onomy, camp neatness and cleanliness, and on
the signs and portents of the weather, will tend to keep the reader in
good humor. It would require years of experience for new beginners to
acquire the information which a half hour's study of this book will
easily impart. To all such, then, it is invaluable.
The first volume of Mr. McMaster's entertaining work on the _History
of the People of the United States_[7] appeared just three years ago
this summer, and the lively interest which it then aroused gave promise
of the cordial welcome that would be generally extended to future
volumes of the same work. The first volume closed with the year 1790.
The second volume, which has recently been published, continues the easy
and entertaining narrative down to 1803. Within its seven chapters there
is a vast fund of valuable information in regard to life and society as
they existed under the early administrations. These chapters cover the
experimental years of the Republic under the Constitution,--the years
which, so susceptible of popular treatment, are so particularly engaging
to students of American history. At so formative a period in the
national development, when there was open contest between Congress and
the States, when the group of undoubted aristocrats gathered around
Hamilton were in direct opposition to the extreme republicanism of the
circle which acknowledged Jefferson as its chief, the dominance of
English or French influence was an element of great moment to the future
of the nation. Mr. McMaster has most admirably handled this phase of his
subject.
The account of town and country life as they were at the beginning of
the present century, and of the growth of those social usages which we
have come almost to regard as instinctive, is very entertaining and
instructive. Barring certain blemishes and a few inaccuracies, which
ought to be excusable in a work of such character, Mr. McMaster's two
volumes form a very valuable and welcome contribution to our national
literature. It was a felicitous thought which prompted him to enter this
peculiar field, and to gather up the important facts which writers on
political history have generally avoided. So thoroughly and so admirably
has Mr. McMaster worked this field that we doubt whether any other
writer, coming after him, will be tempted to invade the same territory.
The work thus far ends with the negotiations which led to the Louisiana
purchase, and we are led to expect
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