Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS

 

The Constitutional History of the United States, 1826-1876: A

More Perfect Union. By Homer C. Hockett. (New York,

Macmillan Company, 1939. 405p. $3.00.)

The first volume of this series, The Blessings of Liberty, was

reviewed in the QUARTERLY, XLIX (1940), 292-94. In it Pro-

fessor Hockett discussed the colonial background, the Revolu-

tionary Period, and the first third of a century under the new

Constitution. Here he treats of the slavery controversy but "to

minimize the boredom of readers who are familiar with the story,

the author has avoided narrative and restricted himself severely

to the constitutional phases of the matter."  There are other

topics in this middle period which, in the perspective of the

present, are of perhaps greater interest. The democratization of

the Federal Government, the rise of capitalistic industry, the

adoption of the corporate form of organization, and the territorial

expansion of the United States are developments of these years.

They affected our constitutional system in the long run, Professor

Hockett points out, quite as profoundly as the slavery issue.

This volume is in four parts, the first dealing with the reac-

tion against nationalism in which is presented the story of the

growth of constitutional theory in the eighteen twenties, the growth

of southern discontent and the attempt at nullification. The chief

significance of the latter controversy was that it brought into

prominence two rival constitutional theories which were to con-

tinue in conflict until one went down in the Civil War. The

author's view is that neither the theory of state sovereignty nor

of national sovereignty was new in 1832 but that men had been

seeking some satisfactory and consistent theory from the begin-

ning, and that these same views were the ones used by Webster

and Calhoun in the formulation of their opposing theories. Cal-

houn gave the belief in state sovereignty greater vitality than it

had had before and Webster merely broadcast more widely ideas

uttered by Marshall and others before 1830.

Part two is called "The Democratization of the Federal Gov-

ernment." In it is developed the coming of political democracy

(388)

• 1
 

BOOK REVIEWS                     389

 

in the Jacksonian era, the effect of changes in the Supreme Court

on police power vs. commerce power, and a discussion of the cor-

porations and constitutional law. The third part deals with the

constitutional aspects of the slavery controversy. In it are to be

found discussions of the issues raised by slavery; abolition litera-

ture and the mails; the right of petition; fugitive slaves; slavery

and expansion; the annexation of Texas and the slave problem

in acquired territory; finally efforts at compromise and the Dred

Scott case.

The fourth part is under the heading of "War and Recon-

struction." After dealing with the problems of the war, the 1₃th,

14th and 15th amendments, and the problems of reconstruction,

the author concludes that during the first century of independence

certain fundamental problems were settled. The United States

began with the nature of the Union an open question. There was

no agreement as to where final authority rested to maintain the

scheme of distributed powers. Were the courts or the states the

final judges? The debate began under Hamilton and Jefferson

and it did not cease during the whole antebellum period. Did

the United States form a sovereign union or a confederation of

sovereignties? The Supreme Court finally became established as

the actual arbiter of such questions. During this period when the

court was most responsive to popular, democratic opinion, and

hence most disposed to curb corporations in the public interest,

it was principally responsible for interpretations of the law which

led "big business" to look to the General Government as its friend,

rather than the states. From the Civil War the country emerged

as a nation. States still possessed autonomy in purely local mat-

ters, but of questions concerning their powers, as well as of the

constitutionality of the acts of Congress, the Supreme Court was

accepted as the judge. With the passage of the 14th Amendment

a new era opened. There follows a different set of problems

which will make for a changed constitutional system. This will

be the subject of the third volume of the series.

The present work is the result of years of painstaking re-

search and the reader can rely upon it as a fair, accurate, and

impartial treatment of the subject. The reviewer has noted very

• 2
 

390   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

few slips such as, Edmund for Edmond (C. Genet) on p. 61, etc.

The question of taxation during the Civil War and Reconstruction

Period has been omitted but Professor Hockett will probably

deal with it in the next volume when he discusses the five to four

decision of the Supreme Court in 1894 when it reversed itself

in declaring the income tax unconstitutional. The court had held

in 1870 that the income tax was not a direct tax and therefore

did not violate the constitutional provision that direct taxes must

be apportioned among the states according to population. There

is an adequate index and a full bibliography.

W. D. O.

 

The Life and Times of William Howard Taft. By Henry F.

Pringle. (New York, Farrar & Rinehart, 1939. 2v., illus.)

Mr. Pringle's philosophy of history, as stated in a recent talk

at a meeting of the American Historical Association, is simply

that history is a story, a tale. "Tell us a story," he says, "is

one of the oldest cries of the human race." He was criticizing

the pedanticism of much of our historical effort. Pringle's life

of Taft is a remarkable testing of this elemental theory of his-

toriography. The temptation to overload the book with the history

of the times, including long dissertations on every problem of our

first industrial reform era, is one to which practically any biog-

rapher would have succumbed. Here we have a subject without

romantic dash and vigor, whose importance lies in a constant suc-

cession of cumulous constructive decisive acts at one of the most

important periods of our history. Taft was not great simply be-

cause he was both President and chief justice.

Incidentally, Mr. Pringle, in the address aforementioned, said

that he would never write another book of two volumes. Those

who have read his other works realize that he felt that it was

too heavy a load and too long sustained to carry his light critical

touch. I was much interested to discover whether he would sur-

vive the ordeal, especially when it came in conflict with Mr. Taft's

circumlocutions and his ambiguous style. Pringle's style does

survive. At times he is submerged with yards of quotation. If

• 3
 

BOOK REVIEWS                     391

 

the reader has patience, however, he will find the story has not

lagged. The style does not have the sprightliness of Pringle's

Roosevelt. This is not due to the difference in the characters,

altogether. The impish delight and the schoolboy grin with which

he pricks bubbles and punctures epidermises is not evident here.

There is a feeling of affection and admiration in this long work

because of Taft's great lovable character, forthrightness and

sincerity. Pringle's absolute fairness and unusual integrity, which

enables him to deal subjectively with his theme without writing ob-

jectively is evident on every page. Yet this is Taft's story. Hardly

any biography is a good work which does not sympathize with

the subject, even though it be a scoundrel. Pringle has been un-

fortunate in the refusal of the Roosevelt family to grant him

access to the Roosevelt papers after 1909, both for his Theodore

Roosevelt and for this book.  (Of course, T. R. has suffered

more.) Someone needs to swing the pendulum back a little the

other way, because there is also a Roosevelt story on the pro-

gressive movement which has not yet been told properly. The

author is really in sympathy with this movement. His ability to

present Taft's side is all the more remarkable.

The first half of this book is, by far, the most interesting

reading. The subject, not the author, then settles down as that

of a slow-moving stream, broadening with the approach to sea.

The interest, however, is sustained.  The Cincinnati vignette

should be satisfactory to Ohioans and present romantically, though

sketchily, that earlier declining age of the Queen City. The Ohio

background, depicting the political fortunes of Alphonso Taft,

is the least convincing part of the book. There is not any good

study and few monographs on this transitional aspect of Ohio his-

tory. With the appearance of successive volumes of the History

of the State of Ohio, sponsored by the Ohio State Archaeological

and Historical Society, this will no doubt be remedied. One should

not judge Mr. Pringle's failure here in a harsh light, in view of

the length and difficulties of the subject. In a shorter volume,

it would not have been noticed.

To this reviewer, the most important portion of the books is

his story of Taft in the Philippines. This is fresh material. The

• 4
 

392   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

epic of his very remarkable administration is really told for the

first time. It has terribly important connotations. In fact, this

whole book has important connotations. It is a commentary on

how capitalistic democracy and imperialism might be made to

work. It is the illustration of what honesty, efficiency and com-

munity of interest under such a system can do. It is only thus

that we can answer Hitler. The Philippine chapters in this book

are so important for American history and international history

that they deserve separate publication.

The Presidency was an interlude. A worried man, whose

ambition and life interest lay with the judiciary, was pushed into

this political maelstrom because of the ambition for him of his

friends, T. R., and especially of his wife. The book does not

add greatly to our historical understanding of these years.  It

adds very much to an understanding of Taft's reaction to them.

The non-Machiavellian mind of Mr. Taft is implemented by the

author's delvings into his correspondence. We have a new sym-

pathy for him. It had already been realized, before Mr. Pringle's

work, that the record of the Taft Administration prosecutions

under the Sherman Anti-trust Act, was fuller and brighter than

that under Roosevelt. Big business did not altogether love Taft,

although they felt safer under him, especially after T. R.'s Osawa-

tomie speech of 1910. Taft believed thoroughly in working under

the existing laws and the Constitution. He was a judicial con-

servative and believed simple justice could come without revolu-

tion.

Taft's contribution to the Presidency was a good, efficient

administration. If he could have had his way by introducing the

budget and putting all postmasters under civil service, the majority

of the people would not be echoing his own sentiments that "this

was a very humdrum administration."  The budget came in 1921

with much fanfare and the civil service extension is on the way.

But the American people expect a business expert and the

"Prince" all rolled up into one parcel when they seek for their

President. The author does prick one bubble--the Ballinger-

Pinchot controversy. This is a major contribution to a better

understanding of Taft's administration.

• 5
 

BOOK REVIEWS                         393

 

Probably the most interesting part of the book to a majority

of the readers is the Homeric-like account of the Ulysses-Agamem-

non conflict. The reasons are summarized on pages 758-759.

After emphasizing that Taft ineptly turned to the "Old Guard"

for support in carrying out his ideas because they had their hands

on the machinery and that he worked under the doctrine of

limited powers and on the basis of law, the author continues:

In that gospel--not in the tariff or in conservation or in any other

single issue--lay the seed of the inescapable conflict.  The break was

delayed. The hunter returned from his African hills in June, 1910. Each

man knew that doubt and distrust clouded the mind of the other. But a

Congressional campaign was approaching and the G. O. P. was in peril.

Roosevelt was persuaded to campaign for the ticket. He was, however,

constantly in conference with the insurgent groups, by now the open ad-

versaries of the President, and Taft was grievously hurt. This was a

strange campaign. Roosevelt, while urging a Republican House of Repre-

sentatives, was also sounding the tenets of his New Nationalism. Taft was

puzzled, dismayed, and finally angry over the radical utterances of his

former friend. He soon regarded Roosevelt as the enemy of the Consti-

tution and the Supreme Court. He heard repeated rumors that Roosevelt

would fight against his renomination.

Defeat in November, 1910, brought a lull during which Roosevelt

swore that he was finished with politics forever and had become a country

squire. The two men exchanged a cordial letter or two. Taft agreed to

send Roosevelt to war, if only Japan would interfere in Mexico and bring

about a first-rate emergency. They combined to oust Senator Lorimer of

Illinois. The poison against Taft was ingrained in Roosevelt's soul, though.

The wounds of the President still festered. In the fall of 1911 came the

ultimate mistake; the suit to dissolve the United States Steel Corporation

which set forth that Roosevelt had been misled in 1907.

It is almost without parallel that a President can be considered

great because of his failures. A study of the chapter on the fight

for reciprocity with Canada will convince the reader that this is

so. Taft needed the devil of opportunism at his shoulder now

and then. The lack of the devil probably makes him the greater

man. He will probably never need another full-length biography.

One leaves the volume feeling that he knows Taft and can meet

him with understanding thereafter.

CURTIS W. GARRISON.

• 6
 

394   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

By Their Works. By H. Phelps Clawson. (Buffalo, Buffalo So-

ciety of Natural Sciences, 1941. ²³⁶p., illus. $4.00.)

Among the numerous evidences of the coming of age of mu-

seums in the western hemisphere is a new type of publication, tak-

ing the form of monographs dealing with the arts and ethics of

primitive peoples.

Earliest of a trilogy of such publications was a volume en-

titled Indian Arts in North America, by George C. Vaillant of

the American Museum of Natural History, New York, published

by Harper & Brothers in 1939. Then followed Indian Art of the

United States, by Frederick Douglas and Rene D'Harnoncourt,

published by the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, and

based upon the recent exhibition of Indian art displayed in that

institution.

By Their Works, by H. Phelps Clawson, anthropologist of

the Buffalo Museum of Science, is the more recent of the three

volumes developed around the same theme. This handsome volume

is descriptive and illustrative of the rich store of primitive objects

from both hemispheres in the Buffalo museum's collection. Fol-

lowing a preface by Chauncey J. Hamlin, president of the Buffalo

Society of Natural History, the author prefaces his undertaking

by modestly stating that he is attempting to "make each article

as interesting as possible and, at the same time, to give some

life to these ancient civilizations that died so long ago."

Following the chronological pattern, the author begins with

the Old Stone Age, with its earliest evidences of humans, and

traces man through the New Stone Age and the earlier stages

of the Age of Metals. The concise synopsis of the several epochs

of the Paleolithic Age, of the Transitional Period and the Neo-

lithic, will be welcomed by busy readers who lack time for greater

detail.

Although the volume is primarily chronological in arrange-

ment, it covers adequately the more interesting areas of both the

Old World and the New. Thus early Egypt, western Asia, China,

Greece, Indonesia, Australia, Oceania, Africa, and the Americas,

are brought into clear perspective by means of text and appro-

• 7
 

BOOK REVIEWS                     395

 

priate pictures. The more than 100 full-page illustrations are ex-

ceptional from the standpoint of selection and photography, while

the appended bibliography is designed to assist readers desiring

a more extensive acquaintance with the art and culture of widely

scattered primitive peoples.

The author, eminently fitted by training and experience, suc-

ceeds admirably in elucidating "25,000 years of man's artistic

achievements," and in tracing the "rise and fall of civilizations

from Stone Age days to the recent past."  Publication of the

monograph was made possible by a grant from the Rockefeller

Foundation.                                      H. C. S.

 

Life, Liberty, and Property. By Alfred Winslow Jones. (New

York, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1941. 397P. $3.50.)

The author of this sociological study is the director of the In-

stitute for Applied Social Analysis and is on the staff of Fortune

magazine. He selected Akron for his study for several reasons,

among them the fact that it is in the Middle West and a one-

industry (rubber) town where there is a pronounced cleavage

between the workers and the managers. He based his conclusions

on the scoring of over 1000 persons interviewed in 1938. His

procedure was to tell a series of stories about "bootlegging" coal

in Pennsylvania, about a sit-down strike against a Michigan utility

company, about a threat of Goodrich to move its plant and 5,000

jobs out of Akron, about some neighbors who prevented the

eviction of a tenant, and others where the issue between human

rights and property rights was clearly drawn.

On the basis of the reply the interviewer scored these Akron-

ites from 0 (zero) to 4 (four) points on each of eight problems.

If the interviewed took an extreme position in favor of property

rights he was scored four, if he qualified his support of property

he was given three points for the problem, if he took the extreme

view against property he was given zero, and one point if he

qualified his answer. If he was neutral or "did not know" he got

two points. There were eight problems and on this basis the

perfect score for unqualified support of property rights was 32.

• 8
 

396   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

The rubber magnates who were interviewed scored an aver-

age of 29.1 while the C. I. O. rubber workers scored 6.3. The

managers were more extreme (nearer 32) in their position on

the problems involved than were the workers who were over six

points from the extreme, zero. The C. I. O. ranks include the

most radical workers. The non-C. I. O. workers or "red apples'

("apple polishers") scored an average of 17.6. But these con-

clusions are about what the reader of the book might expect, sc

one may say, why write a book about it! The study may be justi-

fied, not so much in the conclusions reached as in the fact thai

here is a record of the thoughts and feelings of a group of people

who are confronted daily with the problem of life, liberty, and

property. The author has reported not only the views of the

magnates and workers but those of the priests and preachers.

the teachers and rubber chemists, girl office workers, farmers,

small business men and a group of 303 persons selected at random.

The latter scored 12.3 and this is the "norm" or the "control

group" score. The ministers scored an average of 12 (almost

the same as the "control group") while the farmers and the small

business men averaged 19.5. The office girls and the teachers

were nearly the same at 15.9 and 15.7 respectively. Out of 172

W. P. A. workers, 72 "white-collar" workers scored an average

of 11 while 110  manual workers averaged 7.8, just above the

C. I. O. rubber workers.

In addition to giving the average score of each group the

author has presented samples of the interviews with each group,

indeed this constitutes the larger and most interesting part of

the book. There was a wider variation among the views of the

ministers than any other group yet their average was about the

same as that of the "control group." One rabbi scored zero while

an Episcopalian rector scored 29. There was also a fairly wide

variation in the scores of the rubber chemists yet their average

was up with that of the farmers and small business men at 19.5.

Mr. Jones concludes that

this small minority thinks and acts in the Hamiltonian tradition, and for

it property rights are absolute, or at least occupy the highest place in the

hierarchy of values. The "people" also believe in property rights, and put

• 9
 

BOOK REVIEWS                        397

 

the rights to simple property, related to the person of the owner, very high.

There is a desire on the part of most to concede at least something of these

traditional, "folk" property rights to the rich, and thus carry the rights

over to the owner of corporate property. But we do not find that the rich

man, or the owner of corporate property, "has a complete right to what is

his own." His rights, rather, are very seriously impaired by human con-

siderations. The people put personal rights clearly and plainly ahead of

corporate property rights, while at the same time they are confused and

pulled apart by the issue. In both of these respects they are following the

Jeffersonian tradition.

There is an index and an appendix. A tendency toward

repetition and a few minor inconsistencies were noted in the

statistics.                                          W. D. O.

 

 

A  Man Named Grant.       By Helen Todd.     (Boston, Houghton

Mifflin Company, 1940. 598p., illus.)

Miss Helen Todd's presentation of "Ulyss" Grant is a Hough-

ton Mifflin Literary Fellowship book. It is good compelling read-

ing.  She based it on a small group of source and secondary

works -- Grant's Memoirs, Porter's Campaigning with        Grant,

Badeau's Grant in Peace, Hesseltine's life, and Nevin's Hamilton

Fish, which she indicates as the most frequently consulted. She

explains that "all the characters and all the significant incidents

in this book are historic fact. The motives and states of mind I

have attributed to these characters are facts as far as they can

be determined; beyond that point I have followed what seemed

to me the probabilities." In other words, what Miss Todd has

essayed is a reconstruction of the mind and heart of Grant, a

development of his character from the outbreak of the war, and

an interpretation of his stream of consciousness. The world and

the events which whirled about him are interpreted through his

eyes. Therefore it would be inappropriate to review this work

from the standpoint of historical criticism, since Miss Todd does

not claim to writing a biography or an historical work.

The first question is, "Does Miss Todd present to readers

'A Man Named Grant'?" If she is not true to her subject, the

book falls, by the very standards of good literature, which she

• 10
 

398   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

tries to maintain. This reviewer believes the outline of Grant's

life is successfully presented, but is oversimplified. The facts are

probably as accurate as in most histories, but the interpretations

have few overtones. I think the character of Rawlins is good,

and the personal struggle in Grant against drink and fatalism is

interestingly presented. His naivete in accepting friends and gifts

without discrimination, and his loyalty to friends comes through

the pages of this book better than any number of pages of ex-

position. Miss Todd has a dramatist's gift. The courage and

basic goodness of Grant shines through and above all. The diffi-

culty of such a presentation is that Grant is not a dramatic unity.

His war career is sheer drama; his political career is travesty.

It may be objected that no overtones are necessary; that Grant

was essentially a simple man, that the dramatic unity comes

through the unchanging simple-minded career through a complex

era. I have no quarrel with this theme. It serves to make an

interesting book. The overtones, however, should come in two

ways: character analysis and presentation of events. In the first

place, no man is a hero to himself, unless he is a fool. Grant was

not, and wondered at the success of his commonplace personality.

Miss Todd proves this in the first part of the book, showing that

he was a hero in spite of himself. In the political pages she

struggles to maintain this picture, but I think unsuccessfully.

Can the personality of Grant be wrought out for his later years?

Probably everybody would fail. The political figure no longer

belongs to himself. Only our greatest Presidents have maintained

themselves as vital personalities, and many of them have suffered

from historical critics. The answer may be that they must be

inconsistent. It would probably take a Tolstoi to write this story

of "War and Peace."

The second inquiry would be as to Miss Todd's presentation

of the events. They are presented as drama. Comparing the

Vicksburg campaign with authentic accounts, one finds faithful-

ness to detail. The events of the post-Civil War period are not as

well done, because so often presented through the ideas and inter-

pretations of one of the actors. The pictures of other characters

do not fare so well, because for the most part they are moulded

• 11
 

BOOK REVIEWS                     399

 

around Grant. Here I must call attention to Miss Todd's state-

ment that "the motives and states of mind I have attributed to

these characters are facts so far as they can be determined: beyond

that point I have followed what seemed to me the probabilities."

A little more reading would have been beneficial, for there are

unfortunately many errors of fact as to motives and states of

mind of some of the characters.

As to the probabilities, this involves the thoughts and con-

versations running through the work, a problem raised by Strachey

some years ago. Mere facts do not make history, nor imaginings

either. It is a question as to whether history can and should be

animated, an academic one, surely, because people would rather

take their history that way, and have done so from Shakespeare

down. People, generally, are not interested as much in the facts,

as in the spirit. Historians have often failed to understand this.

Literary writers need to know as many facts as they can master

without being overloaded. Has Miss Todd presented the spirit?

She has done a fair job, in fact, an unusual job for the first trial,

but she has not quite succeeded. The gigantic forces of the era

were beyond her comprehension, but for that matter, they have

been beyond that of many of our historians.

CURTIS W. GARRISON.

 

The Keelboat Age on Western Waters. By Leland D. Baldwin.

(Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1941. 268p.,

$3.00.)

This volume is another product of the Western Pennsylvania

Historical Survey sponsored jointly by the Buhl Foundation, the

Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, and the University

of Pittsburgh. In type and format it corresponds in excellence

to other volumes of the series.

Baldwin tells an interesting story of river boating in the West

before the era of the steamboat. He is the author of several

books based upon a sound historical knowledge of this region

of the United States. It is not only his historical knowledge but

a skill in writing that makes his work "good reading."

• 12
 

400   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

A subject such as this affords the writer an opportunity to

"spice up" his manuscript with stories of the river pirates and the

bandits of the Natchez Trace. He tells about Mike Fink and

other famous rivermen and deals extensively with the rivalry be-

tween the bargemen and the keelboatmen. He describes their

food, drink, and rousing times "on shore" and in "NorLeans."

By 1815, he says, there were probably between two and three

thousand men employed on the rivers (Ohio and Mississippi) and

it is no wonder "that soberer citizens began to fear that as trans-

portation became more important the increase in the number of

boatmen would seriously endanger the peace of the country.

Fortunately the advent of the steamboat put an end to these rowdy

days." (p.103)

The book is much more than a series of interesting stories.

It is a sound treatise dealing with the art of navigation of the

rivers, of ship-building on the western waters and its value is

enhanced by reproductions of some important pictures of boats

and boatmen from depositories "down the river" from the Pitts-

burgh libraries to the Cabildo. There is a good index and a full

bibliography. The reviewer noted very few slips: in two places

(p. 76, 180) the publications illustrated are attributed to the

Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, Cincinnati. To be

accurate it should appear either as the Ohio State Archaeological

and Historical Society, Columbus, or the Historical and Philo-

sophical Society of Ohio, Cincinnati, as the case may be.

W. D. O.

 

Brown Barriers.   By Glenn Robert Kershner.     (Hollywood,

Calif., The Author, 1939. 341p. and glossary.)

"Of making many books [about South Sea Islands] there is

no end." However, apparently the avid reading public continues

to absorb the increasing literary output from that glamorous seg-

ment of our sphere, and to accept each succeeding author's por-

trayal thereof as an earthly paradise. It really doesn't matter that

ethnologists and serious students long have known that there's an-

other side to the picture. Being far removed from the more

• 13
 

BOOK REVIEWS                     401

 

populous centers, it serves as well as any other as a setting for the

idyllic and as a vicarious escape from the rigors of life as most

of us know it.

But Glenn Robert Kershner, that amazingly protean person,

has not been dismayed by the many writers who have preceded

him. Adventurer extraordinary (on land, in the air, and beneath

the surface of the sea), explorer, artist, musician--and now

writer--he has been widely acclaimed. Exceptional mental and

physical stamina, plus an insatiable curiosity, have enabled him

to live life as it is lived, and to write of life as it is. Incidentally,

author Kershner was born in Findlay, Ohio, in 1884.

Brown Barriers, as you may have guessed, represents the

supposed "color line" as between whites and the brown-skinned

natives of Polynesia. The reader will be relieved to learn that

in this story the problem was satisfactorily solved.

Kershner is at his best in writing of the sea and of ships that

go down to the sea. His account of a storm on the briny deep

is the most realistic that this reviewer has read. If one's nautical

vocabulary is limited, there's material for a first-class glossary of

salty words and phrases, awaiting a compiler. The mere land-

lubber will be hard put to in attempting to understand this marine

parlance.

Almost equally impressive is the author's depiction of San

Francisco and the Golden Gate district, in the gold rush days of

the "roaring forties," where his story begins. While the annals

of this picturesque epoch are well documented, it is obvious that

he has an exceptional acquaintance with the locale, as a result of

several years' residence, keen observation, and some research. The

otherwise insignificant details which lend a touch of reality to

this part of the book are such as could be had only through per-

sonal investigation.

Gaudy 'Frisco of the late 'forties, with its alternating wealth

and poverty, its vices and virtues; the Bay, laving its feet, swarm-

ing with all manner of motley water craft -- all these, writer

Kershner knows and tells. The reader is given an insight into

methods of "black-birding" (shanghaiing) of sailors, and of labor-

ers for South American demands and, as a complement, of the

• 14
 

402   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

"procurement" of dusky South American damsels for the brothels

of San Francisco. Thus, sea-going vessels were assured of car-

goes "coming and going."

There's a thread of romance, to be sure. And despite the

fact that the love theme is handled in a somewhat Victorian man-

ner, with a tempo which might well prove too tedious for impatient

readers of today, somehow, you hang on to the end.

The picturing of life as lived by the natives of Bora Bora,

where the tale finds its happy ending, is, as we've remarked previ-

ously, idyllic. Any person caring to know about the less lovely

side of those mystic isles will not find it in Brown Barriers. The

author doesn't talk about that.                 H. C. S.

 

Guide to Manuscript Collections in the Historical Society of

Pennsylvania. Prepared by the Historical Records Survey.

(Philadelphia, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1940.

350p.)

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, founded in 1824, has

an estimated two and a half million items in 1141 different manu-

script collections. This guide contains pertinent data on each

collection giving the dates covered, its size and suggestive notes

on the nature of the materials contained in it. The individual

collections are arranged alphabetically in the volume and an ade-

quate index affords quick reference to proper names and subjects.

The value of the guide is obvious to research workers. One

interested in Ohio history, for instance, by consulting the index

will find references to the Clifford Papers, containing a diary of

a trip to Ohio from Philadelphia in 1804; to the Heckewelder

Papers, containing an account of his journey to Ohio in 1797; to

the Gratz collection, containing letters from Judge Clyde Symmes

to Capt. Dayton, on settlements west of Ohio, on the Miami, 1789;

to the James Gibbons Journal, 1804, a narrative of a tour through

the western part of Pennsylvania and part of Ohio, describing

settlements, Quaker families, meeting places, etc., among others.

Julian P. Boyd, former librarian of the society, lauds the

work of the Historical Records Survey in the Foreword by point-

• 15
 

BOOK REVIEWS                    403

 

ing out that the thousands of workers in thousands of munici-

pal and county archives, in church and institutional records,

in manuscript repositories of historical societies throughout the

country, have produced, in a few short years, a vast body of

literature describing the records which contain the sum and sub-

stance of the American experiment in democracy. We hope that

more of the product of this project in the form of guides to

other manuscript collections will be forthcoming.

W. D. O.

 

Quaker Lady--The Story of Charity Lynch. By Alta Harvey

Heiser.  (Oxford, Ohio, Mississippi Valley Press, 1941.

273p. $3.00.)

This book appears as volume two of the Annals of America,

edited by Philip D. Jordan of Miami University and Charles M.

Thomas of Ohio State University. The book is not primarily a

biography as the title would indicate, but a chronicle of a chapter

in American life as collected from letters and stories found by

the author. It is the story of a family that migrated from the

South and settled in the Old Northwest Territory. Pioneer life

of the first half of the nineteenth century is revealed in these let-

ters exchanged between the mother (Quaker Lady) and her

children. Charity Haskett was born in 1779. She was married to

Isaiah Lynch, March 20, 1801. They joined the great Quaker

migration from Bush River, South Carolina, to Ohio and came to

Waynesville, Ohio, in 1805. Isaiah Lynch died in 1814, leaving

his wife with four sons and four daughters. During the thirty-

four years of her life following her husband's death, she gave

herself entirely to her children and grandchildren. While the

letters which formed the background of the book are devoted to

everyday occurrences, yet they portray in a very simple but realis-

tic way the conditions and life of the times.

The book gives a good illustration of the possibilities of his-

tory pulsating with everyday life secured from such material--an

animated picture which could be secured in no other way. Light

is thrown on the life of the period immediately following the

• 16
 

404   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Revolutionary War, of the migration of Friends from the South

to the Northwest Territory, of Ohio pioneer life, of the beginnings

of Hamilton, Ohio, and early life and conditions in Columbus.

A criticism has been made that the letters are tiresome, too

personal and telling of too much sickness, but no one can deny

that they give an unusually vivid picture of the times, and therein

is the excuse for their use. All in all, the book is to be com-

mended and Mrs. Heiser has made a real contribution to Ohio

history and has given a good illustration of the possibilities in the

use of such material as a basis for history. The book is well

indexed and bound in substantial Quaker gray cloth.

H. L.

 

Preacher on Horseback. By Mrs. Cecile Hulse Matschat. (New

York, Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1940. 429p. $2.50.)

This is the first novel of Mrs. Matschat, author of Suwannee

River and Seven Grass Huts. In the preface to her book Mrs.

Matschat states that the life and customs attributed to her fictional

characters are based on first-hand information, except for data on

fashions and social life. Since the background is authentic, the

story she weaves about Jules Sandor, the Hungarian preacher,

and his wife, Rica, is all the more enjoyable. Jules is an unusual

minister; medicine and music had attracted him long before he

thought of preaching. Rica is an unusual circuit-rider's wife; one

hardly expects to find love of stylish clothes and frivolity in such

a woman, yet Rica did love them.

When, in 1868, Jules begins his career as a "preacher on

horseback" in the Mohawk Valley, he has high hopes for ad-

vancing the spiritual and material life of his congregation, but

the years go by and he and Rica can barely exist on the scanty

living provided. Jules's love of horses and his ability to get into

scrapes, coupled with his wife's air of refinement, misunderstood

as snobbishness by some people, cause enough of a rift in under-

standing with the congregation to lead the Sandors to seek a bet-

ter life farther west, in Michigan. Here too they have to struggle

to establish themselves, but they do attain the kind of life they

are seeking.

• 17
 

BOOK REVIEWS                    405

 

It is hard to single out one phase of this story for particular

praise. The subtle conflict of personality between Jules and Rica

is given especially good treatment, while the local color and plot

are very well integrated. Minor characters, such as Barney Tup-

pen, his wife Ivy, and the sharp Mrs. Trunket remain as vivid

in memory as the main characters. Preacher on Horseback is

well worth reading, for it presents a clear and forceful picture of

social and cultural growth in the United States during the nine-

teenth century.

ELIZABETH C. BIGGERT.

 

The Shaker Adventure. By Marguerite Fellows Melcher. (Prince-

ton, N. J., Princeton University Press, 1941. 319P. $3.00.)

You and I are both interested in attaining happiness and

we have read a number of formulae and followed many sign-

posts pointed to the goal of contentment. Probably your search,

like mine, has not led you to a twenty-four hour a day bliss.

Perhaps you would be interested in reading about a group of

people who found the recipe for the happy life. Marguerite

Fellows Melcher found such a group and has described it in The

Shaker Adventure.

Mrs. Melcher thinks everybody wants two things from life:

adventure and security, in varying proportions depending upon

the individual. "The Shakers," she says, "achieved a perfect bal-

ance between the two--perfect, that is, for their purposes and

from  their point of view."  They attained economic security

by hard work and gained adventure in traveling uncharted high-

ways of religious experience and community life.

The Shaker Adventure is the story of the United Society of

Believers from the time of its founding by Jean Cavalier, the

French Camisard, the Quakers--Jane and James Wardley--and

Mother Ann Lee, to the present time when only a few of the

group remain. It tells how Ann Lee reacted to the squalor of

Toad Lane, Manchester; how she found for herself and her fol-

lowers a retreat from the sins of "the world's people"; how the

group found a home in America during the time of the Revolu-

• 18
 

406   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

tion; how they were persecuted; how they began their com-

munistic existence; how they worked with their hands and devel-

oped fine crafts; how they spread from New York to Connecti-

cut and New Hampshire and Maine and Vermont and to far-off

Ohio; how they gradually fell off in numbers and are today almost

forgotten.

The Shaker groups grew only by evangelism since they were

committed to celibacy. The "world's people" had to be convinced.

This was comparatively easy when the standard of living of people

generally was low and when bigotry and intolerance were driving

many from the established religions. But the Shaker group, like

the other communistic religious groups, the separatists of Zoar

and Amana, the Harmonists and others, declined as the industrial

revolution and reform in politics and religion gained momentum.

In competition with the world of new gadgets the simple security

and peace of the Shaker community lost some of its appearance

of adventure.

The Shakers have left evidence of their diligent work in

sturdy buildings and fine craft-work and many printed and manu-

script treatises on their religion and life. In addition Mrs. Melcher

believes they have left the world a spark that will some day flame

again. She believes they have left an example for twentieth

century idealists. "What idealists and reformers of today need--

what they have always needed--" she says, "is to give ear to the

American colloquialism 'Put up or shut up.' Most of us do

neither. We keep on talking, but we make no personal sacrifices,

take no chances. The Shakers 'put up.' They staked everything

they had on their adventure. 'The world' regarded them as reck-

less gamblers. No adventure, said 'the world,' could be worth the

loss of family life, children, personal possessions, fame. But the

Shakers felt that the adventure was worth much more than they

had given up for it. They believed they had proved the truth

of Christ's saying, 'He that loseth his life for my sake shall find

it.' The Shaker story is the story of an adventure which, by

worldly standards, failed. But perhaps this judgment is not the

final one."

K. W. M.

• 19
 

BOOK REVIEWS                     407

 

Hoosier. By Heath Bowman. (Indianapolis, Ind., The Bobbs-

Merrill Co., 1941. ³⁶op. Cloth. $3.00.)

In a biographical rather than historical treatment Mr. Bow-

man traces the growth in the meaning of the real Hoosier and de-

picts the Hoosier characteristics in their bearing upon the develop-

ment of the state of Indiana and the Nation as a whole. The sub-

ject is treated in twenty-five chapters divided into three parts,

entitled "The Sowing," "The Ripening," and "The Harvest." In

the first part the author deals with the name Hoosier; the early

settlement of lands and land hunger; early influential characters,

particularly with Samuel Merrill; the New Harmony community

with its peculiar contributions to the civilization of the state and

Nation; the beginning of Indiana University; the Underground

Railroad and Quaker opposition to slavery; agricultural expansion

as illustrated by the life of Solon Robinson; and the beginning of

the canal and railroad era.

The second part begins with a chapter on the triumph of

mediocrity as illustrated in the Harrison campaign of 1840, the

wealth of the river as illustrated in the development of the state

along the Ohio River, the economic, social, and educational ex-

pansion along the Wabash River and the forces at work preceding

the Civil War, the political conditions and conflicting interests of

the Civil War period and the evidences of a new Hoosier civiliza-

tion following the war.

The third section deals with the literary flowering of the

state, a Hoosier type as represented by Thomas R. Marshall, the

career of D. C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan, and flowering

of the state's civilization in the twentieth century.

The author is a native of Muncie, Indiana. He has given

the reader a composite portrait of the Hoosier. The book is

illustrated from photographs by the author. It contains a good

bibliography and index.

H. L.

• 20
 

408   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

God Has a Long Face. By Robert Wilder. (New York, G. P.

Putnam's Sons, 1940. ⁴⁶¹p. $2.50.)

"General" Basil Wallis Burgoyne wrote his own rules for

living, but found that the Burgoynes, like the rest of humanity,

could not escape the inevitable God even though they did their

sinning with a flair and a flourish. But even God must have

smiled at the audacity of the "General," deserting the Union Army

after Appomattox, going home to Cincinnati long enough to gather

up some money, and then setting out to plant a Burgoyne dynasty

in the wilderness of Dade, Florida.

Riches and happiness came readily to the "General," yet

eventually he found that it takes more than wealth and a will to

set up family traditions and solidarity. With the sordid death of

his one grandson the Burgoyne "Homestead" becomes a meaning-

less shell, occupied only by the feeble "General" and his mulatto

daughter.

Meeting the "General" is a memorable experience. Mr. Wilder

is to be congratulated on the splendid characterization of his

dynamic red-headed hero. However, the effervescent realism of

the "General" casts a shadow of unreality about most of the re-

maining characters. Only Fresca and her son John Rodney can

survive the contrast.

This novel is historical only in respect to background, yet the

rugged atmosphere of the Florida coast from Civil War days up

through the Florida real estate boom is so well interpreted that

the book can be considered of historical value.

ELIZABETH C. BIGGERT.

• 21