1859. The election of Mr. Lincoln in 1860 precipitated events; and though
Houston used all his mighty personal influence, and all his charmful, potent elo-
quence to keep Texas in the Union, he failed, and was deposed from the Gov-
ernorship on his refusal to sign the Ordinance of Secession.

Then he calmly withdrew from the scene, and there are many living who
remember his pathetic parting words. "I have seen," he said, "the statesmen
and patriots of my youth gathered to their fathers, and the government which
they had reared rent in twain, and none like them are now left to re-unite it
again. I stand almost the last of a race who learned from them the lessons of
human freedom!"

These events inflicted a mortal wound upon his great spirit, and when he
heard the roar of the cannon announcing the secession of Texas, he turned to
his wife and said, "My heart is broken!" The words were only too true; for two
years he lingered a sad and solemn old man, mourning for the woes of his
country and for the defection of his eldest son Sam, who had joined the Confed-
erates, and been taken prisoner by the Northern army. He was also suffering
from the wounds received both in the war of 1812 and also at San Jacinto; and
it was evident that he had come to the close of life. He himself looked forward
to the event without fear, and with a wise and well-grounded hope.

On March 2, 1863, Houston was seventy, and in response to an ovation in
his own city of Houston, he made a short, broken little speech. It was his last
public effort, and from it he went back home to Huntsville, to die. His last
days were spent in incessant and heart-broken prayers for his country and for his
family; and on July 26, 1863, three weeks after the fall of Vicksburg, he breathed
his last to the words " Texas! Texas!"

So honestly and unselfishly had this great man lived that he died in poverty,
needing many comforts; this hero, who by his valor and statesmanship had in-
creased the territory of the United States by more than eight hundred thousand
square miles, or about the equivalent of the thirteen original States! But the
splendor of his name is not to be touched by such an accident as poverty; to the
people of Texas, Houston will ever be a beloved memory; and on the Roll of
Fame he shines forth, the noblest, the most princely, the most picturesque and
chivalrous character in American history.

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