Mirabeau B. Lamar

Lamar was born in 1798 in Louisville, Georgia, then capitol of the state, as the second eldest of nine siblings, growing up at Fairfield, his father's cotton plantation near Milledgeville, then the later state capital. His family was descended from French Huguenot Thomas Lamar, who had settled in Maryland in 1660. His parents, John and Rebecca (Lamar) Lamar, who were first cousins through Thomas' sons John and Thomas, The elder brother, Lucius, was named for the Roman statesman Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus; the younger, Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, for French heroes Napoleon Bonaparte and Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau. The family had connections with other families throughout Georgia and the South. Confederate politician John Basil Lamar was a first cousin to Lamar. As a child, Lamar loved to read. Although he was accepted to Princeton University (then called the College of New Jersey), he chose not to attend. He started work as a merchant and then ran a newspaper, but both of those enterprises failed. In 1823, Lamar's family connections helped him to gain a position as the private secretary to the newly elected Georgia Governor George M. Troup. In this position, Lamar issued press releases and toured the state, giving speeches on behalf of the governor. On one of his trips, he met Tabitha Burwell Jordan, whom he married in 1826. They had a daughter together. When Troup lost his re-election bid in 1828, Lamar moved with his family to Columbus, Georgia, where he established the Columbus Enquirer. This venture was much more successful than his previous business attempts. In 1830, his wife Tabitha died of tuberculosis. Lamar was deeply affected and took time to recover his drive. He withdrew his name from consideration for re-election to the Georgia Senate, in which he had served one term. After traveling, Lamar began to study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1833 and ran an unsuccessful campaign for a seat in the U.S. Congress. ==Texas Revolution==

Lamar's brother Lucius committed suicide in 1834. A grief-stricken Lamar began traveling again to ease his sorrow. In the summer of 1835, he reached Texas, then part of Mexico. He decided to stay, where he was visiting his friend James Fannin. Fannin had recently settled there and was working as a slave trader in Velasco. Lamar was promoted that night from private to colonel and given command of the cavalry during the battle the following day. Houston noted in his battle report: "Our cavalry, 61 in number, commanded by Mirabeau B. Lamar, (whose gallant and daring conduct on the previous day, had attracted the admiration of his comrades and called him to that station), placed on our right, completed our line." After Texas achieved independence from Mexico, Lamar was appointed as the Secretary of War in the interim Texian government. In 1836, he was elected to the position of Vice President of Texas. ==President of Texas==

Lamar, the unanimous choice as the nominee of the Democratic Party for the president to succeed Houston, was elected. He was inaugurated on December 1, 1838. He ordered attacks against the Indian tribes. In 1839, Texian troops drove the Cherokee bands from the state. Houston's friend, Chief Bowles, was killed in battle, and Houston was furious with Lamar. The government conducted a similar campaign against the Comanche. Although losing many lives, the Comanche resisted leaving the area. He drove the Indians out at the Battle of the Neches, where 500 Texans attacked 800 American Indians of several different tribes. Of these 800, between 400 and 500 were women, children, and elders. The Texians and Rangers who attacked the tribes were fully armed, while the Indians had an estimated 16–24 rifles and pistols. Before the attack, Duwali, Gatunwali, Big Mush, and other chiefs and leaders asked for time to gather their crops, then they would go in peace, but Lamar would not wait.. Lamar ordered Secretary of War Albert Sidney Johnston and General Thomas J. Rusk to run them out of Texas. Lamar appointed a commission to select a permanent site for the capital of the Republic. After two months of debate, they recommended the small town of Waterloo, along the Colorado River toward the center of the state. The town was renamed Austin after the pioneer Stephen F. Austin. By October 1839, all of the records and employees were relocated there from Houston. He did not succeed in getting loans approved from them. To fill the treasury, he authorized issuance of a large amount of Republic of Texas paper money, known as Redbacks. The paper money was virtually worthless. Spending doubled during Lamar's term, and combined with the worthless currency, caused financial difficulties for the government. When Lamar left office in 1841, Texas was almost $7 million in debt compared to $1.4 million when he was inaugurated in 1838. The majority of the debt was accrued from carrying out his policies. ==Later years==

Houston was elected again as president after Lamar. The latter returned to service in the army, and distinguished himself in the U.S. Army at the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican–American War. During this time, money was tight in Texas; Lamar borrowed money from his banker cousin Gazaway Bugg Lamar. Some of the letters on this subject between the two still exist. In late 1847, he was assigned as a post commander at Laredo, but disliked the job, as he wanted more action. Lamar was elected from Eagle Pass in the Texas Legislature for several years after Texas was annexed to the United States in 1845. In 1857, President James Buchanan appointed Lamar as the Minister to Nicaragua, and a few months later to Costa Rica. He served in Managua for 20 months before returning to Texas in October 1859 because of poor health. He died of a heart attack at his Richmond plantation on December 19, 1859. Lamar's volume of collected poems, Verse Memorials, was published in 1857 (New York, W.P. Fetridge & Co., 224 pages ==Legacy==

in Richmond, Texas. • Lamar County, in northeast Texas, and Lamar, a small unincorporated community in Aransas County on the Texas Gulf Coast, are named for him. Dallas and Houston have a prominent Lamar Street in their downtown areas. Lamar Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in central Austin, also carries his name, as do other streets in many older communities across Texas. • Mirabeau B. Lamar is the namesake of Lamar, Missouri birthplace of Harry S. Truman. • Lamar University in Beaumont was named for him in 1932. It is the largest educational facility to be named for the former Texas President, and has an enrollment of over 17,000 students. The campus features a commemorative bust of Lamar. • The defunct Lamar University System named all of its member institutions after him; these included the flagship Lamar University in Beaumont, and the member institutions Lamar State College–Port Arthur, Lamar State College–Orange (both two-year community colleges), and Lamar Institute of Technology. • High schools are named for Lamar in Houston, Arlington, and Rosenberg. • Middle schools are named for Lamar in Temple, Austin, Dallas, Irving, Laredo, and Flower Mound. • Elementary schools are named for Lamar in Amarillo, Corpus Christi, El Paso, San Antonio, Wichita Falls, and The Woodlands, as are numerous other K–12 schools throughout the state. • During the Second World War, a Liberty ship was named for him . • In 1959 he was inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame for his journalistic work. ==In popular culture==

• Preston Jones's play The Oldest Living Graduate, part of his A Texas Trilogy, features a fictional Lamar Military Academy. • S.C. Gwynne's history of the Comanche people, Empire of the Summer Moon, describes Lamar's directing the Comanche wars in vivid detail in chapter 6, "Blood and Smoke". ==References==