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Document

No. 474

STATUES

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SAM HOUSTON ««rf STEPHEN F. AUSTLN

Erected in Statuary Hall of the Capitol Building at Washington

Proceedings in the House of Rep- resentatives on the Occasion of the Reception and Acceptance of the Statues from the State of Texas

Compiled under the direction of the Joint Cnmmittee on Priming

Washington Government Printing Office

1905

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Proceedings in the House 5, 7

Address of Mr. Cooper, of Texas 9

Address of Mr. Richardson, of Tennessee 23

Address of Mr. Burgess, of Texas 40

Address of Mr. Clark, of Missouri 49

Address of Mr. Stephens, of Texas 60

Address of Mr. Gibson, of Tennessee 73

Address of Mr. Field, of Texas $2

Address of Mr. Pinckney, of Texas v9

Address of Mr. Wallace, of Arkansas ioi

Address of Mr. Gillespie, of Texas ill

Address of Mr. Slayden, of Texas 1 27

Proceedings in the Senate 142

3

THE

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B1X4. No. 3

ACCE1

TAXCE OF S'

TON AND ST1

'ATUES OF SAM HOUS- PHHX F. Al STIN.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE

MARCH 25, 1904.

Mr. Burleson offered

A concurrent resolution (H. C. Res. 53) that the State of Texas be, and is hereby, authorized and granted the privilege of placing in Statuary Hall of the Capitol statues of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin — to the Com- mittee on the Library.

APRIL 2, 1904.

STATUES OE SAM HOUSTON AND STEPHEN F. AUSTIN FOR STATUARY HALL.

Mr. Burleson. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for the present consideration of House concurrent resolu- tion No. 53, which I shall send to the desk and ask to have read.

The Clerk read as follows:

Resolved by the House of Representatives 1 the Senate concurring), That the State of Texas be, and is hereby, authorized and granted the privilege of placing in Statuary Hall of the Capitol the statues I made by the sculptor Elisabet Ney, of Texas 1 of Sam HOUSTON and STEPHEN F. AUSTIN, both of whom, now deceased, were citizens of Texas, illustrious for their his- toric renown, and that same be received as the two statues furnished and provided by said State in accordance with the provisions of section 1N14 of the Revised Statutes of the United States.

5

6 Acceptance of Statues of

Resolved further, Thai a copy of these resolutions, signed by the pre- siding officers of the House of Representatives and Senate, be forwarded to his excellency the governor of Texas

The SPEAKER. Is there objection to the present con- sideration of the resolution?

There was no objection; and the resolution was con- sidered, and agreed to.

On motion of Mr. Burleson, a motion to reconsider the last vote was laid on the table.

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin

PROCEEDINGS IX THE HOUSE

JANUARY 20, 1905 STATUES OK SAM HOUSTON AND STEPHEN F. AUSTIN.

Mr. Cooper of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous

consent for the present consideration of the resolution which I send to the Clerk's desk to be read.

The Speaker. The gentleman from Texas [Mr. COOPER] asks unanimous consent for the present consid- eration of the resolution which the Clerk will read.

The Clerk read as follows:

Resolved by the House of Representatives, That the exercises appropriate to the reception ami acceptance from the State of Texas of the statues of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin, erected in Statuary Hall, in the Capitol, be made the special order for Saturday, the 25th day of February, at 3 o'clock p. m.

The Speaker. The question is on agreeing to the reso- lution. Is there objection? [After a pause.] The Chair hears none, and the resolution is agreed to.

FEBRUARY 25, 1905. STATUES OF SAM HOUSTON AND STEPHEN F. AUSTIN

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the special order.

The Clerk read as follows:

Resolved, That the exercises appropriate to the reception and accept- ance from the State of Texas of the statues of Sam Houstc pn and Stephen F. Austin, erected in Statuary Hall in the Capitol, be made the special order for Saturday, the 25th day of February, at 3 o'clock p. m.

8 Acceptance of Statues of

The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Texas [Mr. Garner] will please take the chair. [Applause.]

Mr. COOPER, of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I offer the fol- lowing resolutions.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the resolutions.

The Clerk read as follows:

Resolved by the House of Representatives [the Senate concurring),

That the thanks of Congress be presented to the State of Texas for pro- viding the statues of Sam HOUSTON and STEPHEN V . AUSTIN, illustrious for their historic renown and distinguished in civic services.

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions, duly authenticated, he trans- mitted to the governor of the State of Texa^.

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin

Address of Mr. Cooper, of Texas

Mr. Speaker: All civilized and semicivilized peoples have made the effort to perpetuate in some tangible form the- memory of their great and noble dead. This memo- rial sometimes assumes the form of a monument, some- times the form of a tomb, or temple, or a pyramid, or a relief upon the walls of a palace, temple, or tomb. Often, however, it takes the form of a statue chiseled from stone or hammered from metal.

Even before the dawn of history, when civilization, as we know it, first began to lift its head above the hilltops of ancient Judea and Phoenicia, Egypt, that enigma of the ages, alreadv hoarv with its untold centuries of civic and political life, was filled with colossal images of its earlier kings, whose epitaphs were carved in a language even then (King with aye. In later centuries the kings of Assyria, and, still later, those of Persia, followed the example of the Egyptians and wrought out impressive images of their kinjrs in metal and marble.

In the ancient temples of India are found statues of un- known antiquity commemorative of the virtues of Brahma or Buddha. The totem poles of Alaska, the rude images of ancient Peru, the primitive attempts at sculpture among the Aztecs of Mexico, alike attest that even among savages and semicivilized peoples this custom prevailed, and that it is born of a universal instinct.

io Acceptance of Statues of

In ancient Greece commemorative sculpture reached its freest and fullest expression. The ( Greeks at first filled Athens with the images of every god and goddess, every faun and satyr, every- naiad and nymph known to their mythology. But the Greek mind was expansive and origi- nal. It had repudiated the doctrine of monarchy and kingly assumption of divine right to rule, and had estab- lished the first democracy. Recognizing that a good citi- zen might deserve the gratitude and remembrance of his countrymen as truly as might a king, the Greeks preserved memories of their poets, their historians, their philosophers, and their military heroes.

Rome and the modern world have feebly copied Greece in thus honoring those whose eminent services to their country or to humanity have entitled them to such recog- nition.

The Government of the United States, appreciating the historical value to future generations of the collection of the statues of those who were prominent in our earlier his- tory, has invited each State in the Federal Union to erecr in Statuary Hall two statues in honor of those two of her citizens whom it might deem most worthy of that distin- guished honor.

In hearty compliance with this invitation, the State of Texas has placed in that hall the statues of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin.

The early history of Texas was stirring and eventful. ( In the border land between the widely different — often antagonistic — civilizations of the progressive Saxons and

Sam Houston and Stephen F. .lust in n

the conservative Latin it was first a theater cm which the scenes of exploration, colonization, oppression, insurrection, revolution, invasion, and independence were presented in quick succession. Then for a few perilous years it existed as an independent republic, threatened by Mexico, courted bv European nations, but long repulsed by the United States in its efforts to secure a union with that country. Then came annexation, followed by a war with Mexico, which permanently determined its international boundary and forever fixed its place as a member of the American Union. Superadded to the incessant activity born of this stirring social and political life was the necessity of pro- tecting the country from the repeated raids of the Indians. These original owners of the soil hovered like a dark storm cloud over the western frontier, and many a trail of blood and tire marked their savage inroads across the steadily advancing line of settlements.

This strenuous life called for and called forth men of great and versatile talent. The enterprise of the pioneer, the daring of the scout, the industry and skill of the farmer, the courage of the soldier, the wisdom of the legis- lator, the genius of leadership, the talent for organization, the skill and tact of diplomacy were all needed to shape the destinies of the young State. There was no lack of able men, gifted by nature and trained in this practical school, to supply every social and political need.

Rich in men of the highest type, bewildered by an im- posing arrav of sons worthy of every honor, our State has found it no easy task to make the selection imposed by the

12 Acceptance of Statues of

act of Congress, but the task has been simplified by the reflection that the fame of those not thus selected is in no degree dependent upon memorials like these, but is secure in the records of history and in the memories of their ad- miring fellow-citizens.

Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston! The founder and the preserver! Each the complement of the other. Without Austin to build States no Houston would be needed to liberate them from oppression or to defend them from aggression; and without the sheltering and conserv- ing genius of a HOUSTON, vain would be the work of those who lay the foundations of States amid the solitude and savagery of the desert. Happy and wise, then, was the choice that linked these two ^reat characters together in a common memorial, as the two great originals were asso- ciated in working out, in different ways, a common destiny for one of the greatest of the American Commonwealths. [Applause.]

STEPHEN F. AUSTIN.

The two distinguished men whose statues have been presented here were born in the same State (Virginia) in the same year, 1793. Though thus of the same age, yet Austin's connection with Texas history began many years before the arrival of his great colleague, and death removed him from the scene of their common labors more than a quarter of a century before the career of HOUSTON was ended. Yet, in the 43 years of his life, he earned as sound a title as that of any man of his generation to the grateful remembrance of the people of Texas.

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 13

A popular historian, in contemplating the work of this

famous pioneer, said :

If he who, by conquest, wins an empire, receives the world's applause, how much more is due to those who, by unceasing toil, lay in the wilder- ness the foundations for an infant colony, and build thereon a vigorous and happv State! Surely there is not among men a more honorable des- tiny than to be the peaceful founder and builder of a new Commonwealth. Such was the destiny of Stephen F. Austin.

No truer estimate than this can be made of the work of AUSTIN. While he was yet a young man, the dying request of his father, Moses Austin, led him to come to Texas t<> complete a scheme of colonization into which hi- father had entered. Soon after his arrival in Texas, in the summer of 1S21, changes in the organic form of the Mexican Government made it necessary for him to go in person, by the most primitive modes of travel, to the City of Mexico, more than 1,000 miles distant, to secure a confirmation of the contract made with his father. Successive Mexican revolutions brought on several forms of government, each of which invalidated the acts of its predecessor; and Austin was thus compelled to remain at the Mexican capital more than two years. Such, however, was his diplomatic ability that he suc- ceeded in securing from each dominant faction, in due succession, a full ratification of the contract originally made with his father by the Mexican Government. Returning to Texas he found his colony rapidly disin- tegrating through the influence of a lawless element that had entered Texas during his absence. His contract with Mexico had conferred upon him judicial and military powers which rendered him almost independent of the

14 Acceptance of Statues of

local government. This fortunate circumstance not only gave free scope for the exercise of his great administrative abilities, but it brought order, peace, and prosperity to the colony. Violence and lawlessness disappeared under his rigid but just rule. Industry was encouraged, provi- dence and thrift were inculcated, trade was fostered, public- spirit awakened, civic pride developed by his precept and example. He neglected marriage. He built no home for himself, but lived among his colonists as a common guest of the community, heartily welcome at every fireside. He lived among them as a father and friend, a trusted counselor in every trouble, a faithful nurse in sickness, a provider in time of need, a guard in the hour of danger, an umpire whose ever-just and ever-satisfactory award settled disputes, a judge whose decision ever found unques- tioned acceptance among the litigants, a patriarch whose paternal influence bound together his widely scattered peo- ple in the bonds of a common brotherhood. [Applause.]

But Austin's diplomatic skill fully equaled his ability as an executive. At the head of a commission sent by the .Mexican State of Texas to the Mexican capital, after much suffering and great trials, he secured such modifications of existing federal legislation as would secure the people of Texas in the enjoyment under the Mexican flag of a more liberal measure of political justice.

At the outbreak of the Texas revolution Austin returned to Texas, and was at once sent to the United States as a commissioner to secure the recognition of Texan independ- ence, and his able presentation of his country's cause paved

Su/u Houston and Stephen /■'. Austin 15

the way, first for the recognition of Texan independence, and, later, for annexation to the United States.

The organization of a permanent government for the new Republic of Texas and the conclusion of a treaty of peace with Mexico divested Austin's mission of its impor- tance, and he returned to Texas to find, to his great joy, that the country had at last secured a form of government which guaranteed its people every right for which its sons had so valiantly contended in arms. A few months after- wards he was stricken down and quickly passed away, amid the lamentations of all the people of the State he had founded.

His life was indeed that "simple life" of which we have heard so much in praise, and yet it was one of ceaseless toil, varied duties, great responsibilities, arduous privation, dangerous adventure, and frequent disappointment. It called for great industry, unlimited patience, high diplo- matic talent, unwearied persistence, a broad sympathy for his fellow-man, and a sublime effacement of self and self- interest that he might the more thoroughly consecrate himself to his noble mission. How well he succeeded the world knows.

He left no wife and children to perpetuate his name and race; but a nation wept at the news of the death of their gentle, patient, sympathic, self-denying friend and coun- selor; and to-day, after the lapse of three score years and ten, no name is more fragrant with pleasant memories in Texan hearts or evokes a more ardent sense of gratitude and reyret than that of Stephen F. Austin.

16 Acceptance of Statues of

SAM HOUSTON.

The life of Sam Houston was one full of romance, and yet characterized by seriousness of purpose and clouded by tragic incident. Born in Virginia in 1793, he removed to Tennessee in early life and there lived near the Cherokee Indians. The primitive life of these simple people made a deep impression on his youthful mind, and there is little doubt that this influence abided with him through life.

The time and place of HOUSTON'S early life concurred to fit him for the career which subsequently opened up to him. During his early youth and young manhood there raged about him and throughout the entire country a storm of discussion of the meaning and interpretation of the provisions of the lately adopted Federal Constitu- tion. Chief Justice Marshall sat upon the Supreme Bench. Jefferson was still living and teaching the doc- trines of the Declaration of Independence. Hamilton had but lately died, but he had left behind him a school of admirers to echo his advocacy of centralization and life tenure, his distrust of the people, and his reluctance to admit them to a full control of the Government. The Kentuckv and Virginia resolutions and the alien and sedition laws lashed public sentiment into a fervor of excitement. The wisdom of the Louisiana purchase was still in debate. The war of r8i2, the Hartford conven- tion, and the Government's Indian policy kept popular t interest wide awake, while looming up into the foreground of the near future were the Monroe doctrine, the Missouri

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 17

compromise, nullification, and 'the United States Bank. Into this whirlpool of political turmoil had fate cast Houston's youth and early manhood. His mind grasped, in comprehensive outline, the salient features of each question, and his whole public career was characterized by nigged strength of conviction, clearness 1 if statement and understanding, and a controlling regard for the public interest. As a fearless ami faithful soldier for five vears on the Indian frontier, he gained the knowledge of the art of war, which no doubt proved of great value to him when years afterwards upon the plains of Texas, with an army far inferior in numbers, discipline, and equipment, he confronted and afterwards crushed the Mexican army under Santa Ana, the vaunted "Xapoleon of the West." Resigning from the United States Army, he chose the law for his profession, and entered a career seemingly full of promise. He rose rapidlv to distinction in his profession.

He was the pupil, if not the protege, of Jackson, and his life-long friend, personally and politically, and from Jack- son, to some extent, was gathered that spirit of independence and firmness which strongly marked his whole official life. Houston" was elected to Congress from the State of Ten- nessee in 1823 and again in 1S25. He left Congress in 1827 to accept the governorship of Tennessee, to which high position the people of that State had called him.

Two vears later, under the shadow of a great domestic

sorrow, he resigned his place as governor and sought

seclusion among his old friends, the Cherokee Indians, in

the Indian Territory. From the solitude of his secluded

H. Doc. 474, 58-3 2

iS Acceptance of Statues of

life among the Cherokees he heard the first faint murmurs of the coming Texas revolution. With his strong sense of justice he recognized the right of the questions involved in that revolution, and with characteristic promptness he removed to Texas in 1832 and espoused the cause of right and justice.

Within a year from the date of his arrival in Texas he was made a member of the first (San Felipe) constitutional convention and placed at the head of the military arm of the provisional government then and there instituted.

He was also a member of the second convention (New Washington). This body adopted a declaration of inde- pendence, and Houston' was again chosen commander in chief <>f the Texas forces then being marshaled to resist the invasion of the Mexican army under Santa Ana. The world knows the history of that campaign, of the battle of San Jacinto, the annihilation of the Mexican army, the capture of their commander in chief, and the subsequent and consequent recognition of Texan independence.

Houston's victory at .San Jacinto was so complete that even the enemy accepted it as final, and not another gun was fired on Texas soil.

It would have been strange if, after his eminent services to his newly adopted State, HOUSTON had not been chosen as the first President of the new-risen Republic of Texas, which his generalship had saved from extinction. He served the Republic in that capacity from 1S36 to 1838. His policy was marked by the same traits that characterized his official life in all other stations — economy in public- expenditures, justice in dealing with the Indians, strict

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 19

regard for private right with all classes of citizens, and a tenacious adherence to whatever course he had once decided on as right. Men of this character invariably meet with bitter opposition, and HOUSTON was no exception to the rule. Yet he retained that thorough respect from his critics which honestv of conviction always inspires; and the wisdom of his administration as the first President of the Texan Republic was attested by the fact that he left the Republic at peace with the Indians, friendly with Mexico, and with its treasury obligations at par.

From 1839 to 1841 he was a member of the Texan Con- gress, was reelected President of Texas in 1841, and during the dark davs of the Republic's infancy, when it was encompassed by financial and political dangers and seemed on the verge of ruin, HOUSTON'S strong personality, his steadfast faith in his country's future, and his strong per- sistence saved the Republic from abdicating its place among the nations and seeking absorption into some European state.

Foreseeing with prophetic eye the brilliant destiny await- ing the American Union, and recognizing the superior political and commercial advantages that would accrue to the Texan people by the consolidation of their Republic with its more powerful northern neighbor, he took the first step toward annexation and remained a steadfast advocate of that policy until its final consummation.

The new .State of Texas, in prompt and liberal recog- nition of his distinguished services, sent him to the United States Senate, where for twelve years he was a central figure in a bodv of men numbering among themselves

20 Acceptance oj Statues of

some of the ablest statesmen of American political history. With Calhoun and Webster, Clay and Benton, he discussed the great questions of that day; and linked with them in their strenuous official careers during his earthly life, he now shares with them the full measure of political immortality.

The closing act of his official life was in strict keeping with the character of the man. Being required to take the oath of allegiance to the new Confederacy into which Texas had entered, he could not stultify himself by casting lightly aside the fruits of that union with the United States for which he had long anil successfully labored. He de- clined to take the oath, resigned his position as governor of Texas, and retired to the shades of private life, carrying with him the unstinted respect, the high admiration, and the profound gratitude of all his fellow-citizens.

In 1863, amid the fierce clamor of that great civil war, which perhaps forms the most memorable landmark in the march of the Anglo-Saxon people up the centuries of political progress, HOUSTON passed into the calm and peace of that world peopled by the spirits of "the just made perfect." In a simple grave, devoid of show, lie the re- mains of the plain man ami citizen who in life shunned all pretense and display. Around him, spread out in the golden glory of a southern sun, stretches out in boundless reaches of plain and prairie and plateau the magnificent State he helped into being, protected in its infancy, and ably represented in these halls in its early maturity.

Sam Houston and Stephen /■'. Austin 21

AUSTIN AND HOUSTON.

Mr. Speaker, the generation that knew these men and loved them and honored them has nearly passed away, and a swarming population is now building the super- structure of a mighty .State on the foundations so solidly laid by Austin and Houston. Two beautiful cities and two popular counties preserve on Texan soil the names of her two noble sons, and their statues, chiseled in marble, perpetuate their memories here; but if, as has been said, the most enduring monuments are those we build in the hearts of men, then the fame of Austin and HOUSTON is indeed secure, for as long as the great Commonwealth by the southern sea stands as a bulwark of freedom and a monument of heroic achievement, go long will the names of these two men endure.

Austin and Houston! The founder and the liberator! Fellow-citizens of the United States, admit these statues to their rightful place in this Hall of Fame. Texas offers them as her' proud contribution to this impressive symposium of American greatness. As the countless hosts of visitors from every land pass through this Hall these memorials will impress upon them the fact that, despite all our commercialism and love of wealth and show, the American people still measure men by their merit, and that thev honor, without respect to birth or class, those who have served their country well. And if the evil dav should ever come — in some far-off centurv, if at all, we hope — when our ideals shall have changed and our free Republic shall be replaced by the rule of a man or

22 Acceptajice of Statues of

class, may these statues still look clown from their ped- estals into the upturned faces below and tell in speechless eloquence of that happy long ago when this circle of heroes and statesmen and sages lived upon earth and each gave his life's best work to found and perpetuate a government which, ruled by right and justice, will reflect the glory of God and promote the good of man. [Loud applause.]

Sam Houston and Stephen /■'. Austin

Address of Mr. Richardson, of Tennessee

Mr. Speaker: Texas, imperial in her area and resources, honors herself when she places the statues of Sam Hous- ton and Stephen F. Austin in the Memorial Hall of this Capitol. Others have spoken to-day, and still others will vet speak of both of these men, but in what I shall say I shall refer alone to HOUSTON. In the brief time- allotted reference can be made to only a comparatively few of the incidents and events in his long, varied, unique, and sometimes thrilling career, and they can barely be mentioned, while much, very much, that is of surpassing interest and importance in his life must necessarily be omitted. It is peculiarly appropriate that Texas should honor Sam Houston, for while he was born in \ 'irginia and grew to manhood in Tennessee, and there won the verv highest position in the State, and in fact to all intents and purposes made himself a Tennessean, yet at last it was in Texas, before and after she became a State of the American Union, that he reached the zenith of his fame. It was in Texas that he not only won renown for himself, but made the very name Texas a synonym for all that stands for patriotism, courage, and heroism. I shall not put forth the claim that HOUSTON alone won this glorious distinction for Texas, for there were other heroes and patriots, whose names I have not time to barelv mention here and now, who justly shared it with

24 Acceptance oj Statues oj

him. There is one, however, I am constrained to name, because he, too, was a Tennessean, a native of that State. I refer to the immortal Davy Crockett. [Applause.] He was born in Tennessee, and represented one of her dis- tricts on this floor for three Congresses. He was at last drawn to Texas by her thrilling story and the burning desire to assist her in her heroic struggle for liberty and independence. At the Alamo he gave his life to Texas. HOUSTON and Crockett! What a priceless legacy Ten- nessee bequeathed to Texas in these two men — men whose names stand for courage, duty, and heroism, and are indis- solubly associated with both States!

Houston was horn March 2, 1793, in Rockbridge County, Ya., and was of Scotch-Irish descent. When he was quite young his father died and his mother removed with him, when he was only 12 years of age, to Blount County, Tenn., and located near the line of the Cherokee Indians. As a boy he spent much of his time with these Indians, became warmly attached to them, and was adopted by one of the chiefs. His early life was spent there in their new home on the banks of the beautiful stream which gave its name to the State, and he was a frequent inmate of the wigwams of this Indian tribe. It was here that he first tasted the pleasures of that romantic and undisciplined mode of life characteristic of the red man, and which possessed a strong fascination for him, as it has often been shown to possess even for those reared in the lap of luxurious indulgence. At the age of 20 years he enlisted in the Seventh United States Infantry and fought with desperate bravery through the Creek war. In the

Sam Houston and Stephen /•'. Austin 25

battle of the Horse Shoe, where he was badly wounded, he attracted the attention of General Jackson, who caused him to be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Regular Army. His wounds were so severe that he was borne to the home of his mother in East Tennessee on a litter. In 1 818 he was promoted to be a first lieutenant. Soon after his promotion, and while John C. Calhoun was Secretary of War, his conduct in connection with the smuggling of negroes from Florida into the United States was criticised by the War Department, and he resigned from the Army. An investigation was had, and it was conclusively shown that the charge against him was unfounded; that he had actually endeavored to prevent the smuggling, and he was completelv exonerated. He then made his home in Nashville, Tenn., where he studied the law. In 1S19 he was elected district attorney ; was early thereafter appointed adjutant-general of the State, and in 1821 was elected major-general of State Militia over strong opposition. He was elected to Congress from the Nashville district, in which General Jackson resided, in 1823, and was reelected in 1S25.

During his second term he fought a duel with Gen. William White, of Nashville, whom he wounded. As a member of the House he met his old comrade and com- mander, General Jackson, who was then a United States Senator from Tennessee, and as they each served on the Military Committee of their respective Houses, they were frequently officially brought together. In Congress he acted with Jackson, and in opposition to the policies of John Onincy Adams and Mr. Clay, and gave high evidence

26 Acceptance of Statues of

of ability and statesmanship. In [827 he was the suc- cessful candidate for governor of Tennessee, defeating Willie Blount and Newton Cannon, both men of much ability, and each of whom at different times was chosen governor of the State. In all of these contests he was the ardent friend and partisan of General Jackson, which fact doubtless had influence in aiding him in each con- test to win the victory. While governor of Tennessee, in January, 1829, nc married Miss Eliza Allen, the daughter of a highly influential and prominent family in Sumner County. Three months thereafter he suddenly separated from his wife, resigned from the office of gov- ernor, and, without a word of explanation, left the State and went to the territory west of the Mississippi River, and again settled among the Cherokee Indians, making his home with the old Indian chief who had adopted him in early life. His resignation was highly sensational, and throughout the State of Tennessee a storm of vitu- peration was raised against him that was not easily quelled. Governor HOUSTON, with emphasis, declined to i^ive to the public any reason or cause for his course, yet he did not hesitate to say that the cause of the sep- aration from his wife in no way affected her character. ( >n the date of his separation from his wife he addressed a letter to the speaker of the senate of the Tennessee legislature, Mr. Hall, who was to succeed him, under the law, in the office of governor. This letter has remained buried in the archives of the Tennessee Historical Society at Nashville, and I believe was never published until recently, when a prominent gentleman (A. S. Colyar) at

Sam I {tut stun and Stephen F. . lust in 27

Nashville, a man of ability and literary attainment, gave it to the public in a valuable work written by himself, entitled the "Life and Times of Andrew Jackson." He savs of this letter that "the original is in a small, round hand, signed in clear, hold hand, without an error in spelling or punctuation, and would pass for the product of a man of high literary attainment. In sentiment, delicate in touching his great family affliction, and beau- tifully remembering the nation's great soldier who had been more than a father to him, and in separating from a people who had so honored him, no attainment in lit- erature could improve it." I will reproduce this letter, as it will assist in illustrating the character of this main sided man. It is as follows:

Executive Office, Nashville, Tenn.K April /r>. 1829. Sir: It lias become my duty t<> resign the office of chief magistrate of the State, and to place in your hand the authority and responsibility, which on such an event devolves on you by the provisions of the constitution. In dissolving the political connection which has so long and in such a variety of forms existed between the people of Tennessee and myself, no private affliction, however deep or incurable, can forbid an expression of the grateful recollections so eminently due to the kind partialities of an indulgent public. From my earliest youth, whatever of talent was com- mitted to mv care, has been honestly cultivated and expended for the common good; and at no period of a life, which has certainly been marked by a full portion of interesting events, have any views of private interest or private ambition been permitted to mingle in the higher duties of public trust. In reviewing the past I can only regret that my capacity for being useful was so unequal to the devotion of my heart, ami it is one of the few consolations of my life, that even had I been blessed with ability equal to mv zeal, my countrv's generous support in every vicissitude of life has been more than equal to them both. That veneration for public opinion by which I have measured every act of my official life, has taught me to hold no delegated power which would not daily be renewed by my con- stituents, could the choice be daily submitted to a sensible expression of

28 Acceptance of Statues of

their will. And although shielded by a perfect consciousness of undi- minished claim to the confidence and support of my fellow-citizens, and delicately circumstanced as I am and by my own misfi irtunes more than the fault or contrivance of any one, overwhelmed by sudden calamities, it is certainly due to myself and more respectful to the world, that I retire from a position which, in the public judgment, I might seem to occupy by questionable authority. It yields me no small share of comfort, so far as I am able of taking comfort from any circumstance, that in resigning my executive charge, I am placing it in the hands of one whose integrity and worth have been long tried; who understands and will pursue the true interests of the State; anil who, in the hot r of success and in the hour of adversity, has been the consistent and valued friend of the great and good man now enjoying the triumph of his virtues in the conscious security of a nation's gratitude.

Sam Houston. To ( Jen. VVm. Hall,

Speaker of the Senate, Tennesset -

I wish here to emphasize one passage in this letter, as I deem it worthy of especial notice, and it may be com- mended to all politicians. It seems to me to be the refine- ment of delicate sentiment. The clause of his letter to which I refer is this: "That veneration for public opinion by which I have measured every act of my official life has taught me to hold no delegated power which would not daily be renewed by my constituents could the choice be daily submitted to a sensible expression of their will."

Houston was of a tall and commanding figure, im- posing in appearance, pleasant and affable in demeanor, and of popular manners. Public speaking and political oratory had not been so fully developed in his day as now, and yet as tin attorney and in other wavs he had shown that he possessed oratorical powers of no mean order. He was, however, more a man of action than of words. In 1832 he made a visit to Washington on busi- ness of the Indians. He came clothed in the earb of

Sam Houston and Stephen /■'. Austin 29

the Indian, and was kindly received by almost everyone, and particularly by President Jackson, who, of course, kiu-w him well. While in Washington on this visit he was charged by William Stanberry, a Member of Con- gress from Ohio, with attempting to obtain a fraudulent c mtract for furnishing Indian supplies. He felt himself insulted by Mr. Stanberry, for which he attacked and beat him severely. He was arraigned for this offense at the bar of the House, was tried, and was reprimanded and fined, but the fine was remitted by the President.

His trial before the House lasted for about four weeks, during which period there was much bitterness shown in the debates on the subject, the friends of the Adminis- tration of President Jacks. - usually taking Houston's side of the controversy. The President himself was out- spoken in his behalf, and did not find fault with him for his assault on the Member of the House. It is alleged that he said that "After a few more examples of the same kind, Members of Congress would learn to keep civil tongues in their heads." < m leaving Washington for his Indian home after this trial he passed through Tenne->ee. and was received throughout the State wherever he went with flattering demonstrations of regard. He was urged to remain in the State, but chose not to stay, preferring to return to his wigwam in the Indian Nation. After returning to the Indians and remaining a while in Arkansas, he determined to leave that region and remove to Texas, where he was to find a broader field and wider opportunities for the display

30 Acceptance of Statues of

of the strong and excellent qualities of mind he pos- sessed, and where lie no doubt thought he would be the better enabled to accomplish his destiny.

While in Arkansas he met Elias Rector, afterwards governor of that State, and Albert Pike, both men more or less resembling himself in spirit and resolution, and between whom and himself strong ties of friendship were formed. General Pike a few Years before his death related the following incident in the life oi Houston:

Houston was leaving Arkansas for his new home in Texas, and circumstances threw Rector and himself t( - gether for a ride on horseback of a day or two, when their paths were to separate, each to go his way. Rector was then United States marshal c :" the Territory. The horse upon which he was mounted was a stronger and 1 letter one than was Houston's. The latter, it seems,, was mounted on a small pony that had suffered the misfortune of losing his tail. As they were about to separate, HOUSTON pro- posed a trade of their horses, because, as he said, his had no tail with which to defend himself from the flies, which were a sore pest in the southern country whither he was journeying, and Rector consented. They dismounted and proceeded to make the exchange, each keeping his own bridle and saddle. While on the ground, and as he was about to hid his friend Rector good-by, he made a little speech in the nature of an apostrophe to his pony, the title- to which had passed from him. General Pike said he could not give HOUSTON'S speech in the exact words he used, but that in substance it was as follows: "Jack, my faithful old servant, yon and I must part. We have been

Satn Houston and Stephen F. Austin 31

friends a lon<^ time and have been mutually beneficial to each other. Yon have been a good servant to me ; but, Jack, there comes a time in the life of every man when he and his friends must separate. Though you have served me long and faithfully, and we have been trne friends, the time has now come when we must take final leave of each other. At such a time it is but just, my good old com- panion, that I should give expression to my feelings. You are a faithful pony. You are a hardy pony. You are a sure-footed pony. Rut cruel man has made you defense- less against the common enemy of vour kind, the peskv flies. This is the hot season, and where I am iroing- thev are verv thick. Against these pests the Almighty saw fit in His wisdom to ^rivt- you defense, but man has taken it from you, and against them without a tail you are help- less. I must therefore with pain and anguish part with you." When he was read}- to mount and leave Rector, the latter said to him: " Houston, I wish to give you something as a keepsake before we separate, and I have nothing that will do for the gift except my razor. I never saw a better one. They say one ought not to give his friends an edged tool, as it might cut friendship, but this one will not cut your friendship and mine." Houston accepted the razor and said: "Rector, I accept your gift, and, mark my words, if I have ^ood luck, this razor will sometime shave the chin of the President of a republic." [Applause.] The dream of a republic for Texas was even then in the mind of this remarkable man, and in visions thereof he saw himself as its President. His friend Rector probablv thought it was a hallucination of his eccentric

32 Acceptance of Statues of

friend, but he lived to see the dream, if it were a dream, of HOUSTON a living reality. He went directly to Texas. It was not long after his arrival before a convention was called to meet at San Felipe de Austin. It met April i, 1833, and HOUSTON was chosen a member of it. This convention adopted a constitution, but not until Houston had had inserted in it a provision forbidding the establish- ment of banks by the legislature. He was then elected attorney-general of a portion of Texas, and was chosen a member of the "general consultation" of 1835 that met to establish a provisional government. He did not at that time favor absolute independence, but was elected com- mander in chief of the army of Texas.

A convention of which he was a member met at New Washington and adopted a declaration of absolute inde- pendence March 2, 1S36, which also reelected him commander in chief. Following this action oii the part of Texas came war with Mexico, in which HOUSTON took a prominent and highly honorable part. The Mexican army, commanded by Santa Ana, invaded Texas and achieved several important and bloody victories, but on April 21, 1S36, their army, 1,800 strong, met the Texans, 750 strong, under Houston, on the banks of the San Jacinto, and after a fierce conflict the Mexicans were totally routed, losing 650 killed and 730 prisoners, their general, Santa Ana, being among the captured. When the numbers engaged are taken into account, history does not record a more brilliant achievement. Houston himself was wounded by a shot in his ankle, which fractured the bone. The result of this battle was the complete rout of

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 2>3

the Mexican army, and it gave independence to Texas. The Republic of Texas was promptly recognized by England, France, Belgium, and the United States. Houston, by reason of his physical condition, was taken to New Orleans for medical treatment. The election of the first regular president of Texas was appointed for the first Monday of September, 1836. The candidates were Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, and Henry Smith. Houston was elected, receiving 4,374 votes out of 5.014, the whole number cast. He at once appointed his two late opponents. Austin and Smith, to the principal offices in his cabinet. During his term of office he set to work to secure the admission of Texas into our Union of States. He placed her financial affairs on a healthy basis, her paper was at par, she was at peace, not only with Mexico, but with the Indian tribes. When he retired from the Presidency, he served two years in the Texas Congress, and in 1841 was again elected President of the Republic.

Although he had been out of the Presidency for only about two years, he found important errors of his predeces- sor to correct. By unwise and unfortunate management strife and conflicts with the Indians had been stirred up, and the public debt, which was insignificant when HOUSTON retired two years before, had increased to nearly S5, 000,000. He enforced while in office the most rigid economy; reduced all salaries, including his own, about one-half; abolished all offices not strictly required for the service, and permitted no appropriation to be made except those necessary for the existence of his government, and at the same time restored H. Doc.474, 5S-3 3

34 Acceptance of Statins of

amicable relations with the Indians. In June, 1842, the Texas Congress passed a bill declaring him Dictator, and voted 1 (.1,000,000 acres of land to resist the threatened Mexican invasion. HOUSTON vetoed these measures, and the trouble with Mexico was averted by him. While Presi- dent he ]>ut into effective play some of his powers as a diplomat. He was sincerely desirous of having Texas annexed to our Union, and had allowed no opportunity to escape him while serving Texas to advance this project. He was a farsighted statesman, and realized in its fullest importance the advantages of having the protecting arm of our Government extended over her. He was acquainted with her vast resources and knew that under the benignant rule of this Government, with her genial climate and her fertile soil, she would be speedily developed, and that the interest likewise of the United States would be promoted by annexation.

As a means of inducement to the United States to give encouragement to him and his colaborers in their efforts for annexation, he began coquetting in a diplo- matic way with France, England, and Spain. He knew that the pronounced opposition of the United States to the intrusion of any European nation into American territory could not be overcome, and in diplomatic fashion he availed himself of this feeling and prejudice to quicken the sense of this country in favor of annexation. At the time of which I speak the question of the annexation of Texas was becoming a burning issue in the political parties of this country. The efforts of those favorintr annexation with us, and those in Texas who

Sam Houston and Stephen /-". Austin 35

followed the lead of Houston were successful, and on December 29, 1845, Texas entered our Union as a State. By this action, the second time in her history, she became a part of the United States. She had been once before under our flag, and had been unwisely or improvi- dently ceded away to a foreign power, but now she was in the Union as a sovereign State, and in to stay. This was the first instance in our history that a State has been admitted as such without having gone through a probationary term as a Territory. This accession to our territory was under President Polk's Administration, and it was characterized by him as a bloodless achievement. He said no arm of force had been raised by the United States to produce the result; that the sword had no part in the victory; that we had not sought to extend our territorial possessions by conquest, or our republican institutions oyer a reluctant people. It was the deliberate homage of each people to the great principle of our federative union.

If we ci insider the extent of territory involved in the annexation, its prospective influence on America, the means by which it has been accomplished, .springing purely from the choice of the people themselves to share the blessings of our Union, the history of the world may- be challenged to furnish a parallel. And he said, in con- templating the grandeur of this event, it is not to be forgotten that the result was achieved in despite of the diplomatic interference of European monarchies. Even France, the country which had been our ancient ally, the country which has a common interest with us in

36 Acceptance of Statues of

maintaining the freedom of the seas, the country which, by the cession of Louisiana, first opened to us access to the Gulf of Mexico, the country with which we have been every year drawing more and more closely the bonds of suc- cessful commerce, most unexpectedly, and to our unfeigned regret, took part in an effort to prevent annexation and to impose on Texas, as a condition of the recognition of her independence by Mexico, that she would never join herself to the United States. We may rejoice that the tranquil and pervading influence of the American principle of self- government was sufficient to defeat the purposes of British and French interference, and that the almost unanimous voice of the people of Texas has given to that interference a peaceful and effective rebuke. From this example European Governments may learn how vain diplomatic arts and intrigues must ever prove upon this continent against that system of self-government which seems natural to our soil, and which will ever resist foreign interference. And he bespoke for Texas at the hands of Congress a liberal and generous spirit in all that concerns her interest and prosperity, to the end that she should never have cause- to regret that she had united her " lone star " to our glorious constellation.

HOUSTON was one of her two first United States Senators, taking his seat in March, 1846, and serving until 1859. He- was warmlv attached to the Union of the States, as is shown by his votes and speeches in the Senate. He opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and voted against the Uecomptou constitution of 1857,

Sam Houston and Stephen F. .ius/hi 37

which provided for slavery in Kansas, and in this displeased many of his southern colleagues. He advocated the admis- sion of California as a free State, and the construction of the Pacific Railroad through Texas. He was always the friend of the Indians and of measures in the Senate that tended to the betterment of their condition. It was a favorite expression of his that "no treaty made and carried out in good faith had ever been violated by the Indians." He was popular with both of the great political parties, as shown by the fact that he was considered available by members of each as a candidate for President. Votes were cast for him for the presidential nomination by delegates in the convention of the Democratic party in 1852, and in that of the American partv in 1856. In the convention of the Union or Whig partv in i860, at Baltimore, in which John Bell, of Tennessee, received the nomination for Presi- dent, Houston was his chief opponent. The delegates from Tennessee placed Mr. Bell forward, while those from Texas presented HOUSTON, wdio was supported also by the delegation from New York. In this convention the cry was union against disunion. ( >n the second ballot Mr. Bell was nominated, receiving 68 ' _. votes, while Houston received 57 votes. In that emergency it so happened that the vote of Tennessee was decisive of the result. It was east for Mr. Bell, and it defeated HOUSTON. One delegate from Tennessee did break away from his colleagues and voted for HOUSTON; and it is eertainlv true that Mr. Bellj who was the idol of his party in the State, was the only man who could have received the vote of Tennessee over him.

,vs • leceptance of Statues of

In the election for governor of Texas in [857 he was defeated, but in [859 he was again chosen to that office. This time he became the seventh governor of Texas, as he had been the seventh governor of Tennessee. As I have already indicated, he was warmly attached to the union of the .States, and while he greatly deplored the election of Mr. Lincoln as the result of the national contest in [860, he declared that in his election alone he saw no grounds for secession. After the secession of the .State of Texas, in r86i, he refused to take the oath of office to the Confederate government and was deposed from his office as governor of the State. The Government at Washington thereupon offered to assist him, but he firmly declined such aid. On May 10, r86i, he spoke publicly at Independence, Tex. In this speech he entered upon the defense of his position and that of those who acted with him in their conduct toward the war. He said, " The voice of hope was weak, since drowned by the guns of Fort Sumter. The time has come when a man's section is his country. I stand by mine. Whether we have opposed this secession movement or favored it, we must alike meet its consequences. It is no time to turn back now." And thus, like main' others of which he was only the type, however devoted and ardent was their love and veneration for the union of the States, the guns of Port Sumter silenced their opposition to the efforts of their States to separate from the Union, and henceforward they submitted, as he did, silently to the inevitable, while many others who felt as he did in the beginning drew their swords and went forth to battle to defend their section

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 39

from what they considered the unconstitutional, unwar- ranted, and unjustifiable assault made upon it. Houston took no active part in public affairs after retiring from the office of governor. ( hi July 26, 1863, at Huntsville, Walker County, Tex., he died. The marble shafts set up in yonder hall in commemoration of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin will perish and molder into dust long before their acts and deeds, and those of their colaborers, in behalf of Texas shall be forgotten; and longer still will it be before the results of those acts and deeds shall cease to be felt and shall cease to bring rich and countless blessings to their posterity. [Loud applause.]

4o Acceptance of Statues* of

Address of Mr. Burgess, of Texas

Mr. Speaker, the act of Congress creating Statuary Hall as a place in which each State of the Union could place the statue of two of its citizens is grounded upon a wise patriotism, in that it tends to both State and national pride, to the uplift of our national character, to the increased tension of "the mystic cords of memory stretch- ing from even- battlefield and patriot grave to every liv- ing heart and hearthstone all over this broad land." The place selected is one of the most appropriate to further the purpose; namely, the old Hall of the House of Representatives.

That gifted writer, who has so often entertained and instructed us by his articles in the Washington Post — Savoyard — recently says of this Hall:

This Hall is tile famous echo chamber, according to Captain Kennedy, the chief of the National Capitol Guides, the most perfect in the world. It was in this Hall that some , .;' the most illustrious men in all parlia- mentary history engaged in forensic combat. Here Clay was five times chosen Speaker. Here was debated the issues represented by Jefferson and the elder Adams. Jackson ami the younger Adams, alien and sedi- tion, embargo and war. the tariff of 1S2S, the force bill of 1S31 and the compromise of 1S32, the Mexican war and the Wihnot proviso, the com- promise of 1S50 and the Kansas-Nebraska bill, the Dred Scott decision and Lecotnpton, secesssion and the war of 1861 — all these were here debated, and numberless other kindred political issues that necessarily arise in a free country, where parties have their genu in the individualism of the citizen or the paternalism of the government.

Volumes might be written of the men who made this old Hall historic and illustrious. Here Randolph lorded it as has no other man, and here

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 41

the younger Adams earned the title "old man eloquent." Here he assailed Webster and was assailed by Evans. It was here that Marshall and Wise encountered the old statesman in debates on the twenty-first rule, and flew at each other's throats in discussions of the vetoes of Presi- dent Tvler. And here Douglas fleshed his nearly maiden blade in a dis- ussion of the Texas boundary with the veteran who. as Secretary of State in Monroe's cabinet, had claimed all Texas. It was here that S. S. Prentiss made the most eloquent speech Congress ever heard, if we are to believe tradition.

Mr. Speaker, Texas has availed herself of the privilege of this act and has caused to be placed in this Hall statues of two of her most illustrious citizens — Sam HOUSTON and Stephen Fuller Austin.

Perhaps no Commonwealth owes a deeper or wider debt of gratitude to other States and other lands for the gift of splendid sons and daughters to uplift and adorn her citizen- ship than does the State which, in part, I have the honor here to represent. Almost every State in the Union, and almost everv civilized country in Europe, has contributed to the best of the citizenship of Texas, and we have, doubtless, the most commingled blood on the face of the earth. The deepest debt of gratitude, perhaps, she owes for such gifts is to those two splendid Commonwealths — Tennessee and Missouri. [Applause.] For the first gave her Sam Houston and the second Stephen F. Austin.

It is not my purpose to speak at length as to the character and capacity of these two illustrious men or to recount in detail the heroic events in which each bore so potent and conspicuous a part.

Sam Houston had a most remarkable, a most romantic, a most successful career. He was governor of Tennessee; he was commander in chief of the Texas revolutionary

42 Acceptance of Statues of

army, the first President of the Republic of Texas, gover- nor of the State of Texas, and a Senator from that State in the Senate of the United States. In all these posi- tions he filled them to the fullest measure of patriotic duty. The memory of his life, his character, and his services to our State constitutes the chief link in quite a long chain that binds together the hearts of all Ten- nesseeans and Texans in bonds of affection.

STEPHEN F. Austin was also a man of verv fine ability and of spotless character. His father was a native of the State of Connecticut, emigrated to Virginia, and thence to Missouri. While a resident of that State he conceived the idea of securing colonial grants of land in the territory now known as Texas, and this idea so possessed him that he undertook what in those times was a long and perilous journey in furtherance of this plan. He traveled to Texas, and in December of the year r820 he reached Bexar. Here he discussed the purpose of his journey with Baron de Bastrop, whom he had previously known at New Orleans, and he was intro- duced to Governor Martinez, to whom he explained his desire. A memorial was drawn Up, and, after approval by the local authorities, was forwarded to the commander of the northeastern internal provinces. This memorial asked for permission to colonize 300 families. This commandant-general, Hon Joaquin Arredondo, then re- sided at Monterey, and the distance required considerable time for an answer to be returned. Austin, leaving the matter with the Baron de Bastrop to act as his agent,

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austi)i 43

set out cm his return in January, [821. He traveled back home, doubtless with bright hopes of the good fortune that awaited him and his posterity in this beautiful land through which he had journeyed. But it was not to be. By cold and exposure on this trip he sickened and died. A few days before his death, how- ever, he received the welcome news of the approval of his application to plant a colony in Texas, and he died leaving both as a deathbed injunction and as a glorious inheritance as well to this son of his this enterprise which he had so successfully inaugurated. The son was seized with the same ardor which possessed the father, and he journeyed down to Texas and founded a colony under the first colonial charter by which white settlement was authoritatively made in Texas. This grant to found a colony in Texas bore date January 17, 182 1, and it provided that the colonists should be Roman Catholics, or agree to become such before they entered Spanish territory; that they should furnish evidence of their good character and habits and take oath of fidelity to the King to defend the government and political constitution of the Spanish monarchy.

From that time to the date of his death, with untiring zeal, with the loftiest patriotism, with the greatest con- servative ability, he labored to build up that territory in the best interest of all the colonists who flocked not only to his standard but to the standards of main- others who followed in his wake. His wise counsel was ever a tower of strength to the struggling colonists through all that

44 Acceptance oj Statues of

storm}' period which led t<> the establishment of the

Texan Republic. Yoakum, who wrote one of the earliest

and best histories of Texas, says of AUSTIN:

Although Austin's powers were almost absolute, he governed with parental mildness. His soul was absorbed in the great business of the successful completion of his enterprise. He was esteemed by each colonist, not so much .is a ruler as a father and friend. By example and precept he inspired them with the love of order and industi

The same historian pays his memory this beautiful tribute:

If he who by conquest wins an empire and receives the world's applause, how- much more is due to those who. by unceasing toil, lav in the wilderness the foundation for an infant colony, and build thereon a vigorous and happy State' Surely there is not among men a more lion- or. 1 ile destiny than to lie the peaceful founder and builder of a new empire. Such was that of the younger AUSTIN,

About these two men — HOUSTON and Austin — cluster a series of events as remarkable as any recorded in the history of the world.

These two great men are gone. If they could return n<>w to the scene of their heroic action and behold the State which tltey founded and for which they fought, what joy would animate them ! Now they would behold a great State of the Union, inhabited by more than 3,000,000 people, cultivating more acres of land than any State of the American Union : the greatest agricultural and stock-raisin"- State in this Union ; a State annually bringing into the channels of American commerce more gold from Europe than any other State ; a State whose population is more happily distributed than any other territory in the world ; a State whose internal goyerument, whose low taxation, whose educational funds and institu- tions, whose administration of justice, are second to none.

Sam Houston and Stephen /■'. Austin 45

And, standing in the proud present, thinking of the glo- rious past, the contemplation of the future would stagger even these far-seeing intellects. For no human vision can foretell what the resistless sweep of civilization and prog- ress shall accomplish in the coming years in the State of the Lone Star, with a territory comprising so much fertile soil, of such various adaptability to all the forms of agri- culture possible on the Western Continent ; with a great Gulf coast upon which mouths to the open sea are calling for the commerce of so vast an area to pour it out into the markets of the world, and which invite in return so much of imports to so large a section. When the Gulf of Mexico becomes, as it surely will, the Mediterranean of the Western Continent, and factories mingle with agricul- ture, a progress and a power will be ours far beyond our ken. Those of us who live there pray that our patriotism and that of our posterity may he equal to the discharge of all the great tasks that our great future will hold for us. May the spirit of our fathers fall with tender benediction and inspiring purpose upon us and our children forever. Texas has not only a glorious but a unique history. She comprises the only territory upon the surface of the globe which has a historv that parallels in patriotic purpose, struggle, and achievement that of the thirteen colonies of America. Those thirteen colonies were peopled by lovers of liberty, who came from almost every section of the Old World to find in the New a religious and civil liberty which they yearned for, but could not secure in the Old. Oppression and tyranny gradually followed them across the Atlantic, and laid the "mailed hand" with

(.6 Acceptance <>/ Statues of

ever-tightening grip upon them and their descendants. That spirit of liberty, which is immortal, was so widel) dis- seminated among the colonists as that resistance to oppres- sion became the birth cry of revolution. Those brave spirits, whose splendid capacity was often excelled bv their unself- ish courage, formulated in the open, wrote and signed a bold, defiant declaration of their independence, and suc- cessfully achieved it by a war never excelled in privation and patriotism. They ordained a constitution for the preservation of that independence they had achieved and tlie conservation of that libertv which they loved. They selected a flag typical of the Government which they thus established, and in its bine field they pinned thirteen stars, one for each State in the great Republic which they had organized. In that war they had their Lexington, which gave tongue to the revolution; Saratoga, which brightened their hopes, and Yorktown, which brought assurance of success. They had their Hunker Hill, Mon- mouth, and Trenton, and the pathetic privations of Valley Forge, where the soldiers of tlie Revolution verily trod the Yallev of the Shadow of Death — all memorable in those glorious annals which record the struggles of patriots to secure liberty.

Some years after, away down by the Gulf of Mexico, in as fair a land as ever was kissed by the rays of the sun, brave, adventurous spirits went to settle, to make homes for themselves and their children. From the ter- ritory of the «reat Middle West, from the shores of the Atlantic, from almost every State and Territory of the Union, thev came to this fair land and settled in what

Sam Houston and Stephen /■'. Austin 47

is now known as Texas — what was then Mexican terri- tory. They settled originally under the fairest promises of just treatment by the parent Government with respect to all the rights which affected their life, their liberty, and their property. But here, too, the hand of tyranny was laid upon them, as had been the case with the thirteen colonies. The same love of liberty, the same reckless devotion to human rights, throbbed in the bosoms of these colonists that had been so potent among those of the thir- teen colonies. Revolution came here as the result. These colonists met in the open and they wrote a declaration of independence, and achieved it by a short, desperate, but decisive war. They ordained a constitution, they selected a flay typical of the Republic which they had founded. This flay had a blue field, wherein gleamed a lone star, which stood for the sovereignty of the Republic for which they had sacrificed so much. They had their Gonzales, where the first shot was fired in resistance to tyranny and lit a fire of freedom that could not be quenched ; their Alamo and Goliad. The desperate valor of the one and the merciless butchery of the other made the glory of their San Jacinto possible, for they gave that battle cry " Remember the Alamo and Goliad" to Sam Houston's army — the most stirring, vengeful, animating war cry that ever fell from patriot warriors' lips since the dawn of history.

As I believe, in the providence of God the time came vi hen the people of the United States and the people of the Republic of Texas agreed to unite under one flag of the United States, and the Republic of Texas took its

[8 Acceptance of Statues of

lone star from the flay of its republic and pinned it in the blue field with the stars of the States of the Union, to mingle with them in the same flag and under the same Constitution, in a common, glorious destiny. May the radiance of these stars light the liberty for which they stand to the remotest corners of the earth. May the sweet lilies of peace, rooted in the blood of revolution shed for freedom's sake, exhale their fragrance in the hearts of men till the nations of the world shall catch step to that sacred song which in the long ago echoed over Tudea's hills, " ( )n earth peace, good will toward men." [Lond applause.]

Saw Houston and St, pin n /■'. Austin 49

Address of Mr. Clark, of Missouri

Mr. Speaker: I shall attempt no panegyric upon Texas or upon Texans. They need none. Even if they did, her Representatives here are amply qualified and always willing to sound her praises, which no tongue or pen can exhaust. The intense State pride which was erst- while characteristic in an extraordinary degree of Vir- ginians, South Carolinians, and Massachusetts people is eclipsed by that of the citizens of the Lone Star State. They are fully justified in that laudable feeling, for State pride is patriotism. Here is a fine mot by Henry Ward Beecher: "When I see a man who has nothu say of the place he came from, I want to know what mean thing he did there." [Applause.] Most assuredly the «reat preacher would have had no occasion to com- plain of a Texan on that score, for he is as thoroughly enamored of his State as is any youth of his sweetheart or any man of his wife. In his eyes she is perfection itself. His passion for her approximates idolatry. And who shall blame him for his b iwering pride in and his undving affection for that mammoth Commonwealth? With a most glorious past, with a most prosperous present, Texas faces a future to which none but the greatest of the major prophets and the sublimest of the epic poets could do justice. It makes even a hard-headed, unimagi- native outside admirer and friend dizzy to contemplate H. Doc. 474. 58-3 4

50 Acceptance of Statues of

by the eye of faith the Texas that is to be. [Applause.] So I reluctantly leave Texas to the Texans on this occasion, though no orator could desire a nobler theme.

The law gives to each State the right to erect in Statuary Hall the statues of two, and only two, of her distinguished citizens; but Fortune, generous to imperial Missouri in this as in all things else, has placed five of her illustrious sons in that goodly company. Missouri herself contributed statues of Col. Thomas Hart Benton and Gen. Francis Preston Blair. Illinois sent that of Gen. James Shields, a hero in two wars, who represented in the Senate of the United States Illinois. Minnesota, and Missouri — a record never equaled and perhaps never to be equaled. West Virginia is represented by Senator John E. Kenna, who was reared in Missouri. Now comes Texas the magnificent and brings still another Missourian, Stephen Fuller Austin, to stand forever as one of her chosen representatives in that group of renowned historic characters. As his companion in perpetual glory she dedicates Gen. Sam Houston, statesman, soldier, orator, "the liberator of Texas," than whom even good Sir Walter himself never drew a more fascinating, a more romantic, or a braver figure. [Applause.]

The coming of Austin to join Benton, Blair, Shields, and Kenna suggests a thought not much enlarged upon in the books, but of vast importance, and that is that Missouri has been lavish of her children in building up the West, South- west, and Northwest. There is scarcely a city, town, ham- let, ranch, or mining camp, from the Mississippi to the

Sam Houston and Stephen F. .Inst in 51

Pacific and from the British line to the Gulf, in which the sentence " I am a Missourian " would not punt an "open sesame." There is not a trail beyond the " Father of Wa- ters" which has not been reddened with the blood of her ~"ii- in the triumphal progress of Caucasian civilization; and, contemplating the splendid States which she helped to plant in that rich wilderness, she rejoices in her sacrifice.--. If Virginia deserves the proud title of "Mother of Presi- dents," Missouri may without arrogance lav claim to that of "The mother of States." [Applause.]

In the entire range of profane literature there is nothing equal to Lord Bacon's essays. In the one on Honor and Reputation he says, inter alia:

The true marshaling of the degrees of sovereign honor are these: In the first place are "conditores imperiorum," founders of states and common- wealths, such as were Romulus. Cyrus, Csesar, Ottoman, Isniael.

If the father of the inductive philosophy were rewriting that essay in our day, he would undoubtedly add to the foregoing list of state builders our Revolutionary fathers and those indomitable men who laid broad and deep the foundations of Texas and who achieved her independence.

There is no chapter in the annals of mankind more thrill- ing than the story of how Texans won their freedom. Dull must be the brain, cold must be the heart, of him who can think of the heroism at Goliad, at the Alamo, and at San Jacinto and not rejoice at being kindred in blood, in faith, in aspiration, and in the sacred love of liberty to the uncon- querable men who fought and bled and died upon those blood v fields. From the ground which they immortalized

52 Acceptance of Statues of

and glorified by their sufferings and their valor Texas sprang full armed, as Minerva from the brain of Jove. So long as courage and fortitude are valued among men, so long as the hope of freedom endures, the names of HOUS- TON, Austin, Bowie, Travis, Burleson, Mirabeau B. Lamar, Sidney Sherman, Deaf Smith, and Davy Crockett will be cherished as household words. [Applause.]

STEPHEN F. Austin, to whom Texas is this day paying a most unusual but well-deserved honor, was the son oi Moses Austin, a pioneer in improved methods in lead smelting — a most important fact in our industrial and com- mercial history. The elder Austin has a better claim, per- haps, to be called the father of Texas than any other

man

who ever lived.

Before going to Texas Stephen F. Austin was a mem- ber of the Missouri legislature, while his father was inter- ested in lead mining in Washington County, Mo. Later the younger AUSTIN was a United States judge in Arkan- sas. At the dying request of his father he took up the work of colonization in Texas, which the elder Austin had begun. He took with him to the Brazos 300 Missouri families, among the foremost of the State. "It is a fact well authenticated that not a single member of AUSTIN'S colony was ever charged with theft or misdemeanor, nor did any of them ever occupy a felon's cell," a truth of which both Missouri and Texas may well be proud.

President Roosevelt says, in his life of Benton, that when a thousand Missourians loaded their wives and chil- dren, their guns and household goods, together with the

Sa?>i Houston and Stephen F. . lustin 53

implements of husbandry, into their wagons, and inarched with their flocks and herds to Oregon, settling their as per- manent residents, they determined at once and forever the ownership of the entire Oregon country, which had been occupied jointly and quarreled over rancorously for many years by Great Britain and the United States. This re- mark applies with equal force to the migration of Ai stin and his little band of Missourians into Texas. What these two small companies of Missourians accomplished in Ore- gon and in Texas is likely to he repeated on a larger scale to the north of us, for the stream of our people now pour- ing into Manitoba will in all human probability in a few years Americanize all of Great Britain's North American possessions and make them constituent members of the great Republic — a consumation devoutedly to he wished.

( )ld lieu Hardin, one of Kentucky's greatest characters and most skillful lawyers, was wont to say that "blood is thicker than water." So, when Texas threw off the Mexican yoke and began her war for independence, from no State did she receiye more sympathy and more aid than from Missotiri. When our troubles were brewing with Mexico no men ever were more eager to fight than were the Missourians; when the call for volunteers was made thrice as many Missourians rushed to the standards as could be accepted; and, from the beginning of hostilities to the hour when our flag floated in triumph over Santa Ana's capital, they fought with the traditional courage of their race.

The cause which impelled the Missourians to participate

5+ Acceptance of Statues <>/'

50 enthusiastically in that war was thus eloquently stated

by the late- Senator George Graham Vest, in his brilliant

oration on Thomas II. Benton:

No man who ever existed in the public life of this country more com- pletely and apparently committed suicide than Thomas H. Benton. He knew as well or better than any other man what the prejudice and opin- ions of the people of Missouri « m- on the subject of slavery, and their sympathy with their brethren of the Southern States that had gone to Texas, thrown off the yoke, and established an independent State But more than litis, he knew there was not a family in western Missouri that had not lost father, brother, husband, or son upon the Santa Fe trail fighting those murderous savages who attacked every trapper and every caravan too small to resist them, and that the people of Missouri firmly believed that the Mexicans had incited the Indians to make these attacks. It was well known that the merchants of Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Tamaulipas, and the other northern .Mexican States objected to the trade between Missouri and New Mexico. It was extremely lucrative to these Mexican merchants to have a monopoly of the sale of goods to their own people, and whenever any of these murderous Indians were made pris- oners by the Missourians there were always found among them Mexicans dressed like the Indian--, appealing to their passions and prejudici leading them on to these terrible outrag< -

Geographical monuments are the most durable ever devised by the wit of man. Marble and granite will crumble into dust, portraits will fade away, the corrod- ing touch (if time will destroy brass or bronze, but great cities and counties will survive to remotest generations. Texas has been wise beyond her sisters in naming her cities and counties for her pioneer State builders. So long as the counties of Houston and Austin are on the map, so long as the ambitions cities of Houston and Austin lift their spires to heaven, the names of those twain will linger upon the tongues of men.

The exceptional strength of the Texas delegation in both branches of Congress has long been noted by even casual observers.

So/// Houston and Stephen F. Austin 55

It so happened that in the autumn of [899 I partici- pated in a Democratic love feast at the State fair at Dallas.

()n the return trip one of mv traveling companions was my friend, Maj. Harvey \Y. Salmon, of Missouri, who, b) reason of his service in the Confederate army, of his commercial relations, and of his political activity, has a wide acquaintance in the Southwest. We fell to talking of the extraordinary number of Texans ol a high order of ability still in the prime of life, where- upon he gave this explanation of that pleasing fact. He- said that originally Texas was settled by the very cream of the human race from America and Europe, and that during the evil days of reconstruction conditions were so bad in the other southern States that thousands of the flower of southern youth immigrated to Texas, expecting to sojourn there only till the storm blew over, but once there they loved the State so well that they remained permanently, thereby contributing largely by their talents and their achievements to the wonderful development of all things Texan. That was an explanation which explained.

There is a reason for every human thought, word, and act, if we could only ascertain it. The reasons why I am speaking here to-day are these: The story of Texas has always appealed with irresistible force to my imagi- nation and to my heart. Texas and Missouri are bound together by geography, by community of interest, and by ties of blood. According to the census of 1900, out of

SO Acceptance of Statues of

her population of 3,048,828 more than 56,000 were Missourians born — that is, one out of every fifty-four. Two out of four of my cousins on my mother's side are Texans by adoption. The Texans at home have wel- comed me with open arms when I have visited the State. Texans here have treated me almost as a kinsman ever since my advent in Washington. I shall always count it among the richest blessings of mv life that during my first service here Judge David Browning Culberson, one of the greatest men I ever knew [applause] — God bless him in his grave — was my immediate neighbor in the House. One of the best, truest, and most unselfish friends I ever had or ever expect to have is the lion-hearted young Texan, Joseph Weldon Bailey. [Applause.]

Stephen F. Austin was a Missourian — one of the most distinguished of that splendid breed of men. In addition to all this Austin was an alumnus of Transyl- vania University, now Kentucky University, at which famous seat of learning I spent three of the happiest, most laborious, and most profitable years of a busy life. The two most celebrated names on the roster of her students were those of Jefferson Davis and Stephen F. Austin. [Applause.] Frequently, when 1 can snatch a moment from this strenuous life, my heart fondly travels back over mountain, vale, and river to the days of my youth about Lexington.

Still o'er these scenes my memory wakes,

And fondly broods with miser care; Time hut the impression deeper makes.

As streams their channels deeper wear.

Sam Houston and Stepheti F. . lustin 57

The intellectuality and scholarship of pioneers in general, and Texas pioneers in particular, have been much under- rated. Of course there were ignoramuses and unlettered boors among them, just as there were among the barons who forced Magna Charta from King John at Runnymede. There were also among these western pioneers men ol brains, of learning, and of manners which would have graced any society in the world.

My friend Robert L. Henry, of Texas, told me these interesting facts. He says that when, in 1859, Hon. A. VV. Terrell, a Missourian, was district judge in Texas, and came to empanel a grand jury composed of sixteen mem- bers, he counted among them twelve college and university graduates. Colonel Terrell is a profound scholar, a brilliant orator, and has held many positions of honor and of trust. He was minister to Turkey during Cleveland's Administra- tion, and has mingled much with the great ; but it is doubtful if in any circle in which he has moved he ever came in contact with any group of men who were blessed with a higher average rate of education or native ability than that grand jury in the wilds of Texas in antebellum days.

Mr. Henrv also declares that after a thorough investiga- tion into the matter he is satisfied that the signers of the Texan declaration of independence were of the same high character as the signers of the American Declaration, endowed with equal mentality and educational equipment. I love to think of the bold and adventurous men who blazed the pathway of civilization across the continent to

58 Acceptance of Statues of

the shores of the peaceful ocean. They, and not the poli- ticians of this era, made this a world power. We owe them a debt of gratitude which we can never repay except by being model citizens. They had none of the ordinary incentives to high endeavor. They acted their parts in a rude age, upon an obscure stage, far from the teeming cen- ters of population and publicity, with no Boswell to follow at their heels to record their words, with no newspaper correspondents to blazon their deeds. No trumpet of fame sounded in their ears, cheering them on in their onerous, hazardous, self-appointed task; but they wrought nobly for their country and their kind.

Standing by the humble graves of western pioneers, I have often recalled the noble lines of Gray:

Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, If memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,

Where thru' tile long-drawn aisle ami fretted vault, The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;

Hands that the roil of empire might have sway'd, ( )r waked to ecstasy the living lvre.

Some village Hampden that with dauntless breast

The little tyrant of his fields withst 1,

Some unite inglorious Milton here may rest,

Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

Mr. Speaker, we are all proud of our several States, but prouder still to he citizens of this mighty Republic, built not for a day, but for all time, and destined under God to be tlie dominating influence of all the centuries yet to lie.

Four States are squarely in the race for first place in the rare and radiant sisterhood — New York, Illinois, Missouri,

Sam Houston and Stephen /•'. Austin 59

and Texas. All good Missourians hope that Missouri ma\ win the greatly coveted prize: but if it be decreed by fate, to whose mandates even the haughtiest and most powerful must bow, that she shall be outstripped in this contest of glory, she will yield the palm of victory with more gi \> and less regret to the colossal Commonwealth which this day pays her highest tribute to Sam Houston and Ste- phen F. Austin than she would to any other, because Missouri feels that Texas is bone of her 1h.hl- and flesh of her flesh. [Loud applause.]

6o Acceptance oj Statues of

Address of Mr. Stephens, of Texas

Mr. Speaker: The Texas legislature, in presenting the United States with the statues of her two most worthy citizens, had a very delicate task to perform.

The Lone Star State has a perfect galaxy of gifted and patriotic sons to choose from; but a selection had to be made, and the people of Texas, without a dissenting voice so far as I know, have approved the wisdom of its legisla- ture in selecting Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston as the proper persons to represent her in the American Valhalla known as "Statuary Hall."

Fortv years ago Congress set apart and dedicated the old House of Representatives in this magnificent Capitol build- ing as a Statuary Hall, and each State legislature is per- mitted to select two of its citizens for this honor.

While all true Texans thus delight to honor Houston and AUSTIN, they do not forget their long list of brave and noble Mills, main- of whom sleep in unmarked or unknown graves. Of these silent slumberers it can only be said

that —

No slab of pallid marble,

With white anil ghostly head. Tells the wanderers of our vale

The virtues of our dead.

The wilil tlowers be their tombstone,

And dewdrops pure and bright Their epitaph the angels wrote

In the stillness of the night.

Saw Houston and Stephen /■'. Austin 6i

Mr. Speaker, Texas has a unique and strange history. The self-sacrificing devotion and heroic deeds of her noble sons have been seldom equaled and never surpassed in the world's history. Their actions are the pride and the price- less heritage of every Texan.

Cabeza De Vaca first visited Texas in 1528, and La Salle made the first settlement on the Lavaca River in Februarv in 1685, for the French, and named the fort St. Louis. This fort was destroyed by the Indians and La Salle was killed, and the remnant of his followers captured by the Spaniards.

In 1691 Governor Teran, governor of Coahuila and Texas, planted several settlements in Texas, lint they were soon driven out l>v starvation and hostile Indians.

In 1 7 14 Crozat, to whom Louis the Fourteenth, of France, granted the territory east of the Rio Grande, sent St. Dennis to the Rio Grande to take possession of Texas. In 1 717 this aroused the Spaniards and they established a number of missions in Texas, among which was the famous Alamo, at San Antonio. France continued to assert her claim to Texas, and in 1730 the Indians tried to drive out both French and Spaniards, but did not succeed.

In 1762 France ceded Louisiana to Spain, and in 1800 Spain re-ceded it to France. The sale by France of Louisiana to the United States made it necessary to define the boundaries between France and Spain, and in 181 9 the Sabine River was agreed upon between the United States and Spain as the boundary.

From 1 82 1 to 1834 colonists from the United States settled southeast Texas. The colony of STEPHEN F. AUSTIN was the first and most important. It covered the

62 Acceptance of Statues of

lower Brazos and Colorado rivers, including the land where the city of Austin now stands.

In 1830 the Mexican Congress prohibited further immi- gration from the United States, and in 1833 the people of Texas tried to secure from Santa Ana a separate State government hut failed, and in 1835 Texas revolted.

In 1836 (April 21) Gen. Sam Houston defeated the Mexican army at San Jacinto and captured Santa Ana. This victory, one of the decisive battles of history-, ended the war and secured the independence of Texas. On March 2, 1836, Texas declared her independence, and on Septem- ber 2, 1836, adopted a constitution and elected Houston President of the Republic, and AUSTIN was chosen secre- tary of state.

The electors at this election declared in favor of annexa- tion to the United States.

The United State-- refused to annex Texas, because Presi- dent Van Buren declined the proposition on account of the slaverv question.

Again, in 1844, the antislavery sentiment prevented an- nexation. In 1845 President Polk secured its annexation, and the war with Mexico followed. In 1N01 Texas seceded from the Union and joined the Southern Confederacy, and from June, 1865, to March, 1867, it was under a provisional government, and from that date until September, 1869, was under a military government, when it was restored to the Union.

Mr. Speaker, this brief history shows that Texas had five separate and distinct governments, and gave allegiance to five separate flags in less than half a century. She was

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 63

first under the Spanish flag, and so remained until Mexico rebelled against Spain and formed a separate government

in 1N24. Texas was from that time until 1836 under the Mexican flag, at which time she rebelled against Mexico and became a separate republic under the Lone Star flag.

See! Just above th1 horizon's farthest edge

A lone star rises in the gloomy night; Dimly and tremblingly its rays are seen.

Shining through cloud rifts or concealed from sight; Faintly it glimmers o'er the Alamo;

Redly it gleams above Jacinto's field; Higher it rises — now. brave hearts, rejoice —

"I'is fixed in beauty on heaven's azure shield.

In 1845 sne was annexed to the United States by a vote of her people and the consent of the Congresses of the two Republics.

From 1845 to 1861 Texas was a part of the United States, and the Stars and Stripes became its fla«; by voluntary adoption.

In 1861 Texas seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States government and substituted the Confed- erate stars and bars for ( )ld Glory, and after the fall of the Confederacy Texas resumed her place in the Union. Thus it is seen that the Spanish, the Mexican, the Texan Republic, the United States, and the Southern Confederate flags floated in rapid succession oyer the imperial domain of the Lone Star State. Mr. Speaker, it was in this history- making epoch that Houston and Austin lived and wrought so well for their adopted country. What State in the Union has a history so rich in oreat events and so fruitful of oreat results? What .State can approach the Lone Star State in the heroism and dauntless courage of

64 Acceptance oj Statues of

its pioneers, in the magnitude of its territory, the diversity and richness of its soil, the salubrity of its climate, the diversification of its crops, the healthfulness of its inhab- itants, and its wonderful natural resources in timber, coal, iron, oil, and minerals?

Mr. Speaker, for this imperial domain we owe HOUSTON, Austin, and their compatriots a debt of gratitude never to be discharged. Let us contrast and compare the lives of these distinguished Texans. They were each born in the year 1793 in the State of Virginia, Austin near Austin- ville, and Houston in Rockbridge County.

Their fathers were veterans of the Revolutionary war. Houston's ancestors were of Scotch origin; Austin's were of the sturdy Xew England stock. Austin was a graduate of Transylvania University, while HOUSTON was not a graduate, but in his youth he preferred chasing the deer with his Indian friends to engaging in the pursuit of knowledge in tlie schools. Houston, whose family had removed to Tennessee, was a sergeant in the war of 181 2, and was the best drilled officer in his regiment. He served under General Jackson in his campaign against the Creek Indians, and was dangerously wounded in the battle of Horse Shoe Bend, in Alabama.

During these years Austin, whose father had removed to Missouri, was, when only 20 vears of age, elected to its Territorial legislature and served several terms, and greatly distinguished himself therein.

HuusTON, on resigning from the Army, had studied law and began its practice at Lebanon, Tenn., and became a

Sam Houston ami Stephen F. Austin 65

very successful advocate. In 1823 he was elected to Congress and served two terms; in [827 he was elected governor of Tennessee, and in 1X32 removed to Texas and made it his future home.

In 182 1 Austin removed to Texas, and was the first American to plant an Anglo-Saxon colony in Texas. At that time the settlement at Nacogdoches was the only settlement between the Sabine and San Antonio.

Austin's father, Moses Austin, had received a grant of land from Mexico for this colony, but died and left his son, Stephen F., to carry out the project, and he proved himself equal to the emergency and planted a colony that remains to-day, thus proving anew the untiring energy and courage possessed by this sturdy and determined man, as well as this further fact, well established by history, that when the Anglo-Saxon conquers a country and makes it his home, he keeps it. Texas had been claimed alter- nately for centuries by France and Spain ; but it still remained for Austin and the Anglo-American colonist to conquer, civilize, hold, and Christianize this magnificent domain. In the year 1835 AUSTIN was chosen to command the army of Texas, and he conducted a short but successful and brilliant campaign against the Mexicans at San Antonio, thus showing that he possessed military genius of a high order. On November 28, 1835, he was appointed a commissioner to the United States for the purpose of securing funds to carry on the war. His mission was a delicate and difficult one. He secured many loans of monev, and pledged his private fortune as security for H. Doc. 474, 5^-3 5

66 Acceptance of Statues of

repayment, and while on this mission, at Louisville, Ky.,

he made an address in behalf of Texas, in which he said:

In doing this [referring to the rebellion of Texas against Mexico] the first step is to show, .is I trust I shall be able by a succinct statement of facts, that our cause is just and is the cause of light and liberty, the same holy cause for which our forefathers fought and bled; the same cause that has an advocate in the bosom of every freeman, no matter in what country or by what people it may be contended for.

He did not return to Texas until after the battle of San Jacinto, but became a candidate that Near for Presi- dent of the Republic of Texas. General HOUSTON was his opponent and defeated him by a small majority.

ruder the new order of things AUSTIN became the secretary of state and entered immediately upon his duties. A prime measure with the administration was to secure the annexation of Texas to the American Union. The people had almost unanimously approved that measure at the late election. < Ine of the first acts of the secretary was to prepare instructions for the diplo- matic agents to be sent to Washington. He was a good part of three daws, and portions of nights, engaged in this work. The accommodations for the Government at Columbia were very inadequate. The weather was cold, and AUSTIN was compelled to write in a room without fire.

The exposure in an unfinished and unfurnished room brought on a cold, which was succeeded by an attack of pneumonia, of which he died at the house of George B. McKinstry, in Columbia, December 27, 1836. The follow- ing order was immediately issued from the war department:

The father of Texas is no more. The first pioneer of the wilderness has departed. Stephen I*. Austin, secretary of state, expired this da\

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin

'/

at half-past 1 2 o'clock at Columbia. As a testimony of respect to his high standing, undeviating moral rectitude, and as a mark of the nation's gratitude for his untiring and invaluable services, all officers, civil and military, are requested to wear crape on the right arm for the space of thirty days. All officers commanding ]>osts. garrisons, or detachments will, as soon as information is received of this melancholy event, cause twenty-three guns to be fired, with an interval of five minutes between each; and also have the garrison ami regimental colors hung with black during the space of mourning for the illustrious dead. By order of the President:

William S. Fisher, Secretary of War.

His remains were accompanied by President HOUSTON and his cabinet, both houses of Congress, and other officers of the Government to the family burying ground at Peach Point, Brazoria County.

Thus it appears that this pioneer and patriot died from exposure while endeavoring to secure the annexation of Texas to the American Union.

He had sacrificed the best years of his life for his below d Texas. lie made a long and dangerous journey to Mexico for his people and was there cruelly imprisoned by Santa Ana for many months.

He opposed taking up arms against Mexico as long as there was any hope of securing justice from that country; but when the struggle for liberty and independence could no longer be averted he did everything in his power to throw off the Mexican yoke and create the Lone Star Republic.

He lived long enough to see Texas become an inde- pendent Republic. No blot ever rested on the name or character of this unselfish patriot, hero, and statesman. To no one more justly belongs the name of "the father of Texas" than to Stephen F. Austin, and it is well that

6S Acceptance of Statues of

the beautiful capital city in the greatest State in the PTeatest Government on earth should bear the name of Austin.

Mr. Speaker, further comparing the lives and services of Houston and Austin, we find but few points of analogy in their providential work and character. Austin was the pioneer and colonizer, the Capt. John Smith, while Sam Houston was the Washington of Texas. They were the respective leaders of the citizen soldiers who conquered the Indians, Spaniards, and Mexicans then inhabiting Texas and brought into this Union its future empire State. For, Mr. Speaker, if I may indulge in prophecy, I would state that in my judgment Texas will during this century surpass everv State in this Union in population, in wealth, and in material prosperity. Mr. Speaker, I have a deep personal pride in the heroic history of Texas. I was born within its borders. My parents and grandparents were among the men and women who founded and defended it. My maternal grandfather, James Truit, was a member of the Congress of the Lone Star Republic and served therein with Sam Houston, while my paternal grandfather, John Stephens, served with him under General Jackson in the war of i Si 2 and in the Indian war that I have before alluded to. They were, therefore, his close personal and political friends.

Mr. Speaker, Stephen F. Austin was the right man to lead and defend a colony in a new country, and there to organize societv and found a State, while Houston was the brave and experienced soldier, the liberty-loving patriot and statesman, ever ready to fight the battles of liberty and

Sam Houston and Stop/ion F. , lustin 69

establish in an alien land, by revolution if needs be, tin- principles of the Americar Constitution. Houston has the matchless distinction of having been a governor, a Con- gressman, and an officer in the army of two republics, as well as the further distinction of having been the President of one Republic and a Senator in another. When the civil war broke out he was the governor of Texas, and when the State he had aided in founding seceded from the Union and joined the Southern Confederacy he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new government and retired to private life.

In a speech made at this time he became a true prophet. He said that his " misguided countrymen were then, in the madness of the hour, incapable of calmly comprehending the danger of the coming war. But when Texas and the sunny southland should be overrun with Federal soldiers, and the best blood of the South spilled on the battlefield, the negro slaves set free, martial law proclaimed in every Southern State, and all southern men disfranchised and the negroes given the ballot, then, and only then, would his fellow-citizens see that Sam Houston was right in oppos- ing secession and the war." Mr. Speaker, we know that this prophecy came true. Rut Providence, perhaps kindly, on July 26, 1863, removed this prophet and patriot from earthlv scenes. He died while the civil war was raging on every hand and before the dark days of reconstruction, s< 1 well foretold by him, had actually come.

Mr. Speaker, General Houston's retirement during the civil war was not a happy one. He looked upon secession as an accomplished fact; he viewed with inexpressible

70 Acceptance of Statues of

grief the war measures adopted by both contending armies; he feared that republican institutions would be superseded by two centralized despotisms in which the liberties of the people would be swept away; and the prospect sad- dened him. His last appearance before a public audience was in the city of Houston, on March iS, 1863, and in the opening paragraph of his speech he said:

Ladies and fellow-citizens: With feelings of pleasure and friendly greeting, I once again stand before this large assemblage, who, from their homes and daily toil, have come to greet once again the man who so often lias kmnvn their kindness and affections. I can feel that even vet I hold a place in their high regard.

This manifestation is the highest compliment that can be paid to the . 11 izen and patriot.

As you have gathered here to listen to the sentiments of my heart. knowing that the days draw nigh unto me when all thoughts of ambition and worldly pride give place to the earnestness of age, I know you will bear with me while, with calmness and without the fervor and eloquence ot youth, I express those sentiments which seem natural to my mind, in view of the condition of On- country.

I have been buffeted by the waves as I have been borne along time's ocean until shattered and worn I approach the narrow isthmus which divides it from the sea of eternity beyond.

Ere I step forward to journey through the pilgrimage of death I would say that all my thoughts and hope are with my country.

If one impulse rises above another, it is for the happiness of these peo- ple. The welfare and glory of Texas will be the uppermost thought while the spark of life lingers in this breast

Mr. Speaker, it appears that these noble characters — Houston and Austin — whom we to-day delight to honor, when they finally found themselves standing on the verge f the dark river each spoke and thought of the future happiness, honor, and glory of Texas; and may we not indulge the fond hope that they now from a higher sphere, with clear and unclouded vision, delight in seeing a re- united country and in realizing that their heloved Texas

o

Sam Houston and Stephen /■'. Austin 71

is one of the brightest stars in the constellation of States in this the greatest Republic on earth?

Mr. Speaker, the present occasion naturally suggests an inquiry into the plan and the purpose of Congress in estab- lishing the national Statuary Hall. The movement origi- nated in the act of July 2, 1864, which authorized the President —

To invite each and all Hit States to provide and furnish statues, in mar- ble or bronze, not exceeding two in number tor each Stale, of deceased persons who have been citizens thereof, and illustrious for their historic renown or from distinguished civic or military services, such as each State shall determine to be worthy of this national commemoration; and when so furnished the same -hall be placed in the old Hall of the House of Representatives, in the Capitol of the United State-, which i-, hereby set apart, or so much thereof as may be necessary, a- a national Statuary Hall, for the purposes herein indicated.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Morrill, in the Senate of the United States, on February 18, 1889, in his speech on the recep- tion of the statue of General Cass, speaking of Statuary Hall, said:

We have much reason to believe that the grand old Hall will ere long be ad< 'rued by such notable figures possibly as would be that of Benton, from Missouri; Charles Carroll and William Wirt, of Maryland; Morton and Hendricks, of Indiana; Webster, from New Hampshire; Macon, from North Carolina; Clay, from Kentucky; Calhoun, from South Carolina; Cranford and Troup, from Georgia; Austin and Sam HOUSTON, from Texas; Madison and Patrick Henry, from Virginia.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Morrill's wise selection of AUSTIN and HOUSTON for companionship with the great statesmen named by him, but accentuates the wisdom of the Texas legislature in afterwards confirming his choice. Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, and as part of my remarks on this occasion, I will submit the following list of statues now in Statuary Hall, showing their names, States, and Congressional services. [Loud applause.]

- 2 Acceptance of Statues of

Statues in Statuary Hall, I 'nited States ( 'apitol.

Statue.	State-
Ri igi : Sherman Jonathan Trumbull ,	do
John J. Ingalls Ji >hn Winthrop Samuel Adams John Hanson,
Massachusetts . . do do
	Michigan do
Thomas H. Benton . .
John Starke Daniel Webster Richard Stockton	New Hampshire do
New Jersey do
k K Livingston	do
James A I iarfii Id

William Allen

Robert Fulton

J. P. G. Muhlenberg.

Congressional service.

Pi nnsyb ania , ... do

Nathanael * ireene ... Rhode Island

Ri ig( r Willi. mis do

Sam Houston . . Texas

Stephen Austin do —

Jacob Collamer Vermont

Ethan Allen do .

johnE Kenna .... West Virginia .

1-". H. Pierpont ... do

Pere Marquette Wisconsin

Frances E. Willard Illinois

House of Representatives, 1791-1793- House of Representatives, First, Second,

and Third; Senate, 1795-96. Senate, 1S49-1855, Illinois: 1S58-59, Minne- sota; [87] , Missouri. Senate, [867-1877 Senatf , [S73-1889, No service.

I>«>. Continental Congress. Senate, First Congress resigned, 1792. x, 1 -ervice. Senate, 1S45-1S4S.

House <>f Representatives, Thirty-third. House "f Representatives, Thirtv-fifth to

Thirty-eighth; Senate. [871-1873 N< 1 service.

House of Representatives, Thirteenth. Four- teenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth; Sen- ate, 1827-1851 N<> service. Ho, Do. Do. House of Representatives, Thirtieth to

Forty-sixth; Senate, ism House of Representatives. Thirty-sixth and

Thirty-eventh; Senate, 1845-1848. N' 1 service. House of Representatives, First, Third, and

Sixth. No service.

DO Houseof Representatives, 1823-1825; Senate,

1 846-1 859 N< 1 service. Hon- of Representatives, Twenty-eighth

and Thirtieth. N 1 service.

House of Representatives. Forty-sixth, Fortv-seventh, and Forty-eighth; Senate, 18S3-1893. No service. Do.

I'M

The statues of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Lincoln, Grant, and Baker of Ore- gon, were not presented by their States, and are not, therefore, included in the above

list.

The following .ire nut represented in Statuary Hall: Alabama. Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware. Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Washington, Iowa, Kentucky. Louisiana, Minnesota Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Wyoming, North Carolina, North Dakota < >r< gon South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee. Utah, and Virginia.

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 73

Address of Mr. Gibson, of Tennessee

SAM HOUSTON, THE HERO, THE STATESMAN, AND THE

PATRIOT.

Mr. Speaker: Whenever and wherever there is an assem- blage of people to do homage to the name of Sam Houston, Tennessee enters her appearance and claims the right to tender her tribute to his fame and deposit her wreath in his honor. Tennessee received Houston to her bosom while he was yet in his infancy and trained him up to manhood and bestowed her honors upon him, fitting him to perform the part of a star actor on that grand Texan stage where his audience was the whole world, and his triumphs established first an independent nation and afterwards added another star to the great American constellation and a new page of glory to the grand volume of human freedom.

Houston was a soldier of soldiers. His father was a soldier and served in Morgan's brigade of riflemen during the Revolutionary war and continued in the Army as major after the close of the war and died while so serving. Tradition describes him as a man of large frame, commanding presence, indomitable courage, and a passion for military life. Sam Houston's mother also was of Roman mold, remarkable for her magnificent phvsique and distinguished for her impressive and digni- fied appearance, her great force of character, and her purity and benevolence.

74 Acceptance of Statues of

With such parentage Sam Houston could not well have been otherwise than the great man he became. Removing from Virginia to Tennessee in 1806, when 13 years old, with his widowed mother and her family, they settled in Blount County, near the Tennessee River, on the Cherokee frontier, and undertook to wrest a living from the wilderness.

I will not undertake to recount his career in Tennes- see further than to state that while living in Tennessee he was elected district attorney, major-general, Member of Congress, and governor; but I must not omit his record as a soldier in the Indian wars under General Jackson. In 1813, when 20 vears old, then living in my county of Blount, he enlisted in the Army, and was present the following year at the battle of Tohopeka, or the Horseslme bend, on the Tallapoosa River, in Alabama. Houston's intrepidity in this great battle was such as to attract the attention of the whole country. Maj. L. P. Montgomery, another Tennesseean, was the first man to mount the high breastworks erected by the Indians and was at once shot dead. The next man to climb the breastworks was Sam HOUSTON, and the next moment a barbed arrow pierced his thigh. Disregarding the wound, he leaped down among the Indians and beat them off until his men had time to climb over and join him. Notwithstanding this terrible wound he continued in the thickest of the battle until shot down by two bullet wounds in his right shoulder, when he was carried off the field and laid upon the ground to die. From these wounds he never fully recovered; they discharged

s im Houston and Stephen F. Austin 75

more or less almost every day until he died, forty-nine years afterwards, and his linen was wet with the dis- charge in the hour of his death.

HOUSTON was a born warrior, and when the sounds of battle in Texas reached his cars he could not refrain from participation in the struggle there for independ- ence. He was at once put in command of the Texan army. A black cloud rested on the cause of the strug- gling patriots. David Crockett, also a Tennesseean, and his compatriots had all been killed in the Alamo while battling for the freedom of Texas, and Fannin and his armv had been treacherously massacred at Goliad after they had surrendered.

THE STAR OF TEXAS.

The star of Texas was a mere mirage, an unsteady ignis fatuus scintillating amid the exhalations and vapors aris from political commotions, more a dream of aspiring pa- triotism than a substantial reality, until Sam Houston's foot struck the soil of the struggling territory, and then its star rose visible and clear above the horizon; and when he was put in command of the Texan armv that star rose still higher and shone with greater brilliancy and attracted greater attention; and when he turned that army's face toward the invading Mexicans that star, instinct with fate, blazed with a glorious effulgence prophetic of victory and empire; and when Houston and his heroic compatriots stood at nightfall victorious on the field of battle at the San Jacinto, that star rose majestically to the zenith, a luminary of resplendent magnificence, and Texas was forever free.

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the Alamo and Goliad had been avenged, and the lone star of Texas had become the star of empire.

Texas was peopled by heroes. Down to the day she established her independence no coward had ever set foot upon her soil. The men who died fighting in the Alamo, the men who were slaughtered at Goliad, the men who faced the appalling perils of campaigning on the Texan frontiers, the men who triumphantly charged the Mexican army at San Jacinto, were as valiant and fearless as ever faced death on the field of battle, and their devotion to the cause of libertv as intense as ever inspired the hearts of patriot heroes since the days of Marathon and Thermopylae. And, Mr. Speaker, when in distant a.q-es the sons of Texas -hall assemble, as assemble they will, to do honor to HOUS- TON and his heroic compatriots and commemorate their mighty triumph at San Jacinto, then will it be said of them, "There were giants in the earth in those days." [Applause.]

HOUSTON'S STRENUOUS LIFE.

Sam Houston' led a strenuous life. Born and cradled in Virginia, he crossed the mountains with his strenuous widowed mother and settled in Tennessee when he was i 3, taught the "three RV in a log schoolhouse when 18, enlisted in the Army when 20, campaigned against the Creek Indians and received three wounds in battle when 21, was United States Indian agent when 24, made adju- tant-general of Tennessee when 25, a district attorney of Tennessee when 26, major-general of the State when 28 Member of Congress from Tennessee when 30, and gov- ernor of Tennessee when 34. Soon afterwards he left

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 77

Tennessee, crossed the Mississippi River and joined the Cherokee Indians, whom lie had known well in his boy- hood. Next we find him here in Washington fighting before Congress and the Departments in behalf of the Cherokee, exposing the frauds perpetrated against them, and denouncing in thundering tones and fiery words the perpetrators of these frauds, their aiders and abettors. As champion of the Cherokee and vindicator of their rights and avenger of their wrongs, lie found himself encom- passed by unscrupulous adversaries, and in the struggle he waged, among other deeds of violence, he knocked down a Member of Congress, for which offense he was tried before the bar of the House of Representatives and fined $51 which fine President Jackson remitted, to the extravagant delight of his friends and the mortification and humiliation of his enemies. The next year HOUSTON went to Texas, and in 1835 we find him commander in chief of the Texan army of independence: in 1836 we find him at the head of that army charging, like a god of war and as an avenger of the Texan heroes who died at Goliad and in the Alamo, tipon Santa Ana and the Mexican invaders intrenched on the San Jacinto, and winning a victory, against great odds, so complete and so decisive that no second battle was neces- sary and the independence of Texas was won. In 1836 we find him president of the Republic of Texas; in 1846 we find Texas a State of the American Union and Sam Hors- TON its first Senator in the Senate of the United State>: in 1854 we find him pleading the cause of the Union before the American people: in 1861 we find him again back in Texas and again its governor, trying to stay the rising tide

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of secession, but trying in vain, and at last overwhelmed by the irresistible inundation.

I Ine continual struggle marked his career, and one con- tinual storm of abuse and vilification pitilessly assailed him, even when engaged in the noblest efforts to sustain the most righteous and patriotic causes. Envy wagged at him her spiteful tongue, calumny hurled at him her poisoned darts, political malice showered upon him its most fierv invectives and its most bitter vituperations.

Fully and most bitterly did he realize that —

He who ascends to mountain tops shall find

The loftiest peaks most wrapped in clouds and snow;

He who surpasses or subdues mankind

Must look down on the hate of those below.

HOUSTON'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE. Having seen HOUSTON while I was a boy, I feel con- strained to say that the marble statue of him we are this dav accepting, while probably picturing him in his youth, does not do full justice to the magnificent physique he possessed when in after days he became the hero of two nations. HOUSTON was a man of majestic proportions, and wherever he went never failed to impress all behold- ers with the conviction that he was one of the giants of the earth. Hi- appearance is tints described by one who heard him speak at Galveston a few days before Texas joined the Confederacy :

There he stood, an old man of 70 years. ..11 a balcony 10 feet above the heads of the thousands assembled to hear him. where every eye could scan his magnificent form. 6 feet and 3 inches high, straight as an arrow, with deep-set and penetrating eyes looking out from heavy anil thundering eyebrows, a high open forehead, with something of the infinite intellec- tual there, crowned with white locks partly erect, and a voice of the deep 1 tone, which shook and commanded the soul of the hearer; added to

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin jg

all this a powerful manner, made up of deliberation, self-possession, and restrained majesty of action, leaving the hearer impressed with the feeling that more of his power was hidden than revealed.

HOUSTON THE COMPEER OF REGULUS AND WEBSTER.

The picture of Regulus standing in chains before the Roman senate and counseling the senators against making peace with Carthage (he well knowing at the time that he was pronouncing his own doom), and his voluntary return to Carthage to submit to a most cruel death — this picture has from my early boyhood thrilled me with its heroic and patriotic sublimity. The picture of Daniel Webster stand- ing on the floor of the American Senate, bound by his oath to the Constitution, pleading for the passage of the bills necessitated by that Constitution in the interest of slavery, well knowing that he was pronouncing his political doom, but preferring his love for the Union to his love for his State — not that he loved his State less, but that he loved his country more — this act of political self-sacrifice has always in mv eves stood forth on the canvas of history as the sub- limest picture in the whole record of the American Senate.

The picture of Sam Houston, governor of Texas, sit- ting in the gubernatorial office, whittling his pine stick, while the State convention in the hall over his head was calling upon him to come forward and take an oath of alle- giance to the Confederate States, and while the multitude were singing- hosannas to the Confederate banner, Hous- ton refusing to notice the call, and thereby forfeiting the great office he held because of his overmasterin«- love for the old Union, not that he loved Texas less, but that he loved Texas more as a State of the old Union than as a

81 1 Acceptance of Statues of

State of the new Confederacy — this picture of the old hero and statesman, suffering voluntary political martyrdom rather than forswear the country and flag of his fathers, in whose defense he had shed his young blood and to the advancement of whose welfare he had devoted the best years of a long, active, and glorious life — this picture of Sam HOUSTON is well worthy to stand beside those of Regulus and Webster as grandly illustrative of the sublimity of heroic, self-sacrificing patriotism.

HOUSTON A PROPHET OF PROGRESS.

HOUSTON had a prophetic eye; he foresaw the great- ness and glory of his country; he vigorously advocated the construction of a railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific; his patriotic and prophetic spirit saw the great tide of American population and American civilization spreading over the prairies, over the plains, over the mountains, over the valleys to the shores of the Pacific, and from the Arctic Ocean to the Isthmus of Panama. Like his great commander and friend, Andrew Jackson, he believed in the " manifest destiny " of the American Republic and in " expanding the area of freedom." He dreamed of these tremendous events; he talked of them; he made speeches in advocacy of them; he fought to promote them; he shed his blood in support of them, and he died praying that in the providence of God they mieht all be realized.

The great crevasse in the levee of the Republic through which flowed, as with apparently irresistible force, the mighty tides of secession, inundating one-third of the Union, and sweeping over his own State, bearing down

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin Si

all opposition from the Potomac to the Rio Grande and overwhelming the champions of the Union everywhere except in the mountains, carried along on its foaming crest the grand old hero of Tohopeka and San Jacinto. Houston worshiped the Union with the devotion of a saint; but he worshiped Texas also. Texas was, as it were, his child. It was the scene of his greatest exploits. His valor and wisdom had made Texas an independent nation, and it was long his supreme ambition to see her a member of the glorious sisterhood of the United States. When the object of this ambition was consummated by the annexation of Texas, when he saw the lone star of Texas join, as though by divine power, the grand and glittering constel- lation of the American Union, and when he found himself a Senator from Texas in the Senate of the United States, in the company of Webster, Clay, and Calhoun, Thomas H. Benton, Lewi- Cass, John J. Crittenden, Reverdy Johnson, Daniel S. Dickinson, and other illustrious statesmen, his happiness was complete, his most improbable dream had been substantiated, his most magnificent aspirations had been consummated, and he realized with a glow of patriotic oratitude, not unmixed with a justifiable pride, that he at last had received the full measure of compensation for all his labors and dangers, for all the blood he had shed on the fields of battle and all the agonies he had endured on the bed of suffering, thus demonstrating that in his case, at least, republics had not been ungrateful. The zenith of his greatness and his fame had been reached. The clock of destiny had sounded high noon in the career of Sam Houston. [Loud applause.]

H. Doc. 474. 5^3 6

82 Acceptance oj Statues of

Address of Mr. Field, of Texas

Mr. Speaker: In the Memorial Hall of the Republic, in the silent assemblage of the nation's great ones, in sculp- tured marble, wearing the garb of the pioneers of the wilder- ness, typical of the age and time in which they lived, stand Stephen F. Austin, the father of Texas, and Sam Hous- ton, the right arm of the infant Republic, placed there by the wishes of 3,000,000 of happy, prosperous people, their beneficiaries, as evidence of their admiration and devotion, and as a declaration to all the world that these are the greatest of all of Texas's mighty dead. Their brave hearts no lunger beat, their strong arms are rigid, their lips forever sealed; and yet, eloquent in marble, they bring back to memory the most luminous and glorious pages in American history. But for the courage, the states- manship, and self-sacrificing devotion of STEPHEN F. AUSTIN t<> the early colonists of Texas they would have been driven from the fair land to which he had led them, and Texas, like her sister Coahuila, would now be a State of the Mexican Republic; and but for the wise counsel, the strong arm, and bright blade of Sam Houston at San Jacinto, the lone star of the infant Republic, dazzling in beauty as it was, would have faded from the galaxy of nations before it added new luster to the flag of our great Republic.

These statues of Texas's greatest heroes, however, were not placed in the nation's Pantheon as reminders of their

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin S3

heroic acts and deeds alone, but as the grandest types of the age and scenes in which they lived and moved and the most perfect exponents of the glory of the past — the heroic days of Texas. Far back in the remote ages of romance and chivalry the .Spanish conqueror, with bloody sword, rifled the treasures of the Montezumas, and in his eager march and search for gold faced the rising sun and crossed the great river of the north far into the plains of Texas, where since creation's dawn silence and peace had reigned; and following close in the soldiers' wake came the devout, mysterious monk, to heal the wounds of war, to bear the Messiah's message and teach the arts of peace, whose monuments remain in those quaint mission castles from the Rio Grande to the Salado, and "whose dismantled ruins still keep the memory of those adven- turous days."

Spanish oppression filled the land with grief for many hundred years until the pious priest Dolores raised the standard of revolt, proclaimed the magic word of liberty, which, though crushed out many times, at last bore fruit, which now appears in the stable government beyond the Rio Grande. Texas for many hundred years remained the home of the wild beasts and the savage tribes of the plains, until Moses Austin, the father of STEPHEN F. Austin, obtained permission from the Mexican Govern- ment to locate 300 families as colonists in that vast wilderness. He viewed the land, but was not permitted to possess it ; but died, broken down by main- hardships, leaving to his son, as his last injunction, to carry out his plans. How well he did it we need but look upon

84 Acceptance of Statues of

that great State, its fruitful fields, its prosperous people, growing cities, and unlimited resources, to realize.

What was said of Epaminondas, as the greatest of the Greeks, could with truth be said of STEPHEN F. AUSTIN, "A faithful portrait of his mind and heart would be his only eulogy." STEPHEN F. Austin in January, 1822, established on the waters of the Brazos his first colony, the beginning of Anglo-American civilization in Texas, and from that time on to the close of his useful and eventful life to its development and extension he devoted all of his energy and great ability. He was the colonists' truest friend; in all assemblies their most trusted coun- selor and their leader in battle, except when performing duties even of greater importance. When first the col- onists' rights were threatened by revolutionists in Mexico he journeyed to the Mexican capital, arriving there alone and a stranger, with no knowledge of the language or customs of the people. He displayed such ability and statesmanship that he not only secured additional priv- ileges for the colonists, but shaped the policy of the Mexican < roverument and largely framed the Mexican constitution of 1S24. And it is worthy of note, and evidences the devotion and loyalty of the colonists of Texas to constitutional government, that though this constitution ignored the inalienable rights of every English-speaking man — the right of habeas corpus and trial by jury — still Austin and his colonists, true to their compact, defended it against all the revolutions of Mexico, until Santa Ana declared himself military

Sam Houston and Stephen /•". Austin 85

dictator, set aside the constitution of 1824, and subju- gated everv State in Mexico except Texas, and was then marching with his hitherto invincible army upon the doomed citv of San Antonio. Under the despotism of Santa Ana events were rapidly moving to a revolution in Texas. The blood of patriots had been shed, and the soil of Texas was thenceforth dedicated to libertv.

Austin, hoping to avert the threatened revolution and ameliorate the intolerable oppression of the colonists, again journeyed alone and in disguise across the great plains to the City of Mexico; but despotism was then supreme. He was thrown into prison, and remained a captive for two and one-half vears, a hostage of his peo- ple, which restrained action on the part of the Texans. Independence had not yet been declared, and all of the battles of 1835 — Gonzalas, Conception, the Grass Fight, the storming of Bexar by old Ben Milam and his fol- lowers— were fought in defense of their rights under the constitution of 1824, and Travis and Bowie and Crockett and Bonham and all of the immortals at the Alamo "fell with the flag of the constitution of 1824 floating over their heads, when four days before, but unknown to them, the banner of a free republic — the Lone Star of Texas — had been unfurled on the banks of the Brazos."

Santa Ana was marching on the Alamo; there was no longer a peace party in Texas. Austin and Houston now advised for Texas independence, and were as enthu- siastic even as Archer (the Mirabeau of the revolution), the Whartons, and others of their followers: and on the

•S(> Acceptance of Statues of

ever memorable day of March 2, 1836, the declaration of independence was declared, and on the idtli the constitu- tion of the new republic was adopted. Texas was born in the midst of revolution and of peril, and soon the bloodiest chapters in the book of time were to be written and the most heroic acts performed in the history of the world.

Did time permit me, I would like to speak at length of the battles and the heroes of the revolution; how old Ben Milam, to settle controversy, cnt the Gordian knot by drawing a line upon the ground, stepping across, and calling, "Who will follow old Ben Milam?" and 300 more, as brave as he, stepped across, and the storming of Bexar commenced. Five days and nights the assault went on, from house to house, through narrow streets and plazas broad. < >ld Milam fell, but Johnson onward led the charge until victory was won, and 500 Mexicans, with many dead behind, marched out with banners trail- ing, across the Rio Grande, and there remained no hostile foe in Texas.

At the Alamo, liberty's purest shrine, the fruitful theme of eloquence, poetry, and song; how Travis and his im- mortals, conscious of their doom, sent the last message back that the>- would never surrender or retreat, and when surrender was demanded answered back with a cannon shot; how the "stillness of that Sabbath dawn was broken by the trumpet's blast, and even- band broke forth in the shrill and terrible strains of the deguello (da-gwal-yo), the music of merciless murder," and 10,000 Mexicans rushed on; at last broke down the southern gate, and like a

Sam Houston and Stephen /•". Austin 87

stream long pent up, the murderous tide poured in. Brave Travis fell near the outer wall by his cannon, no longer useful; Bowie, though sick, piled many a ghastly corpse around him ere he died ; and where the dead lay thickest old Daw Crockett fell. In thirty minutes [82 Texans fell, with gun in hand; none escaped, and none in flight sought safety, but round them lay 500 of the foe. I would like to speak, too, of Goliad, of Fannin and his murdered martyrs, and then of HOUSTON, of Burleson, and Lamar, and San Jacinto's field, where the twin sisters spoke in deadly chorus — where Goliad and the Alamo were avenged and Texas, in heroic battle, achieved her sovereign independ- ence. But these fruitful themes of eloquence I must leave to others, for want of time.

Mr. President, Texas was not bought with sold, but by the blood of heroes won, and she is worth the price, even- drop, as precious as it was. Look at the fair land — an empire in vast extent, reaching northward from the Gulf ; 700 miles from east to west, 900 north and south, as beauti- ful and productive as anv part of earth. In the South and Last, when the earth was new, with the profuse hand of nature was scattered abroad the seed of the pine tree, the cypress, and the oak, from whose great forests come the thousands of happy homes of the western settlers. Moving to the north rolls out those beautiful prairies where, in the dim distance, the verdure of the earth seems to mingle itself with the azure of the sky; stretching far, far to the west those immense plains, where countless cattle roam, behind whose mountain barriers the setting sun descends; and when the tide comes in at early night,

88 Acceptance of Statues of

the Gulf breeze unobstructed moves far to the north, bringing refreshing sleep to weary man and beast, and gentle showers quickening into life all nature's growth. Her fertile bosom would feed all the hungry of the nation, and clothe them, too, and give them shelter from the winter's storm. Deep down within her bosom she holds the treasures of her mines, and gas, and gushing oil, and, like a rich and prudent mother, gives them to her children from time to time as her treasures they explore; and huge granite mountains to build and beautify her future cities, too. In this fair land there is no place for any future State. There 3,000,000 people dwell; in many things of different minds and views, each intent upon his own, in une thing only, in mind, in heart, in firm resolve, united that in the superstructure of that "Teat State no contraction shall be made, but they will build as long and wide as are the foundations which their fathers laid and cemented with their blood, from the Sabine to the Rio Grande, from the Red River to the rolling Gulf. [Loud applause.]

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 89

Address of Mr. Pinckney, of Texas

Mr. Speaker: The great State of Texas chose well when she elected, out of all the noble sons who have helped spread glory upon the pages of her history, who have shed their blood and died upon her battlefields that she might live and attain her liberty, or who have distinguished themselves in the councils of the nation, the men for whom this hour is set apart to honor.

I say she chose well when she selected to grace the halls of the nation's Capitol the statues of STEPHEN FULLER Austin, her first and most deserving love, and Sam Houston, her most renowned chieftain, the leader and commander of her armies in the days of her momen- tous struggle for liberty.

These two men justly deserve that this honor should be conferred to their memory, because of the deeds they performed for her in the beginning of her life, that life which has grown so beautifully grand in so short a time.

Eighty-three years ago the vast domain over which the lone star flag of Texas floats in fadeless glory, stretching from Red River to the Gulf and from the Sabine to the Rio Grande, was a wilderness inhabited only by savage tribes and over which in freedom roamed the wild horse and the buffalo. The plowshare was 1111- felt by her rich and alluvial soil, and the merry song and laughter of the plowboy broke not her lonely' solitude.

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To-day all is bustle, a land of life, prosperity, and happi- ness. Thousands of homes stand upon her hillsides or nestle in her valleys. Her countless towns and cities, her waving fields of grain, her cotton, rice, and cane, all speak in thunderous tones of her matchless growth and energy.

AUSTIN found it in :82i a wilderness, broad and dense. Vet, in 1836, when he died, he left it a free and independent republic, acknowledged by the world, and reach' to take her place in the catalogue of nations. His was the matchless mind and resistless energy that directed her hardy people and molded them for their high destiny, and when the people of to-day and those to come look upon the memorials to the nation's great they will j^aze upon none grander or more worthy than AUSTIN, the father of Texas.

Who has accomplished more and brought forth greater results than did AUSTIN in the forty-three years of his life? Who ever sacrificed more for a cause and fought adversity more calmly or with a firmer determination than that which he began at the request of his father, who first conceived the idea of founding a colony in the wilds of Texas?

Stephen F. Austin was born in Wythe County, Va.,on the 3d day of November, 1793, his father being Moses Austin, a native of Connecticut, and his mother, Miss Mary Brown, of Philadelphia. When Stephen was 6 years of age his parents removed to Missouri, whence, at 11 years of age, he was sent to Connecticut to school, where he remained three years. He then finished his education at Transylvania College, Kentucky. At 20 years of age he was a licensed lawyer and member of the legislature of the Territory of Missouri. At 27 he was a United States

\,r/u Houston and Stephen F. Austin 91

district judge for the Territory of Arkansas. He had gained the respect and confidence of noted men. He had attained high position in the service of his country. His prospects for glory, fame, and leadership, for a life of ease and prosperity, were all that he could wish, yet when the call of filial duty reached him there was no hesitation and no regret.

The restless spirit of his father in 1820 had led him to seek and secure a grant of land in Texas and permission to make settlements, but before he could put his scheme into execution the hardships of the trip to the Mexican authorities, which he was compelled to undergo, proved too much for his endurance, and he died, leaving a request that his son should carry his plans into execution. With- out delay or protest, young AUSTIN hastened to the seat of government and secured from the Mexican authorities a renewal to him of his father's grant, selected the lands between the Colorado and Brazos rivers for his colon}-, and on the 1st clay of January, 1N22, landed his first settlers upon the banks of the Brazos and began the settlement and development of Texas.

Soon others, inspired by his success, followed his example, and the solitude of the wilderness began to give slowly way before the sturdy energy of the hardy natives of the young Republic lying to the north, who comprised the bulk of immigration to Texas, and where had been molded the principles of liberty which sustained them in the dark hours of their later struggles.

The hardships of pioneer life are ever marked and many, but when to the vicissitudes of nature there are added the

92 Acceptance of Statues of

troubles of an unstable and sometimes oppressive govern- ment these hardships become much magnified and call for constant watchfulness and care.

Mexico, which had but recently thrown off the Spanish yoke, was in a formative, even somewhat choatic state. and changes of administration were frequent. It thus happened that Austin, ever watchful of his colony's interest, was compelled, soon after his settlement was made, to visit the seat of government. Nothing daunted at the prospect, he traveled the 1,200 miles that intervened on horseback and alone. He stayed for twelve months at the capital, and by his tact and energy had all his grants renewed, his powers for good enlarged, and returned to his colony the representative of his Government and clothed with almost absolute authority.

Then began that period when the wise exertion of his power as impresario of his colon}- and his judicious admin- istration of its public affairs endeared him to the hearts of his people and inspired them with boundless love and con- fidence, a love and confidence that remained unshaken to the end. His colony was made the model of all others that followed, and his leadership became the example and inspiration of everv colony throughout the State.

For a time evervthin^ went well. The colonists were graduallv overcoming their initial hardships. The Mexi- can laws encouraged immigration, and settlement followed settlement in rapid succession. Xo foreboding of evil clouded the apparently brilliant prospects. But soon there came a change. Texas had for governmental purposes been attached to the neighboring State of Coahuila, but

Saw Houston and Stephen F. A us/ in 93

had been promised in the beginning that as soon as her population became sufficiently numerous she would have separate government.

This arrangement soon became, for obvious reasons, very inconvenient and annoying to the colonists. Their general laws were written in a language foreign to them, and the seat of government 800 miles away, and reached only after weeks of travel and hardship. Her vote in the common council was only two, while Coahuila had ten, which brutal majority was often used to her sore disadvantage. This condition of affairs soon became so irritating to the minds of a people reared in the pure air of liberty and justice that efforts were made to obtain separation, but they were to no avail. Meanwhile the steady inpour of immigration from the North began to alarm the Mexican Government, which began to fear the results to itself from the infusion of the ideas of liberty, and laws were passed restraining further immigration. Mutterings of wrath became heard over the colonies, the demand for separation from Coahuila became urgent, and at last, in 1833, a convention was called at San Felipe de Austin, the capital of Austin's colony, and a petition was formulated, setting forth the reasons for such sepa- ration, and asking relief of the Mexican Government. Austin was chosen to present the petition, and with a characteristic spirit of energy and self-sacrifice made prep- aration for the long and arduous journey to the capital. But there, also, had come a change. The spirit of the dictator, Santa Ana, ruled the nation, and his anger was aroused against the proud-spirited, tyrant-resisting people

94 Acceptance of Statues of

of Texas. AUSTIN was thrown into prison and remained for two years, ever on occasion advocating the cause of his people and his adopted State.

The thought of final separation from the mother country had not as yet permeated the brain of the Texas citizenship; but when the manner in which their petition and their representative had been received became known to them the mutterings of the coming storm became louder and more persistent. When, after two years of obstinate persistence in a policy of oppression, the dictator of Mexico realized at last the serious aspect of affairs and released Austin with many assurances of confidence and esteem and manv promises of reforms, the wave <A revolution had reached such height and momentum that it could not be calmed or staved. AUSTIN hastened home to prepare his people for the eomiiii; struggle. He told them that Santa Ana had usurped the supreme authority, had overridden all law, and was intent upon the destruc- tion of the colonies, and that the time for action in defense had come. The people rallied to the call. AUSTIN was chosen commander in chief of the army, which was quickly organized, and under his direction were fought the battles of Gonzales and Concepcion — the Lexington and Concord of Texas — and the opening blows of the struggle which ended on the glorious field of San Jacinto.

Soon a provisional government was organized and preparations for the struggle began to be made. Weak and isolated as they were, the colonists realized that in order to cope with their powerful adversary they must receive assistance, and the Macedonian crv went to the

Sam Houston and Stephen /■'. Austin 95

people of the young giant republican Government to the north. Feeling that wise, tactful, and energetic representation could secure for them the much-needed assistance, all eyes in Texas were turned upon AUSTIN to help them in their trying hour, and he was asked to go. Without hesitation or protest, but in the full reali- zation of his duty, AUSTIN laid down the commission of commander in chief and departed upon his mis-inn, and by his representations and efforts resulted the financial aid and volunteer assistance that made San Jacinto possible.

And now. Mr. Speaker, upon the arena of action appears that other gigantic figure, which illumines the pages of early Texas history.

Sam Houstox, who divides with Stephen Austin the honors we would pay to-day to Texas heroes, was born in Rockbridge County, Va., in the year 1793, on a day made ever memorable by the Texas declaration of independence, the 2d dav of March. It thus happens that .grand old Virginia, the mother of heroes and statesmen, gave to Texas and to the world the two men Texas holds most dear and the memories of whose achievement will go down the ages.

His father was a soldier of the Revolution, and his mother was Elizabeth Paxton. Her husband dying. Mrs. Houston removed to Tennessee when Sam was 13 years of age. He was a bold and headstrong boy, of an impe- rious will, and born to rule. He joined the army of the United States under Andrew Jackson, fought and was wounded at the battle of Horseshoe Bend, where, by his

q6 Acceptance of Statues of

daring; and gallantry upon the field, he won promotion and the lasting friendship of his great chief.

At the age of 30 he was in the Congress of the United States, and in 1827 was elected governor of Tennessee. This office he soon resigned and went to live with a tribe of Indians whose friendship he had gained when he was a boy, and in 1832 came to Texas and cast his lot with the colonists of that province, where his wise counsel and military training soon brought him into prominence.

When, therefore, the resignation of AUSTIN necessitated the choice of another commander in chief, all eyes were turned to Houston, and he was unanimously chosen to serve. Accepting the position, he at once set about to organize his forces and get them in hand.

Meanwhile events were fast transpiring in the history of the province. Santa Ana had suddenly appeared before San Antonio, the principal town of the province, and after a brief siege carried the Alamo by storm and put its garri- son to the sword. Its glorious defense is without a parallel in histon-, and the names of Crockett, Travis, Bonham, and Bowie, who there suffered heroic martvrdom and placed their lives as a willing sacrifice upon their country's altar, are emblazoned in undying characters in the halls of the world's heroic dead.

Fannin had fallen at Goliad, and his little band of patriots had been ruthlessly massacred, and the victorious army of the conqueror was sweeping in three divisions toward the Sabine boundary. Terror and consternation seized upon all. It took strategy and generalship to meet the forces that were now being- hurled against the devoted

Sam Houston and Stephen /■'. Austin 97

patriots of Texas. Sam Houston, stern, rugged, and brave, was the one man equal to the occasion. Feeling his little force to be too weak to meet the enemy, he retired, vigilant and grim, before it, ever watchful to turn and strike when the opportunity presented. .Santa Ana marched to San Felipe; HOUSTON diverged to the left and traveled up the Brazos.

Santa Ana, with the main body of his army, crossed that stream and threw himself between HOUSTON and the seat of government, but HOUSTON remained firm and the government moved. He was molding his army into that resistless machine which later was to cover itself with fadeless glory on the memorable field of San Jacinto. The Alamo had fallen on the 6th of March, 1836, and Fannin had been massacred a few daws later, yet by the 21st of April HOUSTON, by his resistless energy and generalship, had so inspired his countrymen that there had rallied to him an army of 800 men whom he had molded into a machine and inspired with a deathless zeal in the service of his country. He had so maneuvered that army as to lure his foe a\va\ from his support, and they were at last face to face upon a battleground of Houston's own choosing.

Let me quote you, Mr. Speaker, the language of Hon. Guy M. Bryan, a nephew of Stephen F. Austin, and himself a soldier of the republic, delivered before the Texas veterans, May, 1873, in description of this battle:

I need not tell you ■ ■(' that glorious onset and rout of the enemy.

Texans would have won that battle had the whole Mexican army been

there, instead of the sixteen hundred they killed, wounded, or captured.

Under the thrilling cries of "Remember the Alamo'" " Remembei

II. Doc 474. 5S-3 7

,,s Statues of

Goliad!" with the conviction of success, with the high-souled determina- tion and enthusiastic energ\ inspired by the past, a full knowledge of the awful responsibility of the present, with the cries of fleeing wives and children sounding in their ears, with bated breath and pallid cheeks they sprang forward to the charge to conquer or to die.

What Waterloo was to Napoleon was San Jacinto to Santa Ana. What Bannockburn was to Scotland was San Jacinto to Texas

On that glorious day all that Austin had planned and worked for was accomplished. Sam Houston had proven himself a matchless leader. At the close of that fated day a new era had opened for Texas and a new star had risen in the firmament of nations. The army of Santa Ana had been routed, and Sam HOUSTON had won.

Mr. Speaker, I have tried in a brief way to touch upon some of the reasons why upon these two men fell the unanimous choice of the people of Texas when it came to select its representatives in Statuary Hall of the nation's Capitol. The allusion- must of necessity be brief and the descriptions meager. The knightly figure of Austin pre- sents itself at every turn of the early pages of Texas historv. His was the mind and energy that molded and o-uided its early growth, and the impress of his mind and thought is found in the principles of its early government; and the influence of his kindly spirit, his farseeing grasp of the possibilities of the future are shown in the great and lasting institutions that have arisen in the country that he founded. He did not live to see the complete fulfillment of all his hopes and aspirations, but he died in the full knowledge that he had founded an empire whose glorious history and mighty achievement were to call forth the plaudits and challenge the admiration of the world. He died in 1836, shortly after the establishment of the

5 "ii Houston and Stephen F. Austin 99

new government, full of glory-, and in the full confidence and love of his people.

He died, and yet he lives in undiminishing glory. Foi

him and in his honor is the capital named, and for him and in his honor is named the county in which the historic town of San Felipe, his seat of government, is situated. His memory is graved upon tablets of stone and in the hearts of his countrymen. He lives and lives forever.

He will live upon the lips of children,

Live in manhood's deepest pi In the high, pure heart of woman,

Fadeless in his deeds sublime.

Houston lived to reap the full, rich reward of his matchless genius. Ever full of that rugged manhood and tireless energy that enabled him to mold and shape his little armv for its heroic struggle, wise and conservative in all things, he was the one man to take up the work of Austin and carry it forward to the end.

And Texas honored him with her confidence and her love. She made him the first President when she became a Republic, and she elected him again to the same position. She elected him as her governor when she joined the galaxy of States in our great Republic, and she sent him as her Senator in the nation's council, to watch and work for her welfare. Even when, under the gather- ing clouds of civil war, the stern Roman-like principles of his nature caused him to take a stand at variance with his people, he was allowed to retire to the shades of private life, his name unsullied, and the memory of his heroic oreatness remained a heritage to his countrv. Full of years and honors, at his home in Huntsville he laid aside

ioo Acceptance oj Statues of

the cares oi the world, and "soothed and sustained by an unfaltering trust, wrapped the- drapery of his couch about him and lay down to pleasant dreams."

As in the cast- of Austin, so in the case of Houston Texas has sought to honor him in no uncertain way. The city of Houston, named in his honor, is the metrop- olis of our Lone Star State. The county of Houston is princely in its extent and progressive in its development. Sam Houston Normal Institute, for the education of the .State'.-- teachers, stands the peer of any institution of its kind in the country.

Tims has Texas sought to honor her heroic dead. And she conies now to-day to offer another testimonial of her love and reverence in the form of the beautiful statues which are to-day presented to the National Gov- ernment. And it is with pardonable pride that I sav to- day, Mr. Speaker, that these are not ordinary works of art. They are the artistic creations of one in whose veins flows the proud blood of a marshal of France, and who could, if she would, show proofs of as proud a lineage as ever held itself before the pages of European history. She is a citizen of our Lone Star State, and Texas is proud to own her. She has brought fame to herself and honor to her State, and these two creations will ever stand as deathless monuments to her artistic power.

And now, Mr. Speaker, in the name of Texas we deliver into your charge and into the nation's care the statues of our great and honored dead — AUSTIN, the father of his country, and HOUSTON, the hero of San Jacinto. [Loud applause.]

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin loi

Address of Mr. Wallace, of Arkansas

Mr. Speaker: We to-day formally accept from the State of Texas the statues of STEPHEN F. AUSTIN and Sam Houston, epoch makers in the history of the country7. ( >n his departure from Tennessee, under the shadow of a great sorrow, Houston dwelled with the Indians for a season in Arkansas Territory. Moses Aus- tin traversed the same with chain and compass, Stephen, his son, following in his footsteps and sharing his hard- ships. Later he exercised the functions of judge. A town in my State, not so pretentious as the capital of Texas, likewise bears the name of Austin. So Arkansas may share with Virginia and Tennessee and Texas something of homage and kinship with these names — names not born to die. Of HOUSTON it is said he "was the most imposing in personal appearance in all Texas. His eagle eve read men at a glance. His majestic per- sonality enabled him to control the excited masses at critical periods when no other man could. His penetrat- ing vision grasped the whole of Texas — her resources and capabilities of the present and future — a grasp that was only relaxed by death." And of Austin, "that he had more culture and possessed a more refined and loftier spiritual image." Wars and treaties and history I shall leave largely to the historian and those inclined to thread the narrative here. Upon the brow of HOUSTON, with

to2 Acceptance of Statues of

his stern virtues and diversified occupations, I shall attempt tn wreathe the laurel leaf. In private life he was gentle, chivalric, and courtly. In Texas he wore buckskin breeches and a Mexican blanket, which tempted General Jackson to remark: "There is one man, at least, in Texas of whom God Almighty, and not the tailor, had the making." [Laughter.] With personal courage that never failed him, with humanity that never sought innocent

])1 1, with honor unsullied by successes or reverses, he

began and ended his life a benefactor of his race.

HOUSTON was admitted to the baron one-third the time prescribed by his preceptor. Soon became to practice at the Nashville bar, which was conspicuous for talent and forensic power. So main' duties, civic and military, crowded into his life that he abandoned his profession too early, perhaps, to he accredited a great lawyer, hut not before he had achieved wide distinction and phenomenal success. Mastering the details of complicated cases, he was strong in their presentation to court and jury. His powers of analysis and penetration, supplemented by his rare gifts of speech, made him a " foeman worthy the steel of all comers" — the Achilles of some vanquished Hector in almost every legal battle. He comprehended the science, acted out the great principles of the law. He depended on no "cork sinker" of the jury panel for success; despised mean advantage and petty jealousies among associates at the bar. His relations toward his professional brothers were open and manly. His bearing before the court and jury was dignified and courtly. He descended not to low abuse, but was unsparing in his arraignment of a false

Sam Houstoft and Stcp/ieti F. Austin [03

witness. Around him he invoked all the ghostly horrors that broke the sleeping hours of the " false and perjured Clarence." Superb lawyer and brilliant advocate in all the service that made him perhaps the unchallenged promise of the Tennessee bar, it can not be said he ever —

Crooked the pregnant hinges of the knee, That thrift might follow fawning.

Houston had no early military training, save that gained by experience among the Indians and heroic dis- cipline under General Jackson — his antetype and his model. When lie first enlisted his friends rebuked him. But it was no part of his nature to abandon the course upon which he had determined, and his answer was: " You don't know me now, but you shall hear of me." But his mother said: " My son, take this musket; never disgrace it, for I would rather all niv sons should fill one honorable grave than turn a single back to the foe. My cabin door is open to brave men, but eternally shut against cowards." Words worthy the Greek matron, as paraphrased by Montgomery:

Then said the mother to her son, And pointed to his shield, "Come with it. when the battle's done, 1 M on it, from the held."

( >h, a mother's courage, a mother's love ! She stumbles not where man falls; falters not where man fails, and over the wreck of his earthlv ambitions and the night of his earthly woes shines as a beacon of destiny, a star of inspi- ration and hope. Who shall doubt that the memory of that voice haunted him from the moment he was stricken with wounds almost mortal at Tohopeka until, at .San

104 Acceptance of Statues of

Jacinto, immortality crowned him her own? One said of him that he always slept with one eye open. He said that while the policy of warfare with his associates — Fanin, Bowie, and Crockett — was to divide, advance, and con- quer, his own was to concentrate, retreat, and conquer.

He was not unlike the later Jackson. Mysterious, incomprehensible to his foes, he won advantage at a move, victory at a blow. Sword and prayer were his weapons, and he mingled them with the lurid lightings that played upon the battle cloud and thundered in the storm of war. Those who may have followed closely his career — first living in peace with, then battling against, and again dwelling in exile with the red man — must look witli wonder on this strange, unfathomable char- acter— romantic as it was daring, weird as it was Isold, admirable as it was unconquerable! but here I must take refuge in the lines of the poet, who said:

Nature ne'er meant her secrets t<> be found,

And man's a riddle which man can't expound.

With opportunity at hand, had he made law- alone his profession, he could have been a Choate or a Grundy. Had he made oratory alone his profession, he could have been a Wise or a Clay. Had he made war alone his business, he could have been a Washington or a Jackson. Had he made statecraft alone his business, he could have been an Adams or a Madison. But whatever doubt may exist of his ability to have equaled any of these, one thing is certain, that in the multiplied stations of honor and endurance he bore, in the successes and victories he won, not one of these men could ever have been Sam Houston.

S "n Houston and Stephen /■'. Austin 105

Well may history rest his fame at San Jacinto. There culminated the struggle which divested Texas of a hostile foe, detained Santa Ana as a hostage for peace and independence, builded a republic and immortalized its builder. The more remote but nut less important se- quence was the annexation of Texas to the American Union. The Stars and Stripes floated over the halls of the Montezumas and the domain of our Republic was augmented In- concessions of territory stretching away to the Rio Grande and Pacific, and Mexico, then a mockerv of civil government, was constructed into a modern republic, welcomed to the family of nations, and honored by all the powers of the earth. A blue shaft rising in broad stretches of magnificent environ- ment at San Jacinto and speaking through its granite silence the people's love for their patriot son may lose its majestv and its strength, but the name wrought deep in its polished shaft, but deeper wrought in the hearts and consciences of men, shall endure until God's hand shall rend the firmament and God's voice shall rock the earth and in the tumult of dissolving nature time's last revolution "breaks on eternity's wave." [Applause.]

AUSTIN'S idea, which prevailed for a time, was to establish a local state government under the Mexican constitution of 1 s 2 4 . Houston's idea was to establish a republic or a state absolutely independent and defiant of the Central Mexican government, with the ultimate object of annexation to the United States. The Republic was established and modeled after our form of ^o\-ern- ment. Houston was the first President. He found

to6 Acceptance of Statues of

the young Republic pledged to the payment of a debt of S3, 000,000. His administration fixed its eyes first on land robbers. Then a small impost duty was imposed, an ad valorem tax levied, and land scrip issued and put upon the market for sale. He kept peace with the enemies of the Republic, and started it well on the way to a high and noble destiny. He was succeeded by Mirabeau Lamar, whose first official declaration was that the "sword should mark the boundaries of the Repub- lic ; " which at once incurred the hostility of Mexicans and Indians alike.

At the clo.se of his administration the public debt had increased from three to eight millions, and Texas had a population of only 55,000. The popular will cried out for HOUSTON, and he again became president. He at once inaugurated administrative reforms to correct existing abuses, and at the end of his term in 1844 saw ms Republic at peace with Mexico and the Indian tribes and a "cash balance" in her treasury. As a statesman there was noth- ing of the iconoclast in his nature. On the contrary-, he was of the type of creative, constructive publicists. If AUSTIN laid the corner stone, HOUSTON erected the super- structure and fashioned into splendid proportions this mag- nificent structure of a Republic and a State. He laid his impress there, and Texas will go clown the years as the superb embodiment of his martial spirit, the composite ideal of his statesmanship, and the fairest gem of his handiwork. [Applause.]

Efforts on the part of Houston and others to annex

Sir/// Houston and Stephen /■'. Austin iOy

Texas to the United States were thrice denied by this coun- try. As a diplomat, Houston paid court to France and England, and otherwise exerted his subtle and powerful influence to stimulate the jealousy of this country against any European nation that designed a foothold in the West- ern Hemisphere. Soon James K. Polk and the Democratic party espoused the cause of annexation and triumphed at the polls. Strange enough, when the final steps were taken in 1845 l" annex Texas. HOUSTON seemed to oppose or take no part in it. For this he was abused and denounced by his friends. In response to the matter of paying court to France and England, afterwards in a speech he illus- trated his position as follows: "Suppose," said he, "a charming huh has two suitors. One of them, she is in-' clined to believe, would make the better husband, hut is a little slow to make interesting propositions. Don't you think, if she were a skillful practitioner at Cupid's court, she would pretend that she loved the other ' feller ' the 1 lest and be sure that her favorite would know it? If ladies are justified in making use of coquetry in securing their annex- ation to good and agreeable husbands, you must excuse me for making use of the same means to annex Texas to the United States." Annexation was the ambition, the passion of his life. His great heart beat with unspeakable emotion when he looked upon the "lone star" of his Republic gleaming in the noble group that formed the coats of arms of the States of this Union. But alas for the mutability of human success. The blight of war came in e86i, and hearing the signal guns proclaim the withdrawal of Texas

io8 Acceptance of Statues of

from the Union, he exclaimed, "My heart is broken ;" and those who knew him best record that Houston was never himself again. [Applause.]

But, Mr. Speaker. Texas has men to-day, if not still tar- rying in the flesh, who might pose in marble with the group of immortals in Statuary Hall. There is Reagan, at the head of a numerous list. With her vast stretches of prai- rie, buoyancy of life and luxuriant landscape, fields of strain and shrines of memories, one can but exclaim "Great is Texas!" But greater than Texas are her men, and greater than her men are the noble women of Texas. At even' point of struggle and hour of trial the "Daughters of the Republic of Texas," though called not by the sterner name of hero, filled the measure of all that heroes were, all that heroes mean. Watchers in the night of war, toilers in the day of hope, dauntless soldiers in the army of home, they prayed with words of fire, loved with hearts of gold. At tidings good, tears of joy danced in laughing eyes; at tid- ings ill, tears of sorrow like molten fire streamed down pale and withered cheek. And what magic, what miracles wrought by these tears upon fathers and sons in the bloody charge, in the battle's storm. [Applause.]

As the astronomer takes the level of the sea to measure all important heights and depths, so must we take the plane upon which men move to measure the influence of their lives upon human kind. A giant gloried in the strength of his own great arm and was slain by the shepherd youth. Byron dazzled the world with his genius, overshadowed Walter Scott as poet, and put him to the task of giving the world among the richest of its types of romance. But who

s Hon and Stephen F. Austin 109

is prepared to say mankind gained mure in the birth than in the death of Byron?

Newton mounted to the stars and saw the forces that hound all nature in harmony and system. In it he saw the hand of the Creator, and blessed mankind by his living. Sam Houston, a decade before his death, listened to a dis- course from the text, "Better is he that ruleth his spirit than he who taketh a city." It soon "fastened conviction" upon him, and he lived a Christian; died not only as a philosopher, but almost like a god. [Applause.]

Mr. Speaker, I have seen part of a summer's sky over- cast with cloud and the gentle showers fall and the rain- drops sparkle as so main diamonds on tree and shrub and flower, and I believed it beautiful. I have fancied myriad forms in the strange phenomena of the heavens, and believed it grand. I have looked on the mellow glow of sunset and believed it challenged the utmost stretch of my fancy for the beautiful; but the most charming picture, perhaps, that may challenge the imagination is a shaft of light spanning from the effigies of earth to heaven, and human souls, loosed from their mortal environment, ascending that shaft to the God who gave them.

Let this be the vision we have of the .yreat souls, now, perhaps, not less the idols of their eternal than erstwhile of their earthly homes. Let it be they abide in peace by the fountain of living waters, and where the skies bend soft- est and the flowers bloom eternal. Xoble and cultured Austin ! Great and picturesque Houston ! By the work of this day we but recall the magic of thy genius, but review the pioneer pageant of thy march from cradle to

i io Acceptance of Statues of

grave. It has not been left for us to add one cubit to stat- ures, like gods descended, stood in the councils, moved the hearts, and molded the judgments of men. It has not been left for us to immortalize thy names, for beyond our feeble- reach they are graved on the tablets and shrined in the hearts of nations. It has not been left for us to wreathe thy brows with lintels that defy the touch of time, for the world has crowned them with laurels that shall endure forever. It has not been left for us to broaden the pedestals nor place the capstones on the pyramids of th\- fame, for thine own hands have builded the one as broad as earth and the other as high as heaven, but it has been left for ns to glory in the fact of birth in a land dowered with the knightly genius of tliv patriotism and the peerless chivalry of tin deeds. Caesar nor Napoleon inspired their armed legions with such spirit for war as thou hast wrought in thy countrymen for peace, nor waged such victories in battle as thou hast won in the forum, nor massed such power for oppression as thou hast arrayed for freedom, nor transmitted such glory to the nations as thy example to posterity. [Loud applause.]

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin in

Address of Mr. Gillespie, of Texas

Mr. Speaker: By the act of Congress passed in 1864 each State of the Union is invited to place in Statuary Hall of this Capitol the statues of two of her sons renowned in civil or military life. Texas has accepted this invitation and presented to the nation the statues of Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston. Austin, the revered father of Texas, and HOUSTON, her matchless defender and preserver. Texas is most fortunate in her choice, and the nation may be congratulated upon it, for the lives of these two men furnish forcible examples of those noble deeds and high resolves which shone so re- splendently in the lives of the founders of this nation, and have ever been and ever will be cherished as the most sacred memories of our people. They also furnish the highest hope and surest inspiration for the preserva- tion of our liberties. Austin's life embodies hope; Hous- ton's, courage. Hope and courage are the parent virtues of our race. Hope plants, courage defends.

Both these men were born in Virginia the same vear. Houston, March 2, 1793; Austin, November 3. Hous- ton's parents moved to Virginia from Pennsylvania; Aus- tin's, from Connecticut and New Jersey. They were both of the stock we call Scotch-Irish. The hearts of their Old World ancestors were set on fire for religious' free- dom by the eloquence of John Knox. They migrated

112 Acceptance of Statues of

from Scotland to the north of Ireland, whence they largely peopled these shores and constitute our best citizens. They have been found wherever privation was to be endured, the forest to be felled, cities to be founded, States to be built, the savage to be driven back, liberty to be defended, or God to be worshiped.

Mr. Speaker, in reviewing the early history of Texas from the time her life-giving sunshine first enveloped the frail form of STEPHEN F. AUSTIN and her healthful breezes first cooled his patriot brow, on through his wonderful labor of love and sacrifice, on yet through the time when the fair form of Texas liberty first attracted the eye and engaged the heart of Sam Houston and caused him to throw his strong arms around her, on until Texas took her place in the Union of our fathers. When we review these things we are brought face to face with the ever- watchful care of Almighty God, who numbers the very hairs of our head and without whose knowledge a sparrow falls not to the ground. How he fitted the means to the end. To accomplish what AUSTIN accomplished required the use of every virtue of head and heart, and AUSTIN possessed them. He was modest and unassuming; he was candid, sincere, plain, and direct; he was painstaking, cautious, and watchful ; he was patient and industrious ; he possessed the sublimest moral courage and the noblest spirit of self-sacrifice ; he was well educated, skillful, and sagacious; his language and conduct were pure and chaste; he was both a statesman and a patriot. Men delighted to intrust him with their lives, their property, their fortunes. He ruled by love. His colony absorbed his very being.

5 nn Houston and Stephen F. Austin 115

But every human life lias its limitations, beyond which it cannot pass. So Austin had his. Although he possessed the power of a military dictator over his people he never once exerted it. He established courts; even-handed justice was meted out to all.

The civil administration of his colony is one of the proudest monuments to his genius and patriotism. But other colonies were established in Texas and other settle- ments made after Austin had founded his — notably De Witt's colonv, whose capital was Gonzales, and the settlement of Victoria, southwest of Austin's colony, and those of Nacogdoches and San Augustine, in east Texas. Xew settlers were constantly arriving. Many of them were young, bold, ambitious spirits; many also were reck- less and lawless. At the beginning of the revolution in Texas, in 1835, when the purpose of Santa Ana to dis- arm the Texans and hold the province in absolute sub- jection to his will, or to drive out the American settlers with fire and sword, was made manifest, it became necessary for all the people of Texas to act together. The situation demanded a leader. Why not Austin?

The newcomers knew not Austin. He had no mili- tarv experience; his presence was not commanding; the gift of elocpience was not his; his modesty and retiring manners were interpreted for weakness. Austin himself turned to Houston, and Houston was there! Houston was a man of magnificent presence. He was 6 feet 2 inches in height, of a large, perfectly formed frame, erect as it was possible for a man to be, grace in every move- ment, a voice full of deliberation and melody, his eye H. Doc. 474. 58-3 s

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penetrating and kind. He was described substantially as above by ex-Governor Roberts, of Texas. Besides his personal appearance, nature had filled his soul with eloquence and it burst forth as naturally as water from the mountain's side.

Courage was also his natural attribute. His fame, too, had preceded him to Texas. The strange life of his boyhood among the Indians; his daring acts of valor at Horseshoe Bend under the very eye of Andrew Jackson; Jackson's friendship for him; his sudden rise to the gov- ernorship of Tennessee; the separation from his wife; the consequent convulsions produced in Tennessee; the sudden dashing from his lips the cup of fortune and quitting the State of Tennessee as a citizen forever, taking up his life again among the Indians; his visit to Washington in their behalf; his famous trial by Con- gress for assaulting a Member in Washington; the triumphal issue of this trial — the fame of these things preceded HOUSTON t< i Texas, and when he stood among her people there was about him an irresistible fascination and attraction for all men. There he stood, a prince among men, (rod's best endowed, and nature's nobleman. Yes, he stood there clad in buckskin with an Indian blanket thrown across his shoulder, a dress suited to his dav and work.

As of Austin so of Houston, it can be said that none but Houston could have accomplished Houston's work. Everj' accident of Houston's history was preparatory to his great work in Texas. For the little band of patriots to successfully cope with Mexico the Indians must be

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 115

kept down. Houston, before he began his famous cam- paign ending with San Jacinto, made a treaty with the Indians which they faithfully kept. Houston's knowl- edge of the Indian character was most profound; lie was their sincere friend. It is said that the Indians never broke a treaty they made with HOUSTON. His greatest efforts in the United .States Senate were in behalf of the Indians. He believed the Indian capable of high devel- opment if properly treated. He mourned to the last over the Indian's fate. This is a description of an eyewitness to a meeting in Washington between Houston and a party of Indians while HOUSTON was Senator.

During the latter part of June, 1S46, Genera] Morehead arrived at Wash- ington with a party of wild Indians from Texas, belonging to more than a dozen tribes. We saw their meeting with Genera] HOUSTON, One and

all ran to him ami clasped him in their brawny arms ami hugged him like bears to their naked breasts and called him "father." Beneath the cop- per skin and thick paint the blood rushed and their faces changed; the lip of many a warrior trembled, although the Indian may not we-ep. These wild men knew him and revered him as one who was too directly descended from the Great Spirit to be approached with familiarity, and vet they loved him so well they could not help it. These were the men "he had been too subtle for on the warpath, too powerful in battle, too mag- nanimous in victory, too wise in council, and too true in faith." They had flung away their arms in Texas, and with the Commanche chief who headed their file they had come to Washington to see their " father." I said these iron warriors shed no tears when they met their old friend, but wdiite men who stood by will tell what they did. We-were there, and have witnessed few scenes in which mingled more of what is called the "moral sublime." hi the gigantic form of HOUSTON, on whose ample brow the beneficent love of a father was struggling with the sternness of the patriotic warrior, we saw civilization awing the savage at his feet. We needed no interpre- ter to tell us that this impressive supremacy was gained in the forest

HOUSTON, in the United States Senate, thus poured out the lamentation of his soul over the Indian's fate:

As a race they have withered from the land. Their arrows are broken, and their springs are dried up; their cabins are in thediist. Their council

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fire has long since gone out on the shore, and their war cry is fast dying out to the untrodden West. Slowly and sadly they climb the mountains and read their doom in the setting sun. They are shrinking before the mighty tide which is pressing them away; they must soon hear the roar of the last wave, which will settle over them forever. Ages hence the inquisitive white man. as he stands by some growing city, will ponder on the structure of their disturbed remains and wonder to what manner of person they belonged. They will live only in the songs and chronicles of their exterminators. 1 et these be faithful to their rude virtues as men, and pay due tribute to their unhappy fate as a people.

Preparatory to Houston's power oyer the Indians we have his life- among them. For his power over men we may trace the cause beyond his fame, his eloquence, and his personality. Here is what is said of his father:

Hi- father was a man of moderate fortune; indeed, he seems to have possessed the means only of a comfortable subsistence. He was known only for one passion, ami this was for military life. He had borne his part in the Revolution, and was successively the inspectoi of General Bowyer's and General Moore's brigades. The latter post he held till his death, which took place in 1807, while he was on a tour of inspection among the Allegheny Mountains. He was a man of powerful frame, fine bearing, and indomitable courage. These qualities his son inherited, and they were the only legacy he had to leave him.

And this of his mother:

Hi- mother was an extraordinary woman. She was distinguished by a full, rather tall, ami matronly form, a tine carriage, and an impressive, dignified countenance. She was gifted with intellectual and moral quali- ties which elevated her ill a still more striking manner above most of her sex. Her life shone with purity and benevolence, and yet she was nerved with a stern fortitude, which never gave way in the midst of the wild scenes that chequered the history of the frontier settler. Her beneficence was universal, and her name was called with gratitude by the poor and suffering. Many vears afterwards her son returned front his distant exile to weep by her bedside when she came to die.

HOUSTON was educated in no school but the wilderness; he had access to no hooks but Nature, Pope's Iliad, and the Bible. The hunger of his soul was his only teacher. HOUSTON awoke to consciousness in the days that were

Sam Houston a>iti Stephen /■'. Austin 117

resounding with the praise- of the heroes of the Revolution, many of whom were- still living, from whose lips he heard their wonderful story, and it never fell upon more willing cars. At the close of his life he said of these early heroes in a public address to the people of Texas:

I stand the last almost of a race who learned from their lips the lessons of human freedom.

This, too, was a school in which he was taught. He possessed a fine memory. That he had a strong mind and could go by leaps and bounds where the average mind must plod alon^' is abundantly shown by his writ- ings, State papers, and speeches, no less than his quick step to the front as a lawver when lie took up that profession in Tennessee.

HOUSTON must l)e torn loose from Tennessee. We therefore have the separation from his wife, the consequent turning aloose the tongue of slander all over the State. This brought envy and jealousy to tin- front. All Tennes- see was stirred. Houston and anti-Houston parties were formed, until a situation was produced which, if persisted in, appeared to HOUSTON would put him in the attitude of warring against a woman. His chivalrous soul shrank from this, and he suddenly resigned the office of governor and sought refuge from this great secret sorrow around the council fires of the old Indian chief who had been the friend of his boyhood. And here, too, Houston must have the opportunity to convince the Indians that not only could he enter into their lives with them as a hoy, hut that as a man he could undertake great things for them at Washing- ton and even suffer persecution for their sake, which he did.

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Before Houston left Washington the last time, before going to Texas, President Jackson offered him different honorable positions, but owing to the charges against him in

Tennessee and also the accusations made against him by the friends of the dishonest Indian agents whom he had caused to be expelled from the service, he thought that his accept- ance of a position under the President might embarrass the latter, so he- refused. Therefore, when lie left Washington this time it was again to go into voluntary exile so far as the white man was concerned. Put he had agreed with the President to go on a secret mission to the Comanche Indians at San Antonio, Tex. Also he had in mind the selection of a cattle ranch. So his first trip into Texas, in December, 1832, was for this purpose. He passed through Nacogdoches, Tex., on his way to San Antonio, had his meeting with the Indians at the latter place, and passed again on his way back through Xaco«xloches. When he reached this place he was given such a warm welcome by the inhabitants, and so besought bv them to become one of their number, that he consented. It was also explained to him that delegates were to be elected right away to a con- stitutional convention at San Felipe de Austin, April 1, 1833, and requested him to permit his name to be used as a candidate for delegate. He consented to this. This cir- cumstance doubtless aroused the slumbering ambition of his sotd. Who could more clearly than Houston see the possibilities that lay before him in the event he cast his fortunes with these pioneer patriots? They saw in him their leader; he saw in them his opportunity, and HOUSTON was himself again. He went on to Natchitoches, La., to

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 119

give the United State.- Government the result of his con- ference with the Indians and returned to Nacogdoches to find that he had been unanimously elected a delegate to the convention at San Felipe de Austin. Houston"

attended this convention, and there, so far as history tells us, met for the first time STEPHEN F. AUSTIN. And this convention was the first deliberative assembly composed of men of the Anglo-Saxon race that ever met within the dominion of Mexico and the first step in that great move- ment that never stopped until it reached the Pacific Ocean.

This convention adopted a constitution for Texas . separate State of Mexico, and also a memorial to the central government praying that Texas might be admitted as a separate Mexican State. STEPHEN F. Austin was appointed one of three commissioners to convev this con- stitution and memorial to the City of Mexico and urge the admission of Texas into the Mexican Uniod. Houston and Austin both had no other purpose at this time than the advancement of the interests of Texas as a Mexican State. Austin had always been true to the constitution of Mexico, which was adopted in 1N24, and which pro- vided for a republican form of government, and was modeled after that of the United States. It is believed that Austin himself drew the draft of this constitution while he was in the City of Mexico, 1822 to 1824, whither he had gone to protect the rights of his colonists, and it is known that while there he drew the plan of colonization provided for in that constitution and that his opinions were sought and highly prized by the statesmen of Mexico. In all the shifting scenes of the Government in Mexico from

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1824 to 1835 AUSTIN only contended for the rights of Texas under the constitution of 1824. While the military of the Texas province was against Santa Ana, the colo- nists, under Austin's lead, were with him, because Santa Ana pretended to be the friend of the constitution of 1824, and not until he clearly showed in 1833 and afterwards that he intended to overthrow this constitution and have himself declared military dictator of Mexico did Austin lose the hope of securing the rights of Texas under the Government of Mexico and advise the Texans to declare for independence.

When Austin reached Mexico with the constitution and memorial of 1833 he was received coldlv and given to understand that the actions of the Texans were offen- sive to Santa Ana, who was then the government. He remained in Mexico long enough to become thoroughly convinced of the real designs of Santa Ana. When he did become so convinced he wrote a letter back home advising Texas of the true situation and probablv sug- gesting defensive measures. This letter was intercepted by the Mexican authorities and declared to be treasonable. Austin was on his way home and had gotten as far as Saltillo, where he was arrested and taken back to Mexico and confined in a dark camp prison for several months. After a while the rigor of his imprisonment was relieved, but he was still kept a prisoner. He was anxious for a trial, but no cotirt would try him. Finally Santa Ana released him, and he returned to Texas in 1835. When the news of Austin's persecution by Santa Ana reached Texas the people became very indignant and arose as one

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 121

man for protection against the tyranny of Santa Ana, who also issued an edict demanding of the Texans the surrender of their small arms. This, if carried out, would leave them defenseless against the Indian-, as well as many of them without the means of procuring subsistence, since they lived upon the meat of wild animals. The revolution was now on. Committees of safety were formed. A consultation convention was called to meet at Wash- ington about October 1. [835. This convention met. About this time the Mexican soldiers undertook to carry off a small 4-pound cannon from Gonzales, the capital of De Witt's colony. This cannon was used as protection against Indians. The citizens resisted its removal. This was the first struggle of the revolution. The Texans triumphed. AUSTIN appeared and was made commander in chief of the army of Texas. HOUSTON, in the mean- time, had been declared commander in chief of the army of Texas east of the Trinity. Houston made several eloquent speeches at different assemblies urging delibera- tion on the part of the Texans. Austin's troops had captured San Antonio and Goliad.

The consultation convention met at Washington and changed to San Felipe. From this place Austin invited them to his camp near San Antonio. Houston and the majority of the convention went. Austin offered to surrender his command to Houston, who refused it. A council of war was held, and it was decided to leave it to the 800 men of the army whether a provisional govern- ment should be established. The army decided unani- mously for a provisional government. The members of the

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convention then went back to San Felipe, reorganized, and provided for a provisional government and elected HOUSTON commander in chief of the army of Texas, and Austin as a commissioner to the. United States to secure aid for Texas.

Events rapidly developed. The declaration of inde- pendence was adopted March 2, 1836. Santa Ana invaded Texas with an army of 7,000 men. The Goliad and Alamo tragedies occurred. Houston's famous retreat, starting with an army of 574 men, pursued by Santa Ana with 5,000. ( In this retreat Houston's army grew to 700. Santa Ana divided his army into three divisions, which became widely separated. < hilv one division, led by Santa Ana himself, numbering about 1,500, immediately fol- lowed Houston.

Learning this, Hoiston turned to meet his enemy. The two armies faced each other on the field of San Jacinto the day before the battle. The next morning the sun arose without a cloud to break his beams. The Mexicans were entrenched behind a breastwork made up of camp equipage, saddles, and such seantv material as was convenient. The Texans had been complaining at their long retreat. They were anxious for the fray. It was difficult to restrain them the day before, when they first faced the Mexicans. They had everything to fight for — their homes, their country, their honor, their vengeance, their liberty, their religion. They were drawn up in line of battle. Hous- ton's eloquence stirred them. The order to charge was given. The}- rushed upon their enemy like demons. The first vollev of the Mexicans missed them, and they

Sam Houston and Stephen /•". Austin 123

rushed on over the enemy's breastwork. A slaughter, a rout, began; within twenty minutes the field was won — won to the everlasting renown of the Anglo-Saxon, won to

human freedom, and to the highest and best civilization the world ever saw.

Lieutenant Sylvester, volunteer from Ohio, captured Santa Ana. He was carried to Houston. Houston's magnanimous treatment of his fallen foe, his sagacity in protecting him from the just wrath of the Texans, his ex- treme care for the comfort of Santa Ana — this conduct has won for Houston the praise of all true men. It reveals what manner of man was beneath the buckskin dress, and is an honor to humanity.

This victory lifted HOUSTON into the arena of national politics, where he easily impressed himself upon the coun- try as a wise and sagacious statesman; also his broad American spirit was revealed to the world. Houston was almost unanimously elected the first president of the re- public, with so great a name in Texas as that of STEPHEN F. Austin used in opposition to him. However, Austin made no efforts in his own behalf. HOUSTON offered Austin the choice of two positions — secretary of state and minister to the United States. The latter was more preferable to Austin, because the long confinement in the Mexican prison and the strain of the revolution had under- mined his constitution and his health had given way. Ik- felt that he needed rest. But the people, too often unmind- ful of the welfare of their benefactors, clamored for AUSTIN to take the position of secretary. Austin knew more about their land titles and internal affairs than any living man.

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Austin yielded to their demands and offered himself a further sacrifice for the people of Texas. The burden was too heavy for his frail frame, and he died December 27, [836, and President HOUSTON issued the following order:

War Department, Columbia, December 27 \ r8j6.

The father of Texas is no more.

The first pioneer of the wilderness has departed. Gen. Stephen F. Austin, secretary of state, expired this day at half past 12 o'clock, at Columbia.

As a testimony of respect to his high standing, undeviating moral recti- tude, ami as a mark of the nation's gratitude fur his untiring zeal ami invaluable services, all officers, civil ami military, are requested to wear crape on the right arm for the space of thirty days. All officers com- manding posts, garrisons, or detachments will, as soon as information is received of the melancholy event, cause thirty-three guns to he fired, with an interval of five minutes between each, ami also have the garrison and regimental colors hung with black during the space of mourning for the illustrious dead.

By order of the President:

William S. Fisher, Secretary of H'ar.

Thus was gathered unto his fathers Stephen F. Austin, whose memory shall be cherished by men as long as gratitude shall dwell in their hearts and they shall love truth, purity, honor, the noble, and the true. He sowed, and the seed fell upon good ground, and the whole nation is now reaping the harvest of his labors.

Houston's history, from his election as President of the Republic of Texas until his death, is but the history of Texas as a Republic and a State. His first and controlling purpose was to have Texas admitted into this Union. He at first assumed the attitude of a suppliant. When he saw that was a failure he took an indifferent, independent, almost defiant position. He very adroitly let it be under- stood that England or F ranee was anxious to form an alli- ance with Texa>. He managed to place before the people

Sam Houston and Stephen /•". Austen 125

of the United States the great advantage Texas would be to either England or France. He even went so far as to direct his minister at Washington to withdraw the appli- cation of Texas for admission into the Union and give out the statement that the next advance toward that end must come from the United States. HOUSTON had attracted to Texas the eyes of the ambitious statesmen of England and France by first gaining their respect. He did this in a very able appeal t<> the civilized powers of the world, ask- ing them to intervene to stop Mexico from pursuing her barbarous methods of warfare against Texas, in violation of all laws of civilized nations — that is, not by marching her armies into Texas and trying her fortunes in honor- able battle with those of the little Republic, but by sending raiding bands across the Rio Grande, whose only object was to plunder and murder the peaceful inhabitants of Texas. This address gave the history of Texas as only Houston could write it.

This plan of Houston's was successful. The first great object of his ambition after San Jacinto was accomplished. Texas became a member of this Union and Houston and Rusk were her first Senators. Both of Houston's admin- istrations of the affairs of the Republic were marked bv conservatism and the highest devotion to the best interests of the people oi Texas. Wherever his policies were pur- sued, order and stability and prosperity resulted ; when his advice was ignored, dissensions arose, wild schemes were resorted to, and disorder prevailed. Houston's broad American spirit shone most resplendent when he took his position in the Senate of the United States. He was an

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uncompromising friend of the Federal Union. He was the everlasting foe to sectional jealousies, animosities, and dis- sensions. He was opposed to secession. He lined the Union. He believed with all his soul that the peace, hap- piness, and prosperity of the American people, not less than the hope of human freedom everywhere, depended upon the preservation of this Union. Historv affords no better example of sublime moral courage than that HOUSTON gave to the world in the closing days of his life. He loved the South, he loved Texas, but his judgment and his con- science marked out for him the path of duty. He thought secession was wrong in principle, and, if admitted, meant the destruction of all government on this continent. While in the Senate he threw his whole force against the current of this movement, ami afterwards, while a candidate for governor of Texas, ami while governor of Texas, he exerted all the powers of his soul, mind, and body, save a resort to force, to keep Texas in the Union. Put the tide was too strong, even he could not stay it; but he would not go with it, and quitted the capital of his .State forever and retired to his modest home to die, July 25, 1863, the uncompromising friend of the American Union.

Thus the child of the wilderness, the brave soldier of Tohopeka, the governor of two States, the president of one Republic, the United States Senator, the hero of San Jacinto, was gathered unto his fathers. Two purer, nobler, braver spirits never blessed the earth than STEPHEN F. AUSTIN and Samuel Houston. [Loud applause.]

Sam Houston and Stephen /•'. Austin 12;

Address of Mr. Slayden, of Texas

Mr. Speaker: Few countries have a mure picturesque and interesting history than Texas. It has all the elements of an absorbing drama. High courage, devotion to duty, carnage of the battlefield, and the intellectual play of the council chamber are a few of the chapters one may read in the history of the State. Making due allowance for the partiality of a devoted son of the great Commonwealth who has enjoyed her favor, I feel that I am well within the truth when I say that her history, which is certainly unique, should command the admiration of all Americans.

( )nce a province of Spain, she was coveted and claimed by France. Then a part of . the first Mexican Republic, she suffered for a few years the vicissitudes of that eountrv, to emerge in 1836 an independent nation. Nine years later, by a solemn treaty between the high contracting parties, she became a State of the American Union. For four years she gave her allegiance to the Confederacv of the South, but is now back in the Union, where, in the fullness of time, she is destined to become the dominant partner of the Federal alliance.

The introduction of Anglo-American civilization into Texas began in a feeble way about the close of the eight- eenth century. But the colonization of that dav was desultory and unimportant. Now and then an individual or a few individuals, conscious only of a selfish purpose,

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but none the less instruments of civilization, as we under- stand the term, invaded the wilderness west of the Sabine. ( (eeasionally organized bodies of men, in whom it was hard to distinguish the quality of trader from that of filibuster, marched and fought their way to the West.

The Spanish authorities were jealous and watchful, and when the}' could do so drove these invaders back to the Valley of the Mississippi.

The political nature of these expeditions to Texas is conspicuously shown in that which set out from Natchez in 1819, under the command of Col. James Long. His party, after many adventures and hardships, finally reached Nacogdoches, then the most important place in Texas after San Antonio de Bexar, where they proclaimed the Republic of Texas. As Colonel Long only had 75 men, and as he failed to enlist the support of the Republicans who were supposed to be in Texas, or other help, the puny Republic did not survive its early infancy.

It would be tedious, and for this occasion unprofitable, to trace the history of Texas through the bewildering maze of revolution and counter revolution of the Mexico of that period.

The meager resources of the Texans contrast strangely with the mighty enterprises in which they engaged. ( )nly the sacrifices and sublime courage with which they supported their plans saved them from the ridicule of historians.

In all the vast and fertile area of the province of Texas there were then only about 4,000 people, including In- dians. Scattered as they were, cohesive action, either for

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 129

the defense of their property and lives or for political aggression, was almost impossible. Yet the poverty of

their numbers and circumstance did not prevent them from entertaining dreams of empire. The territory and the fruits of what was to become, a generation later, the independent Republic of Texas were battled for by adventurers from everywhere during this period.

Lafitte, the pirate, who had been expelled from Rara- taria, near the mouth of the Mississippi, but who had taken time from his illicit trade to help repel the British at Xew Orleans; Mina, a Spanish soldier, who had reached some distinction during the Peninsular war, and Lallemand and Rigault, from the armies (if Xapoleon, with a horde of American adventurers, were striking if not honorable figures of that time.

Stretching from the Sabine to the Rio Grande an J from the Gulf to and beyond Red River on the north was a land as fair and as rich as ever tempted the cupidity of man. It had a climate of unsurpassed excel- lence. Rich and succulent passes sustained vast herds of wild horses ; the buffalo and deer were in countless numbers on every prairie; the air of springtime, then as now, was redolent with the perfume of flowers, beautiful and abundant, and every tree and bush had its chorus of singing birds.

The landdiungry Americans could not be kept from such a paradise. Comfort and independence beckoned them on.

Vet it remained for Moses Austin, a Missouri merchant, and his immortal son, Stephen, to do peaceably in a

H. Doc. 474, 5S-3 9

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few years what organized filibusters had tried in vain to accomplish.

The difficulties in the way of the peaceable American colonists were many. The people and the Government of Mexico were Catholic in religion. The majority of the Americans, particularly the class from which such colonists could be drawn, were Protestants. Texas was a province of the Kingdom of Spain, while the American immigrants were Republicans after the manner of Jeffer- son. In fact every condition, save the fertility of the soil and the beauty of the climate, was calculated to repel emigration from the .States of the American Union. Gradually the French and Spanish titles in North Amer- ica had been relinquished to the irresistible Anglo- American. The transfer of Louisiana and of the Floridas were significant facts of recent history which did not allay the jealous apprehension of the Mexican authorities. To this unpromising field the Austins applied their energies and talents.

While Sam Houston is easily the most picturescpie and eminent figure we have, the profound student of Texas history will find no difficulty in reaching the conclusion that citizens of the State owe an equal debt of gratitude to the Austins, father and son.

In speaking of these two reallv great men Professor Garrison, of the university which their labors helped to create, sa\ s :

It is only of lite that the world, with the results before its eves, lias begun to realize what they accomplished. If they themselves, upon the threshold of their undertaking, could have looked forward to the revolu- tion of 1S36, annexation, the Mexican war, the acquisitions made by the

s • // islon and Stephen F. Austin 131

treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and the marvelous development of Texas and California, they must have been ' gj 1 by the consequences that were to flow from their enterprise. Yet this chain of events has followed "as night the day" the work planned and begun by Moses Austin and ■ut by his si >n Ste] ihen.

I inctor Garrison, who lias gone to the root of things in his study of Texas history, declares the work of the Austins to haw been of "vast and manifest importance." He calls them the makers of Anglo-American Texas.

Moses Anstin, who for years had been a merchant in Virginia and Missouri, traveled on horseback from what is now Washington County, Mo., to San Antonio — a distance of about a thousand miles — in order to arrange with the authorities of Spain for the introduction of a colony.

Having overcome the objection of the governor, his petition for a contract to settle 300 families in Texas was indorsed and forwarded to the national capital for approval. There were the usual delays in the Mexican capital, and Austin decided to return to his home in Missouri to await the arrival of the papers from Mexico. In crossing Texas to Natchitoches he was robbed and abandoned by his Indian guides and wandered about for days, subsisting on roots and nuts until discovered and rescued by white trap- pers. He suffered so from the hardships and exposures of the journey that he died soon after reaching Missouri. But just before his death he learned that his petition had been granted. To his son, STEPHEN FrLLKR Al'STix, he becjueathed the contract and its responsibilities.

No trust was ever put into safer hands. In him were fortunately combined the vigor of youth and the wisdom of a°re.

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He immediately proceeded to San Antonio by wav of Nacogdoches, where he met the commissioners who had been sent by the Spanish authorities to confer with his father.

After the official formalities had been settled he pro- ceeded to the execution of the contract. In December, [821, settlers were brought in and placed mi the land.

The lot of the American pioneer has not always been a happy one. As disasters came to the settlers at Jamestown, so did they also come to those upon the Colorado. The wisest forethought and the most prudent administration could not avoid some degree of disaster, and so, in the next year or two, many of the less hardy emigrants returned to the United State--. Supplies that had been shipped from Xew Orleans did not arrive, seed were scarce, crops failed, and the savages were annoying. Hut during all these trying times Austin never wavered in his faith nor ceased his exertions for the benefit of the settlement.

It was particularly unfortunate that at this crisis in the affairs of the colony he was compelled to go to the City of Mexico to have his ^rant confirmed and to receiye instruc- tions concerning its administration. He at once undertook the overland trip of 1,200 miles, through a country infested h\ robbers, where law was only occasionally administered and order rarely known.

The historian suggests a picture of northern Mexico of that day when he says that 1>\ "good fortune Austin* got safely through." He was detained in the Mexican capital for nearly a year. It was during that year and under the most trying circumstances that the mettle of

Sam Houston and Stephen F. .Austin 133

the man was shown. Political conditions in Mexico at that time were possibly without parallel in any other part of the world. The concession to Moses Austin had been made by the Kingdom of Spain. When STEPHEN F. Austin reached the capital of Mexico he dealt with the republic which followed the expulsion of the Spaniards. Then came the empire of Iturbide, which endured for a few months only. It was succeeded by another so-called republic that was born in a revolution headed by Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, whose subsequent connection with the history of Texas did not increase his reputation.

During this epoch of turbulent and rapidly changing governments ArsTix never lost sight of the purpose of his visit to Mexico. He always kept in mind his duty to the colonists whom he had brought to Texas. When his contract was annulled by one government, he secured its renewal by another. He was diligent, and above all he was diplomatic. Each administration in its turn yielded its respect and confidence to the quiet, persistent American. Like St. Paul, he was all things to all men. When the opportunity offered he advanced his enterprise.

When circumstances demanded delay he was patient. He devoted his leisure to the study of the Spanish lan- guage and became expert in its use. He made himself acquainted with the laws of Spain and of Mexico, and so much did he impress himself upon the leading men of Mexico that he is said to have been an important factor in writing the constitution of 1S24, a violation of which, by the Federal Government, is given as the tech- nical cause of the revolution of 1836.

134 Acceptance of Statues of

When AUSTIN returned to Texas from Mexico he was authorized by the Federal Government to exercise admin- istrative, military, and judicial functions. In fact, he was made dictator for the colony. He was that rare person, a benevolent dictator in whom, some have contended the ideal government is to be found. But under this governor, who had been clothed with such extraordinary powers, free speech, popular elections, and democratic government were the practice.

Such independence of thought and freedom of move- ment as characterized the Texans were hardlv guaranties of continued loyalty to the revolutionary government in the remote capital of Mexico. The American colonists were hardly fit material out of which to make loval subjects of a Spanish monarch or contented citizens in an unstable and badly administered republic. They were descendants of the men who fired the first shot at Lexing- ton and of those whose bloody feet stained the snows of Valley Forge and compelled the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktowu. They were in training for the sacrifice of the Alamo and the success of San Jacinto. With such a setting, with such actors, and under such conditions, a severance of the political ties which bound Texas to Mexico was only a question of time.

The obligations of the contract were not always respected by the Government of Mexico, and, although Austin tried loyally to discharge his duty and to induce the colonists to a full appreciation of theirs, friction increased between the people and the Federal authorities. Convention suc- ceeded convention, in all of which the Texans set out

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 135

their grievances and asked for relief. These petitions were either denied, ignored, or grudgingly and partially -ranied. Always the impending conflict was made more apparent and open revolt brought nearer and nearer.

In December, 1832, the most romantic and conspicuous figure of all her history came to Texas. Sam Houston — for it is he of whom I now speak — came with the halo of romance and a great reputation as a statesman and soldier. He had been governor of Tennessee for tw< 1 years, a Mem- ber of Congress, and was a soldier of experience. After resigning the governorship of the State of Tennessee, in 1829, he sought his old friends, the Cherokee, and was formally received into citizenship by that tribe. After remaining' with them for more than three years he yielded to the importunities of his friends in Texas and began the reallv great work of his life. His first public appearance in Texas was in the convention at San Felipe in 1833. He had only been in the State about three months, but men of his experience and ability were not so abundant, that they could be overlooked. In those days of quick development the new citizen of to-day became the old inhabitant of to-morrow. The Texans were divided into two parties — one clamoring for war and the other pleading for peace.

Austin, who was a lawyer and an ex-judge, trained to the observance of all laws, as well as a man of supersensi- tive conscience, was the most conservative figure in Texas at that time. He admitted his obligations to the Mexican Government and tried to live up to the contract. It was his influence that delayed the open revolt.

136 Acceptance of Statues of

!'>' !^35 the demand for separation was so general and the reasons for it so abundant that even Austin gave way before the resistless tide. Indignities from Santa Ana, who had succeeded to the Presidency of Mexico, added to the wrath of the Texans. Men like Henry Smith and William B. Travis, who were leaders of the war party, were urging a declaration of independence. Austin, who some time before had i^one to Mexico to trv to ameliorate the condi- tion of his colony, and who had been imprisoned for some months while in Mexico, returned during the summer of 1835 to find his and other colonies in a state of almost open revolt. IK- was made chairman of the committee of safetv in the fall of 1835, and on the 19th of September of that year issued an address to the people of Texas advising them that war was inevitable and urging the immediate organization of military companies.

That the enterprise in which they were about to en<^a-e was desperate could not be denied. An orator of the day, in discussing the situation, said:

And is the population of Texas sufficient? We presume it may he said with tolerable accuracy that we are 50,000 people, counting Indians. Ten hundred thousand make one million, and the smallest nation that sustains its relations with the powers of Christendom numbers, I believe, one and one-half million souls.

Texas, then, contains less than one-twentieth of the population of the most insignificant among the nations of the earth. The population of Mexico is over 7,000,000. The disparity, therefore, is [40 to 1. We arc- proud to claim for the citizens of Texas much gallantry and much greater aptitude for war than can be accredited to their antagonists; but 140 to 1 is fearful odds.

The towering form of Thermopylae, which stands preeminent among the monuments of ancient glory, was achieved against mighty odds, but not such odds as this

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 137

But the counsels of the prudent were not regarded. The revolution was on, and the first blood was shed at Gonzales, on the 2d of October, 1835. Thereafter events marched rapidly.

Gonzales was followed by the fight at the mission Con- cepcion, near San Antonio, which later was the scene of the most remarkable battle in the world's history.

From Gonzales and Concepcion to San Jacinto was, by the calendar, only about six months, but the period of gestation was long enough for the birth of a nation. It covers the siege and massacre of the Alamo. It runs to the triumph of Houston's army over Santa Ana. It was long enough to show that Texans knew how to fight and die. It sufficed to prove their wise £enerosit\ to a fallen foe, whose murder of the immortals of the Alamo had placed him beyond the right of any such consideration.

It brought to the surface a large number of men of talent. To call the roll would be tedious, but out of the many I hope I may be pardoned for mentioning the names of Bowie, Crockett, Milam, Fannin, and Travis among those whose talents were exercised only in a militarv wav. The soldier-statesman class embraced, among others. Rusk, Burnet, Lamar, Sherman, Burleson, and Zavalla.

After the battle of San Jacinto, Houston and his colleagues devoted themselves to the work of putting the new Republic on a solid foundation.

Ill health denied to Austin the share in this work for which his talents and training gave him special fitness. He died on the 29th of December, in the same

138 Acceptance of Statues of

year that witnessed the birth of the new Republic. Just as much as any man who dies on the field of battle Stephen F. Austin gave his life to the State he had loved and for which he had fought and sacrificed. Hard- ships that can not be understood by people who do not know the frontier and the foul air of the Mexican prisons had done their work.

His place in history was justly given by President Sam HOUSTON, whose proclamation of sorrow said: "The father of Texas is no more. The first pioneer of the wilderness has departed."

Slowly the work of the pioneer is coming to be appre- ciated. No longer is he regarded as merely a man who opens new territory to commerce. He laid the founda- tions of government, and on his labors much of the glory and prosperity of this great country is based. Chiefest among the pioneers is STEPHEN Fuller Austin.

Of the brilliant career of Houston you have just been told by the eloquent gentlemen who have preceded me. I very much hope that what they have said and what, in a feeble way, I have hinted at may induce a closer study of Texas history.

If yon want an illustration of courage and devotion to duty, where can you find one to match the story of the Alamo?

For days a mere handful of men — 17S, but all daunt- less heroes — withstood the assaults of an enemy which numbered thousands. They scorned all suggestions of capitulation, and in the end all perished.

Saw Houston and Stephen F. .hist in 139

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

If your faith in democracy ever falters, read the story of Texas and learn how a few scattered Americans in the face of gTeat obstacles showed the true genius for gov- ernment by bringing order out of chaos, and through it all obeyed the popular will.

We present to the Federal Union images of two of our great Texans, and rejoice in the knowledge that they are fit for the noble company they are to keep forevermore.

[Loud applause.]

Mr. Cooper of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that my colleague, Mr. Sheppard, may print his remarks in the RECORD.

The Speaker pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.

There was no objection.

Mr. Cooper of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I have had handed me a statement of the statues in Statuary Hall. As a public document I would like for it to be printed in the RECORD, and I ask unanimous consent that it may be printed.

The Speaker pro tempore. Without objection, it will be so ordered.

There was no objection.

140 Acceptance of Statues of

The statement is as follows:

Statues in Statuary Hall, United Stales Capitol, from July 2, 1864, to Feb- ruary 25, 1005.

[The number of States having only one is 5, marked thus *.]

Statue.	State.	< '< mgrt ssional service.
Roger Sherman Jonathan Trumbull James Shields Frances K.Willard. ..	Connecticut	House of Representatives, [791-1793. House of Representatives First, Second.
	and Third; Sena 1 1
do	Si ita r.879, Missouri. No service in Congress.

Oliver P Morton Indiana

John J Ingalls Kansas*

John win th rap Massachusetts

Samuel Adams do

John Hanson Maryland ...

Charles Carroll do

William King Maine*

Lewis Cass - Michigan* —

Thomas H. Benton Missouri

Francis P, Blair

do .

John Starke. New Hampshire

Daniel Webster

Richard Stockton . . New Jersey .

Phil, Kearny do

Robert R. Livingston. New York.

1 .. n _;-_■■ Clinton . . . James A. Garfield

William Allen

....do. 1 >hio, . .

. do

Robert Fulton Pennsylvania .

John Peti r G Muhl- do

enberg.

Senate, 1867-1877.

->. ii.it-- ; - ' ■

•vice in Congress; governor. Delegate to Continental Congress, 1774-1781.

;ateto Continental Congress, 17'" : Senate, I-'irst Congress; resigned Govt rnor. Senate, 1845-1

H use of Representatives, Thirty-third Con- gress; Senate, 1821-1851.

House of Representatives, Thirty-fifth to Thirty-eighth; Senate. 1S71-1S73.

No service in Congn ss

House of Representatives. Thirteenth,

Fourteenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth;

Si nate, 1827, 1845 ■ 1 Delegate Continental Congress, ; ~" - 1 777. No service in Congress. : ■ te to Continental Congress E775

1/77-1779. '7s'-

ite to Continental C< mgi - --

Pn sident, 1S04-1 3

House of Representatives Thirty-eighth to Forty-sixth; Senate, 1SS1, and President, [8S1.

House of Representatives. Twenty-third; Senate, 1837-1849, and governor ; -"

N"i . service in C< n gi ess

House of Representatives, First, Third, and Sixth, and Senator.

Nathanael Gre< 111 Roger Williams .

Rhode Island ....

do

Sam Houston Texas

Stephen F, Austin do ... ,

Jacob Collamer Vermont

Ni 1 si rvice in G ingress.

Do House of R< prest ntatives from Tennt ssei Senate, Texas, [S46-1859

Ni ' -■■ rvice in O ingress

of Representatives, Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, and Thirtieth. Senate, 1 S55 [865

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 141

Statues in Statuary Hall, United Stat '. from Jul to Feb-

ruary 25, 1905 — Continued.

Statue.	State	■ iiial service.
Ethan Allen		No service in <

John E Keuna Wot Virginia. .. . House of Representatives fifth. Forty-

sixth. Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth; Sen- ate, ivs;- 1

Francis H. l'ierpont do No service i

Pere Marquette Wisconsin * No service in

The following are not represented in Statuary Hall: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware - Idaho, Washington. Iowa. Kentucky, Louisiana,

Minnesota Mississippi Montana, Nebraska, Nevada. Wyoming, North Carolina, North Dakota. Oregon. South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia. Total,

- ites. The number of States having their quota is

The Speaker pro tempore. The question is on the adoption of the resolutions.

The question was taken, and the resolutions were unani- mously adopted.

Mr. COOPER, of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to ; and accordingly (at 6 o'clock and 25 minutes p.m.) the House adjourned to meet to- morrow at 12 o'clock noon.

MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE.

The message further announced that the House had agreed to a concurrent resolution extending the thanks of Congress to the State of Texas for providing the statues of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin to be placed in Statuary Hall; in which it requested the concurrence of the Senate.

142 Acceptance of Statues of

PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE

APRIL 4. 1904. MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE.

The message further announced that the House had passed a concurrent resolution authorizing the granting to the State of Texas the privilege of placing in Stat- uary Hall of the Capitol the statues of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin, both of whom, now deceased, were citizens of Texas, etc. ; in which it requested the concurrence of the Senate.

APRIL 18, 1904. STATUES OF SAM HOUSTON AND STEPHEN F. AUSTIN.

Mr. CULBERSON. I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate a concurrent resolution which has passed the House of Representatives.

The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the fol- lowing concurrent resolution from the House of Repre- sentatives; which was read:

Resolved by the House of Representatives [the Senate concurring ), Tlu.t the State of Texas be, and is hereby, authorized and granted the privilege of placingin Statuary Hall of the Capitol the .statues (made by the sculptor Elisabet Ney, of Texas) of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin, both of whom, now deceased, were citizens of Texas, illustrious for their his- toric renown, and that same he received as the two statues furnished and provided by said State in accordance with the provisions of section 1S1 4 of the Revised Statutes of the United States.

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin 143

Resolved further, Thai a copy of these resolutions, signed by th< pn siding officers of the House of Representatives and Senate, be forwarded to his excellency the governor of Texas.

The- President pro tempore. The question is on agreeing to the concurrent resolution.

The concurrent resolution was agreed to.

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