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country to the public addresses of offers a consistent, concise analysis conventions and other public gath- in every chapter; it should be on all erings. Numerous tables outlining standard reading lists of any course congressional voting, broken down on Jacksonian America. by the respective geographic regions of the nation and the various parti- Dr. William S. Belko is Executive san divisions of the day, bolster the Director of the Humanities study. Tariff Wars and the Politics of Council Jacksonian America is well-written, doi: 10.2979/indimagahist.114.1.08 maintains a smooth narrative, and

Lincoln and the Democrats: The Politics of Opposition in the Civil War By Mark E. Neely Jr. (: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Pp. ix, 211. Notes, illustrations, index. Cloth, $75.00; paper, $24.99.)

Northern Democrats during the Civil Provoked by a series of unsatis- War have been grossly understudied; fying historiographical tropes about therefore, we should caution against Northern Democrats, the author uses making broad generalizations about his deep familiarity of the era to their character and motivations. probe the veracity of assertions made Such is the general thrust of Mark by numerous historians. In the pro- E. Neely’s slender but illuminating cess, he topples several long-standing Lincoln and the Democrats, a book that historical narratives, most notably draws on the author’s vast knowledge assertions that Northern Democrats of nineteenth-century politics, the were politically treasonous and moti- Constitution, and . vated by white supremacy. In craft- If this is, as stated in the introduc- ing his counter-arguments, Neely is tion, Neely’s last book on the Civil keen to make good use of the party’s War, he will have made another partisan press, citing lengthy runs of signal contribution to the field. By several papers from key states like carefully pruning away questionable New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. interpretive underbrush, he has well In fact, Northern Democrats, prepared the ground for future stud- Neely argues, were firmly loyal to the ies on this crucial topic. Union and the Constitution, though 74 MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

not enthusiastic cheerleaders of the On the question of racism, Lincoln administration. Democrats Neely reminds his readers that as a dutifully financed the war through social attitude it was near universal bond drives; mobilized soldiers, both among white people of the era. As conscripts and volunteers; and par- a political program, however, it is ticipated in Republican-led human- limited in its explanatory power. itarian efforts like the U.S. Sanitary Democrats did not include any for- Commission. Their opposition mal statements about white suprem- to Lincoln rested in his perceived acy in any of their political platforms. unconstitutional prosecution of the Nor did Democratic leaders like New war and circumscription of civil lib- York governor Horatio Seymour or erties, transgressions that potentially General George B. McClellan want threatened the very existence of the to make the presidential campaign Democracy. of 1864 a referendum on race and In articulating their loyalty, slavery. In contrast, the party’s most Democrats ingeniously crafted a bitter racists, like pro-slavery advo- historical myth linking the current cate John H. Van Evrie, had little incarnation of the party with the party influence. It makes sense to nation’s founding. The Democracy scrutinize Democratic commitments became synonymous with the coun- to white supremacy, argues Neely, try, a permanent fixture upon its post 1865, with Southerners’ reinte- political landscape so long as the gration back into the party. During government of the Constitution the war years, however, their voices was faithfully executed. The party’s were absent. perceived harassment only validated Neely seems convinced that their criticism of Lincoln as a politi- Democrats floundered badly in their cal tyrant and constitutional usurper. efforts to oppose Lincoln’s conduct Like the Whig Party during the of the war on constitutional grounds. Mexican War, Northern Democrats Scholarly assertions of their commit- made much hay of various consti- ment to constitutional conservatism tutional issues they thought com- seem unfounded. Conversely, Neely promised the president’s legitimacy. sees the president’s constitutional However, also similar to their Whig scruples broadened and liberalized predecessors, Democrats were care- by the war-time demands of the ful to support Union armies in the office. What was once a standard field with supplies and money—the antebellum Whig liberal constitu- lessons of Federalist obstruction tionalism evolved into universalist during the War of 1812 were well assertions on individual human heeded. rights. The stage was set for Lincoln REVIEWS 75

to push for slavery’s abolition by the Gregory A. Peek, History Department, war’s conclusion. Pennsylvania State University– Lincoln and the Democrats is University Park a deep and probing book that will doi: 10.2979/indimagahist.114.1.09 become more valuable as future scholarship takes up its many inter- esting and provocative points.

Charles Gates Dawes: A Life By Annette B. Dunlap (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2016. Pp. 352. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. Cloth, $40.00; paper, $24.95.)

Like a character in a Herman Wouk the 1920s, after Franklin Roosevelt’s novel, Charles Gates Dawes (1865– election in 1932 Dawes went into 1951) spent the majority of his adult the wilderness never to return. But life thriving in the midst of the action for much of the first third of the while in the service of his country. twentieth century, Charles Dawes For a long time, he has deserved was widely known as the owner of a good biography—the only pre- one of Chicago’s major banks and a vious study of any note is Bascom Republican stalwart. Born in Ohio, Timmons’s breezy 1953 tome pub- he earned a law degree and moved lished soon after Dawes’s death— to the frontier town of Lincoln, and finally a worthy treatment Nebraska, to start his legal career. has appeared. Annette B. Dunlap, Seeing little future in the law, Dawes an independent scholar who was became interested in manufactured contacted by the Evanston History gas and relocated to Evanston, Center to write Dawes’s biogra- , in the mid-1890s where phy, had previously crafted a his- business prospects were much better. tory of First Lady Frances Folsom He added banking to his portfolio, Cleveland. dabbled in Illinois state Republican Like most contemporary politics, and was tapped by President Americans, Dunlap knew very lit- William McKinley to serve as his tle about Dawes when she accepted Comptroller of the Currency. her assignment. As has been the case When the United States entered for many prominent Republicans of the First World War, Dawes—at the