The Portland daily press., 1876-11-01
FOR PRESIDENT,
RUTHERFORD B.. HAYES,
A Southern Text.BOOk.

|
A Southern Textbook,
Some weeks since Capt. 81. N. Fairbanks
of Bangor while travelling in Virginia fount
in a bookstore in Winchester textbook
bearing the title ''The New School History o
the United States of America, from the
earliest discoveries to the present time, by
J. S. Blackburn, Principal Of Potomac Acad
emy, Alexandria, Va, and w. N. Mcdonald
A. NJ. Principal of Male High School, Louis
vile, KY" The book was published at Bal
timore, and the copy which Capt. Fairbanks
secured was of the eig hth edition and bore
the date 1875. On inquiry he learned that
the textbook was used in the public schools
of Virginia and approved by the educational
! authorities of that state.
Feeling some curiosity as to the story oil
| the war as told by Southern writer Capt.
Fairbanks brought the book home with him
and read it through. He found that it was
| thoroughly Southern in its teachings, that
the war of rebellion was characterized as a
| heroic struggle for liberty, that Lincoln was
| spoken of as sectional president, that Jeffer-
son Davis was pictured as a hero and mar
| tyr, that the arguments for secession were
| continually reiterated, that the Union armies
were disparaged and the rebel armies exalted,
and that Southern children were taught that
''the struggle for liberty" only failed because
Southerners were not united, and that it could
succeed if renewed by united South. In
censed at these pernicious teachings Capt.
Fairbanks took the book to the office of the
Bangor Wing that its scope and spirit might
! be made public iu the North. The Whig
makes copious extracts trom the volume fully
justifying the severe comments it passes upon
| the book and those who have introduced it
into Southern schools. Some of these ex-
tracts we reproduce below.
The book shows this: That the South in
spite of its protestations to the contrary,
| does not accept the situation, that it still
cherishes its dream of independence, that it
teaches its children the same arguments
which led their fathers into rebellion. that
it seeks to impress upon their minds that the
South failed only because it was not united,
aud that Southern independence can be
achieved if all SOutherners will work for that
| object. To strengthen his teachings the au-
thor does not hesitate to falsify history, and
| his course is approved by the state authori-
ties OF Virginia. The children of the South
are taught not to accept the situation, are
| nowhere told that disputed questions were
settled by the war, but are everywhere
loI tn ipfo hot
be decided, and that the South has
only to bide its time. Throughout the
volume the efforts of Union men aresbelittled,
the efforts of rebels extolled. There need be
no stronger evidence that the South does not
| accept the situation, and that it does look for
ward to renewal of the struggle, if not on
the battlefield in the halls of Congress, at
some more favorable time.
The following are few extracts from the
volume conveying some idea of its spirit.
They could easily be multiplied, but to thor
oughly comprehend the tone of the book it
should be read as a whole. Its tone of dis
satisfaction with the situation cannot fully be
conveyed by extracts. 1t will be noticed that
the spirit of the volume shows itself more
clearly in the Questions for examination"
than elsewhere:
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
At the Presidential election in the fall of
| 1860, Abraham Lincoln, sectional candi-
date, was elected. He was the nominee of the
Republicans, who had openly declared their
| hostility to slavery.
A large portion of the Southern people re-
| garded bis election. under the circumstances,
| as virtual commencement of hostities.
| They asserted that for years they had been
prevented by mob violence from enjoying
their constitutional rights in the North; that
the spirit of abolilionism would now, under
the countenance, and by means of, Federal
| power, assume the aggressive; and that it
| was time for them TO abandon Government
| which had fallen into the hands of their
avowed enemies.
| THE SECESSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
| South Carolina was the first to act. On
the goth of December, 1860, convention,
| assembled in Charleston, declared that "the
| Union before existing between South Car
olna and other states, under the name of the
United States OF America, was dissolved.'
In justification of this measure, it was alleged
that the property, lives, and liberty of the cit
izens we're threatened by the aggressive as.
pcct of the incoming administration.
1t was also further asserted, that the right
OF secession was necessary part of that SOW
ereignty, the recognition of which had been
extorted from England by force; and which
had never been, for moment, surrendered
to the Federal Government.
''THE CONFEDERATE STATES"
Ol the 4th of February, 1861, delegates
from all the seeded states assembled al
Montgomery, Alabama, and formed a union
/ nd fhn nf thn foAo o.
of America"
They adopted constitution similar for the
most part, to that under which they had
lived.
Jefferson Davis was elected provisional
President; Cabinet was appointed; and &
Government, modelled after the one at Wash
ingtOn, was at once organized.
At the same time commissioners were SEN
to the Border states, requesting their coop
Grafton.
To Washington, also, agents we've sent
formally announcing the action of the sover
eiga states, and asking for a peaceful settle
ment of difficulties.
THE SEIZURE. OF THE MILITARY POSTS II
THE SOUTH.
The seeding states took possession of al
the military posts within their limits.
This was, Tor the most part, accomplished
without bloodshed. The garrisons were gen
orally small, aud easily intimidated, and, in
few instances. they joined the seceders.
This forcible appropriation of Federal prop
erty excited much resentment in the North
where now, for the first time, correct ide
of the real condition of things was making it
way.
In justification of their conduct, the seced
ers alleged that the forts were on their sol
and had been built with the common none
! of the UniOn. and that those within the LIN