Sam Houston’s Inaugural address as President of the new Republic of Texas was delivered on this day, October 22nd, in the year 1836. The speech was made in the small town of Columbia (present day West Columbia) near the site where a Walgreens drug store now sits.
“Deeply impressed with a sense of responsibility devolving on me, I cannot, in justice to myself, repress the
emotion of my heart, or restrain the feelings which my sense of obligation to my fellow citizens has
inspired,” President Houston said on this day 189 years ago. “We are only in the outset of the campaign of
liberty. Futurity has locked up the destiny which awaits our people….
“If, then, in the discharge of my duty, my competency should fail in the attainment of the great objects in
view, it would become your sacred duty to correct my errors and sustain me by your superior wisdom. This
much I anticipate—this much I demand. I am perfectly aware of the difficulties that surround me, and the
convulsive throes through which our country must pass.… A country situated like ours is environed with
difficulties, its administration is frought with perplexities.… Nothing but zeal, stimulated by the holy spirit
of patriotism, and guided by philosophy and wisdom, can give that impetus to our energies necessary to
surmount the difficulties with which our political path is obstructed.
By the aid of your intelligence, I trust all impediments in our advancement will be removed; that all
wounds in the body politic will be healed, and the Constitution of the Republic will derive strength and
vigor equal to all opposing energies.…
A subject of no small importance is the situation of an extensive frontier, bordered by Indians, and open to
their depredations. Treaties of peace and amity, and the maintenance of good faith with the Indians, present
themselves to my mind as the most rational grounds on which to obtain their friendship. Let us abstain on
our part from aggressions, establish commerce with the different tribes, supply their useful and necessary
wants, maintain even-handed justice with them, and natural reason will teach them the utility of our
friendship.…
Admonished by the past, we can not, in justice, disregard our national enemies; vigilance will apprise us of
their approach, a disciplined and valiant army will insure their discomfiture.… We must keep all our
energies alive, our army organized, desciplined, and increased agreeably to our present necessities. With
these preparations we can meet and vanquish despotic thousands. This is the attitude we at present must
regard as our own.…
The course our enemies have pursued has been opposed to every principle of civilized warfare—bad faith,
inhumanity, and devastation marked their path of invasion. We were a little band, contending for liberty;
they were thousands, well appointed, munitioned, and provisioned, seeking to rivet chains upon us, or
extirpate us from the earth. Their cruelties have incurred the universal denunciation of Christendom. They
will not pass from their nation during the present generation.…
At this moment I discern numbers around me who battled in the field of San Jacinto, and whose chivalry
and valor have identified them with the glory of the country, its name, its soil, and its liberty.… It now, Sir,
becomes my duty to make a presentation of this sword—this emblem of my past office!…
I have worn it with some humble pretensions in defence of my country; and should the danger of my
country again call for my services, I expect to resume it, and respond to that call, if needful, with my blood
and life.”
