Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/828

 8i8 Reviews of Books 1737, the insults heaped upon them by the proprietors and the Six Nations in 1742, and the Albany treaty of 1754, into distrust, alienation, and finally the bloody events of 1755 and succeeding years. Toward this end Weiser contributed. He defended the Walking Purchase ; he op- posed the INIoravians and the Quakers in their peaceful efforts ; he tried to induce the German voters to turn against their Quaker allies and even appears to have petitioned the English government to declare the Quakers ineligible to the Assembly. He agreed with them as to the necessity of giving large Indian presents and was always trustworthy and judicious in their distribution, but they gave for peace and neutrality while he wished to give for warlike operations against the French. It was his advice to the Proprietors in 1732 that induced them to recognize the Iroquois claims to the Delaware valley, and so brought on the troubles with the resident Indians. In all the later partisan struggles between governor and assembly, he sided with the war policy of the younger Penns and their deputies in the province. While, therefore, his courage, devotion and honesty were ever at the call of the province, and his unique qualities and experience made his services of the highest value, the limitations of his diplomacy were shown by his failure to retain the friendship of the Pennsylvania Indians as he did the Six Nations. The story is told most exhaustively by Mr. Walton. The main defect would seem to be a superabundance of detail for the ordinary reader in- terested in provincial affairs — a detail which sometimes obscures the main features of the history. His sources of information have been the manu- script letters of Conrad Weiser himself and of Richard Peters, and the Archives and Colonial Records of Pennsylvania. From these he has gathered a great mass of interesting information and has given an intel- ligible and reliable account. There are a few errors in small matters. Stenton is mentioned as the governor's mansion, and the name of James Logan is repeatedly mentioned for his son William after 1751, when James Logan died. These do not, however, seriously detract from the value of Mr. Walton's work, which will be a permanent contribution of value to our history. The Men Who Made the Xation. An Outline of United States His- tor>- from 1760 to 1S65. By Edwin Erle Sparks, Ph.D. (New York : The Macmillan Co. 1901. Pp. viii, 410.) The special student of American history will lind little to interest him in this book, which is designed for the " general " and " untrained " reader. Such a design is entirely legitimate. The work of familiarizing the general reader with the history of his own country and of inciting him to further study of that history is as useful and necessary as that of investigation for the benefit of a limited number of specialists. Dr. Sparks begins with the hypothesis " that at any given period one man will be found who is master of the situation, and events naturally group themselves about him." Starting with Franklin and closing with