Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS

 

The Old Northwest as the Keystone of the Arch of American

Federal Union: A Study in Commerce and Politics. By

A. L. Kohlmeier. (Bloomington, Indiana, The Principia

Press, Inc., 1938. 257p.)

This interesting, if somewhat tedious, monograph is a study

of the economic or commercial development and political im-

portance of the Old Northwest down to the Civil War.

The Old Northwest with its vast expanse of fertile soil and

its other resources soon attracted a large population. In the course

of time the region "had sufficient voting strength to hold the

balance of power as between the Northeast and the Southeast,"

two sections whose economic interests were irreconcilable. Mean-

while the Old Northwest was developing economic interests of its

own, and so adopted the policy of alternately supporting one or

the other of the eastern sections to secure advantages to itself.

Good lands in the Northwest enabled the pioneers to produce

a surplus for which a market had to be found. The struggle of

the Old Northwest until the Civil War, and until today, has been

for better facilities of transportation which would enable it to

send its surplus to world markets at the lowest cost and to im-

port the things it needed at transportation rates which would not

be prohibitive. In order to win the assistance of the Federal

Government and of other states in perfecting transportation lines

to it, the Old Northwest threw its political influence to that eastern

section which promised greatest support at a given time.

There were three important natural gateways to the East.

The first one, the southern route, followed the Ohio and Missis-

sippi rivers to the Gulf. The eastern route crossed the moun-

tains from the upper Ohio. The northeastern gateway went from

the eastern end of Lake Erie down the St. Lawrence or the

Mohawk and Hudson River valleys. Kohlmeier traces the vari-

ous steps in the development of these routes to the East from

the incorporation of the Potomac Company by Virginia in 1784,

(164)

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through the development of the steamboat and the construction

of roads, canals, and railroads up to the Civil War.

After the War of 1812, the invention of the steamboat, and

the construction of the Erie and Ohio canals, the population of

the northern part of the Old Northwest began to increase at a

rapid rate. As this happened, the Northwest itself split along

sectional lines because of the natural economic alliances of the

northern and southern parts with the northeastern and south-

eastern sections of the United States.

The construction of canals and railroads had little effect

upon this sectionalism in the Old Northwest, except perhaps to

increase it. In 1860 the Ohio Valley, including the Old North-

west as far north as the National Road, was as closely connected

economically with the South as in 1835. The lake region was

perhaps more closely connected economically with the Northeast

than in 1835. The development of transportational facilities had

followed the natural gateways, and each eastern section assisted

in perfecting those lines which connected it with the Old

Northwest.

At the same time, however, the two sections of the Old

Northwest were united by geographical, cultural, economic, and

perhaps other factors. The outbreak of the Civil War found

each section of the Northwest sympathizing with its respective

section in the East. This very division in the West perhaps made

for continuation of the Union. There could be no good dividing

line in the Northwest, yet each section of it was dependent upon

a different part of the East. "Obviously," writes the author,

"the Old Northwest could not as a whole join either Northeast

or South and it did not." Therefore, he declares, "the fact is

today apparent as it was to the majority in 1861 that no part of

the country was more desperately in need of preservation of the

Union than was the Old Northwest."

The Lincoln government delayed closing the Mississippi trade

until the Ohio Valley had time to realize from actions taken by

the Confederacy that it was the seceding states and not the

National Government that would hinder the trade in case of war

or separation. With this in mind the Ohio Valley turned its sup-

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166    OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

port to the maintenance of the Union, without, however, per-

mitting itself to be dominated by the East.

Scarcely any of the ideas and conclusions in this volume are

new. It is a presentation of old conclusions backed by new evi-

dence. Copious footnotes cite reference after reference to federal

and state reports and to the records, statements, and reports of

the numerous railroad companies and municipal boards of trade in

the Old Northwest. This commercial history is a contribution.

A major deficiency in the volume is its lack of a bibliography.

Although the footnotes are abundant, such important works as

the following are not cited:

Charles Henry Ambler, A History of Transportation in the Ohio

Valley (Glendale, California, 1932).

Henry Clyde Hubbart, The Older Middle West, 1840-1880 (New

York, 1936).

Ulrich B. Phillips, History of Transportation in the Eastern Cotton

Belt (New York, 1908).

Henry Clyde Hubbart, "Pro-Southern Influences in the Free West,

1840-1865," in Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XX (1933-34), 45-62.

E. Merton Coulter, "Effects of Secession upon the Commerce of the

Mississippi Valley," ibid., III (1916-17), 275-300.

R. S. Cotterill, "Southern Railroads and Western Trade, 1840-1850,"

ibid., III (1916-17), 427-441.

JAMES H. RODABAUGH.

 

 

Chief Justice Waite, Defender of the Public Interest. By Bruce

R. Trimble.    (Princeton, Princeton University Press, etc.,

1938. 320p. $4.00.)

In recent years a tendency among American biographers has

been to devote their researches to the lives of secondary figures

in American history. Among these figures are the justices of the

United States Supreme Court, excellent biographies of several of

whom have appeared in Carl B. Swisher's Stephen J. Field,

Craftsman of the Law (Washington, 1930), his Roger B. Taney

(New York, 1935), and Francis P. Weisenburger's Life of John

McLean (Columbus, 1937). In the light of present interest in

the Supreme Court, these biographies are of considerable im-

portance. A recent biography deserving rank with the preceding

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works is the one now under review, the only life of the man who

served as Chief Justice during the years 1874-1888.

Morrison R. Waite was born in Lyme, Connecticut, in 1816.

His parents came of respected old Connecticut families. After

an elementary education in the refined and cultured atmosphere

of Lyme, Waite attended Yale. Among his classmates there were

Samuel J. Tilden, William M. Evarts, Edwards Pierrepont, and

Benjamin Silliman. After his graduation in 1837, young Waite

followed in the footsteps of Waites before him (his father,

Henry Matson Waite, served as associate justice of the Con-

necticut Supreme Court of Errors, 1834-1854, and in 1854 be-

came Chief Justice), and began the study of law. After a year

in his father's office, following a preconceived plan, he set out

for Maumee, Ohio, in the fall of 1838.

In 1839, Waite was admitted to the Ohio bar. After several

years of riding circuit with the judges, he became a recognized

authority in the law of real estate, and very soon developed into

a successful business lawyer, often carrying important cases to

the Ohio Supreme Court. His time was devoted generally to real

estate, banks, ferries, and later, railroads, and after the Civil War,

his "practice was an unbroken succession of successful appear-

ances for railroads and other corporations." The practice was a

lucrative one and served to raise him to an influential position in

community and state. He moved to Toledo about the mid-cen-

tury, became part-owner of at least two public utilities and the

Toledo National Bank, acquired considerable real estate, and was

elected alderman. From the Harrison campaign in 1840 till he

became Chief Justice he was prominent in politics, first as a

Whig and later as a Republican. He did not care for political

office, however, although he was drafted twice to run for Con-

gress, which he did unsuccessfully.

Waite's reputation was made as a lawyer, and not as a

politician. In 1872, on the recommendation of William M. Evarts

and others, Grant appointed Waite one of the counsel to the Amer-

ican agents in the arbitration of the Alabama claims at Geneva.

When Waite returned he was unanimously chosen by Lucas

County Republicans and Democrats in conventions to represent

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168   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

them in the Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1873, of which he

was later elected president. While at the convention, he received

his appointment as Chief Justice.

Waite became Chief Justice during one of the most trying

times in the history of the country. Problems facing the Court

arose out of the Civil War and reconstruction, out of the develop-

ment of western states, and out of the economic and social revolu-

tions which followed the war. Questions before the Court in-

volved the reconstruction acts, interpretation of the war amend-

ments (especially the fourteenth), transcontinental railroads,

agrarian movements, control of public utilities and rates, relation

of states to liquor traffic, strikes, anarchist riots, polygamy,

Chinese immigration, and state and municipal debt repudiation.

Waite attempted to eliminate the Court from politics. He

refused to be considered a presidential candidate in 1876, saying

that he believed the Chief Justice's position should not be per-

mitted to be political. A friend of Hayes, Waite refused to sit

on the electoral commission in the Hayes-Tilden contest. In his

fourteen years on the bench he gave the opinion of the Court in

more than 1,000 cases. The Chief Justice was a conservative

and, as the radicals had feared he would, rendered opinions cur-

tailing the powers of Congress under the fourteenth amendment.

In general he upheld the state against the National Government.

On the other hand he consistently enhanced the power of the

state over the individual. Government was looked upon as the

agent of the collective will. Law to him had a reformative

nature; it existed for the benefit of the greatest number, and in-

dividual rights (Waite had no great belief in the sanctity of

rights) were required to give way to state legislation. On the

theory of government and of individual rights the Court split,

Justice Field holding many times that the states could not deny

fundamental rights set forth in the Bill of Rights.

The decision in the case of Munn vs. Illinois was perhaps

Waite's greatest contribution to the development of American

law. Here, and in the rest of the Granger cases, he argued that

railroads, elevators, etc., were of "public interest" and ceased to

be "juris privati" only. Therefore, they were subject to regula-

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BOOK REVIEWS                     169

 

tion of rates by state legislatures. Rate fixing was held to be at

the discretion of legislatures and was not to be disturbed by the

courts. This decision ushered in a short period of collectivism

in American jurisprudence, and also presented a different view

of the sacredness of vested rights than Marshall had announced

in the Dartmouth College Case. When the Munn decision was

reversed, Waite dissented on the ground that until Congress had

acted, transportation, although it may be a part of interstate com-

merce, was subject to state control.

Waite interpreted the "due process" clause loosely, maintain-

ing that "appropriate regulation of the use of property is not

'taking' property within the meaning of the constitutional pro-

hibition." He elaborated on his doctrine of "public interest" in

his interpretation of the contract clause in cases involving railroads

and other public utilities. He was always careful to protect the

public interest against the evils of business combinations. Waite

denied, or at least limited, the effect of the Dartmouth Case when

he subordinated vested rights to the public interest. The sig-

nificant result of this was that it strengthened the control of the

states over intrastate businesses and of the Federal Government

over interstate corporations. With regard to commerce and other

powers Waite showed the same tendency to extend the powers

of the state and national governments over corporate interests.

The author holds that Waite's opinions entitle him to be

classed as one of the first judges to apply the so-called "sociolog-

ical interpretation" upon the law, and so may be said to have

been a forerunner of the Holmes-Brandeis school of constitutional

philosophy. He was not a brilliant student of governmental

theory. He was, however, a business man and a corporation

lawyer who understood the unscrupulousness of big business. His

opinions, therefore, do not abound in theories, but rather offer

practical methods of doing what he saw must sooner or later be

necessary, namely, to regulate business for the benefit of the

whole community.

Trimble has presented interesting pictures of life in north-

west Ohio and in Washington, and has devoted many pages to

present the Chief Justice in his human character. This is an

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170   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

interesting volume and should be attractive especially to students

of constitutional history. Few errors mar its pages: There is

a discrepancy in dates found on page 25; "Groesbeck" is mis-

spelled on pages 69, 76, and 77; on page 24 "George Silliman"

should be "Benjamin Silliman." One important criticism this

reviewer would make: The quotations are too extensive and there

are too many of them. At times virtually whole pages are de-

voted to quotations. This, in the reviewer's opinion, considerably

detracts from the interest of the book.

A classified bibliography, a table of cases, and an index con-

clude the volume.

JAMES H. RODABAUGH.

 

 

The Life of John McLean: A Politician on the United States

Supreme Court. By Francis P. Weisenburger. (Columbus,

Ohio State University Press, 1937. 224p., front. $2.25.)

This is the first full-length biography of the first associate

justice of the Supreme Court of the United States appointed from

the Old Northwest. The public career of John McLean began

with his election to the House of Representatives in 1812. The

crisis over the condition along the northern frontier turned him,

like many other young westerners to the war party, and, follow-

ing the rather inglorious termination of the war, he advocated

bills to indemnify persons for property lost in the public service,

and to grant pensions to officers and soldiers. There he supported

the United States Bank and protectionist principles. The western

question brought him into line with John C. Calhoun, who, at

this period and before the particularistic reaction, was a cham-

pion of internal improvements and western interests.

In 1816, after having declined to be a candidate for the

United States Senate, McLean resigned his seat to accept a place

on the Ohio Supreme Court. After serving six years on the

bench, he was appointed commissioner of the General Land Office

at Washington. In 1823 James Monroe appointed him post-

master general, in which capacity he proved an able administrator.

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Upon the accession of Andrew Jackson to the Presidency McLean,

because of geographical considerations and to console him for

his failure to obtain a more favorable cabinet position, was ap-

pointed to the Supreme Court of the United States, a position

which he held until his death in 1861.

The author has developed his subject against a large back-

ground of historical events. McLean is shown to have been

always a politician and to have yielded scruples in order to ad-

vance his ambitions. Behind an unassuming demeanor, he had

the vaulting ambition that for over thirty years spurred him to

seek the goal of the Presidency. His political maneuvering while

a member of the august tribunal is unparalleled in American his-

tory. He curried favor with the Jacksonian Democrats, the anti-

Jacksonians, the anti-Masons, the Whigs, the Free Soilers, the

Know-Nothings, and finally the Republicans. In only three presi-

dential campaigns (1840, 1844, 1852), out of eight occurring dur-

ing his thirty-two years on the bench, did McLean fail to make

known his availability.

There is much of McLean the politician but little of McLean

the jurist in this biography. This does not, however, detract

from the narrative for McLean contributed little or nothing to

constitutional law. His most notable contribution, his dissenting

opinion in the Dred Scott Case, was political rather than legal.

Evidence seems to indicate that his determination to write a dis-

senting opinion was done in the hope that it would quiet the

discontent which had been occasioned by his decision in the slave

case (ex parte H. H. Robinson). Then, too, as the campaign of

1856 loomed large on the political horizon this political oppor-

tunist, after consulting with his friends, decided to define clearly

his position on the slavery issue. The author intimates, but does

not state, that McLean's dissenting opinion was, in part, respon-

sible for the coming of the War between the States.

Weisenburger has based his biography upon thorough and

scholarly research. His chief reliance has been upon the McLean

manuscripts located in the Library of Congress, but he has also

used public documents, memoirs, monographs, newspapers, period-

icals and a long list of secondary works. A check on the author's

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172    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

footnote items reveals the fact that a high standard of accuracy

has been maintained.  Since the author has been meticulously

accurate one should, perhaps, apologize for mentioning the fact

that the misspelling of Peggy O'Neil (p. 68) is reproduced in

the index. The responsibility for the omission of accents rests

with the publisher, rather than with the author.

The author has produced a well-balanced biography written

in a readable style. No person interested either in Ohio history

or in constitutional history can afford to neglect this biography.

It should be particularly enlightening to those persons who con-

tinue to believe "that jurists of the Supreme Court are creatures

removed from the economic and political turmoil, who make de-

cisions unaffected by personal background or by the subtle

influences of class and section."

JOHN O. MARSH.

 

 

The Genesis of Western Culture--The Upper Ohio Valley, 1800-

1825. By James M. Miller. Ohio Historical Collections, IX.

(Columbus, Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society,

1938. 194p., illus. $2.50.)

Dr. Miller has chosen a difficult but rich subject for his study;

and, despite his modest deprecation that "nothing impresses me

so insistently as the futility of a complete and accurate estimate"

of the genesis of western culture, he has succeeded in writing a

readable, scholarly, and significant book. It needed to be written,

and all students of life in the Ohio Valley are indebted to the

author for the data he has brought together and for the keen

appraisal he has given it.

The subject itself is tricky.  Just what is culture? and

more particularly, "western culture" between 1800-1825? The

author gives a common sense, workable definition: The term

shall be defined to include "the efforts of groups of people to

improve their intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic environment."

One pitfall is located and posted at the outset; we must not be

misled by the vast library of books, journals, letters, and docu-

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BOOK REVIEWS                      173

 

ments from Michaux to Dickens which has laid undue stress on

the dirt, drunkenness, hardship, and brutish life of the early set-

tlers, and recounted the tales of horror "too full of light from

burning cabins and torture fires, full of red hands, red scalps,

and red Monongahela liquor." Behind this spectacular story is

the quiet, persistent efforts of men and women to cultivate and

propagate the decencies of life and the fruits of culture.

Miller wisely chooses the period when the cultural forces on

the frontier were still simple and homogeneous and yet rather

firmly defined, and centers attention on the four most important

communities in the upper Ohio Valley: Pittsburgh, Marietta,

Cincinnati, and Lexington, Kentucky. The migrations of Penn-

sylvanians, New Englanders, and families from the Middle At-

lantic States are traced over the well-known routes; and the settle-

ments are related to the topography of the new country, to the

Indian villages, and to the trade routes. This section of the study

is handled with admirable economy and clarity. Then, against

this carefully designed background, we are given a picture of the

life of the communities, not as a series of "Indian fights and

legislative assemblies," but in terms of the diverse types of men

who built these new villages as places in which they might live

and work and rear their children. They were useful men, often

with colorful characters--these frontier carpenters, teachers, min-

isters, lawyers, doctors, editors, stage-drivers, "Pike boys," and

tavern keepers. They built homes for themselves, they founded

colleges, organized churches, established law and order, published

newspapers, and fostered the seed of community culture in music,

art, and literature.

The body of the book is a rather inspiring record of the

work of four of these "cultural types" in particular: the Minister,

the Lawyer, the Teacher, and the Editor. The material here as-

sembled on the life and incredible dedication in toil of the min-

isters, the circuits they rode, and the sermons they preached, is

especially valuable. Miller has shown with painstaking care how

the great labors of the professional men and women produced the

cultural institutions and activities which in time transformed the

primitive settlements, made life supportable on the lonely frontier,

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174   OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

and prepared the way for the development of a true civilization

in the Ohio Valley.

Although The Genesis of Western Culture is closely docu-

mented it is vivid and has movement. The author deserves com-

mendation for a precise and lucid book on an extremely difficult

and illusive subject.

HARLAN HATCHER.

 

 

Industrial Valley. By Ruth McKenney. (New York, Harcourt

Brace and Company, 1939. 379p. $3.00.)

Industrial Valley is the story of labor in Akron, Ohio, from

1932 to 1936, with an epilogue called "Three Years After" which

brings the story up to date. It deals largely with the organization

of rubberworkers in the three largest rubber factories (Goodyear,

Firestone and Goodrich), and it is told from the worker's point

of view. The arrangement of the book with its dated paragraphs

in chronological order has afforded the author a means of placing

a staccato-like emphasis which persists through the book. Her

vivid portrayal of the life of the people, her dramatic accounts

of the efforts to break picket lines, the satiric and humorous

passages, and the dialogue in the language of the factory, is all

skillfully built into a story, the measured cadence of which will

keep the reader absorbed until the volume is finished.

The author emphasizes in her preface that "This is a true

story of Akron, Ohio. It is also a true story of America's indus-

trial valleys the country over," but it should be pointed out that a

cataloging of accurate dates and the recounting of a series of

incidents, as reported in the press, does not necessarily constitute

a true story of Akron. Whether the author was incapable of

recognizing the significance of other dates in these years and other

incidents, which have been omitted, or whether she selected those

which tell the story from her point of view is beside the point.

The fact is that the book is not a history. Although they may

not succeed, historians try to select materials and incidents which

portray as impartial a view as possible; but this volume, even

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BOOK REVIEWS                    175

 

though it may tell a story that should be told, was not written,

in the reviewer's opinion, with an effort to be impartial. It is

unfortunate that the author in the prefatory remark emphasizes

so strongly that it is a true story of Akron.

The book is inaccurate in many details, but on the whole it

gives the impression which the reader is intended to get. One

receives the idea, for instance, that the Tennessee and Virginia

mountaineers, who constitute over one-half of Akron's popula-

tion and a majority of the rubberworkers, were largely six-foot

giants. The inference is that the strain of operating the tire-

building machines under the speed-up system, requires men of

great strength and stature.

The sit-down strike at Firestone is interesting, not alone be-

cause it was probably the first in this country but more significant

perhaps is the account of its origin. These rubberworkers received

the idea from an Akron printer who was a party to a "sit-down"

strike in Sarajevo in 1914 during the crisis which preceded the

outbreak of the World War. Little did this printer think when

he was reminiscing one evening in his shop that the few truck

tire-builders who heard him would start the epidemic of sit-down

strikes that swept over the country a few years ago.

The account of the organization of the rubberworkers into a

democratic industrial union and how the movement had its in-

ception in a committee hastily formed to move evicted families

back into their homes in the early years of the depression is a

revealing one. From this nucleus grew a Central Labor Union

of men who had an idea that they needed to band together to

counteract the conditions in the factories which they wanted to

correct. They sought the aid of William Green of the A. F.

of L. who sent a representative to organize them but when the

workers wanted action he procrastinated saying that "Rome wasn't

built in a day." The workers wanted democratic control of the

union too, with the right to elect their own officers and, in spite

of Green's threat that he would withdraw all financial support

if he could not name the officers, they forced him out of control

in Akron. Thus the door was left wide open for John L. Lewis

to come in and organize the whole industry under the C. I. O.

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176    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

The author indicates the influence of outside agitators and the

communistic group in this movement and leaves us with the im-

pression that the movement was started, not by outside agitators,

but was a spontaneous one originating in Akron among the

rubberworkers.

Miss McKenney is elated by the success of the series of

strikes in Akron and believes that the labor problem is a long

way toward solution. She writes:

The C. I. O. was first a bulwark for the working people of Akron,

and, after them, for the small businessman who was dependent upon their

wages; but, beyond that, union organization taught the rubberworkers

pride of class. Americans do not live by bread alone. Mass industry has

not crushed the spirit of the free-born. Rubberworkers, no matter how skill-

fully they work on the conveyor belt, are not robots. A membership card

in the U. R. W. A. [United Rubber Workers of America] is the rubber-

worker's declaration of freedom. The union is the answer of American

workingmen to the impersonal dictatorship of a faraway Board of Directors.

Finally in the epilogue the author declares that the union

having accomplished a measure of success in getting contracts

signed with the managers went into politics and in the Ohio

primary fight in the summer of 1938 helped defeat the Governor

who was running for renomination because he "stood on his strike-

breaking, union-smashing record."

W. D. O.

 

 

Our First Great West: In Revolutionary War, Diplomacy and

Politics. By Temple Bodley. The Filson Club Publications,

XXXVI. (Louisville, John P. Morton & Co., 1938. 321p.,

illus., maps.)

The author of George Rogers Clark and the History of Ken-

tucky before the Louisiana Purchase, after twenty years of re-

search and study, presents a history of Our First Great West.

Bodley's expressed purpose, as stated in the preface, has been to

make available source materials "to historians who will hereafter

write about the western phase of Revolutionary history." Written

in a heavy and uninspired style, the text often approaches a com-

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pilation of quotations from sources, which, in many instances,

are readily available to students of American history. In seven-

teen chapters, arranged neither logically nor chronologically and

alternately labeled "Politics," "Diplomacy," "War," the author

relates in a somewhat controversial manner the not entirely

unfamiliar story of the struggle in war and diplomacy for pos-

session of the trans-Allegheny region. After outlining the prin-

cipal events leading up to the British occupation of the region

west of the Alleghenies following the termination of the Seven

Year's War, Bodley unfolds the story of the western movement,

the Indian Wars, the northern land companies claiming interest

in western lands under Indian grants, and the conditions exist-

ing in the West on the eve of the American Revolution. It is

against such a background that the author discusses such topics

as the political conflict over the trans-Allegheny lands in the Con-

tinental Congress, Clark's conquest of the Illinois, the confusion

in the territory following Clark's retirement, the jealousy of the

landless colonies for Virginia's great western domain, and Vir-

ginia's cession of her western lands to Congress. Finally the

objectives of the French Alliance, the war aims of the Spanish,

and the conflict of American and European interests are analyzed.

The author properly concludes that the winning of the West was

due to the efforts of George Rogers Clark; that it was held in

diplomacy by the efforts of John Jay. In the closing sections

of the volume the author develops the thesis, and quite success-

fully, that Lord Shelburne's diplomatic efforts at the close of the

American Revolution were directed to the restoration of the

Illinois to the English.

Since this volume was prepared principally for the historian,

it is most unfortunate that greater care was not exercised in

editing and proofreading. Citations are sometimes to volume

and page, sometimes only to volume. Another type of error, for

which the editors and author are jointly responsible, is the failure

to give the date, place of publication, and edition of works cited

(pp. 1, 10, 11, 17, 23, 28, 75, 157, 178, 179, 188, 195). Quota-

tions are sometimes inaccurately transcribed and mixed, changes

are made in spelling and punctuation, and words and phrases are

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178   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

omitted or inserted without indication. Thus, for example, a

single quotation of forty-four lines contains eighty-one errors (pp.

206-207). A similar lapse in historical accuracy occurs in other

sections of the book (pp. 18, 30, 48, 49, 127, 179). Then, too,

there is some inaccuracy of citation and statement of fact, e. g.,

the author's reference to [Clarence Walworth Alvord], The Mis-

sissippi Valley in British Politics, II, appears on pages 100-101

and not on page 101 as cited (p. 48); his quotation from the

Illinois Historical Collections is found in volume VIII, page 224,

and not in volume VII, page 223 (p. 93). Unfortunately Bodley's

quotation from Justin Winsor, The Western Movement appears

on pages 158-160 and not on page 168 as cited (pp. 132-134).

Similarly a reference to the American Historical Rexiew, X, ap-

pears on pages 251-252 and not on page 249 (p. 128). It might

be well to point out also that Jefferson's Ordinance was drafted

in 1784 and not in 1794 as stated on page 182.

In addition to an occasional lapse in historical accuracy, the

work is further marred by the author's failure to maintain an

impartial tone in discussing such topics as Anglo-American rela-

tions, Lord Dunmore's War, the "stupid anti-slavery clause" in

the Ordinance of 1787, and New York's claims to western lands.

Indeed, the uninformed student would complete the author's dis-

cussion of the Dunmore War blissfully ignorant of both the

remote and immediate causes of the conflict. Furthermore the

author has included in the text extraneous matters which have

little connection with the topics under consideration. While it is

not the purpose of the reviewer even to suggest how history

should be written, it would seem that the author's adulation of

certain historians (pp. 55-56, 237) and adverse criticism of others

(note, p. 31, 163) properly belong in a critical essay on authorities

which, it appears, he did not see fit to include in the volume.

It should be clear at this point that this volume, although

useful, does not measure up to the possibilities of the subject.

It is only fair to say that few of the present conclusions about

the period will need radical revision in the light of Bodley's

researches. The reviewer lays the book down with the feeling

that the author has missed an excellent opportunity to present, in a

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BOOK REVIEWS                    179

 

single volume, a nice synthesis and correlation of facts treating

of Our First Great West in war, diplomacy and politics. The

value of the work is enhanced by maps, photographs, an appendix,

and an index prepared by the Filson Club.

JOHN O. MARSH.

 

 

Panuck, Eskimo Sled Dog. By Frederick Machetanz.    (New

York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1939. 94p., illus. by the

author. $1.50.)

Here is a story of an Eskimo boy and his dog, Panuck, who

braved the terrors of an Arctic blizzard to get help for his father

who had been injured on the trail. Although a native of Ohio,

Machetanz lived with an uncle for over a year and a half at

Unalakleet, Alaska, and is therefore a real sourdough and knows

the Eskimo intimately. The story is interestingly written, but

the author is first of all an artist, and thousands of Ohioans are

familiar with his covers for the football programs at the Ohio

State University which he has done since he was an under-

graduate in the institution. There are over fifty illustrations,

ten of them in color, which portray vividly all the action incident

to the development of the story and the colors give the reader

an accurate appreciation of the beauty of the North.

The volume, simultaneously placed on sale in the United

States and England, should have a wide appeal to the youth in

both countries, for what boy is not interested in the Far North?

The book might well be adopted as collateral reading and should

have a place in every school library because of its accurate por-

trayal of the life of the Eskimo, its brief but instructive introduc-

tion to simple words of their language, the diagrams showing the

method of hitching up a dog team, and other educational features.

Readers of the OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HIS-

TORICAL QUARTERLY will be interested to know that Mr. Machetanz

designed the cover for this journal when the change was made in

its format a few years ago.

W. D. O.

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