Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS

THE WESTERN JOURNALS OF JOHN MAY, OHIO COMPANY AGENT AND BUSINESS ADVENTURER. Edited and with an In- troduction by Dwight L. Smith. (Cin- cinnati: Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, 1961. xii?? 176p.; il- lustrations, bibliography, and index. $5.50.) John May, Boston merchant and Rev- olutionary War officer, was one of the leaders of the Ohio Company of Asso- ciates which settled Marietta. In 1788 he rode west to the new country on Ohio Company business, and in 1789 he re- turned to the upper Ohio Valley to try his hand at merchandising. This volume, painstakingly edited by Professor Smith, is comprised of the record May kept on his odysseys. It makes available for the first time his orig- inal journals, or something as close to the original journals as we are ever likely to have. (Incomplete and badly edited versions were published many decades ago, but are unsatisfactory in many re- spects, and, at any rate, are now virtu- ally unobtainable.) The volume provides valuable source material on transporta- tion, trade, Indian relations, agriculture, and other conditions in the region which is now southern Ohio, northern West Vir- ginia, and western Pennsylvania. How- ever, since May began his journals as soon as he left home, there are also use- ful and engaging glimpses of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the seaboard region generally. Professor Smith's introduction details how the original text was resurrected--

an exercise in historical criticism almost rivaling the labors of medievalists. The restored journals do not alter to any significant extent our knowledge of the period, but they certainly do alter our picture of Colonel May. The early ver- sions of the journal had been edited before publication by a narrowly proper nineteenth-century descendant of the colo- nel, a clergyman who took out passages that were too blunt, "polished" up the language, and sometimes became so car- ried away that he simply added passages not in the original. As a result, most of the juice was extracted from that intrepid entrepreneur. As is usually the case, the original is far better. The real journals have a de- lightful and lively flavor. The dimensions of their author palpably emerge, and through him we experience the frontier as he leaves the East, and, in his own words, "stood for the Wilderness, in the Western World." May emerges as a sensible man of affairs, roughly tolerant of ignorant Ger- man settlers or loutish frontier tavern keepers because it was practical to be tolerant. He shows a finely attuned un- derstanding of psychology in business re- lations, and does not fail to jot down a newly heard prescription for rheuma- tism, a recipe for good bread, or instruc- tions on making whiskey. But the flush of exploration transforms the Yankee. His heart leaps at a new country--particularly a magic night at the helm of a Kentuckyman running the Ohio flood. By the time he has reached

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Marietta, he is writing (in a journal kept only for himself, remember) that "the Muskingum trips on as nimble as sprightly as a miss in her teens." Though he still arises at 3 A. M. to write, he now sometimes plunges first into the river-- "it looked so tempting I could not re- frain." His second trip went badly, until at one point he wryly commented that he was reading funeral sermons to cheer himself up, as they seemed humorous compared to his situation. There were too many traders in the new country, and not enough money. Through his eyes we observe much of the West of the day: the pulpit in the wilderness with no house within seven miles; the rapid change-- a village huddling where the year before had been forest; the touching poverty of the country people--"money terrible scarce yet the people want everything and cannot pay for them." And so it goes. salted with New Englander sea phrases. with here a quotation from the Good Book, and there a soldier's curse. Publishers are fond of saying that volumes appeal as well to the general reader as to the specialist. Reviewers often demur, but not in this case. This volume should be as useful in a high school library as it will be in a univer- sity seminar, as at home in a historical society collection as by an armchair. It is both meticulous scholarship and prime Americana. HUGH G. CLELAND State University of New York at Stony Brook       BENJAMIN LOGAN: KENTUCKY FRONTIERS- MAN. By Charles Gano Talbert. (Lex- ington: University of Kentucky Press, 1962. xi??332p.; bibliographical essay and index. $7.50.) Benjamin Logan   (c.1743-1802) has now found a biographer and early Ken- tucky another historian. The ground ex- plored and charted in this study has been traversed and mapped before, but new detail and greater familiarity lead to a

better understanding and fresh interpre- tations, especially with Logan as the cen- tral figure. A hunter and woodsman "in every way Daniel Boone's equal," an Indian fighter "second only to George Rogers Clark," a public figure whose only seri- ous shortcoming was his lack of formal education--these are characteristics at- tributed to Logan. On the frontier, where one's ability to hunt, to fight Indians, and to participate in public affairs made a difference, partisans of Boone, James Harrod, Clark, and others might dispute the degree of Talbert's claims for Logan: but that he was able and prominent and that he was one of the founding fathers of his state no one can deny. Of Scotch-Irish stock, a sergeant in Bouquet's Indian campaign of 1764, a lieutenant of the Virginia militia in Lord Dunmore's War a decade later, Virginia frontier born Logan moved into the Hol- ston Valley, bought a farm, married, and settled down. Not for long, however, be- cause he went west in 1775 and helped to establish a settlement at St. Asaph's near present Stanford, Kentucky. During the Revolution and the subsequent Indian Wars he participated in and led several retaliatory expeditions against the In- dians north across the Ohio River. He served three terms in the assembly of Virginia, played a prominent role in the constitutional conventions and the estab- lishment of statehood for Kentucky, was a three-term member of the house of representatives of the new state, nar- rowly missed election as governor, and ably filled a number of other political and militia offices. His speculations in real estate made him one of the prin- cipal landholders in Kentucky. There are inherent difficulties for any biographer of Logan to conjure with. To conjecture and to impute where inade- quate documentation is available reveals the biographer's bias. Also, to assure continuity when Logan does not promi- nently figure in the story, it is necessary to dwell at considerable length on others --enough so that the title might be more

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properly reworded to include "the life and times of. . . ." The treatment of the topics in the volume is not even in quality. Talbert is weakest when he asserts unqualified fail- ures and unequaled successes as in the campaigns of the Indian Wars north of the Ohio. On the other hand, he is es- pecially strong in his consideration of such complicated subjects as the guber- natorial race in which Logan figures prominently, and the problem of loyalty as opposed to reality concerning the navi- gation of the Mississippi River. These shortcomings do not seriously detract from the worth of the volume and Talbert's Logan will be the standard biog- raphy and one of the principal accounts of the settlement and establishment of Kentucky statehood for some time to come. As such it is most welcome. DWIGHT L. SMITH Indiana University     THE HOLY SEE AND TILE NASCENT CHURCH IN THE MIDDLE WESTERN UNITED STATES, 1826-1850. By Robert Freder- ick Trisco. (Rome: Gregorian Univer- sity Press, 1962. xii??408p.; maps, bibliography, and index. $5.90.) The large immigration of Catholics around the middle of the nineteenth cen- tury presented the Church in America with a challenge for which it was largely unprepared, and for which it lacked both funds and adequate personnel. It was necessary to serve the religious needs of thousands of new arrivals, and to deal with the racial and national frictions which developed among French, Irish, and German Catholics. Although these problems were more acute in the East, they existed to a lesser degree in the nascent Church in the Middle West. Here we have the story, in great detail, of the creation of dioceses and the men who served them, as the Catholic Church in the Middle West developed from iso- lated little log chapels to flourishing bish-

oprics and archbishoprics. The task of re- cruiting adequate personnel, the drafting of individuals from religious orders which were reluctant to lose their mem- bers, the shifting boundaries of dioceses, the necessity of finding priests who were fluent in two or three languages and could deal with antagonistic nationality groups, and the need to provide material support for this missionary effort, posed difficult and highly complicated problems for the Holy See. A discussion of the guidance and authority that came from Rome in these matters constitutes the bulk of this volume. The Holy See directed recruits from the Irish, Belgian, French, and German priesthood to the Middle West; educated a few Americans at the Urban College in Rome for service in the United States; encouraged the educational activities of religious orders; provided material help; dealt with jurisdictional disputes among the bishops; and occasionally had to take disciplinary action to preserve order and harmony among the American hier- archy. Rome's record in these matters was essentially a good one, but the Holy See was not infallible and some of its choices were less felicitous than others. This study of the influence of leaders of the American Church upon Rome, and vice versa, will be of primary interest to those especially concerned with the in- ternal structure and operation of the Catholic Church, but it makes rather heavy and sometimes dull reading for others who have only a general interest in the history of religion in the Middle West before 1850. The research has been exhaustive, careful, and thorough; the bibliography is a good one, and the foot- notes (mostly in Latin) numerous and long. The index is adequate but strangely enough omits the Irish, who are men- tioned rather frequently in the text. The story is enlivened by such incidents as the account of two American Indians at the Urban College; the unseemly row between Bishop Rese and the Poor Clares of Pittsburgh in the 1830's (recounted

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in nearly fifty pages); and the procedure by which the tempestuous German bishop of Detroit was finally relieved of his juris- diction in 1840.   CARL WITTKE Western Reserve University       RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN AMERICAN CULTURAL HISTORY. Edited by John Francis McDermott. (Lexington: Uni. versity of Kentucky Press, 1961. viii?? 205p.; index. $6.00.) With obvious enthusiasm twelve schol- ars (only three of them college professors of history) have set forth their views on research opportunities in their favorite fields of interest. Meeting at Washington University as a round table in October 1959, they read and discussed the papers which, with revisions, appear in this vol- ume. Lester J. Cappon writing on the colonial period, John F. McDermott on the French in the Mississippi Valley, Howard H. Peckham on Indian relations, Thomas D. Clark on travel literature, Theodore C. Blegen on the saga of the immigrant, Joseph Ewan on the scientist on the frontier, Richard M. Dorson on folklore and cultural history, John T. Flanagan on middlewestern regional liter- ature, David Kaser on the book trade and publishing history, David Mead on popular education and cultural agencies, E. P. Richardson on the visual arts and cultural history, and Philip D. Jordan on tastes in recreation clearly enjoyed the occasion to talk about their themes. The essays do not pretend to be defini- tive. Written by experts, they are, how- ever, excellent surveys. In general each includes a review of literature on the subject, emphasizing works published since 1945 (nearly a thousand titles are cited in footnotes). The contributors pro- pose for research hundreds of topics which they believe have not yet been adequately studied. They do not define cultural history, but the literature re-

viewed and their suggestions imply that it does not include institutional history or the statistical, quantitative, or norma- tive methods of social science. They urge the collection and publication of infor- mation. Most of the works proposed would be descriptive. No priorities are set up, however, and no basis appears from which a student might determine such order. One subject after another simply "needs to be done." More explicit con- cern with standards, relative importance, and values would probably have given the recommendations greater significance. Historical studies need to be meaningful. HARRY R. STEVENS Ohio University       VIRGINIA RAILROADS IN THE CIVIL WAR. By Angus James Johnston, II. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press for the Virginia Historical So- ciety, 1961. xiv??336p.; illustrations, tables, maps, bibliography, and index. $6.00.) It is gratifying to read a work that develops a somewhat forgotten phase of the war instead of emphasizing the glori- ous or obvious. Wartime transportation problems in Virginia during the war years were basic to the more obvious judgments and actions of the leaders. Mr. Johnston is concerned with this theme throughout his work. He has thoroughly maintained the initial importance that the railroads had in Confederate military operations, the most noteworthy example being the serv- ices of the Manassas Gap Railroad at the first battle of Bull Run. Although the railroads were to continue to be a major consideration in the military operations of the Confederacy, their performance was not sufficient to meet the needs. For those railroads that had suffered from the war there was little repairing that could be done, and the deficiency of re- pair materials was deeply felt by the

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winter of 1862-63. There were no new rails available to make the much-needed repairs, since all foundries had been shifted to military production. Shortages of wood and food were drastically felt by the civilian population of the Con- federacy by 1863, and as the problem worsened there were not a few railroads that preferred to haul this more profitable private freight than the necessary military items. The government of the Confeder. acy had little choice but to take what it needed from one railroad for another. The Confederacy, although needing their railroads, could not overcome these problems. They were not fortunate enough to have, as the Union had, the ability of a Herman Haupt or the cooper- ation of a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, As a result, there was a close relationship between the deterioration of Confederate railroads and the increasing restrictions placed upon military movements of the Confederacy in Virginia. The Union armies, on the other hand, with far fewer problems, used water transportation as much or more than the railroads. The author's concern with the prob- lems of wartime transportation extends beyond the Virginia borders and the rails themselves. His deviations are necessarily limited by the scope of his subject, but his critical analysis and the careful re- lationship he establishes with the broader subject of wartime transportation is ex- tremely pertinent. Mr. Johnston's theme is exceptionally well organized, pointed, and conclusive. and the entire work is well written. There is no scarcity of documentation. Virginia Railroads in the Civil War should be a welcome addition to any serious Civil War library. ROBERT L. DAMM Mystic Seaport     THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH IN THE ATLANTIC STATES: BASED UPON THE

COLLECTIONS OF THE LINGUISTIC ATLAS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. By Hans Kurath and Raven I. McDavid, Jr. (Ann Arbor: University of Mich- igan Press, 1961. xi??182p.??180 maps; index. $15.00.) This technical study of patterns of pronunciation in American English offers fascinating data for students and ob- servers of civilization in the United States. It continues the major enterprise initiated in 1939 with the publication, under the direction of Kurath, of the first of three volumes titled Linguistic Atlas of New England, and its companion work, Handbook of the Linguistic Geography of the United States. Subsequent special studies have extended the analyses to the whole eastern seaboard. The present book, another meticulously ordered selection from the field materials gathered by workers on the Linguistic Atlas project, is produced by Kurath in collaboration with his chief disciple, McDavid, a spe- cialist in the south Atlantic area. Where previous monographs had con- centrated on regional and social differ- ences in vocabulary and word usages, this work focuses on differences in pro- nouncing the same word. By a clever sampling method of selecting speakers, the Atlas interviewers recorded the speech behavior of Americans from all social classes in the seaboard states. They or their co-workers then constructed maps de- fining the areas and subareas (isoglosses) emerging from the collected and phonemi- cally analyzed materials. For the cultural historian these isoglosses are of keen interest, since the language boundaries serve also as indexes of subcultural boundaries. In addition, the distinctions offered between the language habits of educated, common, and folk speech illum- inate the social cleavages. Two chapters introduce the body of the materials with a description of the technical methods employed in grading the pronunciation of vowels and con- sonants in key words, and a survey of

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the regional dialect areas of cultivated speech. To arrive at these areas, 157 cultivated speakers were interviewed in 136 communities--a small sampling, the authors admit, of a fifty million popula- tion. Brief biographies are printed (pp. 23-27) of all these informants, followed by a reproduction of work sheets for over half on sixty-six common words (pp. 31-100). Then come three central chapters, dealing successively with re- gional and social differences in pronun- ciations of stressed vowels, of the con- sonant r and its preceding vowels, and of the incidence of vowels and consonants in certain selected words. Descriptive synopses in these chapters present the conclusions from the evidence, and are supported by the one hundred and eighty maps to which they are keyed. An index preceding the maps (pp. 181-182) lists the words analyzed, from  "again" to "your aunt," with their corresponding synopsis numbers and map numbers. A portion of the map pages contains small insert maps showing pronunciation pat- terns in England, for comparison with the Atlantic coast. The word whose pronunciation carries the most emotional overtones is Negro. Kurath and McDavid find the use of "nigra," with the i of "big," most com- mon in the old plantation South. In New England and New York the preferred usage is "neegro," with the e of three. An intermediate shading is "nigro," predom- inant in border states like Maryland. Delaware, and West Virginia. The latter two pronunciations are about evenly di- vided in Pennsylvania, although cultured speakers in Philadelphia and Baltimore definitely prefer "neegro." In Charleston the whole spectrum of "neegro, neegra. nigro, nigra" appeared, with most speak- ers, however, using the derogatory "nigga." Yet in folk speech this is a neutral or even a friendly term, and ten of twenty-two Negroes interviewed found it unobjectionable. The maps clearly dem-

onstrate the northern cultivation of the long e and long o in Negro. Less charged words are still equally revealing of class and regional habits. The vexing creek has the long e through most of the South, with pockets of short i along the lower Potomac and in western North Carolina, where Pennsylvania in- fluence is felt. The long e is a prestige pronunciation by cultured speakers around Baltimore and Annapolis. How- ever, in Charleston and along the South Carolina coast speakers vacillate from one form to another, no clear class lines emerging. Western New York and Penn- sylvania run strongly to "crick," but along the New England coast, where creek means a tidal inlet rather than a fresh water stream, pronunciation changes back and forth all along the line until Maine, where "crick" triumphs. The authors believe that the spelling of creek has contributed to the long e sound in parts of New England. In the midst of their summaries of the empirical evidence Kurath and McDavid pause to speculate and comment shrewdly on historical questions. Thus they find bristle with a u sound plentiful in the folk speech of northern New England and New York, and with an insert map trace it to English folk speech in East Anglia and Essex; but the problem remains why all classes in the South, educated and folk alike, use the short i. The long i of neither they believe to be a recent de- rivative from British English, its use in England having become popular only in the nineteenth century. They point to American innovations, as the phoneme e in married and barrel, and to relic areas. such as eastern Massachusetts and upstate New York, where poor and sure rhyme with four and shore, the standard usage in the South and the northern New Eng- land coast. Cleverly they account for the widespread trisyllabic pronunciation of mushroom, often with an n ending, as a continuous survival from British Eng-

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lish of all classes in the seventeenth cen- tury, when Old French mousseron was still exerting its influence; folk speech in the southern counties of England today retains the form. But Kurath and McDavid do not al- ways claim to have the answers. Why is deaf overwhelmingly pronounced "deef" among the folk in the East, when current British English accounts only for the cultured "deff" and the folk "diff" in the South? The experts merely conjecture that a possible former use of "deef" by folk in England has been swallowed by the educated "deff." As a status symbol, tomato may well assert priority, for "cultured urbanites" from Boston and Newport to Richmond and Norfolk reject the long a of "potato" for the purring a of "car." Outside the social register, "tomayto" is standard; in England "tomayto" is unknown. Hence the cultured speakers of New York City and Philadelphia may be emulating Eng- lish or New England aristocracy, or both. Presumably they do not know that the word descends from the Nahuatl tomatl through the Spanish tomate, which dis- placed love-apple after 1775 on both sides of the Atlantic. One of the many virtues in this splen- did book is the recognition by the authors of the continued flux of American Eng- lish. Nevertheless, they have revealed dis- tinctive and definite focal areas of Amer- ican dialects. Layman as well as special- ist, historian as well as dialectologist, will find rewards in this latest production of the remarkable Linguistic Atlas of Amer- ica enterprise.   RICHARD M. DORSON Indiana University       THE TERRITORIAL PAPERS OF THE UNITED STATES. Compiled and edited by Clar- ence E. Carter. Volume XXVI, THE TERRITORY OF FLORIDA, 1839 - 1845. (Washington: National Archives, 1962.

v??1238p.; maps and index. $8.00.) This volume is not merely the fourth and last of those dealing with territorial Florida; it is also the last to be edited by the late Clarence E. Carter (1881- 1961), who served as editor of the Ter- ritorial Papers from their authorization in 1931 up to his death, and the last volume that will appear for some in- definite time, since the editor's death and the fact that subsequent volumes would lie in an area and period considerably different from those covered earlier have led to a decision to re-appraise the en- tire undertaking both as to scope and methodology. In the present volume several major themes emerge from the ruck of letters of appointment, petitions for river and har- bor improvements, and the like. They in- clude the statehood controversy, which was complicated by a strong East Florida movement for the continuance of terri- torial status in that region and which contributes to our knowledge of party conflict and intraparty factionalism in this period of political flux; the winding up of the Seminole War; and problems arising out of the armed occupation act of August 1842, which aimed at "con- taining" the remaining Indians by a land grant to every man, "able to bear arms," settling in the region from which the natives had recently been removed. Con- spicuous among these latter problems was the protection of live-oak timber on pub- lic lands, which was badly needed for naval construction but was often illegally removed by pretended "settlers"--a situa- tion not unfamiliar to the department of the interior today. The brunt of this task of protection was borne by a gentleman with the almost unbelievably prickly and appropriate name of Hezekiah L. Thistle, whose zeal led to his being assaulted by a member of a timber firm. The most scandalous act of violence, however, was the murder of General Leigh Read, mar- shal of Middle Florida, by a man whose

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brother he had killed in a duel. For the first time, too, antislavery becomes an issue. Numerous protests occur against the escape of slaves to the Bahamas-- the episode of "Branded-Hand" Walker belongs to this period--and an East Flor- ida grand jury in March 1844 empha- sized the "great looseness . . . in the management of the Slave population," such as permitting slaves to "hire them- selves by the day." Miscopyings and other errors--inevita- ble in a work of such scope, based on manuscripts in a variety of hands--are remarkably few: "inch and fertile" (p. 505) should obviously be "rich and fer- tile"; "Nikeka" (p. 509) is an error for "Chekika"; "Mules the celebrated . . . conspiracer [sic]" (p. 674) refers to the notorious land pirate Murrell. "Passacca . . . (brother of Cloud)" (p. 552) could not be "Paseoffes [sic]," a commander of Creek Indians (p. 552n). Some names-- for example, "Par-suck-e-ohola" (p. 284) --are omitted from the valuable index, which would, however, be more useful if the topics under each entry were ar- ranged chronologically instead of alpha- betically. A welcome innovation in this volume is the careful locating of forts and the like in present-day terms. Students of American history will look forward to the early resumption of this important and well-edited series.   KENNETH WIGGINS PORTER University of Oregon   EARLY AMERICAN WOODEN WARE. By Mary Earle Gould. (Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1962. xii+243p.; index. $8.50.) The primary difference between the earlier and this revised edition of Miss Gould's book is the addition of some thirty-four plates. The textual matter has remained unchanged except for a brief paragraph in the foreword. When Miss Gould began her collect-

ing some thirty years ago, she did not confine herself to purely decorative pieces; rather, she was interested in the functions performed by these objects. This was fortunate; unless such items display unusual decoration or wood pat- tern they are seldom collected. As a re- sult, kitchen and household utensils and other articles used in the preparation of everyday necessities were preserved and identified. The United States provides an excellent basis for such a work, for ob- jects can be located which date from the earliest settlements and their evolvement traced to the present day. Few luxury items were brought from the parent coun- tries by the early colonists. The iron ax, adze, hoe, knife, cooking pot, and firearm provided shelter and food; wooden ware supplied the household tools. The colo- nists were familiar with making many objects from wood; the Indians appar- ently contributed to this knowledge with their methods of woodworking, especially the weaving of various items of ash, oak, and hickory splints. Wooden ware moved westward with the frontier as well as re- maining in the East with the more im- poverished settlers. Here in the Middle West wooden ware was common at least until the Civil War, less so to the close of the nineteenth century, and can still be found in use today. Miss Gould covers the types of wooden ware extremely well. She has been very conscientious in examining each piece for tell-tale stains or bleaching, for construc- tion and wear, in assigning them    a particular task. Many incidental facts and folklore are included in the text, adding to the interest of the book. The illustra- tions are reasonably good. There are a few criticisms. The text could be reduced in length if repetition were avoided. A critical editing is needed; for example, this sentence is present in the old and new editions: "In Pennsylvania, marzipan or marchpane cakes were made as early as 1563 [sic] for the Christmas tree to

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be eaten before Twelfthnight" (p. 79). An attempt could have been made to idate the objects; it is also confusing to read "colonist" and "settler" without knowing the approximate period meant. Facts are presented without qualifying evidence: "The trade of making barrels, buckets, tubs and kegs dates back to 70 A.D." (p. 177); or, "The Egyptians, 500 years before Christ, discovered the properties in clay for making paint" (p. 288). It is doubtful if coopering gen- erated itself so precipitantly, or that pale- olithic man did not know the value of clay in preparing his "paint." There are numerous other examples. Miss Gould's book must be considered as an excellent guide to collectors and those in the an- tique field; this was the reason for its writing and it fills this purpose well.   DONALD A. HUTSLAR Ohio Historical Society     HANDBOOK ON INDIANA HISTORY. By Don- ald F. Carmony. Foreword by William E. Wilson, state superintendent of pub- lic instruction. State of Indiana, De- partment of Public Instruction, Bulletin No. 245. (Indianapolis, Indiana De- partment of Public Instruction, 1961. vii??77p.; selected texts, references, and audio-visual materials and append- ices. Paper, free to teachers.) As Indiana approaches the sesquicen- tennial observance of its statehood in 1966, its historical society has under- taken the monumental and long-overdue task of assembling a detailed, authorita- tive account of the state's past in five volumes. Anticipating the inevitable heightening of interest with the approach of this anniversary and to encourage the more effective study of Indiana's state and local history, State Superintendent William E. Wilson in 1959 appointed an advisory committee chaired by Donald F. Carmony, editor of the Indiana Magazine of History, to compile a Handbook on Indiana History for the use of teachers

and adult study groups. Containing a dozen chapters or units, the Handbook is arranged both chronologically and topi- cally, with principal emphasis upon poli- tics but with due regard for economic, social, and cultural developments. Partic- ularly valuable are the lists of texts, reference materials, and audio-visual aids included at the close of each chapter, though Dr. Carmony frankly admits that some "marginal items" have been in- cluded in the absence of anything better. In addition, "especially desirable items have been included even when not read- ily available." Despite these professed limitations and notwithstanding a lamentable absence of clarity and definition in the treatment of Indiana's prehistory, the Handbook should serve the teacher and serious adult reader well. Ohio's historians will find particular interest in the chapters deal- ing with the struggle of the French and British for control of the Ohio Valley, the settlement of the Old Northwest, pioneers and pioneer life, and politics during the Civil War era. PHILLIP R. SHRIVER Kent State University     THE GREAT LAKES CAR FERRIES. By George W. Hilton. (Berkeley, Calif.: Howell- North Books, 1962. xv??282p.; illus- trations, appendix, and indexes. $6.00.) As the title indicates, this work is in- tended as a history of a little-known facet of railroading, the ferrying of both pas- senger and freight cars across the Great Lakes by Canadian and American rail- roads. This, the reader will discover, has been going on for a hundred years; and although railcar ferrying has declined somewhat like   railroading itself and many a once proud ship has been igno- miniously reduced to the status of a lowly barge, the few ferries now plying the lakes still perform an important func- tion in American transportation.

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"There is nothing particularly note- worthy," says the author, "about a normal voyage across Lake Michigan." Mr. Hilton's history, therefore, leans heavily on numerous brief accounts of such things as the accidents which oc- curred among these ships and of their battles with the winter ice. In addition. the book contains an excellent collection of old and new photographs of the many ships once engaged in the service and also includes numerous diagrams which help the reader through the labyrinth of design changes over the years. Unfortunately all this is not apt to en- thrall the average reader, or even the professional historian. The book is di- vided into chapters and sections strictly according to the various companies which owned the ships. Within each of these sections, after a brief discussion of the company and of the origin and develop- ment of its service, its ships are described and a short account given of their in- dividual fates. Since at best these were rather unlovely ships engaged in an un- glamorous business (in many cases their owners simply gave them numbers rather than bothering to christen them with new names), the book takes on some of the qualities of a hardware company cata- log. The author has no discernible thesis and he makes no effort at interpretation. The text ends abruptly on page 253 with a short paragraph describing the last ship of the last railroad which the author wanted to discuss. There are no con- clusions. The book obviously has value, how- ever, as a reference work. Railroad and marine historians will undoubtedly want to dip into it. Although it contains no footnotes and no bibliography, Mr. Hil- ton, who has written several books on railroading, is unquestionably an expert on the subject he is discussing and has apparently engaged in extensive research in preparation for the book. It is well indexed and toward the end includes a

"Fleet List" with details on the over-all dimensions, tonnages, engine sizes, boiler capacities, and so forth of most of the ships mentioned in the text. Some of the members of the Steamship Historical Society who thrive on such details can have a feast. ROBERT W. TWYMAN Bowling Green State University       THE PAGEANT OF THE PRESS: A SURVEY OF 125 YEARS OF IOWA JOURNALISM, 1836- 1961. By William J. Petersen. (Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1962. x??120p.; illustrations. Cloth, $7.50; paper, $6.00.) This book is literally a pageant of sorts of a century and a quarter of the Iowa press. After a brief editorial introduction and an 8-page survey of the period cov- ered, it devotes the next 118 pages to reproductions of nearly 60 Iowa news- papers, daily and weekly, in about eighty percent of their actual size. It resembles somewhat Robert C. Wheeler's Ohio Newspapers, A Living Record, published in 1950 by the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical So- ciety. There are certain other Ohio over- tones. The first newspaper published in the then territory of Iowa was the DuBuque Visitor, which made its appear- ance May 11, 1836. This resulted from a contract entered into on March 31, 1836. in Chillicothe, Ohio, between John King and William Cary Jones under which the latter was to go to Dubuque to superin- tend the publication of a paper for King. For this Jones was to get $350, plus "board and lodging during one year." As the brief editorial introduction ex- plains, emphasis was placed on the Iowa territorial papers during the period 1836 to 1846, "but just as many have been included in the period 1846-1865." After that the number dealt with down to 1890 was "reduced to a fraction." The last paper shown is the Cedar Rapids Gazette

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of December 31, 1961, with the timely bannerline "BERLIN WARNING TO KREMLIN." Twelve other page ones of the modern period are reproduced, from the sinking of the Maine in 1898 to the successful aerospace flight of Alan Shepard in May 1961. Four pages of the Council Bluffs Nonpareil for April 22, 1865, with turn- rules throughout, are reproduced report- ing Lincoln's assassination. Under a Chicago dateline, oddly, the six-para- graph lead story, with the headline, "MURDER!! MOST FOUL!!," reports Lincoln's death, with this postscript: "Later! Washington, April 15. Seward died at 9:15 this A.M. E. M. Stanton." Seward had been attacked in his home but did not die. Yet a week after the event the fact had not caught up with the earlier report in distant Iowa. Despite the disappearance of many newspapers, thirty-four Iowa newspapers established prior to the Civil War were still being published as of the end of 1961. Among these was the Burlington Hawk-Eye Gazette, which dates from 1837. This paper was bought in 1874 by Frank Hatton, an Ohioan, then only twenty-eight years old. Ten years later President Arthur named him postmaster general. He was said to be the youngest cabinet member appointed, at least up to that time. Iowa's newspaper pageant is a useful book. Other states would do well to emulate Iowa and Ohio in this respect.   JAMES E. POLLARD Ohio State University     THE CAUSES OF THE WAR OF 1812. By Reginald Horsman. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962. 267p.; bibliography and index. $6.00.) This volume, in great and often con- fusing detail, attempts to outline the reasons why, eventually, the United

States went to war with Great Britain in 1812. The emphasis is decidedly British; that is, the study primarily is devoted to a step by step enumeration and explana- tion of Britain's role in the pre-war period. The narrative actually begins with the renewal of the Napoleonic Wars after the lull in hostilities following the Peace of Amiens and concludes with the United States' declaration of war in June 1812, just as the British were about to find some modus vivendi for solving the Anglo-American difficulties. On the one side, Horsman shows Britain, despite cries of distress from home, holding on to its traditional policy on commerce and neutral rights and, on the other, the United States engaged in a variety of artifices, including the em- bargo coercion, in an attempt to break down British restrictive practices. Short chapters are devoted to affairs in the West, where Britain was stirring up the Indians, but Mr. Horsman correctly ac- knowledges that even the westerners were more interested, emotionally and eco- nomically, in neutral rights and impress- ment than in Indian raids and Canada. The final portion of the volume deals with America's preparations for war in late 1811 and early 1812. Unfortunately, the detail found elsewhere in the book somehow is missing here, and the prin- ciples of argument, while agreed with by this reviewer, are a bit too thin to be persuasive. This attractively bound and printed volume comes as a severe disappoint- ment. It is poorly organized and gives the reader the feeling that the author has grouped his research cards under broad, general headings, and then has simply recorded them as his narrative. Too, the volume, as a whole, presents nothing new and actually carries on certain long- established but poorly founded myths concerning the actual expansionist move against Canada. Interestingly enough, Mr. Horsman admits that the evidence of expansionism is rather poor, but, ne'er- theless, perhaps fearing to tread on un-

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blessed ground, turns right around and promotes the fable. Though the bibliography exhibits a mass of source materials, the actual inter- pretation of these leaves the reader with the idea that they were not explored in depth and that, even when the sources indicate otherwise, he is too willing to accept past interpretations and is dis- trustful of both the sources and his own judgment. RICHARD C. KNOPF Kent State University   THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR, 1781-1795. By Harry M. Ward. (Pittsburgh: Uni- versity of Pittsburgh Press, 1962. xi?? 287p.; appendices, bibliography, and index. $4.95.) The period of American history known as the Confederation (1781-89) has often been portrayed as one full of dangers and barren of accomplishment--a "critical period" of transition between the Ameri- can Revolution and the new nation under the constitution. In recent years some historians--particularly Charles A. Beard and Merrill Jensen--have challenged this old view and have shown that, despite many weaknesses, the general govern- ment can be credited with solid accom- plishments. Among the achievements of the Confederation period were the estab- lishment of a national land system and the creation of a bureaucracy. This book, dealing with the establishment of the department of war, shows that there was a great deal more administrative con- tinuity between the periods of the con- federation and constitution than has often been supposed. During the Revolution the continental congress dealt with military matters through various ad hoc committes and through a board of war. Though far from  ideal this arrangement lasted throughout most of the actual fighting. From its establishment in 1781 to 1795 the war department had only two secre- taries, General Benjamin Lincoln and General Henry Knox. Thus the early his-

tory of the war department is largely a story of the personalities and problems of these two men, both of whom Ward maintains were men of exceptional ad- ministrative abilities. General Lincoln, who, in accordance with British usage was called the "secretary at war," as- sumed many burdensome details formerly devolving on the congress and its com- mittees. According to Ward, his "level leaded administration" dispelled the fear of a permanent war executive encroach- ing upon civil authority and convinced congress of the need for a single-headed war executive. After the surrender at Yorktown the department of war, in ad- dition to a host of routine duties per- taining to such matters as pensions, pay, and patronage, had the important task of dealing with the Indians. General Knox, who succeeded Lincoln in 1785 and served continuously until 1795, though "too bookish" on military tactics, was nevertheless a sound administrator. He had the complete confidence of Wash- ington in the early years and, until the outbreak of the political quarrel between Jefferson and Hamilton, was one of the most influential members of the execu- tive branch of the government. Though his views on the desirability of a strong national government coincided with those of Hamilton, Knox's influence steadily declined, partly because he was the equal of neither Hamilton nor Jefferson in powers of expression. Furthermore, his obese wife played a rather ridiculous role socially. Far more important, however, in reducing Knox's prestige were the ignominious defeats of Generals Harmar and St. Clair in the Ohio country. By the time of the Whiskey Rebellion Knox had become so inconsequential that he simply left town and allowed his depart- ment to be administered by Hamilton. who by that time had become a sort of prime minister. In the light of much that has hap- pened since, two aspects of the early department of war are noteworthy. In the first place, it is an interesting fact that the United States government was

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launched with a unified defense depart- ment. General Knox presided not only over the army but also what there was of a navy. With the outbreak of a gen- eral European war following the French Revolution, congress authorized  the building of six frigates. According to Ward, "the construction program did not gain full momentum during his admin- istration, although the fault was not Knox's." Perhaps so, but congress soon decided that naval matters should be put in a separate department. Further details on the inability of the department of war to handle naval affairs would have been enlightening. Another interesting aspect of the old department of war was the absence of a general staff. After the resignation of General Washington there was no single military head (or chief of staff) to advise the secretary and no gen- eral staff to plan and direct military operations. The secretary in fact had no professional advisers, civil or military. It is little wonder that his grasp of mili- tary intelligence, logistics, and operations was generally feeble. Though one might question some of the author's judgments on both men and issues, this monograph is a thorough piece of research that adds significantly to our knowledge of the administrative history of the confederation and early republic. HARRY L. COLES Ohio State University       THE SCOTCH-IRISH: A SOCIAL HISTORY. By James G. Leyburn. (Chapel Hill: Uni- versity of North Carolina Press, 1962. xix?? 377p.; maps, appendices, biblio- graphy, and index. $7.00.) This book is the first general history of the Scotch-Irish since Henry Jones Ford's The Scotch-Irish in America (1915), which was preceded by Charles A. Hanna's well-known compendium of information published in 1902. Professor Leyburn's work, with its straightforward historical narrative, has the merit of pro-

viding a comprehensive consideration of the subject in both its European and its American phases. The first half of the book is devoted, in equal parts, to the Lowland Scots in 1600 before they mi- grated to Ireland and during their so- journ in Ireland; the second half (Part III) deals with the Scotch-Irish in Amer- ica. It is helpful to begin by reading Appendix I, on the name "Scotch-Irish," in order to appreciate fully the misunder- standing and controversy that long pre- vailed regarding the identification of the Ulster Scots, biological, geographical, and historical. Certainly the first century of the story, before the great migrations to the Ameri- can colonies, needed most to be retold. Untrammeled by national and ethnic prejudices, the author has provided a cultural study, realistic and objective, with no axe to grind. As for the century of emigration and spread of the Scotch- Irish in America, Professor George Shep- person has observed recently that this "stream has been well dredged by schol- ars" (William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Ser., XI [1954], 168); however, this is the climax of the story, which, in view of the far-flung areas to be covered, the author has kept within reasonable com- pass. He concludes his narrative on the eve of the Revolution, because the pio- neers who crossed the mountains to settle in Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Ohio Valley were "a generation of Americans, not of Englishmen or Germans or Scotch- Irish." For the most part, Professor Leyburn's study is not based on primary sources. Although intermittent citations to them appear throughout the footnotes, he has examined a wide range of secondary works of present and past generations and then assessed his accumulated data in the light of available contemporary printed documents and, in a few in- stances, of manuscripts. In Part III on America he is not always abreast of mod- ern historical scholarship; occasionally he resorts to citations to textbooks; and sometimes he launches into a collateral

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subject with no references at all. The book contains two sets of notes: those explanatory and descriptive appear as footnotes with the text; those consisting only of citations in numerical sequence are relegated to the back of the book. This is a convenient device for the gen- eral reader, though it puts the scholar to some inconvenience. As a sociologist the author is con- cerned in part with exploding some of the myths that have clustered about the Scotch-Irish: that they were of the Scot- tish gentry or the Highland clans; that Scotland was a country of great culture rather than proverty-stricken and lawless at the beginning of the seventeenth cen-

tury; that the Scotch-Irish contributed toward the development of American nationality as a superior "race," in con- trast to most of their contemporaries. Professor Leyburn portrays, in turn, the characteristics of the Lowlanders, the Ulster Scots, and their descendants the Scotch-Irish; and he emphasizes their notable contribution to American life and culture in education, religion, and poli- tics. Although he has not written the "definitive" work on the subject, his book is commendable and very readable. LESTER J. CAPPON Institute of Early American History and Culture

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