The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1897-05-05
scHOCL HlSTGRIE S.
The South has Done More Than any Other
Section TO Make American History.

thern papers on the use Of school hlsto- |
ries of the United States by Southern au-
thors i'll Southern schools is fully met by |
a paper prepared for the Southern Edu-
cational Association, by Rev. DR.. J. VIII |
liam Jones, of Miller School, Va, chap
lain-genera1 of the United Confederate
Veterans Association. The paper of
DR.. Jones was written before these at
tacks were made, and had therefore no
reference to them. But it fully meets
the points made by these sectional and
partisan 1tteranceS.
After referring to the Importance Of
the study Of American history i'll schools
and colleges and of establishing chairs
devoted to that subject, DR.. Jones calls
attention to the special claims of our
national history for consideration i'll the
South. The South, he points out, has
done more than any other section to make
American history. The first permanent
English colony established on this CONT
nent was at jamestown, i'll Virginia. In
the Indian wars Virginia, the Carolinas,
Maryland and Georgia bore their full
share. In the struggle for independence
Patrick Henry led the first public and
pronounced opposition to the rule of
Great Britain i'll his resolution against the
stamp act i'll the Virginia House of Bur
gesses and his famous burst of patriotic
! eloquence. Tie first blood of the Revo-
luton was shed, not at Lexington, Mass,
but May I6, I77I, at Alamauce, n. c. At
Charlotte, Mecklenburg county, n. c., &
Declaration of Independence was adopt
ed on the 2oth of May, I775, more than
year before that adopted by the Cont
mental Congress at Philadelphia. North
Carolina instructed her delegation to
vote for a Declaration of Independ-
ence, if one should be offered in
Congress; Virginia instructed her dele
CATION to Inovea Declaration of Independ-
ence, and accordingly Richard Henry
Lee, of Virginia, made the motion which
resulted i'll the immortal document which
Thomas Jefferson wrote.
In the war which followed not only
did George Washington lead the armies
of the colonies, but official figures show
that the Southern colonies furnished a
much larger proportion of the troops who
won the independence of the country
than the Northern colonies. Southern
statesmen were conspicuous in forlnu
: lating and having adopted the constitu
ton which elnarated from the convention
of 1873. Old Virginia gave as e free gif
to the Union her "North-western Terri
tory out OF which the States of Ohio
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wiscon
g sin were afterward carved; North Carroll
Y ia gave the territory which afterwar,
q constituted the State of Tennessee, am
Georgia donated what became the State
Z of Alabama and Mississippi.
Il From the formation of the Union t
S 1860 the South always led in the grea
n events of fIIAmerican history.
g. In the war Of 1912 the soldiers who wo
most 1aurels were Andrew Jackson, c
= Tennessee and William Henry Harrison
: of Virginia, and in the Mexican war til
e commanders CT both of our armies (Tay
# lor and Scott were Soutl1erners; the N;
jority of the brilliant officers they gatl
cred around them, such as Jefferson d;
y Wis, Albert Sidney Johnson, Robert l
), Lee, T. J. Jackson, Joseph E. Jollnsto]
John B. Magruder, G. 7. Beauregar'
Te while very large proportion of the rar
in and file of our armies were from II
r. Southern States
"A From Washington to Grant, a perit
of eighty years, Southern-born men fill
y the Presidency of the United States
OF ffty-seven years and Northern men
of only twenty-three years, while Southe
4 men filed the office of chief justice
the Supreme Court for sixty-tI1ree yea
q, and were always prominent i'll the Cal
' net, the Senate, the House of Represe1
u. atives, and foreign ministers and in eN
he ry position of honor and responsibi1it
ce It may be added that during all the
. - years there was no stain upon any
these Southern men and no scandal &C
~ nected with the administration of a
one of them. 1t is another INTEREST,"
fact that every accession of territory
.'' the United States, from the purchase
ne Louisiana to that of Alaska, has been
led der Southerr-borr President and Il
of ally over the bitter opposition of the N
of thern States.
And in the great ''War Between
90 States, " i'll 1876, the President of
he Northern States abraham Linco
he and his second Vice-President {
IN successor Andrew Jackson) were Sor
&c ern men, as were some of their alb
soldiers and sailors, such as Winf
Scott, Geo. H. Thomas Candy, Bl
SIX Sykes, Ord Getty, Anderson, Mel
md and Alexander, Farragut, Porter
De- Goldbrorough. And America car
70 afford to drop from her "bead rolf
!, names of Jefferson Davis, Albert Sid
III Johnson, Robert Edward Lee, Stone,
sla- Jackson, Jos. E. Forrest, ]. E. B.
was art, A. P. Hill, Bedford Forest, ,Stephel
lar Lee, John B. Gordon, Pat C1eburne
for B. Hood, w. J. Hardee, ]. A. Early,
=, S. Ewell, D. H. Hill, Wade Ha1nr
'0Au Kirby Smith, G. 7. Beauregard,
)sed Lee and many others of their conlra
nor to ignore the ragged, bare-fo
heroes Of the rank and file who follc
- these leaders to an immortality of
the as they illustrated the brightest page
ems, American history.
heir But still stronger reason for e
cad fishing chairs of 7American hist
4l,or in our Southern universities and col
is the fact that we have done SO
o"i' toward writing the history we have
lders and left the story SO completely to Q
)und that we have had but sCant justice
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