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The
slandeourous and libelous who lurk among us today have unprecedented
avenues for any and all spurious allegations cast upon the character
of any individual, public or private. In days of yore, the avenues
were few but the character assasins were just as relentless.
Take Sam Houston,
revered father of Texas. In his day,
he was as despised as any man in the state. Some people genuinely
disliked him, others sought to discredit him only to advance their
own careers, and some were simply unwitting dupes. Othes thought
Ol’ Sam was all right. Let’s not forget that Texans elected him
President of the Republic. Twice.
Old Sam gave people on both sides of the fence plenty of ammunition
to fire back and forth. Tales of drunkeness and debauchery appeared
in newspapers and pamphlets all over the state and much of the country.
His mysterious and brief marriage provided additional fodder. Even
the Cherokees, whom he lived with for several years, gave him the
name Big Drunk. And they liked him.
One of the most common charges was that in addition to his many
sins he was also an opium addict. The fact that he and Mexican general
Santa Anna shared a plug of opium after the Battle
of San Jacinto fueled rumors that eventually turned him into
a hophead. One of Houston’s keenest and sleaziest rivals, Robert
Potter, probably had a lot to do with it.
Potter employed a spy by the name of James Hazard Perry in the Houston
camp. Perry’s assignment was to dig up some dirt on Houston
and report on him at his worst. Houston
found out about it when he randomly opened up a letter from Perry
to Potter. Here’s what he read:
“We are in striking distance of the enemy and there are no signs
of moving. Our men are loitering about without knowing more of military
tactics at evening than they did in the morning.
“While the general either for want of his customary excitement –
for he has entirely discontinued the use of ardent spirits – or
as some say from the effect of opium is in a condition between sleeping
and waking which amounts nearly to a constant state of insanity.”
Perry left camp when Houston
reprimanded him but Perry was present and accounted for at San
Jacinto, site of Houston’s
victory over Santa Anna and the Mexican army, which gave Texas
its independence from Mexico.
An 1837 pamphlet titled “Houston Displayed: Or Who Won the Battle
of San Jacinto” was a tour de force of slander and libel that haunted
Houston all
the way into the history books. The author was listed as “A Farmer
in the Army” but another “loyal” aide, Robert Coleman turned out
to be the culprit. Coleman pegged Houston
as a drug-crazed lunatic.
“[Houston's] whiskey and opium gave out, and none could be procured;
so that, from disappointment and the want of those stimulants, he
became deranged,” Coleman wrote.” In one of his moments of delirium
he drew a pistol and attempted to blow out his brains, but was prevented
by the untimely interference of [Jim] Bowie.”
Untimely?
Coleman went on to say that Houston
spent his nights in the grog shops of Washington-on-the
Brazos and his days were devoted to sleep. “[Houston]
had the unblushing impudence to acknowledge to the bystanders that
he did not recollect to have set out from any place sober or free
from intoxication during the last five years; but on that occasion
he considered himself sober.”
Anson
Jones, a surgeon for the Texas army, wrote in 1855 that Houston
was “stupefied and stultified with opium during the San
Jacinto campaign.”
The reason Houston
was never charged with possession of opium was because it was legal
and sold over the counter in 19th century Texas. Opium was one of
the medical options available to the military. Having some around
wasn’t illegal or even unusual. Houston
was wounded during the battle
at San Jacinto and was given some opium to help with the pain
while he negotiated terms of surrender with Santa Anna, who apparently
wanted some, too.
Santa Anna suffered the same slings and arrows as Houston
in regards to the opium thing. Here is a description by one of his
biographers of when Santa Anna was to be taken ashore from the ship
carrying him to Vera Cruz after his surrender to Houston:
“No amount of explanation could persuade him that he would be safe
ashore. He rushed around and took some opium – more opium, he said
– he had taken so much, he averred, that he would soon die anyway.”
Since then, opium and rumors of opium have continued to dog both
the victor and the vanquished. A 1991 book, “A Duel of Eagles” by
Jeffrey Long cast the battle
of San Jacinto as a case of two drug addicts chasing each other
around Texas with guns.
Even admirers of Sam
Houston bring up his alleged opium use from time to time. Musician,
author and former gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman, when asked
if someone with a past history of drug use (like him) could be a
good role model, said, “The only great governor we’ve had was an
opium addict and a drunkard. And that was Sam
Houston.”
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