The Advocate and news., 1898-02-16
UNJUST ATTACKS ON OUR SCHOOL
BOOKS.

BOOKS.
For the purpose of misleading the peO-
pie and infaming the partisan mind, 1t
has been stated repeatedly by certain
newspapers In Kansas that the Model
School History now in use in the schools
Of the State was written and compiled by
man not in sympathy with the cause
which prevailed when the Civil war was
brought to an end. Some Of the most
prominent educators in Kansas who have
known Professor Edwin Taylor, the au-
thor, for many years, know how unjust
and unfair these criticisms are. During
the war Taylor was known as a "black
abolltiOnist," and since that time he has
been an uncompromising Republican. A
paragraph from TaylOr's history refer
ring to the death Of President Lincoln
need only be reproduced to set at rest
the partisan sQuibs written by men who
have never read the history. He says
"The grief Of the nation was very
marked. No President had ever been put
to so severe test, and none since Wash
ingtOn had so endeared himself to the
people. His honesty, simplicity, fidelity
and sympathetic nature, which never de-
sorted him, had secured his reelection
by large majority. In the presence of
the difficult questions yet to be solved the
nation felt it had lost a wise and safe
guide. This feeling extended over to
the late Confederacy. The colOred peO-
pie especially mOurned for him as for
father. He went through life bearing
the load OF the peoples sorrows with
smiling face. He was the guiding mind
OF the nation while he lived, and, when
he died, the little children cried in the
streets. When the funeral procession
passed by railway from Washington to
his former home at Springfield, every
station was crowded with mOurners and
draped with the emblems of grief"
No historian could more truthfully de-
scribe the sorrow of the people Of the ma
ton at that time, and no man whose
heart was with the cause which went
down at AppOmattox would sum up the
results Of the late war as Professor Tay-
lor does in the following paragraph:
'The most important result was the
abolition of slavery. The principle was
also established that the United States
are to be regarded as nation, one and
indivisible, and not as a mere alliance Of
sovereign States"
1t has also been charged by certain
newspapers whose editors are guided by
uNYrtitsntt nraiudBnn ~ vEho ma onr4.o11aJ
by improper motives, that the Model
School History gave more space to Cleve-
lands first administration than to the
period covering the Civil war. This is
Also false. Under the head, "Cleveland's
First Administration" the historian re-
cords many interesting events which
have no bearing upon the acts of Presi-
dent Cleveland, because they happened
to transpire during that period Of the ma
ttOn's history. For example, one of the
ten pages under this head is devoted to
a record Of the death of many prominent
persons, including General Grant, ex-
President Arthur Gen. John A. Logan,
Vice President Hendricks, Chief Justice
Waite, General Phil Sheridan, Roscoe
COnkling, Samuel ]. Tilden, and other
men OF national renown. OF the death of
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, which occurred
during President Cleveand'S first term,
Mr.. Taylor says:
Though he had attained the highest
earthly station, General Grant was mod
est, rnbltiOus and unSelfgh. He was