Political Historians are Not New

Winston Churchill is often credited with the statement that “history is written by the victors.” If this sentiment is so well known, why does it continue to be the case? You would think that if historians understood this, they would make every effort to not abide by the “truism”. Seems that a little thing called politics gets in the way.

I stumbled upon what appears to be an early political historian or at least one who was conscious of which way the wind was blowing. John Cussons lambasts Professor Goldwin Smith in a brilliant little book written in 1897. Cussons immigrated from England 1855 and served in the Confederate army. At the end of the war, he served with N.B. Forrest. His book is a polemic on the state of history related to the Civil War which he claimed the Northern interpretation dominated.

Much of Cussons’ scorn is aimed at “Goldwin Smith, Doctor of Canon Law and Professor of the Humanities, Toronto, Canada.” Smith was also English and was born in 1823. Educated at Eton and Oxford so he was no intellectual slouch. But neither is Cussons who both entertains and informs in his United States “History” As the Yankee Makes It and Takes It.

The book Cussons refers to was published in 1893. What I did check of the source shows Cussons was accurate in his attributions. One of Cussons’ early objections was how Smith lauded the Puritans and denigrated the Virginia Colony which he summarized as follows.

“It is safe to say the throughout his entire work Mr. Goldwin Smith never utters the name of a Virginian without bestowing upon him the tribute of his scorn.”

This was particularly true of Patrick Henry where Smith wrote:

“This man also had tried various ways of earning a livelihood, and had failed in all. He was a bankrupt at twenty-three, and lounged in thriftless idleness, till he found that though he could not live by industry, he could live by his eloquent tongue.”

Then in 1870 there are newspaper reports that Smith wrote a letter recommending Englishmen immigrate to Virginia over New York because it was to be “overridden by the Fenians”. Oh, what a politician.