Texas Got It Right!. Sam Wyly

(10.4 miles) from the coast instead of other

      states’ one (3.5 miles). The rewards are tangible

      TEXAS GOT IT RIGHT!

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      today. Oil, gas, and mineral leases on the state’s

      public onshore and offshore territory have helped

      finance an enormous permanent public education

      endowment at both the K–12 and university levels,

      and Texas’s extrawide coastal waters hold colossal

      renewable-energy potential. Independent energy pro-

      ducers operating in Texas currently hold leases for

      4,000 megawatts of offshore wind capacity, enough

      to power 3.2 million homes. Once again, Texas

      proves that independence pays.

      TEXAS GOT IT RIGHT!

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      “The hopes of the usurper were

      inspired by a belief that the citizens of

      Texas were disunited and divided in

      opinion, and that alone has been the

      cause of the present invasion of our

      rights. He shall realize the fallacy of

      his hopes, in the union of her citizens,

      and their Eternal Resistance to his

      plans against constitutional liberty.

      We will enjoy our birth-right, or

      perish in its defense.”

      —Sam Houston, in his Call to Arms

      of December 12, 1835

      No single name is more revered in Texas than that

      of Sam Houston. Not because that name has been

      given to countless schools, libraries, and public

      spaces, and to our biggest city. No, Sam Houston is

      revered by Texans because the man deserves it. He

      TEXAS GOT IT RIGHT!

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      led the Battle of San Jacinto, which won the Texas

      War of Independence. Then he became the first

      president of the fledgling Republic of Texas. Then,

      three years after his first term ended, he came back

      for a second, out of sheer love and duty. When the

      Lone Star Nation became a U.S. state, the people

      elected him senator. Then they elected him gover-

      nor. And let’s not forget that before Sam Houston

      became Texas’s most famous Texan, he’d already

      started the first primary school in Tennessee

      (though he’d received little formal education of his

      own), been a congressman and governor for that

      state, fought against the mistreatment of Indians

      before Congress, and taken a bullet in the War

      of 1812.

      The challenges Houston faced in life would cer-

      tainly have been more than enough to take down

      almost any man. But Sam Houston was Scots-Irish

      to the core—indomitable, resolute, independent. As

      with many Americans of Scots-Irish decent, Hous-

      ton’s family history can be traced to Ulster, Ireland,

      then across the Atlantic to Pennsylvania, to the

      farms of the Shenandoah Valley, to Virginia, and

      later to the mountains of East Tennessee. His Pres-

      byterian upbringing engendered in him a respect

      for the common man and for democratic ideals, and

      his early life acquainted him intimately with the

      value of hard physical work.

      Abandoning a job at his family’s store in

      Maryville, Tennessee, Houston left home at sixteen

      to live with the Cherokee Indians on an island in

      the Hiawassee River. To the Cherokees he was

      known as the Raven. He adopted their language,

      customs, and dress. Throughout his life, and espe-

      cially in times of personal pain and uncertainty,

      Houston turned to his adopted family for support

      and guidance. His support for Indian nations put

      him in conflict with his mentor, Andrew Jackson,

      but Houston always held firm. “I am aware that in

      presenting myself as the advocate of the Indians and

      their rights,” he proclaimed to Congress, “I shall

      stand very much alone.” But standing alone was not

      something Houston feared.

      That’s probably a big part of what drew him to

      Texas in 1832. There was the lure of free land, sure,

      but there was also the promise of building a future

      unobstructed by conventional viewpoints and hierar-

      chical political systems. Like so many others, Houston

      was immediately caught up in the enthusiasm of the

      Texas Revolution. Never hesitant to use strong words

      or to take up arms for a cause, Houston became com-

      mander-in-chief of the Army of Texas. In that capacity

      he issued his eloquent and effective Call to Arms

      against the Republic of Mexico in December 1835.

      Years later, as a senator, Houston foresaw the cat-

      aclysm that would become the Civil War. He urged

      his fellow legislators to support the Compromise of

      1850. In a stirring speech he invoked the scripture

      with the words “a nation divided against itself cannot

      stand.” It wasn’t until eight years later, as the nation

      hurtled toward the disaster Houston had tried to

      avert, that Abraham Lincoln made those words

      famous for posterity. In short, Houston was a man of

      arms who deemed keeping the peace the noblest deed

      of the mighty.

      Opposite: Sam Houston circa 1861. This page, left: This flag was

      flown at a fort near Goliad before being destroyed during the

      massacre