ch B. Phillips, _Georgia and
State Rights_ (American Historical Association Reports, 1901, II).
Aside from newspapers, and from collections of public documents of
private correspondence, which cannot be enumerated here, the source
materials for the period fall into two main classes: books of
autobiography and reminiscence, and the writings of travelers. Most
conspicuous in the first group is Thomas H. Benton, _Thirty Years'
View; or, a History of the Working of the American Government for
Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850_, 2 vols. (1854). Benton was an active
member of the Senate throughout the Jacksonian period, and his book
gives an interesting and valuable first-hand account of the public
affairs of the time. Amos Kendall's _Autobiography_ (1872) is,
unfortunately, hardly more than a collection of papers and scattered
memoranda. Nathan Sargent's _Public Men and Events, 1817-1853_, 2
vols. (1875), consists of chatty sketches, with an anti-Jackson slant.
Other books of contemporary reminiscence are Lyman Beecher's
_Autobiography_, 2 vols. (1863-65); Robert Mayo's _Political Sketches
of Eight Years in Washington_ (1839); and S.C. Goodrich's
_Recollections of a Lifetime_, 2 vols. (1856). The one monumental
diary is John Quincy Adams, _Memoirs; Comprising Portions of his Diary
from 1795 to 1848_ (ed. by Charles F. Adams, 12 vols., 1874-77). All
things considered, there is no more important nonofficial source for
the period.
In Jackson's day the United States was visited by an extraordinary
number of Europeans who forthwith wrote books descriptive of what they
had seen. Two of the most interesting--although the least
flattering--of these works are Charles Dickens's _American Notes for
General Circulation_ (1842, and many reprints) and Mrs. Frances E.
Trollope's _Domestic Manners of the Americans_ (1832). Two very
readable and generally sympathetic English accounts are Frances A.
Kemble's _Journal, 1832-1833_, 2 vols. (1835) and Harriet Martineau's
_Society in America_, 3 vols. (2d ed., 1837). The principal French
work of the sort is M. Chevalier, _Society, Manners, and Politics in
the United States_ (Eng. trans, from 3d French ed., 1839). Political
conditions in the country are described in Alexis de Tocqueville,
_Democracy in America_ (Eng. trans, by Reeve in 2 vols., 1862), and
the economic situation is set forth in detail in James S. Buckingham,
_America, Historical, Statistical and Descriptive_, 2 vols. (1841),
and
|