L. Q. C. Lamar: Pragmatic Patriot (review)

70CIVIL WAR HISTORY of John R. Baylor and early Confederate military activities in Texas. It is too brief to be thorough biography or military history. John F. Marszalek, Jr. Mississippi State University L. Q. C. Lamar: Pragmatic Patriot. By James B. Murphy. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973. Pp. 294. $11.95.) Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (1825-1896) was a pivotal figure in the reconstruction of the nation and his life and career have attracted biographers. In 1935 Wirt Armisted Cate published Lucius Q. C. Lamar , Secession and Reunion, which, until now, has been the standard life of the Mississippi statesman. Long, laudatory, and laced with effusive claims about Lamar's abilities as an original thinker, a political theorist, and a great jurist, Cate's biography stands with the DunningBowers school of southern historical writing. In contrast, James B. Murphy draws a much more sober, and probably more accurate, picture of Lamar's career and his accomplishments. Based on a thorough investigation of manuscript sources, a detailed reading of the Congressional Record, and extensive work in newspaper files, Murphy's judgments about Lamar's character and career are firmly rooted and convincing. Thus, he sees Lamar as "essentially an orator and a propagandist" and not "an original thinker" (p. 45); a politician who combined "statesmanship of a high order" with "bald deception of the northern people" on the race question (p. 133); a transitional figure between the Sumner eulogy and the Hayes-Tilden election of 1876 which cemented Mississippi Home Rule (p. 187). In his appointive offices Murphy found Lamar a "reasonably competent" Secretary of the Interior (p. 259), but a rather weak Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (p. 264). With these judgments grounded so securely in the evidence, it is peculiar that the author's concluding chapter, or Epilogue, should contain remarks so laudatory to the man. After tracking his subject, evaluating his career at each stage, a final judgement on how Lamar produced "a synthesis of nationalism and sectionalism " seems weak and lackluster. Lamar's importance lies in the colloquy he began with northern and midwestern politicians in December, 1873 in his eulogy to Charles Sumner. Although the national debate centered on reconciliation and southern recognition of federal power, the true issues were "Home Rule" and white supremacy. Lamar's success in Congress stands as a testament to the pervasiveness of racist attitudes among white politicians throughout the nation, and to the tenacity of ideas of local government or "grassroots" democracy in the nation. By 1876 men of both political parties were advocating troop removal and restoration of "legitimate " state governments in the south. Clearly Lamar was a pivotal figure in this transition, but precisely BOOK REVIEWS71 why he chose the role of a nationalist when he did is not adequately explained in Murphy's account. Within Lamar's life, particularly the early years which saw the suicide of his father and the substitution of the strong willed intellectual, A. B. Lonstreet, as a surrogate, there is much to lead to a psychoanalytic interpretation of his motivation. The example set by David Donald in Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War (1960) shows how inner drives can motivate a man's actions just as decisively as can outer forces. But if psycho-history is offensive, another way of viewing Lamar would be to see him as a representational figure within a class, perhaps Eugene D. Genovese's seigneurial class. As a leader of a particular class Lamar could use, as Murphy suggests, nationalism to achieve sectional and state-rights ends; and conversely his career should be evaluated on how well he represented his class. Seen in this way Dr. Murphy might well have revised the last word in the title from "patriot" to "paternalist." J. P. Harahan University of Richmond North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865: A Roster. Volume IV: Infantry. Compiled by Weymouth T. Jordan, Jr. Unit Histories by Louis H. Manarin. (Raleigh: North Carolina Office of Archives and History, 1973. Pp. xv, 687. $12.00.) This fourth of twelve projected volumes continues a set that is already widely acknowledged to be the finest state roster of Civil War soldiers ever published. It is...