Page images
PDF
EPUB

Civil War abounds in deeds of daring and of equally heroic suffering. The controversies over the Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and "Bleeding Kansas" are the precursors of the great storm. On the causes, elements, and events of the Civil War there is a wealth of materials. Most of the great military commanders on both sides prepared reports at the time, and wrote memoirs afterward; there is a literature of soldiers' letters and reminiscences; and the civil side of the war is hardly less varied and active. For the last part of the volume, there is less of the romantic, yet much that arouses the mind.

[ocr errors]

2. How to Find Sources

OR the period covered by this volume there is no comprehensive bibliography, least of all on post-bellum events. The most convenient brief bibliography is, William E. Foster, References to the History of Presidential Administrations; Channing and Hart, Guide to the Study of American History, comes down only to the end of the Civil War. The foot-notes to the four volumes now published of James Ford Rhodes, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, are a valuable means of reaching sources from about 1845 to 1864; on the Reconstruction period may be used the foot-notes to W. A. Dunning, Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction. J. M. Larned's forthcoming Annotated Bibliography of American History, prepared by the coöperative method, promises to be very helpful. Bowker and Iles, Reader's Guide, has many references on current economic and social questions; and W. E. Foster's Bulletins of the Providence Public Library include many serviceable special bibliographies. Poole's Index is of course the best approach to the abundant periodical material of the last quarter century, much of it first-hand writings. The collections available for school use are named and described in the Report on the Use of Sources, mentioned

above.

THE

3. Intelligent Use of Sources

HE use of sources as school material has been discussed above: that sources vivify the study of history and tend to fix in the memory the principles best worth remembering, seems established by the experience of schools that have tried it.

Teachers will naturally wish to have and to use the full text of some of the authorities which are represented in this volume in brief extract; but from the pieces here printed they can probably enrich their stock of illustrations and cogent facts.

The ordinary literature of the Civil War is in many ways less available to school children than that of earlier periods; perhaps this volume may therefore be especially helpful for that critical epoch in the topical work which now forms so large a part of the training in history in many schools; the Contemporaries is also meant to form a body of suitable parallel reading in connection with text-books.

Little space has been given in the head-notes to a criticism of the writers from whom extracts have been taken. It is assumed that those who use the book are aware of the necessity of considering how far it is the interest and intention of the source-writers to speak the truth. Unless there is a distinct caution to the contrary, it will be understood that the editor selected the extracts because worthy of credit. It must not, however, be inferred that pieces are chosen simply because they express laudable sentiments: it is quite as important to know what were the arguments against a policy as to know those in favor of it. On contested questions both sides have a hearing throughout this series.

A

4. Classification of Extracts in this Volume

S in previous volumes, it may be convenient in this place to classify materials by their origins, so that the reader or the teacher may easily find pieces illustrating special types or sources or source-writers.

Large use has been made in this volume of extremely valuable material in official records of various kinds: first, the Debates of Congress, from which have been taken speeches by Corwin (No. 11); Wilmot (No. 16) ; Calhoun (No. 19); Webster (No. 20); Seward (No. 22); Wade (Nos. 46, 65); Toombs (No. 54); Wigfall (No. 55); Vallandigham (No. 129); Stevens (No. 152); Wilson (No. 155); various members (No. 168); Hoar (No. 191). Large use has also been made of the House Reports (Nos. 40, 149, 156); Senate Reports (No. 47); Senate Journals (Nos. 64, 164, 166, 190); House Executive Documents (Nos. 13, 111, 134, 167, 175, 176, 177, 179, 182); Senate Executive Documents (Nos. 99, 143, 144, 178, 185, 187, 195). The magnificent official records of the Union and Confederate armies have furnished extracts

from Jefferson Davis (No. 62); Walker, Beauregard, Foster, and Anderson (Nos. 71, 72); Prentiss (No. 110); "Stonewall" Jackson (No. 113); Burnside (No. 115); Lee (No. 117); Thomas (No. 123); Butler (No. 124); Semmes (No. 133); Hood (No. 138). Extracts from presidential messages and other official communications are represented by Polk (No. 10); Buchanan (No. 64); Lincoln (No. 145); Cleveland (No. 164); Harrison (No. 166); McKinley (No. 190). Diplomatic correspondence will be found as follows: Seward (No. 99); Slidell (No. 100); C. B. Elliott (No. 173); Sumner (No. 174); Geneva arbitration (No. 175); Fish (No. 176); Blaine (No. 177); Bering Sea (No. 178); Olney (No. 179); Hay (No. 193).

Next in significance are the official and semi-official utterances of public men, chiefly in collected correspondence and similar material, some of them in the official records: as Polk (No. 14); Calhoun (No. 19); Webster (No. 20); Seward (Nos. 22, 45, 97) ; Douglas (No. 34) ; Benton (No. 43); Lincoln (Nos. 44, 66, 97, 101, 127); A. H. Stephens (No. 53); Jefferson Davis (Nos. 62, 106); Chase (No. 128) Sumner (Nos. 146, 174); Tilden (No. 150); Thaddeus Stevens (No. 152); J. G. Blaine (No. 160); Olney (No. 192). Of statesmen less famous, extracts have been made as follows: Edward Everett (No. 79); Crittenden (No. 69); John A. Dix (No. 67); Wendell Phillips (No. 102); Garrison (No. 126); Greeley (No. 127); Corwin (No. 11); R. J. Walker (No. 40); Wilmot (No. 16); Vallandigham (No. 129); Butler (No. 154); Wilson (No. 155); H. A. Herbert (No. 158); Bryan (No. 171); B. F. Wade (Nos. 46, 65); Thurlow Weed (No. 63); Chittenden (No. 68); Slidell (No. 100); Robert Toombs (No. 54); John Brown (No. 48); Andrew Johnson (No. 148); L. J. Gage (No. 172); J. T. Morgan (No. 178); W. R. Day (No. 185); Leonard Wood (No. 189); G. F. Hoar (No. 191); Theodore Roosevelt (No. 198); B. S. Coler (No. 202); Evarts (No. 154); John Sherman (No. 169). Less significant as public men, but extremely valuable for their testimony, are Waddy Thompson (No. 8); I. P. Walker (No. 17); Stringfellow (No. 26); Julian (No. 35); Wigfall (No. 55); E. Hannaford (No. 161); A. F. Walker (No. 165); Lacey (No. 167); Eckels (No. 167). Speeches and reports by various members and commissioners will be found in Nos. 70, 149, 168, 195.

Characteristic extracts are taken from the following renowned generals Scott (No. 13); Grant (Nos. 12, 107, 139, 144); Lee (Nos. 47, 117); Beauregard (No. 71); McClellan (No. 112); "Stonewall"

Jackson (No. 113); Burnside (No. 115); Longstreet (No. 120); Hood (No. 138); Hancock (No. 159); Thomas (No. 123); Sheridan (No. 135); Sherman (No. 137); Farragut (No. 134); Dewey (No. 182); Porter (No. 118).

The only journals which have seemed available are those of Polk (No. 14); Dana (No. 31); Jones (No. 83); "Bull Run" Russell (No. 96); Chase (No. 128); Mrs. Lowry (No. 194). In reminiscences and historical work, carefully written later by participants, this field is rich, as will be seen by the following list: Pollard (No. 27); Levi Coffin (No. 29); Parker (No. 30); Cutts (No. 34); Julian (No. 35); Mrs. Robinson (No. 36); John Scott (No. 38); Reuben Davis (Nos. 58, 80); Mrs. Livermore (No. 73); Mrs. Clayton (No. 81); George Cary Eggleston (No. 82); Mosby (No. 95); Stevenson (No. 92); Billings (No. 84); Hosmer (No. 87); C. C. Coffin (No. 131); Charles A. Dana (No. 132); Porter (No. 118); Longstreet (No. 120); Mrs. Botume (No. 141); Sheridan (No. 135); General Sherman (No. 137) ; John Sherman (No. 169); Grant (No. 139); Mrs. Hancock (No. 159). Travellers have been very abundant, but have not been quoted so freely as in other volumes. The only foreign travellers are T. H. Gladstone (No. 39); Fremantle (No. 94); W. H. Russell (Nos. 96, 103); Captain Wilkinson (No. 116); Campbell (No. 203). The American travellers are R. H. Dana (No. 7); Delano (No. 18). Special observers on the South and slavery are Emily P. Burke (No. 23); Nehemiah Adams (No. 25); Pollard (No. 27); Godkin (No. 142); Schurz (No. 143); Pike (No. 157); Grady (No. 205); Booker T. Washington (No. 208). Observers, correspondents, and critics on the Civil War period are Murat Halstead (Nos. 49, 50); A. H. Stephens (No. 53); Joel Parker (No. 56); S. W. Crawford (No. 59); Smalley (No. 114); Shanks (No. 122). Critics on the academic, social, and political conditions since the war are Poor (No. 163); Taussig (No. 170); C. B. Elliott (No. 173); Mahan (No. 183); A. L. Lowell (No. 186); A. B. Hart (Nos. 196, 209); Roosevelt (No. 198); Schurz (No. 199); Clark (No. 201); J. B. Harrison (No. 204); Riis (No. 206); C. W. Eliot (No. 207): on our new possessions, Atkins (No. 184); Carroll (No. 188).

Satirists are represented by several authors: James Russell Lowell (Nos. 9, 15); Brownell (No. 57); Richard Grant White (Nos. 74, 140); Artemus Ward (No. 75); McElroy (No. 197); "Mr. Dooley" (No. 200). Closely allied with this group are two novelists, Harriet Beecher Stowe (No. 24); Anna Dickinson (No. 121).

Pieces in verse are rather numerous: Whittier (Nos. 21, 125); Lucy Larcom (No. 37); Brownell (No. 57); O. W. Holmes (No. 60); Bryant (No. 76); Phoebe Cary (No. 78); Northern War Songs (No. 85); Southern War Songs (No. 91); Palmer (No. 93); Mrs. Warfield (No. 104); Longfellow (No. 108); Boker (No. 130); T. Buchanan Read (No. 136).

The contributions of women to this volume are as follows: Emily P. Burke (No. 23); Harriet Beecher Stowe (No. 24); Mary D. Armstead (No. 32); Mrs. Robinson (No. 36); Lucy Larcom (No. 37); Mrs. Livermore (No. 73); Mrs. Clayton (No. 81); Mrs. Warfield (No. 104); Anna Dickinson (No. 121); Mrs. Botume (No. 141); Mrs. Lowry (No. 194).

Foreign critics and statesmen have contributed some interesting pieces: John Bright (No. 98); Comte de Paris (No. 105); Peto (No. 162); Courcel (No. 178); Hannen (No. 178); Sawyer (No. 187).

THE

5. Reprints and Collections

HE principal collections of sources on the period 1845-1900 are as follows:

American Annual Cyclopædia (annual volumes, 1861, etc.). New York, 1862-1900.- From Vol. V (1875) on, the title is Appleton's Annual Cyclopædia. Contains very valuable materials, especially extracts from public documents.

H. W. Caldwell, Source Extracts. 1. A Survey of American History. 2. Great American Legislators. 3. American Territorial Development: Expansion. Chicago, 1900.- 1 and 3 published together, under the title American History: Unification, Expansion. Chicago, 1900.

Albert Bushnell Hart, Source-Book of American History, with Practical Introductions. New York, 1899. Nos. 102-145 cover the same chronological field as Vol. IV of the Contemporaries, but the two works contain no dupli

cates.

Albert Bushnell Hart and Edward Channing, editors, American History Leaflets. 30 numbers (to be had separately). New York, 1892-1896. — Includes Lincoln's state papers.

Mabel Hill, Liberty Documents. New York, 1901. — Contains documents and comments thereon relating chiefly to personal liberty, and showing the derivation of American principles of free government from English traditions.

« PreviousContinue »