The age-herald., 1897-11-17
Southern History.

The Baltimore Sun is neither a north- ern nor southern newspaper, when it's location is considered, and it should, therefore, rot be suspected of sectional ism. In a recent editorial, the Sun makes the following temperate reply to some northern criticisms of "a southern history.
 LA very curious state of mind cn The part of sccne people of the poilJh as ue- gardH the civil war is disclosed by the comments of fhe Boston Herald, usually an able and conservative paper, and va riouS e. A. R. posts upon a school his tory of the United States, written by Mrs. Susan Pendleton Lee, and recently published in Richmond, Va. These conn., ments indhcate that it Is felt that the motives and conduct of the men that brought about and earIited on tihe war should be regarded by people of all pants of the coilrtnry wholly from the northern point of view. and that misconceptions in the northeIin mind aS to the contsu- Luthonal history and facts of the struggle between the sections if fattering to the noIth should be accepted as sacred in the south as we'll as in the north. Com solatory errors are, it seems, to be treat ed as a ho1y heritage, provided they make for the vfctors, and it is regarded as unpatriotlc to go back to the bottom ptU1b. lnLS .tS nukglTlg Vepus5lQ0S uIhWlSc- ly. The moral aud mental state it dis closes augurs badly for the future, since the truth Is the only sound basis on which public opinion can build.
 Mrs Lees book, judged by tlEe quota- items made by the Herald, is a simple and accurate statement of historical facts as believed in the south. The Her ald holds up its hands in horror at things which every southern man regards as absolutely true. Sentiments which seem Hf mere iruismS are deprecaited by our con- temporary as novelties in history. "We not only succeeded In the civil war, !" says the Heua1d, in effect "b1ut we were In the right on all tlhe his torfcal. conIsti- tutfonal and moral questions involved" " This is rs her pharisaica1 opinion of the ma tier. especially in view of the fact that recent northern Historians have be- gun 'ho concede that the other side had the Vbesl. of the argument i'm words, but Tailed in the field for want of material resources only. Writers of ordinary school histories. elf course, write for their market and make the facts fit the fancy of such G. A. R. committees as dictate wbeIt history is to be. Fairness or im- partiality is not to be expected of them.
 The fact comes out that the Boston Herald objects to these very innocent paragraphs in ithe reliable work written by Mrs. Lee:
 For this firing upon Sumter the south has been charged with beginning the war. In fact, the war began when rhe Washington government sent armed vessels and troops to enter Charleston harbor, and the attack on Sumter was purely in self-defense.
 Mot so much to preserve or extend slavery, nor to have more power to re- claim their fugitive slaves-which must be more difficult to do from a foreign
 
 southern states secede from the Union. They took the momentous step because for years they had striven in vain to secure and maintain the nights assured to them under the constitution"
 These statements are simply matters of fact, which cannot be controverted, and southerners are not likely to sup press them to please northern partisans. History should stick to the truth, and the text books in southern schools should teach the young people that the revolu- tion was mainly fought by southerners; | that southerners framed the declara ton of independence and the federal consti- tuition, and furnished the greatest presd- dents, statesmen and soldiers of the re- public. They should make it clear that secession was first advocated in New England, and never wholly abandoned tn theory there until after Webster's great speeches. They should show that slavery was chiefly fostered through northern efforts; that thousands of northerners held slaves, and that even Gen. Grant owned slaves until the gov ernment emancipated them.
 The northern people need not expect to see sout1perners deliberately falsify their own history in order to gratify the vainglorious victors who desire to claim everything. Southern histories will be fair. They will give the north- ern people due credit for their honest de- votion to the Union, their valor and skill in war, and the magnanimous terms offered by Grant at Appomattox win never be forgotten. But no southern history will ever say that the south was solely responsible for slavery and seces- sion, and that she deliberately caused a wicked and disastros war; Any his | tory containing such statements should | be kicked out of southern schools. 
 How could the people of Birmingham