In general, the critics praised the Bishop's work as a significant contribution. Of it the Outlook remarked: "His account of the attitude of the Church in its political relations throughout those sad and trying times is free from any tinge of bitterness. Its narrative of the work of bishops and councils, and of the ministries of the church to the soldiers and to the slaves, deserves to be widely read for the little-known facts it records." The Churchman, of New York, declared: "The temper of Bishop Cheshire's narrative is admirable, his account of perplexing constitutional questions that arose from the relations of the Church to the Confederacy and to the Union is clear, his analysis of the issues is penetrating and acute, his conclusions will be generally accepted." The church periodicals, North and South, were unanimous in their praise of the Bishop's work. They felt he had done the American Episcopal Church a great service in preserving this phase of her history. The Church Times, of London, thought that while the book was interesting and informative, it was not fair to the northern church. Many of the reviewers considered the last chapter of the work, which discussed the reunion of the church in 1865, the most interesting and significant. The Bishop was able to write of this particular subject with intimacy, since his father had taken an active part in the reunion.

The Church in the Confederate States is Bishop Cheshire's most important historical contribution. In it his style is direct, simple, and restrained. It describes and interprets a phase of Civil War history which had never before been adequately treated, and since its publication no work on the subject has superseded it. For his information Bishop Cheshire relied almost entirely upon original sources. Some of the more personal incidents, however, were gained from actual participants in that stormy period.

On one of his visitations to Milnor Jones' missions in Watauga County, Bishop Cheshire told Jones that if he should outlive him he would see that some recognition was made of Jones' work. Many years later the Bishop fulfilled his promise by writing the volume, Milnor Jones, Deacon and Missionary. The greater part of this biography is devoted to the years 1894-1897, which Jones spent in the mountains of North Carolina. It is an interesting picture of that most unique character, and a good description of both the difficult and sometimes amusing sides of missionary work in the mountains. Although the Bishop liked and admired Jones, he did not fail to bring out his faults as well as his many virtues.

Bishop Cheshire's last important literary work[47] was his reminiscences of personalities and incidents in North Carolina history. He gave these memories the title Nonnulla, meaning "Not Nothings." The Bishop began this book on his seventy-fifth birthday, and completed it five years later. He included in it stories and anecdotes about people and places not customarily found in the serious histories, but which are not entirely without significance "as illustrating, in an informal and familiar way, the life of our State and our people." Nonnulla is replete with human interest to North Carolinians, and contributes much to their understanding of some of the characters who helped to build their state.

In recognition of Bishop Cheshire's contributions to North Carolina history, the State Literary and Historical Association elected him its president for 1931. In his presidential address the Bishop discussed the religious provisions of the Fundamental Constitutions prepared by John Locke for the Lords Proprietors of Carolina. Although Locke's document was never put into effect, its provisions for religious freedom, in the Bishop's opinion, "perhaps found lodgment in the life of the people and attained a better development in their subsequent history."[48] While the Church of England was made the established church of the colony, liberty of conscience was permitted to all except atheists. Elaborating upon the theme of religious freedom, he demonstrated that the colonial government did not practice religious intolerance even though laws were enacted for the support of an established church.

With his presidential address to the State Literary and Historical Association, Bishop Cheshire concluded his work as an historian. It was a fitting close to this phase of his life. Although history had been to him a pleasant avocation, no professional historian ever took his work more seriously or had a higher ideal of historical accuracy. In the words of Dr. A. R. Newsome, of the University of North Carolina, "Native ability, industry and self-discipline enabled him to achieve a degree of historical scholarship seldom encountered among laymen." The Episcopal Church in North Carolina owes him a debt of lasting gratitude for his pioneer work in its history.

CHAPTER VIII
Work Among the Colored People

Bishop Cheshire's active interest in the church's work among the Negroes began when he was rector of St. Peter's Church, Charlotte. His organization of the colored mission of St. Michael and All Angels and the part he took in helping to establish the Good Samaritan Hospital have already been related. When he became bishop he continued and greatly enlarged his activities in behalf of the Negro work.

In the early part of his episcopate the Bishop made an address to the Conference of Church Workers Among Colored People, in which he expressed some interesting ideas on the colored work. He first pointed out that the reconstruction acts had failed to accomplish for the Negro many of their designed objectives. Although those acts were for the most part of a purely political character, he realized many sincere people in the North had advocated them in the belief that they would help the Negro. In his opinion, the legislation of the reconstruction period had not accomplished for the colored people what its sincerest advocates had confidently expected. If the Negroes are to play a significant role in the future of this country, the Bishop declared, "it will be only because they shall have become fitted for that part. No theories of predominant political equality will avail for preserving privileges which are not exercised for the benefit of the community...." He believed that the disabilities of the Negro could not be removed, nor the disadvantages under which he worked conquered, by legislation against particular evils, "but simply by changing the actual conditions of the race itself." Those who are interested in the welfare of the Negro must work for the elevation of his ideals of living, of working, and of self-restraint. The Bishop emphasized the importance of developing a spirit of self-reliance and self-help among the colored clergy and laity, believing this to be the best means by which they could strengthen their economic and social position.