A Source-Book of American History

Ten years ago had a high school teacher received a copy of such a work as Professor MacDonald’s “Documentary Source-Book of American History” he would have read it with wonder that so many really significant historical documents could be bound together between the covers of one small volume. To-day, thanks to the efforts of Professor MacDonald himself, of Professor Hart, and of many others, we are well supplied with source-books for several periods of American history. Consequently, the latest volume of Professor MacDonald has been accepted as a matter of course; and frequently reviewers have contented themselves with saying that it contained some of the materials already printed in the author’s earlier volumes—“Select Charters,” “Select Documents,” and “Select Statutes.” Such passing notice fails to do the new work justice, and it is the purpose of this short review to tell the reader the classes of material which are contained within the six hundred pages of the Documentary Source-Book.

The extracts contained in the volume consist, in the main, of constitutional or statutory documents, and in this respect differ from the material which has been printed by Professor Hart in his “Source-Readers,” and his “History by Contemporaries,” where the emphasis is placed upon narratives, descriptions, and personal contemporary opinions.

Colonial and Revolutionary Documents.

Out of 187 documents, 32 are devoted to the colonial period down to 1764; about 22 deal with the revolutionary period from 1765 to 1789; and the remaining 133 numbers are concerned with the national period. For the colonial period, there are charters of eleven of the thirteen colonies; there are documents illustrative of popular government, such as the Mayflower Compact, the ordinance establishing representative government in Virginia, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, and of New Haven. The relation of the colonies to England is shown by the Navigation Acts, the Molasses Act, the Sugar Act, and the royal proclamation of 1763. The relation to other countries is shown by extracts from the treaty of Utrecht and the treaty of Paris in 1763. No person who is teaching the colonial period even to elementary students should be without the fresh contact with the documents which these extracts make possible.

On the Revolutionary epoch, Professor MacDonald gives us the Stamp Act, the Intolerable Acts, the Massachusetts Circular Letter of 1768, the resolves of the Stamp Act Congress, the Association and resolves of the Continental Congress, the principal acts of Parliament for the prosecution of the American war, and, of course, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Ordinance of 1787, and the Constitution.

The National Period.

The declarations of war and treaties of peace are given in all cases; and there is a complete documentary history of territorial acquisitions, for extracts are given from all treaties agreeing to the cession of territory to the United States, with the single exception of the treaty with England and Germany respecting the Samoan Islands. National problems which have entered into politics are fully illustrated. It is satisfying to find here in convenient form the Alien and Sedition Acts, and the counter-blast of the Republicans, the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. The Missouri Compromise documents number seven, and are prefaced by an excellent introduction which gives the congressional history of the compromise measures. A similar treatment is given the six documents on the Compromise of 1850. The Civil War period furnishes twenty-three documents including secession ordinances, the Confederate States Constitution, military affairs, finance, and other matters. The difficult subject of reconstruction, with its ramifications in the impeachment of the President and the care of the freedmen, receives thirty-three extracts.

Valuable Introductions.

This short statement gives an idea of the scope of the book and the nature of the extracts. In addition to the documents themselves, another feature gives great value to the book. Many, almost all, of the documents are prefaced by short introductions which give the historical setting of the extracts. In the case of the United States statutes the account of congressional action is very valuable, and in many cases furnishes a succinct narrative of the movement culminating in the act under consideration. Abundant references to secondary works and primary sources are to be found in these introductory remarks.

Thus the book contains a large amount of pedagogical material; sources, bibliography, and analytical introductions combining to add to its usefulness. Such a work will protect the teacher and the scholar, whether in elementary school, in high school, or in college, from loose thinking and careless statements about the facts of American history. There need be few errors in class if such a work is on the teacher’s desk, or, better still, in the student’s hand. And, incidentally, many of our newspapers would profit by the addition of the Source-Book to their libraries. To teachers, journalists, and statesmen, who have not easy access to the Statutes at Large, the collections of treaties, and the congressional documents, or, who, having such access, desire the material in convenient desk form, this book will prove invaluable.

[Documentary Source-Book of American History. 1606-1898. By William MacDonald. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1908, pp. xii-616. Price, $1.75.]