Bartlett’s West: Drawing the Mexican Boundary by Robert V. Hine

Abstract

168 Western American Literature Bartlett’s West: Drawing the Mexican Boundary. By Robert V. Hine. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968, 155 pages, illustrations.) John Russell Bartlett was not a very likely candidate for commissioner of the Mexican Boundary Survey of 1850. He was not a surveyor, he had never commanded as large and diverse a party as the commission, and much of his knowledge of the southwestern United States was from the popular stories of Davy Crockett and similar writings. Bartlett was at home in the literary circles of Boston and New York, and his western experience was con­ fined mainly to western New York and the Canadian shore of Lake Ontario. His appointment seemed even more incongruous because of his recent strong resistance to the annexation of Texas and outspoken opposition to the Mexican War and territorial acquisition. On the other hand, Bartlett was a self-made intellectual with wide ranging interests. His publications and scholarly activities earned him an honorary Master of Arts degree from Brown University, and 18 years in the Canadian wilderness had whetted his interest in the challenges of the frontier. Like Francis Parkman, he was a loyal easterner who relished the opportunity to observe the Indians in their natural habitat. Bartlett’s desire to leave his New York bookstore, the vacancy in the commissionership post, and some well-placed friends in the right places, combined to win him the appointment. Robert Hine’s balanced study of Bartlett and his brief period on the Mexican boundary admirably describes the frustrations and accomplishments of the commissioner. As Hine points out, Bartlett’s three years with the survey was a tiny segment of his long eventful life, and would probably have gone unnoticed had it not been for the publication of his Personal Narrative. Bartlett endured innumerable hardships, misunderstandings, problems with fellow members of the commission, and political maneuverings in order to carry out his assignment and leave a rich body of information about the new land, including many very valuable drawings and paintings. Some of the fifty-six illustrations impressively reproduced by Hine did not appear in earlier published works. Although Bartlett’s efforts were largely obscured by the Gadsden Purchase and new boundary reports of William Emory, Hine places Bartlett’s work in proper perspective. He points out that because of Bartlett’s skill as an ob­ server, writer, and artist, his Narrative became an invaluable source of in­ formation for those who developed the newly acquired region. He suggests that had Bartlett been appointed after the Gadsden Purchase, his writings would be regarded much more highly than those of Emory, and his art would stand beside that of other better known western artists. Controversy over Bartlett’s management of the commission and his Reviews 169 stubborn support of the disputed Bartlett-Cond6 line raged high at the time of his dismissal. Hine believes that Bartlett and his friends on the commission were never given the opportunity to bring their studies to an appropriate conclusion, and that faced with controversy and lack of support, their efforts were the more remarkable. Hine’s work is a significant contribution to literature on the South­ western boundary as well as that about Bartlett himself. It is concise, well documented, and contains useful bibliographical information, in addition to inclusion of the extremely important illustrations. The book is somewhat ungainly because of the dimensions of the illustrations, but this is compensated by the fact that they may be viewed without turning the book on its side to study them. The plates are misnumbered beginning with number 37 (which is actually number 48), but this is a minor mechanical difficulty which in no way detracts from the excellent quality of Hine’s work. Kenneth H ufford, Principia College The Southwest: Old and New. By W. Eugene Hollon. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968. 487 pages, $2.95.) W. Eugene Hollon’s The Southwest: Old and New, first published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961, has been newly printed as a Bison Book by the University of Nebraska Press, with a foreword by Joe B. Frantz of the Uni­ versity of Texas. To designate a particular section of the United States...