Ohio History Journal

Book Reviews

 

 

 

The Jacksonian Persuasion: Politics and Belief. By Marvin Meyers. (Stan-

ford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1957. vii~234p.; appendices,

bibliography, and index. $5.00.)

This slim volume is the latest in the recent series of attempts to discern

the elusive meaning behind that deceptive textbook phrase, "Jacksonian

democracy." Professor Meyers' monograph will not win a Pulitzer prize, be

chosen as a book-club selection, or reappear in paper-bound dress as a lay-

man's treat. It will, for years to come, be considered required reading

among historians seeking an understanding of the 1830's.

Meyers deliberately eschews more usual terms to write of the Jacksonian

"persuasion": the "attitudes, beliefs, [and] projected actions" comprising

the "half-formulated moral perspective" which he sees as the common bond

among that diverse group we know as the Jacksonians. He finds his key to

their "persuasion" in "the tension between Old Republican values and

nineteenth-century experience," a tension which produced the Jacksonian

struggle "to recall agrarian republican innocence to a society drawn fatally

to the main chance and the long chance . . . to reconcile again the simple

yeoman virtues with the free pursuit of economic interest, just as the two

were splitting hopelessly apart."

Obviously, such language is not the historian's common coin. Meyers'

book is not easy reading. Analytical rather than narrative, it is occasionally

confusing, perhaps at times even obscure. He is probing new dimensions in

the relationship of society and politics, and can hardly be criticized for resort

to unfamiliar phrasings. As a result, however, his work is likely to prove

valuable more to those already conversant with the issues in controversy

than to students seeking their introduction to the Jackson period.

He develops his theme in ten topical essays, scrutinizing the political

rhetoric of the day in an attempt to uncover its contemporary appeal, and

probing the social climate in which this rhetoric found response. Two

chapters examine Jackson and Van Buren as key figures in leadership. Two

more derive interpretations of the Jacksonians' world from close analysis of

Tocqueville's Democracy in America and the novels of James Fenimore

Cooper. A chapter on "economic processes" makes effective use of recent

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scholarship in exploring the tangled web of banking and business develop-

ment, while another considers the "economic purposes"--the goals and

values--of the Americans who made up Jackson's mass electorate. Theodore

Sedgwick, William Leggett, and Robert Rantoul, Jr., each receive a chapter

as representative Jacksonian ideologues. The capstone of Meyers' analysis

comes in a fascinating study contrasting the dialogue of political parties in

1821 and 1846 as displayed in the New York constitutional conventions of

those years, one just before the Jacksonian era and the other at its close.

Methodologically, the book is significant for its careful textual analysis

of contemporary utterances. Too often historians have employed quotation

not to elucidate the state of mind of a bygone age, but to provide a vivid

frame for their own interpretation. A case in point is the error of assuming

that the Jacksonians' use of class-conflict terminology reflected attitudes

paralleling those of a later industrial age. As Meyers points out, in the

Jacksonian persuasion classes were distinguished "not by their economic

position as such, but primarily by their moral orientation." His argument

deserves close attention; it is not a rejection of economic influence, but a

sophisticated refinement in its application to historical understanding.

Meyers' pages are packed with penetrating insights, many of which de-

serve further elaboration. As an example, there is his wry comment that

"Americans who followed the Jacksonian persuasion with their votes . . .

were in some degree censuring their own economic attitudes and actions."

Again, "the republican yeoman on his hundred acres, building his farm

and character together and taking his reward in self-sufficient independence,

populates the speeches of Jacksonian Democrats but not the countryside that

observers viewed." This reviewer regrets that Meyers did not extend his

analysis to encompass those notable contradictions of democratic values, the

Jacksonian attitudes toward the Indian and toward the Negro slave. But

he has made a major advance in our knowledge of the nature of "Jacksonian

democracy" and in doing so has enriched historical literature in both content

and method.

Baldwin-Wallace College                       MARTIN DEMING LEWIS

 

The Papers of Sir William Johnson. Volume XII (1766-1774). Prepared for

publication by Milton W. Hamilton. (Albany: University of the State of

New York, 1957. viii~1,124p.; illustrations, maps, and index. $8.00.)

The melancholy history of race relations on our planet continues to throw

doubt upon the sincerity of national professions of brotherly love, justice,

and equality. Each country has its Kashmir or Algeria or Kenya, America

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included. However, we have tended to forget about our problem because the

Indian is no longer a potent factor in our body politic. To study the problem

in its most meaningful stage we must go back to the colonial period, when

America's racial distinctions were seen not in sentimental and theoretical

terms but in fearful and practical ones. The Indian "nations" then were

"nations" despite the formal assertion of sovereignty over them  by the

English crown. Sir William Johnson was as much ambassador to the

northern Indians as he was "superintendent" of them. The involved

language and customs of diplomacy were maintained at all times and--

significantly--shaped in Indian terms, not in English.

In the middle of the eighteenth century, however, the northern Indians

were gradually losing their status as "brothers" and becoming "children" of

the English; and their life as "children" was a harsh one. English settle-

ment and influence advanced inexorably. The documents printed in this

volume demonstrate the English failure to carry out the trust assumed in

their guardianship over their red "children." Over and over again Sir

William Johnson in the North, John Stuart, superintendent of Indians in

the southern district, General Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of the

British forces in America, Governor John Penn of Pennsylvania, and other

colonial officials regret the fact that murders of Indians by frontiersmen must

go unpunished because of the unwillingness of the people to abide by prin-

ciples of justice in their dealings with the red men, and because of the

inability of government to enforce such principles. Johnson and those in

positions of control could only make "Attonment," as the Indian agent

George Croghan expressed it following a particularly barbaric murder of

ten Indian men, women, and children by a German named Stump, by

"Condoleing and presents Very Early this Spring." The atonement was

calculated in monetary terms and justified in political ones. Few officials

allowed their sense of moral outrage to disturb their domestic or mental

tranquillity. From a political standpoint, the policy was largely successful.

English settlement advanced. English "governments" were established in the

Indian country and the power of the Indians declined. All of these results

were facilitated by the decline of French influence following the French and

Indian War, which automatically deprived the Indians of their strategic

"balance of power" situation between the two opposing European powers.

The documents in this volume show the significance of this changed rela-

tionship, as they reveal also the continued English fear that French in-

fluence had not been extinguished in the trans-Appalachian West.

The publication of Volume XII of The Papers of Sir William Johnson

brings a long-term publishing venture near to a close. Although a wide-

spread search was made for documents for this last volume of the second

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BOOK REVIEWS          275

 

chronological series, it was not possible to include everything in it. An

addenda volume is promised which will include items missed as well as

corrections and errata in the series, and a chronological finding list of

documents.

Whatever reservations one might have about the methods used by the

editor--the lack of extensive explanatory documentation, the retention of

abbreviations and superscribed letters, the waste of space in following the

exact spatial arrangement of complimentary closes, endorsements, and the

like--one must accept them as necessary to maintain consistency with the

forms initiated by the first editors. However, one can also point out that

The Papers of Sir William Johnson represent the last of the old style docu-

mentary collections, fortunately made obsolete by the standards set in projects

like The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Originally conceived as a one volume

selection, the Johnson project grew to its present twelve-volume-plus size

after several intermediate "final volumes" along the way. This uncertainty

of purpose resulted partly from the several changes in the office of state

historian following the start of the project, and partly from inadequate

preliminary surveys of materials. The result is an unfortunate organizational

confusion, marked by two duplicate chronological series.

One of the ways in which the confusion can be partially overcome is by

the preparation of a comprehensive index, which is promised as a final

volume. Next to the publication of the documents themselves the prepara-

tion of a full index is perhaps the most valuable service the historical

editor can perform. An imaginative indexer could make the many volumes

of Johnson Papers valuable to researchers in fine arts, psychology, morals,

and so forth, as well as to ethnologists and historians, by including such

subject categories as the specific objects used in trade and ceremonies,

instances of criminal offenses committed by each group against the other,

instances of Indian ethical reasoning, and the like. Only with the com-

pletion of the index will the Sir William Johnson Papers be truly available

to all scholars and begin to be cited as frequently as they deserve to be.

Smithsonian Institution                     WILCOMB E. WASHBURN

 

The Negro in Indiana: A Study of a Minority. By Emma Lou Thornbrough.

(Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1957. xiii~412p.; index.

$4.50.)

During a period when racial integration is a subject of tense controversy,

this study is especially timely, for it analyzes carefully the deep-seated prob-

lems of race relations in a northern state with a large population of southern

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background. The author finds that prior to 1900 in Indiana the doctrine of

Negro inferiority was "accepted without question and in line with this

belief racial barriers, both legal and social, were tightly drawn."

As early as the middle of the eighteenth century Negro slaves were

found in the French settlement at Vincennes. Thereafter, during the terri-

torial period, in spite of the free status provision of the Northwest

Ordinance (1787), practically all Negroes were held in slavery or under a

type of long-term indenture which differed only slightly from outright

slavery. The first Indiana state constitution was drafted in 1816, at which

time opponents of the extension of slavery were dominant. Yet their opposi-

tion was based largely on a desire to preserve Indiana as a white man's

abode and was influenced relatively little by any humanitarian regard for

the Negro.

Before 1861, in the state of Indiana, colored people were regarded as

aliens whose entry was opposed by white settlers. Efforts were made to

exclude them and to send to Liberia those already resident in the state.

Laws denied them the right to vote and imposed severe legal disabilities

upon them, and Negro children were not admitted to the public schools.

Yet the "free" soil of Indiana attracted many free Negroes and escaped

slaves from the South, and some of these aided others to flee from bondage

by means of the Underground Railroad.

The Society of Friends had a considerable number of local meetings in

Indiana, and these Quakers--among other humanitarians--endeavored to

assist Negroes and to obtain the repeal of discriminatory laws against them.

In a period of dominant rural life before the Civil War, Negroes, living

largely in the country, were especially numerous in areas of Quaker settle-

ment. Philanthropic Quakers and others aided them in founding schools and

churches, and Indiana Negroes became so attached to the life of their com-

munities that they frowned on efforts to induce them to go to Liberia.

The drastic fugitive slave law of 1850 and the second Indiana constitu-

tion of the same year (the latter specifically prohibiting the entry of Negro

settlers) meant that the Negro population increased only slightly from 1850

to 1861. During the rest of the century the Negro population increased

more than fivefold. The newcomers, largely emancipated slaves from the

upper South, settled mainly in the towns and cities, contributing to the pre-

dominantly urban status of the Indiana Negro by 1900.

While legal and political gains after 1865 were substantial, Negroes being

recognized as citizens, voters, and officeholders, and the children being

admitted to the public schools (although mostly on a segregated basis), dis-

crimination continued in a drastic way. A double standard of justice prevailed

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(with lynchings increasing toward the end of the century); schools for

colored children were frequently inferior; social and economic obstacles

tended to restrict Negroes to menial employment; and Negroes were in

practice barred from places of entertainment patronized by whites. Churches

(especially of Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal affiliation), lodges,

and newspapers established by the Negroes served as means of organiza-

tion, communication, and protest. The author comments:

 

By 1900 patterns of racial relationships had evolved which were to re-

main largely unbroken for almost half a century. The condition of Negroes

in Indiana remained far more favorable than that of members of their race

in the states of the South where white supremacy was rampant, but the

hopes of equality and opportunity which had been bright in the years follow-

ing Emancipation had fallen far short of realization.

The author, a faculty member of Butler University, has performed a

thorough and craftsmanlike research task, using newspapers, public records,

and other pertinent materials. Almost any reader will gain from the volume

much that is interesting and enlightening.

Ohio State University                     FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER

 

Forty Years in Politics: The Story of Ben Pelham. By Aris A. Mallas, Jr.,

Rea McCain, and Margaret K. Hedden. (Detroit: Wayne University

Press, 1957. xi~92p.; illustrations. $3.00.)

Benjamin B. Pelham, born in 1862 of free Negro parents who had

migrated to Detroit from Virginia in 1859, entered public life via the news-

paper route. He began publishing a Negro newspaper the Plaindealer, some-

time in the early eighties (the authors neglect to tell us when), and the

journal apparently enjoyed some influence in Detroit political circles. Active

service in the Republican cause during the campaign of 1894 earned Pelham

an appointment as junior clerk in the office of the Wayne County treasurer.

From this post he moved on to become clerk for the register of deeds in

1903, and in 1908 he was named accountant to the board of county auditors,

a position he held until his retirement in 1942. During this long period of

service Pelham also became clerk to the board of auditors and committee

clerk to the board of supervisors.

Now if anyone would like to learn something about the board of county

auditors, or the board of county supervisors, or anything else about Wayne

County government, let me advise him not to read this book. And if anyone

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would like to really learn what Ben Pelham was doing in these forty-seven

years, what he actually did to merit the title "the executive head of Wayne

County Government," let me again advise him to go elsewhere. From the

few snatches one gets of the man, it seems safe to say that a good, substantial

biography could be written about Pelham. Forty Years in Politics is not a

good, substantial biography.

The book is too short--ninety-two pages--to do justice to anyone who

was in public life for nearly half a century. It has no documentation, it has

no index, it has too few dates, and it has too many memorials, testimonials,

eulogies, and so forth. The authors have completely failed to subject their

data to scientific scrutiny. According to them, Pelham never did anything

wrong--I am sure he must have made an occasional slip, like spilling soup

on his tie. Moreover, all the action is in a vacuum. You see Pelham, but he

is not in perspective.

If Ben Pelham was important he is worth a book; if he was not important

he is not worth a book. However this may be, Forty Years in Politics does a

disservice to both Pelham and posterity.

Marietta College                              EUGENE C. MURDOCK

 

The Baptist Church in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1776-1845. By Walter

Brownlow Posey. (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1957.

ix+166p.; index. $5.00.)

The Baptists, though multifariously splintered, claim more adherents than

any other single American Protestant body. And in the lower Mississippi

Valley they not only outnumber all their rivals but also consider the area

between the Ohio River and the Gulf of Mexico as the strongest Baptist

section in the nation. Quite naturally, therefore, Walter B. Posey, professor

of history at Agnes Scott College and Emory University, selected this de-

nomination as the climactic volume in a series which began in 1933. First

came The Development of Methodism in the Old Southwest, 1783-1824,

followed in 1952 by The Presbyterian Church in the Old Southwest,

1778-1838, and finally the present study, incomparably the best in format,

style, coverage, and interpretation.

Primarily concerned with the Regular Baptists, Professor Posey follows

the same pattern of organization and development employed in the earlier

volumes. He thereby facilitates a more accurate comparison of the three

major Protestant denominations in their struggles during the same period

in similar surroundings to bring moral order out of frontier chaos. Vividly

the author describes the growing pains of the infant Baptist Church, born

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amidst the hegira of Roger Williams from Massachusetts to Providence, and

propelled across the frontier by a band of farmer-preachers, "educated be-

tween the handles of a plough," who only reluctantly accepted pay for their

ministerial services.

A substantial part of the work pictures the exertions of the more liberal

leaders to consolidate their loosely knit, democratically governed church in

the face of the disastrously diversionary movements of Daniel Parker's anti-

missionary, anti-education, and anti-evangelistic forces. To compete with the

matchless Methodist system and its doctrine of free will, the Baptists re-

sorted to associational affiliations and a diluted form of Calvinism. But both

denominations probably succeeded best in frustrating the frontiersman by

forcing him to choose either a dictatorial church government with a demo-

cratic God or an arbitrary God in a republican church. Unhappily, both

bodies, failing to break slavery were themselves broken on the issue, the

Baptist schism marking the close of this study.

In all three volumes the author is fair and objective, treating diverse

materials sympathetically, and relieving the more stolid, unexciting portions

with fresh illustrations. Adequately footnoted and indexed, the interpreta-

tions, though not new, are accurately reinforced. One unfortunate error of

fact, however, slipped through in spite of careful editing. In a short chapter

on interchurch relations James B. Finley receives credit for the inter-

denominational disputations of that venerable Methodist circuit rider William

Burke (p. 131), but since Finley himself frequently crossed theological

swords with the Baptists, the confusion is understandable.

In an age still striving for religious liberty and the maintenance of a

separate church and state, the Baptist contribution to republican ideals in

church government demands periodic review. Both Professor Posey and

the University of Kentucky Press deserve genuine praise for consummating

in this volume regional studies of the major denominations in the South,

thereby enriching our cultural and religious heritage.

Oberlin College                                      PAUL H. BOASE

 

American English. By Albert H. Marckwardt. (New York: Oxford Univer-

sity Press, 1958. xi~194p.; appendix and index. $4.50.)

Professor Marckwardt has organized a large amount of varied material

into a particularly well-unified book. It is inevitable that in sampling from

so much material for a relatively small book aimed at a popular audience

he has exaggerated certain features of American English (e.g., euphemism)

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280     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

at the expense of others of more interest to the reviewer (e.g., intonation

and social dialect). It is to Marckwardt's great credit that the book is as

evenly balanced and sensible as it is.

Chapter 1, "The English Language in America," is an intelligent state-

ment of the relationship of American to other varieties of English. Though

Marckwardt is of course quite aware of the heterogeneity of modern Ameri-

can English, in order to dramatize the contrast with other groups of dialects,

for the greater part of the book he speaks of American English as if it were

a homogeneous entity; this gets him into difficulties when he has to judge

whether particular items are in American English or not.

Chapter 2, "The Language of the Colonists," reminds us that the

language of the earliest American colonists was, after all, Elizabethan

English, with all the characteristics implied by that label. Although his

main point in the chapter, that the differences between present American

and British varieties of English must have arisen after the physical separa-

tion of the two, seems right, there is the possibility, implied but not

developed (p. 20) by Marckwardt, that present differences between the two

varieties may go back to social or regional dialectal alternants existing side

by side in England during the colonization period, but having different social

histories on the two sides of the Atlantic.

Chapter 3, "The Melting Pot," considers the contributions of other

languages to the vocabulary. Here Marckwardt is inconsistent in his evalua-

tion of the unity of American English; localized terms like scuppernong,

lagniappe, cuarta, pot cheese, and snits are included without question as be-

ing in American English, while all Yiddish words, except kosher, kibitzer,

and mazuma, common in metropolitan dialects, are said not to have "passed

into American English generally." Also annoying is Marckwardt's mislead-

ing characterization of Yiddish loan words as "an interesting group of

borrowings related to, or really an extension of [italics mine], the German

loan words" (p. 56).

Chapter 4, "The Colonial Lag," supplies interesting examples of phono-

logical, morphological, syntactical, and lexical "archaisms" in American

English. Marckwardt's explanation of such archaisms is picturesque:

 

Transplanting usually results in a time lag before the organism, be it a

geranium or a brook trout, becomes adapted to its new environment. There

is no reason why the same principle should not apply to a people, their

language, and their culture. (p.80)

 

-- but specious, it seems to me. In order to demonstrate that "colonial lag"

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actually operates here, one must determine the amount of archaism in the

stay-at-home sister dialects and compare this amount with that determined

for the colony. Without such quantification and comparison, a term like

"colonial lag" remains unconvincing, anecdotal, and unsuitable for serious

treatments of language.

Substantially the same remarks hold for the chapters "Yankee Ingenuity

and the Frontier Spirit" and "The Genteel Tradition and the Glorification

of the Commonplace," in which Marckwardt gives plenty of illustration of

the effects of the alleged factors named in the chapter titles, but no demon-

stration of any kind to show that the same effects are not found to the same

degree, say, in England, where the factors presumably have had little or no

force. The weakness of scientific method in Marckwardt's case for the

effectiveness of such factors is all the more surprising in view of the

sophistication he shows in his handling of positive-case evidence, for

example on pages 95, 103, and 124.

Chapter 7, "Regional and Social Variations," presents a very skillful

account of regional variation of American English. The section (pp.146-150)

on "social" variation asks the right question, "Is there a so-called vulgate

which has reasonably uniform characteristics throughout the country, and if

so, what is it?" (p.146)--but gives the conventional, wrong answer. For

example, Marckwardt asserts (p.¹⁴8) that "most speakers of the substandard

language might be expected to say the book is hisn," in spite of the convinc-

ing evidence in C. C. Fries' American English Grammar, page 81, that hisn

is not found at all in a large corpus of substandard American English. My

feeling is that our best evidence indicates that his question of uniformity of

the "vulgate" must be answered either by "no" or "we don't know," rather

than the "yes" that Marckwardt implies.

Chapter 8, "The Names Thereof," succeeds very well in pulling together

a great variety of material to illustrate general principles behind American

practices in giving proper names.

Chapter 9, "The Future of English," indulges, as one would imagine for

such a subject, in a great deal of guesswork. Marckwardt's guesses about

the future in structural matters (summarized on page 180) seem well sup-

ported by presently observable tendencies. But the future of our vocabulary

and of our social attitudes towards the language are dependent on future

socio-political events and conditions that we cannot predict in our capacities

as linguists.

It is characteristic of the popular level at which this book is written that

Marckwardt chooses to end with a series of high-sounding flourishes stating

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that English depends for its development upon the "courage and resource-

fulness of the people who employ it," advising that "it is our responsibility

to realize whither the language is tending, and the duty of our schools and

teachers to promulgate healthy linguistic attitudes," and finally, promising

that if his advice is followed "a new era lies before all the English-speaking

peoples."

Ohio State University                          LEONARD NEWMARK

 

The Golden Lamb. By Hazel Spencer Phillips. (Oxford, Ohio: Oxford

Press, 1958. viii+68p.; illustrations, maps, appendices, and index. $2.00.)

By the time the reader--especially the Ohioan--has finished reading this

brief history of the oldest hotel in Ohio, he will doubtless form the resolu-

tion to visit the Golden Lamb at Lebanon at his first opportunity if he has

not already done so. For Hazel Spencer Phillips has lovingly traced its

history from the log-tavern days of its founding in 1803, through the stage-

coach days, its continuation under changing managements as the Lebanon

House for half a century, and its return to the name Golden Lamb in 1926.

Thumbnail sketches of its more noteworthy proprietors add human interest,

especially the distinguished career of its owner and host since 1926, Robert

H. Jones, and his wife.

The author has selected appropriate extracts from various sources, includ-

ing Lebanon's Western Star and Democratic Citizen, accounts of adminis-

trators, Henry Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, Dickens' American

Notes (he didn't like the temperance hotels of Lebanon, when he stayed at

the Golden Lamb, then named the Bradley House), the Cincinnati Gazette,

and the Ohio State Journal.

Reference value is added by the appendices, which list the furnishings

and their appraised value ($400) in the estate of Henry Share; the bill of

sale of his goods and chattels; the distinguished guests for whom rooms have

been named; and the taverns and tavern keepers of Warren County.

There is an increasing demand for historical sketches of old landmark

buildings and sites; and well done, readable accounts, such as Hazel Spencer

Phillips has given us in The Golden Lamb, will increase the demand and

help maintain the standards of production. This publication reflects credit

on the Warren County Historical Society, which was organized at the Golden

Lamb, and upon the Glendower Museum, both of which evidently co-

operated in the project of this booklet.

Stark County Historical Society                        E. T. HEALD

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Method and Theory in American Archaeology. By Gordon R. Willey and

Philip Phillips. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957. ix~270p.;

figures, bibliography, and index. $4.75.)

This is a meaty little volume, which presents, in its largest section, an

organization of New World prehistory into five "stages" of cultural develop-

ment called the "Lithic," "Archaic," "Formative," "Classic," and "Post-

classic." In presenting this study the authors have capitalized on a number

of developments in the study of American archaeology. One of these develop-

ments is the large number of regional chronologies which have been pro-

duced by many archaeologists from the American Arctic to southern Chile,

along with the descriptive data characterizing the changing cultural pattern.

Another development has been the recognition and interpretation of the

obviously different levels of cultural development within geographical areas,

or between areas. A third resource available has been the recent publications

which translate these archaeological data into cultural stages and social ac-

tivities. The co-authors have attempted to align all of the New World data

into a "stage" framework which has some validity as an interpretative device

in Nuclear America but is less successfully employed throughout most of the

American continents.

The Lithic stage "is the stage of adaptation by immigrant societies to the

late glacial and early postglacial climatic and physiographic conditions in the

New World." It is thus the remains found in the earliest chronological

period of man's occupancy of the New World and is not a cultural definition

at all, although their stages are supposed to be "a segment of a historical

sequence in a given area, characterized by a dominating pattern of economic

existence" (definition from Krieger). Their Lithic stage lasts from about

20000 B.C. to about 5000 B.C., and subsistence is by hunting and gathering,

depending upon local environmental conditions.

The Archaic stage is also characterized by a hunting and gathering

economy, and "stone implements and utensils used in the preparation of

wild vegetable foods first appear in this stage." Non-intensive utilization of

domesticated plants such as corn is also placed in the Archaic stage. While

the Archaic stage may begin in some areas before 5000 B.C., it lasts in

some specific cultures to the present. Other interpreters of American archaeo-

logy might choose to place all hunting and gathering societies into a single

"stage."

The Formative stage is defined by an effective subsistence economy,

normally agricultural, which provides a "well-established, sedentary village

life," and "with societies of a certain minimal complexity and stability."

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284     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Since this is an American stage, it is connected by native American agri-

culture, pottery-making, weaving, stone-carving, and a specialized ceremonial

architecture.

The Classic stage is defined as the beginning of urban life in native

America, with developed political and religious governments, high artistic

and intellectual achievement, widespread commerce, specialized crafts of a

high order, and a clearly recognizable class stratification.

The Postclassic stage is defined as perhaps more urban than the Classic

stage. It is increasingly secular and there is a decline in the aesthetic level

and religious architecture. It is marked by increasing attention to fortifica-

tions and organized militaristic activities. The Classic and Postclassic stages

are only found in Middle America and in the Peruvian-Bolivian area.

Most of the readers of the Quarterly will be interested in the manner in

which Willey and Phillips handle Ohio Valley prehistory. The fluted blades

and perhaps some portion of the lithic complex at the Parrish site in

Kentucky would be placed in their Lithic stage. They allocate the sites now

called Archaic in the Ohio Valley to their Archaic stage. They have classed

Adena in their Formative stage, although its known characteristics do not

satisfy their definition. When Adena is compared with Middle American

and Peruvian Formative cultures, the contrast in development and complexity

is so great that it is difficult to understand the authors' position in this

matter. The great majority of the Adena sites would better fit their concept

of Archaic, while some of the larger and late Adena sites are more compar-

able to the main Ohio Valley Hopewell sites, which they also place in the

Formative stage. The latter stage also includes the Middle Mississippi sites

in the lower Ohio, and presumably, Fort Ancient. Willey and Phillips ques-

tion whether smaller Hopewellian sites in Ohio and the Middle West would

belong in their Formative stage even though they were Hopewell in their

culture content! The Late Woodland sites in the Ohio Valley in my inter-

pretation of their classification would represent reversion to the Archaic

stage, as well as a fair number of Fort Ancient and Iroquoian sites.

This volume should have been titled, "An Interpretive Method and

Theory in American Archaeology." There are quite a number of archaeo-

logical methods and theories which are not touched upon in its first section.

In the first part of the book an organizational framework is presented which

can serve as a guide for prehistoric studies. There is a selected but compre-

hensive bibliography. I trust the authors did not see the invalid claims for

their publication which appear on the flaps of the jacket.

Let it be said that the authors recognized that their "historical-develop-

mental" stages as determined by "culture-historical integration" are designed

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to present prehistoric American achievement in general terms of a series of

cultural levels. The stages should not be used as a research end or as a major

interpretive device in any particular small geographical area. The five-stage

classification presented here is an interesting example of how two men

would adjust American prehistory into such a grouping.

University of Michigan                             JAMES B. GRIFFIN

 

Outpost on the Wabash, 1787-1791: Letters of Brigadier General Josiah

Harmar and Major John Francis Hamtramck and Other Letters and Docu-

ments Selected from  the Harmar Papers in the William   L. Clements

Library. Edited by Gayle Thornbrough. Indiana Historical Society Publica-

tions, Vol. 19. (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1957. 305p.;

illustration, map, and index. $2.50.)

In Outpost on the Wabash the Indiana Historical Society adds another

important item to its already long and distinguished list of publications. In

view of the high caliber and fine scholarship of its predecessors, the current

volume leaves no stone unturned in its presentation of the trials and troubles,

problems and pursuits of frontier commander Major John Francis Ham-

tramck at Post Vincennes.

Outpost on the Wabash is composed primarily of the interchange of letters

between Hamtramck at Vincennes and the commander of the federal forces

in the Northwest Territory, Josiah Harmar, from June 15, 1787, to June 15,

1791. In this four-year period one is given a first-hand glimpse of affairs in

the territory: troubles with Indians, the bungling and dilatory efforts (or

lack of same) of Arthur St. Clair to establish effective government, the per-

fidious actions of the contractors in supplying provisions to the army, the

weakness of military authority, the implications of foreign affairs for the

frontier, and numerous other details of perhaps less significance to the broad

story being unfolded.

The well-written and well-conceived introduction sets the stage for the

drama unfolded in the correspondence and summarizes the themes of the

scenes as portrayed by the letters. Perhaps it is here only that the reviewer

felt that more emphasis could have been put on certain phases of develop-

ment, particularly British policies toward the territory and development

thereof.

The editing of the correspondence is complete almost to a fault. Here

the thoroughness of good scholarship is predominantly evident. Explanations

are complete; identifications fall within reasonable limits; and supplementary

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286     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

materials are profusely included in notes. Perhaps bold type for letter captions

would have aided the reader in distinguishing individual items, but this is a

small point. Likewise the addition of a bibliography and a calendar of the

letters would have been a distinct aid to the researcher using Outpost in con-

junction with other materials.

As one reads the scores of letters included in this edition, he is constantly

amazed that the problems which dogged the territory until the beginning of

the nineteenth century, perhaps even through the War of 1812, were

evident at the initiation of the territorial period. Vigorous action was seldom,

if ever, evident in the government or the military arrangements of the

period covered. It was not until "Mad" Anthony Wayne arrived on the

scene in the mid-nineties that any effective measures were taken to bring

order out of the smoldering chaos in the territory. In the final paragraph of

the introduction Miss Thornbrough notes: "Hamtramck probably found it

easier to adapt himself to the conditions of life in a frontier post than did

Harmar who had reveled in the society of European capitals." As one reads

the correspondence in Outpost and the remainder in the Indiana Society's

Harmar Collection, he wonders if Harmar did any real adapting at all.

Great credit is due to Miss Thornbrough and the Indiana Historical

Society for again scoring a point for historical scholarship with the publica-

tion of Outpost on the Wabash.

Anthony Wayne Parkway Board                     RICHARD C. KNOPF

 

The American Heritage Book of Great Historic Places. By the editors of

American Heritage, the Magazine of History; narrative by Richard M.

Ketchum. (New York: American Heritage Publishing Company with

Simon and Shuster, 1957. 376p.; illustrations and index. $12.50.)

This handsome volume, according to the dust jacket, is designed to be

"both a new kind of history and a guide to the historic riches that are to be

seen in our own country." Certainly it is a compilation of, and a guide to, the

more significant historic places in this country, and the use of the events and

personalities associated with these places to explain the shaping of the

American heritage is different from the approach employed in other pic-

torial histories.

The book is dominated by hundreds of superb modern photographs--154

of them in full color--of the surviving physical remains of American history

supplemented by a large number of contemporaneous paintings, prints, and

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BOOK REVIEWS         287

 

drawings. In the selection of the illustrations the editors have demonstrated

excellent judgment. The presentation of such a collection alone is a major

contribution.

Although it is impossible, as Bruce Catton points out in his brief intro-

duction, to catalog in one book all of the historic places in America, the

editors have selected nearly 2,800 of them after consultations with local

historians and members of congress. These places have been grouped into

nine geographical sections, from New England to the South and then

westward to the Pacific Northwest. The informal commentary by Richard

M. Ketchum, one of the editors of the American Heritage, is written in the

lively style that has been so popular and successful in that magazine. Each

regional section is followed by a map and a supplementary listing of lesser-

known places of interest, alphabetically arranged by state.

Of the nine sections of the book, the one concerning New England is the

best and the most comprehensive. Here Mr. Ketchum's narrative is fresh

and filled with enthusiasm. As one travels southward with the narrator,

however, this enthusiasm appears to dim somewhat.

The supplementary list of the historic sites in New England is also the

best in the book. To the southward, especially, questions arise in the mind

of the reader about the selection of sites. In New Jersey, for example, why

are Barnegat, Glassboro, Salem, and Swedesboro omitted, if Allaire, Cald-

well, and Gloucester Point Park are included? It should also be noted that

the Red Bank of the American Revolution was located on the Delaware

River, not near the coast. Omissions and errors such as these, lead this re-

viewer to suggest that it might have been wiser for the editors to have con-

sulted more local historians and fewer congressmen.

The maps locating the various historic sites are also inadequate if the

book is to serve as a guide. The vast majority of people travel today by auto-

mobile, and guide maps should at least locate sites in relationship to the

main arteries of travel. In this regard, the maps issued by the automobile

club and oil companies are more useful.

The student of American history will find no new information in this

volume. This is not its purpose. As a handy compilation of the principal

historic sites in this country, however, the volume will serve as a useful tool.

The student will appreciate the careful selection of illustrations, and he will

hope that in the next edition more care will be exercised in the preparation

of the maps and supplementary listings of the historic places in our history.

Colonial Williamsburg                            EDWARD M. RILEY

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Magnificent Missourian: The Life of Thomas Hart Benton. By Elbert B.

Smith. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1958. 351p.; index.

$6.00.)

Over fifty years ago three historians--Theodore Roosevelt, William M.

Meigs, and Joseph M. Rogers--wrote full-length studies of the life of

Thomas Hart Benton. Now, after a half-century lapse, we have been treated

to two new biographies, William N. Chambers Old Bullion Benton (1956),

and the volume under consideration. Both books are more than adequate,

but further comparison is almost inevitable. Smith's Magnificent Missourian

is much shorter and more colorfully written. He avoids the minutiae of

Benton's political career, picking and choosing so as to present a well-

rounded interpretation. Chambers' is more detailed and scholarly, its style is

more sedate, and it contains an excellent bibliography (which the Smith

book lacks). I would assign Smith for undergraduate reading and purchase

Chambers for my own use.

There are several disturbing ingredients contained in this volume. For

example, the author is not always consistent. He describes Benton's opposi-

tion, in the early 1800's, to preferential treatment of settlers on Indian lands

not yet acquired by the government. "This devotion to legal right," says

Smith, "continued throughout Benton's life" (p. 31). Yet, in 1830 (and

many times thereafter), Benton was instrumental in having congress pass

preemption acts to benefit "thousands of optimistic and law-ignoring

settlers throughout the west . . . happily working Government lands not

yet on the market" (p. 114). Nor is Smith's meaning clear when he dis-

cusses organization of the Kansas-Nebraska region. On the same page that

he states, "No evidence existed to indicate that the Southern people felt any

particular concern with the matter, and a bill organizing the area without

mention of slavery would probably have passed without significant opposi-

tion," he also writes, "Certain Southerners . . . threatened Douglas with a

new sectional quarrel if the attempt was made" (p. 295). Actually, several

bills to organize that territory earlier than 1854 had been defeated by

southern votes.

The analysis of Andrew Jackson's war on the Second Bank leaves much

to be desired. Smith states that "in fighting back" against Jackson's order

prohibiting further deposits of government funds in the bank, Biddle "justi-

fied almost every argument by Benton against its recharter in the first place.

By suddenly curtailing loans, notes, and credit, the bank produced overnight

a serious panic where business could not operate without credit" (p. 148).

(Smith says, in a footnote, that Schlesinger, Jr., "clearly exaggerates the

Northeastern radical influence on the Jackson movement." Yet Smith's

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BOOK REVIEWS         289

 

handling of the bank issue is similar to the same slanted interpretation it

receives in The Age of Jackson. Smith's secondary sources are Schlesinger,

Bowers, Swisher, and Catterall. He neglects the work of Walter B. Smith and

Bray Hammond.) In the one example I have cited, it is true that Biddle

acted to curtail bank credit; and he did hope that financial distress might

force a recharter. But this credit reduction approximated the lowering of

public and private deposits in the bank during that period; in short, it was

a necessary move, financially sound and conservative.

Smith's striving for color leads him on occasion to make up words (like

"boilerful," on page 195). Nevertheless, students will enjoy and understand

the views of Benton on the major issues of the pre-Civil War period. Like

those of other great senators of that era--Clay, Webster, and Calhoun--the

career of Thomas Hart Benton spanned and mirrored American history "in

the days leading to its greatest sorrow."

Montana State University                          MORTON BORDEN

 

Denison: The Story of an Ohio College. By G. Wallace Chessman. (Gran-

ville, Ohio: Denison University, 1957. xiv~451p.; illustrations, guide to

the sources, and index. $4.00.)

Twenty-six years after the founding of Granville, Ohio, in 1805, a

seminary, destined to become Denison University, held its opening exercises

in the uncompleted Granville Baptist Church. The sesquicentennial of the

town in 1955 was marked by the publication of William T. Utter's engaging

Granville: The Story of an Ohio Village. Now, in observance of the 125th

anniversary of the college, comes Mr. Chessman's detailed and thorough-

going history of Denison University. These companion books make up a

uniquely balanced record of town and gown in midwestern America.

Mr. Utter's book traced the development of a village whose principal busi-

ness has been the education of other people's children. In Mr. Chessman's

volume that "principal business" is followed from small beginnings through

difficulty, development, and many changes. Now the people of Granville

must be enviably informed of their own history.

Like many American colleges, Denison sprang from a need for a trained

clergy. On a December day in 1831 a ceremony in the drafty meetinghouse

inaugurated the Granville Literary and Theological Institution, created by

the Baptist Education Society. It was bravely launched, its founders wanting

to erect a true "Western" seminary which would advance their denomination

throughout the Ohio and Mississippi valleys.

Actually the college had humble beginnings. Its opening enrollment was

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290     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

thirty-seven, half of them under fifteen years and two past thirty. These

earnest youths trudged through "a measured mile of unmeasured mud" to a

bare college building on a farm outside the village. Fire destroyed the first

edifice, and when it was rebuilt debt hung over it in a darkening cloud.

After twenty years of financial struggle in the seminary and denominational

controversy in Granville, the institution's future was dim. Proposals to move

it to Lebanon and Cincinnati were under consideration in 1853, when

"William S. Dennison" of Zanesville saved it for Granville with a gift of

$10,000. A year later the newly named Denison University (it was learned

that the benefactor spelled his name with one "n") was moved to the hilltop

above the village, a setting which for a hundred years has given grace and

distinction to the college.

To a modern reader there is a charm in the record of homely beginnings

and persevering struggle that produced our surviving institutions. Mr. Chess-

man effectively recreates the period of poor and earnest students for whom

college was a life of labor, study, and prayer. He pictures the early literary

societies reading their essays, debating hard issues, and accumulating their

libraries. (It is pleasant to know that slight, boyish Lyman C. Draper, who

later founded a great historical collection, was the first secretary of the

Calliopean Society and sought the first volumes for its shelves.) He shows the

arrival of Greek letter fraternities, at first sub rosa, their gradual replacing of

the literary halls, and the changes they brought to the college life.

This book looks at the development of a college in all its aspects--

administrative, financial, curricular, religious, social. It follows the struggle

for academic freedom and the lessening of denominational control. It traces

the gradual secularizing of the curriculum and the growth of a movement

toward general education. It recounts successive endowment campaigns and

describes the growth of the idyllic campus on the hill. But here Mr. Chess-

man is unduly restrained: the changing seasons on their hilltop must have

haunted Denison students of every generation.

Miami University                               WALTER HAVIGHURST

 

School and I: The Autobiography of an Ohio Schoolmaster. By Frank P.

Whitney. (Yellow Springs, Ohio: Antioch Press, 1957. 173p.; frontispiece

and index of education topics. $3.00.)

The former principal of Collinwood High School in Cleveland has pro-

vided the reader with a basic autobiographical sketch of his life, as well as a

keen insight into the educational problems with which he became involved.

A graduate of Oberlin College, Mr. Whitney has been active on the Ohio

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BOOK REVIEWS           291

 

educational scene as teacher, administrator, and supervisor for nearly a half

century.

The author traces his childhood in a small Ohio community--Fairfield

Township in Huron County--from the time of his birth in 1875 to the years

following his retirement. The reader follows his progress through school and

college and into his first jobs in the classroom.

Mr. Whitney's first job was in Wakeman as assistant to the superin-

tendent. When the superintendent resigned, the board of education elected

Whitney as his successor.   He says: "Needless to say, I accepted quite

promptly at what appeared to me at that time as the truly munificent salary

of $70 per month for nine months. Even before I received my diploma I had

a job, without making any application or presenting any references. What

a wonderful feeling! Thus began a career of forty-seven years as an Ohio

schoolmaster."

After two years at Wakeman the village schoolteacher decided to apply for

teaching jobs in larger schools. His answer came from Wells L. Griswold,

superintendent of the village schools of Collinwood, then a suburb of Cleve-

land. "This call determined my future. The next ten years I spent in Collin-

wood and the rest of my teaching life in Cleveland, which annexed Collin-

wood at the end of the ten year period."

But School and I is more than an autobiography. While the reader par-

ticipates in the incidents in the life of a schoolteacher, superintendent, and

principal, he also becomes aware of basic philosophies and concepts.

Mr. Whitney's whole approach to education is that of a practical under-

standing and application. Of special interest is the chapter titled "The School

I'd Like to Have." Each point, such as character development, school or-

ganization and administration, student problems, academic instruction, extra-

curricular activities, adequate housing, vocational training, and teaching staff,

is discussed in the light of necessary developments for a modern-day school

system--with its feet planted firmly on the ground.

It is significant that in his retirement the author still felt that "one could

hardly fail to find in teaching and school administration unending exhilira-

tion. Certainly life offers no greater joy than to witness the miracle of growth,

above all, growth in human powers and human personalities. This is the high

privilege of the teacher as of the parent; sometimes to be sure his despair,

when growth is thwarted or stunted, but always for him the ground for

whatever hope he may have for the future and for the more abundant life."

The essence of Mr. Whitney's educational philosophy is clearly stated.

School and I is an unpretentious story of a gentleman, a scholar, a philos-

opher, and a school administrator with a practical eye.

Ohio Department of Education                              E. E. HOLT

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292     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Bibliography of Pennsylvania History. Second edition of Writings on Penn-

sylvania History: A Bibliography. Compiled by Norman B. Wilkinson.

Edited by S. K. Stevens and Donald H. Kent. (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania

Historical and Museum Commission, 1957. xxx~826p.; index. $7.00.)

In 1946 the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission published

Writings on Pennsylvania History: A Bibliography of Printed Secondary

Works. Although, as the title indicates, it was limited in scope, it was, never-

theless, a much needed compilation. Not only was it a handy reference and

research tool but it pointed out serious gaps in writings on the history of the

state. And, happily, it became the foundation upon which the new

edition is constructed.

What does the present work contain? It adds the historical literature of

the 1943-52 decade to that of the previous volume, as well as omissions from

the earlier edition. The scope of its coverage includes, among other things,

printed source materials, graduate theses and dissertations, textbooks on all

levels, and pamphlet materials.

The nearly ninety-two hundred entries (as compared with over sixty-one

hundred in the first edition) are grouped into four major categories: biblio-

graphical aids; bibliography of Pennsylvania history; general and special

works which do not fit conveniently into the chronological-topical outline

of the previous section; and folklore tales, legends, poetry, and plays. Many

of the entries are supplemented with a content-annotation. The table of

contents is a guide to the organization of the volume and the more than one-

hundred-page detailed index is an invaluable aid. Although the introduction

states that coverage "extends from prehistoric times," the section on "natives"

(archaeology, customs and manners, industries, religion, tribes, and chiefs)

is notably short and selective with only about one hundred and fifty entries.

This situation is partly taken care of by other existing bibliographies; but

these are by no means exhaustive. It would seem, with the considerable

activity and interest in the subject, that more would have been included in

the present work; or with some justification, the topic could have been

omitted entirely.

Bibliographies and similar compilations, such as calendars and indices,

are indispensable tools to historical endeavor of any sort, especially to re-

search. Without them the task of the historian would be much more diffi-

cult. With the publication of the present work, and with such companion

pieces as the Guide to the Manuscript Collections of The Historical Society of

Pennsylvania (2d edition, Philadelphia, 1949) and the cumulative and

analytical Index for the first seventy-five volumes of the Pennsylvania Maga-

zine of History and Biography (Philadelphia, 1954), and others, Pennsylvania

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BOOK REVIEWS         293

 

history has enviable coverage. Other nearby states have good bibliographical

materials, for example, J. Winston Coleman, Jr., A Bibliography of Kentucky

History (Lexington, 1949) and F. B. Streeter, Michigan Bibliography (2

vols., Lansing, 1921), but not to the extent and scope of Pennsylvania.

This Bibliography of Pennsylvania History has considerable relevance and

use for the study of the history of Ohio and the Old Northwest, not only

because of Pennsylvania's antecedent position geographically as well as

chronologically in American history but because a political boundary between

the two did not restrict the movement of settlers, armies, or Indians, nor did

it circumscribe other ingredients of historical development.

It is with considerable reluctance, but this reviewer feels constrained to

comment that it is most unfortunate that this work is so poorly bound. The

initial binding was bad; and the reviewer's copy of a subsequent binding is

not improved very much. Even with careful handling it still has broken.

Such a valuable reference tool that will have considerable use needs better

binding, even if it means a higher price for the book.

Miami University                                  DWIGHT L. SMITH

 

Created Equal? The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858. Edited and

with an introduction by Paul M. Angle. (Chicago: University of Chicago

Press, 1958. xxxiii~422p.; illustrations, appendix, and index. $7.50.)

Readers of this journal may be interested to know that the famous

Lincoln-Douglas debates were first printed in book form by the firm of

Follett, Foster, and Company in Columbus in 1860. The original edition,

which became an important campaign document, was based on a scrapbook

compiled by Lincoln from newspaper accounts soon after the debates took

place. The present edition, issued on the one hundredth anniversary of the

debates, is based on the text originally published in Columbus and includes

not only the full text of the seven formal debates but five preliminary

speeches, three by Lincoln and two by Douglas, which were a part of the

campaign. Included also are an appendix giving a chronological list of all

the speeches made by the two candidates in the campaign of 1858 and an

introduction by the editor, Paul M. Angle.

Mr. Angle maintains that the debates are important, not only because of

their effect on the political careers of the participants but also because they

were concerned with national issues that are still alive. Although the dis-

cussion at times wandered off into local issues or personal squabbles, it was

primarily concerned with the questions of slavery in the territories, the status

of the Negro, and the power of the states to regulate that status. Citing the

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294     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

events that followed the supreme court decision of 1954 desegregating the

public schools, the editor says, "The status of the Negro and the rights of

the states to regulate that status, are questions as live today and as danger-

ously charged with emotion as they were when Lincoln and Douglas dis-

cussed them a hundred years ago."

That the questions of state rights and civil rights are live questions, no

one will deny. But do the Lincoln-Douglas debates shed important light on

present-day problems? Do they furnish us safe guidelines, reliable general

principles to point the way through present difficulties? This reviewer doubts

it. He is more inclined to see irony and paradox in any comparison of the

situation prevailing now and that existing a hundred years ago. Take, for

example, the situations regarding supreme court decisions which a large

part of the country found unpalatable. A large part of the Lincoln-Douglas

debates was concerned with what could or should be done about the Dred

Scott decision, which the court rendered in 1857. The court declared that

Negroes were not, and could not be, citizens of the United States, and that

congress did not have the power to make any laws depriving slaveholders of

their slave property in the territories. The court furthermore declared the

Missouri Compromise (which had already been repealed by act of congress)

unconstitutional. Theoretically at least, this decision deprived the congress,

or the people of the territory itself, of the right to exclude slavery.

Throughout most of the northern states there was a great outcry against this

decision, and the court was condemned in most extreme terms. Lincoln was

not extreme, but he frankly disagreed with the decision and hoped to see it

reversed. He took the position that the court was not the only branch of the

federal system with the capacity to govern, and he cited Jefferson, Jackson,

and others to sustain his position. Those who, in the present situation, preach

obedience to the law as the supreme court sees it must go, not to Lincoln,

but to Douglas for comfort. "I will not stop to inquire whether I agree or

disagree with all the opinions expressed by Judge Taney or any other

judge," said Douglas. "It is enough for me to know the decision has been

made .... Where is the remedy when you refuse obedience to the con-

stituted authorities?" About the only lesson to be drawn is that both liberals

and conservatives have preached reverence for the court in exact propor-

tion to whether the court speaks in accordance with their wishes and desires.

On the question of the status of the Negro is there some great insight to

be drawn from the debates? On this question there were differences between

Lincoln and Douglas, but they were of degree, not of kind. Both believed,

or at least said they believed, the Negro was an inferior race. Nevertheless,

there is about Douglas' statements a certain harshness and coldness and

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BOOK REVIEWS           295

 

about Lincoln's a certain sympathy and compassion. Douglas (a New

Englander by birth) was unequivocally for white supremacy and frankly

considered Negroes and Indians (and apparently all colored peoples) in-

ferior and unfit to be citizens or voters. He professed a perfect indifference

to slavery: white men should rule and should vote slavery up or down in

states or territories as they saw fit. Lincoln (a southerner by birth) con-

sidered the Negro inferior but was unwilling for the white man to add to

his disabilities. There is downright contradiction in what Lincoln said about

the status of the Negro; he trimmed his sails. But when he was in the

northern part of the state at least, he pronounced slavery a blot, a moral

evil, that should be placed in a position of ultimate extinction.

As to the rights of the states to regulate the status of the Negro, there was

no difference, even of degree, between the candidates. Douglas questioned

the wisdom of states' making Negroes voters but he did not question their

right to do so. Lincoln also stated that he was against making citizens of

Negroes, but he would leave the matter up to the states.

It is one of the ironies of the situation that although both men were con-

servatives and both believed honestly in state rights, they both made charges

that the other was a radical bent on destroying local self-government. Seizing

upon Lincoln's statement that a house divided against itself can not stand,

Douglas tried to make it appear that Lincoln was a radical abolitionist, ready

to plunge the nation into a horrible civil war to free the slaves. It was no

use for Lincoln to point out that his house divided speech was a prophecy,

not a program, that he would merely limit the further extension of slavery

in the territories, and that he did not advocate the freeing of slaves in the

states where slavery existed. On the offensive, Lincoln charged that Douglas

was part of a conspiracy not only to extend slavery to the territories but to

nationalize and extend it to the free states. It was no use for Douglas to

point out that he had consistently fought for the principle of popular

sovereignty and that he would not interfere with the local institutions of any

state. In other words, both men exaggerated and, for political advantage,

made charges they knew were extreme.

It would be possible to extract from these speeches certain ringing phrases

and lofty sentiments which would seem to apply to today's issues. Actually,

however, both Lincoln's and Douglas' views were much too circumscribed by

the scientific and social thought of their day to have much applicability to

contemporary problems. One hundred years ago, modern psychology, cultural

anthropology, and sociology were unheard of. Furthermore, the politics of

that day, to say nothing of international relations, are not what they are

today. This is not to say that the study of the debates is useless. On the

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296     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

contrary, such study and comparison is useful precisely because it brings out

the tremendous difference in the contexts of the problems then and now.

Furthermore, in spite of a certain amount of exaggeration and abuse, the

Lincoln-Douglas debates are a credit to both men because they explored from

almost every conceivable angle the most important political issues of the day

in a local election. Both men had given careful thought and deep study

(always of course within the confines of knowledge of the day) to matters

they discussed. Both were skilled dialecticians. They so defined the issues

that the voters, who came to hear them in droves, could make an informed

decision. Can as much be said for senatorial elections today?

Ohio State University                                 HARRY L. COLES

 

The French in North America: A Bibliographical Guide to French Archives,

Reproductions, and Research Missions. By Henry Putney Beers. (Baton

Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1957. xi~413p.; appendices,

bibliography, and index. $12.50.)

This book seems rather a history than a guide. A guide is usually a handy,

workaday reference manual consulted briefly but often; but this is a history

of the reproduction of French archives relating to the French in North

America. It is not historiography, either, but an account of the transcribing,

calendaring, cataloging, publishing, and filming of the sources. The title

French in North America therefore means just those aspects likely to appear

in French archives: the French regime here before 1763, and Franco-

American diplomacy after 1775. It does not mean the ethnic pockets that

that regime left in Louisiana or the Midwest or deposited indirectly in New

England. It has little to do with colonizations like Gallipolis.

Why a history of mining French (or any) archives? Three reasons come

to mind. First, the book is the pedigree of many a copy of French records.

The provenance of transcripts is the measure of their respectability and

authority. Yet this purpose alone would scarcely justify a large book, since,

as Mr. Beers tells us, the usefulness of the transcripts is lessened by their

having been made selectively for particular purposes.

Another purpose, broader and more important, is to encourage further

research in the French archives, and to point out little-used records. Mr.

Beers suggests several areas that might be opened or reopened by resort to

these archives. The propagation of the faith is one example; American

biographies are another. Joel Barlow and Aaron Burr are among those

mentioned.

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BOOK REVIEWS         297

 

The third apparent object of this history of past efforts is to show lessons

applicable to all the growing number of projects for filming and publishing

large masses of papers. The scholars who plan, and the administrators who

evaluate, these expensive projects may find this book pertinent even if they

know no French. Let us hope that the title does not make them mutter,

"Somebody else's field," and pass it by. Two of the basic lessons seem to be:

(1) states should stop wasting money in competitive or duplicate projects;

and (2) no one should start grandiose publication plans without any idea

where the money is to come from. These lessons are obvious when stated,

but some historical societies have been blind to one or both of them.

In an appendix at the end of the book is a chronological list of those who

have visited the French archives, beginning with Jared Sparks in 1828 and

ending with the Jamestown celebration last year. The list includes Lewis

Cass, George Bancroft, Francis Parkman, Henry Adams, Frederick Jackson

Turner, Reuben Gold Thwaites, Claude Van Tyne, Samuel Eliot Morison,

James T. Adams, Samuel Flagg Bemis, Randolph Adams, Louis Gottschalk,

Theodore Calvin Pease, Grace Lee Nute, and many others worthy of men-

tion. It is something of a summary of the book. It is also a testimony to the

importance of the materials, to draw such people to them.

Miami University                             JOHN WEATHERFORD

 

American Industry and the European Immigrant, 1860-1885. By Charlotte

Erickson. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1957. x~269p.;

appendices, notes, and index. $4.75.)

In this volume Charlotte Erickson (Mrs. G. L. Watt) of the London

School of Economic and Political Science, presents a challenging new inter-

pretation of the relation of American industry to the recruiting and dis-

tribution of immigrant labor in the generation from 1860 to 1885. The time

span involved is essentially from the passage by congress in July 1864 of

"The Act to Encourage Immigration" (the contract labor law), repealed in

1868, to the enactment of the Foran act of 1885, which forbade the

importation of contract labor. In a limited way the story is carried beyond

1885 in an evaluation of the various amendments to the Foran act that

rather ineffectively sought to secure satisfactory enforcement.

Source materials, involving widely scattered records in the United States,

Great Britain, and the Scandinavian countries, include (among much other

data), annual reports of corporations; labor, trade, and daily newspapers;

records of the old federal bureau of immigration; letters of United States

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298     THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

consuls abroad and of European consuls in America; and trade union

records.

The conclusion is reached that the act of 1864 was intended to encourage

the immigration of skilled industrial workers, chiefly from Great Britain.

Only occasionally, however, did American industrialists seek to attain this

end and then not very successfully, and contract labor proved to be a rarity

in the United States. Unskilled laborers were readily available in most

instances, as they came in great numbers from the farms and villages of

Europe. Agents for western states, for railroad and land companies, and for

steamship companies, and private commission agents were effective recruiters

of such labor.

Of various labor placement bureaus in American cities, some were operated

privately for economic gain and some were conducted by state, religious, or

philanthropic organizations. Private labor agencies were often effective in

providing industrialists with immigrant labor to break strikes or weaken the

unions.

The research presented in this study indicates that the Foran act resulted

from the efforts of a highly specialized group, window-glass fabricators,

whose skills were not then subject to mechanization and whose work could

be duplicated only by the importation of skilled British and Belgian crafts-

men on labor contracts. To gain widespread support for such legislation,

appeal was made successfully to the Knights of Labor to sponsor the

measure, the argument being made of the need for restricting unskilled con-

tract laborers, especially from southern and eastern Europe. Actually, the law

had practically no effect on the flow of unskilled immigrants.

The study is especially important for Ohioans, because the act of 1885 was

sponsored by Martin Foran, an active trade unionist of Cleveland, who

served in congress from 1883 to 1889. The glass industry in Ohio was

rapidly expanding from 1870 to 1890, hence the efforts of the glass workers

to maintain their preferred status are of considerable interest. Included also

is significant material showing the way in which coal operators and iron

manufacturers in Ohio used immigrant labor for strike-breaking purposes.

But, apart from the local interest involved, the monograph is certainly a

careful analysis of an important aspect of American economic history.

Ohio State University                       FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER

• 27