New-York tribune., 1884-02-17
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THURLOW WEED.

TsrRIow WEED BARNES svo. pp XIX, e17. Hough-
ton. Mihiin Co.
The Life of Thurlow Weed" as pubiishea py ii'
grandson comprises the Autobiography "n'0n up
peared last year. and the Memoir wh'cn ho" I'm
n,etes the work. The division is somewhat lnar'is
A., I.oon.o Mr Rarues does not confne his labor to
e,;shmg the interrupted task OF his grandfather,
r., ,oos back to the beginning and tells the whoie
go afresb 90 that to read the Life" systemati-
calIv and chronologcally must holda fat volume
omen IN each hand. Still there is something TO be
said in favor of an arrangement when separates
two narratives identical TO certain point, ID SUD-
iect. vet widely different in nature and value.
Those who prize an autobiography as study OF
orsonal character or as record of personal opin-
ION will content themselves with Mr.. Weeds own
account of the scenes in which he bore SO important
and peculiar part while for so much of a chron-
cle of politics belongs to the career of an old and
very busy politician, we may turn TO the unadorned
narrative by Mr.. Weeds grandson. 1t may be
taken for granted that political questions are pre-
sented here as they appeared to Mr. Ihurlow W Wced'
so far as the biographer understands his grand
fathers sentiments; but We must presume that the
record gives Mr.. Weeds opinions as they were at
the time Of the transactions under review ana hoI
the mature conclusions which he would nave eA-
pressed had he been spared to complete the ssrVey
of his life II is hardly doubtful that he would
things corrected many false impressions, and SOFT
.ned or wholly withdrawn many harsh judgments.
Rnt if in his peaceful and genial old age he I'M
parted TO his biographer many deliberate and cor
rected commentaries upon the contests IN which he
had participated the statesmen with whom he co.
operated or had quarrelled the rivals whom he had
fought the historical events in which he had
played part Mr.. Barnes has not thought 1t neces-
sary 10 embOdy these reyisiOns in his narrative.
On the contrary, he seems TO have taken up i'll
earnest the dead anmostes of thirty or forty years
ago. There is something touching III this youthful
reverence for the old ancestral ghosts but the re-
suit of it is odd and unpleasant contrast between
our latest recollectOns of the kindly and philoso-
phcal veteran and the rancOrous pages IN which
family affection has preferred to commit him to
posteritv. We suspect that Mr.. Barnes has trusted
too much to old letters and old newspapers, and has
absorbed from them various anmosities and pref
dices which his grandfather outlived.
Ono of the chief sufferers from this unfortunate
perpetuation of ancient passions is Mr.. weed NM
self. Mr. Weed belonged 10 that class of patriotic
but sometimes shortsighted conservative Repub-
licans to whom in 500 and in the first months OF
1861 an abolItiOnist was as hateful as alebel'
Radical with them was the severest term of re-
proach. Greeley, Sumner, Chase Hale, Wade Tar
rson. Phillips, and scores Of other high-minded
plans they classed together in one indscTimlnatng
censure as fanatics, agitatOrs and incendlareS.
Virtually, though not always IN plain terms, they
laid the responsibility for the rebellion not only
upon the friends of slavery but upon its uncom-
promising enemies. They opposed the nomination
of Mr.. Lincoln; and they believed even after the
contest had begun that the war which bad been
treacherously and resOlutey prepared by the South
long in advance could be stopped by fresh conces-
1r1n lUaS MY Waa1
was an ardent supporter of the Crittenden Com
promise which practically gave up to slavery almost
everything for which the North had been contend
ing He did not realize that such an abnegatiOn of
the rights of freedom would be both disgraceful
and Intellectual. We say this not to cast dlscredit
upon Mr.. Weeds memory for IN 1sG0-61 very
large party of excellent men thought as he did,
and very small party really understood the crisis
nj which the country had arrived. But what arc we
TO say Of the discretion of the bographer who
dwells upon this pardonable error of his hero as a
special evidence of political sagacity, and angrily
maintains in this year of grace that Crtenden and
Weed could have kept out the Atlantic Ocean if
the Radicals had not taken away their broOmsl
Mr. Barnes gives the gTOtesquely false impression
that the South waited until it was plain that the
Crittenden proposition and the Peace Conference
would fail, and then set up the COnfederacy as
last resort The abOtiOnists forced the slave
States ont Of the Union, wished them TO 60 ont,
hated the UniOn and despised the Constitution.
More than all else, q the theory undoubtedly pre-
vailed among Radical politicians that prominence
of the abolition issue and failure to reach peace
able adjustment would drive Mr.. Seward out of the
State Department and Mr. Weed ont of politics.
To reject all arbitration was to condemn the policy
with which Mr.. Seward and Mr.. Weed were ident-
fed. Ambitions Radicals did not fail TO make the
most of what they conceived to be a great political
opportunity" In another place Mr. Barnes declares
that the Radicals in Congress "were ready to dis
solve the Union, destroy the Government and bank
rupt the people TO keep Mr. Seward out of the Cabi
metz Thus, he eXclalms again, great people were
"plunged into the most mhuman war of modern
times 10 suit the caprices of Jefferson Davis and
Wendell Phillips" This reckless manner of writing
belongs TO campaign literature rather than to his
tory. 1t sounds like an extract frcm Tile Nec York
Herald of 1860. Most people understand that
compromise failed because compromise was exactly
what the South was resolved nos to have Mr.
Weed saw that slavery having rafhed its natural
limit, was doomed to gradual restriction merely
through the superior vitality of the free North and
that is one reason why he deprecated agitation.
But the South saw it as well as he did. and de-
termined when she could no longer make the North
an active partner IN the fGrcibT3 extension of
slavery to .secede and set up f,r herself That was
the scheme formed years ahead, ana the time being
ripe for 1t the overt actions began with the Charles
ton Convention. To discuss compromises then was
10 whistle for the wind. Everything offered was re-
jected by the South; and while Thurlow Weed and |
others were proposing adjustments, Jefferson Davis
was already in office at Montgomery and the Con- !
federacy in Ii Mr.. Barnes is right in his
statement that the refusal of Republicans to
render the results of the election was the cOnse-
quence of a dsTaceful personal intrigue, of the
leaders in the Radical plot TO keep Mr. Seward out
of the State Department and Mr.. Weed out of poll
tics must have been Abraham Lincoln for we lud |