From Honorable J. P. Kennedy.
I was greatly delighted with the fine, discriminating, acute insight with which the characters presented in the work are drawn, and with the eloquent style of the sketches. I but repeat the common opinion of the best judges, which I hear every where expressed, when I commend these qualities of the book.
“The Flush Times of Alabama” had whetted my desire to see this second production of Mr. Baldwin’s pen, and I can hardly express to you the agreeable surprise I enjoyed in finding a work of such surpassing merit in a tone and manner so entirely different from the first—demonstrating that double gift in the author which enables him to excel in two such opposite departments of literature.
From Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, U. S. Senator from Virginia.
I have read “Party Leaders” with great pleasure. It is written with ability, and with freshness, and grace of style, * * * The chapters on Randolph are capital.
From Hon. James M. Mason, U. S. Senator from Virginia.
I have heard “Party Leaders” highly commended by those competent to judge, but confess I was not prepared for the intellectual and literary feast its rich pages have yielded.
As a literary work, I shall be much disappointed if it does not place its author at once in the first rank of American literature, and even in old England. I shall look for its place next to, if not by the side of, the kindred works of McIntosh and Macaulay.
From a Distinguished Statesman.
It is a noble production, full of profound thought, discriminating judgment, just criticism, and elevated sentiments, all expressed in the most captivating and eloquent style. It is a book just according to my fancy, and, I think, one of the most captivating in our language. [[327]]