Читать книгу Texas Got It Right! - Sam Wyly - Страница 26

“The hopes of the usurper were

inspired by a belief that the citizens of

Texas were disunited and divided in

opinion, and that alone has been the

cause of the present invasion of our

rights. He shall realize the fallacy of

his hopes, in the union of her citizens,

and their Eternal Resistance to his

plans against constitutional liberty.

We will enjoy our birth-right, or

perish in its defense.”

—Sam Houston, in his Call to Arms

of December 12, 1835

No single name is more revered in Texas than that

of Sam Houston. Not because that name has been

given to countless schools, libraries, and public

spaces, and to our biggest city. No, Sam Houston is

revered by Texans because the man deserves it. He

TEXAS GOT IT RIGHT!

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led the Battle of San Jacinto, which won the Texas

War of Independence. Then he became the first

president of the fledgling Republic of Texas. Then,

three years after his first term ended, he came back

for a second, out of sheer love and duty. When the

Lone Star Nation became a U.S. state, the people

elected him senator. Then they elected him gover-

nor. And let’s not forget that before Sam Houston

became Texas’s most famous Texan, he’d already

started the first primary school in Tennessee

(though he’d received little formal education of his

own), been a congressman and governor for that

state, fought against the mistreatment of Indians

before Congress, and taken a bullet in the War

of 1812.

The challenges Houston faced in life would cer-

tainly have been more than enough to take down

almost any man. But Sam Houston was Scots-Irish

to the core—indomitable, resolute, independent. As