478 GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 



and with the dissenting opinions of the justices in the minority ; with 

 countless conflicting interpretations of sentences or words in the national 

 Constitution ; with opposite opinions on scores of subjects advocated in 

 scores of constitutional conventions ; with the various motions and votes ; 

 with the names and training and history of the members of those con- 

 ventions. Hundreds of State constitutions, formulated, rejected, or 

 approved, repealed or still in vigor, and tens of thousands of State laws, 

 passed, amended, repealed, or still on the statute book, must be scrupu- 

 lously examined and carefully collated. The data must be scrutinized 

 with toilsome and persistent honesty, but the horizon must be larger 

 than that of an erudite compiler. Broad-minded and philosophic, the 

 writer must be sensitive to every political breeze and keen to appreciate 

 its source and influence and direction. Peering with the microscope into" 

 minutiae, he must, above all, with the telescope sweep the sky. 



Believing that the " history of American democracy . . . is a his- 

 tory of political thought rather than of individuals," he lingers little 

 upon the lives or characters of the apostles of that democracy, and still 

 less upon the lives or characters of its opponents. The mass of the army 

 and the direction of its march count more with him than the personality 

 of the chiefs ; yet it is curious to note that in his first volume he refers 

 by name to Washington nine times, to Marshall ten times, and to Ham- 

 ilton eleven times, while to Franklin twenty-five times, and to Jefferson 

 sixty-six times. This is not indeed disproportionate, for the two latter 

 are the real founders of American democracy. With a sympathy which 

 he makes no effort to hide, he traces the course of democratic govern- 

 ment in its expanding and magnificent career. 



In sagacious contrast to most historians he recognizes the decisive share 

 which geographic conditions have had in determining our national life. 

 Nowhere have they played a more definite part, not even in Russia or 

 Spain. But how commonly in American histories are they absolutely 

 ignored ! Well does he say, " Thus the fate of the republic depended on 

 the course of streams and the trend of mountains as well as on Congress 

 and the legislatures; " or again, " Had gold or silver abounded in New 

 England, Pennsylvania, or Virginia, the evolution of democracy on the 

 A tlantic seaboard would have been retarded for centuries. ' ' '* The sunny, 

 semi-tropical climate of Florida and South Carolina "and the sturdier 

 climate of Massachusetts and Vermont affect the vision and the forma- 

 tion of political creeds. With reason does he exclaim, " Our morality 

 is much a matter of latitude ! " 



Through more than a thousand pages does the author interpret Amer- 

 ican history with accuracy and truth. He renders evident the sublime 

 fact that our national strength and glory are found not in what our 

 fathers brought here in the early days or in what has been wafted to us 

 since across the ocean. It is what they and later generations wrought 

 out here on the virgin soil of this untouched continent that constitutes 

 America's contribution to mankind ; nor is the mission of the republic yet 

 accomplished. Still is the region in the western hemisphere between the 

 thirtieth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude the political laboratory of 

 the world. One cannot but regret that Mr Thorpe concludes his work in 



