History of Texas Part III: Sam Houston

They say everything is bigger in Texas, and that includes the legends who forged the state's independence.

Texas history could ever be complete without covering Sam Houston, one of the most complex and fascinating characters in American history. Born in Virginia in 1793, Houston would become the only American to serve as the governor of two separate states, a congressman, a senator and the president of a sovereign nation --- the Republic of Texas.

Revered for his military service under Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812 and as the general who would defeat Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, Houston fell out of favor when he refused to secede with southern states during the Civil War era. History would eventually right the wrongs done to his legacy and prove his judgment correct. Today, Sam Houston remains a beloved and giant figure in Texas history.

Listen to this segment:

Listen to all serials at glennbeck.com/serials.

GLENN: They say everything is bigger in Texas. And that includes the legends responsible for forging its independence. No discussion of Texas history could ever be complete without exploring the lives of Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, and Jim Bowie. One fact that makes us wannabe Texans feel better that none of these were born in Texas. But like the 28 million others who live there today, we all got here as soon as we could.

While Stephen F. Austin is the man without whom Texas might still be a hot, humid, swampy wasteland. In our first episode, we covered Austin's critical contributions to the founding of the state. He was, as the Spanish called him, an impresario, who was eventually responsible for at least 1200 American families immigrating to Texas. But, meanwhile, several other men, who like Austin who were from the east would also make their way to Texas.

This episode, we focus on one of the most complex and fascinating characters in American history, his name is Sam Houston, who was born in Virginia in 1793. He was 14 years old when his family moved to Tennessee. And at the age of 19, Houston joined the US Army and fought under Andrew Jackson in the war of 1812. Andrew Jackson is a guy that I like just about as much as Woodrow Wilson. I contend that the American republic as our Founders knew it, died under Andrew Jackson.

Not a good guy. But Jackson was responsible for the expansion of America in many ways. Mainly by killing the Indians. In the battle of horseshoe bend, Houston was wounded multiple times and just kept going. He was shot in the groin area with an arrow, and he bandaged himself up, then lead a charge to overtake the enemy fortification and was shot twice more by a rifle. He was hit in the shoulder and the arm.

His heroics made quite an impression on the future president, President Jackson. They became friends and close confidants for life. In 1822, Houston ran for and won election to the US Congress. And in 1827, was elected governor of the state of Tennessee.

VOICE: Within weeks, the marriage collapsed. He sent her packing back to her father. And he resigned as governor of Tennessee. This personal tragedy had great political repercussions. It ended his opportunity for a traditional political career and set him on a westward course that took him to Texas. And the beginnings of the creation of an empire.

GLENN: During his first term in office, rumors arose that Houston had developed a serious drinking problem and that he was cheating on his new wife. Because of this, he gave up plans to run for reelection. He quit politics, and for a time, went to live with the Cherokee Indians where he met and married his second wife, a woman whose heritage was half Cherokee. Houston was an outspoken advocate for the Indians, which was in direct conflict with his good friend, Andrew Jackson.

In 1832, he traveled to Washington to expose government fraud against the Cherokees. While there, a congressman from Ohio, William Stanbery made accusations against Houston on the floor of Congress.

Houston wrote repeatedly to demand satisfaction on the charges from Stanbery, but never heard back. Finally, Houston confronted Stanbery in DC on Pennsylvania Avenue and beat him senseless with a hickory cane.

Apparently, a lot of beatings with canes happened back then. Stanbery pulled his pistol and fired at Houston, but the gun misfired. Stanbery was injured because of that, and Congress ordered the arrest of Sam Houston.

He was represented in court by Francis Scott Key. Yes, that guy. He was a lawyer who authored the national anthem. But the famous representation didn't help. But if you're the opposite of Garth Brooks and you have friends in high places, including the president of the United States, President Jackson and future President James K. Polk, he was only lightly reprimanded. Yes, some things in Washington never change.

Unsatisfied with Houston's punishment, Stanbery sued him in civil court, and he won a 500-dollar judgment. But Houston left for Texas without paying a penny of it. He was later pardoned by Andrew Jackson, and the fine was erased.

So what happened to his family? Well, Houston's Cherokee wife had absolutely no interest going off to Texas with him, and she stayed behind in Tennessee.

VOICE: The hour that Sam Houston crossed the Red River in Texas in December of 1832, he became the most famous human being in Texas. He was nationally famous, as a war hero in the war of 1812, as a lieutenant of Andrew Jackson's, as congressmen in flamboyant governor of Tennessee. And the mere appearance of Sam Houston in Texas guaranteed that Sam Houston would achieve public notice, public notoriety perhaps.

GLENN: With the War of Independence on the horizon for Texas and Houston's reputation of a war hero after arriving in Texas, he was quickly appointed to commander-in-chief of the Texas Army, even though at the time there wasn't much of an army to speak of.

October 1835, the actual fighting in the Texas revolution began in Gonzalez. As a detachment of Mexican soldiers was beaten back and defeated trying to take back the Gonzalez cannon back to Mexico. The battle cry of the residents was defiant. You might have seen it on a flag from Texas recently. It just says: Come and take it.

The Mexicans couldn't. Texas won. A small group of 183 men took up the fight at the Alamo in San Antonio, as rumors spread of the approach of the 5,000 strong Mexican Army began to reach them. The men in the Alamo were determined to stay and fight even though Sam Houston told them it's foolhardy, a hopeless cause, and, quote, a trap for anyone who dared to defend it, end quote.

As we all know, he was right. The Mexican Army laid siege to the Alamo for nearly two weeks, then attacked and killed everyone inside.

The 183 men inside of the Alamo made the Mexicans pay dearly, killing between 600 and 1300 men in Santa Anna's army. Angered, Santa Anna began looking for Sam Houston, and along the way, executed the 400 Texans who had defended the garrison at Goliad, Texas, after they surrendered.

As the word trickled out about the fate of nearly 600 Texans killed at the Alamo and Goliad, more and more angry Texans joined Houston's army. It's one of the reasons why the Russian plans to invade the United States never included a single plan to enter through the Texas border.

You just don't want to make Texans angry. When Houston finally decided the time and circumstances were right to fight Santa Anna and he had enough angry Texans, he pounced on Santa Anna's forces at 3:30 at the battle of San Jacinto, winning one of the fastest, most divisive victories in all of history. The battle lasted 18 minutes. And that is when Texas won its independence.

Houston was wound again. His ankle was shattered by a bullet. And when he went to New Orleans for treatment, a huge crowd awaited him on the dock. One of those in the crowd was a 17-year-old girl named Margaret Lee who was immediately smitten with the 43-year-old war hero. But she didn't get a chance to meet him. Three years later, on a business trip to Mobile, Alabama, Houston and Lee met and were formerly introduced. The next year, the two were married. And this time, married for life. For the rest of Houston's life, Lee remained at Houston's side, until he died in his home in Huntsville in 1863.

Houston became a hero of incredible proportions in Texas. He would be elected president of the new republic twice. And when it became a state within the United States, he was elected one of the two US senators from the state.

VOICE: In 1854, as one of the two US senators from Texas, Houston performed the bravest political act of his career, when he voted against the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which would have potentially opened up certain western territories to slavery.

So he alone among all US senators from the cotton states voted against the act. And, of course, he was hung in effigy. He was reviled on street corners and on the political stump. The state legislature called upon him to resign in Texas.

VOICE: Although rejected by the Texas legislature, the people remained loyal to Houston and elected him governor in 1859.

Hardly had Texas joined the Union when the issue of secession to maintain the right to hold slaves swept the southern states.

VOICE: Houston fought with all of his might against the forces of secession. But crowds now hooted him down, spat upon him, threatened his life. The man who had given birth to Texas was now hated by the people he had led. He refused to swear allegiance to the Confederacy and was ousted from office.

GLENN: He had held on to his principles, even when it cost him his political career and his enormous popularity with the people. However, history would eventually right the wrongs done to his legacy and prove that his judgment was correct.

Sam Houston goes down as the only American in history to serve as the governor of two separate states, a US congressman, a US senator, and the president of a sovereign nation. He truly was one of the most unique and fascinating characters in history. Next time, Texas today.

Kevin Ryan: America, country versus city

Photo by Kevin Ryan

Imagine a prairie, red in bloodshot light, swollen with corn.

You're in a rocking chair, on a porch, looking out at fields of grain, surrounded by friends and family. Now imagine an urban sprawl, a landscape of fog and metal and sidewalk and car horns. From the patio of your high-rise apartment, you look out at the city, as a dinner party churns.

One thing I hear repeatedly from people in rural areas is, "I cannot believe the amount of hatred Trump faces. It's unprecedented."
If you measure public opinion via mainstream media — excluding Fox News, which is definitely part of the so-called mainstream media — you'd understandably assume that most Americans hate Trump's guts.

Yet nearly 63 million people voted for him in 2016. Still fewer than Hillary Clinton, although Trump nabbed the electoral vote by a far larger margin.

When I talk to people in cities, they often have a gauzy idea about Trump supporters. To them, Trump supporters are faraway anomalies. The obverse is true in smaller towns, especially in the countryside — and not just the South or in Middle America, you'll find tons of Trump flags along the backroads of Oregon and California, same for the East coast.

Earlier this summer, I was at a gun range in Clear Lake, Texas and a half-dozen people were wearing MAGA hats, including one of the Ranger Officers. Drive an hour north on the Gulf Freeway, into the Montrose neighborhood of Houston, and you'll find a much different dynamic.

And Clear Lake is by no means a small town, not compared to all those towns throughout Texas with 200 people and a gas station.

Because the divide is multifold. And impressively, nearly all of the separate attributes at play are polarized.

Probably because liberals and conservatives literally don't even live in the same places. Rarely cross paths.

There are two America's, same as ever. The countryside and the city. I've lived in both. And as I travel around America for this series, I see the delicate kingdoms of each.

So as I travel around from state to state, through all the different towns and cities, I feel the presence of Walt Whitman's great poem "America."

Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,
A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
Chair'd in the adamant of Time


In 2016, a paltry 12 percent of Trump voters lived in urban areas, compared to Clinton's 32 percent. The numbers were basically flipped, with 35 percent of Trump voters in rural areas, compared to 19 percent of Clinton voters in rural areas.
This divide was even more dramatic along partisan lines.

As noted by Pew Research Center,

Virtually all validated voters with consistently liberal values voted for Clinton over Trump (95% to 2%), while nearly all those with consistently conservative values went for Trump (98% to less than 1% for Clinton).

So it makes sense that neither side would understand the other. Especially when you toss in a dose of American combativeness.


In the words of Aristotle, "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

Which is not to say that Americans aren't of an educated mind, although it is something we have historically been sensitive about, particularly in relation to art and literature.

Rather, my point is that there are gradations of ignorance.

A continuum.

Some forms of ignorance are more forgivable than others. And a certain type of ignorance is not forgivable at all.


Our hindrance, as Americans, is that we are — well, we are stubborn people. I've lived outside America, and traveled extensively. My father is Irish, and I have dual citizenship.

I will say that every country has problems. Unique problems.

As Americans, we tend to lean on convenience, even if we don't see it as a luxury. Which, let's be real, it totally is.

We take for granted that, when you're in public and you need to use a toilet, there's one nearby. And it's free. And clean.
Or showers. How often are we forced to take cold showers?

I know I'm doing a lot of generalizing here, but I've thought about it a lot, and it's all based on my desire to see Americans get along better. To rouse the humanity in all of us.

We Americans will always thrive with a pioneer spirit. A wildness. Rebels.

And Americans are undoubtedly some of the kindest, most generous people on earth.


But we also tend to focus exclusively on ourselves, our country, our city, our town, our yard, our skyline. Which happens everywhere, yes, but not like here. More often, we can't even imagine the other worlds within our own country.


Here's an exercise, if you're a born-and-bred American.

Name a dozen living world leaders. Now a dozen more.

Describe the Croatian flag, or the flag of any African country. Can you tell the difference between the Salvadorian flag and the flag of Argentina?

Sing a few national Anthems.

Revolutions or uprisings are currently taking place in the following countries or regions: Chile, Iran, Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, Hong Kong, Libya, Niger, Lebanon, Iraq, France, Puerto Rico, Haiti, you get the idea.

Because people in other countries know far more about America than we know about them. Which, at times, can be heart-breaking:

Protesters singing the American national anthem youtu.be

Don't get me wrong, I probably got the same score on that little quiz as you did.

Probably lower, actually, as the folks who contact me about my stories have the most astute and insightful observations.


Want to know the one thing we can all agree on as Americans? Cutting in line is unforgivable. Any sort of line. We learn this from a young age. Internalize it, collectively. If you ask us, we say that line-cutters deserve the great heat of an eternal hell!


Real talk here. We're spoiled, and occasionally we act like it. Although, most of the time — say, while traveling abroad — we're so kind that we come off as naïve, which is charming when you think of it.

And most of all, we are big, in mind and heart and spirit. In the words of the great American poet Walt Whitman, we contain multitudes.

You'd never know it, but Americans comprise a mere 4 percent of the world's population.

And, look, I'm not here to trash America. I love our country.

And I find much of the criticisms of our country to be rooted in cowardice, even when they are legitimate.

More than a few times, in Spain or Germany, I listened to locals excoriate the States. While drinking a Coca-Cola, and wearing Levi's Jeans, and nodding their head to Bruce Springsteen, as the Simpsons plays on the TV and a Cormac McCarthy novel rests on their bookshelf.

Most people I've met abroad like America. And they love Americans.

They admire our weird, endless spirit.

Poet Theodore Roethke wrote, "What's freedom for?"

In readings of the poem, he lets the question hang in the air for a moment, then answers it with a bellow.

"To know eternity."


Not only are we heartedly multicultural, our diversity is natural.

With regard to race and ethnicity, the U.S. usually occupies the middle of the chart.

But what's unique about the U.S. is that an American can be any race, ethnicity, sex, gender, age, color.
And this is our golden age.

You'd never know it, but Americans comprise a mere 4 percent of the world's population. Because, most of all, we are big, in mind and heart and spirit. To paraphrase Walt Whitman, we contain multitudes.


Ask liberals to describe conservatives, and vice versa, and you'll find that both sides tend to depict the other in a ghoulishly inaccurate and unflattering way. Conservatives often see liberals as elitist, intolerant, self-important, and out-of-touch.

Whereas liberals see conservatives as dumb, intolerant, backwards, and out-of-touch.

Either way, it's a pretty bad way to start a conversation.


We know the statistics by now. White voters accounted for 88 percent of the Trump vote. And far fewer Trump supporters were non-college whites.

More white women voted for Trump than for Clinton.

Of all the groups, Black women accounted for the fewest Trump votes, so few that its nearly statistically insignificant. In total, Trump got 6 percent of the Black vote.

A few things have changed since then. Specifically, Candace Owens and Kanye West.

I'll profile Owens in a later installment, for the last six months or so, I've been reporting on it. The vociferous, charming, and unbelievable 30-year-old woman at the helm of a strange new countercultural movement re-shaping America. She wears her MAGA hat when she travels, and she travels most days of the year.

She has led #Blexit, a movement geared at empowering the black community to vote Republican.

Kanye West, who was emboldened by Owen's unflinching style and bold words, regularly defends his support of Trump.

Those two events alone are bound to increase the number of Black Americans who vote for Trump in 2020.

I'll be at Kanye's performance in Houston on Sunday, at Joel Osteen's mega-church. And, about the time this story publishes, I'll be en route to Bossier City, Louisiana for my third Trump rally in as many weeks. And everywhere I travel for this series, I see the recurring qualities unique to our country.


We Americans are generally honest people. We are straightforward yet empathetic. Just contrast general American English with general British English. We are cowboys and roughshod poets, they are royalty and cautious essayists.

In the introduction to this series, I described today's America, our America, as "a country that is — everywhere, secretly — hurting."

My aim, along the way, has been to scour for remedies. To posit whatever positivity I can. Like prayer in public, to tens of thousands of people every week.

As I see it, we will fix America by living out our most American ideals. By speaking from our spirit, no gimmickry or slogans or con men in the way.

We need truth. Its function is to guide us to redemption.


The most insidious criticism of America comes from inside. It is much different than protest. Because America is a free country. We can express our beliefs and opinions how we like. That includes kneeling athletes and flag-defiling musicians. Dissent is allowed and patriotism is by no means required.

What I'm talking about is subtler. It can arise from any point on the political spectrum. Left, right, center. Even be apolitical. It embodies the unforgivable ignorance I mentioned above. People who spit at the world around them, lacking self-awareness, unaware of the privilege that comes with living in America. They've never left, never even tried. Yet they remain certain, until their opinions mutate into hatred, and only want to destroy. They deny humanity, they choose nihilism.

It's easy to be cynical about something you don't understand. Humanity is the realization that all of this has meaning. That every moment of life is charged with an existential purpose. That death is a life with no meaning.

This video makes the rounds every once in a while. It's meant to denounce the spirit of our country, to drain it of meaning, but just comes off as snotty and high-minded, which, to be fair, are trademarks of a quality Aaron Sorkin monologue.

All my life, my father, an immigrant, has told me that America is the greatest country in the world. Just look at the Democratic Presidential candidates. Andrew Yang's parents emigrated from Taiwan, he flourished, now he's running for President. Bernie Sanders, son of a man who fled Poland as a teenage high school drop-out with a poor grasp of English, is now also running for President. Or Pete Buttigieg, whose father emigrated from Malta in 1979. Kamala Harris' mother emigrated from India, her father from Jamaica.

In other words, seven immigrants, all from different continents, traveled to America with hope and their eyes, and now their children have a realistic chance of being the President of the country. From the bottom to the top, in one generation.That would be like if your parents emigrated to America from another country, worked hard, then you went on to become a realistic candidate for the most important job in the entire world. Now do that three more times.

Because there is nothing to compare it to.

It becomes all the more impressive the farther you zoom out.

Imagine taking a time machine back to Ancient Egypt and trying to make your way up the ladder so that your son could become Pharaoh. You'd zap into the sand and straight into slavery. Immediately. And your kids? Assuming you even had time for love, on account of all the pyramid building, slaves, also.

And even if you were somehow able to maneuver to the top, you could still die at any moment of some horrific, now-curable disease.

Or be poisoned by Cleopatra.

Or be "suicided" by Romans, never to be found.

Or just vanish, despite your being the Pharaoh.

Or be decapitated by your own father.

Or drown in the Nile.

Or lose your firstborn in a Biblical plague.

All of which were fates that Pharaohs actually suffered. And even the lucky Pharaohs, they didn't have air conditioning or cars or pizza delivery.






Watch the full special here:


Here are the facts













































































The National Anti-Corruption Bureau needed to be established.




Rewrite the Constitution.



(See end of page 3 and 4.)



(See page 4 paragraph 5.)




Oh ... George Soros.

(See page 6.)
































Taught to use social networking and mobile technologies to promote democracy.
















Link: https://www.crisisgroup.org/

They're a ThinkTank that claims to be:


They're also founded AND FUNDED by George Soros.






























































Have you had enough winning yet?

A whale in a raincoat turns to a starfish.




Only it's not.

And we have proof.

Something wasn't right. Something smelled fishy.





amp only placement

We made it our mission to expose the truth.




We refuse to stand by and remain silent.










FEB 2014

New President in Ukraine



This would lay the foundation for systematic corruption by the Democrats.


  • Greg Craig: former Obama White House counsel
  • Tad Devine: Chief Strategist for Bernie Sanders
  • Tony Podesta: Brother to John Podesta
  • Mark Penn: Chief Strategist for Hillary Clinton
  • John Alazone: Obama campaign pollster
  • Joel Benenson: the Obama campaign LEAD pollster


Here's Obama meeting with Porochenko later that year:

MAR 2014

Obama Makes Biden Point-man in Ukraine


Here's what author Peter Schweizer had to say about this decision:

APR 2014

Biden Flies to Ukraine, Hunter Tags Along





MAY 2014

Hunter Biden, Devon Archer Become Burisma Board Members


In 2016, Foreign Policy magazine reported:


Three weeks later, Hunter Biden also joined Burisma's board.




NOV 2014

U.S. Aid to Ukraine Increases


  • $1 billion sovereign loan guarantee
  • $320 million in general assistance
  • $118 million in equipment and training for their security forces
  • $20 million for law enforcement reform

APR 2015

Obama Admin. Mandates Setup of NACB





??? 2015

Owner of Burisma Loses $1.8 Billion from the U.S.








As pointed out in an article for Ukranian newspaper Kyiv Post:


JUN 2015

Trump Announces Presidential Run



LATE 2015

Research: Alexandra Chalupa





I felt there was a Russia connection.




Source: WikiLeaks

Source: WikiLeaks

MAR 2016

Biden Replaces Shokin with Lutsenko




Here's a sworn statement of from Shokin:


Here's the kicker:






Source: Screenshot from Anti Corruption Action Centre website


MAR 2016

Bank Loses $2.2M and $1.8B in IMF Loans

James Stafford, a journalist who covers the energy industry wrote:







MAR 2016

Chalupa Begins to Work Directly with Ukraine Embassy






APR 2016

Pillow Talk with the Ohrs




Trump has been pretty open about his opinion of Ohr.

MAY 2016

Isikoff Memo: Chalupa Embassy Press




JUN 2016

FBI & National Anti-Corruption Bureau


As noted on the NABU website:






JUN 2016

Obama Appoints New Ambassador



JUN 2016

Manafort Sentenced





LATE 2016

No Visas for Ukrainian Prosecutors


This evidence included:

  • Records showing Joe Biden pressured Ukrainian officials to fire Shokin.









NOV 2016

Trump Wins the Election

November 8, 2016. The day everything changed.


Hillary was so upset that she refused to concede.









The last line of this email is significant:



Here is the FBI Human Source Validation Report on Christopher Steele:

JUL 2017

First Mention of Ukraine by White House


Sanders said:



Then, President Trump mentioned Ukraine on Twitter:


Nothing ever came of it.

OCT 2017

Two Ukrainians Found Guilty, Secret Audio Released





Here's that audio:




ARTYOM SYTNYK: I think they did.

KOLYA: Oh, did they?




IVAN: Hilary's humanitarian aid [INDISCERNIBLE] America?


IVAN: No, there it was …



ARTYOM SYTNYK: A woman. Masha.

KOLYA: How do you find her?

ARTYOM SYTNYK: They don't keep any different people.

KOLYA: They - who?




IVAN: Come on, what are you talking about?



KOLYA: So what?


KOLYA: Everybody works smoothly there.


KOLYA: I say... Is FBI - ФБР?


KOLYA: The solid one, right?

ARTYOM SYTNYK: You bet! A real stronghold!

APR 2018

Mueller Report Finds Nothing



Here's an email from Mifsud to Papadopoulos:

And another, from February 2017, to the FBI:



MAY 2018

Trump Boots U.S. Ambassador



She wrote:


JUL 2019

Donald Trump Makes Phone Call to Volodymyr Zelenskiy



The media swiftly and uniformly sided with the unknown whistleblower.

Even when Trump responded, they stuck to their guns.





OCT 2019

What's Next?

Which brings us to now. What's next, you ask?


Without a doubt.



Good luck and godspeed.