Sam Houston was one of those larger than life characters in United States history who left an indelible footprint on the North American Continent. That footprint is Texas, which, by the way, celebrates its independence from Mexico today. Houston was a large man at 6’2” when the average height of an adult anglo male at the time was 5’6” or 5’7”. With his large stature and force of personality Houston would dominate his chosen venue, battlefield or state house, for close to 50 years.
With no formal education beyond the 6th grade, Houston accomplished all of the following during his lifetime.
- Fought in the War of 1812 under Andrew Jackson.
- Fought at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend against the Red Sticks where he was wounded twice.
- Elected twice as Congressman from Tennessee
- Elected Governor of Tennessee
- Signed the Texas Declaration of Independence
- Defeated Mexican dictator, Santa Anna, at the Battle of San Jacinto and personally dictated Texas’ independence to Santa Ann while lying wounded under an oak tree.
- Elected twice as President of the Republic of Texas
- Elected Congressman to the Republic of Texas Congress
- Elected Senator to the U.S. Senate
- Elected Governor of the State of Texas
Houston was a slave owner and anti-abolitionist. However he was bitterly opposed Texas’ secession from the Union. When a Texas convention voted to secede in 1861, Governor Houston refused to sign an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy and was forcibly evicted from his office in Austin. He moved to Galveston and gave this address to a crowd of Texans who were angry that he didn’t support the Confederacy:
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.
Interesting footnote: One of Sam Houston’s sons, Andrew Jackson Houston was born in 1854 and was named for Sam’s mentor, Andrew Jackson. In 1941, John Morris Shepherd, one of Texas’ 2 U.S. senators, died while in office. Governor Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel appointed Andrew Jackson Houston to serve out the 2 remaining years of Shepherd’s term. Andrew was 86 and at the time, was the oldest person to enter the Senate. He was sworn in as Senator on April 21, 1941. He died in office 2 months later on June 26, 1941, just 5 days after his 87th birthday. Andrew’s term as a senator came 82 years after his father served in that position.
Further Reading on Sam Houston from the Texas State Historical Association.
I highly recommend this Houston biography by John Hoyt Williams.
Sam Houston: The Life and Times of the Liberator of Texas, an Authentic American Hero.
Good morning. What were the odds that he would be named
aftre a Texas city?/
Passed his statue in Bush airport many times……
RIX wrote:
Spooky.
It is. How about Lou Gehrig getting a disease named after him?
RIX wrote:
MacDuff wrote:
i know! how strange is that?
@ coldwarrior:
Very odd.
This is an interesting suit.
(Giant Eagle is our major grocery chain in Western PA)
waht if we throw a sequestration and no one show up?
Markets View
@ Bumr50:
that’s huge. everyone and their brother are on anti-lipid agents
@ coldwarrior:
Oh no!!
The gov’t will have to figure out how to make do with their current level of THEFT!
Horrors….
Bumr50 wrote:
.1% gdp growth last quarter and that includes the holiday spending.
@ coldwarrior:
GE’s leadership hasn’t faltered much in recent years.
They must think that they can win.
It’s good to have someone with GE’s clout taking on Big Pharma when they gouge, as they allegedly did here.
Class-action suits don’t really do much, but something this size in such a public forum within the business community may keep them away from any shenanigans, IMHO.
sequestration, mutch to do about nothing.
I wonder if the Obama Administration will name Dennis
Rodman as a roving ambassador to dysfunctional
countries.
The NORK thing worked out so well.
@ Bumr50:
pfizer cheated. they need to pay up.
@ Bumr50:
A Pharma has a right to a reasonable patent time frame due
to their R&D costs.
But they apply for extensions or just block competitors
The consumer gets gouged.
No major objections to Keystone XL oil pipeline, State Department says. However, SOS John Fraud Kerry is a big time global whiner and I’ll bet that he finds some way to kill the deal once and for all.
coldwarrior wrote:
Pig are flying and our MFM media (WaPo, CNN, and even CBS) are now calling the Dear Leader a 4-Pinocchio LIAR for this statement:
So instead of just taking Obama’s word for it, some actual reporters (I didn’t know there were any left!) verified the statement by checking with the supervisors and security guards.
Of course, when questioned by the reporters, the Capitol superintendent doesn’t refer to Obama by name, but rather as a “high ranking official.”
@ RIX:
From March 2010 to November 2011?
That’s A LOT OF MONEY that they took.
Giant Eagle alone is suing for “two to three times” the “tens of millions.”
That’s just THEIR costs. One grocery chain’s pharmacy.
Pfizer’s in trouble, and they should be.
(If Bush were POTUS, this would be big, national news already. We would know how much stock the Bushes had in Pfizer. It may still get wide media attention, but all anybody seems to want to talk about is how Republicans are going to cost jobs and kill people outright by allowing a little bit of frugality.)
Fritz Katz wrote:
well, is the worm turning, first woodward, now this….
@ Bumr50:
Big Pharma has a friend in the White House.
They traded support for ObamaCare for the contiuation
of blocking imports from Canada.
An unholy alliance.
@ Fritz Katz:
I don’t want to jump the gun here, but for the past three weeks the media worm has appeared to turn away from Soetoro.
I think what started it all was when the libtool reporters weren’t allowed on the golf course.
Of course, this could all be easily premeditated to give the appearance of an impartial press.
I just think that it’s funny that, if indeed this is a media rebellion against POTUS, it all started on the golf course…
Thousands of illegals waiting for deportation
released & ICE says that they are all low risk
& will somehow be monitored, Riiiiiight.
And like Benghazi, nobody knows anything.
@ RIX:
J-Nap “surprised”!!
Bumr50 wrote:
I don’t really envision a rebellion by MSM, just a minor rebuke to their god. Obama has gotten so comfortable with telling any lie about any issue and having the MSM booklickers give him a pass. The sequester thing simply got out of hand with every dem trying to out-do the other with absurd predictions of doom. I think Maxine Water’s comment about “170 million jobs lost” was the corker. MFM simply felt the need to grasp at any last shreds of credibility that any of them had.
She thinks that maybe they will slow down more releases.
Obama wants to create pain & blame the Republicans.
@ huckfunn:
The MSM is the Media Wing of the constant Obama Campaign.
A primer:
Hilarious!
ht -- PJMedia and Oleg Atbashian, one of the funniest guys I’ve ever read.
RIX wrote:
Full-fledged organ of the dem party. But they are melting slowly but surely. WAPO and NYFT are laying off staff and closing entire departments on a quarterly basis. Only 10% of the peeps now obtain their news from newspapers. CNN continues to tank.
@ huckfunn:
I’d hate to try and cut my teeth in journalism right now.
One wonders at what point these young minds are forced to decide whether to be a “team player” or a pariah within the industry.
I’ve no insight into whatever machinations go on between j schools and industry leaders, but it must be brutal.
I’m not excusing their decision, just wondering aloud how the process works that takes people who are interested in journalism (if any such person is even accepted) and turns them into tools.
The MSM is in decline & their credibility is shot.
The bitter pill is that they are staring to see that their
hero Obama really doesn’t give a damn about them.
They are just his useful fools.
Bumr50 wrote:
RIX wrote:
Take your pick.
@ Bumr50:
Both work.
@ Bumr50:
@ RIX:
I’ve been a current events junkie all of my life and at one time considered getting my degree in journalism. At some point I figured out that the only people making any dough in journalism are the people at the very top of the biz. If you ever wonder how journalism is taught in the major universities, here is a prime example. No Thanks for Thanksgiving. Robert Jensen is a “highly acclaimed” professor of journalism at UT.
@ huckfunn:
Not even well written.
I took some Journalism classes in college & really enjoyed them.
To earn a living at it though, you have to catch a break.
But he has the required anti American theme.
That keeps his faculty lounge cred intact.
RIX wrote:
Exactly. When you see all of the anti-American, white-guilt crap being spewed on MSNBC, WAPO, CNN, etc…, it comes directly from the schools of journalism.
I like this Blogmocracy post. It is well written. Thanks for reminding me. Remembering Sam Houston…
@ EBL:
Nice catch with the sea turtle!
Bluegill fish fry sounds good too.
Did the local “Huntz’s Tavern” for Friday fish last night. Old Germans, and they do the fish in what tastes like their potato pancake batter.
They also do turtle soup!
Except the last time I was in there for a drink, the bartender said that they had to buy “imported” turtle rather than using the local snapper variety because of some law.
That’s it. Polls of incoming J School students show that their
main reason is to “change the world.”
That is why they shamelessly slobber over Obama, they see
him as a change agent.
Whatever happened to “Who, what , where & why”?
RIX wrote:
“Booo-riiiiing.”
//
EBL wrote:
Thanks, EBL. Sam Houston is one of the most remarkable people in U.S. history and accomplished more than most U.S. presidents. My only beef with Houston is that he didn’t hang Santa Anna from that oak tree. It would have saved us at least one war and several decades of border incursions.
@ huckfunn:
Restraint is sometimes virtuous, but at the same time foolish.
It’s a great man that’s in a position to act in such manners that affect history so greatly.
Houston also had the best idea on how Texas should handle the Late Unpleasantness. He went along with secession but argued that joining the Confederacy was stupid.
The opening chapters of Ramsdell’s “Reconstruction in Texas” made abundantly clear how right Houston was: thousands of lives lost, the state broke, and complete breakdown of public order.
Bumr50 wrote:
That’s true and it’s hard to argue with an act of mercy. However, Santa Anna was responsible for the murder of hundreds of captured Texians at the Alamo, Goliad as well as countless civilians as he marched through Texas. He deserved a rope, not mercy.
@ huckfunn:
Would’ve spared Mexico a lot of pain, too, I suspect.
@ Zimriel:
Yep. Santa Anna was a 100% evil dictator and was as brutal to the Mexican people as he was to the Texians.
@ huckfunn:
has houston given a reason for not showing santa anna the stout hemp rope?
Well, I guess I need to do something useful. We had a big windstorm earlier this week and I have shingles scattered all over my yard. The insurance company is replacing about 1/2 of the shingles.
Later.
coldwarrior wrote:
I need to research that to see what he actually said about it. He came under a lot of critisism for not hanging SA. However, sparing SA would be typical of Houston. He was in favor of peace with the Indians. Presidents Lamar and Runnells would have killed every last one of them.
I just watched the movie version of the Alamo where John
Wayne plays Davie Crockett.
Great view. Heck, I would pay to see the Duke play Hamlet
coldwarrior wrote:
I just found this: Why Did Sam Houston spare the life of Santa Anna?
by Otho C. Morrow, Past Master Holland Lodge No.1 Great-Grandson of Sam Houston.
An interesting read. I’m still going through it.
Maybe?
Later Gators.
@ RIX:
While dile.
new thread.
@ huckfunn:
Houston was right about the Comanches, too. When Lamar attacked them, he got his ass beat. Houston got voted back in under a peace platform.
Sam Houston was a Unionist.
@ Speranza:
I know he was a moderate Unionist, like Bell or Douglas. I said that Houston “went along” with his Democratic legislature, not that he led them… But you are right that I wasn’t clear enough.
It was when the legislature joined the Confederacy that he couldn’t be the leader of the state anymore.