Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS

List of Documents Concerning the Negotiation of Ratified Indian

Treaties, 1801-1869. Compiled by John H. Martin. (Special List No. 6.

Washington, National Archives, 1949. iii + 175p., appendix.)

One of the most ambitious archival endeavors in progress today is

being conducted by the United States through its National Archives.

The methods of record keeping employed are efficiently designed to make

possible a maximum use by scholars and government officials. To obviate

the necessity of tediously searching through hundreds of manuscripts in

the records and files of the various governmental agencies and bureaus

therein deposited, the National Archives has established a very laudable

program of compiling "finding aids." The present work is the sixth of

such aids prepared on a special subject.

During the course of its history, the United States has negotiated

approximately three hundred and seventy treaties with the Indians re-

siding within its borders. In point of time these have extended from the

September 17, 1778, treaty with the Delaware to the Appropriation Act

of March 3, 1871, which provided for the termination of treaty-making

with Indian tribes. All of these, except for a few of the earlier ones for

which no significant supporting documents have been found, are in-

cluded within the scope of this work.

One of the primary sources of information of the policy of the

federal government toward the American Indians is to be found in the

ratified treaties between the two groups. In order to study and to under-

stand them it is necessary to determine and to examine the circumstances

leading to, surrounding, and following the accomplishment of these

treaties. Broadly there are three types of documentation, in addition to

the treaty text itself, that are most helpful in this respect.

A first group is made up of instructions issued by the proper federal

officials, usually by the cabinet officer under whose jurisdiction came the

supervision of Indian affairs, to a commissioner or commissioners charged

with the authority to carry out the negotiations. Instructions usually

outlined or perhaps described the desired general character and form

that the treaty was to assume. Secondly, there are the proceedings of

the treaty council itself, which document the course of the negotiations.

101

• 1
 

102 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

In this category are included such miscellany as journals, diaries,

speeches, and minutes of the meeting. Unfortunately the materials in-

cluded under this heading, although frequently the most important, are

often nonexistent for many of the treaties. In some instances such records

were not made, and in others, if made, have not been preserved. The

third type of documentation valuable in the study of treaties includes

miscellaneous correspondence, unofficial as well as official, of those

interested in, or to be affected by, the outcome of the negotiations. Quite

often this category is more voluminous and informative in the case of

a given treaty than are the other two.

These three are the types of records with which, for the most part,

the present compilation is concerned. All of the documents concerning

the negotiation of ratified Indian treaties contained in the Records of

the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the General Records of the Depart-

ment of the Interior are included in this list. These are Record Groups

75 and 48, respectively, of the National Archives.

It must be understood, however, the chances are great that a com-

plete study cannot be made of any given treaty by consultation of only

the manuscripts herein indicated. Pertinent primary sources about Indian

affairs are probably more scattered than for any other subject of com-

parable size in American history. Often the perusal of hundreds of

manuscripts in a collection yields but a few pertaining to the subject

at hand. Research on most phases of the historic Indian usually involves

a patient "fine-tooth-combing" process, not always fruitful. It is also

necessary to be aware that this list does not exhaust all of the possibili-

ties even within the National Archives itself. It is to be regretted that

the general records of the government (Record Group 11), those of the

Secretary of War (Record Group 107), and of the Senate (Record

Group 46), and also the segregated map files of the various government

departments are not included, even though they properly belong within

the scope of the present compilation.

The shortcomings of a work of this sort are really but an indication

of what still needs to be done, following a similar plan, to the other

record groups of the National Archives containing pertinent manuscripts.

Within the scope of the two record groups included, however, the contri-

bution made is a most valuable one. From the research standpoint alone,

it is a tool of necessity. Without it, for example, a count reveals that

the ninety-four treaties affecting the Old Northwest could not be ade-

quately studied. As for the individual states in the same region, it

• 2
 

Book Reviews                        103

 

applies to seventeen treaties affecting Ohio, thirty-five in Indiana, twenty-

two in Illinois, twenty-three in Michigan, and twenty-six in Wisconsin.

A count of the coverage affecting other states and sections would render

a similar result.

The documents concerned are listed chronologically by treaties with

a brief description of each and the location in the record group desig-

nated. The book is appended by a list of Indian commissioners and other

pertinent officials. As a reference aid to research in Indian affairs, the

List is invaluable.

DWIGHT L. SMITH

Ohio State University

 

 

South Bass Island and Islanders. By Thomas Huxley Langlois and

Marina Holmes Langlois. (Franz Theodore Stone Laboratory, Contribu-

tion No. 10 [Columbus], Ohio State University, 1948. x + 139p. illustra-

tions and maps.)

Pisciculturists observing the social behavior of small-mouthed bass

in the limited area of an artificial rearing pond, find that in the absence

of controls a few individual bass, through predatory cannibalism, prosper

at the expense of their pond fellows and grow to magnificent sizes. Given

the value that harvests of a maximum number of fish with a maximum

mass weight is the goal of bass cultivation, any social system which

fosters predatism, with resultant low survival of the masses of bass fry

placed in the rearing pond, is antagonistic to actualization of that value.

When the sequence of events leading to cannibalism is prevented (by a

benevolent husbandman oriented to this value) none of the fish grow to

magnificent proportions, but general survival is high and the mass

poundage of the pond is maximized. To attain this objective the con-

troller (a) uses the power of the masses to make a few dominant indi-

viduals accept their "proper" social role with the common lot, and (b)

provides an external food supply of such amplitude that competition

yields no individual gain.

The restraining influences of definitely limited space establish a

basis for comparison of people on an island to fish in a pond. This is

the thesis developed by the Langlois in South Bass Island and Islanders.

The people studied are the residents, from 1811 to 1948, of South Bass

Island, the locus of Put-in-Bay, off the Ohio shore of Lake Erie.

• 3
 

104 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

This analogy on the genesis of predation among fish and men is

introduced (for fish) in the Foreword and briefly developed (for man)

in a terminal Resume. The bulk of the monograph is in the descriptive

language of local history-an interesting, although often unconnected,

collection of statements about people, places, and events. Following the

Foreword, topics considered are, by chapter headings: The Land, Plants

and Animals, Air and Water, Growth and Integration of an Aggregation

of People, The Role of Sub-groups Within the Community, Government

and Politics, Schools and Education, Public Health and Medical Services,

Domestic Water Supplies and the Disposal of Wastes, Fires and the

Fire Deparmtent, Wars and Military Organizations, The Real Estate

Industry, The Ice Industry, The Wine Industry, The Fisheries Industry,

The Building Industry, The Hotel Industry, The Retail Merchandising

Industry, The Transportation Industry, Power and Communications, and

A Resume and Some Generalizations. Fifteen pages of "Reference-Source

Records" conclude the study.

Throughout, the Langlois emphasize the two-way relations between

the island environment and the human community supported by the

island and its waters. In their narration and analysis of these relation-

ships the authors make little use of the technical apparatus and terminol-

ogy of the social sciences. No reference is made to the large theoretical

literature on the use of organic analogy in analysis of human behavior.

The early settlers on South Bass Island were few and their adjust-

ments were principally adjustments to the nonhuman environment. As

the community enlarged, the settlers learned to get along with one another

and to cooperate in solution of common problems. Competition for

economic advantage increased directly with enlarged demands for local

products. This competition, plus effects of the general depression of the

1930's, brought about a disintegration of community interest and action.

During World War II and after, boom times came to the islands, with

further acceleration of community disintegration. Today, the authors

report, there is little regard for the common welfare and no regard for

the future welfare of the group. Over a century of occupation the effects

of human activities on the island mostly have been destructive. And this

destruction has reduced the capacity of the island to support a human

population.

From their observations on fish and men the Langlois conclude that

an economic hierarchy results from unequal ability of individuals to

compete in an open market. This unequal individual ability leads to

• 4
 

Book Reviews                       105

accumulations of capital by successful competitors (predators), who

then have power to benefit or to harm all other individuals within their

range of influence. Attention on inter-individual competition leads to

heedless use of natural resources. In the authors' opinion their study

questions the tenability of the value judgement that every individual has

the social right to pursue his economic self-interest as a priority to, and

independent of, his obligations for behavior in a manner which will

benefit his fellow men.

J. N. SPUHLER

Ohio State University

 

 

The Native Forests of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. By Arthur B.

Williams. (Scientific Publications of the Cleveland Museum of Natural

History, Vol. IX. Cleveland, 1949. 90p., illustrations.)

 

Cuyahoga County occupies a unique physiographic position at the

northwestern corner of the Allegheny Plateau--here defined by the

Portage escarpment. Adjoining northward is the lake plain, narrow in

the eastern half and up to fifteen miles wide at the western boundary.

Three river valleys cross the county from south to north; those of the

Rocky and Cuyahoga rivers are generally broad, while that of the

Chagrin is narrow with steep slopes and tributary gorges. Some of the

tributaries of the Rocky and Cuyahoga likewise have cut gorges in the

plateau. But not all of the plateau was well drained.

The proximity of Lake Erie materially prolongs the period of warm

weather in autumn and retards thawing in spring beyond the period of

late frosts. The lake shore east of Cleveland extends northeastward, and

winds from the lake materially increase precipitation on the eastern

plateau of the county.

Cuyahoga County thus includes an unusual variety of plant habitats

and a strategic position with reference to postglacial migrations of plant

species from the interior lowland on the lake plain and from the plateau;

consequently the county had an unusual number of minor and major

plant communities at the time when Moses Cleaveland founded his settle-

ment at the mouth of the Cuyahoga for the Connecticut Land Company

in 1796. Since then the city of Cleveland has spread in all directions

and much of the original vegetation has been either destroyed or greatly

altered.

• 5
 

106 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

From pollen records we know that the area was once dominated by

spruce and fir, but these forests had disappeared before 1796. The pine,

hemlock, and birch which followed them left many relict stands of these

trees, some of which still remain. The oak, hickory, and chestnut suc-

ceeded them in many situations, and the beech, maple, tulip, walnut,

elm, and ash soon followed. Beech-maple became the dominant forest

type on the upland, while local poorly drained areas supported various

phases of the swamp forest. The river valleys and parts of the lake

plain likewise were occupied by swamp forest communities. During the

period of oak dominance prairie and prairie border species moved east-

ward particularly on the beach ridges. As the lake plain was much wider

in prehistoric time, this was a major highway by which these species

moved eastward into New York state. There is historical evidence for at

least one prairie area near the mouth of the Cuyahoga.

Dr. Williams has attempted to reconstruct the vegetation from land-

survey records, from early descriptions of local areas, the recollections

of old settlers, and the detailed survey of existing remnants of plant

communities.

He describes the present or former distribution of many communi-

ties, among which are oak-hickory, oak-chestnut, white oak-beech-maple,

beech-maple, hemlock-white pine-hardwoods, several phases of the swamp

forest, and the mixed mesophytic forest.

The local reader will find much information concerning the former

location of various vegetation types by reference to named roads and

streets. There are numerous interesting pictures of veteran trees and

forest remnants. It is to be hoped that the author will carry out his

seventh objective (p. 23) and provide his readers with a general map of

the reconstructed vegetation. No one else can possibly draw one so nearly

correct as he.

EDGAR N. TRANSEAU

Ohio State University

 

Indiana Politics During the Civil War. By Kenneth M. Stampp.

(Indiana Historical Collections, Vol. XXXI. Indianapolis, Indiana His-

torical Bureau, 1949. 300p., bibliography and index. $3.00.)

 

One who has lived through World War II and witnessed the whole-

hearted, practically unanimous support which the American people gave

to their government in an hour of crisis, cannot help but be amazed at

• 6
 

Book Reviews                        107

 

the lack of such support given to Lincoln during the Civil War. The

contrast shows how American nationalism has matured and the founda-

tions of liberty and constitutional government tested and made more

secure. Nowhere in Lincoln's time did intensely bitter partisanship

manifest itself more than in Indiana. Governor Morton's Republican or

"Union" party was willing to charge its foes with treason and support

court-martial death sentences. Democrats charged their opponents with

destroying constitutional government and the sacred liberties of the

people. The poison of war hysteria inevitably endangers democratic

ideals. In a superb case study, this volume deals with these vital prob-

lems.

Indiana could not escape sectional strife. Rivers linked the southern

portion to natural markets in the South and farmers feared the growth

of railroads and the money power of the East. To northern Indiana the

dawn of the new industrial age, supported by great railroads to the East,

was envisioned, even if often but dimly. It would be wrong to emphasize

this cleavage too much in relation to the Civil War, for the overwhelming

majority of Hoosiers of both sections and parties basically agreed that

the Union had to be preserved. Extremists on both sides by their louder

voices tended to obscure this fact.

Fortunately for Lincoln's cause, there emerged in Indiana one of

the great war governors in American history, Oliver P. Morton. Stampp

characterizes him as a political genius whose realistic mind clearly

understood his party's quandary and whose strong will, matchless energy,

and boundless ambition fitted him for revolutionary times. Blunt and

ruthless, he would not tolerate opposition. When the Democrats in the

middle of the war captured the lower house of the state's legislature

and blocked appropriation bills to force action on their demands, Morton

saved his war effort by borrowing personally from wealthy friends of the

Union. Democratic newspapers suffered, citizens lived in panicky fear

of their neighbors, and critics were labeled as traitors. The governor

appointed company and regimental officers and meddled in military

affairs. Graft and the insistence on states rights characterized bounty

payments for volunteering, contracts for war materials, and even "the

ministrations of mercy on the battlefields."

Professor Stampp has combined literary excellence with sound

scholarship in this monograph. It deals with questions still fundamental

to American democracy today. How can government be made strong

enough to meet danger without threatening the loss of civil rights and

• 7
 

108 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

individual liberty and freedom? The citizen of today who views this

problem with despair when he reads of specific instances when these two

objectives inevitably clash, will have his faith in the survival of American

democracy strengthened by reading this book.

A. T. VOLWILER

Ohio University

 

 

The Maryland Germans. By Dieter Cunz. (Princeton, Princeton

University Press, 1948. xi + ⁴⁴⁹p., illustrations, appendix, bibliography,

and index. $5.00.)

 

The author, a member of the German department of the University

of Maryland, has engaged in much careful research, utilizing almost

every type of available source. The volume is divided into three fairly

equal parts (with slightly less emphasis on the last): (1) The Colonial

Period, 1640-1790; (2) The Middle Ages of Immigration, 1790-1865;

(3) The Last Generations, 1865-1940.

In dealing with the Colonial Period considerable attention is given

to the career of Augustin Herrman, whose place of birth is disputed and

whose nationality has been claimed by both Germans and Czechs. He

eventually became the owner of 25,000 acres in Maryland. Beginning

in 1732, Germans, largely Lutheran or Reformed, began to go to what

was then the back country, the Monocacy Valley, and soon farther to the

west, where Hagerstown took its name from Jonathan Hager, an early

German pioneer.

Most Maryland Germans sided with the Patriots in the Revolutionary

War, and four all-German companies were recruited in Maryland. After

the Revolution, the Germans began to participate actively in public

affairs.

From 1789 to 1815 was a period of meager migration. But after

1815 an increasing wave developed, and from 1830 to 1860 about 200,000

German newcomers landed it, Maryland. Many, destined to go on to the

Middle West, received aid and protection from the German Society of

Maryland.

For many years prior to 1815 important congregations of the Lutheran

and Reformed faiths were already flourishing (not without some tension

between the two). German Roman Catholics had earlier been few in

number, but with their rapid increase, after 1840 Catholic authorities

• 8
 

Book Reviews                       109

provided German-speaking congregations, a practice earlier adopted by

Protestant communions.

Before the Civil War, Germans of Frederick and western Maryland

lived relatively austere lives, which found social expression in church

activities, but in more sophisticated Baltimore the definite development

of a wide variety of clubs was noticeable after 1840. Singing societies

and the Turnvereine with their gymnastic, educational, and political

aspects were especially conspicuous. After 1840 German-language publi-

cations attained increasing importance until practically the end of the

century.

Maryland Germans early affiliated with the Democratic party, and

few had become Republicans in western Maryland as late as 1860. Dur-

ing the Civil War most Maryland Germans definitely supported the

Union, but some, especially among the wealthy residents of Baltimore,

favored the Confederacy.

From 1860 to 1920 Baltimore Germans were rather self-consciously

German-Americans, a situation which did not develop in Hagerstown and

Frederick. During this period the German vote was a powerful factor,

especially in Baltimore.

During World War I Maryland Germans tended to sympathize

ardently with the Central Powers until the entry of the United States into

the struggle required a prompt and difficult readjustment. The war

effectively ended many German publications and societies. After the war

some singing and other organizations were revived, but by this time

most members were native-born.

During the 1930's groups favoring and opposed to Naziism were

formed in Baltimore. At the same time, perhaps fifteen hundred refugees

from Hitlerism settled in Maryland. Oddly enough the largest group

of those of German blood to come recently into Maryland was composed

of Amishmen who came down from Pennsylvania.

Much attention is given to many different individuals who have

served church, state, science, journalism, or in other walks of life. Among

these is Henry L. Mencken, a descendant of Maryland Germans.

All in all the volume is a valuable addition to scholarly studies of

immigrant groups in the United States.

FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER

Ohio State University

• 9
 

110 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

The Catholic Church and The Knights of Labor. By Henry J.

Browne. (The Catholic University of America Studies in American

Church History, Vol. XXXVII. Washington, Catholic University of

America, 1949. xvi + 395p., illustrations and index. Paper, $4; cloth

[with foreword by John P. Monaghan], $4.50.)

 

This is a scholarly volume based upon a careful study of printed

and manuscript materials. Of special importance for the work were:

(1) a collection of perhaps 75,000 letters and papers (in the possession

of the Catholic University of America) of Terence Vincent Powderly,

from 1879 to 1893 the leader of the Knights of Labor; (2) the widely

scattered correspondence and related documents of many Catholic bishops

who were concerned with the problem of the Knights of Labor.

The story is an important one in the industrial and religious history

of the United States and Canada. The central problem presented in this

study involves the fact that the Catholic Church has forbidden its mem-

bers to belong to secret organizations with oaths and rituals objection-

able to the Catholic faith; yet to many loyal Catholics the oath-bound

Knights of Labor seemed necessary to prevent the economic exploitation

of Catholic and other laborers. The order derived some degree of strength

from its secret character, and its leader, Powderly, as a Catholic, en-

deavored to persuade leaders of the hierarchy of the Church that the

organization could modify its forms so as to be acceptable to reasonable

demands of church authorities. Powderly exhibited great patience during

a period of years when he found some priests and bishops far from

friendly to the Knights, while some of his co-workers in the order deemed

him too subservient to clerical authority.

After much uncertainty, in Canada an inquiry was directed to Rome,

and a condemnation of the order in Quebec resulted. Ecclesiastical au-

thorities in Ontario and even in Montreal were more favorable to labor's

problems, however, and the situation became one that the author has

termed "Canadian confusion." In the United States there had long been

marked differences of opinion, and the archbishop of Quebec had deemed

it "most urgent that the Holy See put an end to this scandal as soon as

possible" (p. 168). Archbishop Corrigan of New York wrote that he

considered "the society as undoubtedly forbidden," and he indicated that

he had "answered all inquiries of the clergy in this sense" (p. 179).

Other bishops, notably James Gibbons of Baltimore (who during the

struggle was made a Cardinal), saw great danger to the relations between

• 10
 

Book Reviews                        111

 

church and labor in an outright condemnation of the order. Gibbons

struggled zealously and at times with a finesse that may have eluded

strict canonical procedure, and by 1888 a qualified acceptance of the

order was secured from Rome. The author believes that the result was

important not only for church-labor relations in the United States but

as an indication of the beginning of the powerful influence that Gibbons

and his friends were to have in shaping the later trend of papal pro-

nouncements on labor.

Many readers doubtless will be surprised at the extent to which

during this struggle faithful Catholics found the discipline of their

church far from uniform on a matter of great practical moment. Pow-

derly finally left the Catholic Church in 1901 (p. 355).

The author, a prominent Roman Catholic scholar of the archdiocese

of New York, states that he has endeavored to tell the truth objectively

so as "neither to defend nor to edify" but to "teach sound lessons to

those of both the Church and labor who would learn from the experiences

of their predecessors." In this endeavor he has, on the whole, attained

noteworthy success.

FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER

Ohio State University

 

 

The British Post Office: A History. By Howard Robinson. (Prince-

ton, Princeton University Press, 1948. xvii + 467p. $7.50.)

 

The volume is distinguished in format and type. The numerous illus-

trations are as well selected as they are well executed; the maps, a

valuable aid to the student of communications. Pity 'tis that this price

is asked for a good book, but the purchaser does receive good contempo-

rary value. An extensive bibliography is clearly related, by a note, to

the footnote citations, which it does not duplicate. "Sources" include

only official documents, but the work levies heavily upon, and acknowl-

edges, the many other sources, literary included, whose use clothes the

official skeleton with historic life. The otherwise useful index must be

used with some caution. Of names occurring in the text, only the his-

torically important are indexed; treated as partners in parasitism on

pp. 53 and 79 are the Duchess of Cleveland and Lady Frances Green, but

only the greater sinner achieves the index. Charles Dickens appears in

the text in only two of four index references.

• 11
 

112 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

That culture trait, the postage stamp, of which Professor Robinson

is a keen amateur, and how it was made what it is, the world over, by

the evolution of what he might have called "the Mother of ModeRN

Postal Systems," is the theme under which all else finds subordination.

Fortunately, as a veteran historian of England, he writes as the intelligent

amateur often does not, with keen consciousness of the multiform factors

which have operated over centuries. The numerous literary references,

for example, show how far the complete scholar must go. The need for

excluding some others may cause regret. The noblest lines of all on

posting systems, Milton's "thousands at his bidding speed," might have

been used in the chapters which show that "Stuart Tyranny," more than

parliamentary victory, founded a system concerned with the public in-

terest. Even more sparkle might have been added to the fascinating

chapters telling how the mail coach era resulted from John Palmer's

idea, by a reference to DeQuincey's "English Mail Coach" or to Dickens'

picture of the Dover mail (Tale of Two Cities) which anticipated by

nearly a decade the first actual mail coach which rolled the Bristol road

in August 1784.

No brief review can summarize the fact-packed and well-outlined

account of a service which grew from narrow and political conception,

cramped by bureaucracy, under the influence of technological, cultural,

and political forces, nor comment on the philosophy of the facts that

the external entrepreneur, like Dockwra and his London Penny Post, was

highly influential; that the mails overseas led to an international postal

union; that the dilemma of a post office which is both a purveyor of

public service and a producer of revenue is still with us. Only one slight

error in proof reading ("port" for "post" on p. 29) was noted. There is

contradiction in the definitions of "country letters" on pp. 102 and 105.

Apart from its interest to the philatellist and the general historian,

the work is important as institutional history. The human personality,

that inevitable nexus between reality and institutional evolution, is ably

sketched in numerous examples, especially of course, in Sir Rowland

Hill. Curious it is, that, when he sought to make a career by translating

urges of the Era of Reform into practice, he was the most obscure of

three men bearing the same name, and now, thanks to Penny Post

(authorized in 1839 and effectuated in 1840) and to the adhesive stamp

(the Penny Black was first licked in 1840), he is the only one known to

the general historian. He was swept to his shore by the agitation pre-

viously led by Robert Wallace against the resistances described in a

• 12
 

Book Reviews                         113

 

"chapter of abuses" (x), intensified by war and official convenience.

Britons will rejoice to read that "franking" was as abusive in contem-

porary America, and the system quite as irrational. Perhaps some of the

rather slight political credit which Melbourne's feckless and moribund

administration garnered from a reform for which they made no adequate

financial provision, is due to Peel, who carried it through the Hungry

Forties with their recurring deficits. Something more might be said about

the post office and the cabinet in modern times. Further criticism would

be inexcusable carping, further citation of fact a mere excuse to those

who, on the strength of reviews perused, would pass as readers of books

like this, which they should read with gratitude.

WARNER F. WOODRING

Ohio State University

• 13