Journal of the Southwest

The Original Journals of Henry Smith Turner: With Stephen Watts Kearny to New Mexicoand California, 1846-1847 by Henry Smith Turner; Dwight L. ClarkeReview by: Maxine BensonArizona and the West, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Spring, 1968), pp. 85-87Published by: Journal of the SouthwestStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40167312 .

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REVIEWS 85

to enumerate and describe the numerous important documents both favorable and unfavorable that could shed light on the growth-pains, politics, squabbles, and deficiencies of the clergy in California's Catholic history. This omission, however, does not affect the valuable contribution of this thoroughly researched

study, for such manuscripts are readily available to scholars doing research in the archival depositories, especially in the extremely well-organized and excellently catalogued archives of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Father John B. McGloin, archivist and professor of history at the University of San Francisco, and friendly historical rival of Father Weber in recording California's Catholic history, has written a well-balanced, objective biography of

Jose Sadoc Alemany, California's first archbishop (1 853-1 884). Father McGloin, who as a Jesuit must be congratulated for writing the life of a Dominican, has made an important contribution to understanding not only the development of California's Catholicism but also California's history during the most trying period of the state's history - the Americanization of territory, the bombastic

prejudice of Irish-American labor leader Dennis Kearney, the stagnant state of

Catholicism, the virulent anti-Catholic attitude, and the prolonged and heated clerical squabbles of Alemany with the Jesuits and Tadeo Amat, then bishop of

Monterey. On the whole, Father McGloin has handled these very difficult topics most

adequately, and has therefore presented a phase of California's ecclesiastical

growth that contributes to a better understanding of the overall history of the state. Since this work is the first full study of this learned and judicious Catalan

prelate, it is only natural that a few minor errors have crept into the manuscript. Also, some rather important topics - such as Alemany's participation in Vatican I and his role in the Pious Fund Controversy - should have been treated more

extensively. This, of course, will be automatically done when the revised edition

appears, and Church and Western historians will be even further indebted to this San Francisco-loving author.

Manuel P. Servin

The reviewer, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Southern California, is Editor of the California Historical Quarterly.

THE ORIGINAL JOURNALS OF HENRY SMITH TURNER: With Stephen Watts Kearny to New Mexico and California, 1846- 1847. Edited by Dwight L. Clarke. Norman: University of Oklahoma

Press, 1966. 173 pp. $5.00.

Although he had graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with the class of 1834 and had served in the army since that time,

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86 ARIZONA and the WEST

Henry Smith Turner was not destined for a lifetime military career, a fact that became increasingly clear to him as he traveled mile after weary mile with

Stephen Watts Kearny to California in 1846. Thoughts of his wife and family were ever with him, and he confided his hopes and fears, his sorrows and desires, to the diary which he kept during portions of the long and arduous journey. That

journal, a series of letters to Mrs. Turner, and Turner's brief account of the return

trip in 1847 nave now been collected and edited by Dwight L. Clarke, author of Stephen Watts Kearny.

The 1846 journal, which comprises the major portion of this volume is, as editor Clarke remarks, "an intensely human document." It covers the period from June 30 to December 4, 1846, as the men traveled from Fort Leavenworth to California. A confirmed St. Louisian, Turner could see little good in the area

through which they passed. "I would rather be way down with poverty in the U.S. than to live in the greatest luxury and wealth in this country," he asserted, "and when I say this country I mean the whole country between our beautiful verdant prairie and the coast of the Pacific." He did admit that the "purer atmo-

sphere" of the Southwest was invigorating, but thought the land "so unattractive and forbidding, that one would scarcely be willing to secure a long life at the cost of living in it."

Turner's somewhat harsh views of the countryside were undoubtedly colored

by the circumstances under which his journey was made. He found the life of a foot soldier singularly unappealing. "It is labor, labor from morning till night, up hill and down, over rocks and gullies," he grumbled. Echoing the sentiments of soldiers from time immemorial, he asked plaintively: "Is there anything in such employment to interest one, who has agreeable ties elsewhere? I think not!" Turner did in fact resign from the army in 1848, and spent the remainder of his life in banking and various other business and civic enterprises. In these affairs he was for some years associated with William Tecumseh Sherman, whom he had met at Monterey. The two men greatly admired and respected each other, and the story of their friendship, as related in the Introduction, gives added insight into Sherman's career.

In his journals and letters Turner wrote with no thought that his remarks would ever be published, and his candid comments, particularly on the Kearny- Fremont-Stockton affair, are especially valuable for historians. He had "implicit confidence" in his wife's discretion, and he did not hesitate to give her his frank opinion of his colleagues. He deftly characterized Lieutenant William Emory, for example, as a man "beset with one mania, a greediness after immortality - in other respects a clever enough sort of man."

In editing these writings, Clarke has provided a good biographical summary of Turner's life, enabling the reader to place the journals and letters in the proper perspective. Although in some instances a bit more annotation would have been welcomed, on the whole the editing is competent and informative. This volume not only enriches our knowledge of the Mexican War, but it also has the added

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REVIEWS 87

virtue of introducing readers to Henry Smith Turner, a man famous neither in his time nor in ours, but a man who was a devoted husband and father, a loyal friend, and a public-spirited citizen. We are glad to have made his acquaintance.

Maxine Benson

The reviewer, who is State Historian of Colorado, is currently completing a study of Edwin James.

EXPLORING THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY: Sir Alexander Mackenzie's Journal of a Voyage by Bark Canoe from Lake Athabasca to the Pacific Ocean in the Summer of 1789. Edited by T. H. McDonald. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966. 133 pp. $4.95.

ACROSS THE OLYMPIC MOUNTAINS: The Press Expedition, 1889-90. By Robert L. Wood. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1967. 220 pp. $5.95.

These two books demonstrate that the interest in narratives of exploration is not necessarily in direct proportion to the importance of the journeys described.

Exploring the Northwest Territory presents for the first time in print, and with

only a minimum of necessary editorial changes, Alexander Mackenzie's 1789 journal as it is preserved in manuscript in the British Museum. The entries tend to be spare, as might be expected of an efficient fur trader. "Embarked before 4 A.M., hoisted sail at 9 A.M., landed to Cook Kettle and wait for Mr.

Leroux," is a typical example of Mackenzie's unembellished style. The general reader probably will prefer Mackenzie's journal, as it has been

readily available since 1 801 in the several editions of his Voyages from Montreal.

Apparently polished and embroidered by an editor named William Combe, this version is a classic in the annals of American exploration. For most purposes, it presents a satisfactory account of the famous journey during which Mackenzie discovered and descended to its mouth in the Arctic Ocean the great river that

today bears his name. This important voyage proved that the long-sought North- west Passage through the North American continent did not exist.

Scholars, on the other hand, will be grateful to Professor McDonald for

making available a version of the journal which must be very close to that in the

original field notes. Through copious footnotes, McDonald has carefully indicated the many textual differences between the manuscript journal and the version

given in the Voyages. He demonstrates how the original text was embroidered

upon or sometimes bowdlerized when being prepared for print. In addition, McDonald and his family themselves followed Mackenzie's track by canoe, and

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