The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-04-09
THE souTHIN HISTORY.

The official report Of the History Com
mttee of the Grand Camp Of Confederate
Veterans Of Virginia, recently submitted
Will attract attention and endorsement
throughout the South. The committee has
made a very thorough and careful exam
nation of the school histories, and finds
that no Northern author has yet written
such a book that does not convey false
ideas and wrong impressions with respect
to the causes of the war. Without eXcep-
ton The Objectionable histories seek to
Impress it upon the student that the mo-
tlves which animated the South were al
together base and disreputable, while on
the other hand the purposes of the North
were all high and holy. Such histories, ac-
cordng to the report, have two well-de-
fined and, as to US, malignant purposes.
One of them is to convince all men, ana
especially our Southern children that we
were a brave and rash people, deluded by
bad men, who attempted in Illegal and
wicked manner to overthrow the Union
The other purpose is to have it believed
that the Southern soldier, however brave,
was actuated by no higher motive than
the desire to retain the money value of
slave property"
The fact is, the committee says, that in
the Sectional War; we were called upon
to resist an invasion of armed soldiers
sent into our country" by several distinct
parties at the North seeking our injury
and Their own profit The committee di-
reefs its especial attention to two Of these
parties. The one Cancer sent represen-
tatives to the war-bent upon the destruc-
ton of our Southern civilization, the Grad
icat!on CT TIE personal characteristics,
opinions. thought and mode of life which
made our men different, antagonistic and
hateful to them. The other preferred war
to the loss of material prosperity, which
they apprehended in case the South
should attain position beyond the reach
of Northern lawmakers and Northern
tax-coIectors." The South is still strug-
Cling against these two parties, who are
now REINFORCED by new form of AN
other party which has existed since sec
tionalism had its birth-the party which
has always labored to convince the world
that the North was altogether right and
righteous, and the South wholly and wick
edly wrong in the section strife To this
party belongs the historians who write
from a partisan point of view. The com
mittee goes into details, naming many
passages in the histories that are at va
rance with indisputable facts
Reverting to the charge that the South
fought for slave property, the committee
declares it to be absolutely false, and
says: The answer to it is on every page
of our history, and the books that make
the charge should not be used in our
schools" Attention is directed to "the
fact that Gen. Robert f. Lee set free all
of his slaves before the Sectional War be-
gan, and that Gen. U. S. Grant retained
his slaves until they were made free as
one of the results of Lincolns Emanci-
patton Proclamation" 1t is also pointed
out that emancipation was simply a war
measure not affecting the border states
that had not seeded, even excluding ON
its operation certain counties in Virginia.
1t was simply intended to disable the
fighting states of the South and more
thoroughly to unite the rabid Abolition
Of Sharpsburg." says the committee,
from which Lincoln dated his Enamel
patton Proclamation, he very clearly in
Dictated his view of the course or pur-
pose OF the war on his part. If he could
save the Union he said, by freeing the
slaves he would do it; if he could save it
by freeing one-half and keeping the other
half in slavery he would take that plan;
if keeping them all in slavery would effect
the object, then that would be his course"
In conclusion the committee appeals to
Confederate Veterans, and the Daughters
end Sens, throughout the South to coop
crate in the effort to eliminate the objec-
tlonable histories from the schools.
The Journal of Commerce says that the
leading steamship lines are about to put
twenty-five new steamers on the service
between that port ana Europe, of which
five are nearly ready to go into commits
sion and the other twenty are in various
stages of construction A few days ago