Memoirs, with Special Reference to Secession and the Civil War . By John H. Reagan , LL. D. Edited by Walter Flavius McCaleb, Ph. D., with introduction by Professor George P. Garrison. (New York and Washington: The Neale Publishing Company. 1906. Pp. 351.)

Not only Texans, but students of American history everywhere have welcomed the appearance of these “Memoirs” of a life of nearly sixty years of distinguished public service. Judge Reagan was a man of remarkable abilities, and his opportunities for interesting experiences and for first-hand historical information of the period covered by his life had been greater than those of almost any of his surviving contemporaries.

The first fourth of the book is taken up with an account of the author's early struggles with poverty, his journey from Tennessee to Texas in 1839, at the age of twenty-one, and his experiences as surveyor, lawyer, legislator, and congressman in the new country. The greater part of the rest is devoted to matters relating to the Civil War. This is, perhaps, as it should be, for, though his services since that time have been many and important, the fact that he was the last surviving member of the cabinet of Jefferson Davis, and had been in close personal relations with all the prominent Confederate leaders, most of whom he survived, invested what he had to say with more than ordinary interest and value.

The most noteworthy features of this part of the book are Judge Reagan's unswerving adherence to the principles of the political faith in which he was reared;—one can not consistently object to the insertion of a historical survey of the constitutional basis of the South's position,—his devotion to the memory of his chief, Jefferson Davis; and his able defense of the Confederate President on the one hand against those who charged him with cruelty or arbitrariness, and on the other those who, like Joseph E. Johnston or Alexander Stephens, have criticised the policies he pursued. To the Hampton Roads Conference he devotes particular attention and pretty clearly vindicates Davis from the charge of wantonly continuing the war. His account of the organization of the postoffice department of the Confederacy is one of the most interesting chapters in the entire book, and describes in brief compass the remarkably successful accomplishment of one of the most difficult tasks of that sorely beset government. It was a work of which he could be justly proud, and one can not but sympathetically agree that “there is much in these reports” [of the department] “to suggest economy in the Postoffice Department of the United States.” The account of the fall of Richmond and the flight of the Confederate government until the capture of Davis and his escort reflects admirably the gloom of that depressing period.

If there were no other monument to the statesmanlike foresight of Reagan, his famous Fort Warren letter, written from his prison cell in August, 1866, would be sufficient evidence of his ability, courage, and patriotism. No student of Reconstruction history can doubt that if his advice to Texas and the South to recognize at once the abolition of slavery, equality of civil rights for both races, and an equally qualified manhood suffrage had been followed, the worst of the evils of the radical régime in the South would have been averted and the race question presented to the succeeding generation in a simpler form. Though attacked and abused for this letter with all the bitterness of an excited and apprehensive people, the author of it lived to see its prediction sadly verified.

The forty years since the war are passed over very briefly. Reconstruction is disposed of in four or five pages, and the later services of the author in Congress and as head of the Texas Railroad Commission are treated with a modest brevity. It is evident that his heart and his memory during the last days of his life were chiefly in the stirring scenes of the past.

When the subject matter of a book of this sort is so interesting, criticism of the form and style seem a piece of supererogation. Rugged and direct rather than smooth or easy, it is nevertheless clear, and leaves an impression of strength and sincerity of conviction. We may easily pardon the numerous digressions, many of them unchronological, because of the interesting anecdotes and sidelights on prominent characters therein contained. But as one lays down the book, there is a painful feeling that much has been sacrificed to brevity,—the body of the narrative comprises only two hundred and fifty-two pages, including many excerpts from letters and speeches,—and that the author for some reason has neglected to give or refrained from giving much valuable information of the sort that was available from no other source.

The last hundred pages of the book are devoted to a series of appendices, comprising reprints of the most important speeches and letters of Judge Reagan from 1861 to 1891. The editing seems to have been well done throughout, and the work is remarkably free from typographical errors.

C. W. R.

How to cite:
"Memoirs, with Special Reference to Secession and the Civil War", Volume 011, Number 1, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 73 - 75. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v011/n1/review_104.html
[Accessed Thu Dec 4 17:20:59 CST 2008]