"No adequate history of the activities of the Texas state government during the Civil War has been written. Instead this phase of state history has been treated only in a limited manner in general state and Civil War histories. A history of the state government's functions and role during this period is essential to understanding Texas' development as a state and its place in the Confederacy. This work is an attempt to provide such a history. A study of the internal political affairs of Texas during the war years, this work begins with the movement toward secession and ends with the collapse of the state government and the establishment of military rule in Texas. Emphasis has been placed on revealing how the state government attempted to cope with the numerous problems which the war engendered and the futility of these attempts." -- p.iii

"This study is interested primarily in the political and economic philosophies which motivated the men who came to power in Texas following the overthrow of the Reconstruction regime, and which dominated the public affairs of the state during those years. It approaches the problem from the viewpoint of the positions of various individuals regarding the more prominent issues of the day, both state and national. The concentrates on the administrations of five governors of Texas and the tenures of five members of Congress. These men are viewed in relation to the times, and Texas is observed in light of its peculiar problems and its relation to the United States as a whole." -- leaf iv.