The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 141

Book Reviews

Not Without Honor. The Life of John H. Reagan. By Ben H.
Procter. Austin (University of Texas Press), 1962. Pp. xii+
361. Illustrations, index. $6.oo.
REAGAN, John Henninger, b. Sevier County, Tenn., Oct. 8, 1818;
youth on farm; ed. in country school and a yr. in coll., Maryville,
Tenn.; married; went to Republic of Texas; served in Texan war
against Indians; deputy surveyor public lands, 1839-44; capt. militia;
capt. in active service; col. of militia; justice of peace; began law
practice, 1846; probate judge; mem. Tex. legislature, 1847; judge
9th jud. dist. Tex., 1852-57; congressman, 1857-61; mem. Tex. Seces-
sion Cony., 1861; mem. provisional Confederate Congress, 1861;
postmaster-gen. Confederate States, 1861-65, sec. treas. 1865; prisoner
of war, May to October, 1865; practiced law in Palestine, Tex.; mem-
ber Congress, 1875-87; author "Reagan Inter-State Commerce Bill"
afterwards modified by amendments of Senator Cullom into the
law now in force; U. S. senator, 1887.91; chm. Tex. State R. R.
Commn. Address: Palestine, Tex.
That is Reagan's account of his career as he prepared it not
long before his death for inclusion in Who's Who in America.
In 1906 his Memoirs, edited by Walter F. McCaleb, appeared-
until now the only volume devoted to the Old Roman. Now,
fifty-seven years after Reagan's death, nearly a century and a half
after his birth, comes Ben H. Procter's thorough, full length
study of the man and his times. It illuminates Texas politics
during sixty-six years; Federal and Confederate politics from 1857
to 1891; but more importantly it traces with care and under-
standing the evolution of a barely literate Tennessee farm boy
into a man who came as close as any Texan to the stature of a
statesman.
Few men of his or any generation held public office longer or
with greater credit to themselves and their state. Francis R.
Lubbock, who got to Texas a couple of years before Reagan and
also lived till 19o5, is sometimes mentioned as possessing the all-
time record for office holding; but Reagan's record is more im-
pressive and the positions he filled and his performance in them
more significant. All Texans regarded Lubbock with filial affec-
tion; they admired and respected Reagan for his integrity, forth-
rightness, and stubborn courage. More than any man who
held office under the republic, Reagan personified the early
Texan qualities of character and notions of government through

141