New-York tribune., 1903-01-10

deny that stamp duty OF IL Oh q co'iesc
diploma or of flo for license to practise law
was oppressive in those rural communities Of
1765. Attention may be called to a few errors
in the earlier volumes before pass to the
period Of national independence. When the
author writes of brakes famous first voyage
round the world" o. 1O, he forgets Sebastian
del Cano and his splendid coat of arms with
globe for a crest, bearing the glorious motto,
''Primus circumdedisti me-. To say of Henry
VIII, ''he did not insist very much upon matters
of doctrine q, 19) is certainly going too far.
and this and the following sentences character
ize Henry in terms more appropriate to Eliza
beth. The Six Articles of 1889 insisted very
strenuously doctrine, and what was it that
brought Sir Thomas More to the scaffold if not
point of doctrine? The old but now generally
discarded explanation of Braddock's defeat is
perpetuated by the assertion that he walked
into ambush GI, S9)
Beginning with the third volume, the narra-
tive gains steadily in power and interest. To
judge by our own impressions, the author has
achieved his greatest success in the story of
the two generations which lie between the
Revolution and the Civil War. In not few
passages OF analysis and description in the
third and fourth volumes he strikes higher
level than any predecessor has attained The
chapter the Founding of the Federal Gov
erOmenC' nanOleS tnaJ nlatIeT IN a mastery
fashion. The discriminating appreciation of the
tendencies making for q stronger government,
the just characterization of the radical and con-
servative leaders, the brief Illuminating retro
spect of the rise of the literature Of political
discussion and agitation. make splendid whole.
Nor is there any falling off in the remaining
chapters of this volume. 1t would be g. salts
faction TO quote freely to illustrate the high
quality of these pages. but one or two hr1ef
passages must suffice OF the changes which
were to bring about the triumph Of Jackson, he
says:
Hitherto the country had known the leader
ship only Of New-England and the South, re
the one ruled by a professional aristocracy of
ministers and lawyers, the other by a social and
proprietary aristocracy of landowners botn
governed, alike in thought and action, by old
traditions, and both snacking, whatever their
professions Of democratic principle upon occa-
sion, of an Old-World taste for privilege and
for the authority Of a trained. experienced, dis
ciplined minority. But since the new century
opened and Mr.. Adams gave place to Mr.. JEFF
ferson new States had come crowding faster
and faster into the Union and came crowding
still: Ohio 1S02). Louisiana QSl2), Indiana
QS16l, Mississippi QS1O, Illinois QSlS) Alabama
CIS19) most of them springing up in the far
valley of the Mississippi, where new communf-
ties bred air and the sap of new nation
was rising Transportation thither seemed 70
create a new race-not the mere offspring OF
New England the South, not mixed or COM
pounded of the two in such ways as to repro
duce the East, not moulded from the old Worid'
not homogeneous even. but full of racy ele-
rnents united in a new and free combination.
more like New-York and Pennsylvania than
also from these with flavor and spirit distinct
lively its own.
Equally penetrating and effective is the COM
harrison between Jefferson and Jackson:
Mr.. Jefferson. an aristocrat and yet philo-
sophicaI radical deliberately practised the arts
of the politician and exhibited oftentimes the
sort of insincerity which subtle natures yield 10
without loss of essential integrity. General
Jackson was incapable Of arts or deceptlons
Of any kind. He was in fact what his parusans
loved to call him, man OF the people, OF the
comrnonp people Mr.. Jefferson was only a pa
tron of the people: appealed to the rank ana me,
believed in them but shared neither their tastes
their passions.
It would be pleasure to quote more and TO
give some account of the authors treatment OF
the period of Jackson's rule and Of the chapter
on Reconstruction. but we have room only TO
indicate one or two rather important mistakes
and TO comment on the biblographies and the
Illustrations In reviewing the slavery question
apropos of the Missouri Compromise he says;
The cotton gin which Mr.. Whitney had In
vented enabled even an unskllful slave 10
cleanse thousand pounds of cotton Of its tena-
cious seed In a single day Oil, 2o2) TINS is
like crediting Stephenson's Rocket with the speed
of the Empire State Express. or the Clermont
with that of the Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse
Olmsted in his memoir of Eli Whitney says that
Whitney's first gin would clean fifty pounds of
cotton day. Later Improvements increased its
capacity, but as late as the Civil War it was far
short of what It is to-day. Gosse. in his Letters
from Alabama, 1859 (p. 279), says: with such
a machine as this one will clean three hun
dred pounds Of cotton in a day" On page 40 OF
Volume III Jeferson's Embargo is said TO have
struck as sharp a blow at the livelihood OF New
England as the Townsend acts. There is really
no comparison between the two The Townsend
acts merely imposed moderate tariff on few
articles imported from England. The Boston
Port bill would be more analogous TO the En-
barge. It is with considerable surprise that we
read in the most interesting chapter on the Con-
federate States 0V. 2S9): "a southern county
of Mississippi accepted the doctrine of seces-
sion, indeed but interpreted it in its own be-
hoof and solennly seeded from the State and
from the Confederacy rather than send its men
to distant battle1elds-" This refers to the al
legged secession Of Jones County, Miss. described
in an article in THE Magazine Of American
History" In October, 1886. 1t is pity that a
realistic bit of fiction based on post belum gos-
sip should have been accepted by President Will
son without verihcation. The story was ex-
ploded ten years ago. If he will take the trouble
TO look IN the war fSCOIoS foi @NA<AAI,
I and II, and Vol LII, Part II, he will find that
Jones County was the hiding place of deserters
and bushwhackers. and that the tale published
IN THE Magazine Of American History" is about
as historical as Robinson Crusoe.
At the end of each of the chapters except the
last there is Autographed note These viii
prove serviceabIe to serious readers. The selec-
ton of titles in general is well made. There
are, however, some misplacements in time. q
good many important omissions and one that
is surprising. Some very poor books, also, are