The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1897-03-28
I've Slave Law Missouri Compromise.

tive Slave Law missouri Compromise,
and bred. Scott Case.
The best idea In brief OF the book Is
gained by certain extracts:
There Is no more serious and delicate
task In literature and morals. says Prof.
Burgess. than that OF writing the history
OF the United States from 1916 to 1850"
Below we have q sample of tx serious
literature and delicate morals OF the
author. and his thoroughly impartial
spirit with which he proceeds to allay
1.-The continued misunderstanding between
the North and the South" by writing
our history from 1916 to 1860 with an open
mind and willing spirit. to see and TO
represent truth and error, and right and
wrong. without regard to the men, or the
section, in whom or where they may ap-
pear"
This promise IS fair. and IS all any one
could want. The fair promises are like
many other made before-disappointing
IL am old enough" Prof. Burgess con-
tinues. ito have been witness of the
great struggle Of ls61-65.'
lie was then student at Amherst Col
legc, Mass. though native Of Tennes-
see.
II learned to regard secession as an
abomination and its chief cause, slavery.
as a great evil"
This history must be written by an
American Southern people are un-Amer-
icanD and NOrtherner. and from a
Northern point of view, because the VIC
torious party can be and will be more lib
eral, generous. and sympathetic than the
vanquished and because the Northern
point OF view il, in the main, the correct
one impartial delicate). 1t will not
improve matters TO concede that the
South had right and the North might or
even that both were equally right and
equally wrong. Such a doctrine can on
~ work injury.
Here IS the whole point OF Prof. Bur-
CESS aninus.
The time has come when the men OF
the South should acknowledge (Oh, right
eous Judged that thy were I'm error In
their attempt 10 destroy the Union chat
was the summum bonum for which our
heroes dledD and 1t is unmally in them
not 10 DO So (te judice).
Their leader declared over and over
again that the God Of battles would
surely give victory to the right.
This is certainly a sound philosophy. and
they should have held 10 IL after their
defeat. Their crude notion that they
had succumbod only TO might was thus
not only j bitter. false. and dangerous
consolation, but il was qualification OF
themselves.
"While great care has been taken to
attribute to Southern people sincerity or
purpose. while their ideas have been pa
tiently @ explained. while the right
fright means an unutterable fact like
the battle Of Manassas) has been willingly
ACKNOWLEDGED to them and honor accord
ed them whenever and wherever they
have had the right and have merited the
honor. Still not one scintila OF justih-
cation for secession and rebellion must
be expected.
THE South must acknowledge its error
as well as its defeat, and that, too, not
with lip service. but from the brain and
the heart and the manly will. before any
real concord in thought and feeling, and
real national brotherhood can be estab-
lished. This is not too much TO demand.
simply because il is right, and nothing
can be settled until Il IS settled right.
ANY Interpretation Of this period which
does not demonstrate 10 the South it's
error will be worthless simply because
IL Will not be true. The conviction OF
the South OF its error in secession and
rebellion IS absolutely indispensable TO
the establishment Of national cordiality.
The truthful CD record and interpreta-
ton Of such events IS what / call histo-
~ IN the highest sense"
All this IS written by a Southern man
educated in a Northern school, where the
current ideas We're absorbed and appro-
prated, and Is a commentary on the pO-
sitlon still maintained by the venerable
Or. Robert L. Dabney formerly of Vir-
GINA. yet this is the kind OF history
Southern people are expected to buy and
use and believe; and IL they do not. II is
only because. as IL is too often alleged
here they are ylctinized by some pub
fishing house. which, TO make money,
palms off on their patriotism a patch OF
untruth.
Let our school boards look for scholar
ship I'm their textbooks. but let them
also look for the truth. and If it is TO be
colored truth let il be. at least. Dixie
truth. c. W. SOAfMERVILLE.
Baltimore Nd. March q. '97.