackson, who remits his fine.
In the Indian nation he has taken to wife the stately Tyania Rodgers, a
half-breed woman of unusual qualities; he establishes a small farm and
trading-post on the west bank of the Grand River, opposite Fort Gibson,
and spends much of his time hunting, trading and drinking.
In December, 1832, proceeds alone to Texas, under commission from
President Jackson to conclude a treaty of peace with the Comanche
Indians, for the protection of the United States borders; and under
instructions, also, to investigate the feasibility of the annexation of
Texas to the United States.
April, 1833, is a delegate from Nacogdoches, Texas, to the Texas
convention held for the purpose of demanding a separation from the
province of Coahuila.
Through 1833, 1834 and 1835, while residing at Nacogdoches, San
Augustine and Washington, of East Texas, he takes prominent part in
meetings which discuss freedom for Texas under the Mexican constitution
of 1824.
October, 1835, is elected at Nacogdoches commander-in-chief of the army
of Eastern Texas.
November, 1835, by the convention which meets at San Felipe to form a
temporary state government is elected, with only one opposing vote,
commander-in-chief of the armies of Texas.
At the close of January, 1836, by reason of a quarrel between Governor
Henry Smith and the council, finding himself without the means of
enforcing his authority among the Texas troops, Houston virtually
retires from his office of major-general.
February, 1836, as one of three commissioners from Texas to the
Cherokees and other Indians, he so reassures the uneasy tribes that
they remain quiet throughout the war of Texas and Mexico.
March, 1836, is a delegate from Refugio of Southern Texas to the
Texas general convention which at Washington on the Brazos declares
for a Texas independent republic; by practically a unanimous vote is
re-elected commander-in-chief.
March and April, 1836, conducts his little army in a long retreat
eastward across Texas. Handicapped by the rains, and by soldiers and
settlers accused of cowardice and of leaving the country needlessly
exposed to the Mexican forces, he labors hard amidst tremendous
discouragements.
April 20, 1836, suddenly cuts off President Santa Anna’s column of
Mexican troops, at the head of San Jacinto Bay, on the coast of East
Texas.
April 21, 1836, with his 743 Texans, mainly rough and ready volunteers,
from his camp on Buffalo Bayou, near its juncture with the San Jacinto
River, charges the breastworks of the Santa Anna 1350 regulars, and
in fifteen minutes of fighting wins the battle of San Jacinto. Eight
Texans were killed, twenty-three wounded; Houston’s ankle was shattered
while he was leading his men. Of the Mexicans 630 were killed, 730
wounded and captured, or both. Santa Anna was made prisoner on the next
day.
The independence of the Republic of Texas having thus been achieved at
one stroke, in May Houston leaves for New Orleans to have his wound
treated.
July, 1836, Houston returns to Texas, and protests against the proposed
trial and execution of Santa Anna, who had been promised his liberty.
September, 1836, Sam Houston elected by a vast majority; first
permanent president of the new Republic of Texas.
October 22, 1836, he is inaugurated president, at Columbia.
November, 1836, he vetoes the resolution passed by the Texas senate to
retain Santa Anna as prisoner, and dispatches him to Washington of the
United States, for an audience with President Jackson, in the interests
of recognition by Mexico of Texas independence.
December, 1836, removes to the town of Houston, on the battle-field of
San Jacinto――the new capital.
December, 1838, Houston ends his first term as president; he has
conducted the affairs of the new republic with great firmness and
wisdom; and living in a two-room log cabin has attired himself
in bizarre costume and been a curious mixture of statesman and
backwoodsman.
In the summer of 1839 he protests vehemently against violations,
by Texas, of the treaty with the Cherokees; he is threatened with
assassination, for “inciting” the Indians against the whites, but he
makes his speech, just the same.
May 9, 1840, he marries, at Marion, Alabama, Miss Margaret Moffette
Lea. She is a girl of twenty-one, he a man of forty-seven, and her
gentle influence over him is his guiding star until his death; he soon
ceases drinking and swearing, and now allows his better nature to have
full sway.
1840–1841, Houston is representative from Nacogdoches, in the Texas
congress.
1841, elected, for the second time, president of the Texas Republic;
inaugurated, December 16, at the new capital of Austin.
Serves as president until December, 1844. Does not like Austin, and
removes the seat of government to Houston, and thence to Washington on
the Brazos; but the indignant citizens of Austin retain, by force, the
government archives. As president, Houston opposes invasion of Mexico
by Texas, vetoes other war measures, and again is threatened with
assassination, but treats the threats with contempt.
By correspondence with General Jackson, President Tyler, and other
statesmen, and by his public addresses, he successfully engineers the
annexation of Texas to the United States, although the act was not
consummated while he was at the head of the Texas government.
In the fall of 1845 he is elected United States senator from the state
of Texas. Arrives at Washington to take his seat, March, 1846. While in
Congress wears his well-known broad-brimmed white wool hat, and Mexican
blanket, whittles industriously at cedar shingles while listening to
the debates, and bears prominent part in national affairs. He opposes
the extension of slavery in new territories, and is denounced, by the
South, as a traitor. He remains a firm advocate of the rights of the
Indians.
January, 1853, re-elected to congress, from Texas.
Attends the Baptist church regularly, in Washington. In 1854 is
received into the Baptist faith, at Independence, Texas.
March 3, 1854, delivers a great speech against Senator Stephen A.
Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska bill, which repealed the Missouri Compromise
bill, prohibiting slavery north of latitude 36° 30´, and opened Kansas
and Nebraska territories to the extension of slavery into the North.
In 1856 is candidate for the Presidency, but at the nominating
convention of the “American” party receives only three votes, his
opposition to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise bill having aroused
bitter enmity toward him.
In 1857 defeated for the United States senate.
In the fall of 1857 defeated for the governorship of Texas.
February, 1859, concludes his term in the United States senate and
returns to Texas.
Fall of 1859 triumphantly elected, for a third time, governor of Texas.
Is inaugurated on December 21.
In the troublous days of 1860 he stands stoutly for the preservation of
the Union, and is threatened by the Southern sympathizers by whom he is
surrounded. He advises appeal to the constitution rather than to arms.
March 14, 1861, Texas having seceded, he refuses to take the oath of
allegiance to the Confederacy; is deposed from the governorship, and
retires to Huntsville, his home.
Although opposing secession, he firmly advocates the defense of the
South against invasion by the Federal troops, and says that he is
willing to enter the Texas ranks. In his San Jacinto suit he reviews,
at Galveston, the Texas regiment in which his son, Sam Houston, Jr.,
has enlisted, and is cheered.
Lives at Cedar Point, Texas; becomes very feeble, from his old wounds
and other disabilities, and walks with the aid of a crutch and a cane.
January, 1863, congratulates Texas for having driven the Northern
forces from her soil.
March 18, 1863, makes his last public speech, at Houston, Texas, and
bids Texas keep up its courage and its hopes of success of the Southern
cause.
July 26, 1863, Sam Houston dies in his bed at the family home, in
Huntsville, Texas, aged 70 years. His last words are: “Texas! Texas!”
and “Margaret,” the name of his wife. He died beloved and respected by
state and country. To his eldest son, Lieutenant Sam Houston, Jr., he
bequeathed the “sword of San Jacinto.”
WITH SAM HOUSTON IN TEXAS
I
“I AM SAM HOUSTON”
The toiling little steamboat “Arkansas” was stuck harder than ever,
as seemed, on a mud-bar far up the shallow Arkansas River, in the old
“Indian Country,” which is present Oklahoma.
“Back her! Back her!” were bawling a half-dozen voices, from her
passengers.
“Go ahead! Give her steam! Push her over!” were bawling a half-dozen
others.
“No! Swing her!”
The paddle-wheel astern threshed vainly; the red-shirted pilot in the
pilot-house continually jangled the engine-bell; from the upper deck
the captain yelled himself hoarse; on the lower deck the mate stumped
around in cowhide boots and swore horridly; the negro roustabouts,
ranged along the flat open bows and the guard-rails, to shove with
poles, grunted and panted, and now and then one fell overboard when
his pole slipped; the passengers advised and criticized; the many dogs
barked; and young Ernest Merrill, scampering upstairs and down, so as
to be certain to see everything that happened, could not feel that the
boat budged forward or backward an inch.
“We’re rooted fast, this time,” spoke a pleasant voice in his ear, as
from the forward rail of the upper deck he was sighting on the shore,
to see whether they really did move. “There’s scarcely water enough
under her here to float a peanut shell.”
It was his friend Lieutenant Neal, in charge of the army recruits
bound, like Ernest, for Fort Gibson of the Indian Country. A fine young
man was Lieutenant Neal; not much more than a boy himself. Ever since
he and Ernest had got acquainted, on the first day up the Arkansas from
where it emptied into the Mississippi, he had rather taken Ernest under
his wing. He and his recruits were from New Orleans; and Ernest was
from Cincinnati, in the other direction.
“She is stuck, isn’t she!” agreed Ernest. “But they’ll get her off,
won’t they? They always have.”
For the “Arkansas” to be aground was nothing new. Through almost two
weeks she had been threshing and thumping and snorting on her noisy
crooked way, stemming the tricky current and dodging (when she could)
the numerous bars and snags half-exposed by the falling water. But
every now and again she struck.
Such was steamboat travel on the Arkansas River in this early fall of
1832.
That was a long trip, anyway, 640 miles by steamboat up to Fort Gibson
amidst the Cherokees in the Indian Country. The Arkansas River had
proved to be a lonely stream, winding amidst cane brakes and bayous
and timber and wide flowery prairies, peopled chiefly by bear and
deer and horses and wild fowl. At Little Rock, the first town of any
consequence, and the capital of Arkansas Territory, about half the
passengers left, and a dozen others came aboard. At Fort Smith, 300
miles further, on the line between Arkansas Territory and the Indian
Country, a half of the remaining passengers (including some Texas
emigrants and the most of the army recruits) filed ashore.
When Fort Smith was left behind, the passengers on board were, with the
exception of Lieutenant Neal and Ernest, a rather tough set: reckless
hunters and adventurers, each accompanied by several black-and-tan or
yellow hounds, and all apparently bound as far as they could go into
the Indian Country.
But it did not look as though they were to get much farther, by
steamboat!
“By gracious!” fidgeted the lieutenant, mopping his brow under his
stiff-visored forage-cap. “This is bad, to be held up so, when we’re
almost there. I could better have gone overland from Smith. How far is
it to Gibson now, captain?”
The captain was tired and hot and cross.
“Less’n fifty miles by land, if you know the trail. Those who are in a
tearing hurry can get out and walk. I’d no business trying this end of
the river. I _told_ all you fellows I probably couldn’t make it. Little
Rock is as high as a boat should go, after July; and here we are, 300
miles beyond. Pretty soon we’ll be navigating in dew.” And the captain
stalked indignantly away.
Not a breath of air was stirring. The sun shone hotly down from the
clear sky, and was reflected, almost as hotly, from the glassy surface
of the smoothly flowing river. On the right hand, up stream, a gently
rolling prairie of high grass, dotted with clumps of trees, sloped to
the water’s edge; on the left hand, which was the nearer of the two
shores, yellow banks had been cut and rose ten feet and more until
crowned by brush and trees. Both shores looked deserted, although it
was said that the Choctaw and Cherokee Indians, who had been removed
from east of the Mississippi, inhabited the country.
The “Arkansas” had ceased her efforts, which had only swung her around
on the pivot of her hull. The paddle-wheel hung idle. The negro
roustabouts were leaning on their long poles, puffing and resting. The
booted mate sat in some shade in the bows and mopped his crimson face.
The pilot in the pilot-house left his bell-rope, perched himself on the
window-ledge, and lighted his pipe. The passengers subsided. Some cast
lines over and began to fish. Others sat at cards. Some went to sleep,
with their dogs.
Taken altogether, the scene was not very hopeful; and the lieutenant,
gazing around, gnawed his moustache.
“Pshaw, Ernest!” he said. “What next?”
“Yaas,” drawled a lean, sallow backwoodsman, who with his pack of
hounds and flint-lock rifle had come aboard at Fort Smith. “Sometimes
these boats air hung fast this-away for a week, when the water’s right
low. An’ if the cap’n cain’t work ’em loose he jus’ natterly waits for
a rain to riz the river under him.”
“But I can’t wait for a rain,” protested the lieutenant. “I’ve orders
to put my men into Gibson.”
“Let’s walk,” urged Ernest, for the land looked inviting and maybe
they’d find deer on their route.
Then――――
“Hello!” spoke the lieutenant, eying the shore. “Here comes a boat.
Well, it’s good to see a sign of life somewhere.”
A small boat had put out from the high left-hand banks. It was making
for the steamer. One man, paddling, seemed to be the only person in it.
Speedily the word of the approaching visitor spread throughout the
deck, and the passengers dropped every other amusement, to watch and
hazard guesses. As the boat drew nearer, it was seen to be a dug-out,
hollowed from a single large log. The paddler was bearded and evidently
was a white man. He wore a broad-brimmed black felt hat and a buckskin
shirt; and a long-barrelled rifle leaned against the gunwale beside him.
He scarcely looked up until his dug-out grazed the gunwale of the
steamboat. Then he tossed a plaited hemp painter or tie-rope aboard, a
couple of roustabouts held the dug-out steady, and grasping his rifle
he followed the tie-rope with himself, clambering easily over the
bow. He strode for the stairs. In addition to hat and shirt, he wore
buckskin pantaloons and moccasins; a powder-horn and bullet-pouch, and
bowie-knife in hide scabbard.
Thus he appeared on the upper deck.
“Howdy?” he greeted cordially, surveying the passengers. “Going or
coming?”
He was a spare, tall, sinewy, bronzed man, with thick black beard,
eagle eye, and hooked nose.
“Haw haw!” they laughed. “Wall, stranger, now you’re guessin’.”
“Whar might you be from?” demanded a spokesman.
“Texas――best country on earth; where all you fellows ought to be.”
Texas! Magic word! Before he had left Cincinnati, and all the way down
the Ohio and the Mississippi, and up the Arkansas, Ernest had been
hearing of “Texas, Texas, Texas”――a country which, although a part of
Mexico, seemed to be a regular goal for Americans, who journeyed there,
to tracts of land which had been assigned to American colonies; and
there they were given acres and acres for a mere song. And here was a
real Texan, was he?
“What might yore name be, stranger?” pursued the spokesman.
“Dick Carroll, gentlemen; from Gonzales in the DeWitt colony.”
“Fresh from Texas, be ye? Wall, what’s the chance down thar now? I
hear tell you’ve been havin’ some right smart fightin’ with those thar
Mexicans.”
“Yes; give us the latest news, sir,” requested the lieutenant.
The Texan eyed him, and thumped his rifle butt emphatically on the hot
deck.
“I will, and gladly. News? Full of it. Fighting? Well, I reckon you-all
know what’s been the trouble. By the Mexican constitution of 1824
all the states of the Mexican Republic were guaranteed rights and
privileges, same as the states of the United States, and we Texans
looked forward to having our own legislature and governor. Then that
Don Anastasio Bustamante rose for the presidency of Mexico, overrode
the constitution, made a sort of one-hoss monarchy of all Mexico, and
followed out the plan they’d tried before of putting soldiers――the
wust kind, being mostly thieves and murderers from the prisons――over us
in Texas, oppressing Americans with taxes, selling our lands, saying
that no more American settlers should come in, and such like.”
“I know,” nodded the lieutenant.
“Of course, that business doesn’t work with a people like us who’ve
brought in their families, and settled according to agreement with the
government, and improved the land and built houses, and done more in
ten years than the Mexicans did in a hundred. So last spring while Don
Santa Anna was heading a revolution in Mexico across the Rio Grande, to
restore the rights of the constitution of 1824, we Texans did a little
house-cleaning on our own account, and drove every monarchist and
Bustamantist across the border. When I left, things had calmed down and
the country was feeling hopeful again.”
“Then it’s a good place for Americans, is it?” asked the lieutenant.
“Yes, sir. It’s been a good country, and now it’ll be a better one.
Where else in this world can a man with a family get three squar’ miles
of the best soil, best grass, best water, in the best climate and among
the best people on earth, for thirty dollars down, and the rest pay as
he goes? We’ve all declared in favor of Santa Anna, the Mexican troops
have gone to help him lick Bustamante; as soon as he’s made president
he’ll give us what we want under the constitution of ’24. So come
along, everybody. There’s land a-plenty and room for all.”
“Wall, stranger, you make a good talk,” spoke a passenger. “But what
mought you be doin’ now, if it’s any of our business? You’ve said whar
you’re from, but whar you goin’, out of such a fine country?”
“I’m on my way to Fort Gibson. Saw this boat p’inting down stream, so
I borrowed a Choctaw dug-out and came to learn the news from above.
What’s doing, up ’round Gibson?”
“Haw haw!” they laughed. “Cain’t tell nary thing by the looks of this
boat, stranger. Fust we’re p’intin’ one way an’ next we’re p’intin’
’nother, like a bob-tailed hoss in a millpond. We’re calkilatin’ on
Gibson, ourselves. An’ what mought be yore business at Gibson?”
It was a great crowd for asking questions.
“I’m looking for Sam Houston.”
Sam Houston! This was another name, almost as familiar as Texas. Sam
Houston! Why, he was the man who as a young officer had fought so
bravely in the battle of Horseshoe Bend, in March, 1814, when General
Andrew Jackson had saved Alabama and her sister states from the ravages
of the fierce Creek Indians. He was the same man who when a boy had
been adopted by the Cherokee Indians, in Georgia, and had lived with
them; and he had been lieutenant in the regular army, and United States
congressman from Tennessee, and had risen to be governor of Tennessee,
and only a couple of years ago had quit everything and run away, back
to the Cherokees again, in the Indian Country. And ’twas said that when
now and then he reappeared in Washington he wore Indian costume! He
certainly seemed to be a queer character.
“And what mought you be wishin’ with Sam Houston?”
The Texan was very patient under these queries. He rested on his long
rifle, and spoke deliberately, surveying his audience.
“We want him in Texas, gentlemen. They held a meeting at Nacogdoches of
Eastern Texas, the other day, and passed resolution to invite him to
come down and help make Texas. He can have anything he asks for.”
“Who? Sam Houston?” laughed the steamboat captain――still in a bad
humor. “Why, he’s turned squaw man; married to a half-breed Cherokee
woman, up in the Cherokee nation. Went down to Washington on a scheme
to get a government contract for selling supplies to the Cherokees,
beat a senator there half to death, who dared criticize him, and
raised an awful muss. Senate had him arrested, and if it wasn’t for
Andrew Jackson I reckon they’d have put him in jail. Texas must be hard
up, to send for _him_.”
The Texan whirled on him indignantly.
“Don’t talk against Sam Houston to me, sir. I knew him in Tennessee,
and you can’t tell us Tennesseeans anything about Sam Houston. He’s one
of the noblest characters Providence ever created, sir. He’s got not a
drop of mean or cowardly blood in his big body. I well know that after
he parted from his wife (and the secret of his trouble has never passed
his lips) he resigned governorship and all and fled to his friends the
Injuns till he could straighten out again. But Old Hickory (and Ernest
knew that meant General Andrew Jackson, the President) has stood by
him, and anybody that Old Hickory sticks to through thick and thin
must be pretty much of a man. You’ll see Sam Houston recover yet from
whatever it is that floored him, and he’ll be honored in the history
of this country long after you and I are forgotten. Where is he? Up at
Gibson?”