Stephen F. Austin, Founding Father of Texan Independence

Stephen F. Austin (November 3, 1793–December 27, 1836) was a lawyer, settler, and administrator who played a key role in the secession of Texas from Mexico. He brought hundreds of U.S. families into Texas on behalf of the Mexican government, which wished to populate the isolated northern state. Fast Facts: Stephen F. Austin Known For: Key role in the U.S. colonization of Texas and its succession from MexicoBorn: November 3, 1793 in VirginiaParents: Moses Austin and Mary Brown AustinDied: December 27, 1836 in Austin TexasEducation: Bacon Academy, Transylvania UniversitySpouse: NoneChildren: None At first, Austin was a diligent agent for Mexico, but later he became a fierce fighter for Texas independence and is today remembered in Texas as one of the most important founding fathers of the state. Early  Life Stephen Fuller Austin was born in Virginia on November 3, 1793, the third child and first of two sons of Moses Austin and Mary Brown. Moses was a businessman and lead mine owner, and he began his working life in Philadelphia, where he met in 1784 and married Mary Brown, known as Maria. Moses ran a mercantile business in Richmond, Virginia with his brother Stephen. Moses and Marys first daughter Anna Maria was born and died in Richmond in 1787. In 1788, Moses and Stephen and their families moved to Wythe County, Virginia to own and operate a lead mine. In a settlement which would become known as Austinville, Moses and Mary had Eliza (1790–1790), Stephen (1793–1836), and Emily (1795–1851). In 1796, Moses Austin traveled to the Spanish colony of St. Louis on the Mississippi River now in eastern Missouri, where he finagled permission from the commandant to search for a new lead mine near Ste. Genevieve. He moved his family to Ste. Genevieve in 1798, where the last Austin sibling, James Elijah Brown, was born (1803–1829). Education In 1804, Stephen, age 11, was sent off by himself to Connecticut, where relatives found him a good school to attend: the Bacon Academy in Colchester, where he studied English grammar and writing, logic, rhetoric, geometry, geography, and a little Latin and Greek. He graduated in 1807 and was then sent to Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he studied math, geography, and astronomy. He then in 1810 with a certificate. Stephen arrived back in Ste. Genevieve in 1810, where his father put him in a prominent role in the mercantile business. For the next several years, Stephen Austins informal education included time spent in New Orleans with a shipment of lead during the War of 1812, as a militiaman harassing Native Americans in what is today central Illinois, and taking over the lead mine when his father grew too ill to continue. In New Orleans, he contracted malaria, which he never fully recovered from. And, in 1815, Stephen Austin ran for a seat in what was now the Missouri territorial legislature, taking his position in the lower House in December. Moses Austin eventually lost his fortune in lead mining and traveled westward to Texas, where the elder Austin fell in love with the ruggedly beautiful lands of Texas and secured permission from Spanish authorities—Mexico was not yet independent—to bring a group of settlers there. Moses fell ill and died in 1821: His final wish was that Stephen complete his settlement project. Settlement of Texas Stephen Austin’s planned settlement of Texas hit many snags between 1821 and 1830, not the least of which was the fact that Mexico achieved independence in 1821, meaning he had to re-negotiate his father’s grant. Emperor Iturbide of Mexico came and went, leading to further confusion. Attacks by Native American tribes such as the Comanche were a constant problem, and Austin very nearly went broke meeting his obligations. Still, he persevered, and by 1830 he was in charge of a thriving colony of settlers, nearly all of whom had accepted Mexican citizenship and converted to Roman Catholicism. Although Austin remained staunchly pro-Mexican, Texas itself was becoming more and more American in nature. By 1830 or so, mostly Anglo-American settlers outnumbered Mexicans in the Texas territory by almost 10 to 1. The rich land drew not only legitimate settlers, such as those in Austin’s colony, but also squatters and other unauthorized settlers who simply moved in, selected some land, and set up a homestead. Austin’s colony was the most important settlement, however, and the families there had begun raising cotton, mules, and other goods for export, much of which went through New Orleans. These differences and others convinced many that Texas should leave Mexico and become part of the U.S. or independent. The Trip to Mexico City In 1833 Austin went to Mexico City to clear up some business with the Mexican Federal government. He was bringing new demands from the Texas settlers, including separation from Coahuila (Texas and Coahuila were one state at the time) and reduced taxes. Meanwhile, he sent letters home hoping to placate those Texans who favored outright separation from Mexico. Some of Austin’s letters home, including some telling Texans to go ahead and begin to declare statehood before the approval of the federal government, made their way to officials in Mexico City. While returning to Texas, Austin was arrested, brought back to Mexico City, and thrown into jail. Austin was in jail in Mexico City for a year and a half: he was never tried or even formally charged with anything. It is perhaps ironic that the Mexicans jailed one Texan who was at least initially inclined to keep Texas part of Mexico. As it was, Austin’s jailing probably sealed Texas’ fate. Released in August of 1835, Austin returned to Texas a changed man. His loyalty to Mexico had been ground out of him in prison, and he realized now that Mexico would never grant the rights his people desired. Also, by the time he returned in late 1835, it was clear that Texas was on a path destined for conflict with Mexico and that it was too late for a peaceful solution. When push came to shove, Austin would choose Texas over Mexico. The Texas Revolution Not long after Austins return, Texas rebels fired on Mexican soldiers in the town of Gonzales: the Battle of Gonzales, as it came to be known, marked the beginning of the military phase of the Texas Revolution. Not long after, Austin was named commander of all Texan military forces. Along with Jim Bowie and James Fannin, he marched on San Antonio, where Bowie and Fannin won the Battle of Concepcià ³n. Austin returned to the town of San Felipe, where delegates from all over Texas were meeting to determine its fate. At the convention, Austin was replaced as military commander by Sam Houston. Even Austin, whose health was still frail after 1812 bout with malaria, was in favor of the change: His brief stint as General had proven decisively that he was no military man. Instead, he was given a job much better suited to his abilities. He would be the Texas envoy to the United States, where he would seek official recognition if Texas declared independence, purchase and send weapons, encourage volunteers to take up arms and head to Texas, and see to other important tasks. Return to Texas Austin made his way to Washington, stopping along the way at key cities such as New Orleans and Memphis, where he gave speeches, encouraged volunteers to go to Texas, secured loans (usually to be repaid in Texas land after independence), and met with officials. He was a big hit and always drew a large crowd. Texas effectively gained independence on April 21, 1836, at the Battle of San Jacinto,  and Austin returned not long after. Death He lost the election to be the first president of the Republic of Texas to Sam Houston, who appointed him Secretary of State. Austin fell ill of pneumonia and died on December 27, 1836. Legacy Austin was a hardworking, honorable man caught up in times of sweeping change and chaos. He was a skillful colony administrator, a canny diplomat, and a diligent lawyer. The only thing he tried that he did not excel at was war. After leading the Texas army to San Antonio, he quickly and happily turned command over to Sam Houston, who was much more suited to the job. Austin was only 43 when he died: the young Republic of Texas could have used his guidance in the years of war and uncertainty that followed its independence. It is a little misleading that Austins name is usually associated with the Texas Revolution. Up until 1835, Austin was the leading proponent of working things out with Mexico, and at that time his was the most influential voice in Texas. Austin remained loyal to Mexico long after most men in Texas were rebelling. Only after a year and a half in jail and a first-hand look at the anarchy in Mexico City did he decide that Texas must set out on its own. Once he made the decision, he threw himself wholeheartedly into revolution. The people of Texas consider Austin one of their greatest heroes. The city of Austin is named after him, as are countless streets, parks, and schools, including Austin College and Stephen F. Austin State University. Sources: Brands, H.W. Lone Star Nation: The Epic Story of the Battle for Texas Independence.New York: Anchor Books, 2004.Cantrell, Gregg. Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1999.Henderson, Timothy J. A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and its War with the United StatesNew York: Hill and Wang, 2007.

Financial Literacy Is The Key For Managing Money - 895 Words

Financial Literacy is the key to Managing Money. Financial literacy is much more than learning of how to count your money when purchasing a gallon of milk at the liquor store. Financial literacy at times is mistaken for Economics, and it’s easy to understand why. Yet, financial literacy is the understanding of how money functions in this world, how to properly manage it, how one would properly invest their money, and how to donate your money to help others. Sounds like a perfect curriculum to teach students? Yet, politicians, teachers, and school officials hardly take it serious in this day of time. Many schools lack the resources and curriculum to actually teach the students about financial literacy. Therefore, politicians should vote in enforcing the Department of Education to teach financial literacy to students in junior high and high school. The lack of financial literacy skills has affected many students in the American public school system. Researchers at University of Nebraska studied how students score on a standardized personal finance test. The results generated in this studied showed 6,700 U.S. high school students scored an average of 52 percent on this test. But, this was not the worst thing found in the study by the researchers at University of Nebraska. The worst thing found was a gender gap in the results of this personalized finance test. With boys scoring more than girls in 20 of 23 subjects in the test. Subjects areas in this personalized financeShow MoreRelatedTen Key Lessons From The Famous Book Rich Dad Poor Dad Essay1593 Words   |  7 PagesTen Key Lessons From The Famous Book Rich Dad Poor Dad. Lesson one; those who are rich don’t work for money Robert Kiyosaki, the author explains that there is a very big difference between those who work for money and those who let money work for them. He explains that the poor and the middle class work for money in order to satisfy their needs. 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What Can Indivuduals Do to Help Protect Environment and Why Free Essays

Environment Tables of Contents: Introduction: The environment is defined as all the elements (biotic or abiotic) that surround an individual or species, some of which directly contribute to support herself one, or as all natural conditions (physical, chemical, biological) and cultural (sociological) can act on living organisms and human activities. The twenty-first century, environmental protection has become a major issue, along with the idea of necessary degradation of both global and local, because of human pollution. The preservation of the environment is one of the three pillars of sustainable development. We will write a custom essay sample on What Can Indivuduals Do to Help Protect Environment and Why? or any similar topic only for you Order Now It is also the seventh of the eight Millennium Development, considered by the UN as â€Å"crucial to the success of the other objectives outlined in the Declaration of the Millennium Summit†. Protecting the environment is preserved and the future survival of humanity. Indeed, the environment is our source of food and drinking water. Air is our source of oxygen. The climate allows our survival. And biodiversity is a potential reservoir of drug. Preserving the environment is a matter of survival. In fact in this report we will talk about why protect the environment is important and secondly we will see how we can help to protect the environment. Protect the environment, why is it important? Protecting the environment is important for our lives, for a healthy lifestyle but also to the development of the species because there is still much to discover. That is why the protection of the environment is important, now, we will see now through food, air climate and other points of how the protect the environment is essential. * Everything we eat and drink comes from nature. Or any pollution ends up one day in our food: in the water we drink or what we eat. And these pollutants can cause us to develop diseases or malformations. Protect our food source is to preserve the survival and therefore the future of humanity. * The air is absolutely essential to our survival. We cannot survive more than a few minutes without breathing. The air brings oxygen fuel cells. But breathing, we do not inhale that of oxygen. We absorb a lot of other things. With each breath, we inhale gases and particles that are in the atmosphere. Some of these gases and particles are harmful to our bodies. With each inspiration, we take a bit of poison. Breathing then puts our health at risk and makes us sick. While breathing should only be keep us alive. Protecting air quality is the health and therefore the future of humanity. * Our societies have ways of life adapted to current climate. If the climate changes, our societies will not fit there. Some regions will suffer serious disorders. According to the parts of the world, there will be a rise in the water, droughts, and floods repeated, severe storms†¦ These disasters will flee or decimate populations. People will have to move or change their lifestyle. Conflicts break out to live in areas spared. Flora and fauna will evolve with the changing climate. Some plants will no longer be appropriate. Local agriculture will be affected. Parasites will spread to new areas, spreading disease to humans, plants and animals. We are already beginning to see that the overall temperature of the Earth increases. And this change is extremely fast. Nature will not have time to adapt. The current balance is upset. Careful not to damage the environment is to preserve the delicate balance of the Earth and therefore the future of humanity. * Biodiversity is the variety of plant and animal species in nature. All these species must be respected and preserved. But all these species are also necessary for the survival and future of man. Plants and animals can contribute to our health. For it is among the wildlife, sometimes unknown, that man has yet discovered or discovers drugs. These are also the wildlife that can help our agriculture. They can help improve performance and disease resistance of our plantations or our farms. Nature is a source of future discoveries and solutions to our problems. It would be suicidal to destroy all that before they could benefit. Preserving biodiversity is to save a tank of future solutions to our problems. That safeguards the future of humanity. What can individuals do to help protect environment? Become more environmentally friendly is not as difficult as we might think. There are small things we can do every day to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and our negative impact on the environment. Every action and every thought, action is environmentally friendly. Caring for the Earth is a responsibility, a privilege or a treat of citizens! Elements to return to the Developer in the previous section, we will see how man can help the environment. * For the food: we must therefore ensure that nature produces a water and healthy food in sufficient quantity. For this, we must avoid polluting the soil and seas. * For the air: we should not carelessly dismiss or distribution of chemicals in excess. We must be careful not to pollute our atmosphere. * For the climate: we must not reject it harmful gases or particles dangerous to life. We have to limit our impact on climate by reducing our emissions of greenhouse gas emissions. For our air emissions accentuate the natural greenhouse effect that contributes to heat our planet. For this, we must ensure in particular to limit our energy consumption. For the biodiversity: we must prevent the destruction of natural areas. We need to protect endangered species. There are also others simples way to preserve our environment. We can help reduce pollution just by putting our plastic bottles in a different tray. If we hesitate about the choice between two products, it is preferable to one with less packaging. Considering a building with 7000 employees that recycle all their waste paper for a year, this represents the equivalent of 400 cars off the roads. A simple motto: â€Å"The best waste is that it did not produce†¦ Turn off the lights behind us, turn off the computer (and monitor) when we do not have the utility, TV also, use compact fluorescent bulbs or LED the best rather than traditional bulbs. The standby power consumption (stand-by) devices using a current transformer (television, computer, halogen lamps) are not negligible and a power strip with switch can completely disconnect the devices when they are not used. Simple gestures, but very effective on our power consumption. The dryer (dryer) is not always essential. Enjoy the summer heat and high winds of autumn to dry our clothes (the sun is also the best stain remover and bleach for clothes! ). It is good not to let the water run all the time while we brush our teeth. If we have a toilet that continuously allowed flowing a little water, it may be several tens of litters of water per day. The use of modern toilets (or toilet bio litter) provides, without odor, water savings even greater and provides rewarding compost our waste. Conclusion: In fact, to leave for our children tomorrow, a world livable, breathable and clean, we must start early with them to make them understand. Do not throw paper wanders by, turning off lights, do not waste water. All this in 3 / 4 years children understand! And then, ourselves, have more responsible attitudes and do not always rely on others to make savings (gas and transportation, sorting, paper everywhere. Every detail is important, and drop-by-drop, we come to a Wed. References: (Reynaud, 2011), Sustainable development in the heart of the company (Managment, 2011), Management, Environmental (Milton, 2011), The environment site (Smouts, 2011), Sustainable Development (Baddache, 2011), Sustainable development on a daily basis How to cite What Can Indivuduals Do to Help Protect Environment and Why?, Essay examples

Company Law for Journal of Business Ethics- myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theCompany Law for Journal of Business Ethics. Answer: Issue Sambal Pty Ltd has a company constitution which limits its debt liability to $10 million. The directors of the company already have an outstanding loan of $10 million from a bank and it takes a further loan of $2 million from a bank (ABC bank). This loan received director sanction and the approval of the board. The company now denies the validity of the loan as it was beyond the powers conferred under the constitution of the company. The issue here is to determine if the loan would be deemed to be valid and if the company would be compelled to repay the loan with interest. Rule Corporations functioning within the jurisdiction of Australia are governed by the provisions of the Corporations Act, 2001 though common law duties developed though judicial pronouncements (Lee Fargher, 2013). The Corporations Act, 2001 at Section 125 states that the constitution of a company may limit its powers by setting certain restrictions and defining the objects of the company. A companys constitution regulates its everyday functioning and sets rules for the interaction between individuals of the company and interactions of the company with third-parties. Section 125 (1) of the act sets out that use of power by a company cannot be deemed invalid solely because it contravenes the regulations of the companys constitution (Ferran Ho, 2014). Furthermore, Section 125 (2) of the act lays down that an act beyond the defined objects of the company would not be deemed invalid solely because it contravenes the objects of the act. Application In the given set of circumstances the company Sambal Pty Ltd has a constitution which restricted its debt limit to $10 million. The loan for $2 million taken from ABC bank was sanctioned by two directors and approved by the board and thus in taking the loan the company was exercising its lawfully valid powers. Thus, in exercising their powers by sanctioning the loan for $2 million the company was acting beyond the restriction limit prescribed by the constitution of the company. Following the provisions of Section 125 (1) of the Corporations Act, 2001 it may be inferred that the loan sanctioned by the company would not be invalid merely because it went beyond the powers conferred by the constitution of the company. Conclusion Thus, Sambal Pty Ltd would not be entitled to claim that the loan was invalid merely because the loan contravenes the constitution of the company. ABC bank would have the option of recovering the loan with interest as the loan was a valid contract following the provisions of Section 125 of the Act. Reference List: Ferran, E., Ho, L. C. (2014).Principles of corporate finance law. Oxford University Press. Lee, G., Fargher, N. (2013). Companies use of whistle-blowing to detect fraud: An examination of corporate whistle-blowing policies.Journal of business ethics,114(2), 283-295.