SOME PUBLICATIONS

Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at its Sixty-first Annual Meeting. Madison: The State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 1914. Pp. 238. Portraits, plates, maps. The proceedings of the annual meeting in 1913 and the last report of the late Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites as Superintendent of the Society occupy the opening pages in the volume under consideration.

Of much interest to students of Upper Mississippi Valley history is the excellent paper on The Spanish Domination of Upper Louisiana, by Walter B. Douglas. The Telegraph in Wisconsin is the subject of a paper by Ellis B. Usher. The Recollections of Antoine Grignon carry the reader back to the fur trading period in Wisconsin, of which the writer, who was born at Prairie du Chien in 1828, was one of the few survivors at the time of his death. Early Prairie du Chien, the beginnings of Trempealeau, the hardships of mail-carriers, Dodge's home guards, the fur trade, Winnebago removal, the Hudson's Bay Company, early St. Paul, trading at Blue Earth, an Indian census, fur trading customs, Indian industries, Indian games, the medicine-man, Indian customs, and Indian character are among the subjects touched upon in these recollections, which contain much that pertains to Iowa history.

A discussion of The Influence of the Whites on Winnebago Culture, by Paul Radin, is of interest to Iowans because these Indians once lived in northeastern Iowa, where their contact with white people was decidedly detrimental to them, as is stated clearly in the messages of Governor John Chambers of the Territory of Iowa. La Verendrye's Farthest West is the title of a brief article by Doane Robinson. The remainder of the volume is taken up with T. Turnbull's Travels from the United States Across the Plains to California, edited with introduction and notes by Frederic L. PaxThis journal is of general interest as being typical of the experiences of overland travelers to California in the period of the

son.

rush to the gold fields; and it is of special interest in Iowa because the traveler crossed this State in the year 1852, entering at Lyons and leaving the State at Council Bluffs.

Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society for the Year 1912. (Publication Number Seventeen of the Illinois State Historical Library). Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Journal Co. 1914. Pp. xiv, 233. Portraits, plates. The papers read at the thirteenth annual meeting of the Illinois State Historical Society are contained in this volume. In the first place there is a timely paper on The West and the War with Mexico, by William E. Dodd. A topic of much interest in the history of early western explorations is discussed by Henry W. Lee under the heading The Calumet Portage. Charles B. Johnson tells of Every Day Life in Illinois Near the Middle of the Nineteenth Century, presenting a clear picture of the life of the average person in the Middle West during the fifties. The Climate of Illinois: Its Permanence is the subject of a paper by M. L. Fuller. Some Reminiscences of Pioneer Rock Island Women, by Mrs. K. T. Anderson, contains mention of several persons well known in Iowa history.

Other papers which have an interest beyond the bounds of the State of Illinois are: Genesis of the Whig Party in Illinois, by C. M. Thompson; Joseph Gillespie, by Josephine G. Prickett; Was there a French Fort at Chicago?, by Milo M. Quaife; Virginia Currency in the Illinois Country, by Minnie G. Cook; and Senator Stephen A. Douglas and the Germans in 1854, by F. I. Herriott. A list of The Old Towns of Illinois, compiled by W. D. Barge is also of interest. A comprehensive index completes the volume.

The Whig Party in the South. By ARTHUR CHARLES COLE, Ph. D. Washington: American Historical Association. 1913. Pp. xii, 392. Maps. This monograph consists of the essay which won the Justin Winsor Prize in American History for 1912. The student of political history will find the volume very useful in that it furnishes a complete account of the Whig party in the South from the time of the organization of the party down to the period of its final dissolution. The period of origins, 1830-1835; the rise of the Whig party in the South, 1836-1840; the growth of unity, 1841-1844;

the slavery question down to 1848; the southern movement and the compromise, 1848-1850; the Union movement, 1850-1851; the problem of reorganization, 1851-1852; the election of 1852; the KansasNebraska Bill; and attempts at reorganization, 1854-1861, are the topics discussed in the ten chapters of the monograph. Copious notes and references indicate that the research was prosecuted with diligence among original sources. There is a series of maps showing the distribution of party votes at the different elections in the various sections of the South; and the volume is provided with an excellent index.

The Library of Congress has published a volume entitled The Star Spangled Banner, written by Oscar G. T. Sonneck.

The Boston Book Company has published an introductory manual and bibliographical guide of more than four hundred and sixty pages, entitled Law, Legislative and Municipal Reference Libraries. The writer is John Boynton Kaiser.

A recent number of the Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science consists of a monograph on the Colonial Trade of Maryland, 1689–1715, by Margaret Shove Morriss. The three chapters deal with staple products and chief exports; imports; and trade routes and illicit trade.

The Department of the Interior has published a useful pamphlet containing data concerning the areas of the acquisitions to the territory of the United States and of the various States, Territories, and possessions, together with a diagram showing the historical development of the States.

In the University of Toronto Studies there has appeared volume eighteen of the Review of Historical Publications Relating to Canada, compiled by George M. Wrong, H. H. Langton, and W. Stewart Wallace, and covering the publications of the year 1913. In this volume, as might be expected, are reviews of many books which have a bearing at least on the history of the United States as well as of Canada.

The general topic of discussion in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science for July is the International Relations of the United States. The various papers are grouped under four main headings: the present status of the Monroe Doctrine; the Mexican situation, its problems and obligations; the policy of the United States on the Pacific; and the elements of a constructive American foreign policy. In a communication near the close of the volume G. C. Mathews presents The Truth about State Regulation of Utilities in Wisconsin.

An interesting study is one dealing with The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Civil War, which constitutes a monograph prepared by William Warren Sweet. The nine chapters deal with the status of the Methodist Episcopal Church at the opening of the war, the church on the border, the church in the New England and Atlantic States, the church in the Central and northwestern States, missions of the church in the South during the war, Methodist periodicals, Methodist chaplains in the Union armies, the war bishops, and Methodist coöperation with inter-denominational organizations.

Articles which appear in The American Political Science Review for August are: Cabinet Government in France, by James W. Garner; The Authority of Vattell, by Charles G. Fenwick; Benjamin Franklin's Plans for a Colonial Union, 1760-1775, by Mrs. L. K. Mathews; and The New York County System, by H. S. Gilbertson. Among the Legislative Notes and Reviews, edited by John A. Lapp, are short articles on State officers, boards and commissions created and abolished in 1913; the legislation of 1913 affecting nominations and elections; absent voters; and constitutional amendments.

Among the articles in the April number of Americana are the Election of Judge Doolittle as Senator from Wisconsin in 1857, by Duane Mowry; and New England and the Yazoo Land Frauds, by Forrest Morgan. In the May number J. C. Pumpelly presents some Data Historical and Biographical, Connected with the Pioneer Days in Tioga County; John Howard Brown writes on American Naval Heroes; and Duane Mowry furnishes a brief sketch on The Crittenden Resolution. The June number contains, among other articles,

an address by Nicholas Murray Butler entitled Not Liberty, but Regulation and Restriction are the Watchwords of To-day; and an article on Gethsemane, Kentucky, the Home of Trappist Monks, by Caroline W. Berry. In all three numbers there are continuations of Brigham H. Roberts's History of the Mormon Church.

WESTERN AMERICANA

A History of Unity Baptist Church, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, is a little volume written by Otto A. Rothert, which has been. printed by John P. Morton and Company of Louisville, Kentucky.

A two-volume set of documents relative to Athanase de Mézières and the Louisiana-Texas Frontier, 1768-1780, edited with introduction and notes by Herbert Eugene Bolton, has been published by the Arthur H. Clark Company of Cleveland, Ohio.

The reports of the departments of anthropology and history and the list of accessions to the library as found in the Fourth Biennial Report of the Board of Curators of the Louisiana State Museum are of interest to historians.

Among the articles in The Quarterly Journal of the University of North Dakota for July are the following: Democracy and Literature, by A. W. Crawford; The Story of the Medieval Cathedrals of the Rhine Valley, by George Pullen Jackson; The Hebrew Account of the Creation in the Light of Some Others, by Wallace Nelson Stearns; and Making "A Pageant of the North West", by Frederick Henry Koch.

The March-June number of the University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences consists of a two hundred and thirty page monograph entitled A History of the General Property Tax in Illinois, by Robert Murray Haig. The twelve chapters of the study are devoted to the origin of the general property tax in Illinois; economic characteristics and the financial system; legislation from 1809 to 1838; the efficiency of the tax system down to 1838; taxation for debt payment; taxable property in general and its assessment; the assessment of personal property; the assessment of real estate; review,