Sam Houston Memorial Museum Blog

Artifact Highlight

Michael Sproat, Curator of Collections

(From our Winter 2018 The Raven Newsletter.)

The Sam Houston Memorial Museum (SHMM) has several canes from Gen. Sam.  I have an affinity toward one cane in particular.  The round handle of this cane has a gold medallion engraved with:

“Alex’r V. Fraser to Gen’l Sam Houston

the hero of San Jacinto who never sacrificed his honor to political expediency.”

Alexander V. Fraser was a forward thinking fellow like Sam, who was an experienced master mariner by the time he joined the Revenue Marine Bureau (RMB), the precursor of today’s U. S. Coast Guard (USCG).  President Andrew Jackson signed his commission as a Second Lieutenant in 1832.   Founded in 1790, the RMB made use of small ships (“cutters”) to collect custom duties in U. S. seaports and prevent smuggling.  In 1836 when Gen. Sam was leading Texas to independence, Fraser was touring the Far East on a merchant ship.  When he returned to the United States and to the newly created RMB in Washington D. C., he was appointed its first Commandant in 1843.  In his biographical entry of the USCG, Fraser is credited with numerous changes and improvements including promotions based on merit, abolishing slaves and alcohol aboard the cutters, and improving the pay and conditions for the enlisted force.  Not all of these improvements were appreciated by his superiors, and he was relieved of his command.  Then, in 1852, he received the position of Captain of New York Harbor.  In this position, he was successful in lobbying Congress to appropriate money for a new type of cutter.  The first steam powered, copper plated revenue cutter was built and named the Harriet Lane.  Once again, he managed to step on the wrong toes, and his USCG biography states, “he was dismissed from the Service in 1856 due to political machinations typical of this period.”

Sam Houston was well versed in political machinations and political expediency on the part of members of the U. S. Congress.  He did not shy away from attacking, both verbally and physically, those whom he perceived to be politically incorrect.  In 1832, Houston publically “caned” Ohio Congressman William Stanbery for what Houston considered defamation of his character by Stanbery on the floor of the U. S. House of Representatives.

It is not known when or where Sam Houston and Alexander Fraser made acquaintance, but they certainly had many opportunities to meet.  Sam Houston served as U. S. Senator in Washington, D. C. from 1846 to 1859. He traveled to Boston and New York to deliver speeches on various topics.  In 1856, the year that Fraser was fired from the NY Harbor due to “political machinations,” Sam Houston was engaged in his own “naval” battle.  In 1855, by an Act of Congress, the Naval Retiring Board met in secret “to promote officers of the Navy,” and also recommended that certain officers be dropped from the navy, others be furloughed, and still others be given an indefinite leave of absence.  The Congressional Globe is filled with pages of Sam Houston’s indignation concerning the injustices of such actions without hearings, which he claimed, “were not in accordance with the principles which our Government recognizes as the only guarantees of judicial fairness and impartiality.”  Perhaps Sam Houston’s verbal beating of the Naval Board reminded Fraser of his employer’s injustice toward him and he chose to honor a kindred spirit.

To learn more about the SHMM and its collection, or to donate toward its preservation, please contact the Museum for specifics, or even better, visit with us and we will be happy to show you the wonderful ways we are preserving the past for the future.