Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1868-09-05


after the lapse of many years. As yet,
America has produced no son worthy to |
stand 10 the lofty niche beside Rolin
and Hume and Macaulay, to trace the
record of her past fos the warning and
encouragement Of her children living
and unborn. Irving and Prescott have
chosen to deal in the shdowy knighthood |
of the Moorish and Spanish races, aud
have left to the pale and prosy pen of
Bancroft the deeds of the proud race
which took from the wilds of the six.
teenth century the lovely sites Gu which
they have built their homes aud cities.
Thus far he has done little more than
aggregate material winch it is drudgery
to read, and in that impntience always
indicative of moderate minds, betrays
partisanship for the present which he
would fain conceal for the past. Ner-
vous under the retirement Of his field,
he has betrayed q childish dissatisfaction
with the tardy honors to which he has
aspired, and clamors for the narrow and
unstable distinction of the politician.
lOblivious of the fact that people can
write their own history on their own hills,
and rcpudiate its compilation at the
hands of parvenu, he has wasted years
of life he might have made useful, and
falling TO reflect honor on the country
which produced him, has won no chaplet
of reuown for himself For base SUBJ
serviency to the passions of national
hour, the cold but slow hand of retribu-
tion has nailed him on the wheel of
time, where the events he would record
seem whirling beyond his visual powers,
leaving him to behold only those mighty
spirits who tower in the past for their
obedience to laws he had not the CO.
pacity to obey. Iu his prolixity he had
reached scarcely more than the opening
Of the first revolution, when the God Of
Nations, who makes history faster than
= Mr.. Bancroft can write it, terminated
our short career of ease and glory by the
opening of a second one; and while il
pleased Him to bestow upon us the
Rachel of Peace at the close of seven
years of defensive labor, it also pleased
Him to give to Mr.. Bancroft that
"strong delusion by which be saw
peace as the reward Of four years O.
aggression. Having in his trudginl
come up to the footprints of Washington
and the lustre of Mt. Vernon, his ey'
was suddenly ravished by the cheaI
tinscl which glistened on the plume 0
Grant from the time it left Fever river
in 1862, until it was thrown into th'
perilous eminence which had its Gilman
at Richmond in 1865.
The true historian trusts not himsel
in the stormy present, but, waiting I'll
the dust of time bespeaks the death o
prejudice, goes patiently to labor amonl
the mouldy records of the dead, ant
lays them bare and bright to capdi
inspection. His is work of self denial
He goes behind the haunts If men an
holds his solitary communion with III
dead. In the august presence of thos
temples whence hate and passion hav
flown, he cannot lie. Having left tn
gaze of envy, he cannot steal from th
helpless trust so wholly committed
his honor But it was consistent wit
the perverted taste of Mr.. Bancroft tina
he should pause in his historic vie
before the shadow of Washington I
caoss the gulf Of ninety years, that h,
like the loathsome caterpillar, migl
crawl and glutton on the chaplet Of Lee
Yet, true history will assert It's powe
and though its march be leaden.footc
as the slave, its coil will, like the gre
serpent of the Amazon, crush thl
which cannot live forever. There WI
yet come day for America when the
who may hold dear the memory Of tao
men who would compel our union vii
them and then rejectit will flourish Il
regret that they were ever born in
country so democratic as this; al
some historian, equal to the task
calling to perpetual remembrance tho
men of Confederate glory so recent
potent and now so silent, will, in h
charity for mediocrily and presumpdo
refuse to place Mr.. Bancroft on the pc
guard Of Justice, that the world may g
him the notoriety of proclaiming VIII
he attempted and what he did not d
AT length General Lee has spoke
There is not magnanimous soul in o
land who will not acknowledge him
be the finest product Of the present &C
fury. What his recent views were ,
were left alone to read in those hier
glyphics he has written with bis swo
on the fields of Virginia. The gre