Sam Houston (1793=1863), said this from the floor of the U.S. Senate in June 1850: “I will say, without vaunting, that Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from whatever source it may.”
 
The quotation had been almost never cited until the 2000s, perhaps influenced by the Sam Houston Memorial Museum and the “Notable Quotes” on its website. Texas Governor Rick Perry used the quotation in a political speech in 2009.
 
 
Wikipedia: Sam Houston
Samuel Houston (March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was a 19th century American statesman, politician, and soldier. Born in Timber Ridge, just north of Lexington in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley, Houston was a key figure in the history of Texas, including periods as the first and third President of the Republic of Texas, Senator for Texas after it joined the United States, and finally as governor. Although a slaveowner and opponent of abolitionism, he refused, because of his unionist convictions, to swear loyalty to the Confederacy when Texas seceded from the Union, bringing his governorship to an end. To avoid bloodshed, he refused an offer of an army to put down the rebellion, and instead retired to Huntsville, Texas, where he died before the end of the Civil War.
 
His earlier life included immigration to Tennessee, time spent with the Cherokee Nation (into which he was adopted and later married into), military service in the War of 1812, and subsequent successful involvement in Tennessee politics. Houston is the only person in U.S. history to have been the governor of two different states (although others were governors of multiple American territories).
 
A fight with a Congressman, followed by a high profile trial, led to his emigration to Mexican Texas, where he soon became a leader of the Texas Revolution. He supported annexation by the United States rather than seeking long term independence and expansion for Texas. The city of Houston was named after him during this period. Houston’s reputation survived his death: posthumous commemoration has included a memorial museum, a U.S. Army base, a national forest, a historical park, a university, and the largest free-standing statue of an American figure.
 
The Sam Houston Memorial Museum
Notable Quotes of Sam Houston
(...)
Texas
“Texas will again lift its head and stand among the nations. It ought to do so, for no country upon the globe can compare with it in natural advantages.”
“All new states are invested, more or less, by a class of noisy, second-rate men who are always in favor of rash and extreme measures, but Texas was absolutely overrun by such men.”
“Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.”
       
18 October 1850, Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), pg. 1:
SPEECH OF MR. HOUSTON, OF TEXAS,
In reference to the Military Occupation of Santa Fe, and in defence of Texas and the Texan Volunteers in the Mexican War.
IN THE SENATE, JUNE 29, 1850.
(...)
Sir, the prejudices of the Executive against Texas, to which I referred the other day, are most strikingly made manifest in his message to the Senate relative to the recent proceedings at Santa Fe; yes, sir, and even in her misfortunes, and humiliation as supposed by some, she is taunted by the Executive, and we are told that she will submit to all this. I will say, without vaunting, that Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from whatever source it may. In the recent message of the Executive, after saying that a self-styled agent of Texas, a Mr. Neighbors, had come to Santa Fe for the purpose of arranging matters for Texas, he adds, what I what I can construe as nothing but a taunt, “Meanwhile, I think that there is no reason for seriously apprehending that Texas will practically interfere with the possession of the United States.”
 
Google Books
Life and select literary remains of Sam Houston of Texas
By William Carey Crane
Philadelphia, PA: J.B. Lippincott & Co.
1884
Pg. 381:
WEDNESDAY, July 3, 1850. (Speech in U.S. Senate—ed.)
Pg. 382 (“Historic Right of Texax to Santa Fe”):
Sir, the prejudices of the Executive against Texas, to which I referred the other day, are most strikingly made manifest in his message to the Senate relative to the recent proceedings at Santa Fe; yes, sir, and even in her misfortunes, and humiliation as supposed by some, she is taunted by the Executive, and we are told that she will submit to all this. I will say, without vaunting, that Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from whatever source it (Pg. 383—ed.) may. In the recent message of the Executive, after saying that a self-styled agent of Texas, a Mr. Neighbors, had come to Santa Fe for the purpose of arranging matters for Texas, he adds, what I what I can construe as nothing but a taunt, “Meanwhile, I think that there is no reason for seriously apprehending that Texas will practically interfere with the possession of the United States.”
 
Google Books
1001 Greatest Things Ever Said About Texas
By Donna Ingham
Guilford, CT: Lyons Press
2006
Pg. 180:
Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.
—Sam Houston
 
Google Books
DEFIANCE! A Saga of David Crockett and the Alamo - Third Edition
By James Charles Bouffard
Lulu.com
2008
Pg. 245:
“Texas has yet to learn submission, come from what source it may.”
Sam Houston
(1793-1863)
 
Office of the Governor Rick Perry (Texas)
Gov. Perry Speaks in Support of States’ Rights
Revisits the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
*Note - Gov. Perry frequently departs from prepared remarks.
April 09, 2009
(...)
When Washington interferes with our proven approaches, experience tells us what the outcome will be, and it isn’t pretty.
 
Like the Constitution and the other 26 amendments, the 10th Amendment has been the subject of extended debate, by scholars and lawyers of every sort, but I come down on the side that favors state’s rights over unrestrained federal power.
 
I believe the Constitution does not empower the federal to override state laws without restraint. I agree with Texas’ 7th governor, Sam Houston, who once said, “Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.”
 
We didn’t like oppression then and we certainly don’t like it now.
 
Rick vs. Kay
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Rick in Ft. Worth… “Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression”
(A blog on the Republican primary for Texas governor—ed.)