The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 53, July 1949 - April, 1950 Page: 227
538 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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A Renaissance Gentleman in Texas
rare sense of humor indispensable to the wife of a book-collector.
Their only son, Swante, died in early youth.
The decade preceding the Civil War found Palm sharing his
nephew's prosperity. Swenson had become one of the leading
businessmen in the Southwest. On his own account Palm had
made a modest financial reputation-based, it is true, on his skill
in arithmetic and his probity more than on his profits. Between
186o and 1865 he found it necessary to maintain a precarious
neutrality. Many of his cultural ties and personal friendships
were in the Confederacy; in principle, his own convictions were
those of Lincoln; in daily business he represented legally neutral
interests. Something more than tact kept this three-way division
of his allegiance from compromising citizenship, friendship, bus-
iness responsibility, or his own conscience.
In 1869 Palm entered upon a short and somewhat unhappy
career in politics. For two terms he served as postmaster of the
Texas capital. When the life got too noisy, he assumed the pro-
tective coloring of the scholar and retired to his books. He never
tried, however, to escape real issues; on every topic worth his
breath he declared himself with liberal and determined courage.
A Greeley man, he was forced out of office by the Grantites in
1872. Although his friends loudly regretted his retirement, Palm
was glad to live more quietly as business man, vice-consul for
Sweden, and elder friend to Texas Scandinavians, whose numbers
increased in the last years of his life to a total of more than five
thousand.
This dignified and unpretentious career was to be interrupted
only twice-by public honor in 1883 and by his great public bene-
faction in 1897. In the earlier year he returned to Sweden. It
must have been a heartening triumph even to a man gifted with
humility. Forty years earlier he had completed plans for leaving
his native country. Now he was received by Sweden's men of
letters and by the King. Understanding his interest in books, the
scholars gave him their fellowship. The King bestowed on him
knighthood in the order of Vasa." At the time, nothing rejoiced
Palm so much as the opportunity to supplement his library; no
memory of the trip pleased him more than the Swedish govern-
8This decoration did not confer title. Palm never referred to himself as "Sir."227
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 53, July 1949 - April, 1950, periodical, 1950; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101126/m1/303/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.