WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
464
After struggling through the difficulties incident to limited means in youth, he acquired a profession-the law. He removed to the State of Georgia, and there rose rapidly to distinction in his pro- fession. After years of exertion in that state, and having con- nected himself in matrimony with an estimable lady, he removed with his family to Texas in 1834. At that time, sir, the first emo- tion of revolution began to agitate that distant region. He was loyal to the institutions of the country to which he had migrated, until oppression became intolerable. ·when the Texans rose as one man in resistance to a despot and usurper, he stepped for- ward, united with his fellow-citizens, and engaged in the perilous conflict of the revolution. He was not urgent for that event; but, like others, he prepared himself to meet the occasion when it was unavoidable. In 1835, when the enemy invaded Texas, and took possession of San Antonio, he immediately marched with a force from eastern Texas, and rendered signal assistance to General Austin, then in command of the Texan forces. Whilst at San Antonio, he was engaged in various conflicts and encounters with the enemy, in which he demeaned himself with that chivalry and valor which characterized him in all his martial scenes. After that he returned to his family, but was soon elected to the con- vention which, in 1836, asserted the independence of Texas, at Washington on the Brazos. In the organization of a government ad interim, he was selected by that body as Secretary of War. He continued in the Cabinet until the enemy were advancing, and the Texan army was falling back from the frontiers, and then, unlike others who were fugitives from the limits of the United States, he turned his face to difficulty, and to the army-he identi- fied himself with it, with its privations, its sufferings, its diffi- culties. He continued with it in the confidence of the commander- in-chief, rendering all the aid in his power to the cause of Texas, and its independence. He remained with the army until after the capture of General Santa Anna, the imperial ruler of Mexico, when, owing to events which transpired on that day, he was appointed to the command of the army of Texas. It is but just to his memory to say that, on that occasion, he commanded the left wing of the Texas army, and surrounded the right wing of the enemy, rendering the rout and victory more complete than they would otherwise have been. He continued in command of the Texas army from April to October of that year, when the first constitutional Government was organized at Columbia, on the Brazos. He was then called from the head of the army to the post of Secretary of War. He
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