Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1858-01-16
Mr. o11aanAs AND psof. fnnIiPs.
HOUSE, Or RxrRrsEsfAr1vis, i'm. s 1863

3 b 81 For Che Standard:
& HOUSE, or RzrREsEstArvIs, jim. 1858.
GsnrLEnEs: The pressure q Consresstonal and
other business has until tits time pseventtd my no
ticing in late number of the Standard long COM
munica,on from Prof. Charles Phillips. headed Dr.
Mitchell, Mr. Clingman and the Black Mountain
So much has already been written on this subject
that though it is easy to that portion OF this
whether ought to reply at all. To the public it
cannot be of moment whether Prof. Mitchell or l..
first climbed the highest peak of the Black Noun
tain The new matter brought forward by Prof
Phillips is when scrutinized of too little weight to
require reply at length. II it were not that his
communication will reach many who have not seen
my former publications, it would be wholly unnec-
essary for me to take notice of it. On this account
and to protest against its Misrepresentation, ask
small space in your columns. -.
Prof. Phillips says that while use DIR. Mltcheiis
statements to refute Mr. Wilson's, rely on Mr. Rid
dies statements to contradict him; and that am
therefore inconsistent But in fact in my first pub
LEGATION after the controversy arose, Il mean the
pamphlet Of July, 1860 adopted and relied on
DR.. Mitchell's own descriptions and statements to
show that in 1874 he was not on the highest peak;
but on Mount Gibbes. He subsequently re.exam-
ined the mountain aud admitted that he had been
wholly mistaken to its form and the position OF
the several peaks but attributed this to the fralty
of his memory after an interval of twenty years
then, to confirm the result deduced from the orig
ment of the two Riddles, who had been his guides,
and whose testimony made it appear that he went
to Mount Gibbes in 1874. His previous description,
backed by their positive testimony, seemed to have
settled the controversy as to the claim made by him
during our discussion.
Since his death, it has been alleged that he was
on the highest point in 1885 with Mr.. William viii.
son. His certificate expressed in his own language,
and made out by himself in my absence, and with
out the aid of counsel on the 9th of July, 1857,
was published entire in my communication of Sep
TENDER 70, 1857. 1t in substance stated that he
not certain which of two points he and Prof. NJ.
on but he thought they were on the left hand one,
which Prof. Mitchell thought the highest, while
he believed the right hand to be the most eleva-
ted. He said also that this was the only trip he had
ever made to the top of the Black Mountain at any
point, and that they got into cloud as they were
going up, and that the fog and mist thick
that they could not any Of the other points, &C.
Such a statement as this as to an occurrence hap
pening more than twenty years previous was not OF
tsefsufcicnt to raise more than slender presump'
ton as 10 which point in fact was assembled. 10
overthrow it, l published the statements of Prof
Mitchell, uniform in their character, running on to
the close of his life twenty-five years Afterwards
In his letter to Prof Henry he declared that at the
very time of his ascent he we'll knew that he was
not on the highest point of the Black Mountain
This reiterated in two letters to me- already made
public, in which he stated that he was then only on
peak the head of the Cat tail. and referred to
a memorandum made on the morning of the ascent
"at VIM Wilson's, on Cat.tail fork"
In each of two communications, published by him
in the Asheville Spectator, in June 1856. he made
similar declarations; and in the latter of them he
planned why it was that he and Mr.. Wilson failed to
get to the highest peak, viz: because of the mist
the mountains and the thick thick forests
through which they passed along bear trails,
&C.. He refers also TO his attempts to get to the
highest peak in 1888, and afrms that he then be-
came convinced fully that he not on it in 1885.
In his previous publication in 1874 he expressly sta
ted that he had never prior to that year, attained
the highest point. As these views were persisted in
up to close Of his life, might we'll insist that
his statements were entitled to vastly weight
than Mr.. Wilson's. Mr.. Wilson was on the top of
the Black only once, and that in a thick fog while
Prof. Mitchell was, according to his own statements,
it seven times from 1885 down to 1856, the date
Of his last publication Surprising them equally en-.
titled to credit the chances were seven to one in bis
favor, Independently of the fact that according to
his declarations four of these trips were made when
the weather was clear viz: when on Young's Point,
| at Yeates' Knob, when near the Bulls Head, and
lastly, when in 1856 he went along the horse path.
way cut out after my ascent to the highest peak
If little weight is to be given to Mr.. Wilson's
statement however, still less faith can be reposed in
the opinions Of other people as to when they BE-
Here he went. In fact, it is not shown, nor is it
probably true, that these persons had, prior to my
visit, ever been the highest peak, could have
pointed it out Since horse trails have been opened
to it. the timber cut away and little edice erect
ed on it, some of them have doubtless ascertained
| where it it,
In the next place, Prof Phillips, in referring to
| the heights stated by Prof Mitchell, strangely
fails to comprehend the point madein the controver-
! sy. 1t had been commended that by adding some
two hundred and thirty feet to the height Of Nor
canton, one of Dr. Ms measurements Appropriated
nearly to the real height of the most elevated peak
and it was therefore argued that he must have then
| ho, - IT, hat h,,f broo
cessive measurements on as many days made during
that same week the instrument used by him varied
with itself than three hundred feet-that it was
therefore wholly unreliable, and that, in fact Prof
NJ hirsef rejected its results, and declared to be
worthless, &c. insisted, therefore, that upon such
a showing there was no reason to assume that hi
was then the highest peak, rather than on thu
Cat TAIL where he said he was, perhaps on one O
the three intervening points, inasmuch as the differ
in the attitudes of the whole five was only abou
hundred feet, or less than onethird of the erro
his barometer made. II, in point of fact, he hat
then assembled the highest peak it might we'll hav'
been called after his name, even though he carried
no instrument at all with him.
The most extraordinary part, perhaps, of Prof
Phillips communication relates to the subject of tn
name of the peaks of the Black. He extracts sen
1 tence from my article of September IL, 1857, il
which stated that the story was "sheer fabrica
tom that the name Of Mt. Mitchell had been zap
piled generally" to the particular peak ascertaine'
now to be the highest. He then represents me a
having denied in substance and effect that the nam
of Mt. Mitchell had been applied to q peak of tn
Black, formerly regarded as the highest and refer
to statements published from 1889 down to a lat
period, in maps, gazeteers, &c. This is done with
full knowledge on his part, doubtless, that in m.
original letter to Prof. Henry, well in every on
of my subsequent publications, named Mt. Mitch
ell, and argued to show that it was not the sam
with Clingman's Peal, )" or the highest in fact Al
the circumstances referred to by him. existing ante
cedently to my publication of 1866, merely tend
prove that there was point of the Black designs
| tod Mitcho11 oco6 IN ha fho HIGHEST This