barely
twenty-one. He continued in the army after the war, serving for a time as subagent
for the Cherokee at Jackson's request, until the summer of 1818, when he resigned
on account of some criticism by Calhoun, then Secretary of War. An official investi-
gation, held at his demand, resulted in his exoneration.
Removing to Nashville, he began the study of law, and, being shortly afterward
admitted to the liar, set up in practice at Lebanon. Within five years he was succes-
sively district attorney and adjutant-general and major-general of state troops. In
1823 he was elected to ( '.ingress, serving two terms, at the end of which, in 1827, he
was elected governor of Tennessee by an overwhelming majority, being then thirty-
four years of age. Shortly before this time he had fought and wounded General White
ina duel. In January, L829, he married a young lady residing near Nashville, but
two months later, without a word of explanation to any outsider, he left her, resigned
his governorship ami other official dignities, and left the state forever, to rejoin his
old friends, tin- Cherokee, in the West. For years the reason for this strange conduct
was a secret, and Houston himself always refused to talk of it, but it is now under-
stood to have been due to the fact that his wife admitted to him that she loved
another and had only been induced to marry him by the over-persuasions of her
parents.
From Tennessee he went to Indian Territory, whither a large part of the Cher-
okee had already removed, and once more took up his residence near Chief Jolly,
who was now