Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/163

Alexander : Political History of Nciv York 1 5 3 which FiUniore acted — down to Van Buren's overthrow in the Baltimore convention of 1844. Seven more chapters continue the same story down to 1854, and show how Van Buren and Seward each split his own party over the issue of Southern domination. Fifteen chapters are devoted to the fusion of various political elements into the Republican party, 1854- 1861. This metamorphosis was more gradual in New York than in most states. The description of the transformation and of the correspond- ing re-alignments in the Democratic party shows the author at his best. His theory of the overwhelming importance of personality in history helps to enrich these pages with thoughtful analyses of the leadership on both sides, of Seward, Weed, Greeley, Raymond, Governors Morgan and Fenton, G. W. Curtis, D. D. Field, James S. Wadsworth and the Kings, and also of Horatio Seymour, Dean Richmond, John A. Dix, Greene C. Bronson, Amasa J. Parker, Fernando Wood and Daniel S. Dickinson. In the preface the author promises a third volume that will bring the story down to 1896. As his second volume is much better written and more carefully studied than his first, w-e are disposed to look hopefully toward the tliird, which will deal w-ith events in which the author has himself borne a share. He writes usually with clearness and force, although occasionally capable of freaks of phraseology that are either ludicrous or awkward. In the former case, witness the description of Hon. John Taylor (I. 196) wdio "moved around the Senate chamber, his tall spare form bending like a wind-swept tree ". In the latter case this extraordinary sentence about George Clinton may be cited (I. 197). " If he left behind him a memory of long service which had been lived to his own advantage, it was by no means lived to the disadvantage oi his country or his State ". The author seems to be unaware that recent revelations of the Clinton correspondence have revived the ancient accusation that George Clinton profited secretly by the sale of public lands. Certainly the man who would steal a governorship would not be likely to refuse an opportunity to share a public contract. The politics of New York city is, in these volumes, reduced to comparative insignificance. The author keeps hi^ gaze fixed on the succession of executive officers at Albany. There is no coherent account of the development and influence of Tammany Hall. Strangest of all is the virtual elimination of Tammany from this account of the decade 1850-1860. Mozart Hall is named only in a foot-note, and although Fernando Wood himself is put under the microscope there is no attempt to analyze the political elements that, locally, supported or opposed him. Scant attention is given to any political force not proceed- ing directly from some " controlling spirit ", though Anti-Masonry, through its connection with Weed and Seward, fares better than Anti- Rent, or the Equal Rights (Locofoco) faction in the metropolis. These volumes will have small value for the special student of New York politics, but they are capable of rendering a real service to the