The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1895-10-31
A RaNcoRoUs BOOK.

press OF a firm of publishers at Rich
mond, Va, a book entitled "Lee's
School History Of the United States, y
which is liable to do incalculable mis-
chief by poisoning the minds of the
youth of the South as to the real causes
Of the War of the Rebellion, and the
incidents in that struggle. Its author
is Mrs. Susan Pendleton Lee, daughter
of Gen. William N. Pendleton, of the
rebel army, and wife of Gen. Edmund
c. Lee, also Of the rebel army, and a
teacher of some repute in the South.
The professed object of the book is
to tell the history of the United States
from a Southern standpoint, and to give
the children of the South better idea
of that history than can be obtained
from books written by men living north
| OF Mason & D1Xon's line.
The authoress has been so successful
in the task that she set herself as to
receive the enthusiastic Endorsement of
Southern Governors, Senators, Judges,
exGenerals, ministers of the gospel,
Superintendent of Education, editors,
teachers, etc., etc. Scores of flattering
testimonials from such are printed to
show that the book meets a long-felt
want in Dixie.
The author makes great pretense of
fairness, and claims to have authority for
every statement in accepted histories of
the country-the War Records of the
Rebellion, etc.-but the pretense is
CHASTITY failure from the outset. The
Puritans who settled New England are
shown to great disadvantage in COMPARE
son with the Cavaliers" who settled
Virginia. She sometimes strains herself
ludicrously in doing this. For example,
she paints in darkest colors the intoler-
ance of the Puritan settlers of Massachu-
sets in driving out everybody who did
not swallow the whole Westminster Cate
chism without gulp; but she thinks
that the Virginians firing everybody off
the colony who was not an Episcopalian
rather trivial misdemeanor.
Great pains are taken to prove that
the New Englanders were the original
Secessionists, and that after the Union
was formed they kept it disturbed for
many years by their threats to withdraw
and break it up.
The Modification Ordinance of 1882
Is justified, because the tariff was I'm
usually oppressive" and President Jack
sons course is described in this way:
Cen jackson was an earnest believer in
the rights of the States under the Consti,u-
ton, and was opposed to the tariff. But he
was still more opposed to any weakening of
his power and infringement Of his preroga-
tive. Had he been Governor of South Caro-
lima he would doubtless have done his ut
most TO prevent the collecting of the ohnox-
ious duties. But being the President he |
exerted the power of that Office to the ut
most.
The wretched grammar of these sem
fences is almost as bad as the idea they
convey, which is that Jackson's support |
of the Constitution and laws was not due |
to any sense of patriotic duty, but merely |
to an arrogant desire to make the most |
of his authority.
The slavery question is discussed IN |
ertenso through many pages, and with |
much bitter animadversion against the
Abolltlonlsts.
The matter of foreign immigration is
thus delicately described:
Few of these foreigners came into the |
Southern States The people of the South |
did not invite them. There was no public |
land there to be given TO anyone who would |
occupy il. The negroes were sufficient for |
the cultivation of the soil, and far better
adapted to the climate, and the whites
shrank from bringing into their midst the
uncongenial elements from over the sees.
Their ignorance OF all things American, their /
inability TO distinguish between one State and |
another and their want of interest or SYM
patty for the traditions of The past made /
them undesirable neighbors to men who
loved their States with passionate devotion,
and were willing to risk every thing to pre- |
serve and defend them. Thus the hefero-
geneous mass of foreign thought and feeling
took possession of the Northwest and /
greatly increased the divergence of feeling
and interest between the two sections.
The brutal assault on Senator Sumner
il described:
Even in the halls of Congress calumny |
and libels of Acknowledgement filled up many /
long harrangues. Senator Sumner. of Mas
sachusrtts, was very abusive of Senator But
Ter, of South Carolina, then absent from the