The notes were faithfully arranged in chronological order and, with little discrimination, incorporated in this book. The reader is altogether too aware of where the author discarded one note for another.John Cabell Breckinridge was a handsome man and a finished orator. He was a Democrat, a slaveholder, and a champion of states' rights. Miss Stillwell impresses the reader with these characteristics of her subjects, but she has not placed Breckinridge in the setting of his time, nor recounted his relationships and influences with his contemporaries. She has simply related Breckinridge's political and military actions as they appeared on her notes, neatly arranged in chronological order.The failure to analyze Breckinridge's career in terms of contemporary events discredits his real importance and influence. In her account of the Congressional campaign of 1853, for example, when Breckinridge was opposed by R. P. Letcher, the reader is left completely unaware of the issues, although informed of Breckinridge's physical appearance and platform address. Again, when he was nominated for vice president, in 1856, the reader knows that Breckenridge was thirty-five years old, handsome, a moving speaker, and a states' rights man, but little else.Another fault of this method of treatment is that transitions are not adequate. On one occasion, without previous reference to the organization of the Confederacy, or of Breckenridge's relationship to it, Miss Stillwell quotes (on page 98), a resolution submitted by Breckinridge: "Resolved, That the Senate recommend and advise the removal of the United States troops from the limits of the Confederate States." This book will be read by few others than members and friends of the Breckinridge family. Miss Stillwell has implied what is no doubt true, that Breckinridge was a brilliant man, representing an important point of view during the critical years in which he lived, and a positive factor in the crucial Civil War period. But the proof has not been presented Breckinridge remains an unknown quantity.