BOOK REVIEWS
The Taft Story. By William S. White. (New York, Harper & Brothers,
1954. [x]+282p.; illustrations and
index. $3.50.)
Within certain limits, William S. White,
a very able New York Times
Washington correspondent, has produced a
useful study of the late Senator
Taft. It should be added quickly,
however, that the limits are indeed
limited. The book does not pretend to be
a biography; in fact, it is without
documentation, woefully out of balance,
and loosely put together. Still
there emerges a valuable portrait of
"Mr. Republican," and one which
cannot help but contribute to our
understanding of that sometimes mis-
understood man.
On the debit side the most striking
omissions relate to Taft's ancestry,
nativity, adolescence, and early
maturity. Only 52 of the book's 282 pages
have anything to do with background, and
even there the data is so scattered
as to be something less than clear.
After this brief introduction, one is
quickly propelled into 1945, and the
remaining 230 pages deal with the
last eight years. Mr. White went to
Washington in 1945, and his sole
sources are personal conversations with
and observations of Senator Taft
after that time. In essence then this is
a case study of Taft under eight
years of Truman and six months of
Eisenhower.
As a case study what does it reveal?
Several controlling factors at once
deserve comment. Taft, in the author's
view, seldom understood that which
he did not experience. For example, his
isolationism and his insistence on
cutting military expenditures, is
explained by the fact that he never was in
the army. Then again, Taft never
experienced anything resembling economic
insecurity. This, says Mr. White, is why
he looked askance at "socialistic
nonsense," which was supposed to
help those who had experienced economic
insecurity.
Another factor which conditioned Taft's
outlook was the Bull Moose
defection in 1912. The lesson learned
here was that unless party regularity
was maintained the party would be
destroyed. This was at the bottom of
the senator's differences with Thomas E.
Dewey. Taft felt that Dewey
represented a "me too-ism,"
which was so close to "Eastern internationalism"
and "New Deal socialism" as to
sap the party's vitality. It left the rank
and file Republican with no chance to
vote for honest to goodness "Old
Guard" Republicanism. When Taft
negotiated the "Morningside Surrender"
with Dewey's man Eisenhower, the latter
acceded to Taft's demands for a
program based on this traditional
Republican philosophy. On that basis
419
420
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
alone was the Taft-Eisenhower alliance
cemented. Despite deep respect for
the senator, Mr. White believes that
Taft was fighting a losing battle. The
old philosophy was on the way out, and
Taft's failure to win any of the
three nominations he sought, accurately
reflected the party's thinking on the
matter.
Chronologically, Taft's post-war career
is broken down into three sections:
(1) "Onset of the Power"--1945-48;
(2) "The Sad, Worst Period"--
1949-52; (3) "The Last, Best
Taft"--1953. The first period covers the
Republican 80th congress, where Taft was
at the peak of his power as a
party leader. This was the era of
Taft-Hartley and of some of the more
salty Taft-Truman exchanges. The
second--"sad, worst"--period provided,
for this reviewer, the most revealing
passages of the book. The party's
repudiation of Taft himself as well as
the work of the 80th congress at
the 1948 convention, so embittered the
senator that he became a changed
man. From then down until the 1952
convention he adopted an attitude of
cynicism and pettiness, which was
totally out of character. He said and did
things which alienated many followers
and indulged in what Mr. White
considers unfair sniping at Truman and
Acheson. The largeness of the man
was lost in these years.
The last period, which covered the six
months of the Taft-Eisenhower
alliance, saw the senator execute an
about face and blossom into the mature,
responsible, national (as against party)
statesman which he had not hereto-
fore been. Here he was the prime
minister, educating the inexperienced
president, pushing his program, and
dominating the congress. The author
believes that with Taft's untimely death
the nation lost a leader of unique
qualities, perhaps the outstanding
statesman of the age. It would not be
surprising if history were to sustain
this early judgment.
Rio Grande College EUGENE C. MURDOCK
The Real Americans. By A. Hyatt Verrill. (New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons,
1954. x+309p.; illustrations, glossary,
biographies, and index. $5.00.)
"This book," according to its
author's own statement in the introductory
pages, "is not intended to be a
scientific ethnological work" but rather aims
to convey "a better knowledge and
understanding of our Indians of the
United States" by telling "of
their lives, customs, arts and industries, their
psychology and mental reactions, their
religious myths and their legends--in
short, their 'human'
characteristics." The author has carried out this plan
as completely and consistently as
possible in a book of slightly more than
Book Reviews 421
300 pages. Moreover, he has done so with
such vivacity and immediateness
of presentation as to make The Real
Americans eminently attractive reading,
not only to the more or less educated
adult but especially to adolescent
youngsters of high-school age who in its
pages will discover a treasure trove
of fascinating and thought-provoking
information.
The reader, be he young, old, layman, or
even a serious student of
ethnology, anthropology, history, and
what not, can be safely assured that
the one or other of his notions about
American Indians, preconceived or
studiously acquired, will be shattered
by the facts presented by Mr. Verrill.
Most of these he assembled "during
more than an average lifetime"--he is
a man of eighty-three--on occasional
visits or even prolonged stays with
"innumerable tribes." Having
been adopted into several of them, and
having attained to high tribal honors in
others, Mr. Verrill rightfully claims
to know his Indians "about as well
as it is possible for any white man to
know them." Moreover, both he and
his wife (so he states) have sufficient
Indian blood in their veins to make them
Indians, "officially and by Indian
rules."
Moreover, in writing this book, the
author has "had the wholehearted
assistance and co-operation" of his
"Indian friends." The names of only
part of them cover more than half a
printed page. This personal method of
acquiring facts has essentially
contributed to the fascinating vividness of
Mr. Verrill's style. It also helps to
explain why most of the countless events
and incidents, as related throughout the
work, are seen with Indian eyes and
hence almost exclusively presented from
the Indians' standpoint. This is a
novel approach. So far, the history of
the white conquest of North America
has been written by the white
conquerors, who have consistently tried to
silence the disturbing voice of their
collective conscience by harping on the
congenital evilness of their
"perfidious and bloodthirsty" victims. Con-
sidering this, one cannot welcome enough
Mr. Verrill's passionately breaking
a lance for the conquered. Once in a
while, though, his affection for his
Indians may have guided his pen to extol
them too much, and to blame
the whites and their government too
severely. However, without detailed
investigation and appraisal of source
material it would be difficult to prove
him in error. He himself cites next to
no literature of any kind in support
either of his accusations against the
whites, or of his condoning of question-
able Indian actions. It seems to this
reviewer that even a popular presenta-
tion of historical events, such as this
book, ought to contain a minimum of
source references, indispensable for the
sake of fairness to either side.
Apart from those controversial issues,
the one or other statement along
422
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
different lines calls for a confirming
reference. For example, one would be
grateful to learn the source of the
author's claim that "we know now, . . .
that maize or Indian corn was known in
Egypt and India ages before the
coming of Columbus" (p. 7).
These minor shortcomings, however, are
as nothing in view of the general
excellence of Mr. Verrill's work. It is
a most remarkable book, which
everybody interested in these only real
Americans must read, if for no other
reason than to rid himself of
innumerable absurd notions about Indians,
both of the past and of the present day.
Ohio State University AUGUST C. MAHR
Inside Lincoln's Cabinet: The Civil
War Diaries of Salmon P. Chase. Edited
by David Donald. (New York, London, and
Toronto, Longmans, Green
and Company, 1954. ix+342p.;
introduction, bibliographical notes, and
index. $6.50.)
Salmon P. Chase was the first of a long
line of Ohioans who have held
prominent posts in almost every
Republican administration from the Civil
War to the present. As secretary of the
treasury and later as chief justice of
the supreme court he played a major role
in the Civil War and Recon-
struction era. Despite the important
positions he held, Chase is one of the
less well-known characters of American
history. The reasons for his relative
obscurity are various. Chase's
personality, though strong, lacked lustre. Con-
temporaries differed as to various
facets of his character, but all agreed that
he was humorless, pompous, and
ambitious. Furthermore, he held a post
that was lacking in glamor. While others
were engaged in making military
strategy or planning political
maneuvers, Chase was obliged to give the
greater portion of his time to such
thankless tasks as trying to persuade
congress to vote higher taxes or
pleading with bankers for loans with which
to wage the war. Worst of all, perhaps,
he dared differ with Lincoln, and
to certain of his contemporaries and
many later historians this was an
unforgivable sin.
One way of securing a place in history
is to produce a brilliant set of
memoirs. This, Chase did not do. Despite
skillful editing, the diaries
reproduced in this volume are
disappointing both in quantity and quality.
Though ostensibly running from 1861 to
1865, the journals have many
large gaps. As best one can make out,
Chase actually made entries during
only about eighteen months of the four
years of the war. As to the quality
of the material, one is inclined to
agree with the editor's comment that there
Book Reviews 423
is a "curious objectivity"
about the diaries. They are in fact a stark record
of events, intended, as Chase said, not
for publication but "in memoriam."
Chase records the names of people he saw
(a habit that provides quite a
job of identification for the editor);
what he said at cabinet or other im-
portant meetings; his ideas on the
emancipation and enfranchisement of the
Negro; and his ideas on how to win the
war. With the exception of
Lincoln and McClellan, there is little
comment on personalities. There is
hardly more than a hint of the hustle,
bustle, and intrigue that characterized
war-time Washington. Family life and
personal affairs are scarcely men-
tioned. Since his daughter, Kate
Sprague, was the "hostess with the mostess"
in her day, Chase stood at the vortex of
the social swirl, yet we are per-
mitted hardly a glimpse of high society.
This unadorned record is all the
more surprising in view of the fact
that, as a young man at least, Chase
revealed in his writing a warm,
perceptive, and sensitive nature. Perhaps
he was too occupied with the business of
the day, perhaps high office had
made him too egotistical; but whatever
the reasons, these diaries are, as the
editor points out, revealing mainly in a
negative sense.
After Chase's death there was a legal
battle over the disposition of his
voluminous papers. The result was that
the records became divided and
there are now two main bodies: one in
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
and another in the Library of Congress.
The papers printed in this volume
have been drawn from both depositories.
The diary from July to October
1862, which constitutes a considerable
portion of the present volume, was
published in the Annual Report of the
American Historical Association of
1902. Other excerpts from the diaries
are given, often imperfectly, in the
highly laudatory biographies of Chase by
Robert B. Warden and Jacob W.
Schuckers published in 1874. All three
of these earlier works have long
been out of print and both historians
and general readers are indebted to
Mr. David Donald for providing a
reliable and neatly edited text.
In addition, Mr. Donald has written an
excellent introduction, in which
he traces Chase's military interests,
antislavery 'activities, political intrigues,
and accomplishments as finance minister
of the Civil War. In his short but
artfully woven narrative Mr. Donald also
traces Chase's declining influence
in the government and his simultaneously
mounting ambition. Lincoln, who
understood the man as well as anyone,
once said that he was a little insane
in his passion to gain the presidency.
That his incurable ambition impaired
his usefulness and blinded his judgment
can scarcely be denied. At the
same time, however, he had faith,
vision, and undoubted ability. He entered
424
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
into no corrupt bargains and, while he
possessed a high degree of moral
courage, he was not a fanatic. Again
paraphrasing Lincoln, he was about one
and a half times bigger than most of his
contemporaries.
Ohio State University HARRY L. COLES
The Western College for Women,
1853-1953. By Narka Nelson. (Oxford,
Ohio, Western College for Women, 1954.
xiv+248p.; illustrations,
appendices, and index. $4.00.)
The Western College for Women at Oxford,
Ohio, has completed a
century of service. In a spirit of
devotion to her alma mater, Narka Nelson,
professor of classics and adviser to
foreign students, has written a history of
that century of service, sincerely and
in lively style. She has created a
panorama of the development of the
college from a female seminary that
stressed the preparation of women for
homemaking and missionary work
to the new and broad program of
international education upon which the
institution is now embarking. From Helen
Peabody, first lady principal of
the Western Female Seminary, to Herrick
Young, president of the Western
College for Women, the college has had a
continuing interest in the people
of foreign countries. By the end of Miss
Peabody's first twenty-five years,
the seminary had sent out thirty-nine
missionaries to nine foreign countries
and two home mission fields.
The Western Female Seminary was the
first school to follow the plan of
Mary Lyon's Mount Holyoke Seminary.
Helen Peabody, a graduate of
Mount Holyoke, made it a true daughter
of the mother school. Western
College has always had two or more on
its faculty from Mount Holyoke.
In 1888 Miss Peabody was succeeded by
Leila McKee, a Western alumna
and graduate of Wellesley. It was Leila
McKee's task to guide the institu-
tion through the trying days of
transition from seminary to college. The
seminary became "The Western
College for Women" in 1902. Lilian
Wycoff Johnson (1904-6) and Dr. John
Grant Newman (1908-12), by
prodigious effort, raised the endowment
substantially. The college enjoyed
its greatest academic and material
prosperity under the presidency of Dr.
William W. Boyd (1914-31). Through the
efforts of Dean Mary Sawyer
in 1910, Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Stillman
Kelley were brought to the college,
Mrs. Kelley to teach piano, Mr. Kelley
to compose in freedom from financial
care. Some of his finest works were
written in Oxford. Western College
enjoys the distinction of having been
the first college in the United States
to provide a resident fellowship for
creative work.
The statement on page 18 that students
did not come to Miami University
Book Reviews 425
until 1824 is not quite true. James
Hughs, a Presbyterian minister and
trustee of Miami, opened the school in
the new college building in 1818.
The trustees had instructed him to raise
the infant institution to real col-
legiate standing. Robert Hamilton
Bishop, who became president in 1824,
had a faculty of three, not two, as
stated on page 18. The railroad was
opened from Hamilton to Oxford and College
Corner late in November
1859, not 1858, as stated on page 34.
The author has done much careful
research and has produced a valuable
contribution to the history of the
education of women in the Midwest.
Oxford, Ohio OPHIA D. SMITH
Out of the Red Brush. By Kermit Daugherty. (Cleveland and New York,
World Publishing Company, 1954. 251p.
$3.50.)
Ohio Diary: The Saga of Raccoon
Valley. By Charles B. Kincaid
("Jim
Blaine"). (New York, Exposition Press,
1953. 268p.; illustrations.
$4.00.)
The two books under consideration deal
with Ohioana, and the sketches
that go to fill their pages treat
matters of interest to local historians, sociol-
ogists, and folklorists. Both books give
the reader an insight into the manner
in which people lived in the rural
Midwest of the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. Both books are
written "firsthand" by men who have
lived with the culture pattern about
which they write. And Ohio Diary
even includes a number of references to
well-known historical figures and
events. Yet neither book indicates that
the author has something to say, or
really knows how to say it if he has.
Out of the Red Brush is "billed" as a novel. But it is in reality
little
more than a series of sketches centering
around the youthful love-life of
Bill Brennan. And while from time to
time the reader gets to see how the
Red Brush community actually lived, for
the most part he is bogged down
in various forms of seduction, rape, and
mayhem. The only unifying theme
is the struggle Bill has to recover from
being jilted by Vinnie, his child-
hood sweetheart--a struggle that racks
him abnormally and for a surprising
length of time until the whole thing
(the book and Bill's troubles) ends
abruptly in the arms of sweet Sue. This
rather juvenile motif is told in a most
annoying "pseudo-dialect" with
fillips of realism designed to startle, if not
shock. Mr. Daugherty could have gotten
away with this story in 1900.
Then it would have been "fresh,"
"in revolt," "earthy." Today, such realism
is passe. Today, a novel must stand on
more than emasculations, illicit love,
and ruptured virginities.
426
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Ohio Diary is not a novel, but a series of memories, and, thus,
its lack of
structure is not as annoying as the same
fault in Out of the Red Brush. Never-
theless, it is so lacking in ideas,
insights, and fresh facts that one is not even
kept interested by much of it. There are
forty-six essays in the Diary, some
of them no more than a couple of pages.
They all deal with the settlement
and growth of Raccoon Valley. Famous
figures like Daniel Boone, John
Chapman, and John Morgan are given
special chapters, but in each case
the treatment includes some
insignificant anecdote or local legend sandwiched
among a mass of facts available in any
encyclopedia. Beyond this, such
pregnant subjects as gypsies, tramps,
country courts, frog-hunting, and the
evolution of evangelism are allowed to
miscarry; standard folktales like
"Clever Elsie" (Aarne-Thompson
Type 1450) are given as charming rural
yarns; and "cracker-barrel"
philosophies from urban Dale Carnegies to the
local colored mammy are sprayed over
all.
These are works on areas, people, and
events dear to the hearts of the
authors and many students of history. It
is a shame that the books them-
selves can't be given kinder treatment
by an honest reviewer. It is a tragedy
that raw memories--so significant to a
writer--frequently seem trite, even
dull to the mechanical scholar.
Denison University TRISTRAM P. COFFIN
Cyclone in Calico: The Story of Mary
Ann Bickerdyke. By Nina Brown
Baker. (Boston, Little, Brown and
Company, 1952. 278p.; frontispiece,
notes, bibliography, and index. $4.50.)
This is a lively biography of the Civil
War nurse whose courageous,
tireless efforts to improve the care of
the sick and wounded common soldier
won her the affectionate title
"Mother." In presenting the material on Mrs.
Bickerdyke's life in Mt. Vernon and
Cincinnati, Ohio, and Galesburg,
Illinois, before the Civil War, the
author has made a contribution to the
picture of the preparation of one type
of Civil War nurse. Much color is
also added to the well-known facts of
Mrs. Bickerdyke's career as a nurse.
The author does have a tendency to
overemphasize the importance of
the kind of care which Mrs. Bickerdyke
gave. At one time she states, "What
she did would not have been too
different from what a visiting nurse does
now." There was little or nothing
which Mrs. Bickerdyke could or did do
which could be compared with modern
nursing. The level of medicine in
the Civil War period did not make
possible any kind of nursing other than
the attendant type.
It does not seem that Mrs. Bickerdyke's
motivation for serving as a nurse
Book Reviews 427
on the battlefield has been sufficiently
explored or explained. Other women
who became nurses had husbands or sons
in the war or were inspired by the
example of Florence Nightingale in the
Crimea. Not only did Mrs.
Bickerdyke lack this interest, but she
was a widow of forty-four with two
young sons. Why did she leave her sons
in the care of strangers in order to
care for the wounded in the Civil War?
For the duration of the war she
showed almost no concern about her own
children. It seems rather a
strange choice.
Mary Ann Bickerdyke is credited with the
establishment of some three
hundred hospitals for Union soldiers
during the Civil War. She insisted,
however, on working alone--often at odds
with the medical corps and the
sanitary commission. As a result, her
work was of a temporary character.
There is no permanent contribution which
Mrs. Bickerdyke made to the
development of modern nursing or the
establishment of hospitals.
The author has given us a study of a
rugged individualist and an account
of the care and treatment of wounded
before the development of modern
medicine and nursing in the United
States.
Columbus, Ohio MARY JANE RODABAUGH
The Old Country Store. By Gerald Carson. (New York, Oxford University
Press, 1954. xvi+330p.; illustrations,
appendix, chapter references, and
index. $5.00.)
Readers of this Quarterly might
recall the admirable article, "The Country
Store in American Social History,"
by Professor Thomas D. Clark in the
April 1951 issue. In that same issue was
a fine source material, "The
Journal of a Vermont Man in Ohio,
1836-1842." Whoever enjoyed those
works, and indeed anyone interested in
American history, will find ample
pleasure in Gerald Carson's The Old
Country Store.
Mr. Carson, A.B. and A.M. of the
University of Illinois, for several years
a leading advertising copywriter,
relinquished business for writing. He did
prodigious research for this book. The
author has a superb bibliography
of primary and secondary sources.
Furthermore, his acknowledgments refer
to ninety-two persons.
The Old Country Store contains two divisions. Part I covers the years
1791-1861 in 156 pages, while Part II
treats 1861-1921 in 134 pages.
Equally adept in each period, Mr. Carson
played a role in eliminating the
second stage because of his promotion of
automobiles, breakfast foods, and
packaged soaps.
The author adequately substantiated his choice
of outstanding dates. The
428
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
year 1791 marked the revival of the
country store because of the growing
financial stability caused by Hamilton's
measures. Around 1861 improved
mail service, advertising, consumer
packages, and the railroad brought a
commercial unity to the country which
ushered in the golden age of the
country store from 1865 to 1885. The
year 1921 witnessed the end because
of the automobile, paved roads, city department
stores, and mail-order
catalogs.
Profuse are the fascinating details
pertaining to the country store. The
architecture, the varied contents for
use from the cradle to the grave, and
the financing are delineated with
enthusiasm and often depicted in appro-
priate black-and-white illustrations.
Characters--the ambitious clerk, the
cheating housewife, the sly deacon, the
profane loafers, the ubiquitous
peddler, the long-suffering drummer, the
ingenious quack--are keenly etched.
Above all we come to know and respect
the country store merchant--a
wondrous combination of salesman,
banker, shipper of farm crops and local
manufactures, postmaster, militia
captain, politician, undertaker, physician,
lawyer, and all-around counselor.
There are several picturesque references
to Ohio. One is the narrative of
the adventures of an Amesville
storekeeper, Daniel T. Brown, who brought
farm produce down the Mississippi to New
Orleans. Enthralling are
stories about Yankee peddlers in the
Buckeye state. The high pressure sales
campaign exerted on country store owners
by Dayton's National Cash
Register Company is amusingly related.
The reviewer suggests a few
improvements. Slightly larger print would
be appreciated for the sections,
"Some Museum Country Stores," "Notes on
Sources and Authorities," and
"Chapter References." One might prefer that
footnotes not be relegated to the back
of the book. Picture credits should
be inserted below the particular
illustration rather than lumping all such
acknowledgments in a packed manner on
one page in the rear. Ohioans
will be disappointed in the index, which
lists only one item under their
state's name.
Mr. Carson has presented a very
entertaining and comprehensive study
of an institution fundamental to the
study of American history. He would
perform another service by producing
regional histories of the old country
store. Perhaps his present work will
stimulate other historians to the
same end.
University of Dayton ERVING E. BEAUREGARD
Book Reviews 429
Mr. Jefferson's Disciple: A Life of Justice Woodward. By Frank B.
Woodford. (East Lansing, Michigan State
College Press, 1953. viii+
212p.; bibliography and index. $3.75.)
"A Gentleman of the first influence
of the country has declared . . . that
the first law that is passed that does
not please him, he will kick the
government to hell" (p.67). This
defiant and rebellious attitude was typical
of frontier America. From New Orleans to
Detroit liberty outbalanced
order in the early years of the
republic, and territorial governments enjoyed
but a precarious tenure. To many people
the tax collector was an agent of
oppression, the federal judge an
unwelcome representative of a distant
power. It required a wholesome mixture
of tact and ingenuity to command
the respect and allegiance of these
noncompliant frontiersmen.
Augustus B. Woodward, a close friend of
Thomas Jefferson but hardly
his disciple, served as a judge of the
supreme court of the territory of
Michigan from 1805 to 1824. Although
eccentric and quarrelsome--the
author calls him "high-handed" and
"unorthodox"--Woodward brought
the rule of law to the frontier. Few
cases were of real importance. In fact,
lax courtroom procedure created many
humorous incidents. The author tells
us that "Woodward might request the
clerk to mark him absent; then he
would tilt back in his chair and snooze
until things livened up. Once a
lawyer, pleading before the court, took
the opportunity while Woodward
napped to launch a spirited criticism of
one of the chief justice's decisions"
(p. 94). Nevertheless, out of such daily
routine there evolved a new body
of American law which "provided the
Territory with a sound, stable legal
base upon which it was able to develop
and mature, economically and
socially" (p. 190).
Judge Woodward never rose above the
clouds of mediocrity to touch the
stars of genius. He was a penumbral
figure, flitting about the famous and
near-famous of his era. Yet, aside from
his important judicial labors, he
deserves recognition for other
accomplishments. Woodward foresaw that
Detroit was destined to become "a
great interior emporium, equal, if not
superior, to any other on the surface of
the . . . globe" (p. 51). Impressed
with the work of L'Enfant, he adopted
many of the Frenchman's techniques,
drawing up plans to suit the needs of a
future metropolis. But he was a
century ahead of his time. His
opponents, lacking this vision, rejected his
blueprints and subjected Woodward to
ridicule. More successful were his
educational schemes, for out of them
there eventually developed the Uni-
430
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
versity of Michigan. Woodward titled his
institution "the Catholepistemiad,"
classifying the sum of all human
knowledge into thirteen branches, to which
he assigned an appropriate Greek
nomenclature. Once again he was ridiculed,
but this vision bore fruit. The
Catholepistemiad may have been impractical--
as well as snobbish--for its day, but it
familiarized the people of Michigan
"with the conception of a state
system of public instruction conducted on
a scale co-extensive with its territory
and with the needs of society" (p. 160).
This is a capable and competent
biography but, like the title, suffers on
occasion from overstatement. For
example, there have been many other
governments with "less auspicious
beginnings" than the territory of Mich-
igan (p. 53). The comparison of Woodward
and Jeremy Bentham is un-
fair (p. 152). On the whole, however,
Frank Woodford has turned out
a work that is at once useful and
enjoyable.
Ohio State University MORTON BORDEN
Sheridan the Inevitable. By Richard O'Connor. (Indianapolis, Bobbs-
Merrill, 1953. v+400p.; illustrations,
maps, notes on sources, and index.
$4.50.)
Already the biographer of Civil War
generals George H. Thomas and
John B. Hood, Richard O'Connor has now
turned his attention to General
Philip H. Sheridan. The effort here is
to supply a full-length portrait of
Sheridan and his career as well as to
correct the mistaken notion that
Sheridan was all "fire and
fury," impetuous, impulsive, and reckless.
The author uses the narrative approach,
relating his tale in chronological
but lively fashion. Sheridan's career is
described in clear, fast-moving
English, from his boyhood days in Perry
County, Ohio, to his final years as
the nation's highest military chief.
Rising from poor, immigrant parentage,
Sheridan finished his West Point course
after some tumult and a one-year
suspension. Following eight years of
obscurity in military posts in Texas
and the Pacific Northwest, Sheridan
began his ride to fame in mid-1861 at
pedestrian pace as supply officer at
General Henry W. Halleck's St. Louis
headquarters. Not till a year later did
Sheridan finally wangle an active
field command as colonel of the 2d
Michigan cavalry. In his first engage-
ment near Corinth he doggedly snatched
victory from a Confederate force
six times his own in number. After the
Union debacle at Chickamauga,
Sheridan as a division commander helped
lead the recovery at Missionary
Ridge two months later. Impressed with
his subordinate's brisk performance,
Grant took Sheridan east with him in
March 1864.
Book Reviews 431
Placed in command of the Union cavalry,
Sheridan at last had a chance
to test his own view that "a
cavalryman was only an infantryman with four
detachable legs." He reversed the
former practice of using cavalry only for
scouting and guard duty, introducing the
idea that "mounted men with
repeating revolvers and carbines could
bring heavy fire power swiftly to a
critical point" in an engagement.
Sheridan's new tactics paid large dividends
in defeating Jeb Stuart at Yellow
Tavern, in crushing Jubal Early's forces
in the Shenandoah Valley (the Cedar
Creek battle of this campaign inspired
Thomas B. Read's celebrated poem), in
tightening the noose around Rich-
mond, and ultimately in forcing Lee's
final surrender. Little wonder his
enemies called him "Sheridan the
inevitable!"
Following the war's end, Sheridan's
command along the Rio Grande was
used as a counterweight to push Napoleon
III into withdrawing military
support of Maximilian. For almost twenty
years thereafter Sheridan di-
rected the wars against the Plains
Indians and urged the government to
enforce a strict policy of keeping the
Indians on their reservations.
O'Connor seems to have mined thoroughly
the Sheridan Papers at the
Library of Congress, the Official
Records of the war, and Sheridan's Memoirs.
His story well achieves its purpose of
supplying the full-length portrait of
Sheridan. Although analysis and interpretation
are not systematically at-
tempted nor is Sheridan's insistence
upon the importance of mobility in
modern warfare fully developed, this
volume constitutes the best biography
of Sheridan to date.
Baldwin-Wallace College DAVID
LINDSEY
The Rise of Methodism: A Source Book.
By Richard M. Cameron. (New
York, Philosophical Library, 1954.
xv+397p.; tables, notes, and index.
$4.75.)
The author (or editor), professor of
church history at one of the leading
theological seminaries of the Methodist
Church in the United States, Boston
University School of Theology, has
compiled a useful source book of
materials concerned especially with the
origins of Methodism in eighteenth-
century England. He endeavors to present
from the "lengthy journals, count-
less letters, tracts, controversial
pamphlets, theological treatises and sermons"
of John and Charles Wesley and George
Whitefield (which of course fill
many volumes) the particularly
significant materials which are of interest
not only to scholars but to all
"who are interested in the Christian
pilgrimage" (Preface, xiii-xiv).
432
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
The selected materials, cemented
together by interpretative paragraphs,
are organized under seven main headings:
(1) The Rectory Family; (2) The
University; (3) Georgia; (4) The Nascent
Revival; (5) Charismata; (6)
The First United Societies, 1739-1741;
and (7) The Development of
Discipline.
Here the layman may learn that the
family name had originally been
Westley (p. 4), and that one
great-grandfather and two grandfathers of
the founders of Methodism were sturdy
upholders of the Puritan tradition
within English church circles and
suffered accordingly at the hands of the
Anglican Establishment, but that the
father of the Wesley brothers entered
the ministry of the Church of England
and continued in it until his death.
The extensive influence of the gifted
mother of John and Charles Wesley,
Susannah Wesley, is clearly shown. How
her ideas of child training differ
from many modern views may be gleaned
from her statement:
I insist upon conquering the will of
children betimes, because this is the
only strong and rational foundation of a
religious education, without which
both precept and example will be
ineffectual. But when this is thoroughly
done, then a child is capable of being
governed by the reason and piety of
its parents, till its own understanding
comes to maturity, and the principles
of religion have taken root in the mind
(p. 25).
Of especial interest to Americans will
be the presentation of John Wesley's
career of almost two years in Georgia
and his troubled and abruptly termi-
nated romance with Miss Sophia Hopkey.
The reader will find instructive
material on the way in which Wesleyan
Methodists, partly through the early
influence of Susannah Wesley, rejected
the Calvinistic doctrine of
predestination which continued to influence the
thinking of Methodists in Wales and
western England and the preaching of
George Whitefield. The part played by
the Moravian Brethren in shaping
the spirit of Methodism is also
indicated, as are the circumstances which
prompted the eventual parting of the
ways for the two religious groups.
The role of preaching in the open fields
as an aspect of the eventual break
(after John Wesley's death) of Methodism
with the established church is
clearly revealed, as is the development
of distinctive Methodist institutions
and procedures, such as the Classes, the
Conference, the Watch Night, and
the Love Feast.
For the purpose for which the volume is
intended it should render a
useful service.
Ohio State University FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER