HOUSTON, SAM or SAMUEL (1793-1863), American gen eral and statesman, of Scotch-Irish descent, was born near Lex ington, Va., on March 2, 1793. His father, who had fought in the Revolutionary War, died in 1806, and soon afterward Samuel removed with his mother to the frontier in Blount county, Tenn. When he was about 15 his elder brothers obtained for him a place as clerk in a trader's store, but he ran away and lived with the Cherokee Indians of East Tennessee for nearly three years. On his return he opened a country school, and later attended a session or two of the Academy at Maryville. During the War of 1812 he served under Andrew Jackson against the Creek Indians. In 1817 he was appointed sub-agent in managing the removal of the Cherokees from East Tennessee to a reservation in what is now Arkansas, but he was offended at a rebuke from John C. Calhoun, then secretary of war, for appearing before him in Indian garments, as well as at an inquiry into charges affecting his official integrity, and he resigned in 1818. He entered a law office in Nashville, and was admitted to the bar. From 1823 to 1827 Houston represented the ninth district of Tennessee in Congress, and in 1827 was elected governor of the State by the Jackson Democrats. He married Eliza Allen in Jan. 1829; his wife left him three months later, and he resigned his office of governor, again took up his residence among the Cherokees, who were at this time about to remove to Indian Territory, and was formally adopted a member of their nation.
In 1830 and again in 1832 he visited Washington to expose the frauds practised upon the Cherokees by Government agents. Commissioned by President Jackson, Houston went to Texas in Dec. 1832 to negotiate treaties with the Indian tribes there for the protection of American traders on the border. He decided to re main in Texas, and was elected a delegate to the constitutional convention which met at San Felipe on April 1, 1833 to draw up a memorial to the Mexican Congress asking for the separation of Texas from Coahuila, in which the anti-American Party was in control, as well as to frame a constitution for the commonwealth as a new member of the Mexican Republic. In Nov., 1835, soon after the outbreak of the War for Texan Independence, he was chosen commander-in-chief of the Texan army. On April 21, T836, while in command of 743 raw troops, he met on the bank of the San Jacinto about 1,600 Mexican veterans led by Santa Anna and completely routed them ; on the next day Santa Anna was taken prisoner.
Texan independence was won by this victory and Houston was elected president of Texas, Sept. 1, 1836. His term expired in Dec. 1838; he was elected again in 1841 and served until During his first term a newly founded city was named in his honour and this was the seat of Government in 1837-39 and in 1842-45. Texas having been admitted as a State of the American Union in 1845, Houston was elected one of its first two U.S. senators. He served as a stalwart Union Democrat from 1846 until 1859; he opposed the Kansas-Nebraska bill in an able speech and spoke frequently in defence of the rights of the Indians. In 1859 he was elected governor of Texas and tried to prevent the secession of his State: upon his refusal, in March 1861, to swear allegiance to the Confederacy he was declared deposed. He died at Huntsville, Tex., on July 26, 1863. Houston was an able soldier, wary, intrepid and resolute; and was a legislator of rare foresight, cool discrimination and fearless candour.
See A. M. Williams, Sam Houston and the War of Independence in Texas (Boston, 1893) ; Henry Bruce, Life of General Houston (New York, 1891) ; and W. C. Crane, Life and Select Literary Re mains of Sam Houston (Philadelphia, 1884) ; S. B. Elliot, Sam Houston (Boston, 1900) ; "Sam Houston" by S. Acheson in the American Mercury, vol. ii. (1927) ; G. Creel, Sam Houston, Colossus in Buckskin (1928) ; M. James, The Raven: The Life of Sam Houston (1929).