Lamar, Mirabeau Buonaparte [key], 1798–1859, president of the Texas republic (1838–41), b. Warren co., Ga. He went to Texas (1835), joined the revolutionaries, and took part in the battle of San Jacinto (1836). He held a number of offices in Texas before becoming president. During his term he secured foreign recognition of Texas independence and laid the basis for the system of public education in Texas. Lamar did not favor annexation to the United States at this time and planned to make the new republic self-sufficient, but his various ventures (including filibustering expeditions to New Mexico) disarranged the republic's finances. In 1841 he was replaced by Sam Houston. Lamar later came to favor annexation, served in the Mexican War, and was U.S. minister to Nicaragua and Costa Rica (1858–59). He published a number of romantic lyrics in Verse Memorials (1857).
See biographies by H. P. Gambrell (1934) and P. Graham (1938).
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