of General McClellan in the Peninsular campaign, or the attitude of the
government toward him at that time. The ground is traversed as often
before; all the old arguments are again brought into comparison, and
a very small amount of _new_ evidence is discovered. What has
previously been said in many books and pamphlets and by a score of
writers, is here said in one volume by three writers. But nothing
appears to be _freshly_ said, and, as usual, the conclusions
reached are colored by the political likes or dislikes of their several
writers. The sole merit of the volume lies in the fact that its papers
embody a mass of very valuable material, gleaned from trustworthy
sources, for the future historian. It is very safe to assume, however,
that the future historian while expressing gratitude for their
investigations, will not be tempted to place much weight upon the
conclusions of the gentlemen who hold the monopoly of this volume but
have not solved a single mooted question.


LIFE OF JAMES BUCHANAN, Fifteenth President of the United
States. By George Ticknor Curtis. 2 vols. octavo, pp. 625, 707. New
York: Harper & Brothers, 1883.


The second volume of this exceedingly painstaking and meritorious
biography sheds much light upon the events preceding, and those
transpiring during, the civil war. As another writer has remarked,
"there is something very pitiable, something almost tragic, in the
figure of James Buchanan during the last months of his administration."
He found himself wavering between two factions, between Right and Wrong.
So long as he wavered, the South stood by him; when he ceased to be a
wary politician and manifested a decision of character such as the times