Senator John James Ingalls: Kansas' Iridescent Republican (review)

BOOK REVIEWS361 There are certain weaknesses in the volume; some of which are inherent in Mr. Fish being a contemporary of the events he describes, and some from an inadequate job by the editor. Because Mr. Fish wrote about events familiar to him and his times, his diary entries often lack the background material to place a particular problem in its historical setting. A good example would be his view of the struggle between the Mormon Church and the Federal government over polygamy . To fully grasp the significance of the fight, it will be necessary to supplement the diary with recent historical accounts. The editor could have given a resume of such material in a concise explanatory footnote. Also, because Mr. Fish was an ardent Mormon, he avoids criticism of his church leaders and doctrine. But that is a positive feature of the autobiography. It gives the historian a good view of this religious mentality on the frontier. One will not find much introspection or discussion of church doctrine by Mr. Fish. Being a "true believer," he accepted the leadership of his church without question. There is a problem with collation, too. Mr. Krenkel tells the reader in the "Editor's Preface" that about one-third of the autobiography was deleted for being repetitious. He promised to indicate in the footnotes where "some" of the lengthy deletions occurred. However, upon an examination of the footnotes, only one such deletion is mentioned (p. 349). In other footnotes, important information is given without a reference (p. 137). The few explanatory footnotes given are helpful on towns, some individuals , and some events like the Mountain Meadows Massacre. However, for a person unfamiliar with the Mormon Church—and there are many—it would have been extremely helpful to have explanations of the "School of Prophets," "bishop," "stake president," "president," "high council," "second anointings," to mention a few terms peculiar to Mormonism. In spite of these weaknesses, The Life and Times of Joseph Fish offers a good picture of the lower-middle-class on the frontier and how the Mormon Church held its followers in the midst of a harsh environment . H. CARLETON MARLOW Brigham Young University Senator John James Ingalls: Kansas' Iridescent Republican. By Burton J. Williams. (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1972. Pp. 201. $7.75.) In 1851 young, proper New Englander John J. Ingalls entered Williams College. Four years later as class orator at his commencement he shocked faculty and classmates with a caustic ridiculing of the college program as "a four years course in attention to whiskers, driveling flirtations, kid gloves . . . with non-attendance at vulgar prayers and a hideous any of flunks." Thereby he set the tone if not the course of his 362CIVIL WAR HISTORY future career. For the rest of his life his scathing words and slashing rhetoric would be his stock in trade. After reading law and admission to the bar, he headed west to Kansas to make his fortune. And make it he did—in law practice, land speculation, town "booming" and most of all in Republican politics. "This book," says author Burton J. Williams, "is an attempt to 'personalize ' a sensitive, highly emotional, intelligent man" and to "present the historical record of that man." Williams' research is thorough, comprehensive and painstaking. He has mined the manuscript holdings of the Kansas State Historical Society and University Library, the National Archives and the Library of Congress, as well as the pertinent public documents and contemporary periodicals and newspapers. From these sources he has woven together a tight, competent account of a colorful, crusty, cantankerous character and his career. After gaining some wealth, a loving wife (ultimately ten children) and experience in Kansas politics, Ingalls by an ingenious ploy in 1873 shrewdly engineered Samuel C. Pomeroy's ouster and his own election to the United States Senate. For the next eighteen years he served as Kansas' ultra Republican senator, dispensing patronage and favors so effectively as to rise to president pro tempore of the Senate in the 1880's. His legislative record, perhaps reflecting the state of late nineteenthcentury Congresses, was unimpressive. In summary, Ingalls favored veterans' "pensions, high protective tariffs, Negro civil rights, free silver and the...