The Lane Rebels: Evangelicalism and Antislavery in Antebellum America (review)

76CIVIL WAR HISTORY travels. The picture which emerges, then, is of a family life full of real warmth and affection, easily scorned as conventional, yet nevertheless inescapably touching. Beyond these many elements of the letters, one other aspect dominates : they of course reflect Garrison's view of the world from the vantage point of old age. He took numerous opportunities to sum up, to find some general meaning in his life's events, especially his role in "our old but sublime conflict" (p. 266). He hoped he might produce his own line of reformers. At the birth of a fourth grandchild, he proclaimed: "The adversary may take warning that there is to be warm work in the field of moral conflict, in due time" (p. 67). Garrison regularly and vigorously sought to settle old grudges and vindicate himself and his friends. Indeed, this aspect of these letters is so rich that historians of American reform movements might consider this final part of reformers' lives with some of the thoughtfulness that has recently gone into the study of their childhoods. Walter Merrill and the late Louis Ruchames have produced an excellent final volume, full of wonderfully useful notes and an introduction particularly valuable for students of the history of the family. A few minor complaints should not be thought to take anything away from this accomplishment. Footnotes on John Calvin, Martin Luther, and other well-known figures in world history are hardly worth the cost of ink in this era of diminishing resources. While it is, doubtless, wise not to include every redundant letter written by Garrison, in a few instances letters included make extensive reference to letters omitted. Nevertheless , this set of six volumes will stand as one of the most important primary sources for American intellectual history. It is a substantial achievement indeed. David T. Bailey Michigan State University The Lane Rebels: Evangelicalism and Antisfovery in Antebellum America. By Lawrence Thomas Lesick. (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1980. Pp. ix, 278. $15.00.) The student debates on the question of slavery held at Lane Seminary during the winter of 1834, which resulted in a decision in favor of immediate abolition and the withdrawal of the students from the seminary, has long been regarded as a significant milestone in the antislavery crusade. Lawrence T. Lesick, in The Lane RebeL·, sets out to show that Charles G. Finney's evangelical theology shaped the antislavery ideas and actions of the students, to trace through their subsequent careers the changing relationship between evangelicalism and abolitionism, and to provide "yet one more" account of the happenings at Lane. BOOK REVIEWS77 Since the link betweenFinney'srevivalism and theantislavery causeis well known, Lesick's primary thesis seems at first superfluous. But he is concerned specifically with theology and Lane Seminary. He contends that Theodore Weld and the other LaneRebels developedtheir concept of immediatism directly from Finney's belief in the individual as a free "moral agent" and from his definition of benevolence as action for the promotion of universal happiness. Unhappily, Lesick devotes only a small part of his book to this point, getting to it only after a rather long and uninspired account of the founding of the seminary. More interesting is Lesick's contention that the same evangelicalism which led the Lane Rebels to immediatism caused most of them within a matter of years to deemphasize their involvement in antislavery work. Under the direct influence of Finney at Oberlin College, they came to accept his view that antislavery must be subordinated to the more important task of saving souls. Meanwhile, those Lane Rebels who had the greatest impact on the antislavery movement—Weld, Henry Stanton, Marius Robinson, and William T. Allan—abandoned evangelicalism. This is a provocative insight, and Mr. Lesick provides useful information concerning some of the less well known rebels. Still, his work would be stronger had he gotten to his main points more quickly, set them more firmly within the context of the antislavery movement, and had he avoided the highly repetitious style which marks the book. Stanley Harrold South Carolina State College Abraham Lincoln and the Union. By Oscar and Lilian Handlin. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1980. Pp. x, 204. $10...