In 1872 this noble inventor, at the ripe age of eighty-one, breathed his last. The grief of the people all over the land was strong proof of the place he held in the hearts of his countrymen. SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT 1. Tell all you can about John Fitch's steamboats. 2. Give examples which indicate young Fulton's inventive gifts. Imagine yourself on the banks of the North River on the day set for the trial of the Clermont, and tell what happened. 3. What and where was the National Road? 4. In what ways was the Erie Canal useful to the people? 5. Describe the first railroads and the first trains. 6. Tell what you can about Morse's twelve toilsome years of struggle while he was working out his great invention. How is the telegraph useful to men? 7. What do you admire about Morse? 8. Are you making frequent use of your map? CHAPTER XIV THE REPUBLIC GROWS LARGER SAM HOUSTON In a preceding chapter you learned how the great territories of Louisiana and Florida came to belong to America. We are now to learn of still other additions, namely, the great regions of Texas and California. The most prominent man in the events connected with our getting Texas was Sam Houston. [Illustration: Sam Houston.] He was born, of Irish descent, in 1793, in a farmhouse in Virginia. When he was thirteen years old the family removed to a place in Tennessee, near the home of the Cherokee Indians. The boy received but little schooling out in that new country. In fact, he cared far less about school than he did for the active, free life of his Indian neighbors. So when his family decided to have him learn a trade he ran away from home and joined the Cherokees. There he made friends, and one of the chiefs adopted him as a son. We may think of him as enjoying the sports and games, the hunting and fishing, which took up so much of the time of the Indian boys. On returning to his home, at the age of eighteen, he went to school for a term at Marysville Academy. In the War of 1812 he became a soldier and served under Andrew Jackson in the campaign against the Creek Indians. In the battle of Horseshoe Bend he fought with reckless bravery. During that fearful struggle he received a wound in the thigh. His commander, Jackson, then ordered him to stop fighting, but Houston refused to obey and was leading a desperate charge against the enemy when his right arm was shattered. It was a long time before he was well and strong again, but he had made a firm friend in Andrew Jackson.