The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-04-17
WORK WELL DONE IN HIS
LIFE OF NATHANIEL MACON
Prof W. e. Dodd Has Wrought the State a Ser.
vice in This Biography of One of Her
Leading Sons.

dGodec1mo, 443 pages, and bearing the I'M
primatur of Edwards & Broughton, Raj
eigh, n. c., 1909 1t is 1.-The Life of Ma
thaniel Macon, by William E. Dodd, Phi
D., Professor of History in Randolph
Macon College, the chief institution OF
the kind among Methodists in all The
Southland, l think. He is native North
Caroinlan. 1t is not my purpose 20 write
regular, systematic review OF it. That
has been done already by two or three
North Carolinians, who anticipated me
somewhat in the plan ] would have pro-
baby pursued if L had undertaken any
discussion of an elaborate kind earlier.
shall content myself now with an indorse-
ment a hearty recognition of its value,
and with some scattering remarks 1t
richly deserves to be read by all intelli-
gent North Churchman'S if they be truth
seekers, indeed, if there be suchT PLATE
wished to know of Christ, our blessed Re
deemer and Lord, What is truth?" This
was a momentous, most important ques-
ton 1t fits all ages and lands. a truth
seeker is a rarity-an uncommon product.
/ have known hundreds of people VINO
were ready and even anxious, to read
any pamphlet or book-speech essay or
argument-.that was on their side, and
would support and confirm any previously
formed and espoused opinion. But to
find people who were indeed truth :
seekcrs-who greatly desired to so to the
bottom of any subject. to discover II pos
s;ble precisely the whole truth wherever
it lead, whether for or against antecedent-
ly conceived notions OF adopted belief b.
inheritance, one-sided reading CT other.
wise, has been generally search IN valL.
l have never met and conversed probably
with n dozen people in a long life whc
were really and inflexibly truth-seekers.
who desired to lind it at any cost. to un
derstand eli there was in disputed dues-
ton. I do not recall. after nearly forty
years spent in newspaper work, that !
deliberately. earnestly, psrsistently ever
studied carefully and systematically works
on Political Economy that 1 might fine
the proper solutiOn-the exact facts--the
underlying principles.-the precise truth
in but three great public, political ques-
tions. They were the Right of Secession
the Tariff and the Financial question
BimetaIlism. I sought to be enlightened
on these great questions of government.
lead where it might have done. l pur-
chased books on each. L bought some five
NOihS OtI lIiC NdAAOIASSB Va biiiiSIe'iii0-A'
also bought four works on the Tariff BY
political economists. 1 found that out OF
eighty works in the British Museum
perhaps the most important library ID
the world with 100000 volumes. and
many tens of thousands of pamphlets-by
Political Economists, scattered among tn
nations there were but beggarly Two
that favored protection. The seventy
eighty were too fair and just and honesT
to favor system of legislative oppres-
sion and highway robbery AS to theology
I spent years in studying but two ques-
tions 1 read all l could find on bott
sides They were Baptism and Apostolic
Succession. l read many thousands o.
pages on these two questions alone-per
Eaps $4,000, or even much more, before
arrived at a satisfactory conclusion.
l write this because Prof. Dodd will
arouse opposition no doubt by the BRAY
cry and GOODNESS of his discussion. and
the light he throws upon some obscure
corners in the Government in It's early
stages under which we live. l feel sure
that patient, candid reader will fine
much to challenge his attention, and, pos
sibly, to change some OF his previous
or1nions and notions. The book is not a
great book at all as to style or biograpi
zeal ability. It is far below in these par
ticulars the really great works In litels.-
ture that are lnonumental-hke Froudes
Caesar" the best book OF it's sort Ill
the last very fertile century in blogra-
ply. Ii falls below such consummate
works as BoswelIs Johnson. Lockharts
Scott. Trevelyan's Macaulay. and his
Charles James Fox also. and other famous
lives written in England that ] might
easily mention. But they had great
themes which Prof. Dodd did not. He
is careful not to exaggerate the qualities
of his subject and to throw foolish. mls
leading adjectiyes at Macon's head as Is
so much the habit in these piping times
of peace" He has done his work well.
1t is carefully wrought. is clear, intelli-
gent, sympathetic and masculine. He has
done North Carolina good service in the
preparation of this biography of one ri
her leading sons in the past. and he has
contributed no little to the elucidation OF
her history during the long period--some
thirty-eight years-in which Mr.. Macon
was in public life.
Nathaniel Macon was the son OF
Gideon Macon who came to NORTH Caro-
lima in the thirties OF the eighteenth cen
tury, and settled in Warren county. 9th
er venerable men came about that time.
and settled in Warren county, as it waa
known after it was at later day carved
out of a part OF Granville, called first
Butte and later changed to Warren
Franklin county was a part of Butte also
and afterwards was called as now. Prof
Dodd says that "the whole scope of coun-
try lying between the Roanoke and Neuse
rivers. west of the Tarboro neighborhood
known in that day as the Southside Of
Roanoke was settled by Virginians, who
found the lands CT the older colony al
ready worn out" He might have includ
ed wider sweep of country. Granville
was cut OFF from Edgecombe and erected
into a county in 1746. In 1160 Butte
county was taken from it.
Nathaniel Macon was born on December
Il. 175S. He had good natural mind,
fair memory, went to school. was laugh.
at ore time by Charles Pettigrew, after
wards Minister of the Church of Eng
land, and later was the first Bishop elect
Coz +bo l0;0caca af North CapOiiua hut