A House Dividing Against Itself, 1836-1840. The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison (review)

BOOK REVIEWS347 concerning the Constitution and its silence on the legal questions raised by the Civil War and Reconstruction. Finally, Nevins' statement near the close of his work that ". . . here and there in the South, the war was quickly followed, if not accompanied , by a change in racial attitudes, and by the emergence in some areas of individuals and groups demanding 'a reasonable and responsible program of action' " (IV, 398) can hardly be reconciled with the attitudes which almost universally prevailed, or with his own attacks on Sumner and others who, at the time of the war, did demand "a reasonable and responsible program of action." Such criticisms only make obvious the virtues of Nevins' work. That is, the author does not hesitate to voice opinion and to set forth historical theses which by their very nature are controversial. What one authority finds unacceptable another will applaud. And it can be safely asserted that The War for the Union and the other volumes in Ordeal of the Union will outlast the carpings of their critics. The historical world can ill afford to lose an Allan Nevins whose dedication to scholarship, good writing, and diligent labor have served as an unattainable ideal to his students and countless others both professionals and amateurs. Fortunately his multitudinous works, not the least of which are the two volumes under discussion, remain as an inspiration to those writers who would try to recreate the past. John A. Carpenter Fordham University A House Dividing Against Itself, 1836-1840. The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, Volume II. Edited by Louis Ruchames. (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971. Pp. xxxi, 770. $20.00.) To Isaac Knapp, his early partner on The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison once confessed "a sort of repugnance to scribbling" letters. Happily for his friends and relatives, and for historians of nineteenthcentury America, Garrison overcame this aversion wonderfully. From his pen poured not only antislavery pamphlets and the biting editorials that earned him fame and notoriety (though never fortune), but a steady stream of correspondence which offered an intimate view of a remarkable reformer and the world he sought to change. Thousands of these missives have survived. Many were printed in whole or in part in the four-volume life of Garrison prepared by his sons, but most had never been published. Now, nearly a century after his death, two leading Garrison authorities, Walter M. Merrill and Louis Ruchames, have joined forces to search out and prepare for publication all extant Garrison letters. Their plan calls for six or eight alternately-edited volumes. In all respects, the editors' performance to date has been outstanding . The quest for Garrison's correspondence has been diligent and re- 348civil war history warding. This volume includes letters found in nineteen different libraries in this country and Great Britain, and a few in private hands. All are carefully yet sensibly edited and helpfully annotated. Indeed, Ruchames' adroit biographical sketches of the many great and lowly humanitarians who crossed Garrison's path make this a valuable reference work—a virtual Who's Who of antebellum reform. (There is an index of names, though, alas, not one of subjects.) During the years spanned by this volume Garrison's attention swung from combat with hostile outsiders to the growing division within abolitionist ranks, climaxed by the splintering of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840. Garrison himself was the chief irritant in this bitter dispute. Less radical abolitionists accused him of weakening the antislavery enterprise by tying to it such unpopular causes as women's rights, anti-Sabbatarianism, and non-resistance, and by obstructing the development of an organized antislavery politics. Garrison, of course, vehemently and indignantly denied the charge, and his letters to friends and enemies alike skillfully (at times disingenuously) vindicate his strategy for reform. For those already familiar with Garrison's career, these letters hold few surprises. They do, however, provide a richer understanding of a man more complex and self-aware than most historians have perceived, one who moved beyond "the one beaten track" of abolition only after a good bit of soul-searching. As one might expect, moreover, Garrison's correspondence (much of it with...