The San Francisco call., 1895-07-28

other hand municipal rottenness existed
in all the larger cities OF the Union, and
some of the gravest evils of this kind from
which the country now suffers had already
made their appearance in the management
of civic administration.
One of the most notable contrasts be-
tween the people of this generation and Of
that before the war is in the matter of
health and personal appearance. Every
writer on such subjects before the war de-
scribed the American as pale, lean and
careworn, appearing very inferior to the
European in vigor and freshness. This
seeming weakness was attributed at the
time to the climate, but the wonderful
change for the better in later years shows
that cannot have been the cause. Mr..
Rhodes considers it to have been due to
bad cooking, fast eating and insufficient
exercise in the open air. Along with the
Improvement in health there has come
also since the war a higher standard of
commercial integrity and a better system
of morals in private life, which, taken in
connection with the lowered standard of
official honesty, leads Mr.. Rhodes to say
that in no Teutonic nation of our day is
the difference so marked between public
and private standards of morality as in
the United States. The one is lower than
1t was in 1867 the other, inconsistent as it
may seem, is higher.
Coming to the political events following
the election of Lincoln, Mr.. Rhodes re-
views the action of Buchanan during the
fall of 1860, while the Southern States
were making ready to defy the authority
Of the Government, and declares the Presi-
dent deserves historical censure for not
adopting the Jacksonian policy IN dealing
with the leaders of the movement. It is
not believed by those who are best in
formed that such action at that time
would have prevented the war by arresting
its leaders, but it is claimed that it would
have reused Northern patriotism earlier
and precipitated the war upon the South
before the leaders there were prepared for
it and thus brought it to quicker and less
costly conclusion.
Mr.. Rhodes considers that the Southern
people were more eager for secession than
their leaders, and quotes expressions of
public sentiment to show that in the cotton
States even Toombs and Davis were regard
ed as being too moderate in their demands
upon the North.
The sketches given of the leading men
on both sides of the struggle show no
traces of partiality for those of the North
over those of the South. Lee, Jackson and
Johnson are as highly praised almost as
any of the leading men on the Union side.
Mcclellan is held responsible for the long
delay of the Union armies in making an
SuNduCc upon Wullc OGdQL Is
given full praise for the vigor with which
he forced the fighting in the west and won
that splendid series of victories, beginning
with the capture of Donaldson, which did
so much to encourage the country during
the dark days that followed the disastrous
battle of Bull Run. A considerable space
is given to an account of the attitude of
England during the first year of the war.
This part of the work is enriched by many
quotations from the private correspond
ence of Sumner, Lowell, Holmes, Emer-
son and number of other Americans of
eminence with Leading Englishmen.
The volume closes with the story of the
capture of New Orleans, the great historic
sea fight between the Merrimac and the
Monitor and leaves the people of the
North rejoicing in the belief that McClel-
Ian would be successful in his march on
Richmond and that the war would be
ended by the close of summer. 1t is ex-
pected that another volume will close the
war period, but it is the intention of the
author to bring the history down to 1886.
The volume is supplied with maps of battle.
fields and copious index. Harper &
Bros, New York.