Sam Houston

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Samuel "Sam" Houston [ ˈhjuːstən ] (born March 2, 1793 in Rockbridge County , Virginia , † July 26, 1863 in Huntsville , Texas ) was an American politician and general. He was the first president of the independent Republic of Texas and later served the resulting US state as senator and governor . Houston , the fourth largest city in the United States, and other places are named after him.

Life

Youth and Army Service

Houston was born in Virginia to a major in the US Army and received a simple education there. After his father's death in 1807 he moved with his family to Maryville ( Tennessee to). In 1809 he fled home and lived for a while with a Cherokee tribe , whose language and customs he got to know. During the British-American War (1812-1814) he joined the US Army in March 1813, where he was promoted to third lieutenant until December of the same year . Under Andrew Jackson he fought against the British allied Muskogee and was seriously wounded in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March 1814. After his recovery he was appointed Indian agent , a kind of ambassador, to the Cherokee at Jackson's instigation . In March 1818 he left the army.

Political career in Tennessee, scandal and withdrawal

After completing six months of law studies, he opened a law firm in Lebanon , Tennessee, and was prosecutor for the Nashville District in late 1818 . In 1822 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he appeared as a loyal supporter of Andrew Jackson , so that he was soon widely regarded as his political protégé. In 1824 he entered the Congress again .

In 1827 he decided not to run again and instead stood in the election for governor of Tennessee, which he won against former governor Willie Blount . In 1828 - in the middle of the election campaign - a scandal in his private life prevented his renewed candidacy for governor of Tennessee: his marriage to Eliza Allen, which lasted only eleven weeks. The official divorce was not pronounced until 1837.

Soon rumors of his infidelity and alcoholism were circulating , and Houston initially withdrew from politics and spent some time with the Cherokee in Arkansas . There he probably married the Cherokee Tiana Rogers and opened a trading business. During these years he was a heavy drinker and was known by the Cherokee as the "Big Drunk". After standing trial for assault on one of his annual trips to Washington , he left the Cherokee and his wife.

Political and military success in Texas

Around 1833 he lived at least partially in Texas, which at that time belonged to the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas . Houston seems to have settled permanently in the Texan town of Nacogdoches by 1835 at the latest . He was quickly drawn into the political turmoil of the state, in which disputes between the US settlers flowing into the state and the Mexican government were the order of the day, not least because of the settlers' desire to introduce slavery in Texas. As an MP for Nacogdoches, Houston attended the Texas Convention of 1833, from which he returned as a radical supporter of revolutionary William Harris Wharton . He also took part in the Convention of 1835; in November 1835 he became major general of the Texas separatist army, which was composed of all kinds of volunteers . In February 1836 he negotiated a peace treaty with the Cherokee.

Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto , detail from a painting by Harry A. McArdle, 1895

On March 2, 1836, the Texans, trusting the assistance of the United States, declared themselves independent and appointed Houston commander-in-chief of their army. The Mexican army under the President and General Antonio López de Santa Anna occupied the capital of Texas, San Felipe de Austín, in the course of the hostilities. Houston joined his volunteer army in Gonzales , but was soon forced to retreat by Santa Anna's forces.

At the Battle of San Jacinto in Deer Park on April 21, 1836, the Texans were able to defeat the more than twice as strong Mexican troops with a surprise attack in just twenty minutes. The Texans' battle cry, "Remember the Alamo!", Which has now become a legend, referred to the battle for the Alamo fortress in San Antonio a month earlier, after which the Mexicans under Santa Anna had executed the few surviving defenders. Several hundred Mexican soldiers were killed in the Battle of San Jacinto, and General Santa Anna was captured the next day. Houston initially stayed on site for negotiations but soon withdrew to the United States for treatment for a joint injury. On May 14, Santa Anna signed the Velasco Treaties, in which he promised the withdrawal of his troops from Texas and political commitment to the recognition of the Republic of Texas by Mexico. Santa Anna was refused the guaranteed safe conduct , however, and he was first transferred to Washington DC as a prisoner of war , so that he could not return to Mexico until 1837, when the republic was already in place. However, it was not officially recognized by Mexico until 1848.

President of the Republic of Texas

Monumental statue to Sam Houston in Huntsville TX by David Adickes (1994)

Popular as a war hero, Houston was elected the first President of the Republic of Texas on September 5, 1836 . In 1836, the city of Houston (now the fourth largest city in the United States) was founded, named after him and served as the capital of the republic. In his first term as president (1836-1838) he struck down in Nacogdoches a pro-Mexican uprising under the leadership of Vicente Córdova, the so-called Córdova Rebellion . The hoped-for annexation of Texas to the United States initially turned out to be unrealistic.

Since the Texas constitution did not provide for an immediate re-election of the president, Houston was a member of the House of Representatives for San Augustine from 1838, while Mirabeau B. Lamar was his successor as president. During this time, Houston was a vehement critic of the policies of Lamar, who pursued permanent independence from Texas and its expansion to the Pacific Ocean. In 1840 he married Margaret Moffette Lee; the marriage had eight children. In 1841 Sam Houston was re-elected President. In his second term he aimed to improve the financial situation of the state, to a peace treaty with the Indians and after two Mexican invasions in 1842 to the permanent prevention of war with Mexico. In 1842 he tried in the so-called Texas Archive War to force the relocation of the Texas capital from Austin back to Houston, but this was unsuccessful. In 1844 he militarily intervened in the regulator-moderator War , a conflict over fraudulent land occupation in east Texas.

US Senator for Texas

In Texas itself, the majority wanted to join the United States. The country was annexed to the United States on February 19, 1845, which was approved by the US Congress on March 1, 1845. The formal admission into the confederation took place on December 29, 1845. Sam Houston and Thomas Jefferson Rusk were elected to the US Senate for Texas . Houston was a Senator from 1846 to 1859 and was initially considered a possible presidential candidate for the Democrats . He was an avid supporter of the Mexican-American War and was disappointed that it did not end with the annexation of Mexico. His scandalous propensity for excessive alcohol consumption, women’s stories and fights, and an increasing alienation from political opinion in Texas and other southern states, however, steadily diminished his political influence. Although he himself was a slave owner and opposed the abolition of slavery, he always voted against the expansion of slavery to other areas of the country and consistently spoke out in favor of the unity of the United States. When he backed the Oregon Bill in 1848 and the 1850 Compromise two years later and opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act , he clearly opposed the political goals of the southern states . From 1857 he was considered a lame duck , a senator who no longer has the mandate of his voters. That year he ran in the election for governor of the state of Texas, but could not win. During this time, his son Andrew was born, who would later also become a US Senator.

Houston's grave in Huntsville

Governor of Texas

In 1859 he was elected governor of Texas in the second attempt. On December 21, 1859 he took over the office of Hardin Richard Runnels - making Houston the only US governor to date to hold this office in two different states (as of 2008). He resigned in 1861 after refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America . However, he also refused military intervention by the Union states because he wanted to prevent bloody clashes on Texan soil. He was succeeded by Edward Clark .

In 1862 Houston retired to a country estate in Huntsville ( called the Steamboat House because of its peculiar shape ), where he died of pneumonia the following year. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery , Huntsville.

family

Sam Houston was married three times. His first wife was Eliza Allen Douglas (1809–1861), then Talahina "Tiana" Rogers Houston (1799–1833). His third wife was Margaret Moffette Lea Houston (1819-1867), whom he married on May 9, 1840. He had eight children, all from his third marriage , according to Find A Grave .

literature

Web links

Commons : Sam Houston  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Houston, Sam
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Houston, Samuel (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician and general
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1793
PLACE OF BIRTH Rockbridge County , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1863
Place of death Huntsville , Texas