Sam Houston: life and political legacy

¶ … Houston

In an era of "leagues of friendship" that "bound" together the fiercely independent and jealous states with the Articles of Confederation, there existed very few figures as contentious, impressing, and impressive as that of Sam Houston. So James L. Haley would lead us to understand in the course of his enlightening biography of Houston, the Virginia-born Tennessee politician who changed the face of Texas politics forever. With a plethora of first sources, enriching details, and stories for a man's soul than a man's biography, Foley presents Houston the man, not just the politician, as an all around American Hero who, with flaws and skills, stood for that in which he believed in a manner that warrants modern applause, even when his believes stand at diametric opposition to the accepted mores of today.

Texas' greatest hero, as written by Foley in stead and stature with definite supremacy, did not begin his life in Texas, but he was instead born in Virginia. His young life brought him to Tennessee and the Cherokee Nation, into which he was both adopted and married, and having engaged in military service in the War of 1812, he quickly became a part of Tennessee politics. In 1818, he was a 250-year-old Indian agent working in the Tennessee backwoods, where his passion for the Native American cause was further perpetuated beyond purely emotional bond and into causal ammunition. His conviction to his beliefs, pertaining to Native Americans and other talks of the day - from races, slavery, abolition, and the state of the Union - made him a breath of passionate, fresh air that carried him through the ranks of local politics. Soon, he was made Governor, but after a salacious, high-profile trial, he emigrated once more, this time to the Mexican state of Texas. There, his role was as integral and monumental as his time had been in Tennessee; no sooner had he come than he was leading the Texas Revolution.

Unlike many of his peers, Houston did not support long-term independence for Texas, even though he did serve as an intermittent President of the Republic. Instead, he urged for annexation by the United States, and once it was a part of the Union, he served as the Senator from Texas. Foley presents an image of Houston at this point that is unlike any other, showing him to indeed by the roughhousing frontier man who chewed tobacco and spit it out on his front porch, just an everyday man, but also a purely brilliant politician who outfoxed England and France in the matter of annexation. To the Texas Revolution he brought not only conviction and guile, but also a wealth of military experience that ensured a military prepared to get past the December surrender of the Cos at San Antonio. Foley argues that, sagely and independently, Houston knew that Santa Anna was coming and that in order to battle that warfront when it came, the Army had to be prepared.