A teacher of history and literature and later a school principal, Mildred Lewis Rutherford (1851-1928) knew from experience the utmost importance of what is taught in the classroom. Her insistence on authenticity comes vibrantly and forcefully alive in her 1920 book, Truths of History. This 114-page presentation is an exhaustive laundry list of truths that debunk all Yankee-regurgitated mythology attempting to pass then and now as history.
       Miss Rutherford’s manner is insistent and deliberate, as she wrote to Southern teachers to correct erroneous history and literature books already in use by 1920:

       It has taken the South many years to get off of that "Rock of Offense," the Reconstruction Period. While the South was combating the destructive forces at work during this time – homes were being destroyed, domestic relations were being upset, property was being confiscated, politics was being corrupted, liberty of speech, and liberty of the press were being suppressed – the North was writing the history unmolested and we of the South have allowed this history written from the Northern viewpoint, with absolute ignorance of the South, to be taught in our schools all these years with an indifference that is truly appalling (page vii).

       Such force of word coupled with authority of mind and person is refreshing, especially when presented in the frame of a woman who lived through the devastation of the war, felt its consequences personally, and had the fortitude to attempt to rally her Southern brothers and sisters to remember the truth, even in their beaten-down state.
       Truths is broken into twenty chapters, or “assertions,” which Rutherford defends and proves with the precision of the school teacher and daughter of the South that she was. After presenting her thesis in a very thorough “Preface,” the author hammers home her points with primary source after primary source like a master, wielding the comments in their historical context and going often to quotable, well-known documents for the backbone of her main premise that the South has been maltreated, slandered, and vilified. The assertions include “Secession Was Not Rebellion,” “The North Was Responsible for the War Between the States,” “The War Between the States Was Not Fought to Hold the Slaves,” “The South Desired Peace and Made Every Effort to Obtain It,” and “Race Prejudice is Stronger in the North Than in the South.” Miss Rutherford turns to people like Daniel Webster, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Horace Greeley, Alexander Hamilton, Mark Twain, and even Union Generals Benjamin Butler and William T. Sherman, and United States President Abraham Lincoln, using their own words and works as proofs of her assertions. While the reader will also find words with Southern origins, Rutherford’s use of numerous Yankee sources and Federal documents is more damning and more effective for her purpose.
       Below are some of the facts that modern “history” books have likely avoided:

· “If the Union was formed by the accession of States then the Union may be dissolved by the secession of States.” – Daniel Webster, U.S. Senate, Feb. 15, 1833 (page 2);

· “If the Declaration of Independence justified the secession of 3,000,000 colonists in 1776, I do not see why the Constitution ratified by the same men should not justify the secession of 5,000,000 of the Southerners from the Federal Union in 1861.” – Horace Greeley, New York Tribune (page 4);

· “Any people whatever have a right to abolish the existing government and form a new one that suits them better.” – Abraham Lincoln, Congressional Record, 1847 (page 4);

· “The South was invaded and a war of subjugation was begun by the Federal government against the seceding States in amazing disregard of the foundation principle of its existence – and the South accepts the contest forced upon her with a courage characteristic of this proud-spirited people… The North had no Constitutional right to hold Fort Sumter in case the States seceded and to hold it meant war.” – Benjamin Williams, of Lowell, Massachusetts (page 10);

· “Should I become convinced that the object of the Government is to execute the wishes of the abolitionists, I pledge you my honor as a man and a soldier I would resign my commission and carry my sword to the other side.” – Union General Ulysses S. Grant, Democratic Speaker’s Handbook, page 33 (page 14);

· “It would be contrary to the spirit of the American Government to use force to subjugate the South.” – William Seward to London Times Correspondent, Mr. Russell, April 4, 1861 (page 19);

· “It was not Jefferson Davis or any subordinate or associate of his who should now be condemned for the horrors of Andersonville. We were responsible ourselves for the continued detention of our captives in misery, starvation and sickness in the South.” – Charles A. Dana, New York Sun (page 24);

· “The President (Abraham Lincoln) has made himself a legislator. He has enacted penal laws governing citizens of the United States. He has super-added to his rights as commander the power of usurper. He has established a military despotism. He can now use the authority he has assumed to make himself master of our lives, our liberties, our properties, with power to delegate his mastership to such satraps as he may select.” – Benjamin R. Curtis, of the Supreme Court in “Executive Power” (pages 67-68);

· “During the whole war the Lincoln government was rarely aided, but was unanimously impeded by the decisions of the Supreme Court, so that President Lincoln was obliged to suspend the Writ of Habeas Corpus in order to relieve himself from the rulings of the Court.” – Benjamin Butler (the Union general known as “Butcher Butler,” who says this like Lincoln’s actions were laudable) (page 68);

· “This State is for whites only.” – The Legislature of Kansas, the home of John Brown (page 92);

· “In 1850, 1855, and 1865, Michigan refused suffrage to free negroes. In 1864 no negro could vote in Nevada. ‘In Illinois (Lincoln’s State) no negro nor mulatto was allowed to remain in the State ten days. If a negro came into the State he was sold at auction.’ In twenty-seven counties of Indiana no negro was allowed to live. If any white man encouraged him to come to the State he was fined. In Boston the negroes are segregated. In Ohio the negroes were warned if they did not segregate some dire calamity would befall them.... No negro can live in Oregon.” (pages 92-93)

       These eye-openers are just a taste of what the author uses to build her case against Yankee mythology already polluting Southern schools. Truths is a fine resource for high school students through adults, though some of the works and authors/speakers quoted may be unfamiliar to our generation. This would also make an excellent resource for those seekers who need convincing of the fallacy of Yankee doctrine. Rutherford’s style constantly points her reader back to the primary source for the reader’s own verification. She charges her contemporaries – and perhaps us today – with correcting the continued harm to Southern heritage by liberally applying truth in all areas. Rutherford’s book is a pillar for any library, private and public, and is sure to raise the blood pressure of those who love the South.

– reviewed by Deborah Deggs Cariker