BOOK NOTES.
LIFE,
JOURNALS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF REV. MANASSEH CUTLER, LL.D.
By his Grandchildren, William Parker
Cutler and Julia Perkins Cutler.
Two volumes. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke
& Co. 1888.
The diary, correspondence and papers of
Dr. Cutler ought to throw a
flood of light upon many events in the
early history of the Northwest, and
upon the policy of the old Congress in
organizing and providing for the
settlement of the region beyond the Ohio
river. Portions of his journals
were published years ago, and have been
read and re-read by students of
Ohio's history. The subsequent
disappearance of the original journal and
many other papers of Dr. Cutler, the
negotiations for their surrender and
their final recovery by his
grandchildren are matters known to many in
America. That these papers have finally
been arranged, thrown into con-
nected form, and, accompanied by much
other matter throwing light upon
his life and career, are now published
in these two volumes is something for
which careful students of Western
American history may well be thankful.
Space does not permit a close analysis
of the volumes in this column, but
they are not a mere memoir, a record of
personal merits and doings of the
energetic Doctor. While his personal career and character
receive full
attention, the services which he
rendered America, the Massachusetts
soldiers and the Northwest form the main
theme. "It will be seen," says
the introduction, "that Congress
and the army were the principal factors
[in the Western movement]; that there
was a concert of action if not of de-
sign; that Congress sought to prepare
the way for the occupation of the
Western wilderness, to make 'rough
places smooth, and the crooked places
straight'; while the army, with their
Commander-in-Chief in full support,
sought to retrieve losses, heal wounds
and find repose by encountering new
risks, new hardships, and new dangers in
laying deep and broad the founda-
tions of Christian civilization in 'new
States' ' Westward of the Ohio.'
"The service performed by Dr.
Cutler was in bringing into harmonious
action the lines of policy that were
marked out by one party and cordially
accepted by the other."
The above passage fairly outlines the
aim of the writer's, and the vol-
umes expand and illustrate the whole of
the movements leading to the
ordinance of 1787 and the Western
settlements. The preliminary move-
ments in Massachusetts, the formation of
the Ohio Company, the pressure
brought to bear upon Congress, the
framing of the ordinance of 1787, and
the settlements in Ohio, all receive
careful consideration, and the influence
of Dr. Cutler in all those movements is
fully shown. That his share in
some of these measures seems slightly
overestimated, does not materially
lessen the historical value of the work
before us. On the whole, the
volumes will be welcomed as being a
decided addition to our knowledge of
the early history of the Northwest, and
of the parts which Manasseh Cutler
took in those events.
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