Wisconsin Magazine of History

The Capitol Fence of 1872 JOHN O. HOLZHUETER

New Leftists mid Abolitionists: A Comparison of American Radical Styles BERTRAM WYATT-BROWN

The Attempted Assassination of Teddy Roosevelt STAN GORES

A Brief History of Oneota Research in Wisconsin GUY GIBBON

Milwaukee in 1836 and 1849: A Contemporary Description Edited by BAYARD STILL

Published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin / Vol. 53, No. 4 Summer, 1970 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN RICHARD A. ERNEY, Acting Director

Officers THOMAS H. BABLAND, President GEORGE BANTA, JR., Honorary Vice-President JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President E. E. HOMSTAD, Treasurer CLIFFOBD D. SWANSON, Second Vice-President RICHARD A. ERNEY, Acting Secretary

Board of Curators Ex-Officio WARREN P. KNOWLES, Governor oj the State HAROLD W. CLEMENS, State Treasurer ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State FRED H. HARRINGTON, President of the University MRS. GEORGE SWART, President of the Women's Auxiliary Term Expires, 1970 THOMAS H. BARLAND MRS. EDWARD C. JONES HOWARD W. MEAD DONALD C. SLIGHTER Eau Claire Fort Atkinson Madison Milwaukee JIM DAN HILL MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK I. OLSON DR. LOUIS C. SMITH Middleton Madison Wauwatosa Lancaster E. E. HOMSTAD CHARLES R. MCCALLUM F. HARWOOD ORBISON ROBEBT S. ZIGMAN Black River Falls Hubertus Appleton Milwaukee Term Expires, 1971 ROGER E. AXTELL KENNETH W. HAAGENSEN MOWRY SMITH MILO K. SWANTON Janesville Oconomowoc Neenah Madison MRS. HENRY BALDWIN ROBERT B. L. MURPHY MRS. WM. H. L. SMYTHE CEDRIC A. VIG Wisconsin Rapids Madison Milwaukee Rhinelander HORACE M. BENSTEAD FREDERIC E. RISSER WILLIAM F. STARK CLARK WILKINSON Racine Madison Nashotah Baraboo

Term Expires, 1972 E. DAVID CRONON MRS. ROBERT E. FRIEND MRS. HOWARD T. GRI;ENE WAYNE J. HOOD Madison Hartland Genesee Depot La Crosse SCOTT M. CUTLIP ROBERT A. GEHRKE BEN GUTHRIE J. WARD RECTOR Madison Ripon Lac du Flambeau Milwaukee W. NORMAN FITZGERALD JOHN C. GEILFUSS MRS. R. L. HARTZELL CLIFFORD D. SWANSON Milwaukee Milwaukee GRANTSBURG Stevens Point

Honorary Honorary Life Members WILLIAM ASHBY MCCLOY, New London, Connecticut PRESTON E. MCNALL, Clearwater, Florida JOHN C. JACQUES, Madison DOROTHY L. PARK, Madison BENTON H. WILCOX, Madison Felkiws VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI ALICE E. SMITH

The Women's Auxiliary Officers MRS. GEORGE SWART, Fort Atkinson, President MISS MARIE BARKMAN, Sheboygan, Vice-President MISS RUTH DAVIS, Madison, Secretary MRS. RICHARD G. ZIMMERMANN, Sheboygan, Treasurer MRS. EDWARD H. RIKKERS, Madison, Ex-Officio VOLUME 53, NUMBER 4 / SUMMER, 1970 isconsin

JLlfJLdic^ €^ij^ JL JL Jit? of History

WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYGOOD, Editor WILLIAM C. MARTEN, Associate Editor

The Capitol Fence of 1872: A Footnote to Wisconsin Architectural History JOHN O. HOLZHUETER 243

New Leftists and Abolitionists: A Comparison of American Radical Styles BERTRAM WYATT-BROWN 256

The Attempted Assassination of Teddy Roosevelt STAN GORES 269

A Brief History of Oneota Research in Wisconsin GUY GIBBON 278

Milwaukee in 1836 and 1849: A Contemporary Description Edited by BAYARD STILL 294 Book Reviews 298 Accessions 318

Contributors 320

Published Quarterly by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin

THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published by contributors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Wis. Copyright © 1970 by the State Historical Society of 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Distributed Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon to members as part of their dues (Annual membership, Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. $7.50; Family membership, $10; Contributing, $25; Busi­ Wisconsin newspapers may reprint any article appearing in ness and Professional, $50; Sustaining, $100 or more an­ the WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY providing the nually; Patron, $500 or more annually). Single numbers, story carries the following credit line: Reprinted from the $1.75. Microfilmed copies available through University State Historical Society's Wisconsin Magazine of History Microfilms, 313 North F'irst Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. for [insert the season and year which appear on the Maga­ Commimications should be addressed to the editor. The zine]. Society does not assume responsibility for statements made J^/»^j^ Cofnfs///'(iri B.tlMO-k'Sv,.^,^ This landscape design for ihe capitol park was very likely executed by Horace William Shuler Cleveland, a noted landscape architect hired by the capitol park commission in 1872. The original plan is in ink with colored shadings. It features fountains, statuary, a summer house, and a music stand. The plan was discovered in the Society's Archives-Manuscripts Division.

242 THE CAPITOL FENCE OF 1872 A Footnote To Wisconsin Architectural History

BY JOHN O. HOLZHUETER

OMETIME IN THE 1960's a story circu­ several governors, a political boss, a reform S lated in high circles of Wisconsin govern­ minister, and the most famous landscape archi­ ment to the effect that the fence around the tect in the West. In a somewhat larger sense, Wisconsin Child Center at Sparta had been the fence can be seen in the tradition of internal given by King Oscar II of Norway in the 1880's improvements, a notion that conjures up ideas to beautify the Capitol Square in Madison. On of railroads and canals but which can be its face, the story has plausibility. By the stretched to include public institutions and 1880's, thousands of Norwegians had em­ structures, including such mundane ones as a igrated to the state and many had found fence. Items in the latter category frequently prosperity. Gratitude to Wisconsin and her created as much emotional fervor as railroads people might well have prompted a gift of a and canals, and the capitol was no exception. substantial stone and iron fence. The story has Milwaukee and other cities coveted it; it sym­ the attributes of logic and simplicity. Unfor­ bolized power to politicians; and its presence tunately, there is not a shred of truth in it. meant potential economic prosperity to the host For one thing, the fence was erected in 1872. community. In 1872 it was brand new, having For a second, 1872 was a very unlikely time for received its dome in 1869, twelve years after a Norwegian king to make a present to any it was begun. Madisonians were universally country, save his own, for in 1872 the throne proud of it. They divided politically on many passed to Oscar II on the death of Charles XV. topics, but the issue of the capitol transcended Further, the country was in the midst of polit­ party affiliation. Republicans and Democrats in ical turmoil. The nation had been struggling the city united in their pride of the statehouse. for decades under an uneasy union with The new three-story structure was made of Sweden, and that year the storting heard bitter yellow-brown Prairie du Chien stone, with debates about the admission of the king's semi-circular, columned porticoes facing State ministers to its halls. The proposal lost. Under and King streets, and two wings decorated with the circumstances, international philanthropy turrets at the corners, which faced North and was an unlikely gesture. South Hamilton streets. The dome had been The real story of the fence is vastly more designed by a local architect and war hero, complicated. It begins in 1872 and continues Stephen Vaughan Shipman.' For the next two through 1970, and it involves controversy. years after the dome's completion, finishing touches continued to be put on the interior of the building, and on January 11, 1872, Gov-

Author's Note: Readers desiring more information about the history of Wisconsin's capitol building are referred to the Blue Book, which carries a brief '^ Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography (Madison, sketch. No thorough-going history of the state's four 1960), 326; Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy Capitols has been written, although popular versions of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, 15, part 2 (1904), abound, written for school children and tourists. 927-931.

243 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970

•m

T/je hitching rail and whitewashed board fence which appear clearly in this photograph were replaced in 1872. The presence of the hitching post had created stableyard conditions along the inner perimeter of the Square. The photograph is one half of a sterescopic view taken about 1868 and is probably the Pinckney Street side of the Square. ernor Cadwallader C. Washburn told the as­ trict.^ Gurnee's espousal of the fence proposal sembled houses of the state legislature, "The indicates the bipartisan support the idea re­ State Capitol is now finished at a total cost of ceived from Madisonians. Gurnee's bill called $550,000." He visualized one last improvement for the governor, secretary of state, state treas­ — a fence to replace the whitewashed, simple urer, and attorney general to act as a board of board one and a drab hitching rail with a building commissioners to oversee construction sidewalk between them that circled the Square. of a $40,000 fence. On March 5, the Assembly Washburn called the board fence "temporary," accepted changes made by the Senate in the but it or one like it had been there since at bill, granting authority to the governor alone least 1842. He also suggested that the state im­ to oversee construction. Attempts to reduce the prove the capitol grounds generally, but he left appropriation to $30,000 failed. A spokesman initiation of legislation to the representatives.^ for the Committee on State Affairs defended Eleven days after the governor suggested a the higher figure, saying "that we had a fine fence, a bill for constructing a stone and iron State Capital [sic], with a poor dilapidated old enclosure was submitted by Assemblyman John fence and the two did not correspond."* The D. Gurnee of Madison, a Democrat from Dane fence was to be an internal improvement, de- County's traditionally Democratic second dis- * Wisconsin Assembly Journal, 1872, pp. 76, 160, " Wisconsin Public Documents, Vol. 1, 1871, Gov­ 184, 459, 472^73, 530-531, 578, 633; Bill 61A, ernor's Message, 16-17; Daniel S. Durrie, A History 1872, in Secretary of State, Elections and Records, of Madison . . . (Madison, 1874), 147. series 2/3/1/2-2, box 78, Division of Archives and ''Gurnee (December 25, 1831-March 15, 1906) was Manuscripts, State Historical Society of Wisconsin; born in New York, graduated from Princeton Uni­ Chapter 39, Laws of Wisconsin, 1872; Madison Demo­ versity in 1854, and came to Madison in 1857. He crat, March 5, 8, 1872. All manuscript and archival was an attorney, and dealt heavily in private real holdings and official publications cited herein are estate matters. He served in the legislature only in for Wisconsin and may be found either in the library 1872, and was a member of the Board of Park Com­ or the Archives and Manuscripts Division of the missioners for the Capitol from 1872 through 1879. Society. They will not hereinafter be cited by state Madison Democrat, March 15, 1906. or location.

244 HOLZHUETER: THE CAPITOL FENCE OF 1872 sired for its ornamental and esthetic properties terest in fine things. His home and its park-like with no practical consideration entering in. surroundings in Madison were a local show- The earlier fence might have served to keep place. He was a patron of the arts, and he meandering livestock off the capitol lawn. Its sponsored a young soprano, Blanche Tucker of replacement would supplant rusticity with Vic­ Madison and Chicago, as a student in Paris. torian elegance, affording the city and state His tastes ran to the fashionable and the another symbol of progress. opulent, and he had the wherewithal to hire In conjunction with the fence bill, the in­ the best provenders and planners to indulge cumbent administration apparently had an­ them.^ Washburn would have insisted that the other bill introduced. Its passage created a state provide its capitol, too, with the best, and Board of Park Commissioners to regulate he intended that the Board of Park Commis­ planning and construction of the Capitol Park. sioners would continue the tradition he estab­ The legislature was by no means unanimous in lished. establishing another bureaucratic agency. The His choices for the board were men less pros­ bill's sponsor. Assemblyman Henry D. Barron, perous than himself but equally interested in was among the most influential men in the ad­ civic betterment. He selected three Madison ministration.* He doubtless had been instructed men: General George P. Delaplaine,'' who had by higher authority to introduce the measure, a lifelong interest in parks and Madison de­ and his weight was necessary to see it through. velopment; George E. Morrow,-'" partner in the Nearly a month after the bill was introduced, Western Farmer; and Assemblyman Gurnee, it was postponed indefinitely on the recommen­ lawyer and land speculator, who was praised dation of the Committee on Claims—the second locally for his efforts in behalf of the fence, the committee to act on the bill. The next day, a park board, and the University. Together these motion to reconsider was approved, and the bill men and the governor pursued a course of park passed. Opponents had sought to refer the bill improvement that won plaudits for its scope, to three separate committees, to a select com­ but criticism for some of its details.^* mittee, and to lay the bill on the table and to A third legislative act of 1872 affecting the postpone it indefinitely again. They failed. The park also was adopted. Introduced by the Com­ Senate passed the measure without incident, mittee on State Affairs on February 28, the bill and the governor signed it without hesitation on March 23, 1872." The act gave the commission fairly broad * See letters to Washburn in the Washburn Papers, authority. Its job was to see that the Capitol 1872-1873, from Blanche Tucker and E. B. Wash- Park was "surveyed, aesthetically designed, burne. "George Patten Delaplaine (September 23, 1814- laid out and platted, and hereafter . . . im­ April 29, 1895) came to Milwaukee in 1835 and was proved and beautified in accordance with some associated with Solomon Juneau in 1837. In 1838 fixed plan." The governor was given authority he came to Madison and was appointed secretary of the U. S. Commission of Public Buildings, then to appoint three members for six-year terms. constructing the second territorial capitol. He held Annual expenses were limited to $500 with an a variety of appointive public offices. He invested extra $1,000 for a plan and survey.'' heavily and successfully in Madison real estate with Elisha Burdick, and acted publicly in behalf of The likelihood is that Washburn himself parks, trees, and roadways. Madison Wisconsin State dictated the creation of the park board. (It was Journal, April 30, 1895. ^° George E. Morrow, with his brother D. M. Mor­ known both as a commission and a board.) He row, published the Western Farmer which they con­ was a substantial man of business with an in- solidated with Chicago's Western Rural in the middle 1870's. G. E. Morrow moved to Chicago; D. M. Morrow remained in Madison in charge of the Madison Rural office, dying there on March 2, 1875. Wisconsin State Journal, March 3, 1875. ° Henry Danforth Barron (April 10, 1833-January " No official record exists of the governor's selec­ 22, 1882) was a newspaperman, lawyer, politician, tions of members of the board. Names of the 1872 and judge, in whose honor Dallas County was re­ appointees were taken from a report of the commis­ named Barron County. Dictionary of Wisconsin sion's 1873 disbursements, packet labeled Park Com­ Biography, 28. mission's Accounts, in Executive Department, Admin­ "Assembly Journal, 1872, pp. 256, 343, 443, 450- istration, Capitol Improvement and Supply Records, 451, 507, 534, 577, 586, 596-598, 772, 873, 900. series 1/1/15-9, box 1; Madison Democrat, March ' Chapter 93, Laws of Wisconsin, 1872. 25, 1872.

245 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 called for removal of the hitching post and fence on the Square, so the competition prize of $200 around the capitol and provided a fine of five was a virtual gift to Shipman. dollars for anyone who would hitch his horse His first set of plans called for a fence to within twenty feet of the new iron and stone meet Washburn's specifications. The stone fence. The statute was to be enforced by the coping was to rest on a four-foot subterranean superintendent of public property. The gov­ foundation of concrete and rubble masonry; ernor signed the measure in conjunction with the massive gateposts were to surmount seven- the park commission bill.^^ foot foundations. The elaborate fence was to be secured to the stonework with lead. "C" VEN BEFORE PASSAGE of the last two The costliness of the foundations forced •^-^ bills in the trio, Washburn moved to en­ Washburn to instruct Shipman to design a sure erection of the fence within the year. On fence without a coping, at an estimated savings March 11 he notified architects in a public of $6,000. Instead the fence was secured at advertisement that the state wished to procure ground level to imbedded stone pillars, two plans for the fence. Washburn specified that feet square at their bases and four feet high. it had to be 762 feet square, of iron, on a Seven-foot foundations were retained for the Prairie du Chien stone coping to match the gateposts. Every thirty feet there was a cast capitol, with four carriage and twelve pedes­ iron post; every six feet, a stone pillar to secure trian gates. The designs had to be submitted a picket. Each picket was to have a cast iron, by April 10, and the winner was to receive spear-tip-shaped finial. The eight main gate­ $200.^^ His specifications indicate that he had posts were to be capped by eagles (perhaps a given some thought to the fence and had a reminder of Wisconsin's famed Old Abe) and general plan in mind. The competition was for the smaller posts were to have urns.** a design, not a planning scheme. As the details of the plan emerged, the Apparently only two architects entered. One Madison community began to express conster­ design was from Reade and Bingham of Mil­ nation about aspects of it. The first intimation waukee ; the other from Stephen V. Shipman of of dissatisfaction came in a letter from "A Chicago, formerly of Madison. The governor Citizen" in the Wiscon.nn State Journal. The made the obvious choice: Shipman. The former writer complained that the fence would be too Madisonian's buildings fairly lined the Square. fancy and he criticized the cast iron finials, They included the United States Courthouse which he feared would be bent or knocked off. (1868) at East Mifflin Street and Wisconsin "But few will fail to admit that a fence sus­ Avenue; the present American Exchange Bank pended between posts is utterly unaesthetic, (1870), North Pinckney Street and East Wash­ compared with one that has a stone base all ington Avenue; the Park Hotel (1870), South around." Most importantly the writer attacked Carroll and Main streets; and the capitol dome changing the location of the fence from inside (1869). In addition, he had designed Mendota the sidewalk to outside it: State Hospital (1857) and was in the process In my mind, there is no doubt that the only of building the Northern Hospital for the In­ proper place to build a fence would be where sane at Winnebago. To top it off, he was a war the old one now is. There are several reasons hero, whose colorful exploits were well pub­ .... One of the first is, it is customary all licized.^* His fence plan would harmonize over the civilized world that every street in beautifully with the most prominent buildings a city must have a sidewalk on both sides, whether the one side joins a park, public square or a row of buildings. Now if a fence

"Assembly Journal, 1872, pp. 458, 593, 612, 654, 829, 873, 900; chapter 102, Laws of Wisconsin, 1872. ^' Madison Democrat, Wisconsin State Journal, March 11, 1872. " Wisconsin Public Documents, Vol. 1, 1872, Gov­ "Durrie, A History of Madison, 261, 321-322, ernor's Message, 20-21; Shipman to Washburn, May 338-342; Specifications for Capitol Park Fence, 4, 1872, and two documents labeled Specifications Reade and Bingham, and S. Y. Shipman & Co., of Iron Fence, in Capitol Park Fence, 1872 packet, Architects, in Capitol Park Fence, 1872 packet, series and Capitol Park Fence, 1872, Contracts and Bonds 1/1/15-9, box 1, packet, series 1/1/15-9, box 1,

246 around our park was built where the present hitching fence is, there would hardly be room for a proper sidewalk on the outside without narrowing up the street too much. Furthermore, the first runaway team would be apt to spoil the fence .... If built where the old fence is, the outside row of trees would form a sort of a protection against this. The writer also believed a shorter fence would be $3,000 or $4,000 cheaper.^" The idea for relocating the fence seems to have rested solely with the governor. Two months elapsed before he announced his rea­ -IliMiiiJ sons for the decision, and it may be that he received earlier advice from an architect or landscape expert. Receipt of outside advice does not seem likely, however, for he had ad­ vertised for plans for the fence well before the park board was created and before its mem­ bership was fully selected. Washburn met with the commission on April 26 and again on April 30, when landscape architect H. W. S. Cleve­ land of Chicago was invited, seemingly to ful­ fill the commission's charge to execute a full- Society's Iconographic Collections scale plan for developing Capitol Park.*'' The dome of the second capitol building in Madi­ Between the time of the two meetings, Wash­ son was designed by Stephen V. Shipman and burn officially chose the Shipman plan for the erected in 1869. This cross section through the rotunda is a reproduction of Shipman's original fence. He decided that it should be four-feet, rendering. six-inches high, and that it definitely should be at the outer perimeter of the Square. He Timothy Brown of the Madison Manufacturing decided additionally to have an eight-foot side­ Company, which won the bid to erect the iron walk built outside the fence, in the area then portion of the fence; Lucius Fairchild, former occupied by street, "for the convenience of governor and the state's most popular citizen; pedestrians." *^ and Simeon Mills, Philo Dunning, John Favill, Local opposition to the location of the fence F. J. Lamb, A. H. Main, Andrew Proudfit, continued to mount. Sometime in May, a peti­ Deming Fitch, F. D. Fufler, M. E. Fufler, J. H. tion was circulated among the prominent resi­ Carpenter, L. H. Burdick, C. W. Veerhusen, dents of the city. The signers represented the Harry Hobbins, and L. S. Hanks. most powerful persons in Madison of every The petition was dated May 20, but it must political persuasion. A total of 227 men signed, have been presented to the governor at a some­ including Elisha W. Keyes, chairman of the what later date. Despite obvious knowledge of state's Republican organization; Levi Vilas, its existence, neither local newspaper saw fit to prominent Democrat, former assemblyman, publicize it, perhaps because they believed and father of future Senator William Freeman acknowledgment of it should emanate from the Vilas; David Atwood of the Republican Wis­ executive chambers, or perhaps because the consin State Journal; George Raymer of the practice of publicizing controversial local Madison Democrat; J. M. Bowman and issues had not yet developed suificiently in most United States newspapers. In either case, Washburn did not advertise existence of the petition until late in June. The remonstrators ' Wisconsin State Journal, April 27, 1872. asked him not to change the location of the 'Ibid., April 27, 30, 1872. 'Ibid., April 30, 1872. fence from inside the sidewalk, "feeling that

247 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 such change will Mar, and in a great measure the hustle of commercial life across the way, injure and destroy the beauty of the Park and and inside it there was to have been a source its surrounding." They added that the apparent of "health and recreation" for the public and intent of the legislature had been to leave the Wisconsin officialdom. Cleveland believed that fence where it was.*^ people needed parks — a view unpopular with Meanwhile, the park commission secured a groundkeepers, attendants, and officials. Later design for the entire Square from landscape photographs show the Square dotted with "keep architect Cleveland. Although Cleveland was off the grass" signs, and Madisonians who were not known locally, and was somewhat mis­ children when the Square still sported its fence trusted as an outsider unfamiliar with Madi­ and its fountain relate their encounters with son's needs, his credentials were impeccable. capitol guards when they playfully climbed the After Frederick Law Olmsted, the renowned fence or troubled the fish in the basin of the designer of New York's Central Park, and his fountain.** associates, Horace William Shaler Cleveland Cleveland considered the possibility of such was perhaps the best known landscape archi­ destructive behavior. His answer was to pro­ tect in the Unite-d States in the years from 1854 vide shrubbery, trees, and carefully arranged through the 1880's. Cleveland lost to Olmsted natural impediments around attractive nui­ in the design for Central Park, and a dozen sances like fences and fountains. He also in­ years later moved to Chicago where he could sisted that "perhaps a majority of those who expound and practice his theories of f orestation seek relief and relaxation from the fatigue and and urban parks in the burgeoning Midwest. He care of daily toil will be satisfied with the mere soon developed a close friendship with Olmsted, enjoyment of scenes of natural beauty." He on whom he drew for inspiration. Among his saw parks as places for indulging "such rational better-known designs in the Midwest are the pleasures and amusements, public gatherings Minneapolis park system; the Omaha park sys­ and displays, as are inadmissible in the ordi­ tem; Washington Park, Chicago; Como Park, nary thoroughfares of the city." They were an St. Paul; and Brookside suburb, Indianapolis. "escape from the din and turmoil of the He also had eastern commissions, including streets."^* Roger Williams Park, Providence, Rhode Unfortunately Cleveland's design never was Island; and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, executed. Only one fountain was built, and Massachusetts. Washburn and the Board of landscaping was confined mostly to trees. Some Park Commissioners could not have found of the walkways were constructed, but not as another individual in the Midwest more pre­ many as Cleveland wanted. Had his plans been pared to fulfill their needs.^" fully realized, the policing problems might What appears to have been Cleveland's never have occurred. scheme for the park would have provided access The local flurry of disagreement about the for citizens to all parts of the Square. The fence did not deter the governor. He proceeded grounds were to contain serpentine walks which to acquire bids for stonework and ironwork would have led to a music stand, a summer contracts, and they were opened on May 25. house, numerous fountains, pieces of statuary, Sixteen firms competed. Thomas J. Shimmin, and urns of flowers and plants. The fence fig­ Jr., of La Crosse bid lowest for the stonework uratively would have divided the Square from — $13,000; and W. Landon of Dane County bid lowest for the ironwork — $14,495. Landon never appeared, and his bid was rejected as

" Remonstrance of Citizens of Madison against the erection of Iron Fence around the Capitol Park outside its present location, in Capitol Park Fence, ^ Plan of Capitol Park, Madison, Wis., in Bureau 1872 packet, series 1/1/15-9, box 1. of Engineering, State Architect—Design, Capitol '"Cleveland (December 16, 1814-December 5, Boiler Plant Drawings and Specifications, series 1900) also wrote extensively on planning, landscape 22/3/1-2, box 1; conversations with Forest C. Mid­ architecture, and forest management. One of his dleton, Ben Bergor, Frank Custer, all of Madison. last works (1898) was The Influence of Parks on ^^ H. W. S. Cleveland, The Public Grounds of Chi­ the Character of Children. Dictionary of American cago: How to Give Them Character and Expression Biography, 4:203-204. (Chicago, 1869), 15-16.

248 bogus, leaving the Madison Manufacturing Company the winner with a bid of $14,898. Work on the fence was to begin within ten days, and by August 1, one-fourth of the stone­ work was to be up and all of it was to be com­ pleted by November 1. The ironwork was to trail by fifteen days, the whole fence being scheduled for completion by November 15. The first section was to go up along Main Street.23 ^1 . ^ dommmmk -. «; • r^ RUMBLING about the location of the fence ^J no doubt continued in Madison, and archi­ iff- .. np ;• ^ ^ tect Shipman accused the ironwork contractor's superintendent of dragging his feet.** Not until a stranger came to town did matters reach a head, and the Madison newspapers finally mentioned the organized opposition to the ^ - 'fc*- fence. The occasion was University of Wiscon­ - ullections sin commencement, at which the Reverend John Langdon Dudley, reform-minded minister of Photograph of the capitol park fountain, a dupli­ cate of the Centennial Fountain which received a Milwaukee's Plymouth Congregational Church, prize in 1876 in Philadelphia. It stood inside the spoke.*^ Dudley's visit afforded him the chance Monona Avenue entrance to the Capitol. The Park Hotel, designed by Stephen Shipman, and the to observe the initial stages of work on the fence First Baptist Church are in the background. The and to apprise himself of the plans. He was out­ picture was taken after the fence surrounding the raged. On his return to Milwaukee, he preached Capitol Park was removed in 1899. a sermon on June 23 in which he mentioned the fence. The sermon brought public attention to washed fence was to be replaced "with a taste­ the complaints that were rife in Madison. H. A. ful and worthy iron one. But I was pained to Chittenden, iconoclastic editor of The Journal hear, that instead of keeping it to the law and of Commerce of Milwaukee, picked up Dudley's line of beauty, they are proposing to crowd sermon and published it, and the Madison it into the middle of the street." The minister Democrat took note at last by reprinting a por­ as much as accused the governor and his ad­ tion of the address. visers of bad taste, and he begged, "Don't let them narrow the street around that beautiful The sermon was titled "The World of square into a sheep path." He asked that the Beauty," and in it the Reverend Mr. Dudley newspaper editors of Wisconsin, who had just said he was delighted that the venerable white- concluded a convention in Madison, publicize the governor's error and urge reconsidera- tion.^** Chittenden seconded the Reverend Mr. ^ Wisconsin State Journal, May 24, 27, June 3, 1872; Articles of Agreement between C. C. Washburn Dudley's remarks in his report of the editors' and the Madison Manufacturing Co., May 25th, 1872, meeting, also reprinted in the Democrat. He in Capitol Park Fence, 1872, Contracts and Bonds packet, series 1/1/15-9, box 1. launched a personal attack on Governor Wash­ ^ Shipman to Washburn, June 10, 1872, in Capitol burn, whom he said "cannot meet men upon Park Fence, 1872 packet, series 1/1/15-9, box 1. their level, nor be all things to all men" like ^Dudley (1810-November 21, 1894) was known as the Henry Ward Beecher of the West for his his predecessor Lucius Fairchild. He credited speaking ability. Dudley came to Milwaukee in Washburn with "stability," which he proved 1865 or 1866 and stayed for about ten years until by citing the governor's insistence on locating he was forced to leave under the stigma of a heresy charge. He went to Boston, later returned to Mil­ waukee, and in the late 1880's moved to Lake Mills, ^ The Journal of Commerce (Milwaukee) for the Wisconsin. He died in Boston while traveling and appropriate date is not known to exist. The quotes was buried there. Milwaukee Sentinel, November are from a partial reprint in the Madison Democrat, 24, 1894. June 29, 1872.

249 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 the fence at the then curbline. The governor, Cleveland responded appropriately to the Chittenden said, wanted the city to return governor's suggestion. He cited "the incon­ fifteen feet of the street to the state for the park. gruity of an ornamental park, surrounded by a stable yard occupying a third of the width of He is wrong in point of taste, for the course the roadway," and said his design would end he contemplates will add nothing appreciable the practice. Further, because the wagons to the roominess of the park, while [it] will mar its proportions. . . . Still, the Governor would be gone, the road would be wider than sticks to his determination, against all argu­ before—as wide, in fact, as Chicago's Wabash ments, warning and advice, against the Avenue, "which we have always flattered our­ formal and unanimous petition of the citizens selves was something more than 'a sheep- of Madison, with a degree of resolution that path.' " Cleveland insisted that the sidewalk under other circumstances would de deemed was properly a part of the park, from which the heroic. entire array of lawns and embellishments would be seen.^^ In short, he bolstered the governor, Chittenden said that Washburn never would provided him with an expert opinion sufficient win over Madison residents with "guberna­ to dash the critics', and gave him leave to torial smiles, cakes and ice cream," and that persist. his brand of diplomacy was not suited for the United States senatorship he desired. Chitten­ To quiet the opposition Washburn resorted den, of course, spoke as a staunch Democrat, to the publication of his exchange of letters but his estimation of Washburn's character had with Cleveland. The opponents may not have some germs of truth.^'^ Like many confident, been mollified, but at least they had been given successful men, Washburn could be, and was, a public answer after two full months of agita­ stubborn. tion. The governor was not swayed. He had his The governor reacted with unexpected con­ way, and the fence went up as planned. The cern to the criticism of John Langdon Dudley. Journal of Commerce had the last word: He had ignored the petition of citizens; he had It is estimated that it will someday cost the ignored the advice of some of his party's most state $15,000 to move the new iron fence powerful men in Wisconsin; he had ignored the from where Gov. Washburn is now planting clever and waspish Chittenden; but he felt he it back into the place where it belongs. This could not ignore the Reverend Mr. Dudley, does not seem exorbitant. If the state can who was "a gentleman and scholar for whose afford $40,000 for a costly fence where no­ liberal christian character I have great respect, body wants it, it can easily spare one-third and upon any question of aesthetics which he that sum to put it where it will do some good.^" has carefully considered, his opinions ought not to be hastily rejected." Furthermore, Dud­ Problems plagued the actual construction of ley's opinion, Washburn said, would have the fence. The stonework, which had to be "great weight" and might "prejudice the public finished first, was delayed because of "the against the proposed expenditure of their great demand for stone and masons to rebuild money." Chicago" after the famous fire. Shipman's Washburn confided his fears in a letter to specifications for the imbedded stone posts also H. W. S. Cleveland. He added that the Milwau­ caused difficulty. He wanted granite from a kee cleric no doubt had not been informed fully Dodge County quarry, but it proved too hard about the plans for the fence, and that he would to cut and granite from Joliet, Illinois, had to accept the Cleveland-Washburn scheme when be substituted, costing more time and money. he realized that it would do away with the unsightly and aromatic "stableyard" created by the presence of the capitol hitching rail.^*

^ Cleveland to Washburn, July 6, 1872, Capitol Park Fence, 1872 packet, series 1/1/15-9, box 1. '^ Ibid. Both letters were published in entirety in the ^Ibid., July 11, 1872; Wisconsin State Journal, Wisconsin State Journal and the Madison Democrat, July 11, 1872. Washburn's manuscript letter has July 11, 1872. not been found. ''"Journal of Commerce, July 21, 1872.

250 The delays kept the fence from completion until about June, 1873.^* Shipman apparently found it necessary to alter plans for the urns and eagles for the gate­ posts. Instead of the urns for the sixteen small gateposts, gas lights on iron standards were used. And instead of eagles on the eight large gateposts, six-foot fully clothed female figures of cast iron stood watch. These classically garbed ladies were purchased from the post-fire Chicago firm of Gould Brothers and Dibblee. Three of the statues have been identified. They were "Fall," "Spring," and "Candelabra," whose arm curved aloft minus the candelabra. A fourth figure has not been identified. (Photo­ graphs show that only four figures were used, and that each was duplicated.) Their manu­ facturers intended them for fountains and S-~^ gardens, but they were suitably classic for the Capitol Park, although lacking the eagles' Society's Iconographic Collections patriotic connotations.^^ Besides, the capitol The Capitol, photographed in 1898 or 1899. A already had an eagle—atop the flagpole on the portion of the addition to the north wing, erected in 1883, is at the right. A similar addition to the dome. south wing collapsed disastrously during construc­ Just as the fence was delayed, so was the side­ tion, killing eight workmen. The cast-iron statues on the gateposts have disappeared. The building walk around the fence. It was not completed burned in 1904 and was replaced by the present until June, 1874—almost two years to the day Capitol. after the fence project, of which it was a part, of Madison got the sidewalk and curbstone began. At the end of August, 1872, Washburn contract; J. B. Ditto of Riverside, Illinois, won determined that sidewalk construction should the driveway construction bid. begin. The walk was to extend eight feet into Ditto completed his portion of the work by the existing street, and only the portion along October 16, 1872, and he was paid $812.29. Main Street and at the main and pedestrian Fish and Stephens managed to install the Main entrances was to be completed in 1872. Wash­ Street curbing, but not the sidewalk, and the burn limited the construction to those areas protective pavement and curbing at the en­ because he feared the completed gateposts and trances by late 1872. In the spring and summer fence there might be damaged. The curb was of 1873, the same firm was granted a contract to be of quarried stone; the entrances at the to install the paving brick sidewalks along main gates of flagstone; and the walk itself of Main, Pinckney, and East Mifflin streets, and hard, yellow, paving brick to harmonize with the curbing on Pinckney and East Mifflin the capitol. At about the same time, the park streets, for a total payment of $5,642.75. Also commission decided on a concrete driveway, in 1873, J. L. Fulton received a contract from twenty feet wide, leading from Monona Avenue the park commission for $3,286.60 to install to the capitol, and on a driveway around the more drives and walks in the park, construct­ building, fifteen feet wide, chargeable to the ing them of asphalt and crushed rock. The work park commission account. Fish and Stephens was so satisfactory that, rather than leave the job undone because funds were exhausted, the ^^ Wisconsin Public Documents, Vol. 1, 1872, Gov­ ernor's Message, 20-21; VoL 1, 1873, Annual Report commission with the governor's approval bor­ of the Secretary of State, Appendix A, 28; Memorial rowed $8,150.49 for Fulton to complete the 8A, 1874, filed with Bill 470A, in Secretary of State, Elections and Records, series 2/3/1/2-2, box 89. work, thus obligating the next legislature for ^^Illustrated Catalogue, Gould Brothers & Dibblee, the expense. In 1874 the legislature also ap­ . . . Chicago, Manufacturers of Ornamental Iron propriated $4,000 for completion of the side­ Fountains, 35, 41, in the Chicago Historical Society library. walk and curbing along West Mifflin and

251 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970

Carroll streets, and David Stephens of Madison, County granite and because masons' wages then operating on his own, won the contract doubled in 1872 thanks to the ready market with a bid of $3,735.3=* in Chicago. He told the legislature he lost $5,377.13 on the job, plus thirteen months of PON LEAVING OFFICE, Governor Wash­ work himself. A special act in 1874 reduced U burn optimistically reported to the legisla­ his loss by about two-thirds."^'' The legislature ture and incoming Governor William R. Taylor also paid the State Bank of Madison the that the fence and sidewalk were nearly com­ $8,150.49 due it for sidewalks and driveways pleted, pursuant to law, and at a cost of some­ inside the enclosure.^* thing under $40,000, including work still to be While the fence, sidewalks, and driveways done.3* Actual expenses prove that Washburn were under way. Governor Washburn pushed erred by about $5,600, or 14 per cent; in other improvements at the capitol. Before 1873, addition, the driveways and interior sidewalks the coal burned in capitol furnaces was stored cost another $12,250.^^ The excess was paid in a large heap on the lawu. As the governor during Taylor's administration, which caused pointed out, the 500 tons of coal on the Square him to grouse some twenty-five years later: presented an "untidy" sight, plus the fact that " [The fence] never should have been erected. exposure deteriorated the value of the supply. The late Gov. Washburn... had the fence put up He suggested erecting a coal vault underground at an enormous expense, when the price of iron next to the capitol, and the legislature agreed, was very high; and I had to settle for a big adding a boiler room to the proposal. The share of the bill under my administration."^^ vault was excavated on the Carroll Street side Washburn's miscalculations can be attrib­ of the building. Water for the boilers was sup­ uted in part to the 1874 legislature's gener­ plied from an abandoned artesian well shaft osity to Thomas Shimmin, Jr., who had lost on the premises, drilled in 1867 for about heavily on the contract for the stonework. $8,000 in an unsuccessful effort to get a free- Washburn was aware that Shimmin was ag­ flowing well. Washburn had the well examined, grieved because of the additional expense he had the water tested, and had a pump installed had to incur to provide stone to meet the to bring it into the building. The state thus specifications. He was not aware that Shimmin discarded its plans to build a pumping station would memorialize the legislature successfully designed by Shipman for the Lake Monona and win an award of $3,691. Shimmin argued shore at the foot of Monona Avenue. Shipman that the state owed him the money because it also designed the vault and boiler room. Wash­ had strayed in its estimation of the Dodge burn believed he saved Wisconsin $5,000 be­ cause of his thrift. The entire improvement cost $24,600. Water from the capitol weU created a temporary flurry as a medicinal ^ J. B. Ditto envelope; Fish and Stephens to panacea, but by 1878 the well was abandoned Washburn, August 31, September 12, 1872, and Fish and Stephens Agreement, April 21, 1872, all in for capitol use and water was acquired from Capitol Park Side Walk packet; Notice to Contrac­ the University of Wisconsin system through a tors, August 20, 1872, in Capitol Park Side Walk main running down State Street.'^ packet; Contract of J. L. Fulton with Park Com­ mission, June 2, 1873, in Side Walks, Capitol Park Improvements packet; Contract with David Stephens, April 15, 1874, in Side Walks, Capitol Park Improve­ ments packet—all in series 1/1/15-9, box 1; Wis­ =" Memorial 8A, 1874, series 2/3/1/2-2, box 89; consin Public Documents Vol. 1, 1872, Governor's Chapter 129, Laws of Wisconsin, 1874; Assembly message, 21-22; Chapter 223, Laws of Wisconsin, Journal, 1874, pp. 33, 460, 531, 533, 575, 661, 707- 1874; Washburn to the Legislature, January 3, 1874, 708. Thomas Shimmin, Jr., was born on the Isle of Senate Journal, 1874, pp. 154-158. Man in 1830. He came to La Crosse on September " Senate Journal, 1874, pp. 155-156. 9, 1854, where he worked as a butcher for nine ^"Calculations include $9,661.53 for 1872; years. He then operated a quarry until 1878, and in 827,986.76 for 1873; $3,795.22 to Stephens for side­ 1875 also began the Oak Grove Steam Marble Works. walks, $448.89 in fees to Shipman, and a special History of La Crosse County, Wisconsin (Chicago, appropriation of $3,691.00 to Shimmin in 1874. The 1881), 791. figures are taken from Wisconsin Public Documents, '** Chapter 340, Laws of Wisconsin, 1874; Senate Vol. 1, Annual Report of the Secretary of State, Journal, 1874, pp. 559, 596-597, 613, 648, 677. Appendix A, 1872, p. 68, 1873, p. 28, 1874, pp. 79, 83. ^Durrie, A History of Madison, 358-359; Wiscon­ •'" Wisconsin State Journal, May 5, 1899. sin Public Documents, Vol. 1, 1872, Governor's Mas-

252 HOLZHUETER: THE CAPITOL FENCE OF 1872

The plentiful supply of water then available Madison, a former Democratic state senator, prompted the Board of Park Commissioners a contractor, banker, and businessman, who to secure a fountain for the grounds, at the had connections with architect Shipman.*^ urging of legislators and prominent citizens. The fence remained intact from its comple­ The commissioners purchased for $2,000 a tion to May, 1899, when Governor Edward duplicate of the "Centennial Fountain" which Scofield and the superintendent of public had won a medal at the Centennial Exposition property acted on previous suggestions and in Philadelphia. They had it installed with a decided to remove it and the sidewalk that basin rim and vases inside the Monona Avenue protected it in order to widen the streets of the entrance to the grounds. The iron fountain Square. The decision pleased former Governor weighed about ten tons, and its installation Taylor, and the Wisconsin State Journal, which required some grading and removal of a cess­ once had seen the fence as a symbol of progress, pool and trees. The fountain stood in place pronounced that "lots of people in the city until 1912, when it was moved to the west lawn who favor advancement" would be glad to see of the governor's mansion on East Gilman it go. Street (now the Knapp Graduate Center of the The state donated the stone curbing to the University of Wisconsin). In 1943 the state city of Madison, and Scofield and the superin­ sold the fountain for scrap to support the war tendent had a cement gutter and granolithic effort.*" curbstone installed just outside the fenceline. The legislature in 1879 virtually ruled out The new section of street was given to the city, any further changes in the Capitol Park, except which paved and maintained it. Scofield's ac­ those decided by itself, by eliminating the tion returned to the city what the state had Board of Park Commissioners. Senator George reclaimed in 1872, and the proportions of the B. Burrows of Madison brought about the Square were restored to those admired by the board's death by offering a bill that would have public before the fence was built.*^ The curb- strengthened it, giving it rather loosely defined line today is virtually the same as it was seventy authority to improve the park as it saw fit, with years earlier, and somewhere under it, at inter­ an unspecified annual appropriation. The Com­ vals of six feet, still are imbedded the granite mittee on State Affairs instead recommended blocks to which the fence was fastened with repealing the act that established the board, iron rods sealed in lead. and its recommendation was successful.*' At The fence itself was donated to two state its death, the board still had two of its original institutions. The Wisconsin Public School (now members — Delaplaine and Gurnee. Morrow had been replaced by Andrew Proudfit of '''Proudfit (August 3, 1820-November 13, 1883) was born in Argyle, New York, and came to Wisconsin in June, 1842, to farm near Brookfield. He subse­ quently was a bookkeeper, grist mill operator, and sage, 20; Washburn to Legislature, Senate Journal, store owner. In 1855, he moved to Madison and 1874, pp. 154-156; Chapter 116, Laws of Wisconsin, bought the Beriah Brown homestead, including the 1878. office of the Argus and Democrat. Proudfit was a '" Park Commissioners' Report to Governor, July state senator in 1858-1859; a member of the board of 26, 1878, in series 1/1/15-9, box 1; Wisconsin State public works during construction of the Fox-Wiscon­ Journal, November 14, 1912; conversation with Frank sin improvements; builder of various public struc­ Custer, Madison, December 3, 1969. tures, including parts of the first capitol building in "Bill 183S, 1879, in series 2/3/1/2-1, box 66; Madison, Waupun prison, and Mendota State Hos­ Chapter 139, Laws of Wisconsin, 1879. George Bax­ pital. He was active in the First National Bank of ter Burrows (October 20, 1832-February 25, 1909) Madison, the Park Hotel Company, and the Gas was born into a Vermont abolitionist family. In 1858 Light and Coke Company. He served on the board he moved from New York City to Sauk City, Wis­ of curators of the State Historical Society of Wis­ consin, where he operated a bank. In 1865 he moved consin for thirteen years. Breese J. Stevens, "Sketch to Madison and became a realtor. He served in the of Andrew Proudfit," in Collections of the State state senate for six sessions (1877 through 1882) Historical Society of Wisconsin (Madison, 1909), and in the assembly for one (1895), and was elected 10: 448-450. speaker. He built Madison's first real theater and " Wisconsin State Journal, May 5, 1899; Biennial brought numerous famous entertainers to the city. Reports of the Secretary of State of Wisconsin, 1900, Wisconsin State Journal, February 26, 1909. The Report of the Superintendent of Public Property, 493; Society holds an extensive collection of Burrows' Proceedings of the Madison City Council, 1899-1900, manuscripts. minutes for May 12, May 22, 1899, pp. 7, 15-16.

253 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 the Wisconsin Child Center) at Sparta received cause none of its buildings could accommodate 2,300 feet of it and at least one pedestrian gate, such a fence.*' but no gateposts. The Wisconsin School for the In 1968, the Wisconsin Department of Deaf at Delavan got the remaining 500 or 600 Health and Social Services decided to replace feet.** Photographic evidence shows that the the entire fence at Sparta because it had de­ gateposts remained intact around the Square teriorated and the posts and supports rendered for a number of years. Not until the driveways sidewalk and grounds maintenance difficult. for the present capitol were constructed some­ The department budgeted a chain-link fence time between 1915 and 1917 were the large to replace a part of the iron one, and it notified gateposts and their cast-iron statues removed. the Bureau of Engineering that the fence was The pedestrian gateposts at each corner re­ doomed. The bureau, in turn, notified the Ex­ mained even after the circular flower beds and ecutive Residence Foundation of Wisconsin, sidewalks were installed, but they eventually which had assisted in refurbishing the gov­ were removed, probably because the corners ernor's mansion in Maple Bluff. The founda­ were rounded for better traffic flow. Four of the tion undertook to remove the fence at Sparta to gateposts have been located. Two of the larger the mansion, and the fence project was taken ones formerly flanked the entrance to the Men­ over by the State Capitol and Executive Resi­ dota State Hospital grounds. In the fall of 1967 dence Board. At the urging of Richard W. E. they were removed and retained as salvage by Perrin, a member of the board, director of the contractors who repaved and widened the Milwaukee Department of City Development, roadway. They now stand intact in a field be­ and Wisconsin architectural historian, the hind an asphalt manufacturing plant. Two of board carefully assessed the adaptation of the the pedestrian gateposts were obtained by a fence to the mansion. Perrin suggested placing Monona cottage owner and stood at the en­ the fence "on a stone or brick dwarf wall in trance of his property until about eight years order to gain height and appropriate scale be­ ago, when they were moved to the driveway of cause of its length and its relationship to the another Madison area home.*^ No trace has executive residence itself," and he expressed been found of the other twenty gateposts or the concern about an appropriate design for gate­ eight cast-iron maidens. posts.*^ The iron fence itself has fared better than During these negotiations, board members' the fountain, gateposts, and statuary. The sec­ opinions varied widely about a fence for the tion installed at Delavan still stands, painted residence. Some felt that a new design and a white, with large cast-iron posts every thirty new fence should be used, others felt that a feet. An accident involving a child at the school different but more attractive antique fence in the 1960's prompted the school administra­ could be acquired, and still others supported tion to have the spear tips removed from the Perrin's suggestions. Governor Warren P. pickets, thereby altering the silhouette of the Knowles, like his predecessor Governor Wash­ fence.*" burn, became concerned about the fence, and In 1953 something more than 600 feet of the he solicited advice from several quarters. After fence at Sparta was disposed of as scrap metal pondering the advice and historic, esthetic, and for which the state received $328.16. The sec­ financial considerations, he decided that he tion was offered to the State Historical Society favored the 1872 enclosure—a decision which. of Wisconsin, but the Society had to refuse be­

" Minutes of the Special Meeting, June 5, 1952, " Wisconsin Public Documents, VoL 3, 1899-1900, Board of Curators, State Historical Society of Wis­ Fifth Biennial Report of the State Board of Control, consin, file in the director's office; conversation with 116, 286. Gene Kunes, business administrator, Wisconsin Child *" Present owners are Garrett Brothers Construc­ Center, December 11, 1969. The fence weighed tion Company of Madison and Mr. and Mrs. Carl 23,440 pounds and brought twenty-eight dollars a Klasy, 2833 Fish Hatchery Road, Madison. ton from the American Scrap Iron and Metal Com­ '" Conversation with Superintendent Kenneth F. pany of Sparta in April, 1953. Huff, Wisconsin School for the Deaf, Delavan, De­ '" Conversations with Kunes and Byrl Enerson, cember 4, 1969. Department of Health and Social Services, December

254 HOLZHUETER: THE CAPITOL FENCE OF 1872

I

Lj^t_i.ui.,.^.ii .)i .'.^..iiii.iitration The fence as it appears today in front of the Executive Residence in Maple Bluff.

according to board members, influenced the gestion, the fence was placed atop a cement outcome. coping, eight inches high by eight inches wide, In early 1969, the board debated the entire with a substructure one foot deep along the fence matter at length. It considered both the length of the fence and five feet deep below every esthetic and security aspects of the fence, and post. Thus, after ninety-eight years, the fence it turned over the problem to an ad hoc com­ has a coping, just as Governor Washburn had mittee chaired by Lieutenant Governor Jack intended. Stone gateposts already there were Olson. The committee reported affirmatively, used and new driveway gates were attached to and the board agreed to adapt the fence to the them, nearly duplicating in proportion the mansion.*^ original carriage gates. Altogether, about 428 About 1,500 feet of the fence remaining at feet of fence were erected in the fall and winter Sparta were removed in July, 1969, and trans­ of 1969-1970. The fence runs only along the ported to Madison. The sections still were thir­ front of the mansion, and a chain-link fence on ty feet between posts, and there was a smafl either side leads to Lake Mendota. Soon the support at ground level every six feet. Recon­ fence will be painted black and the coping will struction was contracted to the Theodore retain its natural finish. Total costs of installa­ Kupfer Iron Works, Incorporated, of Madison, tion are estimated at $15,000 — exactly the which reduced each section between posts to figure that H. A. Chittenden predicted in 1872 ten feet, giving the fence a more substantial would be needed to move the fence to where it appearance. In accordance with Perrin's sug- belonged.^"

15, 1969; minutes of the State Capitol and Executive Residence Board, October 21, December 16, 1968; *'Ibid., minutes for February 10 and June 9, 1969. Perrin to Leslie H. Fishel, Jr., and Wayne F. Mc- °° Conversation with Robert Shaw, state officer Gown, January 23, 1969, all in files of the director's in charge of construction of the fence, December 4, office. State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 1969.

255 NEW LEFTISTS AND ABOUTIONISTSt

A Comparison of American Radical Styles

By BERTRAM WYATT-BROWN

TT'ROM John Winthrop's sermon to the Puri- religious impulses are not introspective; we -•- tan travelers to the last, pious pronounce­ advertise convictions as if they were tooth­ ment from the White House, Americans have paste. But self-repentance is always in short felt a compulsive urge to preach — to be supply in the marketplace of indignation. prophets of doom and evangels of inspiration. "Righteousness fever" seems to strike like a Lately there have been so many Jeremiahs recurring illness at different times in American crowding into the national pulpit that there is history. Two of the most notable examples, hardly anyone left in the pews to listen. De­ though, are our present situation and that of mands for national repentance are heard on the 1830's. Like conditions do not always pro­ every side— from the columns of Barron's to duce similar consequences. Yet, one can dis­ the revolutionary chitchat of Stokely Car- cern a pattern of events that link these two michael on the Dick Cavett Late Show. So periods of moral outrage, alienation, and devoted are we to the irresistible pleasures of romantic extravagance. Both belong to ages of catechizing each other that the preaching of foreign revolutions and domestic unrest. Both revolution becomes a substitute for the hard were preceded by a decade or so of relative work of planning it. Dynamiting empty office stability and social calm—the post-Napoleonic buildings in New York, occupying a dean's era and the Eisenhower years. Men who lived office, razzing a Daley judge, or blowing up through the trauma of French Revolution and Rodin's Thinker outside the "establishment's" Napoleonic militarism on the one hand, and Cleveland Museum are all sermons, not revolu­ the Second World War, the rise of Stalinism, tionary acts. They are not preludes to truly and the fall of Nationalist China on the other, revolutionary incidents like the storming of yearned for public order, release from the the Bastille, the Potemkin mutiny, or the "terrors of ideological politics," and the pur­ assassination of General Trujillo. Instead, they suit of private, domestic interests.^ Desperately are theatrical versions of those fundamentalist these men — the fathers of the upcoming radi­ billboards throughout the South — "Prepare cals of the next generation — tried to check to Meet Thy God," "The Wages of Sin is the decline of what Hannah Arendt has de­ Death.'" Both reactionaries and radicals scribed as "the old Roman trinity of religion, harken to calls for moral regeneration. Our

" See Marion Morton, " 'The Terrors of Ideological EDITOR'S NOTE: A shortened version of this paper Polities': Intellectuals, Liberals and Intellectual His­ was presented in a lecture series at Carthage College, tory," (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Case Western Kenosha, Wisconsin, on February 25, 1970. Reserve University, 1970) ; Michael P. Rogin, The ^ Robert Brustein, "Revolution as Theatre," in New Intellectuals and McCarthy: The Radical Specter Republic, March 14, 1970, 13-17. (Cambridge and London, 1967), 1-58, 331.

256 WYATT-BROWN: NEW LEFTISTS AND ABOLITIONISTS tradition, and authority.'" Grand visions of the path explored and recommended by the revolutionary Utopias, which only seemed to patriots of '76, under the healthful influence lead to totalitarian, self-defeating results of her Bible and Sabbaths: or be thrown upon wearied and frightened them.* the ocean of experiment, with no other com­ At first glance, Americans of the 1820's and pass than that by which the leaders of the 1950's seemed to have overcome their fears of French Revolution were guided, in their ideology. Both postwar eras celebrated a na­ bloody and disastrous course. . . ." Memories tional consensus about politics and social aims. of the Bastille, the guillotine, the desecration After the outward menaces of foreign of Notre Dame lingered like an immense ideologies receded somewhat, Americans set­ shadow upon the American imagination.° tled quite comfortably for a benign religious Southerners, faced with the examples of the orthodoxy, stable republicanism, and social Gabriel, Denmark Vesey, and Nat Turner and political compromises necessary for sec­ threats of massive black insurrection, could tional harmony. Pragmatic, low-keyed goals of hardly forget the French Revolutionary exam­ economic expansion occupied their thoughts ple of Toussaint L'Ouverture and Dessalines.' and time. Just as Charles Wilson could boast Against this setting in the early republic that what was good for General Motors was with its modern equivalent, the next genera­ also good for the country, so too a business­ tion of Americans took its cues. The upcoming man of 1825 could swell with pride in Ameri­ zealots felt no terrors of international ideolo­ can manufacturing: "Poor mother earth was gies. The classic enemies of freedom—Jacobin­ never so beat and exercised as now, and she ism and Communism—had to be learned from must think a new race dwells on her surface." textbooks and teachers, parents, and aging Superficially, the world seemed relatively well- spokesmen. Neither Jacobinism nor Commun­ ordered with developing institutions, pros­ ism were to be perfect models for the young­ perity, increasingly rapid communications, sters, but they at least represented points of and a concern for religious and social reference by which to judge contemporary orthodoxy. society. French and Russian (or preferably Not far below the surface, however, anxie­ Cuban) revolutionary systems symbolized a ties about the stability of society and the un­ break with the past and demonstrated the certain state of traditional values hid beneath power of absolute principle to move men's such comforting characterizations of their hearts, even if they had little application as times as the "era of good feelings" and "the systems of economy or government to Ameri­ silent generation." A conservative of 1830 can needs. At the same time, the young noticed grumbled: "The men of the present generation that adults did not live up to their own ortho­ must decide the momentous question, whether dox standards of conduct. As Barrington this great Christian Republic shall move on in Moore recently observed, the present-day radi­ cals "have been both acting upon their elders' ideals and rebelling against their betrayal, struggling to see what went wrong, and search­ ing desperately for substitutes.'" Slavery could •''Hannah Arendt, On Revolution (New York, not be squared with the sacred rhetoric of the 1963), 113. * In 1809, for instance, William Wirt confessed his own disenchantment with French experiments: "The doctrines of liberty are at an end, and so are the monarchies of Europe—all fused and melted down ° Reverend Joseph Claybaugh, "Discourse, De­ into one great consolidated despotism. . . . How did livered at the Meeting of the First Presbytery of all America stand on tiptoe, during [Napoleon's! Ohio, in April last," in Christian Intelligencer and brilliant campaigns in Italy at the head of the army Evangelical Guardian, II: 177-178 (May, 1830) ; see of the republic! . . . Yet see in what it has all ended! also, for a gory reminder of French atrocities. The The total extinction of European liberty and the too Philadelphian, February 19, 1830. probable prospect of an enslaved world." Quoted 'William W. Freehling, Prelude to Civil War: by William R. Taylor, Cavalier & Yankee: The Old The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina, South and American National Character (New York, 1816-1836 (New York and London, 1965), 16, 50, 1963), 331. 55, 58-60. ° Lewis Tappan to Benjamin Tappan, May 14, " Barrington Moore, Jr., "On Rational Inquiry in 1825, in the Benjamin Tappan MSS, Library of Con­ Universities Today," in New York Review of Books, gress. April 23, 1970, p. 31.

257 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 Declaration of Independence; traditional ships. Stanley Elkins called this process a shat­ American concepts of self-determination for tering of the traditional institutions of church, colonial peoples were obviously betrayed in elitist rule, and mercantilism. To a degree he the interventions in Santo Domingo, the is correct, but he failed to recognize that new Cuban Bay of Pigs, and Indochina. institutions filled the vacuum*". The nation ex­ Cruelty, oppression, war, and institutional panded beyond the older confines of city and violence of all kinds became highly visible, mountain range, but it also contracted as new monolithic, and impervious to the ameliorative means of communications — steamboats, rail­ plans that the older generation had devised for roads, highways, telegraph, air waves, and controlling them. Raised to believe that men mass printing — made the world smaller but were rational creatures, that society had de­ more combustible. The very dynamism that signed safeguards to protect liberty of action, had propelled Americans away from the that material progress indicated divine favor, ideological turmoil of continental politics in these young radicals of the 1830's and 1960's both periods so radically altered traditions and were impatient with the ancient paradox of orthodoxies that glaring deficiencies developed human sin. Institutions, not the human condi­ between society's values and its practices. The tion, must explain the origin of evil. "Immedi­ very pace of change in institutional and voca­ acy" replaced "progress" as the catchword for tional relationships — apprentice to employer, change: immediate withdrawal from Viet­ layman to minister, lawyer to client, and vice- nam, immediate emancipation for the slaves. versa — speeded this compulsive and distort­ Supreme faith in human possibility took the ing exercise. Only by reference to the eternal, place of institutional gradualism. unchanging absolutes which supposedly under­ lay a shifting social complex, one might rpHE SOURCES for this dramatic moral achieve a sense of authenticity. -*- transformation must be sought in two in­ As a result, negative reference became a terrelated areas—the sociological and the psy­ means of positive evaluation. Purists, whether chological circumstances of the times. First, they belonged to the Left or Right, discovered the sociological category: who they were by determining who they David Brion Davis, Daniel H. Calhoun, definitely were not. A corollary was the devel­ Robert W. Doherty, and WiUiam R. Taylor opment of classic romantic conceptions about have all contributed to our understanding of the Anti-Christ in a manichean world of easily the underlying preoccupations of the Jack­ distinguishable truths and falsehoods. sonian era." Applying the behaviorist and Real dangers to national security subsided literary tools of those scholars who lived after the Peace of Ghent, but imagined threats through and explored the setting of the 1950's, of a God-denying Jacobinism, rationalistic they have made the task of drawing parallels Illuminism, Masonry, and other alien, inter­ between these periods exceedingly light. These connected secret poisons were alleged chal­ historians have discovered that the basis for lenges of American liberty. Lyman Beecher anxiety in this age of optimism lay in the and other orthodox clergy and laymen sounded economic expansion of the country and the the alarm of internal subversion from vague consequent instability of old social relation- phantoms, designated loosely as "infidels," a name encompassing Catholics, Masons and pagan materialists. Jacksonians used the same formula of superhuman satanism in high " David B. Davis, The Slave Power Conspiracy and places to attack the eastern elite of financiers the Paranoid Style (Baton Rouge, 1969) and his essay, "Some Themes of Counter-Subversion: An and speculators. Analysis of Anti-Masonic, Anti-Catholic, and Anti- In this climate of general suspicion the rise Mormon Literature," in Mississippi Valley Historical of a faction that could blame most of the Review, XLVIl: 205-224 (September, 1960) ; Daniel H. Calhoun, Professional Lives in America, Structure and Aspiration, 1750-1850 (Cambridge, 1965) ; Robert W. Doherty, "Status Anxiety and American Reform: Some Alternatives," in American Quarterly, "Stanley M. Elkins, Slavery: A Problem in Amer­ XIX: 329-337 (Summer, 1967) ; Taylor, Cavalier & ican Institutional and Intellectual Life (Chicago, Yankee. 1968), 27-52.

258 WYATT-BROWN: NEW LEFTISTS AND ABOLITIONISTS country's ills upon the hegemony of brutal interesting and peruasive possibilities are slaveholders and their northern economic and available for consideration than merely a political allies was hardly surprising. Clearly man's place in some amorphous pecking order. it was one of the easiest ways of distinguishing A more valuable approach comes from the the purity of free-labor, Yankee, and tradi­ findings of the psychologist Kenneth Keniston. tional Christian ideals from the corruption, Examining radicals involved in the nonviolent exploitation, and sexual license of whip-wield­ "Vietnam Summer" of 1967, Keniston dis­ ing southern masters. For all its humanitarian covered that most of them belonged to middle- concern for the "poor slave," abolitionism class and college-trained families with Steven- carried this ingredient of self-identity through sonian or left-wing leanings. The centers of negative reference.** family life were the close-knit family unit itself Likewise, ideological fantasies bloomed in and the community's affairs. Parents of young the 1950's and 1960's, producing such bizarre radicals took their places in P.T.A., church, phenomena as the McCarthy Momevent and civic drives, and other charitable and political Billy James Hargis's Christian Crusade. A activities. Turning to Donald's information counterpart to these visions of black manipula­ about the abolitionists, we find that this breed tors was bound to appear — a mirror reflec­ of committed youth came from families of tion of the fears of the Right, set obversely in farmers, teachers, ministers, and storekeepers Leftist terms. Focusing, like the abolitionists, of New England. By and large, abolitionists' upon entrenched, internal iniquity, the New parents were pious Quakers, Congregational- Leftists denounced a new slave-power con­ ists, Presbyterians, Unitarians, and Baptists. spiracy — the "military-industrial-labor com­ Keniston found that some of these faiths also plex" and the Liberal establishment (the latter appear quite prominently in the New Leftists' denounced by both George Wallace and pres­ backgrounds, but he included Reformed ent-day radicals). Judaism. Unhelpfully Keniston presents no Self-identification with virtue in opposition statistics nor any control group data.*^ to evil cannot alone explain why abolitionists Keniston's chief point, however, is that a arose in the 1830's nor why radicals emerged sense of moral uprightness dominated the in the 1960's. While one may question David young agitator's home life, a kind of rectitude Donald's techniques and conclusions in his that stressed social responsibility. Donald essay, "Toward a Reconsideration of the Aboli­ argues quite accurately along similar lines tionists," he remains one of the few historians regarding abolitionists. These young men and before or since to grapple with the knotty women of both eras were usually taught to free problem of radical motivation. Yet, his con­ themselves from overt biases against the less clusion that they were maladjusted because of fortunate. Usually, the modern radicals' a loss of status in relation to their more locally mother assumed a role of moral preceptor, not prominent New England forebears oversim­ plified the psychological factors involved. Like­ wise, Daniel Bell has exceeded the bounds of ciencies. For a liberal attack on Donald's thesis, see scholarly objectivity by accusing a similarly Bertram Wyatt-Brown, "Abolitionism: Its Meaning for Contemporary Reform," in Midwest Quarterly, intense, well-educated elite of liberal arts VIII: 41-55 (October, 1966), an article originally majors of avenging a technocratic society in a written during the Martin Luther King March on Washington, summer, 1963. Daniel Bell is quoted by "guttering last gasp of a romanticism soured Kenneth Keniston, "You Have to Grow up in Scars- by rancor and impotence."*^ Much more dale to Know How Bad Things Really Are," in New York Times Magazine, April 27, 1969, p. 122. '^Kenneth Keniston, Young Radicals: Notes on Committed Youth (New York, 1968), 44-51; Charles " Davis, Slave Power Conspiracy and the Paranoid Kadushin, "Psychotherapy and the New Left," in Style, passim. Columbia Forum, XII: 22-24 (Spring, 1969), stresses ^^ David Donald, Lincoln Reconsidered: Essays on Old Left over Liberal origins of radicalism, at least the Civil War Era (New York, 1956), 19-36; see at Columbia. See also August Meier, "Who Are the Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr., A Behavioral Approach to 'True Believers'?—A Tentative Typology of the Mo­ Historical Analysis (New York, 1969), 61-67, for a tivations of Civil Rights Activists (1965)," in Joseph discerning criticism of Donald's pioneering use of be­ R. Gusfield (ed.). Protest, Reform, and Revolt: A havioral technique. Berkhofer could well be right, but Reader in Social Movements (New York, 1970), 473- the essay deserves reconsideration whatever its defi- 482, suggesting a wide variety of types involved.

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the father, according to Keniston's study. The with strong maternal ties complained about relation between the young radical and his their fathers' absorption in business, their mother was very intimate, warm, and intense, willingness to compromise with principle, and Keniston suggested. Immediately one is re­ their conventional beliefs. It is difficult to cal­ minded of the strong-willed, quietly intense, culate the results of Oedipal ambiguities upon religious mothers of William Lloyd Garrison, the nonconformist; Keniston in other writings Lewis and Arthur Tappan, Thomas Wentworth convincingly denies that such Freudian spe­ Higginson, Theodore Weld, and James G. culations have much validity in assessing Birney's Aunt Doyle. According to Tilden radical motivation. Despite a "split image" of Edelstein's excellent biography of Thomas W. the father, radicals have a generally healthy, Higginson, the young Higginson's father con­ well-structured relationship with their fessed "that his wife supervised the children's parents.*^ moral training," holding daily prayers, read­ ing sermons aloud, and preparing them for the A T ONCE an objection springs to mind. Not divine life after death.** -^~*- all morally concerned and strong-willed If the modern radical was a girl, Keniston parents raise up radical-minded children to­ surmised, she was likely to look to her father day, nor did they in the early nineteenth cen­ for spiritual and ethical advice. Thus, Angelina tury. Obviously some special temperament, and Sarah Grimke, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, some inner mechanism, some predisposition and Harriet Beecher Stowe received their toward a missionary impulse must help to moral lessons from their fathers.*^ In any case, account for the creation of a radical frame of one of the parents seemed to be the focus of mind. It could be that all but one of the sib­ childhood attention. Richard Hildreth and lings in a family escaped the compulsion to Elizur Wright, for example, learned spiritual right social wrongs and remake society. After duty from their schoolmastering fathers.*^ In all, Lewis and Arthur Tappan, for example, such instances, the abolitionist sometimes had four brothers none of whom became aboli­ spoke of a relatively cool relationship with the tionists; three took up less controversial causes overshadowed parental partner. This psycho­ than antislavery, while the sixth brother simply logical factor might lead to a feeling of neglect spent his life in steady drinking.** But even from the more indifferent parent. Keniston the most probing Freudian analyst has not yet found that frequently modern radical youths reached the total, experiential depths of human diversity. When faced with this final mystery, Erik Erikson has confessed that he has to remind "Keniston, Young Radicals, 51-60; John L. Thom­ himself of "the remark of a co-ed who ex­ as, The Liberator: William Lloyd Garrison: A Bio­ graphy (Boston, 1953), 11-25; Bertram Wyatt-Brown, pressed the depth of the darkness in the direct Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War against way reserved to women. Her escort had just Slavery (Cleveland, 1969), 5, 11-13, 25, 36; Tilden mused aloud that life was a strange thing, G. Edelstein, Strange Enthusiasm: A Life of Thomas Wentworth Higginson (New Haven, 1968), 10-11 indeed . . . But she asked quietly ... as com­ (quotation) ; Betty Fladeland, James Gillespie Bir­ pared with what?' "'*' Granted that the follow­ ney: Slaveholder to Abolitionist (Ithaca, 1955). 2, 5, 6, 7, 30. ing remarks are more descriptive of some ^° Gerda Lerner, The Grimke Sisters from South abolitionists and some radicals today than they Carolina: Rebels against Slavery (Boston, 1967), are conclusive, we can say with assurance there 16-19, 28-29, 45^9; Robert Merideth, The Politics of the Universe: Edward Beecher, Abolition, and are similar gropings toward commitment in Orthodoxy (Nashville, 1968), 36n, 37; Robert E. antebellum and modern radical movements. Riegel, American Feminists (Lawrence and London, The intensity with which a family asserts its 1963), 45-47. ™Phillida E. Bunkle, "Richard Hildreth: A Bio­ graphical Study in the Applicability of the Status Thesis to an Ante-Bellum Reformer," (unpublished M.A. thesis, Smith College, 1968), 22-26, and David '' Keniston, Young Radicals, 55-60; Keniston, "The M. French, "The Conversion of An American Radi­ Other Side of the Oedipus Complex," in Radical cal: Elizur Wright, Jr. and the Abolitionist Com­ Therapist, I: 6-7 (April-May, 1970). mitment," (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Case ^'' Wyatt-Brown, Lewis Tappan, 13, 14. Western Reserve University, 1970), 25-30. I am "Erik Erikson, Insight and Responsibility: Lec­ greatly indebted to Professor French for his percep­ tures on the Ethical Implications of Psychoanalytic tive analysis of Wright. Insight (New York, 1964), 149.

260 WYATT-BROWN: NEW LEFTISTS AND ABOLITIONISTS

allegiance to conscience may be a key to the aspirations. Lewis Tappan reminisced, "I had, formation of radical tendencies. Many families on the whole, a happy time at school, being apply high standards without arousing in­ fond of study, ambitious to be one of the best stincts of righteous indignation, but those who scholars, often a favorite with the masters & a add a dimension of what Keniston calls leader among the boys in our plays."^^ Family "specialness" to moral imperatives may inspire pressure was intense for Keniston's young a special response in the child. Consciously or people, too. Another example from the aboli­ unconsciously, they might demand of their tionist past is Elizur Wright, first secretary of offspring a full career of service to others, a the American Anti-Slavery Society which the dedication perhaps denied the father because Tappans had organized in New York City. He of circumstance or denied the mother by her also sought — and achieved — the exacting sexual role. Devout mothers might propose a approval of his schoolteacher father. vocation in church or healing science. One At some point in adolescence, the radical- wonders how many radicals grew up midst to-be suffers, Keniston points out, a severe pressures to become rabbis, Congregationalist state of depression — an identity crisis. The missionaries, or teachers. Don Robertson and blow strikes young people indiscriminately, of Marion Steele, two Long Beach sociology course, but the youngster's sense of specialness, professors turned alienated, desert-living Keniston emphasizes, adds a further burden "hippies," for instance, were urged to become to his distress. He or she feels particularly sin­ clergymen by parents of lesser achievement ful, lonely, unprepared for the battles ahead, and social standing than that which their sons morally inferior to others, cut loose from the temporarily enjoyed. They did not reach a aims that parents and relatives have proposed. seminary but their vows of universal brother­ "I did a lot of soul-searching and said to my­ hood, monastic poverty, and wilderness retreat self, 'You are very immature,'" a young from a corrupt society indicate a familiar radical girl recalled in an interview with religious impulse. As one radical, belonging to Keniston.^^ a religious household, told Keniston, "My The youthful abolitionist-to-be also under­ initial thing is to get up and preach to people went similar doubts involving role-confusion. and expect them to follow me. That's where Elizur Wright, Theodore Weld, Stephen S. my impulse is, to speak out to the world."^^ Foster, Higginson, Joshua R. Giddings, and The radical youth learned that inner inte­ Charles Sumner, among others, all complained grity came not from conformity to the ways of the same melancholia — a longing for of the world but to principles by which the security, a moral incapacity, and often a family tried to live. The reward for superlative separation from man and sometimes from behavior was family and often explicity im­ God. In that more rigorously pious age, the mortal approval. "What need we care," wrote language employed was frequently associated Sarah Tappan to her sons, "how little we are with the Calvinist feeling of human inability. in the opinions of our fellow worms, if we may Studies suffered; relations with others became but shine as stars in the kingdom of heaven."^* strained. There were long walks in woods and On a less elevated plane, sexual morality, man­ fields, Bible reading, earnest conversations ners, deference to elders, high marks in school, with one or two kindred spirits about the leadership and engagement in extra-curricular meaning of life, God's purpose, free wifl, holi­ affairs were all goals set before the child. ness, mission, love.^* Intelligent, sensitive, highly motivated, and mentally healthy, the child fulfilled his parents' ^ "My Forefathers," p. 35, in the Lewis Tappan MSS, Library of Congress. '^ Keniston, Young Radicals, 98. ^Keniston, Young Radicals, 31, 70-76; John Drey- ^* French, "The Conversion of an American Radi­ fuss (L.A. Times-Capital Times Service), "Disillu­ cal," 51-53; Benjamin P. Thomas, Theodore Weld: sioned Professors Defy Convention, Get Fired," in Crusader for Freedom (New Brunswick, 1950), 3- Madison Capital Times, February 23, 1970. 13; "Stephen S. Foster," Dictionary of American Bio­ ^ Sarah Tappan to Charles Tappan, April 6, 1819, graphy, (hereinafter DAB) VI: 558; Edelstein, in Lewis Tappan (ed.), Memoir of Sarah Tappan Strange Enthusiasm, 18-34; James B. Stewart, Joshua (Boston, 1834), 73-74. R. Giddings and the Tactics of Radical Politics

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Essentially the problem was one of self- collects credits until he reaches the magical discovery, but not only inner security but also number when he is considered 'educated.' "^' outward acceptance by the larger world, each The reaction of abolitionists to the changes re-enforcing and interacting with the other. in their most significant institution, the church, "Like a trapeze artist, the young person in the was as intense as the radicals' response to middle of vigorous motion must let go of his theirs — the university. The young man could safe hold on childhood," Erik Erikson has no longer feel that society honored the life of noted, "and reach out for a firm grasp on divinity as much as new careers in business or adulthood. ..." Self-knowledge must be re­ the law. By the 1820's the minister was not the confirmed by whatsoever recognition the com­ most learned, most respected individual in his munity accorded its loyal youth. If that society, community as he once had been. As Daniel because of a confusion about acceptable Calhoun has shown, he was merely another standards and values, provides the sensitive atomistic entrepreneur, so to speak, seeking young person with insufficient means to fullfill always the better salary and the approval of his need for centrality and wholeness, he may equally acquisitive, equally transient laymen. founder into a despair that goes beyond a For some, this state of affairs intensified youth­ temporary state of turmoil. Normally as Erik­ ful feelings of inferiority and confusion about son said, the community offers rituals of wel­ an ultimate career. Charles Turner Torrey, for come for its young.^^ Especially important for instance, confided in his journal, "What shall our purposes are such public testimonies as I do, God knoweth, I do not. ... Is it my fault spirited professions of faith at revival meet­ that I am not as old as Methuselah? How can ings (most of Charles Grandison Finney's I help my youth? . . . But alas! The way to antebellum converts were under twenty-one), China [as a missionary] seems hedged up with adult or late adolescent immersion in baptism, difficulties." After attempting a few months of ordination into holy orders, a baccalaureate schoolteaching he did, however, study for the degree, or acceptance into or graduation from Congregationalist ministry, though frequently seminary or medical school. beset with doubts.^* Amos Phelps, another For youths raised up to believe in their own minister-abolitionist, even broke off parish superiority, their ability to master the normal labors during a promising revival season to hurdles and to search for underlying values, lecture for antislavery. He spent his short life these visible marks of arrival at adulthood alternating between the monotonous duties of could become unsatisfying when the occupa­ pastoral ministry and full-time occupation in tion involved as well as the ceremony symboliz­ antislavery organizations. La Roy Sunderland, ing it was no longer integrated in the larger Samuel J. May, Joshua Leavitt, Simeon S. social context. Thus to the ordinary agonies Jocelyn, and Orange Scott began as conven­ about reaching the career or moral goal would tional village clergymen, but came to the con­ be added doubts about its relevance. With viction that the abolitionist cause was their institutions and vocations losing old functions primary responsibility. While some tried to and taking on new ones, questions about their combine the traditional work of the church value were not easy to answer.^® For the radical with their social concerns for the slave, others, today the issue involves the role of student. completely rejecting the hypocrisy and errors Scornfully but pertinently, a Young Socialist of their ecclesiastical brethren, unceremoni­ Alliance broadside declared: "The best student ously left holy orders altogether. Stephen S. is the obedient, docile student who dutifully Foster, like a number of other radicals

(Cleveland, 1970), 22-32; Bunkle, "Richard Hild- ^ "YSA Program for the Campus Revolt," Broad­ reth," 32-33 . Sumner suffered a depressed mental side [n.d.], pamphlet 68-1,247, in the State His­ attitude whil e at Harvard, but did not seek religious torical Society of Wisconsin Library. explanations for it. See David Donald, Charles Sum- ^Calhoun, Professional Lives in America, 115-171; ner and the Coming of the Civil War (New York, R. Jackson Wilson, In Search of Community: Social 1960), 21. Philosophy in the United States, 1860-1920 (Boston, ^ Erikson, Insight and Responsibility, 90. 1968), 1-21; Joseph C. Lovejoy, Memoir of Rev. ''Ibid., 90 91, passim. Charles T. Torrey . . . (Boston, 1847), 29.

262 WYATT-BROWN: NEW LEFTISTS AND ABOLITIONISTS such as Elizur Wright abandoned the career his own set of beliefs. The society around him, while in seminary. Foster's unhappy experi­ entangled in cruel oppressions against all kinds ence with his Union Theological Seminary of unfortunate groups, institutional hypo­ career undoubtedly added a personal bitterness crisies, and empty symbols, indeed seemed to his denunciation of the American church "sick." In no area was the dream for American as "a brotherhood of thieves," for its failure order, fidelity to principle, and that integrating to recognize the sinfulness of slaveholding force of "liberty" for all so clearly denied in Christians.^* He lost his faith as well. actuality than in the expanding, slaveholding We should not be misled by the dogmatism South. of evangelical Protestentism in the era, for as The cold war atmosphere, national com­ Walter Houghton's Victorian Frame of Mind placency, and technocratic changes of the has shown, bold assertion covered hidden 1950's posed similar problems for the young misgivings. The era compared itself not with idealist. Both eras were ones of rapid mobility. the Enlightenment but with medieval times, a Families not only moved into new neighbor­ nostalgic, Gothic remembrance, a fantasy of hoods, they also moved up and sometimes faith and oneness, knightly sacrifice and bold, down the social ladder within them. This soaring cathedrals, in fact, a legend of certi­ "uprootedness," as Erikson remarked, is typi­ tudes and poses in which the Victorians, cal of American life, but for these young per­ whether English or American, struggled to sons it led to questioning of the legitimacy of believe.^" The veils of dogma were slipping the social order. Such migrations belied the away. Most of the younger, religiously moti­ family insistence upon stability and com­ vated, gifted abolitionist leaders — Lydia munity loyalty. Surely, too, migrations of high Maria Child, Theodore Parker, Gerrit Smith, school and college administrators and teach­ William Lloyd Garrison, G. W. Julian, James ers, loyal to themselves and their fields of Birney, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Wendell Phil­ specialization alone, and not to the local "com­ lips, Julia Ward Howe, Elizur Wright, Beriah munity of scholars and students" — more Green — all deserted the evangelical faith with mobile in fact than the four-year student him­ which they began their abolitionist careers.^* self — might have similar effects upon radical They adopted various modes of unbelief or a youth today. As Erikson has observed, "where vague Religion of Humanity. Nevertheless, the historical and technological developments moral precepts and often major vestiges of severely encroach upon [traditional patterns their parents' and their own earlier religious of society]. . . , youth feels endangered, in­ faith remained, leaving them with an intense dividually and collectively, whereupon it be­ desire to create as trustworthy, righteous a comes ready to support doctrines offering a world as they imagined their parents sought total immersion in a synthetic identity (ex­ to sustain through outworn means. treme nationalism, racism, or class conscious­ ness) and a collective condemnation of a HE ORIGINS of abolitionist migration totally stereotyped enemy of the new identity." Tfrom orthodoxy must be traced to the un­ Erikson, however, was speaking chiefly about certain state of that orthodoxy in their the rise of totalitarian fanaticism in Hitler's adolescence. When faced with his parents' day.^^ Yet his thoughts could be applied in anxieties about an acquisitive world, a com­ somewhat less volatile circumstances. Self- munity's fear of nonconformity, a national conscious Yankeeism in contrast to the erring horror of revolution and sectional conflict, South, antiracism in opposition to a racist and a world's indifference to and doubt of society and antiwar in a society indifferent to divinity, the young radical-to-be was bound to organized violence also conform to Erikson's have difficulty locating himself, his career, and statement. Likewise, the stereotyping of enemies such as the lascivious slaveholder, the napalm-making Dow Chemical, the police

"•"Stephen S. Foster," DAB, VI: 558. "" Walter E. Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind, 1830-1870 (New Haven and London, 1957). ^^ See Wyatt-Brown, Lewis Tappan, 311. ' Erikson, Insight and Responsibility, 93.

263 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 "pig," was a construction of negative reference entering professional work. It paid poorly, but symbols for both groups of committed youth. for some, that circumstance added to its attrac­ Each individual radical experienced a some­ tiveness. Charles Torrey, after leaving Yale, what different "identity crisis" and often at declared, "Perhaps I need the stern trial of widely varying times in their lives. In the cases poverty to compel me to learn that prudence of Lewis Tappan and Joshua Giddings, for which nothing else has, in time past, taught example, psychological blows to self-confidence me." Elizur Wright was not particularly excep­ prior to entry into the all-absorbing, new tional in taking up three successive jobs of "identity" of abolitionist crusader occurred obvious impermanence — schoolteaching in hard upon disasters that threatened their liveli­ Massachusetts, tractarian work in Pennsyl­ hood and their ways of viewing themselves. vania, and college teaching at Western Reserve At the age of thirty-nine, Tappan watched in Ohio. In each case, Wright, like the modern helplessly while his happy world of business VISTA or Peace Corps worker, was searching enterprise in Boston dissolved. In 1827, he for that call which could command his soul, changed his religious beliefs (from Unit­ serve his need to serve the world, and bring arianism to Congregationalist revivalism of a order to a fragmented, fast-changing society.^^ kind which his mother would have approved), It is worth noting that temporary employ­ his occupation (manufacturer to silk mer­ ment as colporteur, welfare worker, teacher, or chant), and his location (from Boston to New missionary among alien peoples involves a York). Relocated emotionally and physically, physical uprooting, a break with suburban or he felt enabled to refind that special destiny home-town setting, though not with contem­ which his mother had assured him was his for porary society's patterns of mobility. Ad­ the asking (at God's pleasure and mercy) .^^ mittedly, the American missionary impulse As a forty-three-year-old Ohio lawyer, can often be a force of tremendous value, but Joshua Giddings experienced a similar trauma. the participant may be involved in more Burdened with crushing debts in 1837, Gid­ introspective matters than his profession of dings wandered alone by horseback to and moral uplift and benefaction indicates. As a then from his ancestral homestead in Connecti­ tractarian agent, Elizur Wright, for instance, cut, passed silently by his own house and found himself defending his own shaky faith family in Jefferson, Ohio, where he had been in evangelical religion in a debate with a practicing law, and continued all the way to whiskey-drinking, jolly Irish priest in western the prairies of Illinois, grieving for his lost Pennsylvania.^' sense of purpose. As James B. Stewart has so At this point the young person was on the sensitively explained, Giddings entered the threshold of his entry into the radical move­ cause of political antislavery radicalism as a ment. He has decided not to do the ordinary result of his personal defeats and despair.^* tasks of life. Still relatively free of complex, For younger men, the state of depression inhibiting family commitments of his own, he often occurred simultaneously with doubts feels the options for welldoing are fairly open. about future career as undergraduate life drew On a negative note, however, the young man to a close or during a postgraduate transitional or woman has become aware of his basic period. The young radical-to-be knew that quarrels with ordinary social standards. He whatever he planned for himself could be loses rapport with the authorities over him, accomplished, once he had temporarily re­ and a process of alienation begins. solved his feelings of morbid inferiority; the Oftentimes, as Keniston observed, a small question was: could he reconcile desires to college incident, in which the young idealist do good with his necessities for steady, secure suffers a slight or receives an allegedly unjust employment? While trying to find the proper punishment from an unfeeling bureaucracy, answer, many young Americans, whether sparks a series of disillusioning circumstances. radical or not, took up schoolteaching before

'^ Lovejoy, Memoir of Torrey, 30; French, "The ' Wyatt-Brown, Lewis Tappan, 17-55. Conversion of an American Radical," 71-95. ' Stewart, Joshua R. Giddings, 15-17, 24^33. ^Ibid., 90-91.

264. WYATT-BROWN: NEW LEFTISTS AND ABOLITIONISTS

Stephen S. Foster, for instance, was arrested brutality and public ridicule. Theodore Weld, for refusing militia duty while attending Dart­ leader of the famous Lane Seminary Rebels, mouth College in the late 1830's. Later, Union was the most notable example in abolitionist Theological Seminary officials refused him circles of this function.*" accomodations for holding an antiwar prayer The new "family" of radical converts with meeting. Foster turned away from ministerial its nucleus of "surrogate" fathers, encouraged studies, but not from the moral imperative.^^ a sublimation of self which quickly became Incidents more removed from direct personal almost a justification of the work undertaken. experience may also serve as a catalyst for Antislavery gatherings radiated with that disenchantment. "I was really convinced John­ happy, soul-stirring spiritual electricity, sim­ son would [stop the war]," a Vietnam Sum­ ilar to that of the successful revival or, in mer radical told Keniston. "The bombings of recent days, of a few of the rock festivals. February, 1965, were a real shake-up for me. Lydia Maria Child recalled that in the early I went to bed for two days. It seemed to me 1830's "mortals were never more sublimely to utterly close that door. . . .'** forgetful of self" than the harmonious body While abolitionists and New Leftists often of abolitionists.** The feelings of familial trust spoke of these revelations as decisive moments, and spirit of high honor, formerly found in commitment was a process, a fact which stu­ their parents' households, appear to the radical dents have often noted in regard to the similar as a new truth of social relations, contrasting experience of religious conversion. Therefore, vividly with the outer world of isolated, self- interplay of forces within and without him conscious, pluralistic, and selfish groups of propelled the recruit toward increasing identi­ men. fication with his new associates. One or two Perhaps it is natural in times of social ten­ elder brethren function as charismatic figures sion for high value to be placed upon the har­ and around them a community spirit begins mony and sharing of good and ill of a synthetic to emerge. Having left western Pennsylvania community. Certainly Victorians seemed to to founder in its sins, Elizur Wright joined the make sense of their world of shifting economic staff of Western Reserve College, where Beriah and social patterns by stressing the more Green and Charles Storrs, his faculty col­ orthodox and sentimental elements of child, leagues, encouraged his growing radicalism. familial, and marital love. Mathew Arnold's Bitter that the nearby church fathers had lines: "Ah, love, let us be true to one another!/ rejected his application for ministerial license, For the world . . . hath really neither joy, nor Wright found new purpose in antislavery and love, nor light,/ No certitude, nor peace, nor he discovered in these older, reform-minded help for pain" reflected this anxious yearning clergymen satisfactory subjects for radical for security through sexual love that the outer emulation.^'' They provided him with examples world of "ignorant armies clashing in the of courage in the face of local intransigence, night" made so difficult to realize. Radicals moral leadership, and intellectual and oratori­ may discover in their work for the "cause" a cal talents — all of which were dedicated to sufficient satisfaction of their need for mutual­ spreading the message of Garrisonian im- ity, but many seek more formal ties. Thus, in mediatism. Robert Moses, Mario Savio, both antebellum and modern periods, co-opera­ Staughton Lynd, Tom Hayden, and many tive enterprises and communitarian experi­ others have also provided models for action ments flourished, based upon the assumed in displays of fortitude against institutional social failures of competition and upon the presumed superior character of radical inner life. Nagging doubts about the new, self-con­ "'"Stephen S. Foster," DAB, VI: 558. scious style of communitarianism are not "* Keniston, Young Radicals, 124; see also Charles Hampden-Turner, Radical Man: The Process of Psycho-Social Development (Cambridge, 1970), 361- 364, a study, like Keniston's, with strong sympathies for the radical viewpoint. "Thomas, Theodore Weld, 70-99, 117-121. '" Keniston, Young Radicals, 135-140; French, "Lydia Maria Child to Theodore Weld, July 10, "The Conversion of an American Radical," 92-93, 1880, in the Theodore Dwight Weld MSS, William 96-163, 164. L. Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

265 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 wholly disspelled, but dramatic moments that undiscriminating public reaction. Lewis Tap- evoke a sense of solidarity make the prospects pan and most other abolitionists were not seem bright. really "root and branch" zealots until they Essential to the continued existence of the had to face howling mobs. Silvan Tomkins has radical unit is the process of setting its boun­ explained the psychic procedure, noting that daries, for inclusiveness of those "reborn," so strength of character often grows out of per­ to speak, depends upon the exclusion of the secution. Again, it must be emphasized that unregenerate. Abolitionists, for example, radicals are still well within the range of turned with a fury born of disenchantment normal behavior (although their perceptions against the gradualist liberals of the coloniza­ of reality may, like those of their angriest op­ tion effort, denying them any claim to good ponents, seem hopelessly distorted when the intentions. Likewise, modern attacks upon the fevers of emotion subside). This stage may Old Left and Liberal generation are as harsh possibly indicate maturity, yet, in a field of as those against outright reactionaries. Grad­ work in which certainty of conviction is con­ ualism, history, tradition, and the institutions stantly tested by the fires of popular condemna­ supporting them have to be repudiated not tion.*^ In any case, the "call," once so vital only to justify legitimate complaint but also to ministerial vocations, is now located in the to separate the radical "Elect" or saving rem­ "Cause," one demanding hardship, poverty, nant from outsiders closest to it in theory. even martyrdom. For a man who has suffered Estrangement from the old and commitment to anguish over his role in life, his relation to the new place attitudes in polar distinctions: idealistic but imperfect parents, his distrust of immediatism against evolutionary progress; conventional authority, and his own misgiv­ hope against despair; Utopia against static ings about his special worthiness or depravity, corruption; democracy against tyranny; uni­ and his unstilled fears that community love versal love against particularistic bigotry. will not change the world at large, it is most Armed with these formulations, the young gratifying to believe that the new role promises radical measures all things accordingly. Dis- release from all doubts — the unity of experi­ fellowship with "Christian" slaveholding sin­ ence and ideal which conventional society ners and dissociation of universities with could never supply. war-making interests are demands that charge At the same time, rejection of the prejudices a universality of social sin that allow for few and mores of middle-class culture is matched discriminations. To make these breaks with by a self-created affinity for what are deemed alleged iniquity, it is claimed, is to lead im­ the hopes, life, and troubles of those groups mediately to total purity through "come- excluded from that culture. "Revolutionary outerism." Minor discrepancies between prac­ consciousness," said Gregory Calvert of SDS tice and ideal assume as sinister a character in 1967, "leads to the struggle for one's own as major failings. The least of sins becomes freedom in unity with others who share the the symbol for the greatest of them. Time and burden of oppression."*^ Abolitionists urged again abolitionists and New Leftists seized each other to feel as if bound with those in upon insubstantial relationships and converted bonds. "Purified" by the purges of repression them into representative instances of national themselves, radicals assume that persecution crime. The swift leap from the particular (Dow ennobles its victims. Empathy encourages recruiter on campus or southern preacher in a sense of guilt, because the white visionary northern pulpit) to the general (militarist or cannot genuinely suffer in exactly the same proslavery society) is a necessary function of radicalism itself, but resentment of the moral arrogance implicit in the logic of totality is " Silvan S. Tomkins, "The Psychology of Commit­ inevitable. ment: The Constructive Role of Violence and Suf­ fering for the Individual and for His Society," in Martin Duberman (ed.). The Antislavery Vanguard: New Essays on the Abolitionists (Princeton, 1965), OT SURPRISINGLY, THEN, the final 270-298. seal of commitment comes hard upon "Gregory Calvert in Massimo Teodori (ed.), The N New Left: A Documentary History (Indianapolis, signs of an uncomprehending and equally 1969), 415.

266 WYATT-BROWN: NEW LEFTISTS AND ABOLITIONISTS fashion as "the poor slave" or ghetto black campuses, will result in no completion of the or Asian peasant. As a result, severely distorted revolution manque that the abolitionists began. typologies of doubtful accuracy appear in radi­ It must be remembered that antislavery purists cal rhetoric — "Third World," N.L.F. fighters did not arouse a northern constituency for a for freedom; humble, Christian slaves; cour­ holy war against slavery in the old states. ageous fugitives. Again, discriminations dis­ Charles Beard's economic analysis may have appear so that identifications with the op­ been overly simple, but, as Eugene Genovese pressed are imaginable. has explained, slavery was economically in­ Inevitably, this kind of cosmology renders compatible with industrial, commercial, and solutions almost impossible to achieve. The agricultural free labor.*^ The Civil War was a absence of clear program may actually be struggle for economic and political unification, shrewd policy, for it permits flexibility and analogous to that of Germany and Italy, in frees the agitator to respond viscerally to cir­ which southern agrarian elites capitulated to cumstance. Abolitionists admitted that "im­ aggressive northern capitalism. The Union mediate emancipation" was not a plan, but a army and Republican party policies, not the doctrine. Implementations would arise, they abolitionist forces, destroyed slavery as a said, to meet the demands of an aroused public. necessary reordering of power. The slave Modern radical dogma is equally negative and moved from bondage to serfdom, as he usually unstructured, in marked contrast to the 1930's has throughout the history of the institution. Marxists' theory. Howard Zinn accurately ex­ Radical idealists were instrumental in the com­ plained: "It is the spirit, not the letter, of plex evolution of northern and southern polar­ Marxism that the New Left upholds — not a ity; their influence as polemical watchdogs fixed body of dogma," but rather a criticism continued through war and Reconstruction, as of modern life which encompassed "a vague James McPherson has shown, but the Utopian but exhilirating vision of the future" and new world of racial brotherhood remained an stressed "an approach to life — a particular unfulfilled dream.*^ way of thinking about thinking as well as Like the antebellum agitators, modern radi­ about being." The aim is "to promote action."** cals seek only to reach those within their cul­ Both these modern and early national forms tural milieu. Although antihistorical in aims of radicalism are struggles of the spirit. They and approach, they are bound by the chains are not revolutionary programs at all, since of their own past. "From the bourgeoisie," they leave problems of implementing their declared one radical, "you have come, and to revolutionary aims to others — by default. them you shall go."*'' Efforts to collaborate Revolutionary action must always be a strug­ with white workers and downtrodden ethnic gle for power, not moral regeneration alone minorities have not enjoyed much more than unless it promotes the means to that power. temporary success here and there. Garrisonians Conversions under the American radical rubric were separated from poor whites and blacks, are bound to be limited to those with a need but, as Benjamin Quarles has wisely observed, for this kind of spiritual satisfaction. Many even the Northern free-Negro abolitionists may agree about the urgency for improving found it difficult to co-operate with even the existing conditions, but not about the necessity luost egalitarian abolitionists.*^ In that more for a new economic, social, and spiritual order paternalistic age, with its emphasis upon con­ as radicals claim. As a result, the American formity of dress and decorum, abolitionists radical is doomed to the prophet's traditionally lonely role. The speculations offered herein suggest that •"^ Eugene D. Genovese, The Political Economy of present unrest, especially on the nation's Slavery (New York, 1965). •"James M. McPherson, The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Re­ construction (Princeton, 1964). " Shelley Blum, "Middle Class Professional " Howard Zinn, "Marxism and the New Left," in Unions," pamphlet 68-1,258, in the State Historical Alfred F. Young (ed.), Dissent: Explorations in the Society of Wisconsin Library. History of American Radicalism (De Kalb, Illinois, •"Benjamin Quarles, Black Abolitionists (New 1968), 360. York, 1969), 49-50, 235.

267 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 seldom felt it necessary to break with custom Oglesby, SDS president in 1965, to "change as a way of showing solidarity with the poor. the system that needed slaves in the first place But simulated poverty by style of hair and and could 'emancipate' them only into ghettos clothes cannot disguise the gap between the in the second ... to liberate for the conquest educational radical "elite" — the children of of joy ... to go inside yourself first to redis­ the establishment — and the traditional bases cover the feeling of your own possible freedom, of revolution, the worker-peasant classes. In­ and from there to the feeling of the possible stead, stress is given to the "politicizing" of freedom of others.""" The community of the middle-class institutions, especially the univer­ alienated faithful — an "elect" that rejects all sities and colleges, just as abolitionists sought compromises and complicities — strenuously the same moral goal for the national churches. believes in a cosmology embracing all men, Echoing Garrison's demands for a "true all institutions, a vision impossible to achieve church" of "integrity and purity," Tom Hay­ but essential to proclaim if the American cove­ den in equally romantic terms declared that nant is to survive. the Columbia radicals wanted "a new and It is the tragedy and also the hope of the independent university standing against the American experience in its age-old search for mainstream of American society, or they want meaning that radical sentiments and experi­ no university at all."*^ Such dreams have little mentations should arise and have their in­ place in the search for genuine power that fluence upon events. The climax of radical must animate the true revolutionary. frustration is yet to come, but declension of religious zeal and yearnings for order and E RETURN to the original point. Ameri­ tranquility have always followed in the cycle W cans love to preach, to clothe their per­ of human affairs. At some point, the temple sonal fears and aspirations in the language of must empty, the participant — refreshed, the apocalypse, to stage battles between the worried, bored, touched, and exasperated — forces of good and evil, "to make the world must turn home to the humdrum and familiar, safe for democracy," and, in the words of Carl remembering sadly that the dreams of youth become the broken promises of maturity. 'Tom Hayden in Teodori (ed.), The New Left, 346. ™Cari Oglesby in ibid., 450.

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268 THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF TEDDY ROOSEVELT

BY STAN GORES

EARING a heavy army overcoat to fend prey had been an elusive target in eight states W the chill autumn air, Theodore Roose­ and such cities as New Orleans, Atlanta, Chat­ velt, the Bull Moose party candidate in the 1912 tanooga, Indianapolis, and Chicago.* His dead­ presidential election, moved briskly out of the ly mission had covered nearly 2,000 miles— Gilpatrick Hotel in Milwaukee toward an auto and Schrank had no intention of failing for­ that waited for him at the curb.* It was shortly ever. after 8 P.M. on Monday, October 14, 1912, and Nodding to admirers outside the hotel, staring at him among the faces in the crowd Roosevelt moved slowly toward the shiny tour­ was John Schrank, a short, pudgy-cheeked man ing car that was to take him to the Milwaukee with thin lips, reddish hair, and dreamy, half- Auditorium where thousands were waiting. shut eyes. Sticking through a hole he had cut Schrank squirmed to within six feet of the pres­ in the lower left vest pocket, and easily con­ idential candidate, who was standing in the car cealed by his stylishly long suit coat, was the and waving his hat. Then, taking hurried aim, barrel of a loaded .38 caliber revolver.^ he squeezed the trigger of his revolver. There Schrank, a thirty-six-year-old bartender was a flash in the darkness. A bullet tore into from New York who occasionally wrote am­ the right side of Roosevelt's chest. Teddy's ateur poetry and spent hours studying the stenographer, Elbert Martin, a former football United States Constitution, was all but unno­ player, reacted quickly. So did others, and the ticed as he edged his way closer to Roosevelt's pistol was knocked from Schrank's hand. Wres­ car. He had been in Milwaukee more than a tled to the pavement, the would-be assassin was day, and had spent the better part of four hours held by the throat.^ Roosevelt had swayed and at the Gilpatrick awaiting his chance to assas­ half-stumbled when the bullet struck, but braced sinate the former President.^ Almost a month himself on the door of the car tonneau to re­ earlier, on September 21, after checking out of cover his balance. As he did so, he observed that his $2-per-week hotel in the Bowery area and deadly pressure was being applied on Schrank. buying a gun in a New York shop, Schrank had "He doesn't know what he is doing," Roose­ started his pursuit of Roosevelt. His famous velt cried out. "Don't strike the poor creature. Bring him here. Bring him to me." The dishev-

^ Milwaukee Journal and Chicago Tribune, October 15, 1912. 'Ibid., October 15, 1912; Chicago Tribune, Octo­ ' Chicago Tribune, October 15, 1912. ber 15, 1912. ' Milwaukee Journal, September 16, 1943, October ^ Milwaukee Journal, September 16, 1943, October 15, 1912. 15, 1912; Chicago Tribune, October 15, 1912.

269 Milwaukee Journal T. R. leaving the Milwaukee Road train which had brought him from St. Paul for his September 7, 1910, visit to Milwaukee. At his side, wearing a bowler, is Frank Cannon of Milwaukee, later known as one of the fathers of Wisconsin's modern road system. The bare-headed, goateed gentlemen in the rear is former Governor George W. Peck.

eled, collarless Bavarian immigrant, who had thrusting his hand beneath it. He withdrew come to this country at the age of twelve, was fingers stained with blood. "It looks as if I had dragged before the wounded candidate. Martin been hit," he remarked, calmly. "But I don't handed Roosevelt the gun. Those who had seen think it is anything serious."^ what had happened grew surly and began to Dr. S. L. Terrell, Roosevelt's personal physi­ shout, "Lynch him! Kill him!" Roosevelt raised cian, insisted that Teddy return to the hotel. his hand in a gesture to restore order.^ He refused. Roosevelt, who in 1901 had suc­ Henry Cochems, who made Teddy's speaking ceeded William McKinley to become the young­ arrangements, looked at Roosevelt. est President in the nation's history at forty- "Were you hit?" he asked. two, made it clear to everyone in the car that he "He pinked me, Henry," Teddy replied. intended no change in plans. "This may be my Roosevelt peered down at the man who had last talk in this cause to our people," he said, tried to murder him. He studied him for a mo­ "and while I am good I am going to drive to the ment, then said, "Officers, take charge of him hall to deliver my speech."® and see that no violence is done to him." He entered the Auditorium dressing room Schrank was hustled into the kitchen of the through a rear door and his coat was removed Gilpatrick Hotel to await the arrival of the while a call for additional medical help was patrol wagon.'' made from the platform. Roosevelt did not want Everything had happened quickly, and the to be examined, even though his wound was crowd around the hotel scarcely realized Roose­ bleeding. Dr. Terrell undoubtedly realized he velt had been shot. Many who witnessed the would need all the support he could get to con­ assassination attempt thought Schrank's bullet vince Teddy of the seriousness of the situation. had gone wild. While riding to the Milwaukee Dr. F. A. Stratton was one of those who Auditorium, however, one of Teddy's aides responded. He and Dr. Terrell discovered that noticed a hole in the candidate's overcoat. the bullet from Schrank's gun had punctured Roosevelt unbuttoned the heavy army garment. the flesh of Roosevelt's chest. In recalling the

'' Chicago Tribune, October 15, 1912. " Chicago Tribune, October 15, 1912. ^Milwaukee Journal, September 16, 1943. " Milwaukee Journal, September 16, 1943.

270 GORES: TEDDY ROOSEVELT

buttoned his shirt and declared, "Now gentle- let' s go m.

OCHEMS, his voice trembling, made the C announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen," he began, "I have something to tell you and I hope you will receive the news with calmness. Colo­ nel Roosevelt has been shot. . . ." Many gasped at the news, but one man was heard to shout, "Fake! Fake!" Others called directly to Roose­ velt, "Are you hurt?"*^ Aware of the drama in which he was the central figure, Roosevelt moved forward on the speaker's platform. He raised his hand for silence. "It's true," he said. He then proceeded to unbutton his coat and placed his hand on his chest. Many could see his bloodstained cloth­ ing; some women screamed. "I'm going to ask you to be very quiet," the mustachioed hero of the Progressives continued. "I'll do the best I can. . . ." The crowd gave him a tremendous cheer.^* After speaking a few minutes, however, Roosevelt appeared to totter on stage. Dr. Ter­ rell rushed to him, insisting that he call an end lie Library to the talk. "I'm going to finish this speech," Hotel Gilpatrick, which operated from 1907 to said the stubborn Teddy. "I'm all right, let me 1932 on the west side of 3rd Street between Wells alone." With that Dr. Terrell sat down. "It and Kilbourn. The building was razed in the early 1940's. takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull Moose," Roosevelt told his listeners.*' incident later. Dr. Stratton said: "I advised Mr. The crowd listened to every word. When Roosevelt to cancel his speech and go to the Teddy again appeared to falter, a sympathetic hospital and have his wound dressed. He re­ voice called out, "Sit down! Sit down!" A fused and said he would make his speech. He gray-haired woman spoke. "Mr. Roosevelt,"she was very emphatic about it."*" called, "we all wish you would be seated." More than anything else, the hasty examina­ Roosevelt paused, looked at the woman, and tion at the Auditorium revealed that the fifty- answered, "I thank you madam, but I don't page speech Roosevelt planned to make in Mil­ mind a bit."*" waukee that night probably saved his life. He At one point he turned to Dr. Terrell and carried it in his shirt pocket, a thick, doubled- asked, "How long have I been speaking?" up manuscript that had helped spend the force "Three quarters of an hour," the doctor re­ of Schrank's bullet, which also had pierced his plied, glancing at his watch. metal spectacle case. Had it not been for the "Well," said the smiling Teddy, "I'll talk manuscript, the metal case, and his heavy over­ for a quarter hour more." Though uneasy, coat, the hardy Bull Moose candidate might have been killed on the spot in front of the Gilpatrick Hotel.** When the examination was finished, Roose­ '^ Milwaukee Journal, September 16, 1943. velt asked if anyone had a clean handkerchief. '"Chicago Tribune, October 15, 1912; Milwaukee Given one, he placed it over his wound. He then Journal, September 16, 1943. " Chicago Tribune, October 15, 1912. "^ Ibid., October 15, 1912; Milwaukee Journal, '"Ibid. September 16, 1943. " Chicago Tribune, October 15, 1912. '"Milwaukee Journal, September 16, 1943, 271 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970

Society's Iconographic Collections The Milwaukee auditorium as it appeared about 1910. the crowd laughed at his good humor and Nevertheless, it was decided to move Roose- strength.*' vent to Chicago's Mercy Hospital where he Roosevelt explained that he had no knowl­ could be placed under the expert care of the edge of the man who shot him, nor to what nationally known Dr. John Murphy. His special party he belonged. But he referred to Schrank train departed from the Chicago and North as a "coward" who had stood in the darkness Western depot in Milwaukee at 12:45 A.M. "I to fire a bullet into his body.** It had been a don't want Milwaukee to feel badly about this," spirited campaign. Roosevelt had drawn con­ he said in a statement issued aboard the train. siderable criticism for his Bull Moose efforts "It wasn't the city's fault. It wasn't anybody's which had divided the Republican party and fault. . . ." Surrounded by physicians, he read inflamed emotions. a magazine, joked, sipped a glass of milk, and Finally, shaky from loss of blood, Roosevelt slept on his way to Chicago in his private coach, concluded his talk. Doctors then rushed him by "The Mayflower."20 ambulance to Emergency Hospital in Milwau­ When the train arrived at 3:32 A.M., an esti­ kee where X-rays were taken to locate the bullet. mated 400 persons were waiting. Dr. Murphy An early press statement called Roosevelt's in­ came aboard for a hasty examination of the jury "a superficial flesh wound below the right former President at 5:12 A.M. He told Teddy breast, with no evidence of injury to the lungs. he wanted to have X-rays taken to pinpoint the The bullet is probably lodged somewhere in the location of the bullet. He would need this infor­ chest wall. . . ." Immediately after the hospital mation, he said, in the event surgery was neces- examination, Roosevelt sent a telegram to his 91 sary. wife, Edith, in New York. He referred to his At 6:16 A.M. an ambulance, provided by an wound as "superficial" and "trivial." "I am not undertaker from Chicago's North Side, pulled nearly as badly hurt as I have been again and up to within two feet of the "Mayflower." Dr. again by a fall from a horse," he noted re­ Murphy supported Roosevelt as he walked assuringly.'^ toward the doorway. Forty Chicago policemen

' Chicago Tribune, October 15, 1912. ^ Ibid., October 15, 1912; Milwaukee Journal, Oc­ 'Ibid. tober 15, 1912. ' Ibid. ^ Chicago Tribune, October 16, 1912.

272 GORES: TEDDY ROOSEVELT

were on duty to keep spectators at a safe dis­ tance. Though he had been under severe physi­ cal stress for more than ten hours, Roosevelt had not lost his sense of humor. He proved it when flash cameras popped as he stepped onto the platform. "Shot again" he quipped. Un­ assisted, he walked down the steps of the rail­ road car, climbed into the ambulance, and was on his way to Mercy Hospital.^^ Roosevelt walked into the building unaided, though one reporter noted that he looked "grave." Despite this, the old Rough Rider raised his hat to greet newsmen and hospital employes. He was taken by wheelchair to the private suite of Dr. Murphy. Blood poisoning had been feared, and X-rays were taken imme­ diately. Tests also had been conducted in Mil­ waukee to see if bullets found in Schrank's gun had been poisoned. They had not. After the examination, the weary Roosevelt drifted off into a deep sleep.^^ Schrank's bullet had plowed upward about five inches from where it had entered, but had Chicago Historic.'il Society not penetrated the rib. Doctors said Teddy was Dr. John B. Murphy, the Appleton native who attended Roosevelt at Chicago's Mercy Hospital. in magnificent physical condition, and observed that he neither drank nor smoked. There was Mrs. Roosevelt, always fearful her husband no plan to remove the bullet. "As long as the would be gunned down by an assassin, had been ball is not pressing on any nerve or vital organ," notified of the shooting while attending a New said Dr. Murphy, "and unless there is a rise in York theater program.^' Others in the family temperature, it will not be necessary to oper­ also had responded to the news and soon were ate. . . ." Newspapers reported a change in the on their way to Chicago. When his wife arrived, medical description of the wound. Doctors now she checked into the adjoining room. referred to it as "serious."^* Newsmen who had been covering the cam­ Dr. Murphy and other physicians quickly paign insisted that they be allowed to talk to learned that Roosevelt was not a man who en­ Roosevelt. Teddy did not object. His doctors joyed being idle. Roosevelt settled into the protested, however, and whenever they did hospital routine in typical fashion, reading Ma- Roosevelt good-naturedly sided with the report­ caulay's Essays and instructing a nurse to pro­ ers. "I'fl hurry up and get out of here so I can vide him with a good breakfast. He did not want keep you busy again," he told them.^" doctors or nurses to disturb the pages of any There were telegrams and messages in a book he happened to be reading, and his robust steady flow—from President William H. Taft, laugh could be heard easily in the hospital cor­ Woodrow Wilson, William Jennings Bryan, ridors. Roosevelt was a popular patient, of Senator Robert M. La Follette and kings and course. The press noted that the nuns at Mercy emperors throughout the world. Roosevelt sent Hospital were praying for his recovery. He replies to more than 2,000 telegrams and read borrowed a hand mirror to shave himself and more than 4,000 letters.^^ gave directions regarding clothes he wanted The letter that pleased him the most came available when his wife arrived. from a Chicago youngster, Vincent Curtis Bald-

'^Ibid. 'Milwaukee Journal, October 15, 1912. '^Ibid.; Milwaukee Journal, October 15, 1912. ' Chicago Tribune, October 16, 1912. ^ Chicago Tribune, October 16, 1912. 'Ibid., October 16, 21, 1912. 273 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970

win, who also enclosed $10. It read as follows: Dear Mr. Roosevelt: I hope you are getting on nicely. For I want you to be our President. If I was a man I'd help you, and work hard for you, and tell the people how good you are, but I am only 10 years old. Am sending money that I made selling flowers to help you, and I want you to keep it. I pray every night that you will soon be well, and I know that God is helping you. My brother, who is 5, prays too. Yours truly, Vincent Curtis Baldwin Roosevelt called the boy's letter the "buUiest" of them all, dictated a reply and signed it, per­ sonally.^*

4CK IN MILWAUKEE, Schrank found himself B the center of world attention. When ar­ raigned in court the day after the shooting, he was questioned by the district attorney, Win- fred C. Zabel John F. Schrank, Roosevelt's would-be assassin, "You are charged with assault with intent to from a photograph in The Attempted Assassination of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, a book pub­ kill and murder," said Zabel. "What do you lished in Milwaukee in 1912. plead, guilty or not guilty?" "I plead guilty," said Schrank.^*' communist or anarchist. He added that he was The judge bound him over for trial and later not a Democrat or Republican either.^^ allowed alienists (psychiatrists) to examine He told of a weird dream in which he saw him.^'^ The press was informed that Schrank's the assassinated William McKinley sitting up action had not been part of a plot. Zabel also in a coffin, pointing to a man in a monk's attire explained that he wanted the trial postponed who Schrank recognized as Roosevelt. "This is until after the presidential election so that court my murderer," McKinley supposedly told proceedings would not "get dragged into the Schrank in the dream. "Avenge my death."^^ campaign."^* Schrank's comments were quoted Schrank was interviewed by a reporter for freely in the press, however, and details of the the Milwaukee Journal while in custody. He attempted assassination were known to every­ had been seated on a board that served as his one who could read. bed in the Milwaukee jail. "Stand up Schrank," Schrank had intended to keep firing at Roose­ said a police officer. "Here is a man who wants velt until he knew Teddy was dead but did not to talk to you." get that chance. He said he was convinced "Want to see the animal, do you?" Schrank Roosevelt wanted to establish a monarchy in responded. "Well, here I am. Take a good look." the United States by seeking a third term. "I The reporter asked Schrank if he had worried shot Roosevelt as a warning to other third about what he had done. "No, why should I termers," he insisted. Schrank denied he was a worry?" he answered. "My mind was made up about it and I am not going to worry about it." He asked for a necktie prior to picture-tak­ ing. "I don't want to look like a roughneck," he commented.^* ^ Ibid., October 21, 1912. ^Milwaukee Journal, October 15, 1912. ^° Chicago Tribune, November 13, 1912. The court's action was said to be "the first such practice in Wis­ "" Milwaukee Journal, September 16, 1943. consin criminal procedure." ""Ibid., October 15, 1912. "'Ibid., October 16, 1912. "*Ibid.

274 GORES: TEDDY ROOSEVELT

Schrank, who often used the name of Ross or Roos when registering at hotels during his journey to kill Roosevelt, had more than $140 when arrested. Reports about his money varied, but one stated that he lived on $25,000 worth of real estate. However, newspapers generally re­ ferred to him as a bartender, for that had been his only real occupation. Schrank had a grade school education and always had been an ad­ mirer of George Washington. He thought it intolerable that any man should serve more than two terms in the White House.^° A noted criminologist in Washington, D.C.— Professor Arthur MacDonald—was quoted at the time of the attempted assassination as say­ ing that the government should establish a "bureau to oversee and keep under constant surveillance men of this type." He said such men were only "potentially dangerous," and were not "chronic criminals." "But their one offense is of such a heinous character that the desirability of their restraint is evident," he Milwaukee Journal added. "I believe Congress will take definite T. R. strikes a characteristic pose as he waves to a action on this point before very long." Milwaukee crowd. While shock and anger prevailed throughout the nation, Schrank said he was sorry he had caused so much trouble for Milwaukee.^" want to see your family, doctor," he began. "It seems you have them all buffaloed the same way NDER the treatment of Chicago doctors, you are trying to buffalo me. . . ." Teddy's U Roosevelt continued to improve. Although humor made the surgeon laugh, and he gave it would have been simple to remove the bullet his approval. that lodged outside Teddy's rib cage, this was When Mrs. Murphy and the girls were ad­ not done. "The colonel can have his choice of mitted to Roosevelt's room, the old warrior carrying the bullet in his body or in hispocket," displayed the charm that had made him the one physician remarked.^'^ delight of women everywhere. "I scarcely know Just seven days after the shooting, on October which one to address as Mrs. Murphy," he de­ 21, Roosevelt was ready to leave Chicago for clared, "and I am bereft of my opportunity to his home in Oyster Bay, New York. The night make the address I had planned to make to the before his departure he shook hands with most handsome of Dr. Murphy's girls. . . ." It thirty-five Sisters of Mercy at the hospital. was a thrilling moment for the Murphys. Dr. Murphy's wife and three daughters, Members of the hospital staff, nuns and thrilled about the famous patient at Mercy Hos­ nurses were prepared to give Roosevelt an en­ pital, had been interested in meeting Roosevelt. thusiastic send-off. But it was Teddy's thought- But Dr. Murphy had issued strict orders that fulness that made the occasion memorable. He Teddy was to get complete rest and not be said his care at Mercy Hospital had been disturbed. Before being discharged, however, marked by attention from "the best nurses I Roosevelt had a chat with the physician. "I ever had." His two special nurses. Miss Mar­ garet Fitzgerald and Miss Blanche Welter, were given gold Buff Moose pins.^* During the trip east, Roosevelt's wound be-

"^Ibid., October 15, 1912; September 16, 1943. ^ Chicago Tribune, October 15, 1912. "''Fond du Lac Daily Reporter, October 18, 1912. * Chicago Tribune, October 21, 1912.

275 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 gan to bleed, and Dr. Terrell, as well as Dr. Sheriff William Arnold of Milwaukee told Alexander Lambert of New York, watched him the press that Schrank, who had taught some closely. "The bullet is imbedded in the major of his fellow jail inmates how to play checkers, pectoral muscle," said Lambert. "It will be a would be moved by train to the Northern Hos­ simple matter to remove the bullet later should pital for the Insane at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on Colonel Roosevelt wish it."'''' November 25. When the day arrived a reporter On October 23 Roosevelt reached Oyster Bay, for the Milwaukee Journal observed what ap­ where he walked from his private railroad car peared to be a rather sentimental parting. to a waiting limousine. He was borne swiftly "Goodbye, sheriff," said Schrank. "I hope I the four miles to his Sagamore Hill home.*" haven't caused you much trouble. . . ." By the end of October, however, Roosevelt "Not a bit, Schrank," replied Arnold. "You was ready to make an appearance at Madison have been the best prisoner we have had here Square Garden, even though his doctors ad­ since I have been in office."*° vised against it. New Yorkers applauded the En route to his confinement at Oshkosh, hearty Bull Moose candidate for forty minutes Schrank gazed steadily at the Wisconsin coun­ and the crowd, estimated at 17,000, spilled into tryside. Someone asked him if he liked to hunt. surrounding streets. Mrs. Roosevelt was with "Only Bull Moose," he answered.*® her husband that night and smiled as she saw When the asylum-bound train stopped at him cheered.** Fond du Lac a newsman from that city climbed Despite Roosevelt's popularity, Woodrow aboard for a few words with the would-be Wilson was the winner of the election, getting assassin. He asked Schrank if he still regarded 6,296,547 votes to 4,118,571 for Teddy, and himself sane. "Well, I guess that is for you to 3,486,720 for Wifliam Howard Taft. The de­ decide," Schrank remarked. "The doctors say feated Roosevelt wired Wilson his congratu­ I am not and I say I am. I'm not worrying lations.*' though. The only thing I have to complain about is that they don't sell bottled beer on this ITH Wilson bound for the White House, train. I'm thirsty." W the political implications of the Schrank The Fond du Lac newspaperman indicated trial were eliminated. In court Schrank again that the New York bartender was in high spir­ emphasized that he did not want to kill "citizen its. When Schrank observed an attractive wom­ Roosevelt," but that he did try to murder an among the curious assembled at the depot, "Roosevelt the third termer."*^ he responded in normal male fashion. "Schrank The court appointed a "lunacy commission" became greatly interested and waved at her," to examine him. Members unanimously recom­ the newsman wrote, "but she snubbed him and mended that Schrank be sent to an asylum. went on her way—much to his amusement."*' Schrank, who objected to being regarded as a At the Oshkosh institution, Schrank was lunatic, indicated he was not surprised at the treated as just another inmate. Dr. Adin Sher­ verdict. "I had expected they would find me man, the superintendent, made it clear in an insane because it was in the papers two days interview during October of 1913 that he did ago," he said. "I want to say that I am sane and not like occasional attempts to bring Schrank know what I am doing all the time. I am not a back into the headlines. He said newspapers lunatic and never was one. I was called upon to were constantly seeking "sensationalism" re­ do a duty and I have done it."** garding the case to satisfy what he called the public's "morbid craving for a blood-covered hero. . . ." By February of 1914 the new Central State Hospital for the criminally insane was com- ''"Ibid., October 22, 1912. '"Ibid., October 23, 1912. "Ibid., October 31, 1912. '"Statistical History of the United States from Colonial Times to the Present (Stamford, Connecti­ ' Milwaukee Journal, October 17, November 25, cut) 682 1912. " Milwaukee Journal, September 16, 1943. *° Chicago Tribune, November 26, 1912. •" Chicago Tribune, November 23, 1912. •" Fond du Lac Daily Reporter, November 25, 1912.

276 Milwaukee County Historical Society Representatives of the United Spanish War Veterans participating in the rededica- tion of a plaque presented by that group in 1926 to mark the spot near which the assassination attempt occurred. Lost for many years following the razing of the Hotel Gilpatrick it was found in the basement of and reaffixed on the wall of a bar, now occupying the hotel's former site. The rededication, under the auspices of the Milwaukee County Historical Society, occurred October 14, 1968, fifty-six years after the attempt on Roosevelt's life. pleted at the Wisconsin State Prison at Wau­ a third term Schrank was worked up and said pun. Schrank, then thirty-eight, was transferred that if he were free he would take a hand in the there on a day when seven other patients also matter. He believed his mission in life was were moved. For years at Waupun, Schrank doing anything to avert a third term as presi­ was a model prisoner. Some inmates referred dent for anyone."^* to him as "Uncle John."*^ Reporting on Schrank's death, newspapers Reporters sought a reaction from Schrank stated: "Schrank's body will be held for several when Roosevelt died in his sleep, January 6, months on the chance that it might be claimed 1919, at the age of sixty, with the bullet fired by some distant relative."'^^ This was not true. seven years earlier still in his chest. The Fond Within two days after his death, according to du Lac newspaper quoted Schrank as saying, almost unknown records at the little Dodge "A good man gone. . . . Personally I admired County Courthouse in Juneau, Wisconsin, his greatness." It was a peculiar comment from Schrank's body was removed from Central a man who had tried to kill him. State Hospital at Waupun and sent to the Medi­ Gradually, Schrank's own health began to cal School at Marquette University in Milwau­ wane. Hardening of the arteries, complicated kee.^^ by bronchial pneumonia, resulted in his death, It is not likely that the young medical stu­ September 15, 1943. He was sixty-seven. dents there realized that the cadaver they were In thirty-one years in prison, Schrank had studying represented the remains of a little bar­ no visitors and never even received a letter.*^ tender from New York who thought it was his Records show that prison psychiatrists diag­ duty in life to see that the United States would nosed his trouble as "dementia praecox, para­ never be governed by a king. noid type."^° Dr. R. A. Remley, acting superintendent of Central State Hospital at the time Schrank died, '"Milwaukee Journal, September 16, 1943. commented: "He was pleasant and cooperative '"Ibid., September 16, 1943; New York Times, and never a problem. Politics claimed his September 17, 1943. ''"Waupun Prison Hospital records, dated from thoughts to a large extent until he died. He was time of Schrank's admission to that institution on an avid reader and well informed on current February 18, 1914. '^'Milwaukee Journal, September 16, 1943. events. Several times he said he believed him­ "''Ibid. self to have been insane at the time of the attack "" Dodge County Courthouse records at Juneau, on Roosevelt. At other times he sought to justi­ Wisconsin, show that on September 17, 1943, Schrank's body was sent to the Marquette University fy the attack. When Franklin Roosevelt ran for Medical School.

277 A BRIEF HISTORY OF ONEOTA RESEARCH

IN WISCONSIN

By GUY GIBBON

HE QUESTIONS ASKED and the cate­ having the form of animals were largely con­ T gories of information furnished in reports fined to southern Wisconsin. George Gale, in to answer them have changed as the orienta­ a survey of the Upper Mississippi River area, tion and underlying assumptions of archaeo­ also concentrated on the effigy forms in the logical thinking in Wisconsin have shifted state. Wisconsin was one of the earliest states with the growth of the discipline. As a result, to conduct a survey and have a volume devoted present-day prehistorians must rely for the to a description of its antiquities. Increase A. most part on the re-evaluation of categories of Lapham concentrated on the location and information often couched in the terminology description of mounds, particularly effigy of antiquated hypotheses intended to answer forms and the large mounds at Aztalan. These questions no longer relevant or now of only works brought the mounds of Wisconsin to secondary importance. Because our present international attention and entered them into understanding of the prehistory of Wisconsin the membership of what was considered by is greatly influenced by the history of the dis­ some workers a Mound Builder culture of cipline of archaeology, it is essential that those fairly recent age. The interpretations proffered individuals interested in prehistoric Wisconsin in many of these volumes were still carry-overs familiarize themselves with this history. Al­ from the earlier period of speculation and though this essay is concerned specifically with mounds of diverse time periods and cultures the development of archaeological thinking were lumped together into one flat "culture." regarding the Oneota Tradition, a late prehis­ These reports had the effect of creating a toric food-producing people (A.D. 900-1650), tremendous growth of interest in archaeology the framework used and conclusions drawn in the state.^ are applicable to the broader problems of the development of the discipline in the state. The history of the development of archaeo­ logical research in Wisconsin mirrors in gen­ ' A. Irving Hallowell, "The Beginning of Anthro­ eral the changing goals, concepts, and tech­ pology in America," in Frederica De Laguna (ed.), niques of archaeology in the eastern United Selected Papers from the American Anthropologist, 1888-1920 (Evanston, 1960), 1-90; Robert Wau- States. Wisconsin participated in the increas­ chope, Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents: Myth ing empirical orientation that emerged follow­ and Method in the Study of American Indians (Chi­ ing a long period of speculation about the cago, 1962). origins and identity of the peoples responsible ' Cyrus Thomas, "Burial Mounds of the Northern for the prehistoric earthworks and artifacts Section of the United States," in Bureau of American Ethnology, Fifth Annual Report, 1883-4 (Washing­ observable throughout the eastern United ton, D.C, 1887), and "Report ol the Mound Explora­ States.* The initial descriptions were conducted tions of the Bureau of Ethnology," in ibid.. Twelfth for the most part by individuals studying large Annual Report, 1890-1 (Washington, D.C, 1894) ; sections of this region. Cyrus Thomas, for George Gale, The Upper Mississippi (Chicago, 1867) ; Increase A. Lapham, "The Antiquities of example, recorded the distribution of mounds Wisconsin," in Smithsonian Contributions to Knowl- in this broad area in 1880, noting that mounds (Washington, D.C, 1855), volume 7; E. G.

278 GIBBON: ONEOTA RESEARCH

Near the turn of the century, broad scale analyses of the available archaeological and ethnographic information had led to the formulation of large archaeological culture areas. W. H. Holmes of the Bureau of Ameri­ can Ethnology divided the eastern United States into five areas, including Wisconsin in his "Upper Mississippi and Great Lakes" area. These provinces were a compromise between pottery provinces and historic distributions of ethnic groups. For example. Holmes suggested a correlation in Wisconsin between grit- tempered, cord-marked pots and Algonquian- language speakers, for the "pottery of this site [near Two Rivers, Manitowoc County] pres­ ents pronounced Algonquian characters, and if the sherds were to be intermingled with those of Atlantic coast sites it would be difficult to separate them."^ This pattern of correlating historic ethnic groups or language groups with particular classes of archaeological material continued, greatly influencing the interpreta­ tions of prehistoric remains in Wisconsin. Other classifications, such as that proposed by Cyrus Thomas on the basis of mound distribu­ tion, were equally broad. Thomas also sub­ Map taken from Milwaukee Public Museum Bul­ letin, December IS, 1945, showing the then- sumed Wisconsin within an "Upper Missis­ known local distribution of the Oneota aspect in sippi" geographic culture area. Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Archaeological Society, founded in 1903, was one of the first of its kind. Institutions, such as the State Historical Wisconsin Archeologist was dedicated to a Society, the Milwaukee Public Museum, and systematic collection of archaeological data the University of Wisconsin, began to conduct from throughout the state with the purpose of archaeological studies in the area during the achieving a "directory to the antiquities of first two decades of the twentieth century, and Wisconsin," for an urgent need was felt to other institutions such as Beloit and Carroll record data which were rapidly vanishing. colleges began to participate soon thereafter. These surveys usually took the form of an The first systematic surveys and excavations enumeration of known sites within a county in the state during this period concentrated not or broader geographical region, or were con­ unsurprisingly on the distribution, structure, cerned with the distribution and kinds of a particular artifact form, such as copper orna­ origin, and purpose of the mounds that had ments, pipes, or potsherds. The zeal of the made the state well known through earlier state's archaeologists was such, that Warren archaeological volumes. The old series of The K. Moorehead wrote in 1908, "It is no exag­ geration to say that the scientific societies of Wisconsin have done more to further the pre­ Squier and E. H. Davis, "Ancient Monuments of servation of prehistoric remains of all kinds, the Mississippi 'Valley: Comprising the Results of in the past few years, than similar organiza­ Extensive Original Surveys and Explorations," in tions in any single state."* ibid., (1848), volume 1; Henry C Shetrone, The Mound-Builders (New York, 1930) ; Robert Silver- berg, Mound Builders of Ancient America: The Archaeology of a Myth (Greenwich, Connecticut, •* Charles E. Brown, "Suggestions in regard to 1968). archeological research in Wisconsin," in The Wis­ "William H. Holmes, "Ancient Pottery of the consin Archeologist, 6:70-74 (1907) ; George A. Mississippi Valley," in Bureau of American Ethno­ West, "Summary of the Archeology of Racine Coun­ logy, Fourth Annual Report, 1882-1883 (Washington, ty," in ibid., 3:5-42 (1903) ; G. H. Squier, "Certain D.C, 1886), and "Aboriginal Pottery of the Eastern Archeological Features of Western Wisconsin," in United States," in ibid.. Twentieth Annual Report, ibid., 4:25-38 (1905); Charies E. Brown, "The Na­ 1898-1899 (Washington, D.C, 1903), 196-197 (quo­ tive Copper Implements of Wisconsin," in ibid., tation). 3:49-98 (1903); George A. West, "The Aboriginal

279 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 During the second decade of this century, Aztalan, but the implications of these dif­ S. A. Barrett initiated the systematic excava­ ferences were not pursued. tion of mounds for the Public Museum of The work carried out by these institutions Milwaukee. The stated purpose of these excava­ during this initial period of description re­ tions was to investigate "the origin, construc­ sulted for the most part in an inchoate mass tion and purposes of mounds."^ Advanced of observational data concerning the location techniques of surveying and screening were of sites and the distribution of particular arti­ used during the excavations and the external fact and mound forms. The state of the dis­ and internal characteristics of the mounds cipline during this time period is understand­ were carefully recorded. Individual artifacts able, for conceptual schemes or paradigms were examined and differences between mound indispensable to the ordering of masses of and camp debris content were occasionally observational data were either lacking or were mentioned, but rarely illustrated. The pro­ too broad to be useful in unraveling local venience of individual items was seldom re­ histories, let alone in constructing cultural corded, and the great bulk of the monographs contexts and developmental models. was concerned with the origin, construction, and purposes of the mounds, which was the stated goal. These early site reports lacked HE SYSTEMATIC CLASSIFICATION of summations or syntheses, instead occasionally T archaeological "cultures" was initiated in ending with a hypothetical "visualization of Wisconsin by Will C. McKern of the Milwau­ the life of the site" modeled after A. C. Parker's kee Public Museum during the 1920's. In a Iroquois reports and invariably taking as their 1928 monograph on the Neale and Mc- setting Wisconsin during the early historic Claughry Mound groups, his stated goal was period. still the origin, construction, and purpose of The first excavation of a major Grand River mounds, for "the principal archaeological Phase Oneota site occurred during this period problems in this district look to mound in­ of initial description, when John Jeske ex­ vestigations for solution."^ However, McKern cavated portions of the Green Lake County began to grapple with the implications of the Walker-Hooper site in 1921 under the direc­ cultural variability evident in the ceramics at tion of Barrett.^ Jeske followed the excavation the McClaughry site, where shell-tempered, procedures he had learned from Barrett while globular pots were found together with grit- working at Aztalan and his report was a replica tempered, cord-marked vessels. The importance in goal and structure of Barrett's earlier Kratz of pottery as an indicator of the presence of Creek report, having a primary interest in the diverse "cultures" was appreciated. Through origin, construction, and purpose of mounds. the efforts of McKern, attention began to focus The shell-tempered, globular vessels found more on ceramics, than on the structure of were markedly different from the grit-tem­ mounds, for "the potsherd is a much more pered, cord-marked vessels usually found in apparent and reliable culture marker (than Wisconsin mounds with the exception of mounds) ... a study of pottery promises maximum results."* McKern proposed the existence of a grit- tempered, cord-marked "Woodland pottery culture," locally expressed in Wisconsin as Pipes of Wisconsin," in ibid., 4:47-171 (1905) ; Al- "Lake Michigan Ware," and a shell-tempered, phonse Gerend, "Potsherds from Lake Michigan globular vessel "Upper Mississippi pottery Shore Sites in Wisconsin," in ibid., 4:3-19 (1904) ; culture." In 1930 in the Kletzien and Nitschke Warren K. Moorehead, "The Progress of Archaeo­ Mound group report, McKern discussed "Effigy logical Science in Wisconsin," in ibid., 7:109-110 (1908). Mound ware in its purest form," and proposed = S. A. Barrett and E. W. Hawkes, "The Kratz that the term Lake Michigan pottery be used Creek Mound Group," in Bulletin of the Public to designate this local expression of a ware Museum of the City of Milwaukee (1919), 13:10 that was described elsewhere in the eastern (quotation) ; John A. Jeske, "The Grand River Mound Group and Camp Site," in ibid. (1927), volume 3, number 2; S. A. Barrett and Alanson Skinner, "Certain Mounds and Village Sites of Shawano and Oconto Counties, Wisconsin," in ibid. 'Will C. McKern, "The Neale and McClaughry (1932), volume 10, number 5; S. A. Barrett, "An­ Mound Group," in ibid., 3:225 (1928). cient Aztalan," in ibid. (1933), volume 13. "Will C McKern, "The Importance of Pottery in " Jeske, "The Grand River Mound Group and Camp Wisconsin Archeology," in The Wisconsin Archeolo­ Site," in ibid., volume 3. gist, 8:26-29 (1928),

280 *"•'*•'' " • ' '•• '*•'•^''r*;'** /!^>/ "'^z.''''•.'"-

AlEISFff MliJflMSMTI W'' >r Of lai M oe Msiwss. c • ms consul

In 1837, George W. Featherstonhaugh, an English geologist, and Richard C. Taylor, an American surveyor, discovered these e;^g!/ mounds about eighteen miles west of Madison and seven miles east of Blue Mounds. From Featherston- haugh's rough sketch drawn on the spot, Taylor made a more elaborate and professional rendition which was published in the American Journal of Science and Arts, July, 1838. The above illustration, copied from Squier and Davis, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley (1848), represents a further refine­ ment of Taylor's original version.

United States as of the Algonkian type." The identical with eastern Algonkian ware and term "Upper Mississippi" was intended to is exclusively present at certain village sites indicate a probable center of a culture rather known to have been long occupied by his­ than a definition of its geographical limits. toric Algonkian groups during the era of The ware elsewhere was referred to as a Siouan their pottery manufacture. Therefore, it type. must include the pottery types, or subtypes, In a 1931 paper, McKern elaborated on these of the historic Algonkians of Wisconsin. distinctions. The distribution of the cord- Accordingly, it seems justifiable to refer to marked, grit-tempered ceramics: it as an Algonkian type of pottery...... closely corresponds to the probable Because Effigy Mound ware is typical Lake distribution of Algonkian tribes in the Michigan ware, the Effigy Mound builders Western Woodlands area. It is basically were probably also Algonkians. In contrast the shell-tempered pottery recovered from the Walker-Hooper Grand River Mound group and elsewhere in Wisconsin: ' See, for example, "The Neale and McClaughry Mound Group," in Bulletin of the Public Museum of ... is an important Iowa form of pottery, the City of Milwaukee (1928), volume 3, number 2, known there as a marker for the Oneota and "Wisconsin Variant of Hopewell Culture," in ibid. (1931), volume 10, number 2; "The Kletzien culture. Its general distribution and its ex­ and Nitschke Mound Groups," in ibid. (1930), vol­ clusive occurrence at well-known Siouan ume 3, number 4. sites establish its Siouan authorship in at

281 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970

least many instances, and warrant the the effigy mounds became generally accepted.*^ designation of this ware as a Western Wood­ Other archaeologists in the state also argued land Siouan type. for a strong association between shell-tem­ pered, globular "Siouan pottery" and the But because these pottery wares "could be dif­ Winnebago Indians. This association was fused to a different linguistic group," McKern eventually enforced and elaborated by writers explicitly avoided using "linguistic termi­ working in other states.** James B. Griffin of nology."*" Instead, the geographical names of the University of Michigan suggested the Lake Michigan and Upper Mississippi were broader implications of these associations, applied. Despite McKern's caution, the early proposing that the Oneota sites were the pre­ ethnic and language group approach of as­ historic remains of the Chiwere Sioux (loway- sociating ceramic wares with historic-linguistic Oto-Missouri) and the Winnebago, and that groups continued to have a strong influence on their shared traits developed while they lived later reports, producing undisciplined discus­ near each other at one time in the northern sions of "Algonkian" and "Siouan" pottery.*' Mississippi Valley. The absence of concepts of time depth during most of the first three decades of this century HE DECADE of the 1930's saw the devel­ allowed almost any prehistoric site to be opment of many new trends in eastern identified with an historically known culture. T United States archaeology that are still signifi­ The identification of the ethnic or language cant in the discipline today. Wisconsin not groups responsible for the manufacture of the only shared in these trends in development, but state's prehistoric remains, particularly the became an innovative center because of the effigy mounds, had been an important and work of W. C. McKern. The rapid expansion early emphasis in Wisconsin archaeology. of archaeological activity in the form of state The authorship of the effigy mounds had long surveys and excavations was mainly under­ been debated, but the Siouan Winnebago were taken without familiarity with the artifacts and generally accepted as their builders primarily associations found elsewhere. One of the major through the influence of the writings of Paul problems facing archaeology at this time was Radin and other local authorities. However, that of classifying and analyzing the accumulat­ McKern, following his tentative division of ing information. In many areas of the country pottery into Algonkian and Siouan wares, large-scale excavations were initiated with asked, "How then does it happen that Winne­ government financing to alleviate some of the bago pottery is not found in mounds said to financial difficulties that characterized the have been built by the Winnebago Indians?"'^ Since the presence of mounds at the Walker- Hooper Grand River site was an exception, this mound group was classified as a "subtype of '" McKern, "Wisconsin Pottery," in American An­ thropologist, 33:386; McKern, "The Neale and the Upper Mississippi Culture." On the basis of McClaughry Mound Group," in Bulletin of the Public this and other arguments, the identification of Museum of the City of Milwaukee, 3:277-279; Robert Algonkian Woodland groups as the builders of E. Ritzenthaler, "Prehistoric Indians of Wisconsin," in Popular Science Handbook Series No. 4 (Milwau­ kee Public Museum, 1953) ; Chandler W. Rowe, "The Effigy Mound Culture of Wisconsin," in Milwaukee Public Museum Publications in Anthrolopology No. 3 '" "Wisconsin Pottery," in American Anthropolo­ (Milwaukee, 1956). gist, 33:384-385 (1931). "Ralph N. Buckstaff, "Painted Pottery of the " See, for example, Barrett and Skinner, "Certain Winnebago Culture," in The Wisconsin Archeologist, Mounds and Village Sites of Shawano and Oconto 19:1-3 (1938), and "Painted and Incised Pottery Counties, Wisconsin," in Bulletin of the Public Mu­ Fragments of the Winnebago," in ibid., 22:84-186 seum of the City of Milwaukee, 10:415, 433-434 (1941) ; James B. Griffin, "The Archaeological Re­ (1932). mains of the Chiwere Sioux," in American Antiquity, ^ Paul Radin, "The Social Organization of the 2:180-181 (1937), and The Fort Ancient Aspect Winnebago Indians, An Interpretation," in Geological (Ann Arbor, 1943) ; Mildred Mott, "The Relation of Survey of Canada, Museum Bulletin No. 10 (Ottawa, Historic Indian Tribes to Archaeological Manifesta­ 1915), 76-103, and "The Winnebago Tribe," in tions in Iowa," in Iowa Journal of History and Poli­ Bureau of American Ethnology, Thirty-seventh An­ tics, 36:227-314 (1938) ; Charles R. Keyes, "Pre­ nual Report, 1915-1916 (Washington, D.C, 1923) ; historic Man in Iowa," in Palimpsest, 8:215-219 Charles E. Brown, "The Winnebago as Builders of (1927) ; Brewton Berry and Carl Chapman, "An Wisconsin Earthworks," in The Wisconsin Archeolo­ Oneota Site in Missouri," in American Antiquity, gist, 10:124-129 (1911); McKern, "The Importance 7:290-305 (1942); Cari Chapman, "A Preliminary of Pottery in Wisconsin Archeology," in ibid., 8:28 Survey of Missouri Archaeology," in Missouri Arch­ (1928). aeologist (1946), volume 10, part 1.

282 GIBBON: ONEOTA RESEARCH not dependent on pottery as the primary in­ dicator of cultural relationships, for "it is extremely doubtful that its importance could ever warrant classification primarily on a basis of pottery factors." This new emphasis was expressed in an early paper in 1931: "the local •• Cahokia type of large chipped chert hoes, disc beads of shell, three notched, triangular times. Various working hypotheses were arrowpoints, perforated shell implements. . . . formulated to organize the accumulating data, The Aztalan trait complex was regarded as an but much of the material remained in frame­ intrusive, foreign culture unique in Wiscon­ works that made comparison difficult. Many sin. McKern stated that these were just the of these early formulations, for example, were rudiments of classification, for "eventually, still burdened with the continued uncritical such large classes as Lake Michigan or Upper use of the names of historic-linguistic groups, Mississippi pottery will probably be found to thereby implying direct associations between include numerous subtypes worth culture the archaeological data and the historic groups. status."*** The unraveling of this mass of, for the most During the 1930's, McKern refined and part, disjoined information eventually led to elaborated his classificatory system.^'' It be­ the professionalization of the discipline and the came known as the "Midwestern Taxonomic development of classificatory and/or explana­ Method of Classification" and was employed tory paradigms, which served to organize the to varying degrees throughout the eastern material and to indicate areas of necessary United States.*^ The system is based on the research. The contribution of McKern was the relation of trait complexes of increasing gen- Midwestern Taxonomic Method of Culture Classification, a method referred to in 1949 as "the single most constructive achievement in " "Wisconsin •Variant of Hopewell Culture," in the eastern United States during the past Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Mil­ twenty-five years in attacking the problem of waukee, volume 10, number 2; "Preliminary Report the description and classification of archae­ on the Upper Mississippi Phase in Wisconsin," in ibid., 16:164-168 (1945) ; "Review of Rediscovering ological evidence."*^ Illinois, by F-C. Cole and T. Deuel," in American McKern in the late 1920's and early 1930's Antiquity, 3:370 (1938) ; "Wisconsin Pottery," in began trying to bring together "trait com­ American Anthropologist, 33:383, 385, 386, 389; "Hopewell and Cahokia Cultures in Wisconsin," in plexes" to illustrate "basic cultures" (his later The Wisconsin Archeologist, 9:160-162 (1929). "Patterns") and to consider the "relative age" " "Certain Culture Classification Problems in Mid­ of these cultures on the basis of differential dle Western Archaeology," in Circular Series, No. 17 skeletal preservation and stratigraphy. The (Committee on State Archaeological Surveys, Division approach was definitely nontypological and of Anthropology and Psychology, National Research Council, Washington, D.C, 1934), and "The Mid­ western Taxonomic Method as an Aid to Archaeo­ logical Study," in American Antiquity, 4:301-313 '^ Carl E. Gutke, "Twenty-five Years of Archaeo­ (1939). logy in the Eastern United States," in James B. ^^ See, for example, Griffin (ed.), Archeology of Griffin (ed.). Archeology of Eastern United States Eastern United States, and Griffin, The Fort Ancient (Chicago, 1952), 1-12. Aspect.

283 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970

Decorative pottery patterns characteristic of the Oneota Aspect; Figs. 1-8, Orr patterns; 9-18, Grarui River patterns; 19-28, Lake Winnebago patterns. Re­ produced from W. C. McKern, "Premliminary Report on the Upper Mississippi Phase in 'Wisconsin," in the Bulletin of the Milwaukee Public Museum, December 13, 1945.

284 GIBBON: ONEOTA RESEARCH erality, allowing estimates of likeness to be expressed in percentage form. Components of sites bound together by a practically identical series of shared traits were combined into foci and these were related to increasingly higher order taxonomic units called aspects, phases, and patterns. These classificatory units were intended to be independent of genetic relation­ ships and spatial distributions, providing only a "descriptive correlation" of foci expressed entirely in terms of the recurring relationships of the traits themselves. Even though the ap­ proach was not intended to determine temporal and spatial relationships, McKern felt that a knowledge of the trait clusters would help re­ construct migrations and culture change, "in short, the history of prehistoric peoples." Mc­ Kern subsequently used the trait-list method to illustrate the clustering of prehistoric re­ mains in Wisconsin.*^

Y THE END of the 1930's a major theoreti­ B cal reorientation was occurring through­ out the eastern United States. This was a shift from an essentially antiquarian mound and ethnic approach to one essentially taxonomic and historically oriented, although the histori­ cal orientation remained subordinate to the taxonomic in Wisconsin. The accumulating knowledge of culture areas and trait clusters, which was primarily a result of the application of taxonomic sys­ tems, led in the 1940's to an increasing interest in the relative chronologies of the various cul­ Bureau of Ethnology, 12th Annual Report tures, their origins, and their metamorphoses. Elephant Mound in Grant County, so named The first formulations of comprehensive cul­ because its discoverers mistook an eroded part of ture histories for various regions and for the an unidentified animal form for a trunk. Its Indian builders, of course, had never seen an elephant. eastern United States in general appeared during this decade, along with a plethora of proposals for regional chronologies. tain a basic substratum of traits "firmly welded In one of the earliest of the syntheses of the to the (indigenous) traits of the various locali­ prehistory of the eastern United States, James ties."^" The upper Mississippi cultures were A. Ford and Gordon Willey suggested that the thought to have begun to evolve some time Upper Mississippi cultures may have developed prior to A.D. 1500, reaching their peaks after from a Woodland base modified in the direc­ that date. This contact and acculturation tion of the Mississippi Pattern, for they con- hypothesis was the first of three general ex­ planations that have been advanced to explain the origins of the Oneota culture. In 1945 McKern used the trait-list method " Irving Rouse, "On the Correlation of Phases of to iflustrate the clustering of traits within the Culture," in American Anthropologist, 57:713-722 Mississippian cultures in Wisconsin. McKern (1955) ; Will C. McKern and Robert E. Ritzenthaler, "Trait List of the Prehistoric Cultures of Wisconsin," used the focus as his basic unit of description, in The Wisconsin Archeologist, 26:66-79 (1945) ; because "culturally the various components of McKern, "Preliminary Report on the Upper Missis­ the given focus are identical to each other and sippi Phase in Wisconsin," in Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee, volume 16; '" James A. Ford and Gordon R. Willey, "An In­ McKern and Ritzenthaler, "The Hopewellian Peo­ terpretation of the Prehistory of the Eastern United ples," in The Wisconsin Archeologist (1946), volume States," in American Anthropologist, 43:356-357 27, numbers 1-2. (1941).

285 WISCONSIN MAG.\ZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970

of Wisconsin archaeology, although they may have been dispersed by the invading Upper Mississippi peoples eventually to become his­ toric Woodland tribes in the area. The con­ temporaneity of at least some Woodland cul­ ture at Aztalan was attested to by the presence of transitional forms between Mississippi and Woodland pottery types.^^ McKern's intrusive "more generalized Upper Mississippi culture" was the second explanation offered for the origin of the Oneota Aspect, at least in Wis­ consin. Both of these intrusive cultures, ac­ cording to McKern, were not Woodland in origin as suggested by Ford and Willey, but interaction with the indigenous Woodland peoples probably did influence their subsequent development. A third explanation of the origin of the Society's Iconographic Collections Oneota Aspect was advanced by James B. Turtle Mound on the University of Wisconsin's Griffin in a major application of the Mid­ Observatory Hill, outlined for photography about western Taxonomic System. Griffin suggested the time of World War I. that the Oneota cultural complex developed from a northern push of the Middle Mississippi to that focus."^* Consequently, provenience culture, specifically represented by the Old Village and Rock River foci. Although the and artifact variability at individual sites were Oneota cultural complex was considered a not illustrated. The Lake Winnebago, Orr, and direct outgrowth of Middle Mississippi culture, Grand River foci were identified and con­ genetic continuity in population composition sidered local expressions of the Oneota Aspect was not necessarily involved. While the Lake of the Upper Mississippi Phase. Sites in these Winnebago and Orr foci were probably related foci were concentrated in specific geographical to historic Winnebago and Chiwere Sioux, the localities: Lake Winnebago Focus sites along Grand River ceramics were sufficiently diver­ the west side of Lake Winnebago; Orr Focus gent to imply an association with another sites in the Upper Mississippi Valley; Grand linguistic stock, perhaps the Algonkian. Cera­ River Focus sites in the Upper Fox River mic traits were discussed and compared on the Valley in Green Lake and Marquette counties. focus level. Temporally, Griffin suggested a The only other expression of the Mississippian late development of the Upper Mississippi cul­ Pattern recognized in Wisconsin was Aztalan, ture at least in Ohio some time between 250- which was considered the lone component of 350 years ago.^* the Rock River Focus and the Monks Mound Aspect of the Middle Mississippi Phase. Mc­ Kern suggested that both Oneota and Aztalan had basic "southeastern" affinities and were intrusive into the northern Mississippi Valley. ==''Will C McKern, "The First Settlers of Wiscon­ The several Oneota foci were probably off­ sin," in Wisconsin Magazine of History, 26:161, 162 shoots of a more generalized Upper Mississippi (December, 1942) ; McKern, "Preliminary Report on the Upper Mississippi Phase in Wisconsin," in culture, that arrived in Wisconsin a few cen­ Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Mil­ turies before the Aztalan intrusion. The Wood­ waukee, 16:171-175; McKern and Ritzenthaler, land influence on and Siouan affiliation for the "Trait List of the Prehistoric Cultures of Wisconsin," Oneota Aspect were reiterated, but no historic in The Wisconsin Archeologist, 25:68; McKern, "Aztalan," in ibid., 27:48-49 (1946). survivors from Aztalan were recognized.^^ ^ McKern, "The First Settlers of Wisconsin," in What happened to the Effigy Mound people Wisconsin Magazine of History, 26:164; Barrett, at this time was considered a "major problem" "Ancient Aztalan," in Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee, volume 13. ^ "The Archaeological Remains of the Chiwere ^ "Preliminary Report on the Upper Mississippi Sioux," in American Antiquity, 2:180-181; The Fort Phase in Wisconsin," in Bulletin of the Public Mu­ Ancient Aspect, 207, 299-302; "Cultural Change and seum of the City of Milwaukee, volume 16, and "An Continuity in Eastern United States Archaeology," in Inaccurate Description of Midwestern Taxonomy," in Frederick Johnson (ed.), Man in Northeastern North American Antiquity, 9:445 (1944). America (Andover, Massachusetts, 1946), 90.

286 GIBBON: ONEOTA RESEARCH

Y THE END of the 1940's a fairly accurate free growing season. This boundary coincided B conception of the relative temporal posi­ with the northern limits of agriculture and tion of the major prehistoric cultures in the with the natural boundary between mixed eastern United States had emerged.^^ This was hardwood and coniferous forests. The Cambria a consequence, in large part, of taxonomic and Apple River foci of Minnesota and Illinois systems, such as the Midwestern Taxonomic showed enough "Aztalan-Cahokia characteris­ System, which provided a more objective tics integrated with Upper Mississippi traits method of expressing cultural relationships by (to suggest) Aztalan-Cahokia culture had descriptive classification. Many earlier hy­ much to do with the origin of Upper Missis­ potheses based upon inadequate information sippi in this region." Oneota was clearly later and presumed ethnological and linguistic rela­ than Aztalan-Cahokia culture "not only by the tionships were necessarily rejected. The Mid­ occurrence of Oneota characteristics, but also western Taxonomic System "helped to make by the presence of Trappist Focus material, archaeologists more critical in their use of completely absent at Aztalan, and known to terminology and more conscious of the degrees be contemporaneous in its final stages with of relationship they (were) trying to express." Oneota in Illinois."^'' Indeed, artifacts seemed However, the taxonomic system was a rather to represent a complex-to-simple relationship static approach working in an essentially flat (i.e. one of deterioration) between Middle time scale. The primary purpose of the system Mississippi and Upper Mississippi. However, was to supply more specific terminology and not all groups recognized as Upper Mississippi not to help solve the major problems of the necessarily descended from a Middle Missis­ archaeologist. The emphasis of the system sippi base, for some were undoubtedly Wood­ often had the effect of producing reports land in origin {e.g. Fort Ancient and Iro­ oriented toward the composition of detailed quoian). Alternatively, the Oneota foci may trait lists, usually lacking quantitative in­ have evolved from an earlier generalized formation. It was this emphasis on methods Mississippi base before the Aztalan intrusion. and techniques, rather than on cultural recon­ The only new excavations in Wisconsin related structions, cultural dynamics, or at least defin­ to this problem "raised more questions than it ite problem orientations, that critics of the answered," for pottery typical of the Orr Focus discipline regretted.^^ and Middle Mississippi, as well as pots com­ The conception of the Grand River Focus bining traits of both, were found in apparent that emerged at the end of this period of con­ association in an effigy mound at the Diamond ceptual integration was that of an essentially Bluff Mound group in Pierce County, Wis­ aberrant Oneota focus showing some traces of consin, along the Mississippi River.^* Middle Mississippi influence. According to one McKern used the taxonomic system as a interpretation this focus, like the other Oneota basis to help construct trait lists from which foci in Wisconsin, had probably evolved dur­ ing the fifteenth or sixteenth century from a Middle Mississippi expansion that had halted •" McKern, "The First Settlers of Wisconsin," in near the boundary of the 100-120 day frost- Wisconsin Magazine of History, 26:160; George L. Pasco and Will C McKern, "A Unique Copper Speci­ men," in The Wisconsin Archeologist, 28:72-75 (1947); John W. Bennett, "The Prehistory of the Northern Mississippi Valley," in Griffin (ed.). ^ See, for example, Griffin (ed.). Archeology of Archeology of Eastern United States, 119-121, 123. Eastern United States. ''^ Griffin, "Cultural Change and Continuity in ^ Robert L. Hall, The Archeology of Carcajou Eastern United States Archaeology," in Johnson Point (Madison, 1962), 102; Will C McKern, "The (ed.), Man in Northeastern North America, and Purpose and Value of Trait Lists," in The Wisconsin "Culture Periods in Eastern United States Archeo­ Archeologist, 31:72 (1950); Julian H. Steward and logy," in Griffin (ed.), Archeology of Eastern Unit­ Frank M. Setzler, "Function and Configuration in ed States, 361-364; McKern, "The First Settlers of Archaeology," in American Antiquity, 4:4—10 (1938) ; Wisconsin," in Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol­ Walter W. Taylor, "A Study of Archeology," in ume 26, and "Preliminary Report on the Upper Mis­ American Anthropological Association, Memoir No. sissippi Phase in Wisconsin," in Bulletin of the 69 (Menasha, 1948), 45-94; David A. Baerreis, Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee, volume 16; "Some Comments on Trait Lists and the Hopewellian Moreau S. Maxwell, "A Change in the Interpreta­ Cultures," in The Wisconsin Archeologist, 30:65-73 tion of Wisconsin's Prehistory," in Wisconsin Maga­ (1949). zine of History, 33:427-443 (June, 1950).

287 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 persistent tradition in archaeology during the first three or four decades of this century that the presence of pottery in any culture was evidence for an agricultural base or at least the use of cultigens. In an early paper McKern had stated that "from the close association of pottery and agriculture in America, we may assume that the Effigy Mound culture included a certain knowledge of agriculture."^" For several additional reasons, such as temporal placement, the relationship of the Effigy Mound culture and agriculture eventually became fair­ ly well accepted, even though some archaeolo­ gists (including McKern) thought that a hunting-gathering base was possible.^* Effigy Mound culture may have persisted into historic Society's Iconographic Collections times in Wisconsin, where it became Meno­ Railroad construction workers in 1904 standing in minee, Potawatomi, Sauk and Fox, and other front of an Indian mound seriously damaged by Woodland groups (e.g. the Keshena Focus) .^^ curiosity seekers. Although there was a growing awareness of cultural contexts could be composed. Under time depth, there was a technical inability to broad cultural categories, such as Community measure absolute temporal placements Life, Economic Life, Burial Customs, and throughout most of the eastern United States. Artifacts, the life-way of the prehistoric peoples was summarily depicted. A reconstruction of the prehistoric cultures of Wisconsin began to emerge. The Upper Mississippi peoples, at ^ McKern and Ritzenthaler, "The Upper Mississip­ pi Peoples," in The Wisconsin Archeologist, 27:10 least in Wisconsin, probably lived a semi- (1946), and "The Middle Mississippi Peoples," in sedentary or sedentary existence in good-sized, ibid., 27:25 (1946) ; BenneU, "The Prehistory of the fairly permanent villages built on high river Northern Mississippi Valley," in Griffin (ed.), Archeology of Eastern United States, 122; Maxwell, or lake beaches. They subsisted on corn-bean- "A Change in the Interpretation of Wisconsin's Pre­ squash agriculture and an equal amount of history," in Wisconsin Magazine of History, 33:436 (June, 1950) ; McKern and Ritzenthaler, "Trait List food collected through hunting and wild food of the Effigy Mound Aspect," in The Wisconsin gathering. The eastern groups may have used Archeologist, 26:40 (1945); see Fig. 205 in Griffin perishable "pole and bark houses." In con­ (ed.). Archeology of Eastern United States. '"" See, for example, Frank M. Setzler, "Archeologi­ trast. Middle Mississippi people lived in per­ cal Perspectives in the Northern Mississippi Valley," manent, planned villages containing fairly in Essays in History Anthropology of North America, permanent houses made of wattle and daub Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections (Washington, D.C, 1940), 100:254. McKern, "The Kletzien and and flat-topped pyramidal mounds with tem­ Nitschke Mound Groups," in Bulletin of the Public ples on top. Log stockades surrounded the Museum of the City of Milwaukee, 3:460. settlement. Gardening was more intensive, al­ '''^ Warren L. Wittry, "Archeological Studies of Four Wisconsin Rockshelters," in The Wisconsin Archeolo­ though hunting and wild-food gathering were gist, 40:260 (1959) ; McKern, "Aztalan," in ibid., important activities. The Woodland Effigy 27:44 (1946) ; Maxwell, "A Change in the Inter­ pretation of Wisconsin's Prehistory," in Wisconsin Mound peoples lived a semisedentary existence Magazine of History, 33:434 (June, 1950); Rowe, in small villages ("as evidenced by thin, scat­ "The Effigy Mound Culture of Wisconsin," in Mil­ tered deposits"). The houses were also prob­ waukee Public Museum Publications in Anthropo­ logy, No. 3, p. 90; Bradley Blake, "Portage County ably perishable "pole and bark" structures. Site Report," in The Wisconsin Archeologist, 42:57- Hunting, fishing, and gathering of wild foods 76 (1961). were more important than gardening. The ^^ McKern, "Aztalan," in The Wisconsin Archeolo­ gist, 27:48 (1946); Robert E. Ritzenthaler, "Tie-ups Effigy Mound culture was now regarded as Between Prehistoric Cultures and Historic Indian earlier than Oneota.^^ Tribes in Wisconsin," in ibid., 30:36-38 (1949) ; Ben­ nett, "The Prehistory of the Northern Mississippi Although there was no direct evidence for Valley," in Griffin (ed.), Archeology of Eastern Unit­ agriculture in Effigy Mound sites, there was a ed States, 114.

288 GIBBON: ONEOTA RESEARCH The Midwestern Taxonomic System provided ture occurred during this period as opposed a flat system of descriptive correlations, but it to the preceding Middle Mississippi phase could not properly or logically express tem­ climax, which is represented in Wisconsin at poral or genetic relationships. The lack of a Aztalan. These Middle Mississippi cultures firm chronological framework necessarily perforce: relegated many hypotheses concerning pre­ shifted away from a marked dependence on historic cultural developments and processes agriculture to a heavier emphasis on hunt­ to the realm of untestable speculations. Con­ ing, and (experienced) a marked drop in ceptions of temporal relationships shifted free­ cultural level. This period of gradual decline ly, depending on the charisma of the authority can now be clearly seen as occurring in the in question and on the particular theory of A.D. 1300 to 1650 time period.^s cultural development espoused. According to this hypothesis, the Oneota socio­ economic pattern developed directly from an HIS INELUDIBLE SITUATION was pro­ expanding Middle Mississippi culture which foundly modified in the 1950's by the T was subjected to increasing climatic change in refinement and application of the radiocarbon its northernmost outposts. As the cultural pat­ dating method, a method which could be terns of these northern complexes adjusted to applied anywhere in the world to produce a mixed hunting-gathering-agricultural sub­ assessments of absolute ages. The radiocarbon sistence base, the cultural characteristics which dating method provided the means to establish are now recognized as typifying Oneota the firm chronological framework that was emerged. essential to the understanding of the processes The initial classificatory systems applied in and dynamics involved in the development of the Plains area were based on relative chro­ prehistoric cultures. The ability to measure nologies and presumed genetic relationships. absolute ages was a "vital factor in crystalliz­ Many of the terms used, such as "phase" and ing ideas concerning prehistoric cultural devel­ "tradition," reflected this emphasis on change opments," leading to major revisions of the through time, although some terms of the previous estimates of temporal spans and rela­ static Midwestern Taxonomic System were tionships and a growing interest in cultural also employed. The introduction of absolute processes and ecology throughout the eastern chronologies through the Carbon-14 dating United States."^ method provided important new insights into On the basis of a growing though still patchy the development of Oneota and a sound base chronological framework, Griffin elaborated for the expansion of classificatory systems his earlier hypothesis. The Oneota cultural using a terminology expressing movement and complex was conceived of as a development change through time. These new insights were stemming from a northern expansion of the reflected in a reclassification of Oneota com­ Middle Mississippi culture, specifically from ponents primarily through the efforts of Plains the Old Village complex in the area of East area archaeologists, which eventually led to a St. Louis, Illinois, during a relatively warm decrease in the use of most of the static terms period between A.D. 700-1200. A marked inherent in the Midwestern Taxonomic System. climatic change, which began in approximately Waldo R. Wedel, Mildred Mott Wedel, Carl H. A.D. 1300, produced a relatively cool period Chapman, Robert T. Bray, Dale R. Henning, that was extreme enough, Griffin argued, to affect the horticultural practices on which the northern-most aboriginal cultures of the ^ James B. Griffin, "A Hypothesis for the Pre­ Mississippian Pattern were partially based.^* history of the Winnebago," in Stanley Diamond (ed.). Griffin suggested that a deterioration of cul- Culture in History: Essays in Honor of Paul Radin (New York, I960), 809-865, and "Some Correlations of Climatic and Cultural Change in Eastern North American Prehistory," in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (New York, 1961), 95:710-717. "^ Griffin, "Some Correlations of Climatic £md "^ Frederick Johnson, "A Quarter Century Growth Cultural Change in Eastern North American Pre­ in American Archaeology," in American Antiquity, history," in Annals of the New York Academy of 27:5 (1961). Sciences, 710-712.

289 WISCONSIN MAG-4ZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970

(e.g. Lasley's Point) .^^ The Classic horizon was represented by the "typical" Oneota foci, such as the Orr Focus sites along the Upper Iowa River in northeastern Iowa, Correction- ville in western Iowa, Leary in Nebraska, Humphrey in Minnesota, and most of the Lake Winnebago Focus components in Wisconsin.*" Robert L. Hall's excavations in 1957 at the Carcajou Point site on the shores of Lake Koshkonong in southern Wisconsin em­ phasized an increasing interest in settlement ./•;/* patterns among state archaeologists. Nearly all of the sites excavated in Wisconsin during the first half of the twentieth century had been mounds, and the nature of houses and village HaU, Archeology of Carcajou Point plans were left unanswered. The earliest com­ Late Woodland pot with cord-impressed decora­ ponent at the Carcajou Point site, like those tion, found in refuse pit on the Schultz farm in Green Lake County. in the Grand River Focus, appeared in a fully developed state. Therefore, "internal evidence at the site itself (Carcajou Point) does not and Robert L. Hall agreed at a conference suggest whether the mixture (of Middle and held in December, 1960, in Columbia, Mis­ Upper Mississippi traits) is the result of a souri, tentatively at least, to regard Oneota as contact situation or of an Upper Mississippi a tradition. The magnitude of the tradition, culture emerging from an Old Village base."** as conceived by these scholars, was somewhat Hall had suggested at one time an independent greater than that of the Oneota Aspect. Emer­ development for the Grand River Focus, for gent, Developmental, and Classic horizons "it seems quite possible that the colonization were delineated within the tradition, with the at Aztalan marks the introduction of Missis­ majority of the previously described Oneota sippi culture to Wisconsin, but that there are complexes corresponding to the Classic hori- antecedents for one variety of Mississippi zon.^^ Continuity within the tradition was pottery within an earlier horizon."*^ However, established in the area of ceramics, for "out­ in his major report he included both Grand side of ceramics there are few culture traits River and the closely related Koshkonong which are both diagnostic of Oneota and found Focus in early Oneota horizons emerging from only in Oneota complexes."^'' an Old Village, Rock River Focus Aztalan-like The Emergent Oneota horizon included the early half of a newly identified Koshkonong Focus in Wisconsin and possibly the later "" Lloyd A. Wilford, "A Revised Classification of Apple River components in Illinois.^^ Sites in the Prehistoric Cultures of Minnesota," in American the Developmental horizon included the Bart- Antiquity, 21:130-142 (1955) ; Hall, The Archeology of Carcajou Point, 107. ron component of the Blue Earth Focus in •*" Wedel, "Oneota Sites on the Upper Iowa River," Minnesota, certain components of the Grand in Missouri Archeologist, volume 21; Mildred Mott, River Focus, the late occupation at Carcajou "The Relation of Historic Indian Tribes to Archaeo­ logical Manifestations in Iowa," in Iowa Journal of Point of the Koshkonong Focus, and probably History and Politics, 36:227-314 (1938); A. J. Hill some early Lake Winnebago Focus components and Waldo R. Wedel, "Excavations at the Leary Indian Village and Burial Site, Richardson County, Nebraska," in Nebraska History, 17:2-73 (1936) ; Lloyd A. Wilford, "Three Village Sites of the Mis­ "° Reported in Hall, The Archeology of Carcajou sissippi Pattern in Minnesota," in American Anti­ Point. quity, 7:32^0 (1945) ; Hall, The Archeology of "' Ibid., 108. A similar comment is made by Mildred Carcajou Point. Mott Wedel in "Oneota Sites on the Upper Iowa " Hall, "Commentary on Carcajou Carbon-14 River," in Missouri Archeologist, 21:111 (1959). Dates," in The Wisconsin Archeologist, 39:174—175 ^^ Hall, The Archeology of Carcajou Point; John (1958). W. Bennett, Archaeological Explorations in Jo Da­ '"Ibid., 175; also see Hall's The Archeology of Car­ viess County, Illinois (Chicago, 1945). cajou Point, 105,

290 GIBBON: ONEOTA RESEARCH

Middle Mississippi base, that eventually devel­ of American anthropology and science in gen­ oped into Classic Oneota cultures. Aztalan, the eral. The perception and evaluation of data Apple River Focus in Illinois, and the Silver- during this gradual conceptual transformation nale Focus in Minnesota were all considered have expanded to accommodate new ecologi­ as possible antecedents.*' Evidence for at least cally oriented problems. An increase in inter­ rectangular Wall Trench and "gabled bark disciplinary approaches, "conjunctive" studies summer" houses was found at Carcajou Point. attempting to ascertain the integration of sys­ Hall proposed the first formal Oneota pot­ tems (e.g. settlements), and processual studies tery types for eastern Wisconsin, suggesting attempting to trace out and explain structural that these types reached their standardized similarities and differences are an expression form as early as A.D. 1000. Three radiocarbon of this transition in emphasis. In association dates A.D. 998 =t 250, A.D. 1028 ± 250, A.D. with these trends has come a gradual aware­ 1528 ± 250) from the Carcajou Point site ness of the complexity of the cultural units indicated an age of ca. A.D. 1000 for the early studied. As settlements have become increas­ component and a possible late date for later ingly viewed as "complex adaptive systems," manifestations. Although Hall suggested that the kinds of questions directing research and "an accurate date from (Aztalan) should come the kinds of explanations offered to answer close to marking the beginning of the period them have shifted too. of Mississippi intrusion in Wisconsin and the Pursuing these trends, D. A. Baerreis and northern Mississippi Valley," Ritzenthaler esti­ R. Bryson of the University of Wisconsin mated an age of A.D. 1200 for the arrival of initiated an ecologically oriented research pro­ Middle Mississippi in Wisconsin and Griffin gram firmly committed to establishing a sound an A.D. 1200-1250 age.** The early Carcajou chronological framework for Mississippian Point dates were two centuries earlier than sites in the state. Earlier Baerreis had ques­ these estimates and even earlier than the cli­ tioned Griffin's hypothesis that Oneota had matic change that purportedly precipitated the emerged in Wisconsin in response to a climatic Oneota emergence. deterioration, for the radiocarbon dates from Carcajou Point indicated the establishment of URING THE LATE 1950's and the 1960's the Oneota pattern of mixed agriculture and D eastern United States archaeologists have hunting at least by A.D. 1000. The hypothe­ increasingly focused on the organization of a sized deterioration in culture was also ques­ settlement and its dynamics in response to the tioned, for the climatic shift would probably triggering effects of changes in its cultural and "have reinforced prairie growth and thus in natural environment.*' This increasing em­ turn reinforced the classic Oneota economy."*® phasis is in part a natural result of a growing The large size reported for some of the Oneota control over temporal and spatial dimensions, sites seemed to support this view. and in part a reflection of trends in the growth In response to these queries the research program for Wisconsin was designed to estab­ lish the size and homogeneity of the sites ex­ cavated, as well as the pattern of subsistence *°Hall, The Archeology of Carcajou Point, Plate 83, and p. 120. and general level of sociocultural integration. "Ibid., 109, 85-86, 115; Ritzenthaler, "Prehistoric This research program in conjunction with Indians of Wisconsin," in Popular Science Handbook Series, No. 4, p. 29; Griffin, "A Hypothesis for the others in the Midwest has contributed sub­ Prehistory of the Winnebago," in Diamond (ed.). stantially to our understanding of the sub­ Culture in History, 853. sistence patterns and temporal placements of '° See, for example, Joseph R. Caldwell, "Trend and Tradition in the Prehistory of the Eastern United States," in American Anthropological Association, Memoir No. 88 (Menasha, 1958) ; Lewis R. Binford, "Archaeology as Anthropology," in American Anti­ " David A. Baerreis and Reid Bryson, "Climatic quity, 28:217-225 (1962), and "A Consideration of Episodes and the Dating of Mississippian Cultures," Archaeological Research Design," in ibid., 29:425- in The Wisconsin Archeologist, 46:203-220 (1965) ; 441; Kwang-chih Chang, Rethinking Archaeology Baerreis, "Climatic Interpretations and the Mississip­ (New York, 1967) ; Sally R. Binford and Lewis R. pian Cultures in Wisconsin" (Unpublished manu­ Binford (eds.), New Perspectives in Archeology script on file in the Department of Anthropology, (Chicago, 1968), University of Wisconsin, Madison, (1963), 15,

291 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970

1200. Earlier Evolving Oneota complexes, such as Carcajou Point, apparently possessed a pre­ dominantly agricultural base similar to that of Aztalan and Cahokia. Although climatic change may have initiated the shift in eco­ nomy, the appearance of the several Oneota foci may have been "the result of several dis­ tinct regional adaptations to ecological situa­ tions which share a limited potential for agriculture." The stimulus to change was an adaptation to diverse environmental settings within an area not capable of supporting in­ tensive agricultural economies. This argument is supported by a distributional study of the five Oneota foci in Wisconsin. For example, Milwaukee Public Museum the Grand River Focus is confined primarily Milwaukee Public Museum personnel at work on to an area ecologically transitional between the Clam River Mound in Burnett County. grasslands and woodlands in the rolling hills of the eastern Central Plains, while the Kosh­ Mississippian cultures in Wisconsin. Radio­ konong Focus is located in the prairie area carbon dates have determined periods of oc­ of the southern Eastern Ridges and Lowlands cupation for portions of the Lasley's Point site province. On the Door Peninsula a newly (A.D. 1000-1250), the Walker-Hooper site described series of Oneota components may (A.D. 1200-1250), the Midway site (A.D. represent a new focus adapted to the exploita­ 1400-1600), Aztalan (A.D. 1100-1300), and tion of the rich aquatic resources of Green Bay the Grand River-like Pipe site (ca. A.D. 1100). and Lake Michigan.*' New radiocarbon dates reaffirmed the ca. A.D. 1000 habitation of the early Carcajou Point N the preceding paragraphs an attempt has component. Outside of Wisconsin a long series been made to trace briefly the historical suc­ of radiocarbon dates for the Cahokia area I cession of views and issues characterizing the suggested that the occupation of the American development of archaeological thinking in Bottoms by Mississippian peoples began about Wisconsin regarding the Oneota, a late pre- A.D. 800. In addition to these dates radiocar­ bon determinations were established for re­ lated sites in a number of states, including Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri. Baer­ " Melvin L. Fowler, "Radiocarbon Assays," in First reis and Bryson have suggested that Oneota Annual Report: American Bottoms Archaeology, may have emerged as early as A.D. 800. Clear­ July 1, 1961-June 30, 1962 (Urbana, 1963), 49-57; ly, then, the Oneota socioeconomic pattern was Baerreis and Bryson, "Climatic Episodes and the Dating of the Mississippian Cultures," in The Wis­ not a devolution from a Middle Mississippi consin Archeologist, volume 46 (1965) ; Ronald J. base in response to a deterioration in climate Mason, "Two Stratified Sites on the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin," in Anthropological Papers of the beginning in the ca. A.D. 1200-1300 time Museum of Anthropology, No. 26 (Ann Arbor, 1966), period. Although there has been no pottery 194; C E. Cleland, "The Prehistoric Animal Ecology found in Wisconsin demonstrably transitional and Ethnozoology of the Upper Great Lakes Region," in ibid.. No. 29, pp. 80-88; Robert L. Hall, "The to Upper Mississippi from Middle Mississippi, Mississippian Heartland and Its Plains Relation­ an Old Village origin for Oneota is still gen­ ships," in Plains Anthropologist, 12:175-183 (1967). erally accepted.*'^ '" Cleland, "The Prehistoric Animal Ecology and Ethnozoology of the Upper Great Lakes Region," in Charles E. Cleland, in a major study of the Anthropological Papers of the Museum of Anthro­ prehistoric animal ecology and ethnozoology pology, No. 29, pp. 83, 84, 87; Joan E. Freeman, "Analysis of the Point Sauble and Beaumier Farm of the Upper Great Lakes region, argued on the Sites" (Unpublished Master's Thesis, University of basis of fauna analyses, that the appearance of Wisconsin, Madison, 1956) ; Mason, "Two Stratified the Oneota mixed agriculture-hunting sub­ Sites on the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin," in An­ thropological Papers of the Museum of Anthropology, sistence base itself did not evolve until ca. A.D. No. 26.

292 GIBBON: ONEOTA RESEARCH historic food-producing people. The basic biological, and physical worlds. In large part premise has been that archaeologists must be this has been the result of the increasing use conscious of the intellectual history of their of the culture concept as a descriptive and discipline and sensitive to the preconceptions explanatory hypothesis by the archaeologist. of their predecessors, for substantive products Formerly there was a tendency to consider of earlier conceptual systems are still integral sites as though they were isolated units, and parts of our present fund of knowledge. The overwhelming emphasis was placed on innova­ problem-orientations, biases, and conceptual tion of a technical rather than of a societal schemes of the earlier archaeologists strongly nature. However, attention has been shifting influenced their field techniques, modes of to such topics as community patterns, the analysis and explanation, and interpretations. interconnection between the internal organiza­ Networks of explanatory and predictive hy­ tion of groups and their social surroundings, potheses with functionally related terminolo­ demographic trends, changes in land-use sys­ gies have been successively developed. The use tems, the sociological implication of archaeo­ of some part of these terminologies and some logical materials, and the functional analysis of the conclusions drawn is hazardous without of "complex adaptive systems." The appear­ reference to their context within specific con­ ance of new conceptual models, such as ceptual schemes, for the networks within which that based on variations in types of settlement- they developed are now usually no longer valid subsistence patterns of prehistoric peoples, has as models of the past. Their use would be less led to the discovery of new kinds of data and hazardous if there was a delimited set of facts to new classificatory systems. Formal and with which archaeologists dealt. But a discip­ analytical constructs such as systems and rela­ line such as archaeology is not based on having tional features are now becoming the primary its own separate "chunk of reality" with which units of study. Archaeology in this stage of its it deals. Archaeology has, rather, its own set development is turning to questions of greater of distinct questions or problems.*^ It is the generality, as well as becoming aware that a set of problems considered relevant at a par­ wider degree of differentiation among theories ticular stage of a discipline's development that than now exists is a necessary condition for primarily determines the methods of analysis, the further maturation of the discipline. There kinds of data sought, and modes of interpreta­ has been much progress in techniques of tion and explanation offered. As problem- description and classification, but actually orientations change with the development of little in model-building. Much of archaeology the discipline, the terminology and interpreta­ still consists of generalized descriptive orienta­ tions of earlier conceptual models of the past tions toward data, rather than clear statements must be critically re-examined before their of relationships between specified variables inclusion within the context of present net­ put into a testable form. works of explanatory and predictive hy­ potheses.^"

The development of archaeology in the state ••"Karl R. Popper, Conjectures and Refutations: has been briefly traced from a natural history The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (New York, stage of inquiry having a primary emphasis 1965), 66-67, and his discussion of "essentialism" in The Open Society and Its Enemies (London, on observation, description, and classification 1945). to a stage of deductively formulated theory. ™• The evolution and change of the conceptual This may be seen in the transition from a apparatus of a discipline can be used as an index of the development of that discipline. Also of interest primary concern for classification and the here is Joseph Caldwell's statement, "Our questions isolation of diagnostic traits to a focus on depend on the stage of progress of archaeology and upon the interests of the investigator." "The New organization and process and their dynamics American Archaeology," in Joseph Caldwell (ed.), based on the triggering effects of the social. New Roads to Yesterday (New York, 1966).

293 MILWAUKEE IN 1836 AND 1849: A CONTEMPORARY DESCRIPTION

EDITED BY BAYRD STILL

"V/flLWAUKEE was a product of the mania the rage." As elsewhere in the West, the specu­ -•-"-•- for townsite speculation that possessed lative mania mounted to a peak in the first half the American nation and especially the newly of 1836. By mid-1837, however, as depression developing West in the middle 1830's. Hardly set in, it was apparent that town making in ad­ was the region at the mouth of the Milwaukee vance of a developed hinterland was like cast­ River ceded by the Menominee Indians, in the ing seeds on unworked soil. According to the early 1830's, when the attractiveness of the reminiscences of a contemporary, many a city river for millsites was reported, and town lot for which $500 or $1,000 had been paid in makers began to focus on the wide bay at the 1836 was traded a year later for a barrel of confluence of lake and river as the site of a po­ flour to avoid starvation.^ tential metropolis. Prominent among these pro­ By the early 1840's, the nation and the West moters were Morgan L. Martin of Green Bay, were recovering from the panic and depression who in 1833 associated himself for townsite that townsite speculation had helped to trigger, speculation with Solomon Juneau, a resident and firmer foundations were being laid for the trader of French-Canadian background, and realization of Milwaukee's earlier predicted Byron Kilbourn, a young Ohio engineer whose potential. The settlement of its hinterland, as activities as a surveyor permitted him to keep well as the increase of population within the an eye out for desirable townsite locations. lakeshore community itself, encouraged mer­ Even before the government offered the land chandising and outfitting, money lending to for sale, late in July, 1835, at the Green Bay facilitate the purchase of land and shipment of land office (where Juneau purchased what is goods, and commerce in the produce of the now the heart of Milwaukee's business district for $165.82), potential buyers were making deals with the trader-promoter for the ultimate purchase of lots he had laid out early in the ' For fuller detail on these developments, see Bayrd year. By September, 1835, according to the Still, Milwaukee: The History of a City (State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, 1948, Green Bay Intelligencer, "Milwauky" was "all 1965), chapter 1.

294 STILL: MILWAUKEE IN 1836 AND 1849

hinterland, sometimes processed for export to the cholera was in the city; and it did not take the East. In 1846, after nine years of village long to learn, that whatever the case might be, organization, the territorial legislature ap­ the public health was much better than in the proved a new charter which gave Milwaukee city I had left .... the status of a city.^ I had not been in Milwaukie for more than A description of the young city and its rural twelve years. At that time it was between two hinterland, which appeared in the September, and three years old; and in the estimation of 1849 issue of the Prairie Farmer (IX: holders of lots, already a magnificent city. It 288-289), contrasts Milwaukee in the hectic was certainly a city of magnificent prices. My days of townsite speculation with the substan­ freshest recollections of it at that time, relate to tial, if still business-preoccupied city it had be­ sundry half finished buildings; and to very come, fortified by a prospering hinterland, dirty and whiskey perfumed taverns: whose thirteen years later. The author is Chicagoan bar-rooms were beleaguered with a score of tall J. Ambrose Wight, one of the editors of the Yankees, who had exchanged the useful pro­ Prairie FarmerJ^ Wight first saw Milwaukee in fessions of peddling tin ware and driving 1836; he visited it again in August, 1849, on stages, for that of speculating in western lands. his way to the village of Oak Creek, ten miles Their principal operations at this time, were south of the city. He seemed to regard Milwau­ in exchanging a gold watch chain, or diamond kee as more healthful than Chicago, which was breast pin, for a lot in Sheboygan; or, a lot in then in the throes of a cholera epidemic, and Manitowoc, for one in Wisconsin city, or vice pleasanter in appearance, even though the "ab­ versa; for it made no difference which way the sorbing nature of business" there, as in other trade ran, only so that at each turn a hundred western towns, gave him the impression that dollars, or thereabouts, were added to the price Milwaukeeans were more concerned with "pro­ of the property sold. A few months put an end curing" property than "embellishing" it. By to their trade, and froze them and their water implication he concluded that farms to the west lots all in one solid cake of ice; to be thawed and rails to the east were essential to Milwau­ out by the lapse of seasons, or the heat of the kee's continued growth. bankrupt fires. Milwaukie is a different place to-day; a city of sixteen or eighteen thousand people.* It is a finer place to look at than our own metropolis Milwaukie [August, 1849]. In coming here [Chicago]. It has its low and its high grounds, [to Oak Creek], I passed through the Wisconsin and its open woods in the outskirts; affording metropolis, Milwaukie, and employed what lit­ that which always pleases—variety. Its grounds tle leisure I could command in looking about. are dry. They are not only dry now, but their My first curiosity was to discover how severe make shows that they cannot be otherwise, even in the lowest parts of the city. The original foundation of those parts is a swamp; but the hills of beautiful gravel all about in proximity, '^Ibid., 34-37, 52-69, 105-106. afford a filling up not to be excelled. This gravel •' J. Ambrose Wight arrived in Chicago from Bur­ lington, Vermont, in September, 1836. He worked consists of loam with coarse stones, strongly successively as a surveyor on the Illinois-Michigan impregnated with iron; and makes a street or Canal, as a merchant, and as a newspaper editor in Rockford, Illinois, until May, 1843, when he became sidewalk that packs hard like a rock.—It is associated with the Prairie Farmer. This magazine barren for a soil, but for a subsoil is un­ had been established in January, 1843, when Chi­ equalled. Such beds of gravel in the neighbor­ cago promoter John S. Wright merged the Union Agriculturist (1839) and the Western Prairie Farmer hood of Chicago would be worth more to her (1841). Wight soon took oyer the active editorship, than a coal mine. . . . while Wright directed the business affairs of the magazine and wrote an occasional article. Wight Milwaukie presents a fine appearance as a carried the editorial responsibilities until 1856 when he entered the ministry as a Presbyterian city mis­ sionary and pastor. A. T. Andreas, History of Chi­ cago from the Earliest Period to the Present Time (3 vols., Chicago, 1884-1886), 1:314-315, 396; Dic­ * The Census of 1850 reported Milwaukee's popu­ tionary of American Biography, XX:557. lation as 20,061, Chicago's as 29,963.

295 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970

m

.Societ\-'s Iconographic Collections Viett; of Milwaukee about 1850. new town, from the fact that so many of her think a Horticultural Society could be sus­ buildings are constructed of brick. These have tained here at present. In a city new as Milwau­ been often described. They are of a dull drab kie, all this is not strange. There is not only a color, very hard and perfect in make, and have forgetfulness of the whole subject, growing out a softened and soothing effect to the eye.^ That of the absorbing nature of business in western fierce, fiery glare, enough to give the beholder towns, and the rapid rise of property, which a fever in a hot day, common to brick build­ inclines men to think more of procuring than ings, is wanting. of embellishing it; but the ground itself is much I took some pains to discover the state of of it entirely new, and consequently barren— horticulture. The outskirts of the town are neither trees nor vegetables being inclined to fifled with pleasant residences displaying a fair grow in it. I would recommend, nevertheless; amount of architectural taste; but there is gen­ as the surest way to make the city attractive, erally a woful [sic] dearth of trees, both in and therefore to enhance the value of property; the streets and yards of the inhabitants. Now to set out trees in the streets and in the lots; and then, a few locusts, waved their green to fill the yards and gardens with fruit, shrubs, branches before the doors and windows of a and flowers; to set vines at clambering over the dwelling, but they were doubly beautiful from corners of buildings, and up the columns of their variety. As to flower or fruit gardens, or verandahs—and in fine to make the town glow shrubbery of any sort, I was told the city af­ with fragrance and verdure.*^ The man greedy forded some, but was not lucky enough to make discovery of any, worth remembering. I do not

° This advice was in line with the belief, prevalent in the 1840's and 1850's, that the introduction into ' Brickmaking was one of Milwaukee's earliest in­ the city of rustic features such as trees, orchards, dustries. The cream color of the brick led to the flowers, and vines would help offset the evils of city identification of Milwaukee as the "Cream City." life.

296 STILL: MILWAUKEE IN 1836 AND 1849

for dollars may think this of small account, but cabins having given way to neat framed and he is mistaken. The purchaser of property will painted houses, and the sheds . . . have long look at these things, or for them, whatever the since grown into spacious barns. . . . seller may do; and embellishments which never The inhabitants of these woods, comprising a cost him ten dollars, may enable him to realize part of the counties of Racine and Milwaukie five hundred in a sale. Men pay for nothing so are, to a great extent, Irish and German im­ freely as the gratification of their fancies. migrants; though there are neighborhoods of I noticed also very few gardens of vegeta­ American born and English people. ... In bles; and was told that nearly all these were speaking of Milwaukie as a market, I omitted brought from the country. I believe it is a fact, to mention, that for fuel it is much inferior to that for some reason, Milwaukie has always Chicago. Wood only brings from $1.50 to $2 afforded the best local market of any lake town. per cord there, while with us it sells for $3 to I believe it would be found, that she has invari­ $4 in summer, and $3.50 to $6 in winter. The ably paid higher prices for articles for her own transportation of fuel from these forests to consumption, than any of her sisters. I say for Chicago is thus becoming a considerable busi­ some reason—I do not suppose the reason dif­ ness. ... A railroad will certainly be construc­ ficult to discover. She is surrounded by a tim­ ted from [Chicago] ... to Milwaukie within a ber region, on all sides, to the extent of twenty few years. It is her (Milwaukie's) only chance miles and more, rendering her difficult of ac­ for that sort of communication with the great cess, to the dwellers on prairie lands. We all East; and she will discover it just as soon as know the delay in getting forward crops in a Chicago has any certain prospect of finishing timber region, as compared with one of prairie. her roads Eastward. . . . Milwaukie will never Hence the supply for her daily wants has al­ depend on water communication, which is al­ ways been limited. At the same time the enor­ ways interrupted five months in the year, while mous rush of immigration, three-fourths of her great neighbor is enjoying that of rail­ which for the whole state of Wisconsin has al­ roads. Besides, the towns of Racine, Southport, ways poured through this town, and her extra­ and Waukegan will all demand it. A railroad ordinary growth have made her wants sharp parallel with this shore is therefore among the and urgent. The farmer in the woods of her certainties of the coming few years.'' When it vicinity, has always been sure of a market and is made we shall reckon it one of the signs of a good price for whatever he might have to sell; the "good time coming," of which we read so and though it cost him more labor to get ready much in transcendental history. Railroad build­ his products than his neighbor on the prairie, ing has just commenced in the Western coun­ and though the amount might be less, yet his try. They are to form a net work all over it. crops have been surer, and his proximity to Who doubts? ... J. A. W. market enabled him to realize the full profit of them. I doubt if a more successful class of farm­ ers can be found, within ten or fifteen miles of ' Chicago's first railroad, the Galena and Chicago Union, became operative in October, 1848, but con­ any western city of the same age, than inhabit nections between Chicago and the East were not the woods about Milwaukie. achieved until a conflict between the Michigan Cen­ tral and the Michigan Southern over access to the The . . . tract of country lying on the western city was resolved in 1852. The Michigan Southern shore of Lake Michigan, commencing near brought the first train in over the Rock Island tracks Racine or somewhere between that and South- on February 20, 1852, and the Michigan Central sent its first train in on May 22, 1852. Milwaukee's port [Kenosha], and extending northward of first railroad, the Milwaukee and Waukesha, was Milwaukie fifteen miles . . . being in width, completed to Waukesha by February 25, 1851; and a lakeshore road, the Green Bay, Milwaukee, and fifteen miles, and frequently more . . . was solid Chicago (or Lake Shore Railroad) was chartered forest [fifteen years ago]. . . .Yet, thirteen years shortly thereafter. By 1855 rail connections linked since, when I first saw it, the settlers were dot­ Milwaukee and Chicago. Bessie L. Pierce, A History of Chicago (3 vols., New York, 1937-1957), 11:35, ting the woods in all directions with little clear­ 57; Still, Milwaukee, 171; WilHam F. Raney, Wis­ ings.—These clearings are now farms; the log consin: A Story of Progress (New York, 1940), 184.

297 REVIEWS

STATE AND REGIONAL near the old Butte des Morts, and from the remnants of the Winnebago at the Dells. Hear it and weep for the sorrows of our red brothers. Hear it in the despoiled woodlands, and in the This Is Wisconsin. By ROBERT E. GARD. (Wis­ tainted waters; and hear it from impoverished consin House, Spring Green, 1969. Pp. 320. dwellings where pallid children live." Photographs by Paul Vanderbilt. $6.50.) The stories include the adventure of Lucien Hanks sharing a bed with the tall and restless In the preface to This Is Wisconsin, Robert Abraham Lincoln at the Janesville Tallman Gard says he had a glorious time interviewing House; the dispute between two postmasters Wisconsin people and letting them tell the story. over a box of Limburger cheese; Jens Jensen "What I have personally received out of the and Chester Thordarson of Door County saving whole thing is the knowledge that Wisconsin the landscape for future citizens; lumberjack does have unique flavors; a rare beauty of all days of Hodag and the Little Brown Bulls; the seasons, a unique geography, and most Winneconne's secession from the state of Wis­ alluring of all, a regional and hard-to-define consin; an anonymous distributor of money mysterious sensation that comes to a constant through the Dodgeville mails; the Lost Dau­ traveler and observer: a far and faint sound phin; Old Abe; the tragedy of the Lady Elgin; from sky and hills and streams and lakes, or Sister Adele's vision; Fourier's Colony at Rip­ perhaps only the echo and memory of many, on; Pacquette, the giant of Portage and his many things both ancient and new. The mys­ base murder, and other Wisconsin tales. tery, at least, is real to me." The author visits the cranberry bogs, Hori­ After such an introduction one expects tales con Marsh, Mississippi fishermen, peat moss and experiences unlike any he has heard before. gatherers at Millston. He recalls Dillinger days Yet, to readers acquainted with the lore and at Little Bohemia; Frank Lloyd Wright events legend of Wisconsin, here are many of the best- at Spring Green. He talks to Wisconsin poet known stories, which, in somewhat different Edna Meudt and other Wisconsin regional style and tempo, have appeared in previous writers as he rambles around the countryside collections. with his tape recorder. Gard goes to every sec­ Gard catches the nostalgia of fading ethnic tion of Wisconsin—uplands, plains and high­ customs—the Polish remembering the market lands, rivers and lakes, the cities. And each square in Stevens Point, the Menominee watch­ section is introduced by Paul Vanderbilt's en­ ing their diminishing Spirit Rock. He says, chanting photographs, damaged by dark and "Somehow . . . whenever I go to the lands of flat reproduction which removes their excellent our red brothers, wherever they may be in Wis­ detail and craftsmanship. consin, I sense a cry of distilled sorrow. I have Tapes should have been edited more rigor­ heard it at Oneida and Keshena, at Lac du ously. But the reader does get a picture of Wis­ Flambeau and Courte Oreilles. I have heard it consin, a nostalgic picture, which, in spite of

298 BOOK REVIEWS the interviews with living people, smacks of Hoosier Hot Shots, he would be well advised forty years ago. Those who have never dipped to skip the charts detailing the net paid circu­ into Wisconsin stories will find in this collec­ lation of the "dominant" Illinois farm publi­ tion a loving handful of likely legends. Those cations, 1914^1950. steeped in state lore will find less to add to their For example, it is difficult to understand why knowledge. Prairie Farmer's crusade against chicken thieves and fraudulent business concerns should DORIS H. PLATT merit nearly equal attention to the paper's edi­ The State Historical Society of Wisconsin torial position on national farm policy in the Depression twenties and early New Deal years. This was a time when its editor, Clifford Greg­ ory, played a vital role in the American Farm Bureau Federation and as an unofficial advisor Prairie Farmer and WLS: The Burridge D. to his close friend, Secretary of Agriculture Butler Years. By JAMES F. EVANS. (University Henry A. Wallace. In fact, what discussion of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1969. Pp. 277. Illus­ there is of Gregory's involvement in national trations, notes, bibliography, index. $8.50.) farm politics fades into a description of the internecine disagreements between Gregory Burridge D. Butler, publisher of Prairie and Butler that ended with the editor's resig­ Farmer from 1909 until 1948, built the journal nation in 1937. Parenthetically, the important into one of the most widely circulated farm question of the association between Prairie publications in the Midwest. In 1928 he ac­ Farmer and the Farm Bureau is never clearly quired Station WLS in Chicago which became confronted. through its noontime "Dinnerbell" program, The author is not to be faulted for a diligent its "Little Brown Church of the Air," and espe­ effort at data collecting, often in obscure nooks cially its "Saturday Night Barn Dance," the and crannies. He has failed, however, to sift most familiar radio voice for farmers in the and winnow the fruits of his research by placing central states; he expanded his broadcasting his facts in perspective and marshalling them and publishing ventures into Arizona in the around significant hypotheses. thirties. In the process he became a millionaire. Perhaps Mr. Butler's career with the Prairie JOHN L. SHOVER Farmer enterprises is worthy of serious study University of Pennsylvania but this critical point is never established by the book under review. There is no unifying theme. However, to learn this the reader must tread his way through a swampland of un- assimilated detail often tangential to the narra­ Harry L. Russell and Agricultural Science in tive, maneuver around scores of anecdotes Wisconsin. By EDWARD H. BEARDSLEY. (Uni­ without any guide to separate the trivial from versity of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1969. Pp. the significant, and when the journey is fin­ x, 237. Illustrations, notes, bibliographic essay, ished he will find only an ambivalent and im­ index. $10.00.) pressionistic appraisal of the central character Harry L. Russell (1866-1954) ranged widely and no clear evaluation of the influence of intellectually and geographically during his Prairie Farmer and WLS. At one and the same career as pioneer bacteriologist, professor, dean time the book attempts to be biography, busi­ (1907-1930) of the University of Wisconsin ness history, and nostalgia-evoking popular College of Agriculture, and director (1930— folklore: it fails in all of them. It is not a 1939) of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foun­ biography, for in the chapters on editorial dation (WARF). In this sensitive account of policy and broadcasting, Burridge D. Butler Russell's professional life and work, Edward H. fades from the scene. It is not a history of Beardsley exploits skillfully the rich historio- Prairie Farmer for it abounds in overabundant graphical opportunities provided by Russell's details of Butler's personal life (e.g., the reader diverse experiences. His description of Rus­ will be pleased to learn that the family of Mr. sell's training in the United States and abroad Butler's second wife-to-be lived for a time in adds to the history of the early development of a duplex studio apartment at 23 West 67th bacteriology and graduate training in the sci­ Street, New York City). And should one hope ences. The story of the race between Russell through these pages to conjure up again the and Dr. Erwin F. Smith of the U. S. Depart­ pulsing rhythms of Lulu Bell and Scotty or the ment of Agriculture to gain credit for investi-

299 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970

gallons of cabbage rot is a classic tale of scien­ almost identical form and under the same titles, tific competition. The intricate social dynamics in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, volume involved in the resolution of conflicts sparked 49 (1965—1966), in two successive issues. The by attempts to implement new scientific knowl­ second article won Beardsley the first William edge are well illustrated in Beardsley's por­ Best Hesseltine Award, given annually for the trayal of Russell's part in the fights over the best article to appear in the Magazine. Neither pasteurization of milk and the control of bovine the prior publication of the two chapters nor tuberculosis. A contribution to national history the award is acknowledged anywhere in the is made in the accounts of Russell's leading role book. in the conservative and once powerful Associ­ ation of American Agricultural Colleges and GEORGE H. ROEDER, JR. Experiment Stations and of his services as an The State Historical Society of Wisconsin assistant food administrator in 1918. Chapters on Russell's involvement in the settlement of the cutover region of northern Wisconsin and in the establishment and development of WARF raise questions about the proper relationship of public servants and private business. An American Dissenter: The Life of Algie Throughout the book Beardsley successfully Martin Simons, 1870-1950. By KENT and directs attention to the fruitful interchange be­ GRETCHEN KREUTER. (University of Kentucky tween basic and applied research and between Press, Lexington, 1969. Pp. xii, 236. Illustra­ different scientific disciplines exemplified in tions, bibliographical essay, index. $7.50.) the career of H. L. Russell and in the impressive achievements of the College of Agriculture. Alone among advanced industrial nations the United States has lacked an effective social­ Beardsley does a thorough job of describing" ist movement. In absolute defiance of Marxist Russell's activities, but he is often forced to predictions, the most capitalist (industrial) provide a thin supporting context because so nation has been the least socialist. Why this has little previous work has been done in the fields been so has been generally taken for granted where Beardsley labors. For example, the reader by American historians, most of whom concur is told that Charles McCarthy, the Wisconsin that the national environment precluded the Society of Equity, and others criticized Russell existence of a politically viable left. The rise of and the College of Agriculture for working domestic radicalism beginning in the 1960's, against the real interests of most farmers by however, has led scholars to re-examine our putting too much emphasis on increasing agri­ past in order to comprehend the role of radical­ cultural production and not enough on market­ ism in America. Among the finer products of ing problems, but Beardsley cannot assess the this scholarly search is Kent and Gretchen validity of this criticism because no studies Kreuter's biography of Algie Martin Simons, have been made to determine if the policies of the Wisconsin farm boy who was for two the College of Agriculture did benefit some decades a prominent socialist theoretician, individuals and organizations (both inside and journalist, and party official. Their perceptive, outside agriculture) to the detriment of others, finely wrought, and astutely written book also and if so why. Occasionally, Beardsley does not reminds us how few studies we have of promi­ mine thoroughly the secondary source materi­ nent American socialists. als which are available. For instance, in his The Kreuters address themselves directly to chapter on the revitalization of the cheese in­ the question of why American radicalism has dustry he does not fully utilize the findings of been so weak, and they suggest that Algie Eric Lampard's investigations of the external Simons' life offers significant clues to answer economic factors influencing the cheese market. that question. Born in a small Wisconsin farm­ Usually, however, the inadequacies of this book ing community to parents unable to "make it" can be traced to the dearth of supporting stud­ either on the land or in town, Simons experi­ ies. One of its chief virtues is the support which enced directly the conditions that bred first it lends to future research in the history of agri­ rural Populism and then agrarian socialism. culture, Wisconsin history, and the history of Fortunate enough to escape his depressing science. environment by matriculating at the University It should be noted that Chapter One, "The of Wisconsin, he was strongly influenced by Making of a Scientist," and Chapter Five, "An Richard Ely and Frederick Jackson Turner, Industry Revitalized," previously appeared, in who offered his emerging radicalism a scholar-

300 BOOK REVIEWS

from the culture of another continent" that could not successfully be transplanted in an American environment in which indigenous forms of life were already thriving. They also confirm the notion that World War I either rendered radicals impotent or transformed them into servants of the existing order. Finally, in between the lines of this book, one glimpses certain repressive and illiberal tenden­ cies inherent in American society. To be a radical requires a touch of eccentricity and a self-assurance that can disregard accepted mores, characteristics notably lacking among Americans, characteristics that indeed the dom­ inant society will not tolerate. Simons' life amply demonstrates this, particularly the war­ time episode when he resorted to superpatriot­ ism to certify his American credentials. Society's Iconographic Collections Yet, when all is said and done, the Kreuters' Algie Martin Simons. answers rest on an unproven premise: namely, that American industrial capitalist democracy was so fundamentally different from the Euro­ ly and scientific foundation. Simons left Madi­ pean variants that it could neither produce nor son in the 1890's for a career as a social worker sustain a healthy socialist movement. Until we in Cincinnati and Chicago, where the unem­ have more and better comparative studies, ployment, social misery, and violence he saw which can show clearly and convincingly the convinced him that social work was a mere differences and/or similarities between Ameri­ palliative unable to heal a sick capitalist so­ can and European industrial societies, histori­ ciety. This new conviction ushered Simons into ans can add litde to the Kreuters' version of his socialist phase, a period lasting from 1897 American socialism's failure. For the moment to 1919, during which he evolved from a "red scholarly investigation of the problem seems revolutionary" follower of Daniel De Leon to at a dead end. a more prosaic reform socialist. At various times during this phase he edited the Chicago Socialist, The Coming Nation, and the Mil­ MELVYN DUBOFSKY waukee Leader, as well as serving on his party's University of Warwick, England National Executive Committee. The outbreak of World War I and America's intervention disillusioned Simons with socialism. Slowly but steadily he saw in Wilson's domestic pro­ gram a better answer than socialism provided The Lumberjack Frontier: The Life of a Logger for America's essential needs, and he soon in the Early Days on the Chippeway. Retold broke openly with the Socialist party. In the from the recollections of LOUIS BLANCHARD by 1920's he became an exponent of Taylor-style WALKER D. WYMAN with the assistance of LEE scientific management and an advocate of Hen­ PRENTICE. (University of Nebraska Press, Lin­ ry Ford for president. To vote for Herbert coln, 1969. Pp. 88. $3.95.) Hoover in 1932, serve the A.M.A., and criticize the New Deal only completed his journey from A century ago the Chippewa River system, left to right. All this and more—including Si­ which drains northwestern Wisconsin, pro­ mons' personal life, particularly his relation­ vided a ready route to transport cut pinery logs ship with his wife and collaborator. May Wood and sawed lumber to the Mississippi for ship­ (Simons)—are described and analyzed by the ment to river ports and Great Plains cities. Kreuters. This was the world of Louis Blanchard. Born What, then, does Simons' life reveal about in 1872, he joined a crew of 'jacks at the age the failure of American socialism? The Kreu­ of fourteen and worked along the Chippewa ters offer two explicit answers and one implicit. until 1912 when he began farming. In the In line with the main drift of American scholar­ 1950's Dr. Wyman and Mr. Prentice inter­ ship they consider socialism "a fragment torn viewed the long-retired logger for his story.

301 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 Lumberjack history and lore have been told (1853-1861) where he parlayed a $3,000 in­ and retold in a variety of ways. This little book vestment into a property which he sold for is special because it is based on one man's $30,000. He then proved himself a master experiences. Though interviewed several dec­ publisher with the Chicago Times which he ades after the events, Louie Blanchard's mem­ bought for $23,000 in 1861 and buflt into a ory proved a rich storehouse of lumberjack million-dollar property by 1875. lore. His joy in remembering and telling his Not only did Storey build the Times into a story makes this a very personal story. By re­ great newsgathering organization but he pio­ taining the storyteller's conversational style, neered the Sunday newspaper a full decade be­ Dr. Wyman presents a fresh, detailed picture fore New York papers capitalized on it. With of life in the Chippeway Pinery. an "insatiable appetite for sensation and mean­ ness," he used the Midwestern formula of sen­ HOWARD W. KANETZKE sationalism, directing his newspaper toward The State Historical Society of Wisconsin the lower masses, achieving the largest circu­ lation in Chicago, and becoming the "undis­ puted leader of the Western press" between 1865 and 1884. As a printer he also sought to make each issue a typographical work of art. To Print the News and Raise Hell: A Biography Mr. Walsh credits Storey with power and of Wilbur F. Storey. By JusTiN E. WALSH. insight as an editorialist, but also as one who (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel repeatedly took such intemperately extreme Hfll, 1968. Pp. ix, 303. Iflustrations, notes, stands that he weakened his influence even with bibliography, index. $7.50.) those who agreed with him at base. While in Detroit, he became the fountainhead of Demo­ Newspapermen frequently force a vexatious cratic propaganda in the Midwest. "He never task on their biographers in that they leave a considered the possibility that democracy copious record of mankind, but tend to leave might be realized, the Constitution upheld, or only meager traces of themselves. By not leav­ sanity prevail on terms other than those ap­ ing a body of personal papers, Wilbur F. Storey proved by Wilbur F. Storey." (1819-1884) forced Justin Walsh to extrude Storey's personal life was as tempestuous as the man from the columns of his newspapers. his professional life — three marriages inter­ Notwithstanding that obstacle, Mr. Walsh, who spersed with debauches which led to syphilis is a professor of history in WSU-Oshkosh, and then to the paresis which killed him. succeeded amazingly well in the face of in­ Mr. Walsh's competent handling of a difficult complete evidence. subject happens also to raise a bit of interesting Heretofore, Storey has been known to gen­ speculation. His depiction of Storey — enig­ eral historians chiefly through the suppression matic, schizophrenic, shy, and motivated by a of his Democratic Chicago Times during the "supreme contempt for mankind"—fits so well Civil War, and, on other occasions, as the edi­ with the intellectual and personality character­ tor who was horsewhipped by a burlesque istics of Pulitzer, Hearst, the Scrippses, and broad. But Mr. Walsh's study—which won the others that perhaps we should inquire: Does 1967 award of the American Association for the modern newspaper owe its origin to anti­ State and Local History — now documents social individuals? Storey as one of the great innovative editors during the formative period of modern journal­ OLIVER KNIGHT ism. He thus ranks Storey, deservedly, as one University of Texas at El Paso of the Midwestern forerunners of that "new journalism" which all too often is related to New York practices of a later period. Born in Vermont, Storey learned to be a Immigrants and Politics: The Germans of printer on the Middlebury (Vermont) Free Nebraska, 1880-1900. By FREDERICK C. Press and the New York Journal of Commerce. LUEBKE. (University of Nebraska Press, Lin­ He put in a second apprenticeship as a news­ coln, 1969. Pp. X, 220. Maps, tables, iflustra­ paper owner with the La Porte (Indiana) tions, appendices, bibliography, index. $7.95.) Herald (1838-1842) and the Jackson (Michi­ gan) Patriot (1844^1853). He became a jour­ Professor Luebke has employed a number neyman publisher with the Detroit Free Press of social science concepts and methods to

302 BOOK REVIEWS produce a readable and illuminating history persons were more active; second-generation of the political assimilation of the largest non- Germans often supported the party opposite English-speaking ethnic group in Nebraska, that of their fathers; and, "the religious factor the Germans, during the last two decades of clearly appears to have been a variable of the nineteenth century. Drawing upon the greater importance than either place of birth concepts, methods, ideas, and conclusions of or occupation." such scholars as Samuel P. Hays, Lee Benson, Next, Luebke used the Spearman rank- Theodore Blegen, and Ole Rolvaag, the author difference formula to study his findings in ten traces the pattern of German voting in Nebras­ selected counties. Each county was analyzed ka from 1880 through 1900. This is "grass­ to show the coefficient of correlation between roots" political history, where issues such as the German adult male population and the the use of native languages, control of ethnic votes cast for Democratic candidates for Presi­ schools, woman suffrage, and sumptuary legis­ dent and governor from 1880 to 1900. His lation loom larger than tariff, free trade, or results are clear and convincing: bloc voting monetary supply. by Germans was not pronounced early, but Luebke begins with a survey of German German support of the Democratic party in­ immigration into Nebraska, and reveals that creased steadily during the 1880's until "a by the end of the century when the peak of remarkable consensus had been achieved German immigration had passed, about one- among a diverse people as they embraced the sixth of the population of the state was Ger­ Democratic Party as the champion of personal man (including both native-born and Ameri­ liberty" by 1890. And, "In 1894 the most can-born Germans). Briefly describing the abrupt change in German political behavior reasons for the influx of Germans, Luebke occurred. Presumably in response to . . . fusion agrees with Blegen that private letters were and to . . . free silver . . . the Germans flocked probably the most effective medium in luring to the Republican Party." Republicans held these immigrants into Nebraska. The efforts these gains in 1896, but because of the issues of local churches are also noted. of imperialism and expansion, the Democrats Several factors determined the immigrant's regained some ground in 1898 and 1900, al­ rate of assimilation. In general, rural immi­ though the German vote remained badly split. grants tended to assimilate more slowly than Finally, the author traced German voting did those settling in polyglot communities. trends through each of the elections between Also, greater prosperity generally led to more 1880 and 1900. Throughout, Luebke reaffirms rapid assimilation. "Loners" usually assimi­ his belief that church affiliation provides the lated faster than did large groups of immi­ best guide to the political behavior of the grants. Using Rolvaag's prototypes, Luebke Germans. In his summary, he repeats his most suggests two basic types of immigrants: the important conclusions and suggests that the Per Hansa type, who wanted to be an Ameri­ Germans of Nebraska have continued to vote can, who broke with his cultural ties, who as Germans since 1900, and attributes this to assimilated rapidly, and generally voted Re­ "persistent ethnoreligious factors." He con­ publican; and, the Beret Holm type, who cludes that by 1900 the German community regretted the fact of immigration, who valued of Nebraska was well assimilated in terms of his cultural heritage, continued to use his political behavior, but was far from being native tongue, and clung to his ethnic institu­ structurally assimilated into Nebraska politics. tions, in particular his church and parish This is the type of study which is needed for school. This type assimilated more slowly, American political and immigration history. normally voted Democratic, and was more It is well documented with published and un­ numerous in Nebraska. published sources, and illustrated with maps, Luebke approached his study in three ways. tables, and figures. Although limited in scope, First, he analyzed 653 individual Nebraskans the approach taken is significant. This and of German ancestry, noting their places of related types of analyses of local political birth, occupation, church affiliation, lodge behavior must be made in order that old myths membership, political party identification, and and inaccurate generalizations may be cor­ level of political activity. Among his conclu­ rected. In applying new concepts to old histori­ sions are these: Germans were remarkably cal records, Luebke has achieved a double active in politics; they tended to conform to success. He has thrown new light on the politi­ locally established patterns of political be­ cal behavior of the immigrants of one nation­ havior; place of residence was of little im­ ality in one state and, perhaps more impor­ portance, though business and professional tantly, he has reaffirmed the validity of this

303 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 approach to political analysis. More studies of author no work has documented anti-Negro this nature would appear both necessary and sentiment in prewar politics as abundantly as desirable. "this work essays to do." This is a valid claim JUSTUS F. PAUL as far as it goes, but it does not carry much Wisconsin State University — Stevens Point weight. Rawley does show the racial biases of the men who created and administered policy in GENERAL HISTORY his examination of political events in Wash­ ington and Kansas. The information that Raw- ley presents, however, is not sufiicient to docu­ ment his claim of the extent of racism in Ameri­ Race and Politics: "Bleeding Kansas" and the ca. If, as the author contends, Kansas became Coming of the Civil War. By JAMES A. RAWLEY. the focus for the nation's racial beliefs in the (J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1969. early 1850's he should have looked at a far Pp. xvi, 304. Appendix, notes, index. $5.95.) wider range of sources than he did to verify this posture. To a large extent actions in the Mr. Rawley declares that he had two purposes nation's capital often influence events through­ in writing this book. First, he hoped to demon­ out the country, but historians also know that strate how the Kansas controversy dominated what is said and done in the halls of Congress the American political scene during the first does not necessarily reflect the opinions of rank half of the 1850's. The second, and principal, and file Americans. Any study of race attitudes reason for the study was to place a fresh empha­ in the 1850's should be founded on an examina­ sis on the coming of the Civil War by exposing tion of sources from all parts of the nation, but "the dark streak of racial prejudice in the Rawley instead has confined his search to im­ America of the 1850's." portant, but nevertheless limited areas. Also, The author does a commendable job in the absence of thorough documentation in this achieving his first goal, but the reader may very book does the author's cause harm when he well ask why did he bother. It is not that the does discuss racial attitudes. Rawley explains historical terrain of the early 1850's is easy to that his original manuscript was accompanied travel or that Rawley is not a qualified guide, by "fully fifty pages of footnotes" but that he but the fact remains that excellent maps already had to eliminate some and condense others at exist. Indeed, Rawley freely acknowledges his the publisher's insistence. It is unfortunate that debt to the many historians who have also any work which attempts to investigate the focused their attention on this period. power of anti-Negro sentiment does not pro­ The book is of much greater value on the vide its readers with the complete list of sources importance of race in the Kansas issue. When­ on which the author's opinions are based. ever applicable, Rawley halts to point out that Rawley's study is nearly 300 pages in length, events of the early 1850's often reflected the but it is not until page 240 that he flatly asserts race prejudices of white Americans. The reader that behind all the other currents which swirled learns that colonization was not really a hu­ around the Kansas issue "lay the inexorable mane solution to the Negro problem but was spectre of race." It is only in the brief space of instead a policy designed to remove blacks from a twenty-page epilogue that the author presents the United States, that many of the founders of his principal argument: that regardless of the the Republican party and supposed friends of other forces at work the struggle for Kansas black men considered Negroes biologically in­ was in fact the playing out of white America's ferior, and that the Dred Scott decision was racial views. This is far too short a space to simply a caste doctrine given the stamp of ap­ deal with such an important contention. Raw- proval by the nation's highest judicial body. ley also, in his epilogue, criticizes other his­ While all of these claims are valid, they are torians for assuming that race prejudice re­ neither new nor startling. Historians of the sulted from the heritage of Reconstruction. He Civil War period have, to some degree, ac­ is just in his criticism, but in making the point knowledged that racial attitudes were a crucial Rawley has apparently fallen into the same factor in pushing the nation to war. Rawley trap as did those writers, for if race attitudes correctly believes these scholars were too cur­ were not the product of Reconstruction, then sory in their examination of racism, and he surely by the same logic the racial views which maintains that racism was a dominant force in prompted men to take up arms in 1861 did not the coming of the Civil War. According to the spring from the Kansas controversy.

304 BOOK REVIEWS This reviewer has no quarrel with Rawley's the substantial accomplishments of the Harding contention that anti-Negro biases were impor­ Administration. The author emphasizes that in tant in the Kansas crisis. Americans of the view of the political situation in 1920, Hard­ 1850's were as much racists as their progeny ing's compromising tendencies and devotion to are today. Rawley is certainly aware of the expediency constituted the most effective for­ issues of race which engulf the nation today mula to assuage wartime hysteria and deal with and this has probably enabled him to see the a petulant Congress and the economic crisis cold hand of prejudice guiding the actions of stemming from reconversion to peacetime pro­ men who clashed over "Bleeding Kansas." duction. Harding emerges as a well-intentioned, While the accuracy of Rawley's vision is not hard-working, sincere individual who, despite challenged, his thesis would have been strength­ his limitations, perceived the political needs of ened had he presented a more convincing attack the country and developed many constructive on the views which depict Kansas as a struggle policies within the limitations and realities of over federal control of the territories or the the political scene with which he was con­ product of the mercantile activities of Stephen fronted, setting the pace for the decade. His A. Douglas. Rawley's study is certainly a step choice of cabinet officers was particularly salu­ in the direction of proving just how racist a tary, and he worked effectively with them. The society America has been, but if this thesis is author notes that however sordid Harding's to stand, far more exhaustive studies will have amorous liaisons, they preceded his White to be made. House years and exerted no noticeable effect on his policies or political actions. The volume's weaknesses are indeed minor when contrasted TOM PHILLIPS with its strengths. Its length may well deter University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee potential readers, and while this did enable analysis of the various issues in depth, some condensing would have been possible without The Harding Era: Warren G. Harding and His materially weakening the contribution, particu­ Administration. By ROBERT K. MURRAY. (Uni­ larly in dealing with events that have been versity of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1969. previously treated in published materials. Al­ though the study is extremely comprehensive Pp. ix, 626. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, in domestic matters, it devotes much less atten­ index. $13.50.) tion to foreign affairs, focusing almost exclu­ sively upon relations with the League of Na­ This comprehensive study of the Harding tions and with Europe. Administration is a major revisionist work whose potential impact on the interpretation of This volume makes a major contribution to this era should render it one of the most im­ the interpretation of the 1920's by eliminating portant American history books of the year. the myths that surround Harding, while retain­ Thoroughly steeped in voluminous primary ing a careful balance, showing the pros and and secondary sources, and making particu­ cons of the administration and its participants. larly effective use of the Harding papers, The concluding chapter contains an excellent Murray skillfully cuts through the veil of summary of the historiography of the Harding mythology and the clouds of scandal that have era. Here the reader can easily see the distor­ long enshrouded the Harding period. The ma­ tion of half-truths into myths by ill-prepared jor issues of this epoch, the personal relation­ journalists, memoirists who thought they knew ships among the members of the administra­ the full story when in fact they were acquainted tion, and the relative importance of the various only with the tip of the iceberg with which cabinet members are examined in depth. they happened to come into contact, and un­ The picture that emerges from this careful suspecting historians who took the latter types reconsideration contrasts strikingly with the at face value. This chapter has broad historio- traditional stereotype. Some of the myths that graphical implications that reach far beyond surround Harding, such as the tale of the the Harding period. It deserves the attention smoke-filled room, are revealed to be entirely of all historians, as well as the potential memoir­ without foundation. The alleged influence of ists of the present era who are now flooding the Ohio gang also proves to be greatly exag­ today's market with their "inside stories" and gerated. While cataloging the scandals that undoubtedly creating the myths that will con­ rocked the cabinet, the author stresses that front tomorrow's historians. As a revisionist their existence should not be allowed to obscure work, Murray's volume steps on many toes,

305 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 particularly in its highly critical treatment of for which he stood, than this lengthy and ex­ previous studies that perpetuated these myths. tensively researched study indicates. This may stimulate some controversy but his To his credit, however, the author neither meticulous research will stand the test. Conse­ claims too much, nor too little, for his subject. quently, this volume will have a profound im­ And while he paints a rather sympathetic por­ pact on American historiography. trait of Baker, he is not uncritical of him. Yet, here again, the reader is disappointed, for KENNETH J. GRIEB while Semonche points out the inconsistencies Wisconsin State University-Oshkosh and confusions in Baker's thought and writing, he fails to analyze them. Nor does he assess the accuracy of Baker's muckraking pieces in light Ray Stannard Baker: A Quest for Democracy of later scholarship. In short, then, Ray Stan­ in Modern America, 1870-1918. By JOHN E. nard Baker: A Quest for Democracy in Modern SEMONCHE. (University of North Carolina America, 1870-1918, supplements much of Press, Chapel Hill, 1969. Pp. ix, 350. Notes, what we already know about Baker and his age; bibliography, index. $8.95.) it adds little to our understanding of a complex person and an important period in American Ray Stannard Baker's life spanned the era history. of transition in America from the relatively simple, rural, individualistic society of the WALTER I. TR-\TTNER nineteenth century to the highly complex, in­ University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee dustrial, urban one of the twentieth. One, there­ fore, would hope that this account of the highly respected journalist and social reformer's life, from birth in 1870 to his departure for Europe The National Register of Historic Places 1969. on a special mission for Woodrow Wilson in By UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE IN­ 1918, would illuminate the changing times in TERIOR, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE. (Superin­ which he lived. Indeed, the author set out to do tendent of Documents, U. S. Government Print­ just that, to cast light not only on the man, but ing Office, Washington, D.C. 24002, 1969. Pp. on his environment as well. Unfortunately, in xiv, 352. Illustrations, notes, index. $5.25.) this respect, he did not succeed; there is little in the story that is new, either about American This is the first biennial publication in hard­ journalism or the so-called Progressive move­ back book form prepared by the staff of the ment. National Register of Historic Places in the Nor for that matter, do we learn much of Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. importance that is new about Baker himself. Future listings will be made as additions via The author traces, in tedious detail. Baker's the National Park Service by Acts of Congress, boyhood in Michigan and Wisconsin, his edu­ designations as National Historic Landmarks cation at Michigan Agricultural College (now by the Secretary of the Interior, and by nomi­ Michigan State University) and the University nations through appropriate channels by the of Michigan, his apprenticeship as a reporter several states. The underlying philosophy of for the Chicago News Record, his career as a designating historic places is well expressed in staff writer and "muckraker" for the two popu­ the book's foreword by Secretary of the In­ lar monthlies, McClure's and the American, terior Walter J. Hickel that America must and his involvement in early twentieth-century include in its concept of progress a proper reform. The story comes to a close in 1918 environment and that in this quest for a better when, for various reasons. Baker turned from environment, historic preservation is vital. "If the present to the past, from journalism to his­ the past is the foundation of the present," says tory. In the end, however, with the exception he, "then historic preservation is a cornerstone of an illuminating discussion of the lesser- upon which efforts to improve present America known part of Baker's work and thought—the can be built. Improvement of the old and popular volumes of country sketches published familiar may be a better choice than the de­ under the pseudonym of David Grayson—we struction for the reward unknown. By this ap­ know little more about the man than we learned proach we choose not to impede progress but from reading earlier accounts of his life, in­ to support it. By this philosophy we seek to cluding his autobiography. Certainly, there provide balance and direction to the develop­ must have been more to Baker, and the causes ment of a richer environment."

306 BOOK REVIEWS

Originally the National Register of Historic sentation both qualitatively and quantitatively. Places included only properties that possessed Finally, it is conceivable that America's rich national significance and were either units of architectural heritage would be accorded great­ the National Park Service or qualified for status er recognition if the federal government's offi­ as National Historic Landmarks. At the present cial clearinghouse for historic preservation, time the original register has been expanded to the so-called Advisory Council on Historic more than 1,100 entries, including properties Preservation composed of six federal officers of national, state, and local significance. of cabinet rank, had an architect on it. Each of the fifty states, including Wisconsin, as well as three territories, the District of Co­ RICHARD W. E. PERRIN, F.A.I.A. lumbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Milwaukee, Wisconsin have all designated liaison officers to co-ordi­ nate their participation in the program, and future additions to the National Register will, of course, reflect this now fully diversified par­ The Roots Of The Modern American Empire. ticipation. By WILLIAM A. WILLIAMS. (Random House, Presumably, The National Register of His­ New York, 1969. Pp. xxiv, 546. Notes, bibli­ toric Places 1969 is to be viewed simply as a ography, index. $15.00.) compendium of information regarding the sites and buildings it contains, and for all practical Professor Williams has set himself the task purposes to be an American Baedeker. While of finding out if history can give us an under­ the book may meet this objective with its brief standing of the past so that we can act in a and lucid explanation of each entry, it seems wiser fashion today and in the future. "If we unfortunate that such an important document can understand how we became an imperial should have such a prosaic format. With the metropolis in the name of freedom and pros­ unmistakable U. S. Government Printing Office perity of the country, then perhaps we can free look about it, it is hardly probable that the our minds and wills to achieve freedom and American public or foreign visitors will be prosperity without being an imperial society." greatly inspired by it or induced to visit many It is an imposing assignment, and fortunately of the listed places. While the book provides a man of Williams's calibre is willing to take a fair number of good photographs and some it on. excellent examples of Historic American Build­ According to the author, the roots of our ings Survey drawings, the total effect is never­ empire lie in the minds of the nineteenth- theless quite flat. Lacking, also, are maps which century American farmer. He believes the ex­ would be extremely useful if one, for example, pansionist outlook of metropolitan American wished quickly to find such historic sites as leaders in the 1890's was a crystallization in Rabbit Ears in Union County, New Mexico, or industrial form of a perspective developed by the Upper Green River Rendezvous in Sublette the agrarian majority of the country between County, Wyoming. 1865 and 1898. When the metropolitan leaders As to Baedeker-level value of a number of accepted these views, America became involved entries, one might be tempted to ask what in the Spanish-American War and continued in standards were used in their selection. Cases the twentieth century its ecomonic expansion in point would be Johnson City, Texas, the boy­ throughout the world. hood home of Lyndon B. Johnson, and Sanborn Williams advances the thesis that the agrarian Field in Boone County, Missouri, where it was majority developed a market place concept of definitely established that high yields of grain the world, identifying human freedom with could be produced perennially when land is freedom to trade. To the farmers the world was properly treated with chemical fertilizer and an open market in which personal and social manure. freedoms were causally integrated with eco­ Wisconsin, incidentally, is meagerly repre­ nomic liberty and welfare: the greater the sented with nine entries, five of which are in markets, the greater the area of freedom. Hav­ Prairie du Chien, two in Madison, one in ing once accepted this thesis as valid for the Oconto, and finally Aztalan, which is listed and continent, America agriculturalists were able consistently referred to as Azlatan. With the to extend their imperial outlook overseas with formation of a Wisconsin Advisory Committee little intellectual difficulty or emotional shock. to the Preservation Act of 1966 it might be It fell to the industrial banking groups, which hoped that Wisconsin would gain better repre­ by the turn of the century had accepted the

307 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 agrarian premises, to put those ideas into To prove his point O'Connor traces the rise of practice. cotton manufacturing from its beginning in To support this thesis Williams has mar­ early nineteenth-century Massachusetts to its shaled an almost unbelievably large compila­ economic dominance at mid-century, and de­ tion of material, and he must have unearthed tails the emergence of the manufacturer as a practically every item in newspapers, journals, social and political type. He then follows their and manuscripts that sustains his point. The political peregrinations first as Cotton Whigs, result is not completely convincing even if one then as Native Americans, and finally as Con­ accepts the fact of American economic im­ stitutional Unionists, as the sectional contro­ perialism, since a book of this scope inevitably versy intensified and the manufacturers sought evokes dissent or criticism. some means of preserving the Union despite For my part, I wonder if the farmer did the rise of antislavery agitators and the Re­ indeed put all his eggs in one basket. Admitted­ publican party. None of this is treated in any ly he was an expansionist, but was he not just extensive detail; O'Connor's coverage is broad as interested in domestic reforms to resolve his and his book is brief. But the essential message economic plight as he was in foreign markets? does come across, that the Massachusetts cotton Certainly unfair practices by railroad and grain manufacturers, despite occasional hostility elevator managers engaged as much—or even towards Southern behavior, were determined more—of his attention than the volume of his to reassure the South in thought and action of sales in the Far East. By molding every aspect the good will of Northern conservatism. of American economic development to the O'Connor's work is explicitly a direct chal­ thrust for empire, Williams has blurred the lenge to the thesis that irreconcilable sectional significance of the demand for domestic reform. economic forces, particularly Northern indus­ My second demurrer arises from the fact that trialism, were the basic protagonists in the although neither foreign relations nor overseas coming of the war, an interpretation O'Connor business are carried on in a vacuum, this vol­ suggests many historians still accept. Although ume provides little information about what the this last point is questionable and smacks of United States faced abroad. Did the activities beating a dead horse — few scholars today of England, France, Germany, Russia, and accept the simple one-to-one relationship be­ Japan affect in any way what America was tween economic differences and sectional con­ trying to do and how it went about doing it? flict that O'Connor claims they do—the author A book that sets out to provide answers should does provide much useful information on the have posed more questions. role and behavior of the cotton manufacturer Yet anyone willing to face up to the problem in sectional politics. What still remains unclear, of why the United States was and is imperialis­ however, is the root cause of the behavior of tic must read this book. these businessmen. Did the Lords of the Loom act as they did for purely economic motives? WALTER V. SCHOLES Or were they acting out of a noneconomically University of Missouri rooted ideological stance of conservative con­ stitutionalism instead? O'Connor is neither clear about this nor does he really come to grips with the problem. There is often a strong impli­ cation that economic motivation was the major Lords of the Loom: The Cotton Whigs and the source of behavior, but he also argues occa­ Coming of the Civil War. By THOMAS H. sionally for the manufacturer's devotion to the O'CONNOR. (Charles Scribner's Sons, New Constitution and the Union as the basic stimu­ York, 1968. Pp. ix, 214. $7.50.) lant of their actions. One also wonders about any diversity of Building on the theme advanced in Philip opinion within the manufacturing interest. Foner's 1941 study. Business and Slavery, O'Connor treats the group pretty much as a Thomas O'Connor argues that the antebellum single ideological entity. On the other hand, as cotton manufacturers of Massachusetts, like historians have become aware of the many their commercial brethren in New York City, different factors that shape a person's view of had close ties to the South, opposed sectional the world and his subsequent behavior, they agitation on the slavery issue, and were "among have also seen how often the business commu­ the most powerful and influential forces" work­ nity and even apparently coherent subgroups ing to prevent civil war in the United States. within it were divided over political issues. The

308 BOOK REVIEWS idea of a single economic group behaving con­ Progressives were primarily Democrats in­ sistently and coherently as a whole for a single terested in railroad regulation, humanitarian reason, although quite possible, seems rather measures, or clean politics. Progressivism and unrefined by the side of some of the work in Populism were "contemporary rather than nineteenth-century politics published since sequential," but before 1900 progressives O'Connor finished his doctoral dissertation in lacked the unifying issues to build a viable 1958. political organization. Failing to agree on other Lords of the Loom is useful within its limits. "reforms," they turned to disfranchisement, Unfortunately, some important questions are which "cut across ideological lines." left unexamined and unresolved. The absence of racial legislation had fostered chaos that was reflected in increasing lynch­ JOEL H. SILBEY ings. Blacks reacted negatively to this and to Cornell University decreasing economic opportunities. These con­ ditions gave progressives their chance to ap­ peal to all whites. They were so successful that at the 1901 Constitutional Convention the ma­ jor question was not whether to disfranchise Populism to Progressivism in Alabama. By blacks, but how to do it without violating the SHELDON HACKNEY. (Princeton University federal constitution or disfranchising whites. Press, Princeton, 1969. Pp. xv, 390. Tables, On other convention questions shifting alli­ notes, appendix, bibliographical essay, index. ances were formed by the agrarians, the plant­ $10.00.) ers, the conservative bosses, and the progres­ sives. On state financial matters the split was Using statistical methods to isolate grass- urban-rural; on solely political measures it root support and more traditional sources to was democratic-elitist. The progressives were describe the leadership and to carry the narra­ only moderately successful at the convention, tive, the author traces the political history of but they realized that the bosses might be de­ Alabama's Populists and Progressives. This feated if the right issue were found. Railroad main theme is accompanied by side ventures regulation proved to be that issue. into the relationship of the two, the disfran­ The progressives who came to power in 1906 chisement constitution of 1901, and the relation were "Whigs dressed in Jacksonian clothing." of both parties to the Negro. "High geographic Their primary concern was the "insufficiently mobility, low social status, and downward so­ restrained use of private economic power," cial movement" with some "traditional ani­ and they placed stress in four areas: (1) moral mosities" tended to produce Populists. They conduct in office; (2) ethical business conduct were neither revolutionaries nor reformers. and stable economic conditions; (3) govern­ They were not reactionary, only provincial; ment aid to business and an equitable tax struc­ and they were not nativists. Unlike the Demo­ ture; and (4) a stable moral order. Their legis­ crats, the myths of the Old and New South lation showed that they resembled eastern, meant nothing to them, but both parties shared urban progressives; and, although often di­ a racial policy which relegated the Negro to an vided, they achieved many of their goals. This inferior position. Populism's top men had in and the increasing conservatism of the leader­ common a "restless aspiration linked to experi­ ship, especially in regard to wage labor, caused ence with failure." The local leaders "were not progressivism to weaken; and the coalition from the lower class," but came from a lower waned after the 1908 Birmingham miners' social status than comparable Democrats. strike. After "fusing" the Populists disintegrated, The book is well written, balance being main­ but not from "an overdose of prosperity." The tained between the narrative and the more movement failed because "it lacked an ideology technical aspects. It is copiously footnoted and that would connect their sad plight . . . with a contains a respectable bibliographical essay. train of causation leading back to the political Historiography-minded students will want an process." Afterward most Populists simply re­ expansion of the final chapter, which attempts tired from politics. Of those still active a ma­ lo compare the results of this specific study jority became Republicans, some went to the with more general works in the field. Democrats, and a very few remained Populists. The one thing they did not become was pro­ MICHAEL S. HOLMES gressives. University of Wisconsin-Parkside

309 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Lawrence, Massachusetts; Paterson, New Jer­ Workers of the World. By MELVYN DUBOFSKY. sey; and the Mesabi Range. (Quadrangle Books, Chicago, 1969. Pp. xviii, Not that the book is flawless. It is weaker as 557. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. a chronicle in its account of the later stages of $12.50.) the IWW's "golden age," say, after 1916, as if the author were tiring of his subject. There is a minor error of fact in Dubofsky's statement First published in 1919, Paul F. Brissenden's that Wobbly Wesley Everest was lynched The I.W.W.: A Study of American Syndicalism "promptly" upon capture by the American stood as the only comprehensive history of the Legionnaires of Centralia, Washington (Ever­ Industrial Workers of the World until as late est was first arrested, taken from the city jail as 1965 when it was updated and effectively later that night, and then executed), and the displaced as a reference source by volume IV book's dominant probity and good sense fall of Philip S. Foner's History of the American down when the author attributes, apparently in Labor Movement, The Industrial Workers of all seriousness, the Northwestern lumber bar­ the World, 1905-1917. Foner's study has been ons' opposition to the eight-hour movement in less fortunate. While it stands up well beside 1917 not primarily to economic motive but to Patrick Renshaw's The Wobblies (1967), a the lumbermen's belief that "work, however racy but only moderately scholarly narrative, miserable, was a blessing, not an exaction; the Foner's IWW compares unfavorably on virtu­ longer a man toiled, the better he was for it. ally every point with Professor Melvyn Dubof­ Rather than see their employees labor fewer sky's new We Shall Be All. hours in the woods and mills and squander Dubofsky's detailed exploration of Wobbly their extra leisure on books or drink, lumber­ history is inestimably better written than Fo­ men preferred to work their hands longer, and ner's; it boasts a smooth but lively, seemingly in the process make them better men." I would effortless style that fools the reader into think­ hope that American historians have gotten ing he has been through far fewer pages than away from the vulgar (and fruitless) approach the book's 500. Dubofsky actually augments to understanding the actions of American capi­ Foner's own vast researches on several aspects talists in terms of pure greed for profit—but of IWW history, no trifling accomplishment. for goodness' sake! We Shall Be All mercifully lacks the tendency of Foner's IWW to force an unwilling Wobbly More important than such petty lapses is the history into prefabricated molds based on an author's careless neglect in crediting scholars often crude Marxist interpretation of the his­ upon whom he has relied more than casually; tory of American capital-labor relations. And, for example, the conceptual approaches worked most important. We Shall Be All effects most of out by Herbert Guttman in understanding the the reinterpretations which the Wobblies de­ working class's critically shifting relationship serve and which Foner did not deliver. Pro­ with the middle classes as industrialization fessor Dubofsky demonstrates the IWW's inde­ progressed, to mention but one of several. Still, pendence of European thinking in the framing this remains the best single book in labor of its ideology; clarifies (though not perfectly) history be be published for several years and the IWW's attitude toward political action; does the abused Wobblies the historical justice explains more accurately the nature of the which is the least they deserve. IWW's factional fights of 1906 and 1908; emphasizes the labor union aspect of the JOSEPH R. CONLIN IWW so universally neglected by the histori­ Chico State College ans; sets the record straight on the IWW's legendary image as an exponent of violence; presents a far better balanced picture of Big Bill Haywood (and other leading Wobblies) than previous portraits; and demonstrates that T. R. and Will: A Friendship That Split the the IWW was somewhat less alienated from Republican Party. By WILLIAM MANNERS. broader American mores than either their own (Harcourt, Brace, and World, Inc., New York, rhetoric or the historians have allowed, and 1969. Pp. xiv, 335. Illustrations, bibliography, these interpretations are interwoven in a narra­ index, $7.95.) tive that never lags and provides the best ac­ counts we have of the IWW's exciting role in William Manners' attempted examination of the strikes at McKee's Rocks, Pennsylvania; the relationship between a popular, retiring

310 BOOK REVIEWS President and his handpicked successor ad­ are absent. Chapters eleven and nineteen en­ dresses itself to a central problem in the study titled "Confound These Kings, Will They of the lives of Theodore Roosevelt and William Never Leave Me Alone?" and ". . . and We Howard Taft and the political background Battle For The Lord" are little more than against which they acted. Unfortunately, Mr. paraphrases of two chapters in Henry F. Manners is either unaware of, or chooses to Pringles' Theodore Roosevelt — "Among the ignore, certain aspects vital to an adequate Kings" and "Battling For the Lord." scholarly treatment of the issues which his This book can only be recommended as a book raises. substitute for light historical fiction. The his­ Manners relates that Roosevelt's decision to torian, however, will be both amused and an­ forego a second elected term arose more out noyed by Manners' labors at serious scholar­ of a fear of failure at the polls than of political ship. or constitutional scruple. Consequently, T.R. ALLAN E. REZNICK endorsed the amiable and mediocre Ohioan, University of Wisconsin whom he had come to see as an able caretaker of his program of reform. Manners then chronicles the deterioration of relations be­ tween Taft and his predecessor, implying that Blood on the Border: The United States Army this ran parallel to Taft's betrayal of progres­ and the Mexican Irregulars. By CLARENCE C. sive policies and personalities. Such an inter­ CLENDENEN. (The Macmiflan Company, New pretation is false to the evidence. In fact, Taft York, 1969. Pp. ix, 390. Iflustrations, notes, actually extended and improved upon the bibliography, maps, index. $12.50.) distinctive Rooseveltian policy of "trust-bust­ ing." Regrettably, Manners offers only tan­ gential references to Roosevelt's romance with Tlie United States and Huerta. By KENNETH J. power, which largely underlay T.R.'s disaffec­ GRIEB. (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, tion with Taft. Manners is close to the truth 1969. Pp. vii, 233. Illustrations, notes, bibli­ when he metaphorically describes the ex- ography, maps, index. $7.95.) President's return from abroad as " . . . back from Elba," but this theme is quickly dropped. This most recent volume in the Macmillan We are given no adequate explanation of T.R.'s Company's series on American military history reluctance to endorse Senator Robert La is a description of events taking place on the Follette of Wisconsin, which would have been Rio Grande frontier between the end of the the natural course to follow if T.R. had been Mexican War in 1848 and the Punitive Expe­ sincere about his concern for progressivism; dition of 1916. In it Mr. Clendenen attempts to nor is Roosevelt's genuine fear of radicalism shed some historical light on a subject crucial explored. Manners is simply content to record to the understanding of our military history, outbursts, caustic remarks, and revealing ac­ since the Rio Grande frontier was the scene of tions which he would have us believe is the constant warfare, disorder, and violence for whole story. This approach predictably pro­ well over half a century. The pacification of duces no significant generalizations or conclu­ this frontier was thus the most prolonged mfli- sions. tary task ever undertaken by the United States Despite many defects, the book is well writ­ Army. ten and makes good light reading, containing Clendenen does an adequate job describing such interesting minutiae as a detailed the campaigns which took place in the region. description of an ominous storm on the eve Unfortunately, the historian's task is not the of Taft's inauguration, a blow-by-blow account same as that of a chronicler. When it comes of the Glavis hearings, and a similar descrip­ time for the author to relate the intricacies of tion of the Republican convention of 1912. policy making in both the United States and It is further enriched by such tidbits as the Mexico which were responsible for the events one revealing that Mrs. Taft was the First upon which he lavishes so much detail, Clen­ Lady who disposed of the Lincoln bed in favor denen retreats with the cry of "beyond the of twin beds (who would not with a 320-pound scope of this narrative." What remains for the husband!). reader, then, is battles, buffets, bugles, and not AdditionaUy, the book suffers from many one shred of understanding of the pacification irritating minor faults. The bibliography con­ of the border. tains no major additions of primary material, Both Indian and Mexican raiders troubled and several important secondary works on Taft the United States-Mexican frontier. Clendenen

311 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 fails to grapple with the problem of American the Punitive Expedition in which the author Indian policy. American treatment of the In­ himself participated, has already been covered dians had much to do with the driving of vari­ in Clendenen's own work. The United States ous bands away from their lands and forcing and Pancho Villa, and thus is repetitious. In these people either onto reservations or the conclusion, the Macmillan Company's collec­ warpath. The Kickapoo are an excellent exam­ tive face ought to be as red as the blood on Mr. ple of this phenomenon. Clendenen describes Clendenen's border for publishing such a book. these individuals as savage raiders, "the scourge of the Rio Grande." In fact, the rela­ The United States and Huerta by Kenneth J. tively civilized Kickapoo came from Wisconsin, Grieb presents readers with a welcome contrast were driven south by encroaching Americans, to Blood on the Border. Grieb has made exten­ and settled in Texas before they were forced to sive use of archival materials in both the United flee again to maintain their freedom. Arriving States and Mexico for his volume in the Uni­ in Mexico, the Kickapoo formed defensive colo­ versity of Nebraska Press's series on Latin nies designed to protect Mexicans from the America. His study merits serious considera­ more predatory tribes, such as the Comanche, tion. who terrorized the Northern States of Mexico Grieb advances several important points in from the United States. his book. Many of these, unhappily, are open As for the simplistic view of Mexican raiders to great question. He states that Woodrow Wil­ presented by Clendenen, it too is misleading. son's failure to accord recognition to the gov­ The fact that Texas contained a large concen­ ernment of Victoriano Huerta in 1913 was a tration of oppressed Mexicans in the border break with our "traditional" policy of recog­ counties, and that bitter feelings between Tex- nizing all de facto Mexican regimes. This is ans and Mexicans were likely to bring about false. President Rutherford B. Hayes refused disorder is ignored in Clendenen's account. Var­ to recognize the government of Porfirio Diaz ious nationalistic uprisings quite naturally oc­ in 1877 for the same reason that Wilson used, curred, notably the "Cortina War" of 1850. that the government in Mexico took power by The activities of the Texas state police — the force. If Mr. Grieb had looked at Daniel Cosio Texas Rangers—paid by local ranchers inter­ Villegas' study, also published in the Nebraska ested in obtaining ever more land at the ex­ series, he might have realized this. pense of neighboring Mexico are completely Wilson, according to Grieb's thesis, after re­ ignored by the author. Thus, the several Texas fusing to recognize Huerta, initiated a policy Ranger invasions of Mexico are applauded by of moralism designed to encourage democracy Clendenen who sees these things as an effort to in Mexico. The American President supported bring about "law and order" rather than fur­ the revolutionaries under Venustiano Carranza, ther contributing to the violence of the area. Pancho Villa, and Emiliano Zapata. This pol­ Clendenen praises even the activities of officers icy, Grieb notes, led to further disorder and in the United States Army, men like General contradicted Wilson's stated desire to see peace Ranald S. Mackenzie and Colonel William R. and security return to Mexico. Hence, Wilson's Shaffer to mention but two, who actually en­ Mexican policy ironically led to the very con­ deavored to bring about a military collision ditions it was designed to mitigate against. between the two republics in their largely vain The point that Mr. Grieb fails to consider is attempt to pacify the border. long-term American interests in Mexico. Wilson One of Clendenen's main failures is his almost supported the revolutionaries for not only total reliance on American military sources for moralistic reasons, although he sincerely de­ information. Rationalizing the inexcusable by sired to help bring democracy to Mexicans. stating that it is necessary to find only the Stability was the goal. Stability benefited the beliefs and information available to American United States, as well as all the advanced pow­ military personnel, Clendenen presents his ers who had huge investments in Mexico. Sta­ readers with a one-sided and erroneous picture. bility could no longer be secured, Wilson intel­ Mexican sources are readily obtainable and ligently perceived, by the power of one aging reveal a quite different story. dictator attempting to continue the Porfirian In summary, Clendenen's book is based on era's domestic balance. Rather, constitutional incomplete sources, deals with few important government with elected officials and a system issues — even within the confines of military of checks and balances, much like that of the history — and, as a result, is misleading or United States, would be beneficial to American worse. The one competent section, dealing with investments (which were then about one billion

312 BOOK REVIEWS

dollars) in the long run. Porfirian Mexico had political arrangements and there were those vanished and Wilson knew it. What Grieb who emphasized community sentiment. The identifies as the diplomacy of morality can also former, the men of the "polity," are repres­ be interpreted as the diplomacy of the intelli­ ented by Root, Nicholas Murray Butler, and gent investor. In the end Wilson proved correct. five leaders of the League to Enforce Peace The Mexican Revolution, one of this century's (Marburg, Lowell, Clark, Giddings, and Holt). great popular movements, nationalized no These men were fascinated by the attempt to American holdings during the Wilson years, discover the proper institutional framework and even after 1920 only some oil subsoil rights for an international organization whether it —not bad considering what happened in Cuba was an international court system, an arbitra­ in 1959. tion mechanism, or a league of one kind or The United States and Huerta presents a another. At the same time, the second group series of interesting facts which are important of internationalists relied not upon institutions in and of themselves. Thus, the errors of judg­ but upon belief. They placed their hope in ment which mar Grieb's work are not as devas­ the growth of supranationalist loyalties, religi­ tating as they otherwise might be. Grieb should ous faith, the brotherhood of all mankind. have paid more attention to historians inter­ They are represented in this book by Jane ested in long-range American foreign policy. Addams, Thorstein Veblen, and Josiah Royce. People like William A. Williams, and more The thesis is provocative, and it is evident specifically in Grieb's own Wilsonian period, that Mrs. Herman has given the problem a N. Gordon Levin, offer insights which can ac­ good deal of hard thought — she develops the count for the facts, whereas Grieb presents dichotomy with intelligence and vigor (some­ merely "ironies," "if only," and an irrelevant times too much vigor), and she explores some thanks to the fact that the Mexican revolution­ of the most significant implications of this aries did not turn to the Bolsheviks. division in internationalist thought. Mrs. Herman's book also deserves praise for the skill she demonstrates in integrating RICHARD ZEITLIN internationalist thinking with her subjects' University of Wisconsin thinking in other areas. The reader is given an excellent understanding of how ideas about international society sprang from and were reflections of the world views of each of the Eleven Against War: Studies in American eleven individuals. By thus broadening her Internationalist Thought, 1898-1921. By perspective, she is enabled to make another SoNDRA R. HERMAN. [Hoover Institution Pub­ important observation. The men of the polity lications Series: 82, Stanford, 1969. Pp. xiv, were social conservatives — they distrusted 264. Notes, bibliography, index. $8.90.) the masses, feared revolution hysterically, loved capitalism, and saw no more conflict The content of this admirable book is more between patriotic nationalism and internation­ aptly described by the second half of the title al stability than between competing individuals than by the first; perhaps it was hoped that in a laissez faire economic system and the sales might be helped by so timely an appeal health of the whole society. The believers in to antiwar interests as is implied by the first community, however, rejected the elitist and words. What unites the eleven individuals who Social Darwinist assumptions of the men of comprise Mrs. Herman's cast is not their the polity. They saw themselves as spokesmen repulsion at war (their number, after all, in­ for the common man, they were wary of na­ cludes Elihu Root, Secretary of War under tionalism, and they were never blinded to the President William McKinley and the founder inequities and injustices of capitalism. of the War College) ; rather, they are united The final chapter is devoted to President by their desire to establish some international Woodrow Wilson. Mrs. Herman makes the arrangement which might, along with other argument that, despite Wilson's evident domes­ results, someday mean an end to international tic progressivism, he was, as far as his scheme conflict. Mrs. Herman's effort is noteworthy for a League of Nations was concerned, very in two respects. much a man of the polity. His plan rested on First, her overarching thesis is most signifi­ a fear of Bolshevism, a belief in the viability cant. She argues that internationalists at the of nationalism (particularly American nation­ turn of the century were divided into two alism), and an unswerving faith in firmly classes. There were those who emphasized established political institutions. The essay on

313 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 Wilson is interesting, but it is probably out of of the 1969 National Book Award in Bio­ place in this study. Her decision to include a graphy and History. It will do much to help consideration of the thought of so thorough­ this and later generations — removed in time going a political figure (who hammered out and passion from the 1930's — understand his ideas under the fire of rapidly shifting why the colorful Louisiana politician aroused situations and always kept one eye on the next such strong and antithetical emotions among election and fashioned his institution in the his contemporaries. brutal bargaining of Versailles) along with In some respects, it is fortunate that Profes­ the thought of men in safer callings places sor Williams was forced to rely heavily upon upon her book a burden which it is not strong interviews instead of surviving manuscripts. enough to carry convincingly. Instead of treat­ Many of the most important activities of politi­ ing Wilson as merely another "thinker" about cians like Long are never committed to paper. international organization, Mrs. Herman Fortunately, as Williams discovered, many of would have been better advised to concentrate the individuals he interviewed were "aston­ on the question of how the various currents of ishingly frank in detailing their dealing. ..." internationalist thought manifested themselves But they "had not trusted a record of these in his embattled ideology. dealings to paper, and it would not have oc­ Generally, however, the book is competent, curred to them to transcribe their experiences persuasive, and significant. The author has at a later time." This does not mean that done her research well — in personal papers, Williams' account is the "whole story" of Huey in printed speeches and articles by her sub­ Long; it does mean that he has succeeded in jects, and in a wide range of appropriate sec­ telling a great deal about the inside story of ondary material. The book makes a clear con­ politics that would never have been revealed tribution to our understanding of American in the printed record. thinking about international relations at the Williams is a superb writer of narrative turn of the century. history and a master of the well-told anecdote. DAVID W. LEVY He carries the reader through endless details University of Oklahoma of Long's career, from his youth as a brash and hyperactive schoolboy in Winn Parish to the predawn hours of September 10, 1935, when he died from an assassin's bullet mur­ muring, "God, don't let me die. I have so much Huey Long. By T. HARRY WILLIAMS. (Alfred to do." Huey Long was a fascinating character A. Knopf, Inc., New York, 1969. Pp. xiv, 884. and this inherent fascination, coupled with Bibliography, notes, illustrations, index. the author's writing succeeds in sustaining the $12.50.) reader's interest for 884 pages, an extra­ ordinary accomplishment in itself. For a time after Huey Long's assassination, This virtue in Huey Long at the same time it seemed that an adequate biography might conceals the book's greatest weakness: it's never be written. Even though Long held pub­ excessive, indeed almost overwhelming, length. lic office for most of the period from 1918 to Step by step, every detail of Long's career is his death in 1935, he did not leave a substantial recounted; his career as a railroad commis­ body of manuscripts. Moreover, Long repelled sioner and opponent of "corporate privilege," most of his earlier biographers, and their writ­ his unsuccessful and successful campaigns for ings reflected their revulsion. the governorship, his stormy career as Louis­ But, during the early 1950's, T. Harry iana's chief executive (he was nearly im­ Williams, Boyd Professor of History at peached in 1929), his total mastery of politics Louisiana State University, became intrigued within the state, and his election to the United with the potential of oral history in the recon­ States Senate in 1932. Minor, even trivial in­ struction of recent history. Living in Louisiana, cidents, are recounted in detail and the evid­ Williams was soon taken with the idea of ence supporting one version carefully weighed writing a biography of Long using oral inter­ against others. Readers outside Louisiana views as his main source. With the co-opera­ might also question the emphasis which is tion of Huey's son, Senator Russell B. Long, given to various aspects of Long's career. The Williams began interviewing friends, enemies, author devotes nearly fifty pages to a discus­ and associates of the one-time presidential sion of Long's relationship with Louisiana aspirant. The result is a distinguished bio­ State University and less than ten pages to the graphy which has been rightly named winner Senator's "Share the Wealth" plan.

314 BOOK REVIEWS

In all fairness, however, it should be noted services. And Long accomplished this extra­ that Williams was writing for several au­ ordinary program while avoiding the kind of diences: the professional historian interested race-baiting that seemed to have been institu­ in Long as a mass political leader; the average tionalized by Southern demagogues. reader, fascinated by the bizarre antics of one All this was not accomplished without con­ of America's most colorful politicians, and the siderable cost, of course. Many critics in the residents of Louisiana, fascinated with every 1930's and later charged that Long was the detail of the man who has loomed so large in nearest thing the United States ever had to a their history. (One book store in Baton Rouge Mussolini or Hitler. For the most part, this esti­ is reported to have sold more than 3,000 copies mation did not grow out of his role as a national of Huey Long in the first four months after political leader. His "Share the Wealth" scheme publication.) could scarcely be dignified with the label of an Moreover, there are many rewarding aspects ideology. And he scorned the racism of Hitler to Huey Long. Williams' discussion of the and many American fascists. But his extra­ Louisiana Senator as a national politician is ordinary control over the state of Louisiana judicious and informed; his analysis of Long and his unconcealed aspirations for national in the Byzantine reaches of Louisiana politics power inevitably lead critics to see him as a is even better. Long has been generally de­ potential dictator. scribed as a "great demagogue, and hence a Long readily acknowledged that he sought very dangerous one, but still a demagogue," power. It was necessary, he said, in order to observes Williams. Most writers have seldom help the "little guys." "He wanted to do good, bothered to define their use of the term, except but to accomplish that he had to have power," to make its perjorative connotations apparent. concludes Williams at one point. "So he took Williams accepts the definition in the sense power and then to do more good seized still that it describes the Louisiana Senator's more power and finally the means and the end arousal of the masses against the established order. But he denies that Long was a typical became so entwined in his mind that he could American (and more specifically a typical not distinguish between them, could not tell Southern) demagogic politician. Earlier Dixie whether he wanted power as a method or for demagogues had clawed their way into politi­ its own sake." If this seems an inconclusive, cal office. But, inevitably after the shouting even indecisive estimation of Huey Long's had subsided, things remained the same. At motive, it is nevertheless as honest and as ac­ most a few token or inconsequential reforms curate an assessment as we are likely to get. had been enacted. Such was the pattern of a Benjamin "Pitchford Ben" Tillman or a James DAN T. CARTER K. Vardaman. Their basic weakness was that University of Maryland they were not really very rebellious. Above all, they would not deal ruthlessly with their con­ servative opposition. "They never conceived of the possibility of overwhelming the estab­ lished machine and replacing it with one of To the Hartford Convention: The Federalists their own. They did not have the imagination and the Origins of Party Politics in Massachu­ or, more probably the will to act daringly." setts, 1789-1815. By JAMES M. BANNER, JR. Imagination, daring, will — these were cer­ (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1970. Pp. vii, tainly characteristics of Huey Long. In 1918, 378. Notes, maps, tables, appendix, biblio­ when he emerged from the north central Louis­ graphy, index. $8.95.) iana hill country to win a seat on the Louisiana Railroad Commission, Louisiana politics was Recent scholarly interest in the first Ameri­ a chaotic jungle of factions, "rings," and can party system has cast a new light on the "courthouse gangs." By 1934 Huey Long con­ development of political parties in the early trolled Louisiana's politics from the parish national period. James Banner's account of the level to the statehouse. As Governor and later growth of the Federalist party in Massachusetts as Senator, Long brought a minor revolution is an important addition to this growing body to Louisiana. He broke the power of the con­ of literature. Emphasizing the ideological and servative oligarchy which had ruled the state the socioeconomic forces that helped mold since Reconstruction and he brought broader Federalism, the study provides the reader with benefits to the poorer residents of the state: an interpretative framework with which to roads, hospitals, schools, and improved public view political development in the Commou-

315 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 wealth. It is the author's contention that the King: A Critical Biography. By DAVID L. Federalist party by the late 1790's became a LEWIS. (Praeger Publishers, New York, 1970. "particularistic" and regional party as its Pp. xii, 460. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, influence waned on the national scene. The index. $7.95.) Federalist leaders emerged from the Revolu­ tionary experience with the fervent hope that the newly formed republic could prevent the David L. Lewis's study of Martin Luther alienation of the governed from those who King, Jr., cannot be described as a "definitive" govern. This expectation, however, was never biography (if there is such a thing). But it is fulfilled and, indeed, the Federalists viewed a good deal more than a recitation of events the ascendency of the Jeffersonians as a coun­ in the life of a great man. The term "critical" tervailing force which subverted their ideals. in the title is fairly used, for Lewis makes an Moreover, Jefferson's policy of economic sanc­ admirable effort to analyze why King acted, tions against Great Britain and France and the how he influenced his times, and how he was War of 1812 served only to exacerbate their in turn influenced by them. The book is replete sense of estrangement and exclusion from the with judgments and interpretations by the federal government. According to the author, author. Although sympathetic to King, Lewis the Hartford Convention in 1814 was but a does not hesitate to criticize— at times culmination of events, having its roots in the sharply — his failings. His generally clearly feelings of alienation and frustration among written narrative is marred in spots by con­ Federalists in Massachusetts. Indeed, theirs fusing transitions from one time and place to was the difficult task of making known a another, but readers will appreciate the mood minority's voice to national leaders who chose of excitement that he conveys. not to listen. The bulk of the book is devoted to the period from 1955 to 1965 — from the Montgomery In analyzing the relationship between the bus boycott to the Selma march. This was a young and old Federalists, Banner takes issue decade of triumph for King, but Lewis recogn­ with David Hackett Fischer's thesis that there izes that not all of the minister's efforts were was a discernible cleavage between political successful. He did not, for example, function generations. Banner asserts that the distinc­ effectively as an administrator, and, on oc­ tion was one of degree not kind. Though the casions, he failed to take full advantage of his career patterns of young Federalists differed gift for leadership to enforce unity among the from those of their elders, they successfully fractious civil rights groups that comprised united within a party to uphold the "New his movement. But Lewis emphasizes that King England conscience" and protect their political learned from his failures — such as his dis­ hegemony in Massachusetts. astrous experience in Albany, Georgia — grew The author's use of quantitative materials as a leader, and rightfully deserved his inter­ such as census and voting returns and bio­ national reputation. graphical data of slate legislators gives an added dimension to this study. More import­ For ten years King and his supporters antly, the author, in making judicious use of dramatized nonviolently the denial of constitu­ this data, avoids the ecological fallacy Charles tional rights to Southern blacks. But after Beard, Manning Dauer, and others committed Selma, King began to focus on the problems in their analysis of voting patterns during the of institutionalized poverty suffered by blacks early national period. To be sure, however. in the North. The results of his efforts in Banner exercises his prerogative as a historian Chicago, his major target, were in many ways to conjecture about voting behavior in Mas­ frustrating and damaging to his position as a sachusetts based upon quantitative data that civil rights leader. Lewis denies, however, that has certain limitations and qualitative evidence the Chicago campaign was a rout for King, which he has assiduously assayed. Though noting that he succeeded in articulating the some scholars may take issue with his revision­ black community's demands and mobilizing ist interpretations. Banner provides the reader the people just as he had done in Southern with a skillfully executed study of Federalism cities. The real problem was that the climate in Massachusetts. of civil rights was changing by the time King started his Northern operations. Black Power militants and violent tactics were gaining popularity among blacks. Whites, including JAMES H. ROBBINS those who had supported King's activities in University of Illinois, Chicago Circle the South, began to feel threatened personally

316 BOOK REVIEWS both by the militants and by King's movement the poor) and "internationalist" (attack when it attacked the more subtle but equally American action in Vietnam) approach, he degrading forms of prejudice outside the alienated "powerful white interests." But in South. Lewis's opinion, his decision to do so offered It is about the post-Selma period — exam­ the "truest measure of a morally autonomous ined in one-quarter of the book — that Lewis man." It is implicit in Lewis's interpretation makes his greatest contribution to King his­ that had King lived, his influence on America toriography. His interpretation is fresh and would have been not only greater than it had thought-provoking; undoubtedly it will also been in the past, but that it would have been be controversial. Whites, he argues, felt felt on a much broader plane than merely race especially alarmed when King challenged eco­ relations. nomic discrimination, when he emphasized the I would like to think that Lewis is correct dichotomy between plenty and poverty existing in his assumption that King's influence was among Americans. Equally significant, as again on the rise. But I am not totally con­ Lewis makes abundantly clear, was President vinced. As in the case of John F. Kennedy, the Lyndon Johnson's hostility as King became tragic death of a beloved and respected leader increasingly critical of American involvement tends to still harsh critics and cause old ad­ in Vietnam. As a result, in the last years of mirers to recall the best about the deceased. his life King could expect neither encourage­ Martin Luther King, Jr., was indeed a giant. ment nor significant direct help from the ad­ But unfortunately, people often choose not to ministration. The decision to speak out against foflow the lead of their best men. Whether or the war was not reached easily, and it cost him not Americans would have accepted the new the backing of a considerable number of his paths charted by King is, unfortunately, a old supporters. question that historians may argue, but no When King "enlarged his campaign from one can answer with certainty. one of civil rights to one of human rights," JIM F. HEATH when he adopted a "new populist" (mobilize Portland State University

BOOK REVIEWS: Nebraska, 1880-1900, reviewed by Justus F. Paul 302 Banner, To the Hartford Convention: The Federal­ Manners, T. R. and Will: A Friendship that Split ists and the Origins of Party Politics in Massachu­ the Republican Party, reviewed by Allan E. setts, 1789-1815, reviewed by James H. Reznick 310 Robbins 315 Murray, The Harding Era: Warren G. Harding and Beardsley, Harry L. Russell and Agricultural Science His Adminisrtation, reviewed by Kenneth J. in Wisconsin, reviewed by George H. Roeder, Grieb 305 Jr 299 O'Connor, Lords of the Loom: The Cotton Whigs Clendenen, Blood on the Border: The United States and the Coming of the Civil War, reviewed by Army and the Mexican Irregulars, reviewed by Joel H. Silbey 308 Richard Zeitlin 311 Rawley, Race and Politics: "Bleeding Kansas" and Dubofsky, We Shall Be All: A History of the the Coming of the Civil War, reviewed by Tom Industrial Workers of the World, reviewed by Phillips 304 Joseph R. Conlin 310 Semonche, Ray Stannard Baker: A Quest for Demo­ Evans, Prairie Farmer and WLS: The Burridge D. cracy in Modern America, 1870-1918, reviewed Butler Years, reviewed by John L. Shover .... 299 by Walter I. Trattner 306 Gard, This is Wisconsin, reviewed by Doris H. United States Department of the Interior, National Platt 298 Park Service, The National Register of Historic Grieb, The United States and Huerta, reviewed by Places 1969, reviewed by Richard W. E. Richard Zeitlin 311 Perrin 306 Hackney, Populism to Progressivism in Alabama, Walsh, To Print the News and Raise Hell: A Bio­ reviewed by Michael S. Holmes 309 graphy of Wilbur F. Storey, reviewed by Oliver Herman, Eleven Against War: Studies in American Knight 302 Internationalist Thought, 1898-1921, reviewed Williams, T. Harry, Huey Long, reviewed by Dan by David W. Levy 313 T. Carter 314 Kreuter, An American Dissenter: The Life of Algie Williams, William Appleman, The Roots of the Martin Simons, 1870-1930, reviewed by Melvyn Modern American Empire, reviewed by Walter Dubofsky 300 V. Scholes _ _ 307 Lewis, King: A Critical Biography, reviewed by Wyman, The Lumberjack Frontier: The Life of a Jim F. Heath _ 316 Logger in the Early Days on the Chippeway, Luebke, Immigrants and Politics: The Germans of reviewed by Howard W. Kanetzke 301

317 l^^gH^l^liHI^

ACCESSIONS

Manuscripts

Services for microfilming, photostating, and xeroxing all hut certain restricted items in its manuscripts collections are provided by the Society. For details write Dr. Josephine L. Harper, Manuscripts Curator.

General Collections. The International Brother­ hood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, commonly referred to as the Teamsters, is one of the largest and most influential labor unions in the United States. Membership numbers 1,700,000 and includes taxi, delivery, construction, and over-the-road 1 drivers, cannery, dairy, and garage workers, -U^Si.- • ^ government employees, and others. Their ac­ 4 tions affect probably every segment of the Society's lcniKigrax)hic t^ollections American economy. Daniel J. Tobin The IBT was formed in 1903 by an amalga­ mation of several rival teamster organizations. Dissension continued for many years, however, on a larger scale, as do trade divisions encom­ and mere existence was often questionable. passing all locals engaged in the same type of Membership loyalty had not yet been cemented activity. The IBT was a pioneer in this trade by tradition; money was short, and conse­ division system of organization. quently troubleshooting organizers were few Through the years, the governing offices of and overworked. the union have remained generally the same. Even when existence had been assured, the The president, secretary-treasurer, and vice- scope of the organization's influence was nebu­ presidents form the executive council. The lous and fluctuating. During these and later council is responsible to the convention of the years, jurisdictional disputes with several other members. international unions began. The Bakery and The Papers of the IBT extend from 1904 to Confectionery Workers, the Retail Clerks, the 1952, with a concentration of material in the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, the Inter­ 1940's. During most of these years the union's national Association of Bridge and Structural president was Daniel J. Tobin, who also was Iron Workers, the Brotherhood of Railway an American Federation of Labor treasurer, Clerks, the Laundry Workers, the Glass Bottle 1917-1928, and vice-president, 1933-1955, Blowers, the International Union of Operating and a prominent Franklin Roosevelt supporter. Engineers, and the International Union of These activities are reflected in portions of the United Brewery Workers all experienced jur­ Papers. isdictional conflicts with the IBT. Such dis­ Comprising 234 boxes and also available on putes were usually accompanied by attempts microfilm, the Papers are organized in five at reconciliation and compromise under the major series: (1) staff correspondence, 1904?- auspices of the American Federation of Labor. 1952, including correspondence between the As the IBT has grown, its structure has be­ union officers and the general organizers, audi­ come more complex. Local unions remain the tors, and other employees; (2) affiliated bodies' basic unit of organization. Joint councils com­ correspondence including exchanges with local bine geographically close locals for more co­ unions, 1910-1952; joint councils, 1907-1952; operation in bargaining and other activities; area and state conferences, 1941—1952; and state and area conferences do the same thing trade divisions, 1939-1952; (3) American

318 ACCESSIONS Federation of Labor correspondence, 1905- Council, the National Society for Crippled 1952; (4) correspondence with other labor Children and Adults, and Radio Free Europe, organizations, 1907-1952; and (5) general presented by Mrs. Brophy, Pawling, N. Y. correspondence including exchanges with the Papers, 1929-1939, of Emanuel F. Brunette, general public, the government, trucking com­ Wisconsin state legislator, including corre­ panies, and many charities. spondence, materials relating to the University Included with the correspondence in each of Wisconsin committee investigation of series are related items such as reports, min­ charges of communistic teaching (1935), utes, clippings, transcripts of government hear­ Emergency Board correspondence (1936), ings and decisions, legal briefs, and copies of speeches, and resource materials used by Bru­ local union by-laws. Subject matter in the sev­ nette, presented by Mrs. Alice Brunette, Green eral series overlap and yield information on Bay; papers, 1940-1965, of Roger Faherty, the union's initial struggles for existence and Chicago attorney, including correspondence, unity, its jurisdictional disputes, its growth in clippings, news releases, minutes, and speeches membership and influence, changes in organiz­ concerning Republican politics, particularly ing and bargaining techniques and in the truck­ the presidential campaigns of Robert Taft, the ing and transportation industries, and the Taft Memorial Foundation, and the 1953 ap­ increasing strength and political involvement pointment of William Howard Taft as ambas­ of the labor movement in general. Prominent sador to Ireland, presented by Mr. Faherty, correspondents include James A. Farley, West- Evanston, 111.; letters, 1941-1946, to Lillian brook Pegler, Victor Riesel, labor leaders Sam­ Otto Fried, manager of a women's dormitory uel Gompers, William Green, Matthew Woll, in Madison, from World War II soldiers, in­ and others, members of Congress, Secretaries cluding descriptions of posts and duties, remi­ of Labor, and directors of government agen­ niscences of University friends and activities, cies (Restricted). and comments on contemporary University Other general collections organized and cata­ affairs, presented by Mr. and Mrs. Orrin A. logued are papers, 1927-1966, of the Wisconsin Fried, Madison; papers, 1907-1947, concern­ Division of the American Association of Uni­ ing Joseph R. Greer, Grant County sheriff and versity Women, including correspondence, offi­ circus and rodeo showman, and his family, in­ cers' reports, directories, and scrapbooks, and cluding correspondence, clippings, and ledgers, material relating to Ellen C. Sabin, president presented by Mrs. Ileen Greer, Stevens Point; of Milwaukee-Downer College, presented by papers, 1877—1932, of Joseph Lafayette Mur­ Mrs. F. B. Baxter, West Bend; papers, 1952- phy, a Lutheran minister from Tennessee, and 1965, of the American Bar Association's Com­ his wife, Clara Falk, from Stoughton, including mittee on Traffic Court Program, including correspondence, clippings, and other materials correspondence, minutes, reports on activities which provide a picture of life in their time and and finances, and circular letters and publi­ localities, presented by Mrs. Brynhilde Murphy cations, presented by Albert B. Houghton, Mil­ Wise, Bryn Mawr, Pa. waukee; papers, 1942-1968, of Cedar Rapids, Papers, 1956-1959, concerning the National Iowa, Local 716 of the American Federation Railroad Museum, Green Bay, including corre­ of Teacliers, including correspondence, min­ spondence, memoranda, press releases, and utes, treasurer's reports, and clippings, pre­ clippings concerning the establishment of the sented by the Cedar Rapids Federation of Museum, fund raising, and attempts to get Teachers; papers, 1956-1966, of Judge T'A.oTTia.s Congressional recognition as a national mu­ H. Barland, chiefly from the years he repre­ seum, presented by Harold T. I. Shannon, sented Eau Claire County's First District in Green Bay; leaflets, pamphlets, and mimeo­ the Wisconsin Assembly, 1960—1966, including graphed letters to supporters, 1958-1968, of correspondence, campaign materials, and a the New England Committee for Nonviolent subject file relating to his legislative activities, Action, concerning their activities against Po­ presented by Mr. Barland, Eau Claire; papers, laris submarines, nuclear testing, the war in 1921-1967, of Thomas D'Arcy Brophy, adver­ Vietnam, and the draft, presented by the Com­ tising executive, including personal corre­ mittee, Voluntown, Conn.; and papers, 1940- spondence and speeches, client records and 1956, of Burr W. Phillips, University of Wis­ advertising programs, and correspondence, consin professor of history and education, minutes, reports, financial statements, press re­ including articles, lectures, reports, and corre­ leases, clippings, and brochures relating to spondence chiefly concerning post-World War civic and business organizations such as Ameri­ II education in Germany, presented by Sarah can Heritage Foundation, the Advertising Hughes, Madison.

319 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970

Contributors west, and on La Tene and Marowingian sites in JOHN 0. HOLZHUETER, born in southern Germany. A revised version of his W"'^Ktk/ Menominee in 1935, received master's thesis, "The Midway Site," an Orr (flHs his A.B. in journalism from Phase Oneota site in La Crosse County, is being j^^^^ the University of Wisconsin, published by the Wisconsin Archeologist. His JIH|V' where he was also editor of the disseration, "The Walker-Hooper and Bornick ^T ! Daily Cardinal. He has previ­ Sites," is a study of Grand River Phase Oneota ously contributed to the Maga­ sites in Green Lake and Marquette counties. zine as the editor of the Edwin Hillyer gold rush diary (Spring, 1966) and as BAYRD STILL, a native of Ifli- a frequent book reviewer. Since 1966 he has nois, received his higher edu­ worked as a part-time instructor in journalism cation at the University of at the University of Wisconsin (1967-1969) Wisconsin —a B.A. in 1928, and as a research assistant on the Society's six- ^ ^ M.A. in 1929, and Ph.D. in volume History of Wisconsin project in both MH| KHh 1933. Participation in Freder- part-time and full-time capacities since June, HIK'AHI ic L. Paxson's seminar at­ 1966. Concurrently he has completed work tracted his attention to urban towards a Ph.D. in U.S. journalism history development in connection with the westward with the exception of his dissertation, which movement of population, which has remained will be a history of the Wisconsin Press Asso­ a continuing interest. From 1932 to 1938 he ciation. Beginning in October, 1970, Mr. taught at what is now the University of Wis­ Holzhueter will join his wife, Monona Rossol, consin-Milwaukee, where he did the research in New York City, where she pursues careers for his Milwaukee: The History of a City, first in pottery and singing. published by the Society in 1948 and reprinted in 1965. From 1938 to 1947, with the exception BERTRAM WYATT-BROWN was of four years service with the Army Air Force, born in Harrisburg, Pennsyl­ he taught history at Duke University before ^^^P vania, in 1932. He was edu­ going to New York University where he was cated at the University of the head of the history department from 1959 to South, from which he obtained 1969. his B.A. in 1953; at King's College, Cambridge, England, STAN GORES, a graduate of which awarded him an hon. Northwestern University with B.A. in 1957 and an M.A. in 1961; and the a B.S. degree from the Medill Johns Hopkins University, where he received School of Journalism and a his Ph.D. in 1963. His publications include the minor in history, has worked book, Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War on the staff of the Appleton Against Slavery (1969), and articles in Civil Post-Crescent, and in addition War History, the Journal of Negro History, to serving as editor of a na­ and other journals. He has taught history at tional trade magazine in the pet field, is special Colorado State University, the University of projects and feature editor of the Fond du Lac Colorado, and has been a visiting professor at Commonwealth Reporter. As a free-lance writer the University of Wisconsin. At present he is he has had articles in numerous magazines, the an associate professor of history at Case West­ Catholic Digest Magazine, Wisconsin Tales and ern Reserve University. Trails, and the Wisconsin Magazine of History. Stories written by him have appeared in major GUY E. GIBBON was educated newspapers all over the country, and he also is in the Milwaukee public schools the author of a short story which appeared in before attending Kenyon Col­ Wisconsin Harvest, edited by August Derleth lege, Gambler, Ohio, and the and published in 1966. He was the co-author of University of Wisconsin, where a booklet written for the Small Business Ad- he obtained his B.S., M.S., and minstration, for which agency he also wrote a Ph.D. degrees. In 1969 he pamphlet. Three of his news stories have been joined the faculty of the Uni­ read into the Congressional Record, and he has versity of Illinois at Urbana, and is currently received a plaque from the Fond du Lac Public an assistant professor of anthropology. Mr. Library Board, as well as an Award of Merit Gibbon's field work has been concentrated on from the Society in 1968 for his writings in the the excavation of Mississippian sites in the Mid- field of history.

320 THE MYTH OF A PROGRESSIVE REFORM: Railroad Regulation in Wisconsin, 1903-1910 By Stanley P. Caine This winner of the Everest Prize in Wisconsin Economic History bril­ liantly reassesses the railroad regulation movement in Wisconsin, show­ ing that La Follette was an inept and ambivalent champion of the reform and that its principal beneficiaries were the railroads. Portraits. 226 pages. $7.95. HASKELL OF GETTYSBURG: His Life and Civil War Papers Edited by Franl< L. Byrne and Andrew T. Weaver Franl< Haskell of Wisconsin was author of the most famous — and en­ during— eyewitness account of the Battle of Gettysburg. This new scholarly edition of his epic is supplemented by thirty hitherto unpub­ lished letters and an extended biographical slReconstruction era. Portraits. 304 pages. $7.95. BENEATH THE FOOTNOTE: A Guide to the Use and Preservation of American Historical Sources By O. Lawrence Burnette, Jr. This work fills a long-standing gap in the historian's understanding of the institutions and practices involved in the care and use of the primary sources for American history—archives, manuscripts, newspapers, and aural and graphic records. Professor Burnette traces the theories and practices of collecting, arranging, preserving, discarding, disseminat­ ing, and using primary documentation from their European origins to the contemporary American scene. 435 pages. $10.00. EDWIN E. WITTE: Cautious Reformer By Theron F. Schlabach The ideas, outlook, and techniques of a pragmatic reformer are illumi­ nated in this biography of the man who was rightly called "The Father of Social Security." Illustrations. 290 pages. $5.95. These and other books published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin are subject to a discount of 10% to members, libraries, and teachers. Write: Business Office, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. To promote a wider appreciation of the American heritage The Purpose with particular emphasis on the collection, advancement, of this and dissemination of knowledge of the history of Wisconsin Society shall he and of the Middle West.

State Historical Society of Wisconsin 816 State Street Second-class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin 53706 Madison, Wisconsin, and at Return Requested additional mailing offices.