The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-12-19
Among the Books
Life ana Letter, Of Edmund Clarence

Stcdmnn.v
BY Laura stedman and George
Gould, M. D. Moffat, Yard and Co, of
New York. Vol. III. $3.50.
These volumes contain each over 500
pages, flied with the life and letters
Of Mr.. Stedman, whose name carries
such weight in the American world of
letters. The first volume which is
illustrated with copies of photographs
and daguerreotypes of Mr.. Stedman, Of
members of his family and of places
associated with his early history,
busies itself with the poets ancestry
and birth, his boyhood in Norwich.
Conn, his courtship and marriage, his
experience as young editor, his as
sociations with old New York, the in
cidents connected with the publication
of his satire on smart New York
society under the caption of THE Dia-
mond Wedding" the pleasure derived
from his early friendships, his work
as war correspondent and in govern
ment service at Washington. his career
in business, poetry and politics, his
voyage TO the West Indies, his sojourn
in the Caribbean Sea, his return and his
entrance into the Wall Street Stock
Exchange of New York
Volume second reviews the works Of
the poet gives an account Of his last
years and estimates him as man. A
very complete photography and index
finish this volume.
1t is impossible in the scanty limits
Of review to do Justice to books like
these that are filled on every page
with not only the instalment of life
history but with much of historic and
literary interest gathering around such
w. 81,
Stedman, His marriage took place in
November of 1853, when he was only
twenty years old. He married a
and, when he had been Benedict for
three and a half years, he wrote his
mother regarding his wife that: she
is one of those rare women who are
by nature gentle folk and stepped SO
easily from the chair of a sewing girl
to the sofa OF the lady, that people
saw she was noble by birth and ac-
copied her accordingly. L always went
on the theory that ! had enough liter
airy education for the family that
needed in a wife resting place where
/ could be nursed. comforted and loved.
Laura had been ali this, and, like the
wife OF Schiller. understands me, II
she does not my books"
1t Is interesting to note IN volume
one the following comment on the
causes of the War Between the States.
1t is In letter written his mother
October Is. 1861. and he says: War
is not waged by abolitionists, is not
the result of abolitionism. We are not
sure but that slavery Is very good
thing in the cotton States In other
ATTITUDES l see for myself that 1t Is
good enough for the negroes, but
ruinous to the. whites There is
theory that the Virginia and Kentucky
gentry own slaves; this is false. /
have seen for myself that the negroes
own the gentry. This war will prob
ably settle the slavery question. yet
we are not lighting the Negroes cause.
The real cause of the war is a bitter
and criminal hatred, entertained by
the South against the North and based
on other than slave interests. For
nifty years the South. assisted by
Northern merchants whom 1t has gov
erned. has been true enough to the
Union, so long as elections gave it the
power. But the census of 1850 show
ed that the enterprising and indus
trious North was getting the balance
of power. Then the South would have