Without any doubts, character plays a significant role in the life of any person. Character is something that is closely connected to reputation and conscience. When a person carefully listens to his/her conscience, he/she can form own character, taking into consideration personal preferences.
In this case, reputation serves as the significant outcome of character and comprehension of personal conscience. There are so many characters in the world history, who may prove that character is crucially important in this life, and any person should be ready to use his/her potential to achieve the desired goals. Lots of presidents, politicians, and diplomats were eager to demonstrate their characters and admit that fact that their presence in our history is justified.
Sam Houston was one of such personalities, whose characters meant a lot for their future career and determined the place in our history. This controversial character was balancing somewhere between good and evil: some people still believe that Houston was one of the most terrible figures in American history, and lots of people cannot but admire his power and courage to provide the country with the necessary growth and be ready to cope with numerous difficulties, created by this life.
Samuel Houston was an American politician and statesman, who lived at the beginning of the 19th century. He was known due to his belligerent and egocentric character. However, he was the only person who had positive results in conversations with Cherokee Nation; although he expended much energy to argue these people and change their mind as for Tawakoni Indians in Texas. (Campbell, 25).
It is also necessary to admit that this person is the only one who was the governor of two different states, and the ambassador of the Cherokee Nation. Such achievements in the political career cannot be inherent to a person, who does not have character; this is why we can certainly admit that Samuel Houston, a statesman, who even gave his name to a city, was a person of character, that very character, which was obligatory to political figures.
It is necessary to admit that Sam Houston was not characterized by good actions only. His not fair deals with his conscience, immoral acts, and anti-ethical preferences – all these were Houston’s bad characteristics, which have to be mentioned as well. These very points do not allow to admit that Houston’s character was brilliant and had positive consequences only. However, a Democratic society, Houston lived in, was not that easy to comprehend.
People had to take into account certain limitations in leadership, comprehend and analyze their possibilities. Houston was a man, who was not afraid to use other people to achieve his goals: “professional duelist from Missouri” (Campbell 14) served as an excellent example of Houston’s abilities to count and clear up whether it was possible to achieve the positive results using fewer powers and efforts. Of course, such use of people may add several bad traits to Houston’s character, but, we should remember that we deal with the sphere of politics and government, and it was crucially important to be a strong personality to use but not to be used.
It is a matter of great satisfaction to me to hope that my children will be in the circumstances to receive a good education. Mine was defective, and I feel the inconvenience, if not the misfortune of not receiving a classical education. Knowledge is the food of genius, and my son let no opportunity to escape you to treasure up experience. (Houston).
These words by Houston proved once again that he was careful to any detail in his life. Knowledge opens the doors to many secrets of this life, and Houston made an emphasis on this fact to provide his generation with proper education and abilities to improve their knowledge about the world and lead it.
Without any doubts, the strong character was one of the brightest features of Sam Houston. But still, lots of historians and people, who fond of the activities of this politician believe that he could become a much better leader if he had better character and concentrated on positive sides of his character: the power of his will, self-respect, passion to current events and their analysis. It is not that easy to formulate what characteristics any political leader should possess.
However, Houston was the only person, who was a governor of two different states and had some foreign lands. Was he a person of character? Of course, he was. Even if he had to break some rules from time to time and forget about moral norms, all this is nothing in comparison to the achievements, which characterized this figure. The world, and America, in particular, grew considerably under the rule of Sam Houston. And the fact that know we are discussing this personality proves once again that he was a strong person of character, who was ready to fight and demonstrate his intentions to improve this world.
Works Cited
Campbell, Randolph, B. Sam Houston, and the American Southwest. Logman, 2001.
Sam Houston “The Raven.” (2004, Feb.) Lone Star Internet. Retrieved from http://www.lone-star.net/mall/texasinfo/shouston.htm