Romantic in nature, classically educated, and possessed of what a friend called "a gentle playfulness," Mirabeau B. Lamar stood out from the crowd of early Texas frontiersmen. His term of office was marked by ambitious schemes that ended in failure, but he left a lasting legacy as the "Father of Texas Education."

Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar was the second son of a prominent Georgia planter. His unusual name was chosen by his uncle, who bestowed on other sons in the family names such as Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus and Jefferson Jackson.

As a boy, Lamar enjoyed the privileges of his place in Georgia society. He received a classical education. Although too short and stocky to cut a rugged figure, he was athletic and excelled at riding and fencing.

Lamar was also sensitive and artistic. He painted in oils and expressed himself in verse. He continued to write poetry all his life.

Mirabeau Lamar tried several careers as a young man. He moved to the Alabama frontier and was a partner in both a general store and a newspaper. But this creative and intellectually curious young man soon found himself bored with life in the backwoods. Looking for something more exciting, he soon found his true calling: politics.

When he was 25, Lamar joined the staff of George M. Troup, the governor of Georgia, and became his secretary. The major issue of Troup's time in office was the fate of the Creek Indians in Georgia. Federal authorities wanted to reserve land in Georgia for the Indians' use, while Troup wanted to eject them. As Troup's aide, Lamar formed strong views that would be critical to his later career. He became passionate on the subject of states' rights, believing that state decisions should not be subject to review by federal authority. Idealistic about democracy, he nonetheless believed civil rights did not apply to blacks or Indians.

In 1826, Lamar married Tabitha Jordan, a frail teenage beauty he had known for several years. They soon started their family with the birth of a daughter, Rebecca Ann. The Lamars moved to Columbus, a new town, where Lamar started a newspaper called the Enquirer. He returned to politics in 1829, winning election to the state Senate.

But there was a shadow in the sunshine. Tabitha had been diagnosed with tuberculosis. Lamar spent much of his time nursing her. In August 1830, she died at the age of 21, leaving behind her husband and Rebecca, not yet three years of age. Grief-stricken, Lamar withdrew from public life for several years, spending his time traveling and writing poetry. He composed two of his best-known poems, "At Evening on the Banks of the Chattahoochee" and "Thou Idol of My Soul" during this period. Young Rebecca was taken in to be raised by an aunt and uncle.

When Lamar was ready to reenter politics, he found Georgia wasn't ready for him. He ran twice for Congress and was defeated. Lamar also had more tragedy to deal with in his personal life. Within the space of a few months, his sister and father died, and his brother Lucius, to whom Mirabeau was especially close, committed suicide. Tired of feeling miserable and defeated, Lamar decided to go to Texas to visit his friend James W. Fannin, an old neighbor who had become a slave trader and agitator for Texas independence. The year was 1835, and the decision would prove to be the most fateful of Lamar's life. He fell in love with Texas and the cause of independence. After his visit, he raced home to settle his affairs so he could move to Texas and make a new start.

Lamar had just returned to Texas, armed with funds from his brothers for investing in Texas lands, when word reached him of the massacres at the Alamo and Goliad, where his friend James Fannin was murdered. Lamar at once enlisted in the Texas army as a private.

In a skirmish with Mexican troops, Lamar saved the lives of secretary of war Thomas J. Rusk and Walter P. Lane, later to become a top military leader. For his courage and quick thinking, and in recognition of his leadership ability, General Houston commissioned Lamar a colonel and placed him in charge of the cavalry. The following day was April 21, 1836. The place was San Jacinto. Lamar's cavalry distinguished themselves that day, and the newcomer to Texas had earned his right to be a Texan.

Ten days later, as a reward for his performance, President Burnet named Lamar secretary of war. Burnet attempted to appoint Lamar as commander of the Texas army. The army was near mutiny, and Burnet thought Lamar was popular enough to bring some order to a dangerous situation. Lamar traveled to Victoria to take command of the troops and soon learned that many of them despised Burnet to such a degree that they would not accept him as commander. Lamar accepted a proposal that the men vote on his generalship. The result was embarrassing: Lamar received just 179 votes out of over 1500 cast.

Lamar withdrew from the job and returned to private life for a few months. He then threw his hat in the ring for the first elections in Texas. He was elected vice-president under Sam Houston, his old commander at San Jacinto. Houston was a strong president with little use for an assistant, and he and Lamar quickly developed a dislike for each other that would ripen into hatred. Lamar spent his time traveling, studying Spanish, and collecting historical memorabilia.

In 1838, Lamar began to build a plantation house in Richmond that he called "The Oak Grove." He was finally settled enough for a visit from his daughter Rebecca, now eleven years old. Besides the reunion, he was gearing up for the biggest political challenge of his life. Lamar decided to run for president as head of the anti-Houston faction.

The campaign was hard fought at first but took a bizarre turn. Lamar's opponent, attorney and diplomat Peter Grayson, had a history of mental illness. Grayson committed suicide during a period of severe depression. The candidate chosen to replace Grayson, chief justice James Collinsworth, fell or jumped from a boat in Galveston after a week-long drinking binge and drowned. The final opponent, Texas Senator Robert Wilson, entered the race with only a few days to go before the election. Lamar won by a huge margin of victory.

Both Lamar's admirers and his critics agreed that he was a visionary. As Lamar took office, Texas was a lawless and bankrupt country whose legitimacy was not even acknowledged by most of the world. Lamar declared that Texas would become a great nation. He was determined that under his leadership, Texas would begin a march towards an empire that would stretch to the Pacific Ocean.

Lamar understood what it would take to lay the foundations for this greatness, though not the timeframe in which it would occur. Lamar called for the establishment of a public school system and a university. He also called for the establishment of clearly defined legal procedures, commercial treaties and a national bank to build the economy, and direct taxation to fund education and defense.

Lamar had devoted much thought to Texas's military and foreign policy. He would no longer seek annexation to the United States. Instead, he would continue to try to win recognition from other countries of Texas's independence.

Most important to Texas survival was winning peace and recognition from Mexico. Lamar pursued diplomacy through the United States and Great Britain and through direct negotiation. The efforts came very near to success. On the eve of recognition, however, a revolution broke out in Mexico and completely derailed all the progress that had been made. Following the collapse of negotiations, Lamar formed an alliance with Mexican rebels in Yucatan.

Upon taking office, Lamar instituted an immediate change in Indian policy. Like most white Texans, Lamar did not accept the idea of coexistence with Indian tribes within Texas. Instead of Sam Houston's policy of negotiation and conciliation, Lamar proposed to drive the Indians out of the areas of white settlement and to aggressively go after the Comanches.

Before his inauguration, Lamar joined some friends on a buffalo hunt near the Colorado River. On this trip, he found a beautiful hilly spot near the river that he thought would make an excellent site for a new capital city. Lamar wanted to make a statement by building his capital in the middle of Texas territory, showing that Texans would expand from the coast and conquer the west.

By June 1839, construction was underway of the new city of Austin. By October, Lamar, the government, and forty ox wagons of papers and furniture journeyed from Houston to take up residence. Standing amidst the collection of log shacks, Lamar proclaimed that the glory of Austin would soon "overshadow the ancient magnificence of Mexico."

Lamar struggled in his efforts to put Texas on a more secure financial footing. Texas had a growing public debt and an almost valueless currency--the Texas redback was worth only twelve cents on the dollar by the end of his administration. Lamar's ambitious spending was part of the problem. To finance his ambitious schemes, he counted on loans from England and France that never came through. During his term of office, the Texas government collected about a million dollars in taxes and spent almost five million.

In June 1841, Lamar made another great leap of faith when he authorized the Santa Fe Expedition. A large group of volunteers would journey to what is now New Mexico to open a trade route and, Lamar hoped, persuade New Mexican leaders to sever their connection with Mexico and join forces with the Republic of Texas. Lamar had some reason to hope the plan would succeed. At the time, the central government in Mexico seemed to be tottering, and the people of Santa Fe were known to be in a rebellious mood. Sadly, the expedition was poorly thought-out and became an unmitigated fiasco. The disaster and its dismal aftermath would taint Lamar's reputation for the rest of his life.

Lamar left office under a cloud. But one aspect of his presidency that was overlooked at the time was to bear fruit many years later. Lamar believed that Texas greatness rested on the establishment of public education. Under Lamar's leadership, Texas began to set aside public lands that could be used as an endowment for an educational system. Nearly worthless at the time, the land would one day fund schools. Smarting under criticism, Lamar returned to his home near Richmond at the end of 1841. He busied himself with defending his reputation, managing his plantation, and collecting historical materials. In 1842, he traveled to Georgia to spend time with his daughter, now 15 years old. Rebecca had inherited the frail health of her mother, and not long after Lamar returned to Texas, he received word from his brother that she had died. Lamar was plunged into grief and depression by this latest loss.

As with earlier losses, Lamar found solace in travel. He had changed his position on annexation and spent some time lobbying for the Texas cause. He also devoted much time to his poetry.

Texas was formally annexed by the United States on February 19, 1846. Mexico objected to the annexation, especially to the U.S. claim to the land between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. Anticipating trouble, the United States stationed General Zachary Taylor and his troops at the mouth of the Rio Grande. In April 1846, Mexico crossed the river on a raid, killing several of Taylor's men. The Mexican War was underway.

Lamar volunteered to serve on the staff of Governor James Pinckney Henderson, who took a leave of absence as governor to personally command troops in the field. Lamar fought in the Battle of Monterrey before being assigned to secure Laredo, 150 miles to the rear of the fighting. Lamar chafed at the inglorious assignment, finding Laredo to be an impoverished backwater, but he administered the town and its small frontier garrison with as much efficiency as he could muster. In 1847, he traveled to Austin to represent Laredo in the Texas House of Representatives.

When the war ended in 1848, Lamar again took up a restless life of almost constant travel. While visiting friends in New Orleans, he met Henrietta Maffitt, a 23-year-old Galveston beauty who was the daughter of a well-known Methodist preacher. Although there was a thirty-year difference in their ages, the two of them fell in love. They were married in February 1851. They spent their early married life in Macon, Georgia, and within a year became the parents of a daughter, Loretto Evaline.

After Loretto's birth, the Lamars moved back to Texas and began to renovate the long-neglected Richmond plantation. Henrietta cultivated flowers, and Loretto grew into a healthy, playful child whom Lamar called his "pretty angel." For perhaps the first time in his life, Mirabeau Lamar was truly happy. He kept busy with his efforts to collect and preserve the papers of early Texas, engaged in a voluminous correspondence, and became involved with efforts to promote the economic development of the southern states. Perhaps his proudest achievement came in 1857 with the publication of Verse Memorials, a collection of his poetry. But Lamar's happiness came at a price. He eventually realized that he needed an income to sustain his family's genteel lifestyle.

Working through friends, Lamar was appointed United States minister to Nicaragua and Costa Rica, a post he held for twenty months while Henrietta stayed in Texas and managed the plantation. The position was well paid but extremely challenging. In 1855, a group of American filibusters led by William Walker had invaded Nicaragua and taken over the country. They legalized slavery, made English the official language, and terrorized the Nicaraguan people. Walker was finally expelled, but the people of Central America were extremely bitter against the United States as a result of the Walker affair.

President Buchanan charged Lamar with the duty of negotiating a treaty with Nicaragua to operate a trade route across the isthmus. He quickly made friends among the ruling elite in both Nicaragua and Costa Rica but was unable to secure approval of the treaty. Eventually, France won the opportunity for the trade route. Weary and feeling himself in ill health, Lamar returned home to Texas. He brought a parrot and a monkey home with him, to the delight of seven-year-old Loretto.

Two months after returning to Richmond, on December 19, 1859, Mirabeau B.Lamar suffered a massive heart attack and died at the age of 61.