fathers of our beautiful Southland to banish all parental
partiality; to love all their children tenderly and make every
family a type of heaven and a perpetual fountain of love
to each other and love to God and our native land.
PART IV.
ADDRESSES AND ARTICLES
BY DR. BURLESON.
Dr. Rufus 0. Burleson, 543
ADDRESSES AND ARTICLES
BY DR. BURLESON.
GENERAL SAM HOUSTON.
ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE TEXAS LEGISLATURE MARCH 2, 1893.
AT THE MEMORIAL SERVICES OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNI-
VERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF GEN. SAM HOUSTON, AND THE
FIFTY-SEVENTH OF TEXAS INDEPENDENCE. (THIS ADDRESS
COVERS ALL THE VARIOUS POINTS OF GEN. HOUSTON'S EVENT
FUL LIFE.)
[By unanimous consent, Messrs. Rogers of McLennan
and Henderson of Milam offered the following :
Resolved, hy the House of Representatives, That the ad-
dress of Rev. R. C. Burleson on the life .and character of Gen-
eral Sam Houston, delivered before this body on the 2d day of
March, 1893, be printed as an appendix to the journal of this
House.
The resolution was read second time and adopted.
See House Journal, May 9th, page 1206.]
At 3 o'clock in the afternoon of March 2, 1893, Dr.
Burleson, escorted by Governor Hogg, Lieutenant-Governor
Crane, ex-Governor Lubbock, ex-Governor Roberts, Hon.
John H. Reagan, Hon. A. W. Terrell, Hon. J. H. Cochran
and Dr. "Waggener, President of the University of Texas, en-
tered the Representatives hall amid many cheers.
After prayer by Rev. Dr. Dodge, Governor Lubbock
arose and said :
"As the oldest Texan present and the early and devoted
friend of General Houston, I have been assigned the pleasant
task of introducing Dr. Burleson as the orator of this occasion.
Dr. Burleson has given forty-five years of his life to the great-
544 The Life axd "Writings of
est and best interests of Texas. He was the early, ardent and
confidential friend of Sam Houston. Under kis preaching
the old hero was converted and by him baptized. He is the
oldest and most successful educator in Texas. From such a
man you will now hear about the grand old hero of San Ja-
cinto."
Dr. Burleson then delivered the following address :
Honorable Governor, Senators, Legislators and Fellow Citi-
zens :
The second day of March should ever be memorable in
Texas history. On the second day of March, 1793, just one
hundred years ago, in an humble cottage near Lexington, Va.,
â–
'I'exas, and the greatest General and statesman that ever
walked on Texas soil or looked upon a Texas sun. On the
second day of March, 1836, fifty-seven years ago, in a rough
board storehouse in Washington, on the banks of the Brazos,
was born "the Lone Star Republic," destined as "the Lone Star
State" to become the brightest star in the galaxy of states.
Thus on the second day of March was born the illustrious
sire and the beautiful daughter. You have therefore dis-
played great patriotism and wisdom in celebrating this day,
not for dsplay nor recreation, but to teach the rising gener-
ation lessons of patriotism, and to fire their hearts with a
burning love of Texas, liberty, and native land. In celebrat-
ing the deeds of our heroes we follow the example of the
world's greatest philosophers, statesmen and nations. A
great philosopher has said : "History is philosophy teaching
by example." A greater philosopher has said: "History is
God teaching by example." Our great Longfellow says:
^; "Lives of great men all remind us,
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time."
Livy says: "Romulus, the founder of Rome — the mistress
of the Avorld — was not only an actor of great deeds, but the
greatest commemorator of great deeds the world ever saw."
Greece celebrated in song, in poetry and on marble the hero-
ip]n of Leonidas and the three hundred at Thermopylae, and
Dr. Eufus C. Burleson. 545
every great deed of her sons. Therefore hundreds and thou-
sands of Greeks looking on these monuments said, as Themis-
tocles did, gazing on the monument of Miltiades, "That monu-
ment mil not let me sleep until I have done some deed that
will glorify Greece." And to-day England, "the Empress
Isle" that girdles the world with her colonies, her commerce
and her armies, surpasses all nations in commemorating the
glorious deeds of her sons, both in peace and in war. When
Macaulay, an obscure, scholarly man, wrote his essays, and
especially his History of England, the first real history of
England ever written. Queen Victoria made him "Lord
Macaulay," welcomed him to a seat in the House of Lords
and affixed a splendid salary for life.
Colonel Henry Havelock was an obscure officer in the
British East India army, often ridiculed as "the praying
colonel," but by wonderful heroism and generalship he routed
the bloody Sepoys at Lucknow and saved British India from
plunder and ruin. As soon as the glorious news could be
telegraphed to England, Queen Victoria made him "Lord
Havelock," with a splendid salary for life.
But a still more remarkable act of rewarding and com-
memorating noble deeds is the case of Sir Samuel and Sir Mor-
land Peto. These were humble carpenters and deacons in
Spurgeon's church, but as soon as they displayed their won-
derful genius in erecting buildings that added beauty and
glory to London and rivaled the grandest monuments of
Greece and Rome, Queen Victoria conferred upon them the
title of Sir Samuel and Sir Morland Peto.
But it is an appalling fact that our love for heroic deeds
and devotion to our country and republican simplicity are
being swallowed up in a greed for money, passion for display
and scramble for office. I repeat, therefore, with emphasis,
you have shown great wisdom in following the example that
made Greece, Rome and England immortal. There never
was an age or nation that so much needed the fires of patriot-
ism and heroism rekindled as this land of Washington and
Houston. Gladstone, the greatest statesman England ever
produced, recently said: "The United States must be the
banner bearing nation of the earth in civilizing and redeem-
ing all nations." Yet every patriot heart bleeds to see how
546 The Life axd Wkitixgs of
fea^'fiillj our people and rulers are degenerating from the re-
publican honesty and patriotism of Washington, Jefferson,
Austin and Houston. Sixty years ago, the charge of corrup-
tion and bribery was first made in the United States Congress.
A patriotic senator repelled the charge as "a slander on our
free institutions and a thing incredible in the land of Washing-
ton." But alas, who now considers it a thing impossible to
buy votes, office, and fat government contracts? The fact is
we are fast drifting into the foolish pomp, extravagance and
corruption of all declining nations. One young broken-down
bogus lord or duke at any of our fashionable watering places
will run a hundred silly heiresses and their more silly mothers
crazy to wed a sprig of nobility. Our great hotels assume the
name ''Hotel Royal." Even our patent medicines and baking
powders must add ''Royal." Even our colleges have caught
the contagion. A distinguished editor recently apologized for
the blunder of a great scholar by saying "he is a graduate of
an American college, and American colleges do not teach
American history." All these appalling facts proclaim in
trumpet tones the importance of celebrating the deeds of our
OTvm heroes and bringing our whole people back to the repub-
lican simplicity, honesty and patriotism of better days. And
next to Washington our Houston is the grandest type of pa-
triotism and republican simplicity that adorns the jDages of
American history. A great New York journal says: "The
life of Sam Houston is a grander theme for an epic than the
Hiad of Homer or the iEneid of Virgil." An illustrious judge
and historian of Virginia has said : "Tf the colonial history
of Texas and her heroes is ever truly written, it will rival the
glory of old Virginia." But, my hearers, I am here to tell
you a plain, simple story of Houston as he was and as I knew
him, and not to attempt an epic or eloquent oration; and I
devoutly pray that his example may fire a hundred thousand
Texans to forget self and to live and die for the glory of Texas.
General Houston, physically, intelledtually and mor-
ally, is a grand model for the youths of Texas. Even his
vices and mistakes are fearful warnings to young men and
statesmen. He was six feet six inches tall, and stood erect
and stately as the forest oak. He weighed 215 pounds, solid
flesh, had an eagle eye and broad, lofty forehead, blazing
Dr. Rufus C. Bukleson. 547
with intelligence. Indeed all nature combined to present in
him a model man. He was descended from Scotch ancestors
who caught the fires of liberty amid the highlands of Scot-
land, and fought side by side with John Knox "for God,
liberty and native land." The father of General Houston
was a colonel, and fought side by side with AVashington and
Lafayette for American independence in 1776. The mother
of General Houston was remarkable for her tall, dignified
bearing, lofty courage, and above all her purity, piety and
maternal love. He was also fortunate in being born amid
the sublime mountain scenery and gushing streams of grand
old Virginia, the mother of heroes, heroines and presidents.
Houston's father died when he was thirteen years old,
leaving a widow ^vith nine children, six sons and three daugh-
ters. He therefore inherited the special blessing of being
reared by a poor, pious, widowed mother, and compelled to
acquire early the lessons of industry, economy, self-reliance
and reverence for God. The heroic mother, seeing her little
farm too small to rear and educate nine children, sold it, and
moved to the fertile valley of Tennessee, and settled in Blount
county, on the very border of the Cherokee nation. In this
frontier forest home young Houston providentially enjoyed
another great blessing, a good and great teacher. Rev. Dr.
Anderson had just opened an academy, which afterwards
became Maryville College. ITone but the truly great can
ever realize the value and influence of a great teacher. King
Philip, when "Alexander the Great" was born, wrote to Ari-
stotle, the great teacher : "I thank the Gods profoundly for
giving me a son to inherit my throne and splendid fortune,
but I thank them more for giving me that son dunng the
life of Aristotle, the great teacher, who can teach him to
act worthy of his inheritance." The orphan boy, Sam Hous-
ton, found in Dr. Anderson a greater teacher than Aristotle.
He did for him all that the greatest universities can do for
students. He taught him, first, what to study; second, how to
study; third, he gave him the books or the helps to study.
He gave him first the Bible, the book of God, or as Byron
fitly called it, "The God of Books." He gave him next Bun-
van's Pilgrims Progress, the Vicar of Wakefield, Plutarch's
Lives, Pope's translation of Homer, Shakespeare, and the
548 The Life axd Writings of
writings of Franklin and Washington. When forced by
poverty to leave school and become a clerk in a country
store, he carried his favorite books and pored over them at
night by a pine-knot fire, and when forced by the tyranny
of older brothers to seek a refuge among the Cherokee In-
dians, in the family of old Chief Oulooteka, he carried his
favorite authors; and when wearied with the chase pored over
these rich stores of wisdom. He could repeat the whole of
Pope's Iliad by heart, which no college graduate or professor
of America can do to-day. How much of Houston's burning
eloquence, profound statesmanship and common sense he
learned from these authors, all can see.
In addition to what he learned from these grand authors,
he learned his first lessons in Indian character, which became
of such priceless value to him in consummating his grand
life-work in Texas.
But young Houston's clothes wore out, and he had con-
tracted debts that, as an honest man, he resolved to pay;
and, like so many illustrious men, he became a "school
teacher." His high reputation may be learned from the
fact that he did what no other teacher dared do, raised the
price of tuition from $6 to $8 a year for each scholar, one-
third to be paid in cash, one-third in shelled com at 33 1-3
cents per bushel, and one-third in home-spun cloth. Though
he charged this extraordinary tuition, his log cabin school-
house was crowded, "for the regular session of twelve months
in the year." Just as he had paid his debts, and was ready
to return to the academy of his beloved teacher, Dr. Ander-
son, the tocsin of war sounded amid the hills and valleys of
Tennessee. Old England had invaded our shores in the wai-
of 1812-13, and her allies, the Creek Indians, were threaten-
ing desolation to all the frontier settlements of Georgia and
Tennessee. A recruiting officer came to Maryville, but young
Houston alone was willing to volunteer as a private. All
others wanted office. He said: "I fall into ranks and do
my duty, leaving promotion to God and my country."
On taking leave of his heroic mother, she placed the
musket in his hands, saying, ^vith the courage of a Spartan
mother : "My son, take this musket and do your duty. Re-
member, my door will ever be open to a brave son, but shut
Dr. Rufus C. Burleson. 549
against cowards. I would rather all my six sons should perish
in battle than one should be a coward." Young Houston,
thus inspired, joined the army of General Jackson, who had
already routed and driven back the Indians from Emuckf aw,
and every stronghold except Tohopeka, or "Horse Shoe
Bend," in the Talapoosa river. Here the brother of Te-
cumseh and other Indian prophets had assured them the
Great Spirit would come down with thunder and lightning
and utterly destroy the palefaces.
Thermopylae was not half so well fortified as Tohopeka.
Here the deep and turbid waters of the Talapoosa river made
a bend in the complete shape of a horse shoe, the only place
of entrance being at the narrow heel of the shoe. This nar-
row entrance the Indians strongly fortified with three rows
of pine logs, skilfully arranging port holes in two rows. Be-
hind these strong fortifications over two thousand brave war-
riors were marshalled, certain of victory. On the 27th of
March, 1814, Jackson arrayed his brave heroes to capture
this last stronghold of the Creeks. He ofiered a prize of
honor and promotion to the soldier who first scaled that
terrible breastwork. As his heroes charged up in front of a
terrific fire, scores of them fell bleeding and dying. Colonel
Montgomery, the first to mount the breastwork, fell back
dead, pierced with a dozen bullets.
Young Houston was the second, calling his men to fol-
low. He fell inside of the breastwork, pierced with an
arrow. Levi Taylor, of Smithland, Texas, was the third to
leap the breastwork. He raised up Houston and pulled the
arrow from his bleeding wound. The young hero, though
bleeding and almost fainting, joined the pursuit of the re-
treating Indians, till he fell. General Jackson ordered his
comrades to bear him to the rear. Just at that moment a
fearfully dark cloud, charged with thunder, gathered over
the battlefield, and the Indian warriors shouted : "The Great
Spirit has come to blot out the palefaces." Again they
rallied their desperate warriors in a deep ravine, and in an
immense cave. The position seemed to defy all human cour-
age, and to be certain death to every man who made the
attack. General Jackson called loudly in vain for volunteers
to storm this last stronghold of the enemies. Young Hous-
550 The Life axd Writings of
ton, though bleeding and fainting, heard no man would lead
the charge, and, as if nerved with divine energy, gathered
his sword and called every brave man to follow. The furious
warriors were killed or driven from their last stronghold, but
the young hero, in his second charge, fell, severely wounded
in the shoulder. The sun set on more than 1,000 dead war-
riors, and the last hope of the Creeks was crushed forever.
Young Houston, who had gained the prize and covered him-
self with glory, was supposed to be dying, and was left on the
battlefield. Oh ! who can paint that sleepless night of suf-
fering and horror as he lay on the bare ground and thought
of mother and home, and prayed his mother's God to re-
store him to her arms ? In the morning all were surprised to
find that his unfaltering courage had not only vanquished
the Indians, but death itself. He was borne on a rude litter
to a rude hospital, and after long months of suffering, and
journeying on a litter through the wilderness, he reached his
mother's home. Her door, arms and heart were all wide
open to welcome her hero son. But he was so pale and
emaciated she could only recognize him by his brilliant eyes
and forehead.
The young hero had won the undying love and confi-
dence of General Jackson and the whole army, and was at
once promoted to the rank and pay of captain in the legular
service.
But his wounds were never healed permanently, even to
the day of his death. xVfter two years of surgical treatment
by the most eminent physicians at !N'ashville, Washington
and 'New York, he resigned his captaincy and resolved to
study law. He entered the law office of the celebrated Judge
Trimble, of JSTashville, who told him he would have to study
eighteen months before he could be admitted to the bar; but
in six months he stood a satisfactory examination and was
admitted to the bar at i^ashville, the ablest in the Mississippi
valley. Very soon he was elected district attorney of the
ISTashville district, and soon after he was elected attorney-
general of Tennessee, with the rank of colonel. He displayed
such brilliant talent and burning eloquence, that in 1823,
at the age of 30, he was elected to Congress. Two years
afterwards he was re-elected without opposition. In Con-
Db. Rufus C. Bukleson. 551
he took high rank with such statesmen as Clay, AVeb-
ster and Calhoun.
At the end of his second term in Congress he was elected
governor of Tennessee by an overwhelming majority. He
was the favorite of General Jackson, the idol of the people,
and without an opponent in the Legislature. His first term
as governor was a brilliant success. He discharged every
duty with the republican simplicity of a Spartan and the
stern integrity of a Eoman. To complete, as it seemed, his
earthly happiness and glory, he married, December, 1829,
a lovely, brilliant young lady. Miss Eliza Allen, daughter of
Colonel Allen, formerly a member of Congress with Hous-
ton, and one of the most influential families in Tennessee.
The full-orbed sun of Houston's glory had risen amid poverty
and gloom, scattered the fogs and clouds of his early youth,
and from the bloody field of Tohopeka had reached its mer-
idian splendor. He was adored by the people, and, as a
favorite of General Jackson, it was confidently predicted his
next step in glory would be the president's chair of the
United States. But that brilliant noon-day sun suddenly
passed under a total eclipse, and was shrouded in clouds dark
as midnight. One morning all Nashville was startled and
appalled to learn that the brilliant young governor, against
all the entreaties and tears of friends, had resigned his office
as governor, abandoned his wife, cursed the hollow shams
of civilized life, and gone into exile among the Cherokee
Indians, 400 miles west of Little Eock, Ark.
Such a sudden eclipse and downfall was never known
before or since in American history. The cause of this down-
fall will never be fully known till the secrets of all hearts
are revealed at the judgment day. Many of his devout ad-
mirers, to vindicate him from the charge of fickleness and
the crime of abandoning a public trust, declared that detect-
ing his young and beautiful wife in crime, goaded him to
madness and exile; but I have the highest evidence for de-
claring before this august assembly that this charge is utterly
false. As my old and beloved friend, Governor Lubbock,
told you in introducing this service. General Houston and I
were exceedingly intimate. He was converted under my
preaching, and I buried him in holy baptism. Both of us
552 The Life axd Writings of
were devout lovers of General Jackson and the American
Union, as cemented by the blood and tears of our ancestors.
Both of us hated abolition fanaticism and confidently believed
that secession would result in the downfall of our beloved
South.
We often talked till after midnight and sometimes till
two o'clock in the morning. General Houston was a firm
believer in the augury of birds. He as firmly believed in the
divine instincts of the eagle as Romulus or any of the
Grecian or Roman philosophers and kings. One night we
were discussing the subject until after midnight. Among
the many marvelous proofs he gave for his belief, he said:
"When I was going into exile I took the steamboat at ISTash-
ville, bound for New Orleans. That boat was delayed at
the different landings taking in freights, and the brothers of
Mrs, Houston, riding direct across the country, overtook us
at Clarksville, Tenn. They came aboard, greatly excited and
heavily armed, and said : 'Governor Houston, the manner in
which you have left iN'ashville has filled the city with a
thousand wild rumors, among others, that you are goaded to
madness and exile by detecting our sister in crime. We de-
mand that you give a written denial of this or go back and
prove it.' I replied, 'I will neither go back nor write a re-
traction, but in the presence of the captain and these well-
known gentlemen, I request you to go back and publish in
the Nashville papers that if any wretch ever dares to utter
a word against the purity of Mrs. Houston I will come back
and write the libel in his heart's blood.'
"That evening as I was walking on the upper deck of
the boat, reflecting on the bitter disappointment I had caused
General Jackson and all my friends, and especially the blight
and ruin of a pure and innocent woman who had trusted her
whole happiness to me, I was in an agony of despair and
strongly tempted to leap overboard and end my worthless
life. But at that a^vful moment an eagle swooped down
near my head, and soaring aloft with wildest screams, was
lost in the rays of the setting sun. I knew that a great duty
and glorious destiny awaited me in the West." Besides, I
hold in my hand a book written by James Guild, on the
"Lives of the Eminent Men of Tennessee." In this book is
Dr. Rufus C. Burleson. 553
a letter written by General Houston to his father-in-law, on
the day of his separation from his wife. In that letter I read
as follows: "If any man dares accuse my wife of crime or
say aught against her purity, I will slay him." But while
I have vindicated Mrs. Houston from crime, yet I am sad to
say their married life and home was miserable. General
Houston writes to his father-in-law : "Eliza knows that I am
thoroughly unhappy," and Eliza. declares, "I am too misera-
ble to live."
But this unhappy marriage and miserable home was
only one of, the three causes that maddened the brain,
crushed the heart and drove our hero from the halls of
splendor into the exile in the wilderness. And as these three
causes are wrecking ten thousand homes and driving a hun-
dred thousand men to gambling dens, drunkard's graves and
eternal ruin, I deem it due to the fame of Houston, and to
so many crushed hearts and ruined homes, to discuss them
briefly in this presence, and ask is there no remedy?
The fi.rst of these causes is unhappy marriages and mis-
erable homes. The second is the abuse of "the freedom
of speech and the press." Third, is the wine cup and saloon.
These are the three eating cancers of our homes and civiliza-
tion, and more destructive than cholera, yellow fever, and
smallpox all combined.
The first of these evils, unhappy homes, is most di-ead-
ful, because it leads to all others. The immortal Gladstone
has wisely said, "A happy home is the only safeguard and
foundation of the church, the state, and civilization." Every
statesman and philosopher knows these words to be true,
and worthy to be written in letters of gold and engraved on
marble. When every father, mother, son and daughter can
say, "Home, sweet home, all the world I have slighted for
home, sweet home," the individual, the church, and the state
are all secure. But where there are no sweet homes all is
rushing headlong to anarchy and ruin. Brutes have no homes;
and when men have no homes, but only eating and sleeping