The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-06-26
Southern School Books.

our neonle are aware how universally the
walls of wrath and abuse are being poured
upon our devoted heads by the Northern
Soutb-baring presses. because forsooth a few
Ia minority it would seem, to our
shame ,)-of the Southern people are I'M
willing to have their children educated from
books which teach that the noble patriots,
who fell in defence Of their homes. and the
liberties oftheir native state, were Rebels
and TRAITORS
Here. for example, is a mild, mild, COM
pared with many we have seen article from
the Minneapolis, Minnesota, Tribune, and
Farmers Union:
ssWhen Senator Blaine, the other day on
the floor of the senate. gave those delectable
ouotations from southern school books indi-
eating that the chief aim of southern educa-
ton was to teach undying hatred of the
Yanks." Mr.. Vance, of North Carolina, made
haste to arise and assure the senate that al
though a few such books were published
during the war, not one of them was III use
to-day. Mr.. Nance's statement was perhaps
generally true. 1t is very likely that none
of the books published during the war are
now in use. They were printed on such
coarse, discolored paper, and their typogra-
ply was so inferior, that this would not be
likely to remain III use long after better
workmanship could be secured from the
North. Perhaps Mr.. Vance was not aware
that after the close of the war, no facilities
for frst-class printing existing in the South,
a corporation called the university Pub
fishing Company was organized in New
York for the purpose of furnishing the
southern schools with books prepared by
southern authors. In quoting from the
books issued by this concern we will not 90
back to the mouldy past but take the publ
cations of this present year OF our Lord and
the year preceding-the peculiar era of con
%ciliatiDn aad of high professions of love for
the Union on the part of the Southern
leaders" Owe think our leaders deserve
this sheer for their sychopancy! Think of
Gov. Colquitt. of Ga, seated on the beastly
Beecher's pulpit, and talking the old hum
bug about Cancellation! Ed. f. 4 NJ.
s'Ofthe date ofIS7S we have the geograph-
ical series prepared by the rebel Lieut..
Maury. The books are neat and handsome
in appearance, the mechanical portion being
the product of northern skill; but the con-
tents are slimed all over with the doctrine of
state sovereignty. 1t would seem that a geo
graphy would be the last book to be en-
ployed in teaching political theories or incul-
eating partizan hatred, but Maury' object
does not seem to be SO much to impart a
knowledge of the earth's surface to the
southern youth as to Undue them with the
peculiar tenet of southern political philoso-
ply. He persistently refers to the United
States not as a nation, but as a collection of
nationalities, employing the pronoun they"
of the principally of Great Britain. He
misrepresents the result of the Revolution
in giving birth to a nation by saying: Fl
nally, after seven years, We were acknowl-
edged by Great Britain herself to be Thir-
teen Independent Powers. Afterwards, the
Thirteen agreed to unite under the constitu-
Here is laid in the youthful mind
the foundation for the doctrine of a separate
state existence which may blossom into a
new assertion of the right of secession in the
next generation.
But Holmes series of Readers, issued by
the same house, are still worse. The selec-
ions are of "a varied character, but all stories
or sketches calculated to give an idea of our
historical life, or to i%nculcate a national patri-
Otism, are omitted no tale of patriotic daring
or achievement. The child would never
know from these readers that he had a coun-
try. They tell about Scipio, and Hannibal,
their achievements, but not a word
about the battle at Bunker Hill, about
Washington crossing the Delaware, or his
men heroically enduring priyation at Valley
Forge.
During the present year A. S. Barnes &
CO., have issued The Southern Students
Hand Book for Reading and Oratory," by
John G.. James, superintendent of the Texas
Institute, Austin. 1t abounds in
selections of the bitterest and most
malignant sort. Every possible opportunity
IS taken to stir up hostiities against the
United States government, and cast CON
upon it and to hold it up in a giganti,,
machine of oppression, grinding up "a brave
md suffering people in its bloody jaws.
is a rabid states rights speech OF Alex
under ii. Stephens, a stilted eulogy on
Robert f. Lee, but nothing about Washing
on or Lincoln. One of the reading lessons
erms the President of the United States a
lar and an autocrat."