BOOK REVIEWS
ennsylvania Agriculture and Country
Life, 1640-1840. By Stevenson Whit-
comb Fletcher. (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Com-
mission, 1950. xiv+605p. Paper, $2.50;
cloth, $3.00.)
For two centuries prior to 1840
agriculture dominated the economic life
f Pennsylvania, and during much of that
period "the breadbasket of
America" was replenished from the
abundant harvests of her fields. In
?e years that followed 1840 the raising
of wheat ceased to be the farmers'
?ainstay and "the dairy cow, not
the wheat shock, became the cornerstone
?f Pennsylvania agriculture."
Dean Emeritus Stevenson W. Fletcher of
the school of agriculture of
he Pennsylvania State College has chosen
the two centuries, 1640-1840, as
?is special field, and he has tilled it
with extraordinary thoroughness. The
grain has been garnered and winnowed and
the percentage of chaff is
gratifyingly small. A volume such as he
has written could be produced
only on the basis of years of reading
and careful note-taking. The notes
?aving been filed under twenty-two
headings, the writing proceeds in
orderly fashion, each topic being
chronologically treated in essays of about
hirty pages.
Anyone who writes an extended historical
study faces the dilemma of
choosing between the topical and
chronological approaches. Some writers
achieve a compromise by means of
"flash-backs" headed with the historian's
cliche, "in the meanwhile."
Dean Fletcher's approach is uncompromisingly
topical. This approach has merit, in a
work such as this; in fact it is
difficult to conceive how any other
pattern could have been followed more
successfully. The two centuries could
not have been broken down into
"periods" except by choosing
dates of superficial importance.
It is remarkable that the period of two
hundred years could have had
such homogeneity. During those years the
wilderness was brought under
cultivation, and improved means of
transportation made possible the
transition from subsistence to
commercial farming in favored areas, but
one receives the impression that nothing
took place in that long period
which might be described as a
revolutionary change in farming methods.
Is one to conclude that progress in
Pennsylvania agriculture to 1840
was merely arithmetic, a simple story of
more and more farmers doing
the same thing in the same way? Broadly
speaking this seems to have
been true. It is certainly safe to say
that more significant changes have
87
88 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
taken place in Dean Fletcher's own
lifetime than in the two hundred yea
about which he writes. Within a few
decades after the founding of the
Commonwealth the pattern of farming was
firmly fixed. Wheat, cor
oats, and grass were the standbys, and
no new crop of importance, e
cepting sorghum, was introduced prior to
1840. Nor was there a?
revolutionary change in farm implements
in the period, with the noteworth
exception of the introduction of the
cast-steel plow with interchangeab
parts. While Jethro Wood of Scipio, New
York, is usually credited wi?
introducing the modern plow in 1819, the
author gives priority to Robe
Smith of Bucks County, who in 1800 was
manufacturing a plow wit
cast metal parts. Harrows, sickles,
flails, two-wheeled carts, in patterr
centuries old, were to be found on every
farm; only the grain cradle w?
new, and the four-wheeled wagon, which
was gradually introduced aft?
the 1740's. The heavy farm wagon known
as the Conestoga, "the fine?
wagon the world has ever known,"
was a product of the Lancaster regior
With the 1840's, as this study reaches
its conclusion, the period of inn?
vation got under way; in that very year
the McCormick reaper was give
its first field trial in Pennsylvania.
When the author finds evidence of
progress he is obviously happy i?
presenting it. The selective breeding of
farm animals, especially the fixin?
of the type called the Conestoga horse,
is a case in point. He become
enthusiastic over the work of such
pioneer scientific organizations as th?
Philadelphia Society for Promoting
Agriculture, but tells the sad truth
that their influence in their early
years was not great. Many farmers agreed
with the critic who, in 1818, said that
the best mode of improving agri
culture was to "lay your hands to
the plough-handles and urge on you?
horses." The leaders of the
societies were gentlemen farmers, as was
universally true in that period; they
could talk and write incessantly about
the best methods of conserving the
fertility of the soil without impressing
the ordinary farmer. On the whole, one
gathers that the exploitation of the
soil in Pennsylvania did not reach the
proportions that it did in other
colonies. The Germans knew the value of
crop rotation and fertilizing
before they left Europe, and their
influence on other Pennsylvania farmers
must have been considerable.
An outstanding characteristic of this
book is that about one-third of
the text is made up of direct
quotations. The book designer, fortunately,
did not follow the common practice of
single spacing such passages. It
appears that every significant
contemporary source has been screened for
Book Reviews 89
material of value. For the most part the
quotations are presented without
a phrase of evaluation, and no doubt
errors have crept in through un-
critical use, but the impressions are
clear-cut and the reader wonders at the
prodigious work which lies behind this
highly readable summary.
As the title indicates, this is a
two-fold study. Fourteen chapters deal
with the agricultural history, the
remaining eight are descriptive essays
on such aspects of country life as
"The Farm Home," "Food and Clothing,"
"Social Customs in the Home,"
and so on. While this reviewer finds these
chapters less valuable than those
dealing with agricultural practice, they
do serve to complete the picture. It is
here that the author must have been
most conscious of space limitations. The
comments on music and furniture-
making are so brief as to be misleading,
and a bare five pages are devoted
to the topic of sickness.
Errors in proof reading, while fairly
numerous, are not distracting. In
format the work is pleasing, the black
and white sketches adding a fine
decorative touch. Footnotes for each
chapter are collected at the back of
the book, which aids the typesetter rather
than the reader. Such errors
in fact or interpretation as occur
usually arise from contradictions in con-
temporary statements. It is hardly
plausible, for example, that the potash
obtainable from the ashes on one acre of
clearing could have been worth
$20. The losses in early river
transportation are placed at five percent by
a contemporary writer, while on the same
page it is stated that not more
than two out of three arks reached
tidewater with their cargoes.
This is a noteworthy book. In quantity of
contemporary source material
it is truly imposing. It may be thought
of as a series of twenty-two essays,
well-written and abundantly documented,
which together present a clear
picture of a significant period in an
important area.
Denison University WILLIAM T. UTTER
John Bonwell: A Novel of the Ohio
River Valley, 1818-1862. By Charles K.
Pulse. (New York, Farrar, Straus, and
Young, 1952. x+436p. $3.50.)
For anyone who knows and cares anything
about southwestern Ohio,
northern Kentucky, and the Ohio River,
this new historical romance by
a Cincinnati lawyer will have extreme
interest. For these and--I trust--
for many thousands of other people all
over the country, it will have
equal charm.
The narrative begins with a young
Scotchman from Virginia, riding
90 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
southwest from Chillicothe in 1818 to
find his uncle, a rich banker and
trader, in Augusta, Kentucky, and in a
long series of episodes--each with
an old-fashioned but good chapter
heading--we follow John Bonwell all
the way to his death in an encounter
with Morgan's Raiders in Augusta
in 1862. The chief events occur in
familiar towns all over this region,
and on the river itself, but the hero
goes farther south and even into
Mexico, in the war of 1846-48. The
adventures include, to mention only a
few: a rescue by drowning below the
falls of Paint Creek, a ball and a near-
duel near Lexington, a robbery and
murder (long unsolved), a steamboat
explosion, a cholera epidemic, the
battle of Monterrey, a mob-scene in
Natchez, two love affairs, marriages,
and families, and miscellaneous
mayhem. Among the historical characters
introduced are General J. A.
Quitman, General T. L. Hamer, Mr. Henry
Clay, and Lt. U. S. Grant.
For those interested it should be noted,
I suppose, that there are hardly
more mammary glands in the text than
there are on the jacket: none.
Mr. Pulse seems to this reviewer to know
a very great deal, accurately,
about the events and the material
conditions of life in this time and place;
more important, he doesn't parade his
knowledge, but uses it easily and
naturally in his story, almost as one
would in a story of our own times.
I have enjoyed this historical romance
so much that it is with true
regret that I find my professional
conscience, such as it is, forcing me to
try to define its quality a little more
closely and less favorably than I should
like to do. One minor fact is that the
characters' language does not sound
nearly so natural, racy, and true as the
language of Mr. Conrad Richter's
characters, for example; also, the
author himself uses a fair number of
pretty cliches. More serious is the
matter of character, and character
creating plot. In this book, possibly
deliberately, Mr. Pulse's view of human
nature is surprisingly superficial in a
writer who can see externals so
clearly and project a scene with such
vividness and sometimes poetic feeling.
The characters, even including Grant and
Clay, are almost, if not quite,
paper dolls. One result is that the
reader, not deeply absorbed and involved,
can calmly watch the hero's family being
blown up, and then watch the
hero wander about, arriving inevitably
where something interesting is
going on, without much concern. It is,
for example, too pleasantly sure
from the beginning that he will get both
charmers before the end.
These remarks are not to be taken by
anyone as sneers. For me, most
historical romances, including the good
ones, such as John Buchan's and
even Mr. Richter's, have too many paper
dolls in them, and are strings
of chosen incidents, while few of them
have John Bonwell's curious charm.
Book Reviews 91
It's as though a nice high school boy,
not a skilled attorney, had been
given the ability to project his
historical daydreams. Somewhat startled,
I'm cheering.
Chillicothe, Ohio CHARLES ALLEN SMART
Buckeye Disciples: A History of the
Disciples of Christ in Ohio. By Henry
K. Shaw. (St. Louis, Christian Board of
Publication, 1952. 504p., tables,
maps, bibliography, and index. $3.50.)
This volume, written by a native Ohioan
who is at present pastor of the
First Christian Church of Elyria,
commemorates a century of activity of
the "Ohio Christian Missionary
Society." Appropriate attention is given
to the evangelistic fervor along the
frontier after 1800 that often rebelled
against the intellectual niceties of
orthodox theology and that provided
the background for the rise of the
Disciples of Christ. Among the leaders
on the Ohio scene, Alexander Campbell
and Walter Scott were especially
significant and laid the foundations for
the permanent organization. Con-
ceiving of themselves as nineteenth
century reformers who wished to establish
congregations with no other creed than
that of the New Testament, they
maintained views concerning the
necessity for baptism by immersion that
made special appeal to many of Baptist
background. Yet they could not
wholly escape the establishment of an
orthodoxy of their own, which was
looked upon by many Baptists as being
legalistically narrow in its insistence
upon the intrinsic importance of the
baptismal rite rather than as an
outward declaration of an inward,
spiritual change. Moreover, in his
reaction against the ecclesiastical
organization of the Presbyterians, Campbell
at first placed an emphasis on local
autonomy that "opposed missionary
societies, made a caricature of many
Christian institutions, and in general
was responsible for a belligerent
attitude toward all religious bodies except
the one represented by his own
brethren." Thus there was "created a
Frankenstein monster that was
inadvertently turned on its creator" (p. 58),
and that eventually necessitated a
change so as to secure cooperation between
local congregations. Campbell's egotism
led to difficulties, for "those who
challenged his leadership were quickly
cut down" (p. 107). Other problems
were encountered when the Mormons
entered the Western Reserve. The
Disciple movement, however, grew
steadily, and means were devised for
Establishing Sunday Schools and mission
stations. Some controversies, such
?s those relating to secret societies
and slavery, were minimized by an effort
to consider them as nonreligious
questions. Differences of viewpoint among
92
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
the various congregations have always
been noticeable, and up to the present
time there has been no general agreement
on a name, which is sometimes
Disciples of Christ, Church of Christ,
or Christian Church.
The problems provoked by the Civil War,
the rise of the city, the coming
of the large immigration from southern
Europe, the First World War, the
depression, and the Second World War are
duly considered.
Attention is called by the author to the
fact that one president from
Ohio, James A. Garfield, and three Ohio
governors, Richard M. Bishop,
Myers Y. Cooper, and Martin L. Davey,
have been members of the Dis-
ciples Church. Among other laymen was
the famed reformer, Tom L.
Johnson, who as mayor of Cleveland
appointed his pastor, Harris R. Cooley,
as city safety director.
The author has made a conscientious
effort to make this work an authori-
tative one by a careful use of official
minutes and records of church bodies
as well as church periodicals,
biographies, and other essential sources. The
volume is written in a spirit of
impartiality but is not wholly devoid of a
definite enthusiasm for the Disciple
approach to religious matters. It will,
nevertheless, add greatly to available
information regarding the part played
by the Disciples in the religious
development of Ohio.
Ohio State University F. P. WEISENBURGER
The Public Career of Sir James
Graham. By Arvel B. Erickson. (Oxford,
Basil Blackwell; Cleveland, Press of
Western Reserve University, 1952.
vii+433p., appendices, bibliography, and
index. $4.50.)
Righly holding that the accounts by
Torrens and Parker are inadequate,
the latter careless in treatment of his
sources, Professor Erickson essays a
new treatment of the man whom nature and
his tailor made handsome, whose
bent of mind is revealed in his devotion
to Burke, Adam Smith, and
Ricardo, and whose passion was order,
efficiency, and economy in govern-
ment. No attempt is made to invoke the
mysteries of psychology to explain
the eternal mystery of temperament and
motive. No attempt is made to
cover the whole life from 1798 to 1861.
What is attempted is to review the great
measures of the Age of Reform
through a close study of the share that
Graham had in making or opposing
them. Since he was first lord of the
admiralty in Grey's Whig government,
and not only reformed the historic chaos
of naval administration but had
a major hand in drafting the first
proposal for reform in 1832; Peel's
Conservative home secretary and ablest
lieutenant in the march toward free
Book Reviews 93
trade; and, as one of Aberdeen's
"Peelites," again first lord, saw the de-
partment which he had reformed excel its
fellows under the stress of the
Crimean War, there were few great
matters over thirty years that he
did not touch. The book is built upon a
very extensive literature, as is
witnessed by the classified
bibliography, which any student of the period
should note. The Graham Papers at
Netherby Hall, the documents of the
admiralty and the home office are the
most pertinent, but not all, of the
unpublished sources. The memoirs and
collected letters in print appear along
with numerous periodical, pamphlet, and
newspaper titles in bibliography
and citations.
The total effect is to point up, but not
to change, the accepted picture
of Graham as a great administrator, a
man of high and independent prin-
ciples, a most able executive officer,
but no party leader. Graham was
realist enough to see that most of his
contemporaries had not the gifts for
the offices they sought, and that he
himself was not talented with the
requisites of a prime minister. The
style ranges from good, in the "Con-
clusion," to careless at points
where "fired" is used for "dismissed" and
"lambasted" for "severely
censured." Surely "innocuous desuetude" (page
372) does not convey the author's
meaning. Quotations, full, abbreviated,
or condensed into the author's own
words, are skillfully used--when the
sense of the source is correctly
grasped. There are some assertions so
inaccurate as to call for
particularization along with examples of the pre-
vious criticism.
George, Prince of Wales, did not go
through the form of marriage, legal
or illegal, in the years following his
separation from Princess Caroline
(page 40, note 41). The statement about
the right to alienate half-pay
exactly reverses the truth (page 61),
perhaps because the substitution of
a "not" for a "now"
was overlooked in reading proof. Graham is made
to say just what he meant not to say
about benefits receivable by farmers
of the heavy soils from a repeal of the
malt tax (page 122). The ten-hour
working day is confused with the
ten-year minimum age for boys in treating
the law of 1842 (page 219). Rothschild
was not permitted to take his
seat in the Commons in 1850 (page 314),
so that Mr. Salomons was given
his chance at fame. One cannot accept
the assertion made on page 393 that
deans, canons, and archdeacons were
presented by lay patrons. Unless we
impeach the statement about the law
governing public funds in official
hands, we shall have no explanation of
Melville's impeachment, the last
in British experience (page 395).
Ohio State University WARNER F.
WOODRING
94 Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
The Saga of the Delta Queen. By Frederick Way, Jr. (Cincinnati, Picture
Marine Publishing Company, 1951. 128p.,
illustrations. $3.00.)
This is Captain Way's first person
narrative of the circumstances under
which Captain Tom Greene bought the
now-popular excursion steamboat
Delta Queen at cut rate in San Francisco after World War II and had
her
towed to Cincinnati, her present home
port. Necessarily the Queen's
course lay through the Pacific Ocean,
the Panama Canal, and the Gulf of
Mexico before she reached the rivers--on
waters in which flat bottoms are
not supposed to venture.
The book is profusely illustrated by
photographs which show everything
that relates to purchase, preparation,
the voyage, and the refitting, in-
cluding reproductions of documents which
originated in the offices of the
maritime commission and the treasury
department. It is a pleasant tribute
to the nerve and enterprise of Captain
Tom Greene (who died in his
forty-sixth year) and to the varied
talents of the author, Captain Way.
Admirers of Columbus, Magellan, the crew
of the Kon-Tiki, and vari-
ous earlier seamen of Norse origin, may
take exception to a jacket note
which allows that the Delta Queen's voyage
is possibly next strangest to
that of Ulysses; but even so the Saga
should appeal to all dedicated steamboat
fans.
Crawfordsville, Indiana R. E. BANTA
Practical Essays on Medical Education
and the Medical Profession in the
United States. By Daniel Drake, M.D. With an Introduction by David A.
Tucker, Jr. Publication of the Institute
of the History of Medicine, Fourth
Series, Bibliotheca Medica Americana,
Volume V. (Baltimore, The Johns
Hopkins Press, 1952. x+104p. $2.50.)
The present book marks the third
appearance of these famous essays of
Dr. Drake. They were first published as
a series in the Western Journal
of Medical and Physical Sciences, of which Dr. Drake was founder and
editor, and were issued in book form in
1832, at which time they were
dedicated to the students of the twelfth
class of the Medical College of
Ohio. In the Introduction is a brief
biographical sketch of Drake, who
was one of the most influential medical
educators, authors, and journalists
west of the Allegheny Mountains during
the first half of the nineteenth
century. In these essays, of which there
are seven in number, Drake dis-
cusses the selection and preparatory
education of medical students, the
compensating benefits and innate
weaknesses of the preceptor system of
Book Reviews 95
medical education, the existing evils in
medical colleges with recommen-
dations for their improvement, advice to
young physicians for the successful
practice of their profession, causes of
errors in the medical and cognate
sciences, the desirability of more
adequate legislative control of medical
education and practice, and causes of
discord in the medical profession.
Although these essays were written in a
somewhat pedantic and even
declamatory style, which was more or
less characteristic of the period,
many of the views expressed were far in
advance of the times, particularly
the need for preliminary education of
medical students, the recommendations
for extending the course of medical
study, and the urgency for the legal
regulation of medical education and
practice. These views are especially
impressive when it is borne in mind that
it was not until 1896 that the
course in Ohio medical schools was increased
from two terms of twelve to
sixteen weeks each to a four-year graded
course; that the requirement of
an arts college preliminary education
was not adopted until 1910; and that
an effective law regulating the practice
of medicine in Ohio was not passed
until 1896.
Many of his comments pertaining to the
moral, intellectual, and physical
requisites of medical practitioners are
as pertinent today as they were in
1832 when he so aptly described them,
and they are recommended for
perusal by all prospective medical
students. Drake was especially critical of
the profession because of the
incompetency, the "cheap doctoring," the
deficient learning, the false
pretensions, and the "love of gain," and he
complained that "very few ever
contribute a single new fact to its archives."
During Drake's day jealousies and strife
within the medical pro-
fession were quite common. He enumerates
the causes generating these
professional quarrels and in
characteristic fashion justifies them on the
grounds that their effects upon the
whole were beneficial because they
originated in the resistance of the good
against the encroachments of the
bad and were the most efficient means of
maintaining the purity of the pro-
fession. He predicted that the
differences of opinion on the principles of
the profession would continue
"until the science of medicine has acquired
fixed principles, in some remote future
era."
These essays not only serve as an
excellent portrayal of the status of
medical education and practice during
the nineteenth century, but they
also display the great talent,
foresight, and knowledge of one of Ohio's
most outstanding members of her medical
Hall of Fame, namely, Daniel
Drake, M.D. (1785-1852).
Ohio State University LINDEN F. EDWARDS
96 Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Erwin Frink Smith: A Story of North
American Plant Pathology. By Andrew
Denny Rodgers III. Memoirs of the
American Philosophical Society,
Volume 31. (Philadelphia, American
Philosophical Society, 1952. x--
675p., illustrations and index. $5.00.)
In presenting the towering figure of
Erwin F. Smith, Dr. Rodgers con-
tributes to the unfolding of the history
of plant pathology. The present
volume is the seventh in the series of
historical studies Dr. Rodgers has
prepared and in many respects it is his
finest effort. The data in pathology
are complicated and touch on many other
fields. This challenge of multi-
plicity of detail has been well met.
We find from Dr. Smith's birth a story
of hardship but not too severe.
He always had to work but he was always
able to support himself. In
Michigan, where in Ionia County the
parents of Erwin Smith settled on
a farm, it seems that Erwin's work was
the main source of income since
Erwin was twenty-two years old before he
found time for his formal high
school education. By this time he was
already proficient in French and
had a splendid knowledge of the local
plant life thanks to the village
druggist and postmaster, Charles F.
Wheeler.
In 1881 appeared Wheeler and Smith's Catalogue
of the Phaenogamous
and Vascular Cryptogamous Plants of
Michigan. It described some 1,634
species. It brought to the authors great
satisfaction in accomplishment and
a definite standing of worthwhile
achievement in the eyes of Dr. W. J.
Beal at the agricultural college at
Lansing and Dr. Volney M. Spalding
at the University of Michigan. Four
years later Smith entered the Uni-
versity of Michigan and after one year's
residence was, on July 1, 1886,
granted the degree of bachelor of
science with honors. This almost un-
precedented action on the part of a
university faculty came from a recog-
nition of Smith's serious devotion to science
coupled with his wholly
remarkable self-education.
For the twentieth century Smith became
the American Pasteur. He
covered fields adjacent to pathology as
well as the more restricted areas of
his own research. He set out to explore
bacterial pathogens of green
plants and landed in the field of cancer
research. In attempting to ascertain
the causal organism of a certain peach
disease he moved head on into the
problems of virology after a side trip
into minerals connected with plant
nutrition.
In all of these investigations his
friends and to some extent the public
participated, so that the name of Erwin
Smith was never lost to view. More
Book Reviews 97
than anyone else he renewed contacts
between medicine and agriculture
in areas where specialization had
created vast distances between workers
in these fields.
In this space there is left room for
only a word of appreciation of Dr.
Rodgers' accomplishments. In this
seventh volume on botanical history the
methods of developing the subject bear
full fruit. The work draws heavily
on letters and unpublished journals and
further relies on conferences with
friends of the subject of the biography.
There is considerable skill dis-
played in weaving the backgrounds of
Smith's education into the quality
of his work during his research career.
Smith is displayed as a man of
single purpose. If that or other facets
of his complex make-up made him a
person difficult to meet or work with,
no mention of any such situations
appears in Dr. Rodgers' book. It is
always a pleasure to note the way, in
all of his books, Dr. Rodgers has stuck
to the main topic, namely, the
expansion of scientific research in the
hands of American scholars. It is
also a pleasure to note that this book
is dedicated to Dr. E. N. Transeau of
Ohio State University.
Ohio State University A. E. WALLER
The Territorial Papers of the United
States. Compiled and edited by
Clarence Edwin Carter. Volume XVIII, The
Territory of Alabama, 1817-
1819. (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1952.
xiii+875p.,
index. $5.00.)
Alabama Territory had a full life though
a short one, shorter than any
other territory's. Its population more
than doubled between 1816 and 1818;
by 1820 it had nearly doubled again, and
Mississippi, senior as a state by
two and a half years, lagged far behind.
The public documents reflect the
boom, and then the early stages of the
depression of 1819. As congress
prepared for government, planters and
speculators waited impatiently for the
surveyors: "many gentlemen from the
Eastern States [(]very considerable
capitalists too) have arrived in this
Country," reported the register of the
land office at Huntsville (p. 84).
Shortly before the crash, unimproved
agricultural land near the Tennessee
River was selling for as much as $107
an acre (p. 585). Thomas P. Abernethy
has told the general story of these
years (The Formative Period of
Alabama [Montgomery, 1922]) so well that
probably no one will soon undertake a
similar task, but Professor Carter's
volume introduces a new body of rich
sources for economic studies especially.
98
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Pressure of population on the Creeks is
a major theme. The government
factory system was on its last legs,
with sutlers and private traders out-
bidding it.
Ohioans will find much parallel to their
own history: the troubles of the
French Tombigbee Society, proposals for
internal improvements, as along
the Muscle Shoals, disputes with
neighbors over boundaries and water
outlets. Documents such as
correspondence of the secretary of the treasury
with Alabama bankers suggest
opportunities for research in the economic
history of the Middle West after
statehood.
The editor of the Territorial Papers has
recently published a pamphlet
on Historical Editing (Bulletins
of the National Archives, Number 7, August,
1952), which should be introductory
reading for those who use this series,
as well as for those who plan editorial
work of their own. Those who have
been indebted to him over the twenty-two
years of his editorship will
look forward also to the fuller
introduction that is to replace the pre-
liminary form of Volume I.
University of Oregon EARL POMEROY
Charles Waddell Chesnutt, Pioneer of
the Color Line. By Helen M. Chesnutt.
(Chapel Hill, The University of North
Carolina Press, 1952. viii+324p.,
frontispiece, acknowledgments, and
index. $5.00.)
This biography rescues from oblivion a
native son of Ohio who properly
deserves a place of high honor. It tells
the story of one who, despite
tremendous obstacles, achieved
considerable success in his profession of
the law, in literature, and in civic
affairs. He was, moreover, a man of
remarkable courage, wisdom, and
foresight. To read this book is to be
introduced to a truly admirable
personality.
Charles W. Chesnutt was a Negro. He was
born in Cleveland in 1858.
His parents, who were free colored
people of North Carolina, had migrated
North in hopes of finding greater
security and opportunity than the South
afforded them. When the Civil War began,
his father enlisted as a teamster
and served throughout the war in the
Union army. When hostilities ended
the family returned to their old home in
Fayetteville, North Carolina. There
Charles attended one of the schools
which the Freedmen's Bureau had
established for colored people.
He attracted attention by his
brilliance. In addition to attending school,
he helped the family's meager finances
by working at odd jobs. Moreover,
Book Reviews 99
he managed to find enough spare time to
read widely. Though there were
few books in the home, and no library in
the town, he did procure and read
many of the classics.
At the age of fourteen he was appointed
pupil-teacher in the school he
attended, and for the next eleven years
he taught in a number of schools
in the Carolinas, most of them
desperately poor and ill-equipped, and
eventually became principal of the
Fayetteville Normal School. At the same
time he undertook to teach himself
stenography, for he recognized in that
art a means of achieving the goals which
he had set for himself. Also,
he began to nourish literary ambitions,
and in 1880 he wrote, "I think I
must write a book. ... The object of my
writings would be not so much
the elevation of the colored people as
the elevation of the whites. ... I
would be one of the first to head a
determined, organized crusade against
the unjust spirit of caste. Not a
fierce, indiscriminate onset, not an appeal
to force, for this is something which
force can but slightly affect, but
a moral revolution which must be brought
about in a different manner."
These words, written at the age of
twenty-one, were indeed prophetic, and
they sound the note of his entire life.
In 1883 he went to New York, where he
found immediate employment
through his stenographic skill. Within
months, however, he moved on to
Cleveland, for he regarded New York as a
poor place in which to raise the
family which he had acquired.
Cleveland, then, became his home, and
there he resided and prospered
until his death in 1932. His
achievements were numerous and varied. He
read law and passed the bar examinations
at the head of his class; he
established a profitable stenographic
business; he was active in civic and
social affairs, and in organizations of
many types; he played a leading role
in national movements affecting the
welfare of the Negro. On top of all
that, he wrote poetry, short stories,
and novels, upon which the critics
showered praise. Though his literary
talents did not equal those of a
Hawthorne or a Hemingway, he was
talented nevertheless; and he has the
distinction of having been the first
American Negro novelist.
This biography is the work of one of his
daughters, and it is a warm and
intimate portrait. It includes
innumerable letters which he wrote to, and
received from, his publishers, his
family, and distinguished people in many
walks of life.
Ohio State University BREWTON BERRY
100
Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
Lincoln the President: Mid-Stream. By J. G. Randall. (New York, Dodd
Mead & Company, 1952. xv+467p.,
illustrations, map, appendix, and
index. $7.50.)
This is the third volume in Professor
James G. Randall's monumental
biography of Abraham Lincoln. Two
previous volumes, issued in 1946,
carried the Lincoln story from
Springfield to Gettysburg. The present volume
is concerned with the critical year
1863, when the chief executive was
caught mid-stream in a whirlpool of
politics, civil war, and personal tragedy.
It is shown that the president,
perplexed by Union military reverses, the
unfavorable report of the house
committee on military affairs, and the
attitude of a recalcitrant congress,
continued his earlier policy of executive
legislation. During the opening years of
his administration Lincoln pro-
claimed a blockade, suspended the
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus,
increased the size of the regular army,
issued a set of regulations for the
enforcement of the military act of 1862,
and later issued two emancipation
proclamations, which, of course,
trenched upon the legislative spheres.
Moreover, he authorized the expenditure
of money without congressional
appropriations and made far-reaching
decisions and commitments when
congress was not in session. Within a
short time, the very party members
who had criticised the apparent weakness
of the executive now charged
that the president, in assuming certain
necessary war powers, was exercising
the prerogatives of a dictator.
During the course of the conflict it
became necessary for the president
to suppress temporarily certain
time-honored civil liberties. In suspending
the ancient privilege of the writ of
habeas corpus Lincoln acted in the
interest of preventing disloyalty within
the Union, particularly in Maryland,
and in the interest of upholding federal
authority. It is clear today, although
not so readily perceived by
contemporaries who labeled such action as
arbitrary and accused Lincoln of being a
dictator comparable to Nero or
Caligula, that the purpose of the
government was not to convict or punish
persons, even though actively engaged in
rebellion, but to uphold respect
for law and order and to guard against
disloyalty in "its effects upon the
war effort." Of especial interest
in this connection was the arrest, trial,
and banishment to the Confederacy of
Ohio's Clement L. Vallandigham,
who, against the protests and wishes of
the administration, was tried by a
military court for expressing sympathy
for those in arms against the United
States. It is interesting to note,
however, that the president never completely
subordinated civil government to the
military, and, after the supreme court
Book Reviews 101
rendered its decision in the case Ex
parte Vallandigham, preferred to ignore
the incessant clamorings of the
pro-southern elements, who, after an
unhappy courtship with the Confederacy,
promptly affirmed their loyalty
to the Union cause when Ohio and Indiana
were threatened by Morgan's
Rebel raiders. Similarly, the president
defended the freedom of the press
against the excesses of military
authority by promptly disallowing the action
of General Burnside in seizing and
suspending the publication of the
Chicago Times. However, it was not until 1863 that the congress, by an
act of legislative ambiguity, recognized
the correctness of the president's
action in suspending the writ of habeas
corpus, but neglected to specify
the branch of government responsible for
the initiation of such action.
Then, too, in the famous Prize Cases,
originating in 1861 but tried in 1863,
the supreme court sustained, in part,
the executive legislation of the
president.
While Lincoln was attempting to preserve
civil liberties in war times,
a new danger presented itself in the
realm of foreign relations. The ad-
ministration strove, quite successfully,
to prevent a major European power
from recognizing the belligerency of the
Confederacy or furnishing warships
to be used against the United States.
Although diplomatic relations were
strained, the danger of English intervention
was more apparent than real.
A combination of forces, including John
Bright's friendliness toward the
Union, made for more cordial relations
with Great Britain. The author,
eschewing the sensational school of
historians, corrects the historical error
that the famous note written by Charles
Francis Adams to Lord Russell
on September 5, 1863, was responsible
for the British retention of the two
ironclads being constructed by the Laird
firm for the Confederacy. Indeed,
Lord Russell had decided upon the
detention of the rams before the Adams
note was written.
At this point Lincoln, encouraged by
improved relations with Europe,
Union victories at Gettysburg and
Vicksburg, a clearing of the political
atmosphere following the state elections
of 1863, and the resumption of
conscription in the Empire State
following the draft riots in New York
City, launched his plan of
reconstruction. This plan included pardon,
amnesty, resumption of allegiance, and
reconstruction of the loyal states.
Almost immediately the radicals in
congress, led by Thaddeus Stevens, the
Pennsylvania misanthrope, reasserted the
supremacy of the radical elements
of congress. It is shown that the gains
made by the president in the field
of executive legislation were
overshadowed by the extent congress thwarted
102 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Lincoln on the issues of reconstruction.
It must not be forgotten, however,
that before the perspective of congress
was clouded by a war psychosis,
the purposeful rather than the negative
use of government was illustrated
by the creation of a department of
agriculture, the enactment of the
Morrill land-grant college act, and the
passage of the homestead act.
The author concludes his study with a
chapter devoted to an interpreta-
tion of the mind and personality of
Lincoln. In this, and in previous chapters,
it is shown that Lincoln had implicit
faith in the judgment and ability of
others and was never afflicted with the
strange psychological malady--
executivitis. Lincoln's attention to
details, his gregariousness as evidenced
by his availability and attentiveness to
appeals for public and private as-
sistance, his levity during what lesser
men interpreted to be important
conferences, and his preparation of
notes to be signed by his secretaries,
Nicolay and Hay, convinced many that the
Illinoisan was entirely incapable
of assuming the grave responsibilities
demanded by the high office.
Despite the mounting tide of personal
criticism, Lincoln continued to
share the joyousness of nonsense. He was
frequently condemned by men
possessing a false sense of propriety
for what appeared to be a non-
professional attitude in conducting the
affairs of state. Yet, what sometimes
appeared to be sheer frivolity often proved
to be shrewd logic and con-
fusing to men possessing one track
minds. Lincoln's stock of anecdotes,
some of which might have been a bit
risque, grated on the tender sensi-
bilities of Senator Henry Wilson and
Secretary Stanton. Moreover, his
occasional reversion to colloquialisms,
despite the fact that his Gettysburg
address proved to be a masterpiece of
English composition, irked and
annoyed the rabid Adam Gurowski. In the
Victorian age of fuss and
feathers Lincoln, of course, was
unparlorable, yet he was neither ignorant
nor naive. His unconventionality, his
rugged individualism, "lack of style,"
and apparent disregard of social
niceties, was regretted by Washington
society, but was heartily approved by
millions of Americans, who, like the
president, were close to the soil. And
so one might go on, but it should
be clear at this point that Professor
Randall, dean of American Lincoln
scholars, has produced the fullest, most
thorough, and accurate portrait of
Lincoln during the critical year. This
volume, as the two previous ones,
reflects Professor Randall's meticulous
and painstaking research. The author
neither defends nor condemns the
administration, but provides a nice
synthesis and correlation of facts
offered by a nation torn by civil strife.
Mid-Stream, well printed, fully documented, and attractively bound,
contains fifteen illustrations, a map of
the Chattanooga area, an appendix
Book Reviews 103
containing an excellent essay on the
opening and the content of the Robert
Todd Lincoln Collection, and a
satisfactory index. Students of history
anxiously await additional volumes in
this series and the publication of
Mrs. Randall's biography of Mary
Lincoln.
Ohio State Archaeological JOHN 0. MARSH
and Historical Society
Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. Edited with Notes and Introduction by
E. B. Long. (Cleveland and New York, The
World Publishing Com-
pany, 1952. xxv+608p., illustrations,
maps, and index. $6.00.)
The arrival of this handsome edition of
Grant's Memoirs sent this writer
scurrying to find his old, worn 1885 edition
formerly the property of a
G.A.R. uncle. The contrast between the
two was indeed astonishing. The
large, clear print of the new edition
makes reading it a pleasure; the
small type of the old edition, published
by the Charles L. Webster Com-
pany (Mark Twain's firm), had always
made reading this volume some-
thing of a chore. More important,
however, is the graceful and informative
introduction by E. B. Long. His brief
notes are well done; we can only
wish that Mr. Long, a careful student of
the Civil War period, had written
a longer introduction and had annotated
the text more extensively.
Grant's Memoirs remain an
important record of the great American con-
flict. Despite his advanced years and
fatal illness, Grant wrote an account
that is accurate and fair. In writing
his reminiscences he drew upon Albert D.
Richardson's popular 1868 campaign
biography and the three-volume work
of Adam Badeau, his former aide.
Further, Badeau frequently visited the
dying general at his retreat at Mount
McGregor, New York, and refreshed
his chief's memory. Recent biographies
of Grant by Hesseltine and Lewis
disclose but a few errors in the Memoirs.
For the modern reader the most
unfortunate aspect of the volume is
Grant's failure to express any of his
personal feelings or emotions. From
its pages we do not gain any insight of
our sixth general-president, for
rarely does he confide any evidence of
inner struggle or conflict of emotions
to the printed page. Could we have only
had a few paragraphs here and
there on his private reactions to
ordering men to certain death, to being
elevated to the highest military office
of the Union forces, or to his meetings
with Lincoln, this volume would have far
greater appeal. Grant's approach
is always what he did, never what he
thought or felt. Almost the only
104 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
human touch is his description of Lee's
surrender at Appomattox, in which
he pictures himself and Lee talking
about the old days while the peace
terms are forgotten.
Finally, it should be pointed out to the
general reader--and there are
many generals to read about these
days--that the Memoirs are primarily
a military account, concluding with the
end of the war, and do not
comment upon Grant's later presidential
and unhappier years.
Ohio State University EVERETT WALTERS
The Crisis of the Polish-Swedish War,
1655-1660. By Karol Marcinkowski.
(Published by the author, 1952. 98p.,
bibliography. Paper, $1.00.)
In the summer of 1655 Charles Gustavus
of Sweden invaded Poland.
Within three months resistance to him
had disintegrated, and the Polish
state, under assault at the same time
from the Brandenburgers and the
Russians, had virtually ceased to exist.
Yet within another three months
the political tide had turned most
dramatically, and the Poles, in saving
themselves, had written one of the most
glorious pages in their history.
What were the sources of this testimony,
as Dyboski would have it,
of the "still enormous vitality of
the nation"? The traditional and popular
explanation cites the successful and
inspiring defense of the monastery
of Czenstochowa, led by the monk
Augustyn Kordecki, from November 18
to December 18, 1655. It appears in
Professor Halecki's recent Borderlands
of Western Civilization, and, with qualifications, also in the Cambridge
History of Poland. Another explanation, in its extreme form, denies that
the monastery's defense played any
significant role in rousing the nation
to resistance. It argues instead for the
organizing services of the army
commander Stefan Czariecki.
Marcinkowski, in his little book, comes
out with great passion and much
erudition in support of the latter view.
In the course of his argument he
brings out the fact that some weeks
before the defense of the monastery,
Kordecki had pledged his loyalty and
that of his fellow monks to the
Swedish king. This is, strictly
speaking, not too relevant an argument,
and the pointed use of it strengthens
the anticlerical tone discernible
through Marcinkowski's pages. Also, this
use of the argumentum ad hominem
has as one consequence the exaggeration
of the role of Czarniecki.
There is little question that Czarniecki
is the one true hero of the crisis.
Yet the commander, as even Marcinkowski
makes clear, worked in con-
Book Reviews 105
junction with broad cooperating forces.
Danzig and Lwow had also held
out against the enemy, the Crimean
Tatars swung in to support the Poles,
and the populace was roused by acts of
the cruel and predacious Swedes.
Also, if Marcinkowski does not grant it,
this was an age when religious
feeling was stronger than patriotism,
and the defense of a Catholic center
against Lutheran troops certainly did
contribute to the dramatizing of
Poland's cause.
Marcinkowski's underlying thesis is that
realistic historical study rather than
legend would have helped his unhappy
country more. This thesis would
have been better served with less
passion and more form, or, if not these,
at least with heavy editing of the prose
and careful printing.
Kent State University ALFRED A. SKERPAN
From Greene Ville to Fallen Timbers:
A Journal of the Wayne Campaign,
July 28 - September 14, 1794. Edited by Dwight L. Smith. Indiana His-
torical Society Publications, Volume
XIV, Number 3. (Indianapolis,
Indiana Historical Society, 1952. 95p.,
index. $1.00.)
Like many disgruntled individuals, the
author of this journal seemed to
wish to remain anonymous, and, in spite
of dogged and persistent research
and study, he still remains among those
historically unknown persons who
give some life and breath to history,
but who never make an appearance
in the clear light of day. Perhaps some
would feel that the anonymity adds
a touch of the romantic, but, for the
researcher, it is a constant hindrance
and stumbling block.
Be that as it may, this new book is a
major contribution to the growing
literature of the Indian Wars, 1790-95,
and is the first detailed, published
account of the Wayne campaign of the
summer of 1794. Other journals
and diaries have been edited and
printed, but, at most, they present only
a sketchy picture of the Indian menace
as seen by the frontier armies of
the late eighteenth century. While
admittedly this is a biased account
written by a member of the Wilkinson,
anti-Wayne faction of the Legion
of the United States, its partiality
does not extend to the point of covering
the main trace of facts.
The editor has done an excellent job of
identifying individuals mentioned
by the journalist in the footnotes, and
has been careful to note changes
in the text not apparent to the reader
of the printed edition of the journal.
It has been suggested that a map of the
campaign route should have been
106 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
included, but the simple fact is that
none of historical accuracy exists,
although several attempts have been made
to reconstruct the route.
By a more careful study of the earlier
Wayne manuscripts of the collection
in the possession of the Historical
Society of Pennsylvania, perhaps a more
judicious estimate of the situation of
the army as it existed in the summer
of 1794 would have been possible. A
particular attention to those papers
of the Wayne collection from
approximately the first of March to the
twenty-eighth of July 1794 would
certainly have aided the editor in his
introduction, clearing up a weak spot
here and there.
The reviewer has had an opportunity to
use a typed transcript of this
journal for research purposes previous
to its publication, and is fully
cognizant of the many problems involved
in its editing. Therefore, he is
greatly appreciative of the scholarly
approach and careful study which
Dr. Smith has taken in bringing this
journal to its present form.
Anthony Wayne Parkway
Board RICHARD C. KNOPF
James A. Garfield, His Religion and
Education: A Study of the Religious
and Educational Thought and Activity
of an American Statesman. By
Woodrow W. Wasson. (Nashville, The
Tennessee Book Company, 1952.
xi+155p., bibliography and index.
$2.50.)
This little book contains an interesting
account of religion, and especially
of the Disciples of Christ, in the early
Western Reserve area. Mr. Wasson,
a Disciple himself, writes
sympathetically and with discernment of Garfield
as a student, as a preacher, and as a
teacher. It is interesting to note how
this sect, the Disciples, arose as a
protest against "sectarianism" and against
dogma, particularly Calvinist dogma, and
relied heavily on "rationalism."
Perhaps this whole attitude is best
expressed by Wasson (p. 105): "The
Disciple emphases on the use of reason
and intelligence in matters of
religion and democratic cooperation of
individuals in congregational church
government largely characterized the
intellectual and religious outlook of
the church throughout its history."
After a few years as principal of the
Disciple school at Hiram and as an
increasingly popular preacher and
antagonist of "atheism," Garfield entered
the field of politics, first as a
part-time state legislator. During the first two
years of the Civil War he was an officer
in the Union army, then he went
into congress, where he stayed until he
was elected president-he had been
elected to the senate by the state
legislature just before the presidential
campaign but never took his seat.
Book Reviews 107
Professor Wasson is concerned primarily
with Garfield's religion and
education. Garfield identified himself
with the more liberal wing of the
Disciples, and the fact that he was a
student, principal, and long-time member
of the board of trustees of Hiram
College (he was still an active member
at the time he was president) may have
something to do with its liberal
record. Perhaps his religious attitude
is well reflected in his reaction to
a sermon which he heard the chancellor
of New York University preach in
1876. Garfield wrote in his journal (of
which he seems to have kept a
great number) that it was "an able
and scholarly sermon, but so ultra
orthodox as to be of little value to me.
He speaks of conversion as a
complete destruction of the natural man,
and a substitution of a new man
as the work of God, not one word of
which I believe" (p. 119). Wasson
further notes (p. 123) that
"Garfield thought of Christ more as an example
to be followed rather than a Deity whose
nature and person were theologically
and metaphysically defined."
As a speaker before teachers' meetings
in the 1850's, as a national figure
who occasionally spoke on educational
subjects, but especially as a member
of the board of trustees writing to the
president of Hiram College, his
close personal friend Burke Aaron
Hinsdale, he gave his ideas on education.
In this area he expressed ideas which
came to be widely accepted a half-
century or more after his death. As
Wasson puts it, Garfield thought the
curriculum of every college "should
grow out of the needs of an expanding
social order." He thought education
should emphasize: 1) health, 2) general
knowledge of arts and industry, 3) good
citizenship, 4) "knowledge of
the intellectual, moral, religious, and
aethestic nature of man," 5) prepara-
tion for one's profession or job. Of all
these Garfield thought number five
was by far the most important.
As would be expected of a
nineteenth-century Protestant American in
public life, Garfield was opposed to the
attack made upon the public schools
by members of the Catholic hierarchy, as
well as their attempts to divert
public funds to parochial schools. He
was very much concerned about the
practical ends of religion. After being
sent on a mission to an Indian tribe
he wrote: "We are accustomed to say
that the Gospel is fitted to all classes
and conditions of men. And this is
probably true when we use the word
in its broadest sense; but it is not
true in the narrow doctrinal sense of
the term. There is a gospel of clothing,
of food, of shelter, of work, that
should precede the theology of the
pulpit" (p. 134).
Professor Wasson is obviously at home in
the use of historical source
108 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
materials. He had the advantage of
having access to the Garfield Papers
in the Library of Congress. It seems
obvious to this reviewer that this is
a book written by a Disciple about a
member of his faith who is regarded
by Disciples as one of their outstanding
members. Within this framework
this is a splendid job.
Hiram College PAUL I. MILLER
Treasure in the Dust: Exploring
Ancient North America. By Frank C.
Hibben. (Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott,
1951. 311p., illustrations and
index. $5.00.)
This popular work is the story of the
prehistoric Indians in North
America and the author's interpretation
of the accrued archaeological data.
It is "in no sense an exhaustive
study of any one area or culture. Rather
it seeks to catch the spirit of the
different ways of life in ancient America."
The opening chapter provides for the
reader an interesting but somewhat
philosophical analogy of our culture to
that of the prehistoric Indians,
that is, we, like the aborigines, seek
the same goal in life. The discussion
then shifts to the methods and
techniques of the archaeologist and his
use of other disciplines to "recapture"
man's cultural past. The section
that follows briefly reviews the
antiquity of man in America and the
theories of the sources or origins of
the aborigines, among them the
fabled continent of Atlantis; the
ancient Land of Mu; the "Chinese Junk";
the South Sea Islands; and finally Asia
via the Bering Strait.
Succeeding chapters review in dramatic
fashion the events leading up
to the discoveries in the various
archaeological areas and the men involved,
at the same time providing a synthesis
of what is known of the people
in these areas as it has been revealed
by archaeological research. While
the Southwest and Plains regions are
well described, the archaeology of
the eastern United States is delineated
by a "mound-building" group of
people, and does not demonstrate
progress of the prehistoric Indian from
a nomadic existence to a sedentary
village life.
Despite the book's shortcomings the lay
reader is certain to find Treasure
in the Dust stimulating and intriguing. It serves to release him
from
technical archaeological reports and
makes available the facts as well as
some of the glamor and romance inherent
in the archaeologist's quest.
Ohio State Archaeological RAYMOND S. BABY
and Historical Society