Houston

mise, but this idea was generally disregarded.
Although he obeyed the order of the legislature
and submitted the question of secession to a
popular vote, he refused to recognize the au-
thority of the secession convention, and as late as
Jan. 20, he advised Gen. David E. Twiggs not
to hand over the Federal forces to an "unau-
thorized mob." On Feb. 23, when the people by
a large vote accepted secession, Houston refused
to believe that mere secession carried with it any
necessary adherence to the Confederacy, and on
this ground declined to take any oath of alle-
giance to the new general government He re-
garded Texas as again an independent republic.
When he was deposed, however, on Mar. 18,
1861, he quietly relinquished his office, and on
Mar. 29 positively refused to accept the aid of
Union soldiers in reestablishing his lost au-
thority (War of the Rebellion: Official Records,
Army,istr., I, 551).

Houston was no man to start a counter revolu-
tion at the cost of bloody civil war among his
own people and now, when he was called a "hoary
haired traitor/' he retired quietly to his farm at
Huntsville. In one of his last speeches he an-
nounced his position: He had been opposed to
secession; even now he regarded it as a grave
mistake, but the people had set their hands to
the plow, and it would be ignominy to turn back;
his last prayers would be for the happiness of his
people and for the safety of Texas. Three weeks
after the fall of Vicksburg, surrounded by all
his family except his eldest son, who was then
wounded and a prisoner in a Northern camp,
Sam Houston died. His faults were obvious.
The real greatness of the man was not to be
recognized again until, beyond the heat and pas-
sion of a bitter conflict, a new generation had
arisen.

[Houston was a prolific letter writer. The manu-
script materials for his life are abundant and widely
scattered. The chief collections are in Austin and^have
been conveniently calendared by A. J. Stephens in an
unpublished thesis at the University of Texas. Other
important letters are in Houston, Washington, St.
Louis, and New York. Printed sources are to be found
in H. K. Yoakum, Hist, of Texas (2 vols., 1855), writ-
ten by a close friend of Houston, and especially valuable
for the period of the revolution; in W. C. Crane, Life
and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston (2 vols.,
1884) ; in G. P. Garrison, "Diplomatic Correspondence
of the Republic of Texas," Ann. Report Am. Hist, Asso.
for 1907 and 1908 (3 pts. in 2 vols., 1908-11) ; in Niles'
Weekly Register; in the Cong. Globe; and especially in
the files of the Texas and S. W. Hist. Quart. Grant
Foreman, Pioneer Days in the Early Southwest (1926),
contains most of the materials necessary for a study of
Houston's Indian life. Biographies are: C. E. Lester,
Sam Houston (1846), expanded anonymously into a
campaign biography (1855); Crane, op. cit.\ Henry
Bruce, Life of Gen. Houston (1891) ; A. M. Williams,
Sam Houston (1893); and George Creel, Sam Houston
(1928). None of these lives is based on an adequate
critical examination of available documents; much

Houston

more satisfactory is Marquis James, The Raven, a Biog.
of Sam Houston (1929). See also S. R. Houston, Brief
Biog. Accounts of Many Members of the Houston Fam-
ily (1882).] R G c

HOUSTON, WILLIAM CHURCHILL

(c. 1746-Aug. 12, 1788), teacher and Revolu-
tionary leader, was a son of Margaret and Archi-
bald Houston, who in 1753 and 1764 received
patents of land in that part of North Carolina
that is now Cabarrus County. Prepared for col-
lege at the Poplar Tent academy and by Joseph
Alexander, William rode off to the College of
New Jersey with fifty pounds and his clothes.
Teaching in the college grammar school for sup-
port, he was graduated (A.B.) in 1768, was made
master of the grammar school, and then tutor.
In 1771 he became professor of mathematics and
natural philosophy. In 1776 he was recorded
captain of the foot militia of Somerset County
and saw active service around Princeton. He
resigned on Aug. 17, 1777. In 1775 and 1776 he
was deputy secretary of the Continental Congress
and the following years sat in the New Jersey
Assembly, where he served on the committee to
settle public accounts and acted as clerk pro
tempore. In 1778 he was a member of the New
Jersey Council of Safety. The next year he was
elected to the Continental Congress, where he
took a leading part in matters of supply and fi-
nance. Keeping up his teaching he signed, with
John Witherspoon, the various advertisements
as to the "State of the College" (New Jersey
Gazette, May 5, Oct. 13, 1779). Meanwhile he
had found time to study law and in 1781 was
admitted to the bar. He was appointed clerk of
the New Jersey supreme court the same yean
He was receiver of Continental taxes in New-
Jersey from 1782 to 1785, took over Jonathan
Dickinson Sergeant's affairs at Trenton in 1782,
and in that year served on the commission to
adjust for New Jersey troops the deficiencies in
pay due to depreciated currency, on a committee
to prevent trade with the enemy, and on the com-
mission that issued the famous "Trenton decree"
in the attempt to settle the Wyoming land dis-
putes between Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
In 1783 he resigned from the college, receiving
"the thanks of the Board" at Commencement,
and built up a considerable law practice at Tren-
ton. In 1784 and 1785 he again served in Con-
gress, where he interested himself m John Fitch's
steamboat. He was a delegate at the Annapolis
Convention and then at the Philadelphia Federal
Convention. He did not sign the Constitution
but did sign the report to the New Jersey legis-
lature. Worn out and ill with tuberculosis he
traveled south to recover but died suddenly at
Frankford, Pa*, leaving his wife, Jane (Smith),

267