North For Union: John Appleton's Journal of a Tour to New England Made by President Polk in June and July 1847 (review)

280CIVIL WAR HISTORY very useful analysis of Adams's connection with the antimasonry movement. In the rest of the book, Richards selectively comments on the role of Adams's in the national politics of the 1830s and 1840s. After a chapter concentrating on the main events of the Jackson presidency, Richards devotes much of the book to a discussion of Adams and the sectional controversy. There are discussions of Adams's reaction to the rise of the antislavery movement, to his major role in the "gag rule" issue, to his perceptions of the role of the slave owners in directing the course of national policy, and to Adams's position on Texas and the Mexican War. In discussing Adams's reaction to major national events, Richards gives brief summaries of general historical developments. At times these are too text-like, but they provide a useful summary of recent research on a number of topics. The analysis of Adams is balanced, although there is too little on the relationship ofAdams to the national Whig party. On the whole, however, this is a perceptive book which presents sound insights into Adams's last years as well as providing a useful introduction to the national crises of the 1830s and 1840s. R ECINALD HORSMAN University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee North For Union: John Appleton's Journal of a Tour to New Enghnd Made by President Polk in June andJuly 1847. Edited by Wayne Cutler. (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1986. Pp. xxvii, 135. $18.95.) In the summer of 1847, President James Knox Polk embarked on a fifteen-day excursion of the northeastern United States. Prior to his departure the president asked one of his traveling companions, John Appleton , chief clerk of the Navy Department, to keep ajournal of the tour. This volume, edited by Professor Wayne Cutler of Vanderbilt University , presents Appleton's journal and the surviving correspondence pertaining to President Polk's journey. President and Mrs. Polk, accompanied by his suite, left Washington for Baltimore on June 22, 1847, aboard the noon train. The First Lady then continued her journey to Tennessee for an extended family visit, while the president commenced his whirlwind tour in earnest. Traveling by railroad, steamer, and carriage, Polk's itinerary included stops at Philadelphia , New York, Boston, Concord, New Hampshire, Portland and Augusta, Maine, and a number of briefer visits to outlying towns. Appleton scrupulously recorded the names of the numerous local dignitaries who welcomed the president, and he gives the reader a flavor of the receptions accorded the official party. A typical passage describes Polk's arrival at New Haven: "As we moved on, flags and banners were displayed, bouquets were showered upon the President's barouche, BOOK REVIEWS281 bright eyes were radiant at thewindows, and every thingworethe pleasing aspect of hospitality and kindness" (p. 41). Appleton generally contented himself with describing the passing scenes, but he did interject personal feelings into the glimpse he provides of the temperance movement controversy then swirling around the northern states. No alcohol was present at the public dinners honoring the president at Boston and Lowell, but a plentiful supply was available in the private rooms provided the travelers at the Revere House. Appleton does not hide his distaste for such "hypocrisy," labeling it "a needless sacrifice to bigotry" (p. 50). He plainly preferred the arrangements at Concord, where the dinner table conversation "was enlivened by claret, madeira, sherry, and champagne" (p. 62). All in all, President Polk received a courteous and, less frequendy, a genuinely warm welcome to New England. Only two isolated and minor antislaveryprotests marredthepresident's journey, and hereturned to Washington on July7 firmly convinced that his visithad strengthened ties between the sections. The surviving correspondence relating to Polk's tour is printed in a separate section of this work. It is not a voluminous record, and much of it consists simply of official invitations and polite replies. Civil War scholars may takenote of a letter written by Robert Patterson which describes the agreeable reception planned for the president at Philadelphia. There is also an anonymous communication warning Polk that he would be ill-advised to visit Boston in light of "the unjust and atrocious war, in which...