Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1871-09-06
SOMETHING ABOUT A SOUTHERN -L1rERA-
TURE"

The one great lesson taught by the re-
bellon with itsJfrightful sacrifice of life
and fearful expenditure of treasure, is
that we are nation-one people. Those
are true patriots now who recognize this
lesson and act upon it. Being one people
we want to blot out all past distinctive
Northern and Southern features as far as
climate, habits aud customs will permit.
We do not want Northern literature
! any more than we do southern,
or Eastern or Western. Literature is
the prodnct of intellectual culture and
effort and does not grow like corn wher-
ever il is wanted 1t flows from that COM
munity where brains and printing presses
are something priced above mere dollars
or sectional zeal and prejudices. If the
South wants literature of her own, she
will never have it by encouraging the
preiudices and sectionalism of the narrow
minded little souls who are always harping
for literature of "our own.n They have
no more need of country or of a true lit
erature than a minnow has for q river or
lake. A county or civil district is terrific
ry enough to compass their charity and
patriotism.
Literature is the ofspringof knowledge,
of religion, of industry and charity. 1t
is not a local production or the property of
a single generation. England oppressed
the Colonies, but they did not turn their
backs upon English literature. Napoleon
desolated Europe, but the conquered peo-
pie did not shut their eyes and refuse the
benefits of the science and learning of
Paris. America has her literature but it
is not all Northern, and never can be.
These zealots for a Southern literature cry
out against what they call Northern lit
erature, because it treats the rebellion as
crime. Well, it was crime-agreat crime,
and it will 80 be treated in history and lit
erature. A Southern literature can not
efface this great historical fact any more
than Pennsylvanians can blot out the his
tory of the whisky instruction, or New
York her Catholic riots.
But these Jealous Southerners need not
be so sensitive about the crime of the
rebellion for our legislation, our history
for all time and the recollections of our
people for generation will teach itmore
seriously than literature can impress it.
We repeat, that if the South wants lit
erature, the product, of her own people, she
must build school houses, encourage the
arts and sciences, increase knowledge, and
above all enlarge her charity. These par
tisans who fill the hearts of her people
with mean prejudices, who SOW the seeds
of sectional hatreds and close the doors
against Immigration, capital and enter
prise, will not only never give her litera-
ture, but they Will keep her impoversh-
ed, weakened and dependent for gen
erations. We do not expect Southerners
to read books or patronize' a literature
that reviles them and misrepresents them.
Such books are not part of literature.
Theyare very few compared with the great
mass published, and are the products of
minds on the one side, just as partisan and
mean as those in the South who hold them
up as the type of the literature of great
people and as the product of their "malig-
nifty" What we need North and South
is, that such little souls should find their
true level, and until they receive such
a position their opportunities for mischief
are not entirely gone. If these champions
of Southern literature were known, they
would prove very often TO be men who
know very little about literature, and that
that little they received through the char
ity of some Northern institution or friend
of education. They fill the Hon. Ben.
Hill's description of the Southern politi-
clans going about crying against Northern
civilization, with Northern hats on their
heads, Northern shoes on their feet, and
Northern coats on therlbacks."
EX-PREsIDENT JOHNSON, like the editor
of the oracle il willing to denart from