Charles
DeMorse:
Pioneer
Editor
and
Statestman.
By Ernest
Wallace. Lubbock (Texas Tech Press), 1943. Pp. v+27l.
$3.00.
Charles DeMorse was born in Massachusetts, January 31,
1816, and died at Clarksville, Texas, October 25, 1887. Pro-
fessor Wallace expresses in his preface a just characterization
of DeMorse's public service. "No one service of DeMorse," he
says, "has great magnitude, but the myriad of services which
he performed should place him among those whose life's records,
so closely interwoven with that of the history of Texas, should
be preserved."
DeMorse arrived in Texas somewhat casually on March 2,
1836, and a few days later was made lieutenant of marines on
the schooner Independence.
His ship carried President Burnet
from Galveston Island to Velasco after the battle of San Jacinto,
and he saw there the excitement aroused by the effort of the
government to return Santa Anna to Mexico in accordance with
the terms of the Treaty of Velasco. In July, 1836, he resigned
from the Navy, joined the army and was appointed a major
by General Rusk. Following Houston's demobilization of the
army in 1837, DeMorse practiced law in Matagorda. He moved
to Austin early in 1839, was appointed to a minor political office
by President Lamar, became reporter of the House of Repre-
sentatives and edited a little newspaper, probably The
Daily
Bulletin.
Members of Congress from northeast Texas urged
him in 1842 to establish a paper in the Red River region and
offered to help him finance it. In response to this somewhat
unusual overture, he established The
Northern
Standard
at
Clarksville and began his life work.
The Standard
was in operation, with some intermissions,
from 1842 until 1887, and DeMorse came to be recognized as
one of the notable editors of his day. He maintained an un-
usually good news service, and many of his editorials were sum-
marized or quoted by Niles'
Register,
the national weekly of
its day.
ters of the relation of the Standard to annexation, the Mexican
War, the development of Secession, the Civil War, reconstruc-
tion, the formation of the constitution of 1876, and the ques-
tionable land policy inaugurated by Governor O. M. Roberts in
1879. Naturally, DeMorse favored annexation and supported
the Mexican War, which he regarded as a heaven-sent occasion
for paying the Texan score against the Mexicans. He was a
mild Unionist and questioned the legality of the method by
which Texas was united with the Confederacy, agreeing with
Sam Houston that the Secession Convention had no authority
to join the Confederate States without a referendum to the
people. Nevertheless, he organized a regiment and led it with
distinction during the last three years of the war. It was from
1865 until his death that DeMorse earned the right to be
deemed a statesman. His attitude toward reconstruction was
moderate and sound. He was one of the most influential mem-
bers of the Convention of 1875, which restored home rule to
the State. He suspended the Standard when he went to Austin
to serve in the convention and retired to his farm after the con-
vention was over. He revived his paper in 1879, however, to
oppose the policy inaugurated by Governor Roberts of selling
public lands to large holders at fifty cents an acre. He be-
lieved the policy detrimental to the agricultural development
of the west and contrary to the interests of public education.
He was successful in his campaign to reverse the policy and
served under Governor Ireland on the State Land Board to undo
as much as possible of the consequences of the Roberts ad-
ministration.
Though Professor Wallace has acquainted himself with all
the pertinent authorities, his principal source has been the al-
most complete file of the Standard
in The University of Texas
library. He has used these public, objective materials with
critical discrimination and has produced a sound biography
within his limitations. Very little material was available for the
more personal human characteristics of Ms subject. He was
able to acquire a reasonably intimate appreciation of home life
and personality, which he pictures in Chapter I. His book is
a real and permanent contribution to our knowledge of lesser
known characters to whom we owe much of our heritage.
The University of Texas
Eugene C. Barker
How to cite:
"Charles DeMorse", Volume 47, Number 3, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v047/n3/review_DIVL5973.html
[Accessed Tue Dec 2 14:09:47 CST 2008]
