BOOK REVIEWS
Old Favorites from the McGuffey
Readers. Ed. by Harvey C.
Minnich. With Illustrations from the
McGuffey Readers.
(New York, American Book Company, 1936.
482p. $3.50.)
William Holmes McGuffey and His
Readers. By Harvey C.
Minnich. With Photographs and Old
Drawings. (New
York, American Book Company, 1936. 203p.
$2.25. The
set, boxed, $5.00.)
One hundred years ago the first McGuffey
Readers made
their appearance in Cincinnati, Ohio.
They found immediate pop-
ularity in the West. In the course of a
few years they became
virtually an institution in the American
educational system, es-
pecially in the West and South.
That they were an influence in American
life can scarcely
be challenged. It was estimated in 1920,
that 122 million McGuffey
books had been published up to that
time. By 1890, it was figured
that 107 million had been printed.1 For
three-quarters of a cen-
tury or more the McGuffey publishers
enjoyed a real monopoly
on common school texts for spelling and
reading. Probably there
has been an inadequate emphasis placed
upon the influence of the
McGuffey books by socio-historians and
sociologists.
Millions of Americans have had the same
educational back-
ground, the same introduction to good
literature. It is not sur-
prising to find many of them fondly
recalling the Readers as they
dream of scenes of their youth. The
longing for the return of
youthful days is at least one
explanation of the development of
the "nostalgic cult" of
McGuffeyism. The year 1936 was a mem-
orable one for the cult. McGuffey
Associations all over the coun-
try celebrated the birth of the famous Readers
and sang praises to
their author. It was for this cult that
the books under review
were written.
1 Harvey C. Minnich,
"William Holmes McGuffey and the Peerless Pioneer Mc-
Guffey Readers," Miami University, Bulletin, XXVI,
no. 11, (July, 1928), 92.
(293)
294
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The volume of Old Favorites from the
McGuffey Readers
is an anthology of selections chosen by
Dean Harvey C. Minnich
and a group of associate editors, among
whom are Henry Ford,
James M. Cox, Hamlin Garland, Mark
Sullivan, and Simeon D.
Fess. Most of the selections are chosen
from the Fourth, Fifth
and Sixth Readers, and are, on
the whole, well selected to illustrate
McGuffey's moral teachings and social
objectives. The volume
is set up in the format of the Readers
themselves, and contains
many of the interesting and lively
pictures of the original books.
For McGuffeyites this anthology will be
a fascinating volume.
Surprisingly little study of a
scientific or objective nature
has been done on the Readers or
on their author. Minnich's
William Holmes McGuffey and His
Readers can hardly be said to
meet the demand. The volume is neither a
complete and accurate
picture of William Holmes McGuffey nor
an adequate study of the
influence and value of the Readers. It
is rather a sort of outline
of McGuffey's life, a too cursory
examination of the life of the
time, and an unsatisfactory evaluation
of the books themselves.
The analysis of the Readers is a
contribution and is the best
portion of this volume. The Eclectic
Readers introduced to the
uncultured West a "world of the
best literature." McGuffey
adopted new methods in his books which
made them popular and
useful. The Readers are
relatively free of theological mysticism,
the fear of death, and supposed
evidences of immortality. But
they are not entirely free of Puritan
emphases. For example,
McGuffey used the conscience and
mystical fear to scare young
people into being honest.
McGuffey's books are an evidence of the
influence of the
West. New England Puritans and Virginia
Cavaliers, Scotch-
Irish democrats and thrifty Germans, all
formed the new society
of the West. It was a conglomeration of
nationalities and cul-
tures. Harmony depended upon compromises
between the cultural
groups, and in producing this harmonious
relationship McGuffey's
Readers played an important part. Minnich has pointed out that
there was enough of the Puritan in them
to satisfy the New
Englanders who had migrated to the
Northwest; there was enough
of the Cavalier to attract the
aristocracy of Virginia and the
BOOK REVIEWS 295
Carolinas; there was enough
individualism to interest the Scots,
and enough of a code of thrift to meet
the demands of both the
Scots and the Germans. McGuffey was
influenced by the break-
down of cultures in the West, and in
turn, his Readers served to
unite the various culture groups and
mold them into one.
Considerable attention has been paid to
the moral teachings
of the Readers. Among these are
honesty, accuracy, obedience,
thrift, and good sportsmanship.
McGuffey's emphasis on personal
kindness led Minnich to remark:
"Personal kindness seems to be
a vanishing human trait in these
days."2 The McGuffey books
likewise stressed sentiments of freedom
and patriotism. Comment
upon this again side-tracked the author
into making a comparison
of the McGuffey age with today: "In
a cynical age these senti-
ments seem foreign to the emotional life
of the young men today."3
The McGuffey cult seems to look back
upon its childhood as a
sort of millenium. Minnich writes:
It is believed by many that a return to
this epoch-making series of
readers in the public schools would
assure a more dependable social life
in the United States; that if these
lessons that once established a virile,
law-abiding, and devout citizenry were
again taught in the schools, the
social evils of our day would be
corrected.4
Such is not the statement of an
objective historian who has
carefully analyzed the influence of the
McGuffey Readers. Who-
ever makes it has forgotten that the
period when McGuffey
morality flourished was an age of
individual and sectional strife
which led to a bitter fratricidal war.
Statesmen reared in the
McGuffey atmosphere bled their southern
brothers in the Recon-
struction Era and restricted their civil
and political rights in order
to retain radical control in Congress
and to legislate in behalf of
certain economic interests. It was men
trained in the McGuffey
school whose fame as captains of
industry rests more on their
unethical conduct than altruistic
activities. It was men reared
on McGuffey Readers who robbed
the coffers of local, state, and
national governments, and who
deliberately misgoverned in behalf
of themselves or other interests. The
critic, or cynic as some may
call him, does well to question the
McGuffey moral influence, and
Minnich has done nothing to lift the
doubt.
2 William Holmes McGuffey and His Readers, 96.
3 Ibid., 111.
4 Ibid., 112.
296
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Minnich's life of McGuffey has not
pre-empted the subject.
It is written from a frankly partisan
point of view. "It is the
purpose of this book to reveal as far as
possible the character of
William Holmes McGuffey as a
distinguished humanitarian."5 And
to that purpose the author has devoted
himself at the cost of ac-
curacy and completeness.
While McGuffey's capacities as teacher
and preacher were
great, his ambitions led him beyond the
bounds of ethical conduct.
Although he is recognized as a great
moral teacher, his own in-
tellectual honesty is open to
considerable question. While at Miami
University, his ambitions led him to a
bitter and unfair attack
upon the administration of Robert Hamilton
Bishop.6 Bishop
tried to appease McGuffey by granting
him the professorship of
mental and moral philosophy. But
McGuffey was not satisfied,
and soon began an attack which he aimed
especially at Bishop's
liberal policy of discipline.
Scarcely an act of discipline or general
management but was made
the ground of exception and ill-natured
remark against the Dr. [Bishop]
. . . Indeed it seemed as if he [McGuffey]
was disposed to look upon
nothing which the Dr. did with a
favourable eye, and to interpret nothing
in a charitable manner.7
A number of incidents occurred
especially in the years 1833-
1836, which finally brought the crisis
to a head. McGuffey always
stood firmly for strict discipline in
the faculty meetings, yet "he
has on the other hand to the students
appeared the magnanimous,
clever fellow in faculty who was not
'prying out little things, and
bringing students to justice for
them.'" Professor John W. Scott
said:
I have myself observed a very great
difference between the tone as-
sumed by Mr. McG. respecting a young man
in secret Faculty session, and
when the young man himself was present
before us. In the one case it
has sometimes been harsh, laconic, &
denunciatory in the extreme;--in the
other smooth as oil.8
McGuffey's position on the Miami faculty
became such that
he welcomed an opportunity to leave. On
taking the presidency of
Cincinnati College, he became the tool
of a group of Cincinnati
5 Ibid., viii.
6 James H. Rodabaugh, Robert Hamilton
Bishop (Columbus, 1935), Chap. IV.
7 John W. Scott, Statement, September 1,
1836, to the Board of Trustees of
Miami University, John W. Scott MSS. (in Miami
University Library).
8 Ibid.
BOOK REVIEWS 297
politicians who chose this moment to
agitate for the transfer of
Miami to Cincinnati. McGuffey was an
opportunist. While at
Oxford, he had held that a small town
was the ideal spot for a
college; at Cincinnati, he maintained
that the large city was the
most advantageous. "Perhaps,"
a student suggested at the time,
"he will be an abolitionist, when
the community in which he lives
requires him to be one."9
The loss of McGuffey meant little to
Miami, unless it ac-
counted for a return of harmony in the
faculty. The university
flourished and expanded far beyond its
size during the McGuffey
period. One of the students expressed
the attitude of those at
Miami when he wrote:
When I look on the flourishing condition
of Miami University, at
this time, and at the peace and harmony
with which every thing goes on
and at the hope of our future prospects,
I feel no delacasy [sic] in saying
that McGuffey going away from here is
one of the greatest blessings [that]
ever happened to Miami University.10
McGuffey utterly lacked the ability to
get along with people.
Even in the University of Virginia where
he served for twenty-
eight years, he failed in his
relationships with other men. A
biographer of him in that period has
said that McGuffey "cut
himself off voluntarily" from
association with others. "The lack
of wholesome reactions which arise from
daily contact with our
fellow-workers soon began to affect his
temper and his acts. He
grew arbitrary and exacting." As at
Miami, he refused to coop-
erate with other members of the faculty,
and "ran his school by
self-made rules and paid little
attention to the general laws and
usages ordained for the government of
the University."11 Although
his ambitions directed him into college
administration, the chroni-
cler of Woodward College where McGuffey
taught from 1843 to
1845, wrote, "With all his great
abilities he had not the genius or
taste for the direction of college
affairs."12
The year 1836, McGuffey's last at Miami,
found him pub-
9 Wilson C. and Robert H. Hollyday to
their Parents, November 22, 1836, Robert
H. Hollyday MSS. (in possession of Miss
Elizabeth Moomaw, Miami University);
Joel Collins to R. H. Bishop, July 4,
1851, Joel Collins MSS. (in Miami University
Library).
10 Robert H. Hollyday to His Family,
December 26, 1836, Robert H. Hollyday
MSS.
11 William M. Thornton, "The Life
and Services of William Holmes McGuffey,
etc.," University of Virginia, Alumni Bulletin,
Series 3, X (1917), no. 3.
12 Old Woodward (Cincinnati, 1884), 69.
298
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
lishing his famous Readers. In
this production McGuffey's intel-
lectual honesty is certainly
questionable. On September 20, 1838,
Salmon P. Chase filed suit against
McGuffey and his publishers
in the United States Circuit Court of
Appeals, at Cincinnati, on
behalf of Samuel F. Worcester, who had
produced a series of
school books prior to McGuffey's and
similar to them. The charge
was made that McGuffey had copied many
of Worcester's original
articles, rules, directions, notes,
questions and exercises, and had
adopted the same general plan as that of
the Worcester Readers.13
Minnich has represented this as an
attempt on the part of
eastern publishers to prevent western
publishers from entering
the text-book business.14 While there
may be an element of truth
in this argument, it does not deny the
plagiarism indulged in by
McGuffey, who not only re-copied
selections by other authors
which had been adapted by Worcester in
his works, but who de-
liberately stole original articles from
Worcester's books, and copied
word for word or in substance rules,
questions and lists of errors
from the Worcester volumes. Suffice it
to say, the court indicated
a reaction favorable to Worcester, and
McGuffey's publishers
settled out of court for the sum of $2000. The
publications al-
ready begun were halted and adequate
revisions were made.
Minnich's volume lacks the definiteness
that is needed as to
authorship of the McGuffey Readers. We
are permitted to assume
that the Primer was produced by
McGuffey himself, although
there are claims that it was the work of
his wife. Alexander
McGuffey prepared the Speller of
1838, and the Fifth Reader of
1844;15 yet Minnich fails to make clear
the distinction when he
writes: "In the Fifth of
1844 McGuffey opens," etc.16 The ques-
tion of authorship became more involved
as new editions appeared
throughout the century. How much of the
moral teaching of the
Readers of 1857 or of 1879 is the work of McGuffey?
Finally, the Minnich volume does not
contain an adequate
survey of McGuffey's endeavors in other
fields, especially of his
work in behalf of common school
education and of the training
13 Manuscript record of case in United
States District Court, Southern Dis-
trict, Western Division, Ohio,
Cincinnati, Ohio.
14 William Holmes McGuffey and His
Readers, 57.
15 Ibid., 7.
16 Ibid., 75
BOOK REVIEWS 299
of teachers. After the Civil War,
McGuffey's publishers sent him
through the South to investigate
conditions. His known southern
sympathies opened the way to him in that
region. On his return,
he made a blistering verbal report in
Cincinnati. Yet nothing
of this act is reported in the present
volume.
The field is still open for a definitive
biography of William
Holmes McGuffey.
JAMES H. RODABAUGH,
Ohio State University
The Life and Times of Giles Richards.
By Ophia D. Smith. Ohio
Historical Collections, VI. (Columbus, The Ohio State Ar-
chaeological and Historical Society,
1936. 130p. $2.00.)
This book, in a sense, is a companion
volume to Colonel
A. W. Gilbert, Citizen-soldier of
Cincinnati (edited by William E.
and Ophia D. Smith and published by the
Ohio Historical and
Philosophical Society, Cincinnati,
1934), which is a story of ante-
bellum Cincinnati and of an Ohio
officer's experiences in the
Civil War. Both volumes are made up
largely of manuscript
materials including many letters found a
few years ago in the
attic of Elland (near Venice, Ohio), the
home of Giles Richards,
a pioneer textile manufacturer. Elland
was named for Richard's
wife El-eanor and his daughter
El-izabeth, and later (from 1873
to 1900) became the home of this
daughter and her husband,
Alfred W. Gilbert. The volume here
reviewed discusses the
background of the family--with its
fairly substantial interests in
the textile industry--in the
neighborhood of Boston. Giles' sister,
Sarah, married Amos Lawrence, the father
of Amos A. Lawrence
whose name was to be intimately
connected with the early history
of Kansas. After the War of 1812, Giles
and two of his brothers
moved westward to the vicinity of
Cincinnati. There they engaged
in the commission business and in
various manufacturing enter-
prises.
As has been suggested above, most of the
volume is not,
strictly speaking, a biography, but
rather a collection of letters.
These reveal many interesting facts and
give intimate glimpses into
business practices, social and religious
life in Cincinnati (1838-
300
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
1848), and the work of the Ohio Female
College at what is now
College Hill, Ohio. Incidental attention
is given to the activities
of the New Jerusalem religious society
(Swedenborgian) with
which the Richards family was
affiliated.
FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER,
Ohio State University.
Charles Osborn in the Anti-slavery
Movement. By Ruth Anna
Ketring. Ohio Historical Collections,
VII. (Columbus, O.,
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical
Society, 1937. 95p.
$2.00.)
No other study of Osborn approaches this
one in compre-
hensiveness and a discriminating
estimate of his work, which was
largely confined to the Society of
Friends, of which he was a
minister. Miss Ketring's brochure shows
that Osborn was one
of the men who bridged the gap between
the early anti-slavery
movement in the South and the later one
in the North; that he
was already deeply concerned for
"the poor oppressed black peo-
ple" by 1814; that during the
following score of months he started
manumission societies among the Quakers
of eastern Tennessee
and central and western North Carolina,
which spread widely in
these sections; that he began the
publication of the Philanthropist
at St. Clairsville, Jefferson County,
Ohio, August 25, 1817, already
an anti-slavery center, and ceased his
editorship of the paper
early in October, 1818, but that neither
in St. Clairsville nor in
the South did he advocate immediate
emancipation, other writers
to the contrary notwithstanding. Osborn
is given credit, how-
ever, for opposing the American
Colonization Society and for
spending much of his time until 1840 in
preaching-journeys in
the United States, Canada, England, and
on the Continent.
Osborn was deeply opposed to slave-labor
products and helped
to form free produce associations,
constantly exhorting Friends
to remember "those in bonds, as
bound with them." Needless to
say, he sided with the Anti-slavery
Friends, when the rift
came between them and their more
conservative brethren during
the years 1838 to 1841. He wrote that it
was "one of the bitterest
draughts" he ever had to drink when
he "saw Friends taking such
BOOK REVIEWS
301
a decided stand against abolitionists,
anti-slavery meetings, and
lecturers." He was one of eight
members of the Meeting for Suf-
ferings of the Indiana Yearly Meeting
who was disqualified for
further service on October 4, 1842.
In this year the Indiana State
Anti-slavery Society chose Os-
born as its delegate to the World
Anti-slavery Convention to be
held in London, England, in June, 1843,
and paid part of his ex-
penses. Although sixty-eight years old,
he spoke for an hour
and a half with great power at the first
regular Indiana Yearly
Meeting of Anti-slavery Friends in
September, 1843, and served
that body in various offices and
committees. The conservatism
of the other Indiana Yearly Meeting soon
began to give way
under the pressure of the abolition
movement and the aggression
of the slave power. Osborn wrote some of
his last words in
condemnation of the Compromise of 1850,
which, he said, could
not "fail to bring great additional
infamy and reproach upon the
people of our whole nation." Would
not retribution fall with the
greatest weight upon the pro-slavery
clergy "in that awful,
approaching day, when inquisition will
be made for blood"?
Osborn was not to witness the greater
struggle of the decade
just preceding the inquisition for
blood. Miss Ketring's brochure
shows that he was an anti-slavery leader
among the Quakers
thirty-six years, during which period
"he lost no opportunity to
preach or speak in behalf of the
slave."
WILBUR H. SIEBERT,
Ohio State University.
The Social History of American
Agriculture. By Joseph Schafer.
(New York, Macmillan Co., 1936. 302p.
$2.50.)
Joseph Schafer, superintendent of the
State Historical Society
of Wisconsin, presents in printed form
the substance of his lec-
tures as lecturer on the Commonwealth
Foundation at University
College, University of London. He has
written one of the most
complete surveys of the subject,
handling his material skillfully
and that without the tedious use of
statistics. A list of the chapter
titles will give an idea of the scope of
the work: "Land for
Farmers," "Primitive
Subsistence Farming," "Big Business Farm-
302
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ing," "Improved Farming,"
"Professional Farming." "Social
Trends in Rural Life,"
"Political Trends in Rural Life," and "The
Outlook for Farmers."
Showing the ways by which land was early
taken up by the
colonists and first settlers in their
gradual conquest of the con-
tinent, the author follows up by tracing
the development of the
farming industry from one which did no
more than make a living
for the farmer's family to one which
took on the cloak of "big
business," even engaging in the
ruthless exploitation of land and
other resources, which the term implies.
With the development of special markets
and the coming of
improved methods of transportation, came
specialized farming and
improved farming methods. This gave rise
to the agricultural
periodical, farmer's institutes and
societies, special colleges and
experiment stations. With
experimentation and scientific research
farming took on a professional aspect
and at this point a number
of individuals rise from the ranks to
make their contribution.
Among them are Stephen Moulton Babcock
with his cow-feeding
experiments, Edmund Ruffin with his
soil-revitalization work,
Joseph Harris and George E. Waring and
their work with drain-
age, fertilizer and general scientific
approach to the soil.
One of the best chapters is that on
social trends where are
discussed the development of planter
aristocracy as known in the
South, and the "laboring"
farmer as found in the Middle West,
where "men of every class and
condition became farmers . . . and
all . . . if they had not known the
virtue of physical labor, learned
it in the new land." Here, contrary
to the European sentiment,
labor took on dignity which developed
the democratic spirit char-
acteristic of American life.
The last chapter deals with the problem
of the share-cropper,
the influence of good roads,
motorization and the policies of the
New Deal, which bring the subject to
date. The book is without
propaganda, filling a definite need, and
designed as a starting
point for further study. It is
well-documented and indexed, and
is illustrated with maps reproduced from
Charles O. Paullin's
Atlas of the Historical Geography of
the United States.
C. L. W.
BOOK REVIEWS 303
Military Posts and Camps in
Oklahoma. By William Brown
Morrison. (Oklahoma City, Harlow Pub.
Corp., 1936. 180p.)
This is a thoroughgoing study of the
subject, told in entertain-
ing manner. The author, who is professor
of history at South-
eastern Teachers College, states in the
Foreword that he "has long
been impressed with the rather striking
part military posts have
played in the history of this
state." This idea is borne out by
the mass of information he has so deftly
woven together. Nearly
every movement of importance is touched
on, such as the arrival
of the various Indian tribes not
indiginous to the region and their
settlement in the territory; the clash
between Indians and squatters
and the role of the Government; the
devastating effect of the
Civil War and the participation of the
redman; the reconciliation
and reestablishment of trust in the
Government upon the scrapping
of old treaties; the coming of the
railroads and the business of
reconstruction after the war; the cattle
era and the establishment
of farming; and finally the coming of
statehood in 1907.
A parade of colorful characters march
through the pages--
both men and women, Indians and whites,
soldiers and civilians.
Intimate glimpses of camp life, the loss
of life from disease, the
discovery and development of remarkable
personalities, the stories
of treachery, bravery, and
tragedy--pageantry of life in the raw--
all bring vividly to the present-day
reader a fuller realization of
his heritage.
There is a bibliography and the book is
adequately docu-
mented and indexed. Artistic
illustrations in sepia, the greater
number being portraits, enhance its
value.
C. L. W.