Rehearsal for Republicanism: Free Soil and the Politics of Antislavery (review)

88CIVIL WAR HISTORY Rehearsal for Republicanism: Free Soil and the Politics of Antislavery. By John Mayfield. (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1980. Pp. 220. $17.50.) Historians have long been fascinated with how the failure ofDemocrats and Whigs to confront slave-related issues led to the formation of the Free Soil party and how the third-party challenge hastened the breakdown of the two-party system. In this latest study of theFreeSoilparty, John Mayfield of the University of Kentucky emphasizes the ideology and motivation of the three factions which made up the party and how they combined to seek the political power to implement that ideology. Mayfield retraces familiar ground in describing the formation of the Barnburner, Conscience Whig, and Liberty elements. Most important for numbers and experience were the Barnburners of New York who insisted on both a candidate and a platform in 1848 suitable to their needs. Yet it was Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, a Liberty man, who played the key role in forging the potentially explosive coalition. Chasewas the most capable organizer who dominated the platform deliberations at the Buffalo convention and convinced both Liberty men and Conscience Whigs thatMartinVan Burenwouldbethemosteffectivecandidate . The platform called for no positive action against slavery and merely would have separated the federal government from anyresponsibiUty for slavery. This position reflected Chase's own thinking as he sought to use the new party to force the Democratic party to a similar antislavery stance and thus eUminate the need for a third party. Mayfield then describes the inabiUty of the Free Soilers to use local and state issues and organizations to sustain the national party between presidential elections. He skillfully traces the coalition and divisions in Ohio as Chase engineered his own election to the United States Senate in 1849. Less satisfactory are his accounts of the reunion of Barnburners and Hunkers in New York and his very brief description ofthe FreeSoilDemocratic coaUtion in Massachusetts. He pays virtuallyno attention to Free Soil efforts in otherstates, some ofwhich were highlysignificant, as in Wisconsin. Traditional party loyalties and the compromise spirit in 1850 were obstacles which the third party was unableto overcomeafter 1848. The Free Soilers were thus not able to maintain their ideological force in their disappointing effort of 1852. Surprisingly, Mayfield concludes his study with the election of 1852 and fails to look at the important transitional year of 1853 as the party struggled on and prepared itself for the dramatic events of 1854. Thus, despite the book's title, the author gives the reader no understanding of the key role played by Free Soilers such as Chase, Charles Sumner, and Joshua Giddings in the formation of the Republican party. Mayfield's study lacks a bibliography but is based on thorough research in the important primary and secondary sources. It is well written and succinct , yet offers Uttle about the Free Soil party that does not already BOOK REVIEWS appear in the works of Richard Sewell, Joseph Rayback, and Frederick Blue. Frederick J. Blue Youngstown State University Stones River: Bloody Battle in Tennessee. By James Lee McDonough. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1980. Pp. xiv, 271. $14.50.) It is nearly a century since Alexander F. Stevenson pubUshed his Battle of Stone's River, and but for pamphlets and occasional articles since, that is the last word that we have had on the New Year's battle in middle Tennessee. It has deserved more, says James L. McDonough, author of this new treatment of the engagement, and indeed it does. The battle itself was a peculiar affair, fought in pieces and largely mismanaged by both Union and Confederate commanders. Certainly there was no clear-cut victor or vanquished in the fight itself, but the withdrawal of Braxton Bragg and his Confederates signaled thathe was unwilling to fight any more, and thatlefttheUnionwithamuch-needed success. It helped salve somewhat the painful memory of the Yankee debacle at Fredericksburg only a few days before, and despite his later failures as a commander in thefield, GeneralWilUam S. Rosecrans never lost the esteem and friendship of President Lincoln for giving him "a hard-earned victory, which, had there been a defeat instead, the nation could scarcely have...