Issue No. 19
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There is much talk today among commentators about how the tone of our political discourse has never been less civilized. These folks should crack a history book and get some perspective.
Today's verbal broadsides sound like polite debate society language compared to the bomb throwing of the nineteenth century.
It may surprise you to learn that in the political pantheon of Texas, nobody received more abuse than Sam Houston.
All of the quotes below were said of Old Sam when he stood for president in either the 1837 or 1841 capaigne. Can you imagine any of the following being said about a presidential candidate today?
Jesse Billingsley (an officer at San Jacinto): "The thief and the murderer I can guard against, but the liar I cannot. Therefore I must say that Houston is the basest of all men, as he has, by willfully lying, attempted to rob that little band of men of their well earned honors on the battlefield of San Jacinto. He has assumed to himself credit that was due to others."
David G. Burnett (interim President and later Vice President under Lamar): "Gen. Houston has long and habitually acted on the Spanish proverb, that a lie that can gain belief for one hour is worth the telling."
San Jacinto veteran J. W. Robinson: "If it was not fear that made the General tuck his tail and run from the Colorado, from half his own number and from the Brazos, it was a total want of military capacity."
Fortunately for them, Houston had assumed the role of statesman and exercised more self control than he had as a member of the US House of Representatives from Tennessee in 1832.
A congressman from Ohio, John Stanbery, stood on the floor of the house and accused Houston of corruption in his role as agent to the Cherokees.
Houston confronted Stanbery on Pennsylvania Avenue and beat him savagely with a hickory cane, a gift for Old Hickory himself, Andrew Jackson. Stanbery drew a pistol, placed it against Houston's chest and pulled the trigger. The gun failed to fire.
Houston was arrested and ordered to stand trial in the House of Representatives, where Francis Scott Key handled his legal defense. Sam was found guilty, but was given only a mild reprimand.
So much for today's so-called 'mean-spiritedness'. Sticks and stone...
Today's verbal broadsides sound like polite debate society language compared to the bomb throwing of the nineteenth century.
It may surprise you to learn that in the political pantheon of Texas, nobody received more abuse than Sam Houston.
All of the quotes below were said of Old Sam when he stood for president in either the 1837 or 1841 capaigne. Can you imagine any of the following being said about a presidential candidate today?
Jesse Billingsley (an officer at San Jacinto): "The thief and the murderer I can guard against, but the liar I cannot. Therefore I must say that Houston is the basest of all men, as he has, by willfully lying, attempted to rob that little band of men of their well earned honors on the battlefield of San Jacinto. He has assumed to himself credit that was due to others."
David G. Burnett (interim President and later Vice President under Lamar): "Gen. Houston has long and habitually acted on the Spanish proverb, that a lie that can gain belief for one hour is worth the telling."
San Jacinto veteran J. W. Robinson: "If it was not fear that made the General tuck his tail and run from the Colorado, from half his own number and from the Brazos, it was a total want of military capacity."
Fortunately for them, Houston had assumed the role of statesman and exercised more self control than he had as a member of the US House of Representatives from Tennessee in 1832.
A congressman from Ohio, John Stanbery, stood on the floor of the house and accused Houston of corruption in his role as agent to the Cherokees.
Houston confronted Stanbery on Pennsylvania Avenue and beat him savagely with a hickory cane, a gift for Old Hickory himself, Andrew Jackson. Stanbery drew a pistol, placed it against Houston's chest and pulled the trigger. The gun failed to fire.
Houston was arrested and ordered to stand trial in the House of Representatives, where Francis Scott Key handled his legal defense. Sam was found guilty, but was given only a mild reprimand.
So much for today's so-called 'mean-spiritedness'. Sticks and stone...
I have spoken to officials of the "Republic of Texas" many times.
No, I don't have a time machine. They walk the land in 2010 and know how to use telephones and email.
I don't know if all these kooks are actually together, but they always claim the same thing: that the method by which Texas entered the union was invalid because some 't' was left uncrossed or some 'i' undotted, and that they represent the legitimate government of the free and sovereign republic.
And Elvis is living in Eagle Lake with the Easter Bunny, Masons are using cell-phones to make us fat, and there's a secret vault under the Capitol that contains Ben Franklin's polka records.
What really rubs me the wrong way about these guys is they always refer to themselves as Colonel or some other title they have no right to use. Men and women of honor serve ten, fifteen or twenty years to earn those titles and these fools bestow them upon one another after attending a meeting in an old school bus parked on a deer lease.
I hadn't planned to write this, but I just came upon one of their websites while doing some fact checking and it triggered the rant.
I know I'm going to get some emails full of invective, inaccurate citations and half-baked logic. So be it. Bring it on, nutsie.
Being in a retail business means we have to start getting ready for Christmas season long before Labor Day so we can be ready when most people start making their lists.
Experience shows us the early birds start this process right about now. Here are some suggestions to keep in mind:
For folks in the oil patch: Texas Oil and Gas Since 1543. The definitive, history of the Texas oil industry. Period. Read about it here.
For the landman: Reasonover's Land Measures. A history of Spanish and French land measures used in North America, along with conversion tables. Read about it here.
We still have a few copies of the 1837 Austin-Tanner Map of The Republic of Texas. When they're gone they're gone. Read about it here.
No, I don't have a time machine. They walk the land in 2010 and know how to use telephones and email.
I don't know if all these kooks are actually together, but they always claim the same thing: that the method by which Texas entered the union was invalid because some 't' was left uncrossed or some 'i' undotted, and that they represent the legitimate government of the free and sovereign republic.
And Elvis is living in Eagle Lake with the Easter Bunny, Masons are using cell-phones to make us fat, and there's a secret vault under the Capitol that contains Ben Franklin's polka records.
What really rubs me the wrong way about these guys is they always refer to themselves as Colonel or some other title they have no right to use. Men and women of honor serve ten, fifteen or twenty years to earn those titles and these fools bestow them upon one another after attending a meeting in an old school bus parked on a deer lease.
I hadn't planned to write this, but I just came upon one of their websites while doing some fact checking and it triggered the rant.
I know I'm going to get some emails full of invective, inaccurate citations and half-baked logic. So be it. Bring it on, nutsie.
The Elves of Summer
Being in a retail business means we have to start getting ready for Christmas season long before Labor Day so we can be ready when most people start making their lists.
Experience shows us the early birds start this process right about now. Here are some suggestions to keep in mind:
For folks in the oil patch: Texas Oil and Gas Since 1543. The definitive, history of the Texas oil industry. Period. Read about it here.
For the landman: Reasonover's Land Measures. A history of Spanish and French land measures used in North America, along with conversion tables. Read about it here.
We still have a few copies of the 1837 Austin-Tanner Map of The Republic of Texas. When they're gone they're gone. Read about it here.
Trivia Answer:
Castrated
Robert Potter was a San Jacinto veteran, Secretary of the Navy during Sam Houston's first administration and a member of the Congress of the Republic of Texas. He was also a jealous man.
When he came upon his first wife riding in a buggy with her cousin and a Methodist minister, he became enraged. As the story goes, he overcame both men, hog-tied and castrated them, tossing the 'trophies' in his wife's lap. This happened while he was a member of the North Carolina House of Commons in 1831.
The case was sensational and 'Potterize' became a common term for castration throughout the South. Potter received six months in jail and a $2000 fine. After his release he was re-elected to his old seat, but later expelled for cheating at cards.
While serving in the Texas congress, he kept two separate families with no knowledge of each other until he was assassinated at his home on Caddo Lake in 1842, during the Regulator-Moderator War. His life with the wife he kept on Caddo Lake is the subject of Elithe Hamilton Kirkland's 1959 novel, Love is a Wild Assault.
Castrated
Robert Potter was a San Jacinto veteran, Secretary of the Navy during Sam Houston's first administration and a member of the Congress of the Republic of Texas. He was also a jealous man.
When he came upon his first wife riding in a buggy with her cousin and a Methodist minister, he became enraged. As the story goes, he overcame both men, hog-tied and castrated them, tossing the 'trophies' in his wife's lap. This happened while he was a member of the North Carolina House of Commons in 1831.
The case was sensational and 'Potterize' became a common term for castration throughout the South. Potter received six months in jail and a $2000 fine. After his release he was re-elected to his old seat, but later expelled for cheating at cards.
While serving in the Texas congress, he kept two separate families with no knowledge of each other until he was assassinated at his home on Caddo Lake in 1842, during the Regulator-Moderator War. His life with the wife he kept on Caddo Lake is the subject of Elithe Hamilton Kirkland's 1959 novel, Love is a Wild Assault.
About
Texas Reader is written by Mark Pusateri of
Copano Bay Press
(BooksOnTexas.com).
It explores little known facets of Texas history you weren't likely taught in school.
Copano Bay Press
(BooksOnTexas.com).
It explores little known facets of Texas history you weren't likely taught in school.
