Houston Responds To Charge By Caning Congressman

“Was the late secretary of war removed in consequence of his attempt fraudulently to give to Gov. Houston the contract for the Indian rations?” an Ohio congressman asked on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on March 31, 1832.

Three years had come and gone since Sam Houston resigned as governor of Tennessee following the scandalous breakup of his marriage to a teenaged debutante. During his self-imposed exile among the Cherokees, he lobbied for a contract to feed numerous tribes on their western relocation under the Indian Removal Act. But the potentially profitable plan hit a snag, when war secretary John Eaton froze the bids.

Houston happened to be in the nation