July, 1836, Houston returns to Texas, and protests against the proposed trial and execution of Santa Anna, who had been promised his liberty. September, 1836, Sam Houston elected by a vast majority; first permanent president of the new Republic of Texas. October 22, 1836, he is inaugurated president, at Columbia. November, 1836, he vetoes the resolution passed by the Texas senate to retain Santa Anna as prisoner, and dispatches him to Washington of the United States, for an audience with President Jackson, in the interests of recognition by Mexico of Texas independence. December, 1836, removes to the town of Houston, on the battle-field of San Jacinto――the new capital. December, 1838, Houston ends his first term as president; he has conducted the affairs of the new republic with great firmness and wisdom; and living in a two-room log cabin has attired himself in bizarre costume and been a curious mixture of statesman and backwoodsman. In the summer of 1839 he protests vehemently against violations, by Texas, of the treaty with the Cherokees; he is threatened with assassination, for “inciting” the Indians against the whites, but he makes his speech, just the same. May 9, 1840, he marries, at Marion, Alabama, Miss Margaret Moffette Lea. She is a girl of twenty-one, he a man of forty-seven, and her gentle influence over him is his guiding star until his death; he soon ceases drinking and swearing, and now allows his better nature to have full sway. 1840–1841, Houston is representative from Nacogdoches, in the Texas congress. 1841, elected, for the second time, president of the Texas Republic; inaugurated, December 16, at the new capital of Austin. Serves as president until December, 1844. Does not like Austin, and removes the seat of government to Houston, and thence to Washington on the Brazos; but the indignant citizens of Austin retain, by force, the government archives. As president, Houston opposes invasion of Mexico by Texas, vetoes other war measures, and again is threatened with assassination, but treats the threats with contempt. By correspondence with General Jackson, President Tyler, and other statesmen, and by his public addresses, he successfully engineers the annexation of Texas to the United States, although the act was not consummated while he was at the head of the Texas government. In the fall of 1845 he is elected United States senator from the state of Texas. Arrives at Washington to take his seat, March, 1846. While in Congress wears his well-known broad-brimmed white wool hat, and Mexican blanket, whittles industriously at cedar shingles while listening to the debates, and bears prominent part in national affairs. He opposes the extension of slavery in new territories, and is denounced, by the South, as a traitor. He remains a firm advocate of the rights of the Indians. January, 1853, re-elected to congress, from Texas.