The daily state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 188?-1891, 1891-04-03
col. SAUNDERS CLAIM FAME

ho d SoluASA, NiSo us u statesman, and |
skilled as political adviser, his fame
will rest most surely and securely upon
his historical labors and upon his great
published work "The Colonial Records
Ia every way these volumes are models.
Thanks TO the late MAJ. PETER NJ. HALE,s
good taste, a style of printing and bind
ing was adopted which gave Col. SAuN. |
DERs' rich and valuable contributions. a
beautiful and enduring setting. Like an
elegant portrait, or more like cher
iShed letter by an esteemed ancestor, it
Is prlzed all the more highly
because OF its beautiful and durable
frame. There Is no need to go into
the difficulties attending the publication
OF this mine of history. To the remov-
ing of all difficulties and giving to the
future historian and lovers of history
valuable contribution, Col. SAUNDERS
brought bis best energies and labored
coz AMoRE. He enjoyed it, and when
last year Ne sixth and closing volume
came from the press, and he saw the re-
suit of his labor, he felt that the great
work of his life was completed. Know
Ing how he wrought through great af1lc-
tions and how be labored when suffer-
ing the most terrible pain, his friends
have never understood how he could ac-
complish so much under such physical
disabilities. He had the wll-power to
do the work, and when it was finished
he had not the strength to resist the in-
creasing attacks which resulted in his
death
We have thought that possibly
when be held the last volume of The
Colonial Record in his hands, withered
by pain, some such feeling possessed him
as GlBBON felt when he had written the
last line of his celebrated "Rise and Fall
Of the Roman Empire He had literally
lived amid theR)m ans in their wealth and
magniicence, he had in spirit revelled
with them in their luxury, and rejoced
with them in their conquests. He be
held them tottering with sadness, ant
when their ruin came he felt that hi
own fortunes were destroyed So feelingl,
did he enter into all their hopes and plan
and so graphically depict their history
that when his great work was fnishe,
be felt that life contained little for him
II is statel that after the concluding
portiol had been sent to the printer, b
lit his cigar and walked out in the nigh
to think. He told his friends that sue
a sense of lonesomeness passed over hir
as he never felt before. He felt friend
less, homeless and alone. He had bee
so wrapped up in his history and it
characters, and had so poured his ow
life into bis work, that he could nc
soon take interest in contemporaneor
affairs.
If called upon to state the most walt
able Of any single contribution made b
Col. SAUNDERS to the history of tt
State, we would, without hesitation, sa
that it was his able and, to our mine
unanswerable defense of the Regulator
What JUDGE SCHENCK has done for tt
fame Of the brave men who fought
the battle of Guilford Court House, Co
SAUNDERS did for HERMAN HUsBAN
and his patriotic band of Regulator
The writer's of North Carolina histo
had belittled them and made it appe
that they were nothing more than bal
of marauders. Until Col. SAUNDE
undertook to give careful Investigate
Of the war of the Regulators, no effC
that gained attention had been made
free their names from calumny, aud gi
their uprising its true significance. O.
SAUNDERS showed that their prot'
against British usurpation and extorti
was the beginning of the revolutions
war, and that the sturdy yeomen who w
engaged in it were as patriotic as thu
who afterwards followed the leaders
of Washington. For this service, ht
entitled to lasting gratitude. In
limits of hasty newspaper article
impossible to speak further of his
torical labors Many of the results
his Investigations will never be kno
to the world Bat he gave in endur
form the proofs of his ability as
torian, and his love of the early hist
of his native State, and his jealous {
that its good name, and the good n;
OF our ancestors WHO settled the 81
should be defended from the slurs
innuendoes cast upon North Caro-
and its early settlers.
Upon these labors and The Colo
ksT5' !" rests his place in history