Correspondence of James K. Polk. Volume 9: January-June, 1845 (review)

76CIVIL WAR HISTORY Correspondence ofJames K Polk. Volume 9: January-June, 1845. Edited by Wayne Cutler. Associate Editor Robert G. Hall. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1996. Pp. xxxiii, 612. $49.50.) James K. Polk emerges from this edition of letters covering the first months of his presidency as a shrewd and adroit politician in full control ofhis administration . This, despite the often conflicting advice from the diverse and feuding factions of the Democratic party. The theme of this volume is the appointment of a cabinet and other key positions such as the collector of the port of New York City and minister to Great Britain. A significant number of letters are written by Polk himselfand they reveal a president in full command refusing to take directions from either the Van Buren or Calhoun factions. The former, already angry with the man who denied him the nomination, lectured him over the need for patience in his appointments: 'To be prompt it is by no means necessary to be hasty" (109). In response and in defense of his appointment of Van Buren's arch rival, New YorkerWilliam Marcy, to be secretary of war, Polk reminded Van Buren that it was "indispensable to compose my cabinet of men, who had a public reputation throughout the Union, and who would give weight of character to the administration, the moment they were announced" (56). The reader is left with a refreshing appreciation of Polk's abilities rather than an impression of him helplessly buffeted by the warring Democratic factions led by the dominant men of the Jacksonian past. There is little new that the reviewer can offer in behalf of the latest volume of Polk letters. EditorsWayne Cutler and Robert Hall maintain the same high standards readers have come to expect from earlier volumes.Their explanatory notes are thorough and revealing and include the necessary information to place each letter in proper perspective. Cutler and Hall provide a complete calendar of the many letters that are not included. In a similar way, the editors' introduction explains the patronage pressures that Polk was under in launching his administration . Thus the general reader and professional historian alike are provided with the proper balance of background and detail. Several other themes run through the correspondence of the first halfof 1 845. One is Polk's closeness with his dying mentor, Andrew Jackson. Communication between the two reflects the importance of Jackson's advice to the young president until letters from Nashville friends tell of Old Hickory's passing in June. At the same time, Polk's anxiety over whether Texas will accept the joint resolution of annexation are eased when the congress of the Lone Star Republic gives its approval. Yet clouds of potential trouble with Mexico loom low on the horizon as the two countries drift toward confrontation. The new president appears determined from the start to adopt the Texas viewpoint in the struggle ahead. Having read the correspondence of the first months of the Polk administration , one will not be surprised by the continued drive and determination of James K. Polk in the months ahead. Readers will eagerly await the remaining BOOK REVIEWS77 volumes of this valuable edition of Polk correspondence as the president faced deepening domestic and foreign crises. Frederick J. Blue Youngstown State University An Abolitionist in theAppalachian South: Ezekiel Birdseye on Slavery, Capitalism , and Separate Statehood in East Tennessee, 1841-1846. By Durwood Dunn. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1997. Pp. xii, 306. $36.00.) A single theme runs throughout the twenty-eight letters from East Tennessee entrepreneur Ezekiel Birdseye to New York abolitionist Gerrit Smith that appear in Durwood Dunn's new volume. It is Birdseye's conviction, expressed in one of his first notes to Smith, that "improved communications between North and South would contribute greatly to the overthrow of slavery" (138). In a series of dispatches clustered in the depression years of 1841-42 and during the expansionist uproar of 1 845-46, the Connecticut transplant conveys both his distaste for the brutal practices of his slaveholding neighbors and a remarkable confidence that the discredited institution might soon disappear from the Southern mountains, to be followed by its demise...