The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1891-08-30
CURRY VERSUS DOUYMY.
CIVILIZATION North And SOUTH.
Extracts From Recent Valuable and Inter
eating Article in n southern Joornai
by DR.. j. l.. NJ. Curry.
Editor Montgomery Advertiser:

EtftOf 1ttHtEDHitfy
A considerable portion of tho Advertisers
AT Random" department. in its issue Of the
18th instant. is given up TO extracts from the
writings Of foreigner named Boutmy, the
object of which extracts is TO show the
great superiority in Christianity and general
refinement and civilization Of the people and
States Of New England aud the North over
those of the South. Among the statements Of
this foreign writer who, we are told, is quito
famous and accomplished and entitled to
high regard in his special field is one in the
following quoted words:
THE sons OF gentlemen lin the South who
could not seek their education in England,
had no resource but the cheap college, Will
liam and Mary, where preceptOrs were, IN
default of better selected from the conVlcts.
Their ignorance was extreme. This was the
condition of the whole South. The two Car
olnas had only five schools at the end of the
royal period. Alabama, Mississippi and
Missouri were still without any as late as
1880. Virginia was but little better on"
This famous and accomplished and highly
to be regarded" foreign writer then goes On
70 announce that while New England was
developing an admirable system OF popular
instruction" and growing IN grace aud clyill-
zatiOn. the people OF the South had become a
mass Of semj-bar barians who adopted tur-
bulent manners to avoid the imputation OF
cowardicen and that Virginia especially was
moving speedily into a state Of savagery.'
Ii had been well, blr. Editor. if. while re-
producing the extract from the foreign writer
in disparagement of the South and laudatlon
of the North. you or your contributor mad at
the same time reproduced or published spe-
cifc facts and figures showing the ignorance
g.. e he f,raiftv Guoh fapta
| and figures abound, and a clear and forci1le
statement of them has been recently made by
one who is much better informed and moro
reliable in this special field than can be
any man who lives three thousand miles away
and writes and speaks with foreign tongue
and gets his literature on the subject wholly
from Northern sources. refer to an article
by Dr. j. l.. NJ Curry. in which he says
Much misapprehenslon and ignorance
| exist among cultivated people IN reference 70
the status OF education in the South before
| the war Academies and colleges abounded.
| By the census Of 1860 the population of tho
| North was about nineteen million, and Of the
South about eight million, one-thlrd Of whom
we're slaves At this time the North had 2J5
colleges. l ,lO7 professors and 2sO44 students
while the South had 260 colleges, ,4s7 profess
sors and n, 055 students. DR.. kufner IN his
report AS State Superintendent OF Education
in 1872 said that Virginia, considering the
white population only, had larger proper
ton of her sons in superior institutions OF
learning probably than any State OF country
in the world, and, including the negro popu-
lation she was first on this continent. and sec
ond onlv TO Scotland among all nations. The
University of Virginia in ante-bellum days
had q higher standard for the degree OF mas
ter of arts than any other institution IN the
United States.
-
All the States. North and South. should
hang their heads in shame for their criminal
neglect of the higher education OF women
for gr0ssest Injustice in discriminating against
the weaker EEK; but TO Georgia. | believe. III
her charter OF the Georgia Female College,
in 1896, is due the hOnor-no small One-ot
| being the first civilized State IN the world 70
| incorp crate an institution with power 10
confer baccalaureate degrees on women.
submit that Dr. Curry merits higher re-
| gard as authority on the subject under con-
| sderatiOn than the famous and accom-
| plishedr foreign writer. and it would have
! been eminenty appropriate 10 have accom-
| panied the foreigners falsehOOds with the
native authors truths.
| Then. in reply to the foreigners contemptu-
| Gus alluson to William and Mary College
it might well have been asked what Northern
institution sent forth greater statesmen and
| jurists than Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee,
| Peyton Randolph. Edmund Randolph, George
| Wythe. Edmund PendletOn, james Monroe,
| John TAYLOR John Marshall anda host OF others
eminent as jurists cOunselOrs and statesmen,
all of whom were sons Of the cheap William
and Mary" and of that Virginia which the
| foreign writer says was moving speedily into
q state Of sayagery."
And, rs further test of the truth Of the
accomplished foreign writer's assertion Of
the debasing and brutalizing influence Of
| Southern life and institutions, and the
| ChristianiZing. eleyating and generally re-
| fning effect OF Northern blood and training.
the Advertiser writer might have invited
comparison between George Washing
ton and Ulysses S. Grant between
| Robert T. Lee and William Tecumseh
Sherman: between Stonewai Jackson and
! =. II. Sheridan; between Albert Sidney John
ston and Benja amin T. Butler between Jefler-
son Davis. Southern Secretary of War of tho
United States. and William W. Belknap. Il
| Northern Secretary: and between Aaron Burr.
| a Northern Vice-Presdent Of the Union. de
| scended from generations OF New England
| ancestors and John O. Calhoun. a Southern
Yice-President. with not q drop Of New Eng
| land blood in his veins
This foreign writer who, 5000 miles away.
airs in sounding phrase his ignorance about
this country. declares that 1t is impossible to
exaggerate the influence of the solid. rellg-
iOus kernel OF New England upon the moral
destinies Of the race and upon this il would
not have been ill-timed TO have begged him
to state whether Henry Ward Beecher or
Schuyler Colfax is to be regarded as the per
feet fruit Of that kernel, or whether ii is to be
found in the growing laxity of the marriage
tie in New England and in that religious sect
established there upon the doctrine that
every man is considered Is married 10 every
woman and every woman TO every man.
Much moro might be said quite pertinent TO
the subject, but / desist for the present.
! Enough has been said to show that the ac-
complished foreign writer is not entitled 10
| high regard" in the field of American his
| tory, whatever may be his merit in any other
, field and in conclusion let me urge the Ad-
vertiser TO use its influence increasingly TO I'M
| press upon the youths of Alabama and the
| Southland those Of maturer age as well-the
| importance and the duty Of giving pre-
cedence IN their reading to the lit
erature Of their own section rather
than to that of ignorant and
mislRformed European writers and bigoted
enyenomed Northern essayists and so-called
historians. Let them read Curry rather than
I Boutmy For the poison If the one give
them the antdote of the other. Let than
read the literature that teaches them that
! Washington and Lee and jackson aud john
ston are higher types than Grant and Sher-
Nan and Sheridan and Butler, and that in
JEFFERSON Davis whether in private or in pub
lie Life the world has far higher type than
| in Belknap or III Blaine. Let them read the
| literature which shows where the pulpit has
been most used for the indoctrination Of dam
gerous 'isms," and the promulg cation of inf
deity aud political aud sectional bitterness,
and the encouragement Of fratrlcIdal strife,
and where il has been most devoted 20 the
| preaching OF the pure and indebted religion
| Of the Prince Of Peace and the incubation of