The following excerpts from Harper’s New Monthly Magazine illustrate the enduring, bitter wit that characterized the relationship between Sam Houston and Louis T. Wigfall, even after both men had left the national stage.
The anecdotes of Ex-President Houston... remind a correspondent of a scene that occurred in the city of Houston in the summer of 1861. “I was wending my way,” says he, “from the Old Capitol down Main Street, when I learned that ‘Old Sam’ had just come up from his plantation at the mouth of Cedar Bayou, and stopped at the Fannin House. Never having seen him, I went there. He was seated on the veranda, surrounded by a crowd who were listening eagerly to all he said. As I came up, someone asked, ‘Well, Governor, what do you think of Wigfall?’ (then a Senator in the Confederate Congress, and Brigadier-General commanding the First Texas Brigade in Virginia, and very popular with Texans, notwithstanding the enmity between him and Houston.) ‘Wigfall,’ said Old Sam, ‘why, Wigfall has always been a good deal of a puppy, and if he continues on in his present course, he will eventually become a good deal of a dog!’”
On the election of Mr. Wigfall to represent Texas in the United States Senate, Governor Houston was asked, in allusion to the excessively intemperate habits of the Senator-elect, whether he thought Wigfall would be able to make his way to Washington.
“I think he rather will,” replied Governor Houston, “if he avoids Cincinnati.”
“What do you mean, Governor, by avoiding Cincinnati?”
“Why, Sir, the strychnine in the whiskey there will kill any dog!”
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