George Washington Julian, Radical Republican: A Study in Nineteenth-Century Politics and Reform (review)

80CIVIL WAR HISTORY Nor does Current give adequate recognition to Calhoun's gifts of prophecy. Calhoun foresaw civil war if slavery was not safeguarded within the Union. He foresaw the tragedies of reconstruction. He saw the hypocrisy of the northern majority, which was not nearly so interested in free Negroes as in Free Soil. He saw the widening gulf between the poor and the rest of society. He knew that abolition alone would not convert a slave into a free man, that if unequipped for full citizenship, the freedmen might well become slaves of the community, rather than of individuals. Furthermore , we have yet to prove that liberty and equality can coexist, or that white and black people can live together in peace and harmony, as Calhoun wondered. In short, Dr. Current's book, for all its value and historical perspective, is not the final word on the mind and philosophy of John C. Calhoun. Marcaret L. Corr Fairleigh Dickinson University George Washington Julian, Radical Republican: A Study in Nineteenth -Century Politics and Reform. By Patrick W. Riddleberger. (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1966. Pp. xiii, 344. $5.00.) The current civil rights controversy has generated a renewed interest in the abolition movement of antebellum days and in the reconstruction era, when the question of rights and responsibilities agitated the country. There is also a tendency, among the self-styled liberals, to refurbish the halos of the reformers of the 1840-1870 era and to view them as prophets rather than agitators or fanatics. George W. Julian, an Indiana reformer and congressman, took a rather prominent role in the controversies which emotionalized America in the 1840-1880 period. He was active in five different political partiesbeing a Whig, Free Soiler, Republican, Liberal Republican, and Democrat in rum. As an abolitionist he defied the popular prejudices of his day, being to Indiana what Joshua R. Giddings was to Ohio. He turned to politics to further the abolitionist cause, being elected to the Thirty-first Congress in 1849. There he struck up an acquaintance with Giddings as well as Gamaliel Bailey, editor of the National Era. Defeated for re-election in 1851, Julian was returned to the Thirty-seventh Congress in the election of 1858, and there he made his mark as legislator and critic. He exerted relentless pressure upon President Lincoln to free the slaves and to further the objectives of abolition. In the postwar era he became obsessed with land reform, serving for many years as chairman of the Committee on Public Lands (House of Representatives). As a land reformer, he "clung tenaciously to the myth of an agrarian utopia." His confidence in his cause made him a doctrinaire who at times lost sight of both the forest and the trees. He always imagined he was aligned with the forces of good, combating the forces of evil. He voted against the (Morrill) College Land Grant Act of 1862, lacking the foresight to BOOK REVIEWS81 see its role in American education. He treated Democrats with contempt during the war, even expressing a willingness to deny them the vote unless they favored a vigorous prosecution of the war. He frequently misjudged Lincoln and his motives, one time even labeling him "the despicable tool of his own wife." Julian tried to force Lincoln to purge his Cabinet of "moderates" like Seward and Blair. As a member of the Committee on the Conduct of the War he had a hand in ruining the career of General Charles P. Stone and in removing Generals McClellan and Buell from command. He lambasted General Sherman for granting General Joseph E.Johnston's army rather lenient terms. He shared the feeling of Benjamin F.Wade and Zachariah Chandler that Lincoln's death was a godsend to their cause. During the reconstruction years, Julian advocated a harsh policy, favoring punitive measures against the South and regretting as late as 1870 that Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee had cheated the gallows . As most would guess, Julian stood in the front rank of the movement to impeach President Andrew Johnson. Since George W. Julian was so often one-minded, he was a good hater. He was not on speaking terms with...