The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-15
sOAfE NEW hooks
Vrnsu thu FodePnnSt0 were Dominant,

lE ~ 80
We have before US O volume entitled
The FederaHst System, by JOHN SPENCER
BAssRTT, professor Of history In Trinity
College, North Carolina. This Ia o valuable
addition to the american Nation series,
edited by Prof. ALBERT BUSHNELL HART
of Harvard University and published by
the Harpers. The book covers q period
comprised by the Administrations OF Wash
tngton and John Adams, the period which
witnessed the development OF to Fed
eralist Interpretation Of our Constitution
and WHICH ended with the repudiation by
the American people Of Federalist ascen-
dancy, 30 far as the Executive and Con-
gress were concerned, though Federa'ist
principles continued to be applied by Chief
Justice Marshall In the judicial depart
ment. We need not enlarge upon the
difficulty hitherto experienced by students
and writer's In dealing impartially with
this initial and critical part Of our national
history. Almost every investigator has
been, by prepossAssion or habit Of thought,
inclined to take q distinctly Federalist or
q distinctly Jeffenonian view Of the poiti-
oal events which took place between 1850
and 1901. Prof. Bassett comes exception
ally near to holding the balance oven. he
shows himself capable Of being just at
I once to Hamilton and to Jefferson, and he
Is a. keenly alive to the services as to the
faults Of the Federalist PARTY. Id Is. we
scarcely need point out, a desideratum
which 10 not supplied in the two histories
with which the general reader is most
familiar. those, namely, by Bancroft and
by Hildreth, who wrote respectively from
tho JeRenonian and from the Federalist
standpoint. How hard it was TO be fair
TO both ddes was attestod by the experience
Of Washington himself, who earnestly de-
dred to nake his Administration nom
partisan, and who did succeed in doing
80 for . time; but, after the withdrawal
II Edmund Randolph from the post Of
Secretary Of State In his second Admins
tration, his Cabinet became exclusively
Federalist, and Warrington himself. thence
forth regarded as a partisan, became the
target Of violent abuse on the part Of his
Jeffersopian opponents.
Tho whole Of this book bears the marks
I Of painstaking and fruitful study Of the
original sources which, with a Close ap-
pruach to exhaustiveness, are set forth
In an appendix We have read with Pc
culiar interest the chapters which treat
Of the founding Of the Republican party;
OF the Whiskey Instruction, which tested
tho strength OF the new Federal Govern
ment; Of the perplexing problem which
was created by our relations with Great
Britain, and which the Jay Treaty essayed
1 to solve; OF the first victories Of anti-slavery;
; OF the quarrel with France; Of the Ken
lucky and Virginia resolutions, and Of the
= downfall Of the Federalists- Other sub
jects that have required a good deal Of
research, the results Of which are wildly
Get forth, are the economic conditions Of
the country in the period under review,
the state of society and the so-oalled Repub-
Hcan Court which Washington and John
Adams were accused Of maintaining. 1t
is these three topics on which VIC shall
mainly dwell, after a glance at the care
fully measured and equitable terms in
which the author recognizes on the one
hand the fitness OF Hamilton for the Score
taryship OF the Treasury and the quail
'hoations of jefferson for the State port
folio. Neither should re overlook the con-
else and luminous words in which Prof.
Bassett accounts for the overthrow Of the
Federalist party.