Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-10-15

4 ings that have come from his hanoi 60, ~ -
| u maxim laid down by famous pnIiOs ~
Iher and writer that childTeh are ,s, inU
| fuenceJ by the spirit and tne untApi ara
| ed opinions OF the teacher IMAM tnes o.
| by the words they chance 10 nsa' urtsire
| his lips. We therefore examine MI isle'
| His personality is IN his history. lne oi"f
| ter and verse criticism OF that pook 10
| I'm the able reports OF CdptaiI
| Bishop and Rev DR.. Tucker. we
| turn 10 the latter half OF the ylst
page of his much lauded "Old Virginia
| and Her Neighbors. 1t contains matter
! which viii not only prove our criticism
| just. but furnish us occasion LOT Hueh
! aston!shment. o,,
| ton. Mr.. Fiske tells us that George Ma
! son In his lifetime denounced the lnia-
| nous traffic" Sin terms which were 10 De
| resented by his grandsons when they feii
| from the lips Of Wendell Philips. All
| this we quote literally. A handsome
| antithosis and well proportional sentence
| you will observe. The author Is not care
| ful TO present 1--WE avoid saying mat ne
is. careful not to presenQ the t true pUimi
| as Infamous" the sale Of free men INTO
| slavery and the horrors OF the mloule
| passage, and argued against slavery III
| Virginia on economic and social grounds;
| Wendell Phillips denounced the South
and southern shareholders. Mr. flske ;
readers do not learn from him that thls
| was The offence that we resented. a.u
| that with y just Indignation, when al;
| Mason would have shared 10 the full had
| he been alive. The inference that NT-
ginans of the two periods were not OF
| one mind both as TO the slave trade anu
Yankee interference. is absolutely ldlse'
and should not be suggested 10 southern
on that same QsD page Virginians are
told that there was once "a short-nVed
emancipation party in their STATE; p tbs
that after the final suppression OF the
slave trade in 1909 and the consequeht
increased demand for Nirginia-bred
slaves the thought of emancipation van
ished from the memory ol man: Inc
same offensive suggestion Is made IN al
most the same language, The breedihs
of slaves-such a profitable occuD9 ton
in Virginia" in his Critical Period, &c"
page -. and again on page 266. where we
| are told that when the inventions Of Ark
wright. Cartwright, ana Nhltney 80
greatly increased the value OF cot
ton, there resulted great , de-
mand for slaves IRON VIZ
ginia as a breeding ground. and the abo-
| litionist party i'm that State thereup0n
disappeared, leaving her to JON In the
Odious struggle for introducing slavery
into The national domain" In both pas
sages we quote him perhaps little
roughly; in his pages all this Is hand
somey expressed for MIR H1ske's style
Is very fine, as you may learn fron some
Of his friends It would. however. sQe al
so advantageously ncomplete-advanta-
geOusly incomplete because statement
Of the facts would not have represented
as do these most slanderous sentences, q
mere race of slave-breeders easily sacrl-
ncing their convictions for the value OF
slave property. and ready to fight for II
when occasion should arise.
EMANCIPATION IN VIRGINIA.
1t IS Impossible to consider these pas
sages without becoming convinced of the
utter unreliability of this historian when
speaking of slavery, the causes OF the
war. or the rights asserted by the South.
IL was to be supposed that in writing
Virginia history he would at least con-
suit Virginia documents. He should not
assume that all Nirginians are equally
careless or as ignorant Of Virginia his
tory as the record proves him TO be- or
as charity cOmpels ms to assume that he
IS Eighteen hundred and eight Is his
date for the disappearance of all thought
Of emancipation in Virginia. Selecting
from a mass Of documents, he might
have read two of Mr.. Jefferson's let
tiers; one TO AR. Coles. another
to Mr. Jared Sparks urging mis-
views and plans for emancipation
and deportation to Sierra Leone. etc. one
dated August 25. 1914, the other February
4. 1924. (See Volume ", Jeffersons Cor
respOndence)
But chiefly, and utterly overthrowlng
all title he may have TO credit when
he might have had. Mr. Thomas w.
Whites volume published in 1882. con-
tanning the great Deportation and Eman-
cipatiOn debate in the Virginia Legisla-
ture in January and February Of that
year. the debate enlsting the strongest
speakers of the State and consuming a
great part of those two months; the TesO-
luton being lost by a very small vote;
ana that because no man could say where
the necessary means 10 deport them could
be found, and none could suggest a safe
and practicable disposition to be made
OF the blacks when free.
1t did not occur TO US TO solve the diff
fculty as our northern friends had al
ready done. by selling them all to the
South; nor could we further initiate them
in contemplating with indifference such
consequences Of abolition as now COLI
front US. The fact that this most re-
markable omission occurs in both of the
books quoted proves that II is not an
accidental result Of Mr.. Fiske'S mislead-
teachers should not allow our children
10 think of this venerable state as a mere
negro "breeding-ground," or of her people
as won from other thoughts while Sloat-
ing over the money value of the black:
Mr.. Fiske does not know that the
African Colonization Society, of which
General Charles Fenton Mercer. Of
Virginia was a prominent member. la
bored during these very years to meet
this very difficulty. IN Mr.. Fiske's coun-
try he is not very familiar with individual
acts Of emancipation; nor does he know
how many Virginans. long after 1908
manumitted their slaves, among them
John Randolph of Roanoke, whose exeen-