On May 23, 1857, during his first Texas gubernatorial race, Sam Houston came to Marshall, the hometown of two of his most outspoken critics, Robert Loughery and Louis T. Wigfall, for a much anticipated debate against his opponent Hardin Runnels. Here under an oak tree, in an overwhelmingly secessionist area, the Unionist Houston spoke so eloquently that Runnels, who was scheduled to follow, declined to speak. Though he lost the election, Houston's stirring oratory brought him forty-eight percent of the Harrison County vote.