Samuel "Sam" Houston (2 March 1793 – 26 July 1863) was President of the Republic of Texas from 1836 to 1838, succeeding David G. Burnet and preceding Mirabeau B. Lamar, and again from 1841 to 1844, succeeding Lamar and preceding Anson Jones. Houston was also a member of the US House of Representatives (DR-TN 7) from 4 March 1823 to 4 March 1827 (preceding John Bell), Governor of Tennessee from 1 October 1827 to 16 April 1829 (succeeding William Carroll and preceding William Hall), a US Senator from Texas from 21 February 1846 to 4 March 1859 (preceding John Hemphill), and Governor of Texas from 21 December 1859 to 16 March 1861 (succeeding Hardin Richard Runnels and preceding Edward Clark).
Biography[]
American politician[]
Houston in Cherokee dress
Samuel Houston was born on 2 March 1793 in Rockbridge County, Virginia, United States to a family of Scots-Irish ancestry; his ancestors came to America from County Antrim in Northern Ireland in 1735. Houston ran away from home at the age of 16 due to his hatred for working at his brothers' store, and he lived among the Cherokee in Tennessee and became known as "Raven". Houston volunteered in the US Army during the War of 1812, serving under Andrew Jackson during the war with the Creeks; he was wounded three times at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. In 1818, he became a lawyer in Nashville, and he was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1822. In 1827, he was elected Governor of Tennessee, but he resigned in 1829 due to rumors of alcoholism and infidelity; his wife ran off with another man.
Texan politician[]
Houston in 1835
In 1832, Houston was forced to flee Tennessee after attempting to murder congressman William Stanbery in a duel resulting from Stanbery's rivalry with Andrew Jackson, and he left for Texas in December. He became a supporter of the cause for Texan independence from Mexico, and he became the commander of a Texan militia that fought against the Mexican Army during the Texas Revolution of 1836. Houston's militia would ambush and destroy a Mexican army at San Jacinto, forcing Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to surrender and agree to grant independence to Texas. Houston would twice serve as President of Texas, and he played a key role in the annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845. Houston went on to serve as a Democratic US Senator from 1846 to 1859, supporting the Union and opposing radical secessionists and abolitionists alike. Houston voted for the Compromise of 1850 and against the Kansas-Nebraska Act, after which he joined the Know Nothings and failed to secure the American Party and Constitutional Union Party's presidential nominations in 1856 and 1860, respectively. He went on to serve as Governor of Texas from 1859 to 1861, and he unsuccessfully sought to keep Texas out of the Confederacy on its secession. He was forced out of office by Confederate supporters, and he died two years later.