An American Conservative in the Age of Jackson: The Political and Social Thought of Calvin Colton (review)

180CIVIL WAR HISTORY fession is beginning to bring rich rewards and the future of behavioral history seems bright. Robert P. Swterenga Kent State University An American Conservative in the Age of Jackson: The Political and Social Thought of Calvin Colton. By Alfred A. Cave, (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1969. Pp. v, 69. $3.50.) Because the paucity of information forestalled a full biography, Professor Cave restricted himself to a study of Colton's thought as revealed in his published writings. While in England early in the 1830's Colton published several works defending American democracy to Englishmen. In these early publications, he was optimistic that democracy would succeed as long as the majority possessed property, and the people were "cautious, sober, industrious, responsible, and respectful of law and the rights of property." When he returned from England in 1835, Colton was shocked by the political turbulence of Jacksonian America and began to attack the radicalism he saw. He was disturbed by the use of such terms as democracy , liberty and equality by those he called radical or fanatical reformers whose efforts only invited anarchy and disturbed public tranquility. All reformers came under his disapprobation. Even though he was a teetotaler he attacked the temperance movement for endangering the public health because it would deprive people of the medicinal benefits of strong drink. His greatest condemnation was reserved for the abolitionists. Professor Cave classified Colton as antislavery because he was a believer in colonization and morally opposed to slavery. Considering Colton's views, these are not very strong antislavery credentials. Colton defended slavery against the abolitionists with all the stock, proslavery, positive-good arguments of his day, and urged that abolitionist activities be suppressed because they threatened the public welfare. Colton's condemnation of reformers was based on his providential philosophy of history in which any attempt to accelerate change was in defiance of God. Given his early background as a minister it would seem that more connection could have been made between his mature views and his early training. Colton offered little hope for restraining the radical tendencies of American democracy unless the state gave direct support to public education and organized religion (a pretty radical suggestion in itself), or the people elected conservatives, preferably Whigs, to office. It was as a defender of Whig principles in general, and Henry Clay's views in particular, that Colton is usually remembered. Colton's Whiggism revolved around the protective tariff, a sound currency and internal improvements in order to promote and maintain an expanding pros- BOOK HEVIEWS181 perous economy. He also pictured the Whigs as the true democrats, and attributed antidemocratic motives to every Jacksonian action. Colton was essentially a latter day Federalist who wanted to see the republic governed by wise, virtuous, propertied men aloof from the masses. At the same time, he preached the harmony of all social classes and the need for equality of opportunity. Colton was, in Professor Cave's view, "nearly obsessed" with a fear of social turmoil, whether it was brought on by radical reformers or Jacksoman politicians. This summarization of Colton's thought makes little effort to go beyond Colton's words. One wonders if his views were common among Whigs, or if he was merely echoing others. An analysis of Colton's views in light of those of other conservatives such as Greeley, James Watson Webb, Philip Hone, Theodore Dwight, Orestes Brownson, William Sullivan , Chancellor Kent and Charles King would have greatly strengthened this treatise. It can, however, serve as a beginning point for those interested in nineteenth-century conservatism, or as a short cut for those who do not want to read Colton in the original. John D. Morris Kent State University Stormy Petrel: The Life and Times of General Benjamin F. Butler, 18181893 . By Howard P. Nash, Jr. (Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1969. Pp. 335. $10.00.) A book such as this puts a reviewer in a quandary. One is tempted to borrow the terse summary style of the writers of those reviews of the late shows which appear in the TV sections of our daily papers, say "Nothing new here. Save your $10," and let it...