Sickles the Incredible (review)

Book Reviews97 provide organized traveling groups, and ease the problems of the settlers in the new territory. Hotels, mills, schools, churches, and other facilities were to be built by the Company, and agents were sent to Kansas to further this work. It was the hope of the founders that some financial return would come to the Company from donated lands and from the operation of newly acquired businesses. Their stake in the enterprise was basically financial rather than ideological; although they hoped for "free-state" supporters, no emigrant was bound to support the idea of a free territory, and most of the Company's members were hostile to the Garrisonian abolitionists. The march of events, however, changed this emphasis considerably. The towns established by the Company became lively centers of "free-state" activity, and as the political tension increased, the Company speeded up its financial and political activities, including the dispatch of both Bibles and weapons to support the "free-state" leaders. The New England Emigrant Aid Company was never a financial success. Its agents were reckless with provided funds, and too often the business enterprises were not carefully supervised. Its success lay in other fields. Mr. Johnson has soundly evaluated the influence of this minority group in the border warfare and other political consequences of the territorial issues as they impinged upon the national scene. He believes that the Company had a vital part in making Kansas a free state. It was not the large neutral group of settlers that shaped the destinies of the future state, but the activities of a vigorous, aggressive minority that placed Kansas among the "free states" in the Union. The author has made good use of the extensive collections of sources at the Kansas State Historical Society and of the many records in New England libraries. His work is carefully documented. It has separated fact from legend, and is essential in the understanding of the political and sectional background of the Civil War. A. Bower Sageser Manhattan, Kansas Sickles the Incredible. By W. A. Swanberg. (New York: Charles Scribner 's Sons. 1956. Pp. xii, 433. $6.00.) dan sickles' moments on history's stage could never be criticized for inaction or lack of interest. Of native wit, shrewdly intelligent, and with a will much stronger than either parental influence or school discipline, he turned to the law, studied under the guidance of Benjamin F. Butler, and was admitted to the bar in 1843 — after a concurrent study of the law and Tammany politics. His first venture in the national political arena caused no little stir both at home and in London, where for a time he was Secretary to the American Ambassador. After assisting in the preparation of the "Ostend Manifesto," Sickles returned to the States, simultaneously resuming his law practice and joining the Buchanan-for-president boom. He and Buchanan went to Washington after the 1856 elections. 98CIVIL WAB iiisronY Congressman Sickles soon became a popular host, a friend of the conservative group, and a well considered member of the House. With his young and beautiful wife as hostess, Sickles' influence was increasing in the political world. Then came the disclosure of Teresa's infidelity with Philip Barton Key, the handsome scion of one of Maryland's most famous families. Promptly Sickles shot him down on a Washington street, was acquitted with an acclamation , and was then roundly condemned when he again took Teresa under his roof. On March 4, 1861, he was out of office, and April found him unhappily practicing law in his father's office. The guns in Charleston Harbor brought him back to the national stage. Commissioned by Governor Morgan of New York to raise a brigade of five regiments, Sickles tackled the job with energy. Although caught in a storm of state politics, with the Republican administration hostile to the appointment of a Tammany brigadier general, Sickles engaged Delmonico's staff as his mess department, fought off orders disbanding his unit, went to see President Lincoln, and was saved from possible obscurity by the force of events — this time the remnants of the Union Army fleeing across the Long Bridge after Bull Run. Lincoln called up his...