Congress and the Civil War (review) (1957)

216CIVIL war history ing the education of the freedman, as were General W. T. Sherman, Reverend Horace James, and Lieutenant W. B. Stickney. There are a fewtimes in this bookwhenWiley's approach tothe material seems to be perhaps too academic for so provocative and unexplored a topic. Yet, the author's insistence upon detail and his outstanding abih'ty for organization are points too great to be detracted by the comparatively minor flaw of occasional wordiness. William F. Donaldson Iowa City, Iowa. Congress and the Civil War. By Edward Boyldn. (New York: The McBride Company. 1955. Pp.352. $5.00.) the first reaction t? this book is that its tide is somewhat misleading, since only some forty-one pages (pages 264 through 305) actually treat the Congress in die Civil War period. The bulk of the book discusses the pre-Civil War and post-Civil War activities of that legislative body. Edward Boyldn, nevertheless, has managed to teU a fuU and able story of the turbulent years starting with the TaUmadge Amendment (providing that aU children of slaves in the newly organized state of Missouri "shaU be declared free at the age of 25 years") of 1819 and concluding with the acquital of Andrew Johnson, in 1868. In Mr. Boykin's opinion it was this Amendment, Uttle known to most students, which stirred up feelings that were to be kept aUve for the foUowing forty-two years and finally erupt in civil war. That a single act or amendment could set off a chain of events finally to culminate in violence is within the realm of probability , although most students of the Civil War are more inclined to believe it was an accumulation ofmany acts and events which finally conditionedthe North and South for a settlement by arms. Even there it was not at aU certain among many men of the time that secession would actually lead into very much of a physical conflict. The not uncommon feeling in the North was that if it did come to a test of arms it would only be a matter of a few short months, while the results of First BuU Run almost convinced many in the South that the Confederacy was an accomplished fact. From the leisurely, snuff-imbibing age of the Era of Good Feelings to the stormy cane wielding days of Preston Brooks, the United States Congress was the setting for some of the most stirring moments in American history as weU as for some of the sorriest. In portraying each of these occasions, Mr. Boykin is at his best. He describes the appearance of both the early House and Senate and explains that the former representatives stiU wore their hats, a custom handed down from the Continental Congress. In the Senate sat Rufus King of New York, the last man in that group who had signed the Constitution. The Secretary of State was John Quincy Adams, and John Tyler was one of the representatives. Stalwarts were Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, and many others who commandedrespect for their convictions and the eloquence with which they expressed them. Book Reviews217 Dueling was a common diversion in the environs of Washington, and one of the early victims of the practice was the naval hero Commodore Stephen Decatur , who was mortaUy wounded in a duel with Commodore James Barron. The language used in those early days of congressional debate could become pointedly personal; when a Senator or Congressman felt that he received more than he gave the alternative was to "caU out" his opponent and name his second. As theyearspassedthepractice declined in Washington, as many of the midwestern and northern representatives early saw the laughable aspects of dueling and could not treat it with the gravity it required to flourish. The administration ofAndrewJackson isthen reviewedfrom the congressional viewpoint. It was a stormy period in the nation's growth, and Jackson came to verbal blows with manymembers of Congress over issues of the time. Mr. Boykin gives a dramatic account of Jackson's hectic years in Washington and of the Congressmen who sustained or criticized him. Martin Van Buren, William Harrison, John Tyler, James Polk, Zachery Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin...