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.
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