Page:Review of A Political History of Slavery.djvu/2

 386 to the history of this struggle by personal participants, the careful reader of Mr. Smith's volumes will be fully convinced that they are a valuable contribution to the literature of our political history.

The extent of his subject which the author's subtitle lays out for him would lead us to expect necessarily brief, if not inadequate, treatment of many topics. The fact is, very important aspects of his subject prior to the close of the Mexican War in 1848 are either omitted entirely or receive but scant attention. The status of slavery in the colonies, the causes and processes of emancipation in the northern states, the debates touching slave interests in the Federal Convention of 1787, the influence of the purchase of Louisiana, the causes for the subsidence of the abolition spirit of the period of the Revolution, the cotton-gin and the economic influences leading slavery to become intrenched in the south, the Southern defense and view of slavery—these topics, if mentioned at all, are but slightly and incidently touched upon. The Missouri struggle of 1820, one of the most important chapters in the slavery controversy, involving constitutional and political arguments of the first rank, is referred to in a few lines, and the compromise resulting from that exciting struggle is mentioned only in connection with and subsequent to its repeal in 1854. Less than three pages are devoted to the annexation of Texas. Lundy's work is but briefly recognized. Dr. Channing's essay on slavery in 1835 is regarded, perhaps quite properly, as the "most influential contribution to the discussion of the subject throughout the whole controversy." But Garrison and the Abolitionists, in whose cause Channing's pen was soon enlisted, are brought into view by our author chiefly for their condemnation. Their shortcomings and excesses; the violence of their language; the censure visited upon them by the moderate opinion of their time are recited: but their merits; their services to the cause of the slave at a time when theirs were the only voices raised in his behalf; the effects of their agitation on public opinion and parties north and south; their literature; the courage they manifested and the character and labors of the men and women promoting their cause; the humanitarian spirit and political theory underlying this cause; the great moral impulse given to the antislavery movement by Abolition agitators and organizers like May, Green, Jay, Phillips, the Tappans, Whittier, Lowell, and Emerson—most of whom are unmentioned; the political effect of their movement in promoting sectionalism and secession—these worthy subjects do not receive that share of attention and appreciation one has a right to expect of a history of American slavery. Theodore Parker, Henry Ward Beecher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe are not mentioned in the account of this struggle. Almost equal neglect is visited upon the Free-soilers and the political movement against slavery extension which they organized. Leaders like Birney, Hale, Andrew, Hoar, Sumner, Wilson, Julian, Palfrey, and Giddings are either left to one side or are but slightly noticed—Chase among all the pronounced antislavery men of his day being accorded suitable rank and influence. It is the safe Whig party-leaders— the politicians rather than the positive agitators and reformers—and the