“Here’s the place,” he said.  “If Sam Houston’s worth one bawbee, he’ll stand here and give ’em a fight.”

And so it was.  It makes the pulses thrill, even yet, the story of that twenty-first of April, 1836; how Houston destroyed the bridge behind them, so that there could be no retreat, and then, on his great gray horse, tried to address his men, but could only cry:  “Remember The Alamo”; how old Rusk could say not even that, but choked with a sob at the first word, and waved his hand toward the enemy; how the solitary fife struck up, “Will you come to the bower I have shaded for you?” while those seven hundred gaunt, starved, ragged phantoms, burning with rage at the thought of their comrades foully slain, deployed on the open prairie and charged the unsuspecting Mexican army.  It was over in half an hour—­the enemy annihilated, 630 killed, 200 wounded, 700 prisoners—­among the prisoners Santa Anna himself, begging for mercy.  And Aaron Burr, dying in New York with the vision of his Texan empire still before him, reading, weeks later, the news of the victory, cried out, “I was thirty years too soon!”

There was never any question, after that, of Texan independence; Santa Anna, to save a life forfeited a hundred times over, was ready to agree to any terms.  Houston was a popular hero; Texas was his child, and he was unanimously chosen President of the new Republic.  From the first, Houston, recalling the wishes of his old leader, Andrew Jackson, sought annexation to the United States, and the debates over the question in Congress nearly disrupted the Union.  For the North feared the effects of such a tremendous addition to slave territory, from which three or four states might be carved, and so destroy the balance of power between North and South.  Again, Mexico, which still dreamed of reconquering Texas, notified the United States that annexation would be considered a declaration of war; but Houston pressed the question with great adroitness, it was evident that Texas really belonged in the Union, and on March 1, 1845, Congress passed the resolution of annexation, and Houston and Husk, the heroes of San Jacinto, were at once elected senators.

In the brief but brilliant war with Mexico which followed, which is considered more in detail in connection with the life of Winfield Scott, and which resulted in the securing of the great Southwest for the United States, Houston played no part, except as a member of the Senate, where he remained until 1859, being defeated finally by a secessionist.  For, true to the precepts of Jackson, he was from the first bitterly opposed to nullification and secession.  The same year, he was elected governor of Texas, turning a Union minority into a triumphant majority by the wizardry of his personality.  He could not prevent secession, however, but he refused to take the oath to the Confederate government required by the legislature and was deposed.  Martial law being established, an officer one day demanded Houston’s pass.