Dr. Burgess is the author of two books covering the Civil War and the Reconstruction period, _The Civil War and the Constitution_ and _Reconstruction and the Constitution_, and evidently made a thorough research in collecting the data for publication. I regard this as a very important matter and the truth or falsity of the statement should be established. It is only by publicity that the facts can be established. The names of Stevens and Sumner should be imperishable to the Negro race and any reflection on their attitude during the Reconstruction period should not go unchallenged. A copy of letter from John W. Burgess follows: BROOKLINE, MASS., January 14, 1921. MR. HENRY A. WALLACE: Your favor of January 12, forwarded to me here, interests me highly, and I thank you most sincerely for it. I am obliged to reply, however, that the affidavit of Messrs Miller and McKinlay astonished me very much. I cannot remember to have ever read anything of the kind anywhere and like you, I am very skeptical about it. I was in the world and a student at Amherst College in the year 1867, and was even then collecting the material for my history. I am pretty sure that I should have known of anything of this kind had it existed. I am going to try to run this assertion down, as I am here among the acquaintances and relatives of Sumner. Very sincerely yours, Signed. JOHN W. BURGESS. I have written to Dr. Burgess to inform me as to the result of his investigation and will let you know what he reports. Yours very truly, HENRY A. WALLACE. BOOK REVIEWS _Rachel._ By ANGELINA W. GRIMKE. Boston, Mass., The Cornhill Company, 1920. Pp. 96. Price, $1.25. Miss Grimke's drama of Rachel is a beautiful and poetic creation. She has produced this effect by a literary instinct which is fine and mainly cultivated. Its native vigor carries the reader past an occasional crudity, which it would seem to be hypocritical to notice. The sweep of passion in the drama is elemental. She has connected the story of a girl-woman with the most woeful of earthly tragedies, namely the crime of a great nation against one of its component parts.