Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar
Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar
"The cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy and, while guided and controlled by virtue, the noblest attribute of man. It is the only dictator that freemen acknowledge and the only security that freemen desire." Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar was born on August 16, 1798 in Louisville, Georgia. He became secretary to the governor of Georgia and later moved to Texas, where he fought in the independence struggle against Mexico. He became secretary of war in the provisional government of Texas, then vice president of Texas under Sam Houston. In 1838 Lamar won his own term as president. Lamar is considered the father of public education in Texas because he engineered legislation which lead to free public school in the Republic and formed the basis for public education the constitution of the State of Texas. He died in 1859.