Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/171

 Babcock : Rise of Aiucricau Nationality i6i rative, set forth in an exceptionally good English style, are never allowed to obscure, but rather emphasize, the central idea of the work. The standard of literary merit is not only high but so well sustained that a badly constituted sentence, such as the one which begins chapter XVI., stands out in marked contrast. President Babcock begins his history with an account of the factions present in the Republican party just before the war, and ascribes to these divisions in the majority party the responsibility for the extremely im- portant failure to recharter the United States Bank. The defeat of the bank bill, the culmination of a long series of rebuffs, marked, he says, the triumph of faction and the final refusal of the Republicans in Con- gress to recognize the President and cabinet as their real leaders. Dr. Babcock considers Madison lacking in the essential qualities of executive leadership, but does not stop with negative defects; he places full respon- sibility for the appointment of incompetents, both in the cabinet and in the army, squarely upon the President, and he severely criticizes Madison for his seizures of West and East Florida as justifiable neither from the standpoint of fair-dealing nor from that of international ethics. The his- tory of the events leading up to the war is well told, although much of it is simply a review of Professor Channing's chapters on the same period. One-half of the book is devoted to the War of 1812, the political history of which is a highly creditable production, save that the treatment of war finances is not sufficiently exhaustive. Military history, however, is not so clearly the author's forte. It is deficient in the matter of propor- tion, as, for example, the description of the Chesapeake campaign, excel- lent in itself, occupies twice as much space as the entire account of the much more important naval warfare upon the Great Lakes ; and in ability to render the narrative of battles and campaigns thoroughly intelligible. Strong and vigorous English is not spared in denouncing the disgraceful management of the struggles on the Canadian borders, and the author regards the conduct of the war throughout as weak and inefficient. Well- merited emphasis is placed upon the importance of the Indian campaigns of the west and southwest both as factors in the English war and as preparation for the great movement of westward expansion which fol- lowed the close of the war. He asserts that the Indian wars cost the nation almost as much in lives, money, and suffering as did the actual warfare against the British. Perhaps the best chapter in the book is the one which deals with the Federalist opposition in New England. 'hile little that is new is ad- duced, the facts are so clearly stated and the evidence is so convincingly arrayed that the nature of the war as one of faction and section is fully established and the gravity of the crisis caused by New England's hos- tility is completely proved. Grave as was the situation, the facts suggest but do not warrant the author's conclusion, that, with New England commissioners in Washington for the purpose of treating with the federal government, the overthrow of the national government and the AM. HJST. REV., VOL. XII.— II.