The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1888-06-07
YES, WE NEED ONE.
AN HISTORIAN FOR THE SOUTH.
Let the Deeds of Valor of the Southern
Soldiers be Recorded as Well as those
of their Northern Brother.
Wilmington Star.1


d" At the cry of the helpless the
Mississippians rushed to arms, though
few and lily prepared for war.
Among the earlier Of my memories
was the grief of the people, because of
the massacre at Fort Mimms, where
many of our neighbors died in the
fulfllment of that noblest motive of
human action, which causes one to
give his life that others may ike. No
monument for the instruction of the
rising generation commentaries the
event, and the commonly used school
books are not devoted to Southern his
tory. At Pensacola, or Fort Bowie,
and in the battle of New Orleans,
Mississippi bore an honorable part
E,r-PresiaeAf Da7is' Recent Letter.
Our readers know that for nearly
twelve years the Star has been urging
upon its readers three things very much
needed First, school histories for
Southern children second, faithful,
we'll written history of North Carolina
in one volume for libraries, families
and students and third, a history of
North Carolina IN the late war.
There is good schooI history in
the work of the late Alex. H. Stephens,
of Georgia. 1t does not insult the
memories of the dead and living he
roes by presuming to teach them lies
for historic facts. 1t is an ably pre-
pared work, and on the line of the
Constitution and the vertiec. It
ought to be used in all Southern
schools. Ex-President Davis is cor
rect when he says that 'sthe commonly
used school books are not devoted
to Southern history Net bit of it,
Take up Northern sfhooI history and
while you learn of any sa,irmish and
event in New England history, from
the landing of the Pilgrams up to the
war or later, you will not hear of the
battles of Almanac, Moore's Creek
Bridge, Ramseur's Mill, and SO Oh in
North Carolina, or of the bold con-
duct Of the men of the Cape Fear in
suppressing the oppressive Stamp Act.
| And SO with all of the States. \ few
leading battles in which AorlhcjH
Generals figured arc recorded, but
you will never learn Southern history
from Northern writers Of school his
tories.
There is needed very much libra
" history of North Carolina. Moore's
sfh0oi history as rewritten answers,
but there is no we'll written, clear con
nected narrative of events in North
Carolina. Such 4 book is a desidera-
tum. If Colonel Saunders or Mrs.
Spencer or Colonel Waddell would
undertake such a work it would be
we'll done and would meet with great
demand of the people. In the two
series of history of American States
published by two Northern houses there
is no announcement that North Caro-
lima is to have a hearing. We have
seen it stated that such work would
be a losing business, and hence
the hesitancy to publish. We do not
believe this. If a N0thryu writer were
to undertake the job it would be a
losing business and because he would
not be in sympathy and he might not
have the needed information. A re-
cent work by Northern pen greatly
sllnders North Carolina \ great deal
of our history is LEGAL but is very in
teresting to North Carolinians. Il
one of the Northern houses could in,
duce Miss Fisher to prepare carefully
for North Carolina a work similar
to Cookies work on Virginia, it would
"sell like hot cakes. But NORTH
Carolina history of the size of Prof
Fishers very able '.Universal History,
or Green's great one 70lume - History
Of the English People," written by
some loyal son native here and t
the manner born" is what is needed
and what would be bought extensively
from Currituck to Cherokee.
The Star has many times insisted
that the history of North Carolina il
the war of the States should be written
1t is 4 necessity. There is no worl
from 4 Southern pen that has not done
injustice TO the State. The NirginlaI
writers has been particularly unfortu
nate in this matter. If we though
that any suggestion of ours would b
needed we would urge upon the mex
Legislature to pass bill providing 10
S the gathering of every written and un
(; written document that bears upol
S North Carolina in the late war. Ever
4; address, every written newspaper article
every manuscript that exists should b
! procured and it should be made tn
4 duty OF the State Librarian to hav
I these placed in books made for tn
D purpose and properly numbered as t
volumes, etc, with an accompanyin:
lnacs 1t IS such material that i
years TO coaae will Ike of priceless value
p 1t is just such documents as Macaula
:; used with such picturesque and splede