The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1909-02-14


the perversion of historical facts.
! However, these historical misrcp~e-
sentatlons are glaringly conspicuous
through what is alleged to be the record
of truth. For instance. Roosevelt S
cavalry charge at San Juan. where the
sensationalists have pictured him riding
at breakneck speed over the Spaniards.
As a fact. there was no such charge and
as there were no horses a, hand. except
the one reserved for General Shafter,
Roosevelt and his cavalry walked. Yet
this misstatement is generally accepted
by the uniformed as being true. and
TT rr1r7l ~ s:1cf if.rrs. tt!r ing n.
the eSsavist perhaps has accepted this
scns tticn Is (. fact but which has no
connection with this criticism of the
South.
1t is regrettable that the essayist has
been placed in an awkward attitude by
the award of the committee and in ac-
cepting this effort. as it is given public
ity. this query may be pertinent: Where
did she obtain the information upon
which she expatiates so knowingly. for
instance:
TO understand what the social order
was, one need but glance at the condl-
! tions of the South as contrasted with
those of the North at the opening of the
war. In almost nothing were they alike.
The South was of necessity agricultural.
Life was centralized chiefly on the great
plantations or i'll scattered communities.
In the North vast commercial system
had grown up under the leadership of
the great captains of industry and con-
centrated in fourishing cities. Slavery
had to a great extent gone out even be-
| fore 1903 because industrially it was ,ln-
profitable, while in the South the in
CT ased production of cotton with its de-
pendence upon cheap labor had vastly
increased the slave population. The loss
of slavery as an institution would, there
| fore. involve the loss of an enormous
capital; industries dependent upon it
would inevitably shrink; above all, it
would mean the destruction of the
whole social fabric. for in the South
slavery was bound TIP with society. In
tellectually the South was practically
dead. Most of the people were densely
ignorant hence the great religious and
educational movements which in the
North had built church and school
house at every crossroads had swept
theEa by unheeded'
That "most of the people were dense
ly ignorant were the slaves, is true, but
was there greater enlightenment or a
greater diffusion of knowledge among
the white people of the North of the
same class?
III true that intellectually the
South was practically dead?
There were marked distinctions and
! differences between the North and the
South as evidenced by the Colonists who
were not only from different stocks of
population, but from different fields in
religion and politics, which we're marked
in the ante te-Revolutionary period. There
could be little congeniality between the
cold, calculating, fanatical Puritan and
the bold, chivalrous, light hearted. gen.
erous Cavalier 1t was the New Eng
land influence which dominated the
North, and it was the spirit and the dash
of the Cavaliers which prevailed
throughout the South.
As to slavery, it would be senseless
to discuss it here, but it may be said that
it was the ever ready pretext for the
defamation of the South by the classes
possessing a disordered mind on the
question, through which was intensified
the sectional animosity which led to the
historical conflict, growing from the be-
lief that slavery was the leading cause
for the higher sentimentalism, the su-
perior refinement of the scholarships and
the manners of the South.
Had the committee not accepted these
misrepresentation the essayist could
have been directed to correct under
standing of the conditions of these So
cial relations of the South. In brief, the
agricultural pursuits of the South fixed
its features and as explained by the
historian Pollard: However it might
decline in the scale of prosperity its
people were trained in the highest civ
ilization, were models of manners for
the whole country, rlvaled the sentl-
mentalism of the Oldest centuries OF
Europe, and established the only schools
of Honor in America"
| As to the criticism that the Western
leaders were always incompetent and
to other structures uncomplimentary to
the South, suffice it to say it were a
waste of time to attempt their contra
diction.
In her reference to Lee the essaylst
is clever but entertains a msconceptlon
Of his relation and connection with the
Union He was a sovereign OF a SOW