The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-30
THE NEW SOUTHERN SCHOOL
 HISTORY


 The old war between the states, as it is now polite to all it, is such an- cient history that the new school his tory of the United tates by Susan Pen dleton Lee, written for southern school children from the southern standpoint, will not excite any public controversy. Northerners, however, cannot fail to be interested in the history upon which it is proposed that southern youth shall be brought up.
 The author of this history prefaces her account of the civil war period by saying:
 Before we go into the story of the desperate and bloydy struggle for southern independence let us review the causes which made it necessary. The charge is usually made that it was undertaken by the south for the preser- vation of slavery, and that 1t was in- tended to bring about reopening of the African slave trade. This is untrue. You have seen that from the first there have been differences of opinion as to whether the states of the Union were the source of power. The northern and southern interests had always been op- posed to each other. The protective tariffs required to foster northern man ufacturers were, without exception, in- furious and obnoxious to the south. which always contended against them. Besides this there had always been two | parties under various names, one of which held that the constitution fa- vored "centralization" or giving the | largest powers to the national govern ment, the other that the states, as sov- 1 ereign and independent, had absolute 1 inherent rights which the constitution was bound to protect The original ! preference of the north for 0 strong 1 central government was increased, as l I have before said which had no state l attachments nor state pride, and which | gloried in the national government as | being partly regulated by themselves, 1 A large party in the southern states had always been strong in their adher- ence to MT. Jefferson's views Of their rights, and never hesitated to avow and | defend them.
 The author then states that slavery was one of the rights on the recogni- tion of which the constitution was founded and which it was bound to protect. It is related with perfect truth that in 17S7 slavery existed in almost all of the states, but was thereafter allow ed to decline in the north, while the cli- mate rendered it profitable to the plant CTS of the southern states. It is noted that slavery was not seriously attacked on moral grounds until the advent of William Lloyd Garrison. After a whie,'' remarks the author, "the poli- ticians thought it wise and prudent to take advantage of the abolitionist doc Urine of the sin of slavery and ingraft- ed it into the creeds and platforms as a popular catch-word to increase the op- position to the south, which was aggra- vated by a growing jealousy of her civ ilization and prosperity" It may be added that in the north this will not be considered perfectly fair statement.
 The views of the southern people con corning slavery are concisely given They believed that it was not immoral or contrary to divine teaching. Under It's influence they saw hundreds of thousands of African slaves civilized and Christianized, and many of them thought it the greatest missionary agent the world had ever known" But the author takes pains to say T am not apologizing for slavery nor defend ing 1t. I am telling you how the noble minded patriotic, religious people ot the south looked on it in 1S61." Surely no exception can be taken to that. MT Lincoln's belief that the constitution conceded the right to hold slaves is given, and also his position that the civil war was not fought by the north to destroy the institution. Then comes this section on the causes of secession.
 Not so much to preserve or to extend slavery nor to have more power to re- claim their fugitive slaves-which must be more difficult to do from foreign country than from sister states-did the southern states secede from the Union They took the momentous step because for years they had striven in vain to se- cure and maintain the rights assured to them under the constitution. The northern states had taken their stand against the equal rights of all the states in the possession of the territor- ies. They were not shaken in their op' position by the decision of the supreme court against them, and proceeded tc manifest their utter disregard for it oi anything contrary to their determina- ton to control the government accord ing to their own will. The election ot