David G. Burnet

George Washington is revered by Americans as "the Father of our Country," the first president. But the first president of the Republic of Texas cannot claim any similar legacy. David G. Burnet, who served as president of the republic during the war for independence, is instead often overshadowed by his contemporaries Sam Houston and Mirabeau B. Lamar. Burnet is a wonderful example of why being first does not always guarantee the admiration of future generations.

David Gouverneur Burnet was born in Newark, New Jersey on April 14, 1788, to William Burnet and Gertrude Gouverneur Rutgers Burnet. Both his father, a distinguished surgeon and member of the Continental Congress, and his mother died when he was quite young, and David was reared by older siblings in Cincinnati. After an education financed by a successful brother, he spend a decade trying but failing to distinguish himself as a lawyer and adventurer in Ohio and Louisiana.

In 1826 Burnet came to Texas after receiving an empresario grant to settle 300 families near Nacogdoches. Lacking the financial means to attract colonists, he soon sold his contract to the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company and moved south. Arriving in Galveston Bay in April of 1830, he built a sawmill and a home on the San Jacinto River and became involved in local politics.

Burnet does not fit the popular image of a Texas revolutionary hero. He opposed independence in 1835. Because of this position, he was not selected to serve as a delegate to the Consultation or to the Convention of 1836. In fact, only because the delegates to the latter demurred at selecting one of their own as president of the newly declared independent republic was Burnet drafted for the office. On March 17, 1836, David G. Burnet thus became the first president of the Republic of Texas.

His service was not characterized by statesmanship nor by heroism. In a term of office that lasted until October 22, 1836, Burnet managed to alienate his military officers-including Sam Houston, at whom he railed to stand and fight during the Runaway Scrape-his fellow political leaders, and the general public. Only Mirabeau B. Lamar, whose distaste for Houston mirrored that of Burnet, supported his continued political ambitions after his presidency ended.

Lamar's support, however, was not enough to keep Texans from turning away from Burnet. He could not attract legal clients, feared for his life among his neighbors, and eventually turned to subsistence farming to support his wife, Hannah, and their children. In 1838 he returned to politics, running for and winning the vice presidency of the republic as a supporter of the victorious presidential candidate, Lamar. Burnet's election as vice president, like his prior term as chief executive, certainly did not reflect any latent respect or political affinity among Texans; rather, it too was an accident of timing and constitutional prohibitions against reelection.

In 1841, when Lamar too was precluded from seeking a second term, Burnet announced his candidacy for the presidency of Texas. His opponent, however, was Sam Houston, reviled by Burnet but remembered by most as the Hero of San Jacinto. Burnet's defeat was preordained, and he again retired to his farm near Galveston. He died there, broke and largely ignored, on December 5, 1870.

David G. Burnet is buried in Lakewood Cemetery in Galveston. To get there, take I-45 to the island, then 61st Street south toward Seawall Blvd. to Avenue T1/2, then east 1 1/2 blocks to the cemetery on the corner of T 1/2 and 57th St.

For more information about David G. Burnet, see the New Handbook of Texas. To learn more about East Texas history, contact the East Texas Historical Association at Stephen F. Austin State University or visit the ETHA web site at http://leonardo.sfasu.edu/etha/.