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 Rh labored since the close of the war, as their predecessors had done before it, to conceal or pervert the facts of our history. In the past they have been to a great extent successful. Up to the war our people were as unknown as if they had lived on another planet—or known only to be condemned. The world has grown wiser. Therefore, these men, hopeless of retaining in the high court of the future the packed juries and prejudiced judges before whom they have heretofore urged their cause against us, gradually despairing of final success in distorting facts as touching either the legal aspect of the case or our military history, still retain the hope, and now bend their energies to the task, of convicting us all—leaders and people—of such motives as shall appear to the world, and to our children, as proof of dishonor; and rob statesmen, faithful citizen and soldier alike, of the admiration now justly accorded.

A distinguished writer has lately said that "history as written, if accepted in future years, will consign the South to infamy." He further observes that "the conquerors write the histories of all conquered peoples." Whether or not the records of mankind show this last statement to be true, it is certainly not true that all conquered peoples have so learned the story of their father's deeds; nor can it be shown that the conquerors have habitually sought to force such teachings upon them. Wiser statesmen have known with Macaulay, that "a people not proud of the deeds of a noble ancestry will never do anything worthy to be remembered by posterity." He is a stupid educator who does not know that a boy ashamed of his father will be a base man. Such a direct attempt to change the character of a people has been almost unknown. It is true that traces of the Latin language show us where the Roman legions marched. Norman French was the court language in England after the conquest, and entered our English speech. These results, long resisted by patriotic men, came by natural assimilation. The relentless and remorseless "man of blood and iron" did—as a last measure of utter subjugation—attack the minds of the children of Alsace and Lorraine through the books ordered for the schools. Through dire penalties these orders were enforced; in hopeless despair these provinces submitted. The