In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

BOOK REVIEWS167 tuted the "very essence" of the American nation (xii). With such a view Webster might very well hope to protect the interests of his own section while he made a broad appeal to all other parts of the country. Unhappily for his political ambition, however, the static quality in his ideology did not enable him to deal effectively with the sectional conflict of interests over slavery. When the Wilmot Proviso precipitated the bitter debate over slavery in the territories to be acquired from Mexico, Webster could only invoke the good of the existing balance in behalf of his policy for making no acquisitions at all. Again he hoped the Compromise of 1850 would, by removing the divisive issue of slavery , bring back the old harmony of interests; but this time "the conscience of New England got left out of the balance." (xi). The best parts of the volume under review deal with these two events; for they bring in to clear focus the political calculations of Webster and the relevance, as he saw it, of his deeply held convictions about national balance. Though often tedious and unrelated to the ideology of nationalism, other parts dealing with the nuts and bolts of politics are also of value. Extensive use of manuscript materials turns up new information on Webster's politically ambiguous position in Tyler's Cabinet and the part he played in the developing split between Conscience and Cotton Whigs in Massachusetts. Of even greater significance may be the added light the political activity of Webster throws upon the demise of the Whig party after the Compromise of 1850. The chief weakness of the work is a conceptual one. There is little evidence in the text or the notes that the author made any real use of Hans Kohn or the works of many others, all of which subject the idea of nationalism to a systematic analysis. At the least, such works might have provided the reader more in the way of contrasting concepts with which to make the idea of Webster clearer. More profoundly, they might have compelled the author to reconsider the interpretation here given. Somehow, the notion of "viable balance" tends to strike one as a means and not an end, more in the nature of a political tactic rather than the "very essence" of the national idea. Further analysis of Webster 's idea needs to be done. For example, a closer look at the Hulsemann Letter, here cited but not analyzed, suggests other and more ultimate elements in his ideology of nationalism than balance alone. Major L. Wilson Memphis State University Daniel Lee, Agriculturist: His Life North and South. By E. Merton Coulter. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1972. Pp. ix, 165. $6.00.) Although he was a minor figure in American history, Daniel Lee was a major leader in the field of agriculture in the nineteenth century. His life was somewhat unusual in that after having lived for thirty-nine or possibly, since his birth date is uncertain, forty-five years in the North, he then moved to the South, where he lived until his death forty-three 168civil war history years later. He always considered himself an American rather than a northerner or a southerner, but during the Civil War he was openly sympathetic with the Confederacy and, as Professor Coulter states, "he held principles from the beginning which were more in keeping with those of the South, and therefore, he readily accommodated himself to life there. . . ." He was first of all a soils chemist who believed that the widespread depletion of the fertility of the soil must be checked. He strongly and continually advocated proper farming methods, the use of organic and chemical fertilizers, rotation of old crops and the introduction of new new ones. In order to promote his program he was a prodigious editor of and contributor to farm journals. He edited some of the most prestigious farm journals in nineteenth-century America, such as the Genesee Farmer, and the Southern Cultivater, the latter for more than a dozen years. He also edited the whole journal or the agricultural section of such journals as the Southern Field and Fireside, the...

pdf

Share