The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-06-22
Oh ANCES FOR A HISTORY OF
CANDOR AND FAIRNESS.

H - uOL ItIldT kdDic IiEdl liAlS SlIOufu
occur. The northern soldiers met and
resolved that Professor McMa5ter, the
historian, of the University OF Penn
syIvania, should be selected to prepare
q history. He accepted the response
bility, and in his letter Of acceptance
he gave forth that he should consider
1t his duty to attack Genera Robert f.
Lee in order to make treason odious."
This is the barmecide feast to which the
children and grandchildren Of the brave
soldiers in gray are to be invited. But
this is only one Of many. To show
how a scholarly, able northern pro-
fessOr views the south in this year OF
grace 1897, we will copy from his recent
work that is being much read-"The
Middle Period, 1817-63." This is h
work to which we have referred twice
already and from which We copied a
few lines, by Professor John w. Bur-
CESS. Phi. D., Ii. D., professor Of Po-
htical science and constitutional law
in Columbia university, in h city OF
New York. In some respects the book
- H. hdbIC Il al Jill I'i IN
ern favorites and does justice to some
southrons who are under the ban OF
the north. He sets out to write, a. he
says,in an impartial spirit" The war,
@he results, the thirty-Odd intervening
years have not caused him to change
his early preiudices and to rise above
n false education. He says for in
stance:
My early years were embittered by
the political hatreds which then pre-
vailed. / learned, before my majority,
20 regard secession as an a~bominatiOn
and it's chief cause, slavery, as a great
evil; and | cannot say that these feel
ings have been much modified, IF any
at all, by longer experiences and ma
turer thought"
With such a statement, such a con-
f~essiOn, he begins an historic work, to
tell Of the Middle PERIOD" so exciting
and that led inevitably to a great war,
that he admits demands i~mperatively
IAN impartial spirit" Of course a fail
ure was inevitable, although he essays
10 treat certain obnoxious men of the
south with historic fairness. He is
fairer than certain birds of ill-Omen
who delight to befOul the southern
nest in their petty prejudices and ig-
Professor Burgess is a vic
Kim Of early education and infTarlnOni-
GUS and unfortunate environment. He
would be fair, wOuld essay to tell the
truth, but when he would do good,
evil is present with him. to quote ST.
Paul. He admits that it is a very a II
task he has set himself, and he declares
thu he has sought to be unbiased
has e~ndeavored to e with the
characters who made our history in
this almost tragic period as serious
and sincere men, having a, most per-
picking and mOmentOus problem to
solve problem not of their own max
ing, but a fatal inheritance from their
predecessors" That is a better resolu-
ton and a nObler concession than the
blinded McMaster is capable of. Ten
years ago perhaps he published the
first volume of his history of the United
States beginning about where Bancroft
left off. We bought it, read it and re-
viewed it. 1T was as to style a poor
imitation of Macaulay's splendid
strong style, so full of fascination and
antithesis. 1T so overran with preju-
dice and misrepresentation that we
never had interest enough to read the
TWO or three volumes that have fol-
lowed. This man is utterly incapable
OF writing a true history of anything.
He car produce an interesting essay.
Let US return to the other northern
professor, DR.. Burgess. He, too, is not
competent to treat the history of our
country involving the events that pre-
coded. caused and followed the four
years war between the states, in a spirit
of judicial calmness and fairness. To
show this we copy second t~imethecon-
ditions he lays down for genuine harmO-
ny and good will between the south
and the north. He insists that "a north
ern man is the only one competent to
do the work of writing of the war, but
he goes farther, and lays down as the
sole condition of amity and fellowship
between the sections this most start
ling and impossible statement, demand
that 1.-The time has come when the
men of the south Chose serious and
sincere men who did not max their
momentous problem). should acknOwl-
edge that they We're in error in their
attempt to destroy the union, and it is
unmanly in them not to do So"
The south must acknowledge its err
ror. as we'll as its defeat, in regard to
these things. and that, too, not with
iip-service, but from the brain and the
heart and the manly will, before any
real concord in thought and feeling,
any real national brotherhood, can be
established. + s. In a word, the con-
viction of the south of its error in seces-
sion and rebellion is absolutely indis-
pensable to the establishment of ma
Iional cordiality, and the history of
Ihis period which fails to do his will
fail in accomplishing one of the high