Wade

Augustus Baldwin Longstreet: Development of Culture in the South. By John Donald Wade. New York: Macmillan, 1924.

John Donald Wade, one of the I’ll Take My Stand agrarians, offers us a now 90-year-old—though still relevant—biography of fellow Georgian August Baldwin Longstreet (1790-1870). Best known as the first of Southern humorists, Longstreet was a man of many talents and vocations, Wade reminds us, having tried “[a]lmost everything a landsman can find to do” (4). During his long life, he variously applied himself as a lawyer, judge, politician, author, newspaper editor, Methodist minister, and educator. As a young man he attended the Waddell School in South Carolina and Yale, where he was a studious but mischievous pupil. Though his time in the North was overwhelmingly positive, Longstreet was from an early age a passionate Calhounite both in his politics and his legal aspirations. He returned to his native Georgia, where he practiced law and served briefly in the state legislature and as an elected judge (for the rest of his life he would be known to many as “Judge Longstreet”). He and his wife Frances lost several of their children in infancy, prompting his departure from public life as well as his conversion experience, soon after which he joined the Methodist Church. Longstreet dabbled in planting but displayed far more interest in writing, especially humorous sketches of Georgia life. In the 1830s he purchased a Georgian Federalist newspaper and as editor transformed it into the aptly renamed Augusta State Rights Sentinel. Here he published the remainder of the short stories that would compromise his highly regarded book, Georgia Scenes. Later that decade he felt called to the Methodist ministry and became a zealous—if only adequate—preacher. Longstreet’s talents were perhaps better employed when he accepted the presidency of Emory College in 1839. After a successful nine-year stint he began a stormier career as president of various schools in Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina. More often than not Longstreet brought prestige and high standards to these schools and won the admiration of his students but managed often to clash with the trustees. During the decades before the Civil War Longstreet was also a firm defender of slavery and committed foe of abolition, prominently publishing biblical defenses of slavery. Though he cautioned South Carolina against firing the first shots of the war, Longstreet supported the Confederate cause as actively as he could in his old age and kept in correspondence with his nephew, General James Longstreet.

Wade’s biography Augustus Baldwin Longstreet is admittedly quite dated in its prose, enough so that his highly stylized writing may have even seemed antiquated by 1920s standards. Earlier chapters are often interspersed with anecdotes that are somewhat tangential, but the book’s focus becomes tighter the later we move into Longstreet’s life. These factors, plus Wade’s thorough analysis of Longstreet’s fictional works, may dissuade historians, but substantial gems remain. Wade’s discussion of Longstreet’s “Georgianism” successfully recaptures a time when state and regional identities were more strongly perceived and felt. Borrowing from his Columbia University colleague Dr. William Trent, Wade recounts the idea of the “typical Georgian” as one thought of possessing “a good deal of the Virginian’s geniality and love of comfort, of the North Carolinian’s unpretending democracy, and of the South Carolinian’s tendency to exhibitions of fiery temper” and imagined as “energetic, shrewd, thrifty, brave, religious, patriotic, tending on the extremes of society to become narrow and hard, or self-assertive and pushing” (115).

Perhaps a greater interest to historians is Longstreet’s involvement in the schism of American Methodism over slavery. Wade describes Longstreet as a slaveholder who in his own time was considered a “benevolent” master. From his childhood and from his theological training as a Southern Methodist, Longstreet believed in presumed biblical justifications for Southern slavery, supported in practice sharing the Gospel with both whites and blacks, and ostensibly deplored what he considered “cruel” treatment of slaves. Longstreet emerges as one of that breed of slaveholder who believed in his own capacity to be a “good” master and extended that belief to the whole South when the peculiar institution was threatened. As a result Longstreet approved of and advanced the division of church authority along Northern and Southern lines and increasingly exhibited deep distrust of his Northern coreligionists.

One pleasant surprise of Wade’s biography is his apparently enlightened attitude toward race and slavery, at least for his own time. He writes approvingly that frontier life in Georgia “obliterated to a great degree even the social barrier of race,” in large part he admits because relatively few slaves had been brought to Georgia. Once more arrived, society was more strictly stratified by “the whole phenomenon of racial prejudice” (59). A sympathetic but not sycophantic biographer, Wade seems to imply Longstreet’s typical proslavery arguments were at least old and perhaps worn-out by the beginning of the Civil War.

Jonathan Steplyk

Augustus Baldwin Longstreet: A Study of the Development of Culture in the South. By John Donald Wade.

In his book, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet: A Study of the Development of Culture in the South, John Donald Wade provides us with a traditional biography of one of the South’s major figures during the antebellum period. Longstreet was a complex and multi-talented leader. He was extremely successful in many areas including law, business, literature, education, politics, and especially religion. Although a significant contributor in all of these areas, he never reached the absolute pinnacle in any one field. In an overview of his life, one would conclude that he was a consistent supporter of slavery, an early advocate of secession, and a major figure in the dismemberment of the Methodist Church into Southern and Northern factions. Augustus Longstreet was also the uncle, and surrogate father, of the future General James Longstreet although that is not a major part of the book. Most of his accomplishments and advocacies received wide-spread approval and admiration among his Southern compatriots at the time. John Donald Wade seems to greatly admire him, and this book should be classified as a sympathetic biography of his life and achievements.

In studying the major leaders of the antebellum South one is struck by two strong thoughts. First one must recognize that these were men of considerable ability and superb education. The second is that they would be entirely out of place in the present day south, and the values that made them so appealing in their time have been totally rejected. Such is the case with Longstreet, with the possible exception of his literary work. His contribution to literature and to cultural advancement in the South was made primarily though his work known as Georgia Scenes. In Georgia Scenes, Longstreet tells a series of humorous yet poignant stories relating to the first fifty years of life in Georgia and the surrounding areas. It has been referred to as a sort of Mark Twain like work in its significance and literary skill. Longstreet also contributed to Southern literature in other ways including as an owner and editor of several periodicals, publication of considerable political writings, and publication of important religious material. All of Longstreet’s literary efforts were well received and highly valued in the South; but only Georgia Scenes received lasting literary recognition.

Longstreet’s accomplishments in the field of law were also remarkable. After receiving a college education at Yale, he returned to Georgia and established a law practice in 1815. By 1822 he had been elected to Superior Court Judge, a position he executed with such skill and excellence that he was known as “Judge Longstreet” for the remainder of his life, even when a practicing Methodist minister. His role in politics stemmed from his legal experience, and was primarily based on influence rather than actual offices held. He was an early supporter of state rights (Wade uses the term state rights rather than the current states rights). Longstreet was a strong supporter and friend of John C. Calhoun and George McDuffie and was totally supportive during the nullification crisis of 1832-33. Although the nullification issue did not end to his satisfaction, Longstreet remained loyal to the concept and was far ahead of most Georgians in his support for state rights. He helped influence the thinking in his state by creation of a newspaper which he named the State Rights Sentinel and used to promote the cause of nullification and state rights.

Of all his many achievements, it was as a Methodist minister that Longstreet became most accomplished. It is not through preaching the gospel, but rather the many other roles he played while serving the church that is of greatest significance. Longstreet was baptized into the Methodist Church in 1827 and began preaching locally as early as 1828. He believed himself called by God to preach and in 1838 made a total commitment to the ministry. His belief that he could not be both a practicing attorney and an efficient preacher simultaneously caused him to abandon his legal career. However, he was willing to mix religion with politics and freely did so throughout the balance of his life. His status in the Methodist Church led him to the next major undertaking of his life which was that of teacher and College president. During his lifetime he was to be president of Emery College, Centenary College, The University of Mississippi and the University of South Carolina. With the exception of the short time at Centenary, his contributions were always superb and he improved both the education and administration at each institution.

Longstreet served in a leadership role from the beginning of his involvement with the Church often participating as a delegate to the annual conferences. As the Methodist church began to fracture between North and South over the issue of Slavery, Longstreet became one of the leading spokesmen for the biblical justification of slavery. As such, he became one of the main players in creating and enlarging the chasm that resulted in the break-up of the national church during the years 1844-45. It was in this role, perhaps, that Longstreet had his greatest impact other than the cultural enhancements resulting from his Georgia Scenes. Through his lecturing, preaching, writing and use of political influence, Longstreet became and remained the major spokesman for the Southern Methodist point of view.

During the years of war and reconstruction, Longstreet’s influence and leadership role began to wane. He was a vituperative critic of the Union war effort and post-war administration of the South. As time went on, he came to somewhat accept the view of a new South as advanced by his nephew, James, and his grandson-in-law, Edward Mayes; which included, among other things, the education of former slaves. But he never fully reconciled himself with Northern Methodists or the Union victory. His last significant effort was a composition titled A Correction of the Canonized Errors in Biblical Interpretation. In this work, he translated the most current biblical texts from Latin, Greek, and Hebrew in order to make corrections he believed necessary in the English versions. This document was unfortunately destroyed in a fire after his death but before publication. Only his notes remain of this last major work.

John Donald Wade has written an interesting work in Augustus Baldwin Longstreet: A Study in the Development of Culture in the South. The book remains true to its purpose in that it shows how Longstreet made major contributions to the development of Southern Culture prior to the Civil War. The book was published in 1924 before the achievement of full civil rights for African Americans. Although Wade does not defend slavery or justify the racial attitudes of Longstreet’s times, neither does it give full vent to their evils as is required in current writing. I found this aspect of the book as interesting as was the subject matter. The manner in which the book is written tells as much about the culture of America in the 1920s as does its content tell about the American South in the antebellum period.