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BOOK REVIEWS |
SCHLIEMANN IN INDIANAPOLIS. Edited by Eli Lilly. (Indianapolis: Indiana His- torical Society, 1961. ix??95p.; illus- trations, appendix, and index. $5.00.) Heinrich Schliemann is known to all lovers of ancient Greece for his excava- tions of the site of ancient Troy and for other diggings which established his rep- utation as the first modern archaeologist. Relatively few, however, know of his vis- its to the United States and his sojourn in Indianapolis. The latter is the main theme of the diary and letters culled from the Schliemann papers and reproduced in this little volume. Schliemann was a remarkable linguist. At the age of thirty-four, he learned to speak and write Russian in six weeks. Many of his letters written from Indian- apolis to scholars all over the world were originally composed in German, French, English, and Greek. Schliemann first came to the United States in 1850. He joined the gold rush to California, went into business in San Francisco, and quickly doubled his money. Everything he touched seemed to turn to gold. He had many holdings in the United States, especially in government bonds and bank and railroad stocks, the income from which helped finance his many archaeo- logical ventures. The reason for his American voyage in 1869 was to get a divorce from his Russian wife, who refused to leave her |
native land. Completing his naturaliza- tion as an American citizen, which he had begun in 1851, within three days of his arrival in New York, Schliemann moved to Indianapolis, having learned that Indiana's divorce laws were more lenient than those of most other states. He established a residence in Indianap- olis, acquired some property, and waited for the court to hand down its decree. Freed from his first wife, he quickly em- barked upon another matrimonial ad- venture. This time he married a seven- teen-year-old Greek girl, who had been recommended by the archbishop of Greece, Schliemann's former teacher. The enthusiastic Homer scholar was con- vinced that he could be happy only with a Greek, even though she was a third his age. Their offspring he named Andro- mache and Agamemnon. Schliemann's American diary and the Indianapolis letters touch upon a variety of subjects, from Sunday closing laws and Irish and German immigrants to es- says on the origin of the Arabian Nights, the contents of a classical education, the best methods for studying a foreign lan- guage, and a variety of more trivial items which attracted the attention of an ob- servant traveler. This little volume is an interesting bit of Americana, concerned with a brief period in the life of one of the world's |
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most eccentric and brilliant archaeolo- gists. The footnotes have been carefully prepared; the editing has been well done; the printing is unusually attractive. CARL WITTKE Western Reserve University INDUSTRY COMES OF AGE: BUSINESS, LABOR, AND PUBLIC POLICY, 1860-1897. By Ed- ward C. Kirkland. Volume VI of THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, edited
by Henry David, Harold U. Faulkner, Louis M. Hacker, Curtis P. Nettels, and Fred A. Shannon. (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1961. xiv??445p.; illustrations, bibli- ography, and index. $7.50.) Few periods in American history suffer so from myth, error, and neglect as the Gilded Age, roughly the last generation of the nineteenth century. The incrimi- nating title was devised by such notables as Mark Twain and Vernon L. Parring- ton, whose dubious theses have been adopted too readily by the textbook writ- ers and popularizers. In the present work Edward C. Kirkland presents the fruits of a lifetime's study in the rich sources of that era in what is both a general review of American economic history between 1860 and 1897 and a major re- interpretation of a disputed generation. Professor Kirkland deals topically with many problems: business consolidation, labor, research and invention, natural resources, cities, governmental economic activities, and allied factors. He has un- covered much fascinating new factual material, which is supplemented by his own interpretations. He dwells at greatest length on busi- ness, and he reminds us of many things. He clearly shows, for instance, that nei- ther businessmen, nor the Republican party, nor the public at large opposed government subsidies in the economy; they only opposed government ownership and control. Thus many pious business- |
men had their cake and ate it too, talking of individualism while accepting sub- sidies. The age also disapproved of specu- lators and lauded producers in the economic world, though to be sure little was done until late in the century to curb speculation. Kirkland shows again how false was the "rags to riches" myth; most successful businessmen came from stable homes, equipped with education and often as not financial help. He also reminds us of the grave personal and financial risks confronting the men of this generation in their business dealings. Much of the
business community frankly opposed competition, seeking in- stead the stabilization of production that eliminated wasteful competition and set prices and income. Kirkland seems to feel that in the long run, efforts to re- store competition were reactionary and that the consolidation of big business brought many advantages, despite its de- nial of the doctrines which allowed it to be built up. The treatment of labor is rather cur- sory, so that one has little idea of how organized labor grew or what exactly were its aims and ideas. Labor faced formidable opposition from employers who talked of iron economic laws, a hos- tile labor force, and an indifferent or op- posed public. Kirkland rightly holds that labor cannot be judged in this period by strikes and violence alone, but unhappily he does not present much of an alternative scheme. Beneath labor's drive for higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions, lay a genuine fear of corpor- ate impersonality, something which busi- nessmen did not fear or did not see. It is easy to complain of the omissions in such a book and to minimize its con- tributions.
This reviewer would like sharper conclusions all the way through; and the book seems simply to straggle to |
166 OHIO HISTORY |
an end. More information on small busi- ness would be welcome. The failure to deal at all with politics leaves the total picture ill-balanced. A chapter on busi- ness and politics is really necessary to understand the questions of corruption, subsidy, and the reaction of the two ma- jor parties to economic growth. This re- viewer also wanted more analysis of the business ethic, for he remains sufficiently unreconstructed on the subject to wonder if Professor Kirkland's implication that most businessmen were socially conscious is not overdrawn. The style, while reada- ble, is not colorful, which is a shame in view of the era's excitement. The book shows what a rich and re- sourceful era this was; to be sure there was waste and haste, but the solid accom- plishments remain. This generation passed on a well-developed nation, a higher eco- nomic standard of living, more leisure time, more wealth for social purposes, and an economic richness that made for greatness when America stepped on the international stage. No review can really dissect the book, so closely packed are its pages with inter- esting and controversial material. How- ever much and in whatever ways one may disagree with it, it is an important re- interpretation. No student of the Gilded Age can ignore it, and its facts and theor- ies should do much to revise the current erroneous judgment of the era. H. WAYNE MORGAN University of Texas A FOOL'S ERRAND. By Albion W. Tourgee. Edited, with an introduction, by John Hope Franklin. (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1961. xxviii??404p. $5.00.) The reissue of this book provides an opportunity for the social and literary historian, as well as the intellectual his- torian, to become acquainted with an all |
but forgotten social document dealing with post-Civil War conditions in North Carolina. Professor Franklin has care- fully edited the novel, working from the first edition, published in 1879. Long out of print, Ohio author Tourgee's novel has, like its author, long been relegated to the dusty, unused back shelves in li- braries. Perhaps this has been justified from the strictly critical standpoint; how- ever, the book sold 200,000 copies in its first year. Structurally weak, the plot of A Fool's Errand deals
with the efforts of a well- meaning carpetbagger, Colonel Comfort Servosse, to help rebuild the South after the Civil War. The colonel's experiences strongly resemble Tourgee's own as a carpetbag superior court judge in North Carolina, and the novel is important for its accurate but biased northern view of conditions during the period of Recon- struction. Tourgee criticizes not only the southern resistance but the federal gov- ernment as well for the failure to recog- nize adequately and to handle the prob- lems which arose in the aftermath of the conflict. His suggestion for an encom- passing solution to the many problems in the South, one which he did not repudiate until long after he had ceased writing propagandistic novels, is a national edu- cational system which would educate all Americans, freedmen and white. How- ever, Colonel Servosse, like Tourgee, finally gives up his attempts to recon- struct the South, admitting that his has been a fool's errand. The saving grace of the novel, and the reason which moti- vated the Belknap Press of Harvard Uni- versity Press to rescue this book from oblivion, is its sometimes microscopic analysis of post-Civil War life in the South. Professor Franklin's biographical in- troduction is heavily dependent on the only biography of Tourgee, written by |
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Roy F. Dibble and published in 1921. This dependence is to be expected, since, until recently, there has been compara- tively little scholarship concerned with Tourgee's life and writings. One slight error should be mentioned. The book jacket states that Tourgee died in 1903, while serving as American consul in Bor- deaux. His death, as Professor Franklin points out in the introduction, actually occurred in 1905. Although moderate, the five-dollar price of the book would tend to keep it from being used in a sociologically or historically oriented course in literature or American civilization. In soft cover, and at a more moderate price, the book would serve as an important source of in- formation concerning the thought of at least one American involved in the re- building of the nation. TED N. WEISSBUCH California State Polytechnic College LIST OF NATIONAL ARCHIVES MICROFILM PUBLICATIONS, 1961. National Archives Publication No. 61-12. (Washington: National Archives, 1961. vi??231p.; appendix and index. Paper.) In 1948 the Guide to the Records in the National Archives was published with overall descriptions of the record groups of its considerable holdings. For over twenty years the National Archives has been engaged in a continuing project which to date has produced nearly 13,000 rolls of master negative microfilm of se- lected portions of some 260 of these rec- ord groups. The present List supersedes one of the same title that was issued in 1953 by the exhibits and publications branch of the National Archives. Entries in this catalog are arranged according to government departments and agencies. They include brief descrip- tions of contents, an indication of indexes which may have been prepared, and other |
pertinent information. If the "microfilm publication" of a specific body has not been completed, its projected specifica- tions are included. Also, notation is made in instances where the National Archives has prepared pamphlets which deal with some of the specific record groups which have been filmed. Positive prints of these rolls are all available at a very nominal eight cents for each foot of 35-millimeter film and four cents for 16-millimeter film. Thus a vast amount of source material is readily accessible for a modest outlay of research funds. This may well obviate, in many instances, the necessity of expensive travel and sojourn in Washington to utilize re- search resources of the archives. The coverage and diversity of the ma- terials thus obtainable are apparent by examination of the table of contents, text, and index of this volume. A few exam- ples illustrate this point: A student of the Old Northwest could find much con- cerning labor, genealogy, the shifting of population, and numerous other facets of the region's history crammed into the schedules of the federal population cen- suses, many of which have been filmed. For the current interest in the Civil War, the service records of the Union veterans of all branches or of their widows, by groups of Ohio counties, are available. Or a researcher could delve into the de- tailed operations of the collector of cus- toms for certain periods at Sandusky or Cincinnati or at other places in the state in which the United States Department of Treasury officials were located. The scope of the subject matter in- volved is as wide and as detailed as the official records kept by various govern- ment agencies and bureaus since the days of the First Continental Congress. This catalog of the available microfilm pub- lications of a generous portion of the holdings of the National Archives is a re- |
168 OHIO HISTORY |
search aid of obvious worth and necessity to anyone interested in American history. DWIGHT L. SMITH Miami University ANTISLAVERY: THE CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM IN AMERICA. By
Dwight Lowell Du- mond. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1961. x??422p.; illus- trations and index. $20.00.) This book represents a comprehensive view of the antislavery crusade in its many aspects. The author condemns slavery as originally based on the un- sound doctrine of Negro inferiority and follows with an analysis of the attitude of the generation of the Revolution to- ward it. He condemns the three-fifths ratio of the constitution as giving unfair political advantage to the South, but his statement that direct taxes were not im- posed is contrary to the fact that they were imposed several times during the early national period. Attention is paid to the disabilities un- der which the free Negro labored. The conclusion is that he was rightfully and legally a citizen, despite judicial interpre- tations to the contrary. To the organized abolition movement much space is de- voted. The leaders of this movement are depicted as opponents of colonization, champions of egalitarian doctrines, de- fenders of freedom of speech, and advo- cates of the "Higher Law" in respect to certain aspects of the slavery controversy. The Liberty party and the implications of the slavery question for labor and the churches, respectively, are discussed. The principal merit of this work is that it represents the most extensive presentation in existence of the moral point of view against slavery. The author, however, is very subjective and positive in his presentation. He pronounces the fugitive slave act of 1793 "a law which unquestionably stands alone as the most |
flagrantly unconstitutional act of Con- gress ever enforced by the courts." The idea that the South was turned from emancipation and to a defense of slavery by northern abolitionists is termed "a monstrous fiction," and "there is no record of any support in the slave states at any time for emancipation." He main- tains that slavery had reduced the South, "except for slaveholders, to a region of ignorance and poverty," and that "it must never be forgotten that slaveholders fled from the Union in 1860-61 in a last desperate gamble to preserve slavery." The abolitionist indictment of the South is accepted without reservation. Because the author accepts so implicitly the abolitionists' characterization of their northern critics, there is not an adequate analysis of the northern opposition to the abolitionists. Mob action against them was not justifiable, but it does not follow that all criticism of them was un- justified. Even some of the authorities cited by the author himself in defense of freedom of speech condemned the aboli- tionists for abuse of it. Channing, as is pointed out, wrote a defense of freedom of speech for abolitionists, but it is not pointed out that he also stated that their vocabulary of abuse sometimes became licentious. Harrison Gray Otis is re- ferred to in a particular connection as "a strong advocate of freedom of speech and of the press," but it is not recorded that this same individual, in 1835, bitterly condemned the sending of pictorial repre- sentations and pungent literature into the South as not in accordance with his con- cept of freedom of speech. Strangely enough, the John Brown raid is not even mentioned. HENRY H. SIMMS Ohio State University |
BOOK REVIEWS 169 |
INDIANS IN PENNSYLVANIA. By Paul A. W. Wallace. Illustrated by William Rohr- beck. (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania His- torical and Museum Commission, 1961. xiii??194p.; illustrations, maps, ap- pendix, and index. Paper, $1.50.) There is more unflagging and contin- ued popular interest in the American In- dian than in most topics in American history; but surprisingly little has been done to cultivate this interest. There is a need for competent, scholarly writers to bring together the findings of anthropolo- gists, linguists, historians, and others that appear in professional journals and monographic studies, to synthesize these materials, and to present them to the lay- man devoid of the technical and special- ized terminology that often confuses rather than enlightens. Probably the most satisfactory ap- proach to such studies is geographic, on a regional or a state basis. This is not necessarily to suggest that geographic de- terminism is predominant, but it is to say that more meaningful generalizations and observations can be made on the Ameri- can Indians on this rather than on a na- tional or continental scale. Neither is it to assert that a state or region can be isolated, because there were usually inter- regional relationships and interactions that must be considered. An excellent example of this approach is George Irving Quimby's recent (1960) study, Indian Life in the Upper Great Lakes, 11,000 B.C. to A.D. 1800. An- other, concerned with the Prehistory of the Upper Ohio Valley, was published by William J. Mayer-Oakes in
1955. In some respects a sequel to the latter, but concerned with a larger area, is the pres- ent Indians in Pennsylvania. It should be noted here that all three of these works contribute much to a better understand- ing of the Indians in the Old Northwest. Nearly one-half of the Wallace volume is devoted to the Delawares, "a loose con- |
federation of Algonkian tribes"--their physical appearance, dress, houses, vil- lages, social organization, superstitions, occupations, travel, warfare, government, cradle to grave rites and ceremonies, re- ligion, legends, amusements, migrations, and related topics. The other distinct In- dian peoples living in Pennsylvania at the beginning of the seventeenth century were the Susquehannocks, the Mononga- hela people, and the Eries. Much less is known about them than the Delawares, and their contact with the incoming Euro- peans was relatively insignificant. Of considerable importance to the his- tory of the Pennsylvania Indians, as they were to most of the Indians in the eastern United States and Canada, were the Iro- quois nations of upstate New York. Their military and political genius also made them important factors in the French- English struggle for North America. After their conquests, which resulted in the dispersal of the Susquehannocks in 1675, they sponsored the occupation of the Susquehanna Valley with refugee peoples --the Conoys and Nanticokes from the Chesapeake Bay area; the Tuscaroras from North Carolina; the Tutelos from the Virginia-North Carolina piedmont; a band of Shawnees from the Illinois coun- try and another from the Chesapeake Bay region. Land cessions, Indian policy, migra- tions, the roles of the Indians in the wars of the whites, and biographical sketches of the "famous" Indians of the state con- clude the volume. Seven uncluttered but ample maps enhance the value of the book. The general reader will welcome In- dians in Pennsylvania. For the special- ist it is a convenient sketch. And it is an example that can well be imitated else- where. DWIGHT L. SMITH Miami University |
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FABRIC OF FREEDOM, 1763-1800. By
Es- mond Wright. The Making of America Series, edited by David Donald. (New York: Hill and Wang, 1961. xiii?? 298p.;
maps, bibliographical essay, and index. $4.50.) From felicitous title to scholarly bibli- ography Esmond Wright, professor of modern history at the University of Glas- gow, has produced an impressive sum- mary of the American experience from 1763 to 1800. Through the use of color- ful detail and vivid illustration he has managed superbly the difficult feat of making a most familiar story sound fresh and eminently worth the retelling. So many great themes run through this period of American history that it would be easy to magnify some out of all pro- portion to the others. This temptation the author skillfully avoids by maintaining an admirable balance among his many concerns. If, however, any one portion of the book were to be singled out by this reviewer for special praise it would be the first one hundred pages which re- count the course of revolutionary fer- ment to 1776. There is no better brief focusing of the issues at stake between mother country and colonies than one finds here. It is obvious from the dexterity and judgment with which Professor Wright threads his way through conflicting in- terpretations that he is most conversant with the sources, printed and manuscript. An elite corps of historical interpreters has left its mark on the writing of early American history, and to the persuasive arguments of Turner, Beard, Namier, Fiske, Jameson, Parrington, Andrews, et al. must be
added the more recent theses of Gipson, Morison, Jensen, Bridenbaugh, Brown, and many other major contribu- tors to the historical literature of this period. Wright, while clearly stating the position of these authors, is not reluctant to choose among them or to take rather |
positive stands of his own. A random sampling of his conclusions would show, among other things, that "the Revolution was caused by political failures in Lon- don, seized on by colonial leaders. The war was lost by the lack of energy at the center and among military commanders on the spot" (p. 119); "American suc- cess owed far more to Washington's achievement in creating and maintaining an army than to the entry of France into the war" (p. 135); "The rivalry of state against state has never been as important in American history as the clash of sec- tions" (p. 169); "The great debate of 1787 was successful in its outcome ex- pressly because both groups held so many postulates and so many fears in common" (p. 187). Occasionally a judgment does not ring true; for example, listing Bunker Hill and Guilford Courthouse among a group of contests that "the British won easily" (p. 123). Possibly the most valuable of Professor Wright's many contributions in this book is his critical bibliography, marked by its comprehensiveness (thirty-three pages), by its selectivity, and by the help- fulness of the author's comments in set- ting individual works in their proper re- lationship to others. His assessment of Sir Lewis Namier's work and its influence is unusually well done. Wright groups the "voluminous material" on the War of Independence into seven main sections: "political" sources, views of the comman- ders in the field, accounts of participants who were not in command, material on the Loyalists, specialized studies on the strategy, tactics, and campaigns of the war, diplomacy, and secondary histories. This book is one of the six volumes either produced or projected for the Making of America series under the gen- eral editorship of David Donald. If the series can maintain this high standard it |
BOOK REVIEWS 171 |
will become a most useful contribution to American historiography. GEORGE W. KNEPPER University of Akron FORTH TO THE WILDERNESS: THE FIRST AMERICAN
FRONTIER, 1754-1774. By Dale Van Every. (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1961. xii?? 369p.; maps, bibliography, and index. $6.00.) THE GREAT LAKES FRONTIER: AN EPIC OF THE OLD NORTHWEST. By John An- thony Caruso. (Indianapolis: Bobbs- Merrill Company, 1961. 432p.; maps, bibliography, and index. $6.50.) These books are mostly summary inter- pretations of the printed secondary mate- rials relating to their subjects -- Van Every's entirely so, Caruso's with much use of printed primary material and an occasional dip into manuscripts and newspapers. They differ in regard to the phases of the frontier process included: in Van Every the first thin line of fur traders and settlers, in Caruso all phases, using the arrival at statehood to termin- ate his treatment of the five lake common- wealths. Forth to the Wilderness is essentially the story of the passage of frontier set- tlement across the proclamation line of 1763. There is a build-up from the terri- ble years of the French and Indian War and the Pontiac War to the fateful days when "the first crossing" took place fol- lowing the treaty of Fort Stanwix of 1768. "Now had come the moment when for the first time Americans were to be- come truly Americans by beginning to turn instead [of] to face westward. This was the most important moment in American history after Jamestown" (p. 290). This idea is typical of the entire book, which is really an account of the opinions of Dale Van Every, who is said on the jacket to possess "a novelist's skill and historian's accuracy." |
Novelist's skill, perhaps; historian's accuracy, no. To be sure, he has pieced together the facts gleaned from the works of other historians into a lucid narrative which gives an easily followed story about a very intricate period. For this, the maps help, and for this the lay reader will be thankful. He skillfully clusters his facts about dominating personalities: the businesslike George Croghan; the mili- tarily competent Henry Bouquet; the op- portunistic William Johnson; the restless John Stuart; and Pontiac, "the Indian Hannibal." But in the process some absurd mis- conceptions emerge to help give the story a certain suspense quality. For one thing, in 1763 "the slow and inexorable advance of the frontier had come to a halt at the foot of the mountains." However, there soon appeared "a force whose imminent rise could not have been foreseen in 1763 because its faint stirrings were not yet apparent . . . men and women of a sort hitherto unknown, The Frontier People" (pp. 22, 23). If these "irrepressible peo- ple," who started to cross the mountains in 1766, "had . . . waited for an ever so slightly more propitious moment to make their venture [,] the independence so nar- rowly won by patriot armies, with the calculating support of France and Spain, must have been an independence limited to the Atlantic seaboard" (p. 263). These Indian-hating folk had such characteris- tics as an instinctive "inclination toward the Indian's way of life" (p. 43); they starved by the hundreds in 1769 (the date is important) before they could raise a first crop (p. 298); and "they were striv- ing to escape the ordered world behind them and its clutter of such frustrations as quitrents, taxes, debts, wages, laws" (p. 44). Against them were Indians who had an "age-old . . . proclivity for waging war on each other" (p. 35), who were "highly articulate" and "born orators" |
172 OHIO HISTORY |
(p. 37), who spoiled their children and applauded their every tantrum
(p. 39). Granting a lucidly told story, much accuracy, and a lot of common-sense frontier "realism," it is probably unnec- cessary to warn the lay reader to take with a grain of salt Ray Billington's claim in the Foreword that Van Every "is un- excelled in distilling the essence from his- tory." Caruso's story is better, although not the "epic" claimed for it. It has footnotes and a reliance in some degree on source material. But this reliance is uneven. The bibliography lists Carter's Territorial Pa- pers in
seventeen volumes, but there seems to be only one citation therefrom in the entire book. Caruso's heavy use of the Draper manuscripts enables him to tell superbly the story of George Rogers Clark and the Ohio Indian Wars. But his failure to use adequately the Jesuit Rela- tions (there
are only two citations) and the New York Colonial Documents (not even listed in the bibliography) is fatal. The result is that the dominance by the French-Ottawa Indian Confederacy of the Great Lakes frontier is entirely missed. The alleged Anglo-Iroquois dominance is not promoted, but the published studies challenging its reality are evidently not known to Caruso. (Van Every has swal- lowed the Iroquois claim, line, fishhook, and sinker: "They had kept every other Indian nation within a thousand miles of their New York strongholds trembling at their every frown" [p. 104].) However, there are some marvelous chapters in Caruso's book. Outstanding are those on Tecumseh and the War of 1812. The former is noteworthy for its giving William Henry Harrison his come- uppance for his performance at Tippe- canoe. The latter makes full, up-to-date use of the rich research on the War of 1812 by Esarey, Gilpin, Knopf, and oth- ers. The chapter on Pioneer Days and |
Ways is a gem. Reverting to George Rogers Clark, it is a pleasure to note that the Clark exaggerators are debunked without discrediting Clark. RANDOLPH C. DOWNES University of Toledo THE PAPERS OF HENRY CLAY. Edited by James F. Hopkins and Mary W. M. Hargreaves. Volume II, THE RISING STATESMAN, 1815-1820. (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1961. viii??929p.; frontispiece and index. $15.00.) There is a well-noted dichotomy in American political thought. On the one hand, we admit the need for governmen- tal power and for elected politicians to exercise it; on the other, we assume that public officials inevitably lose a portion of the pristine honesty they possessed as private citizens. Thus, the politician who can maintain an image of disinterested aloofness, of non-self-seeking innocence, of quick and easy solutions, of the com- mon touch, has usually been more suc- cessful than the politician who accepts and emphasizes the realities of power. The classic examples of these two "types" are Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay. Jackson was the citizen-soldier turned president, simple and incorruptible, the man of principle, who destroyed the demon Bank because banks, as everyone knows, are bad. Clay was the Great Com- promiser, the man of expediency, an out- standing diplomat, administrator, and true Jeffersonian; and the American peo- ple on three occasions refused to reward him with the presidency. The ill-feeling between the two west- erners seems to have been precipitated in 1819, when Clay castigated Jackson for the summary execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister. In a lengthy speech on the Seminole War, Clay remarked: "It is not always just to do what may be advanta- |
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geous. And retaliation, during a war, must have relation to the events of that war, and must, to be just, have an opera- tion upon that war, and upon the indi- viduals only who compose the belligerent party. It became gentlemen, then, on the other side, to show, by some known, cer- tain, and recognized rule of public or municipal law, that the execution of these men was justified. Where is it?" Politi- cal repercussions were immediate, and Clay received a warning from Kentucky: "Your late speech . . . is disapproved of by some--and some of your friends are apprehensive that you may lose friends as a consequence." Future volumes of The Papers of Henry Clay should
reveal in copious detail the developing enmity of Clay and Jackson. The second volume, which covers the years 1815-20, indicates the seedtime of that famous competition. Indeed, the period seems to harbor the sprouts for many later quarrels. Slavery in Missouri, the protective tariff, South American in- dependence, internal improvements, and the second Bank of the United States (to name but a few), were problems far from resolved in the Era of Good Feelings. With the exception of his speeches on the Tallmadge amendment which, unfortu- nately, were not recorded, Clay's rather consistent positions on these other issues have been meticulously compiled, chrono- logically arranged, reprinted in full, an- notated, and indexed. This volume, then, maintains the high caliber of exhaustive scholarship the editors have established for the series. MORTON BORDEN Montana State University THE RISE OF THE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION OF THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. By H. G. Good. (Columbus; College of Edu- cation, Ohio State University, 1960. viii |
??306p.;
illustrations, documentary ap- pendix, and index. Cloth, $3.00; paper, $2.00.) Professor Emeritus Good was a par- ticipant in many of the historic activities that he traces from the origin of the college of education of Ohio State Uni- versity in 1907 through the following half-century. Since the college at Ohio State represents one of the early instances of the introduction of education as a uni- versity study (although preceded perhaps by Iowa and Michigan), Good's account furnishes an excellent chapter in the gen- eral educational history of the United States and also presents specifically the interesting evolution of the by now well- known institution at Columbus. The book is arranged with Good's usual clarity of organization into seven epochs; beginning with "The Years of Preparation" and "Founding the Col- lege," the development is carried through "Years of Fulfillment." An enrollment of forty-six in 1907, with three full-time fac- ulty members, was magnified to 5,204 in 1957-58, with several hundred instructors, lecturers, and professors. Yet it may be considered a strange commentary (al- though Good nowhere says it in so many words), that the "high moment" of the college of education occurred during and directly following the Age of the Great Depression--perhaps from 1929 to 1941. Under the regnancy of George Freder- ick Arps (dean, 1920-37) a splendid gal- axy of figures--controversial or otherwise --came to make the college of education campus their home. The names of this aggregation represent a small "Who's Who" in American education. And while it cannot be said that progressive educa- tion was in the saddle at Ohio State, its fragrance certainly was in the air and provided an ambrosia that penetrated into all departments. The headquarters of the famous Eight-Year Study was located on |
174 OHIO HISTORY |
the Ohio State University campus, and numerous items of progressive literature emanated from the faculty and students of the University School, for example, Were We Guinea Pigs? Perhaps a spiritual decline--if this can be admitted by the faithful--set in with the advent of "King Numbers" during the administration of Dean Klein, who while striving nobly to arrest the current of disunity, by his own admission, failed. Caretaker administrations followed, and at last a brighter day seems assured, but that period of greatness--during the de- pression--presents a high watermark in college of education history, and a chal- lenge to emulation. Since the history related by Professor Good represents in its second aspect a universal phase, several generalizations may be offered: (1) not unique to Ohio State University is the danger from in- terdepartmental and intercampus rivalry, especially the college of education-lib- eral arts controversy; (2) the fragmenta- tion of a formerly close-knit faculty due to excessive specialization represents an- other and even more serious dilemma in American education; and (3) the bur- eaucratic tendency and the overpowering pressure of "committee work" and
"plan- ning" frequently result in an atrophy of individual effort as the sterile threshing of old straw fritters away energies that might be used better in teaching. Two points may be raised contrariwise in respect to Good's almost impeccable history. First, one may question whether he has clarified the relationship of Ohio State University and its college of educa- tion to the other state institutions of higher education, two of which, Ohio University and Miami, antedated the Co- lumbus university by many years? Sec- ond, one must report an unwillingness on the part of Professor Good to speak anything but good about his colleagues |
and friends. This is the weakness of the house organ. Nor does his most becom- ing modesty allow more than a kaleido- scopic glimpse of the part that he himself played in the rise of the college of educa- tion. KENNETH V. LOTTICH Montana State University WHITEHALL AND THE WILDERNESS: THE MIDDLE WEST IN BRITISH COLONIAL POLICY, 1760-1775. By Jack M. Sosin. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1961. xiv??307p.; appendix, bibliog- raphy, maps, and index. $6.50.) Administrative history must bear the burden of dullness, even when the ad- ministrators are dealing with the Ameri- can Indian and the frontier. Whitehall and the Wilderness cannot escape the fate of studies devoted to the delineation of policy at the highest levels which must, of necessity, rely on the verbal mountain of letters, reports, memoranda, and other paraphernalia of the decision-making process. Nevertheless, Jack M. Sosin, as- sistant professor of history at the Uni- versity of Nebraska, has written an im- portant book which competently describes the frames of reference governing the de- velopment of British policies toward the "Middle West," 1760-75, and which skill- fully analyzes the evolution and applica- tion of those policies. Sosin takes direct aim at Clarence W. Alvord's Mississippi Valley in British Politics, published
over forty years ago, and finds Alvord's contribution unique but wanting. New documentary materials, monographs, and articles have thrown additional light on the process by which successive English ministries attempted to solve the frontier problems arising from the war with, and defeat of, the French in America, and from the ever- increasing pressure of American col- onists onto Indian lands in the Ohio Val- |
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ley. Sosin has done his work thoroughly, stuck closely to his sources, organized his material logically (i.e., chronologically), revised and rewritten extensively, and produced a work which will undoubtedly fulfill its professed purpose of offering a more satisfactory alternative to Alvord to students of the period. Examples of his acute scholarship are evident in his discussion of the proclamation of 1763 forbidding settlement beyond the Alle- ghenies, in his analysis of the legal opin- ion of Lord Camden and Charles Yorke as used by American land speculators to justify the validity of titles to western lands purchased of the Indians, and in his discussion of the relationship between the repeal of the stamp act and the Eng- lish government's frontier policy. Whitehall and the Wilderness will be relied upon by all who wish to penetrate into the mysteries of the decision-making process at Whitehall. WILCOMB E. WASHBURN Smithsonian Institution AMERICAN HERITAGE: THE MAGAZINE OF HISTORY, Volume XII (December 1960 --October 1961). The magazine of history, spritely and sufficiently colorful to decorate any coffee table, continues in the spirit and format which has endeared it to the public since its inception. Although it carries little to strain the intellect of the average reader, the magazine politely opens a door to his- tory to reveal a wide variety of events and scenes from the nation's past. The present volume is, like those be- fore it, fascinating to dip into, to taste here and there, to enjoy colored illustra- tions, and to be attracted by a lavish dis- play of type faces. There are original documents, selections from American Heritage books, and Bruce Catton's "Reading, Writing, and History." All this, of course, in addition to contribu- |
tions ranging from the political, through the social and literary, to discussions of early movie palaces and the science of keeping house. Among the authors repre- sented are Charles Ramsdell, Irma Reed White, Stewart H. Holbrook, Charles Morrow Wilson, and George Howe. It would obviously be impossible in a short review to list and comment upon the articles of all the contributors, each of whom, in his own fashion, has helped make the volume for 1960-61. This re- viewer, knowing full well that his selec- tion is extremely personal and subjective, found the following essays appealing: Duncan Emrich, "A Certain Nicholas of Patara," an account of the development of Santa Claus, based in part upon two rare juveniles; James T. Forrest, "What A Sight It Was!" the story of the frontier artist, William Carey; Lawrence Lader, "Mad Old Man from Massachusetts," a book selection relating the manner by which John Quincy Adams broke the South's gag law in congress; William H. Hale, "The Road to Yalta," one of a ser- ies; Francis Biddle, "Scandal at Bizarre," the career of Nancy Randolph of Vir- ginia; John Lukacs, "Bancroft: The His- torian as Celebrity," a contribution to the section, "Reading, Writing, and History." PHILIP D. JORDAN University of Minnesota NORTH OF SLAVERY: THE NEGRO IN THE FREE STATES, 1790-1860. By Leon F. Litwack. (Chicago: University of Chi- cago Press, 1961. xi??318p.; bibliogra- phic essay and index. $6.00.) We have just finished the first centen- nial year, yet the volume of writing about the Civil War has already overwhelmed all but the most tireless and dedicated buffs. And there is more to come. Pub- lishing houses announce almost daily that this or that book is nearly ready for the sweepstakes. Surely there must be now |
176 OHIO HISTORY |
almost as many authors of this conflict as there were soldiers in it. Though the quality of the recent work is surprisingly high, much of it bears the mark of com- memorative writing. There is a genial tolerance for both sides and a cordial sympathy for all the actors caught in the great drama. In short, the war is gener- ally seen as a struggle between "good guys." Leon F. Litwack's book, North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790-1860, brings
a different perspective to these events. Insofar as the Civil War concerned the rights and opportunities of Negroes, it is seen here as a contest be- tween "bad guys." If the South stood for slavery, the North stood for freedom only in the most formal sense. Indeed, in the antebellum decades northern states busily erected walls around Negro life in their own area at the same time that they in- creased the pressure on Dixie's "peculiar institution." "In virtually every phase of existence," Professor Litwack concludes, "Negroes found themselves systematically segregated from whites. They were ex- cluded from railway cars, omnibuses, stagecoaches, and steamboats or assigned to special 'Jim Crow' sections; they sat when permitted in secluded and remote corners of theaters and lecture halls; they could not enter most hotels, restaurants, and resorts, except as servants; they prayed in 'Negro pews' in the white churches, and if partaking of the Lord's Supper, they waited until the whites had been served the bread and wine. More- over, they were often educated in segre- gated schools, punished in segregated prisons, nursed in segregated hospitals, and buried in segregated cemeteries" (p. 97). The author does not suggest, however, that the shabby treatment of colored peo- ple in one section justified slavery in an- other. The difference between the black |
above the Mason-Dixon line and the en- slaved below was important. "Above all, the northern Negro was a free man; he was not subject to the whims and dictates of the master or overseer; he could not be bought and sold; he could not be ar- bitrarily separated from his family." In addition, "he could--and on several occa- sions did--advance his political and eco- nomic position in the antebellum period; he could and did organize and petition, publish newspapers and tracts, even join with white sympathizers to advance his cause."
Moreover, Professor Litwack demonstrates that while Negroes were largely confined to menial jobs, some did accumulate property and own successful businesses. And others began the long climb up the educational ladder, though most had to do so in segregated schools. But the central theme of the book is the troubles rather than achievements of free Negroes. The author carefully traces the exclusion of Negroes from northern life--the paring down of his political and judicial rights, the growing segregation of public facilities and conveniences, the increasing separation of the white and black worlds. Behind this proscription was the same notion of white supremacy that underlay southern racial views and provided the rationale for slavery. Col- ored Yankees did not tamely submit to this indignity, but the forces arrayed against them were powerful and persis- tent. Part of Professor Litwack's story is the moving struggle of Negro leaders against these frightful odds. Yet in 1860 the anguished black could throw a curse on both the North and South. "The poor Negro, although the cause of this agita- tion, is denied by both parties as having any rights common with humanity. They both worship at the shrine of Avarice and Cupidity, and sacrifice the rights of men to propitiate their gods" (p. 274). |
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Professor Litwack's book is, then, a necessary corrective to the excessive to- getherness that characterizes much writ- ing on the origins and conduct of the Civil War. Only the brave will dispute the burden of this volume, for the author has done a careful job of examining the voluminous, if scattered, sources on his topic. He has not only used the more obvious material -- travelers' accounts, Negro memoirs and newspapers, aboli- tionist publications and manuscripts, state and federal statutes--but he also worked through the speeches and proceedings of all kinds of meetings and conventions, white as well as colored, where racial at- titudes might be expressed. It is an im- pressive performance, and the results are clearly and lucidly presented. Like so many good books, North of Slavery opens
up additional areas of in- vestigation. Professor Litwack's approach has been determined in large part by the magnitude of his task. He chose to cover all northern states through seven decades, a scope that necessarily demanded gen- eralization rather than detailed analysis. The result is a somewhat formal history of Negroes in the North, that is, a treat- ment which emphasizes the public status rather than private life of the colored community. The context of this approach is law, custom, and the public relation- ships between whites and blacks. These are, of course, matters of the first im- portance. Yet, beyond them are the day- to-day conditions of life. Where in the cities did the Negro live; where and at what did he work; how did he get be- tween his residence and the job? What kind of an existence could he contrive outside of the hostile regulations of the state and the prejudices of his neigh- bors? What kind of organization, formal and informal, provided the meaningful social contacts for blacks and their fam- ilies? In short, what was the texture of |
life for colored people in a white man's society? The answers to these questions must be constructed out of the extraordi- narily complex records of many localities where real estate conveyances, tax rolls, daily newspapers, jury proceedings, and police blotters contain the clues to the more intimate aspects of Negro life out- side of the South. We are now ready for this kind of a study. And it is now pos- sible to have it because Professor Litwack has given us the broad framework into which such detailed work can be placed. RICHARD C. WADE University of Chicago A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES WEATHER BUREAU. By
Donald R. Whit- nah. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961. ix??267p.; illustrations, bibliography, and index. $6.00.) As stated in the Preface the major purpose of this historical study is to present the story of public services pro- vided by the United States Weather Bu- reau from the time of its inception in 1870 to the present. It does more than that. The author reaches back to the days of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Thoreau, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and Navy Lieutenant Matthew F. Maury and their early at- tempts at collecting weather data system- atically. Initially a Ph.D. dissertation, A History of the United States Weather Bureau is a story told in some 240 pages of the political battles, power struggles, appro- priation fights, personalities, and private competition behind the present weather bureau. For his comprehensive history the author has drawn upon such pub- lished materials as congressional reports and documents, official reports of the weather bureau, and other published books and articles, as well as journals and diaries of explorations. |
178 OHIO HISTORY |
Although several states encouraged weather bureaus in the 1800's, it was in the period of the War of 1812 that the first federally financed meteorological or- ganization was initiated at a number of army camps by Dr. James Tilton, physi- cian and surgeon general of the army. Although lacking complete equipment the system included ninety-seven army camps by 1853. In 1849 Professor Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian Institution organized a wea- ther reporting service through the tele- graph companies. From 150 stations dur- ing this first year the voluntary network grew to 500 stations in 1860. The syn- optic chart, first cited in 1849, became during 1854-61 a regular daily feature only to be disrupted, as was all weather reporting service, by the Civil War. In 1870 a national weather service under the army signal service was au- thorized by congress. From a coverage of the Great Lakes, and the Atlantic and Gulf coasts it was quickly expanded to cover the country in 1872. In 1891 the national weather bureau service became a civilian agency under the United States Department of Agriculture and was re- named the "Weather Bureau." The serv- ices of the weather bureau expanded rapidly and because of its increasing service to aviation the weather bureau was transferred to the United States Department of Commerce in 1940. Today the weather bureau provides a variety of public services from the daily weather map and automatic telephone forecasts, to frost, flood, and severe storm warnings. It engages in international cooperation, and includes among its in- struments space rockets and satellites. These cooperative efforts involving the weather bureau, other federal units, and meteorological organizations of other countries are discussed, as are federal- |
state joint undertakings which are mu- tually rewarding to the bureau, business and industry, and the general public. ROBERT M. BASILE Ohio State University THE TWILIGHT OF FEDERALISM: THE DIS- INTEGRATION OF THE FEDERALIST PARTY, 1815-1830. By Shaw Livermore, Jr. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University 1962. x??292p.; bibliography and in- dex. $6.00.) Although there has been renewed inter- est during the last decade in the origins and development of the two-party system, evidenced by the careful and suggestive studies of Noble Cunningham and Joseph Charles, there has been no monograph until now addressing itself to the problem of what happened to the once-creative, once-honored Federalist party. In his Twilight of Federalism, Professor Shaw Livermore fills in the historical lacuna and tells the story of the decline of the Federalists after the close of the War of 1812. Professor Livermore's book, based on an extensive reading of the manuscript sources, is a study in political frustra- tion and futility. Clinging to an archaic view of society and contemptuous of democracy, the Federalists never recov- ed from their ill-advised sponsorship of the Hartford Convention. Divided by petty internecine rivalry, eroded by long proscription from national office, the party never regained the cohesion neces- sary to offer a real opposition to the dominant Jeffersonians. Federalism, equated with monarchism which was equated with treason, had in fact become an epithet calculated to frighten straying Republicans back into the fold of their party. (If you don't behave, the Federal- ists will get you!) Federalism had become a convenient Republican whipping boy to justify the maintenance of the caucus and |
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spoils systems. The deceitful Federalists, according to the Republican leaders, had stirred up the witches' brew of the Mis- souri crisis. (Professor Livermore dem- onstrates, as Glover Moore did before him in his Missouri Controversy, that the "firebell in the night" was not the result of a Federalist conspiracy.) The Federalists had bartered their votes with John Quincy Adams (himself a late and "insincere" convert to Repub- licanism) during the house election of 1825, and they had received their thirty pieces of silver in the form of a minis- terial appointment for Rufus King. (Pro- fessor Livermore shows convincingly that all of the presidential candidates--Adams, Jackson, Calhoun, and Crawford--were equally guilty of the "sin" of currying Federalist support.) The Federalists were aristocrats; they depreciated the hallowed principles of states' rights. They were extravagant; they were not to be trusted even because of their "powerful talents, extensive learning and . . . great weight and influence." There is something ironic, even pa- thetic, about the death rattle of the Fed- eralists. If their commitment to a cor- porate society and their fear of the egali- tarianism of Jeffersonian America was sincere (and I have no doubt that it was), they did not hesitate at the same time to sacrifice principle in the hope of federal preferment. They resented the stigma of the Hartford Convention ironi- cally occurring during the same month as the signing of the treaty of Ghent. They applauded with a little too much smug- ness the adoption of the Federalist pro- gram by the postwar Republicans, their self-satisfaction perhaps blinding them to the fact that Federalism had lost thereby its purpose and direction. Eagerly ap- proving of James Monroe's words of conciliation, they impatiently writhed as the president's appointment policy belied |
his promises. Exacting from Adams the Webster "pledge," they continued as spec- tators rather than participants in the national administration. In various states they swallowed pride and preached amal- gamation with one or another wing of the Republican party, but they received pathetically few rewards for submission and support. In the end, and this is the final irony, it was President Jackson, the proverbial "hero" of democracy, who appointed more former Federalists to office than both Monroe and Adams. Professor Livermore's book suffers from some of the confines of the story he must tell. He admits that the great issues of the 1820's--the tariff and in- ternal improvements--were decided not according to party but by geographical orientation. He demonstrates conclusively that Federalism remained an issue in state politics, but however shrewd the Republicans were in raising it, Federal- ism was dead and the quarrel was nuga- tory. His chronicle of the almost unre- mitting decline of Federalist fortunes lacks, therefore, the elements of drama and surprise; more basically his study is no more than a tangent to the political history of the inappropriately named Era of Good Feelings. DAVID L. STERLING Ohio State University AMERICAN IMMIGRATION. By Maldwyn Al- len Jones. Chicago History of Ameri- can Civilization Series. (Chicago: Uni- versity of Chicago Press, 1960. vii?? 359p.;
illustrations, selective bibliog- raphy, and index. Paper, $1.95.) The author was born and educated in Great Britain and now lectures on Ameri- can history and institutions at the Uni- versity of Manchester. In 1951-52 and 1958-59, he was in residence at Harvard University, so he has had opportunity to sense the attitudes prevalent both in the Old World and in the New World toward |
180 OHIO HISTORY |
immigration to the United States. He deals concisely with the period before the American Revolution when newcomers were deemed "colonists" rather than im- migrants. He proceeds to cover the years of the numerically small migration from 1783 to 1815, the rise of the mass migra- tion from northern Europe during the period from 1815 to 1860, the upsurge of nativism, and the relation of immi- grants to the Civil War. Then, he deals with the great contributions of the im- migrant to industrial America from 1865 to 1920, the movement for restriction from 1882 to 1924, and the consequences of restriction from 1924 to 1959. A brief concluding chapter summarizes his evalu- ations. A list of important dates in the immigration movement and notes on suggested readings are included. In general, the treatment is a balanced one. The author exhibits no patience with the prejudices of "racism," but he can- didly acknowledges that mass migration confronted the United States with "new problems of pauperism, disease, and crim- inality" (p. 132). He does not fall into the errors common to writers discussing a country which they have merely visited for extended periods, but he is somewhat inaccurate regarding the French settle- ment at Gallipolis, as he states, "By 1792 the whole project had utterly failed and the Gallipolis site was deserted" (p. 70). A true picture of the situation there is presented by Beverley W. Bond, Jr., in The Foundations of Ohio (Columbus, 1941), pages 304-5, 311, where he shows that by the end of 1790 "the settlement had become an established one," though, because of the small number who con- tinued to live there, its permanent influ- ence was to be negligible. Furthermore, Professor Jones did not seem to be wholly appreciative of the merits of Carl Wittke's We Who Built America: The Saga of the Immigrant (1939),
which he evaluates |
as a "vast storehouse of information with little attempt at interpretation or general- ization" (p. 325). Wittke actually pre- sents sound historical facts with many implicit or explicit interpretations, but professedly he eschews subjective evalua- tions based upon unproved sociological conjectures. Yet, on the whole, Professor Jones has given us a convenient, informa- tive summary of the history of immigra- tion to the United States and its impact on the national character. FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER Ohio State University THE TOADSTOOL MILLIONAIRES: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF PATENT MEDICINES IN AMERICA BEFORE FEDERAL REGULATION. By James Harvey Young. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1961. xii??282p.; illustrations, source notes, and index. $6.00.) At a time when President Kennedy is requesting more food and drug controls, by congressional action, for the protection of the consumer, it is cheering to pick up an extremely able history of the role that patent medicines played in American life prior to the first federal regulatory leg- islation. Professor Young, author of The Toadstool Millionaires, long has been in- terested in the fascinating nostrums to which Americans are devoted and the wealth amassed by the producers of worthless remedies. The volume, divided into fifteen chap- ters, begins with a survey of English patent medicines in colonial America, continues through the Civil War and re- construction periods, moves on to a dis- cussion of the pattern of patent medicine appeals and of the medicine show, de- votes a section to the pure food and drug act of 1906, and concludes with an epi- logue which concerns the contemporary period. The epilogue catches up contem- porary fads such as the widespread use |
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of not only Father Francis' Herb For- mula but also the tranquilizing drugs. It is fortunate that the author makes clear the place that many drugs for the use of older citizens now play in the lives of those who are being hoodwinked by quack medicines designed for the geri- atric trade. Ohioans, of course, will be interested in the discussion of Samuel Thomson's system of botanic medicine, for the state was overrun with Thomsonian physicians during the 1840's. Although nothing appears which Ohio historians of medi- cine, such as Jordan and others, have not recorded, the essay on Thomsonian prac- tice is an excellent summary. Ohioans may be disappointed, however, in that Mr. Young does not make much of the fact that the Buckeye State in 1913 was the first to pass a bill banning false ad- vertising in the newspaper press. This was based on a model statute offered by Printers' Ink. Within a few weeks after the Ohio bill was signed into law, the state of Minnesota passed a similar one. Nor does Mr. Young pay sufficient at- tention to the formation of vigilance com- mittees of municipal advertising agencies, such as the one which was organized shortly after the turn of the century in Minneapolis and was the forerunner of the Better Business Bureau of Minne- apolis, Inc. Indeed, city better business bureaus could have received much more space. This points up a major fault in the volume--it would have been better, in this reviewer's opinion, to have closed the account when the Wiley law was passed. The material is rich and abundant in the early period--of sufficient wealth to make a book in itself. The epilogue, although the author carefully describes it as such, is far too sparse and thin. It omits much of an essential nature that is deserving of greater attention in more detail. |
One can only hope that the author, with his skill and knowledge, will expand his last chapter into a full-length volume. It is sure, if it follows the pattern set in The Toadstool Millionaires, to be not only a success but also a contribution to a field which long has needed an inter- preter. PHILIP D. JORDAN University of Minnesota A VIRGINIA YANKEE IN THE CIVIL WAR: THE
DIARIES OF DAVID
HUNTER STROTHER. Edited, with an introduc- tion, by Cecil D. Eby, Jr. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1961. xx??294p.; index. $6.75.) Literally hundreds of diaries and jour- nals of the Civil War have been published. While many of these are of questionable historical value, there is no doubt about the significance of the Strother diaries. They rank with the half dozen best. David H. Strother wrote his diaries during the smoke of battle, and they convey a defi- nite feeling of contemporary events. In addition to recording Strother's unique personality, these diaries reflect the mood of the time in which they were written-- from the general overconfidence of 1861 to the dull despair of 1864. Strother's previous experience as a journalist and a free lance writer enabled him to write an outstanding diary. As editor, Cecil D. Eby faced the prob- lem of selection but seems to have solved it remarkably well. About one-fourth of the total journal is included in this book. The editor has written an illuminating introduction to each chapter, and has added footnotes that identify important personalities and principal events. The diaries are weighted with meticu- lous detail, they abound with delightful humor, and they are freighted with little incidents which add zest to the journal. Real descriptive talent is repeatedly re- |
182 OHIO HISTORY |
vealed. For example: "I have been struck with the seedy, old-fashioned appearance of the whole people here [in the valley of Virginia]. They look as if they had just come out of the Ark" (p. 7). When General George B. McClellan entered Frederick, Maryland, in September 1862, the diarist wrote: "The whole city was fluttering with Union flags. From windows and balconies handkerchiefs were waving, while faces beaming with excitement filled every opening. The sidewalks were crowded with citizens of every age, sex, and color. No formal cheering, no regu- lated display, but a wild spontaneous outcry of joy. Old men rushed out and barred the passage of our cavalcade to grasp the hand of McClellan. Ladies brought out bouquets and flags to deco- rate his horse. Fathers held up their children for a kiss and a recognition" (p. 105). It was not until July 1863 that Strother confided to his diary his succinct opinion about the causes of the Civil War: "The idea that this war is caused by slavery is fallacious. Nothing could have worked more prosperously and more smoothly than the two systems together, each assist- ing the other. The spirit of party heated by ambitious demagogues was the cause of the war and Slavery and Anti-Slavery the watchwords used by crafty and ambi- tious men to fool the simple" (p. 194). In March 1862, Strother was walking along the turnpike near Charles Town with his wife and "met the Henderson girls in their carriage. They passed with- out saluting us. Nothing can exceed the infatuated insolence of these miserable people. But the cup of sorrow and hu- miliation which they have prepared for themselves and which they must drain to the dregs is not yet fully tasted" (p. 18). Five days later he wrote that he "consid- ered the Old Virginia people as a deca- dent race. They have certainly gone down |
in manners, morals, and mental capacity. There seems to be nothing left of their traditional greatness but a senseless pride and a certain mixture of dignity and suavity of manner" (p. 22). Interspersed throughout the diaries are graphic sketches of the military leaders. For example, Strother thought General McClellan was "the most capable man we have in military affairs. His head is clear and his knowledge complete. He wants force of character and is swayed by those around him." Those about the general were "the most ungallant, good-for- nothing set of marinets [sic] that I have yet met with. . . . Not a man among them is worth a damn as a military adviser." McClellan's very "mildness of manner, voice, and deportment show him unfitted by character to wield successfully a great power" (p. 129). Not even President Lincoln escaped the diarist's analytical pen. In October 1862, Strother's opinion of Lincoln was that he "is representative in all points of the tastes, manners, ideas, and capacities of the American people. He is American internally and externally, mind and per- son. He is neither great nor small, but a fair, average man of the race. He is the result of our system--and that sys- tem is entirely responsible for the manner in which he fulfills the duties of his office. If he fails, the system has failed con- clusively and there will be an end of it" (pp. 121-122). Where can a more vivid on-the-spot contrast between northern and southern statesmen be found than this one written in 1863? "The Northern people were too busy getting rich to study statesmanship. The best minds and best men of the country were occupied with other matters than public affairs. The political men in power were either paltry thieves with no more capacity than to invent petty tricks to plunder the Public Treasury or fanati- |
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