Book Reviews
Frontier America: The Story of the
Westward Movement. By Thomas
D. Clark. (New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1959. xi??832p.
illustrations, maps, appendix,
bibliography, tables, and index. $6.75.)
This is not an easy kind of book to
write. It is the history of a move-
ment of population that affects every
section of the country. It covers
frontier areas and periods with no exact
terminal points and with no
two alike. It embraces political,
social, economic, military, and diplomatic
history, and it must deal with local,
regional, and national problems. To
organize and synthesize this wealth of
material is a difficult task, but the
author of this volume meets all the
requirements, and the product is a
fine piece of historical writing.
The book begins with a general chapter
on the characteristics and
significance of the frontier, without
quite accepting the Turner thesis
other than by implication. Then,
disregarding Turner's Old West east
of the Alleghenies, the author starts
the story of frontiers with Anglo-
French rivalries over the Ohio
Valley-Great Lakes triangle and devotes
approximately half of the volume to the
history of the forest and prairie
frontiers until bridgeheads are established
across the Mississippi. The
early chapters are chronological, but
the treatment shifts over to a topical
one as the zones of settlement become
more complex and frontier prob-
lems and developments require particular
consideration.
The latter half of the book deals with
expansion to the Pacific by
means of trade, war, and the flow of
settlers, discusses the diversified
frontiers of the vast trans-Mississippi
West, and concludes with accounts
of transportation, the Indian problem,
and the final stages of westward
settlement. Here the organization is
necessarily topical by areas or
types of frontiers, but one cannot
discard the chronological approach
entirely, and to reconcile the two is a
difficult matter. Nevertheless
this reviewer believes that the chapter,
"State-Making Along the Mis-
sissippi," belongs with the older
agricultural frontier, and not after the
accounts of the fruits of manifest
destiny, and that consideration of the
BOOK REVIEWS 189
Union Pacific and the homestead act
should not be left until the final
hundred pages.
A more serious criticism is the slight
attention given to land legis-
lation. The pre-emption law is disposed
of in a paragraph in connection
with the settlement of Iowa, and the
homestead act is given almost as
summary treatment, especially with
regard to its background and the
factors that led to its enactment. Some
other significant land laws even
escaped the eye of the indexer.
The index is reasonably comprehensive,
but the alphabetical arrange-
ment of subheadings, and these too often
of a general character, may
lead to reader frustration in the search
down the alphabet for the term
that seems to fit what he is looking
for. For example, "Indian: activities
along Lake Erie," has ten scattered
page references.
A few minor errors relating to Ohio
history were noted: Samuel
Galloway was from Columbus, Ohio, not
from Illinois (p. 392); the
Northwest Ordinance did not donate a
section of each township for
schools (pp. 392-393); the first name of
Duer of Scioto Company infamy
was William, not John (p. 151).
A selective bibliography arranged by
chapters, a number of well-
chosen illustrations, and some twenty
maps in black and white add to
the value of the book. Apt quotations
from contemporary sources
liven the accounts of daily life and
cultural strivings. Clark's book is
not so concerned with national problems
related to the West and with
sectional rivalries as is Billington's
earlier text, which embraces much
national history. Clark keeps the reader
on the frontier and rarely
visits the halls of congress. Regardless
of textbook preferences--and
one should not overlook the sprightly
but less comprehensive volume
of Riegel--the teacher of the westward
movement will need to have
this latest production at his elbow--and
those with interests in other
aspects of American history would find
it almost as useful.
Ohio State University EUGENE H. ROSEBOOM
Benjamin Harrison, Hoosier Statesman:
From the Civil War to the
White House, 1865-1888. By Harry J. Sievers, S.J. (New York:
University Publishers, 1959. xxi??502p.;
illustrations, bibliography,
and index. $6.00.)
A close student of the post-Civil War
period approaches a biography
of one of its politicians with
particular appreciation of the hazards
involved in dealing with that era--an
era with an economic and social
190
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
milieu so discouraging to distinction in
politics that the period may have
been unjustly interpreted and underrated
in historiography. Benjamin
Harrison's biographer undertakes to
refurbish him and therein enjoys
a considerable advantage while
simultaneously suffering a serious dis-
advantage.
The advantage lies in the fact that
Harrison undeniably did obtain
national importance, because friends got
him the presidential nomina-
tion in 1888 and the combined efforts of
his friends, himself, and the
Republican machine won over the
Democrats in the ensuing election.
The terrain of this nomination and
election has been industriously spaded
by such political agrarians as C. J.
Bernardo, R. C. Buley, L. T. Mich-
ener, D. S. Muzzey, A. Nevins, M. L.
O'Marra, and A. T. Volwiler.
Working in an area thus already
cultivated, the biographer has sought
to enrich it by his own use of primary
and secondary sources, includ-
ing textbooks, so as to raise an 1888
election crop. The resulting 120
pages present some new details of how
Harrison's tacticians ran circles
around those of Sherman and other
old-fogy contestants less alert to
the possibilities in lucky breaks, but
the convention and election stories
are not altered in essential details.
This latter section of the biog-
graphy should casually interest students
of such fields as political
science, social psychology, American
civilization, and sociology, as well
as history, for it furnishes a
compendium convenient for their purposes.
The disadvantage lies in the fact that
this project received a generous
subvention from eager Indianians, which
ensured (1) maximum cover-
age of a minimum subject and (2) at
least a modicum of discretion
where firm tread might bruise Hoosier
toes. As regards the maximum
coverage, the 310 pages preceding the
presidential candidacy and elec-
tion constitute a stretch-out of
insignificant detail so extended that one
is tempted to inquire, "Was ever so
much written about so little?"
There is none of that harsh discipline
which a commercial publisher
imposes on unsubsidized projects. (The
publisher of the opening volume
in this biography was Regnery, and this
second volume has a new
publishing firm established in 1958.)
Curiously enough, despite the
stretch-out, relatively-less-unimportant
incidents are occasionally neg-
lected. For example, an entire chapter
is given the snatching of the
dead body of Harrison pere, five
pages go to the work as counsel in
a deaf mute bastard case, and a
paragraph goes to a gift of fancy
nightshirts; this, while the author
relegates to brief notes such facts as
two reversals by the Indiana Supreme
Court of a Harrison-obtained
BOOK REVIEWS 191
conviction (p. 29, n. 46) and
Harrison's defeat for the United States
Senate in 1879 (p. 165, n. 25).
As respects Hoosier corns, the author
must be credited with an
effort to be fair. Yet such problems as
Harrison's relations with the
notorious Dudley are handled just about
as "gingerly" as Sievers says
Nevins handled the "blocks of
five" letter (p. 419, n. 23). Nice
shadings of diction and strong,
unqualified adjectives creep in. Harri-
son sometimes is praised for refusing
to do what he did not want to
do, such as enter Garfield's cabinet
(pp. 190-195), or for taking a
stand on which Harrison himself states
an equivocal attitude, such
as his position on the 1887-88 tariff
situation (pp. 227-228). Some-
times one suspects the author has
tongue in cheek, especially when
a Harrison quotation suggests a range
of thought and action contrary
to the adjectival environment of the
main text. The author at some
junctures could have fortified himself
by openly admitting that a
decision had to be left unexplained for
lack of data--or other reasons--
as for example the refusal to run for
the governorship in 1876 (p. 93).
As for the mechanics of this biography,
the notes reside at the
bottom of each page, a boon much
appreciated and all too seldom
granted by publishers; but some
important text statements needing
citations lack them, and irrelevant
data and space-consuming repetitions
clutter the earlier notes. The index--of
50 pages for 429 pages of text--
is meticulously classified but omits
references to some important notes.
Inconsistencies include such things as
use in the text of figures higher
than the cited note warrants (p. 404,
n. 49) and calling a difference
between Harrison and Conkling a
friendly dispute on page 171 and a
battle on page 197.
All of us find it difficult to set a
book aside to "soak" before putting
it into press, but the delay surely
would have recompensed this in-
dustrious author. His actual service to
historiography lies in the
ample quotations from Harrison's own
letters and speeches. Therein
the subject reveals himself as the
shrewd, cautious attorney which he
remained through this period--an expert
politician from whom one
scarce could fairly expect
statesmanship of a high order.
University of Pennsylvania JEANNETTE P. NICHOLS
Crosier on the Frontier: A Life of
John Martin Henni, Archbishop of
Milwaukee. By Peter Leo Johnson. (Madison: State Historical
Society of Wisconsin, 1959. xvi??240p.;
illustrations, bibliography,
and index. $3.95.)
192
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
This biography is the work of a Roman
Catholic seminary professor
who, therefore, has personal knowledge
of the faith and organization
to which the subject of the biography
devoted his life. The author,
furthermore, is a native of Wisconsin
and has long been a resident of
Milwaukee, hence he is intimately
acquainted with the geographical
area where Henni expended his greatest
efforts. The author has also
been schooled in the canons of
historical criticism, and, accordingly,
the work is dedicated to Professor
George C. Sellery, for many years
a distinguished member of the faculty of
the University of Wisconsin.
Thus, the writer is well equipped to
deal sympathetically and accurately
with the material under investigation.
Among the scholarly accounts of Roman
Catholicism in the United
States, numerous biographies of
Irish-American prelates, such as Cardi-
nal Gibbons and Archbishops John Ireland
and Peter R. Kenrick, have
appeared. On the other hand, the story
of German-American leadership
in the Catholic Church in the United
States has been rather neglected,
although The Catholic Church and
German-Americans (Milwaukee,
1953), by Colman J. Barry, presented a
vast amount of important
material. The present volume, therefore, based on many heretofore
unused manuscript, periodical, and
newspaper sources, fills a genuine
need by depicting the career of a
German-Swiss priest and prelate of
great influence among German-American Catholics.
Educated at St. Gall and Lucerne in
Switzerland, at Rome, and at
Bardstown, Kentucky, Henni was ordained
a priest in Cincinnati in
1829. As he taught philosophy at what is
now Xavier University, he
became concerned for the welfare and
traditional faith of many German-
Americans who were often definitely
lacking in educational and religious
opportunities. His work in Cincinnati
and in scattered settlements won
for him the title of "Apostle of
the Germans." He was aggressive in
his advocacy of the use of the English
language, but he long edited,
as an instrument of transition, the
first Catholic newspaper printed in
German in the United States, the Wahrheitsfreund
in Cincinnati.
During these years Henni's orthodoxy on
occasion exhibited a re-
markable flexibility in practical
situations. On one occasion (in con-
nection with the funeral of a Lutheran
pastor) he gave the principal
discourse and accompanied the body to
the cemetery. Frequently his
newspaper espoused the tolerant creed,
"I believe that the sum total of
religion is contained in the love of God
and one's neighbor," thus
manifesting a liberalism which, if
expressed by others, might have
been deemed a dangerous
latitudinarianism.
BOOK REVIEWS 193
In 1843 he became the first bishop of
Milwaukee, five years before
the state was admitted to the Union and
at the time when Germans
in great numbers were settling in the
region. Missions were established
in widespread fashion, and these often
grew rapidly into substantial
parishes. Parochial schools, hospitals,
and orphanages were founded,
and various orders of priests and nuns
were brought in to develop the
educational program. He became much
concerned about religious work
among the Indians, built a monumental
cathedral in Milwaukee, ardently
supported the Union in the Civil War,
attended the Vatican Council
of 1870 in Rome, and became an
archbishop in 1875. His death occurred
March 6, 1879.
In spite of his apparent liberal
tendencies, at times Henni was, per-
haps understandably, less than
sympathetic toward the viewpoints of
Protestant groups (e.g., p. 32);
and to Professor Johnson's assertion
that the Vatican Council "permitted
great freedom of expression in
speech and writings" (p. 183),
others, such as Archbishop Kenrick,
would hardly have agreed. The author's
enthusiasm, moreover, for
the able subject of his biography is
abundantly evident as he asserts:
Bishop Henni enjoyed the reputation of
being the most learned prelate
as well as the most discriminating in
matters of art of all his contem-
poraries in the American hierarchy. That Milwaukee was
endowed with
the graces of European culture was due
to the leadership of the bishop
to less than the contribution of the
various immigrant groups. The
result was a city of culture and
religious faith unrivaled in the Middle
West.
In conclusion, it may be stated that the
volume makes a definite con-
tribution to American ethnic, cultural,
and religious history.
Ohio State University FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER
Crisis of the House Divided: An
Interpretation of the Issues in the
Lincoln-Douglas Debates. By Harry V. Jaffa. (New York: Double-
day and Company, 1959. 451p.; appendices
and index. $6.50.)
After almost a century of diligent
research about Abraham Lincoln
scholars have uncovered probably as many
facts as we shall ever know,
but the problem of interpretation
remains. Was Lincoln a great states-
man who saved his country, as northern
historians said during the
first half-century after his death, or
just a power-mad self-seeker who
played up a false issue for his own
ends, as the revisionists say? The
194
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
revisionist interpretation, popular with
some who think it is a sign of
"objectivity" to question
customary views, shows signs of weakening
as scholars subject it to closer
examination.
Professor Harry V. Jaffa in his study of
the issues which underlay
the Lincoln-Douglas debates, takes his
stand alongside Bernard De Voto
and the younger Schlesinger in saying
that slavery was the major
cause of the Civil War. It follows then
that Lincoln did not raise a
false issue, but rather was an honorable
and even a great statesman.
While offering no new facts, Jaffa does
develop a view of Lincoln
which will have to be considered
seriously by others working in the
Civil War period. He acknowledges that
Lincoln's consuming interest
in life was politics and that he had an
"obvious relish for the ways, low
as well as high, of the
politician." But that does not mean that Lincoln
was just a manipulator of men and
issues. To Jaffa, Lincoln was
essentially a moralist, a man who really
believed that slavery was
evil and that Douglas' idea of
"popular sovereignty" was intrinsically
immoral. Never did Lincoln utter a word
he did not mean, nor did
he hitch his wagon to antislavery for
what he could get out of it.
Jaffa tries hard to be fair to Douglas,
but he gives up the effort after
a few pages. To him, Lincoln's adversary
was just a shrewd politician
who gained his ends without cant, it is
true, but also without any
appeal to noble principles. Although as
a politician skilled in day-to-day
tactics he had few equals, Douglas was
otherwise a man of great igno-
rance who catered to the prejudices of
his constituents.
Lincoln was everything Douglas was not,
in addition to being an
even better politician. "Had not
Lincoln challenged Douglas in 1858,"
Jaffa writes, "there would probably
have been no subsequent crisis,
or at least none of the same
nature."
One of the values of this work is that
it traces Lincoln's intellectual
development from his early manhood and
his apprentice political
speeches. Jaffa attempts to show that
Lincoln's political emergence
and intellectual pre-eminence were not
the result of late maturation, but
that even in his twenties and thirties
his social outlook was similar
to that of his fifties.
A reader somewhat less partisan will
notice that the author does a
good deal of second-guessing and reading
into the texts of Lincoln's
speeches what may or may not have been
in Lincoln's mind when he
said something at a certain time. Never
does Jaffa permit himself
to express an opinion in the least bit
unfavorable to Lincoln. The
book occasionally has a quality of
special pleading that weakens its
BOOK REVIEWS 195
value. For example, Jaffa points out
that while Lincoln was a Whig
and an ardent supporter of Henry Clay,
he did not accept the party's
entire platform. "We cannot . . .
believe," he writes, "that Lincoln
ever shared the Whig view that Jackson
had overextended the powers
of the presidency."
Too often one gets the impression that
Jaffa decides what he wants
to believe about Lincoln and writes
accordingly. He refuses to believe
that Lincoln at the age of thirty-four
would have delivered a temperance
address full of cliches. Rather the
speech was a caricature of such
addresses and was meant in fun. Yet
Lincoln's wretched record in
congress during his one term there shows
how far he had still to go
before the masterly addresses of the
debates and his presidency.
The amazing thing about Lincoln is not
his precocity, as Jaffa
insists, but rather his intellectual
growth and compassion even though
it may be true that much of his social
philosophy existed in embryo
by his mid-thirties. It does not add to
his stature to give him qualities
he did not have. When we realize how
Lincoln overcame the tempta-
tions of mere stump-speaking, at which
he and Douglas excelled, to
make an appeal to morals and conscience,
as Douglas never did, his
greatness becomes even more apparent.
Still this book is of great value. Too
many scholars in pursuit of a
chimerical "objectivity," have
blinded themselves to obvious truths,
namely that slavery was a cause of the
Civil War, that Lincoln by
denouncing slavery did not raise a false
issue or play to the gallery,
and that he is worthy of his prominence
among the heroes of the Re-
public. It is good that Professor Jaffa
has reminded us of these
facts. He does not err so much on his
side as the revisionists do on
theirs.
Kent State University HAROLD SCHWARTZ
The Road to Harpers Ferry. By J. C. Furnas. (New York: William
Sloane Associates, 1959. 477p.;
appendix, bibliography, and index.
$6.00.)
The debate over John Brown continues and
is revived as we move
forward into the centennial celebration
of the Civil War. Many who
were in rebellion against the national
government will be praised as
men of honor, heroism, and integrity.
Many who were champions of
freedom will be maligned and discounted,
in the endeavor to create
a road to reunion between North and
South by minimizing rebellion,
196
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
by emphasizing constitutional
misunderstanding, and by substituting
states rights for human rights. The
abolitionists, John Brown, and
Civil War statesmen will be in one
group, and the other will include
the Confederate and pro-slavery
leadership, while their biographies
may continue to be stories of the life
and times of men from the points
of view of authors who have a cause to
serve, rather than the search
for the key to unlock the door to the
understanding of the subject's life,
motif, and purpose in terms of national
ideals and the American creed.
In the study under consideration, J. C.
Furnas, author of the well-
received Goodbye to Uncle Tom, presents
a biography of John Brown in
Connecticut, Ohio, Canada, Kansas, and
Harpers Ferry. In these areas,
Brown farmed, surveyed, became a
herdsman and shepherd, speculated
in land, dealt in wool sales, and
finally became a revolutionary exponent
of freedom. This volume is also an
account of the background of
slavery extending from Africa, through
the slave trade, the activities
of the antislavery leadership in England
and the United States tied in
with the life of John Brown and
terminating in the America of 1859.
This is the Road to Harpers Ferry and
not the road from the small
farm six miles from Harpers Ferry on the
Maryland side from which
John Brown made his famous march on the
ordnance depot. Furnas
attempts to justify this plan with the
statement, "But the longest way
round is the truest way home."
The author, in most of the book,
endeavors to show that the abolition-
ists and John Brown did not know the
story of the life, history, and
culture of the darker people in Africa
and the West. Moreover, he
states that the abolitionists did not
tell the truth about the rise of
the slave trade or slavery, either in
Africa, the West Indies, or the
United States.
According to Furnas, Africans were not
"the noble savages" pictured
by the abolitionists, and he proceeds to
reveal their traits of unworthi-
ness. Here, his evidence is
insufficient. He fails to include the worthy
side of the picture from
non-abolitionists, as presented in such work as
Negroes of Africa, History and
Culture by Maurice Delafosse (1931),
or The Voice of Africa by Leo
Frobenius (1897), or other positive
views. He notes all too briefly aspects
of the African kingdoms of Mali,
Songhay, and Ghana. These civilizations
and governments were, ac-
cording to his opinion, not indigenous
African ones. They were "border-
zone growths stimulated by contacts with
Arabs and Berbers carrying
shreds and tags of the
Egyptian-Punic-Greeco-Roman world." At the
same time, he overlooks the composite
civilizations of Europe and the
BOOK REVIEWS 197
West, and the stimulation Africans gave
to the cultures which he
admires and which were also not
indigeous. People all over the world
in different times and places have
borrowed cultures, but they have
adapted them and made them their own.
Africans, prior to the slave
trade, were like other men in this
interplay of civilization.
The antislavery campaign in the United
States, according to Furnas,
took its cue from "the victorious
British campaign against the specific
hideousness of slavery in an imitation
extending through diagnosis,
prognosis, ideas and emotions,
organization and tactics." His opinion
was that the facts selected by him would
have been "news" to John
Brown and the Secret Six who gave to
Brown types of assistance, and
whose descriptions occupy many pages in
the book. These six men were
George Luther Sterns, industrialist;
Samuel Gridley Howe, physician;
Theodore Parker, minister; Gerrit Smith,
wealthy landowner of New
York and later signer with Horace
Greeley of the bail bond of Jefferson
Davis; Franklin B. Sanborn, author and
editor; and Thomas Went-
worth Higginson, who left the ministry
in 1858, enlisted in the Civil
War, and became a colonel of the first
regiment of colored troops.
Furnas has ridicule and criticism for
these men and the leaders of
the American Antislavery Society. He
wants to find what drove each
of the six to the "crime of
treason" and then asks, "Whence came the
absolute assurance of such abolitionist
leaders that slaveholding was a
putrescent moral sin as well as an
indecent mistake?" He seems to
igore the view that slaveholding,
slave-breeding, slave-driving, slave-
trading, and slave-hunting were the
inevitable outcomes of the belief in
man's property in man and man's
inhumanity to man. The author mini-
mizes their motivation on the basis of
the ideals of freedom and re-
ligous zeal, and insists upon covering
them with his scorn and disfavor.
He also overlooks the fact that slavery
was not on the way to extinction
but the antebellum period and, that
without such men even with their
own called psychopathic tendencies, it
would not have been extinguished
in the sixties.
The central figure in this drama, John
Brown, is the object of special
criticism as a fanatic, with a family
background of "grave mental
trouble." Furnas states that certain
well-wishers in Ohio sent affidavits
to his trial that "his mother's
family had been riddled with overt mental
disease." This claim of insanity has
been repeated over the years in
spite of the fact that psychologists
admit that the line between genius
and insanity is a shadowy one and often
depends on one's point of view
or ultimate purpose. The conclusion is
also clear that Brown made
198
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
himself a martyr in a cause which was
rapidly moving toward victory
and that his deed might also earn for
him the title of "Precursor" as
well as "Fanatic" of Freedom.
This volume with its forty-two pages of
explanatory notes and twenty
pages of works consulted represents a
wide reading of printed sources
and is a fascinating though lengthy
story of the long road of controversy
over Negro freedom. However, there will
continue to be agreement
and disagreement concerning John Brown,
fanatic or precursor of free-
dom--and perhaps he was both.
Central State College CHARLES H. WESLEY
Lincoln Finds a General: A Military
Study of the Civil War. By Ken-
neth P. Williams. Volume V, Prelude
to Chattanooga. (New York:
Macmillan Company, 1959. xiii??395p.;
frontispiece, illustrations,
maps, appendix, bibliography, and index.
$7.50.)
This final volume of a prodigious
military history of the Civil War
regrettably remained incomplete at the
time of Professor Kenneth P.
Williams' death in September 1958. In
pattern it follows its predeces-
sors, tracing in detail the campaigns
and engagements leading up to a
climactic battle. Volumes I and II,
published in 1949, developed the
military operations of Union forces in
the East under a succession of
bumbling commanders from Fort Sumter to
Gettysburg. Volume III,
published in 1952, described Ulysses S.
Grant's early career and the
first year of the war in the West
climaxing at Shiloh and Corinth.
Volume IV, published in 1956, depicted
the western campaigns from
mid-1862 to Grant's crushing victory at
Vicksburg. Now Volume V
covers the 1863 campaigns in the lower
Mississippi Valley, in middle
and east Tennessee, and concludes with
the Union defeat at Chicka-
mauga. According to the publisher,
Professor Williams had dictated in
outline the projected two final
chapters, which would have detailed the
Chattanooga seige culminating in the
Union triumph on the heights of
Missionary Ridge and Grant's journey to
Washington to receive from
Lincoln his commission as lieutenant
general.
Williams contends that even with its
heavy superiority in manpower
and military hardware, the North could
not have won the war without
an effective military commander.
Therefore, "Lincoln's chief military
problem was to find a general equal to
the hard task the North faced
in the Civil War." Lincoln's search
was a long and trying affair, with
general after general being tried and
found inadequate. The story of
BOOK REVIEWS 199
this search occupies Williams' attention
throughout the massive military
study. In his preface to Volume I,
Williams suggests his conclusion
to the problem under investigation.
"The man whom Lincoln found
came up the hard way . . . enjoyed no
favoritism of superiors, but
actually encountered jealousy and
distrust," while "exaggerations and
distortions spread harmful rumors behind
him." Even after two world
wars, Williams believes that "Grant
remains unique. . . . He was the
embodiment of the offensive spirit that
leaves the enemy no rest. He
solved problems his own way, not in
accordance with maxims. . . . He
carried no staff manual to study for
clues, no check list to scan for
anything possibly forgotten." Rather,
he was "a remarkable master
of detail, as well as a general who had
to make his great decisions
without the aid of a trained
staff." "Of all the generals in the war--
on either side--he alone demonstrated
his capacity to command small
forces as well as large ones in battle
under a great variety of circum-
stances, and finally to plan and direct
the operations of several armies."
In the present volume, so far as it
goes, Grant is not the central figure
(though he would have become the focus
in the two unfinished chapters).
Instead, he remains in the wings after
his success at Vicksburg, while
other, lesser men contend for mastery.
Since the nine chapters of the
volume at hand are highly involved with
exceedingly technical details,
comment must concentrate on its most
vital features. In its illumina-
tion of the less familiar campaigns and
military decisions of 1863, the
book is most valuable. For example, the
operations of General Theo-
philus A. Holmes and Frederick Steele in
Arkansas and the Union
capture of Port Hudson (often neglected
in Civil War histories) are
painted here in absorbing detail. The
question of whether the principal
Union push after Vicksburg in the lower
Mississippi area should have
been directed toward Mobile or toward
Texas (usually left unmen-
tioned) comes in for full treatment
here. Finally, the maneuverings
in central and eastern Tennessee receive
Williams' careful and informed
scrutiny. With the meticulous precision
of the mathematician-historian
that he was, the author documents his
work with information-laden
notes filling close to one hundred
pages. A fascinating appendix main-
tains that General Henry W. Halleck
deserves full-scale restudy on the
basis of Williams' slowly-ripened
conviction that he has been much
underrated and maligned by previous
writers.
As in the preceding volumes, Williams
brings his own military
experience of two wars and matured
judgment to bear in examining the
Official Records, with the happy result of offering a comprehensive and
200
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
comprehensible account of a most complex
military story. Maps and
illustrations aid the reader in
following the chronicle's intricacies. One
wishes only that a touch of Cattonesque
color and vitality might have
flavored the writing. But clearly this
is a solid, scholarly work of major
significance, to be reckoned with by all
future toilers in the Civil War
vineyard. As Lincoln found his general,
so too has Grant found his
historian.
Los Angeles State College DAVID
LINDSEY
Preliminary Guide to the Research
Materials of the Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission. (Harrisburg:
Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission, 1959.
iv??58p.; index. Paper
$0.50.)
The state division of public records and
division of research and
publications share most of this guide.
The division of public records
occupies the first fourteen of the
forty-four pages of text; but because
that division, despite its name, is also
responsible for a number of hetero??
geneous small collections of private
papers, it has had to devote hal??
its space to those. Thus only seven
pages remain in which to describe
the archives of one of the largest and
oldest states in the Union.
Except for small holdings in two state
historical properties, th??
rest of the guide describes historical
materials held by the research an??
publications division. These are nearly
all reproductions: some phot??
stats, some transcripts, mostly
microfilms. Of these, the great bulk ar??
reproductions of material readily
available in other libraries.
For years now guides to historical
materials have had a sprinklin
of film among many manuscripts. Here,
though, we have what ??
primarily a descriptive list of
microfilm holdings, so that the time ha??
come to ask whether photo-reproductions
are so much like manuscrip??
that they require the same luxurious
treatment in a printed guide.
Occasionally they do closely resemble
manuscripts, as when the ori??
inal of a filmed manuscript is since
lost or is resting in hands th??
will not let it be seen again, so that
the reproduction is for practic??
purposes the only source of the
information it bears.
But other kinds form the majority. These
are films that have be??
sired in other libraries. Not only that:
they may have innumerab??
siblings. The Draper films of the State
Historical Society of Wiscons??
are an example of this fertility of the
camera. This guide spends
page describing those Draper reels owned
in Harrisburg. The America
BOOK REVIEWS 201
Periodicals Series, issued by University
Microfilms in Ann Arbor, is
another kind. The originals, gathered
from many libraries, are not to
be found complete in any one, so that
the copy is superior to the
originals. Yet the copies are numerous.
Did this guide have to devote
three pages to the one in Harrisburg?
More and more of this kind
of material is appearing on microfilm,
microcard, microtape, and micro-
print. Indeed, some editions of these
are more like books than any-
thing else, and perhaps ought to be
treated as what they really are--
printed matter.
Still another kind of film is selective.
For example, the guide
mentions two reels of "selected
letters and documents relating to mili-
tary activities in Western Pennsylvania
and the Northwest Territory"
from the Harmar papers at the Clements
Library, covering a period
from 1775 to 1798. Will this entry save
anyone from going to Clements?
What scholar will take another's
selection if he can help it?
None of these comments of course reflect
on the material, or question
its description in the introduction as a
"rich treasure" of historical
evidence. It is simply that not all
treasures need a map; nor do all
research materials need a published
guide. Materials so likely to appear
in identical form at various places
might better have union catalogs
than guides.
"Preliminary Guide" suggests
that some bigger publication is con-
templated. Let us hope that any
expansion will be devoted to those
state and colonial archives that now
have only seven pages of description.
Miami University JOHN WEATHERFORD
Guide to the Manuscript Maps in the
William L. Clements Library.
Compiled by Christian Brun. (Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan
Press, 1959. xiv??209p.; maps, appendix,
and index. $4.00.)
This list describes maps in manuscript
only, and does not include
any of the very extensive collection of
printed maps held by the Clements
Library. As it stands, the number of
items runs to over eight hundred.
While a few single purchases have been
made, most of the material
came with larger manuscript collections.
Arrangement is by broad
geographical area, and then by title
within the large groupings. De-
scriptions are full, and comprehensive
notes giving additional information
are often added to these. Authors or
exact places may be searched
through the index.
As is not surprising, in view of the
library's large holdings of mate-
202
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
rials of British origin, Canada and the
Atlantic seaboard are heavily
emphasized, with an extremely detailed
survey of the St. Lawrence
Valley as a special feature.
Nevertheless, there are four maps under
the heading "Middle West," and
seventeen under "Ohio," covering
early campaigns and settlements.
Like many works of this kind nowadays,
the book was not printed,
in the usual sense of the term, but the
job of typing and reproduction
is so well done that the difference will
hardly be noticed.
Ohio Historical Society GEORGE KIRK
A History of American Labor. By Joseph G. Rayback. (New York:
Macmillan Company, 1959. vi??459p.; bibliography and index.
$6.00.)
Professor Rayback's book is a concise,
straightforward survey of
the history of labor in the United
States from colonial times to 1957.
The author's main focus is on the labor
movement and labor in politics,
but he is also concerned with the
composition of the labor force, labor
legislation, labor and the courts, and
radical movements which sought
to win labor support. He pays little if
any attention to such matters
as theories of the labor movement and
the effect of trade unionism
on wage rates and income distribution.
He does not try to explain
why so few workers relative to the size
of the total labor force joined
labor unions before 1933. He is, on the
whole, more interested in
recounting the details of industrial
disputes than in analyzing the more
peaceful aspects of the labor movement
and of collective bargaining.
Approximately one-half of the book is
devoted to the period before
1900, one-half to the years since 1900.
Most of the chapters are
effectively done and give evidence of
the author's familiarity with the
basic literature of the field and with
the relationship of labor develop-
ments to the general stream of American
history. One of the weakest
portions of the book is that dealing
with the Knights of Labor. Rayback
errs in seeing the Knights as primarily
an industrial type of organ-
ization; he fails to distinguish
sufficiently between theory and practice
in the history of the organization; he
overemphasizes the strikes on
the Gould lines in 1885 as a causative
factor in the spectacular growth
of the Knights soon thereafter; and if,
as he argues, the Knights had
a more realistic view of the nation's
industrial structure at the time
than the A. F. of L. did, why did the
Knights fail and the A. F. of L.
succeed?
BOOK REVIEWS 203
In view of the broad coverage of this
book it is not surprising that
the reader might wish to take exception
to some of the author's con-
tentions and, indeed, to some of his
facts. Professor Rayback over-
emphasizes, for example, the extent to
which contract labor was im-
ported into the United States after the
Civil War; he is in error in
assuming that the business community was
solidly opposed to green-
backs; he would have considerable
difficulty proving that the railway
strike of 1877 was "significant
primarily because it gave workingmen
a class consciousness on a national
scale"; he stresses the sympathy of
the Progressives for the demands of
labor but does not note the fear
many Progressives had of the power of
organized labor; he places the
due process clause in the fourth rather
than in the fifth amendment; he
misdates the Walsh-Healey public
contracts act; Ford's lieutenant
Harry Bennett is designated John
Bennett; and Ford's great Rouge
plant becomes, in this book, the Baton
Rouge Plant. Whatever its
defects, however, Rayback's book is the
best available one-volume in-
troduction to the history of labor in
the United States.
University of Michigan SIDNEY FINE
The Territorial Papers of the United
States. Compiled and edited by
Clarence E. Carter. Volume XXIV, The
Territory of Florida, 1828-
1834. (Washington: National Archives, 1959. v??1143p.;
index.
$8.00.)
This volume covers the third and fourth
(and last) administrations
of William Pope DuVal as territorial
governor of Florida, April 17,
1828-April 23, 1834; reference to the
preceding volume, therefore, is
frequently necessary.
The major themes emerging from this mass
of miscellaneous docu-
ments are possibly the examination of
Spanish land grants (which often
proved fraudulent); river and harbor
improvements (every community
on the Gulf of Mexico or a navigable
river required only such improve-
ments to rival New Orleans); controversy
over the personal and political
fitness of appointive office-holders,
present or prospective; and prepara-
tions for the removal of the Florida
Indians.
The correspondence concerning
appointments is particularly enter-
taining. Few Florida officials, from the
governor at Tallahassee to the
postmaster at Pensacola, escaped charges
either of grave malfeasance
in office or of low personal morality
and serious inattention to duty. The
territorial delegate accused the
governor of having awarded to a friend
204
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the contract for supplying corn to the
starving Indians--at three times
the normal price and unfit for even
equine consumption. The governor
described the judge of the eastern
district as "a man who was dismissed
with disgrace from our army, as to [sic]
vile to hold any command";
declared that the land agent "has
never but once been here, and that
for a short time"; and strove for
the removal of the Indian agent--
against whom the principal charge was
"a want of disposition to aid . . .
in recovering . . . run-away
slaves." But when this agent was removed,
the governor's choice as agent was
detected in padding his vouchers to
the tune of $397.50! Other members of
the rogues' gallery were "the
marshal of East Florida. . . . I have
every reason to believe that he
purchased a horse Saddle and Bridle . .
. which he charged under the
head of Stationary"; "Attorney
for the United States . . . a man of idle
and loose habits . . . upon one occasion
. . . suffered personal chastise-
ment . . . for an alleged attempt to
cheat at cards"; "The Post Master
at Pensacola . . . a constant frequenter
of a farro bank. . . . He is seldom
seen at the Post office." One could
almost imagine that these are notes
for a history of Reconstruction by a
Bourbon Democrat.
Prospective office-holders got off with
charges ranging from being
natives of "non-Slave holding
States" to membership in "the dismissed
cabinet, nullification, & Calhoun
party here." Qualifications for office-
holding--aside, of course, from the
indispensable virtues of integrity,
competence, and supporting the
president--were strongly genealogical
and financial. A successful candidate
for marshal of Middle Florida
"was the intimate friend of Thomas
Jefferson, married the sister of
Governor Randolph, & his daughter
married the grandson of Mr. Jeffer-
son." He needed such an office
"for his support."
The subject fraught with the greatest
significance for the future was
Indian removal--"an event so much
to be desired by the Inhabitants"
that no one in authority ventured to
doubt its easy and early practicabil-
ity. The Florida Indians, declared the
territorial delegate, "have signi-
fied their willingness to go over the Mississippi.
. . . An incorporation
with the Creeks is practicable & the
best possible policy." The attempt
at removal and incorporation soon
brought about the most costly and
protracted Indian war in our history.
An individual document of particular
interest is a memorial to con-
gress, January 28, 1833, signed by a
small but substantial group of East
Floridians headed by the famous
Zephaniah Kingsley, slave trader,
author of a philosophical defense of
slavery, and husband of an African
princess, objecting to territorial laws
discriminating against the free
BOOK REVIEWS 205
colored population. Petitions and
memorials, by the way, are frequently
of as much interest for their signers'
names as for their texts. The names
attached to a petition from Walton
County, West Florida, could pass
for the membership roll of a Caledonian
Society.
The reviewer looks forward eagerly to
the next volume, which, pre-
sumably, will deal with the Seminole
War period and add largely to our
readily available information.
University of Oregon KENNETH WIGGINS PORTER
"Sunset" Cox,
Irrepressible Democrat. By David
Lindsey. (Detroit:
Wayne State University Press, 1959.
xx??323p., frontispiece, bibli-
ography, and index. $5.00.)
It is a little surprising that we have
had to wait until now for a bi-
ography of Samuel Sullivan Cox. His
public career was long, stretching
from the 1850's to his death in 1889,
with fifteen elections to congress.
For four terms he represented a
district in mid-Ohio; then, the victim
of a gerrymander, he moved to New York
City and subsequently repre-
sented three districts in lower
Manhattan. During much of the period
he was a leading Democrat, serving on
important house committees and
speaking on practically all issues; he
was often speaker pro tempore.
He lectured frequently, traveled
widely, wrote ten books, and served
for a year as United States minister to
Turkey. He was a humane man
who served his fellows well, a champion
time and again of the oppressed
and the lowly. In his humor he was a
breath of fresh air in a period in
which public men tended to take
themselves rather too seriously. To
traverse a generation of American
history by focusing on him is a jour-
ney worth taking.
Mr. Lindsey's biography is somewhat
disappointing in one way. He
never quite succeeds in bringing the
"irrepressible Democrat" fully to
life. This is the biography of a public
man rather than the full story of
a human being. What is too often
missing is the personal detail which
adds color and depth to a portrait.
Mrs. Cox, we are told, "probably
looked with less than approval upon his
smoking and drinking habits."
What those habits were is not
disclosed. Similarly there is a lack of
detail in regard to his personal
relationships. Mrs. Cox herself is only
glimpsed. His relationships with most
men are in the public arena
rather than in the warmer and more
revealing context of personal life.
Perhaps a more intimate knowledge of
the man would help answer a
persistent question: Why did Cox, after
a generation of valiant effort
206
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
for his party, fail to exert significant
influence on the first Democratic
administration after the war? He failed
to win the speakership, which
he had long sought (what, besides
physical stature and votes, did Michael
Kerr, Samuel Randall, and John G.
Carlisle have that he did not have?);
he failed also to secure the important
chairmanships which he had held
in less promising Democratic days; the
best that Grover Cleveland
seemed willing to do for him was to send
him to Turkey as our minister.
The author mentions his shortness,
independence, and humor as possible
obstacles to advancement. Perhaps these
are adequate explanations. But
we would like to know the man better.
In other respects Mr. Lindsey has
written an exemplary work. The
public career of Cox is presented with
clarity, objectivity, and under-
standing. The author is at home in the
politics of the period and Cox is
well presented in the context of the
times. The final chapter is an excel-
lent analysis of the subject's career
and principles. It is a well written
book.
Like any member of the house, Cox
operated on more than one level.
Some of his activities can be seen in
terms of the interests of his district
and city; others reflect the Democratic
tradition and point of view; still
others stem from his humaneness and love
of justice and freedom. As
a representative from Manhattan it was
sound politics for him to fight
for better treatment of immigrants,
United States protests against Rus-
sian persecution of the Jews and English
treatment of Irish nationalists,
coastal defenses and harbor
improvements, laws in support of labor,
particularly postal workers (a valuable
set of friends for any congress-
man), and a commercial policy in keeping
with the interests of Ameri-
ca's greatest port. As a Democratic
leader he represented primarily the
Jeffersonian agrarian and commercial
tradition, with a states-rights
philosophy coupled with the Jacksonian
exaltation of the Union. Free
trade, national unity maintained by the
preservation of the federal sys-
tem, individual liberty, economy in
government--these were the tenets
to which he clung. Although his humane
point of view entered into
many of the activities already noted,
humaneness alone would seem to
explain his long dedication to the life
saving service; the saving of human
life was for him a cause worthy of
unselfish devotion. In an age when
mighty new forces were at work, he made
a contribution by defending
civil liberties, attacking the excesses
of reconstruction, focusing attention
on the corruption at work in national
affairs, and attacking the extrava-
gances of protection, railroad land
grants, and other manifestations of
the new alliance between business and
government.
BOOK REVIEWS 207
Mr. Lindsey deserves our thanks for a
revealing volume. Although
"Sunset" Cox was not of the
first rank among our political leaders, his
life story has much to offer the student
of the political history of an
age of turbulence, torment, and
transformation.
Michigan State University HARRY BROWN
Howells: His Life and World. By Van Wyck Brooks. (New York:
E. P. Dutton and Company, 1959.
viii??296p.; frontispiece and index.
$5.00.)
It is a cause for satisfaction that the
so-called William Dean Howells
"revival" has, in Van Wyck
Brooks's new book, finally escaped from
the universities--where it has been a
slightly phony, academic phe-
nomenon--to a wider world of readers,
some of whom it may induce
to open again the underrated novels of
the great Ohio realist. That
would be no bad thing.
For many reasons Brooks would seem to be
the ideal person to write
about Howells for a general audience.
Previous books about Howells
have been written by professors
of English for professors of English,
and they have been limited to special
facets of that versatile author--his
fiction, or his criticism, or his ideas
and influence, or his knowledge of
Italy. Even the 582 pages of Professor
Cady's excellent two-volume
biography were not enough to deal with
Howells fully.
Mr. Brooks does not pretend to cover all
this ground. He barely
touches on Howells' family and Ohio
years, for example, and he does
not discuss the novels at much length.
Instead of writing a detailed
biography loaded with literary
criticism, Brooks has drawn what might
best be called an interpretive portrait
of Howells the person. His sympa-
thetic insight into his subject seems to
increase as Howells matures--
approaches, it may be, Brooks's own
present age, 74. (Though he does
not say so, Brooks knew Howells
personally about 1910, when the
novelist was in his early
seventies.) It is his ripe understanding of the
later Howells that makes the most
convincing part of Brooks's book,
and his last chapter is his best.
But it is that for another reason as
well. There at last he does not
ramble and skip about, does not
alternately dazzle and befuddle the
reader with the patented Brooksian
patchwork of details, significant or
insignificant, anecdotes, bon mots, bits
of characterization, and detours
into curious--and irrelevant--side
pockets. It is a problem that does
not come up in the professors' more
disciplined, if dogged, books. And
208
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
yet Brooks's nimble allusions can
sometimes stretch the reader's mind
by making fresh and fruitful
connections between Howells and such
unexpected reference-points as Ezra
Pound, Jean-Paul Sartre, George
Crabbe, or the Ashcan School of
painters.
Brooks has written of Howells often
before, most recently in The
Dream of Arcadia (1958), which the present book duplicates in places.
He wrote of him also as long ago as
1920, when in The Ordeal of Mark
Twain he suggested that the Rabelaisian Twain's potential as
an artist
had been sabotaged by the prudish blue
pencil of his genteel friend
Howells--a view with which others, led
by Bernard De Voto, were to
disagree energetically. Today Brooks
concedes that Twain "was usually
his own censor," and (showing that
he has read most of the recent
articles by Howells specialists) Brooks
even goes so far as to assert that
it "would have been difficult to
implicate Howells in what Santayana was
to call 'the genteel tradition.'"
He also traces Howells' relations over
the decades with his other major
American contemporary, Henry James;
and he is the first to point out, as
someone should have long before now,
that Howells' modest stories could do a
number of important things
better than could the more pretentious
fiction of James.
Brooks's Howells has been dealt
with rather unfairly of late by a
couple of prominent critics. They seem
to be indignant that Brooks
did not write a different kind of book,
a full-blast definitive biography
meaty with facts and
footnotes--something which his preface explicitly
says was not his aim. Also they appear
to bridle at Brooks's obvious
admiration for Howells' fiction--but
they do so in a way that suggest??
strongly that they have not actually
bothered to read any of it since
they were in college, forty years ago.
But if, as is the case, Brooks's
picture of Howells must be called
thin and shallow from the scholarly
viewpoint, it has the important
virtues of interest and grace. For the
general reader for whom it is
written, it is certainly the most
attractive and readable single book of
Howells.
University of Illinois, Chicago JAMES B. STRONKS
American Folklore. By Richard M. Dorson. (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1959. ix??328p.;
appendices and index. $4.50.)
The development of American folklore is
a lively and absorbing stud
capable of illustrating many problems
in American culture. Early an
BOOK REVIEWS 209
later settlers brought their traditions
to the New World. Some of this
lore died out; some of it survived.
Inevitably new conditions bred new
traditions. Historical movements like
colonization, the rise of national
and sectional feeling, immigration,
abolition of Negro slavery and of
second-class citizenship, westward
expansion, and urbanization modified
popular beliefs and these in turn
influenced events. Professor Dorson's
book describes this interaction.
Trained in both history and compara-
tive folklore, he is able to observe
many facts overlooked by cultural
and literary historians. For example,
how many previous commentators
on the Puritans have noted that the Illustrious
Providences of Increase
Mather is a treasure house of folk
motifs familiar to generations of
Englishmen? Or that as the chroniclers
discussed the Indians, a folk
stereotype emerged, antedating the
Yankee booby?
In addition to colonial folklore,
Professor Dorson considers the rise
of native folk humor, regional folk
cultures--specifically those of the
Pennsylvania Germans, the hill folk of
the Ozarks, the New Mexican
Spanish, the Utah Mormons, and the
Maine Coast Yankees--immigrant
folklore, the Negro, folk heroes like
Davy Crockett, Paul Bunyan, Gib
Morgan, John Henry, and Casey Jones,
and modern folklore. Much
of what he has to say is based on his
own extensive field work. He
knows how the spoken word sounds and is
able to communicate its
??mmediacy.
At the outset Professor Dorson makes a
distinction between folk-
lore and what he calls
"fakelore." By folklore he means the oral tradi-
tions of the community. By fakelore he
means the falsification of "the
raw data of folklore by invention,
selection, fabrication, and similar re-
??ning processes." He says the
Paul Bunyan legends are an instance of
such falsification and calls Paul
"the pseudo folk hero of twentieth-
century mass culture." In contrast
to Bunyan, he calls Davy Crockett
a genuine folk hero."
To many readers the distinction will
not be sufficiently clear. Granted
that the legend of Davy Crockett is
based on more oral tradition than is
that of Paul Bunyan, the difference
between the two is not as absolute
?? American Folklore implies. The
public personality which David
rockett, the backwoods politician,
created for himself was about as
??lksy as Mickey Mouse. It was, as
Professor Dorson well knows,
bricated and packaged by the able
public relations men of Old Hickory
Jackson's era. The Autobiography was
largely ghost-written, and the
otives of the almanac makers who kept
the symbol of Davy Crockett
??ve after David Crockett was killed
were approximately as pure as
210
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
those of the writers of books about Paul
Bunyan. The recent flare-up
of interest in Crockett seems to have
been touched off by Walt Disney
and ought to be classed as a bit of mass
culture rather than folklore.
For the general reader, more space
should have been given to making
explicit the differences between the
two. Indeed much of the chapter on
modern folklore is puzzling. One is
willing to concede that the jokes,
gags, rumors, and song parodies of
undergraduates and draftees are
transmitted orally and that many of them
are too obscene to contaminate
print, but can this ephemeral stuff be
called traditional? Or can the plat-
form humor of President Conant of
Harvard, mentioned on page 246,
be folklore? Is President Conant one of
the folk?
In a subject as amorphous as folklore
such vagaries are inevitable. In
spite of them, American Folklore is
the best synthesis of the material
yet produced. Though written for the
general reader, scholars will find
it a good book to have. The
bibliographical notes are especially valuable.
Western Reserve University GEORGE KUMMER
Queen City Yesterdays: Sketches of
Cincinnati in the Eighties. By
William C. Smith with Introduction and
Notes by Flaxius. (Craw-
fordsville, Ind.: R. E. Banta, 1959.
66p. Paper, $1.50.)
How does a man become an expert in
Americana, a dealer whose
reputation reaches book collectors
around the world? This engaging
brochure (which tells as much about its
author as about his city) gives
some pungent answers.
By being born in 1872 into prosperous
and cosmopolitan Cincinnati.
By playing "hunt the hare,"
"prisoner's base," and "follow up" with
the Seventh Street gang in cobbled
streets and alleys. By roller skating
on Plum Street and ice skating on the
old canal. By hating Sunday
School, looting apple carts, and reading
dime novels. By being dis-
gusted with the tedium of high school
history and discovering the ex-
citement of Gibbon's Roman Empire and
Anthon's Classical Dictionary
By listening to the harangues of
medicine men, political highbinders
and religious fanatics and the chants of
fish pedlers, scissors grinders
and sauerkraut and pretzel men. By
hanging around the livery stable
and saloons of Central Avenue and
"Over the Rhine." By mixing with
all the currents of life in a city that
"had a more cosmopolitan outlook
bought and read more books, enjoyed
better food, supported more
theater seats per capita, owned more
public parks--and, one suppose
BOOK REVIEWS 211
had more fun, wholesome and
otherwise--than any city in the United
States excepting possibly San
Francisco."
This vivid reminiscence by a well-known
bookman pictures Cincinnati
at the turn of the century. Without a
single statistic or a reference to
anything but the writer's well-stocked
memory, it tells more about that
vanished life than could be found in a
mountain of census reports and
city directories. William C. Smith,
with an assist from his friend
"Flaxius," who supplies a
running commentary in the form of chapter
headnotes, tells about food and drink,
market days and holidays, poli-
tics and religion, and the rich swarm
of people--German, Irish, Italian,
Negro, and native Ohio Valley--who made
up the old "Queen City."
In 1955 William C. Smith sold his
Americana stock and gave up his
downtown offices. But he couldn't stay
away from books and book-
addicted people. Soon he was sending
out new catalogs and again re-
minding his customers that "rare
books are getting scarce."
Now he has written a little book that
future dealers will list in their
Americana catalogs. The edition is
limited to 1,000 copies; it will soon
be getting scarce.
Miami University WALTER HAVIGHURST
Bluegrass Craftsman: Being the
Reminiscences of Ebenezer Hiram
Stedman, Papermaker, 1808-1885. Edited by Frances L. S. Dugan
and Jacqueline P. Bull. (Lexington:
University of Kentucky Press,
1959. xxi??226p.; frontispiece, appendix,
and index. $5.00.)
Stedman's reminiscences are principally
concerned with papermaking
in Kentucky from the 1790's through the
Civil War. Stedman's father,
a New England papermaker, migrated to
Kentucky in 1815. Next year
the family followed, during which time
young Stedman passed his eighth
birthday. When a boy of about fourteen,
he became a "lay boy" in a
paper mill, working unusually long
hours under difficult circumstances.
From time to time, often with his
father, he worked in various paper
mills in Kentucky and Ohio. Then in
1833 Stedman was given an op-
portunity to operate a paper mill, rent
free, until the business was in
successful operation. Almost entirely
without capital, his business be-
came profitable. During the 1840's and
the 1850's his mill, located in
the Elkhorn Valley, was several times
either partially or entirely de-
stroyed by fire or floods, but each
time it was repaired or rebuilt. Sted-
man furnished paper for state printers,
most of the Frankfort news-
papers, and other users of paper. His
business, however, became bank-
212
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
rupt during the Civil War, and the Du
Ponts purchased the mill in 1875.
About this time Stedman moved to Texas,
where he commenced his
memoirs in 1878, when he was three score
and ten.
Bluegrass Craftsman offers much information about paper mills and
the process of papermaking. An appendix
includes a short history of
papermaking in early Kentucky.
Historians familiar with pioneer news-
papers as sources are of course already
aware that these early papers
are generally much better preserved than
are newspaper files of the
twentieth century. Stedman's memoirs
indicate clearly that the "rag
paper" which went into pioneer
newspapers, books, and bank notes was
a quality product quite superior to the
pulp paper of recent decades.
Stedman's reminiscences offer valuable
comments on miscellaneous
subjects. Even in his old age he had not
forgotten the bias against New
Englanders which his family had
encountered as they moved west in
1816: "The war Being over they,
that is the people allong the Road
Seemed Determined to Show no faivors to
the Yankeys. . . . Manny
Nights we had to Camp out. . . . At the
foot of the mountain Thare was
the usual Sign, 'Entertainment for man
& Beast.' But our Conductor
Could not Prevail on the land lord to
take us in. He Said he Supose?
we had wooden hams & nut megs to
last us through our Journey" (p?
11). Stedman offers information about
the importance of manufactur-
ing in Kentucky following the War of 1812,
the hemp industry, squirre?
migrations, papermakers as generous
consumers of whiskey, the militia?
and so forth. Stedman's reminiscences
also indicate that early manufac-
turing in the West often developed from
long hours, hard work, and
only meager capital.
At times these reminiscences are
repetitive, and some passages yield
items of scant historical value. The
editors appear to have been careful
in the performance of their editorial
duties, but their suggestion in the
opening paragraph of the Introduction
that tradesmen and craftsmen
"represented the largest portion of
the residents of the Bluegrass
seems to be a dubious conclusion.
Indiana University DONALD F. CARMONY
The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The
Complete Correspondence Between
Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John
Adams. Edited by Lester
Cappon. (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 195?
viii??638p.; illustrations and index.
$12.50.)
"No correspondence in American
history," writes Lester J. Capp??
BOOK REVIEWS 213
editor of these volumes, "is more
quotable or more readily recognized
for its historical significance than
that of John Adams and Thomas
Jefferson." While many, perhaps
most, of the more important letters
have appeared in other collections,
never before has the complete cor-
respondence been compiled. Also
included are the letters of Jefferson and
Abigail Adams, for they are
instrumental to an understanding of the
entire relationship.
The correspondence commenced in May
1777 with an exchange of
ideas concerning the proposed Articles
of Confederation. It ended a
half-century later, in March and April,
1826, when Jefferson introduced
his grandson, who wished to meet the
"Argonauts" of the "heroic age
preceding his birth." Adams
replied that "your letter is one of the most
beautiful and delightful I have ever
received." Between these dates,
contained in these letters is the story
of America--and much more. In a
sense, it is a true conversation, for
Adams and Jefferson appreciated
each other's frankness and
intelligence. The subject matter ranges over
topics of mutual interest: education,
science, religion, war, politics, di-
plomacy, government, finance, national
character, law, and philosophy.
They reminisce; they discuss books and
family; they speak of Indians
and Greek pronunciation, Virginia
historians, and the Athanasian Creed.
A silence of eleven years, 1801-12,
when no exchange of letters oc-
curred, was unfortunate but
understandable. The bitter animosity of
Federalist and Republican could but
have an effect on their principal
leaders. Though Jefferson's inaugural
words--"We are all republicans,
we are all federalists"--attempted
to salve the wounds of bitter faction-
alism, it was inevitable that time
alone could restore the close friendship.
The persistent efforts of Dr. Benjamin
Rush finally effected a reconcili-
ation. Looking back upon that period of
rhetorical violence, John Adams
commented: "If I were summoned as
a witness to say upon oath, which
party had excited . . . the most
terror, and which had really felt the most,
I could not give a more sincere answer,
than in the vulgar style 'Put
them in a bag and shake them, and then
see which comes out first.'"
To be sure, the two men disagreed on
many matters of basic import-
ance. Jefferson placed his faith in the
free election of a virtuous and
talented natural aristocracy; Adams did
not. Within the constitutional
balance, Jefferson emphasized the power
of the lower house; Adams
would give greater weight to the
executive and judiciary. Jefferson
favored a strict interpretation of the
constitution; Adams did not fear
broad construction. Both believed that
human beings enjoyed inalien-
able rights, but only Jefferson had
faith in man's perfectibility. Jefferson
214
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
could say: "I like a little
rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in
the atmosphere." Adams had grown
more conservative since 1776.
Jefferson always defended and befriended
Thomas Paine; Adams found
Edmund Burke's position on the French
revolution more palatable.
Yet the sages of Quincy and Monticello
were both moderate and
practical men. Despite the obvious and
basic contrasts, both Adams
and Jefferson stood side by side on
certain essentials: to avoid war, to
quiet factionalism, to preserve
republican government. Their warm
friendship was based on candor, honesty,
and respect. "About facts,"
Jefferson wrote, "you and I cannot
differ, because truth is our mutual
guide. And if any opinions you may express
should be different from
mine, I shall receive them with the
liberality and indulgence I ask for
my own." Jefferson and Adams
represent, respectively, the quintessence
of the very best in American liberalism
and conservatism. Their in-
destructible link, then, was "a
keen sense of national consciousness," a
realization that America's destiny was
unique. This is the essential
meaning of Jefferson's words, "We
are all republicans, we are all fed-
eralists."
Mr. Cappon has confused TJ for JA at one
point (p. 577). Other-
wise his footnotes are excellent and
indispensable, containing as they do
translations from the Greek,
explanations of esoterica, corrections of
names and dates, and references to
pertinent monographs.
Montana State University MORTON BORDEN
Religion and American Democracy. By Roy F. Nichols. (Baton
Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,
1959. vii??108p.; bibli-
ography. $2.50.)
This book is the second in a series of
Rockwell Lectures delivered
at Rice Institute in Texas. The author
is a teacher, historian, and writer
on American history.
The book leaves more unsaid than said,
which is likely enough be-
cause of its shortness, representing the
spoken lecture. It is unfortunate,
to at least one reader's mind, that the
need existed to fit a very large
subject into a very small space. All
philosophical expansion was neces-
sarily trimmed away.
The book is a series of statements of
many facts, relating the develop-
ment of the American system to its dominantly
Protestant Christianity.
It does not have much to say, or
speculate much about the future of
our system except in the closing
paragraph. The author says:
BOOK REVIEWS 215
In the beginning of this consideration
American democracy was
presented as being constructed at a
time when man as an individual
was emerging from the mass of mankind
and finding himself as a
person. This experience was closely
connected with religion. Now
when there are so many influences at
work to drive man back into
the mass, shorn of his individuality,
this belief in democracy, if main-
tained with religious fervor, may be
the saving agent which will keep
him still as an individual, strong in
his faith, in his dignity, and in
his power derived from his religious
insight. Man's belief in his
capacity for self-government under
divine guidance may well be the
salvation of the American Way.
It is in the field of the future nature
of our democracy, so much in
the thoughts and worries of Americans
today, that one is tempted to
strike out for himself in commenting on
this book. Since this cannot
be done, let us examine part of the
text which comes close to the heart
of what Mr. Nichols has to say:
"Over the centuries America . . . has
been so largely motivated by faith and
hope that it has achieved a
measure of charity. . . . The nation
should find in this experience
a cumulative moral imperative
commanding that it continue to follow
these patterns."
Mr. Nichols does not say that the
nation does find the imperative
nor does he suggest that it will, but
it is on this point that doubt and
soul-searching exists among American
thinkers now. Has our charity
(of whose existence there is no doubt)
proceeded from Christian love
or from the careless and uncharitable
idea that America had so much
land, wealth, and confidence that it
could afford magnanimity? Is
there a "moral imperative
commanding" in any traceable sense in a
country where there are 250 religious
bodies (sects, denominations,
and so forth) besides the Roman
Catholics, Episcopalians, and Jews?
The frantic reactions in the United
States to Russian political and
scientific successes do not bespeak the
belief, dignity, and power which
Mr. Nichols thinks we should find in
ourselves now.
We all may hope indeed that the
American Way will keep the faith
and vigor which have made us a great
nation; and we may wonder
too if and how it has been changed by
the government, the corporation,
and the union, none of which, excepting
some government functions,
can be called Christian.
Cincinnati NORMAN L. SPELMAN
Book Reviews
Frontier America: The Story of the
Westward Movement. By Thomas
D. Clark. (New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1959. xi??832p.
illustrations, maps, appendix,
bibliography, tables, and index. $6.75.)
This is not an easy kind of book to
write. It is the history of a move-
ment of population that affects every
section of the country. It covers
frontier areas and periods with no exact
terminal points and with no
two alike. It embraces political,
social, economic, military, and diplomatic
history, and it must deal with local,
regional, and national problems. To
organize and synthesize this wealth of
material is a difficult task, but the
author of this volume meets all the
requirements, and the product is a
fine piece of historical writing.
The book begins with a general chapter
on the characteristics and
significance of the frontier, without
quite accepting the Turner thesis
other than by implication. Then,
disregarding Turner's Old West east
of the Alleghenies, the author starts
the story of frontiers with Anglo-
French rivalries over the Ohio
Valley-Great Lakes triangle and devotes
approximately half of the volume to the
history of the forest and prairie
frontiers until bridgeheads are established
across the Mississippi. The
early chapters are chronological, but
the treatment shifts over to a topical
one as the zones of settlement become
more complex and frontier prob-
lems and developments require particular
consideration.
The latter half of the book deals with
expansion to the Pacific by
means of trade, war, and the flow of
settlers, discusses the diversified
frontiers of the vast trans-Mississippi
West, and concludes with accounts
of transportation, the Indian problem,
and the final stages of westward
settlement. Here the organization is
necessarily topical by areas or
types of frontiers, but one cannot
discard the chronological approach
entirely, and to reconcile the two is a
difficult matter. Nevertheless
this reviewer believes that the chapter,
"State-Making Along the Mis-
sissippi," belongs with the older
agricultural frontier, and not after the
accounts of the fruits of manifest
destiny, and that consideration of the