Jefferson Davis: Private Letters, 1823-1889 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS69 He left die Cabinet after six ineffectual months in an office (Secretary of State) totally unsuited to his capabilities, only to find himself involved almost compulsively in a series of demeaning military jaunts. For the former Senator from Georgia diis was bitter fruit indeed. Yet, even widi Appomattox Toombs had not exhausted his potential for useful leadership. There was a multiplicity of problems facing die people of die Soutii—die physical rebuilding, an adjustment of die connection widi die Union, and, above all, die free Negro—but tiiat old propensity to emotional extremism and a disheartening failure to perceive die real needs of his region caused Toombs to oppose all efforts at reconstruction, both military and civil, federal and internal. Moreover, he stubbornly resisted the rise of die cadre of New South leaders, widi dieir creed which tiireatened to destroy die pastoral world tiiat Toombs yearned to perpetuate. Robert Toombs, who had brillianUy represented die sentiments of his fellow Georgians for a generation before die war, had now become detached from the reality of dieir wants and aspirations. While he did speak out for constitutional reform and fiscal integrity, his role in the postwar period was substantially one of obfuscation and obstruction. Such is die image of Toombs which emerges from diis solidly researched study. The autiior may be criticized for devoting inordinate attention to Toombs's often insignificant army adventures, as well as to the familiar tale of Sherman's operations in Georgia, but diese are among the most readable chapters in the book. Written in a competent style, this volume makes a fine addition to die Soudiern Biography Series. Steven Channtng University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Jefferson Davis: Private Letters, 1823-1889. Edited by Hudson Strode. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1966. Pp. jdo, 580. $7.50.) Hudson Strode "doth protest too much." He offers dus volume of Jefferson Davis' private letters to supplement tiiree volumes of eulogistic biography in die "hope of illuminating further die character of diis unique historic figure." Actually, die Jefferson Davis who emerges from die selection and editing of editor Strode is not unlike die demi-god portrayed by biographer Strode. In attempting to reveal die human side of Davis, Strode allows the man and his correspondents to show him larger than life, devoid of human failings. The volume, however, has some merit. The great majority of its collected letters have not appeared in print before. About forty of the over four hundred letters are in Dunbar Rowland's Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: Letters, Papers and Speeches, and a like number appear in full or m extract in Strode's tiiree-volume biography, Jefferson Davis. Widi few exceptions die letters are "family letters" which bear but slighdy on Davis' public career. More dian half of die letters included were written after 70CIVIL WAR HISTORY 1865 when Davis had left die public stage. Their publication does shed light upon certain aspects of Davis' private life—his unique relationship widi his niece Mary Stamps, his quarrel with his brother's family, and his abiding affection for his wife and in-laws. Numerous gossipy letters of Davis' wife Varina Howell afford fresh insights into her spirited mind and serve as sources of social history. Within a few years, however, this collection will probably serve only die general reader. The Jefferson Davis Association , endorsed by die National Historical Publications Commission and under the editorial direction of Frank E. Vandiver and Haskell M. Monroe, is currently preparing a definitive edition of The Papers of Jefferson Davis in fifteen-plus volumes. It is the general reader, the Civil War buff, dien, who will fall victim to Strode's techniques of selection and editing. Strode has deleted portions of letters without die customary ellipsis marks "for the reader's convenience ." The index is poor. Because he does not believe Davis capable of rancor or obstinacy, Strode does not include letters, and they do exist, which betray Davis' very human traits. Instead, Davis appears as a man of principle, acquainted with sorrows, who before his accusers is mute. Strode allows the President who feuded with generals, governors, and congressmen both during and after the war to display an...