The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison: Vol. V, Let The Oppressed Go Free 1861-1867 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS173 changing methodologies, interpretations, and concerns focus interest in new directions. The nine original essays in this collection generally demonstrate this assertion. Written by well-known or rising scholars, and selected primarily from papers delivered at a conference on "Lincoln's Thought and the Present" sponsored by Sangamon State University, the articles reflect many important issues confronted by American society in the last fifteen years. It is impossible to discuss all the essays in the space permitted here. Several examples will have to suffice. Essays by Roy P. Basier and Kathryn Kish Sklar mirror the recent concerns generated by the civil rights and feminist movements. Gabor S. Boritt and Norman Graebner provide articles discussing Lincoln's economic thought, inspired perhaps by the contemporary dilemma that pits growth against finite resources and rampant inflation. The strongest thread in Lincoln's life, Boritt asserts, was his belief that each person had "the right to rise"; Graebner argues that Lincoln equated economic growth with prosperity . Some Americans are now challenging the correlation between growth and progress, and if development slows will the opportunity to improve one's condition be circumscribed? Don E. Fehrenbacher, in a thoughtful piece, addresses Lincoln's role in the shift of power from the states to the federal government, the rise of the "imperial presidency," and the tendency toward judicial policymaking—all problems of great recent interest. Writing against the backdrop of Vietnam, Richard N . Current describes Lincoln's concept of American Mission, maintaining that he believed it was to provide an ideal example which would serve as an inspiration to all peoples everywhere. Current concludes by saying it would be wise if American leaders returned to Lincoln's belief "that the United States had a special calling—not a Manifest Destiny to expand and to conquer—but a sacred mission to set an example for the rest of the world by living up to its own historic ideals" (p. 146). As usual in a collection of essays, some are better than others, though all merit attention. Combined they provide worthy new perspectives on Lincoln, demonstrating his transcendent appeal—and showing why that appeal is so timeless. Peter Maslowski University of Nebraska-Lincoln The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison: Vol. V, Let The Oppressed Go Free 1861-1867. Edited by Walter M. Merrill. (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1979. Pp. xxx, 597. $37.50.) Prior volumes of the Garrison letters revealed how a young, impulsive, erratic missionary reformer with exceedingly strong ideals evolved, by the early 1840's, into a prudent and politically astute manager of the 174CIVIL WAR HISTORY Boston Clique, the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and the American Anti-Slavery Society. This having been accomplished, he set out to broaden his movement through skillful negotiations with nonGarrisonian abolitionist factions and by seeking cooperative ties with moderate non-immediatistanti-slavery forces. AlthoughGarrison firmly believed that this process of broadening his supportive base brought new "converts" to "righteous" reform, it often required him to accommodate himself to certain of the ideals and tactics of his "converts," particularly the Free Soilers and later the Republicans. During the years covered by Volume V, this process of widening the Garrisonian "sphere of influence" through subtle give and take diplomacy was culminated. By late 1863 Garrison was titular head of an abolitionist movement that seemed more united than at any time since the early 1830's. Evangelical immediatists offered him their churches for meetings while old Liberty party men and young Republicans congratulated him for the success of his long battle against slavery. Garrison gloried in these and subsequent cheers of success. Because the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued and the Thirteenth Amendment was a certainty, he assumed that the anti-slavery cause was triumphant. Therefore, in the spring of 1865 he proposed dissolution of all old anti-slavery societies and publications. Wendell Phillips, Parker Pillsbury, and others reminded him that true "emancipation" required more than legal eradication of Negro slavery—that for decades Garrison had insisted that all forms of human coercion would have to be eradicated before the "mission to the slaves" would be cluminated. But the process of "accommodating" to non-Garrisonians as he enlarged his...