Editor's Table [pp. 472-476]

Editor's Table.
of the country should be fully and accurately known.
of Monticello, he looked down, through
the summer atmosphere, and saw its
walls rising in the midst of that beautiful amphitheatre of mountains-provided
th e proper steps are taken by those to
whom its interests have been committed.
These steps, we think, were clearly and
judiciously pointed out by our contributor and we cannot understand how he
could, for one moment, be thought unfriendly to the institution.
The Board of Visitors, at a recent meeting, we are pleased to see, carried into effect two of his. suggestions, by dividing
the duties of the Chair of Ancient Languages and establishing a Professorship
of History and General Literature.
MACON, May 1, 1856.
MESSRS. EDITORS: -In a number of your
paper, published a week or two ago, I remarked the appeal which you made to
correspondents, to furnish you with some
historic or documentary evidence of the
date of the evacuation by the British
troops, of your town and garrison. I
had thought that so important an event
in our revolutionary annals, could easily
be established. I have not found it so.
McCall's history makes an error of one
whole year; General Green's. Southern
Campaign has not the official authority
for the event, nor has Holmes' Annals, as
quoted by Mr. Mallard of Liberty county,
who replied to your inquiry.
I have to-day been pleased to observe
in your edition of yesterday, a full and
complete answer to your appeal from the
pen of I. K. Tefft, Esq., Corresponding
Secretary of the Georgia Historical Society. When you confidently said that the
Historical Society was "in honor bound"
to prove, by official documents, the exact
time at which the evacuation took place,
I felt equal assurance, that Mr. Tefl't was
the man to sustain the reputation of the
Society. I had long known the wide reputation of Mr. Tefft, as a collector of autograph letters; and as he possesses an
extraordinary quantity of the correspond ence of the heroes of the Revolution, I
had expected, that he would have satisfied your inquiry by some original letter
of General Greene, or Wayne.
The fact, however, not being contained
in his original letters, Mr. Tefft has reproduced evidence, from the official printed correspondence of General Greene with
the Congress at Philadelphia, and he
made his extract from "Scot's Magazine"
printed at the period in question, at Edinburg.
I This is, unquestionably, good evidence,
for such official papers could not have
been invented or forged. But the fact,
that the Historical Society has been compelled to resort to a Scotch Magazine, to
prove an event of American history, suggests the curious circumstance, that there
s no American collection of historical papers, to quote as authority in this case.
I should be obliged to you, or Mr. Tefft,
for information on this subject. Has Congress never published the military correspondence of the Revolution? Does
iForce's collection of State papers omit
pieitary and naval correspondence? Congress has published many folio volumes,
We find the followinr letter in the Savannah Republican and transfer it to our
p ages as indicating the useful purposes
of an h istorical Society. No more excellent Association of this kind exists
than that Of the State of Georgia, and in
its Corresponding Secretary it possesses
an officer, who, for the zeal he brings into
historical research and the orderly arrangement of the facts he collects, is a
remarkable specimen of the philosophic
antiquarian, while the amenity of his
manners and the purity of hio character
challenge the respect and win the esteem
of all who know him. We learn, with
reference to the point sought to be established in the letter, that the pension of a
venerable ladyI-at this moment really depends upon it, which will sufficiently show
how important it is that the past aWnals
1856.]
473
Aapropos of the ]University, we have
seen a Prospectus for a Literary Magazine to be published there under the auspices of the Literary Societies. We regret that it is not proposed to give it the
name of the periodical which shed a
monthly light along Range and Lawn, during the days of our own novitiate, as
we should have gladly welcomed once
more "Tlte Collegian," redivivus, but in
whatever form it may appear, it will receive at our hands a hearty recognition
and we trust it will enjoy a much longer
period of radiant existence than did that
fleeting luminary.