Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/198

 the rule was accorded, that he might finish. No record of the course of argument which he pursued is found; it was, doubtless, filled, like his reported speeches, with details of facts as well as with discussion of principles involved; but Houston won a reputation as a public speaker which he ever after maintained. The force of his reasoning is indicated by the fact that, on the 28th, Mr. Wright, of Ohio, felt called on, not only to reply to Gen. Saunders, but also to Houston.

The session of Congress having ended March 4, 1827, an event occurred whose like had been avoided in all his former life, as it was also avoided in all his subsequent life. This event brought out in a new light the character of Houston, and gave him a place m the esteem of the whole people of Tennessee, one of whose Congressional districts he had represented. The obnoxious Federal appointments in the new States, reaching to the removal of postmasters respected in the communities they served, and the substitution of mere political partisans in whom the people had no confidence, led from warm debate to personal collisions; into one of which Houston, despite his fixed rule of action, was drawn against his will.

On the 2d June, 1827, the grand jury of Simpson County, Kentucky, found bills against C. M. Smith and Samuel Houston, both of Tennessee; the former for murder, in killing Mr. Bank, of Tennessee; and the latter for shooting, with intent to kill, Gen. White, of Tennessee; which act, under the laws of Kentucky, was "felony."

The Governor of Kentucky demanded the surrender of both from the Governor of Tennessee. As the shooting was the result of a duel agreed on by both parties, obedience to the summons was not expected. As Houston had acted only in self-defence, the tide of popular sentiment not only sustained him, but led to his nomination and election as Governor. His popularity throughout the country is indicated in the fact that Niles' Register, of May 18th, Baltimore, Md., then the chief reporter of national events, gives a full report of Houston's speech previously made at Telico, Tennessee, when called out by the people as their favorite. Replying to the charge that he was a duellist, he said " that he never could recur to the late exceptional event in his life but with mingled pain and thankfulness to that Providence which enabled him to save his person and his honor, and that without injury to his assailant. He had been, and still was, opposed to the practice of duelling. He had passed through the army without any act to sanction it. He had hoped to be as successful in civil life. The Federal Government, however, had made appointment of a postmaster opposed to the wishes of all the people, and of ten out of eleven