Ohio History Journal

BOOK  REVIEWS

THE WESTERN BOOK TRADE: CINCINNATI AS A NINETEENTH-CENTURY PUBLISHING AND BOOK TRADE CENTER, CONTAINING A DIRECTORY OF CINCINNATI PUBLISH- ERS, BOOKSELLERS, AND MEMBERS OF ALLIED TRADES, 1796-1880. By Walter Sutton. (Columbus: Ohio State Uni- versity Press for the Ohio Historical Society, 1961. xv??360p.; illustrations, bibliography, and index. $8.00.) On November 9, 1793, there came from the crude hand press of William Maxwell the first issue of the Centinel of the North-Western Territory--"Open to all parties but influenced by none." Thus, scarcely more than five years after Gen- eral Rufus Putnam and his little band of Yankee pioneers struggled across the mountains of Pennsylvania to the banks of the Youghiogheny in a wintry voyage that terminated in the founding of Mari- etta at the confluence of the Muskingum and the Ohio, the cornerstone of literary culture in the Ohio Valley was laid at Cincinnati. In 1796 there came from the press of the same William Maxwell a 225-page volume entitled Laws of the Territory of the United States North-West of the Ohio . . . more popularly known as Maxwell's Code. Obviously, book pro- duction in the Northwest Territory had utilitarian origins. The life of the territorial printer was far from easy. Since he was obligated by necessity to use a press that evinced but slight mechanical advantage over that of Gutenberg, plagued by recurrent shortages of paper, and bedeviled by the unpaid bills of delinquent subscribers,

one may well be surprised that publish- ing activity progressed as steadily as it did. Nevertheless, by 1815 the little town of Cincinnati had two newspapers, the Liberty Hall and the Western Spy, and "an extra press for book printing." But with the coming of the steamboat and the resultant spreading of population westward into the Ohio Valley, there came, within the space of a few years, three technological innovations that eased the burdens of the nineteenth-century publisher-printer and enabled him to ex- ploit to the fullest the rapidly growing market for his wares. The first of these was the establishment of steam paper mills in the 1820's, the second was the develop- ment, a decade later, of the stereotype process which was used in Cincinnati from the early years of the 1830's, and the third was the introduction of power presses. In short, the industrial revolu- tion had come to the printing trade, and had penetrated even into the hinterland of the valley of the Ohio. Not until the end of the nineteenth century when the linotype was perfected by Ottmar Mer- genthaler did automatic typesetting bring to the book-making craft its fourth great technological change. Meanwhile, the publishers in Cincin- nati did very well with stereotype, steam presses, and an adequate supply of paper. During the fourth decade of the century, these improved facilities for large-scale book production brought the city to a point at which it was surpassed as a publishing center by only New York,

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Philadelphia, and Boston. By 1838 Tru- man and Smith, publishers of the Mc- Guffey Readers, were reported to have issued some two to three hundred thou- sand copies of their "Eclectic Series." In 1831 books were rolling from Cincinnati presses at the rate of 350,000 a year, but a decade later this volume had increased to one to two million volumes annually. Despite an improved technology and an expanding market, publishing in Cin- cinnati could not have achieved its posi- tion of national importance without the enterprising and resourceful leadership given it by such men as U. P. James, who, in association with his brother, J. A. James, became known as "the Harpers of the West," and H. W. Derby, who went to Cincinnati in 1844, where he estab- lished the largest and most elaborate bookstore west of the Alleghenies, be- came the western distributor for such eastern publishing houses as Harper and Appleton, developed an extensive publish- ing program in which law and medical works were particularly important, and, in 1851, issued the semi-monthly Literary Advertiser, the first book-trade periodical in the West. Though historians have long recognized the importance of Cincinnati as the nine- teenth-century focus of midwestern cul- ture--as the "literary emporium of the West"--until the publication of Professor Sutton's study there has never been avail- able an adequate treatment of early print- ing and publishing in that city. The volume under review, therefore, despite the rather misleading comprehensiveness of its title, comes as a most welcome addition to the all-too-meager shelf of writings on the literary culture of the early Ohio country. Sutton has identified three periods in the history of the book trade in Cincin- nati, and all three were related to traffic on the Ohio River. With the age of the keelboat came the pioneer printer with his hand press who more or less ade- quately served the needs of the earlier settlers. The advent of the steamboat also

signaled the availability of steam for improving the efficiency of book produc- tion, and it was during this period that Cincinnati reached the zenith of its im- portance as a publishing and book-selling center. When the steamboat yielded to the railroad as a more efficient agency of transportation, the regionalism of the trans-Allegheny West gave way to a new nationalism in culture as well as in trade. By 1880, though Cincinnati was still rep- resented by a very respectable output from such firms as Robert Clarke and Company, the Western Methodist Book Concern, and Van Antwerp Bragg, the railroad had made possible usurpation by Chicago of Cincinnati's position as the distribution center for the book trade of the West. Between the passing of the keelboat and the coming of the iron horse, there poured from Cincinnati presses and stockroom shelves a vast instrumental literature composed mainly of school books, religious works, guides for river- men and immigrants, song books, sub- scription books, pioneer memoirs, bi- ographies, histories, and, not to be for- gotten, sensational paperbook romances. Certainly this flood of print could not be regarded as evidence of a great liter- ary tradition, but it does provide an important record of the life of those energetic, resourceful, and creative people who settled in the Ohio or Mississippi valleys or who struggled across rough Indian-infested overland trails to the dis- tant Southwest or the shores of the Pacific. In a symposium on research oppor- tunities in American cultural history, held at Washington University in St. Louis in the autumn of 1959, David Kaser, director of the Joint University Libraries at Nashville, Tennessee, called attention to neglect by historians of the growth of publishing and the book trade and cited in support of its importance as a proper area for research Franklin Roosevelt's statement that few occupations were so intimately associated with the nation's intellectual and cultural fabric as those associated with book publishing and dis-

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tribution. Kaser even cited Sutton's study, at that time unpublished, as an example that needed emulation. Kaser's praise is well founded, for in The Western Book Trade we have a study in which the historical scholarship is above reproach and the style substantially above the aver- age, despite a necessarily heavy burden of documentation. JESSE H. SHERA Western Reserve University       OHIO AUTHORS AND THEIR BOOKS: BIO- GRAPHICAL DATA AND SELECTIVE BIBLI- OGRAPHIES FOR OHIO AUTHORS, NATIVE AND RESIDENT, 1796-1950. Edited by William Coyle. Preliminary Research by Mr. and Mrs. Ernest J. Wessen. (Cleveland: World Publishing Com- pany for the Martha Kinney Cooper Ohioana Library Association, 1962. xxi??741p.; appendices. $17.50.) This useful and entertaining reference work contains biographical and biblio- graphical data on approximately 4,600 persons who were born or spent a signifi- cant portion of their lives in Ohio and who published at least one original book of general interest between 1796 and 1950. Authors listed in the volume were selected by the editor from a file of more than 15,000 names of writers associated with Ohio. They include clergymen, poli- ticians, reformers, and educators as well as novelists, poets, humorists, historians, and writers of juvenile books. The major- ity of entries deal with obscure writers, many of whom do not appear in other reference works or whose names can be found only in county histories and old biographical dictionaries. Scattered among these, and in unexpected abun- dance, are notices of famous or notorious persons whose connection with Ohio is not generally recognized. One hundred notable authors rate biographical sketches by eighty contributors. Ten years of planning and research have gone into the volume. The idea for it originated with Mrs. Depew Head, di-

rector at the time of the Ohioana Library; Mr. and Mrs. Ernest J. Wessen of Mans- field conducted the preliminary research; Professor William  Coyle of Wittenberg University brought the book to com- pletion; and the Ohioana Library Asso- ciation sponsored both the research and the publication. All concerned deserve commendation for the painstaking and professional manner in which the project has been executed. Professor Coyle sets the tone of the work in an introductory essay which deals thoughtfully and informatively with the miscellaneous character of Ohio's literature. "Instead of a distinctive re- gional spirit," he observes, "the writing of Ohioans shows a surprisingly complete representation of popular taste in the nation as a whole." Professor Coyle con- cludes that Ohio has been a seedbed of popular culture: "Best-selling fiction, poetry with popular appeal, religious and reform writing, children's stories, journa- listic humor--these are the fields in which Ohio authors have been most productive." The eminence both of subjects and contributors gives particular interest to the articles on Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (by Adlai E. Stevenson), Samuel Milton Jones (by Michael V. DiSalle), Elliott Nugent (by James Thurber), and Russel Crouse (by Howard Lindsay). Biogra- phies of the following also warrant special mention: Irving Babbitt, Delia S. Bacon, Lucius V. Bierce, Charles W. Chesnutt, Hart Crane, Clarence Darrow, Washing- ton Gladden, Martha Finley, James Hall, Albion W. Tourgee, and Brand Whitlock. Articles on some twentieth-century scholars and writers (for example, Wil- liam Ernest Hocking, Albert Galloway Keller, Wallace Notestein, and Frances A. Kellor) are less satisfactory. The de- fect is not serious, however, since these men and women are treated in other reference works. The alphabetical organ- ization of the book makes it possible to follow the fortunes of writing families such as the Beards, Boltons, Comptons, Drakes, and Piatts. Nearly all readers will

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discover previously unknown writers whose acquaintance is worth developing. One of the reviewer's favorites is Alfred Burnett (1824-1884), "confectioner, poet, monologist, tragedian, journalist," author of Magnetism Made Easy (1847). An appendix lists 2,600 native Ohio authors by county of birth. The only county without representation is Paulding. ROBERT H. BREMNER Ohio State University       STANTON: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LIN- COLN'S SECRETARY OF WAR. By Ben- jamin P. Thomas and Harold M. Hyman. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962. xviii??643??xiiip.; illustrations and index. $8.50.) One of Ohio's most famous and most controversial sons was Edwin M. Stanton, member of three presidential cabinets. Despite his fame, nearly a century went by without the appearance of any satis- factory biography. Several were written and others started, but the desired goal proved elusive. Even when success seemed at hand, the gifted author died leaving his work unfinished. However, the enter- prising publisher, himself particularly interested in history, prevented another failure. He invited the co-author to take everything written or otherwise accumu- lated and make a book. Success crowned the effort, and there is now at long last a real biography of Lincoln's war minister. The task was most difficult, for Edwin M. Stanton was many persons, as so many people are, and a real weakness of biographers is often the fact that each works as though his subject were only one. Stanton could be a high-minded patriot, crusading for ideals. He could be a coward and a sneak. He could serve a leader effectively and courageously. He could double-cross a chief he was sworn to serve. He could wound and belabor, he could love and cherish with the great- est tenderness. He could uphold a cause while secretly endeavoring to undermine

it. He could be literally all things to all men. But what was he? In the first place he was frequently a sick man. In the second place he was nervously unstable. In the third place he was self-centered and out for the main chance. "He had no head for abstract ideas; but great faculty for concrete things." He was "no thinker," but "an actor cloaked in power." While serving one cause, he could see another arising and begin to shape his course to give him place in the new order. He was going to command and confound those who opposed him, expending vast energy and destroying himself by overwork at the age of fifty-five. Probably only Lin- coln could have understood him, suffered him, and commanded him. This book presents four vivid pictures --a picture of a driving, talented, and relentless lawyer; a picture of a politician more interested in success than in causes; a picture of Lincoln's secretary of war; and a picture of a puzzling figure in Reconstruction politics. The most novel of these pictures is the latter. It is another step in a readjustment of the interpreta- tion of Reconstruction which has been cumulating. President Johnson emerges as less of a martyr and more of a blun- derer. We understand for the first time the extent of Stanton's almost impossible situation. This is appraised with every effort at fairness and with a determi- nation not to blink at any of Stanton's weaknesses, but the result is perhaps too favorable to the secretary. Incidentally, we have a new portrait of Grant, vivid and realistic, which leaves the general still confused, if somewhat more capable in politics. This is a very successful book. The authors have been able to deal effectively with a very complex character and to make him comprehensible. They have brought to light material not hitherto available to scholarship in general. Mr. Hyman is to be particularly commended. He undertook the difficult task of finish- ing the work of a man with whom he

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could not confer, and he has made a unified whole of the concepts of two men, Thomas and himself.   ROY F. NICHOLS University of Pennsylvania       LEWIS WETZEL, INDIAN FIGHTER: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A FRONTIER HERO. By C. B. Allman. (New York: Devin-Adair Company, 1961. [xiii] ??237p.; illustra- tions, appendices, bibliography, and in- dex. $5.00.) In the chronicles of trans-Appalachian border warfare, no frontier scout was more respected than Lewis Wetzel. Born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1763, he came to manhood along the Ohio River during the American Revolu- tion. He was an Indian captive for a few days as a teenager, and his utter hatred of Indians seems to have stemmed from this experience. He later lost his father and one brother in an Indian attack and became fixed in his resolution to kill every Indian possible. How well he succeeded in fulfilling this vow makes up the legend of Lewis Wetzel. Most of his exploits are impossible of documentation; they have been transmit- ted to us as local and family legends and as episodes in the various popularly written nineteenth-century collections of border warfare. For twenty years Wetzel ranged over the Ohio River frontier, serving as scout and ranger, performing an important duty of reconnaissance, and feeding his apparently insatiable com- pulsion to kill Indians. The volume under review is the second re-issue of a book which first appeared as a serial in The Pennsylvania Farmer. It is the standard work on Lewis Wetzel, but the only new material it contains concerns the discovery of Wetzel's grave in Mississippi and the removal of his remains to Moundsville, West Virginia, in 1942. The scholarship of the last twenty years has not been consulted. The book is an uncritical compilation of undigested

material from family legends, such works as Cecil B. Hartley's The Life of Lewis Wetzel (1860) and R. C. V. Myers' Wet- zel the Scout (1883) and a small portion of the Draper Manuscripts at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Ver- batim conversations are reported, Wetzel hits a tack head at one hundred paces with his rifle, and he swims the Ohio River handcuffed. Unsubstantiated asser- tions abound. Some of the exploits recounted here are apocryphal at best; for example, the renegade Jim Girty did not die at the hands of a Wetzel cohort. In historical fact, he survived Lewis Wetzel by nine years. The author asserts that Wetzel was not on the Coshocton expedition of Gen- eral Daniel Brodhead, but militia payroll records list George, Lewis, and John Wetzel. Panegyrical in tone, this book brings together much information on this leading guerrilla fighter who stalked human be- ings as others hunted game. It is unfor- tunate that it is not a more critical work, but it is a service to have it again in print.   ROY M. BOATMAN Eleutherian Mills--Hagley Foundation     THE DAY OF THE MUGWUMP. By Lorin Peterson. (New York: Random House, 1961. xii??366p.; index. $6.00.) Lorin Peterson has written a fast-paced, journalistic account of the activities of "good government" organizations in America's larger cities. The hero is the "mugwump"--in Mr. Peterson's words, "the gentleman-citizen who thinks he should do something about the govern- ment." The touchstone by which the mugwump judges all issues is that of morality. "The mugwump always asks first: Is this thing right or is it wrong? --rather than will it win votes, or will it work, or will it get something built." Starting in the 1880's, the mugwumps led, and eventually won, "the first revolution"

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in the cities--a revolution that threw out the thieves and incompetents and "brought a new age to municipal govern- ment across the land." These same mug- wumps, or more accurately their present- day spiritual descendants, will, Mr. Peter- son believes, lead the second revolution that will solve the problems of congestion, decay, slums, and the like. I have my doubts. As Mr. Peterson indicates, the mugwumps have tradition- ally been men of substance--independent businessmen, lawyers, and other profes- sional men--and this has not changed. The membership of most mugwump or- ganizations continues to be composed largely of business or professional men, Protestant in religion, Republicans politi- cally, and upper-middle class socially. As such, the mugwumps' constituencies con- stitute an ever-smaller minority in most of our larger cities. And, as Mr. Peter- son himself notes, the Depression and the New Deal drove the mugwumps and their organizations into emphasizing more and more tax-saving and opposing "any pay raises for municipal employees, any in- crease in staffs, any new municipal serv- ices, and almost any bond issue." Can-- or rather will--such men and organiza- tions lead the movement needed to rescue the cities from creeping blight? More fundamentally, I would suggest that the traditional "good government" shibboleths are no longer applicable. The battle for civil service reform and pro- fessionalized administration has been won nearly everywhere; but has not this development brought simply new diffi- culties? The entrenched bureaucrats, pro- tected by civil service rules, are fre- quently, as Mr. Peterson himself admits, a major stumbling block to bold, imagi- native action. The entire moral approach to urban problems is, I would contend, largely irrelevant these days. The major problem is no longer honesty; it is organ- izing and harmonizing the multifarious and oft-times conflicting political, social, and economic forces in a large city be-

hind a workable program of renewal and reconstruction. This is a task which only a strong mayor backed by an efficiently working political organization can do; it is, in short, a task calling for a tough- minded professional politician more in- terested in practical results than in high- sounding moral principles. It is noteworthy that the most success- ful example in recent years of civic re- awakening scarcely accords with the tra- ditional mugwump pattern. The Pitts- burgh renaissance was achieved through cooperation between Democratic Mayor David Lawrence, "boss" of a tightly knit political machine based mainly upon working-class support, and "big busi- ness." It is equally noteworthy that New York and Chicago--both described by Mr. Peterson as the last strongholds of the old-line political machines--have made strenuous efforts to solve the complex problems facing megapolitan centers. Has Los Angeles--one of "the tidy towns"-- done as much? A third illustration can be found in Baltimore, a city not dealt with by Mr. Peterson. Baltimore under Mayor "Tommy" D'Alesandro hardly satisfied traditional "good government" standards; yet it ranked far higher in slum clearance and prevention than did Milwaukee, the mugwump's exemplar par excellence of "good government." Admittedly, Mr. Peterson's book is intended for the general reader, not the specialist. Such a reader will find much interesting material about the political situation in our larger cities. But Mr. Peterson's failure to probe more deeply beneath the surface and deal with the fundamental problems facing urban America makes his book of questionable value for even the nonspecialist.   JOHN BRAEMAN Brooklyn College     LETTER BOOK OF THE INDIAN AGENCY AT FORT WAYNE, 1809-1815. Edited by Gayle Thornbrough. Indiana Histori- cal Society Publications, Volume 21.

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(Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Soci- ety, 1961. 272p.; map   and index. Paper, $2.50.) One of the pleasant but rare treats for the historian is to find a volume which exhibits sound scholarship, sheds new light on history, and, at the same time, speaks interestingly. All too often what purports to be an editorial work of major significance turns out to be a most un- satisfying reader experience. Not so when the editor is Gayle Thornbrough. This Letter Book of the Indian Agency at Fort Wayne is but one more star in the scholarly tiara of its editor. The item itself is of major interest to the student of the Old Northwest, for it contains what amounts to a composite history of that region (or a major portion of it) in the turbulent times prior to, during, and fol- lowing the War of 1812. The volume covers the period of the administrations of John Johnston (1809-11) and Ben- jamin F. Stickney (1811-18) as Indian agents stationed at Fort Wayne (and, for a while, elsewhere). An introductory chapter deals with the administration of William Wells (1802-9), who preceded Johnston, and a final chapter summar- izes the fortunes of the agency from Octo- ber 1815, when the agency letter book closes, until April 1821. In its pages are reflected the jealousies, troubles, tri- umphs, intrigues, disasters, and person- alities of the Indian agents and those about them. True, the view the reader sees is that of the Indian agent at the time, but by careful annotation, the scene is brought into a sound balance. An index to the letters included serves as a helpful guide to the volume. What can one say about a superb job of scholarship? What fault can one find with thoughtful, intelligent, and thorough editing and annotation? How can one negate such an obviously competent piece of work? Again, as so often in the past, Miss Thornbrough is to be complimented for her contribution to historical re-

search, and the Indiana Historical So- ciety is to be envied her services. RICHARD C. KNOPF Kent State University     DANIEL DRAKE (1785-1852): PIONEER PHYSICIAN OF THE MIDWEST. By Em- met Field Horine. Introduction by J. Christian Bay. (Philadelphia: Univer- sity of Pennsylvania Press, 1961. 425p.; illustrations and index. $6.00.) If Daniel Drake had been born during the Revolutionary era, he would doubt- less today occupy a position of promin- ence in the pantheon of illustrious Amer- icans. A polymath, he was of the order of Franklin and Jefferson in the range of his interests and in the depth of his in- tellect. But because he was born in the wrong century--and in the wrong part of the country--Drake missed his rendez- vous with fame. Even in Cincinnati. where this astonishingly versatile figure execu- ted the bulk of his achievements, the general citizenry manifests an appalling ignorance of the man. To the Cincin- natian, the mention of Drake's name results in a mental association with a Hamilton County hospital, which is named for him, and nothing more. Drake's career is a record of incredible achievement--and interminable contro- versy. A doctor by profession, he was, however, considerably more than a mender of bone. He passionately loved the West--the "Valley of the Mississippi" --and made it his life's work not only to keep its inhabitants healthy but also to re- fine and educate them. For Drake, the con- summation of the American Dream was to occur in his beloved West. When he was not ministering to patients, he was founding medical colleges, hospitals, li- braries, and schools for the blind, writing medical and historical treatises, editing a medical journal, dabbling in politics, serving as a professor and lecturer--and fighting anyone who offered opposition to his projects. If versatility was achieved

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in adult days, pugnaciousness was ap- parently acquired early in life. While a toddler, Drake once confronted a "mad dog." As he wryly commented in his classic Pioneer Life in Kentucky (a work that should be on the reading list of every American youngster), he "looked at the mad animal, and he [the dog] thought it prudent to pass me by, and attack a small herd of cattle, several of which died from  his bite!" Few  if any of Drake's enemies of a later period would have expressed wonderment at such a story. From infancy, Drake took life by the throat, and on occasion, an opponent as well. Drake has been the subject of biogra- phical attention in the past, but Dr. Horine's work is the most exhaustive and most accurate study to date. Drake's career is traced in fastidious detail from birth in New Jersey to death in Cincin- nati. An eminent medical doctor in his own right, Dr. Horine exhibits consum- mate analytical skill as he cuts through the tissue of half truths and fables that have surrounded Drake. When anatomiz- ing Drake's achievements as a doctor, Horine is the biographer without peer. Surprisingly, earlier biographers had studiously ignored Drake's medical ac- complishments, and focused upon his non- medical activities. Horine's presentation adds a new dimension to Drake's career. While this work ranks as the best bi- ography of Drake, it is not without its weaknesses. Had Drake been placed in the contextual framework of the Enlight- enment, where he rightfully belongs, the factual data would have assumed a deeper meaning. At present the implication is that Drake was a frontier phenomenon. Whatever personal abilities Drake pos- sessed, and they were assuredly many, the fact remains that he functioned in the penumbra of an established intellectual and cultural tradition. It is really no sur- prise that Drake the doctor should show a lively curiosity for the physical world, and that he should regard homo sapiens as something more than a clinical speci-

men. What is surprising is the effects of the curiosity, the myriad of projects which were instituted, developed, and brought to a successful completion. A second negative feature is the or- ganizational pattern. In this reviewer's judgment, many of the chapters do not pay heed to the canons of internal unity and dramatic flow. A batch of fact is presented, but with no discernible be- ginning or end; many of the chapter titles simply have a place name with a date. One chapter abruptly terminates and another just as abruptly begins. Also, it seems curious that a biography should conclude with a chapter on the "personal appearance" of the subject. Finally, the book is studded with lengthy quotations, many of which are irrelevant or of peripheral value. It was Dr. Horine's intention to present an "an- thological biography," but a careful editorial "scrubbing" would have made this a much better book than it is. These are minor flaws that do not tarnish the luster of the study's overall brilliance. Drake once wrote that "the causes of failure generally lie in our own weaknesses, of which the greatest is the want of unfaltering constancy." Certainly no one can accuse Dr. Horine of a lack of "unfaltering constancy." Embodying thirty-two years of research, this book stands as a fitting literary monument to the "Benjamin Franklin of the West." Louis LEONARD TUCKER Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio     MICHIGAN CIVIL WAR HISTORY: AN ANNO- TATED BIBLIOGRAPHY. Edited by George S. May. (Detroit: Wayne State Uni- versity Press, 1961. xiii??128p.; index. Paper, $1.75.) Buffs and serious scholars alike are in- debted to George S. May and the many librarians and archivists of Michigan who have labored long and well in compiling this important reference work on their state's participation in the Civil War.

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The most studied period in American history well deserves their special atten- tion, and other states could wisely follow this example during the centennial recog- nition. Michigan Civil War History, the first of two volumes, is a guide to printed primary and secondary source materials. Special surveys have been added on pic- torial and manuscript sources, and a section on newspaper collections of the period has been included. The 733 books and pamphlets, which include all major printed sources known to the editors, have been carefully annotated. The sec- ond volume, scheduled to appear about 1965, will list unpublished materials and the depositories where they may be found. This volume represents the first co- operative effort of all the major institu- tions concerned with Michigan history to combine their resources for the benefit of comprehensive scholarship. They should be encouraged to continue their efforts.   KENNETH WHEELER Ohio State University     CANALS AND AMERICAN ECONOMIC DEVEL- OPMENT. By Carter Goodrich, Julius Rubin, H. Jerome Cranmer, and Har- vey H. Segal; edited by Carter Good- rich. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961. viii+303p.; map, figures, tables, and index. $7.50.) This study, the first publication of Columbia University's Graduate Work- shop on the Economic Development of the Industrial Countries, demonstrates how transportation history may be en- livened by putting to the past questions suggested by modern discussions of eco- nomic development. The volume is in two parts, the first dealing with the building of four canals in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; the second, with the impact of canal building on the American economy, 1815-60. In a fresh and fascinating essay on

the Erie, Julius Rubin analyzes the pecu- liar conjunction of pressures and person- alities that led New Yorkers to over- come their "erroneous dread of bold measures" and build an innovative canal which in the context of the time repre- sented "an unlikely choice among several alternatives." The New Yorkers may have been visionaries, but their surveys were careful and their cost estimates realistic. Not so with their neighbors in Pennsyl- vania. Rescuing the reputation of the opponents of the Main Line project from charges of narrow sectionalism and con- servatism, Rubin demonstrates history's vindication of their claim that Pennsyl- vania should have waited a few years and built a railroad. Instead, the legisla- tors panicked at the prospect of Yorker competition and underwrote a canal pro- ject whose technical disadvantages and high cost they seriously underestimated. Both the New York and the Pennsylvania projects were state undertakings. New Jersey represents the sole avail- able example of major canal projects undertaken by private enterprise. H. Jerome Cranmer tells us the reason why. One of New Jersey's canals offered enough opportunity for immediate private profit that Wall Street interests combined with South Jersey farmers to prevent state sponsorship; the other was built by a pri- vate company lured into the project by the offer of banking privileges. In neither case was there opposition to state enter- prise. Citizens feared big business and high tolls more than big government and high taxes. In the second section, Harvey Segal identifies and accounts for three "long cycles" of canal construction. These were "not major economic phenomena" and were "not systematically related to busi- ness fluctuation." Much more significant than the repercussions of construction activity was the developmental impact of cheap transportation. Segal's analysis agrees with Henry Clay's: lowering trans- portation costs hastened regional special-

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ization, conducing to a cumulative pro- cess of interaction which raised levels of economic activity and per capita income. Segal's account of the role of the canal in the developmental process is more in- tricate than Clay's, and he further applies modern benefit-cost analysis to demon- strate that at least four-fifths of the canals conferred direct benefits (in reduced transportation costs and hence reduced commodity prices) that far exceeded costs. Some of the charts in this volume suffer from the usual handicaps of quan- titative analysis where not all quantities can be found; but on the whole the hard questions are answered and the conclu- sions are convincingly buttressed. Prob- ably they throw much more light on the past than on current problems of eco- nomic development, for what generally applicable principles can be derived from the findings must now be part of the conventional wisdom of developmental economics. MARY E. YOUNG Ohio State University     THE MUCKRAKERS: THE ERA IN JOURNAL- ISM THAT MOVED AMERICA TO REFORM; THE MOST SIGNIFICANT MAGAZINE AR- TICLES OF 1902-1912. Edited by Ar- thur and Lila Weinberg. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961. xxv?? 449p.; introduction, notes, and bibli- ography. $7.50.) "Time was," Mr. Dooley pointed out to Mr. Hennessy over his Archey Road bar, "when the magazines was very ca'ming to th' mind. Angabel an' Alfonso dash f'r a marredge license. Prom'nent lady authoressesses makin' pomes at th' moon. But now whin I pick me fav'rite maga- zine off th' flure, what do I find? Ivry- thing has gone wrong." Mr. Dooley was referring to the expose journalism of the "Muckrakers," whose articles crowded the pages of popular United States magazines in the first de- cade of this century. This sampler of thirty such pieces, drawn mostly from McClure's and Collier's, covers most of

the festering areas the Muckrakers laid open: corrupt politics and finance, trusts and monopolies, prisons, unions, child labor, organized vice, impure food, patent medicine frauds, and the race problem. The anthology is extremely readable. Muckraker research and writing were generally excellent, quite often brilliant, and most of these fifty-year-old attacks remain fresh-and, alas, many remain valid. Among the authors are Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, William Hard, Mark Sullivan, Edwin Markham, Will Irwin, Upton Sinclair, and Samuel Hopkins Adams (who writes here of the Columbus-brewed "Pe-ru-na," 75% colored water and 25% alcohol, which, though it claimed efficacy for measles and yellow fever, was denied for sale to the Indians by an unfeeling govern- ment) . Two of the best of these authors were probably Steffens and Baker. But even better was Ida Tarbell. That she was the most effective professional of the lot is demonstrated here by two articles which later formed the basis for Chapters 2 and 3 of her two-volume History of the Stand- ard Oil Company (1904). Both are Ohio stories, one tracing the trust's rise from 1870, the other its take-over of the Cleve- land refineries in the Oil War of 1872. No mere magazinist, Miss Tarbell was at her best a serious historian, scholarly and restrained. Very different was Thomas W. Law- son in his "Frenzied Finance," or David Graham Phillips, one-time Cincinnati newsman, in "The Treason of the Sen- ate," the latter a vague, feverish diatribe, fast and easy with partial truth and in- nuendo. Phillips' theory, uncluttered with facts, that the senate was largely in the hire of "the interests," provoked a presi- dential rebuke when Theodore Roosevelt protested that the more sensational and untruthful of the literary hatchetmen were corrupting public opinion by cre- ating a climate of cheap cynicism. It was TR who labeled them rakers of muck. While there had been reform journa-

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lism at least ever since Milton's Areopa- gitica in 1644, and though it still wins an occasional Pulitzer Prize, the concentra- ted season of the Muckrakers, proper, was the decade 1902-12. Gradually the magazines' reform zeal began to fade under the loss of advertising which their criticism of big business cost them; and the public, like Mr. Dooley, began to tire of unpalatable exposures. But in their hard-hitting ten years the Muckrakers had been responsible for enough improvement --in conservation, the direct election of senators, pure food and drug laws--that there was a general air of achievement. They had ignited, or given voice to, a wide dissatisfaction with conditions, and their generally sincere moral indignation had stirred the public conscience con- structively. JAMES B. STRONKS University of Illinois (Chicago)     THE ANTIFEDERALISTS: CRITICS OF THE CONSTITUTION, 1781-1788. By Jack- son Turner Main. (Chapel Hill: Uni- versity of North Carolina Press for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1961. xv??308p.; appen- dices, bibliographical essay, and index. $7.50.) The Antifederalists are an interesting phenomenon in American history. In 1788 they probably constituted a majority of the population. They fought one political battle--which they lost--and disappeared from the scene. The penalty for this failure was a century or more of oblivion, or, perhaps even worse, permanent as- signment to the role of villain in the popular conception of the American drama. The dust-jacket precis of the book presently under review gives credit to Professor Main for "rescuing the Antifederalists from oblivion," but this is a bit too generous. The rescue process has been going on at least since 1927, when Vernon Parrington gave Richard Henry Lee his due, and Merrill Jensen has more recently reversed the popular

formula, making heroes of the "true Fed- eralists," as he labeled Lee and Clinton, and villains of the "nationalists," or pseudo-Federalists. Main's careful study of the Antifederalists is only another contribution to this program of rehabili- tation, but it is certainly a major one. Another procession of eminent histor- ians, beginning at least as early as 1913 with Charles A. Beard, has been accom- plishing much the same result by deni- grating the motives and the methods of the Federalists. Professor Main has al- ready taken his place in this company by a vigorous attack on one of Beard's recent critics (William and Mary Quar- terly, 3rd Series, XVII (1960), 86-110), in which he insists upon impartial ex- amination of the Beard thesis rather than intemperate denunciations of it. Since an accurate interpretation of the 1780's must depend upon a great deal more data than the highly selected material which both Beard and his detractors have used, Main has set out upon a re-examination of the record. His new book is refreshingly free of references to the "standard" works and to the earlier studies mentioned above. It is based almost entirely upon the less exploited sources and the more recent monographs. Professor Main has found some of his evidence in unexpected places--in the reports to their home governments of Louis Otto, the French charge d'affaires in New York, and Lord Dorchester, gov- ernor general of Canada, for example. His study of Antifederalist sentiment de- pends less upon such traditional sources as Lee and Gerry than upon such news- paper articles as those written by "Rough- Hewer" (Abraham Yates, Jr.) and the correspondence of John Lamb, Mercy Warren, George Bryan, Timothy Blood- worth, and other popular leaders. In fact, it is one of Professor Main's convictions that the genuine spirit of Antifederalism is to be found in these grass-roots demo- crats rather than in their aristocratic and somewhat too accommodating leaders. According to Main's count, sixty to

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seventy-five delegates who were elected to the state ratifying conventions as Antifederalists actually changed sides and voted for the constitution. Most of these men were wealthy, well-born, well-edu- cated, and lived near the seacoast--in other words, they fit the Federalist pat- tern and ultimately joined with their own kind. If this is true, the Antifederalists were betrayed rather than beaten. Had they chosen their leaders from "the many" rather than "the few," they might have defeated the constitution after all. Professor Main finds the roots of Anti- federalism in the suspicions engendered throughout the 1780's by the proposals to grant congress an impost, the com- mutation of officers' pay, and the efforts to nationalize the control of commerce. Antifederal objections to the constitution itself are carefully analyzed, and in one remarkable chapter (pp. 168-186) the author attempts to construct the system which the Antifederalists would have created, had they been allowed to do so. He feels that they were not merely ob- structionists, that they recognized the need for change, and that they would have welcomed a bicameral congress, a president, and a national judiciary, but all with more limited powers than those actually granted by the constitution. While Professor Main has summoned an impressive array of evidence to nail together this hypothetical structure, it is actually impossible, of course, to say undeniably what might have been. The struggle over ratification became an emo- tional issue, as do most debates in American politics, and men made pas- sionate declarations of principle which did not actually admit of much compro- mise. One is struck, in reading some of the diatribes against centralized power and irresponsible authority uttered by the bitter opponents of the constitution, by their similarity with the speeches of modern ultra-conservatives who make such a point of venerating the constitu- tion. Sam Adams and Barry Goldwater make strange bedfellows indeed.

In explaining the motives behind these arguments, however, Professor Main is an economic determinist, although a more refined one than Beard. He thinks that the ownership of national securities had little to do with attitudes toward the con- stitution, and he points out that many of the Antifederalists were also opposed to paper money. Nor was the fight over ratification a class struggle--poor artisans and wealthy merchants joined forces against poor farmers and wealthy plant- ers. "The struggle over the ratification of the Constitution," says Main, quite simply, "was primarily a contest between the commercial and the non-commercial elements in the population" (p. 280). Merchants, town-dwellers, and farmers dependent upon export for a livelihood carried the day for a stronger central government against the great self-suffi- cient and isolated rural majority in eighteenth-century America. Professor Main's book is a workman- like job of research and writing. There are a few errors, such as the statement that "the senators would be impeached by their own house" (p. 139), and an occasional absurdity--"although the well- to-do possessed most of the wealth" (p. 33)--but the general treatment of an important theme well deserves the manu- script award granted by the Institute of Early American History and Culture. Professor Main's book is not an ornament to American literature, but it is a solid contribution to the understanding of our history. LYNN W. TURNER Otterbein College       RECONSTRUCTION AFTER THE CIVIL WAR. By John Hope Franklin. The Chicago History of American Civilization Series, edited by Daniel J. Boorstin. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961. viii??258p.; illustrations, biblio- graphy, and index. $5.00.) This slim book of 227 pages of text is a welcome addition to the growing litera-

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ture on Reconstruction. Intended for the layman and student rather than the scholar, it makes available to them in small compass and readable prose an integrated summary of the findings of revisionist scholarship which have so largely transformed our view of Recon- struction since the 1930's. The older approach, popularized by James Ford Rhodes and William A. Dun- ning and expounded in our own day by E. Merton Coulter, pictured the process as one of waste, corruption, and humili- ation of Anglo-Saxons at the hands of Negro-"carpetbag" governments backed by federal bayonets. In its place, Dr. Franklin offers an interpretation of Re- construction in the South as part of a national development characterized by economic expansion on the one hand and the shoddy ethics of the Gilded Age on the other. "Black Reconstruction" is a misnomer, he indicates, for in no state did the Negroes control the government, and the Negroes showed little interest in effecting deep-seated social or economic change. Rather, Reconstruction in the South was led by representatives of the Negroes, of northerners settled in the South for a variety of reasons, ranging from greed to idealism, and of native white south- erners, who, from a similar variety of motives, cooperated in the process. Far from working together to destroy the southern way of life, they were often at odds with each other as they sought their diverse ends. In any case, they had little active support from federal troops. The number of these was small, and many tended "to favor the whites and oppress the Negroes." The view still persists that the illiteracy and cultural backwardness of the freed- men made a travesty of government in the South during Reconstruction. But, as Dr. Franklin points out, the whites en- franchised during the Jacksonian period and the immigrants hastily thrust into citizenship by political bosses in the North were hardly more advanced. Certainly,

whatever their shortcomings, the Recon- struction governments showed keen awareness of the basic needs of their sec- tion. This was demonstrated by their efforts to establish free public school systems, to provide long-neglected social services, and to spur industrial, mining, and transportation development. The collapse of Reconstruction Dr. Franklin lays to a number of factors. Among them were the understandings reached between southern and northern interests looking toward the economic development of the South; the failure of the Republican party to provide a viable, long-range program to improve the status of all southerners, white and black alike; the persistent resistance of many whites to Reconstruction; and the terrorism di- rected against the Negroes and their allies, spearheaded by the Ku Klux Klan. In a sober concluding judgment, Dr. Franklin says that the basis on which Reconstruction was brought to an end, while satisfactory to both the white South and the North, was in a more funda- mental sense "an ignoble defeat" for both. It signified a lost opportunity to make "the achievements of the war a founda- tion for the healthy advancement of the political, social, and economic life of the United States." The problem of selection is great in any work dealing with Reconstruction, and Dr. Franklin has done unusually well in his solution. Yet the book's value might have been enhanced by fuller treatment of the factors involved in the adoption of the fourteenth amendment. And the author's cursory treatment of northern indifference to the fate of the Negro in the seventies might have bene- fited from more extensive discussion of the general acceptance of the doctrine of Negro inferiority, which, at the time, seemed to have foundation in the findings of biology and anthropology. Those readers who may find the lack of documentation annoying should give careful consideration to the bibliograph- ical essay. Dr. Franklin calls it appro-

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priately a "working bibliography." As such, it is a model of its kind.   ROBERT CRUDEN Baldwin-Wallace College     TRIUMPH OF FAITH: CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE CHURCH TO AMERICAN LIFE, 1865- 1900. By Francis P. Weisenburger. (Richmond, Va.: William Byrd Press, 1962. ix??221p.; index. $4.95.) Francis P. Weisenburger's latest book is a companion volume to his study Ordeal of Faith: The Crisis of Church- Going America, 1865-1900, which was published in 1959. In Triumph of Faith, Weisenburger, who is professor of his- tory at Ohio State University, examines some of the positive contributions to American life made by the churches in the latter part of the nineteenth century. He begins his book with a brief analy- sis of Henry Adams' emotional and re- ligious crises precipitated by the tragic death of his wife. This serves as a useful foil for careful generalizations about the course of religious faith and the direc- tions taken by the various denominations after 1865. The author points out that in the post-Civil War era the majority of professing religionists remained conser- vative in matters of faith, but that for many this faith "came to be less exclu- sively anchored in minute doctrinal defi- nitions and was to be based in large measure on a trust in central Biblical Truths." The most noteworthy portions of the book are those in which the author ex- amines the varieties in religious faith and practices and traces the development of a concept of religious fellowship among church members. The chapters in which he describes the role of churches as molders of morality are also particularly informative. He gives special attention to the churches' emphasis on civic and po- litical decency, family and sex relation- ships, and the Sabbatarian and temper- ance movements. There are illuminating references to the church activities of some

of the robber barons and unscrupulous politicians. The book contains useful an- ecdotal material gleaned from the pious pens of the period. One of Weisenburger's theses is that while the influence of the churches in 1865 was profound, by 1900, because of the rise of science and secularism, "the church's influence had declined relatively in American society." He believes, how- ever, that despite the inroads made by evolutionary concepts, the expansion of Biblical scholarship, and other challenges, there was a triumph of faith in these years. While faith in America in 1900 was less strident and less confident, "probably there was a compensatory gain in humility and teachableness." Although millions of Americans were not touched by the intellectual assaults on religion, whether one should call the years 1865 to 1900 a "triumph" is at least debatable. The book has some unfortunate limi- tations. There is too heavy a reliance on secondary sources and on Harper's Weekly. There is inadequate coverage of the denominational newspapers and pe- riodicals, so useful in illuminating certain aspects of American religious life. There is an awkward mixture of Protestant and Catholic illustrations in some of Weisen- burger's paragraphs. There is no bibli- ography. Since he omits those subjects covered in his earlier book, such as the rise of the Social Gospel, the picture one gets of American religious life is neces- sarily incomplete. Nevertheless, this book is a welcome addition to the growing list of studies of nineteenth-century church-going America. CHARLES C. COLE, JR. Lafayette College       GIFFORD PINCHOT, BULL MOOSE PROGRES- SIVE. By Martin L. Fausold. Men and Movements Series. (Syracuse, N. Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1961. ix?? 270p.; illustrations, bibliographical notes, and index. $4.50.) This latest volume in the Syracuse "Men and Movements" series is intro-

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duced as an effort to "examine the radi- calism of the Progressive years 1910- 1917 through consideration of the politi- cal activities and thought of Gifford Pin- chot, a principal leader of the radical faction of the Progressive Party." It does that, and does it competently. Though best remembered as chief forester in Theodore Roosevelt's administration and as the protagonist of the celebrated Ballinger-Pinchot controversy of 1909, Pinchot subsequently became an impor- tant figure in the Progressive party, both at the national level and in his home state of Pennsylvania. To claim more for him, as Fausold does, suggesting that had Roosevelt been elected again in 1912 he might have considered Pinchot for secre- tary of state (p. 23), would seem to make too much of an apparently facetious salu- tation from TR quoted on page 110. (Is there any other evidence? It would have been such an illogical appointment!) And to accept the generous tribute to him from Roosevelt's Autobiography at face value seems incautious, in view of the circumstances of its writing as detailed by Pinchot's biographer, McGeary. But these are routine quibbles with an ardent admirer of the man. A more basic objection to the book is that it does not seem to offer anything either sufficiently new or entertaining to justify its publi- cation at all. As for the man Pinchot, McGeary's biography is recent and good. As for the radical wing of the party, brother Amos Pinchot's own History of the Progressive Party, with Hooker's fine biographical sketch of him, was pub- lished in 1958. Of the two brothers, Amos was the clearer case of the doctrinaire radical. If one looks at the movement rather than the party, surely Robert La Follette would be the natural focus for a study of its radical wing. In short, despite its plodding style, this is not so much an unsuccessful book as it is an unnecessary one. Perhaps the Syracuse University Press will eventually abandon the attempt to build a shelf of "popular" books on an appealing theme

and concentrate on the more conventional objectives of a university press. THOMAS E. FELT College of Wooster     COMMANDERS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTO- MAC. By Warren W. Hassler, Jr. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1962. xxi??281p.; illustrations, maps, critical essay on selected sources, and index. $6.00.) As centennial fever rises to epidemic proportions, both amateur writers and professional historians of the Civil War are becoming obsessed with the idea that the only proper way to celebrate a cen- tennial is to write a hundred books on every aspect of it. This little volume is indicative of the trend to retell the stories of the warriors who matched wits with the skillful Lee. It consists of brief por- traits of Irvin McDowell, George McClel- lan, John Pope, Ambrose Burnside, Jo- seph Hooker, George Meade, and Ulysses Grant-the seven commanders of the Army of the Potomac. The author has tried to appraise the personality, military talent, accomplish- ments, and rapport with Washington of each man. These are big objectives, and other writers have already grappled with them in excellent studies on some of these men. Distinguished writers have already brought them into focus within the broad framework provided by multi-volume studies of the Army of the Potomac and the exciting story of Lincoln's search for a successful general. Dr. Hassler regards his study as the alpha rather than the omega on this sub- ject. By describing it as nothing more than an "introduction to and a primer for . . . more exhaustive research," he opens the door for the other ninety-nine volumes. For the present, however, it would appear that he has brought to- gether in a brief, well-written, extensively- documented, suitably-indexed, and illus- trated volume a summation of consider- able thought on the subject. He has made

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use of some manuscript collections in the Library of Congress, but many of these are not particularly rich in material on the Army of the Potomac. He demon- strates a wide acquaintance with the per- tinent autobiographical, biographical, and monographic material. The Oficial Records of the Union and Confederate Armies is, as it must always be, a major source of information. The volume dis- plays the high quality of composition, format, and press work that we have come to expect from the Louisiana State Uni- versity Press. The longest essays are those dealing with Grant and McClellan, who, in the manner of political parties and candidates on TV and radio, are allotted equal time. The author presents no startling inter- pretation of Grant's career, and his essay on McClellan comports with the sympa- thetic treatment he accorded the "Chicka- hominy Gravedigger" in his earlier vol- ume, General George B. McClellan: Shield of the Union. Very little space is devoted to the careers of McDowell and Pope, but their actual contributions as commanders of the Army of the Potomac suggest that Hassler has done them no disservice by such short treatment. The chapters devoted to the other three gen- erals are of intermediate length. In deal- ing with these men, the author has not confined himself solely to their experi- ences with the Army of the Potomac, but he has sought also to sketch the events in each man's life which preceded and fol- lowed his command. By introducing these factors, Dr. Hassler goes somewhat be- yond his objective of trying "to assay the stewardship of these men as com- manders of the Army of the Potomac." The volume will be of considerable use to persons wishing to have a short sum- mary of the lives of the men commanding one of the major military forces of the war. It is not likely to supply the profes- sional historian of this era or the Civil War Round Table buff who dotes on military history with new knowledge, depth, or insight. Although it might not

have been written without the stimulus of centennial fever, it is a sound summary by a professional historian. It will find its way on the classroom reading list of all Civil War history professors. WILLIAM FRANK ZORNOW Kent State University     THE JONATHAN HALE FARM: A CHRONICLE OF THE CUYAHOGA VALLEY. By John J. Horton. Western Reserve Historical Society, Publication No. 116. (Cleve- land: Western Reserve Historical So- ciety, 1961. 160p.; map, illustrations, and bibliography. Cloth, $4.50; paper, $2.25.) Hailed recently by a Cleveland news- paper as a project which "may cost up- wards of $1 million and will rival such developments as Greenfield Village, Dear- born, Mich., Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts and the Shelburne (Vt.) Museum, Inc.," the restoration of the Jonathan Hale homestead and the con- struction on its adjacent acres of an "au- thentic Western Reserve village" of the early nineteenth century have kindled widespread interest throughout north- eastern Ohio. A museum of the Western Reserve Historical Society, the Hale Farm is the subject of a slim but meaty volume written by John J. Horton, an associate for research of the society. Issued as Publication No. 116 in the society's lengthy series of local historical tracts, the book traces the Connecticut origins of the Hale family, their dealings with stockholders of the Connecticut Land Company, their journey to the Cuyahoga Valley in 1810, their encoun- ters with squatters and Indians, and their subsequent development of a prosperous farm in what is now Bath Township, Summit County, Ohio. Cultural historians will rejoice over the attention given to details of rural life as it evolved through the residence of four generations of Hales in the family homestead, while genealo- gists will delight in the careful delineation of the family's roots and branches. Of

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particular interest to economic historians is the detailed account of the transition of the trade of the valley from a barter to a cash base in the wake of the comple- tion of the Ohio and Erie Canal. Unhappily, a number of factual and typographical errors mar an otherwise excellent publication. On page 8, Hor- ton depicts the Erie Indians of the West- ern Reserve area as living in log cabins by the year 1600. Two pages later "Gnad- enhutten" is misspelled, as is "William" on line 30 of page 127. On page 11 the author questions whether elk ever lived in northeastern Ohio. Ignoring the reten- tion by Virginia of the Military District between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers, he erroneously pictures Virginia, on page 14, as "bartering" away its land claims in the Northwest Territory even as Connecticut was sagaciously retaining its claims to the Western Reserve. After informing the reader that the entire stock issue of the Connecticut Land Company amounted to but 400 shares, on page 15 the author states that Oliver Phelps was legally entitled to 56,061 shares! At the beginning of the next paragraph the lands of the Ohio Company are described as lying "just to the south" of the Reserve, while on page 58 a Pennsylvania town (Adamsburg) is verbally dislocated twenty-five miles west of Poland in the Western Reserve. "Left" and "right" are twice reversed in descriptions of portions of pictures on page 76. On page 89 Hor- ton pictures General William Hull as understandably surrendering Detroit on August 15, 1812, after finally reaching that fort, following a lengthy march from Ohio, only to find himself "surrounded by Indians and a handful of their British allies." Perry's celebrated victory the fol- lowing year is cited as occurring "near Pelee Island" two pages later, while on page 93 Horton appears to have confused the Battle of Fallen Timbers with the Battle of Tippecanoe Creek. Of more importance than these minor errors, however, are the omissions of both index and footnotes. Notwithstand-

ing these deficiencies the book is recom- mended for inclusion on the reading lists and in the libraries of all who are inter- ested in the history of Ohio and its West- ern Reserve. PHILLIP R. SHRIVER Kent State University       THE LETTERS OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. Edited by Robert W. Johannsen. (Ur- bana: University of Illinois Press, 1961. xxxii??558p.; illustrations, appendices, and index. $10.00.) This collection includes all of the let- ters of Douglas that have been located. They are given in full, except those of a routine character such as indorsements of applicants for jobs and notes of intro- duction, and are calendared in their proper chronological order. Missing let- ters are also listed along with evidences of their existence and contents. In two appendices are three undated letters (one fragmentary) and, in summarized form, sixty official communications dealing with land office business when Douglas was register of the Springfield office. No letters to Douglas are included, although explanatory notes are given where neces- sary to make his replies intelligible. A few of the letters are communica- tions to newspapers, sometimes sent di- rectly or often as responses to comments of friends or critics, and were intended to serve as public statements of party policies or defenses of his position on important questions. Also included are an autobiographical sketch written in 1838 and two sets of autobiographical notes prepared in 1859. One is struck with the paucity of fam- ily or strictly personal letters after the Little Giant was embarked upon his pub- lic career. Information about his first wife appears in a few incidental refer- ences, mostly about her health and her Mississippi property, which included some 150 slaves. His second wife, young Adele Cutts, fares only a little better, with two letters from Douglas and a very

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revealing one of her own to her mother. The most controversial letter is one supposedly written in 1852 and printed in 1863 in which Douglas favors the re- peal of the Missouri Compromise over a year before he introduced the Nebraska bill. George Fort Milton questioned its authenticity, and the editor has his doubts but has included it with a discussion of the problem. Of special interest to Ohioans is a letter of June 9, 1860, to the Columbus publishers of the Lincoln-Douglas de- bates, charging them with unfair treat- ment in permitting Lincoln to revise his speeches while Douglas' were taken di- rectly from newspaper reports. This first published collection of Doug- las letters is a welcome addition to the printed source material of the pre-Civil War years, even though it does not change materially the picture of the aggressive, ambitious western party leader, legisla- tor, land speculator, and upholder of the Union. The editorial work has been care- fully done. EUGENE H. ROSEBOOM Ohio State University       PRESIDENT JAMES BUCHANAN: A BI- OGRAPHY. By Philip Shriver Klein. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1962. xviii??506p.; illustrations, bibliography, and index. $7.50.) During the Civil War, Heman Dyer, the noted Episcopal divine, discussed the Buchanan administration at length with his close friend, Edwin M. Stanton. Dyer later refused to reveal the particulars of the conversation, but his curiosity regard- ing James Buchanan and his administra- tion has been shared by every student of the ante-bellum period. In that light Pro- fessor Klein's book, the first complete biography of the fifteenth president printed in the twentieth century, will be welcomed by interested laymen and schol- ars alike. A well-proportioned account, it exam-

ines Buchanan's personal affairs and legal career, as well as his long political career. He is portrayed in a pattern of living dis- tinguished by hard work, orderliness, thrift, attendance to duty, and a taste for quantities of fine wine and whiskey. As a successful Lancaster attorney, who won a number of important cases in the Pennsylvania courts, he early gained the confidence and means necessary for a serious career in politics. Later invest- ments in real estate and assorted bonds, plus extensive personal lending, made him a wealthy country squire. With respect to Buchanan the politi- cian, the book covers every important as- pect of his state and national career. Klein emphasizes his early work as a Federalist legislator; he also traces his role as a Federalist-Republican congress- man. After the 1828 victory as a Demo- crat, the picture of the mature Buchanan that emerges from Klein's pages is not unlike the one most scholars have pieced together over the years. He handled two dissimilar diplomatic assignments with considerable urbanity and distinction. Lucky to be out of the country or out of office in 1832 and 1833, he became one of the dependable Jacksonians, although never a leader. Certainly for twelve years, and probably sixteen, after the Log Cabin Campaign his course was dictated by the often divergent views of the Pennsylvania homefolk, the spirit of party "regularity," and his ambition for the presidential chair. That he did not lose his footing when the going was so treacherous is a tribute to his adroitness. In those years he served Polk rather better than Polk realized although the Tennesseean noted his ambition and talent for the opportune maneuver. Professor Klein demonstrates Buchan- an's genuine desire, as president, for party and national harmony, He casts Old Buck as one of the last of the Jackson- ians, decidedly unaware of many of the forces operating in the country; stub- born, legalistic, suspicious of Douglas,

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and very hostile to the abolitionists and Republicans, he sought to avoid inflam- matory sectional measures. However, he did not sense the consequences of his own program, which so often had a pro- southern orientation. In the end he was caught in a tangle of politics while seek- ing an almost non-existent middle posi- tion. Predictably, he was unwilling to force the issue with the secessionists. The author has studied Buchanan for a number of years and his book reveals extensive research; it also benefits from a good and, at times, imaginative style. The work is primarily descriptive, and Klein expresses no value judgments. It must be said, however, that the narrative focuses too closely on the volatile Penn- sylvania scene. The author, like the Sage of Wheatland, is aware of the importance of the home state for a national leader. Hence the detailed accounts of the long struggles with the Dallas men, Cameron, and other factional leaders. While the grubby, vindictive nature of these im- portant fights is well demonstrated, one feels that they have been detailed at the expense of material dealing with national questions. As for the national scene, Buchanan's role on the senate foreign relations com- mittee is purposely treated in a very sketchy manner. Brevity likewise marks the handling of his stand on public land issues, the significant internal improve- ments question, and the slavery contro- versy to 1845. In the same vein, there is not enough of the schemer in the account of the 1844 or 1848 campaigns. In the presidential years the Dred Scott case is almost completely ignored. Although this work obviates another biography for many years to come, the lack of depth on many national questions generates a measure of disappointment with a volume that has much to commend it. While admitting that much has been written on various phases of the period,

one wishes that Professor Klein had fin- ished the larger work he originally con- templated. RICHARD W. SMITH Ohio Wesleyan University       UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; OR, LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. By Harriet Beecher Stowe. Edited by Kenneth S. Lynn. The John Harvard Library. (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1962. xxviii??460p.; introduc- tion, history of the text, and chrono- logy. $5.00.) The John Harvard Library, edited by Howard Mumford Jones, is for the most part concerned with reviving important but somewhat neglected books in all fields of American culture. Uncle Tom's Cabin is an exception in the series in that it has never been out of print, and only last year was available in eight or nine edi- tions. The present edition is handsomely printed and bound. Professor Kenneth Lynn of Harvard provides an important introduction and a history of the text; he reproduces the text of the first Ameri- can edition. What has made a book so liberally laced with sentimental trash so durable? Indeed, what makes it still readable? As Mr. Lynn points out, there is great liter- ary skill in some of Mrs. Stowe's charac- terizations, the best of which are surpris- ingly complex. In spite of soap-operaish devices, the writing is honest--a quality not often found in propaganda prose. Above all (and this is a point Mr. Lynn does not make), the book is built on a principle that is never shaken by expedi- encies: that it is simply wrong for one human being to own another. On this principle are based dramatic illustrations of the ways in which such ownership cor- rupts and violates the institutions of democracy, Christianity, home, and fam- ily, and above all degrades the owner. Ohioans need not be told how her resi-

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286                                                OHIO HISTORY

dence in this state contributed to her knowledge of slavery and abolitionism.   WILLIAM CHARVAT Ohio State University     AMERICAN LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS: A CHECKLIST OF HOLDINGS IN ACADEMIC, HISTORICAL AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN THE UNITED STATES. Compiled by Jo- seph Jones, Ernest Marchand, H. Dan Piper, J. Albert Robbins, and Herman E. Spivey. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1960. xxviii??421p. $5.00.) Under the sponsorship of the American Literature Group of the Modern Lan- guage Association, a committee on manu- script holdings has canvassed American libraries in order to compile this checklist of manuscript source materials. The re- sult is a compact reference aid, indis- pensable to anyone interested in Ameri- cana. Since the word "literary" in the title has been interpreted in the broadest sense, researchers in history and allied fields will find it useful. The system of recording information resembles that used in the Union List of Serials. Each library has been assigned a code symbol; OAU, for example, repre- sents Ohio University, Athens. The cate- gories of materials have been coded as follows: MS-manuscript, J-journals or diaries, L-letters by the author, C-letters (correspondence) to the author, D-docu- ments relating to the author, MG-books containing marginalia by the author, SC- special collection. To illustrate the sys- tem, in the entry for William Dean How- ells, "OHi L47 C8 D4" indicates that the Ohio Historical Society has forty-seven letters by Howells and eight letters and four documents referring to him. Of the more than 270 libraries repre- sented, eighteen are in Ohio. The only startling omission is the Western Reserve Historical Society. Of the more than 2,300 authors, approximately 85 have some Ohio connection. The inclusion and exclusion of particular authors must have been one of the compilers' major prob-

lems, and to quibble over their final choices is somewhat futile; however, a general weakness is the inclusion of some contemporary writers of marginal signifi- cance. The location of manuscripts of H. Allen Smith and Thorne Smith is of something less than ephemeral impor- tance. On the other hand, in the cate- gory of Ohio Smiths, one wonders about source materials for William Henry Smith, the historian, or Henry Preserved Smith, the theologian. A cursory examination of the entries recalls the traditional fate of the prophet in his own country. Few Ohio libraries, it seems, have shown much zeal to acquire and preserve manuscripts of Ohio au- thors. Thus, while John Greenleaf Whit- tier is represented in five Ohio libraries, Oliver Wendell Holmes in six, and Ed- ward Everett Hale in seven, no Ohio li- braries record any primary materials for Timothy Flint, Donn Piatt, John Bennett, Jean Starr Untermeyer, and Burton E. Stevenson. Four libraries use a plus sign to signify a special collection of materials for the Cincinnati soldier-poet William Haines Lytle; ironically, they are the li- braries of New York City, Princeton Uni- versity, University of North Carolina, and Wisconsin Historical Society. Other Ohio authors inadequately represented in Ohio libraries are Mary H. Catherwood (one letter), Ridgely Torrence (three let- ters), Jim Tully (one letter), and Con- stance F. Woolson (two letters). Perhaps libraries in Ohio and else- where will be encouraged by this volume to acquire and preserve manuscript source materials and by means of photoduplica- tion to fill out their existing collections. The uses of this volume for the researcher are obvious, but it is equally obvious that he cannot rely on it exclusively. The Preface warns that because of the diffi- culties of cataloging manuscripts, the scholar still must search out primary ma- terials and should use the book with "a healthy skepticism." WILLIAM COYLE Wittenberg University

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