One of the more intriguing individuals from Tennessee history has a more significant impact on Texas history. Sam Houston, who became the first President of Texas, was originally from Virginia and found a foothold in politics within the State of Tennessee. He would go on to be the only person to serve as governor of two separate states.
By Jason Martin jmartin@mckenziebanner.com
One of the more intriguing individuals from Tennessee history has a more significant impact on Texas history. Sam Houston, who became the first President of Texas, was originally from Virginia and found a foothold in politics within the State of Tennessee. He would go on to be the only person to serve as governor of two separate states.
Houston was the son of a planter family in Rockbridge County, Virginia, born on March 2, 1793, to Samuel Houston and Elizabeth Paxton. He was the fifth of nine children. The family moved to Maryville, Tennessee after his father’s death in 1806. There the family purchased over 400 acres and opened a store. At the age of 16, Houston developed a love for frontier life and soon left home to live with the Cherokee.
While living amongst the Cherokee, he assimilated with the group under the tutelage of Oo-Loo-Te-Ka or John Jolly (a name used by white society). The Cherokee leader taught Houston the language and ways of his people. Houston was given the Cherokee name “Colonneh,” the Raven. He left the tribe to return to Maryville in 1812, and he was hired at age 19 for a term as the schoolmaster of a one-room schoolhouse. He attended Porter Academy, where he was taught by Rev. Isaac L. Anderson (founder of Maryville College).
After a year, Houston was tired of the mundane life of a school teacher and wanted adventure. In 1813, he enlisted in the United States Army. The country was engulfed in the War of 1812 against the British. By the end of the year, Houston was promoted to third lieutenant in the 39th Infantry Regiment. Eventually, the 39th Infantry would be under the command of General Andrew Jackson.
Houston was severely wounded and nearly died at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend against Red Sticks and the Creek Indians. After convalescing back in Maryville, he was able to retain his officer’s commission. Some time in early 1817, Sam Houston was assigned to a clerical position in Nashville, serving under the adjutant general for the army’s Southern Division. Later in the year, Jackson appointed Houston as a sub-agent to handle the removal of the Cherokee from East Tennessee.
In 1818, following a falling out with the Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, Houston resigned his commission but continued working as a liaison between the Cherokee and United States governments. After leaving government service, Houston began an apprenticeship with Judge James Trimble in Nashville. He quickly won admission to the state bar and opened a legal practice in Lebanon, Tennessee. With the aid of Governor Joseph McMinn, Houston won the election as the district attorney for Nashville in 1819. He was also appointed as a major general of the Tennessee militia.
With heavy support from Jackson and his machine, Houston won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives (1823 and 1825), using his position to champion his mentor’s bid for the presidency. After serving a second term, with Jackson’s support, he successfully ran for governor in 1827.
According to Sam Houston researcher John Hoyt Williams, “at age forty-one Governor Sam Houston stood on the brink of a national career, but his own character flaws undermined his chances. Over the years Houston had acquired a legendary drinking problem; public drunkenness virtually became his trademark and caused growing concern among his admirers. While campaigning for a second gubernatorial term, Houston married Eliza Allen of Gallatin after a scandalously brief courtship. When this daughter of an old, politically powerful Tennessee family left him after less than eighty days, Houston’s future in the state became bleak.”
It was rumored during the breakup that Allen loved another man or that some physical problem prevented the marriage from being consummated. Either way, Houston left Tennessee and Allen refused to grant him a divorce. He would rejoin the Cherokee in what was known as the Arkansas Territory (Oklahoma). Houston went on to marry Tiana Rogers, a member of the Cherokee nation, and sister to John Jolly. The marriage did not last and was not recognized by the United States as Houston was still married to Allen.
Back among the Cherokee, Houston was made a member of the group. With his ties to Jackson and the federal government, the trip requested his help in mediating disputes and communicating their needs to the Jackson administration. It took only a few years before Houston found himself embroiled in controversy.
When Houston returned to Washington in 1832, Congressman William Stanbery alleged that Houston had placed a fraudulent bid in 1830 in collusion with the Jackson administration. On April 13, 1832, after Stanbery refused to answer Houston’s letters regarding the incident, Houston beat Stanbery with a cane. After the beating, the House of Representatives brought Houston to trial. By a vote of 106 to 89, the House convicted Houston, and Speaker of the House Andrew Stevenson formally reprimanded Houston. A federal court also required Houston to pay $500 in damages.
In mid-1832, Houston was convinced by friends to move to the Mexican territory of Texas. The area was a hotbed for unrest as many of the Anglo-American settlers were unhappy with the Mexican government. Shortly after moving into the Texas Territory, Mexico granted the former Tennessee governor land.
Houston was elected to represent Nacogdoches, Texas at the Convention of 1833, which was called to petition Mexico for statehood (at the time, Texas was part of the state of Coahuila y Tejas). Houston strongly supported statehood, and he chaired a committee that drew a proposed state constitution. The petition failed and soon Antonio L?pez de Santa Anna assumed the presidency over Mexico. This led to the imprisonment of Stephen F. Austin who led the petition for statehood.
In October 1835, the Texas Revolution broke out with the Battle of Gonzales, a skirmish between Texan forces and the Mexican Army. After the battle, Houston was elected to the Consultation, a congregation of Texas leaders. Houston and the other delegates demanded Texas statehood and the restoration of the 1824 Constitution of Mexico. The Consultation appointed Houston as a major general, the highest-ranking officer of the Texian Army.
The following year, at the Convention of 1836, the Republic of Texas declared independence from Mexico and appointed Houston, Commander-in-Chief of the Texas Army. After drafting the declaration, Houston received a request for assistance from William B. Travis, who commanded Texian forces under siege by Santa Anna at the Alamo. The convention confirmed Houston’s command of the Texian Army and dispatched him to lead a relief force to Travis. The Alamo fell before Houston could organize his forces at Gonzales, Texas.
With an insufficient number of troops to battle Santa Anna, Houston retreated east. He informed his troops that they constituted “the only army in Texas now present … There are but a few of us, and if we are beaten, the fate of Texas is sealed.” Santa Anna’s force of about 1,350 soldiers trapped Houston’s force of 783 men in a marsh; rather than pressing the attack, Santa Anna ordered his soldiers to make camp.
On April 21, 1836, Houston ordered an attack on the Mexican army, beginning the Battle of San Jacinto. The Texans quickly routed Santa Anna’s force, though Houston’s horse was shot out from under him and his ankle was shattered by a stray bullet. In the aftermath of the Battle of San Jacinto, a detachment of Texans captured Santa Anna. Santa Anna was forced to sign the Treaty of Velasco, granting Texas its independence. Houston stayed briefly for negotiations, then returned to the United States for treatment of his ankle wound.
Houston, highly regarded as a revolutionary hero, was elected president of the Republic of Texas. He took office on October 22, 1836. The people of Texas desired to be annexed into the United States. Once in office, Houston sought normalized relations with Mexico and arranged the release of Santa Anna. President Andrew Jackson refused to push for the annexation of Texas but granted Texas diplomatic recognition.
The Texas constitution barred presidents from seeking a second term. He was succeeded by Mirabeau B. Lamar, who, along with David Burnet, led a faction of Texas politicians opposed to Houston. Lamar’s administration removed many of Houston’s appointees and established a new capital at Austin. The Texas government also battled against the Cherokee.
Houston returned to the public sector opening a legal practice and co-founded a land company with the intent of developing the town of Sabine City. In 1839, he was elected to represent San Augustine County in the Texas House of Representatives.
The following year married Margaret Lea of Marion, Alabama, with whom he had eight children. Three years prior, Houston was granted a divorce in Texas. Margaret acted as a tempering influence on her much older husband and convinced him to stop drinking. By 1854, Margaret had spent 14 years trying to convert Houston to the Baptist church. With the assistance of George Washington Baines, she convinced Houston to convert, and he agreed to adult baptism.
In the election of 1841, Houston defeated Burnet to reclaim the presidency of Texas. Again he pushed for annexation by the United States but faced harsh opposition from John Tyler’s administration along with pushback from Martin Van Buren and Henry Clay. With the election of James K. Polk, Texas annexation was imminent. Tyler used Polk’s victory to convince Congress to approve of the annexation of Texas. A Texas convention approved the annexation in July 1845.
In February 1846, the Texas legislature elected Houston and Thomas Jefferson Rusk as Texas’s two inaugural U.S. senators. He served until 1858, making a name for himself as a strong Unionist, a promoter of the transcontinental railroad, and a critic of the army. In 1859, he made a successful bid for governor of Texas defeating incumbent Hardin Richard Runnels. While serving as governor he was one of the top presidential contenders of the Constitutional Union Party. He did not receive the nomination but worked tirelessly trying to prevent Texas from seceding from the Union. Houston campaigned across his home state, calling on Texans to resist those who advocated for secession if Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election.
In 1861, he said, “Let me tell you what is coming. After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, you may win Southern independence if God be not against you, but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of states’ rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche; and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South.”
A Texas political convention voted to secede from the United States on February 1, 1861, and Houston proclaimed that Texas was once again an independent republic, but he refused to recognize that same convention’s authority to join Texas to the Confederacy. After Houston refused to swear an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy, the legislature declared the governorship vacant. Houston did not recognize the validity of his removal, but he did not attempt to use force to remain in office, and he refused aid from the federal government to prevent his removal. His successor, Edward Clark, was sworn in on March 18.
After leaving office, Houston returned to his home in Galveston and later settled in Huntsville, Texas. He died on July 26, 1863, at 70 years of age.