432 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



ing for which he was peculiarly fitted. The knowledge he had 

 gained of the state and its people, during the years when he 

 travelled from one end of it to the other in discharge of his 

 duties as Director of the Kentucky Geological Survey, served 

 him to good purpose in vivifying the historical record. He knew 

 the people intimately, the wealthy planter of the blue-grass 

 region, the small farmer, and the poor mountaineer, finding 

 among all classes characteristics which awakened his admira- 

 tion. He had a keen sense of the reserve power, the unused-up 

 force that in many cases lay dormant in the different grades 

 of society. 1 



Furthermore, while a Union man himself, Mr. Shaler's under- 

 standing of the motives of those who cast in their lot with the 

 Southern cause enabled him to treat of the Civil War period 

 with larger comprehension than fell to the lot of the mere parti- 

 san writer. The proof-sheets of his book were subjected to the 

 criticism of some of the ablest men in the state, and as might 

 have been expected there was one point about which there was 

 a diversity of opinion, viz., the exact meed of praise due the 

 Union and Confederate soldier. One of his friends, Mr. John 

 Mason Brown, writes, October 24, 1884 : 



In reading over the estimate of the troops during the Civil War, it is diffi- 

 cult to resist the conclusion that your historical opinion is, that the Union 

 forces of Kentucky were composed merely of such material as were left after 

 skimming off the cream of the state into the churn of Morgan's cavalry. 

 This is hardly gratifying to one who thinks so strongly to the contrary as 

 myself and my friend Speed. It however suits Durrett and Collins to a dot. 



It is barely possible that Mr. Shaler may have been induced 

 by the representation of his critics, whom he greatly respected, 



i He was fond of telling of men whom he had met in out-of-the-way places, who had 

 interpreted, often in a wise way, the phenomena of nature. Others had the same experi- 

 ence. Mr. Edward Atkinson writes to him : " You once told me that you found an old 

 farmer up in the mountains of Kentucky who had worked out a true theory of erosion. 

 I enclose letters from a farmer in Henderson, Kentucky, who appears to have worked out 

 from his inner consciousness what would be substantially the theory of Quesnay and the 

 physiocrats. I wonder how many farmers of this type are to be found in Kentucky. They 

 ought to rule the state." 



