Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/169

 t TI7/so;i : The Dcmmfall of Spain 159 ner was more smooth in expression but with unquestionably the same meaning. Can we regard it statesmanship to ignore the certainty of fail- ure in governments based on the exclusion of the class of the intelligent, the property-owners, the accustomed leaders of society, of public opinion, of trade, of commerce and of manufactures ? Are sociological and psy- chological principles considered when to such a perilous experiment is added the transfer of power from one race to another, and from the master to the recent slave ? Mr. Sumner excluded ' ' Indians not taxed ' ' from the voting class in his scheme of reconstruction, and found no re- pugnance, in their case, to discriminating on account of race and color, or to refusing to apply to them the principle of basing government on the consent of the governed. We could wish that in these and in some other respects Mr. Storey could have got his own consent to a more radical discussion of the prin- ciples and doctrines involved in the Sumner-Stevens plan of reconstruc- tion. A careful study of the results and of the reasons for its failure is needful to help us to judge of its original wisdom and conformity with great principles of human nature and of right. In saying that Sumner's attitude in the great debate "secured the establishment of equal suffrage without regard to color," the author might almost be suspected of irony, in view of the history of five-and-thirty years. If Sumner was really unflinching in his adherence to the fundamental principles of the Decla- ration of Independence, the unity of truth is such that its harmony should be capable of proof. A new book upon his life, at this day, would seem a proper place for the analysis of the evidence of this con- sistency, and Mr. Storey's interesting book would have gained philosoph- ical value by its thorough treatment. The Downfall of Spain : Naval History of the Spanish-American War. By H. W. Wilson. (Boston : Little, Brown and Co. 1900. Pp. xvi, 452.) Mr. Wilson is well known as the author of Ironclads in Action. His clear perception and straight forward style of writing make his books always interesting and instructive. We are in the beginning interested in his view of the Maine destruction, and eager to discover how this event was looked upon by one who, like Mr. Wilson, feels it his duty to give every chance to the American side of the question, though himself not specially favorable to our navy. He condemns, on page 23, the Spanish stories of American lack of discipline as fabrication, and comments favor- ably upon the behavior of the crew after the explosion, but takes occa- sion to say that "American ideas of discipline are not altogether our ideas." Later on page 36 the author mentions the fact that experts in England, among them Admiral Colomb, thought our navy and the Spanish navy somewhat on an equal footing, and that neither country was strong enough to attack the other. On page 37 the author gives as his opinion that "the Americans showed no exceptional forbearance after the de-