Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-04-14
Colonel Arerr,s New Book.


Colonel L. w. Avery has about ready
for the press what must prove to be a
most entertaining book. 1t is a history of
the past twenty-five years in Georgia,
modelled somewhat after the Memories"
of Colonel w. II. Sparks. Hardly formal
and steady enough for history, it will be
more consequential than mere personal
gossip. 1t is a shame and blot upon the
name of our State that we have no COM
plete history, %recounting the deeds of
her sons, the progress of her institutions
or the wisdom and sincerity of her life.
As there seems to be no prospect for
getting such a work as a whole, the next
best thing is to take it IN sections or
scraps.
The period selected by Colonel Avery
covers the most dramatic part of Geor-
gia's history. 1t covers the lurid and
turbulent days that preceded the war be-
tween the States-the whole of that war
itself, in which from the first to last
Georgia bore a conspicuous part, furnish
ing many of its leaders and the theatre
for its most terrific and decisive strug-
gles-the strenuous and bitter contest
over reconstruction that followed, and
the glorious era of rehabilitation in which
we are now living. Indeed, Colonel
Avery has the elements and opportunity
for the making of a great book, one that
will live to the honor of his State and
himself.
To 1oaun ont auanFo 4hn~n.1~ao -
a mastery array of men there are to
touch his pen with fire. Bob Toombs,
the genius of revolution. moving like a
king among the men of go, hurrying
with unstayed hand to let slip the ele-
ments of a wal in the smoke and din of
which his power and kingliness were to
be lost forever. Gordon, who, with
pulses kindling in his boyish wrist,
moved to the right hand of Lee and
fought like a demigod through the scenes
that broke his chieftain's heart. Brown,
the pallid, forceful mountaineer who
held the helm through Georgia's blood
lest days. and went through a revolution
as the foil of its President, standing
for the sovereignty of the States against
a centralized c~Onfederacy. Ben Hill.
the matches orator and constitutional
debater, who led the forces of the
administration in the Confederate Sen
ate and modelled the judicial system for
the struggling South. Howell Cobb, the
wise and eloquent statesman, who chal-
lenged more national thought, perhaps,
than any Georgian, except Crawford,
and anne out of the Cabinet to stand
with his people. Francis Barlow and
Tom Cobb-those early martyrs to
a aus to which both had con-
secrated their lives-lost, as comets
that fill the skies with glory and then
sweep beyond the reach of mortal vision.
Colquitt, the brave soldier, the pure
statesman and the leader whose life re
PEELED and whose strength deied a cru
SADIE of accusation that seemed over
whelming-all these and hundreds of
others, of kinship in worth and reputa.
ton with these, who marched through
the thrilling and desperate scenes of the
past three decades, with the hearts of
men and the conservation of saints. All!
there is an impulse and inspiration in the
lives of these men-in the history of
Georgia's aspiration and achievement in
the thirty years gone, that would fill the
wrist of an imbecile with throbbing and
eager sentences.
We shall look with the greatest interest
for the appearance of Colonel AYery's
book.