The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-22
END OF THE SCHOOL HISTORY
CONTROVERSY.

END OF THE SCHOOL HISTORY
CONTROVERSY.
The report of the committee of the Grand
Army of the Republic on school histories
at the encampment last week at Columbus
has settled for the present at least a con-
| troversy which has caused some righteous
Indignation on the part of veterans. The
committee of the Grand Army in this State,
of which Judge Marsh, Of Winchester, was
chairman, appealed to the Board of Edu-
cation when it was about to make a new
contract for histories for the schools of the
State to secure a textbook which would
deal fairly with the Union side. The Grand
Army committee asked that if Montgom-
ery's Leading Facts were to be continued
as a textbook it should be revised. AS the
result of several consultations certain
changes in the work were agreed upon, and
the publishers agreed to make the required
changes. When the first books under the
new contract were put INTO several schools
it was found that no changes had been
made. Consequently a year ago at Rich
mond the Grand Army committee made a
report which fairly charged the committee
fishers of the book with not keeping their
pledges to the Grand Army. Several news
papers, upon the strength of this report
called upon the Board of Education for an
explanation. Some time during the past
winter Superintendent Geeting explained to
the Journal that the books now being cir
culated contained all of the changes sug-
gested by the boards committee and the
representatives of the Grand Army, and
that the few hundred of the unrevised books
put into the schools after the making of the
new contract were the result of carelessness
of dealers and local school officers, who
did not return the old books and get the
revised edition. The report of the COM
mittee presented to the encampment by
Captain w. H. Armstrong accepts the ex-
PLANTATION.
To the report of the Grand Army COM
mittee is appended the report of Messrs.
| Goss Hester and Geeting, the committee to
which the revision of the histories was re-
| ferred. This report is interesting because it
is supplemented by a number of the most
important changes agreed upon the text of
the old and the new editions being given
In parallel columns. These changes made
the book satisfactory to the committee of
the Grand Army, and in the report made at
| Columbus it is so declared.
The first objection which the Grand ARMY
committee 9 was to the following state
ment in the Old version:
| AS one seeding senator expressed it.
| they had left 1.-The national government a
corpse lying in state in Washington
The Grand Army committee held that no
truthful history would assert in the words
| OF any man that the federal government
| ceased to exercise its functions. The sent
| ence above quoted was replaced by the fol-
| lowing:
A seeding senator rashly declared that
| they had left the national government "a
| corpse lying in state in Washington"
one OF the closing paragraphs of the por-
ton OF the old version regarding the war
seemed by implication to accord to the peo-
pie of the South greater fortitude and self
denial than the North was capable of en-
during. The new version removes all OBJ
lection by inserting the following sentence:
1t is a noble evidence of the fortitude of
the American character that the/ Southern
people, however mistaken in their purpose
fought, as General Grant says, so brave
~, so CALAMITY and so long"
1t does seem strange that, so long after
the war, man writing it's history should
be so misinformed as to assert that General
Hooker's forces at Charlottesville were
driven back across the river when, as
matter of fact, they were withdrawn with
out being pressed. Had a Grant been in
command after the entirely unnecessary dis
aster to the Eleventh Corps Lee would have
been beaten. The accident to Hooker him
self caused the retreat. One other objection
to the Montgomery book which has not
been entirely removed is that several bril-
liant Union assaults like that at Missionary
Ridge, are considered trivial affairs. while
Pickett's charge at Gettysburg is made the
most brilliant event of the war in space and
treatment. History should not have a false
perspective. 1t is, however, cause for con-
graduation that much more truthful his
| tory has been secured for the schools
| through the efforts of the Grand Army of
| the Republic, and that the work was begun
| by Indiana veterans.