Profiles in Courage: Sam Houston :: essays research papers

surface-to-air missile Houston was a great man in our history. He stood up for what he believed was good for the Union not the uniting or the South. When Sam was rebuked for providing the winning margin for his opponents he said I know neither North nor South I know altogether the Union. He also said everyone must stand firm to the Union, disregarding of all personal consequences. He was fiercely ambitious, yet at the block off he sacrificed for principle all he had ever won or wanted. He was a Southerner, and yet he steadfastly maintained his commitment to the Union. He could be all things to all menand yet, when faced with his superlative challenge, he was faithful to himself and to Texas.When still a dreamy and unmanageable boy, he had run away from his Tennessee frontier home, and was adopted by the Cherokee Indians, who christened him Co-lon-neh, the Raven. An infantry ships officer under Andrew Jackson in 1813, his right arm had been shredded by enemy bullets when he al one had dashed into enemy lines at the bout of the Horseshoe, his men cowering in the hills behind him. A brave man he was indeed. Apparently he discovered but a few age after his marriage that his young and beautiful bride had been forced to accept his flip by an ambitious father, when in truth she loved an opposite.Sam in love out with one grand assault on Texas officialdom by announcing himself a candidate for Governor in the 1857 election. But his votes on Kansas and other Southern measures could not be explained away to an angry constituency, and Texas handed Sam Houston the first trouncing of his political career. On November 10, 1857, Sam Houston was unceremoniously discharged by the Texas Legislature and a more militant spokesman for the South take as his successor. In the fall of 1859, the aging warrior again ran as an self-governing candidate for Governor, again with no party, no newspaper and no makeup behind him, and making but one campaign speech. Houston delive red his inaugural mention directly to the people from the steps of the Capitol, instead of before a colligation session of the Legislature.Sam Houston earned his place in Profiles in endurance by his refusal to support the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. This bill repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and would pee-pee allowed the residents of territories from Iowa to the Rocky Mountains to decide the slavery issue themselves.