Josiah Quincy, 1772-1864: The Last Federalist (review)

BOOK REVIEWS83 cans, as his final anecdote regarding "only a Mexican church" which had been fenced off by modern Anglos reveals, but on the whole his is a balanced book. Its perspective is inescapably American , but the other side is fairly treated; its asides and social history fillers, such as the discussion of Mrs. Polk's redecoration of the White House, make it a rich book as well. Bauer's book is more for the student of straightforward military history than is Weems'. This is appropriate since it is published as an installment in the Macmillan Wars of the United States series, edited by Louis Morton. Bauer's writing is direct, clear, and thoroughly readable. If his style lacks the novelist's flair, it actually reads as smoothly as does Weems', and is much better than that which characterizes so much military writing. He gives more attention to the role of the United States Navy in the war, and whereas Weems seems to prefer Taylor, Bauer casts his lot with Scott as the better soldier. He spends little time with the political affairs which produced the war or for that matter with those which continued in Washington after the war had begun. Conversely, he does invest considerable time in explaining the Mexican position, both before and during the war. If I may interpolate, he seems to be saying that the war could have been avoided, if indeed they wanted to avoid it, by more understanding on the part of the United States for Mexico's fear of losing territory and "face" to its northern neighbor . As to organization, these books differ considerably. To Conquer A Peace is chopped into five parts and forty-four brief chapters. It has a useful chronology of important events, a selective bibliography , and a most unusual noting system which really amounts to an annotated bibliography without specific notes. Bauer's chapters are fewer, longer, and more traditional. Each is followed by a section of notes to sources used in writing the text. His bibliography is more complete. These books are both worth reading by students of nineteenth century United States history and of military history. The latter will prefer Bauer's work, the former might find Weems' work more interesting . Either way you have a winner. Archie P. McDonald Stephen F. Austin State University Josiah Quincy, 1772-1864: The Last Federalist. By Robert A. McCaughey . (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974. Pp. 264. $12.00.) After their fall from power in 1800, what happened to American Federalists? Alexander Hamilton, Fisher Ames, and the Hartford conventionists once stood as emblems of the Federalists' fate. 84CIVIL WAR HISTORY Hamilton, who perished quickly, was the lucky one. His fellow elitists were sentenced to the more protracted torment of gradual exclusion from power and authority. For the few elected to office, there was frustration; for those rejected, disaffection; and for the disaffected at Hartford in 1814, there was even thought of secession. The work of historians in the last twenty years, however, has revealed that the Federalists did not simply fade unpleasantly away. Active and often successful in state and local elections, many younger Federalists adopted the electioneering techniques of the competition, and despite a "covert elitism" managed to survive, to influence the outcome of the presidential contest of 1824 and, if they lived long enough, to return to national prominence in the Jackson era. Few Federalists remained alive or politically active longer than Josiah Quincy. Born in 1772, Quincy entered politics in 1796, ran for office no less than twenty-seven times, made his last public speech in 1863, and died the next year at the age of 92. In this little gem of a book, Robert A. McCaughey shows that though the Federalist party withered, Quincy found novel ways to extend the influence of the elite he represented. Some Federalists adjusted both their tactics and philosophies to the requirements of popular election and expanding capitalism—that is, they became Whigs. But Quincy had little use for popularity and less for industrialization and expansion. Some Federalists doggedly manned their lonely outposts in Washington; but as a congressman, Quincy became ever more isolated, turned pathologically strident, and acquired a reputation...