HOUSTON, SANE (ante). Although Houston achieved his public reputation mainly through his connection with the history of Texas, yet his life, prior to his settlement in that country, was filled with most romantic incidents, tending to illustrate the strong, original character of the man, and his devotion to his country, and to principles of integrity, as a man and as a citizen. From the time when he commenced the study of law in Nashville (about 1814) to the year 1827, when lie was elected governor of Ten nessee, he was in a remarkable degree the subject of political preferment. He rose from office to office, being made a member of congress in 1823. when only thirty years of age, and was already esteemed as one whose future promised the highest honors. In 1828 Houston was married to an estimable and beautiful lady, and surprised the country by leaving her on the day following that of the cckemony, resigning his office of governor of the state, and retiring to the wilds of Arkansas to enable his wife to procure a divorce on the ground of desertion. The secret of this strange action was only made known in the present year (1880), when it was learned from an authentic source that Houston had discovered a prior attachment on the part of his wife, who would appear to have been coerced into her marriage with him, and that, with the natural nobility of his nature, he hadwillingly sacrificed himself, his social tics, and his political aspir ations, to the end that the woman he loved might be made happy. His bride procured
the divorce necessary, and some time after married the man of her choice. Houston's conduct was commented upon in terms the most severe, and stories to his disadvantage were freely circulated and generally believed. .In the meantime he had made his resi dence in the Cherokee country, and a year later was the representative of the tribe at Washington. His connection with Texas affairs occurred through a casual visit a year or two after this period, and he was the delegate of the 20,000 Americans—the outgrowth of the Connecticut colony in Texas—to the convention for revision of the Mexican constitution. ' Houston resisted secession from its inception, and it is an interesting incident in his life, and in the history of his country, that of his riding close beside the carriage in which sat Lincoln and Buchanan, on the day of the inauguration of the former, guarding the president-elect from the possibility of assassination—which was even then threatened, as it was afterwards consummated. The picture of this stalwart old man, nearly three score and ten, armed and watchful, guarding the person of Abra ham Lincoln, is one that deserves to be perpetuated in American history.