The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-03-06
CAROLINA'S EPIC SHOULD BE.
WRITTEN IN TWO VOLUMES
One From the Beginning of Anglo Saxon History
Here The Other of Terrible Drama
of the Civil War

ivil War.
such history a long chapter, nay, many
chapters ought to be devoted to the noble
womanhood OF our State. The unexam-
pied conservation to the cause throughout
the South; the astonishing unanimity of
action and purpose; the admirable, touch
ing self-denials; the unprecedented in
dllstry of the women of this generation,
not only entitle them to a chapter or
Two, but to an entire work. We really
believe that to do justice to their claims
would tax too much the powers of any
writer; though he could tell the story
in the solemn, gorgeous dction of Glib
bon, in the pure, exquisite style of Hume
Or with the brilliant antithesis and exact
periods of Maaulay. But be this as it
may, no author who may don the historic
robes, will dare court the indignation
of the reading world by neglecting to give
faithful account of the self-sacrificing
labors, the unselfiish devotion of the
women of our State"
Let dear North Carolina have two
works then. The one in several vol.
ulues, if necessary, giving her history
from the beginning of history in this
Then another work setting forth amply
her real prowess and deeds in the war
of invasion and destruction. If all this
is done, then the grand old State will
stand forth not clad in the sparse gar
nents which Northern writer's and
others have thrown about her, but
clothed with gorgeous apparel, glittering
with her revolutionary jewels, her face
radiant with the light of liberty. her
brow encrcled with an aureola of her
chlldren's fame. So let it be.
The late Professor Joseph Henry, so
long at the head of the Smithsonian In
s;ltute in Washington city, was not only
q true man of science and an important
GIscoverer, but he was eminently a very
wise man, with the prescience of q real
statesman, and the judgment of pro-
found philosopher. He was much rcspec-
ted While living by reason of his fipe
character, his lofty gifts, his fidelity to
duty and his high sense of justice. He
was not professionally politician, even
in remote sense, but far greater, nobler,
wiser. l have oftentime when writing of
Prof. Morse, the reputed inventor OF
the telegraph, and of his Indebtedness
probably to the French inventor of
telegraph, but who persisted most unfor-
tunately under the guillotlne in the French
Revolution, referred to Prof. Henry
as a precursor of Morse, and that
from him he learned mucn that aided
him in his experiments. The Charlotte
Presbyterian Standard recently said
Professor Joseph Henry was not only
the real inventor of the telegraph but
a statesman and a seer.
do not know exactly what he really
did, how far he went towards settling
the question OF the telegraph but long
ago / read enough to know that he ante
dated Morse in experiments and studies
as to the telegraph. l have an impress
sion, aside from the Frenchman mentioned
by Arthur Young, the famous and very
meritorious traveller and writer upon
Ireland and France in the eighteenth
century-an authority much relied upon
by historians-that other inventors pre-
coded Morse, and Henry perhaps Also
in experiments in the telegraph. But |
refer to Prof. Henry because of a most
wonderful forecast he made before the
great war between the Mort hern invaders
an1 destroyefs, and the South defending
its homes and iresides. The, 'Presby
terrain Standard" says:
'In the memorabilia Of Lincoln which
are going the rounds of the press this
month we find the following from Pro
fcsscr Henry, during the progress of
the Civil War: This war may last sew
eral years, but it can have only one
result, for it is simply a question of dy-
namics. The stronger force must pulver-
ize the weaker one, and the North will
win the day. When the war is over the
country will not be what it was before;
the triumph of the Union will leave US
u prodigiously centralized government
and the old Calhoun theory of State
rights will be dead. We have an in
flated currency-an enormous debt with
q host of axgatherers, and huge pen
sion rolls. What is most needed now
is wise craftsmanship, and the first quail
ity of a statesman is prescience. In my
position here, the head of the Smithsonian
cannot be partisan -
Beyond ali comparison that was the
most sane and president declaration that
preceded the bloody conflict. 1t shows
octh the gifts of rare craftsmanship and
the foresight of the student of men and
governments. 1t has in it the elements
OF most remarkable prophet. No one
Use saw so clearly what followed. Alas.
tue Gnu IL NOT yet. Inc departures from
the path marked out by the wise men
who bulldcd our Ship of State and set it
afoat upon what has proved to be a
most tempestuous sea and very destruc-
tive voyage, are most startling, and
prcgnosticate- a future of danger far
worse than the past has shown Prof.
Henry said that he was conf
dent that by a long way the
ncst far-seeing head in this land is on
the shoulders of that awkward rail-split-
ter from Illinois," The STANDARD" thus
tcrsely comments upon this:
And yet who knows that it was not
best for Lincolns fame that he did not
have the work of construction after the
war at which others bungled so mser-
ably that the very word 're-construc-
ton means a pulling down instead of
a building up
Major Hal p Kingsbury, born at Ok
fcrd, \. c., and my cousin, has been
Drouoted to lieut. colonel of cavalry He is