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

false In what they say and what they
results of the mighty contest, the motives
character and deeds OF our confederate
leaders, soldiers and people.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. OF FACTS.
In the colonial history they grossly mis-
history of the southern colonists. and ex-
alt the settlers OF the New England and
Middle states to the disparagement OF
those of Maryland. Virginia. the Carolinas
and Georgia. In the counts OF the
Revolution they make the most Of the
Boston tea party" where men 50 conn
pletely disguised as Mohawk Indians that
they were not known at the time and
whose names persisted threw the obnox-
ious tea into Boston harbor, but they fail
10 tell of the tea party" at Annapolis,
Md, where in broad daylight and undis-
guised men towed the tea ship Peggy
Stewart" out into the harbor and burned
her and her cargo TO the waters edge; or
the "tea. party" at Wilmington. n. g,
where men without disgui their names
coming down to US pitched overheard the
if the the war was fought chiefly by the
north, ignoring the fact that the south
not only furnished the most men bet sent
New Jersey, shedding southern blood on
every battlefield of the war.
They tell glowing stories of Israel Put
nam and other northern heroes. but have
little to say Of Sumter, Marion, Pickens.
Light Horse Harry Lee. Morgan, Lewis.
or George Rogers Clark. who. with his
tlTplHli volunteers. tOlAIOtItd JAIN IN
Northwestern Territory. preventing the
British boundary line from extending. at
the close of the war, down to the Ohio,
and enabled old Virginia to lay in the lap
Of the Union this princely domain.
THE QUESTION OF SECESSION.
The same Misrepresentation or syste-
matte omission of facts characterizeS the
northern historians treatment or the
G sl srolTya q and the discnssion OF i secs sodon
and the civil war. In regard to secession,
they ignore all the historical and consti,
t%utional theories and facts thai ten
| course, that New England had through a
| long period of years an unbrOken record
in favor of secession; that In 1892 the reg
| %islature OF Massachusetts passed an act TO
| the effect that the purchase and annexa-
| ton Of Louisiana would be a sufficient
| cause for the dissolution of the Union and
| abSOlve til. old states from their alleg-
lance to the Union; that during the war
| of 1912 the New England states not only
| nullified laws of congress for the prose-
cution of the war, but from pulpit, press
| and rostrum boldly advocated secession
until the agitation eliminated in the ia
nous Hartford convention, held December
| Is, 1914, in which delegates from all of the
| New England states not only advocated
| the right of secession, but formally re-
| solved that the New England states
| would actually secede if the war was not
| stopped by a given day on which the con-
vention was to reassemble, and 1t was
| only the close of the war, as far as can be
/ seen, that prevented the dCtudl StCeSSIol
of these states; that April 80, 1899. ex-
President John Quincy Adams made. a
speech, which was heartily endorsed by
| New England, in which he said that it
would be better for the states to part IN
friendship from each other than to be held
together by c~onstraint," and Ito form
again a more perfect union by dissolvlng
that which could not bind, and to leave
the separated parts to be reunited by the
law Of POLITICAL gravitation to the cen
tre;" that January "a, 1912; MI: ADAMS
~ra-or{oI n nofitinn from the citizens of
Haverhill, Mass, to congress praying
that it would Immediately adopt meas.
ures peaceably to dissolve the union of
these states" and assigning seven reas-
ons for such action, and that when Mr..
Marshall, of Kentucky, offered resolu-
tons c%ensuring Mr.. Adams for presenting
for two weeks, Mr.. Adams ably defending
himself in secession speeches which
would have done credit to William l..
Yancey or Robert Toombs, and the house
| Of representatives by an Overwhelming
: vote laid the resolutions of censure on the
table; that in 1874 and again on the 22d Of
February, 1s45, the legislature of Massa-
right Of secession and threatening to Sc
cede if Texas was admitted into the
Union, at hat date the right of secession,
south. east and west. and, finally,
after the election Of Mr.. Lincoln, and up
to the actual breaking out of the war,
Tribune,) The New York Herald, The Gin
| cinnati Commercial and other leading pa
pers of the north, boldly advocated the
right of secession and opposed the CO.
ercion of the seeding states.
These histories. moreover, ignore the
immediate grievances which caused the
southern states to secede, as we'll as their
efforts to preserve peace and secure com
promise; the superiority OF the north IN
numbers and resources; the brilliant VIC
tories of the southern armies and the
heroism Of her soldiers. They tell about
the burning of Chambersburg, but omit
all mention of the eternal infamy' of
"Sherman's March to the Sea-" with it's
pilllaging and burning; of Hunters van
dalism in the valley of Virginia and
Sheridan's desolation of the same section.
They do not tell t%ruthfully the story of
the treatment of prisoners. Of the refusal
of the federal government to accept sew
eral humane propositions made them by
the confederate government, nor the fact
that nearly 4 per cent. more confederates
died in northern prisons than federals in
southern prisons.
THE PRACTICAL MORAL.
The logic of all this, DR.. Jones urges, is
that we should have chairs of American
history in our southern universities and
colleges fully endowed and equipped and
filled by competent professors, who shall
nothing but the truth, concerning the
history of the United States, and who
shall prepare textbooks on American
history, which shall not be partisan, but
broad, conservative and judicial, and
which, at the same time, recognize the
south and so present her glorious achieve
ments that coming generations may not
be ashamed Of their fathers or the land
they love so we'll.