The American movement to acquire the region known as Texas has "been the subject of countless monographs and journal articles. Although the literature on the Texas movement is voluminous, no historian has produced an interpretive synthesis based on that literature and the extant documentary sources. This work is intended "to fill that void "by offering speculative analysis as well as a chronological narrative on the total movement. The scope of this work is comprehensive. It traces the American government's handling of the Texas issue from 1819—-the year President James Monroe agreed to drop the American claim to Texas in the Adams-Onis treaty—through 1845—the year President James K. Polk signed a congressional resolution granting Texas statehood. Throughout these years the countervailing political forces of antebellum America had more influence on the government's Texas position than did diplomatic considerations. Consequently, the theme of this dissertation is that the American movement to acquire Texas was primarily a political movement. Indeed, the Texas Republic became an American state only when the annexation issue became inextricably linked with the party trammels and political philosophies of Jacksonian America.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), writer and lecturer, provided philosophical guidance to the feminist movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, During a career spanning the years 1890 to 1935 she published eleven books, wrote articles for popular magazines, and lectured throughout the United States and Europe. Between 1909 and 1916 she wrote, edited, and published a monthly magazine entitled The Forerunner. Gilman's efforts dealt primarily with the status of women, but she described herself as a humanist rather than a feminist. She explained that her interest in women arose from a concern that, as one-half of humanity, their restricted role in society retarded human progress. Thus, Gilman's contribution to feminism must be viewed within the context of her humanist philosophy. Gilman's contribution to feminism lies in her diagnosis of woman's predicament as ideological rather than political and, hence, subject to self-resolution. The uniqueness of Gilman's approach is in the autonomous nature of her solution: Woman, through the full use of her human powers, could achieve the equality that decades of political agitation had failed to accomplish. The rationale for this dissertation lies in the premise that Gilman's humanist approach to feminism made a significant contribution in her own …

This dissertation is an examination of the American oil industry in Saudi Arabia and its influence on United States foreign policy. The study examines the Americans who went to Saudi Arabia, the effect of the oil companies on Saudi- American relations, and the American government's response to oil company actions. There is an attempt to answer such questions as: Did the oil companies exert pressure on the American government to influence governmental policy? How effective was this pressure? And, what benefits did the oil companies have from their relationship with the government? The study concludes that Aramco was instrumental in bringing official and nonofficial contact and representation between Saudi Arabia and the United States. Moreover, Aramco was instrumental in involving the American government directly in Saudi Arabia through the extension of lend-lease aid to that country. American government involvement thwarted potential British ambitions in the Saudi oil resources and resulted in the American dominance of oil interests in that kingdom. In addition, Senate investigations showed that the oil companies grossly overcharged the United States Navy on oil purchases and that the financial assistance to Saudi Arabia was made for the protection of Aramco's oil concession.

Several books have been written about Sam Rayburn, but thus far there has been no attempt to analyze Rayburn's rise to power. No one has delved sufficiently into his political philosophy, his motivations, and his personal convictions regarding the pivotal events of the turbulent 1930s. This dissertation endeavors to fill that void by tracing the course of events which led Sam Rayburn to the speakership of the United States House of Representatives. It records his triumphs, his shortcomings, the concessions he made, and the people he served in order to achieve his life's ambition. The scope of this study ranges from Rayburn's first expression of interest in the speakership to his elevation to that position in 1940. Brief coverage is given to his three terms in the Texas Legislature, beginning in 1906, and his election to Congress in 1912. A more extensive analysis is made of his early congressional association with John Nance Garner and its pivotal influence on his career. A brief analysis is offered of Rayburn's political and legislative activities prior to the election of 1932. The primary emphasis of this study, however, revolves around Rayburn's activities during the years 1932-1940-- the first two terms of President Franklin …

During the second world war relations between the United States and Ireland deteriorated to the point that many Irishmen feared that an American invasion of Ireland was imminent. At the same time many people in the United States came to believe that the Irish government of Eamon de Valera was pro-Nazi, This study examines the causes for the deterioration of relations between the two countries and the actual attitudes of David Gray, the United States minister to Ireland, and other American officials toward Irish neutrality. Since there are few secondary works on the subject, the research was undertaken almost entirely among primary sources, personal and diplomatic papers, various American newspapers, and memoirs. Of particular importance were David Gray's personal papers, especially his frequent letters to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.. Copies of some letters, not available among Gray's personal papers at the University of Wyoming, were furnished by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York. The study has also made extensive use of the diplomatic papers published by the Department of $tate in the various volumes of the Foreign Relations of the United States. Finally, the author corresponded with more than a dozen of those still living who were …

This dissertation presents an overview of Church- State relations in Mexico from 1924 to 1938. It examines the actions and motives of prominent national leaders, the papacy, the episcopate, and the Mexican citizenry to determine justification and culpability. This dissertation presents several conclusions. When Calles enforced the anticlerical provisions of the Constitution of 1917, the clergy withdrew from the churches in protest. The episcopate as a body bore a moral responsibility for the Cristero rebellion that resulted, but avoided implication in the movement. Because the Church's supporters were in the minority, that institution in 1929 accepted a settlement requiring clerical obedience to the constitution. Churchmen consoled their parishioners with the thought that the Church would rise again.

No one has investigated in detail the totality of Anglo-Russian relations from the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 to the outbreak of World War I. Those who have written on the history of the Triple Entente have tended to claim that France was the dominant partner and that her efforts pulled Great Britain and Russia together and kept them together. Britain and Russia had little in common, the standard argument asserts; their ideological and political views were almost diametrically opposed, and furthermore,they had major imperial conflicts. This dissertation tests two hypotheses. The first is that Russia and Britain were drawn together less from French efforts than from a mutual reaction to German policy. The second is that there was less political and ideological friction between Britain and Russia than previous writers have assumed. The first hypothesis has been supported in previous writings only tangentially, while the second has not been tested for the period under review. Studies of the period have been detailed studies on specific events and crises, while this investigation reviews the course of the Anglo-Russian partnership for the entire seven year period. The dissertation concludes that it was primarily the need for allies in the face of German …

This study has been limited to those seventeen significant years from the outbreak of World War I to the passing of the Statute of Westminster, for during those years British colonial policy changed radically. An era of the domination and supremacy of the imperial parliament disappeared to be replaced with a policy of equality and partnership. This change in British colonial policy was the result of many significant events. The present study will show how those events and London's responses to them helped to bring about the consummation of the long-sought nationhood of the colonies. The results of the study have been presented chronologically. During World War I (treated in Chapter II),' the colonies supported London with troops, skilled workers, contributions and foods of all kinds. The loyalty and sacrifices of the dominions aroused the interest of the mother country and eventually led to a change in the relationship between London and the colonies. London demonstrated her new attitudes of sympathy, co-operation, and understanding in a number of ways.

The key to Reconstruction for both blacks and whites was black suffrage. On one hand this vote made possible the elevation of black political leaders to positions of prominence in the reorganization of the South after the Civil War. For southern whites, on the other hand, black participation in the Reconstruction governments discredited the positive accomplishments of those regimes and led to the evolution of a systematized white rejection of the black as a positive force in southern politics. For white contemporaries and subsequent historians, the black political leader became the exemplar of all that was reprehensible about the period. Stereotyped patterns, developed to eliminate black influence, prevented any examination of the actual role played by these men in the reconstruction process. This study is partially a synthesis of recent scholarly research on specific aspects of the black political role and the careers of individual political leaders. Additional research included examination of a number of manuscript collections in the Library of Congress and the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina, state and federal government documents, and contemporary newspapers. On the basis of all these sources, this study evaluates the nature of black political leadership and its impact …

The scope of this study is limited to Federal military occupation during the five years from 1865 to 1870. Only the interior counties, where a dense Negro population required the exercise of political and social responsibilities, will be considered in detail. A line from Wise through Bosque, Travis, Wilson, Karnes, and Goliad Counties to the coastal town of Corpus Christi would roughly separate interior from frontier posts.

This investigation resulted from a pilot research paper prepared in conjunction with a graduate course on the Civil War. This study suggested that the Federal blockade of the Confederacy may not have contributed significantly to its defeat. Traditionally, historians had assumed that the Union's Anaconda Plan had effectively strangled the Confederacy. Recent studies which compared the statistics of ships captured to successful infractions of the blockade had somewhat revised these views. While accepting these revisionist findings as broadly valid, this investigation strove to determine specifically the effectiveness of Admiral Farragut's West Gulf Blockading Squadron. Since the British Foreign Office maintained consulates in three blockaded southern ports and in many Caribbean ports through which blockade running was conducted, these consular records were vital for this study. Personal research in Great Britain's Public Record Office disclosed valuable consular reports pertaining to the effectiveness of the Federal blockade. American consular records, found in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. provided excellent comparative reports from those same Gulf ports. Official Confederate reports, contained in the National Archives, various state archives and in the published Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies revealed valuable statistical data on foreign imports. Limited use was made of …

The study then focuses on the Bernadotte candidacy as the practical expression of a Norwegian desire for a national monarchy. Reaction to the candidacy is analyzed and, although it proved unsuccessful, the strength of the idea is again evident when the government shifted its focus to the secondary candidacy of Denmark's Prince Carl. During the debate over the candidates for the throne, the underlying theme which developed was the question of Norway's form of government-- monarchy or republic.

This study examines the efforts of the Union and Confederate diplomatic agents to influence the events along the Rio Grande during the Civil War. The paper compares the successful accomplishments of Confederate agent Jose Quintero to the hindered maneuverings of the Union representatives, Leonard Pierce and M. M. Kimuey. Utilizing microfilmed sources from State Department records and Confederate despatches, the paper relates the steps Quintero took to secure the Confederate-Mexico border trade, obtain favorable responses from the various ruling parties in northern Mexico, and hamper the Union agents' attempts to quell the border trade.

This paper provides a thematic approach to three major United States government document series relating to topics of early United States diplomatic relations with Mexico; treaty negotiations, the Santa 'Fe trade, the Texas question, and claims. The document series examined are .the United States presidential papers, United States Congressional documents , and the National Archives Record Group 59, diplomatic dispatches from United State Ministers to Mexico. Historians must make an evaluation of all: documentary evidence available for an accurate assessment of historical events. Inadequate analysis of these major United States document series has limited this necessary assessment in the area of United States Mexican diplomatic relations, 1821-1846.

The Farmers' Alliance in Wise County, from its introduction in 1880 to its demise in 1897, endeavored to improve the mental, moral, social, and financial conditions of small agrarians in the north central Texas county. This paper details the Alliance's efforts, in cooperative ventures and political activism and third-party politics, to place farmers in a better economic position. Additionally, the paper focuses on the Alliance's attempts to provide educational and social opportunities and moral guidance to the membership. Source materials include government documents and publications, contemporary accounts, the county Alliance's official newspaper, area newspapers, and the original minutes of the county Alliance from 1893 to 1897.

This thesis endeavors to reveal that Martin Luther's dogmatic adherence to one absolute interpretation of the Word of God restricted man's freedom, both religious and personal. His intolerant and authoritarian attitude toward individualistic groups, called into existence by his polemics stressing Christian freedom, is broadly discussed. Luther's theology denied man responsibility for his salvation, either through works, the exercise of divine reason, or through living a lifestyle in the imitation of Christ, leaving man with the inability to accept responsibility for his actions. The authoritarian religions that developed after Luther brought confusion and indifference regarding the nature of religion, leaving modern man in search of alternate authorities in which to place his faith and assume responsibility for his actions, thereby limiting his independence and freedom.

This thesis investigates the political career of Stephen Dorsey, an Ohio industrialist who moved to Arkansas in 1871. Dorsey was elected to the U.S. Senate from Arkansas in 1873, served as secretary of the Republican National Committee for. the election of 1880, and was tried twice, in 1882 and 1883, for the Star Route postal frauds. Although Dorsey was acquitted, the Star Route frauds ended his political career. Separate chapters treat each phase of Dorsey's career. Major sources included the D41 Arkansas Gazette, the Congressional Record, the Garfield Papers, and the official transcripts of the Star Route trials. The thesis concludes that Dorsey's career was, the product of Ulysses S. Grant's influence within the Republican party in. the Gilded Age.

This study is concerned with the problem of determining the nature of impeachable offenses through an analysis of the English theory of impeachment, colonial impeachment practice, debates in the constitutional convention and the state ratifying conventions, The Federalist Papers and debates in the first Congress, In addition, the precedents established in American cases of impeachment particularly in the trials of Judge John Pickering, Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson are examined. Materials for the study included secondary sources, congressional records, memoirs, contemporary accounts, government documents, newspapers and trial records, The thesis concludes that impeachable offenses include non-indictable behavior and exclude misconduct outside official duties and recommends some alternative method of removal for federal judges.

American politics from 1832 to 1848 underwent a profound transformation. Whereas in the early years of the republic politics had been based on deference and elitism, by the early 1830's a definite change in the political arena had occurred. With the coming of the "Age of Jackson, " the political rules and styles of the older era began to change. The politics of deference began to give way to the politics of "availability." Because this study is a discussion, examination, and analysis of Webster's and Clay's "appeal to reason, " the sources most heavily consulted were the published and microfilmed correspondence, speeches, and papers of these two statesmen. Other personal papers, correspondence, memoirs, and biographies of other central personalities of the middle period, both protagonists and antagonists, were used in order to place Webster and Clay in proper historical perspective. This dissertation is organized chronologically, and it traces and analyzes the evolution of the candidacies of Webster and Clay for the presidency from the early 1830's through the four presidential elections from 1836 to 1848. Each chapter includes an examination of Clay's and Webster's attempts to secure the Whig nomination and gain the presidency through forceful appeals to the voters' …

This study examines the relations of white Baptists with racial and ethnic minorities in Texas from the beginning of organized Baptist work in Texas in the mid-nineteenth century, through the United States Supreme Court decision in the Brown v. Topeka case in 1954, Emphasizing the role of attitudes in forming actions, it examines the ideas of various leaders of the chief Baptist bodies in Texas: the artist General Convention of Texas, the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas and the American Baptist Convention. The minorities included in the work are the Negroes, the Mexican-Americans, non-Anglo-Saxon Europeans, American Indians, Orientals, and Jews. Several factors tend to justify a study of this subject. First, there is the prominence of race relations in the nation which has aroused interest in the effect which race relations have had upon affairs in Texas, Second, the widespread changes which have taken place in Texas during, the last two decades suggest the feasibility of a study of that phenomenon, and the fact that many consider the race problem to be a moral and religious issue indicates the relevance of the churches' relationships to these changes. As the largest religious denomination in the state, the Baptists offer a viable …

This essay attempts to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge of Corral's public life, especially for the period of his vice-presidency. It is divided into three parts, covering Corral's career in state and national politics and in exile.

In contrast to the relatively rapid changes occurring in the modern American army, the period between the end of the War of 1812 and the beginning of the Mexican War offers a definite period for a study of military life when reform came slowly. During the period of study, leaders made few attempts to reform the general structure of the military institution as a social system. On the other hand, many changes can be discerned which improved weaponry and equipment, tactics, supply and administrative procedures, moral guidance, recreational facilities, and pay.

This thesis includes two background chapters based largely on secondary works; Chapters I and II trace the historiography of black participation in American military engagements from the American Revolution through the Korean conflict. Chapter III, based largely on primary sources, places emphasis on black resistance and attitudes toward the Vietnam crisis. Evidence indicates that the Vietnam era of black protest was not unique but was an evolutionary process that had its roots in other periods in American history. Some blacks questioned their involvement in each American military conflict from the American Revolution to Vietnam.

This study explores Franco-Papal relations, and their effect on the French Church and State, from Henri IV's conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1593 until his death in 1610. Because Henri IV's primary concern, even in matters involving the Papacy or the Gallican Church, was to protect his kingdom from Habsburg encroachment, he was willing either to abandon his Protestant allies abroad, or to adopt reform measures, such as the decrees of the Council of Trent, that might weaken his own authority or disturb the peace of his kingdom. This caused repeated conflicts with the Counter-Reformation Popes Clement VIII and Paul V, to whom the primary enemy was always the infidel and the heretic. Nevertheless both sides realized that they needed each other to maintain their independence of Spain.