Not So Fast There Grads, Here's a Little Pop Quiz
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| Visiting prior to Saturday's summer
commencement exercises were, from left, commencement speaker
Jane Monday, SHSU Regent Jimmy Hayley, and SHSU President
James F. Gaertner. |
After years of classes in public schools and at Sam Houston
State University, on a day they thought they were just showing
up to get a diploma, some 750 SHSU graduates got five additional
"Lessons from Sam."
Jane Monday, past Huntsville mayor, former SHSU regent, and
a person introduced by SHSU President James Gaertner as one
who has "put on her jeans and helped decorate the Coliseum,"
was the teacher/speaker for five points from General Sam Houston's
life.
Monday spoke at ceremonies at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in Johnson
Coliseum.
Her first lesson was "A Life Long Love of Learning."
"When Sam was growing up his father had one of the finest
libraries in Virginia and Sam was constantly found reading
the classics like Homer and Vergil," said Monday. "He
loved to read about history and geography."
After running away from home at the age of 16 to live with the
Cherokees, he returned at 19 and was so well read and self taught
that he could open a school to pay his debts.
"In later life Sam said, 'I experienced a higher feeling
of dignity and self satisfaction from teaching than from any
office or honor which I have held since,'" Monday said.
"Reading and life long learning paid off for Sam."
Lesson Two: "Live Your Life Honorably."
When he was 20 Sam joined the army to fight in the War of
1812. His mother, Elizabeth Houston, agreed to his enlistment
but told him "'while the door of my cottage is always
open to brave men, it is eternally shut against cowards.'
"So saying," Monday said, "she slipped onto his
finger a simple gold band with the word Honor engraved on it.
Sam wore that ring the rest of his life."
Lesson Three: "When You Feel You Are Down and Out Don't
Give Up."
After helping his old commander, Andrew Jackson, become U.
S. president, and while serving as governor of Tennessee,
Houston was thought to be Jackson's likely successor. Houston's
failed marriage ruined that, he ran away again to live with
the Cherokees, and became known to them as "Big Drunk."
"Sam was about as low as he could go," Monday said.
"It could have ended there but it didn't because Sam
didn't give up."
He moved to Texas, where the fourth largest city in the United
States and a university are now named for him. Because of his
victory at San Jacinto the United States would increase its
size by a third. He became president of the Republic of Texas,
U. S. Senator from Texas, and governor of the state of Texas.
"None of these would have happened," Monday said,
"if Sam had given up."
Lesson Four: "Have the Courage to Stand for What You
Know is Right."
As leader of 783 untrained Texian volunteers at San Jacinto,
Houston faced a professional Mexican army of 1,200. Five of
his seven officers voted to take a defensive position. Sam
chose to attack.
"Sam called for battle because he knew that his men wanted
revenge for the Alamo and Goliad," Monday said, "and
in their hearts they would see to it that victory was theirs."
His other great act of courage was refusing to sign an oath
of allegiance to the Confederacy, and having to step down
as governor in 1861. He felt that the South could not win
the war, and he felt that slavery was wrong, freeing his slaves
even though it was illegal to do so in Texas.
"He also offered for them to stay in the household so that
they would not be left on their own and told them he would pay
them wages as long as he could," said Monday, who co-authored
the award-winning "From Slave to Statesman: The Legacy
of Joshua Houston," about Houston's close personal servant.
"The price of standing for what he believed was high
but Sam never wavered and stood by what he believed no matter
what the cost," Monday told the graduates.
Lesson Five: "Honor Your Family and Country."
When he died at the age of 70 on July 26, 1863 Sam Houston still
wore the gold band, inscribed with the word Honor that his mother
had given him a half century earlier. The last words his wife,
Margaret, heard were her name, and "Texas."
"Our university proudly bears his name and we want to
wish you all the best as you begin your life's journey,"
said Monday. "I hope in the future when you look at your
diploma or at your ring you will think of this wonderful university
and know you will always be a part of Sam's legacy and our
Bearkat family."
—END—
SHSU Media Contact: Frank
Krystyniak
Aug. 7, 2005
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu.
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