Sul Ross at Texas A&M by John A. Adams Jr

Reviewed by: Sul Ross at Texas A&M by John A. Adams Jr Dan R. Frost Sul Ross at Texas A&M. By John A. Adams Jr. Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A&M University. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2021. Pp. xiv, 269. $32.95, ISBN 978-1-62349-938-9.) The title of this book is slightly misleading. Sul Ross at Texas A&M covers more than just Lawrence Sullivan “Sul” Ross’s time as president of the [End Page 166] Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (Texas A&M) from February 1891 until his death in January 1898. The work also provides solid background information on Ross’s previous roles as a Texas Ranger, Confederate brigadier general, and governor of Texas. John A. Adams Jr. demonstrates that Ross’s popularity in these earlier occupations paved the way for his tenure as the college’s president. The book also more fully develops Ross’s time at Texas A&M than the two other key works on the subject, Henry C. Dethloff’s A Centennial History of Texas A&M University, 1876 to 1976 (College Station, Tex., 1975) and Judith Ann Benner’s Sul Ross: Soldier, Statesman, Educator (College Station, Tex., 1983). Aside from the typical duties of running a college, Ross spent much time mulling requests to return to political office, including a possible third term as governor. Nevertheless, through the copious use of Ross’s personal correspondence, Adams reveals that Ross, although attracted to the intrigues of Texas politics, decided to remain at the college and forgo a resumption of his political career. Politics nonetheless intruded on Ross’s time as president. Like other leaders of agricultural and mechanical colleges during the Gilded Age, Ross annually lobbied sympathetic legislators for appropriations and fought those who doubted the value of the applied scientific, agricultural, and mechanical engineering courses provided by the college and who would have scrapped the institution altogether. His popularity and political connections prevailed in getting the larger budgets necessary to accommodate the growing number of students and faculty during what Adams rightly touts as Ross’s successful administration. This accomplishment is especially remarkable given that it coincided with an economic depression during the 1890s. Still, Adams’s treatment of Ross is adulatory. If Ross made any mistakes, either before or during his time at Texas A&M, one would never know it from reading this work. Ross’s efforts in behalf of his school are portrayed as selfless and in the best interests of all Texans. The author dismisses contemporary critics of Ross and his administration at A&M, who questioned the school’s classical courses or military instruction at the expense of scientific, agricultural, and mechanical engineering education, as ignorantly, politically, selfishly, or even nefariously motivated. Yet academics and legislators throughout the South legitimately debated such issues regarding the proper courses of instruction for agricultural and mechanical colleges. Adams needed not impugn the motives of all of Ross’s critics over their valid concerns to demonstrate what the author believes was the Texas A&M president’s outstanding character. Like his detractors who supported other schools, Ross fought politically to advance his college’s interests. The Texas legislature, Adams notes, struggled to appropriate funds to at least four state-supported institutions of higher learning during the late nineteenth century. The post–Civil War proliferation of schools offering similar curricula occurred throughout the South, and, as in Texas, it left behind more academically and financially weak institutions than strong ones. In this environment, the political and personal interests of collegiate presidents in acquiring larger appropriations than their competitors were inevitable and made Ross no more innocent of political machinations for his school than any other collegiate president. Ross was an influential former governor; it is not surprising that he triumphed over adversaries with less political influence. [End Page 167] Adams credits much of Ross’s fame in Texas to an emerging “celebrity journalism” that “heightened the visibility of business and political icons, lionizing these key personalities and their activities” (p. 204). This ode to Ross includes him among such accomplished figures as Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and William Jennings...