s before him, followed with his finger the retreat as far as he knew
it, and paused with in on San Jacinto.

"Here's the place," he said. "If Sam Houston's worth one bawbee, he'll
stand here and give 'em a fight."

And so it was. It makes the pulses thrill, even yet, the story of that
twenty-first of April, 1836; how Houston destroyed the bridge behind
them, so that there could be no retreat, and then, on his great gray
horse, tried to address his men, but could only cry: "Remember The
Alamo"; how old Rusk could say not even that, but choked with a sob at
the first word, and waved his hand toward the enemy; how the solitary
fife struck up, "Will you come to the bower I have shaded for you?"
while those seven hundred gaunt, starved, ragged phantoms, burning with
rage at the thought of their comrades foully slain, deployed on the open
prairie and charged the unsuspecting Mexican army. It was over in half
an hour--the enemy annihilated, 630 killed, 200 wounded, 700
prisoners--among the prisoners Santa Anna himself, begging for mercy.
And Aaron Burr, dying in New York with the vision of his Texan empire
still before him, reading, weeks later, the news of the victory, cried
out, "I was thirty years too soon!"

There was never any question, after that, of Texan independence; Santa
Anna, to save a life forfeited a hundred times over, was ready to agree
to any terms. Houston was a popular hero; Texas was his child, and he
was unanimously chosen President of the new Republic. From the first,
Houston, recalling the wishes of his old leader, Andrew Jackson, sought
annexation to the United States, and the debates over the question in
Congress nearly disrupted the Union. For the North feared the effects of
such a tremendous addition to slave territory, from which three or four
states might be carved, and so destroy the balance of power between
North and South. Again, Mexico, which still dreamed of reconquering
Texas, notified the United States that annexation would be considered a
declaration of war; but Houston pressed the question with great
adroitness, it was evident that Texas really belonged in the Union, and
on March 1, 1845, Congress passed the resolution of annexation, and
Houston and Husk, the heroes of San Jacinto, were at once elected
senators.

In the brief but brilliant war with Mexico which followed, which is
considered more in detail in connection with the life of Winfield Scott,
and which resulted in the securing