The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-04
SENT THE BOOK BACK.
Mr. Spicr Whitaker on Injustice to the
South Is History.

Recently Mrs. Spier Whitaker, wild
ow of the late Judge Spier Whitaker,
md grand daughter of Mr.. William
Hooper, who signed the Declaration of
independence, ordered from the Out
look Company the first volume of the
Historian History of the World" ex-
pecting to buy all the volumes after
examination. She was SO much dis
appointed in the chapter relating to
the War Between the States and the
south during, before and after 1861
IS, that she decided to return the
books. Writing from Staunton, Va,
where She is visiting her daughter,
who is a member of the faculty of
Staunton Female Institute, Mrs. Whit
lker tells the publishers why she re-
.urns the volume Here is her letter.
Staunton, Va, May 81, 1905.
The Outlook Company, 225 Fourth
Avenue, New York City.
Gentlemen: | appreciate your
courtesy and thank you very much for
sending me the book, which l re-
turned by express on the 25th inst. I
had about decided that l must own
he Historians History of the World,
md | have no doubt that the other
volumes are all that YOU claim for
them. but that portion of volume
XXIII which treats of the differences
between the sections of the Union.
md of tho war between them is not
pleasant reading to a Southerner. and
is the fly in the ointment vitiating the
otherwise most attractive and val
liable work. The picture of the fugi-
i've slave with his shackle; that of
John Brown, inStigator of wholesale
murder in the South, posed and glori-
fed as martyr, with the arms of a
negro child entwned about his neck;
the free use of the words rebellion"
md "rebels" which referring to the
withdrawal of eleven sovereign States
from a Union which five of them as
sisted in creating, and the approval
bestowed on Mrs. Stoves firebrand
and the vandalism of Sherman and
Sheridan-these are specimens of the
animus of the writer's, wantonly and
gratuitously insulting to the feelings
of the South, and ill-calculated to
bridge over the bloody chasm and
promote the area of good feeling about
which so much has been said and
written, and of the near approach of
which the return of our battle flags
has been regarded by all true patriots
as decisive evidence.
Your writer's seem to have forgot
ten that Mrs. Stowe admitted in later
years, after her book had done nearly
all the harm it could do. that she
would not have written it had she
known as much at the time as she did
afterwards.
In the interest of truth and fairness
] would recommend as a substitute
for this volume of so-called History,
or at least as an addition to it, one
composed by ex-Congressman r. F.
Grady, of North Carolina entitled
THE Case of the South Against the
North" DR.. Charles l.. c. Minors
The Real Lincoln" and Mr. George
Edmunds' Facts and Falsehoods
Concerning the War on the South,
1S61-1S65." Your version of the
story seems to be the one that the
world wishes to believe: but it may
yet find out. as truth unrolIs. that Lin
coin and his party did in 1S61-'65
what the latter has been doing since,
and how little the cause of political
liberty owes to them"
Again thanking you for the loan of
the book, etc,
| am, very respectfully.
MRS. S. WHITAKER.