The Papers of Andrew Johnson: Volume 7, 1864-1865 (review)

BOOK RENTEWS179 er, were in danger of reverting to barbarism. Phillips's remedy embraced crop diversification and enlarged units of production, that is, plantations operated by trained, educated managers where blacks would as wage laborers resume therelationship with paternalistic whites for which they were suited by the innate qualities of their race. But in the longrun history was more important to Phillips than reform, if only because he found it easier to write superb history than to change things in the real world. And it is again possible, perhaps, to say "superb history." Professor Dillon, whose main concern hitherto has been with abolitionists, was one of that generation of scholars "amongwhom Phillips ' achievement was pushed into obscurity" by critics who charged that the Georgian's "pro-planter bias and his racist views . . . had led him to distort southern history," thus divesting his work "of scholarly— even moral—legitimacy" (p. 1). But then, one might say, Eugene Genovese cried, "Lazarus, come forth!" and Phillips was revived and, with qualifications, made respectable. The author undertakes a measured evaluation ofhis subject's work, repeatedly and punctiliously reminding his readers of Phillips's racialism, pointing out that although he anticipated some recent theories of the role and accomplishments of blacks under slavery, his inability to take blacks seriously kept him from developing such insights and would, when prevailing views on race had changed, bring down upon his writings overwhelming obloquy. More than anything else, Professor Dillon has written the history of an academic career in the days of giants. It is this aspect of the biography that may prove to be most valuable and interesting, because most of those who are likely to read the book already are familiar with the ups and down—and ups—of Phillips's scholarly reputation. Even though the personality of Dillon's Phillips remains just a little dim, those in the profession can easily fill in the gaps. Some things in the business have changed since those days, but others never will. The author's research in manuscript collections is wide-ranging, and the biography is well organized and clearly written. If it does not, in its net effect, go as far as Genovese's 1966 assertion that Phillips perhaps came as close to greatness "as any historian this country has yet produced ," it certainly seems to support what can now be taken as the current professional consensus—that Phillips's work is of enduring value. LudwellH. Johnson III College of William and Mary The Papers of AndrewJohnson: Volume 7, 1864-1865. Edited by LeRoy P. Graf. (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1986. Pp. lxxxviii , 730. $39.50.) The materials presented in this volume of The Papers of Andrew Johnson begin on July 1, 1864, and end on April 30, 1865. These ten months 180CIVIL WAR HISTORY were, of course, the pivotal period of Johnson's career. During them he was elected vice-president, concluded his work as military governor of Tennessee, and suddenly and unexpectedly became President of the United States at one of the most crucial points in its history. No longer would he be, in the context of national affairs, merely one of many more or less important figures; now he would be the single most important person in the country, with enormous power for good or evil. What is to be learned about Johnson's metamorphosis in this volume? As in the previous volumes, precious little from what he himself wrote. Paper and pen were not his mode of communication, with the result that of the 657 documents contained in volume seven, only 86 are letters or telegrams he wrote or dictated, and most of these are of a routine official nature. Hence, again as is in the previous volumes, the majority of significant documents pertaining to Johnson takes the form of newspaper accounts of his speeches and letters (532 in all) from others. An examination of these sources reveals a number of things of interest with reference to Johnson's approach to Reconstruction. First, thanks in large part to a superb speech he gave in January 1865 to the Unionist Constitutional Convention he had arranged, he completed the difficult task of establishing...