The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1900-09-06
A MELANGE OF
LIVE TOPICS
Penned for journal Readers
by a Local Scribe.
Southern School Histories.

The Grand Army of the Republic
in session in Chicago last week. adopt
ed resolutions denouncing the histories
of the United States in use in the
Southern schools. A press dispatch
reports that Resolutions were adopt
ed calling on the public in the name of
the Grand Army to Danish the books
from the schools of the country and a
committee was appointed to carry out
the protest. The aid of publishers and
historical writer's will be solicited. The
official declaration was made that the
histories have been written with the
purpose of perpetuating in the minds
of Southern children the sectional
prejudice of the days Of 1851"
If the above is correct report of
these resolutions, it seems that the
Grand Army is guilty of unwarranted
impertinence in attempting to inter-
fere with the domestic affairs of the
Southern states, which do not in any
way concern it. Who clothed this or
ganization with the power of indis-
creetly ordering Southern schools, in
the name of the q. A. r., to Danish
certain books from their schools? The
very wording of the resolution is in
exceeding bad taste, implying as it
does that the Grand Army is the auto
crat of the country in matters political,
as well as the authorized censor with
respect to opinions and faith; and if
there were no other reasons why the
the people of the South should ignore
this brutum fulmen, the tone alone
of these resolutions would be sufficient
for that purpose.
But there are the best of reasons for
Southern schools retaining the school
histories they now use, because they
are the only ones that give a true
account of the Southern states and
their people for the period included be-
tween colonial times and the close of
the war between the states. History
events, and record which is proven
to be not true, is not history. If there
| fore Southern schools teach history at
all they must employ Southern books,
for those used in the north either ex-
pressly or by implication deny and mini
mize some of the fundamental truths
upon which our history as a section is
founded. For instance no northern his
tory will admit for an instant that the
southern states possessed n constitu-
tional right to secede from the union in
1861, Notwithstanding the overwhelm-
ing array of official and documentary
evidence available showing that such a
right by any state was intended by the
trainers of the constitution and the
founders of the government. Without
desiring to enter into an argument OF
this question l mention few facts
which I have never seen explained away
or denied:
When the states of Virginia, New
York and Rhode Island adopted the
federal constitution they did so with
the proviso that should the union not
prove satisfactory to them they should
severally have the right to withdraw
from it. As they were received upon
these terms DO respectable lawyer upon
earth would insist that the same right
did not belong also to the other states
each acting for itself, (see Elliots De-
bates, the official records. of the franz
ing and the adoption of the constitution
| by the states), President Washington,
though he deprecated secession believed
in its constitutionality as a remedy.
The proof of this is in the before men,
toned records and can give the refer
ence. Alexander Hamilton, Thomas
Jefferson, James Madison, iii fact all or
nearly all the founders of the union
were believers in the right of secession.
| have proof of this.
Until other histories teach that the
south acted upon constitutional grounds
in withdrawing from the union 1861
none but Southern histories will be
used in this section for the latter dc
teach that fact. If the Grand Army