Page:Review of A Political History of Slavery.djvu/4

 388 "the rugged issues to which Douglas claimed the Republicans had committed themselves and which had been pressed to the front by the pronounced antislavery men"—"the more prudent counsel of Blair" was followed, who would call all to unite who objected to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the extension of slavery. "This embraced thousands who were opposed to the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, to meddling with the interstate slave-trade or with slavery in the District of Columbia." After a review of Buchanan's administration from the standpoint of the opposition, and of the progress of the secession movement (which is attributed to conspiracy) and of the attempt at conciliation (in which the author approves the positive stand of Wade and Clark—that the provisions of the Constitution, if enforced, were sufficient to preserve the Union), the first volume closes with the opening of the war.

The second volume deals with the Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction. The Peace Democrats and the Knights of the Golden Circle, especially the course of Vallandigham in Ohio, receive the attention of a chapter. The suspension of habeas corpus and the war powers of the President, national finances and the conduct of Congress, the politics of the war, especially the campaign of Governor Brought in Ohio, and the election of 1864, are set forth from the standpoint of loyalty to the administration. On Reconstruction and Impeachment the author is pronounced in opposition to President Johnson and in favor of the Congressional party. In these days when it is the custom of historical essayists to disparage the Congressional work of Reconstruction, it is well that we have an author restating as Mr. Smith does the causes leading to the drastic measures of Reconstruction, the arguments for manhood suffrage, the political theory underlying the War Amendments, and the faith in the equal rights of all men, white or black, that prompted the able and sincere Congressional leaders in Reconstruction times. For these and for many other aspects of these volumes the historical student, as well as the casual reader, will feel grateful to the author. Historical students are, also, pleased to learn that what may be considered a practical continuation of this work is being carried forward by the son-in-law of Mr. Smith, Mr. Charles R. Williams, editor of the Indianapolis News, in a Life of Rutherford B. Hayes. With President Hayes in politics and public life Mr. Smith was long and intimately associated. The original material which Mr. Smith has used and referred to, in the shape of correspondence, newspaper files, and pamphlets, and that which he transmits to his successor, will make these volumes of great value and interest to all readers and students of American political history.

The closing chapter of the work under review is contributed by Professor John J. Halsey, Professor of Political Science in Lake Forest University, under the caption, "The Failure of Reconstruction." This brings into review, in a scholarly and judicial summary, the chief events and forces from 1869 to 1877 leading to the abandonment of the historical plan of Reconstruction by the withdrawal of the national military power from the south and the elimination of the negro from Southern