Talk:Sam Houston

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Good article Sam Houston was one of the good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
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Can we get this moved back to Sam Houston? Samuel was his legal name, and belongs in the first line, but nobody ever called him that. - Hephaestos 10:59 Apr 25, 2003 (UTC)

Does anyone, especially the author, have any documentation for the persistent myth that Texas has the ability to revert to an independent nation? While it is true that the state could have been sub-divided into Five states, there is no mention of reverting to an independent nation in the "Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States" which was the controlling document. You can see the original at=> http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ref/abouttx/annexation/march1845.html Jim - May 28, 2004

I've always tended to think Texas would have made use of such a clause in seceding in the 1860s rather than join the Confederacy if it had actually been the case. So I never really delved into whether it was true or not (since I always assumed it was not). Although it may have been something negotiated by Houston and changed shortly afterward. - Hephaestos|§ 23:50, 28 May 2004 (UTC)
  • Texas was torn by the Civil War like other states were. Houston did mention early in 1863 to two of his friends, Eber Cave and Alenxander Terrell, the idea of calling home all Texas soldiers and reverting to an independent nation. Both men suggested that no one speak of this idea again and even Houston's image could save his life if such a suggestion leaked out.-[TLincoln]]

Contents

[edit] Senator

Houston was a Senator from Texas. Someone just changed the succession box to read "Class 2" Senator or something. What does that mean? I'd change it back, but on the off-chance that it's legit, I'll leave it for now. --Myles Long 15:49, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

Each state has two senators, "Class 1" and "Class 2". The classes don't mean anything other than when the office is up for election -- Nik42 03:24, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
There are three classes (1, 2 and 3) to reflect the fact that a third of the Senate demits every second year. The original senators were divided into three classes (balanced by region and with no state having both senators in the same class) and lots drawn to determine which class would vacate after 2 years, which after 4 and which after 6, so as to allow the current staggered elections to six-year terms. Each new state on admission has its senators allocated to two of the classes. (Incidentally, each state's two senators are referred to either as "senior" or "junior", the former being the one whose continuous service predates the other's)139.149.1.211 15:49, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
I think that should be clearly defined in the article in question.

[edit] Marrage to Eliza Allen

According to the book Italic textAndrew Jackson :His Life and TimesItalic textby H.W. Brands at the time of Houston's marrage to Eliza talk in Tennessee was of Houston following Jackson for the Presidency. The wedding was the major social event of the year in Tennessee.

However weeks after the wedding Eliza had returned to her parents, and Sam Houston resigned his govenorship of Tennessee only three months into office. Rumors were that Sam had discovered that Eliza was not a virgin, but were discounted when Sam vowed to write in heart's blood of any libeler of her nature.

Quoting from the above named text, Sam "humiliated before the world, he threw over his career and fled the scene of his mortification".

This is an interesting contrast to the Sam Houston who at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend held a man at gun point to force him to pull out a barbed arrow, and afterwords was told to lay out the rest of the battle by Jackson himself, but hobbled on to continue fighting until shot twice with bullets (page 218 of above text).

This is where history can have a lesson that is timeless. Houston could handle the British, and handle the Red Stick indians, he could even handle both together, but the sad human condition is when it comes to a young, beautiful, vivacious woman he was no match. He climbed in a bottle, and moved west to indian country, as he had enough of white women (at least for a while).

71.114.161.229

[edit] National leader

I would suspect, though I don't know for sure, that Sam Houston was also the only person in American history to have served as both a governor and the leader of a foreign (as it was at the time) nation. -- Nik42 03:26, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Actually, he is one of only two. Thomas Chittenden held the title of governor of Vermont on two occasions prior to 1791, at which time Vermont called itself a state but was actually an independent republic, meaning that Chittenden was (reluctantly) a head of state of a foreign nation. Chittenden continued as Vermont's governor for six years after Vermont finally joined the United States. Jsc1973 (talk) 13:29, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Houston's party

On Kinky Friedman's website, he says he is an independent, "which is the party of George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Sam Houston, and Davy Crockett."

On List of Governors of Texas, Houston is listed as a Democrat. Can anyone resolve this?

Ieverhart 03:52, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

  • Perhaps Friedman was refering to Houston's appearing on the ballot of the Constitutional Union Party in the 6 November 1860 presidential election. That is all that I am aware of.

~TLincoln 19 May 2006

  • Seeing as how Crockett and Houston were Jackson Democrats, Roosevelt a Republican, and Washington a Federalist, I assume he's talking about their actions, as in they didn't do what the party told them to do but did what was needed. Otherwise, Kinky's just name dropping, hoping no one would notice. 03:59, 22 July 2006
  • I believe Houston's last term as Gov. of Texas was as an independent. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.74.232.50 (talk • contribs)

[edit] Pictures Available

Yesterday I took pictures of the Sam Houston Statue outside of Huntsville. If anyone wishes to use these pictures for the article I will declare them public domain. They are 2592x1944 at full size, selectable at the bottom. p1260440.jpg and p1260446.jpg are probably the best candidates for use. I will crop or resize if requested.

pecosdave 09:52, 27 January 2006 (CST)

Saying that His statue is the biggest of an american hero in the world is just trying to make it seem very important. "Biggest Satue of an American Hero" The title says it American, why would other countries have a statue of another country's hero. That just seems stupid. It would be like saying "Germany has the highest number of Germans in the world" Duhhh! Of course stupid!


What, does like, no other country have any statues? You make no sense. Well, it's the Biggest Statue of an American Hero, as opposed to, say, the biggest statue of a German hero. Let me respond to you with your own words: It would be like saying "America is the only country that can have statues" Duhhh! Of course not stupid!

Lukewarm and proud, LOOKIE MILK! (talk) 02:43, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Governor of two states

While Houston may have been the only person to be governor of two states (and if so that's technically correct), I wonder if we might want to footnote it that there is at least one other person that was the governor of one state, and later the governer of a "state territory". William A. Newell is indeed listed as Governor of New Jersey and Governor of Washington Territory. -- Sholom 14:14, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

  • Well, a state and a territory are two different things. There really is no need for this article to mention Newell. --JW1805 (Talk) 16:55, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Page Moved

There are actually two historical Sam Houstons. The much more ntoable Texan and the less known but stil notable Mainer who was a bodyguard to George Washington and is in the Washington Crossing the Delaware painting. As such, I have moved Same Houston to this page and made the original page a disambig page so people can find both and learn something along the way. Hope that's OK. Just tryign to be bold. :) Gator (talk) 21:53, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Per some good advice, I've put this back witha disambig link and kept the page here. I think this is MUCH better. I'll delete the Sam Houston (Texas) page.Gator (talk) 13:47, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sam Houston National Forest

I see no mention of the national forest that carries his namesake. Mention of this needs to go into the article, and perhaps an article be made about the SHNF...

[edit] Good Article Nomination

This is a great article, and I almost confirmed it for good article status, but couldn't. The biggest failure of this article is that is contains no inline references, which are mandatory, especially for quotes and really specific tidbits of info. If someone could address this issue, I think it would be worthy of GA status.--Esprit15d 19:17, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

  • I will try to work on this. Most of the quotes I added I got from Haley's book. --JW1805 (Talk) 18:25, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
    • I completely concur. It was the sole reason why I didn't promote it myself today. Rest assured that it will surely reache GA, and most likely eventually FA status as soon as this issue is fixed. Congrats on an excellent article, and regards. Phaedriel ♥ tell me - 16:13, 13 May 2006 (UTC)
The last person to have commented (Phaedriel) appears to have forgotten to put in the failed nomination template. Then someone on the same day (13th May) promoted the article and slapped on the GA template rather than fixing the error! This is not in conformance with our nomination process. I have delisted the GA status due to reasons stated originally by Esprit15d. With a major article such as this, I would recommend not only the citation of quotes, but also contentious facts should be gathered and cited to avoid any challenges and make the article in conformance to WP:V. RelHistBuff 10:09, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Faith

Nothing about his faith is mentioned in here. Was that purposefully left out? (It is a topic often heavily debated in articles on other figures) I'm not touching this article without anyone else's consent (it's far too pretty). Colonel Marksman 23:40, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Minor Confusion

As a non-American, I was left with some questions after reading the opening paragraph:

  • "when Texas seceded from the Union" - what Union, and when?
  • "he refused an offer of an army to put down the rebellion" - what rebellion? The Alamo-thing? Or the civil war?

--216.232.239.193 03:25, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

I added a link to Union (American Civil War) to help clarify that. The union was what the northern states in the American Civil War called themselves; the south was the confederacy. The north considered the south to be in "rebellion", hence the term. I hope the link gets you in the right direction to find out more. Sorry for the ameri-centric confusion! Kuru talk 03:34, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

I share this confusion (and I live in Texas). I was trying to do some grammar/clarity/spelling cleanups, but some of the sentences aren't clear. I'm not knowledgeable about the subject, but the "rebellion" part could use some clarifying, and I'm not sure what the "encouraging emigration to Tennessee" sentence means. Some knowledgeable editor could perhaps help here. And why is this all in red? - Special-T 04:49, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Sealtexas.jpg

Image:Sealtexas.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 01:13, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] White people who lived with Native Americans..

Does anyone have any info on white/mexican/black americans who lived with native americans...?It would be an interesting subject...I figured Sam Houstons page or the article about Quanah Parkers mother would have a link to such a catagory. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Np209 (talk • contribs) 06:19, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Reassesment?

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[edit] Reference to Neil Armstrong's first word spoken from the Moon to the Earth

Hello; I added the following to the Popular Culture section of the article. This has always been an interesting historical curiosity to me, that Sam Houston's name was the first word spoken from the Moon to the Earth. However, Gwernol considers it irrelevant because it refers to the NASA space center, not the person. But since the city, and therefore the NASA facility (or its nickname), were named for the person, it is still Sam Houston's name that was immortalized by Neil Armstrong. I therefore believe that this reference should be included in the article, and was invited by Gwernol to open a discussion about it. Any ideas?

the reference:

Houston's name became the first word spoken to the Earth from another world when Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11, uttered the memorable line, "Houston, tranquility base here; the Eagle has landed." (The very first word spoken on the moon was probably part of Buzz Aldrin's technical commentary; Armstrong's were the first specifically addressed back to Earth.)

--RomeoWhiskeyCharlie (talk) 21:53, 21 April 2008 (UTC)RomeoWhiskeyCharlie