The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-05-13
MR.. FoRD's GROSS IGNORANCE,
Revision of History in His Janice Mere
dith.-Carolinians in Revolution.

Revision of History in His Janice Mere
dith.-Carolinians in Revolution.
Charleston Sunday News.)
To the Editor of The Sunday News.
Janice Meredith is certainly a curious
story. 1t is an historical novel of the
Revolution, and, excepting Washington,
around whom the story plays, without, we
may say, an American lady or gentleman,
a hero or a patriot!
Sordiness and vugarity infect the at
mosphere from the beginning to the end.
The story opens with scene in which the
heroine attempts to play her mother false,
and is detected in the fault, and through
the eight years which follows, during
which, strange to say she does not APP
pear to grow older, her character scarcely
improves. few more pages on we find
her companion and herself engaged in
most indicate talk for young girls-and
that about delicacy From this the two
proceed to examine the clothing of a man
whom they find to be bathing in the TER,
within few rods of them, and actually
take-can we avoid saying steal-from
curiosity from the clothing a gold chain
and miniature. How is this for the open
ing of a story written to describe the
manners Of the people and the times?
And yet the indecency of this conduct is
surpassed by that of a conversation be-
tween the heroine and one of her lovers,
young HenniOn, who grossly insults her,
without causing Indignation enough on
her part to put an instant end to the
conversation and to his acquaintance. AS
the story proceeds, we find the heroine
accepting favOrs, protection. and in one
instance actual money, from her various
lovers, one after the other, as the extra
ordinary yiciSStudeS of her fortune are
made TO afford the excuse or the opportu
nifty, the while holding out to each the
prospect CT marriage. With one of them,
mere stranger, of whom she knows
nothing, and scarcely pretends to love,
she attempts to elope for the mere ad-
venture and romance of the thing.
The hero-if there is one in the book
Col. Brereton, forgets an order from
Washington, while occupying to him the
most confidential relations. Young Hen
MON joins Mr.. Meredith to ruin his own
father for the sake of the girl-and ready
money; and, incidentally, abandons the
American cause and becomes a Tory Of
ficer. But that is not so bad, for all
1.-The patriots mentioned in the book are
ultimately found in correspondence with
the British, and captured while communi-
eating with them. The society described,
it must be remembered is that of 1.-The
gentry" 1.-The quality" of New Jersey, the
best in the land. The. mother of the
heroine was "a daughter or granddaugh-
ter of one Of the Patentees,' and, conse-
quently, looked down upon her husband,
who was only rising Trenton lawyer.
The elder Hennion, the other squire,
one also of 1.-The quality cannot speak,
correctly or even decently. 1t is scarcely
too much to say that the whole society
described is coarse, ignorant and vulgar.
And these people lived within a short
distance Of Princeton. Compare the So
ciety there depicted with that unconscious
ly disclosed in Eliza Lucas's letters, and
with the society of the other Women of
Colonial and Revolutionary Times" Scrib-
ner series. But that is not our quarrel
We would suppose that the good people
of New Jersey would resent such a
travesty OF the society Of their fOrefath
ers; but if they are content to let it pass
as true, SO be it, Our quarrel is with
the few sentences in the story in which
the South is mentioned.
Whatever Mr.. Ford's merits as a new
elst may be- he claims, and his claim is
generally recognized, to be the historian
par excellence of the Revolution-one
who has written THE True George
Washington" and for the accuracy Of
whose historical details in his novel one
of the correspondents of the New York
Times vouches. To the accuracy of his
tOrical statements, therefore, Mr.. Ford
must be held strictly accountable, parti-
culary when his statements reflect upon
the conduct Of whole people. 1t is
strange, therefore, to read, at page a.;
''Then as the tide of war shifted it
was explained to her''-"Janice Meredith -
by the Hessian general, Riesdesal while
prisoners at Charlottesville, Virginia
why the British general, keeping tight
hold on New York as a base of opera lions
transferred a material part of his forces
to the South, where in succession he cap
tured Savannah and Charleston and, al
most without resistance, overran the
State of Georgia and the two Carolinas."
You see, Miss Meredith she was told,
1.-The yeomanry of the Northern States
are so well armed that we find it impos-
sible to hold the country against their
militia, but in the Southern States,
aside from the difference between the
energetic Northerners and the more in
dolent Southerners, the long distance be-
tween the plantations and the fact that
the gentry don't care to trust their slaves
with weapons, makes them practically de-
fenceless.''
When Mr.. Ford, through the mouths of
the characters in his novel, makes the
assertion that after the fall in succession
of the cities of Savannah and Charleston,
the British army, without resistance,
overran the States of Georgia and the two
CarOlinas, was he ignorant of. or had he
forgotten, that between the fall of the
two cities, (Which took place not in
rapid succession, but year and three
months apart) besides other smaller but
by no means inconsiderable, affairs. there
had taken place the invasion Of Prevos,
and its failure, in May, 1879; the battle
of Stone, in June, one of the bloodiest
and hardest fought battles of the whole
war. and in October the siege Of and
bloody assault upon, Savannah, in the at
tempt by the South Carolinians and Geor-
gians, under Lincoln, and the French, I'M
der D'Estaing, to recover it? Is he aware
that at the siege Of Charleston in 1880
1854 Virginians and North and South