George W. Smalley: Forty Years A Foreign Correspondent (review)

272CIVIL WAR HISTORY position. He was thus, Henig argues, tragically blinded to the inequities of the Nativist movement. His every action as a Maryland congressman , including his condoning of fraudulent tactics by his supporters to secure his election over Democratic opponents, can be attributed to this same motive. His drive to replace Lincoln in 1864 was designed to provide a more effective candidate against the Democrats. Even his advocacy of the cause of black suffrage was motivated in part by a desire to prevent a resurgence of his Democratic enemies after the war. Politics for Davis was not "simply a struggle between rival organizations ; for him it was a war between good and evil" (p. 249). While perhaps occasionally too tolerant of Davis' own intolerance, Henig nonetheless recognizes the all-too-frequent rash and self-seeking political acts of his subject. Yet he is able to present a convincing portrait of a man of tremendous intellectual and oratorical abilities who was capable of fighting hard and suffering much for noble causes. Frederick Blue Youngstown University George W. Smalley: Forty Years A Foreign Correspondent. By Joseph F. Mathews. (Chapel HiII: University of North Carolina Press, 1973. Pp. x, 273. $10.95.) George Smalley was a correspondent for the New York Tribune from 1861 until 1895 and then for the London Times until 1905. A skillful journalist, he received considerable recognition during the Civil War for his reporting on the battle of Antietam. He had that necessary journalistic ability to be where the war news was being made (which every journalist must have). His greatest value to the paper he represented, however, seemed to be his talent in supervising the news gathering efforts of others. This talent was evident following the war when Smalley was made a foreign correspondent for the New York Tribune. While abroad, he ceased to be a news gatherer and instead developed into a first-rate columnist. Among Smalley's strengths was his ability to describe complicated events. His treatment of the opening of Parliament in 1880 was brilliant. He was also a skillful biographer. His brief sketches of important personalities of his day were accurate and colorful . Perhaps the highpoint of Smalley's career came during his tenure as the London Times correspondent in the United States when his columns were used to outline the position the United States assumed in the Venezuelan boundary controversy and to suggest a settlement for it. As Smalley aged and, perhaps, because he never understood his own people, his value as a foreign correspondent for the Times diminished. He neither reflected accurately the opinions and attitudes of the American people, nor proved adequate as a reporter of events. In 1905, fol- BOOK REVIEWS273 lowing the Portsmouth conference, he was retired by the Times. His last years were spent in London writing. Professor Mathews is to be commended for his treatment of Smalley who was a difficult person. This highly readable book, clearly written and logically organized, treats Smalley kindly yet fairly and the reader recognizes Smalley for what he was—an important journalist. Several of Smalley's news stories and writings are included in the appendices. The choice of inclusions are good. They reflect Smalley's skills as a journalist and his ability as a writer. R. J. Amundson Columbus College "Let Your Motto Be Resistance": The Life and Thought of Henry Highland Garnet. By Earl Ofari. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1972. Pp. ix, 221. $7.95.) Henry Highland Garnet, an undaunted opponent of slavery, was a preeminent Black spokesman during the nineteenth century, rivaling even Frederick Douglass. Prior to the publication of this slender but informative volume, Garnet was almost exclusively associated with his 1843 Address to the Shves. In that statement, he called upon the bondsmen to ". . . rather die freemen than live to be slaves." The virtual dismissal of Garnet as a firebrand obscured his deep involvement in the struggle to end slavery and to secure racial equality. Garnet was born into slavery on December 23, 1815 in New Market, Kent County, Maryland. His grandfather was a Mandingo Prince in Africa, and the Garnet family remained a unit even under bondage. When Garnet was nine, his family escaped from slavery...