Joe Lane of Oregon: Machine Politics and the Sectional Crisis, 1849–1861 by James E. Hendrickson

Abstract

170 Western American Literature arrangement, treating in its twenty chapters such subjects as the pre-Columbian native, the Spaniards and the French, life in the Texas Republic, the impact of gold on the Southwest, the Southwest and the Civil War, the cattle industry, the industrial boom, politics, cities, and culture. The book is well organized and written in clear and unpretentious prose. Hollon chooses his details with care, offering enough to support his general ideas, but usually avoiding the tedium too often found in historical data-collecting. Furthermore, the writing is enlivened by occasional humor and wit. Of special interest is the chapter on the Southwest and the Civil War, a subject that has received little attention by historians. Other well-presented topics are Hollon’s account of the colorful camel experiment in 1856, customs and life in the Texas Republic, the early surveys for a feasible transcontinental railroad, and the history of ranching. Perhaps the least successful parts of the book occur when Hollon becomes the crusader trying to reform his region rather than remaining the historian, allowing his political leanings to detract from scholarly objectivity. These excursions appear especially in the latter portions dealing with twentiethcentury politics and education. As Professor Frantz points out in the foreword, Hollen’s “liberal” views are no secret. What is rather disturbing, regardless of the reader’s political persuasion, is Hollon’s tendency to editorialize and oversimplify. For example, he speaks of opponents of the New Deal and various liberal programs as “racial bigots,” “anti-intellectuals,” or “nouveaux riches.” On the other hand, he speaks of a “distinguished” liberal educator, and refers to a well-known liberal Texas weekly as offering the “best” critical coverage of politics as opposed to the “reactionary” metropolitan daily news­ papers. On such occasions, the balanced vocabulary of the objective scholarhistorian gives way to the emotionally toned language of the political reformer. Except for Hollon’s editorializing this is a valuable history of the Southwest. T hom as W. Ford, University of Houston Joe Lane of Oregon: Machine Politics and the Sectional Crisis, 1849-1861. By James E. Hendrickson. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1967. 274 pages, $6.50.) Joe Lane of Oregon is neither a biography of Lane nor a history of the Democratic party machine that helped maneuver him into a powerful position in our nation’s capitol. This study, apparently a revision for popular con­ Reviews 171 sumption of a doctoral dissertation, “seeks to explore his relationship with the machine, to probe the motivation of his political behavior, and to examine the impact of the sectional controversy upon the people of Oregon.” To accomplish this end, author James E. Hendrickson, on the history staff of the University of Victoria, British Columbia, makes extensive use of the voluminous body of letters that flowed between the men involved. Further, he has combed files of Oregon territorial newspapers to bring to light pertinent examples of the “Oregon style”—journalistic writing at once shocking and humorous with its brazen name calling and complete lackof objectivity. Mr. Hendrickson’s account seems to consist of local minutiae enlivened by un­ censored excerpts from personal letters and scurrilously vivid editorials. Thus it is through the words of the principal characters themselves that Mr. Hend­ rickson’s narrative comes alive. It is not only what they did or said that characterizes these men. It is exactly how they said what they did, especially in their private correspondence, that makes them understandable and real. Lane’s career is chronicled from the time of his appointment as first governor ofOregon Territory, through his four terms as elected delegate to Congress, to his final triumph as the first elected senator from the new state of Oregon. To one interested in regional history the book could be quite satisfactory. Facts are to be found here in abundance, many of them probably never before brought to light, for the author was able to employ a hitherto unused collection of Lane papers found in the Lilly Library at Indiana Uni­ versity. Mr. Hendrickson is to be commended for the tremendous amount of research which has gone into this not very large volume. His citations and notes...