The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 45, July 1941 - April, 1942 Page: 243
409 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Jonas Harrison, Legendary and Historical
enthusiasm engendered by their burning words. At this moment,
when fifty years have been measured upon the sun dial of
time, the grand old hunter looms up as the equal, if not the
superior, of General Houston in oratory. A few months there-
after a mighty mind was eclipsed, a gifted tongue silenced by
death. Few of this day know him. However, of Col. Jonas
Harrison the genius, the lawyer, the statesman, more hereafter."
Colonel Ford did not give this "more hereafter," more's the
pity.
Jonas Harrison was one great man who just missed fame
all his life. Had he remained in Detroit or Buffalo instead of
leaving for new fields, his name would have been spread wide
on the pages of Michigan or New York history, and very likely
of the nation. Had he come to the Texas Convention of 1833,
the Austin party would not have lost control of it to the
Wharton faction. Had he lived, he would have been chosen the
first Chief Justice of the Republic of Texas. For a decade,
1809 to 1819, he dominated the public life of Lewiston and
Buffalo; for another decade, 1827 to 1836, he dominated East
Texas; and this not by ambitious forcing of himself forward
in either period. Sheer intellect, extraordinary capacity for
business, and conservative independence, gave him his undis-
puted primacy. Permit me, off the record, to wish there were
more "Jonas Harrisons of Texas" in our own present time.College Station, Texas.
243
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 45, July 1941 - April, 1942, periodical, 1942; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146053/m1/267/: accessed April 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.