The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-04-20

| Editors Messenger:
| / enclose you herewith an admirable ar
| ticle by Rev. DR.. ]. William Jones, the
| logic of which Is that we should have
| chairs of American history In our south
ern colleges and universities, with COM
| petent professors who shall teach the
truth concerning the history of the United
| States and prepare text books for use in
| our schools and institutions Of learn
ing. His statements in regard to the
influence of the south In shaping the des-
| TIMES Of the country are incontrovertable
| and cannot be successfully answered. for
| they are matters Of history and true az
| proofs Of holy writ, and you will oblige
| many old confederates by giving DR..
| Jones' article a place In your columns.
| This matter Of text books and histories
| for our schools was brought up and freely
discussed at a meeting Of the confederate
i camp, held recently, and it should be kept
| before our people until justice is done our
| section. We only ask that the truth of
history should be asserted and that our
| growing youth should be taught 1t.
Early Impressions are always the most
| vivid and enduring and are seldom erased
from the mind. At this time, when those
who acted well their part in our glorious
| Struggle IOT independence II IdplulS
passing away, it is not only eminently
proper, but a duty We owe to pOsterity,
to insist that in our southern schools the
textbooks used should speak the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth.
The few confederates who are still liv-
ing, and who helped to make history, only
ask Of those who have charge of our edu-
n n tiono1 institutions To transmit that his
tory to the rising generations, without
establishment or attempt at display, but
clad only in the simple garb of truth.
The bitter attack of some of the North
ern papers on the use of school histories
of the United States by southern authors
In southern schools is fully met by a pa
per prepared for the Southern Educational
Association by Rev. DR.. j. William Jones,
Of Miller School, Va, chaplain. general OF
alton. The paper of DR.. Jones was writ
ten before these attacks were made, and
had therefore no reference to them. But
1t fully meets the points made by these
sectional and partisan utterances.
THE SOUTH'S GLORIOUS RECORD.
After referring to the Importance Of the
study Of American history in schools and
colleges and of establishing chairs devoted
to that subject. DR.. Jones calls attention
to the special claims of our national his
tory Ior consideration in the south. The
south, he points out, has done more than
any other section to make American his
tory. The first permanent English colony
established on this continent was at
Jamestown, in 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 oppo-
sition to the rule of Great Britain in his
resolution against the stamp act in the
Virginia House of Burgesses and his ia
Nh
first blood of the Revolution was shed. not
at Lexington, Mass, but May 16, III. at
Alamance, N. c. At Charlotte, Mecklen-
burg county, N. c., a declaration of indie
pendence was adopted on the goth Of May,
ITS, more than a year before that adopt
cd by the Continental Congress at Phil
%adelphia. North Carolina instructed her
delegation to vote for a declaration of in
dependence. if one should be offered in
congress-; Virginia instructed her delega-
ton to move a declaration of independ-
ence. and accordingly Richard Henry Lee,
of Virginia, made the motion which re-
suited in 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 in
dependence of the country than the
northern colonies. Southern statesmen
were CONSPICUOUS in formulating and hav-
ing adopted the constitution which ema-
mated from the convention of IT'S; Old
Virginia gave as a free gift to the
Union her Northwestern Territory" out
of which the states of Ohio. Indiana, Illi-
nois, Michigan and Wisconsin were after
ward carved; North Carolina gave the
territory which afterward constituted
the state of Tennessee, and Georgia do
mated what became the states of Alabama
and Mississippi.
From the formation Of the Union to
1860 the south always led in the great
events of American history.
THE WAR OF 1912.
In the war of 1912 the soldiers who won
most laurels were Andrew Jackson, of
Tennessee. and William Henry Harrison,
Of Virginia., and in the Mexican war the
commanders of both of our armies CTaylor
ity of the brilliant officers they gathered
around them. such as Jefferson Davis. AL
bert Sidney Johnson. Robert f. Lee, T. j.
Jackson Joseph e. Johnston, John B. Ma
gruder, G.. T. Beauregard, A. P. Hill and
others were southerners, while a very
large proportion of the rank and file of
our armies were from the southern states.
From Washington to Grant, a period Of
eighty years, Southern-bOrn men filled the
presidency of the United States for fifty
seven years and northern men for only
twenty-three years. while southern men
filled the office of chief justice Of the SUI
preme court for sixty-three years and were
always prominent in the cabinet. the SEN
ate, the house of representatives, as for
eign ministers and in every position. of
honor and responsibility. 1t may be added
that during all these years there was no
| stain upon any Cl THESE SOulHclH lit anu
no scandal connected with the admins
tration Of any one of them. 1t Is another
interesting fact that every accession of
territory to the United States, from the
purchase of Louisiana to that of Alaska,
has been under a southern-born presi-
dent and usually over the bitter opposi-
ton Of the northern states.
Even in the great War Between the
States" in 1S61-65, the president of the
northern states abraham Lincoln) and
his second vice president and successor
CAndrew Johnson were southern-born
'1nen, as were some of their ablest soldiers
and sailors, such as Winfield Scott, Geo
H. Thomas Candy. Blair. Sykes, Ord,
Getty, Anderson, Nelson and Alexander,
Farragut, Porter and Goldborough. And
America cannot afford to drop from her
bead rolf the names of jefferson Davis,
Albert Sidney Johnson. Robert Edward
Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Joseph r. For
rest, j. f. b. Stuart, A. p. Hill, Bedford
Forrest, Stephen D. Lee. John b. Cor
don. Pat Cleburne, ]. B. Hood. W. j.
Hardee. J.. A. Early. r. S. Ewell. d. II.