VOLUME 42 NUMBER 3

SPRING, 1959

••r^

w. Wearing his stove-pipe hat, dressed in his decent suit and Lincolnesquely heshawled, John Masters saw nothing incongruous in sitting for his portrait in a homemade cart drawn by a lowly donkey. The result, taken ON THE COVER about 1860 by an unknown photographer in Jefferson, Wisconsin, is an oddly moving study of pioneer character and simple human dignity.

The WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published by the State Historical Society of Wis­ consin, 816 State Street, Madison 6, Wisconsin. Distributed to members as part of their dues (Annual Membership, $5.00; Contributing, $10; Business and Professional, $25; Life, $100; Sustaining, $100 or more annually; Patron, $1,000 or more annually). Yearly subscription, $5.00; single numbers, $1.25. As of July 1, 1955, introductory offer for NEW members: annual dues $1.00; such new members may subscribe to the Magazine for an additional $4.00. Com­ munications should be addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume responsibility for statements made by contributors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin. Copyright 1959 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund.

PERMISSION: Wisconsin newspapers may reprint any article appearing in the Wisconsin Magazine of History provided the story carries the following credit line: Reprinted from the State Historical Society's Wisconsin Magazine of History for [insert the season and year which appear on the Magazine].

COVER PICTURE: From the original albumen print donated by Mrs. Florence Blodgett to the Society's Iconographic Collections. VOLUME 42 NUMBER 3

PUBLISHED BY THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF V/ISCONSIN • SPRING, 1959

Editor: WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYCOOD

CONTENTS

Lenioot. La Follette, and the Campaign of 1906. . .PADRAIC M. KEX'KEDY 163

Pierce County in 1860 LAWRENCE H. LARSEN 175

(Copperheads and Copperheadism in Wisconsin: Democratic Opposition to the Lincoln Administration FRANIC L. KI,EVIENT 182

rhe Historical Significance of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates D. E. FEHRENBACHER 193

James H. Stout and the Menomonie 200 Schools ANN M. KEPPEI, AND JAMES I. CLARK 211 My Seventy-five Years: Part I, 1866-191 I LuTiE E. STEARNS 221 Forgotten Villages: The Village of fnch KATHERINE HADDEN FEATURES: Contributors to This Issue 162 Sincerely Yours 219 Circuit Kider 189 Readers' Choice 224 Accessions 2.38 Conttibutots To This Issue . . .

KATUERINK HAUUEM (Mrs. R. .1.), consin Free Library Commission, became its first was born in Wisconsin, th(; descend­ secretary, and as head of the Traveling Library De­ ^«!te. ant of a pioneer family. Largely partment spent eighteen years touring the state help­ educated at home under the tutelage ing to organize public libraries and setting up r- of her father, a teacher, she, too, library stations. After 1914 Miss Stearns took to the * entered the teaching profession and lecture platform, wrote a newspaper column, cam­ paigned for woman suffrage and international peace, and continued active in the Wisconsin Federation of r •uM taught in a series of rural schools in Women's Clubs which she had helped to organize. , #« Pane and Columbia Counties. An During the final, lingering illness which culminated eleven-year residence in Florida gave in her death on Christmas Day, 1943, she dictated her the leisure to develop her interest in writing and her autobiography to Miss Beryl E. Whitney of painting, and to her self-confessed astonishment, her Kenosha. first entry in a 1-lural Art Show in Madison was bought by the College of Agriculture for its perma­ nent collection of rural art. She has also contributed FRANK L. KLEMENT, professor of his­ articles and stories to various publications, and her tory at Marquette University, began poems have appeared in several anthologies. During his pedagogic career as a teacher in the period of World War II, Mrs. Hadden served as rural, graded, and high schools of the librarian of the Poynette Public Library. the state. A native of Leopolis, Wis­ consin, he received his B.E. degree LAWRENCE H. LARSEN, born in Ra­ at Wisconsin State College, Stevens cine. Wisconsin, has also lived in Point, and his Ph.M. and Ph.D. de­ such diverse place as Ottumvva, Iowa, grees from the University of Wiscon­ anil Atlanta, Georgia. Graduating sin. Before joining the Marquette faculty in 194H a I nun Lawrence College in 1953, he he taught history at Lake Forest (College and Eau spent the following year teaching Claire State College. He is an active member of the high school and coaching basketball Milwaukee Civil War Round Table and the Lincoln # MM in Hurdsfield, North Dakota. Since Fellow.ship of Wisconsin, of which he is the current then, with the exception of last year president. He is also a member of the Wisconsin when he was an instructor in history at the Extension Civil War Centennial Commission and chauman of Centers at Racine and Kenosha, he has been a its Education Committee. In addition to having graduate student at the University of Wisconsni contributed numerous articles to professional maga­ where he is currently a teaching assistant in the de­ zines, Mr. Klement is at work on a book dealing partment of history. with Midwestern Copperheadism.

P^DRAic M. KENNEDY, a native New Yorker, was born in 1933 and at­ D. E. FEHRENBACHER, associate pro­ tended the Portsmouth Priory fessor of history at Stanford Uni­ School in Rhode Island. His college versity, is the author of Chicago education, begun at (Columbia Uni­ Giant; The Story of Long John versity in 1952, was interrupted by Wentworth, which was published by a two-year stint in the Army during the American History Research Cen­ \shich time he was stationed in ter in 1957 and won the Pacific Vienna and Frankfurt. A fluency in Coast Branch Award of the Ameri­ the German language, acquired in the course of bis can Historical Association for the same year. A native of Sterling, Illinois, Mr. Fehren­ military career, enabled him to serve as an interpreter bacher was graduated from Cornell College in Iowa, and refugee receptionist for the National Council of saw service in World War H, then took his master's (Churches in New York while completing his A.B. and doctor's degrees in history at the University of degree. Following his graduation from Columbia in Chicago. Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford he 1958, Mr. Kennedy came to the University of Wis- taught at Roosevelt University and at Coe College. (•onsin as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. His wife, a former film critic for the National Board of Review, is taking courses at the University in comparative literature while her husband pursues his studies for ANN M. KEPPEL and JAMES I. (^EARK, joint authors the Ph.D. in American history. of "James H. Stout and the Menomonie Schools" in this issue, are both Wisconsin born, she in Mindoro, he in Omro. Both hold the master's degree in history LuTiE EUGENIA STEARNS attained na­ from the University of Wisconsin and both are com­ tional prominence in each of the pleting work on the doctorate in education at the several careers she forged for her­ same institution. Mr. Clark, now a social studies self during her lifetime. Born in editor for the Row Peterson and Company of Evans- Massachusetts, she was brought to ton, Illinois, was formerly high school supervisor of Milwaukee by her family at the age the Society's School Services, editor of 30th Star, of five, attended the public schools, and author of the Chronicles of Wisconsin. For more graduated from the old Milwaukee detailed biographical information, see the Winter, Normal in 1886, and for two years 1957-1958 number of the Magazine. Miss Keppel, of taught school before entering library work, the field whom a biographical sketch appeared in the Spring, in which she is probably best known. In 1895 she 1958, issue, is now assistant professor of education at aided in framing the bill which established the Wis- the University of Vermont in Burlington.

162 Lenroot, La Follette, and the Campaign of 1906

by Padraic M. Kennedy :-M W^5 '^^g^

AT NOON ON New Year's Day, 1906, Lieu- STi, ^ -'-*- tenant Governor James 0. Davidson was inaugurated to complete Robert M. La Fol- lette's unexpired third term as governor of Socier>'s Iconographii ( niii,ii(Mis Wisconsin. At a simple ceremony in Madison, Governor James 0. Davidson fin bowler), with Senator-elect La Follette presented his heir to unidentified friends, circa 1907. Chief Justice John B. Cassoday, who admin­ istered the oath of office. As second-in-command. Lieutenant (Gover­ Later that afternoon, several hundred dis­ nor Jim Davidson was the obvious candidate. tinguished citizens and state officials thronged He had often held the reins of state when the executive chambers to pay their respects La Follette was off on the Chautauqua circuit, to the new governor and to say farewell to and, moreover, would automatically serve the the old. It was a festive gathering. The cham­ remaining year of the governor's term when bers were gaily decorated with cut flowers, he left for Washington. Custom and seniority, ferns, and American flags. Guests milled about, if nothing else, made him the leading con­ exchanging pleasantries and seasonal greet­ tender for the Republican nomination for the ings. The Norwegian-born Davidson, tall and following year. The fifty-two-year-old David­ pordy with grand sweeping black moustachios, son had won four successive campaigns for and the striking, tousle-haired La Follette cut state-wide office, twice serving as state treasur­ handsome figures in their dress clothes as they er and twice, having run at La FoUette's insist­ cordially shook hands with the callers, "who ence, as lieutenant governor. Earlier, during were equally friends" of them both.^ three terms in the State Legislature, the im­ migrant storekeeper had established himself To all outward appearances it was a warm as a "pioneer reformer" by introducing bills and harmonious occasion. But already well- to tax telephone and telegraph, express, and laid plans were afoot to unseat Davidson as sleeping-car companies. "Yim" had many governor at the expiration of his term; and friends throughout the state and enjoyed the only the politically naive were unaware that almost solid support of his Norwegian country­ a first-rate primary fight was in the making. men, who made up the largest single bloc in the progressive coalition.'^ TT WAS early in the summer of 1905 that Nonetheless, despite a personal fondness for -*- Governor La Follette had first broached "Yim," La Follette had strong reservations to his close a.ssociates the idea of promoting about the prospect of his continuing as gov­ Irvine L. Lenroot as his successor. In January, ernor. If the reforms that had been won in a scant three weeks after having been sworn Wisconsin after years of struggle were to con­ in for his third term. La Follette had been tinue and the new legislation to be enforced, elected by the State Legislature to fill an im­ La Follette felt that his own brand of skdlful, pending vacancy in the iJ. S. Senate. But anx­ ious to see the progressive legislative program ' Milwaukee Free Press, January 2, 1906. he had outlined for the state more fully en­ - Belle C. and Fola La Follette, Robert M. La Fol­ acted, "Fighting Bob" had deferred assuming lette (New York, 1953), I, 189, 194-195, 197-198. " Robert S. Maxwell, La Follette and the Rise of his new office for almost a year.^ In the inter­ tlie Progressives in Wisconsin (Madison, 1956), 82- val, he had given a great deal of thoughl as 84; Herbert Felix Margulies, "Issues and Politics of to who was the proper person to continue his Wisconsin Progressivism, 1906-1920," (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1955), work in Wisconsin. 32, 66.

163 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959 aggressive leadership from the executive man­ His repeated efforts during the 1905 session to sion was indispensable. While Davidson's four­ push through an exemption bill that would teen-year record as a "half-breed" reformer reduce by one-half the amount of debtors' was unimpeachable, he remained a man of wages exempt from claims by creditors had limited education, though genial and able as a aroused significant protests. La Follette him­ politician, rather too mild and easy-going for self had vetoed the measure on the grounds a crusader.^ that it might well ". . . deprive the laborer However, in the ranks of I,a FoUette's fol­ and his family of the necessary comforts of lowers, one stood out as exceptionally well life."' qualified for the responsibility—Irvine Luther Most of these objections were voiced at a LenrooL handsome young speaker of the State September, 1905, meeting in Milwaukee of Assembly. A lawyer by profession, of Swedish sixty-eight trusted La Follette men. The con­ parentage, f^enroot had represented his north­ sensus of this group was expressed in a letter ern Wisconsin county at Madison for the past to the governor from his secretary and ad­ four years. An "intelligent and ready debater visor, John Hannon: "Of the men who have with a special gift for drafting legislation," so far been mentioned for the governorship," Lenroot had early proven himself "... a fear­ he wrote, "they are in favor of Davidson." less champion, a sagacious and effective lieu­ But he added that as a pledge of their fealty, tenant," and, by La FoUette's own testimony, ". . . if it is your desire that [Irvine Lenroot] had exerted "a strong influence on the most be the candidate, they will do all they can for important statutes of Wisconsin enacted from him. . . ."** 1901 to 1905."» By this juncture it was clear that this was While recognizing the speaker's incontest­ La FoUette's desire. And it was not long before able merits. La FoUette's associates were less he convinced devoted followers like Alfred T. enthusiastic about Lenroot's candidacy than Rogers, Herman Ekern, and James A. Stone their leader. They pointed out that he was lit­ that Lenroot was by far the best qualified tle known in the state, except to political man." leaders. Although his career had been mete­ But the Speaker himself was by no means oric, he was a relative newcomer to politics, "ambitious to become a candidate"; it was and had never run for office outside Douglas only after concerted urging on the part of County. Then, too, there was grave danger La Follette and others that he consented to that Lenroot, because of his alleged prohibi­ enter the field. His candidacy for the Repub- tionism, would be unacceptable to beer-drink­ ing Germans, Wisconsin's largest national group. It was "pretty much the opinion of German citizens of Wisconsin fmust] prevent the election of a governor who would carry water to the all the boys down in Milwaukee" that Len­ Prohibition mills, which, already in the last session root's "votes on certain propositions before the of the Legislature, rattled so cheerfully." See Die legislature" would antagonize not only the Germania, December 8, 1905, in the James 0. David­ son Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Germans, but "the liquor interests" as well." According to the twelfth Census of the U. S., there were 709,969 persons of German birth or parentage Finally, there were indications that Lenroot's in Wisconsin in 1900. Unlike the Norwegians, how­ candidacy would meet resistance from labor. ever, they did not vote as a bloc and were often di­ vided by party affiliation, ' Wisconsin Assembly Bills 1905. I; Assembly Jour­ * Belle C. and Fola La Follette, op. cit., I, 213; Max­ nal 1905, 689. The available evidence suggests that well, op. cit., 83: Margulies, op. cit., 65-66. Lenroot supported the Exemption Bill at the behest 'Belle C. and Fola La Follette, op. cit., I. 156, 195; of Wisconsin's grocers and butchers, often the work­ Robert M. La Follette, La FoUette's Autobiography: ingmen's only creditors. See Lenroot's speeches in A Personal Narrative of Political Experiences (Madi­ the Free Press, August 12, 13, 1906; for letters of son, 1913), 281. protest see Ed Emerson to La Follette, September *• Letter, John Hannon to La Follette, September 29 and November 26, 1905, also July 24, 1906, in 28, 1905, in the Robert M. La Follette Papers, State the La Follette Papers: J. S. Stack to Davidson, Historical Society of Wisconsin. An editorial in Die June 14, and 15, 1906, in the Davidson Papers; La Germania, the German language newspaper, said, FoUette's veto message may be found in the Wisconsin ". . . . what fills us with grave apprehension against Assembly Journal 1905, H, 1316-19. his candidacy is the rumors that stamp Mr. Lenroot "Hannon to La Follette, September 28, 1905, in the as a partisan of those people who are . . . termed La Follette Papers. 'mukker' (nickname for prohibitionists) . . . The ° Margulies, op. cit.. 68.

164 KENNEDY LENROOT. LA FOLLETTE

lican gubernatorial primary was announced Early in January, the call for the "mati from in the press during October, 1905. Hardly Superior" was printed in the newspapers, to­ burning with eagerness, Lenroot wrote Judge gether with the names of the colleagues who Stone on October 27: "It was with great regret had early singled him out ". . . as a legislator that I took the step, as I much preferred Con­ of great promise, wise in counsel, ready, able gress and had practically a clear field before and gifted in leadership." The statement also me; but upon representation of men whose extolled the ". . . strong head, steady eye, opinion I could not ignore," he continued, keen intellectual face, and firm, square jaw, "... I felt it my duty to do what I could to [that] . . . marked Irvine Lenroot in any continue the work in the state." Although group of men."^- apprehensive that his candidacy would result But the attempt to start a general move for in "serious division" in the half-breed ranks, Ijcnroot did not prove overpowering. Governor Lenroot vowed that ". . . we will make the Davidson was unreceptive to suggestions that best fight possible and I shall be content with he enter a Third Congressional District race whatever the future may hold in store."^^ against the stalwart incumbent, Joseph W. Lenroot's campaign began early and quiedy. Babcock. The argument that he could better Behind the scenes La Follette supervised a serve "the cause" in Washington seemed to preliminary canvass of the state. Reports re­ him no less than spurious.^'^ And furthermore, turning to the executive mansion were incon­ Hke the voters and local party leaders, the clusive; indications of Lenroot support were editors of Skandinaven and the Free Press countered by letters testifying to Davidson's were extremely reluctant to commit themselves or William D. Connor's strength. More than to a single candidate. Although ardendy one scout reported that people were unwilling courted by La Follette men, they, too, preferred to express their opinions and preferred to play to play "the waiting game."^'' "a waiting game."^^ Although it appeared too early to judge how pOVERNOR DAVIDSON was both disap- the voters would react. La Follette went to ^^ pointed and deeply hurt that La Follette work on their leaders. Through his friends he had deserted him. BuL ambitious to succeed put pressure on progressive assemblymen to himself, he wisely refrained from making any sign a call for Lenroot. Politicians and other public criticism of "Fighting Bob" or of his community leaders were urged to write letters young rival. to the Milwaukee Free Press and the Nor­ As the year 1906 opened, letters of encour­ wegian-language daily Skandinaven, demand­ agement and congratulation poured into the ing the speakers' candidacy. La Follette hoped executive mansion from all over the state. More to start such a snowballing movement for important, with them came pledges of support. Lenroot that Davidson would gracefully with­ Many expressed irritation with La Follette, draw from the field and run for Congress in­ charging "the little dictator" had ignored stead. By mid-December these efforts seemed to be meeting with considerable success. Her­ man L. Ekern, a Norwegian assemblyman " ,See the La Follette Papers, for 0<-tober, 1905. '•' Letters, John Strange to Davidson, January 31, from Trempealeau County, was able to write 1906; J. T. Dithmar to Davidson, March 29, 1906, the editor of Skandinaven that forty assem­ in the Davidson Papers; La Follette to Stone, Feb­ blymen "had signed the call for Lenroot." ruary 5, 1906; Stone to Lenroot, April 28, 1906; Stone to Davidson, April 3, 1906; Davidson to Stone, April 13, 1906, in the Stone Papers; Davidson to John Strange, February 5, 1906, in the La Follette '"Belle C. and Fola La Follette, op. cit., I, 195; Papers. Lenroot's unpublished memoirs, in the Irvine L. Len­ "Margulies, op. cit., 70-74, 80-81. Isaac Stephen­ root Papers, (Stonington, Connecticut), 51-55; Let­ son, owner of the Free Press, was "sore at La Fol­ ter, Lenroot to Stone, October 27, 1905, in the James lette," both because he had wanted the Senatorship A. Stone Papers, State Historical .Society of Wis­ for himself and because Lenroot had been brought consin. into the gubernatorial race without his having been "f^etters, William I. L. (?) to La Follette, No­ consulted. Anderson, owner of Skandinaven of Chi­ vember 27, 1905; C. G. Wilcox to La Follette, Novem­ cago, saw no reason to take a stand which might of­ ber 22, 1905; J. M. (iannon to La Follette, February fend his Norwegian subscribers. See also letter, 4, 1906; Rogers to La Follette, February 2, 1906, Ekern to La Follette, February 17, 1906, in the La all in the La Follette Papers. Follette Papers.

165 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING. 1959

them in his dispensing of patronage. One com­ Another auspicious omen reflected in plaint kept recurring: La Follette was not giv­ "Yim's" mail were the letters rejoicing that ing Davidson a square deal. John F. Linehan his administration promised "political peace" prophesied "the litde man has made the blun­ for Wisconsin's Republican party. After years der of his life in assuming to dictate who we of internecine strife, some felt the time had should have for governor." "I feel that I have come for half-breeds and stalwarts to extend just as good a right to dictate who should be the olive branch. The genial Davidson, they our next governor as Bob La Follette or any believed, was the man to bring this about. other man . . ." wrote another. "Fair play," it StiO, Mrs. Wacker of LaCrosse may have over­ was argued, entided Davidson to the nomina­ rated the Divinity's interest when she wrote tion.'^ Davidson, "With you at the helm, God through As promising to Davidson's cause as it was his Infinite Love and Wisdom will bring the alarming to Lenroot's was the reaction of the 'Grand Old Party' safe into the haven of Norwegian voters to Davidson's ascendancy. Peace at Iast."'° And the Norwegians were indeed a force to be But most significant of all was the stream reckoned with. In 1900 there were 155,122 per­ of letters pledging stalwart support that Dav­ sons in Wisconsin of Norwegian descent. And idson was daily receiving. They had begun to according to the Milwaukee Free Press, their trickle in as early as November, 1905, and numbers had significantly increased by 1905."' their volume had increased steadily ever since. Since Davidson was the first Norwegian in "The men who have been denominated the the history of the state to reach so exalted an Stalwart faction of the party are united in their office, his countrymen were hardly likely to friendship for you," declared Henry Casson, let him down. "All of us Norwegians are proud sergeant-at-arms of the House of Represen­ of you," wrote one, "Be assured of our sup­ tatives. Other stalwart leaders like "Boss" port." And a certain Ole Christensen informed Elisha Keyes, long La FoUette's adversary, and the governor, in somewhat phonetic English, his son-in-law John C. Gaveney, voiced similar "Ve lick to se you thare on a ground of our pledges, assuring Davidson that their relation­ nationality."'' ship need not entail any compromise of his The prospect of a Norwegian landslide to principles.'" Davidson so troubled the Lenroot camp that That there were dangers involved in courting in January, Alf Rogers, Lenroot's campaign such favor, Davidson was well aware. But as manager, wrote Senator La Follette, "The Nor­ one of his friends described it, while accepting wegian situation is BAD. . . . Rack your brain stalwart votes might seem "like taking tainted for some move to pacify that nationality and money," they would "[count] just the same."^' induce them to accept Lenroot."'** HE REPIBI^ICAN primary campaign was Tlaunched at a well-publicized dollar-a-plate '" Letters, J. T. Hanson to Davidson, June 26, 1905: Nintzell to Davidson, January 3, 1906; John L. Erickson to Davidson, December 17. 1905; Line­ '" Letters, C. C. Rogers to Davidson, January 2, han to Davidson, December 28. 1905, in the David­ 1906; Freeman H. Lord to Davidson, January 2, son Papers; Margulies, op. cit.. 77. 1906; State Senator Z. B. Beach to Davidson, Novem­ ^"Twelfth Census of the U. S.. 1900. Norway, ber 16, 1905; Henry Casson to Davidson, Januarv 4. united with Sweden since 1814, had just become in­ 1906; Mrs. W. M. Wacker to Davidson, May 3. 1906, dependent. "The two countries had been on the point in the Davidson Papers. of war, and feeling among Americans of Norwegian ""Letters, Casson to Davidson, January 4, 1906: and Swedish descent reflected homeland hostilities." Gaveney to Davidson, January 16, 1906, in the This schism in Scandinavian ranks did not work to Davidson Papers. "Stalwart" was the popular nick­ Lenroot's advantage since in 1900 there were 155,122 name for the reactionary wing of Wisconsin's Re­ persons of Norwegian birth or parentage in Wiscon­ publican party. Backed by railroads and other pow­ sin and only 48,812 of Swedish. See Margulies, op. erful corporations, the stalwart machine had run the cit., 72-73; also Lenroot's unpublished memoirs, 50- state for years, distinguishing itself principally by its 55, in the Lenroot Papers. unflagging support of "special" interests. Since La " Letters, G. Frellson to Davidson, December 30, FoUette's election in 1900, however, its influence had 1905; Ole Christensen to Davidson, July 17, 1905, in steadily waned. "Half-breed" was the term accorded the Davidson Papers. to the progressive faction of the Republican party. "Letter, Rogers to La Follette, January 11, 1906, -' Letter, F. E. Tate to Davidson, November 23, in the La Follette Papers. 1905, in the Davidson Papers.

166 KENNEDY : LENROOT, LA FOLLETTE

banquet in Milwaukee on May 15. The occasion for right can never fail. . . . ff there be was sjionsored by lh(^ Lincoln Club, an organi­ courage, and determination, and faith in the zation newly founded by a group of young people right will win, and wrong will be Republicans for the noble purpose of pro­ overthrown." moting representative government. Edwin J. Although much had already been done to Gross, its president, was interested principally redress the abuses of corporation rule, Lenroot in promoting the candidacy of Lenroot, but the cautioned that "there must be no relaxation ostensible purpose of the dinner was to as­ of activity. The moment there is, that moment semble all the would-be candidates and afford do we begin to move backward ..." It was, them the opportunity of presenting their plat­ he continued, sheerest folly to think the war forms to the people of Milwaukee and to the for representative government was over; much state at large. Speaker Lenroot and State Sen­ remained to be done. "Present laws must be ator James T. McGillivray of Black River enforced. Other legislation must be had. New Falls had readily agreed to come. Though yet problems will constantly confront us calling unannounced as a candidate, William D. Con­ for solution." nor, wealthy and ambitious chairman of the Then, warning that progress can never be Republican State Committee, had likewise ac­ made without aggressive effort, determination, cepted (jross' invitation. Only Jim Davidson and sacrifice, Lenroot pledged himself: declined. It was reported that he deemed it "To rigidly enforce the laws ihat have been "unbecoming for the governor of the state to enacted . . . place himself on the level of those . . . trying To secure the enactment of laws upon the to get the job." But the Milwaukee Daily News following subjects: suggested that the Norwegian, whose heavily- An income tax law; accented English was far from eloquent, Regulation of life insurance companies; perhaps preferred not to contrast his meager Amendment of the primary law securing oratorical talents with those of the gifted nominations by a majority vote; Lenroot.-- Regulation of the issue of stocks and bonds of public service corporations The evening got under way with a few intro­ other than railroads; ductory remarks by toastmaster Gross, and a A railroad co-employee law properly pro­ short address by Mr. Connor advocating tariff tecting railway employees and the trav­ revision and stringent regulation of corpora­ eling public; tions. Lenroot was next at the rostrum. Al­ The recall of public officials." though speeches were to be limited to half According to the Milwaukee Sentinel, "the an hour, Lenroot, in true La Follette fashion, applause following Mr. Lenroot's address was had barely warmed up by that time. Begin­ long and continued. He had worked the audi­ ning with a lengthy and eloquent review of ence up to such a pitch of excitement that it progressive achievements of the preceding was feared that Senator McGillivray, the last six years, his eulogizing of La Follette as the speaker, would not be able to counteract the man who had made them all possible brought effect." And to be sure, McGillivray's speech, forth repeated cheers. Cries for more, and extolling harmony and claiming that he stood spirited applause from the capacity audience, "neither as a half-breed nor a stalwart, but as spurred him on. Invoking the moral rhetoric a Republican . . . for the farmer; the laboring of the day, the candidate assured his listeners man and . . . the business man," was a colorless fervently: "If a man is fighting for right, he aftermath.--^ can face the world with good conscience, even From Lenroot's point of view the banquet though he stands alone. And remember a fight was a rousing success. His address, "splendidly delivered and . . . exceptionally well received," was widely quoted in the press. He had won many friends in Milwaukee. But four days "Milwaukee Free Press, May 16, 1906; Milwaukee Sentinel, May 16, 1906; Milwaukee Evening Wis­ later, a telegram delivered to Lenroot's Supe- consin, May 15, 1906; "The Political Bug," an un­ published reminiscence in the Edwin J. Gross Pa- l)ers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin; Mil­ "° Milwaukee Sentinel, May 16, 1906: Milwaukee waukee Daily News, May 15, 1906. Free Pre.ts, May 16, 1906.

167 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING. 1959 rior home gave his campaign an even greater the state." What was more, "at Madison . . . boost. From Washington, Senator La Follette there was a feeling that Da\idson had a large wired: "Have just read in the Free Press your lead and that we could not offset it." speech. It points the way for Wisconsin. You But the more involved Lenroot became in have the courage, ability and experience for a campaigning, the more self-assured he grew. great leader. I congratulate you."-'' His speeches seldom failed to evoke an encour­ La FoUette's endorsement quickly found its aging response. Still more important was the way into print. A hurried glance at their news­ knowledge that f,a Follette was standing four­ papers on the morning of May 20 sent Wis­ square behind him. Early in the campaign consin politicians scurrying about in conster­ Lenroot had written confidentially to Stone nation or jubilation. As the Daily News put iL thaL while it was "true that in the Third Dis­ f^a FoUette's telegram was the mighty "opening trict very little progress has been made," he gun in the campaign." could rest assured "that there will be no mis­ taking where our leader stands in this con­ AS SPRING wore into summer, Lenroot test."-" La FoUette's laudatory and well-publi­ -^^- toured the state, making two and three cized telegram ser\ed to confirm I,enroot's speeches a day in an attempt to convert the optimism. apathetic and educate the misled. Wherever That Lenroot and his supporters should ha\ e he spoke, people were impressed with his placed such faith in La FoUette's ability to oratory and his "Gospel of Reform." influence the voters was understandable. For Yet it was not a story of unimpeded progress. seven years and more he had been the leading More than one local leader reported that there character on the Wisconsin scene. Friend and was no point in having Lenroot speak in his foe alike walked in his shadow. Whether one vicinity, as no one would attend the meeting. was "for or agin" him, "Pope Bob" was the One set of Lenroot's nomination papers was most colorful figure in the entire Midwest, and returned to Third District leader James Stone impossible to ignore. Alf Rogers caUed him with this note: "I do not feel as though f ". . . the greatest leader of men of this day, could support him. I thought perhaps I could a Napoleon whom it is a constant delight to find some one else to circulate [the papers] but serve. . . ." The power of his personality had I guess there are no Lenroot men in this part inspired a vertitable cult. Babies were named of the town." Another serious blow was the for him, poetry and plays recounted his glories. defection of Skandinaven. Though traditionally In the words of adocal bard: pro-La Follette, that paper not only belittled My mind went soaring heavenward the significance of the assemblymen's call for When f beheld in view Lenroot, but in April came out strongly in A character like Washington, support of Davidson.-^ A man just clean plumb through. By the end of May the outlook in the Third District was sufficiently grave for Stone to ask, . . . For with the mighty sword of truth "Are we to obtain any strength for Lenroot He probes these bottoms through in this district? That is the question.""'' Plainly Unveils the monsters in their lairs worried about the way the campaign was devel­ And turns them all askew.'-^ oping, he wrote Lenroot on May 22 that there Once in the Senate, "Fighting Bob" quickly was "every reason to think D.'s supporters have moved to the center of a national stage. And canvassed pretty thoroughly the entire 3rd after his dramatic batUes to strengthen and district, and . . . quite generally throughout

-' Letter, Lenroot to Stone, May 12, 1906, in the •* "The Political Bug," Gross Papers; Milwaukee Stone Papers. Free Press, May 20, 1906. -'Letters, Rogers to La Follette, January 11, 1906; -'Letters, S. A. Pelton to Stone, June 28, 1906; Edward Parker to La Follette, December 4, 1905; Dithmar to Stone, June 6, 1906; W. R. Hall to Stone, George Flynn to La Follette, December 6, 1905, in May 20, 1906, in the Stone Papers; Haugen to La the La Follette Papers; Milwaukee Free Press. June Follette, April 2, 1906, in the La Follette Papers. 27, 1906; Marie McCoy, "La Follette; An Epic "Letter, Stone to Rewey, May 22, 1906, in the Poem," verses 2, 6; McCoy to La Follette, July 10, .Stone Papers. 1906, in the La Follette Papers.

168 KENNEDY LENROOT, LA FOLLETTE

the day that they became a simple question of right and wrong: one could vote either for Justice or Iniquity. But the very victories won by progressives at the polls and in the legislature lessened the effectiveness of their methods. Not only had major grievances been eliminated during La FoUette's five years as governor, but also the stalwarts had been vanquished as a political force. They were not dead, to be sure, but the fact that they had refrained from presenting a gubernatorial candidate from their own ranks was an indication that their wings had been severely clipped. Consequently, it was considerably more diffi­ cult to contrast effectively either issues or can­ didates in the public eye. In this campaign, they were no longer simply black and white. Irvine /,. Lenroot, from a photograp/i The fact that Davidson had been identified taken about 1913. with the reform movement for quite as many years as La Follette, and several more than improve the Hepburn bill and to prevent the LenrooL increased this difficulty. So did the sale of valuable Indian coal lands to private widely-published endorsement given him by companies, his name was frequently mentioned former governor William D. Hoard and 200 as a Presidential prospect. other prominent progressives.'"' As a result, unbounded faith in their leader It was no easy task to impress the electorate pervaded the Lenroot camp. Regardless of with such subtleties as Davidson's insufficiently how discouraging the outlook might tempo­ aggressive personality or his lack of education rarily seem, would not La FoUette's appearance —shortcomings that supposedly disqualified rafly the people as it always had? "He and him for the governorship. His claims to the truth are mighty forces with the voters," one oflSce were undeniable. While the argument partisan explained. Walter L. Houser, candi­ that Davidson lacked highly desirable qualities date for secretary of state, wrote that he pro­ of leadership carried weight with some La Fol­ posed to ". . . support the cause, and stand lette men, it was not strong enough to rally the by Bob and LenrooL or Lenroot and Bob," entire progressive coalition to Lenroot's side. adding significandy, "whichever way you put Clearly a better way to differentiate between iL it amounts to Bob. . . ."-''' the two candidates had to be found. Lenroot's forces not only leaned heavily on At least one development gave promise of their old leader; they had also received their providing the means—the backing stalwarts political education at his knee. They had suc­ were offering Davidson. At first their allegiance cessfully waged battle in a series of local cam­ had been pledged quietly. R. Meyer of Lan­ paigns, using his techniques and defending his caster early informed the governor of his issues. For over a decade, "Fighting Bob" had faction's supporL adding that he was "well stormed the state, railing mercilessly against aware it is not wise for those who are pro­ corporation rule and the stalwart faction of his nounced Stalwarts to start howling for you." party. In presenting the issues he invariably David Atwood, editor of the conservative reduced them to their simplest terms, and then Janesville Gazette, declared in a letter to Dav- carefully painted them black and white. So successfully did he polarize the problems of " Milwaukee Free Press, July 24, 1906. Among the other signers were; General George E. Bryant, La FoUette's oldest political ally; R. M. Bashford; James ^"Letters, Schuster to Stone, February 22, 1906; H. Stout; Attorney-General Sturdevant; and State Houser to Stone, July 16, 1906, in the Stone Papers. Senator George Wylie.

169 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959

idson, "We are with you in your candidacy," TN THE MEANTIME, Davidson was assidu- and promised "to do anything to further that -*- ously entrenching himself in the governor's end—even to avoid mentioning you in our mansion, making unobtrusive but excellent use editorial columns."^' of his power of patronage and the prestige of But as the campaign progressed, the subter­ his office. His mail was fiUed with an endless fuge became apparent. Some Lenroot men were variety of requests. Ambitious fathers sought shocked at first, and even a little frightened jobs for their sons, frantic mothers begged about the prospects of such a union. But others clemency for their errant children. One woman quickly recognized the ammunition Davidson's requested the governor's aid in tracing her unseemly alliance afforded them. Alfred T. husband, who had been missing for thirty-five Rogers, La FoUette's law partner and Lenroot's years. During his first seven months in office, campaign manager, "welcomed all signs of "Yim" had been called on to appoint district stalwart support for Davidson. He wanted to attorneys, school regents, oil inspectors, game be able to claim that Davidson had gone over wardens, a labor superintendenL not to men­ to the Stalwarts, and that the contest was not tion delegates to a long list of state and national an internal row among the Progressives, but an conventions. These plums he awarded with a old-fashioned Progressive-Stalwart contest." To shrewd eye on the coming election. To avoid La Follette, Rogers wrote, "As soon as that being labeled a stalwart, he was careful to alignment comes we will hang a big 'Stalwart' consult Lenroot on a number of key appoint­ on his back and lick the pants off him." Lenroot ments. In Rock County, for instance, he in­ had his men "keeping close touch of . . . stalled John L. Fisher as district attorney, Stalwart moves . . . ," and before long there much to half-breed approval and stalwart dis­ was abundant evidence that the alliance was may. He further ingratiated himself to pro­ a reality. E. J. Marriot, the old-line stalwart gressives by naming Charles Crownhart a mayor of Baraboo, for example, had signed normal school regent, and cleverly wooed the Davidson's nomination papers. Other stalwarts labor vote by selecting a popular union man were openly circulating them.''- to be state labor supervisor. Here at last was an issue familiar to the So consistently and adeptly did the governor voters, and it was soon exploited with the well- dispense his patronage that Alf Rogers found known ring. In a letter to the editor. Judge himself admitting that Davidson ". . . has Stone wrote the Milwaukee Free Press, "the shown good judgement in his appointments old enemy is massing for Davidson and I know thus far and is making his opportunity as gov­ he is encouraging such support." And to the ernor pay dividends all along the line."-''' governor he sent a ringing challenge, "The "Yim" was also sedulous in nurturing his 'war' is nol over, and in war he who gives 'aid Scandinavian backing. On May 17, for ex­ and comfort to the enemy' is guilty of treason." ample, he made a special trip to Milwaukee The lines of battle were drawn, if somewhat to be the guest of honor at a gathering to unrealistically: Davidson and the ancient celebrate Norway's recent independence from enemy versus La Foflette and his crusaders. Sweden. Although the governor did not make Confidence boomed in the Lenroot camp. Alf an address, his appearance, and every mention Rogers cried jubilandy and optimistically, of his name in the abundant toasts, were "Everyone sees that it is the same old fight."^' greeted with cheers. State Senator Oliver G. Munson, Davidson's ^' Letters, R. Meyer to Davidson, November 24, personal secretary, had announced the gov­ 1905: David Atwood to Davidson, January 24, 1906, ernor's candidacy on February 15 in a care­ in the Davidson Papers. •'- Letters, Stone to Schuster, February 19, 1906, in fully worded statement designed to appeal to the Stone Papers; Margulies, op. cit., 75: Rogers to La Follette, January 11, 1906, in the La Follette Pa­ pers; Lenroot to Stone, February 14, 1906; Stone to Lenroot, May 10, 1906, in the Stone Papers; E. V. " Letters, Maranda J. Shepard to Davidson, Feb­ Werner to Davidson, August 2, 1906; Edward Tracey ruary 26, 190<), in the Davidson Papers; Rogers to to Munsou, July 30, 1906, in the Davidson Papers. La Follette, January 15, February 21, 1906, in the "•• Letters, Stone to Myrick, June 11, 1906; Stone to La Follette Papers; Margulies, oji. cit., 75-76; J. S. Davidson, August 17, 1906; Rogers to Stone, August Stack to Davidson, July 11, 1906, in the Davidson 27, 1906, in the Stone Papers. Papers.

170 KENNEDY : LENROOT, LA FOLLETTE

progressives without alienating stalwarts. In form that none could possibly doubt his in­ mid-June a new imy)elus was added when tentions.'''* i William D. Connor, strongly endorsing Dav­ Although Davidson did heed these urgent idson's nomination, announced himself as a counsels, the tenor of his campaign remained candidate for the lieutenant governorship. largely defensive until the last month of the Lenroot's forces realized that ". . . as a wire race. His infrequent speeches and rare an­ puller and manipulator with funds at his nouncements (usuafly through Munson or command . . ." the energetic Connor would Connor) were largely designed to refute the provide Davidson's campaign with the efficient various charges of the opposition. Not surpris­ organization it needed.•'•" ingly, Davidson's brand of progressivism When Senator McGillivray withdrew from sounded rather mild and unconvincing when the race in July, urging his supporters to back compared with Lenroot's forceful pronounce­ the incumbent, Davidson's chances were still ments. While these peaceable tactics had served further bettered. While it is difficult to gauge Davidson well in the early phases of the race the extent of McGillivray's following, in one —when his opponent was clearly the under­ county, at least, a sizeable group of voters and dog—his managers now began to doubt their five newspapers nimbly jumped from the Irish­ efficacy. With the influential La Follette sched­ man's bandwagon lo the Norwegian's.^" uled to stump the state, the governor's advisors But there were several weak points in agreed it was time to assume the offensive. Davidson's armor, and on these the Lenroot Though reluctant, Davidson was persuaded to forces trained their fire. Much was made of his undertake an intensive state-wide speaking stalwart backing, of the "inevitable" conces­ tour. It was generally agreed that while per­ sions that would result. The Norwegian's sonal attacks on La Follette and flirtation with election was grimly pictured as tantamount to the stalwarts were equally to be avoided, a a death warrant for reform. In mid-July La much greater play should be made for half- Follette returned from Washington and served breed votes.•''' notice that he, too, would enter the fray. Before setting out on his annual Chautauqua tour, the rpWO ADDRESSES at the Plankinton House Senator announced formally that he would -*- in Milwaukee on August 1 set the tone for "work and vote for the nomination of Irvine the remainder of Davidson's campaign. Speak­ L. Lenroot. . . ." La Follette frankly questioned ing to some 300 partisans, the governor Davidson's ability, scored his alliances, and stressed his long record as a reformer, vigor­ declared that remaining reforms could not ously denied he had ever solicited stalwart possibly be won without a vigorous leader and votes, and declared himself strongly in favor a courageous fight.^' of the effective regulation of public service Leaders in Davidson's ranks were not im­ corporations. In the second speech of the day, pervious to these accusations; in fact, they Bryan J. Castle directed a devastating broad­ became increasingly concerned about them. side against the opposition. "We believe," he Connor repeatedly warned Davidson ". . . charged, "that the candidacy of Mr. Lenroot carefully [to] avoid anything that would even (at this time) would be a positive misfortune have the appearance of association with the to the Republican Party of this state." "There stalwarts," while former Governor Hoard and is not an intelligent laboring man . . . who others urged him to make such a strong and has any respect for himself or regard for the unequivocal statement advocating further re­ welfare of his family or class, who would wiflingly support him," Castle contended, re-

'" Milwaukee Free Press, February 15, May 18, June 24, 1906; Letter, Stone to Dithmar, May 26, ''"Letters, Connor to Davidson, May 25, 1906; Con­ 1906, in the Stone Papers. nor to Munson, June 25, 1906; Hoard to Davidson, ""Milwaukee Free Press, July 30, 1906; Letters, July 18, 1906, in the Davidson Papers. Dell H. Richards to Munson, August 1, 1906; Fenney •"' Letters, Connor to Davidson, June 23, 29, and July to Davidson, July 30, 1906; Minor to Davidson, July 26, 1906; 0. A. Stolen to Munson, July 20, 1906; ,30, 1906; Munson to H. A. Johnson, August 3, 1906; Hoard to Davidson, July 26, 1906; E. I. Steensland all in the Davidson Papers. to Davidson, July 26, 1906; William L. Essmann to ='Milwaukee Free Press, Jidy 21, 1906. Munson, August 15, 1906, in the Davidson Papers.

171 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959

ferring to Lenroot's "persistent efforts to pass vention also resolved "to have its local organi­ the Exemption Rill, even over La FoUette's zations work for candidates . . . who [would] veto." Casde reminded his audience that Dav­ stand firmly against any legislation proposing idson, as early as 1897, had proven himself to reduce the . . . limit of exemption against 'the sympathetic friend of laboring wage earn­ garnishment." At least one member organiza­ ers" by voting against "a wage exemption bill tion, the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union, less drastic than that which Governor La Fol­ endorsed Davidson over Lenroot because he lette vetoed."" had steadfastly opposed the reduction of ex­ The effect of Casde's speech was immediate. emptions.''* Lenroot quickly wrote his Madison headquar­ Returning from the Chautauqua circuit in ters, asking that copies of his labor record the middle of August, La Follette immediately be distributed to illustrate the support he had began to campaign for Lenroot. Whirling given numerous bills directly beneficial to around the state, delivering three or four workingmen. On August 10 and 12, the speaker speeches a day, he outdid himself lo turn the was forced to defend himself directly when tide. Inside of the first week he had made dodgers were circulated at his meetings at­ eighteen formal addresses—most of them two tacking his vote on the exemption bill and hours long—and "was heard by no less than labeling him an enemy of labor.'" 10,000 people." By the end of the second he The barrage was to continue until the end had made seventeen more, reaching another of the campaign. Castle, McGillivray, Attorney 10,000.** General Sturdevant, Davidson, and others is­ Greeted by enthusiastic crowds wherever sued frequent reminders of Lenroot's "anti- he went. La Foflette invariably stressed the labor sentiments," and the Free Press, Sentinel, long but only partially completed fight for and Skandinaven gave their addresses full reform; the urgent necessity for further legis­ coverage.'- lation; the fact that nationality should play Lenroot and La Follette did their level best no role in choosing a governor; and the fact to convince the electorate that the speaker was that only the best qualified man should be a "consistent and earnest friend of labor." nominated. They stressed the support he had given bills In discussing the respective qualifications of to establish free employment bureaus, to com­ the two candidates he insisted that although pel employers to furnish sanitary working con­ both were equaUy dear to him, there was "a ditions, to abolish child labor, to increase the yawning gulf of difference in their equipment number of factory inspectors, and to make and ability." In one of his last speeches La employers responsible for all injuries incurred Follette went so far as to say that one of the in factories which lacked proper safety pre­ candidates was "well equipped and . . . the cautions. other . . . not equipped at all." But the specter of the exemption bill con­ But the lusty cheers La Follette drew told tinued to haunt them nonetheless. Organized only half the story. It was "Fighting Bob" labor showed that it, too, had definite feelings they applauded. Audiences were noticeably less on this subject. The annual convention of the responsive to the Senator's references to his Wisconsin State Federation of Labor put "it­ candidate.''^ self on record as being unalterably opposed to While La Follette was touring one part of any further lowering of the limit of wages the state, Lenroot was just as busy in another. from exemption," declaring any such attempt Like his mentor, he stressed the need for fur- "unjust, cruel and inhuman. . . ." The con­

*" Milwaukee Free Press, July 22, August 12, 13, *° Milwaukee Free Press, August 2, 1906. September 1, 3, 4, 1906; Davidson's friends assured " Lenroot to Rogers, August 5, 1906, in the La him that other unions and laboring men generally Follette Papers; Milwaukee Free Press, August 12, were backing his candidacy. See E. L. Messer to 13, 1906. Davidson, March 12, 1906, and J. S. Stack to David­ "See Milwaukee Free Press, August 14, 18, 24, son, April 9, 1906, in the Davidson Papers. 1906; also Munson to Grevstadt, August 3, 1906; '•' Milwaukee Free Press, August 19, 26, 1906. Munson to General E. M. Rogers, August 4, 1906, in •""Milwaukee Free Press. August 26, September 1, the Davidson Papers. 1906. Maxwell, op. cit., 85.

172 KENNEDY : LENROOT, LA FOLLETTE ther reform. Davidson's election, he warned, trice, armed with a stomach pump, and set to might well entail the disintegration of all that work on the writhing patient. Lenroot pulled had been accomplished, so pernicious was the through, but was left so weakened by the acci­ stalwart influence. While modestly refraining dent, that all his speeches were cancelled for from discussing their comparative merits, Len­ two days. Eight days before the primary, root charged that his opponent could not even Lenroot emerged to address a Milwaukee au­ see that momentous issues were at stake. And dience; but his voice was hoarse, and he by way of contrast, he never failed to provide "showed evidence of not having completely a detailed and lucid explanation of his own recovered from his illness . . . and was in impressive platform. no condition to address a public gathering."'" Davidson, whose "progressivism" grew As the campaign drew to a close, both sides daily more pronounced, dismissed such charges predicted victory. In Milwaukee, Edwin Gross with the proclamation, "I want to say here and announced confidently that Lenroot would now that there never was a campaign in which carry the county by 6,000 and go on to take more vital questions were involved. . . ." At the state. Davidson's managers claimed an the same time, he stubbornly insisted that there easy 10,000-vote triumph in the county alone.''' were absolutely "no differences between Mr. Privately, however, both camps admitted difli- Lenroot and [himself j on the question of prin­ culties in forecasting the outcome. A number ciples. We both stand for the same things," he of factors reduced predictions to little more claimed, going on to espouse practically all the than hazardous guesses, principal among them reforms his opponent stood for. Such tactics being the fact that the election marked the took a great deal of wind out of Lenroot's po­ first testing of the new primary law. Instead litical sails and gave Davidson's plea for "fair of nomination by party caucus, the voters play" considerably more weight.'" themselves were to choose the party's candi­ dates. Then, too, it was difficult to tell how 'yOWARDS the end of August, candidate influential La Follettes campaigning would -*- Lenroot met with a nearly disastrous mis­ prove, or how many Democrats would cast hap. While touring the northern part of the their ballots on the Republican ticket, or which state, he had caught a rather severe cold but, candidates Milwaukee's Germans would sup­ despite personal discomfort, managed to keep port. up with his schedule. On August 26, he arrived Winding up in a final burst of oratory on in Milwaukee to make several key speeches. September 3, the candidates retired tensely Edwin Gross, his campaign manager there, to await the outcome of the next day's election. had arranged for one John O'Rourke to look after the speaker during his stay. O'Rourke TT WAS a landslide. Sweeping 68 of Wis- met Lenroot at the Plankinton, but was so -•- cousin's 71 counties, Davidson amassed a disturbed by his condition that he ordered total of 109,583 votes to Lenroot's 61,178. him to bed and hurried out to get some castor Every one of Milwaukee's twenty-three wards oil and oil of camphor. Returning with the fell into the Norwegian's column, giving him medicine, O'Rourke set the two bottles on the 15,483 votes to the speaker's 7,821. Lenroot bed table, and as he turned to remove his carried only three northern counties. As ex­ coaL told Lenroot to drink the castor oil. "The pected, he took Douglas, his home county, and next thing he heard was terrible sounds com­ with it the city of Superior. Price County and ing from the bed. Lenroot was moaning and predominantly Swedish Burnett County also gripping his stomach and seemed to have con­ gave him slim majorities. But the speaker vulsions. To his horror, O'Rourke discovered trailed everywhere else, as the governor rolled that Lenroot had consumed the camphor in­ up an impressive 48,405 majority.'" stead of the castor oil." Emergency calls were immediately sent out. A doctor arrived in a '' The entire story of Lenroot's unfortunate acci­ dent is recounted in "The Political Bug," in the Gross Papers. '" Milwaukee Free Press. September 4, 1906. "Milwaukee Free Press, August 19, 23, 25, Sep­ '"' The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin, 1907, tember 2, 1906. 318-389.

173 WiSCONSiN VtAGAZlNE OF HISTORY SIRRING, 1959

As Lenroot sadly confessed to La Follette, ". . . if Bob fails ... he is a done man," now there was litde point in ". . . trying to analyze crowed with delight, "We can all breathe freer the results or discover the causes."''" Norwe­ now. The La Follefic faction is so insignificant gians, Germans, and stalwart.s, together with a that it need no longer be a cause of worriment." large segment of the progressive coalition, had And to stalwarts generally, it looked as if the cast their ballots for Davidson. people had repudiated La FoUette's leader­ The "faithful" were stunned. In Milwaukee, ship, and that the path for their return to incredulously watching the returns come in, power had been paved.''- they sat up until one o'clock in the morning But their exultation was short-lived. On of September 5 before acknowledging defeat. September 15, the Republican platform con­ Davidson's victory was a personal blow to vention in Madison incorporated all of Len­ La Follette. Since he had fought so long and root's planks, with the exception of a recall hard for the primary law, to suffer defeat at bill and an amendment of the primary law. its first trial was painful irony. But La Follette The Republican party remained firmly pledged had erred from the outset by bringing Lenroot to progressive principles and Lenroot and into the field against the better judgment of La Follette were satisfied on this score. most of his supporters, including the candidate Before long the governor and his erstwhile himself. Overestimating the power of his lead­ foes were exchanging peace offerings. David­ ership and ignoring some political realities. son gave assurance that he bore ". . . no ill La Follette succeeded only in splitting his care­ feeling or resentment toward any man who fully welded coalition and endangering his opposed [his] candidacy"; and La Follette personal prestige. reciprocated with a friendly note and a cam­ Lenroot was the hardest hit of all. Taking paign contribution. In October, both Lenroot to the woods for a much-needed rest, he re­ and La Follette joined Davidson's election mained at a secluded cabin retreat for a solid campaign. With the party presenting so united week. By the time he returned to Superior, he a fronL the governor's decisive victory over had made a valiant effort to reconcile him­ his Democratic opponent was a forgone con­ self. "We must not regard this campaign as clusion."'' a defeat," he wrote gamely, "but only as an In spite of their high hopes, Davidson's incident in the great struggle for people's gov­ administration afforded stalwarts little reason ernment." to gloat. Although it was not dramatic in Yet defeat hung heavy. Lenroot feared it "Fighting Bob's" tradition, it ably carried the would mean his elimination from politics. progressive movement forward. Stalwarts were Meeting him at La FoUette's Madison office forced to content themselves with ". . . the two weeks after the primary. Edwin Gross belief that they had been able to defeat found Lenroot unable to conceal the extent of [La FoUette's] personal choice . . . for gov­ his dLsappointment. "Tears came to his eyes as ernor,""' since their vision of the Senator's he spoke of the future," Gross remarked, "I decline and fall proved illusory. Lenroot's de­ really believe that he thought he was a spondency was likewise unwarranted. While failure.""' defeat was a bitter pill for him to swallow, Glee reigned in the stalwart ranks. Judge the future held better things in store. Keyes, who had warned before the election,

"- Keyes to F. A. Dennet; and Keyes to W. H. Sten- ^ Letter, Lenroot to La Follette, September 10, nett, quoted in Margulies, op. cit., 85, 93-94. 1906, in the La Follette Papers. ""Letter, Davidson to Stone, September 11, 1906, "Letter, Lenroot to Gross, September 10, 1906; in the Stone Papers; Margulies, op. cit., 94. "Irvine Luther Lenroot," in the Gross Papers. " Milwaukee Free Press, September 5, 1906.

171 In this approach to the study of local history, a young historian analyzes a single year in the life of a well-defined community—and in so doing, provides a framework for future studies in an often neglected field.

Pierce County in I860

by Lawrence H. Lanen II. Merrick Collection, S<)< The levee at Prescott, Wisconsin, in 1868.

13 Y 1860, Pierce County, located in western were living in momentous times. Abner Morse, -•-^ Wisconsin and founded only seven short an early settler, wrote in his diary on May 20, years before, had attained the status of an or­ 1860, that "this nation seems to be on stilts. ganized community. Wdliam Whipple was It seems to be rocking to and fro like a great printing his newspaper, the Prescott Demo­ ship on uncertain foundations. Or rather it crat; Charles Barnes ran his commission seems to be suspended in open air, yet its sup- house; John Trumble operated his lumber ])ort is not from above, but from some yielding, mill; Isaac Foster farmed his land; and in wavering, vacillating legs or stilts below. It is the Presbyterian church of Prescott—the town not an experiment of itself, it is evidently try­ on which the county's hopes for the future ing an experiment—making a sort of pedes­ were centered—the Reverend Charles Thayer trian, perambulating excursion."'' In what they regularly preached his sermons.'^ read in their newspapers and experienced in Rivermen, plying their trade on the two their everyday existence, Morse and his fellows rivers which met to form the county's west­ were affected by what many called "Young ern boundaries, worried about how much America." They learned of railroads promis­ whisky they should take on their next trip. ing to bridge a continent, observed the streams Servant girls toiled for their masters, small of immigrants on their way to a new life, boys played on islands in the Mississippi, watched while titans of commerce fought for newly arrived immigrants struggled with the control of the Mississippi River traffic, read intricate inconsistencies of the English lan­ of the social problems posed by slavery, and guage. Class lines in 1860 were not yet sharply of those raised by the new industrial order. drawn. Even the most individualistic inhabi­ And they worried about the political ramifica- tants were still vexed by common problems and dangers, and many were probably made somewhat uneasy by the presence of the 500 ' "1860 Manuscript Census of Wisconsin for Pierce County," 97-122 passim. In the State Historical So­ sullen Indians and half-breeds who still lived ciety of Wisconsin. in the oudying areas.- - (ieorge Merri<'k, Old Times on the Upper Misssis- sippi ((Jevcland. 1909), 19 30; Allen I'. Weld, For the people of the county iheir day-lo- ".Story of Pierce County," .Spring Valley Sun. .Septem­ day problems were overshadowed by the larger ber 14, 1905; "Manusi-ript Census," 27-122. "modern" complexities of a vigorous, expan­ ' Bayrd Still and William Herrmann, "Abner Morse's Diary," in the Wisconsin Magazine of His­ sion-minded America. Some sensed that they tory, 23:83 (September, 1939).

175 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959

tions of the great sectional controversy then property.'^ Wages were above the average of foremost on the minds of thinking men. the rest of the state, the cost of living slightly Since its founding in 1853 Pierce County below, and employment was easy to find.^ Dur­ had undergone a rapid development, the con­ ing the seven months that navigation was open tinuation of which was popularly believed to on the rivers, the water front hummed with depend on the booming town of Prescott. activity. Several fast freight and passenger Some of the town's leading citizens wrote with packets stopped at Prescott daily, and in 1860 optimism and pride that Prescott might even­ well over 150,000,000 board feet of lumber tually become the center of commercial de­ were pushed and floated down the St. Croix velopment for the entire Midwest.'' In glowing into the Mississippi.'' terms they pointed out that not only did the town possess a good natural landing, but that TESS THAN thirty years before, this bustling it also stood at the point where the St. Croix -*-^ town had been nothing more than a dream flowed into the Mississippi, and that these two shared by a group of army officers stationed rivers drained a vast wilderness of white pine at Fort Snelling, near what is now Minneapolis. yet to be fully exploited. The Falls of St. Realizing the economic potential of the loca­ Anthony, forty miles up the Mississippi, while tion, they gained control of the region after blocking navigation to the west, nevertheless it was opened for settlement in the late 1830's. promised future power for mills to grind grain Unfortunately for their ambitions, however, and saw lumber. To the north the shallow but they soon ran into difficulties and abandoned navigable St. Croix had already made the the project. But their agent. Philander Pres­ "potential metropolis" an important reship- cott, was not so easily discouraged. This color­ ment and re-embarkment center.' ful frontier speculator, who had an Indian People liked to boast that Prescott, support­ wife, remained interested and in 1851 finally ing a population of over a thousand, was no gained title to enough land to found the town longer a "frontier town." Already accustomed which bears his name. Although he soon to its role as the political and business center drifted on to other business ventures, the com­ of the county, it was an orderly, systematically bination of his efforts, the natural flow of im­ laid-out town of white-frame homes and build­ migration, and economic considerations were ings, with large warehouses that provided the sufficient to insure a rapid settlement.'" necessary facilities for goods and supplies Altogether, there were over 4,000 people in shipped up the St. Croix to places like Still­ Pierce County by 1860, many of whom were water and St. Croix Falls. At the foot of the farmers. Besides Prescott, the largest town bluff on which most of the town was built was River Falls, with a population of four could be found numerous other thriving busi­ hundred. Few of the county's residents were ness enterprises—banks, commission houses natives of Wisconsin. Of the foreign-born, who such as that belonging to Charles Barnes, accounted for 22 per cent of the population, jewelry stores, shoe-making establishments, almost all were either of Irish or German blacksmith shops, and woodworking factories." origin;'^ of the native Americans, the majority Apparently there was also prosperity, since had come from New York, Pennsylvania, or nineteen individuals were able to report to the New England states. Most of the farms the census taker in 1860 that they each owned under cultivation were less than two hundred more than ten thousand dollars in personal acres, and only five individuals held more than 500 acres.^^ Since few farmers had im-

* Prescott North-Western Democrat, January 25, 1860. On April 11, 1860, the editor changed the newspaper's name to Prescott Democrat. ' "Manuscript Census," 27-122. ° Oliver Gibbs and C. E. Young, "Sketch of Pierce ''Ibid.,\Sl. County," in Collections of the .State Historical .Society "Prescott North-Western Democrat, January 25, of Wisconsin (Madison 1904), 3:453-461; William 1860; Fnlsom, Fifty Years in the Northwest, 700-701. Folsom, Fifty Years in the Northwest (St. Paul, '"Folsom, Fifty Years in the Northwest, 214. 18881,210-211. ^^ Fiighth Census of the United States: Population " Merrick, Old Times on tlie Upper Mississippi, 29; (Washington, 1864), 540-544. Prescott Democrat, June 20, 1860. '^ "Manuscript Census," 1-122.

176 LARSEN PIERCE COUNTY

proved more than half their land holdings, a T")Ut both bridge and railroad were of the formidable amount of work remained to be fuUirc. To the ])rcsent belonged the question done.^' of properly celehraliug the Fourth of July, for Although a newspaper in adjacent St. Croix patriotism and nationalism were important con­ County was able to report that there had been cepts to the people of Pierce County. The dis­ ten years of prosperity and good crops,'"* turbing prospect of section arrayed against inevitably some of the settlers were restless, and section may have helped some of the more a few of the more restive ones had already intellectually minded to understand that the pushed on to the gold fields of the Pike's Peak new nation was really one nation, and may country. But most seemed to feel that they had have forced comprehension of the fact of its found in Pierce County a place for themselves common heritage. Many of the rank and file and their children, as indicated by the found­ citizenry must have revered the Lnion as a ing of an Old Setders Society in 1860 for the symbol of a cherished past and a shining fu­ purpose of recording the past and stressing the ture, identifying the symbol with abundance, degree of civilization that had, in such a brief opportunity, and ultimate peace.'** The major­ time, been achieved in the St. Croix Valley.^" ity may have agreed with an anonymous con­ The Prescott North-Western Democrat, which tributor to a newspaper when he wrote, "We ardendy championed the area, proclaimed that jusdy venerate the veterans of the revolution. "Pike's Peak is nowhere in comparison," and We feel that their dust is sacred and the places reassured its readers that "in a word, progress over which they passed is holy ground."'" Such is stamped upon everything throughout our ideas found a measure of outward expression county, a bright future is before us. Not a in the 1860 Fourth of July celebration held in single cloud of doubt or uncertainty obscures Prescott, the preparations for which had been our sky."'" a matter of continuing newspaper concern. FJnhappily, the future was not quite so bright However, on the great day a huge crowd as­ as the editor predicted. Prescott was not the sembled to watch a parade of the "Western only town aspiring to become the dominant Boys," a St. Paul militia company known as city of the upper Middle West. There were the Light Guards, and also to listen to a also communities like Hastings, Red Wing, speaker who called for a rededication to the Hudson, and Stillwater which entertained vi­ American past.-" sions of achieving economic eminence. More A widespread intere;st in politics is attested importantly, the older cities of St. Paul and to by the presence of several Democratic and Minneapolis had larger populations and were Republican political clubs. The Republicans, located forty miles closer to the wheatlands of in the majority, made the most noise; their Dakota. Nevertheless, the citizens of Prescott meetings were heralded by the beating of based their hopes on the town's strategic loca­ drums and the sound of the fife.-' Political tion and on the fact that it was on the survey leaders ran the county's three newspapers. Both route of the proposed northern transcontinental the f-'rescott Transcript and the River Falls railroad. Moreover, their town occupied the Journal were partisanly Republican. The site of a planned bridge across the Mississippi Prescott Democrat, self-described as a "zealous which, if constructed, would give Prescott Democratic newspaper," delighted in flailing the added advantage of serving for a time as away at "Black Republicanism." The new a railhead." Some, doubtless, were convinced nationalism may have helped to quicken inter­ that the railroad would make or break Prescott. est in political affairs, but the people, living in a new environment presenting common con­ siderations, were well situated to understand ^'Eighth Census of the United States: Agriculture (Washington, 1864), 166. " Hudson North-Star, reprinted in River Falls Jour­ '* Merle Curti, The Growth of American Thoughl nal, June 13, 1860. (New York, 1951), 423. ^''River Falls Journal, June 27, 1860. "Prescott North-Western Democrat, Januarv 25, "'Prescott North-Western Democrat. January 4, 1860. 1860. -'Prescott Democrat, July 17, 1860; Still and Herr­ "Weld, "Storv of Pierce County," loc. cit., Sep­ mann, "Abner Morse's Diary," loc. cit.. 78. tember 23, 1905. -'Prescott Democrat, May 22, 1860.

177 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959 that democracy was a living thing which they for a brotherhood of man that would be must take an active part in preserving. brought about through a "Christian Union" of While drinking, fighting, and other vices Congregationalists, Methodists, and Baptists. were still common among the rivermen, the At another time he mentioned hearing a ser­ religiously inclined members of the community mon extolling God's infinite mercy toward had already established eight churches to those who loved Him and obeyed His com­ which approximately half of the population mandments.'" The editor of the Prescott belonged. In 1854 the Baptists formed the first North-Western Democrat reported in Febru­ congregation and in the next four years were ary, 1860, that he had heard homilies on followed by the Methodists, Episcopalians, "Christian Atonement" and on the evils of Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Roman slavery.-' Whether any preachers made efforts Catholics, Lutherans, and Universalists, each to reconcile religion and science is problemat­ of which could claim from two hundred to ical, although it should be noted that during four hundred members by 1860.^- For the the winter of 1860 a local debating society church leaders the early years had been hard; did attempt to reconcile Christianity with in addition to religious apathy they had been geology.^** forced to contend with a local spiritualist who In other ways, too, the ministers may have had a large following and with a deistic group helped to direct the energies of their flocks. called the Eclectic Association.-^ However, a Frequent church benefits and bazaars were revival in which apparently all the Protestant held for the needy members of the community ministers collaborated, swept the county in —usually older people or widows and or­ 1859. One observer noted that the evangelists phans. But as might be expected, the ministers "made up in zeal" what they lacked in num­ themselves were sometimes the recipients, a bers.^^ Another reported: "The results have fact borne out by the Prescott Transcript for been good. It has served to break down parti­ February 11, 1860, in a news item reporting tion walls between neighbors which seemed to that a benefit had raised ninety dollars for be built as high as heaven itself. ... It has the local Presbyterian minister. All of the not only extended to professed brothers in the churches sponsored clubs whose purpose was to churches, but those out of the church have felt strengthen the congregations and afford indi­ the power of love upon their seemingly callous vidual members an opportunity for social hearts, and they have been led to approach status and activity.-" Picnics were other im­ those toward whom they had endulged unkind portant church activities. One held in June, feelings, and have sought their forgiveness in 1860, was attended by more than seven hun­ a true christian spirit."-' dred persons who, in the words of the f^res- There is little existing information concern­ cott Transcript, "showed the goodness in their ing how or what the ministers expounded neighborly hearts."''" Most of the religiously from their pulpits, but the revival's success is minded apparently conformed to the outward testimony that they must have been persuasive tenets of Christianity; at any rate, the Sab­ speakers able to exert a measure of influence. bath was scrupulously observed, with many Evidently they preached a straightforward, lit­ attending both afternoon and evening services. erally interpreted Christianity, for according Possibly the average man's attitude was best to Abner Morse the best of them gave "plain, stated by the editor of the Prescott Democrat. practical discourses, well arranged and well In reporting a Sunday incident in a nearby spoken." At the height of the revival, Morse town in which four men playing cards were said that the Congregational minister called suddenly kifled by a tornado, he ominously

'- Merrick, Old Times on the Upper Mississippi, 29; "Manuscript Census," 157. -"Still and Herrmann, "Abner Morse's Diary," loc. •^ Still and Herrmann, "Abner Morse's Diary," loc. cit., 69. cit., 77-80. -'Prescott North-Western Democrat, February 15 -*Weld, "Story of Pierce County," Zoc. cit.. March and February 29, 1860. L 1906. =» Ibid., February 22, 1860. -' Still and Herrmann. "Abner Morse's Diary," loc. •"' Ibid., January 4, 1860. cit.. 430. "° Prescott Transcript, June 23, 1860.

178 LARSEN : PIERCE COUNTY

added, "What an awful warning to Sabbath intellectual aims. Among these the most im­ breakers."'" portant was the Pierce County Agricultural Society which had a wide membership and TN ADDITION to the church, another im- was dedicated to such utilitarian purposes as -*- portant institution in Pierce County was promoting agriculture and helping farmers the school, and anyone between the ages of raise better crops. At its annual fair—a major four and twenty was eligible for a free public event in Prescott—prizes were offered for education. Besides a flourishing academy at grain, seed, poultry, and swine exhibits, and River Falls, which had three teachers and for proficiency in such nonutilitarian pursuits fifty students in 1860, there was a well-organ­ as the fine arts and music.''" Aside from the ized county-wide common school system previously mentioned Old Settler's Society, the consisting of thirty-six schools, forty-five teach­ political clubs, and the church organizations, ers, and around 1,300 students. Rural chil­ the county also boasted a Young Men's Club dren studied in one-room schoolhouses; larger which held debates on subjects pertaining to buildings housed students in River Falls and "questions of law, politics, science, and relig­ PrescotL in which latter place a school was ion."^' There was one professional organiza­ described as having six large rooms and "ex- tion, the St. Croix Valley Editorial Association, ceflent" teachers.^^ How high the quality of whose activities received considerable publicity instruction was is impossible to ascertain, but in the local press.^* the Pierce County Board considered it to be Now and again the routine of everyday comparable to that in other parts of Wiscon­ living was broken by certain other pursuits. sin. Nevertheless, books were scarce at times, During the winter, sleigh rides over the coun­ as evidenced by a complaint registered by the tryside were said to have been an important Clifton School District in 1859 to the effect form of relaxation, especially for young people that it had not yet received a dictionary.'^' with romantic intentions. In the summer there While the basic program for all the schools were picnics, the Agricultural Fair, the Fourth consisted primarily of reading, writing, and of July celebration, visiting, barn raisings, and arithmetic, the Prescott Public School also an occasional circus. Sometimes there were offered French, German, and Latin, for small river excursions. Unfortunately it rained on tuition fees. Although there was no organized one held in July of 1859, causing the editor music program, the local principal in Prescott of the North-Western Democrat to write that offered music lessons in his home to enterpris­ the women in attendance found themselves "in ing students." rather more of a disagreeable than a romantic What the common folk of the county thought situation."'"' Lecturers came frequently during about public education can not be accurately the year, and for twenty-five cents the cultur­ determined. An "old settler" reported forty ally inclined could be enlightened on such years later that the schools were looked upon subjects as "The Importance of Cultivating a as important democratic cultural institu­ National Character," "Temperance," "Phren­ tions.''" Possibly this was correct, yet undoubt­ ology," and "Marriage Relations."^" People edly there must have been people in the com­ who enjoyed music could attend the music munity who saw little value in educating farm festival held yearly at River Falls. The best youths and who grumbled bitterly when the songs of the 1860 festivities were said to have time came to pay their school taxes. Some citizens were interested in various clubs and societies having both practical and

•'" Folsom, Fifty Years in the Northwest, 213; Pres­ " Prescott Democrat. June 13, 1860. cott Democrat. August 15, 1860. " Ibid., October 10, 1860. "Prescott North-Western Democrat. February 22, " Clifton School Di.striet to L. H. Merri(-k, January 1860. 29, 1859, in the George Merrick Papers, State His­ •"Prescott Democrat. July 18, 1860. torical Society of Wisconsin. •"Prescott North-Western Democrat. July 27, 1859. •'* Prescott Democrat, October 10, 1860. "Ibid., March 7 and March 28, 1860; Prescott " Weld, "Story of Pierce County," loc. cit.. Feb­ Democrat, August 15, 1860; Still and Herrmann, "Ab­ ruary 9, 1905. ner Mor.se's Diary," loc. cit., 80.

179 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959 been "How Blessed the Sacred Tie that Binds" tribulations of a group of shipwrecked sailors, and "Give Me Back My Mountain Home.""^ while in the former, an army officer finafly Even though the county's literacy rate was married a girl whom he raised from infancy. about 75 per cent, it is improbable that the There were, moreover, a few articles on social majority read extensively. Except for the problems that may have helped to stir humani­ Bible and an occasional publication on either tarian sympathies among their readers. One of medicine or agriculture, the common folk these concerned the wretched conditions exist­ more than likely limited their reading to the ing at an Ithaca, New York, insane asylum. local newspapers, particularly during the early A second entitled "A scene from a Southern years. Invoices of L. H. Merrick and Co., a Plantation—Whipping a Woman," featured leading commission house in Prescott, indicate an arrogant slave-holding aristocrat, an intelli­ that few if any books were shipped up the St. gent Negro woman, and the inevitable pack Croix between 1856 and 1859. In 1860 the only of bloodhounds.''" book store in the county was McKee's Book The press, moreover, printed a wide variety and Variety Store in Prescott which advertised of poetry. "Oh Whisper Thou Feelest" told of that it carried the "choicest productions from an unhappy love affair; "The Lilly and the celebrated writers; also the latest periodicals Violet" compared a flower to a newborn star. from our eastern and southern cities."^^ By There was also some poetry on social themes: answering advertisements in the newspapers, one poem described the poor as enjoying interested individuals could obtain various "the blessed self-denial of aspiring poverty,"" books and periodicals on subjects ranging from while another militantly attacked the rich and sex to medicine. Perhaps some readers were vowed vengeance for the victims of a factory familiar with at least fragments of the works disaster: of such writers as Byron, Scott, and Words­ A Curse on ye, ye Millionaires worth, but no dogmatic statements can be made Who sit at home in your easy chairs. about which authors were preferred and read. And crack your nuts and sip your wine. However, something more positive can be said While f wail over this son of mine.*" regarding popular taste in periodicals. The papers offered subscriptions to Godey's Lady's Partisan political poetry was also printed: Book, Harper's Magazine, Arthur's Home Men may rail about their Lincoln: Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, the Knicker­ Of their Hamlin they will tell. bocker, the Wisconsin Farmer, and the Ladies Of their Everett they may bluster. Home Magazine. No local circulation figures While they brag about their Bell; are available, but it may be significant that But the Democrats have Douglas the Ladies' Home Magazine was said by one Who is armed with Truth and Right, observer to have been "widely read" with And his soldiers are the voters, "great favor."'^ , fn their mcijesty and right. The three newspapers, which lifted about half of their material from the Eastern press, With the stars and stripes above us. helped to spread popular knowledge. Besides Floating o'er the Brave and Free, foreign and national news, a great deal of We will vote for Stephen Douglas, political comment, advertisements, and local Who our commodore shall be; news happenings, they regularly printed liter­ And our "Ship of State" in safety. ary articles, mostly melodramatic in nature. O'er the stormy sea he'll sail. Two typical stories -were "The Cadets Baby"*' While before the mast, Abe Lincoln, and "Wolfgang,"'^ the latter concerning the Will be looking o'er the RAfLJ-'

"Prescott North-Western Democrat, January 18, 1860. *'/6M., February 29, 1860. *''Prescott Democrat, April 11, I860; Prescott '•'Prescott Transcript, May 19, 1860. Transcript, August 18, 1860. " Prescott Democrat, June 20, I860. " Prescott North-Western Democrat. Januarv 4, and " Both newspapers printed the story. See Prescott January 18, 1860. Transcript, January 7, 1860; Prescott North-Western '"//«(;., February 8, 1860. Democrat, January 11, 1860. ••" Prescott Democrat, July 4, 1860.

180 LARSEN PIERCE COUNTY

Readers doubtless enjoyed the various anec­ never know. We can think to be sure, without dotes the newspapers printed in great numbers. writing, and we doubdess think a good many The Prescott Democrat, for example, said that things which should never be written; but the latest styles of ladies' dresses were "the writing induces or produces a habit of think­ low and Behold." It was wondered why some ing, and in some measure systematizes our women claimed that they did not use goods thoughts, and improves our method of ex­ produced by slave labor, since cotton was their pressing them.""' "bosom companion." One story suggested that Abraham Lincoln must be a manner (meaner) nPHlS, then, was the Pierce County of 1860 man because Hannibal Hamlin, his running -I —young and filled with great hopes of a mate, was a Maine man; another item cau­ future that unfortunately never materialized. tioned readers that steers should be referred For the coming of the railroad not only ruined lo as gentlemen cows.''" the river traffic but also made Minneapolis and Even though readers were frequently re­ St. Paul the great commercial centers of the quested to submit articles to the local papers, area. By 1880 Prescott was a sleepy river town. the editors seldom received anything more than It even lost the county seat to River Falls, an occasional political essay. Possibly then, as which became the marketing center for a now, most people believed themselves to be too county that remained predominantly agricul­ busy or too incapable of expressing their tural. thoughts on paper. Abner Morse was an ex­ But although their dreams of economic ception—a man who genuinely enjoyed writing greatness may have failed of realization. Pierce and who respected the intellectual discipline County's early citizens made other and per­ it imposes. "After a day of labor," he wrote haps more important contributions. In the in his diary, "it is a pleasure to hold secret records which they and other pioneers like communion with one's own self, and even to them kept and left behind, today's historians record a few passing thoughts, where they have a rich inheritance of the raw materials may be regarded as private property. We think without which no true account of a nation's and feel many things, which the world should or a region's history can be fully reconstructed.

•"Ibid., April 11, August 1, 1860; Prescott North- " Still and Herrmann, "Abner Morse's Diary," loc. Western Democrat. Januarv 8, Februarv 15, 1860. cit.. 72.

George li. Merrick C^ollection, Society's Icon«8;rapliic Colls. An 1876 scene on the levee at Prescott, showing the steamboat Centennial and the ferry Plough Boy.

181 Copperheads and Copperheadism in Wisconsin:

Democratic Opposition to the Lincoln Administration

by Frank Klement "liberty" as synonymous came to naught, their arguments against Lincolnian policy survive in the pamphlets, letters, and editorials they wrote. These source materials prove that the Copperheads of Civil War years were sincere, capable, and determined—and it is both unfair and unhistorical to view them as men whose hearts were black, whose blood was yellow, and nPHE WORD "COPPERHEAD" possessed whose minds were blank. Midwestern Copperheadism (a term applied -*- several different meanings midway in the to the anti-Administration movement in the Civil War. Radical Republicans and Lincoln's Midwest as the word Copperhead refers to the loyal supporters gave it a dark and damning individual anti-Lincoln critics of the Demo­ definition. They compared the persons whom cratic political faith) was a complex and in­ they called Copperheads to the venomous snake tangible thing. Its ingredients were many and with the copper-colored head, insisting that varied, and they differed slightly from state to both were to be detested or dreaded—that the state. Midwestern sectionalism colored the Copperheads were traitorous and the copper­ movement in the upper Mississippi valley— heads poisonous.' there were many in Wisconsin who believed On the other hand, those who were con­ that the Lincoln Administration had sold its demned as Copperheads tried to give their own soul to New York capitalists and New England interpretation to that term. They cut the lib­ manufacturers. Some Copperheads believed erty head out of the old copper cent, and they that the economic ties of the upper Mississippi claimed that the copper-head badge should be valley were more closely bound to the planta­ worn with honor by the critics of the Lincoln tion South than to the industrial Northeast. Administration and the opponents of radical­ ism. A Democratic critic of Lincolnian policy Partyism or Democratic partisanship was defined a Copperhead as "a man who designs another chief ingredient of that concoction to maintain our system of free government as called Copperheadism, for at times Lincoln's our fathers founded it, as their successors ad­ critics flavored it with political opportunism ministered it, and as we and posterity are and sordid party tactics. Midwestern Copper­ bound by every motive of interest, patriotism, headism also possessed some social aspects— and honor to continue it."'- in most of the Midwest the Copperhead coun­ try was characterized by smaller homesteads, In the darkest days of the Civil War—the poorer soils, and more widespread illiteracy;'' first six months of 1863—there was a question in the cities the workingmen tended to express whether Lincoln's supporters or Lincoln's Copperhead views while their employers gen- Democratic critics would have their way, keep erafly supported the Lincoln Administration. control of the machinery of government, con­ Copperheadism also possessed a religious ele- trol policy, and direct the ship of state in the direction they would have it go. In the end. ' One essay, appearing in the New York Tribune of course, the policies of Lincoln and the Re­ and widely circulated in the Midwest, concluded with the statement, ". . . let the traitors be called 'Copper­ publican party prevailed, and the critics were heads.' " See Jackson (Michigan) Weekly Citizen. discredited and ground into the dust—Lin­ February 25, 1863. coln's supporters dictated the peace and wrote - Quoted in the Indianapolis State Sentinel. Feb­ ruary 26, 1864. the definitions for words like justice, honor, ' This is less true in Wisconsin than in Ohio, Indi­ and treason. So the definition Lincoln's sup­ ana, and Illinois. Those interested in pursuing the porters devised for the term Copperhead was socio-economic theme of Copperheadism further should consult John L. Stipp, "Economic and Polit­ written into history nigh onto a hundred years ical Aspects of Western Copperheadism" (Ph. D. ago. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1944) ; and Frank L. Klement, "Economic Aspects of Middle Wesitern Although the efforts of Lincoln's Democratic Copperheadism," in The Historian. 14:27-44 (Au­ critics to view the words "Copperhead" and tumn, 1951).

182 KLEMENT : COPPERHEADS AND COPPERHEADISM ment, for Know-Nothingism (an anti-Catholic which existed between Western farmers and movement of the '50's) colored the Republican Eastern industrialists; he early decried the party, and many Midwestern Catholics feared "plundering of the Midwest" for the benefit of that New England Puritanism would try to es­ "Pennsylvania's Iron Mongers and New Eng­ tablish itself as a national church and foist its land manufacturers."' Some Wisconsin Cop­ dogmas upon the rest of the country.^ perheads read sectionalism into the various Many Midwestern Copperheads viewed tariff bills which Eastern manufacturers se­ themselves as conservatives who opposed the cured from a sympathetic Congress. "This many changes forged in the workshop of war; Morrill Tariff Bill," complained an editorial their slogan, "The Constitution as it is, the writer of the Madison Daily Wisconsin Patriot, Union as it was," proved that they looked to­ "is as much a curse to the Great West as to the ward the past rather than the future. Some .South, and it is a monster tax on the Missis­ Wisconsin Copperheads viewed themselves as sippi Valley for the benefit of a few Eastern Jeffersonian Democrats and they felt compelled lords."** The editor of the Milwaukee See-Bote to oppose the centralization of the government also viewed the tariff measures as proof that and the nationalization of business. A few New England intended to promote her own in­ called themselves humanitarians, and they op- terests at the expense of the upper Mississippi ]Josed war and bloodshed as a means to an end. region; he headlined a long editorial "The Still others developed a mistrust of the man Irrepressible Conflict between East and West," who occupied the President's chair in the and he interpreted Midwestern Copperhead­ White House, and their hate prompted them ism as the Western reaction to revived Whig­ to misunderstand Lincoln and misinterpret his gery and the tariff program demanded by East­ intentions. Truly, Midwestern critics of Lin­ ern manufacturers."" coln mixed emotionalism, realism, partyism, Marcus Mills ("Brick") Pomeroy, a La and rationalization in different ratios: each Crosse Democratic editor who later gained wrote his own recipe. national notoriety for his condemnation of President Lincoln, also wrote upon the sec­ IVTIDWESTERN SECTIONALISM existed tional theme early in the war. He claimed that -'-'-'- long before the Civil War began. Some the war and the tariff and fiscal policies of the Midwesterners were as section conscious as the Republican-controlled Congress would make Southern Ultras or the New England Yankees. the West both "slave and servant of New Eng­ They avidly promoted their section's economic land."'" Stephen D. ("Pump") Carpenter, welfare, cultural development, or political as­ Madison newspaperman and Democratic blue- pirations. One Midwesterner who proudly la­ blood, pointed out that coffee, worth ten cents beled himself a "Western sectionalist" once a pound before the war, cost fourteen cents in boasted in Congress: "I am as good a Western fire-eater as the hottest salamander in this ' Letter, Frederic W. Horn to Governor Alexander House."^ He also proclaimed that he was "in­ Randall, April 18, 1861, in the Wisconsin Civil War exorably hostfle to Puritan domination in re­ (governors' Letters. ligion or morals or literature or politics."" ' Madison Wisconsin Patriot. February 20, 1861. "Milwaukee See-Bote, April 30, 1862. Peter V. Those same sectional sentiments motivated Deuster of the .See-Bote constantly raised the hue and many Wisconsin Democrats. Frederic W. cry against New England and Puritanism. Editorial (•omments like the following are typical: "It is the Horn, a Democratic spokesman who lived in tender yoke of the factory barons, the blessed work­ Cedarburg, understood the conflict of interests ing of the Puritan oligarchy which now depose us. New England is really now our ruler and master; nay, it is more—it is the creditor, we are its debtors. To her we are tributary. New England has the bonds ' Letter, Frederic W. Horn to Governor Alexander in her hands which the other states have to pay. . . . Randall, April 18, 1861, in the Wisconsin Civil War The money monopoly of New England is absolutely Governors' Letters, State Historical Society of Wis­ controlling and the labor of the others, especially the consin. Western states, is tributarv to it." See-Bote. October "Congressional Globe, 36 Congress, 1 session (1859- 1, 1862. 1860), "Appendix," 43. '" La Crosse Weekly Democrat, February 7, 1862; " Ibid. Also see Clement L. Vallandigham, Speeches, July 7, 1863; and October 17, 1864; Marcus Mills Arguments, Addresses, and Letters of Clement L. ("Brick") Pomeroy, Condensed History of the War: Vallandigham (New York, 1864), 7, 211. Its Causes and Results (n.p., 1868), 4—7.

183 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959

1861, twenty-one cents in 1862, and thirty-six farm prices dived downward: corn com­ cents in 1863. He blamed the tariff, the Lin­ manded less than ten cents a bu.shel, potatoes coln Administration; and the war.^' The editor could be had by the hundred bushels for the of the Sheboygan Journal also objected to a asking, butter was a drug on the market, and tariff policy vvhidi raised (he price of house­ hog prices were more than halved in 1861." hold necessities, and he satirically suggested Business and professional men complained of that the best way the mistaken Republicans the hard times.'^ The unemployed paraded the could supjjort a mistaken President was by streets of Milwaukee and blamed the war for "drinking lots of coffee at thirty and thirty- their plight. A bank panic swept over Wiscon­ five cents a pound."'- sin; state banks which had based their paper Midwestern sectionalists criticized more money upon Southern bonds closed their doors than the various tariff acts. They condemned and declared bankruptcy.'" By July 1, 1861, the National Bank Act of 1863, pretending it thirty-eight of Wisconsin's 108 banks became was a device contrived by Wall Street. They insolvent and a score more balanced on the also excoriated the excise taxes which the Lin­ brim of bankruptcy. Financial hocus-pocus, coln Administration placed upon both distilled which substituted Wisconsin state bonds for and fermented liquor. They viewed the ex­ the worthless Southern securities in the hands cessive freight rates levied by the railroads and of the state auditor, saved the banks further the Great Lakes carriers as proof that Eastern embarrassment although that action later re­ capitalists intended to squeeze the last cent out ceived the condemnation of a legislative com­ of Western pocketbooks. "The farmers work mittee." like heroes to produce their great crops of The hard times undermined the patriotism wheat," wrote the unhappy editor of the Wis­ which had swept over the country like a tidal consin Farmer, "and then practically give to wave after Fort Sumter's surrender. When the shipowners and transportation companies . . . economic shoe pinched, men transposed their all the profits of their toil."''^ The sectional economic grievances into political arguments, aspect of Midwestern Copperheadism gave root into personal pessimism, and into open oppo­ to the Granger and Greenback movements in sition to the Lincoln Administration. Patriot­ the postwar years. ism lost its appeal when avenues of profit Those midwestern sectionalists who claimed disappeared, when mortgages and interest that their area was linked economically more payments fell due, when taxes drew upon closely to the South than to the East pointed empty pocketbooks, and when hard times en­ to the economic recession of 1861-1862 as gulfed the Midwest of 1861 and 1862. proof of their partisan contention. An economic The fall elections of 1861 and 1862 jolted crisis engulfed the upper Mississippi valley in the Lincoln Administration and threatened the the first year of the war, and that depression political power held by Lincoln's party. Demo­ was hydra-headed. The Mississippi river trade cratic critics—later denounced as Copperheads collapsed, farm prices spiralled downward, and —knew that the "general ruin," the "coming state bank currency was wiped out. oppressive taxation," and the military failures Wisconsin lumbermen who had rafted logs were silent partners in the contests at the or lumber down the Mississippi River in the spring of 1861 were forced to sell their prod­ "Milwaukee Daily Wisconsin, July 9, 1861; Con- ucts at ruinous prices. The Mississippi River gres.fional Globe, 37 Congress, 2 session (1861-1862), 170. Economic grievances of Midwesterners are blockade, imposed later by the War Depart­ treated summarily in Klement, "Economic Aspects ment, closed the down-river produce trade and of Middle Western Copperheadism," loc. cit. '" Sheboygan Journal, June 1 and 19, 1861; Apple- ton's Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important " Stephen D. Carpenter, Logic of History (Madison, Events. 1861, 312. 1864), 305. "' Wisconsin banks had invested heavily in "Missouri '• Sheboygan Journal, February 18, 1862. Sixes" and "North Carolina Sixes" to validate the '•' Wisconsin Farmer, (Madison), February 1, 1862. .14,580,632 worth of state hank notes in circulation in The link between Midwestern Copperheadism and the 1860. Louisiana, Virginia, and Tennessee state bonds postwar Grangerism is explored in Frank L. Klement, were also favorite securities of Wisconsin bankers. "Middle Western Copperheadi.sm and the Genesis of '• Madison Wisconsin Patriot, March 29, June 28 the Granger Movement," in the Mississippi Valley and 29, 1862; Milwaukee Daily Wisconsin, July 12, Historical Review, 38:679-694 (March, 1952). 1861; Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia . . . 1861, 66-67;

184 KLEMENT COPPERHEADS AND COI'PERHEADtSM

polls.''' The election of November, 1862, for patient and the doctor."^' Embittered by the example, was a virtual Democratic landslide Administration's turn toward abolition, the —the opposition party polled nearly 20,000 same editor had earlier written: "If this is a more votes in Wisconsin than it had in the war ... of ABOLITION, then, the sooner the gubernatorial contest of 1861. Lincoln's critics Union goes to the devil the better."''- "Brick" rejoiced. They considered the election returns Pomeroy of the La Crosse Democrat con­ a repudiation of Lincolnian policy. The editor demned the Emancipation Proclamation as of the Sheboygan Journal announced that "indiscreet," "unnecessary," and "unconstitu­ "Democratic Victories" were the latest "Fall tional"; he believed it "would be powerful in Fashions."'" producing evil results," and he accused Lin­ coln of perverting a war to save the Union into ALTHOLiGH economic grievances and sec- a war to free the slaves.-" Pomeroy's aversion -^~*- tional arguments aided Democratic poli­ to abolition prompted him to call Lincoln a ticians to build an anti-Administration follow­ "bungler," and Sherman M. Booth (Wiscon­ ing, as political strategists they also played sin's leading abolitionist) a "polecat."-' other aces. Military failures in the early years George B. Smith, prominent Madison lawyer of the war far out-numbered battlefield victo­ and Democratic party bigwig, was sure that ries. Wisconsin Democrats, therefore, claimed Lincoln had usurped authority when he made that President Lincoln was a failure as the na­ emancipation oflicial policy: he wanted Demo­ tion's commander-in-chief, and they laid every crats to resist openly "every unconstitutional military defeat at his doorstep. They also bit­ act of the President."-'''' Peter V. Deuster, edi­ terly assailed the Administration's emancipa­ tor of the Milwaukee See-Bote, insisted that tion policy, and then accused Lincoln of Lincoln's emancipation policy would release bowing to the pressure exerted by the abolition a flood of "cheap labor" upon the North and wing of the Republican party. Moderate deprive Northern workingmen of a livelihood. Democrats who had given the Lincoln Admin­ He entitled an editorial "Abolition the Worst istration qualified support early in the war Enemy of the Free White Laborer," and he became violent critics after President Lincoln gave advice to his fellow German-Americans: decided to sail the ship of state upon the seas "Workmen! Be Careful! Organize yourself of abolition.-" against this element which threatens your im­ Nearly every Democratic editor condemned poverishment and annihilation."-" the Emancipation Proclamation. The editor of The observant correspondent of the London the Oshkosh Courier labeled it "political medi­ Times, touring the Middle West, stated the cine" which he predicted "would kill both the case succinctly: "The jealousy of the Low Ger­ mans and Irish against the free Negro was suf­ ficient to set them against the war which would have brought four million of their black rivals Frederick Merk, Economic History of Wisconsin dur­ in competition for the hard and dirty work ing the Civil War Decade (Madison, 1918), 193#.,- Theodore Anderson, A Century of Banking in Wis­ which American freedom bestowed upon consin (Madison, 1954), 41-50. The editor of one them."-' Milwaukee Irish workers broke into Wisconsin paper wrote: "This sudden retirement of a jail and seized a Negro who had been im- the paper blood of commerce caused and is causing a shivering not only in the truck, but through every extremity of the country. Like an ague chill it racks with unnumbered pains already, and begets a thou­ sand fears of new and unheard of terrors not exactly -' Oshkosh Courier, October 31, 1862. understood or comprehended. Prices have gone down ••Ibid.. February 21, 1862. to the lowest point, and money and exchange up to -° La Cros.se Weekly Democrat, August 19, October the highest" Wisconsin Farmer, January 1, 1861. 11, 1861; April 18 and 23, May 7, June 16, and '"Letter (copy), George H. Paul to Frederic W. September 28, 1862. Horn, May 24, 1861, in the George H. Paul Papers, -*Ibid., September 20, 27, October 11, November 15, State Historical Society of Wisconsin; George B. 1861; April 18 and 23, May 7, June 16, and September Smith, "Diary," entries of August 29, September 7, 28, 1862. 1861, in the (jeorge B. Smith Papers, State Historical -"Smith, "Diary," entry of December 21, 1862, in Society of Wi.sconsin; Milwaukee Daily Wisconsin, the (jeorge B. Smith Papers. July 9, 1861; Sheboygan Journal, November 14, 1862. •"See-Bote, April 9, 23, and 31, October 15, Novem­ "' Sheboygan Journal, November 21, 1862. ber 3, 1862; April 31, 186,3. -°° Green Bay Advocate, October 2, 1862. -' London Times, September 26, 1862.

185 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959 prisoned for fighting with and killing an Irish advantage. Resorting to sordid party tactics laborer. The mob's lust for blood was partiaUy to get the "ins" out and the "outs" in, they satiated by lynching the victim, and the Mil­ made hay in the field of war weariness by talk­ waukee mobsters continued to parade and ing of peace and compromise in order to gain shout "Kill the damned niggers!" and "Damn votes at the polls. They sought votes in the re­ the niggers and Abolitionists."-^ action to conscription and in the fears which a Not only were the Irish-Americans and the military draft casts over a people, and they Low Germans opposed to the abolition policy hoped that the many military failures would of the Lincoln Administration, but they also cause people to lose faith in their President. believed that there was a tie between Lincoln's Some made discontent a habit, and their hatred political party and the anti-Catholic movement of Lincoln an obsession. They could see only called Know-Nothingism. The editor of the the dark clouds—never the silver lining. Some German-language See-Bote, the unofficial voice became professional pessimists, and argued of Catholicism in the Milwaukee area, repeat­ that death and suffering and taxes were the edly stated that the Republican party was but only fruits of the war. Misunderstanding Lin­ another name for the Know-Nothing move­ coln, they also misinterpreted his intentions. ment, a religious argument he used to persuade When the wartime President had to take action his readers to vote the straight Democratic for which there was no precedent, they ques­ ticket.-" Frederic W. Horn feared that a wave tioned the constitutionality of his every act. of anti-Catholic persecution would begin if When Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas New England Puritanism gained ascendancy.''" corpus, they pretended that he was anxious to The Ozaukee County draft riot of 1862 was become a tyrant or a dictator. They feared that caused, in part, by the anti-Catholic policy fol­ the excuse of military necessity would destroy lowed in the naming of an army chaplain."' civil and individual rights. The radical and ri­ diculous utterances of some of Lincoln's sup­ ALTHOUGH religious prejudice. Western porters—Governor Austin Blair of Michigan, -^*- sectionalism, economic grievances, and for example, supposedly suggested that a guil­ anti-abolitionism all nurtured the Copperhead lotine be imported from France"'-—added to movement, the basic ingredient of the anti- the consternation of Cop])erhead critics of the Administration sentiment was partisan politics wartime President. and political opportunism. Both of the politi­ Small wonder then, that Democrats were cal parties maneuvered for position. The Re­ concerned and apprehensive. They prided publicans wanted to control policy, and they themselves upon allegiance to the principle of demanded an unqualified support for all Ad­ strict construction of the Constitution; they ministration measures and policies. They de­ protested that the wheel of revolution turned vised political strategems like soldier-voting- too fast and too far; they were conservatives iii-the-field, 1 nion party tickets, and Union who feared that America was undergoing Leagues to keep their party in power. They la­ change in the crucible of war. Only the Demo­ beled all who opposed their various and sundry cratic party, they believed, could restore the measures as "traitors," "rebel sympathizers," Union and heal the nation's wounds. or Copperheads; they pinned the tail of trea­ son upon the Democratic donkey; and they T INCOLN'S critics in Wisconsin were le- generated nationalism and patriotism to aid ^-^ gion. The list included unknown Irish their cause. workingmen, and it included some prominent On the other hand. Democratic party mem­ and reputable politicos. Edward G. Ryan, ca­ bers tried to turn public opinion to political pable orator and well-known lawyer provided the intellectual leadership for the Copperhead movement in the state."" Ryan drew heavily "" Milwaukee Daily Wisconsin, September 9, 1861; London Times. September 10, 1861. '"Milwaukee See-Bote. October 31, 1860, " Letter, Horn to Alexander Randall, April 18, 1861, •'- Detroit Free Press. October 1, 1862. in the Wisconsin C^ivil War Governors' Letters. '•' Those interested in Ryan's role as a Copperhead " Peter Leo Johnson, "Port Washington Draft Riot should see A. J. Beitzinger, "The Father of Copper­ of 1862," in Mid-America, 1:212-220 (January, 1930). headism in Wisconsin," in the Wisconsin Magazine of

186 KLEMENT : COPPERHEADS AND COPPERHEADISM upon the writings of Jefferson when he wrote obtained by a base cheaL an infamous swindle, his party's "Address" in 1862—a learned po­ a damnable deception. . . . The Democratic litical treatise which has been called both the party trusted and was betrayed. 'The War for "Ryan Address" and the "Copperhead the Union' was cordially supported by Demo­ Bible.""* Ryan viewed Lincoln's suspension of crats all over the North. It turned out to be a the writ of habeas corpus as unconstitutional war of abolition, of violation of the Constitu­ and the arrest of the President's critics as a tion, a war by the eastern oligarchy.""*' threat to the civil processes."" After Lincoln The Ozaukee County draft riots and the espoused emancipation Ryan became even state-wide resentment against the federal con­ more critical, accusing the President of trying scription act of March, 1863, prompted Editor to establish "a military despotism," and de­ Flavins J. Mills to record his objections in bold nouncing his advisors as "fools" and "knaves." words. "In Heaven's name," he wrote, "let us Ryan told fifteen thousand Democratic parti­ have no more of this conscription—a system sans in Milwaukee that Lincoln was "a mere which the most proscriptive monarchial gov­ doll, worked by springs," "a weak, vain, ami­ ernment would scarce resort to.""" Mdls be­ able man," "totally unfit" for the high position lieved that Lincoln was a man of great which he held."" ambition and little ability, and the Sheboygan Ryan's anti-Lincoln views were shared by editor plumped for peace early in 1863. (jCorge H. Paul, a capable editor who took "When will the hideous moloch who holds over the Milwaukee News in 1863. Editor Paul the press and sword of this nation," he angrily waged a vicious and constant war against the inquired, "call off his dogs of war and suffer Republicans and the Administration. When peace once more to bless our bleeding coun­ Lincoln's agents made arrests in various Mid­ try ?"•'» western states, George H. Paul boldly wrote: Stephen D. "Pump" Carpenter, Copperhead "He who would suppress popular opinion with and co-editor of the carping Madison Patriot brute force is not only an enemy of the Gov­ (Republicans claimed the paper was grossly ernment, but of all mankind."'" Hacking away misnamed), wrote editorials quite like those at Lincoln's reputation, the assiduous editor which appeared in the Sheboygan Journal and exhibited his devotion to the Copperhead the Milwaukee News. The ghost of abolition cause. haunted Carpenter, and his political predilec­ Flavins J. Mills, editor of the Sheboygan tions encouraged him to mix venom with his Journal, kept pace with Editor Paul. After Lin­ editorial ink. He criticized every measure of coln espoused emancipation. Mills became dis­ the Lincoln Administration; he wrote of peace illusioned and embittered, believing that the as "a blessing," and he editorialized against the objectives of the war had been altered by Lin­ President's suspension of the writ of habeas coln and the Radical Republicans. Afleging corpus. "The idea of suspension," he recorded that Democrats had been deliberately de­ for posterity, "is akin to the quack doctor who ceived, he wrote, "All the support the war has cut his patient's throat to cure a tumor on his ever received from Democrats was originally neck."*' In the columns of the f^atriot Carpen­ ter ran a feature which he entitled "The Logic of History," a collection of miscellaneous items History, 39:17-25 (Autumn, 1955). The legal and designed to prove that Lincoln was inconsis­ judicial career of Wisconsin's greatest judge is treated tent and incompetent, and that Republicans in a scholarly way in A. J. Beitzinger, "Chief Justice were unprincipled and irrational. During the Ryan of the Wisconsin Supreme Court" (Ph. D. dis­ sertation, University of Wisconsin, 1955). political campaign of 1864, Carpenter had •" The "Address" was adopted by the State Demo­ the type reset and published the series in book cratic Convention on September 3, 1862. The lengthy document (some 7500 words) was printed (100,000 form. The strange volume survives as docu- copies) in pamphlet form and broadcast over Wis­ consin as a Democratic campaign document. •'"Address to the People by the Democracy of Wis­ •" Sheboygan Journal. May 7, 1863. consin, Adopted in State Convention at Milwaukee. •"• Ibid., April 9, 1863. September 3, 1862 (Milwaukee, 1862), 5ff. " Ibid. " Milwaukee Daily News, July 2, 1863. "Madison Patriot, May 11, December 28, 1862; "Milwaukee Daily News (n.d.), quoted in the February 13, March 9, May 16, and September 19, Sheboygan Journal, February 26, 1863. 1863.

187 •WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING. 1959

mentary evidence that the Madison editor was even suggested that some so-called "patriot" a rabid partisan and a critic of his President.*- drive a dagger into Lincoln's heart, and he *'• Another Madisonian, George B. Smith, one­ had the gafl to compose the following blasphe­ time attorney general and a well-known lawyer, mous epitaph for the victim: shared many of the anti-Lincoln and anti-Ad­ "Beneath this turf the widow-maker lies. ministration views expressed by the ebullient Little in everything except in size."*''' editor of the Madison Patriot. Smith con­ Pomeroy's boldness and blatancy hurt and vinced himself that the President had repeat­ hindered rather than helped the Copperhead edly violated his oath to uphold the Constitu­ cause, and his ridiculous assertions and im­ tion and that he had the ambitions of a despot. moderate statements helped to discredit the Smith criticized Lincoln publicly, and also con­ Copperhead movement in Wisconsin. fided his fears (in an almost illegible hand) to But there were other reasons why Lincoln's his diary. The final entry of 1862 reveals critics in the state lost face as the war moved Smith's fears and anti-Lincoln sentiments: toward a close. War prosperity, too, helped to "The President of the United States is respon­ quash Midwestern Copperheadism; in the last sible for the miserable state of things, and for two years of the war "prosperity" helped to this and many special and arbitrary acts which heal "the wounds" which the civil conflict had he has committed, I solemnly believe that [hej inflicted upon the nation and its people." ought to be impeached and constitutionally de­ Union military victories like (Gettysburg, Vicks­ posed from the high office of President of the burg, and Sherman's capture of Atlanta gave United States."'" the lie to Copperhead charges that the war was a failure. Republican election victories in IVfO WISCONSIN critic of Lincoln received 1864 seemed to be a popular repudiation of -*• ^ the nation-wide notoriety and publicity Democratic contentions that the Lincoln Ad­ accorded to "Brick" Pomeroy of La Crosse.*' ministration was long on bungling and short Pomeroy edited the La Crosse Democrat, but on ability. he made anti-Lincoln diatribe a specialty and But perhaps Lincoln's ability to make his malevolence an art. In his editorials he labeled aims the people's ideals did most to turn back Lincoln "a blockhead," "an imbecile," "a flat- the Copperhead challenge. Lincoln had an boat tyrant," "hell's vice-agent on earth," "a ability to gain the confidence of the masses. widow-maker," and "a usurper who wears a He spoke their language and he seemed to No. 5 hat and No. 14 boots." He wrote that suffer as one of them. His sincerity and faith, Lincoln was "the poorest apology for a Chief his honesty and humility, and his ability and Magistrate [that] the world ever saw," and he patience appealed to the voters. A flood of claimed that the Lincoln Administration was votes swept Lincoln back into office in 1864; "the rottenest, most stinking, ruin-working Copperhead criticisms were washed away. The small pox ever conceived by fiends or mor­ will of the majority prevailed and Republican­ tals."*^ Caught in his own web of hate, he be­ ism emerged triumphant from the war. The came more emotional, more embittered. He Copperheads, however, emerged with their rep­ utations tarnished—and it was this view of them that remained popular in the postwar years.

" Stephen S. Carpenter, The Logic of History (Madison, 1864) is an invaluable Copperhead source book. '•'Smith, "Diary," last entry of 1862, in the George B. Smith Papers. 'ybid., August 29, 1864. " Pomeroy's activity as a Copperhead is treated in *' The editor of a Cincinnati newspaper wrote that tAvo different articles: see Frank L. Klement, " 'Brick' "war prosperity" was "the lance of Achilles . . . Pomeroy: Copperhead and Curmudgeon," in the healing by its touch the wounds" of death and deso­ Wisconsin Magazine of History, 35:106-113, 156-157 lation. Cincinnati Daily Gazette, November 9, 1863. (Winter, 1951), and ibid., "A Small-Town Editor The touring correspondent of the London Times Criticizes Lincoln: A Study in Editorial Abuse," reported in a similar vein. He stated that the economic Lincoln Herald, 55:27-32, 60 (Summer, 1952). prosperity which developed late in the war covered '"La Crosse Weekly Democrat. April 23, July 5, a multitude of sins of the Lincoln Administration. August 9, 16, 23, and 24, 1864. London Times, October 7, 20, 1863.

1! On August 1, Dr. Leslie H. Fishel, Jr., staff. Board, and members alike—enjoyed the the seventh director in the Society's 113-year- experience, for in addition to his administra­ old history, wifl arrive from Oberlin College tive talents and creativity, Les Fishel is a very in Ohio to assume his official duties. Like his nice fellow. predecessor, Cliff Lord, Les Fishel is young (thirty-seven), holds the Ph.D. in history While we have been "waiting for our new (Harvard), is a veteran of navy service, and director there have been several significant smokes a pipe. A native of Long Island, Les developments in the Society. graduated from Oberlin in 1943, spent twenty The space crisis deepens, broadens, length­ months aboard a submarine chaser during the ens, heightens. Under the able administration war, and from 1948 to 1955 taught in the de­ of Mrs. Barbara Kaiser, the rapidly develop­ partment of humanities at M.I.T. Since 1955 ing Mass Communications History Center he has been at Oberlin as executive director threatens to flood the building with a deluge of the Alumni Association, editor of the of exciting and important manuscript collec­ Alumni Magazine, and head of an alumni tions. This is a project in which the University adult education program. In addition, Les has of Wisconsin is playing a vital role. Faculty been a member of the Oberlin history faculty, members of the speech, journalism, and his­ teaching advanced seminars on political lead­ tory departments constitute an advisory com­ ers and on the Negro in American history. mittee to the Center. Traveling on University Mrs. Fishel, the former Barbara Richards, funds they visit the mass communications cen­ is also an Oberlin graduate, a physical edu­ ters of the country to talk to leaders in their cation major. The Fishels, both of whom are respective fields about sending their manu­ active in church and civic affairs, have five scripts to the Center. The University's help is children ranging in age from fourteen to five extremely valuable, since it is professors, re­ and a half. sponsible for their own and their students' re­ This Spring Les flew in and out of Madison search, who can best tell us what records we for several weeks of orientation. He shows a should obtain, what materials they will need. keen grasp of the objectives of the Society, Fred Haberman and Ordean Ness have worked feels that there must be a balance between the hard to secure the archives of the radio and scholarly and popular programs, and believes TV networks. (The first three shipments of that the Society is in a solid position to ex­ NBC archives have arrived.) Fred Buerki and pand its services to the people of the state. He Jack Curvin have pursued theater records; has a balanced, yet enthusiastic viewpoint that Scott Cudip has made trips to locate and I know you'll like. Those who have worked bring back public relations files; Watson with him in the few weeks he spent with us— Dunn has handled the records of advertisers;

189 WISCONSIN VIAGAZINE OF HISTORY- SPRING, 1959

Harold "Bud" Nelson is after manuscripts in twenty-five studies which are available for the newspaper fields; Percy Tannenbaum of faculty members and visiting scholars. Some the University's Mass Communications Re­ nights (especially those close to final exam search Center is working closely with us. Be­ week) nearly every chair in our main read­ sides these gentlemen, many other professors ing room is occupied. Increasingly there are have given generously of their time and ad­ complaints that our eleven microfilm readers vice to make our Mass Communications His­ are inadequate for the demands made upon tory Center the best in the country. them by graduate students and faculty. Dur­ We feel that collecting now in this contem­ ing the past year our manuscript-archive read­ porary field is in the tradition of the Society's ing room could not handle all the readers first superintendent, Lyman C. Draper. Per­ using the unique materials which must be con­ haps a couple of eons from now the research­ sulted under supervision. Every afternoon ers will look back and be grateful to the throughout the school year the history depart­ Society for preserving these documents which ment has a seminar in the Sellery room and will help to tell the story of Twentieth Cen­ would conduct more seminars if we had the tury America. space to accommodate them. In addition, a great many University-connected organiza­ tions, ranging from literary to archeological The continuing co-operation of the Uni­ groups, hold night meetings in the Sellery versity in this and other projects brings into room. focus once again the true relationship of the Society to the University. I am told that when it came time to build There is another area of co-operation the new University library the administration between the Society and the University which purposely did not place it in the heart of the holds great promise. In the past the Society's campus but on the outer edge of the Univer­ book publication program has been limited to sity community. Why? Because officials felt Wisconsin subjects. However, at the Founders that it had to be near the Society library. We Day meeting of the Board of Curators a new have been and will continue to be the Uni­ policy on book publications was decided. versity's library of American history under Henceforth, the Society will publish in the an agreement which divides the fields of col­ field of American history. Plans call for pro­ lecting between the University and Society to gressively expanding the scope from an em­ avoid duplication, overlapping, and competi­ phasis on the history of the Midwest and the tion. Inevitably this practice strengthens both late nineteenth century to include all of Amer­ libraries, since each can devote its dollars, ican history. We plan to work out a joint pro­ staff, and space to the fields outlined in the posal to foundations for launching this publi­ agreement. The day-to-day relationship is very cation program. With this new policy we are close, too. If Lou Kaplan, University libra­ accepting for consideration any book-length rian, hears of a collection in our field, he manuscript dealing with American history. works with us to get it. If we bring in col­ lections which fall in the University's field, But of all the Society's functions, the one off they go to the University library. It's a which is still basicafly the foundation of its happy, economical, and efficient arrangement strength—the activity most important to the which enables both institutions to concentrate University and to the people of the state—is effectively in their respective areas of collect­ maintaining the great library of American ing. history. If we did not provide these resources The University has done a great deal to help and services, the burden would merely be the Society. Conversely we provide many serv­ shifted elsewhere. ices to the University community. All Uni­ When scholars become interested in building versity students have the same borrowing collections we do our best to encourage, aid, privileges in our library as in their own. We and promote that interest, as witness the colos­ have forty-eight cubicles for graduate stu­ sal (that's not a Hoflywood exaggeration) re­ dents which we assign on a yearly basis. sults in the Mass Communications Historv Cen-

190 CIRCUIT RIDER ter project. In the same manner, those at the manuscript division has boxed and shelved University interested in the history of educa­ more than a million manuscripts. In the aisles tion helped the Society obtain the Ford Foun­ of the basement are eighty-four locked file dation grant to survey resources available for cabinets containing the famous Mrs. Emmons the study of the role of education in American Blaine Papers, acquired in 1958 as a key history. This was the pilot study for the na­ addition to the McCormick Collection. The tion which, we feel sure, will have a tremen­ north compression chamber next to the fur­ dous effect on stimulating the collection of ma­ nace room in the basement is filled with terials and the serious scholarly studies in this unique manuscripts. In the fourth floor mu­ field. The economics department is constantly seum we have had to close out seven and a on the lookout for the raw materials on labor half galleries—three of them in the last two and industry. Some of our most significant years. Some of the former galleries are used labor coOections have come to us through the for workspace, others house the expanding direct efforts of professors in this department. photographic collections and incoming mu­ In the field of agriculture, faculty members seum artifacts—collected on a highly selective in the Agricultural School, extension division, basis. The museum's total workspace is di­ rural sociology, and history departments have vided between the basement and the first and given us leads to materials, outlined projects fourth floors. for foundation support, and stimulated inter­ With all these materials currently on hand est in the use of the materials we already waiting for proper processing and shelving, have. No longer do we serve just one depart­ there is still the problem of future acquisi­ ment. More and more research is being done tions. We cannot pass up valuable collections. in the history of the various academic disci­ Given the present vast intake of materials plines. and the growing emphasis on providing richer Everywhere we sense that there is an in­ resources, questions concerning collecting pol­ creasing appreciation of the Society's status icies are sometimes raised. Our position al­ as a leading library of American History. ways has been that history does not stop at Former president E. B. Fred of the L niversity the borders of the state. We maintain a re­ often cafled the library the "jewel in the crown search library in American history. In order of the University." To this I would add only to obtain a clear statement on the subject, the that Wisconsin is fortunate to have two jewels Board has established a committee to study in the crown. collecting policies and to formulate a defini­ And all this activity in building the histo­ tion of collecting fields. The prevalent feeling rical resources of the Society and the state on the staff is that we should build to strength. adds up to one great big fat formidable prob­ This applies to the Historical Society as a lem—space. uniL as well as to those special areas of Ameri­ can history in which the Society should con­ centrate its collecting policies. In 1948 a joint legislative committee re­ ported that five years after the ,Society took Meanwhile, though, we continue coflecting. over the complete building there would be a We build to our strength in Wisconsin mate­ "space deficit," as they called it. The legisla­ rials, agricultural, mass communications, tive prediction was correct. Space allotted to labor, and Civil War history. As a general book expansion will last two more years. We policy this is fine. But the Society can never have gained that two years because the state afford to take the position of rejecting collec­ archives, for which we have statutory respon­ tions because they do not exactly fit a cate­ sibility, are stored around the city in the gory arbitrarily established as the policy. The University library, the state capitol, and state Society would always accept a good collection office buildings. The problems of servicing in American history, no matter what the field. these .scattered collections are great. With present funds, the library needs 400 With the deluge of manuscripts has come lineal feet or 235 square feet per year, aj)- the problem of finding adequate space in proximately 6,000 square feet for the next which to process them. In the past year the twenty-five years. In manuscripts, an average

191 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTOttY SPRING, 1959 of 2,000,000 new manuscripts per year is en­ The rest of the space for the nine levels visioned for the future. With compact shelv­ would be devoted to care, storage and servic­ ing, and figuring approximately 330 square ing of the collections. feet per year and the additional workspace At a recent meeting of the State Build­ and reading room requirements of the ex­ ing Commission, the Society presented the panded collection, the manuscripts section details of the space crisis, emphasizing the re­ will need 15,000 to 20,000 square feet of sources provided to the F'niversity commu­ shelving during the next twenty-five years. nity. Members of the commission had some Only 20 per cent of the state archives are now excellent questions. We requested $6,000 be serviced from files in our building; 8,000 of appropriated to the Bureau of Engineering for the 11,500 cubic feet of state and local rec­ a study of a possible addition to the building. ords which have been retained are housed Involved in the study will be consideration of elsewhere in Madison. On an average, the the engineering feasibility of a Park Street Committee on Public Records has retained addition, remodeling problems, land prices, approximately 4 per cent of all records (about and future expansion after the next half-cen­ 800 cubic feet per year). The present stacks tury's growth. Stemming from this survey of were built for shelving books only. There­ prices and land and statistics will come the fore, in both manuscripts and archives, we study of the Society's functions as it pertains average about one cubic foot of records per to the University. One senator suggested an square foot of space. Facilities built especially interim study of the whole problem by a com­ for documents of this sort, rather than for mittee of the legislature and we heartily en­ books, would enable us to store from two to dorse the idea. We should be pleased to talk three cubic feet of records per square foot. about objectives, space requirements, staff These statistics deal with square feet of needs, servicing problems, and the Society's shelving. When you add aisle space to give responsibility to the University and the state. access, workspace, stairwells, corridors, studies The facts, we know, will speak for themselves. for users, the total square footage needed rises To answer many of the questions raised, the sharply. In the University library only 49 per Commission authorized the study by the Bu­ cent of the entire space in the building is for reau of Engineering. With the facts learned shelving. The remainding 51 per cent is for from the preliminary study, we shall, from corridors, aisles, toilets, stairwells, elevators, now on, have the information needed to plan machinery, workspace, studies, etc. intelligently for the future. For the next quarter-century the Society This emphasis on building the research needs approximately 90,000 square feet of resources in no way detracts from the other space. We have tentative plans for a building segments of the Society's program. The So­ addition. It would be a "T" shaped structure, ciety still serves all the people in the state. filling in the courtyard and extending the We are interested in all things historical. The stack wings close to Park street. As most of urgent need to build the collection is strictly the space would be for expansion of library, a matter of emphasis. It is not an' either/or manuscripts and archives, there would be nine proposition. The Society is unique in that it levels in the five-story addition. On the first has all historical functions concentrated in floor there would be a Memorial Hall which one agency. While we push hard to enlarge could house the G.A.R. Museum, now located the book budget (the number one priority of in expensive space in the Capitol building. the Society, said the Planning Committee one By using modern museum techniques and year ago), we do not plan to retrench in other rounding out the story of Wisconsin men in fields. The sites will continue to expand. The all wars, the Memorial Hall and exhibit could circus museum will provide another attrac­ be a lasting and fitting tribute to the service­ tion; the museum program will continue, the men who have engaged the country's enemies. Historymobile will stay on the road. Wher­ The Society has been offered the G.A.R. Mu­ ever possible we shall attempt to carry the seum in the past, but we have never had the message to all citizens of the state. We must space to do it justice. forge ahead on all fronts.

192 The Historical Significance of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates*

by D. E. Fehrenbacher pjECAUSE IT WAS without precedent and results, and to mistake mere sequence for cause •*-' because one of the candidates had become and effect, has cast a veil of legend over a well- the key figure in American politics, the sena­ documented historical event. Even though the torial campaign of 1858 in Illinois attracted record of the campaign is unusually full and much attention throughout the country. Still, has been frequently examined, this is one no one at the time would have picked this aspect of the "Lincoln theme" that is certainly spirited local contest as the most memorable not yet exhausted. event of a year which also saw the bitter Le­ compton controversy in Congress, the continu­ TT HAS BEEN the fashion at times to be- ation of a severe economic depression, the •*- little the actual content of the Debates. climax of the so-called "Mormon War," the They are, to be sure, burdened with tiresome laying of the Atlantic cable, a remarkable re­ repetition and trivial dispute. But their worst ligious awakening, two gold rushes, and a faults derive from the circumstances of their knockdown brawl in the House of Representa­ presentation, which did not encourage com­ tives. pactness, unvarying relevancy, or logical pro­ The full significance and the irony of the gression. Intended for the ears of clamorous Lincoln-Douglas Debates was not revealed un­ partisans in seven separate meetings, and not til 1860, when Fortune whimsically bestowed for the eyes of one reader, these twenty-one its generous consolation prize upon the man hours of oratory deserve to be judged by their who had been denied the senatorship. Lincoln's heights of eloquence and wisdom and wit, election to the presidency rounded off the his­ rather than by the average level of the dis­ tory of his dramatic rivalry with Douglas— cussion. And at their best they have profound and at the same time seriously distorted it; for meaning and enduring value. the Debates, although held in 1858, have been Although the debaters confined themselves interpreted and evaluated in the light of what almost exclusively to the slavery issue, they happened two years later. In retrospect, the ransacked the history of the Republic for ar­ tall form of Lincoln inevitably dominates the guments, while examining the principles of scene: Douglas, originally the star of the human liberty and constitutional government. show, is relegated to second billing; and the They also explored a problem that is especially hard-fought batde for a Senate seat shrinks pertinent one hundred years later: the status to the proportions of a dress rehearsal. His­ of the Negro race in a predominantly white toriography thus inverts history and makes society. "It was precisely this question," says yesterday the determinant of the day before. Bruce Cation, "which ultimately had to be The primary significance of the Lincoln- handled," and he considers it "tragic" that Douglas contest must indeed be sought in its neither man was ready to "come to grips" with consequences (with due precaution, always, the subject, that "nothing in the classic de­ against the post hoc traps scattered over the bates is of much help to us" in our present ground of inquiry). But the words that were dilemma.^ But this, surely, is asking too much spoken, and the purposes that inspired them, of a past generation—that it solve our prob- can be understood best when they are studied in the immediate context of their delivery. * A slightly different version of this article was read The House-Divided speech, for example, un­ at the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association in Washington, D. C, on December 29, doubtedly contributed to Lincoln's emergence 1958. as a presidential contender; yet it is utterly 'Albert J. Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln. 1809-1858 misleading to write, as Albert J. Beveridge (2 vols., Boston, 1928) H, 585. ^ Bruce Catton, "Beyond the Slavery Question," in did, that the speech was "his most impor­ the Saturday Review, February 8, 1958, pp. 14-15, a tant move in the game for the Presidency."'^ review of Paul M. Angle, ed.. Created Equal?: The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 (Chicago, The tendency to explain motives by consulting 1958).

193 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING. 1959 lems ahead of its own. The opponents of slav­ it was closed for Douglas because of certain ery in the 1850's faced a hard enough task words he uttered at Freeport.'"' without attempting to deal with the whole With the first of these propositions it would range of indignities that the centuries had be hard to quarrel. Lincoln's nomination in heaped upon the Negro. In language that Lin­ 1860 is almost impossible to imagine without coln might have used, killing a grizzly and the Debates—or some equivalent—in the im­ skinning a grizzly are best treated as two sep­ mediate background. But to understand just arate operations. how his unsuccessful run for the Senate could Mr. Catton contends that the debaters "con­ accomplish so much, it is necessary to begin sciously evaded" the race question by reaching with the fact that in the delicate balance be­ "a somewhat desperate agreement" not to talk tween the parties, the Illinois electoral vote about it. Actually, the opposite is true. Far was of critical importance. Someone from that from being suppressed, the subject was dragged state was bound to receive serious considera­ into the discussion by Douglas in order to tion when the Republicans selected their na­ harass his opponent. And akhough Lincoln tional ticket." Before 1858, however, there was considered the issue irrelevanL expediency de­ no assurance that the man would be Lincoln, manded and conscience permitted his em­ and little chance that any Illinoisan could com­ phatic repudiation of racial equality which mand strong support for first place on the grates so painfully upon the modern ear. "I ticket. The debates with Douglas did three have no purpose," he declared, "to introduce things for Lincoln: they moved him ahead of political and social equality between the white potential rivals in his own state, like Lyman and black races. There is a physical difference Trumbull; they increased his stature to presi­ between the two which . . . will probably for­ dential (rather than mere vice-presidential) ever forbid their living together on the footing proportions; and they fixed him in the public of perfect equality."'' mind as the peculiar nemesis of the Democratic This was hardly evasion, unless evasion be champion. defined as a forthright answer which in time When the men who had known Lincoln, ceases to be acceptable. The whole texture of casually or intimately, sat down in later years American life compelled such an answer in to write their memoirs, it was inevitable that 1858, and the Lincoln of history would not they should translate these consequences into exist if he had failed to comply. But it is what intentions and trace a thread of presidential Lincoln claimed for the Negroes, not what he ambition back through his actions in 1858. was willing to deny them, that is important, The Lincoln of their remembrance was a man namely: "all the rights enumerated in the already aware of his destiny, who conducted Declaration of Independence."' The twentieth the senatorial campaign with an eye to ruining century has broadened the meaning of "life, Douglas' prospects of becoming president and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" to in­ improving his own. At Freeport, according to clude much more than Lincoln had in mind, a familiar yarn, some friends warned him that and he would be the first to acknowledge its it might prove disastrous to ask his celebrated right to do so. second question, whereupon he replied: "I am Over the years, however, historians have after bigger game. The batde of 1860 is worth given less attention to the text of the Debates a hundred of this."' than to their influence upon the subsequent careers of the two principals. Here the con­ ventional interpretation maintains that in the ° For example, see the introduction to Angle, senatorial campaign of 1858, the door to the Created Equal, v. ° The strategic importance of Illinois goes a long presidency was opened for Lincoln, as a result way toward explaining the strong support that Lin­ of the new prominence he achieved, and that coln received for the vice-presidential nomination at the Republican convention of 1856. ' The earliest source for this remark appears to be ' Roy P. Ba.sler, Marion Dolores Pratt, and Lloyd the campaign biography, John L. Scripps, Life of A. Dunlap, eds., The Collected Works of Abraham Abraham Lincoln (Chicago, 1860), 28. The second Lincoln (9 vols.. New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1953- Freeport question, which compelled Douglas to choose 1955) 111, 249 (Quincy Debate). between popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott De­ * Ibid. cision, was phrased as follows: ''Can the people of a

194 FEHRENBACHER : LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES

The essential flaw in this interpretation is The weakness in this line of reasoning is not the notion that Lincoln was looking past that it singles out one incident in a complex the senatorship to the presidency, but the historical sequence and labels it the cause of assumption that he would have regarded the everything coming afterward in the sequence. two objectives as in any way incompatible. If it was indeed the Freeport declaration that Whatever thoughts of 1860 were crossing his deprived Douglas of Southern support and mind, they could not have deflected him from split the Democratic party, then presumably his immediate purpose. If he wanted to keep he had continued to be a likely recipient of Douglas out of the White House, if he hoped that supporL and the party had presumably to put himself in, if he was eager to serve his remained harmonious until the moment when party and its cause, nothing that he might say, the fatal words were uttered. Yet the critical or make Douglas say, could have seemed as break had in fact occurred many months ear­ important as a victory at the pofls. Nor does lier, and Douglas was the object of general the contemporary record yield any substantial abuse throughout the slaveholding states long evidence that Lincoln permitted ulterior con­ before the Debates began. "He cares nothing siderations to govern his strategy in the cam­ for the South," Lincoln wrote on July 31, "he paign. knows he is already dead there."" The estrangement was progressive, rather TF THE SENATORIAL race made Lincoln than instantaneous, but if one factor is to be -'• a presidential contender, what effect did it singled out as decisive, it must be the fierce have upon the political fortunes of his ad­ struggle over the Lecompton constitution, versary? In 1860, Douglas climbed higher which found Douglas allied with the Republi­ than ever before, but still fell short of his goal. cans against the admission of Kansas. Then Did the Debates contribute primarily to his came his obstinate refusal to accept the Eng­ success, as far as it went, or to his ultimate lish compromise and his belligerent homecom­ failure? The immediate outcome of the Illinois ing speech in Chicago. After that, his Freeport contest was undoubtedly a great personal tri­ doctrine of "unfriendly legislation" was in umph for him, because he won re-election in Southern eyes just heresy piled upon unfor­ the face of a strong Republican trend else­ givable treachery. where, and in spite of the stony hostility of During the next two years, the legal status the Buchanan administration. It made him of slavery in the territories remained a burn­ the outstanding figure among Northern Demo­ ing issue, while Kansas itself receded into the crats and cleared the way for his nomination background, and so the Southern attack upon by the Charleston-Baltimore convention. Douglas concentrated heavily on his Freeport But Southerners bolted his leadership; the utterance. It became, in a sense, the symbol divided Democratic party lost the election of of his fall from grace. Yet it was really just 1860; and these disasters are commonly as­ one link in the chain that connected the Le­ cribed to the influence of the Freeport doc­ compton controversy with the Democratic dis- trine, with its indirect assault upon the Dred Scott decision. Although challenged now and again by scholars like Oliver M. Dickerson (1913-1914), 196-211; William 0. Lynch, "The Con­ and William 0. Lynch, the idea that Douglas vergence of Lincoln and Douglas," in the Transac­ lost the presidency by answering a question tions of the Illinois State Historical Society, 1925, pp. 166-167. The persistence of this belief may be il­ has lodged itself in the history books with a lustrated by quoting recent statements of two Lincoln certitude that rests less upon proof than upon specialists. Jay Monaghan, The Man who Elected reiteration.* IJncoln (Indianapolis, 1956), 117: "Douglas' reply was destined to be the most important utterance of his life, for it permanently split the Democratic Party and assured the election of Lincoln as President of United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the United States two years hence." R. Gerald Mc- the wish of any citizen in the United States, exclude Murtry, "The Great Debates of '58," in Illinois His­ Slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a tory, XI (February, 1958), 103: "This reply re-elected State Constitution?" Douglas senator in 1858 but lost him the support * 0. M. Dickerson, "Stephen A. Douglas and the of the South, thus paving the way for Lincoln's elec­ Split in the Democratic Party," in the Proceedings tion to the presidency in 1860." of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, VII '•' Collected Works, II, 530.

195 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959 ruption at Charleston. Those who attribute The truth is that Lincoln and Douglas both Southern proscription of Douglas exclusivelv profited politically from their arduous sena­ or primarily to the Freeport doctrine are under torial campaign, partly because the honors some obligation to explain how Jefferson Davis were divided in the electoral results. The Re­ could say approximately the same thing in the publicans won a plurality of about 4,000 in summer of 1858 and go on to become presi­ the state-wide popular vote, but the Democrats dent of the Confederacy.^" retained control of the legislature, 54 to 46. Equally dubious is the attendant assumption This incongruity aroused angry protest in the that rejection by the South cost Douglas the northern half of the state, and historians have presidency. Lincoln won in 1860 because he generally agreed that Lincoln was victimized swept the North. Combining the popular-vote by an apportionment which they label "un­ totals of his three opponents would not have fair," "antique," and "gerrymandered."^''' changed the final result in the electoral col­ Yet the statute in question actually dated lege.-'-^ Moreover, the Democrats divided were back only to the "antiquity" of 1852 and was in some ways more formidable than if they based upon the latest Federal census. True, a had been united, because a Douglas unem­ state census taken in 1855 supplied fresher barrassed by the support of the slaveholders data, but a Republican bill deriving from it probably held a better chance of carrying sev­ had been kifled in the Democratic legislature, eral crucial free states. Had he managed to while a Democratic bill had been vetoed by do so, the election would have gone to the the Republican governor. The word "gerrv- House of Representatives, where a Republican mander" is inappropriate because the Repub­ victory was most unlikely.^' It is therefore en­ lican party did not even exist when the law tirely reasonable to argue that Lincoln became was passed, and Iflinois politics had not yet president in spite of the split in the Democratic become thoroughly sectionalized. Any gerry­ party, rather than because of it. mandering undertaken in 1852 would have had litde force by 1858." Nevertheless, the recent spectacular growth of the northern coun­ " Dunbar Rowland, ed., Jefferson Davis, Constitu­ tionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches (10 vols., ties was not reflected in legislative representa­ Jackson, Miss., 1923), III, 299: "If the inhabitants tion, and this placed Lincoln at a disadvantage. of any territory should refuse to enact such laws and police regulations as would give security to their The question is, how serious was the handicap property or to his, it would be rendered more or less —how unfair was the apportionment law? valueless, in proportion to the difficulty of holding it without such protection. In the case of property in First, it is important to note that Douglas the labor of man, or what is usually called slave had another advantage, this one above criti­ property, the insecurity would be so great that the cism. Eight of the thirteen holdovers in the owner could not ordinarily retain it. Therefore, though the right would remain, the remedy being withheld, state senate were Democrats. In 1858, there­ it would follow that the owner would be practically fore, 87 legislators (out of 100) were elected: debarred by the circumstances of the case, from tak­ ing slave property into a territory where the sense of 46 Democrats and 41 Republicans. This means the inhabitants was opposed to its introduction. So that Lincoln, whose party polled about 50 per much for the repeated fallacy of forcing slavery upon cent of the popular vote, received only 47 any community." per cent of what we may call the electoral vote, " Of the 183 electoral votes cast by 18 free states in 1860, Lincoln won 180 (3 New Jersey votes went while Douglas, with just 48 per cent of the to Douglas). If the popular vote for his three op­ popular vote, was given 53 per cent of the ponents had been concentrated upon one candidate, electoral vote—an inequity, of course, but Lincoln would have lost 11 electoral votes in New Jersey, Oregon, and California, leaving him with 169, still a majority of the 303 in the electoral college. '" In the 36th Congress, three of the free-state dele­ "Allan Nevins, The Emergence of Lincoln (2 vols.. gations in the House of Representatives were con­ New York, 1950), I, 398; Arthur Charles Cole, The trolled by the Democrats (Illinois, Oregon, Califor­ Era of the Civil War, 1848-1870 (Chicago, 1922), nia), and the Rhode Island delegation consisted of 179; Roy Franklin Nichols, The Disruption of Amer­ one Republican and one American. The admission of ican Democracy (New York, 1948), 220. Cole, 191, Kansas on January 29, 1861, gave the Republicans an­ also calls the law "infamous." other state, but the admission might have been de­ " For example, a number of counties in the middle layed if the presidency had been at stake. In any of the state which were strongholds of Whiggery in case, it increased the number of votes necessary for 1852 had become Democratic by 1858, while Cook election to 18, leaving the Republicans still 2 or 3 County shifted from the Democratic to the Republi­ short. can column during the same period.

196 FEHRENBACHER LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES hardly an unusual or outrageous one. If the to relegate the legislature to the passive role results had mirrored the popular vote exacdy, of an electoral college. George H. Haynes, in the Republicans would have won 44 seats his history of the Senate, points to the Lincoln- instead of 41, still two less than the number Douglas contest as the first important step necessary to elect Lincoln.^•'^ toward the Seventeenth Amendment.-'^ As an additional test, however, let us sup­ The Debates themselves provided a cere­ pose that the Republican apportionment bill monial framework for the campaign, and had become law. When the 1858 votes are Douglas, by participating in them, formally redistributed according to its provisions, Lin­ recognized Lincoln as his opponent. Strictly coln naturally fares better, but the issue is still speaking, however, he did not "accept" the in doubt. With the total number of seats in­ challenge which Lincoln issued on July 24. creased by the bill to 105, it appears that the Lincoln's letter proposed that the candidates Republicans would have controlled 53, the "divide time, and address the same audiences barest possible majority. It is therefore less during the present canvass." This plan, if than certain that the popular will of 1858 was agreed to, would have meant at least fifty de­ thwarted by the apportionment of 1852. The bates, an exhausting thing even to contemplate. closeness of the race made a relatively minor Douglas replied that his speaking schedule did injustice seem decisive. But under that same not permit such an arrangement, but he of­ law, after all, a Republican named Lyman fered to "accommodate" his rival by meeting Trumbull twice won election to the Senate.^'' him seven times. Lincoln, with some unseemly grumbling, accepted this drastic revision of TBTITH ATTENTION centered upon the his original proposal.'" Republican papers in ' ' drama of the personal conflict between the state left no doubt that they considered Lincoln and Douglas, there is a tendency to the challenge refused. The Chicago Press and overlook the fact that the contest also repre­ Tribune exclaimed: "The little dodger shirks, sented a minor revolution in political custom. and backs out, except at half a dozen places Newspapers used words like "anomalous" and which he himself selects." In Springfield, the "unprecedented" to describe it, and one editor State Journal maintained that about one hun­ declared that it was "a dangerous innovation dred debates ought to have been scheduled, on the Constitution."^'^ The unique character and that Douglas, by his "inglorious retreat of Lincoln's second bid for a Senate seat can from a public discussion," had stamped him­ be seen when it is contrasted with his first. In self as only "seven hundredths of a candidate 1854, he had waited until after the general for the Senate."^" election in November to announce his candi­ It is unlikely that Lincoln could have wrung dacy, and then he had conducted a quiet letter- even this limited concession from the reluctant writing campaign among the legislators, with Douglas if he had not already received official whom the choice rested. Four years later, he endorsement as the Republican candidate. One came forward as an avowed candidate in June, of the most decisive moments in his career five months before the election, and carried came late in the afternoon of June 16, 1858, his subsequent campaign directly to the peo­ when the state convention roared its approval ple. This new way of running for the Senate of a resolution declaring: "Abraham Lincoln had interesting implications because it tended is the first and only choice of the Republicans of Iflinois for the United States Senate, as the '" The popular vote can be tabulated in several successor of Stephen A. Douglas."-' This ac­ ways, but the simplest and most significant figures tion, amounting to a nomination, was an un­ are those for state treasurer: Republicans, 125,430; Douglas Democrats, 121,609; Buchanan Democrats, precedented intrusion upon the prerogatives 5,071. " The votes for the General Assembly by counties, taken from the Election Abstract for 1858 (MS, " George H. Haynes, The Senate of the United Illinois State Archives, Springfield), were rearranged States: Its History and Practice (2 vols., Boston, according to the provisions of the defeated Republi­ 1938), I, 99. can apportionment bill as given in Illinois State " Collected Works, 11, 522, 528-530. Journal (Springfield), February 11, 1857. "" Chicago Press and Tribune, July 28, 1858; Illi­ "Philadelphia Pennsylvanian, quoted in Illinois nois State Journal, August 3, 1858. State Register (Springfield), November 13, 1858. "' Chicago Tribune, June 18, 1858. '

197 V^^ISCONSLN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959'

of the legislative caucus, and, like the cam­ tive attitude of his Eastern colleagues, Lincoln paign that followed, a conspicuous departure tried to make them understand that there was from constitutional practice.=- Yet the proce­ far more at stake in his contest with Douglas dure did not spring from any great passion than a seat in the United States Senate. for political reform. On the contrary, it was a tactical maneuver improvised by the Repub­ 'yiHE HISTORY of the next few years might licans of Illinois as they wrestled with a pe­ -•- have been much different if the Republi­ culiar and vexatious problem. cans in Illinois had followed the course so The core of that problem was the praise that obligingly marked out for them by the New certain party leaders in the East were lavish­ York Tribune. Confusion had descended upon ing upon Douglas because of his dramatic the political scene as a result of the Lecomp­ fight against the Lecompton constitution. ton struggle, and there were signs that an­ Horace Greeley, in particular, had appointed other major transformation, like that of 1854, himself to lecture his Illinois brethren on the was in process. Many Republicans in Con­ advantages of returning Douglas to the Senate gress believed that they had won Douglas as unopposed.-^ Other men of influence favored a convert. "He is as sure to be with us in the the same strategy. "So powerful an instrumen­ future as Chase, Seward or Sumner," wrote tality as Mr. Douglas," wrote Samuel Bowles Henry Wilson, the radical antislavery Senator of the Springfield Republican, ". . . must not from Massachusetts.-" And William Herndon, be paralyzed at the very moment when he after visiting Eastern cities in the spring of commences to be of service to the interests of 1858, returned home fully convinced that a free labor."-'' cabal headed by Greeley was plotting to lower In Illinois, the response to this advice was the party platform so that the Douglas Demo­ explosive. Republican editors across the state crats could climb upon it.^' But if this hap­ impaled Greeley upon their pens and bitterly pened, could Republicanism, compounded of denounced the interference of "wiseacres down many elements only two years before, retain East." Whatever treacherous arrangements its identity and purpose? With Douglas at­ might be made elsewhere, they declared, there tached to the party of freedom, which would would be no selling out to Douglas in Illinois. be the kite and which the tail? These sentiments were soon registered more The resistance of Illinois Republicans made formally at scores of county conventions, and such questions academic. By nominating their then echoed again in the resolution of the own senatorial candidate, they vetoed partner­ state convention.^" ship with Douglas and forced him to show his The necessity of counteracting the Repub- claws in a desperate fight for political survival. licans-for-Douglas movement occupied much The image of the Little Giant as an antislavery of Lincoln's attention in the early part of the champion soon melted away in the heat of the senatorial campaign. The primary purpose of campaign, while Iflinois won recognition as his House-Divided speech, for example, was the stronghold of untainted Republicanism. not to hurl defiance at the South, but to demon­ This stabilizing influence of the Debates upon strate how far apart Douglas and the Repub­ the Republican party is probably more sig­ licans really were in their ultimate objectives. nificant than their supposed contribution to Distressed, but not embittered, by the obstruc- the disruption of the Democrats. Lincoln never doubted that the decision to oppose Douglas had been crucial and wise. Writing to Salmon "Don E. Fehrenbacher, "The Nomination of Lin­ P. Chase the next year, he declared: "... I coln in 1858," in the Abraham Lincoln Quarterly, have no regrets for having rejected all advice VI (March, 1950), 24-25. ^' Horace Greeley, Recollections of a Busy Life to the contrary, and resolutely made the strug- (New York, 1868), 357-358; Jeter Allen Isely, Hor­ ace Greeley and the Republican Party, 1853-1861 (Princeton, N. J., 1947), 238-240, 244-246. ^•'Springfield (Mass.) Republican, April 30, 1858. '" Wilson to Theodore Parker, February 28, 1858, ''Chicago Journal, April 15, 24, May 4, 1958; Chi­ quoted in Joseph Fort Newton, Lincoln and Herndon cago Tribune, April 21, June 14, 1858; Ottawa Re­ (Cedar Rapids, 19101,148. publican, April 24, 1858; Illinois State Journal, May " Herndon to Theodore Parker, November 23, 27, 17, 1858. 1858, in ibid., 241-243, 245-247.

198 FEHRENBACHER : LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES

gle. Had we thrown ourselves into the arms to meet before it could have peace. "Never of Douglas, as re-electing him by our votes forget," said he to his fellow Republicans, "that would have done, the Republican cause would we have before us this whole matter of the have been anihilated [sic] in Illinois, and, as right or wrong of slavery in this Union, though I think, demoralized, and prostrated every­ the immediate question is as to its spreading where for years, if not forever."^* out into new Territories and States."^° Doug­ Lincoln's abiding distrust of Douglas was las, on the other hand, saw only disaster in rooted in the conviction that the real conflict the Republican proposal to write a moral judg­ lay between those who believed, and those who ment upon slavery across the face of national did not believe, that slavery was wrong. To policy. This was the fundamental disagreement him the doctrine of popular sovereignty was between the two Debaters in 1858, and this a futile and dangerous formula because it was the dilemma that confronted the leaders evaded the moral issue which the nation had of the Republic.

-" Collected Works, HI, 378. '•" Ibid., 369.

How the Debates Reached Print The circumstances surrounding the pub­ state Republican committee urged the scrap- lication of the first edition of the Lincoln- book's publication. Lincoln wanted it pub­ Douglas Debates are told in an article by Jay lished but the presidential election was still Monaghan in the Lincoln Herald for June, over a year and a half away. Lincoln could 1943, a portion of which is reprinted here by afford to wait. He replied that he did not permission. EDITOR. care to let the scrapbook "go out of my con­ trol." HE idea of keeping the debates intact did .... As the year 1860 approached both Tnot occur to Lincoln until after he was Lincoln and Douglas looked forward to the defeated for the Senate. Then he wrote the presidential conventions. Neither was sure of editor of the Chicago Press and Tribune, a his own nomination. Both were strong men in paper which had supported him: their respective parties—Douglas the strong­ "I w'ish to preserve a set of the last debates est but the echo of the debates although un­ (if they may be called so), between Douglas published continued to bring Lincoln's name and myself. To enable me to do so, please before the nation. In the fall of 1859 Lincoln get two copies of each number of your paper was invited to speak in Ohio for the guberna­ containing the whole, and send them to me torial election then in progress. While stump­ by express." ing the state Lincoln, no doubL told the party .... Lincoln's eagerness to preserve the De­ leaders about his scrapbook. The campaign bates in durable form for the next "blow up" resulted in a great victory and it is not sur­ may be surmised from the fact that when prising that on December 7, 1859, the Re­ ten davs had elapsed with no word from the publican Central Executive Committee wrote editor of the Press and Tribune he wrote Lincoln to send the clippings for publication again, this time to his friend, H. C. Whitney, as "luminous and triumphant expositions of in Chicago who got the papers for him. In the doctrines of the Republican party." Once December Lincoln clipped his and Douglas' more Lincoln was acknowledged as leader of speeches from the Press and Tribune and the his party. Democratic Times. Arranging the clippings in Follett, Foster and Company [of Columbus, consecutive order he got a book binder to Ohio] were selected to publish the speeches. paste them neatly in a blank book in a fashion Later they stated that they were accepting the that might attract a publisher. Politicians saw manuscript for publication "as we do other the advantage of preserving a permanent books, believing they would pay" and "as­ record of the ambiguous position into which suming all pecuniary risk." Lincoln was to Douglas had been forced. A member of the receive one hundred copies gratis.

199 James H. Stout and the Menomonie Schools

by Ann M. Keppel and James f. Clark

The story of an unusual school system— and of the unusual businessman whose faith and fortune helped to bring it into being.

Society's Iconographic Collections Portrait of James H. Stout, owned by Stout State College. TN 1903, Walter Hines Page, editor of World's -*- Work, sent Adele Marie Shaw on a school- appraisal tour that resulted in several articles Adele Marie Shaw commended these efforts on the state of education in America. Miss to make education better serve the needs of Shaw visited schools in New York, in the students, but she reserved her highest praise commuter towns around the city, and in Phil­ for the school system at Menomonie, Wiscon­ adelphia. She also spent some time in the sin. Here she found "the best living proof of hinterlands—in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. what the public school system of the Lnited New York City, Miss Shaw concluded, was States can be made to do under proper condi­ doing as good an educational job as possible tions." Menomonie's physical plant, its well- under the difficult circumstances created by a trained teachers, and its adequate budget were polyglot population, a continued flood of im­ only parts of the picture. The most striking migration, and crowded, unsanitary buildings. characteristic was the many respects in which Schools were better in the areas around Tren­ the city's educational program reflected and ton and Elizabeth, New Jersey, although there served the environment out of which it grew.^ appeared to be a distressing tendency to seg­ regate pupils in certain schools according to "V/TENOMONIE, on the Red Cedar River in social and economic classes. The Philadelphia -•^•^ Dunn County, was a small community system, on the other hand, was "incomparably of 5,600 people. Formerly a booming sawmill bad," shot through with boss-ridden politics.' town, its economic base was now mainly agri­ cultural. For many years previous to the Traveling about the Middle West, Miss Shaw 1890's, elementary and secondary education found several examples of enlightened educa­ in Menomonie had been mostly a matter of tional practices. In Illinois, 0. J. Kern, Win­ filling the nooks and crannies of the mind, a nebago County Superintendent of Schools, was process of measuring and trimming the stu­ experimenting with clubs for farm boys who dent to fit a program without particular regard raised gardens and crops of corn and sugar for the environment from which the student beets under the guidance of rural teachers. The school administration of Council Bluffs, Iowa, imported products from all over the world to make geography more interesting to ' Miss Shaw's articles can be found in World's pupils and also sent teachers on trips in order Work, issue of December, 1903, and issues of March, to gain firsthand experience with which to May, October, and November, 1904. • Adele Marie Shaw, "The Ideal Schools of Meno­ enliven their teaching. monie," Ibid., 7:4540-53 (March, 1904).

200 KEPPEL AND CLARK JAMES H. STOUT came nor that to which he probably would tional change had been developing, an integral return. By 1903 this situation no longer pre­ part of the general "progressive" movement vailed, as Miss Shaw demonstrated in great to solve problems related to industrialism, im­ detail. migration, changes in the role of the family School children of Menomonie learned to in both urban and rural areas, and political read, write, and figure, as they always had and economic monopoly. Labor advocated done. And they studied English, history, geog­ practical vocational schooling. Manufacturers raphy, science, and Latin. But besides this, wanted schools to give the sort of industrial students were given additional experiences that training that would supply factories with helped them better understand an increasingly skiUed workers. Rural spokesmen demanded complex world and prepared them to be more an education that would put science to work efficient members of an increasingly interde­ on the farm, make country life more pleasant pendent society. Boys and girls participated and attractive and arrest the drift of rural in some form of manual training and domestic youth to the city. Social workers sought to science from the lower grades through high use the schools for health and sanitation edu­ school. All students took part in a physical cation. Sociologists, philosophers, and psy­ education program which included swimming chologists suggested that schools attend to the in a recently completed natatorium. "Menom­ problems of society, attune themselves to a onie is the only place where you can go indoors changing world and look to the needs of the from a temperature of 38 degrees below zero child as wefl as to the demands of the tradi­ and find a class of public school boys and girls tional curriculum. swimming in a warm indoor lake. The pool is Here, then, was Menomonie's answer to de­ eighty feet by thirty—the largest swimming mands from various groups that the school tank in the country," wrote Miss Shaw. really serve society and reflect, rather than Menomonie also had a school to train kin­ resist, the social and economic needs of the dergarten, primary, manual training, and do­ time. mestic science teachers, fn addition, the Dunn County Training School, in a one-year course, NE OF THE FIRST to break the age-old gave rural eighth-grade graduates a minimum O educational pattern of little save drill and of pedagogy but a maximum of inspiration to memory work was Colonel Francis W. Parker. teach in one-room schools and do missionary In the 1870's his "activity" program at Quin­ work to help improve country life. In the cy, Massachusetts, aroused national interest same building, the Dunn County School of and controversy. From Quincy, Parker went Agriculture and Domestic Science offered a on to develop the best corps of teachers in the two-year curriculum for rural students in car­ nation at the Cook County Normal School in pentry, blacksmithing, machine work, agron­ Illinois. Another pioneer was Liberty Hyde omy, horticulture, sewing, cooking, and home- Bailey of Cornell University, champion of the making in addition to the regular academic nature study movement. Accompanied by sev­ subjects. eral enthusiastic workers, Bailey traveled the The Menomonie school facilities were open state of New York distributing nature study to adults as well as to youth. Businessmen's leaflets to rural and urban teachers wifling to groups and women's clubs held their meetings try new methods of instruction. Other nature in the schoolrooms, organized gym classes, and enthusiasts—Wilbur S. Jackman of Cook swam in the pool. The County School of Agri­ County Normal, Arthur Boyden of Bridge- culture performed numerous services for farm­ water, Massachusetts, and Frank Payne of ers of the area, testing soil, milk, and livestock Cory, Pennsylvania—took children into the and offering training in the construction of woods and fields to observe at firsthand what farm buildings. And this school was the focal had hitherto been either textbook material or point for farmers' institutes designed to spread neglected altogether. At St. Louis, Superin­ knowledge of scientific agriculture throughout tendent of Schools William T. Harris tried the county. other innovations. By the turn of the century the public school system of that city was at­ For more than a quarter of a century educa­ tracting considerable attention with its manual

201 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959 training and science classes. A center for train­ Stout's work was outstanding, and there ing kindergarten teachers also was developed was no doubt about its value. His philanthropy in St. Louis.^ in Menomonie began in 1889, when he ap­ But the kind of educational system which peared before the Board of Education with the insisted that it made litde difference what a following proposal: "I will place upon the child studied so long as he didn't like it was school-grounds, in a place to be designated by slow to pass. Adele Marie Shaw found as the Board of Education, a building of proper many examples of "pouring-in-and-dipping kind and size, furnished with all equipment out" schooling, as much political corruption, necessary for the instruction of classes of boys and as many incompetent teachers as Dr. and girls in the subjects included in the first Joseph M. Rice had uncovered on a similar year of a course in manual training. I will also inspection tour for the Forum in 1891. In pay the salaries of the necessary teachers, the contrast to the generally bleak picture of edu­ cost of afl the necessary materials and supplies, cation in America, the activity in Menomonie and all the contingent expenses for three terms, was even more outstanding, a veritable rev­ [one school year] or for a time equivalent to olution. three school terms, except such a part thereof Many people had been responsible for Me­ as shall be paid by five hundred dollars, which nomonie's prominence, but the man who pro­ is to be provided by the Board of Education."" vided the initial stimulus for change and who The Board quickly accepted Stout's proposi­ continued to inspire educational progress in tion and with his money erected and equipped the community was a lumberman named James a two-story, 24-by-44 frame building near the Huff Stout. "Without him," wrote Miss Shaw, high school. The first floor contained ten "Menomonie would be like thousands of other double woodworking benches and appropriate litde cities." tools—facilities for twenty students working The Wisconsin State Journal described Stout simultaneously. The second floor was devoted as "smooth-faced, stoutly built, deliberate, self- to domestic science and had space and mate­ controlled and free from affectations. ... In rials for classes of twenty girls each to learn some ways he is a silent man—certainly one to cook and sew. With three teachers, classes who shuns publicity and one who keeps his for students in grades seven through twelve own counsel."* Miss Shaw found Stout self- began on January 5, 1891." effacing, reluctant to talk about himself. He was a man, she wrote, who hid "his benefac­ AMES H. STOUT'S interest in Menomonie's tions where the majority of the citizens never J school system had begun when he became hear of them. Members of the City Council manager of the Knapp, Stout and Company's have told me of his marvelous ability in dodg­ logging and sawmill interests in the city in ing announcements of his deeds. . . . This re­ 1889. Thirty-six years before, his father, serve is, first of all, due to the desire to fix Henry L. StouL had purchased an interest in attention upon the work, not upon himself. . . . James H. Knapp and Company and the firm Mr. Stout's silence asks the man who would was reorganized as Knapp, Stout. Other part­ cafl him benefactor, 'Is it good work?'" ners included Andrew Tainter and Thomas Wilson. Henry L. Stout looked after the Mis­ sissippi distributing end of the business, main­ taining a home at Dubuque, Iowa. James Huff ' For a discussion of educational change between Stout was born there in 1848. After receiving 1890 and 1920 see Lawrence A. Cremin, "The Pro­ his education in the Dubuque schools and at gressive Movement in American Education: A Per­ spective," in the Harvard Educational Review, the University of Chicago, at the age of nine­ 27:251-70 (Fall, 1957), and his "The Revolution in teen he entered the lumber business under his American Secondary Education, 1893-1918," in father's guidance. By 1880 he was in charge Teachers College Record, 56:295-308 (March, 1955). On Bailey and the nature study movement see An­ drew Denny Rodgers, III, Liberty Hyde Bailey: A Story of American Plant Science (New Haven, 1949), and Philip Dorf, Liberty Hyde Bailey, An Informal ° Quoted in Shaw, "Ideal Schools," loc. cit., 4540. Biography (Ithaca, New York, 1956). "Dunn County News. December 19. 1890; February * Quoted in Dunn County News, December 2, 1904. 13, 1891.

202 KEPPEL AND CLARK : JAMES H. STOUT

of the retaO business at St. Louis and had spent ment. When the pupils goes from his text-book some time in Washington, D.C., as a lolaby- to the shop he does not substitute manual work ist for lumber interests along the Mississippi for mental, but simply substitutes one kind of River.' mental work for another." Manual training Stout became acquainted with manual train­ that resulted in guiding "the eye to see form, ing through his observation of the Calvin M. color, and proportion, and the training of the Woodward Manual Training School at Wash­ mind through the hand and touch to estimate ington University, in St. Louis. The commonly the properties and forces of matter," wrote accepted story is that Stout, overhearing a Dudgeon, "develops a mental habit which friend express a desire to send his three boys assists the boy in his studies." It also helped to Woodward's school if he only could afford him solve problems and make decisions in the it, offered to bear the expense himself. Check­ world outside the school.^" ing on the boys' progress. Stout grew inter­ Regardless of objectives, classes in the man­ ested in this new education. There was no ual training building proved popular with domestic training for girls at Woodward's Menomonie youth. And opportunities for this school, but the Toledo, Ohio, Manual Training kind of schooling could not long be limited School which had opened in 1885 had devel­ to them. After insistent demands by ladies of oped such a program. Stout investigated this the community for cooking lessons, three-hour institution as his enthusiasm increased. Later, Saturday classes were begun at fifty cents a at Menomonie, Stout consulted officials of the lesson in February, 1891.^^ To what extent Chicago Manual Training School about cur­ the women of Menomonie were interested in riculum and equipment.^ mental disciplinary values is not a matter of Before inaugurating manual training classes record. in the city. Stout and the Menomonie school Because of the community's warm response administration carefully informed citizens of to the new courses, when the three terms for the educational changes and their benefits. which Stout guaranteed support of the school Stout brought Henry H. Belfield, a director of expired, the Board of Education agreed to the Chicago School to Menomonie to speak on continue them with tax money.^^ Menomonie's the values of manual training. R. B. Dudgeon, manual training school marked its first anni­ Superintendent of Schools, published several versary in January, 1892, with a public cele­ articles in the local paper explaining the pro­ bration and many speeches lauding James H. gram." Stout made it a rule to follow this Stout. "Every citizen of Menomonie ought to process of building public support when he feel gratified to Mr. Stout for his boundless presented other ideas for educational change, generosity in providing building, tools and never attempting innovations unless the local means to give the boys and girls a systematic people understood and agreed with his pro­ training of the hand in connection with the posals. culture of the heart and intellect," said the Manual training in the 1890's was not trade Dunn County News.^^ training. It undoubtedly offered social and James H. Stout's giving had only begun. So economic benefits, but the primary objective, popular were the manual training classes that insisted Superintendent Dudgeon, was mental additional facilities soon were needed. And discipline. "We wish our people to keep it once again, Stout, about to become a member clearly in mind that it is not the aim of the of the Board of Education, came forward with manual training department to make cooks, an offer to aid.^* dressmakers, or carpenters. The first aim is With Stout's financial assistance the city to offer the means for a wider mental develop­ built and equipped a three-story brick building next to the high school and connected the two

^National Cyclopedia of American Biography, 34:512-513; William T. Bawden, Leaders in Indus­ ^"Ibid., August 15, 1890; January 16, 1891. trial Education (Milwaukee, 1950), 98. "/feM., February 12, 1891. *• Bawden, Leaders, 99-100; Shaw, "Ideal Schools," "/6i

203 WISCONSIN VIAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING. 1959

Structures with an enclosed bridge at the sec­ As it turned out, private money was needed. ond floor level. The new building included tools Public funds could pay for the high school, and equipment for blacksmithing, carpentry, but they were insuflicient to meet the cost of mechanical drawing, art, wood carving, a a second building. James H. Stout was not chemistry and physics laboratory, and equip­ to allow a useful experiment to disap])ear be­ ment for a complete domestic science course. cause of the lack of money, and he contributed Its 125-foot clock tower jutted high above the major portion needed to replace the train­ the city. Altogether the building cost around ing school. Others gave, too. T. B. Wilson, sec­ $50,000 to erect and furnish.^^ retary and general manager of Knapp, Stout The Stout Manual Training School was com­ and Company paid for one-half the cost of a pleted in the spring of 1893, and was inaugu­ new site. When the city was unable to raise rated with an open house and speeches by the $7,750 for the other half. Stout immediately city's principal benefactor and other citizens offered $5,000 to purchase land. At the time of the community. Describing the building of planning the new building, the people of and what it meant to Menomonie, the Dunn Menomonie were unwilling to get along with­ County News confidently allowed, "In educa­ out the clock tower which had already become tional circles, this is the best known town in a familiar landmark. Popular subscription paid the state."'" Within a decade, so famous would for a new $2,500 tower, 125 feet high, just like Menomonie become and so many visitors the old one.'-' The two buildings completed at would it attracL this statement would apply the turn of the century at a total expenditure with some validity to the nation. of around $160,000 are still used by the Me­ But first there was much more work to be nomonie High School and the Stout State done. Less than four years after the new school College. opened, disaster struck. On the night of Feb­ ruary 2, 1897, fire completely destroyed both LASSES IN THE rebuilt Stout Manual it and the high school next door. A numbed C Training School had scarcely begun when community surveyed the ruins—a total loss Stout started working on a plan to provide of $130,000, of which insurance covered only physical education for all Menomonie youth. $52,000." His idea materialized in 1901 with the com­ A Dunn County News sampling of citizen pletion of a gymnasium and natatorium near opinion on rebuilding left no doubt but that the manual training building. While Stout per­ the entire community wanted the manual train­ sonally paid a large share of the cost of this ing work to continue. Everyone, it seemed, $80,000 structure, contributions came from from the mayor and leading citizens down to other sources, too. Ladies of Menomonie, for the man on the street was willing to do his example, raised $950 through bake sales and part to build another school. Many offered ice cream socials to help pay for the building to contribute money, even small amounts, if and equipment."" that would help.^** The gymnasium and swimming pool were opened to the public as well as to students. Men and women of the community organized gym classes and anyone could enjoy a shower ''"Ibid., March 3, June 23, 1893. The record is un­ clear as to the precise cost of this building and bath at the gymnasium for only ten cents, soap Stout's contribution to it. According to the Dunn and towel included. At Stout's suggestion, County News of June 23, 1893, "although nobody but Mr. Stout knows exactly what the building and its Menomonie businessmen formed a commercial equipment has cost, it is nevertheless supposed to club which used the gym for recreation and have been about .$50,000. Other features contem­ rooms in the building for its meetings. It was plated, the total cost will not be far from $75,000." When the building burned in 1897, the News placed soon apparent that the entire community bene­ the total loss at $100,000, of which $40,000 was cov­ fited from the physical education program. ered by insurance. See Dunn County News, February 5, 1897. It has been stated that the fire meant a per­ "Here parents and scholars come into closer sonal loss to Stout of $50,000. See Bawden, Leaders, touch," wrote Adele Marie Shaw in 1903, "the 104. "Dunn County News, June 16, 1893. " Ibid., February 5, 1897. " Ibid., May 21, June 4, 25, 1897. "' Ibid., February 26, 1897. ''Ibid., January 21, 1898: May 24, 1901.

204 KEPPEL AND CLARIC : JAMES H. STOUT city grows year by year cleaner and better, Opportunities for physical and manual train­ the bodies of its dwellers are freshened for ing were extended throughout the elementary work, and their minds are occupied with as well as the high school grades. Hand train­ healthful action. . . .There are no loafing boys ing began in the kindergarten with emphasis on the streets. They vanished when the gym on cutting angles and curves from paper, was opened."^^ painting and pasting, building with blocks, Praising the school's program, the 1908 and working with clay. Weaving was intro­ Stout fnstitute Bulletin compared Menomonie duced in grade one, and basketry in grade boys' physical prowess with national averages two. In grade three pupils continued to weave compiled by Harvard I niversity. Local boys, and make baskets and mats. The children said the Bulletin, were taller and heavier, had made their own looms for weaving and, in addition to hand work, they studied the de­ velopment of fabrics and the history of how mankind provided for its needs through manu­ facturing and the development of trades. Woodworking began in grade four. Here pupils made simple shelves, kites, and letter openers during three forty-five minute periods per week. Grade-five students gained experi­ ence in elementary ironwork, spending two sixty-minute periods each week fashioning envelop racks and candlesticks from thin iron strips. Manual training became progressively more complicated in grades six, seven, and eight, and in the last two elementary years students used various kinds of tools to con­ struct stepladders, flower stands, and magazine racks. By the high school years, students were ready for joinery, wood turning, patternmak- ing, molding, and forge and machine-shop work. Throughout grades seven to twelve there were opportunities to learn mechanical draw­ ing. In addition, interested students in grades eleven and twelve could take drafting and architectural drawing. ^luna ,^uuc tiollcge Sewing and dressmaking were introduced A turn-of-the-eentury photograph of the Industrial in the middle elementary grades. Girls in the Arts Building, now Bowman Hall. upper grades and high school studied cooking, fabrics, food chemistry, sewing, dressmaking, greater lung capacity and stronger grips, and and general home economy.^^ could lift heavier weights. At the state track As this curriculum suggests, by the end of meets in Madison between 1903 and 1908 the first decade of the twentieth century Menomonie won team first place twice, sec­ ond once, and third once. The city's entry won ''" Information on the curriculum taken from ibid., the mile race all five years. And Menomonie 1:51-66 (May, 1906). Insofar as possible the empha­ High School, its enrollment scarcely 200, com­ sis on children constructing their own tools, and on tracing the development of manufacturing through peted at Madison with schools of 500 to 800 history echoed the type of curriculum fostered by students.-^ John Dewey at the University of Chicago Laboratory School in the late 1890's. See Dewey's The Child and the Curriculum and .School and Society (Phoenix "'Ibid.. February 17, 1904; Shaw, "Ideal Schools," Books, Chicago, 1956 edition), particularly the chap­ loc. cit., 4543, 4549. ters on the school and social progress, the school and "''Stout Institute Bulletin, 3:59-61 (March, 1908). the child, and history in the elementary curriculum.

205 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING. 1959 manual training objectives were somewhat dif­ ings by such artists as Bonheur and Millet and ferent from those of the 1890's. General disci­ placed them in every rural school where the plinary values were stifl recognized, particu­ local officers promised to clean or paint the larly in the elementary years. BuL according building.-'' to George F. Buxton in the Stout fnstitute James H. Stout's interest in rural education Bulletin of September, 1910, "they are some­ extended beyond the mere beautification of times lost sight of today on account of the country schools. In 1894 he was elected to the emphasis put upon vocational features of the first of four terms in the state senate, and work, and because of the questions raised by during much of his time there he served on the psychologists against formal discipline." the education committee. In his first legisla­ Buxton also pointed out that manual training tive session Stout introduced a bill written by courses helped develop hobbies and avocations Frank A. Hutchins to create the W isconsin as well. To some extent this shift in emphasis Free Library Commission. Stout later became was due to increasing demands by labor and chairman of the commission, and since the industry that schools hold students longer original appropriation was only $500. he paid (thousands were leaving at the end of grade librarian Hutchins to devote his full time to six to seek employment) by introducing voca­ traveling about the state to stir interest and tional work which would prepare students for enthusiasm for the establishment of libraries, direct trade training later. Manual training particularly in the rural areas.''' as vocational preparation was by no means accepted by all educators, nor was the Stout TN 1896 STOUT inaugurated a traveling li- practice widespread by 1910. -*- brar)' system in Dunn County. Purchasing In the midst of manual and domestic train­ sixteen sets of thirty books each—including ing, the Menomonie school system did not works on adventure, history, geography, na­ ignore direct education in aesthetics. Art was ture, and mechanics—Stout offered them for taught throughout the grades and two years circulation among the rural people of the were required of high school students. "The county. Communities had only to form library chief aim of this art instruction," wrote Kate associations, appoint secretaries to assume re­ Murphy, head of the department, "has been sponsibility for the books, and pay shipping to cultivate idealism, to open the eyes and costs. "Mr. Stout's generous plans will depend minds of the pupils that all the beauties of for their ultimate success on the cordial co­ nature and art may be recognized and become operation of the friends of education in the a continual source of enjoyment and that this county," said the Dunn County News. "If this sense of the enjoyment of the beautiful—the new plan is successful it will be widely hailed art feeling—may become a vital force in daily as the solution of a difficult problem which living, opportunity is given for its expression has long vexed the friends of education. It in the various kinds of handwork designed will gladden and enrich the home and school and created." James H. Stout did much to life of hundreds and thousands of families further the study of art at Menomonie. At one and will bring isolated farming communities point he sent Kate Murphy to Japan to gather into closer contact with the great world of objects. Stout encouraged the development of thought."^" a permanent exhibit at the Manual Training The rural response was more than encour­ School, one that contained various examples aging. The sixteen sets began to circulate in of statuary, Japanese screen paintings and mid-May, 1896, and within a short time most tapestries, Persian rugs, examples of Swedish of the volumes had been well read. Stout later arL and objets d'art from several other coun­ added back issues of magazines and illustrated tries. Stout also sought to inject some training weeklies to the collections, obtaining contribu- in aesthetics into the rather drab life of the "' Dunn County News. February 5, November 19, rural child and at the same time arouse par­ 1897. ental interest to improve the appearance of "'° Clarence B. Lester, "The Library Movement in the customarily barren, ugly country schools. Wisconsin," in Milo M. Quaife, Wisconsin, Its His­ tory and Its People (4 vols., Chicago, 1924), 2:423- He purchased folios of prints of famous paint­ 425, Dunn County News, January 29, 1897. •''Dunn County News, February 21, 1896.

206 KEPPEL AND CLARK : JAMES H. STOUT tions from Menomonie citizens. Frank A. Wisconsin's next step toward rural improve­ Hutchins came to Menomonie in December, ment was the authorization in 1901 of county 1896, for a county library meeting attended by agricultural schools. These institutions would many rural people, an event that became an offer two-year courses in agricultural science annual affair with Hutchins or a representative to students unable to attend the University of of the Free Library Commission as leader.^^ Wisconsin and to eighth-grade rural gradu­ A further improvement in rural education ates not adequately served by the regular high came in 1899, when the Wisconsin legislature, school.^^ following the recommendation of State Super­ Stout, who had helped pass this legislation, intendent of Public Instruction Lorenzo D. urged the Dunn County Board to consider Harvey, authorized county training schools to such a school for Menomonie. The Board took produce country teachers. The state would pay swift action, appointing Stout as one member one-third the cost, the counties the remainder. of a three-man county board of education to As a senator and as a private citizen, James administer the institution. With state and H. Stout warmly supported this Wisconsin county funds a $20,000 building was com­ innovation in teacher training.^* pleted in 1902 and the Dunn County Training There was no doubt about the need for bet­ School took over the third floor.^'^ ter training for rural teachers. For many years Along with courses in agriculture and do­ farmers' groups had included the improvement mestic science, students at the County School of teacher education in their programs for the of Agriculture and Domestic Economy studied rehabilitation of rural life. There were 7,000 English, history, mathematics, and science. country schools in Wisconsin at the turn of the The entire course of study was designed to fit century; each year they employed about 1,500 "young men and women for life on the farm new teachers with little or no education beyond by giving them a mental equipment that will the eighth grade. The country training school enable them to compete successfuflv in the would work no revolution, but it would be a batde of life."^^ start toward providing farmers' children with The classes in agriculture were no mere text­ a better education.^" book courses. The school provided garden plots Dunn and Marathon counties were the first and a greenhouse. Stout erected a 24-by-50 to open training schools for rural teachers. mechanical building where students learned Classes began in Menomonie in rooms fur­ blacksmithing and carpentry—courses geared nished by the Stout Manual Training School directly to farm needs and therefore somewhat in the fall of 1899. Twelve eighth-grade grad­ different from those offered in the Manual uates enrolled to absorb in one year a survey Training School. Citizens of Menomonie pro­ of all courses taught in rural schools, plus a vided a special building for horticulture. There little practical pedagogy. By 1902 the en- also were chemistry and physics laboratories roflment had climbed to ninety, and classes and, for poultry experiments, two brooders moved into a new building near the Manual and two incubators. The school offered classes Training School. Within a few years the Dunn in elementary manual training and domestic County Training School supplied nearly half science for country teachers who would teach the teachers in the county.^" the subjects in rural schools. And soon after its opening the school of agriculture was run­ ning two winter courses of thirteen weeks each "'Ibid., December 4, 1896; March 19, November for farmers of the area.^** 12, 1897; December 2, 1898; October 27, 1899. Services of the institution extended beyond "^ State Department of Public Instruction. Biennial Report, 1900, 66; Bawden, Leaders, 102. conducting formal classes. Farmers could use "° Wisconsin Journal of Education, 30:222-223 (Oc­ tober, 1900). Wisconsin was one of the first states to move in the direction of improving country schools " Chap. 288, Laws of Wisconsin, 1901. as suggested by the 1897 National Education Associ­ '"Dunn County News, November 15, 1901; Novem­ ation Committee on Rural Schools. See Journal of ber 14, 1902. Proceedings and Addresses of the National Educa­ "Milwaukee Sentinel, March 22, 1903. tion Association (Chicago, 1897). "* K. C. Davis, County Schools of Agriculture in '"Dunn County News, September 1, 15, 1899; No­ IVisconsin. (Farmers' Institute Bulletin No. 19, Madi­ vember 14, 1902; August 10, 1905. son, 1905.)

207 WISCONSIN IVIAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959 the school's equipment to test milk, soil, and displayed, and farmers' institute bulletins dis­ butter, and to learn how to erect farm build­ tributed at every meeting. By the spring of ings. The Dunn County School of Agriculture 1903, twenty-one institutes had been held, and became the center for a series of farmers' in­ out of them grew a strong system of local stitutes patterned after those conducted for farmers' clubs.^'' several years by the University of Wisconsin With such a beehive of educational activity College of Agriculture.'^' James H. Stout has aimed to meet the needs of rural people as been given credit for promoting the county well as citizens of the community, Menomonie institute idea, seeing in it a way in which had many things to show the distinguished successful farmers of the vicinity could impart visitors attracted to the city. Among the well- knowledge of scientific farming to others. The known educators who came to Menomonie to first institute was held at Eau Galle, on Feb­ observe the work there were Charles K. Adams, ruary 18-19, 1902. As they developed, these president of the University of Wisconsin; meetings covered a variety of subjects—live­ Henry H. Belfield, Director of the Chicago stock feeding and breeding, crop rotation and Manual Training School; Liberty Hyde Bailey general conservation, analysis of soils and of Cornell University; Francis W. Parker of plant life, the design and construction of build­ the Cook County Normal School; and A. E. ings, care of machinery and the control of Winship of Boston, editor of the New England plant and animal diseases. The ladies were Journal of Education. Other visitors included not neglected, for home management and econ­ Judge Ben Lindsey and Walter Hines Page, omy soon became prominent features of each editor of World's Work. There were also legis­ program. Demonstrations were given, exhibits lative committees from Minnesota and several

"" The University of Wisconsin had conducted farm­ '"Ibid., September 26, 1902; February 13, Septem­ ers' institutes in Menomonie in the past. Bacteriolo­ ber 4, 1903: February 14, 1907; Milwaukee Sentinel, gist Edward A. Birge led one in March, 1894. See March 22, 1903: Shaw, "Ideal Schools," loc. cit., Dunn County News, March 9, 1894. 4546.

Stout Sl.Ui_ ( (.litiic Students at work in the Home Management Kitchen, Stout Institute, 1917.

208 KEPPEL AND CLARK : JAMES H. STOUT delegations of educators from Canada. And garten teaching, with instructors brought from when the National Education Association held the national kindergarten center at St. Louis, its convention at Minneapolis in the summer had been inaugurated in 1899. This had grown of 1902, busloads of teachers traveled to Me­ out of kindergarten classes begun in Menomo­ nomonie for a full day's tour. The city had nie five years before when Stout paid the indeed become the best known in Wisconsin, salary of the first teacher hired." Lorenzo D. one of the best known in the nation.'" Harvey added a department to train primary At the Stout School the gradually increas­ teachers, and trainees in afl departments in ing demand for teachers of manual training 1903 totaled fifty-nine. Within a year the en­ brought a change of emphasis to the instruc­ rollment had increased to eighty-two, doubled tion. In 1903 the school was reorganized as a in 1905, and reached nearly 400 by 1908. teacher-training institution, although classes Three years later, when the State of Wisconsin were still to be conducted there for Menomonie took over the Stout School, the enrollment stood public school students. To administer the Stout at 649." Manual Training School and be city superin­ Harvey further expanded the offerings at tendent of schools, James H. Stout brought Stout with a summer session in 1906 and a Lorenzo D. Harvey to Menomonie. Stout per­ Homemakers' Department the following year. sonally paid a portion of Harvey's salary.'^** This new department was not for prospective teachers, but instead offered general home- W7HEN HE CAME to Menomonie, Lorenzo making instruction to girls beyond high school '' D. Harvey was recognized as one of the age. Home sanitation, decoration and manage­ leading educators in Wisconsin. A native of ment, clothing, and food chemistry and prep­ Deerfield, New Hampshire, born in 1848, aration were among the subjects offered. Such Harvey had graduated from Milton (Wiscon­ a course of study, it was thought, would ade­ sin) College. He had worked his way through quately prepare both city and country girls the ranks to high-school principalships, at the to become good wives and mothers. Appropri­ same time studying law and winning admis­ ately, the course of study included a unit on sion to the Wisconsin bar. After a brief time "Spending—Art of."''' in private business, in 1885 he became insti­ Harvey also added direct trade training to tute conductor at the Oshkosh Normal School,'"' the curriculum at Stout. In 1908, the same and seven years later, president of the Mil­ year the school was reorganized and incorpo­ waukee Normal School. In 1898 Harvey won rated as Stout Institute, the Trade School election as State Superintendent of Public opened. This department offered instruction Instruction and served in that office until de­ in bricklaying and plumbing, short-cutting feated for the Republican nomination in 1902. the normal three-year apprentice program and Stout had become acquainted with Harvey turning out skilled workers in ten months. It wdiile serving in the state senate, and it is was similar to the Milwaukee School of Trades likely that he consulted the schoolman when which had begun operations two years earlier. planning the manual training program at At Menomonie, boys over sixteen with a com­ Menomonie.'"' mon school education spent eight and a half The preparation of manual training and do­ hours a day, five and a half days a week mestic teachers was not the only concern of in classes. Upon graduation they could be the Stout School. A two-year course in kinder­ assured of immediately earning $2.50 to $3.00

"Dunn County News, November 10, 17, 1899: De­ " Dunn County News, March 23, June 8, July 6, cember 16, 1904; December 10, 1905; April 20, 1906; 1894; April 28, August 25, September 8, 1899. The April 29, 1909. Stout School discontinued kindergarten and pri­ '"Ibid., May 1, 1903. Stout also made Harvey a mary training in 1909, after Superior Normal had vice president of his Menomonie bank, which per­ developed a strong department in these fields. Ibid., haps covered the salary he yiaid the new superin- April 22, 1909. tenilent. Bawden, l,eaders, 104. '"Stout Inslitiite Hulletin. 6:29 Llune, 1911). •'"Institutes were short courses of a few days to '•' Allan I), ('onover, Description of the I^roperty of several weeks designed to give quick pedagogical in­ Stout Institute (Madison, 1911), 11; Stout Institute struction, particularly to rural teachers. Bulletin, 5: 11, 19 (March, 1910); Dunn County * Bawden, Leaders. 84-86. News, January 17, Jidy 28, 1907.

209 WISCONSIN JIAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959 a day, a salary not paid graduates of an ordi­ the mourners were seven hundred school chil­ nary apprentice program until they had spent dren who had come from far and near.^" a year at $3.50 to $4.50 a week.-"* When the Wisconsin legislature met the fol­ The Stout campus reached the limits of its lowing month Stout's widow offered the In­ early expansion with the inauguration of the stitute to the state, and the lawmakers accepted Trade School. The number of students served it with a bill passed during the 1911 session. by the various courses increased every year. Although the school was made equal to the James H. Stout provided a dormitory for girls state normals, it was kept separate and super­ when he purchased the Tainter home in 1906, vised by the newly created State Board of adding a brick annex to it the following year. Industrial Education, the policy-making body The Training School had more calls for teach­ for the state system of vocational schools in­ ers than it could fill and by 1910 Stout gradu­ augurated in 1911.*' ates were at work in twenty-six states and The Menomonie schools reflected a larger in Puerto Rico and Canada as well. The effects educational movement in America that only of an educational program that served the rarely affected an area so remote as this rural whole community could be seen in the in­ Wisconsin community. They had become an creased holding power of the public schools. integral part of the effort to provide manual In 1906 all but two Menomonie eighth-grade and vocational training, to blend the logical graduates went on to high school; in 1907 all and psychological organization of the cur­ of them did. Seventy-one per cent of Menomo­ riculum, provide teacher training in many nie High School graduates continued on to fields, awaken interest in rural education at college in 1906; in 1907 fift)'-nine per cent the local level, and to make the school a true sought higher education. These percentages community center. This was Menomonie's were remarkable for any city at that time.'*' remarkable accomplishment. Without Stout's Visitors kept coming to inspect the city's generosity and careful selection of educators, schools, and the nation's educational and lay success at Menomonie would have been im­ press continued to find the schools excellent possible. Yet without the enthusiastic support copy, unstintingly praising James H. Stout of the community and the surrounding rural and the people he had gathered to work a area. Stout's gifts, estimated at $600,000 in all, revolution in Menomonie. would have been wasted. The combination of man, time, and place was right, and the people TOUT COMPLETED TWELVE YEARS of of Menomonie were justifiably proud of their S service in the state senate with the 1909 benefactor and their schools. legislative session and refused to stand for re­ Today the county normal and the county election. The following summer, in 1910, he school of agriculture are closed, and the build­ fell ill, although by autumn he was up and ing is due to disappear to make room for around again, keeping close contact with the expansion of the modern Stout State College schools at Menomonie. But the end was near. campus. However, the natatorium and gym­ On December 8, 1910, Stout died of Bright's nasium remain in daily use; the grotesque disease. clock tower still stands as sentinel above the The funeral service preceding the removal city, affording old-time residents a connecting of the body to St. Paul for cremation was with­ link with a rich and important past they out doubt the most heavily attended in the adamandy refuse to see destroyed. The bridge history of Menomonie. Conspicuous among still joins the high school with the training school, over whose main entrance during " G. L. Bowman, 'The Stout Training Schools," in Stout's time were engraved the words, "For the Wisconsin Journal of Education. 40:84-88 the Promotion of Learning, Skill, Industry, (March, 1908), 83; Stout Institute Trade School, An Honor." Announcement of Courses (September, 1908), 3-9; Dunn County News, July 23, August 13, 1908. Accord­ ing to Adele Marie Shaw, as early as 1903 James H. Stout had planned to add a trade school to the *" Ibid., December 8, 16, 1910. campus. See "Ideal Schools," toe. cit.. 4550. "Chap. 616, Laws of Wisconsin, 1911; Stout In­ "Dunn County News, May 25, August 17, 1906: stitute Bulletin, 6:5-8 (July-September, 1911); Con- August 15, 1907; March 26, 1908; December 8, 1910. over, Description of Property, 16.

210 My Seventy-five Years:

Part I. 1866-1914

by Lutie E. Stearns

fn the autobiography, A Peculiar Treas­ ure, Edna Ferber refers to Lutie E. Stearns as "a terrific and dimensional human being." Many of Miss f^utie's friends would perhaps be content with less exuberant words and would Society's Iconographic C^oltections characterize her in a milder way, describing The author, from a photograph taken while she her as dynamic, zealous, stimulating, challeng­ was head of the Free Library Commission's ing. Traveling Library Department. "The story of my life? That would demand a mural," was Miss Lutie's first comment when the suggestion was made that from her sev­ ll/rY ANCESTORS from Nottingham, Eng- enty-five-years' vantage point she tell about -'-'-'- land, were three hundred years in ad­ people and events that had been singularly vance of the philosophy of "safety first" when impressive. they delayed their departure on the historic My Seventy-Five Years was dictated to me Mayflower because they found it so desper­ during the summer of 1942. Miss Lutie had ately crowded with would-be Daughters and been ill for a long time, seldom left her home, antique furniture. They waited for the next and had few callers. At the request of the Mil­ boat, the Arabella. This prevented me—had I waukee Visiting Nurses' .staff f spent several so desired but which I did not—from becom­ afternoons with her, talking over changes in ing a member of the Daughters of the May­ library work, recalling cities she had visited, flower, though exactly how a woman could be interesting people she had met. From these a daughter of a ship is beyond my biologic flash backs, the idea of dictating her life story understanding. came as a natural means of letting other people The Stearns family settled in Watertown, share her rare experiences. The account is en­ Massachusetts, in 1630. My branch later moved tirely hers. My part in its compilation was to Mansfield, where, I've been told, there are chiefly a matter of time. five grandfathers of various degrees buried in Certain people and happenings were spoken a row. This makes me eligible for the highest of with amazing ease; some situations had to patriotic organization, the Founders and Pa­ be "mulled over" a bit, a procedure which triots of America. I have never joined this Miss Stearns had followed in writing the Mil­ body, nor have I ever made any research as waukee Journal column, "As A Woman Sees to my eligibility for the Daughters of the ft." The autobiography has one claim to dis­ American Revolution, as I have long agreed tinction: it discloses the reasons for the uii- with the cynic who insisted that the Colonial deviating devotion to duty, the zealous cham­ Dames, Daughters, and Sons of the American pionship of justice that characterized this Revolution and similar organizations were like daughter-teacher-library organizer-lecturer- potatoes in that the best part was underground. author—f^utie Eugenia Stearns, 1866M943. My mother was eligible to join the Daughters Beryl E. Whitney of 1812, as am I, by reason of her father,

211 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING. 1959

Samuel Guild, of Maine, who acting as a sen­ splitter cut each straw into six strands. She tinel one night, after being told that he must received a few pennies a yard for her toil, fire at anything moving, shot at a black cat, most of which was perfonned after the last fortunately without hitting it. This, of course, restless little child had gone to sleep. At the shows that he was in that war. But my mother start of the Civil War Mother's hair was brown, never took advantage of the honor conferred, but when I was born, after the war was over, being essentially democratic in her ideas, her locks were gray. She was a true heroine of which f have inherited in full measure. the struggle to keep the Union together. In the 1850's, Father, Mother, and their The superstitious might have felt it ominous family of three small children moved from that I should be born at Stoughton, Massa­ Massachusetts to Augusta, Georgia, where chusetts, on the thirteenth day of September, Father, a civil engineer at the time, was sent 1866, the youngest of a family of one boy and to construct artesian wells for the water supply ten girls, this being before the days of bridge, of the city. Mother's health failing her, she birth control, and race suicide. My advent into tried to secure a young white helper, but no the menage or menagerie as the eleventh was such help could be found. She was therefore resented by my oldest sister, Adefla, who felt obliged to secure a sixteen-year-old slave girl that there were sufficient mouths to be fed from her owner. When the girl arrived she without another division. In fact, one of my had on only a calico dress, no underclothing, other sisters remarked during her adult life shoes, nor stockings. But she brought a thin that she could not recall ever having eaten a blanket and when the first day's work was whole orange or an entire apple during her done she curled herself up in the blanket on childhood days, each of the coveted fruits the floor behind the kitchen stove. Finding having to be divided into thirds, sixths, or her there, Mother remonstrated, but the girl ninths. Unlike many large families of the time, nine of the eleven children reached maturity. remarked that that was the place where she always slept when she worked out. Mother got I took sweet revenge on my sisters' resent­ her into a nightgown and a good bed. Every ment by contracting a most severe type of week her owner would call for her wages, pay­ whooping cough which kept the family awake ing her not even one penny for her work. for many weeks, and which led through gen­ My parents saw the war coming and they eral weakness to a curvature of the spine which I was unable, by Swedish movement treat­ decided to return to the North. Mother tried ments, to cure in later years. I was such a puny to buy the slave girl but her owner refused to thing I was not expected to survive from one sell her. On the day of the family's departure month to the next, which led to a delay in the girl asked permission to go to the train naming me. with them. Her owner found her there and I have never been able to learn just where started to chastise her, for he thought she was an older sister found the name Lutie, nor why trying to get away. Mother severely rebuked it should have been followed by the middle him for his conducL and later, after my father name of Eugenia. Neither the first nor the graduated from a medical school, the members second name is Christian in any respect, and of the family were reconciled to his going into all during my seventy-five years f have suf­ the Civil War because he would help to free fered untold embarrassment through the silly their friend, the slave girl. diminutive attached to my cognomen. When I When Father entered the war from his entered upon Library Commission work I re­ Massachusetts home he left seven children un­ ceived a letter from the great library authority, der fourteen years of age for Mother to feed, Melvil Dewey, urging me to change my first clothe, and care for. Father received his small name to Lucia or some other more dignified pay irregularly and had but litde to send home. form, f replied to Mr. Dewey's request by Mother braided straw for the Tuscan hats stating that I had been using the Lutie form popular at that lime and set up a bleachery for thirty-one years and if I altered it at so late in the basement of her home. The straws she a date people might think that I had just come braided were of the lemonade size; she soaked to my senses as to its ridiculousness. them until they were soft, then with a litde

212 STEARNS MY SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS

TN 1869, Father was appointed physician and drinking of bay rum and Eau de Cologne if -*- surgeon at Togus, Maine, where we lived she could not get the real thing. The morphine for two years before he was promoted to the and other drugs which she ate, combined with same position at the newly established Soldiers' her liquor habit, made her, to me, a horribly Home in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wiscon­ repulsive object lesson in the way of avoiding sin. We moved from the East late in 1871. I the use of any such stimulants, and was one was five years of age when we came West and of the main factors which led in later years I have never regretted the migration. I realize to my conducting campaigns for the Prohibi­ what a difference there would have been in tion amendment. my viewpoints, philosophy, and work had I Another drawback in life at the Home was remained in the effete EasL which I have vis­ the one-room country school in the adjoining ited many, many times but to which I have township which I was obliged to attend. I was had no desire to return as a place of residence. naturally left-handed, but for the sake of con­ I have never been a worshipper of the idols temptible conformity I was compefled to of the past. There is too much to do in the change over to the right hand in my writing, present to contemplate the glories of intellec­ the right being the wrong in my case for it tual battles won a century or more ago. There upset my speech and I began to stutter and is no resting on dead laurels in the West. They stammer, to my deep humiliation, while the are consigned to the rubbish heap while prog­ other students snickered and giggled when I ress is made on new fronts in ideas and results. attempted to read. This led to the first signs The five years of my childhood which I of the rebel within me and an unwillingness spent in a large double house on the grounds to conform to conventions which has persisted of the Soldiers' Home afforded opportunity to this day. for the country life to which every child has Not only was there torture in attempting a right. Rowing and wading in the lakes on to read, but in answering a teacher's questions the grounds, walks down the long, shaded lanes as well, as my fellow pupils even mocked my with wild flowers in the spring, and the birds efforts, in addition to getting great merriment in the air gave a never-to-be-forgotten enjoy­ out of them. Years later when I told Mrs. Mary ment. D. Bradford, for many years the fine superin­ Not all my memories of the Home, however, tendent of schools in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as are pleasant. One condition existing there to the cause of my linguistic difficulty, she made me a confirmed and convinced prohibi­ issued a special circular to her teachers in­ tionist for the rest of my years. Although liq­ structing them to let left-handed children alone uor was sold on the Home grounds, there was —a suggestion on her part that might well be a row of saloons across the street on National adopted by every school superintendent in the Avenue opposite the main gate which lured the country. veterans, especially after they had received Another evil associated with the country their pension money. The besotted men had to school was the dislike it gave me for poetry. cross the railroad tracks inside the grounds to The teacher of reading used the old sing-song reach their quarters. At the time, fast passen­ method, tapping out the rhythm on her desk ger trains went through frequently during the with a pencil, irrespective of meaning. night, and many drunken veterans were killed. During all the years I attended that school One drunkard in particular frightened me by I had to be kept out at intervals to restore a chasing and trying to catch me. His name was normal nervous condition. Not one of my Tom Manning. I had bad attacks of nightmare teachers knew the cause of my speech defect, during which I was being chased by him, and nor did one know its cure. Mother, hearing my outcries, would come to In 1876, we moved into Milwaukee, where my room to reassure me and to turn on the later my father became Health Officer. Small­ gas light to keep the memory of Tom Manning pox was rampant; there were no quarantine away. Another result of drink that impressed laws and my father supervised the building me greatly was the tragedy in the life of the of Milwaukee's first isolation hospital. The wife of the Commandant. She was a confirmed school I attended was the Eleventh Ward. My drug and liquor addict who resorted to the earlier school experience affected my behavior

213 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING. 1959

to such an extent that when I was in the fifth often ate our lunches together and held meet­ grade I learned that the teacher of the seventh ings at each other's homes with regular pro­ grade had expressed the desire "to get my grams. clutches on Lutie Stearns." She succeeded in having me transferred to her room for dis­ T)RESIDING over the freshmen and soph- ciplinary reasons. We fought a batde royal all •*- omores at the high school was the brilliant that year as she was of the dictatorial type and Kate Dunn Dewey, daughter of the first wholly Spartan in her methods, omitting only governor of Wisconsin. Miss Dewey was a physical attack. Many years after this en­ marvel in her disciplinary powers as she had counter when I was appointed by the Governor over 200 very fresh freshmen and sophomores to the Board of Visitors of the Normal Schools to control in her large assembly room, in of the state, I had the revengeful pleasure of addition to teaching, as I recall, advanced inspecting this same teacher's work in one of grammar, Latin, French, and German. Miss the normal schools. Later, however, in our Dewey was a graduate of the University of contacts with women's clubs we buried the Wisconsin and had studied in Europe. Such hatchet and became friends. training, added to her natural talenL made My extreme sensitiveness over my speech her exceptionally brilliant. In appearance, too, defect persisted up to my fourteenth year, when she was a woman of singular distinction with at the Eighth Ward School I became blessed her olive complexion and flashing black eyes. with one of the loveliest teachers I ever had. With one look she could simply annihilate a 1 say blessed advisedly, because, next to my smart-aleck pupil, or if that did not suffice, her mother, she did more for my soul and person­ waspish words of sarcasm literally withered ality than any other living mortal. She had the would-be prankster. As many of us took the greatest sympathetic understanding of our lunches to school, as did Miss Dewey, I child nature, its virtues and defects, of any had an opportunity to become well acquainted teacher I have ever known. On the first day with her on our walks to Lake Michigan during in her eighth-grade class she noticed my the noon hour. stammering and stuttering when I tried to One day she assigned her class an essay to read, and made up an excuse to get me out of be handed in the next morning. I wrote the the room on an errand to the principal while beginning of mine in black ink at school, con­ she talked to the students about my affliction tinued writing at my sister's home where I and what should be their attitude toward it. used purple ink, wrote more at home, this I do not know what she said, but thereafter time in green ink, and finished the essay the during the year there was absolute silence following morning at school, in black ink. during my reading period. The teacher, Sarah When Miss Dewey returned the essay to me it F. Burr, who later married John W. Livings­ bore this notation: 'T would suggest that here­ ton, was one of the two greatest teachers 1 ever after you vary your style otherwise than with had. Following my graduation she invited me ink." to her home at Lancaster, Wisconsin, for a In later years Miss Dewey married Theodore month's visit, one of the most pleasurable Lee Cole, who had been a classmate of hers events of my life. Through correspondence our at the University of Wisconsin. I visited them friendship continued to the time of her death. in Washington, D. C.^ The next school I attended was the Cass At the end of three years of high school Street High School. We had moved to the west study I was transferred to the freshman class side and I walked daily to and from school, a at the newly erected Milwaukee State Normal distance of four miles, with Minnie G. Leyser, School, located at the corner of Eighteenth and a Jewish girl who gave me my first contact Wells Streets, where I graduated two years with one of the Hebrew faith. She was one of later, in 1886. Minnie Leyser, Anna Doerfler, the finest girls I had ever known. Another and I continued our friendship. In our "Trio" friendship at this time was with Anna F. at high school we had written essays and held Doerfler, with whom I had graduated from " See "Kate Dewey Cole—An Appreciation," in the the eighth grade in the Eighth Ward School. Wisconsin Magazine of History. 6:314-316 (Winter, Minnie, Anna, and 1 formed the "Trio." We 1922-1923).

214 STEARNS : MY SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS

debates, and now at the Normal, Anna and I how many of the children—most of whom staged a debate to secure funds for library were of German parentage—thought that a books. Our subject was, Resolved: That a thrush was a bullfrog. They were practically roast of beef is superior to a pot of beans—in unanimous in this opinion, and were hardly other words, the greatness of England, which willing to accept my classification of a thrush Anna championed, in comparison with New as a brown bird. Later, on explaining the England, the place of my birth. In the course situation to the teacher of German at the of Anna's argument she asked me to tell her school, I was told that the children had con­ where in all New England could be found a fused the word "thrush" with the German Shakespeare, to which I replied that there Frosch, which does mean buUfrog. Thus ap­ peared early in my first day's teaching one were reasons for believing that Shakespeare of the stumbling blocks with which 1 was to was the product of Bacon, not of beef. be constantly confronted in trying to teach Anna Doerfler became one of the greatest English in the 1880's to children who heard school principals of the city, the school in only the German language at home. which she taught being named in her honor There was but one reader for the room, no following her death. Minnie Leyser married supplementary reading matter nor any sort of Sigmund R. Levy, and our friendship con­ a school library. The principal of the school, tinued for more than fifty-five years. however, had stereopticon slides, and I gave In the fall of 1886, I secured my first posi­ lectures on Germany which netted seventy-five tion in teaching, at $45 a month, at the dollars. With the money I secured the fol­ Thirteenth Ward School, corner of Center and lowing magazines of the day: St. Nicholas, First Streets. I had been taught at the Normal Harper's Young People, Wide-Awake, Youth's School that I must preserve the individuality Companion. I also begged and borrowed books of every child, bringing out his special talent from my friends. For bookcases 1 used soap and cultivating it to the best of my ability. boxes arranged in sections. Every Thursday My predicament in this particular may be night after school 1 would take three boys fully imagined when it is known that on the and six market baskets and travel by horse first morning at my new duties I was eon- car to the Public Library, located over Espen- fronted with no fewer than seventy-two chil­ hain's Dry Goods Store on the corner of Grand dren in a fourth-reader class. As to the Avenue and Fourth Street. For each child two preserving of individualities, it was more of a books were chosen: one of wholesome fiction, pickle than a preserve—in facL it was a jam. the other along lines through which the child There were but sixty-four seats, so eight of the might discover his life interest. 1 pursued this children were required to sit on chairs in the plan for the two years and two months 1 spent aisles. In dealing with the seventy-two victims as a teacher. of my inexperience 1 first of all divided them into three divisions according to their size only, "]%il"Y USE of the library naturally attracted knowing nothing of their mentality: the two- -L'-*- the attention of the superintendent of for-five, three-for-ten, and six-for-a-quarter the circulating department of the Public Li­ variety. brary, Miss Minnie M. Oakley, since I was the only teacher in the city who secured books During the morning I asked them to sing for the children in this way.- When Miss some song they had learned. They broke out in, Oakley resigned she suggested my name to as I understood the words: the library board as her successor, principally There's a merry brown thrush sitting up to promote the circulation of books in the in a tree; schools, and I was duly appointed, at $700 a He's singing to you! He's singing to me! At the conclusion of the song 1 asked how " Born in Madison, Miss Oakley began her library many of them had ever seen a thrush. A good career in 1879 with the Madison Free Library. For many hands were raised. When I inquired as nineteen years (1889-1908) she was cataloger and to its nature I was told that a thrush was a assistant librarian of the State Historical Society. Her subsequent career included library service in Seattle bullfrog. Taken aback by such a reply I asked and Los Angeles, where she died in 1915.

215 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959 year. During the nine years of my incumbency the board. At the organization meeting, Mr. of the office I visited the schools, told stories Hutchins was elected president, and I was to the children to interest thein in books, and made the first secretary. The enabling bill invited their teachers to come to the library carried an appropriation of $500 for the bi­ to select them. As I recall—though I may be ennial period for traveling expenses, printing, wrong at this late date—during the last of my and postage. The Milwaukee library board seven years I worked up a circulation of more gave me the time from December, 1895, than 98,000 volumes in the schools. through December, 1897, to do the secretarial In 1891, the Wisconsin Library Association work and to visit communities that did not was organized through the efforts of Miss have public libraries. At the legislative ses­ Theresa West, then deputy librarian of the sion of 1897 the commission was granted Milwaukee Public Library. I attended the first $4,000 a year for its work. Senator Stout, annual meeting at Madison. Later I became who had established the first traveling library secretary of the Association. There were but system under private auspices in the country, thirty-five free public libraries in the entire was appointed at Mr. Hutchins' and my re­ state at that time. The librarian and library quest a member of the Commission, as was board allowed me to go to neighboring towns, Mrs. Charles S. Morris, president of the State such as Racine, Kenosha, and Whitewater, to Federation of Women's Clubs. Mr. Hutchins interest the people in establishing a library. and I resigned as chairman and secretary, In 1893, I attended the World's Congress of and Senator Stout was made chairman, Mr. Librarians, held in connection with the World's Hutchins, secretary, while I became library Fair in Chicago. Here I met for the first time organizer and was also put in charge of the Melvil Dewey, the country's greatest librarian. traveling library department. It was at this He told us of the traveling library idea— time that I compiled Essentials in Library small collections of books to be sent to rural Administration for the American Library As­ communities. Also attending the World's Fair sociation, a work that had a wide circulation, meeting was Frank A. Hutchins of Madison, several editions being published. then in charge of the township or .school libraries of the state. •pROM 1895 through October, 1914, f trav- In 1894, I made the report on "Reading for -*- eled thousands of miles in Wisconsin by the \oung," at the Lake Placid, New York, stage, sleigh, buggy, wagon, passenger coach, meeting of the American Library Association. and caboose, wearing out five fur coats in At this gathering I first heard of the work succession in my efforts to reach all parts of of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire the state. In taking traveling libraries to the Library Commissions and secured copies of rural districts of Dunn and Wood Counties die laws under which they were established. during the winter I would secure a black bear­ 1 brought these back to Wisconsin, and Mr. skin to wear over my fur-lined muskrat coal, Hutchins and I drafted the enabling law for which was inadequate for the frequent below- a Free Library Commission in Wisconsin. To zero weather. I would get a three-seated sleigh, keep it out of politics, and also to show the remove the last two seats, and fill the space connection between it and the other educa­ with books which I would locate in farmers' tional institutions of the state, we made the homes, rural post offices, schools, and other president of the state university, the secretary available stations. On reaching what was then of the State Historical Society, and the State Grand Rapids—now Wisconsin Rapids—late Superintendent of Education the ex-officio one evening after a forty-mile drive, a long members of the board, thus leaving only two day's drive in those times, my black bearskin members to be appointed by the governor. attracted the attention of Mrs. Anna W. Evans, The passage of the bill was promoted by librarian,'' who wrote the following poem Senator James H. Stout of Dunn County, concerning my appearance: who had established one of the first manual ^'Mrs. Anna Wells Evans (1865-19461 was Chief of training institutions in the country. In De­ the Division of Public Documents of the State His­ cember, 1895, Governor W. H. Upham ap­ torical Society's library from 1910 until her resigna­ pointed Mr. Hutchins and me as members oS tion in 1937.

216 STEARNS : MY SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS

There is a woman named Stearns; you wish pie?" to which I rejoined, "Is it fler living she easily earns, compulsory?" "Naw," said the girl, "it's just By driving 'round, mince." IF hen the snow's on the ground. The desire to have a good influence and a Though the dangers she never discerns. decent place to go, instead of ihe many saloons and dance halls, led me to visit one community She dons a coat of black hair; no less than twelve times before I could get A cap is next put on with care; the town president—also owner of a dance She looks like a man. hall—to appoint a library board. A large room Rut to tell you ne'er can on the second floor of the town hall was finally If the product he woman, or hear. secured for library purposes and an appropri­ Now if in her drives through the brush, ation was made by the town for the librarian's A Bruin should come out with a rush. salary and the purchase of books. I had the Would the woman hug the bear. great joy of attending the opening of this li­ Or the bear hug the hair? brary for which I had so long striven. Or which would he lost in the crush ? In contrast to the slowness with which a library was established in that community was Would the bear barely hug the hold jade? the speed demanded in establishing a library Or the bearskin propelled by the maid at Wausaukee. The Library Commission re­ Hug the bear? Or the hair ceived a letter from J. D. Bird, a prominent Of the hear would she tear lumberman of that region, stating that he had Or her own, as the price to he paid? erected a social hall as an offset to the saloons in the village and had planned for lounging N RETURNING to a hotel after an even­ and recreation rooms on the first floor, with a 0 ing meeting in a lumber town I found library and reading room above. The date for my bed so densely inhabited that it was quite the opening of the building had been adver­ impossible to get into it. I went downstairs tised, and we had only ten days in which to lo the desk and asked for a livery team to purchase, ship, and prepare for circulation, drive to the next town. The meeting at which 1,000 volumes. The state library organizer I had spoken to interest the people in reading and I put in long hours on the mechanical the books sent by the state had begun late, preparation of the books for circulation. It and it was at least 10:30 when I started in a was Mr. Bird, however, who gave us some buckboard, with a fourteen-year-old driver, unique as well as valuable assistance. Mounted a bronco that galloped, and a pinto that loped. on his white horse he rode up and down the A lantern had been placed over the dash­ village streets calling for volunteers to help board, and the shadows it cast as we drove through the woods frightened the ponies. We were going at a very lively gait when the Competition to the saloons, the Wausaukee Free hickory wheels on the left side of the buck- Library in 1902. board clashed into the wheels of a buggy Society's Iconogiat^hic Collections coming in our direction, but which we saw too late to prevent a collision. We backed our front wheel and resumed on our way to the next town, where we aroused a surprised hotel man whose greeting was, "Where in h did you come from at this time of nighl?" As there was no train nor any other hitherto- known transportation it was no wonder that he was surprised. We found, however, a quiet haven for the rest of an exciting night. At one of the hotels visited, a more than plentiful dinner was served. When it came to ihe dessert course the waitress asked, "Do WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING. 1959 us in the library. Dozens of women from the was at that time no community in the state community came to our aid, and the library which could afford a library that did not have was ready for use on the day originally desig­ one.* As the work was becoming largelv a nated for opening the building. matter of routine, I resigned to enter upon My work and that of Mr. Hutchins and country-wide lecture work. A talk which I Cornelia Marvin led to the establishment of made at the meeting of the General Federa­ sixty-three public libraries in the state, the tion of Women's Clubs in Chicago in 1914 number having increased from thirty-seven to aroused such general interest that I received 100 by 1914. The state traveling libraries had many offers of engagements. The main reason grown from a collection of donated books in for my resignation from the commission, how­ the beginning to over 1,480 in the field. Part ever, was the fact that I could not bear to re­ of my work consisted of letter writing. Dozens turn home without finding my mother there, of letters were written to James Bertram, sec­ and I needed a change of scene. retary to Andrew Carnegie, to secure library My dear mother died in March, 1914, at buildings. My thousands of miles of travel the age of ninety-two. Both her eightieth and brought me to hundreds of communities where ninetieth birthdays were occasions of family I made speeches to arouse interest in securing reunions. On her ninetieth birthday she re­ public libraries and traveling books. ceived her friends, with Mrs. L. K. Thiers, a My traveling, however, was not confined friend of ninety-eight years who lived to be exclusively to Wisconsin. I spoke before every 106, and Mrs. Theodore Terhune, who was library school then in existence, frequently then ninety-two. giving courses. Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Mother was the greatest inspiration of my Drexel Institute, Philadelphia; Pratt Institute, life. No mother ever deserved more gratitude Brooklyn; New York State and Public Library and respect. She had a wonderful sense of Schools; Simmons College, Boston; the River­ humor which carried her through many of side and the Los Angeles Library Schools, and life's travails. To gratify her wants was my the one in St. Louis were on my lecture life ambition, and I have never been able to schedule. regain a substitute for it. In 1894, I had the For twelve successive years I gave the com­ pleasure of taking Mother with me to the Lake mencement address at the Atlanta, Georgia, Placid, New York, meeting of the American Library School. Year after year in my visits Library Association, before which we visited there I emphasized the nobility of work, as Montreal; Portland, Maine; Boston; and Cam­ I had found in previous trips to the South bridge. Mother's fondness for the water led that the employed women there were usually to trips to Mackinac, Ashland, Duluth, and very apologetic about their outside employ­ Sault Sainte Marie. We visited Chicago fre­ ment. I reminded the students of Hugh Black's quently by boat, and before the days of the great book. Work, in which he says: "The true auto I often took Mother riding behind safe nobility of life is honest, earnest service, the livery horses. strenuous exercise of our faculties, with con­ It so happened that Mother's and my birth­ science in our work as in the sight of God days were on September 13 and 15. I always, who gives us our place and our tools and our with one exception, arranged my itineraries work. ... At the end of life we shall not be so that we could celebrate our birthdays to­ asked how much pleasure we had in it, but gether. how much service we gave in it; not how full it was of success, but how full it was of sacri­ (This is the first of a series of three install­ fice; not how happy we were, but how helpful ments of Miss Stearns' autobiography.) we were; not how ambition was gratified, but how love was served. Life is judged by love; and love is known by her fruits."

' For a more detailed account of this phase of Miss i\ 1914, I felt that the pioneer work in Wis­ Steam's life, see Earl Tannenbaum, "The Library fjareer of Lutie Eugenia Stearns," in the Wisconsin I consin had been accomplished as there Magazine of History, 39:159-165 (Spring, 1956).

218 I would even have settled for a second ac­ cepted pronunciation along the lines all the historians in the country have been using, but there it stood—stark and stolid on the printed page—Clio. I would appreciate your reac­ tions, perhaps some poor bit of ammunition to use as this controversy within our profession grows. Sincerely yours, DONALD R. MCNEIL

Mr. Donald R. McNeil State Historical Society 816 State Street Madison 6, Wisconsin How to Address the Muse Dear Mr. McNeil: Merriam Company We believe as you do that a pronunciation Publishers of Merriam-Webster Dictionaries is "correct" if it has currency among educated speakers. We are sure that you will agree with Springfield, Ma.ssachusetts us that there will never be a dictionary that is Gentlemen: so completely abreast of such usage as to con­ All through the years I have held the belief tain all pronunciations current among edu­ that usage determines to a great extent the cated speakers. Infallibility is not to be ex­ pected in this world. proper pronunciation of words in our lan­ During the last fifteen years or so, thanks guage. This belief suddenly has been shattered. to such media of communication as radio, tele­ Not long ago Professor William B. Hessel­ vision, and talking pictures, we have built up tine of the University of Wisconsin and 1 ed­ a file of records of pronunciations heard that ited a series of essays entitled fn Support of has, we feel sure, no equal for size. Within a Clio. This has become a familiar title to our matter of seconds we can go to that file and staff and some historians around the country, find as many as two or three hundred records and as they roll it off the tongue the name of from almost as many speakers for some words the Muse of History is pronounced: Klee-o. A —economic, say (say the split as between e couple of days ago one of our bright young and e—is almost exactly 50-50). If we failed men on the staff took the trouble to look up to give both pronuciations for a word as often the pronunciation of Clio in the dictionary and heard as economic we should be very blame­ informed us that it is pronounced: Kli-o. worthy indeed. But in this tremendous file we I talked with several historians and each was find not a single indication that we have ever tremendously surprised that such a pronuncia­ in our years of listening heard the name Clio tion was given in the dictionary. My question uttered. To quote from Professor J. S. Ken- to you is this: if all the historians we know— yon, probably the best-known American pho­ and I am sure this would involve at least netician, "It is idle to insist on the 'correct' 99'*'^ 00 per cent of the historians in the coun­ pronuciation of words not yet established in general oral use. The correct pronuciation will try to say nothing of other cultured, refined, be whatever usage finally settles on, regardless and intelligent persons who have cause to use of whether it agrees with etymology, spelling, the name Clio—have become familiar with the or analogy." pronunciation Clio (to rhyme with B. 0.) We think that there is much to be said for ralher than Clio (to rhyme with Ohio), what showing no pronunciation at all for such words part does usage play in determining the proper in a dictionary. But the dictionary-buying pronunciation of the word? public has come to expect—nay, demand—a

219 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING. 1959 pronunciation of some sort for every non-obso­ Through the Viewpoint of Foreign Relation." lete word, and we doubt that we could ignore However, now, I hope to revise this article this demand and remain solvent. and also to write newly on the acceptance We make no claim that i is the only ac­ of the Turner Thesis outside the L.S.A. At ceptable pronunciation of Clio. The appear­ the same time, my chief concerning is the ance of a book with the title fn Support of Clio American Historiography in the whole and has unquestionably increased the currency of am coflecting materials on this topic. How­ the name, and we are glad to be advised of and ever, I can't find any copies of the Wisconsin to record the fact that e is a pronunciation fre­ Magazine of History here in Japan. quently heard for the ;. It is a very deep courtesy if you will kindly We call your attention to the first two para­ send me any reprints of the above-mentioned graphs of §269 of the Guide to Pronunciation articles. in Webster's New fnternational. Second Edi­ Sincerely yours, tion. MASAHARU WATANABE Very truly yours, Bunri-gakubu EDWARD ARTIN Yamaguchi University G. & C. Merriam Company Ushirogawara Yamaguchi City, Japan Letter From Japan EDITOR'S NOTE: .4lthough reprints of the ar­ I am very pleased to write you this letter. ticles enumerated by Professor Watanabe I am an assistant professor of history of ^a- have long since been exhausted, issues of the maguchi National University and am studying Magazine containing the first four titles on his in these eight years the American Historiog­ list have been mailed to him as a gesture of in­ raphy. As you may know, it is very difficult ternational scholarly co-operation. Unfortu­ to get materials, especially magazine articles, nately our stockroom supply does not permit here in Japan. us to comply with his request for the four re­ I found many attractive magazine articles maining issues containing the articles by in your periodical—Wisconsin Magazine of Messrs. Burkhart, Pierson, Shryock, and History. They are as follow: Schafer. Readers owning duplicates of the Theodore C. Blegen, "Adventures in His­ issues in question and wishing to help further torical Research," (Autumn, 1955.) Mr. Wanatahe's research into American his­ John D. Hicks, "State and Local History," tory may send them to the Magazine for trans­ (Winter, 1955-56.) mittal to Japan. Ralph Adams Rrown, "The Importance of Local History in the School Program." Reprint Rights Requested (Spring, 1955.) James C. Malin, "On the Nature of Local We believe that Arthur J. Allmeyer has History," (Summer, 1957.) made a real contribution to the historical foot­ J. A. BurkharL "The Turner Thesis: A notes on the genesis of social security in the Historian's Controversy," (September, article, "The Wisconsin Idea and Social ,Se- 1947.) curity," (Autumn, 1958.) George Wilson Pierson, "American Histo­ We would like permission to make our own rians and the Frontier Hypothesis in 1941," reprints of this article, largely for distribution {September, December, 1942.) Richard H. Shryock, "Changing Perspec­ to our employees in six hundred offices tives in Local History," (Spring, 1951.) throughout the country. As our own copy of Joseph Schafer, "The Author of the 'Fron­ the Magazine by this time shows the wear of tier Hypothesis'," (September, 1931.) many readings, we would appreciate it if you would send us another copy. At present I hope to write an article con­ HOY L. SWIFT cerning the Turner Thesis outside the United Bureau of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance States. Several years ago I wrote an article Social Security Administration entitled "The Turner Thesis—A Criticism Baltimore 2

220 Forgotten Villages:

The Village of Inch

by Katherine Hadden

Society's Iconographic Collections Faculty and student body of the old Inch School, circa 1898.

streets. Grove and Crane, ran east and west HEN IN 1957 the old Inch schoolhouse dividing the blocks, each of which comprised Wwas moved to nearby Lodi, the last pio­ ten lots eight rods in length and four in width. neer structure vanished from the spot where North and south through the center of each a flourishing village once stood. Located in block ran an alley one rod wide. On February southwestern Columbia County, three miles 21, 1866, an addition of two more blocks was from Poynette on the route from Madison to recorded, but information on their exact loca­ Portage, the village of Inch was built on land tion is lacking and it is probable that none purchased from Governor James Duane Doty of them were sold. by a Scotch Highlander, Wifliam McDonald. Soon after some of the original lots were McDonald, born in Lochaber, near the River purchased, the owners erected on them log Spey in Inverness-shire, migrated to America cabins and frame houses. Names appearing on in 1830, returned to Scotland for a year, then old deeds include those of Edward Potter, J. C. came back to this country for the remainder Allen, 0. P. Stevens, George L. Francis, James of his life. A carpenter and joiner by trade, Luther, Lovel Aflen, David Startin, Asahel he worked in Canada, New York, Detroit, Fish, William McTurk, Wilford Keebaugh, Green Bay, and Madison, where he helped to Clarissa Hartman, and others." The highest construct the first capitol. Settling in Columbia price paid of which there is a record was $500 County in 1838, he built the first store in for lots 2 and 3 in block 8. Undoubtedly some Dekorra Village, bought government land and lots were bought by speculators who never other tracts, later traded his store for 160 addi­ built on them. tional acres, and eventually became owner of In the winter loads of hay, frozen meat, and one of the county's largest farms. In 1842 he other supplies bound for the northern pineries purchased land from Doty whom he had known passed through the village, for not only was in Green Bay and for whom he had built a it situated on the stage route from Madison to house in that city, and in 1846, using part of Portage, but was also on the route followed by this land as a site, he planned, platted, and teamsters hauling logs and lumber from the began to develop his curiously named village.' river rafts at Dekorra to the Arlington prairie Inch, platted on either side of what is now and points beyond. Catering to the travelers Highway 51, was surveyed March 28, 1851, and teamsters was a hotel on Main Street, kept and recorded June 16, 1852. The lapse of time at one time by Bonaparte Moulton and a man between platting and recording was apparently name Kingsbury, and in which a Mr. Whitman due to the fact that no permanent county seat was selected until April, 1851, although county ' Original plat on file in the Register of Deeds Of- officers had been elected in 1846.- The original fii'e, Portage, Wisconsin. plat contained six blocks bisected by Main "History of Columbia County, Wisconsin (Chicago, 1880),377-,383. Street (the present highway). Two cross " Original deeds are in the author's possession.

221 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING. 1959

conducted a private school. The village school- a church and public meeting place. Once it house stood on Grove. Main Street's business was even secretly opened and turned into a section also boasted a store and a blacksmith sheepshed by a local farmer. When this was shop, one of whose smithys is said to have discovered, the irate citizens were obliged to been a Frenchman named Nicholas Delaroux. use a shovel as well as mop and soapsuds be­ There is no authentic record of his existence, fore school could be opened for the next term. but an old deed bears the name Tillie Delarue For many years the building stood on Grove which may be that of his wife, since the pro­ Street, but in 1876 the school board leased a nunciation is similar. The Main Street store site from Mr. McDonald and the building was was later operated by George Drake who, when moved to the west side of Main Street." During it was discontinued, bought the building and its lifetime the sturdy old structure underwent moved it by ox-team over the hills and through several changes in its interior although the out­ woods to his land where it became—and still side remained the same except for the addi­ is—part of a farmhouse. tion of a larger entry, siding, and periodic In 1855 William McDonald married Anne painting. The original desks were huge high Linde of Madison and built a frame house on pine board affairs fastened to each sidewalk Main Street. Later the building was moved All were of the same size and height, con­ south to another location on his property where venient enough for the older pupils but almost he built a large brick house and joined the impossible for the small children to see over frame structure to it. Here it continues to the top. Several times a new floor had to be stand, facing its second century. laid. Once such a large hole had developed The village had no post office, as there was from scuffmg, hob-nailed boots and carelessly one a mile to the north at Oshaukuta, and an­ dropped chunks for the long old wood stove, other at Dekorra. Later, when the railroad that a youngster was shoved down through it from Madison to Portage was completed, both as a prank and wood piled on top to keep him these post offices were closed and a new one a prisoner while the teacher was at dinner at was established at Hartman, a flag station on his nearby boarding place. the railroad a mile west of Inch. For many It was fifty years or more before factory- years Joseph Hartman was its postmaster;^ built desks for the pupils and teacher were later Mrs. Mary Sawyer was postmistress un­ installed. Later still came slate blackboards to til rural free delivery was introduced. There­ replace the black-painted wooden ones, a book after, the residents of Inch and the surround­ case for the growing library, maps, charts, and ing area received their mail from Poynette. up-to-date textbooks. Eventually a hardwood The years between 1846 and 1880 wrought floor and modern desks were followed by a many changes in rural areas—the introduction new heating system, a piano, and hot lunches. of railroads, the increased population, the During its later years Inch was one of the growing cities which lured away the trades­ most advanced rural schools in the county. A men and skilled workers. The village of Inch Mothers' Club was organized, and was one of began to fade away. Buildings were moved off the first to become affiliated with the home- or torn down, until only one or two houses and maker's extension work from the University the schoolhouse remained. Eventually William of Wisconsin. A skit written by one of its McDonald bought back all of the lots and re­ members for the county Achievement Day at incorporated the site of the former village into Portage was repeated locally and at the Lni- his farm. versity's Field Day at Madison. However, the Inch School, District Number Unfortunately all early school records prior Six of Dekorra, remained an important edu­ to 1906 have been destroyed. However, there cational center for many years after the village is one Inch school record in the author's pos­ had disappeared. The exact date of its erection session that has escaped. Although it is sadly is unknown, but it is thought to be about 1850 dilapidated, it is intact in part, and contains —a frame building with hewn logs for beams the names of teachers, pupils, visitors, and and joists. In early times it was also used as ° The original handwritten lease is in the author's * History of Columbia County, 1090. possession.

222 HADDEN : THE VILLAGE OF INCH some of the textbooks in use from 1869 to not the twelfth of a linear foot, a common 1879. Included in the latter are Hiflard's assumption; nor is it the name of a man or his Readers from Primer to Sixth, Warren's Ge­ family, another fallacy. The unusual name has ography, G. A. Walton's Arithmetic, Gould been the butt of jokes and disparaging com­ Brown's Grammar, and Worcester's Speller. ments by various historians. Some have even Among the names of teachers are those of maintained that the village never existed except men who had been or became noteworthy in on paper. other fields. James Monroe Bushnell taught in The Gaelic people had a fanciful way of 1872 and later became editor and publisher using many names which meant approximately of the Wyocena Advance. George W. Marsh, the same thing. Someone has said that "in who had been the first volunteer at Portage England a mountain is a mountain, but in in the Civil War, taught the winter terms of Scotland it may be a beinn, a creag or a meall, 1874 and 1875. During the time Marsh was in a spidean or sgor, a earn, a monadh, a stiic or service he was the accredited correspondent a torr." for the Milwaukee Sentinel, writing under the Some members of the McDonald family be­ pen name of "Agawam." lieve that Inch means island, from the obsolete Men were hired to teach winter terms when Gaelic inis or innis, a definition found in sev­ the husky eighteen and twenty-year-old farm eral dictionaries. W. A. Poucer, in his Magic boys attended school, since for obvious reasons of Skye, gives eilean as the Gaelic word for it was necessary for a teacher to be equipped island, as in Eilean a Cheo, Isle of Mist. with brawn as well as brains. Women teachers Other descendants of McDonald remember took over during the fall, spring, and summer being told that Inch was from the word inches, terms, the latter sometimes running as late meaning meadow, or meadowland. But here as August. again there is an array of Gaelic words, such As late as 1900 the salary paid teachers as lian, Ion, and strath, also meaning meadow, was still pitifully small. Spring and fall terms or low land between hills similar to the site were $15 a month, winter terms $20. The of the former village. teacher was expected to board himself and Which interpretation was in the heart and also do the janitor work. In 1909 salaries were mind of William McDonald when he chose the raised to $25 and $35—to the accompaniment village's name will never be known. It is suffice of loud wails from some of the board mem­ to believe that it was given in tribute to some bers. However, the salary mounted rapidly cherished memory of Scotland by this High­ during the school's later years until teachers lander from Lochaber—who was my grand­ were receiving as much, or more, than in any father. other one-room rural school in the county. The last days of the Inch school came in 1957. Consolidated schools having been estab­ lished in the township, the district school build­ ings were put up for sale—among them the old Inch schoolhouse, which was bought and moved to Lodi. Today the Inch church, built in 1875 on the north boundary of the original plat and always considered a part of the village, is a final landmark standing guard at the cross­ roads—a worthy sentinel and nostalgic re­ minder of the pioneer village that was, and is no more.

T^HE ORIGIN AND MEANING of the •*- name "Inch" is so bedimmed by time that it is impossible to verify and confusing to try Society's Iconographic Collections to explain. It is known to be a Scottish word— The Inch School, blocked up to be moved, 1957.

223 teaders' choice

GENERAL HISTORY The opening sentence states that "This work is essentially an interpretive synthesis of a The Angry Scar: The Story of Reconstruction. considerable body of writing on the Recon­ By HoDDiNG CARTER. (Mainstream of America struction period." In all honesty, the words Series, edited by Lewis Gannett, Doubleday "interpretive" and "considerable" should have and Company, New York, 1959. Pp. 425. been omitted. The Angry Scar shows no indi­ $5.95.) cation of any original research (and there is In November, 1939, Howard K. Beale read much to be done on Reconstruction) ; the a paper before the Southern Historical Asso­ bibliography is composed of secondary works ciation entided "On Rewriting Reconstruction and is incomplete; minor errors mar numerous History." Published the following July in The pages; and any new interpretation escaped this American Historical Review, Beale's paper reviewer's eye. Actually, the book is a series raised a multitude of questions concerning of incidents reported in a journalistic style. Reconstruction. What were the interests, and Carter has divided the work into four books what controlled the actions of the conserva­ which really represent three parts. The first tives, radicals, Negroes, scalawags, and carpet­ section, comprising books I and 11, is a fairly baggers? Was corruption unique to Southern chronological account of the major events of legislatures? Can Reconstruction be studied Reconstruction, for the most part a paraphrase seriously without reference to what went be­ of what other writers have said. The chapter fore and what came after? Why did the on education is disappointing in its absence revolution stop short of confiscating the plant­ of unity and in its failure to develop any ers' estates? What did the Negro actually gain theme. One suspects that it is included because during the period? What was the strength and of the current crises. Book III, "What Manner effect of the Granger movement? Did Populism of Men?," never comes to grips with the prob­ have its beginnings during Reconstruction? lem. Carter gives a newspaper report on a few What were the good spots in the Radical ad­ not very carefully selected freedmen, scalawags, ministration? What role did the Freedman's carpetbaggers, and Yankee capitalists. He sel­ Bureau play? Were any educational advances dom attempts to analyse their motives, and made during Reconstruction? In short, he never arrives at a synthesis. At no time does asked for a complete re-evaluation of the he state that the story of a particular scalawag period. Beale was soon joined by other revi­ or carpetbagger which he presents is typical sionists, notably Francis B. Simkins and T. or atypical. The reader may conclude that one Harry Williams, both of whom thought that scalawag was a "moral weakling who in any the Negroes' social and economic role, plus society and in any time would have given their relationship with the whites, needed way to temptation (South Carolina's Frank more study. Moses)" but he cannot, on the basis of Carter's There has been no major attempt to answer reporL judge scalawags as a whole. the questions the revisionists have raised. E. Book III contains an enticing suggestion Merton Coulter, in his 1947 work. The South that Carter might have pursued with profit. During Reconstruction, rejected almost all of In an aside he mentions that "too litde has their conjectures. Other writers ignored them, been written" of the yeoman farmer in the except in article form. South, but he does not rectify that omission Hodding Carter, Pulitzer Prize-winning himself. The backbone of the area (60 per cent Mississippi editor and a "fighting Southern of the white population in 1870), the yeoman liberal," has managed to touch upon most of farmer has been neglected in writings on both the points Beale emphasized, but he has com­ the Old and the New South. A section on his pletely failed to answer any of the questions. activities during Reconstruction in this work

224 READERS CHOICE might have solved some basic problems. How The atlaintmenL retention, or destruction of did he manage to hold on to the little land civilization depends on still additional basic he owned ? How interested was he in the con­ factors, varying in importance, but none of tinual political struggles? Why did he decide which can be disregarded. Ideas, great men, to vote with the native planter-industrial class economic activities, technological devices, the to overthrow the Radicals? Did his later Pop­ "facts of geography," God—all influence hu­ ulist activities have their beginnings during man behavior. According to Professor John­ this period? These, and similar questions, son, discussion of these latter factors and should have held Carter's attention; they have related questions constitute Whitehead's "phil­ not. osophy of history." The last book, on the South from the 1870's Whitehead discusses these sixteen notions to the present, is outstanding. Carter is a dis­ extensively in his three major philosophical tinguished and able commentator on the South books. Science and the Modern World, Process today; his remarks are worth reading and and Reality, and Adventures of fdeas. Most pondering. In this study he has answered at of his articles after 1925 were focused chiefly least one of the revisionists' cafls; do noL they in this area. Johnson pulls Whitehead's discus­ plead, take the short view and end the story sions of these ideas together under five topics: of Reconstruction in 1876. But only here has civilization, philosophy of history, religion, Carter made a contribution to Reconstruction social philosophy, and education. To each of literature. these topics Johnson devotes a chapter. A sixth STEPHEN AMBROSE chapter, "Critical Comments," is his defense University of Wisconsin of Whitehead against his critics. The final chapter, "Civilization and Metaphysics," is an attempt to demonstrate that Whitehead's phil­ osophy of civilization is a part of his total sys­ Whitehead's Philosophy oj Civilization. BY A. tem, i.e., his metaphysics or theory of reality. H. JOHNSON. (Beacon Press, Boston, 1958. Pp. xi, 211. $5.00.) The necessity of the final chapter may es­ cape the general reader to whom this book is This book is not so much about as it is of addressed. The key is in the first chapter of Whitehead's philosophy of civilization, ft is a Process and Reality wherein Whitehead de­ sympathetic and largely noncritical collation fines an adequate metaphysics as a "system of of Whitehead's views on what constitutes a civ­ general ideas in terms of which every element ilized man or nation. Alfred North Whitehead of our experience can be interpreted." Since was born in England in 1861. At the age of Johnson has committed himself on the ade­ sixty-three in 1924 he came to America to join quacy of Whitehead's metaphysics, he is com- the faculty of Harvard University in the phil­ nelled to show that the ordinary language that osophy department. He became Professor Em­ Whitehead uses when he discusses civilization eritus in 1937 and died in 1947. A. H. John­ is congruent with the technical language of his son studied under Whitehead at Harvard and metaphysical system. If it be granted that has written on his metaphysics in Whitehead's Whitehead's metaphysical language is intefli- Theory of Reality (Beacon Press, 1952). The gible, then Johnson's statements such as the present volume continues his interest in White­ following are also intelligible: "The ideals of head's philosophy. civilization—truth, beauty, adventure, peace— Civilization for Whitehead is "ultimate good are eternal objects, part of the enduring struc­ sense," a necessary condition for a satisfactory ture of the universe, made available bv God life. A man, or a society, is civilized if truth, for the use of those actual entities which pro­ beauty, adventure, art, peace are the dominant pose to use them and are capable of translating qualities and if these five qualities are domi­ these potentialities into actuality." (Pp. 179- nant in all phases of experience. While these 180.) five qualities are the most fundamental ele­ Professor Johnson, as a devoted disciple, has ments in civilization, there are five additional written a readable book about the last great factors which may be regarded as "prerequi­ metaphysician of our epoch. Perhaps because sites" which decisively facilitate the five this book is patently noncritical it can serve "defining" qualities. These factors are: the admirably as an introduction to Whitehead's recognition of the importance of the individ­ admittedly difficult philosophy. ual, freedom of thought and action, tolerance, the use of persuasion rather than force, and CORNELIUS L. GOLIGHTLY wisdom. University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee

225 WISCONSIN iNIAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959

The Nation Takes Shape. By MARCUS CUN- meaning that it was still quasi-colonial in LIFFE. (The Chicago History of American status. Some of its unique features, he thinks, Civilization, University of Chicago Press. Chi­ are to be found in contending forces, such as cago, 1959. Pp. viii, 222. $3.50) conservatism contending with democratic tend­ Mr. Cunliffe, senior lecturer in American encies. In most instances his assessments and history and institutions at the University of interpretations are judicious, showing a firm Manchester, England, has written an urbane, grasp of the historical literature of the period. stimulating, and admirably proportioned an­ For its type, a brief work of popular syn­ alysis of America's first half-century under thesis containing no new material or starding the federal Constitution. Seeking to avoid a judgments, this book is unusually good. The narrow focus upon the federal government and prose is clear, the grasp of the subject sound, thus to bring out the local, state, or regional the emphasis wise, the narration skillful. To background of his period, he has shunned the read this book is a pleasant experience. usual chronological approach. In his first five ALEXANDER DECONDE chapters he discusses government, politics, University of Michigan foreign affairs, westward expansion, commerce, and the growth of industry as main topics. Jay Gould: His Business Career. By JULIUS Although they tell a familiar story, these chap­ GRODINSKY. (University of Pennsylvania ters are gems of lucid and coherent condensa­ Press, Philadelphia, 1957. Pp. 627. $10.00.) tion. The last three chapters assess the period In this substantial study of Jay Gould, which as a whole, seeking its broad characteristics. covers some of the same ground as his earlier The final chapter, titled "The American Char­ The fowa Pool, Julius Grodinsky has made acter," stresses the book's main theme—the another useful contribution to business history. search for an American national character. The reader is warned that this is not a biogra­ How and by what means did the American phy, but an economist's analysis of the activi­ character evolve?, the author asks. Yet he ties of one of the classic—even if not completely does not appear to make quite clear what the successful—entrepreneurs of the nineteenth American character was or is or how it differed century. The reader should also be warned or differs from other national characters. This that despite the tide this is not a study of emphasis on the shaping of the national char­ Gould's business career, but rather a study of acter, essentially an effort to give the period his financial career, which stretched from the coherence and pattern, often seems forced and Civil War lo his death in 1892 and involved vague. But it does not impair the book's bas­ the manipulation of coundess corporate secur­ icafly fine qualities. ities as wefl as of the stock market itself. "The American character," Mr. Cunliffe Grodinsky patiently traces Gould's intricate believes, "seems to have been formed in essence and devious financial activities beginning with within a generation of George Washington's the Erie Railroad, continuing with the I^nion accession to the presidency." Nearly all the Pacific, the Wabash and a host of lesser roads, American characteristics one could identify going beyond railroads as such to the Western in the period, he writes, "would support the Union Telegraph and the Manhattan Elevated assertion that American 'national character' —the only two of Gould's enterprises which has not altered fundamentally since its early flourished—and ending with the southwestern definitions." Despite the author's qualifica­ roads. The gradual shift in Gould's motivation, tions, so sweeping a conclusion, drawn from from speculation for profits to speculation de­ limited evidence and from an often elusive signed to build a strong and enduring railroad theme, dismisses too easily, it seems, the acqui­ system, is presented in convincing detail. sition of vast territories beyond the Rockies in Gould's favorite devices for gaining or re­ later years and the still later mass migrations taining control in the face of formidable finan­ to America from southern and eastern Europe cial and legal opposition were, first, that and other parts of the world. .Surely these de­ peculiar corporate liability, the floating debt; velopments, which transformed the geograph­ and second, the unrestricted use of the proxy. ical, ethnic, and social foundations of Amer­ Although Grodinsky discusses these devices, a ican society, must have made some noteworthy thorough analysis of the nature of the proxy contributions to the shaping of that vague luarkeL and even of the floating debt, still concept called the ''American cliaracter." remains lo be done. In adtlilion, (Jould created During the half century under review, the a bewildering variety of corporate securities author believes, the I'nited States was going which he attempted, often successfully, to ma­ through a pre-expansionist and premodern era. nipulate to his advantage. When his financial

226 READERS CHOICE inventiveness failed, he used the judiciary threshold of the presidency, the Dream was sharrielessly. shattered by a great and hidden flaw in the Gould's nnorlhodox and even reckless ap­ American people. For despite the shining sen­ proach lo corporate finance may have had the timents expressed in the Declaration of Inde­ beneficial effects that Grodinsky suggests, but pendence and the Bill of Rights, despite the in the few pages devoted to stating his con­ widely orated belief that America was the land clusions, he does not prove his point. An of opportunity where any boy could grow up analysis of Gould's contributions to and effects to become presidenL where a man was judged upon corporate finance, railroad operations, for what he was, the American people were not and economic development in general would ready to accept a Roman Catholic as their have been desirable. (Mould's performance as a president. The Smith, a mighty man was he— business executive, concerned with intra-cor- but not mighty enough to overcome the whis­ poration policies and operations, is not ex­ pered and shouted outpourings of the hate- plored; and even the famed Knights of Labor mongers. strike against the Gould system is ignored. Oscar Handlin has written an important Although some economists might cavil at book in Al Smith and His America. It is not Grodinsky's use of "equity capital" and at his a definitive biography; it is a tragedy. Hand­ belief in the advantages of overcapitalization, lin is a distinguished historian, but he has vio­ the major weakness of the study is its lack lated the canons of modern historiography. of interpretive analysis of the significance of Instead of magisterial impartiality, the book is (iould's financial policies. Its great strength is filled with devotion to Smith. In the place its carefully detailed historical reporting. If of footnotes and the other trappings of mod­ one wishes to study the facts of Gould's finan­ ern pedantry there are strongly worded judg­ cial career, there is no better account available. ments of Al Smith and his America. Rather Grodinsky's involved description of the com­ than a lifeless objectivity there is a tragic sense plex corporate relationships of the Gould rail­ of the injustice the hero received at the hands roads could have been greatly clarified by the of the people he wished to serve. These un- effective use of charts and tables. The few canonical manifestations may be defended on maps are dreary, unimaginative, and almost the grounds that the book was not written for useless. There is, however, a good index and the edification of Handlin's fellow historians, a useful critical bibliography of periodical and but as a part of the "Library of American Bi­ archive sources. ography Series," intended for the lay reader. ROBERT E. WILL But the point at issue here is whether a his­ Carleton College torian has the right to present his work as an "act of faith" through a definite and stated frame of reference, even in a work intended Al Smith and ffis America. BY OSCAR HAND- for the layman. It is this reviewer's belief that LIN. (Little, Brown and Company, Boston, the historian has the righL and the obligation 1958. Pp. 207. $3.50.) to exercise it. The American people are dedi­ In the glittering chrome-and-glass America cated to the idea of progress, spiritual as well of the twentieth century, tragedy is a theme as material. Progress can not be made unless that has few admirers and fewer practitioners. we are able to judge what is progressive and Our progressive and materialist society has what is not. If judgments are to be made it is little patience with those who hold a tragic true they should be based on calm and dispas­ view of life. Perhaps that is the reason why sionate consideration of evidence, but ulti­ there has been so little written about the life of mately they must be based on assumptions of Alfred E. Smith, governor of New York for a what is right and what is wrong by our stand­ decade, and Democratic candidate for presi­ ards, not those of the person or society being dent in 1928. Not only has there been little judged. To do otherwise is not judgment, but written about him, but also, outside of New acquiescence. \ork, he seems to be the forgotten man of the As it happens Handlin judges the Americans twentieth century. His was a life that is su­ of Al Smith's time by standards that were premely fitted for the tragic theme: born of theirs as well as ours of the present. The trag­ immigrant parents in New \ork City's tene­ edy of Smith's career lies in the fact that the ment jungle he rose above his origins, grow­ American people of 1928 were unable to live ing steadily in spirit until, as governor of his up to the great ideal called the American Way native state, he stood as a splendid fulfillment of Life. Throughout the book this tragic theme of the great American Dream. Then, at the is maintained in a sensitive and sympathetic

227 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING. 1959 manner—and there is as much sympathy for Dr. Brownlee is not partial. He blames Kan­ the American people as there is for Smith. sas jayhawkers such as ,Senator James Lane, There is no maudlin soap-opera sentiment in James Montgomery, and Charles R. Jennison the book, and there are no angry accusations —"a fantastic set of zealots and scoundrels"— of betrayal, either. The theme is superbly han­ for stirring up guerrilla warfare and provok­ dled, without rancor or bitterness. ing insurrection along the border. The importance of the book lies in the pos­ Dr. Brownlee's story is exciting and well sibility that history is about to repeat itself. written. Each page is spiced with some atroc­ In the presidential election of 1960 the Ameri­ ity—arson, murder, scalping, mutilation. It is can people may once again be called upon to a man's book, and Civil War buffs will wel­ test their belief that a man's religion should come the vivid recounting of the careers of have no bearing upon the outcome of a po­ the almost legendary Quantrill, George Todd, litical contest—a belief which proved to be a "Litde Archie" Clement, and "Bloody Bifl" gossamer hope thirty years ago. Already the Anderson. They will enjoy Dr. Brownlee's su­ rumblings of prejudice may be heard, giving perb anecdotes, including "Bloody Bill's" ver­ threat to a man who is a popular candidate for sion of "mustering out" twenty-five captured nomination. The question raised by Handlin's Union soldiers, or his cruel impatience at dis­ book is whether the majority of the American covering that another of his prisoners, an un­ people have grown enough to wipe off the tar­ fortunate named Solomon Baum, was a seces­ nish with which they smeared the American sionist. "Oh, string him up; . . . damn his little Dream thirty years ago. It may be that we soul, he's a Dutchman anyway," Anderson will not have to face the question in 1960, but snorted. the possibility that we will has already begun to In addition to photographs of some of the raise serious doubts about our answer. raiders and several useful maps tracing the guerrillas' paths. Dr. Brownlee includes a list JOHN COLSON State Historical Society of of more than 300 men who accompanied Wisconsin Quantrill, Todd, or Anderson. It is noteworthy that almost half of them died in action. Among those who survived were Frank and Jesse Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy; Guerrilla James, and Cole and Jim \ounger. Warfare in the West, 1861-1865. BY RICHARD S. BROWNLEE. (Louisiana State University P. J. STAUDENRAUS Press, Baton Rouge, 1958. Pp. 274. Illus­ University of Kansas City trated. $4.95.) Confederate guerrilla raiders who harried The Supreme Court from Taft to Warren. By Missouri and eastern Kansas from 1862 to ALPHEUS THOMAS MASON. (Louisiana State 1865 receive small sympathy from Dr. Brown­ Lniversity Press. Baton Rouge. 1958. Pp. xv, lee, a native Missourian and head of the aea 250. $4.95.) demic extension program at the University of Alpheus Thomas Mason, since 1947 Missouri. He insists that many of them were McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at "neurotic and criminal," and he notes that Princeton FJniversity, is one of the greatest one, "Bloody Bill" Anderson, "approached his scholars in the country in the area of Amer­ enemy crying and frothing at the mouth." Dr. ican constitutional law and political thought. Brownlee contends that too often the guerrillas' Among his eleven books on law and govern­ primary motive was plunder and revenge, not ment are two of our very best judicial biogra­ assistance to the Confederate cause. The dar­ phies—those of Justice Brandeis and Chief ing bushwhackers, young men in their teens Justice Stone. Mason has great insight into the and early twenties, were expert horsemen central problems of American public law and armed with rapid-firing Colt revolvers. They a vast knowledge of the subject. appeared suddenly to ambush Union patrols, The author demonstrates his special com­ raid sleeping villages, and burn or steal war petence in this interesting little survey of the supplies. At times they strangled river, rail­ main currents of thought in the Supreme Court road, stage, and telegraph communications since Taft took over as Chief Justice. The across Missouri. In 1862, 4000 guerrillas past half century of Supreme Court litigation forced Union commanders to keep 60,000 has brought to the surface of discussion the troops in the state, thus withholding valuable main problems which have always character­ reserves from hard-pressed commanders far­ ized public debate concerning our highest ther south and east. national tribunal.

228 READERS CHOICE

Since the 1954 decision of the Supreme far as judges are concerned, than the old Court holding segregated education in the pub­ familiar categories of right and left. lic schools to be contrary lo the Constilution's Of the Chief Justices from Taft to Warren, Equal Protection Clause, there has been seem­ Mason examines only three closely—TafL ingly endless talk about the Court, some of it Hughes, and Stone. Taft and Hughes repre­ making sense and a great deal of it being sheer sent in his analysis those judges who are nonsense. For example, the Court has been willing and able to write their own personal denounced (a) for making law, and (b) for preferences into the law. On the other hand. making public policy. As every student of Stone, who is an old favorite of Mason's, is the judicial system has always known—and praised as the leading apostle of the doctrine as Mason makes crystal clear—the Court has of judicial self-restraint, a doctrine also de­ always made law, and in doing so has always veloped by such legal giants as Justices Holmes been engaged in making policy. Newspaper and Brandeis. He argues that Stone's juris­ columnists may be content with the repetition prudence cannot be tagged as either liberal or of copybook maxims about the separation of conservative. Abjuring both judicial obstruc­ powers, but the fact remains that courts de­ tionists and judicial activists. Stone stood for cide cases, and in doing so they can not avoid judicial restraint, not to be confused, inciden­ making law in terms of policy. If they did tally, with judical self-abnegation. He was avoid making policy in fashioning the law, they perfectly willing to do his full duty, when the would be out of business. path of duly was clear. As Mason says, "Stone urged 'restrainL' not because he believed a As a matter of facL one of Mason's shrewd­ judge's preference should not enter the law, est insights is reflected in his observation that but precisely because it inevitably did." those Justices who have insisted most explicitly that they do not make law and policy have Clearly there has been a decided shift in actually stretched the judicial powers the far­ the general tenor of Supreme Court decisions, thest in order to do so. On the other hand, if one contrasts the present drift with that those who are most conscious of the inescapable which prevailed when Taft and Hughes pre­ nature of their job are precisely the ones who sided over the Court. The Court has committed are most chary in using their powers. Actually, itself to the proposition that it ought not to as one thinks over the nature of this apparent try to second-guess the legislative bodies of paradox, it is quite understandable that this the country where regulations of the economy should be so. I have often observed, as a are concerned. It has been mainly concerned, teacher of political theory, that the greatest in recent years, to keep open the channels of slaves to political ideas are those who know communication and to sustain the political least about them. Those whose knowledge rises processes, such as the general franchise, by scarcely above the schoolboy's copybook max­ which a democracy reaches its decisions. Its ims are likely to be held in thrall by them, and concern has been not so much with the sub­ stance of legislation as with the methods by nothing is quite so binding as enslavement to which legislation is achieved. "Under this ideas which are held but not understood. On theory," Mason writes, "the legislature can the other hand, 1 have always believed that control the wages and hours of workers; it freedom from the tyranny of ideas can be can not limit the right to vote with respect to achieved only by being aware of what they race or color. Congress can regulate agricul­ are and what they contain and where they tural production; it cannot control the content came from. The study of the history of polit­ of newspapers. The state can demand that ical thought, therefore, has a genuinely utili­ children attend school; it cannot compel them tarian and liberating purpose, for it is the road to participate in political ceremonies that vio­ to inteflectual freedom in the realm of political late their religious convictions. Judicial hands- ideas. off in economic matters is perfectly consistent Thus, the debate between such men as Taft, with judicial activism designed to preserve the Hughes, and Sutherland, on the one hand, and integrity of the political process." Holmes, Brandeis, and Stone, on the other, is to a large extent a debate as to what is the This is an interesting book, felicitously proper nature of the judicial function. What written, in the best traditions of a ripe schol­ should judges decide, and how should they go arship, and full of wisdom. Now that the Court about reaching their decisions? Mason points has become an item of daily conversation, the out quite correctly that differences on the book merits a very wide reading. fundamental question of the nature of the DAVID FELLMAN judicial process are far more important, so University of Wisconsin

229 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959

The Story oj Land Warfare. By PAUL KEN­ The aulhor accords the wars of the twenti­ DALL. (Hamish Hamilton. London. 1957. Pp. eth century the same brief treatment, sum­ 194. 12 s/6d.) ming uj) World War I in the admirable yet tragic statement, "Military thinking had be­ In a lucid style unencumbered with techni­ come hypnotized by a phrase—'The artillery cal language, Mr. Kendall, author of Richard conquers; the infantry occupies.' It was both the Third (1955) and Warwick the Kingmaker a vain hope and a confession that generalship (1957), has covered the history of warfare had been replaced by high explosives." The from Alexander's decisive victory at Arbela book would be better had it ended here. The in 331 B.C. to Eisenhower's massive steam­ final chapter on World War II traces in very roller across western Europe in 1944—1945. broad and general outlines the course of mod­ Any author attempting a general military his­ ern history from Japan's Manchurian venture tory must be prepared to devote a life lo re­ in 1931 to Nagasaki. But the events of this search and writing (like J. F. C. Fuller) or decade and a half are loo complicated, too impose upon himself severe limitations. Paul massive to allow the compression given them. Kendall has done the latter by employing two In spite of these shortcomings, which any criteria upon which he has selected the battles brief history of warfare will invariably have, for inclusion in this book. Those battles given this little volume is a clear and easily read the fullest description were chosen because introduction to the history of warfare on land. (1) each has had an important role in the The scholar will find too much over-simplifica­ making of history, and (2) each exhibits "an tion and some questionable omissions, but the important change or a masterly achievement novice and the illusive general reader will find in the making of war." Without keeping this Mr. Kendall's book an excellent starter in second criterion in mind, some readers might military history. It will never take the place be disappointed by certain flagrant omissions, of Sir Edward Creasy's Fifteen Decisive Bat­ e.g., the victory of Charles Martel over the tles of the World but it wifl compare favorably Saracens in 732, or the lifting of the siege at with Fletcher Pratt's final work. The Battles Orleans by Joan of Arc in 1429. Although That Changed History. both of these battles played important roles in the history of Europe, they did not become JOHN BUECHLER patterns for tactics or strategy. Ohio State University To cavil over the selection of battles is cap­ tious since every military historian will have A Second Jacobean Journal: 1607-1610. BY his favorites, yet one wonders why in the G. B. HARRISON. (Lniversity of Michigan chapter on Hannibal less than two pages de­ Press, Ann Arbor, 1958. Pp. 278. $5.50.) scribe Trasimene and Cannae, while a whole chapter (albeit a short one) is devoted to The gap between ages is never more obvious Charles XII of Sweden. Here Kendall violates than in their sense of humour. Our ancestors' his own criteria, for as he says, Charles "be­ jokes strike us as appallingly unfunny: "Of longs in a history of land warfare not for his late the King of France jesting with a fool, the methods or results, but only for himself." fool said he would be neither the Pope, King, Each of the seven great captains—Alexan­ nor pork. 'And wherefore?' said the King. 'Be­ der, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, cause,' quoth he, 'the Popes are no sooner Marlborough, Frederick, and Napoleon—re­ chosen but they are despatched, for there have ceives a full chapter. The two chapters on the been three or four within less than three or warfare of the Middle Ages require only four months. And as for Kings, they stand twenty-three pages, and admirers of Sir upon a ticklish state, for their own subjects go Charles Oman will chafe at this; yet Kendall about lo kill them; as for example,' quoth he, has done an admirable job of condensation. 'you and the King of England. And for a pork, he is no sooner fat but his throat is cut.' " The American Revolution is discussed only briefly. And the single chapter dealing with In an attempt to bridge the gap between the the American Civil War will arouse a justi­ Jacobean "common man" and the modern fied tumult from many historians and devotees whom Jacobeans are apt to bewilder. Dr. G. of that conflict, since Mr. Kendall attributes B. Harrison has compiled a celebrated series of to General Grant a campaign of mere "bull- "journals," of which the fifth volume, A Sec­ doggedness" and attrition, all but ignoring ond Jacobean Journal, has recently made a de­ Grant's attempts to outflank Lee and his nearly layed but welcome appearance. successful race to Petersburg. The new volume covers the years 1607 through J6I0, and, as readers familiar with

230 READERS CHOICE the earlier volumes will recollect, presents service is best performed by an individual "those things most talked of," day by day, as "commentary." Unnecessary information is they might have been recorded by a versatile not even neutral: it can be sophisticating. and urbane London diarist with access to every It is not as a tool for literary apprecialion sort of "inside" information. that A Second Jacobean Journal is to be rec­ Besides their day-to-day chronology the ommended, but for its own entertaining self. Journals differ from professional histories in Dr. Harrison has given a stereoscopic view of their concern with the trivia of history—scan­ Jacobean life which manages to be simulta­ dals, crimes, plays, jokes, weather—as well as neously panoramic and close-up, scholarly and the events which the perspective of time allows gossipy, significant and everyday—a more in­ us to recognise as significant. Jacobean life is timate view of the period than can be found in presented in all its variety, and Dr. Harrison's professionally "interpretative" history. erudition enables him to draw on many sources R. B. PARKER which are either unknown, or, when known, University of Wisconsin unattainable to the unspecialized reader. The new volume is not, perhaps, as rich as the preceding volumes, merely because the Gallant Pelham: American Extraordinary. By years 1607-1(510 were less eventful than earlier CHARLES G. MILHAM. (Public Affairs Press, periods. But the picture is nevertheless color­ Washington, D.C., 1959. Pp. viL 250. Maps. ful: controversy between James I and Parlia­ $4.50.) ment, the rise of the favorite Robert Carr, the Excessively dramatic and incompletely re­ maturing of the young Prince Henry, religious searched, this book is neilher a true biography persecution, love affairs, duels, revolts in of Major John Pelham nor a significant addi­ Ireland and the settlement of Ulster, the impu­ tion to the knowledge of the strategy and tac­ dence of pirates and egregious Shirley broth­ tics of the Army of Northern Virginia. ers, and—of especial interest to Americans— The author could not resist the temptation the search for the Northwest Passage, and the to tell the story of "The Gaflant Pelham" in a hardships and squabbles of the settlers in Vir­ style more suited to a men's adventure maga­ ginia. zine than the scholarly work that it attempts The discontinuity of the diary style, more­ to be. There can be no denial of the fact that over, gives events and characters a newspaper Pelham lends himself to such a portrayal. Born freshness. Recognition of recurring names in Alabama in 1838, the "boy major," who leads to a factitious feeling of intimacy, so could not even raise a beard before his death that we follow the career of the unfortunate in 1863, was probably the most dashing mem­ Arbella Stuart, the vicissitudes of Captain John ber of that extraordinary cavalry force Jeb Smith, and the precocity of Prince Henry with Stuart led for the Army of Northern Virginia. the same curiosity ceded to Barbara Hutton, West Point-trained Pelham commanded the Werner von Braun, and Prince Charles. horse artillery—it was of him that Stephen The attempt to combine erudition with a Vincent Benet wrote: popular approach has several drawbacks, how­ Now the phantom guns creak by. ever, which volume five shares with its pred­ They are Pelham's guns. ecessors. Dr. Harrison uses his sources freely, That quiet boy with the veteran mouth is "borrowing sometimes whole pages, sometimes Pelham. phrases, at other times condensing or using He is twenty-two. He is to fight sixty battles [his] own words as seemed best," and the dis­ And never lose a gun. tinction between the original and the imitation His greatest moment came at Fredericksburg Jacobean is deliberately obscured. The result when he fought with one gun, held up a Union may be "as much a work of art as of scholar­ corps for over two hours in full view of both ship"; but it becomes correspondingly useless armies, and received with disdain the con­ as a work of reference. centrated barrage of almost the entire Union More importandy, perhaps. Dr. Harrison's artillery. He fully earned the sobriquet "The claim that without such a background of in­ Gallant Pelham" from General Robert E. Lee formation "Elizabethan and Jacobean litera­ that day. He was killed on March 17, 1863, ture cannot be fully appreciated" is by no in an encounter with a union cavalry force. means wholly true. Indiscriminate informa­ Pelham always fought with bravery, but tion is of no service to a critic. Only facts only at Fredericksburg did his actions affect which are directly referred to or implied in a the course of a battle. It is doubtful if he is text are relevant to its appreciation, and this worthy of a full biography, despite the fact

231 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959

that a "Gallant Pelham Club" has been formed Lopez' numerous offspring is a case in point. in Vermont (Northerners are waiting for Sa­ And there are many years—and I suspect vannah, Georgia, to reciprocate with a "Gump many events—in Lopez' life which are obscure Sherman Club"). Mr. Milham's task was ren­ and shadowy. dered difficult because of his inability to see The picture that emerges of Martin Lopez Pelham's war letters; this, however, does not is that of a veteran constantly agitating for justify his many guesses as to what Pelham another bonus from the crown on the grounds "might have seen" or "may have thought," that he lacked sufficient means with which to nor excuse the absence of footnotes—faults provide his many daughters with suitable which force the reader to doubt the validity dowries. He did not deny that he had some of many of the statements he puts in Pelham's property, but he argued that he did not have mouth and encloses in quotation marks. enough to live in the style to which he thought The Northern-born aulhor moved South late he was entitled for services rendered in the in life and completely accepted the U.D.C.'s conquest. The crown was much more generous version of the Civil War, which he calls either in granting him several coats of arms than in "the War of States" or "the War Between the providing him with material benefits. Bernal States." He also consistently exaggerates Union Diaz shared this view, as did many other con- strength and underestimates Confederate num­ quistadores, that the crown owed them a liv­ bers, thereby making Southern victories seem ing for their contribution to the conquest. even more fantastic than they were. A more There may not be much cause to deny Mr. balanced treatment of Major John Pelham, Gardiner's interpretation, but it does not go which would include his war letters and less very far. One wonders whether the personality guesswork, would be welcomed. and the life of Martin Lopez was not some­ JUDITH 0. AMBROSE what more complicated and richer than this Madison, Wisconsin somewhat stereotyped image would imply. There are only two chapters in the life of Martin L6pez in which his otherwise shadowy Martin Lopez, Conquistador Citizen of Mexico. and stereotyped figure becomes a man of flesh By C. HARVEY GARDINER. (University of Ken­ and blood. He supervised the construction of tucky Press, Lexington, 1958. Pp. 193. $6.00.) the brigantines which played a significant role Both in its military and cultural phases the in the over-all strategy leading to the fall of Hispanization of Mexico has usually been Tenochtitlan, a story which the author has studied from either the viewpoint of one of previously told in his Naval Power in the Con­ its outstanding leaders or through the develop­ quest of Mexico (University of Texas Press, ment of institutions. While both approaches 1956). The other eventful episode in his career are defensible, they often create a misleading occurred in 1529. He went to Tehuantepec to perspective. Either the people who are led replace and then to conduct a residencia of fade into obscurity, or the study of Spanish Francisco Maldonado, a Cortes appointee su­ legal theories relegates to a dim background pervising a shipbuilding project there. Lopez the social context in which this legislation op­ knowingly became a party to the conspiracv erated. Mr. Gardiner has followed a different to discredit the Cortes faction, for he had course. He has sought to reconstruct the con­ become a dissatisfied litigant who shifted loy­ quest through studying the life of a representa­ alty from Cortes to Nufio de Guzman. This tive but minor figure of that period. story the author has already chronicled in his While his originality is refreshing, there is prize-winning essay, "Tempest in Tehuan­ one major disadvantage in this approach. The tepec, 1529, Local Events in Imperial Perspec­ documentation is terribly scarce concerning tive," (Hispanic American Historical Review, many events in his hero's life. It is not that XXXV, 1955). the author is guilty of any lack of diligence Much about the life of this minor but rep­ and persistence in searching out the docu­ resentative figure of the conquest of Mexico ments. There is no doubt about his archival will perhaps remain for always clothed in energy and ability, but the documents are obscurity, but Mr. Gardiner deserves to be simply not there in sufficient abundance, al­ complimented for his skill in using the meager though what few manuscript sources he did documentation available with which to write a locate are used with skill and imagination, ex­ readable, useful, although incomplete, biog­ ploited to the maxinmm by a grateful and raphy. readable prose style. The fact that Mr. Gard­ JOHN LEDDY PHELAN iner was unable to determine all the names of University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee

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The Balkans Since 1453. By L. S. STAVRIANOS. An outstanding feature of the book is an (Rinchart and Companv, New York. 1958. Pp. annotated bibliography in which the aulhor xxi, 970. $12.00.) has emphasized the period since World War I. Students of modern European history have The inclusion of monographic and periodical long felt the need of a comprehensive, up-to- literature, travel accounts, and works still in date history of the Balkans. This need has now manuscript makes this an important contribu­ been met by Leften Stavrianos, professor of tion to contemporary Balkan historiography. history at Northwestern University, who has Equally significant are Mr. Stavrianos' perti­ compressed into a single volume an enormous nent suggestions concerning the needs and amount of factual information. Fortunately opportunities for research in this field. The the result is much more than a chronological usefulness of the book is further enhanced by tale of the events of the last 500 years in the excellent maps, charts, and iflustrations. Balkan Peninsula. The author has paid careful BETTY MACK SILVESTRO attention to the broader significance of this Madison, Wisconsin strategic area and has taken pains to show its inter-relationship with the rest of the world. The Era of Theodore Roosevelt, 1900-1912. l^he first quarter of the book is devoted By GEORGE E. MOWRY. (Harper and Brothers, to a concise analysis and description of Bal­ New York, 1958. Pp. xvi, 330. $5.00.) kan geography, peoples, and institutions. This The Seven Worlds of Theodore Roosevelt. By is followed by a survey of the events and fac­ EDWARD WAGENKNECHT. (Longmans, Green, tors which contributed to the rise and decline New York, 1958. Pp. xvii, 325. $6.50.) of the Ottoman Empire, fn these pages, the author carries the story down to 1815. The A Theodore Roosevelt Round-Up. By HER­ remainder of the book is focused on the nine­ MANN HAGEDORN and SIDNEY WALLACH. (The teenth and twentieth centuries and tells the Theodore Roosevelt Association, New York, complex story of the rise of nationalism, for­ 1958. Pp. 184. 35^.) eign intervention, wars, and crises. When Arturo Toscanini's death was in the Mr. Stavrianos claims that two major turn­ headlines about two years ago, a California ing points have altered the course of Balkan record store displayed a big sign: "Beware history—the first occurring when the Otto­ the Toscanini Deluge." In 1958, the hundredth man Turks conquered the peninsula in the anniversary of the birth of Theodore Roose­ fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and the velt, a sardonic bookstore owner might have second resulting from World War II and the exhibited a similar advertisement, for pub­ establishment of Communist-dominated gov­ lishers that year released a Roosevelt deluge. ernments in the Northern Balkans. In both Fortunately, a few of the books in the flood instances, domestic dissension prepared the are good ones; Professor George E. Mowry's way for foreign invasion and both Turks and contribution to the New American Nation Communists profited by being able to claim Series, whose editors are Henry Steele Com- that they came as deliverers of the people from mager and Richard B. Morris, is excellent. their exploiters. But the Ottoman Empire was Mowry, a University of Wisconsin Ph. D. now a loose structure which permitted the "several on the faculty of the University of California, ethnic Balkan groups ... to retain their iden­ Los Angeles, has worked for years on early tity and to emerge finally as independent peo­ twentieth-century progressivism, and his vol­ ples with essentially unimpaired national ume represents the kind of scholarly maturity cultures." The Empire disintegrated because that comes only with years of patient research it never adjusted to the challenge of the mod­ and writing on a subject. ern West. Mowry gives us a general history of the The author maintains that the central theme period, valuable to students and general read­ ers. His first four chapters are analytic sur­ of Balkan history has been and still is the im­ veys of various aspects of American life during pact of a dynamic Western civilization upon a the era—economic, political, social, and in­ static society. This factor is responsible for the tellectual. His fifth chapter, "The Progressive existing economic, political, and cultural crisis Profile," expands a similar chapter in his in this important underdeveloped area. Only earlier book on California progressivism and time will tell which of the two methods now at­ is a first-rate piece of group biography and tempting to meet this challenge—Communism sociological analysis. Then the author launches in the Northern Balkans, or gradualism in into his narrative of politics from Roosevelt's Western-oriented Greece—will be successful. coming to the Presidency in 1901 to his defeat

233 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING. 1959 as the Bull Moose presidential candidate in of extolling TR. Perhai)s only Hagedorn knows 1912. The narratix'c is absorbing despite its how many books he has wrillcn aboul lioose- cold objectivity; Mowry does not need to get velt. The book might be useful as campaign his own political passions aroused to write literature if TR could run for office again. interesting political history. Hagedorn and Wallach might wefl have noted The purpose of this new series is to provide one of Wagenknecht's sentences: "It is difficult general readers with the best of recent schol­ to discuss Roosevelt's charm without seeming arship, and the aulhor has attained that object. to drool." The one redeeming feature of the It is surprising and gratifying, however, that volume is the political cartoons that are re­ much of his book is based upon original re­ produced, although they, too, are uncompro­ search in the manuscript sources. Any person misingly laudatory. about to begin historical research in this pe­ The Roosevelt deluge is just past, and the riod would do well to look carefully over this Civil War flood of books is beginning. If the book's footnotes and bibliography. They con­ new deluge turns up books of the quality of stitute almost a guide to the important manu­ Mowry's to offset the Hagedorn and Wallach script sources for the subject. type of potboiler, we will not have reason to Anyone who has ever written a book knows regret the centennial. from personal pain how litde slips have an DAVID A. SHANNON insidious way of gelling past several drafts University of IFisconsin and the fishy eyes of editors inlo final pub­ lication. Only very few eluded this author and his editors. It should have been American REGIONAL AND STATE HISTORY Railway Lnion ralher than National Railroad Union on page 10. But small matter. This book A History of Neenah. Compiled by S. F. is a readable, reliable general history that SHATTUCK and others. (Privately Published, should be a standard for years to come. Neenah, Wisconsin, 1958. Pp. viii, 459.) The other two books here under review are The writing of local history by a small group less important parts of the flood. Professor of amateurs is not uncommon. But when a WagenknechL a historian of literature al Bos­ core of history-minded people can enlist the ton FJniversity, has not written in The Seven aid and interest of scores of others in compil­ Worlds of Theodore Roosevelt either a history ing, writing, and printing their city's history, or a biography. He has divided his observa­ this represents a departure from the norm. tions about Roosevelt into several logical cate­ A History of Neenah is not the usual centen­ gories—Roosevelt's family life, his spiritual nial publication which is too often limited in values, his views on war and peace, etc.— scope and hastily prepared in order to meet bound them together, and called it a book. a deadline. In an admitted labor of apprecia­ The principal trouble with this approach is tion of a city that has been good to them, Mr. that it ignores chronology and Roosevelt's Shattuck and his large group of associates have growth. Roosevelt changed during his lifetime, collected and compiled the facts to bring the as do all people worth writing about. Roose­ written history of Neenah up to date. velt the President differed from Roosevelt the arrogant Harvard undergraduate; the young The first of this two-part volume treats the cattleman was not the statesman who won the city's history, decade by decade, from 1870 Nobel prize for negotiating the peace between to 1950. Although the emphasis is on the Russia and Japan. This is true, despite the change of industry from flour to paper mills, partial validity of the comments of some of this section is interspersed with short descrip­ Roosevelt's friends and critics that the man tive sketches of social organizations promi­ never quite grew up. nent in contemporary Neenah. Part two con­ tains a wealth of factual material on non- The book has some value, however. Here related subjects ranging from Banking and and there are some insights into Roosevelt's Financial (Chapter 1) to \outh Organizations personality, and the aulhor does not revere his (Chapter 39). The division of the book into subjecL as do too many writers on TR, al­ two parts introduces an element of repetition though he clearly respects the man. that could have been avoided if the authors The value of the Hagedorn and Wallach had confined themselves to either the decade volume, a paperback, is difficult lo determine. or the subject approach. It does not tell us much about Roosevelt and Potential users of the volume are many. To it suffers badly from uncritical hero worship, the scholar it offers a readily available com­ a characteristic of Mr. Hagedorn's lifework pendium of facts regarding events and the

234 READERS CHOICE

men who participated in them. A novelty which author's evaluation of Wisconsin's total role in could stimulate Neenahans of a critical bent is unemployment compensation is disappointing. the inclusion of blank pages at the end of In discussing the fact that benefit payments each chapter on which readers are invited to in Wisconsin have risen from a maximum note inaccuracies in the text. weekly figure of $15.00 in 1939 to $38.00 in Fortunately, the authors did not stop Nee- 1957, he declares that "benefits have been nah's history at the city limits. Both Appleton frequently revised since 1935 to offset in­ and Menasha, the legendary rival, figure prom­ creases in the cost of living and to make the inently wherever their history intertwines with law as a whole more liberal" (p. 134), thus that of Neenah. clearly implying that the unemployment com­ WILLIAM K. ALDERFER pensation situation in Wisconsin is steadily improving. State Historical Society of Wisconsin The true picture not mentioned by Mr. Haferbecker is that a Wisconsin worker on Wisconsin fMbor f^aws. By GORDON HAFER- unemployment compensation received a lower BECKER. (University of Wisconsin Press, per cent of his normal wage in 1957 than he Madison, 1958. Pp. xii, 211. $4.00.) received in 1935, a reflection of the fact that To quote from its foreword, this book at­ benefit increases have lagged behind wage in­ tempts two things: first, it ". . . is an account creases. Since this deterioration in unemploy­ of the development of labor legislation in Wis­ ment compensation benefits (in all states as consin, from its earliest appearance soon after well as Wisconsin) is a raging national prob­ the Civil War to the present day"; and sec­ lem, it is hard to understand how Mr. Hafer­ ondly, it ". . . gives an appraisal of this legis­ becker could evaluate the Wisconsin unem­ lation, pointing out its strong and weak points ployment compensation legislation without and making suggestions for its improvement." even so much as mentioning it. In the first respect the book is a remarkable A second serious oversight is the failure to performance. Though its total length is less appraise candidly Wisconsin's national fight than 200 pages. Professor Haferbecker has for states' rights and against federal standards not only summarized in an interesting manner for unemployment compensation. This great Wisconsin's voluminous labor legislation, but national controversy of the past twenty-four has also given a vivid picture of the conditions years is hinted at obliquely on page 12, and is giving rise to the passage of each important again mentioned in a section praising the measure. It is a distinct service to Wisconsin state's veteran director of unemployment com­ citizens and to scholars generally to have put pensation who ". . . has played a leading role into one small volume such a comprehensive in opposing the federalization of unemploy­ survey of the state's labor legislation. ment insurance . . ." (p. 141). Mr. Hafer- In contrast to this exceflent survey, the qual­ becker's own views on federal minimum bene­ ity of the "appraisal" is spotty. Professor fit standards are that "state legislation can be Haferbecker is somewhat over-enamoured of better adapted to needs in the various states. Wisconsin's contribution to the field of labor . . . Adequate labor legislation in all states legislation. After giving merited praise to Wis­ could be an important check upon the further consin's pioneering liberal legislation under growth of federal labor agencies" (p. 189). the La Follettes, he is insufficiently critical of Nowhere is it mentioned that the great bulk what has happened since 1938. Wisconsin is of leading university scholars favor federal properly credited with a long list of pioneering standards for unemployment compensation. labor legislation in such areas as safety This national trend in favor of federal stand­ regulations and factory inspection, use of ards has grown stronger year by year as state labor-management advisory committees, ap­ programs of attracting industry by low taxes prenticeship training and vocational education, have seriously retarded unemployment com­ regulation of private detective agencies en­ pensation benefit progress in all states. gaged in industrial espionage, minimum wage This reviewer wishes that Mr. Haferbecker and hour legislation for women, and early might have described the influential role of enactment and efficient operation of workmen's the Wisconsin Industrial Commission in this compensation, including liberal rehabilitation fight against federal standards. From the in­ work. ception of the federal Social Security Act of A major high light in the state's record of 1935, the Wisconsin Commission consistently achievements was the passage in 1932 of the engaged in partisan lobbying at the national first unemployment compensation law. Yet the level to block increased benefits through fed-

235 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959 eral standards. In support of this fighL the the letters give insight into many aspects of Wisconsin legislature passed in 1943 a strange early American Indian policy, including the provision directing the Industrial Commission attitudes of the frontiersmen and government to oppose "federalization" of state unemploy­ officials. Moreover, they furnish a personal ment compensation systems. The sections of narrative of conditions in the years immedi­ the biennial reports of the Wisconsin Indus­ ately after the Revolution. The weakness of trial Commission which refer to congressional the Confederation and of the early Federal proposals for federal standards read more like Government is revealed in the struggles of the platform utterances of a states'-rights party War Department to pay and supply the few than reports of a nonpartisan governmental infantry companies on the frontier. administrative agency. In this reviewer's opin­ The greatest value of the book lies in its ion Wisconsin's greatest contribution to the factual statement of the difficulties inherent in field of labor legislation—the passage of the operating an army post far from the seaboard, first unemployment compensation act—has and much of the content of the letters deals been substantially negated by the state's na­ with the problem of obtaining supplies. Food tional leadership in the fight against minimum and clothing were priced exorbitantly at Vin­ federal benefit standards. cennes, since the inhabitants produced little Mr. Haferbecker's best analysis and ap­ more than enough to feed and clothe them­ praisal is contained in his thoughtful discussion selves. Army contractors purchased provisions of workmen's compensation in which he gives at Pittsburgh and elsewhere and sent them on careful comparisons between benefits and ad­ the long journey down the Ohio and up the ministrative practices under the Wisconsin law Wabash. Along this route occasions for delay and those in other states. In such comparisons, were multiplied by the lack of enthusiasm on Wisconsin is correctly placed near the top. the part of civilians transporting the supplies However, it is unfortunate that Mr. Hafer­ through an area infested with hostile Indians. becker did not point out the inadequacies in Overloaded boats often went aground in the benefit levels existing in Wisconsin and other shallow waters of the Wabash, and on one leading states due, as in the case of unem­ occasion the French inhabitants connived with ployment compensation, to the baneful effect the Indians to steal a large shipment of flour of state competition to attract industry by and whiskey. offering low tax rates. Sickness was one of the most important Wisconsin Labor f^egislation is a valuable problems for the post commander. At one time history, interestingly written by a man who thirty-five men were sick and only fifty-eight is in love with the subject. But it would have were present for duty. The civilian population been more valuable if the appraisal had con­ suffered as well. On August 31, 1788, Ham­ tained more consideration of some of the tramck reported that "most every day for a serious shortcomings of Wisconsin labor week past 3 and 4 children dies." (Hamtramck legislation, and more particularly of the ap- was born in Quebec and his native tongue was jiropriate role of state legislation in this over­ French. His English grammar and spefling whelmingly national problem. were often defective.) ROBERT W. OZANNE The need for a civil government in the University of Wisconsin communities is brought out very forcibly in the letters. On September 14, 1789, the people Outpost on the Wabash, 1787-1791. Edited of Kaskaskia petitioned that some form of by GAYLE THORNBROUGH. (Indiana Historical government be authorized and that a military Society, Indianapolis, 1957. Pp. 305. $2.50.) garrison be provided to restore law and order. This volume. Number 19 of the Indiana Debtors were refusing to pay or were crossing Historical Society Publications, is a collection the Mississippi, leaving unpaid accounts. The of letters and enclosures exchanged by Colonel effect of the provisions of the Northwest Ordi­ Josiah Harmar, the commanding officer of the nance of 1787, including the prohibition of army created by Congress in 1784, and Major slavery, caused additional unrest. The Spanish John F. Hamtramck, commander at Vincennes made efforts to encourage the American and from 1787 to 1790. Hamtramck also com­ French settlers to move to Spanish territory, manded the 1st Sub-legion in the small army offering land and other advantages. Behind under Wayne which defeated the Indian Con­ this offer was the Spanish fear of the new federacy in 1794 and was later commandant nation's position in the West. The result was at Detroit. a great loss of population to New Spain across As the editor points out in the introduction. the Mississippi.

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In view of the paucity of secondary mate­ proposes the thesis that the history of these rial on the subject, a much longer introduction schools is the story of "strong people [who] would have been preferable. However, the are found behind successful adventures." He notes are ample in their biographical detail, proceeds by describing the leaders contributing the cross references to letters on similar topics to the schools' success. The outstanding leader­ are useful, and there are numerous references ship of Dr. Robert L. Cooley, founder and first to other manuscript and periodical sources. director, is fully treated. Dr. Cooley became a The editor is to be complimented on making giant among vocational leaders in this coun­ available to a wide audience these important try, and readers will find his accomplishments materials which in themselves form an inter­ interesting. Dr. Cooley attracted and sur­ esting narrative while recreating the atmos­ rounded himself with capable assistants—Dr. phere of the early frontier. William F. Rasche, William C. Sieker, Robert H. Rodgers—and their contributions are de­ WALTER S. DUNN, JR. scribed in detail. Later, Wifliam F. Rasche State Historical Society of Wiscoruun succeeded Cooley as director of the school, and the author gives him credit for his achieve­ A History of the Milwaukee Vocational and ment in establishing and co-ordinating the Adult Schools: From 1912 to 1958. By BOBERT channels of procedure and administration W. TARBELL. (The Milwaukee Vocational and which had become loosely organized during Adult Schools Press, Milwaukee. 1958. Pp. xiv. Cooley's term. 278.) In an effort to support his thesis that history The Milwaukee Vocational and Adult is the story of people, the author includes a Schools have completed forty-six years of serv­ chapter on early faculty members. This dis­ ice. Robert W. Tarbell, for many years a cussion may be of local interest, but it is of member of the faculty, has written a story of so little significance that it is nothing more the progress of this educational institution. It than a distraction. is important that this book was written, fur­ Important is the description of the large, nishing as it does a basis for the understanding heterogeneous student body that is served. To of an educational program which breaks the serve these students profitably, varied and bonds of traditional constraint in an effort to unique curricula have been developed. The enlarge the dimension of educational purpose. description of the students, the curricula, and The story describes a unique educational pro­ the educational philosophy of the schools give gram which seeks to enable each student to the book its major strength. become all he is capable of becoming. The book has serious limitations as a his­ The opening chapters of the book describe tory. In the introduction the author states that the social forces and conditions which influ­ his work will be a "careful recording of the enced the 1911 Wisconsin state legislature to history of a great institution." Unfortunately enact the initial legislation creating the Wis­ the reader will never know if the author kept consin system of vocational and adult edu­ his promise, for he fails to furnish the sources cation. Dr. Charles McCarthy's efforts are of historical reference from which the narra­ reported, and the author credits him with being tive was fashioned. Then, too, the literary the "father of the vocational system in Wis­ style tends to make the story move along in a consin." Unfortunately the author dismisses rather pedestrian manner. For the most part the struggles McCarthy encountered in his the book reads more like an informational work,by simply stating that "some agreed with brochure than a work of history. Nevertheless, him, some did not." Consequently, a dramatic in spite of these limitations, the work will be story is missing. of interest to vocational educators and certain groups of Milwaukee citizens. Against this background the establishment and development of the Milwaukee Vocational FRANK J. WOERDEHOFF and Adult Schools is described. The author I^urdue University

237 ACCESSIONS

Manuscripts sented by Mrs. May Robinson Stowe, Capitola, California. (As an aid to the researcher, the acquisitions listed below are designated according to form. Footnote 1 indicates a microfilm copy, footnote 2 a photostat, while no footnote indicates an original. Services for UNITED STATES—ARCHIVES. Microfilm cop­ microfilming and photostating all but certain re­ ies of the following materials, located in the stricted items in its manuscript collections are pro­ vided by the Society. For details write Dr. Josephine National Archives in Washington, have been L. Harper, Head, Maps and Manuscripts Section.) received by the State Historical Society: rec­ ords of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, consisting COLONIAL PERIOD. Accessions pertaining to of letters received from 1826 to 1841, selected the colonial period of American history have from the St. Peters [Minnesota] Indian been made during the past quarter and in­ Agency file; records of the Bureau of In­ clude: papers, 1686-1731, of David Lloyd, dian Affairs, consisting of letterbooks, March Pennsylvania lawyer, and others including 18, 1824 to February 25, 1844; selected rec­ William Penn, James Logan and Robert Proud, ords of the General Land Office, consisting of relating to Pennsylvania;^ letter, December 13, monthly abstracts of military bounty land war­ 1725, from Sir William Keith to James Logan, rant locations in Wisconsin (Act of 1842) ; on occasion of Mr. Logan having sent to Sir records of the Lnited States Senate, consisting William a copy of his paper the Antidote; with of selected treaties, 1836-1842, with the Sioux, this a letter, November 5, 1699/1700, from Winnebago, Chippewa, and Potowatomi In­ Robert Turner and others to Wifliam Panne, dian tribes; selected records, 1851-1889, of and the charter of the borough of Chester, the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Naviga­ signed by William Penn, October 31, 1701;^ tion, consisting of records of transfers of letter, July 7. 1692, to the yearly meeting of vessels and certificates of registry and enroll­ Friends at London, and miscellaneous papers, ment issued to vessels at Milwaukee; also, 1695-1710, of the Philadelphia Monthly meet­ records of some certificates of enrollment is­ ings of Friends;^ papers, 1660-1770, of Pierre sued at La Crosse, 1875-1876; selected rec­ Eugene du Simitiere, relating to Pennsylvania.^ ords, 1851-1900, of the Bureau of Customs, Milwaukee Collector, consisting of the register CIVIL WAR PERIOD. Civil War accessions in­ of departures, arrivals, and clearances of ves­ clude: membership and service record of sels at the port of Milwaukee, including the Company H, 25th Wisconsin Volunteer "Potosi class of ship, name of master, tonnage, cargo, Badgers," compiled from the Company book destination, or point of origin, also reports of at Helena, Arkansas, January 19, 1864, by wrecks, 1874-1899. Philip Roesch, member of Company H, 25th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and copied by UNITED STATES—MISCELLANEOUS. Land pat­ John L. Grindell, Platteville, May 4, 1930, ent, January 9, 1855, granted to William Trask presented by F. H. Cenfield, Columbus, Ohio; of La Crosse County by President Pierce, pre­ correspondence, 1843-1863, of Adelaide Clark sented by Harland A. Carpenter, Wilming­ Reynolds, Madison, and other members of the ton, Delaware; land patent, August 7, 1850, Clark and Reynolds families, including Civil granted to Ben C. Eastman of Grant County, War letters, 1862, of Thomas Reynolds, Lieu­ by President Fillmore, presented by Mr. and tenant Colonel of the 16th Wisconsin Volunteer Mrs. Louis Northrop, Santa Barbara, Califor­ Infantry;'^ correspondence, 1861-1865, of nia; land patent. May 23, 1846, granted to Joseph H. Saunders, First Sergeant of Com­ Amos A. Lawrence by President Polk, pre­ pany H, 1st Wisconsin Cavalry, consisting of sented by Harland A. Carpenter, Wilmington, letters to his wife written from camps in Delaware; land patent, March 3, 1843, granted Missouri and Arkansas and replies from his to Richard Reynolds of Milwaukee County, family, presented July 26, 1941, by Reverend Wisconsin Territory, by President Tyler, pre­ Luke Leitermann, St. Boniface Rectory, West sented by Ben C. Reynolds, Madison. De Pere; papers, 1861-1862, of Charles J. Robinson, Lieutenant of Company H, in the LOCAL HISTORY. Of interest to students of 1st Wisconsin Regiment, consisting of his both regional and state history are the papers, commission, discharge papers and muster roll 1915-1958, of the Wisconsin Regional Writ­ kept by Captain Bloodgood, Company G, 1st ers' Association, formerly the Wisconsin Rural Wisconsin Regiment for October, 1861, pre­ Writers' Association, and the Badger Folklore

238 ACCESSIONS

Society, consisting of stories, poems, notes, and an Eau Claire merchant, presented by Ralph correspondence concerning Wisconsin folk­ W. Owen, Fan Claire; birds of Oconto County, lore and legends which were kept by Fidelia written by August J. Schoenbeck, presented Van Antwerp, first president of the Rural by Walter E. Scott, Madison; excerpt from the Writers' Association; papers, 1854-1858, of autobiography of Albert Thurlow describing George M. Wilkie, carpenter, consisting of his a pigeon hunt near Westfield, Wisconsin, in journal, accounts, and letters, describing his the fall of 1862, presented by Sara Cook, daily activities and economic conditions in Portage. Prescott and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and McGregor, Iowa, presented by Horace T. RAILROAD HISTORY. A small but significant Wilkie, Topeka, Kansas; history of the Wom­ and interesting collection relating to early Wis­ en's Patriotic Council, Oshkosh, presented by consin railroad construction was received in Mrs. Georgia West, Oshkosh; interviews with the papers, 1851-1857, of Carlisle D. Cook, Mrs. Hope Garlick Mineau and Mrs. Maud railroad building contractor, consisting of Carlgren of Taylor's Falls, Minnesota, Hugo correspondence, construction reports, bills, re­ Schlenk of Cloquet, Minnesota, Wirt Mineau ceipts, ledger abstracts, and other financial and Mrs. Maggie Orr (J'Neill of St. Croix records pertaining to the construction of the Falls, Wisconsin, discussing the early lumber­ Milwaukee and Mississippi raflroad, presented ing activities of Northern Wisconsin and Min­ by Mr. and Mrs. George Mesley, Pewaukee; nesota, particularly the St. Croix Valley area, papers, 1872-1874, of John C. Spooner, con­ made by Helen McCann White for the Amer­ cerning the West Wisconsin Railway Com­ ican Forest History Foundation, presented by pany;^ papers, 1846-1857, of Anson W. But­ Elwood Maunder of the American Forest His­ tles, including letters from Paul Juneau and tory Foundation, St. Paul, Minnesota; ledger, Byron Kilbourn, also, letters written to his circa 1849-1867, of a blacksmith shop kept by wife while he served as engineer during the Alvah H. Casterline of Molasses Gap, Town construction of the Milwaukee and Mississippi of Burns, La Crosse County, presented by Railroad and the Milwaukee & La Crosse Rail­ F. W. Lawrence, Richland Center; account road; papers, 1873-1877, of Joseph H. Os- books, 1836-1873, kept by Wifliam Field, born, Oshkosh Granger leader, pertaining to early settler in the Wisconsin lead region of cooperatives, railroad regulation, and the New Diggings, also, a study of the account Granger movemenL including letters written books and other papers and letters of William by R. H. Ferguson of the Cheap Transporta­ Field, made by Margaret S. Carter;^ blueprint tion Association and George H. Paul, member of the Dodgeville home of Wisconsin Terri­ of the State Board of Railroad Commissioners torial Governor Henry Dodge, drawn by Eliza­ and chairman of the People's Reform Commit­ beth Fyfe Spearman from a description of the tee, also, correspondence with the Sovereigns house as recalled by Mary Dodge Fox, Dodge's of Industry proposing co-operation of labor granddaughter, and explanatory letter, July and farm groups;^ letter, May 24, 1877, writ­ 27, 1938, presented by Arthur Strong, Dodge­ ten from Chippewa Fafls, by S. V. Strong, ville; letter, January 11, 1853, written by apparendy an agent for the West Wisconsin Elizabeth Hightshoe to her brother, Charles Railway Company, concerning prospects of en­ W. Burns of Monroe, relating family news and gaging in land speculation in the northern Wis­ giving current agricultural prices, also a list, consin and Minnesota area, presented by October 7, 1864, of men who pledged money Lawrence B. Romaine, Middleboro, Massa­ for a gift to Charles W. Burns, Captain of chusetts. Company F, 31st Infantry, Wisconsin Volun­ teers, presented by Mrs. F. Benkert, Albany, TRAVEL AND REMINISCENCES. Papers of Mrs. Wisconsin; history of the Crawford Electric James Monroe Bailey (Antoinette Crippen), Cooperative, 1937-1957, written by C. H. including reminiscences of her family's trip Hooverson of Gays Mills, presented by the from Saratoga County, New York to Rock author; glimpses of the Deerbrook community County, Wisconsin, biographical sketch, gene­ in Langlade County written by Martha Lukas;^ alogical and other miscellaneous data;^ diary, history of the Tucker School District, Mount May-December, 1859, of R. H. Emerson, an Pleasant DistricL No. 11, in Racine County, immigrant from England, describing his trip written by Edith McEachron, presented by the from England to Wisconsin via Canada, and author; minutes, 1892-1897, of the Monticello his travels in Wisconsin; journal, October 1- Fire Engine Company, Monticello, Wiscon­ November 1, 1851, kept by J. W. Potter on a sin ;i letterbooks, 1875-1882, of John S. Owen, trip west from his home in Morristown, New

239 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1959

Jersey to northern Illinois and southeastern kauna Sun, 1885-1888, and Kaukauna Times, Wisconsin, describing his journey to Beloit, 1880-1889. Janesvifle, Watertown, Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, The following newspapers have been made Sheboygan, and Milwaukee ;'^ diary, March available for microfilming through the cour­ 14-AugusL 1850, kept by William Turner de­ tesy of libraries and individual collectors: scribing his overland journey from Honey The Geode (the school ])aper of the Wisconsin Creek, Walworth County, Wisconsin, to Cali­ Institute of Technology, Platteville), 1925- fornia, and brief biographical data about 1958, Milton A. Melchoir; Holcolmbe North­ Turner, presented by Mr. and Mrs. Glen ern Broadcaster, 1954-1957, Floyd Tainter; Fisher, (Jshkosh; diary, March-June 1852, Milwaukee Peck's Sun and Saturday Star, kept by Isabella McKinnon (who later mar­ 1893-1900, Milwaukee County Historical So­ ried Francis Ritchie), describing her journey ciety; Portage Wisconsin State Register, 1861- from Findhorn, Scotland, to Otsego, Wiscon­ 1863, Portage Free Library; and Wisconsin sin, also brief McKinnon family records, pre­ Rapids Wood County Reporter, 1871-1872, sented by Ritchie D. and Russell F. Lewis, Scott Public Library. Madison. Also acquired is the Subject fndex of Early fdaho Newspapers, a four-reel microfilm set containing 30,000 annotated entries, chiefly Newspapers relating to the territorial period, prepared by the Strayhorn Memorial Library of the Col­ Newspaper files recently borrowed from pub­ lege of Idaho, 1944^1919, and microfilmed lishers for microfilming have included: Kau- by the Idaho State Historical Society in 1958.

BOOK REVIEWS: Brownlee, Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerilla Warfare in the West. 1861-1865. reviewed by P. J. Staudenraus 228 Carter, The Angry Scar: The Story of Reconstruction, reviewed by Stephen Ambrose.. . 224 Cunliffe, The Nation Takes Shape, reviewed by Alexander DeConde 226 Gardiner, Martin Lopez, Conquistador Citizen of Mexico, reviewed by John Leddy Phelan 232 Grodinsky, Jay Gould: His Business Career, reviewed by Robert E. Will 226 Haferbecker, Wisconsin Labor Laws, reviewed by Robert W. Ozanne 235 Hagedorn and Wallach, A Theodore Roosevelt Round-up, reviewed by David A. Shannon 233 Handlin, Al Smith and His America, reviewed by John Colson 227 Harrison, A Second Jacobean Journal: 1607-1610, reviewed by R. B. Parker 230 Johnson, Whitehead's Philosophy of Civilization, reviewed by Cornelius L. Golightly. ... 225 Kendall, The Story of Land Warfare, reviewed by John Buechler 230 Mason, The Supreme Court from Taft to Warren, reviewed by David Fellman 228 Milham, Gallant Pelham: American Extraordinary, reviewed by Judith 0. Ambrose. .. . 231 Mowry, The Era of Theodore Roosevelt, 1900-1912, reviewed by David A, Shannon 233 Shattuck et al., comps., A History of Neenah, reviewed by William K. Alderfer 234 Stavrianos, The Balkans Since 1453, reviewed by Betty Mack Silvestro 233 Tarbell, A History of the Milwaukee Vocational and Adult Schools, reviewed by Frank J. Woerdehoff 237 Thornbrough, ed.. Outpost on the Wabash, 1787-1791, reviewed by Walter S. Dunn, Jr 236 Wagenknecht, The Seven Worlds of Theodore Roosevelt, reviewed by David A. Shannon 233

240 A whole series of little 1 f exhibitions available to your community for showing in your The State Historical Society of Wisconsin has School prepared for circulation a series of small exhi­ College bitions on a great variety of topics. These Library shows are especially designed for small or­ Bank ganizations where there are perhaps no regular Community Center display facilities. A new exhibition is prepared Hospital every month and the program will continue Hotel indefinitely. Each set consists of five panels, Church each 30x40 inches in size, and requires 18 feet Business office lobbies of space. Store windows There are now 22 exhibitions on the road. To date, these exhibitions have been shown 164 times in 31 cities. Many appreciative com­ ments have been received. In many places, shows are booked monthly for a continuous display, and some sponsors show them all. If you wish to see what these exhibitions are like, write to the Society for sample photo­ graphs of the panels and an annotated complete list of subjects. Easy to hang in a few minutes. Interesting to both adults and children. Puts the Society's collections before the public. Some of the Subjects Upper Mississippi Background for Folklore Logging camp The Medical Profession Big Steel The Cornish at Mineral Point A Car of Our Own We Went to School Trouble with Spain in '98 Architecture in Wisconsin John Brown the Abolitionist If these exhibitions are not appearing in your community find a local sponsor and get them ^^M

To promote a wider appreciation The Putpose of the American heritage with particular emphasis on the of this collection, advancement, and dissemination of knowledge Soeiefy shsll be of the history of Wisconsin and of the Middle West.