In this volume Mr. Jefferson is treated, not as he will be treated by the historian, but in the spirit of an opposing partisan. No fair and full representation of the man is given, no clear insight is shown of the fitness of the man for the times. Mr. Sullivan does not go very deep into the philosophy of Democracy, nor appreciate its nature. It could not be expected. With all his intelligence and virtue he lived in the times of which he writes, took sides with one of the parties, and judged Democracy by the light of Federalism, not by its own light. No man can fairly analyze what he hates or despises. With this abatement, Mr. Sullivan is eminently candid and judicial in his estimate of the leading Democrats. It would be impossible to point out a single passage of intentional misrepresentation in his book. But of unconscious misrepresentation there is necessarily much, and a person who desired to obtain a perfectly accurate view of political men and measures, could not get it by reading these letters. It must be conceded that it is disgraced by none of that falsehood, bigotry, and blackguardism, which characterize almost every former work on the subject, and which appears now to survive the controversaries from which they originally sprung. Mr. Sullivan was one of those perfectly honest politicians who would not stoop to an untruth, and who possessed the virtue of moderation. He writes like a man who believes every thing he says—a rare endowment in a political author.
Perhaps the most valuable portion of this book is its anecdotes of numerous men whose private character is but little known to this generation, and of numerous events of which history has taken little note. To the future historian of our country the work, on this account, will be very valuable.
_Budget of Letters, or Things which I Saw Abroad. Boston: Wm. D. Ticknor & Co. 1 vol. 12mo._
Under this somewhat quaint title we have quite an original book of travels. It consists of a collection of private letters, written by an intelligent lady of Providence to her friends at home, and printed exactly as they first came from her pen. They are accordingly honest transcripts of real impressions of objects thrown off in a clear, careless style, and strongly infused with individual peculiarities. Even her “O dears!” and “goodness me’s!” and “I verily believe!” are retained. Such a book has, of course, a great deal of raciness. Those objects and scenes which professional tourists linger most lovingly over, and in the celebration of which they indulge in so much premeditated rapture, our authoress fearlessly describes according to her own perceptions. Many of her opinions are, doubtless, crude, and much of her criticism of little worth. In logic she is fond of giving the lady’s reason. There are many things on which she passes judgment, of which she knows little or nothing. Some objects she saw with her eye and not with her mind. But, taking the book as it is, in all its freshness and individual truth, and we can hardly bring to mind a late publication of a similar nature, which excels it in interest, or one more likely to be pleasing to the tourist. There are a hundred little incidents, scenes, and annoyances, which most travelers forget as soon as experienced, which are made quite interesting in this book, and constitute its original feature. We hope this will not be the last work of the authoress.
