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_American Patriots and Statesmen from Washington to Lincoln._ By
ALBERT BUSHNELL HART. P. F. Collier & Son, New York, 1916. Five
Volumes.
The editor deserves great credit for bringing together so much
original material reflecting the thought of the men who made the
nation. Every phase of American life and politics has been considered,
giving both the scholar and the layman a ready reference and guide for
a more intensive study of public opinion in this country than can be
obtained from the ordinary treatises on history and government. The
manner of selecting and arranging the materials exhibits evidence of
breadth of view on the part of the compiler and places his long
experience as a professor in the leading university of this country at
the disposal of persons who have not labored in this field so long.
Here we have the thoughts of almost every distinguished man who
materially influenced the history of this country from the time of the
discovery of America to the outbreak of the Civil War. The writer has
drawn on the works of all classes, statesmen, sages, men of affairs,
State officials, congressmen, senators, presidents, judges; ministers,
doctors, lawyers, educators, novelists, essayists and travellers;
poets and orators. Every section of the country, too, is represented
in this collection and a few foreigners who have manifested peculiar
interest in Americans have also been included. Some of these important
subjects treated in these documents are such questions as
"Expectations from the New World," "The First Immigrants," "Principles
of Personal Liberty," "Extension of Colonial Freedom," "The American
Revolution," "Independence of the United States," "Liberty in a
Federal Constitution," "National Democracy," "The Frontier," "States
Rights," "Slavery," "Nullification," and "The Popularization of
Government." Important treatises having a special bearing on the Negro
have not been omitted. Among these are Hinton Rowan Helpers' _Appeal
to the Non-slaveholding Whites_, Benjamin Wade's _Defiance of
Secession_, John Brown's _Last Speech of a Convicted Abolitionist_,
William H. Seward's _Irrepressible Conflict_, Abraham Lincoln's _A
House Divided against itself cannot Stand_, his _Meaning of the
Declaration of Independence_, his _Philosophy of Slavery_, the
_Gettysburg Address_, and the _Emancipation Proclamation_.
The collection as a whole makes a valuable reference work for the
modern teacher who is trying to explain the past in terms of present
achievements. These materials are so arranged as to show that what we
now call new problems in American life are issues of old, that the
questions now arising as to how to manage the army and navy, how to
deal with our colonies, how to maintain our position as a world power,
and how to promote national preparedness, have all been discussed pro
and con by leading statesmen in the past. Libraries in need of source
material lying in this field would make no mistake in purchasing this
valuable collection.