The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 76, July 1972 - April, 1973 Page: 122

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

though Robert K. Peters of Tyler College is presently working on a
general political history of the era.'
Several graduate theses describe specific political or governmental
developments of the period. Annie Laura Middleton traced the forma-
tion of the Constitution of 1845 under which Texans were governed
until the Civil War." Miss Middleton relied heavily upon the conven-
tion journals, however, and provided little analysis of the govern-
mental structure created by the constitution. Her study should be sup-
plemented by the earlier work of Frederic L. Paxson' and two excel-
lent theses in political science by V. O. Key and Dick Smith.' The
best analysis of the organization of the new state government is a little
used University of Texas dissertation by Lucien Elliot Peevy." Utiliz-
ing newspaper and manuscript sources for the period, Peevy carefully
discussed the first elections under the Constitution of 1845 as well as
political, financial, commercial, and military developments in the new
state. A master's thesis underway at the University of Houston by Mrs.
Dorris Callie Hall should provide additional information on the sig-
nificant work of the first state legislature.'
In his dissertation on the first two years of statehood, Peevy devoted
seventy pages to describing Texas's role in the Mexican War, a theme
discussed by Seymour V. Connor in his Adventure in Glory, and in a
more recent work by Connor and Odie B. Faulk entitled North Amer-
ica Divided. Henry W. Barton has traced the origins, composition,
'Stanley Siegel, A Political History of the Texas Republic, x836-1845 (Austin, 1956);
William Ransom Hogan, The Texas Republic: A Social and Economic History (Norman,
1946). Peters is working on a doctoral dissertation directed by Barnes F. Lathrop, Uni-
versity of Texas, Austin. Peters to R. A. W., November 27, 1971.
Annie Laura Middleton, "The Formation of the Texas Constitution of 1845" (M.A.
thesis, University of Texas, Austin, 19zo). A part of Miss Middleton's work was published
in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly under the title "The Texas Convention of 1845,"
XXV (July, 1921), 26-62.
'Frederic L. Paxson, "The Constitution of Texas, 1845," Southwestern Historical Quar-
terly, XVIII (April, 1915), 386-398. Paxson stressed the influence of the frontier upon
the formation of the 1845 constitution.
?V. O. Key, "A History of Texas County Government" (M.A. thesis, University of
Texas, Austin, 1930); Dick Smith, "The Development of Local Government Units in
Texas" (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1939).
sLucien Elliot Peevy, "The First Two Years of Texas Statehood, 1846-1847" (Ph.D.
dissertation, University of Texas, Austin, 1948).
'Mrs. Hall recently contributed and edited a document describing the early work of
this legislature. See "N. C. Raymond's Report on the Legislature of 1846," Southwestern
Historical Quarterly, LXXV (July, 1971), 8o-83. Raymond was engrossing clerk of the
first legislature.

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