The founding of Austin sparked one of the first great political battles in the Republic of Texas, pitting two Texas titans against each other: Mirabeau Lamar, who within the space of a year rose from army private to Texas vice president of Texas, and Sam Houston, the hero of San Jacinto and a man both loved and hated throughout the Republic. The shy, soft-spoken, self-righteous Lamar dreamed of a great imperial capital city in the wilderness-but to achieve it faced the hardships of the frontier, the mighty Comanche nation, the Mexican army, and the political might of Sam Houston.