Society for Historians of the Early American Republic

Moses Austin: His Life by David B. GracyReview by: Stephen L. HardinJournal of the Early Republic, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Winter, 1991), pp. 578-579Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press on behalf of the Society for Historians of the EarlyAmerican RepublicStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3123377 .

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578 JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC

the antislavery coalition. These evangelists ended up devoting their talents to organizing the Republican party and urging the faithful to

support its program. Throughout the Midwest the perception that slavery menaced the region's stake in the territories merged with the more radical perception that slavery was morally wrong and ought to be resisted. Slavery, by the end of the Mexican War in 1848, began to be seen as "the unnatural monster and beast that threatened a free society and religion" (87). This leads Howard to a significant point. "Only by relying exclusively on the sources of the abolitionist movement," he writes, "and failing to draw on church records can one arrive at the conclusion that the church was proslavery and thus accept the abolitionists' criteria for judging the churches' stance" (99).

The midwestern clergy played a role in the struggle against slavery not unlike that which the clergy played during the American Revolution. Both groups rallied the people to resist the continued domination of an oppressive ruling elite. Howard records the history of this ecclesiastical activism faithfully but regretfully. He evidently believes that controversial moral issues (i.e., the 'sin' of slavery) ought to have been kept separate from republican politics. Midwestern evangelists, he implies, were members of a blundering generation who, given greater readiness to compromise, might have succeeded in averting the catastrophe of war.

Howard's book is based upon a wealth of church records and documents. It is a valuable contribution to antebellum political and

religious history. The highly condensed and fact-packed format demands close and sometimes exhausting attention from the reader.

Rutgers University John Anthony Scott

Moses Austin: His Life. By David B. Gracy II. (San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 1987. Pp. xx, 304. Illustrations. $24.95.)

Moses Austin is best remembered for obtaining initial permission to introduce a colony of Anglo-Celtic Americans into the Spanish province of Texas and as the father of Stephen F. Austin. Death called Moses before his plans could be executed, but on his deathbed he bequeathed his grand enterprise to his eldest son. Consequently, it was Stephen who gained fame as the "father of Texas," while Moses was relegated to a footnote in survey texts. That is, until the publication of David Gracy's biography.

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BOOK REVIEWS 579

Gracy is eminently qualified to his task. Formerly on staff with the Texas State Historical Association and the director of the Texas State Archives, he currently serves as the Governor Bill Daniel Professor in Archival Enterprise in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Texas at Austin. His former work includes Littlefield Lands: Colonization on the Texas Plains, 1912-1920 (1968), Establishing Austin's Colony (1970), and numerous scholarly articles.

In this study Moses emerges as a whole man, not just Stephen's father. Although Gracy is clearly sympathetic to his subject, he does not allow his admiration to subvert his objectivity. A trained and meticulous researcher, Gracy mined archival repositories in several states and perused numerous family papers. It is difficult to imagine that any pertinent data escaped his notice.

The author fully explores the contextual relation between Moses Austin and New England society, which in many ways he came to exemplify. Born in Connecticut in 1761, Moses grew to manhood in a

family committed to eighteenth-century notions of thrift and enterprise. As an adult Austin pushed westward to establish the lead industry in Missouri and was active in the establishment of many frontier settlements. As Gracy observes, "Austin's work is easy to see, because he left a chain of towns in his wake: Austinville at the mines of Virginia, and Potosi at the mines and Herculaneum on the Mississippi River in Missouri, all still active communities. He may have helped guide the early development of Little Rock and likely encouraged the founding of Fulton, both communities in Arkansas"

(231). Those who labor under the misguided impression that Texas

history began at the Alamo will be disappointed. Yet Texans interested in the roots of Anglo-Celtic colonization into their state and the man who first envisioned it will be rewarded. Most readers of the

Journal, however, will appreciate Gracy's keen insights into life and work in the early republic and Austin's role in the westward movement, which forever changed the nature of that infant republic.

Readers should be aware of certain aspects of the book's publishing history. Although first published in 1987 by Trinity University Press, in 1989 remaining copies were obtained by the University of Texas Press, which now holds the copyright. Subsequent editions will appear under the colophon of the University of Texas Press.

The Victoria College Stephen L. Hardin

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