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LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 University of California.. 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. 
 
 Received October, i8g4. 
 ^Accessions No. 5~~^r^fy Class No. 
 
WORKS OF 
 
 PHILIP LINDSLEY, D.D, 
 
>^ OF THB *' 
 
D[LQ[? [LDKIEgilglTp®,®, 
 
 LIPPINCOTT & CO. PHILADA 
 
THE 
 
 WORKS 
 
 PHILIP LINDSLEY, D.D, 
 
 LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NASHVILLE. 
 
 '• From his cradle. 
 He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one." 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
 
 NASHVILLE : W. T. BERRY & CO. 
 1859. 
 
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 Entered, according to Act of Congfress, in the year 1859, by 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern 
 District of Pennsylvania. 
 
!T2ESim 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Doctor Lindsley may undoubtedly be regarded as one of the 
 leading spirits of his time, especially in the great cause of edu- 
 cation, to -which his life was more immediately devoted. His 
 writings were mostly Addresses and Occasional Discourses, a con- 
 siderable part of which were printed in his lifetime, and some of 
 them passed through several editions. Since his death the wish 
 has been expressed by many of his most intelligent friends, re- 
 presenting, it is believed, the general voice of the Public, that 
 not only the productions of his pen already printed, but others 
 which have remained till this time in manuscript, should be 
 brought forth afresh, or for the first time through the medium of 
 the press, to a mission of honourable usefulness. The author pos- 
 sessed, unquestionably, one of the most philosophical and accom- 
 plished minds in this country; and it would have been unjust not 
 only to his memory, but to his generation and to posterity, to 
 
 (7) 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 allow such memorials of his greatness and goodness to perish. 
 No liberty has been taken, in the way of revision, with either the 
 printed copies or the manuscripts, but both have been strictly 
 followed, even to the punctuation. A second volume may be ex- 
 pected to follow this, within a moderate period, and after that, a 
 Memoir of the venerable author by one of his friends. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 An Address, delivered in Nashville, January 12, 1825, at the Inauguration 
 of the President of Cumberland College 13 
 
 The Cause of Education in Tennessee : an Address, delivered to the Young 
 Gentlemen admitted to the Degree of Bachelor of Arts, at the First Com- 
 mencement of the University of Nashville, October 4, 1826 07 
 
 Baccalaureate Address, pronounced on the evening of the Anniversary Com- 
 mencement of the University of Nashville, October 3, 1827 119 
 
 Baccalaureate Address, delivered on the Fourth Anniversary Commence- 
 ment of the University of Nashville, October 7, 1829 155 
 
 Baccalaureate Address, pronounced on the Sixth Anniversary Commence- 
 ment of the University of Nashville, October 5, 1831 227 
 
 Baccalaureate Address, pronounced on the Seventh Anniversary Commence- 
 ment of the University of Nashville, October 3. 1832 277 
 
 Baccalaureate Address, delivered at the Ninth Commencement of the Uni- 
 versity of Nashville, October 1, 1834 .•••• 307 
 
 Speech in Behalf of the University of Nashville, delivered on the day of the 
 Anniversary Commencement, October 4, 1837 321 
 
 A Lecture on Popular Education '*09 
 
 Baccalaureate Address, delivered on the Thirteenth Anniversary Commence- 
 ment of the University of Nashville, October 3, 1838 485 
 
 Speech about Colleges, delivered in Nashville on Commencement Day, Octo- 
 ber 4, 1848 501 
 
 Name of our Republic: "United States of America," "Americans." Shall 
 we adopt a new name ? Being part of an Address delivered in Nashville, 
 on Commencement Day, October 3, 1849 523 
 
 Discourse on the Life and Character of Professor Gerard Troost, M.D., 
 delivered in Nashville on Commencement Day, October 2, 1850 539 
 
 (9) 
 

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INAUGURATION 
 
 PRESIDENT OF CUMBERLAND COLLEGE. 
 
.i*i>?? 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 
 
 DELR'ERED AT NASHVILLE, J.INUARY 12, 1825. 
 
 On the subject of Education much has been said and 
 written. Of its importance, at least, to a certam extent 
 and for certain purposes, but one opinion has ever pre- 
 vailed. Even among savages, and the ruder classes of 
 civiUzed men, it has been found necessary to instruct 
 children in the few imperfect arts and branches of know- 
 ledge with which the parents happened to be acquainted, 
 in order to fit them for the mode of life to which they 
 were destined. No animal is by nature so destitute and 
 helpless as man. He is emphatically the creature of 
 education. As a general rule, it may be affirmed of him, 
 that he can be moulded into any form and character, and 
 exalted to any degree of intellectual excellence, by suit- 
 able instruction and discipline. And, ordinarily, the scale 
 of education is graduated by the wisdom and intelligence 
 of those who, in any age or country, superintend and 
 direct the seminaries of youth. 
 
 Many systems of education, considerably differing from 
 each other in several important features, have been pro- 
 posed to the world ; and each has had its advocates and 
 
 admirers. The question has often been agitated, whether 
 
 13 
 
14 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 a public be preferable to a private education? .Much 
 has been ^^lausibly urged in behalf of each mode. The 
 decision of mankind, however, has been pronounced in 
 favour of a public system. Such was the award of Quinc- 
 tilian; whose treatise on the subject is among the most 
 ancient which have escaped the ravages of time. Of the 
 various methods of communicating instruction in public 
 — in schools and colleges — ^much diversity in theory and 
 practice still obtains : and perfect uniformity is, perhaps, 
 not to be expected. Partial and local, physical and 
 moral, political and religious causes may occasion and 
 tend to perpetuate this variety. Every system must be 
 adapted to the genius, character and circumstances of 
 the society for which it is designed. In most cases, how- 
 ever, useful hints may be borrowed from every source ; 
 while experience and talent will add something valuable 
 to any existing system. 
 
 We cannot ascend very high into antiquity for Kght 
 and information on this subject. Moses, the earliest and 
 the only historian of the origin and primeval condition 
 of our race, has recorded only a few striking focts and 
 events relative to a period of more than twenty-five hun- 
 dred years. These facts are, however, conclusive as to 
 the general state and character of mankind during the 
 primitive ages. They indubitably possessed the arts, 
 knowledge, skill and enterprise of civilized life. The 
 venerable father of the human family was their first 
 instructor. Himself created in the full maturity and 
 vigour of all his faculties, moral, intellectual and physi- 
 cal ; and taught immediately by his Maker everything 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 15 
 
 necessary for him to know ; and living through a period 
 of nearly a thousand years ; he could not have failed to 
 prove an able instructer to his posterity. 
 
 How much of literature, science and the arts may 
 have been possessed by the antediluvian world, it is im- 
 possible for us to know^, and useless to conjecture. That 
 they had made no mean attainments is evident from the 
 Mosaic narrative : and that their descendants, who sur- 
 vived the ruins of the deluge, had not lost the arts, is 
 manifest from the sketch of their first exploits as given 
 by the same faithful and inspired writer. Noah, indeed, 
 remained a teacher in the new world for three hundred 
 and fifty years. Within which period many of the cities 
 of Chaldea, Assyria, and Phoenicia, had been founded, and 
 were fast rising to that height of power and splendour 
 which has made them the wonder and admiration of all 
 succeeding ages. Eg3r[Dt too, which has ever been re- 
 puted the cradle of the arts, had become a populous and 
 flourishing kingdom, at least, in the days of Abraham. 
 From the creation of Adam, therefore, down to the age 
 of the great Hebrew patriarch, we behold no trace of 
 savage life on the face of the earth. Nor for ages after- 
 wards, in those countries which were first settled after 
 the deluge, and which enjoyed the regular, uninterrupted 
 instructions of the original masters and of their succes- 
 sors. Along the eastern and southern shores of the Medi- 
 terranean — upon the banks of the Tigris, the Euphrates 
 and the Nile — there continued to exist, for many gene- 
 rations, the proudest monuments of human art and in- 
 dustry ; and many of them exist still, upon a scale of 
 
16 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 gigantic grandeur and adamantine strength, which look 
 down with contempt upon the puny efforts of modern 
 ingenuity and refinement. 
 
 I intend, in these desultory remarks, to institute no 
 comparison between the ancients and the moderns, as to 
 the amount, utility, or excellence of their respective at- 
 tainments. I am taking a rapid glance at a few promi- 
 nent facts merely in reference to education. Their 
 bearing on the subject will appear presently. 
 
 It has been generally supposed, and this is the pre- 
 vailing philosophy, that the savage was the primitive 
 state of man : and that he has been slowly advancing, 
 from age to age, by the gradual development of his pow- 
 ers, until he has, at length, arrived at that degree of re- 
 finement which now characterizes civilized society. This 
 theory is contradicted alike by reason, by revelation and 
 by history. I hesitate not to affirm, that the world can- 
 not produce an instance of a nation, a tribe, a family — or 
 of an individual who has ever emerged from the rude- 
 ness of savage life without any foreign or external aid ; 
 or without the instruction and example of those who 
 were already civilized. This is not the place to present 
 the argument, or to attempt the induction which es- 
 tablishes m}^ position. All the phenomena of the savage 
 state can be easily explained — while, had this been the 
 original state of mankind, his subsequent improvement 
 could never have been accounted for consistently with 
 scripture or history. Had men been savages at the 
 outset, they would have been savages to this day, unless 
 the Deity had interposed in their behalf Man is prone 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 17 
 
 to degeneracy ; and when sunk to the lowest state of de- 
 gradation, he remains stationary, until light from abroad 
 dispels the darkness which envelops him. The history 
 of all savage tribes, with which we are acquainted, con- 
 firms this statement. 
 
 The cause of the savage state has ever been the w^ant 
 of suitable instruction. When colonies removed from the 
 fertile jDlains of Shinar to inhospitable climes — to remote 
 islands — to dreary fores.ts or barren deserts — it may rea- 
 dily be imagined that in many instances they would soon 
 lose all knowledge of the arts which they left behind 
 them. That such was the case we know from history. 
 The Greeks were once comparatively rude and barba- 
 rous. If we admit that they were descended from the 
 same stock with the Egyptians and- Phoenicians, then, we 
 must admit that they had greatly degenerated. And they 
 acknowledged themselves debtors to the East for all their 
 science, literature and arts. Here is one striking instance 
 of early -degeneracy, and of speedy recovery by the aid of 
 foreign and cultivated nations. 
 
 Such has ever been the order. We can trace the 
 stream of civilization flowing from the garden of Eden — 
 through the antediluvian world — following the little com- 
 pany that issued from the ark — fertilizing the plains of 
 Phoenicia and Egypt — at length, reaching the Grecian 
 shores — and hence gradually advancing Westward till 
 barbarous Pome felt its transforming power — then, inter- 
 rupted, for a season, by the Northern Scythians, it seemed 
 to linger in its inarch awhile about a few favoured spots, 
 until in time it spread over the European world — and has 
 
18 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 finally crossed the Atlantic, and nearly reclaimed from 
 savage cruelty and wretchedness a whole continent. 
 
 A portion of instruction must be communicated in 
 order to awaken to active exertion the native energies 
 of the human mind. Some elementary principles must 
 be acquired from others before any individual will sub- 
 ject himself to the discipline of self-improvement. It is 
 a false philosophy which takes for granted that man is 
 ever disposed to better his condition and to cultivate his 
 faculties. He must first be supplied with a stock to 
 commence with. The amount to l3e furnished to answer 
 the purpose of prompting to further attainments will 
 vary with different persons, and under diverse circum- 
 stances. A child Avill ne^er learn to read who has not 
 been taught the alphabet. A savage never dreams of 
 letters at all. The son of a Bacon, if left from infancy 
 to himself, would grow up as destitute of science as the 
 child of a Hottentot. But give him instruction sufficient 
 to inspire him with a scientific taste, and then, if he 
 have genius, he may, by his own efforts, surpass his 
 parent. 
 
 AVherever education declines, there human nature 
 proportionally deteriorates. Were it totally neglected 
 in any community, not many years would elapse, before 
 the people would become as absolutely savage as the 
 Indian or the African. Learning cannot be inherited 
 like money and lands. The same tedious, painful pro- 
 cess must be repeated with every new generation. An 
 apprenticeship must be served in order to acquire even 
 the humblest mechanical arts — much more is it essential 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 19 
 
 to literary and scientific attainments. The difficulty, in 
 
 the most advanced stages of society, is to keep men up 
 
 to the standard of excellence which has been already 
 
 reached. 
 
 * * * " Facilis descensus Averni : 
 Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, 
 Hoc opus, hie labor est." 
 
 The great cpiestion, therefore, is, how is useful know- 
 ledge of every kind to be retained in a State — how to be 
 communicated or transmitted to those who are speedily 
 to occupy our places — how to be advanced and extended 
 in the most effectual and beneficial manner ? The glory 
 of Eg3'pt and Western Asia — of Greece and Rome — has 
 long since faded away : and those proud luminaries of 
 science are forever extinguished. Whether a similar 
 doom awaits the literary halls and academic groves 
 which now diffuse the cheering beams of science over 
 the Christian world, time alone can determine. We 
 have reason to think not. The art of printing has ar- 
 rested the march of the destroyer, and given stability to 
 the inventions, discoveries and productions of genius. 
 Still, the benefits of learning are but partially enjo3-ed. 
 This is true of the nations of Christendom compared 
 with each other — it is true of portions of the same king- 
 dom, and of the individuals of every country, compared 
 with one another. In ancient Egypt and Chaldea the 
 higher sciences were monopolized exclusively by the 
 sacerdotal order — while the body of the people were 
 instructed only in the necessary and useful arts. When, 
 therefore, the colleges of the former were destroved, and 
 
20 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 the order itself abolished by the Persians, science became 
 extinct. 
 
 In Greece, and afterwards in Rome, ©nly a small num- 
 ber of the citizens ever became eminently learned : but a 
 much larger proportion of knowledge was diffused among 
 the people than is generally supposed. The popular as- 
 semblies, public games, national and religious festivals, 
 theatrical entertainments, shows, pomps, processions, tri- 
 umplis — which drew together the multitude frequently 
 during the year — were, to a certain extent, schools to 
 discipline and invigorate the faculties — and to animate 
 courage, skill and ambition to daring enterprise. Be- 
 sides, on these occasions, it was customary for the orator 
 to harangue — for the poet, historian and philosopher to 
 read their respective productions. The people were thus 
 constituted a kind of literary tribunal to pronounce sen- 
 tence upon the merits of their scholars, sages and poets. 
 Hence they became familiar, in a degree, with all the 
 polite learning of their age and country; and were distin- 
 guished for intelligence and refinement of taste. Neither 
 the populace of London nor of Paris could vie, in these 
 respects, with that of Athens or of Rome. But when 
 these means of general instruction ceased, the people im- 
 mediately lost their proud pre-eminence, and sunk to a 
 level with the surrounding barbarians. From that period 
 almost to the present, ignorance, darkness and supersti- 
 tion have been the lot and inheritance of the great mass 
 of mankind, even in those countries esteemed the most 
 highly favoured and enlightened. The Reformation and 
 the art of printing commenced a brighter era : and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 21 
 
 learning has ever since been becoming more and more 
 diffusive among the people; and just in proportion to its 
 progress has been the meUoration of their character and 
 condition. 
 
 Ignorance, it is well known, is the parent of supersti- 
 tion and of oppression. It has been the policy, therefore, 
 of every tyrannical government and ambitious priesthood 
 to keep the people profoundly ignorant. Such a people 
 can be easily imposed on. They can be converted into 
 beasts of burden at the pleasure of any despotic master. 
 None but the grossly ignorant can be retained long in 
 bondage. Let the light of science and of the Bible shine 
 upon the slave, wherever he is to be found in large num- 
 bers, and he will rend in sunder his chains, and assume 
 that attitude which the conscious dignity of his nature 
 claims as an inherent indefeasible right. 
 
 During the darkest ages of European barbarism, there 
 were always some men of extraordinary learning and 
 accomplishments — enough to preserve from total de- 
 struction the many precious monuments of ancient 
 genius which we still possess, and which are still our 
 purest guides and models in every department of elegant 
 literature and the fine arts. They kept alive, indeed, the 
 taper of science — though it burned dimly, and in a corner, 
 and far from the view of ordinary and vulgar eyes. They 
 preserved the materials for future use — the seed to be 
 afterwards planted in a congenial and fruitful soil. They 
 were the secret and unconscious guardians, under Provi- 
 dence, of the rights, liberties and happiness of all future 
 generations. For two or three centuries past, the world 
 
22 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 has been reajDing the benefits of their vigilance and la- 
 bours. To form some idea of the amount actually gained, 
 look at Europe in the days of Luther — ^look at Europe 
 and the descendants of Europe at this moment. This 
 mighty revolution, in the moral, political and religious 
 state of so many millions of our race, has been effected 
 by the instrumentality of learning — ^by the diffusion of 
 knowledge among the people. 
 
 It is very questionable whether the existence in a 
 community of a small number of learned men be, on the 
 whole, advantageous, where the body of the people are 
 doomed to absolute ignorance. The}' then constitute a 
 privileged order — seek their own aggrandizement — and 
 control the destinies of the State. Some such men have 
 been, and still are, in every civiUzed kingdom. They 
 may be found at the court of the Grand Turk, and in 
 the most despotic empires of Asia. They are essential to 
 the political machinery of their masters. But from the 
 people, science is as efiectually excluded, as if it were 
 hermetically sealed up. Upon them its light never 
 flashes except to blast and to consume. 
 
 A free government, like ours, cannot be maintained 
 except by an enlightened and virtuous people. It is not 
 enough that there be a few individuals of sufficient in- 
 formation to manage public affairs. To the people our 
 rulers are immediately responsible for the faithful dis- 
 charge of their official duties. But if the people be 
 incapable of judging correctly of their conduct and mea- 
 sures ; what security can they have for their liberties a 
 single hour ? Knowledge is power, by whomsoever pos- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 23 
 
 scsi>e(l. If the people would retain in their own hands 
 that power which the Constitution gives them, tliey must 
 acquire that knowledge which is essential to its safe 
 keeping and rightful exercise. Otherwise, they will soon 
 be at the mercy of the unprincipled aspiring demagogue — 
 who, for a time, may court and flatter them — but who will 
 assuredly seize upon the first favorable crisis to bend 
 their necks to his yoke and compel them to hail him as 
 their lord and sovereign. 
 
 Give the people knowledge, therefore, and you give 
 them power. Education must ever be the grand safe- 
 guard of our liberties — the palladium of our political in- 
 stitutions — of all our rights and j)i'ivileges. In every 
 country on the globe, where the mass of the people are 
 best instructed, will be found the most liberty, the most 
 virtue, and the most happiness. Look at North Britain, 
 Switzerland, Holland, Sweden, and above all, at these 
 United States. And just in proportion to the want of 
 instruction will be found oppression, j^overty, vice and 
 wretchedness. Look at L^eland, Spain, Portugal, France, 
 Russia, Turkey, with the whole of Asia and Africa. 
 ILad the French people, at the period of their revolution, 
 been as enlightened as those of Scotland or America, they 
 had never been the sport of one Catiline or Caesar after 
 another, until they were content to become the passive 
 slaves of the Bourbons and the Holy Alliance. Nor 
 would every other struggle for political emancipation, in 
 the Old World, have proved equally unsuccessful, but for 
 the same cause. What will be the issue of the present 
 contests in Greece and Spanish America, remains to 
 
24 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 be seen. They may become independent; but if the 
 people be destitute of suitable information, they will 
 not establish or long maintain a free representative go- 
 vernment. 
 
 It is the proud distinction of my countr^Tiien, that, 
 when their fathers adventured upon the novel and 
 hazardous enterprise of self-government in 1776, they 
 well understood the nature of the object at which they 
 aimed, and steadily pursued that object without once 
 exposing themselves to the chance of being flattered, or 
 surprised, or cheated out of their liberties. They con- 
 tended for the rights of man, and for their own heredi- 
 tary and constitutional rights as Englishmen. It was 
 not the shadowy phantom of ill-defined liberty — it was 
 not the magic charm of a icord, which could be made to 
 mean anything or nothing, at the pleasure of those who 
 employed it, that urged them on to resistance and to 
 victory. Liberty, equality, independence, the rights of 
 man, had with them a substantive and definite import. 
 They were not the mere watchwords of cunning and 
 ambition, of crime and desperation, bandied about from 
 one factious upstart to another, to delude an ignorant 
 degraded populace. Which yet might have been the 
 case, had our people been as sottish as the infidel rabble 
 of Paris, or the priest-ridden peasantry' of Spain. Then, 
 had independence been achieved, we had merely trans- 
 ferred our allegiance from a transatlantic sovereign to 
 a domestic tyrant. From oppressed colonists, we had 
 become heartless trembling helots. And instead of 
 daring to advocate the cause of truth and liberty and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 25 
 
 science, a free press and a free speaker would, at this 
 moment, have been strangers to our soil. 
 
 No greater foe to his country's dearest interests can 
 be found than the enemy of education. AVere it the 
 purpose of any set of men to engross all the power, 
 honours and emoluments of official stations — to become 
 a dominant aristocracy — an order of self-constituted 
 nobilit}^ in the midst of the Republic — their plan should 
 be to discourage education — to frown upon every attempt 
 to promote and extend it — to denounce colleges and 
 schools of every kind — to put them down where they 
 exist, and to prevent their establishment wherever de- 
 sired. Their wealth would enable them to send their 
 own sons abroad to be educated, while the great body 
 of the people could not afford the expense, and would 
 consequently be compelled to see their children become 
 hewers of wood and drawers of water to their more 
 fortunate and privileged neighbours. 
 
 Great is the mistake which is current on this subject, 
 that colleges are designed exclusively for the rich — that 
 none but the rich can be benefited by them — and there- 
 fore, that the State ought not to patronize or endow 
 them. That funds for their support ought not to be 
 drawn from the public treasury or the people's purse. 
 Because this would be to tax the many for the advantage 
 of a few. Nothing can be more groundless and Mlacious 
 than such a representation. No course more injurious to 
 the people were it adopted. The direct contrary is their 
 true policy and interest. For were a college established 
 and maintained by an equitable tax upon the people — 
 
26 EDUCATIOXAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 who would pay the tax? Not the poor — for no tax, or 
 next to none, is ever levied on them. Men would con- 
 tribute according to 'their means; and the principal 
 burthen would necessarily fall upon the rich, as in reason 
 and justice it ought. The rich then would be taxed for 
 the benefit of the whole community. 
 
 It is evident, as I before remarked, that the rich, at 
 least, the very rich, could easily educate their children 
 at distant or foreign seminaries. And it would be greatly 
 to their advantage to do so, at any expense, were there 
 no seminaries at home, or within every one's reach. 
 Suppose there were no college in Tennessee — and but 
 twenty individuals wealthy enough to send their sons to 
 a college out of the State — it would then be in the power 
 of a score or two of persons to monopolize all the liberal 
 professions and all the avenues to wealth and honour in 
 the commonwealth. But raise up colleges among your- 
 selves, and you reduce the charges of a liberal education 
 so considerably that hundreds and thousands can imme- 
 diately avail themselves of their aid. Not only all the 
 middling classes of citizens, but enterprising youth of 
 the poorest families may contrive to enter the lists of 
 honourable competition with the richest. As' is done 
 every day in the Northern and Eastern States; where, 
 indeed, the poor, more frequently than the rich, rise to 
 eminence by their talents and learning. Such is the pe- 
 culiar genius and excellence of our republican institutions, 
 that, moral and mental worth is the surest passport to dis- 
 tinction. The humblest individual, by the diligent culti- 
 vation of his faculties, may, without the aid of family or 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 27 
 
 fortune, attain the most exalted stations within the 
 reach or gift of freemen. What an encouragement to 
 studious effort and enterprise? What an incentive to 
 the generous aspirings and honourable ambition of our 
 youth? Why should not the door be opened wide for 
 their entrance upon this vast theatre of useful action 
 and noble daring? 
 
 But, it may be said, that common elementary schools 
 are sufficient to answer every valuable purpose — that 
 these ought chiefly to be encouraged by the State — that 
 the great majority of the people, after all, must be con- 
 tent with a comparatively limited education — that it 
 would be absurd to think of giving to all a liberal educa- 
 tion even w^ere it practicable — because, if acquired, it 
 would be superfluous or injurious, inasmuch as only a 
 small number, at best, can hope to succeed in the learned 
 professions or to fill the public offices. 
 
 Far be it from me to utter a syllable in opposition to 
 primary schools. They are indispensable — and ought to 
 be found in every neighbourhood. But the best mode of 
 encouraging and multiplying these is carefully to foster 
 the higher seminaries — because the latter must or ought 
 to furnish teachers to the former. The greater the num- 
 ber of the liberally educated^ in any country, the better 
 the chance of obtaining suitable instructors for the in- 
 ferior institutions. Wherever colleges abound, there is 
 no difficulty in providing teachers for all the academies 
 and schools in their vicinity. Witness the four uni- 
 versities of Scotland and the dozen colleges in New 
 England. And wdiat country can compare with these 
 
28 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 for the general difFusion of knowledge among the people ? 
 Where are common schools so numerous or so efiective? 
 Where can be found so many well educated men — so 
 many college graduates? Were there a like proportion 
 in Tennessee, there would be no lack of village and 
 country schools. They would grow up of course and 
 from necessity. As education extends, the desire and 
 demand for it increase. Numbers will leave college 
 every 3'ear compelled to gain a livelihood by their own 
 exertions. Some will not have the means to prosecute 
 the study of a profession immediatel}' — some will not 
 have the inclination or the proper qualifications — 
 besides, many will despair of succeeding where the 
 candidates are so numerous, and therefore will be glad 
 to teach as a regular business. Thus the gradual supply 
 to the community of persons qualified and willing to 
 instruct, and the constantly increasing thirst for know- 
 ledge among the people, will react upon each other — the 
 latter making room and giving employment to the former, 
 who by their influence, example, and labours, will more 
 and more extend and a^vaken the spirit of improvement. 
 In this Avay too, teacliing would soon become, what it 
 ought to be, an honourable calling or profession. The 
 advantages which would result to this State from such a 
 policy, are incalculable. And the individuals who shall 
 succeed in introducing it, will be hailed as public bene- 
 factors to the latest generations. 
 
 But there is another prevailing heresy on this subject 
 which deserves exposure and condemnation. It is, that 
 superior learning is necessary only for a few particular 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 29 
 
 professions and situations — such as we have been con- 
 temphiting. Now, I aflfimi, in opposition, it may be, to 
 all the learned faculties of all the learned professions, 
 and to all vulgar prejudices, that every individual, who 
 wishes to rise above the level of a mere labourer at task- 
 work, ought to endeavour to obtain a liberal education. 
 I use the term liberal in a liberal sense; without ne- 
 cessarily including every branch of literature or science 
 which usually constitutes a college course. The farmer, 
 the mechanic, the manufacturer, the merchant, the sailor, 
 the soldier, if they would be distinguished in their re- 
 spective callings must be educated. Should it be ob- 
 jected, that well-educated youth will not labour for their 
 support; that, if they become farmers or manufacturers, 
 they will, at most, merely superintend and direct the 
 labours of others, I answer — 1st. That we, at this moment, 
 need thousands of such men. Would not every planter 
 who cultivates the soil by slaves, and every farmer who 
 does the same by hired labourers, be the better, the 
 happier, the more useful with a good education than 
 without it? May not the same be said of the directors 
 of printing, mercantile, and manufacturing establish- 
 ments: and, indeed, of every man who is above, or 
 aspires to be above, the meanest drudgery of manual 
 labour? Here then are thousands in the community, 
 who, or whose children at least, might be liberally edu- 
 cated without diminishing the number of actual labourers. 
 So that any increase of seminaries, upon any plan, is not 
 likely very soon to affect the common concerns of pro- 
 ductive industry, except by bringing to bear upon them 
 
30 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 the salutary influence of more light and knowledge, and 
 so far greatly to improve and meliorate the character 
 and condition of all classes of citizens. 
 
 But, in the second place, were it possible to give, what 
 might be styled a liberal education of a suitable kind 
 to every child of the Republic, so far from proving detri- 
 mental to industry and enterprise, it would produce a 
 directly contrary effect. Diflerences in rank, station, 
 and fortune would still exist. The pulpit, the bar, the 
 healing art, the army, the navy, the legislative hall, the 
 bench of justice, and all posts of honour and emolument, 
 would, of course, be occupied, then as now^ by men 
 of comparatively superior talents, learning or address. 
 While the remainder would be compelled, according to 
 their abilities or necessities, to do what they best could 
 for a livelihood. Though all would be learned to a cer- 
 tain extent, yet there would be various gradations of 
 excellence. The competition for honourable distinction 
 w^ould range on a higher scale, and among men of greater 
 intellectual attainments, than is now the case; but in 
 reference to the whole body of the people, the principle 
 and the result would be the same. All would find their 
 level, and every individual his appropriate place and 
 sphere. Even supposing then, what is not likely soon 
 to happen, that all were educated — and educated in the 
 best manner, we need not apprehend that a famine would 
 ensue from lack of industry. 
 
 In the third place, so far as the experiment has been 
 made, we find that the educated poor do in fact become, 
 in the same proportion, more industrious, useful and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 31 
 
 happy. I appeal to the school at Hofwyl — to history, 
 and to the actual state of the world — to every fact which 
 can be adduced as bearing upon the argument. Three 
 centuries ago, it was considered dangerous for the com- 
 mon people anywhere to be taught even the art of read- 
 ing. And a mechanic who could then read his Bible 
 was a greater rarity than would be, in our day, a me- 
 chanic who could read Homer in his native tongue. 
 
 Man is a moral and intellectual being ; and his moral 
 and intellectual faculties ought to be cultivated, inde- 
 pendently of the sordid motive or prospect of pecuniary 
 gain, or of a mere livelihood. The grand question 
 among real philanthropists will be, if it be not already, 
 what system of discipline is best calculated to render 
 men virtuous and happy? — Not what will render them 
 rich and honourable and powerful? All cannot b( rich. 
 The great mass must ever remain in comparatively 
 humble circumstances. But all may be virtuous and 
 happy — so far, at least, as virtue and happiness can be 
 predicated of mortals in this world. The labouring classes 
 of the people do not labour always. They have their 
 seasons of mirth and pleasure — of recreation and amuse- 
 ment. Of what character these usually are need hardly 
 be specified. Let the tavern, the grog-shop, the court- 
 house, the gaming table, and every gathering on public 
 and festive occasions, proclaim their value and amount. 
 Could not these people be better employed? Are they 
 incapable of any enjoyment superior to that of the brute 
 sensualist? Why is it, that, whenever they have a 
 leisure hour, they become, in one way or another, the 
 
32 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 tormentors of themselves and their fomihes? • What 
 should hinder the poor man from enjoying a literary 
 repast just as Avell as the rich man? Nothing surely but 
 the want of that previous training which would enable 
 him to relish it. Were a literary taste once imbibed, 
 books would be resorted to for entertainment and in- 
 struction : and these would prove, not only a more inno- 
 cent, rational and beneficial source of enjoyment, but 
 vastly cheaper than any of those which administer to 
 the gratification of the mere animal and vicious appetites 
 and propensities. How different an aspect would human 
 society present were every farm-house and cottage sup- 
 plied with useful books and every inmate a reader? In- 
 telligence would then beam from every eye ; and home — 
 sacred home, would be the scene of the purest pleasures. 
 Contentment too would smile on every countenance — 
 with pious hope animating every bosom, and virtue gilding 
 the pathway of life's humble pilgrimage to brighter man- 
 sions in the skies ! Thus would be realized on earth the 
 poet's golden age, and the Christian's millennial elysium. 
 Whenever science and religion shall have gained uni- 
 versal dominion, then peace and liappiness will crown 
 the lot of every mortal. 
 
 Men are exceedingly prone to be blind to their own 
 best interests. Hence the opposition to all benevolent 
 and patriotic schemes and enterprises, at least, during 
 their early and incipient stages; and until experience 
 shall have established their claims to general patronage 
 and support. Hence the illiberal prejudices against 
 learnins:. and learned men. and literary institutions, still 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 33 
 
 deeply rooted in many parts of the world, and of our 
 own country too. 
 
 King Alfred, in an age which we despise as barbarous, 
 understood this matter far better than many of the 
 sapient monarchs and republican statesmen of the nine- 
 teenth century. " We will and command, (says he, in 
 one of his public acts,) that all freemen of our kingdom 
 whosoever, possessing two hides of land, shall bring up 
 their sons in learning till they be fifteen years of age at 
 least, that so they may be trained up to know God, to 
 be men of understanding, and to live happily ; for, of a 
 man that is born free, and yet unliterate, we repute no 
 otherwise than of a beast or a brainless body, and a very 
 sot." And it is well known, that, in the University of 
 Oxford, which he either founded or revived, ten times 
 as many youth were educated, during a part of his illus- 
 trious reign, as at the present day. Had the spirit of 
 Alfred animated his successors, many ages of darkness, 
 superstition, tyranny and wretchedness had been spared 
 to the land of our sires — and America might have been 
 centuries in advance of her present attainments. 
 
 Admitting then that colleges are necessary, no less than 
 common schools, the question arises, how and by whom 
 are they to be established? Our general government 
 does not think proper to interfere — or to make provision 
 for this most momentous concern. It is evident, there- 
 fore, that colleges and all literary institutions must owe 
 their origin and support to the several State legislatures, 
 or to the munificence of public-spirited individuals. Some 
 of the States have adopted a wise and liberal policy in 
 
34 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 this behalf. Witness Massachusetts, New York, Vir- 
 ginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. Others have done 
 something, while many have done nothing. It does not 
 become me, a stranger, to speak of the acts of the Ten- 
 nessee Legislature in relation to her colleges. Whether 
 they could with propriety do more than they actually 
 have done, may depend on circumstances of which I am 
 ignorant, or not a competent judge. It is certain, how- 
 ever, that Cumberland College, if she attain to a rank 
 equal to her sister institutions, must be indebted chiefly 
 to individual enterprise and liberality. Her funds, what- 
 ever may be their ultimate value, are, at present, unpro- 
 ductive ; consisting of landed property, which cannot be 
 sold without a sacrifice, and which it is desirable to 
 retain until it can be brought into a better market. 
 The trustees of the institution, and many of its friends 
 in this town and vicinity, have contributed handsomely 
 towards its support. But much — very much remains 
 yet to be accomplished. The grand experiment is about 
 to be made, whether this college shall be organized on a 
 permanent and respectable basis : or whether it again be 
 destined to a temporary existence and to ultimate failure 
 from the want of due encouragement and patronage 
 from the wealthy citizens of West Tennessee and the 
 adjacent States. That there are ample means in the 
 hands and at the disposal of the good people of this vast 
 and fertile section of our country cannot be doubted. 
 Situated as this college is, almost on the line which 
 separates the healthy from the unhealthy portions of 
 the gA;at valley of the Mississippi — as fir south, proba- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 35 
 
 bl}^, as it will ever be desirable to establish a seminary 
 of the kind — and offering, as it does, inducements the 
 most powerful to the notice and patronage of Alabama, 
 Mississippi and Louisiana, may we not indulge the hope 
 that the opulent citizens of this extensive region will 
 not suffer our infant establishment to languish and die, 
 under their eyes and at their very doors, from any paltry 
 jealousies or illiberal sentiments and prejudices? May 
 we not trust, that, by judicious and seasonable efforts 
 and representations, our funds may be gradually aug- 
 mented until the most sanguine wishes of the founders 
 and patrons of this college shall be fully attained ? Let 
 us be encouraged by the success which has crowned the 
 labours of our brethren in other States. The Theological 
 Seminary at Andover received from a few benevolent 
 donors several hundred thousand dollars almost at the 
 outset. The Theological Seminary at Princeton has, by 
 perseverance in a regular system of begging, within a 
 period of twelve years, succeeded in erecting all the ne- 
 cessary edifices, in procuring a library of six thousand 
 volumes, and in endowing all the necessary professor- 
 ships. Yale College and Nassau Hall, without the 
 smallest legislative aid, have, by a similar course, Ijeen 
 exalted to the highest rank among the colleges of our 
 country. The example of Transylvania University is 
 still nearer at hand and more prominently within your 
 view. 
 
 Let us then not despair, or remit our exertions. 
 Every dollar obtained is an encouragement to solicit 
 more. Reduced to the necessity of asking assistance, 
 
36 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 let US not be ashamed to beg until there shall be no 
 further need of it. The cause is worthy of the people's 
 charity. It is emphatically the cause of the people — and 
 of all the people, without distinction of sect or name. 
 For Cumberland College, though a Christian, is not a 
 sectarian institution. Its immediate patrons and direc- 
 tors belong to several religious denominations. It is the 
 property of no sect or party. It looks for support to the 
 liberal of all persuasions — and is pledged to be equally 
 friendly and indulgent to every class and description of 
 citizens. No parent need apprehend danger to the reli- 
 gious creed of his son by any influence which shall here 
 be exerted. With this understanding, and with this 
 catholic declaration, we confidently appeal to the gene- 
 rosity of all our fellow-citizens, assuring them that their 
 charity will not be misapphed or unworthily bestowed. 
 
 To the citizens of Nashville, a more selfish argument 
 might be addressed, were it worthy of the object or the 
 occasion. They will chiefly reap the immediate benefit 
 of the pecuniary expenditure which must necessarily fol- 
 low the establishment of a flourishing literary institution 
 in their village. Every student who comes from abroad 
 will contribute to the wealth and prosperity of this 
 people. New Haven derives a revenue of between two 
 and three hundred thousand dollars annually from her 
 students. Were you, therefore, merely to consult your 
 own pecuniary emolument in this concern, it would be 
 greatly to your interest to advance the whole sum neces- 
 sary to insure complete success to your college. It could 
 be easily shown also, that the surrounding country, and, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 37 
 
 indeed, the whole State would be proportionably bene- 
 fited by every addition to the wealth of this town. 
 Could Nashville be made to-morrow as large and wealthy 
 as Philadelphia, it would instantly stamp a hundred-fold 
 value on all the property and employments in the coun- 
 try for many hundred miles in every direction. There 
 is no ground therefore, in any view of the subject, for 
 the slightest local or sectional jealousy or hostility. 
 
 I proceed to another very important branch of this 
 very comprehensive subject. And here again I must 
 content myself with a few general remarks. A great 
 desideratum in the education of youth is such a system 
 as will most effectually develop, invigorate and mature 
 all the faculties, physical, mental and moral. The 
 body, the mind and the heart ought to be the objects of 
 the most assiduous care and cultivation in every semi- 
 nary of learning. I need not stop here to philosophize 
 on the connection which subsists between the body and 
 the mind, or to show how they mutually affect and in- 
 fluence each other. The fact is too well known to 
 require proof or illustration. " Sana mens in sano cor- 
 pore," is an ancient adage. Among the republican 
 Greeks and Romans of the purest ages, no pains were 
 spared to train their youth to health, vigour and activity, 
 while they were acquiring a learned and liberal educa- 
 tion. Their gymnasia and paJcestrw sufficiently indicate 
 the original and primary purposes of their institution. 
 The arts and sciences, philosophy and rhetoric, were 
 taught by the most accomplished masters, in a w\ay 
 calculated to elicit all the ener<2;ies of the mind, and to 
 
38 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 inspire their pupils with a generous emulation to excel. 
 These listened, not merely to a course of lectures got up 
 by the aid of the dead and the living — and pronounced ex 
 cathedra with magisterial solemnity and soporific pathos : 
 nor were they compelled to commit to memory the 
 rounded periods and loose statements of a prosing text- 
 book, but they were permitted to inquire and to reason — 
 to interrogate their instructors — to discuss subjects — to 
 start difficulties — to examine and to master the i^ro and 
 con. of every question. Thus were their talents called 
 forth, and tried, and sharpened, and prepared for active 
 life. Thus was their knowledge rendered practical, 
 exact and ever ready for use. It was their own, in the 
 strictest sense of the term. It had been thoroughly 
 canvassed, sifted and adopted upon evidence. It had 
 been reasoned into them, and incorporated with their 
 very nature. When, therefore, they were called to pre- 
 pare an oration for the forum or the senate — when they 
 sat down to compose a treatise on any subject, they were 
 not compelled to recur to a thousand volumes for senti- 
 ment, metaphor, illustration or argument. They drew 
 from their own stores. They spoke and wrote like men 
 who were masters of their subject. And hence the 
 originality which so pre-eminently characterizes their 
 productions. Every piece is, in a great measure, an 
 unique — It is of that continued uniform texture wdiich 
 bespeaks it the work of a single artist. No patchwork 
 of various colours and qualities — the manufacture of a 
 hundred ages and countries, as is not unfrequently the 
 case with the modern scholar, who ventures not to write 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 39 
 
 a page without the inspiring and guiding genius of some 
 ponderous folio ever at his elbow. 
 
 Their schools, too, were all theatres of active sports 
 and games and military tacticks. Inured to labour, to 
 athletic exercises, to temperance, to study, to every 
 species of bodily and mental effort from infancy, their 
 youth entered upon the duties of manhood with every 
 advantage, prepared to serve their country in the cabinet 
 and in the field, in peace and in war, at home and 
 abroad, in public and in private, with the strength of 
 Hercules and the wisdom of Minerva. 
 
 The moderns have dispensed with this hardy training. 
 Colleges and universities have long been consecrated to 
 literary ease, indulgence and refinement. In them, 
 miyid only is attempted to be cultivated, to the entire 
 neglect of the bodily faculties. This is a radical defect; 
 so obvious and striking too as to admit of no apology or 
 defence. Youth, at most public seminaries, are liable to 
 become so delicate, so effeminate, so purely hookish, as to 
 be rendered, without some subsequent change of habit, 
 utterly unfit for any manly enterprise or employment. 
 How frequently too, do they fall early victims to this 
 ill-timed system of tenderness and seclusion ? But this 
 is not the worst of the case. Youth must and will have 
 employment of some kind. They cannot study ahvays. 
 In our colleges they are usually suffered to devise their 
 own w^ays and means of amusement. The}^ are expected 
 indeed, perhaps exhorted, to take exercise, and they are 
 allowed abundance of time for the purpose. Still the 
 whole concern is left to their own discretion. The time 
 
40 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 they have — and the question is, how do they spend it ? 
 Often in mere idle lounging, talking, smoking and sleep- 
 ing. Often in sedentary games, which, whether in them- 
 selves lawful or unlawful, are always injurious to the 
 student, because he requires recreation of a different 
 kind. But too frequently in low degrading dissipation, 
 in drinking and gaming, to the utter neglect of every 
 duty, and to the utter abandonment and sacrifice of 
 every principle of honour and virtue. I will not finish 
 the melancholy picture which I had begun to sketch, 
 not indeed from fancy or from books, but from facts 
 which I have often witnessed, and which have some- 
 times led me almost to question the paramount utility 
 of such institutions to the community. Still, with all 
 their faults, I remain their decided advocate. But may 
 they not be improved ; or may not others be organized 
 upon wiser and safer principles ? 
 
 That system, which should provide complete employ- 
 ment of a 'pro])eT kind, for all the time of every indi- 
 vidual, would, in my opinion, be the best system ; and 
 might, perhaps, be fairly denominated a perfect system. 
 And every approximation to it will, to the same extent, 
 be an approach to perfection in this all-important con- 
 cern. Keep youth busy, and you keep them out of 
 harm's way. You render them contented, virtuous and 
 happy. 
 
 I have said that the heart, or the moral f\iculties, 
 ought to be cultivated. I am aware that a system of 
 ethicks or moral philosophy usually constitutes a part of 
 a college course, and the last part too. It is studied as a 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 41 
 
 science — just as chemistry or astronomy is studied. But 
 the moral powers need constant cultivation from infancy 
 to manhood. Correct habits of thinking and acting are 
 to be formed. Precept, lecture, exhortation, are not 
 enough. The daily walk and conversation must be in- 
 spected, guarded, and moulded, if practicable, into the 
 purest form. The Bible ought to be studied, and its les- 
 sons of wisdom diligently enforced and practically ex- 
 emplified. I say nothing of creeds, or confessions, or 
 systems of doctrine. I speak of the Bible — the grand 
 charter of our holy religion — of our common Chris- 
 tianity. And who of the great Christian family can 
 object to this? In the heathen schools, youth w^ere 
 always taught the religion of their country. Every Mus- 
 sulman is required to be master of the Koran. And 
 shall Christian youth be less favored than the Pagan 
 and Mohammedan ? Have w^e a book bearing the im- 
 press of heaven — confessedly embodying the purest 
 morality ever yet known in the world — the only au- 
 thentic record of the origin of our race, and of the most 
 stupendous events which have occurred upon our globe — 
 filled with scenes of real life the most instructive, with 
 biographical incident the most extraordinary and pa- 
 thetic, with strains of eloquence and poetry the most 
 melting and sublime — and withal professing to be, and 
 acknowledged to be, our only safe guide through life, 
 and the foundation of all our hopes of a blessed immor- 
 tality — shall this book be excluded from our seminaries. 
 and withheld from our youth, at the very period too, 
 when they most need its salutary restraints and purify- 
 
42 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 ing influence ? And this, lest, perad venture, some -specu- 
 lative error, or some sectarian opinion might be imbibed ? 
 as if worse errors, and more inveterate prejudices, and 
 the most pernicious principles, will not be sure to find 
 their way into that heart which remains a stranger to 
 the hallowed precepts of the sacred volume. But I in- 
 tend to offer no formal argument upon this point just 
 now. In every place of education, the Bible ought to be 
 the daily companion of every individual ; and no man 
 ought to be suffered to teach at all who refuses to teach 
 the Bible. " Train up a child in the way he should go, 
 and when he is old he will not depart from it," is the 
 doctrine of revelation, of reason, and of experience. 
 
 The benevolent and enterprising Fellenberg has done 
 much towards remedying the existing evils attendant on 
 a public education, and also towards making provision 
 for the proper instruction of the poor. He has contrived, 
 without expense to himself or others, to educate liberally 
 hundreds of the poorest children of Switzerland, and he 
 is still engaged in this good work. At Hofwyl the poor 
 maintain themselves by labour. The rich pay for their 
 privileges. And all are constantly under the eye and 
 control of their teachers. There, the poor learn trades, 
 or become practical farmers, at the same time that they 
 are thoroughly instructed in every branch of useful sci- 
 ence. The rich are trained to all manly exercises, and 
 to various useful arts, while their minds are diligently 
 cultivated by the most accomplished professors. M. Fel- 
 lenberg appears, so far as we are enabled to judge from 
 the several statements which have reached us, to have 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 43 
 
 completely succeeded in supplying the deficiencies of the 
 old system, and in forming an institution adapted to the 
 character and the wants of all classes of citizens. There, 
 the body, the mind, and the heart, receive their due pro- 
 portion of care and improvement. There is no idleness, 
 no dissipation, no extravagance, no effeminacy, no sacri- 
 fice of time, money, health or morals. All is life, vi- 
 gour, animation, order, industry, emulation. Every 
 moment is profitably improved. The employments are 
 so judiciously varied that they never become irksome 
 or oppressive. Every change is a relief, and partakes 
 of the nature of recreation. The shop, the field, the 
 garden, riding, fencing and other military exercises, 
 musick, history, ancient and modern languages, the 
 mechanical and the fine arts, with all the sciences 
 physical and moral, abstract and practical, constitute 
 the business, the amusement, and the study of this well 
 regulated establishment. 
 
 Several of the most eminent noblemen of Russia and 
 Germany have already sent their sons to Hofwyl, in 
 preference to any and to all the Universities of Europe. 
 A similar establishment would doubtless find liberal 
 patrons among American gentlemen. A practical ac- 
 quaintance with agriculture and the useful arts would, 
 on their own account, be advantageous to every man : 
 but, considered as a part of moral and healthful dis- 
 cipline, their importance is greatly enhanced. Should 
 some, however, object to mere manual labour of any 
 kind, as too degrading to their high descent and lofty 
 aspiring, though resorted to chiefly as exercise and re- 
 
44 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 creation, still regular active employment, in sufficient 
 abundance and variety, may be provided even for the 
 most fastidious ; and such as they would esteem gentle- 
 manly accomplishments, at the same time that they are 
 acknowledged to be valuable. These, at proper seasons, 
 and under the direction of proper authority, might oc- 
 cupy many an hour which would otherwise be worse 
 spent. Neither Greek nor Mathematics would lose any 
 thing by such interruptions. Let these general hints go 
 for what they are worth. I am no advocate for sudden 
 changes and innovations, nor am I invincibly attached 
 to the beaten track of my fathers. 
 
 But since I have ventured thus far, allow me to pur- 
 sue the train of speculation suggested by Fellenberg's 
 system, as applicable to the hardy sous of our honest 
 yeomanry and mechanics — not excluding those of the 
 humblest poverty, wherever the germ of future excel- 
 lence can be discerned. I have already shown how col- 
 leges of any kind must or may benefit the middling and 
 poorer classes of the people ; and, that, it is their special 
 interest to wish them success. Here, however, a more 
 direct chance for mental culture may be offered them — 
 and for such culture as best befits their previous habits, 
 their present circumstances, and their future prospects. 
 As they cannot be expected to pay as liberal^ for their 
 privileges as the rich, let them fare and dress according 
 to the dimensions of their purses — let them supply any 
 deficiency by their labour — or, Avhen necessary, let them 
 maintain themselves entirely by their own industry, as 
 is done by the poor at Hofwyl. Two liundred acres of 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 45 
 
 land, more or less, in the vicinity of Nashville, divided 
 into fields and gardens, under judicious management, 
 would afford to many a youth, not only a practical 
 knowledge of farming and horticulture, but the means 
 of living while he is pursuing his studies at the college. 
 Let some dozen or twenty mechanics of good moral cha- 
 racter, be duly authorized to open their shops for such, 
 as might prefer, or as might be better adapted to, this 
 species of labour. Thus, many useful trades might be 
 learned, and the whole expense of their education be de- 
 frayed, without any material loss of time — even if time, 
 thus employed, could be accounted lost. A youth, 
 ardent in the pursuit of knowledge, would learn more 
 in half his time than most of the indulged sons of afflu- 
 ence actually acquire in the whole. And there are few 
 industrious young men who could not earn their living, 
 and a little more, by labouring half of their time : espe- 
 cially in a town where so many profitable occupations 
 would be at their option, and where the products of the 
 field, the garden, and the workshop, would ever find a 
 ready market. 
 
 The most startling difiiculty in the way of any plan 
 of this kind, would be suggested, probably, by the ob- 
 vious inequality and apparently invidious distinctions 
 which would obtain among the pupils of the same insti- 
 tution. But does not a similar inequality exist among 
 our citizens and youth every^vhere in society? The 
 objection, however, is merely specious. For, in the first 
 placCj none but youth (poor youth, I mean,) determined 
 to have an education, would resort to such an institu- 
 
46 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 tion. These would soon learn to disregard or despise 
 the petlts maitres who might affect to be their superiors. 
 They would in foot be as independent as the richest. 
 How much more truh' respectable and republican would 
 be their condition, while thus Jahonring for the food of 
 body and mind, than that of the student who is sup- 
 ported in luxurious ease by the charity of individuals, 
 or of the public ? How vastly preferable to the situar 
 tion of a Cambridge sizer or Oxford servitor — many of 
 whom, nevertheless, have filled, and are filling, the 
 highest stations in church and state? In the second 
 place, the esprit clu corps, which would prevail in the 
 several ranks or classes of students, would serve to keep 
 each other in countenance, and to render them indiffer- 
 ent to imaginary evils. Besides, they would be a regu- 
 lar component part of the establishment. They would 
 be in the fashion. They would conform to established 
 usage. They would have law and public sentiment in 
 their favour. They would not form a sorry half dozen 
 of pitiable exceptions to the reigning mode, as they 
 would, if found in any of our present colleges. They 
 would constitute a respectable moiety — perha]3s, a large 
 majority of the whole. And they would be respectable 
 just in proportion to their modest, fearless, independent 
 conformity to their actual condition. A poor youth of 
 talents and becoming deportment, will never be long 
 despised an^^vhere. But here he Avould occupj^ a post 
 of honour, and have every motive and every encourage- 
 ment to persevere, till he should be qualified to do 
 honour to himself, his friends and his country. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 47 
 
 Should it be tliouglit impracticable or inexpedient to 
 connect with this, or with any other college, such an 
 appendage for the benefit of the poor as I have just 
 pointed at — still, something of the kind might be at- 
 tempted in another and distinct form, and it may not 
 be unworthy of the serious consideration and patronage 
 of individuals and of the government. The course of 
 instruction should be adapted to the character and desti- 
 nation of the pupils. An education may be perfectly 
 liberal, as I have already intimated, without always 
 embracing the same precise order, kind or amount of 
 studies. Much discretionary latitude will remain with 
 the directors in this as in other matters. 
 
 And now, in reference to this topic generally, let it 
 be remembered, that, the particulars which have been 
 specified, need not necessarily enter into any improved 
 system of education. The principle which we have en- 
 deavoured to illustrate, admits of an indefinite variety 
 of modification and application. The principle, or, if 
 you please, the genius of the system, is constant employ- 
 ment, under proper direction, so as most effectually to 
 improve every faculty of the pupil, and to fit him, in the 
 best manner, to act well his part in future life. 
 
 Let us, then, borrow some ideas from the schools at 
 Hofwyl and Yverdun — something from the ancient 
 Greeks and Romans — something from our o^vn Military 
 Academies at Norwich and West Point — something from 
 the pages of Locke, Milton, Tanaquil Faber, Knox, and 
 other writers — something from old and existing institu- 
 tions of whatever kind — something from common sense, 
 
^8 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 from experience, from the character, circumstances and 
 wants of our youth, from the peculiar genius of our 
 political and religious institutions; and see whether 
 a new gymnasium or seminary may not be established, 
 combining the excellencies and rejecting the faults of 
 all. I seriously submit it to my fellow-citizens, whether 
 this sulDJect be not worthy of more than a passing 
 thought or momentary approbation. Who is prepared 
 to enter fully into its spirit, and to engage heart and 
 hand in the enterprise ? 
 
 Will any man, in this enlightened age of discovery, 
 invention and improvement, pretend that we have 
 already reached perfection in the science and the work 
 of education — the very heau ideal — the ne lolus ultra 
 of human skill and attainment? That nothing more 
 ought to be done, or can be done, in this vast province 
 of illimitable extent, and of infinite concernment to the 
 young and rising generation? Eaikes and Bell and Lan- 
 caster have, in our day, revolutionized the common 
 school system, and have wrought miracles in behalf of 
 the poor — and, indeed, of all, during the incipient stages 
 of a public education. Must we stop here? Can nothing 
 be effected within the massive walls of our ancient and 
 venerated literary cloisters, where the usages of a thou- 
 sand years still predominate — where proud prescription, 
 resting on a throne of adamant, seems to arrogate a 
 more than popish infallibility, and to threaten a reign 
 of interminable duration?* 
 
 * It may not be amiss to inform the reader, that several of the pre- 
 ceding remarks have already l)een given to the public, by the author, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 49 
 
 111 an address like the present, it may ])e expected 
 that something should be said relative to the course of 
 study to be adopted in our institution — something upon 
 the requisite qualifications for admission, and something 
 on the subject of government and discipline. 
 
 I. For admission into college, I would briefly premise, 
 that every candidate ought to be able to read, write and 
 spell his native tongue — (I will not say perfectly — for 
 this would be requiring what is seldom or never at- 
 tained to by any — but in a style much superior to what 
 is ordinarily witnessed) — he ought to be well skilled in 
 Geography, English Grammar and Arithmetic — and to 
 be thoroughl}" grounded in the elements of the Greek 
 and Latin languages. This should, in all cases, be the 
 minimum that ^Yi\\ be tolerated. Whether it be expe- 
 dient, at present, to demand more, must dej^end on the 
 state of our schools and academies. A much larger 
 amount of mental furniture is desirable, whenever it can 
 be supplied — and the more the better.* 
 
 in a series of essays published, last spring, in the Trenton Emporium, 
 over the signature of The Hermit. 
 
 * A leading defect in the American system of education, is the want 
 of good preparatory schools. This evil is felt and acknowledged, in a 
 greater or less degree, in every part of our country. Colleges com- 
 plain, and with abundant reason,. that very few of their pupils come to 
 them well taught even in the few elementary Ijranches which their 
 statutes require as qualifications for admission. I should be within 
 bounds, were I to affirm, that, during my connexion with one of our 
 most respectable colleges, not one youth in ten entered it thoroughlv 
 prepared. It cannot be supposed that the grammar scliools are on a 
 better footing in the Western than in the Middle States. The truth 
 is, that no regular efficient system has as yet been adopted anywhere. 
 This matter is left too much to chance, or to individual enterprise. 
 
 VOL. r. 4 
 
50 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 II. To a college course in general, and, at least,- pro- 
 spectively considered, no limits can be assigned. It may 
 comprehend "every branch of literature and science. But 
 
 Sufficient encouragement is not usually given to classical teachers to 
 render their profession lucrative and honourable — so as to command 
 the services of men of talents and learning. Without this inducement, 
 such men will seldom consent to teach ; except, it may be, for a season, 
 as a matter of convenience or necessity, and as the means of rising to 
 some other and better occupation. 
 
 In England there are several hundreds of richly endowed grammar 
 schools — the head-masters of which receive a much larger pecuniary 
 compensation than the Presidents of our richest colleges. The supe- 
 riority of her scholarship need not therefore occasion any surprise. The 
 cause is obvious. I am no blind admirer of the English school system 
 — unrivalled as it has ever yet been ; nor do I wish to see it introduced 
 into this country without very considerable modifications. Still, we 
 have nothing that deserves to be compared with it. Nor need we 
 expect similar excellence until merit in the teacher be adequately 
 rewarded. 
 
 If there be one vocation more important to the community than any 
 other, or than all others, it is that of the instructer of youth. And yet 
 it is regarded and treated, in many places, as scarcely above contempt ; 
 and its emoluments barely suffice to preserve a family from beggary. 
 Physicians, lawyers, merchants, farmers, mechanics, may all become 
 rich : but whoever heard of a schoolmaster's making a fortune by his 
 profession in our country ? And yet, who will pretend to say that his 
 profession is less useful, necessary or meritorious than any other in the 
 nation ? Why then should it be less profitable or less respectable ? I 
 fearlessly put the question to any man of liberal feelings and sound judg- 
 ment ; and I challenge him to assign even a plausible pretext for thus 
 degrading a teacher to the level of a drudge, or for employing none but 
 those who are content to be drudges, and who are fit for no higher 
 rank in society ? I again repeat, regai'dless of all prejudices and defy- 
 ing all rational contradiction, that, in a Republic, where knowledge is 
 the soul of liberty, no profession ought to be more genei'ously cherished, 
 honoured and rewarded, than that of the worthy instructer of youth. 
 
 Our country needs seminaries purposely to train up and qualify young 
 men for the profession of teaching. Though the idea perhaps may be 
 novel to some persons, yet tlie propriety and importance of such a 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 51 
 
 in reference to our present youth, with the quahfications 
 just specified, it may be safely assumed, that the mathe- 
 matics and ancient languages will furnish employment 
 
 provision will scarcely be questioned by any competent judges. The 
 Seminariwn Philologicmn of the late celebrated Heyne at Gottinj^en, 
 though a private institution in the midst of a great university, furnished 
 to the continent of Europe, during a period of nearly half a century, 
 many of its most eminent and successful classical professors and teach- 
 ers. We have our Theological Seminaries — our Medical and our Law 
 Schools — which receive the graduates of our colleges, and fit. them for 
 their respective professions. And whenever the profession of teaching 
 shall be duly honoured and appreciated, it is not doubted but that it 
 will receive similar attention, and be favoured with equal advantages. 
 
 At present, the great mass of our teachers are mere adventurers — 
 either, young men, who are looking forward to some less laborious and 
 more respectable vocation, and who, of course, have no ambition to 
 excel in the business of teaching, and no motive to exertion but imme- 
 diate and temporary relief from pecuniary embarrassment — or men, who 
 despair of doing better, or who have failed in other pursuits — or who 
 are wandering from place to place, teaching a year here and a year 
 there, and gathering up what they can from the ignorance and credulity 
 of their employers. That there nre many worthy exceptions to this 
 sweeping sentence, is cheerfully admitted. That we have some well 
 qualified and most deserving instructers, we are proud to acknowledge 
 ■ — and as large a proportion probaljly in this section of our country as 
 in the older States. Still, the number is comparatively small : and the 
 whole subject demands the most serious attention of the good people of 
 this community. We have no system — no regularly and judiciously 
 organized schools for classical instruction ; where the teachers feel 
 themselves comfortably, honourably and permanently established ; and 
 where the pupils are duly trained and disciplined as candidates for the 
 college or university. We have taken the liberty to name the evil ; and 
 we appeal to the good sense of the public with confidence that the 
 time has arrived for its correction or removal. Should these remarks 
 meet the eye of any faithful instructer in this vicinity, he will regard 
 them as proceeding from a friend, who feels for his situation, who 
 respects his office and character, and who will never fail to afford him 
 all the countenance, and to render him every service that may be in his 
 power. Every such man deserves well of his country — and is more 
 
52 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 for the greater portion of their time while thej remain 
 under-graduates. An accurate and profound acq-uaint- 
 ance with these is essential to every individual who 
 aspires to the reputation of a scholar. And neither time 
 nor pains ought to be spared to ensure such proficiency 
 to all our pupils. If these be not learned at school or 
 
 justly entitled to her lasting gratitude than multitudes of those whom 
 she most delights to honour. 
 
 In consequence of the unfortunate state of our schools generally, col- 
 leges are compelled to fix their standard of qualifications for admission 
 so low as necessarily to remain themselves but grammar schools of a 
 rather higher order. Had we schools of the proper character, and in 
 sufficient numbers, then might our colleges become in fact what they 
 assume to be in name. Then might be learned in the former, so much 
 of the classics and mathematics, of history, chronology, antic^uities and 
 other branches, as that a college would be a fit residence for young 
 men, and its liberal pursuits adapted to their previous attainments. 
 Then philosophy and science and elegant literature might unfold their 
 richest treasures to minds prepared to receive and to relish them. And, 
 until then, we must be content to pursue the humble course which has 
 been already marked out. 
 
 But let us not despair of ultimately reaching the very maximum of 
 our wishes. Let us commence where we must — with such youth as 
 our country can furnish. Let us diligently cultivate, improve and 
 polish the materials at hand — in the best manner we can. Let us not 
 seek to make children youth, and youth men, and men lawyers, physi- 
 cians, clergymen or politicians, too fast. Let us keep our pupils at 
 their proper work — and carry them as far as they can safely and surely 
 go, and no further. Better teach them one thing well than twenty 
 things imperfectly. Their education will then be valuable as far as it 
 extends. Some will leave us able and willing to teach others upon our 
 own plan. Every year, perhaps, we may advance a little — demand 
 something more for admission — and that something in better style — 
 send forth more and abler instructers— in return, receive still more ac- 
 complished pupils — and thus proceed, year after year, slowly but surely, 
 until we elevate our schools and our college to a rank and standing 
 worthy of a free, enlightened and magnanimous people. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 53 
 
 college, the presumption is that they will never be 
 learned at all. AVhenever these are mastered, it will 
 be comparatively easy for the inquisitive and studious 
 youth to extend his researches and his acquisitions as 
 for as he pleases. In this opinion all competent judges 
 concur; although popular sentiment may, in some places, 
 be opposed to it. 
 
 Of the value of mathematical science, on many ac- 
 counts, there may be no question. But the importance 
 of the dead languages is to some not quite so obvious. I 
 am well aware of the objections usually urged against 
 their study — and of the ridicule with Avhich they have 
 been assailed. Still, classical learning maintains its 
 ground ; and is daily acquiring credit even in our own 
 country. It is, indeed, so interAvoven Avith the very 
 texture of modern science, literature and language, that 
 it is vain to expect scholarship without it — and equally 
 vain for ignorance or prejudice any longer to denounce 
 it. I mean not now to attempt its eulogy or to point 
 out its uses and advantages. I merely affirm, that the 
 classicks must be studied — and studied until the mind 
 be richly imbued with their beauties, and the taste re- 
 llned by their influence. At school, the first steps only 
 are taken — the mere outworks secured — while at college, 
 the pupil advances from mere verbal and grammatical 
 and metrical attainments, to those interior, more subtile, 
 and more intellectual stores with which the ancient clas- 
 sicks so pre-eminently abound. The labour, or, if you 
 please, the drudgery of drilling boys in the elements of 
 Greek and Latin, belongs to the schoolmaster. To the 
 
54 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 Classical Professor pertains the higher province of philo- 
 logy and criticism — not, indeed, to the neglect of the 
 minutest principles of grammar and prosody — ^iDut, be- 
 yond these, he ranges over a larger and more variegated 
 field — and inspired with the genius of the poets, orators, 
 historians and philosophers of the olden time, he Avill 
 make their study the delight of his pupils. He will (to 
 adopt the words of Milton) insensibly lead them up the 
 hill-side of classic lore, usually indeed laborious and diffi- 
 cult at the first ascent, but under his kindly guidance 
 and skilful illustrations, will appear so smooth, so green, 
 so full of goodly prosj^ect and melodious sounds on 
 every side, that the harp of Orpheus could not be more 
 charming. 
 
 It is desirable, that, in a college, provision should be 
 made for instruction in all the sciences and in every de- 
 partment of philosophy and literature. To the ultimate 
 attainment of this desideratum we must direct our 
 views. We hope to see the day, or that our successors 
 will see it, when, in Cumberland College, or in the 
 University of Nashville, shall be found such an array 
 of able professors — such libraries and apparatus — such 
 cabinets of curiosities and of natural histor}' — such bo- 
 tanical gardens, astronomical observatories, and chemical 
 laboratories, as shall ensure to the student every advan- 
 tage which the oldest and noblest European institutions 
 can boast. So that no branch of experimental or physi- 
 cal, of moral or political science — or of ancient or modern 
 languages and literature, shall be neglected. 
 
 Let us aim at perfection, however slowly we may ad- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 55 
 
 vance towards the goal of our wishes. But in this aim 
 and in this anticipation, let not our object be mistaken. 
 We do not look forward to the period when every indi- 
 vidual shall study everything which the amplest means 
 of instruction may place at his option or within his 
 reach. Far from it. The loftiest genius and the longest 
 life cannot compass the whole of human knowledge — 
 nor, indeed, any comparatively large amount of what is 
 attainable. Much less can we expect youths, between 
 the ages of fifteen and twenty, and during a period of 
 four years, to grasp all the science or to read all the 
 books which a w^ell-endowed college may happen to pos- 
 sess. Could the vast intellectual treasures of Oxford 
 and Paris he instantly transferred to Nashville, together 
 with all the living spirits which animate their learned 
 halls, still the . mental capacities of our youth would re- 
 main the same as before, and would require a similar 
 discipline. More indeed might be learned in a given 
 time, because more facilities for the purpose would be 
 afforded them. And here w^e perceive an obvious and 
 very considerable advantage furnished to youth thus 
 eligibly situated. Their minds may be cultivated to the 
 utmost extent of their ability to learn. And few know 
 how much a child or youth may be taught by a judicious 
 system, which, while it keeps him steadily engaged in 
 some great department of solid learning, is yet able to 
 present such a variety, at proper intervals, as to keep 
 the mind ever on the stretch and eager after knowdedge. 
 Let a parent make the experiment with his son of ten 
 years old for a single week, and only during the hours 
 
56 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 which are not spent in school. Let him make a com- 
 panion of his child — converse with him familiarly, — put 
 to him questions — answer inquiries — communicate facts, 
 the results of his reading or observation — awaken his 
 curiosity — explain difficulties, the meaning of terms and 
 the reasons of things — and all this in an easy playful 
 manner, without seeming to impose a task — and he will 
 himself be astonished at the progress which will be 
 made. So in a college, if, besides the regular daily 
 routine of close and dihgent application to severer stu- 
 dies, provision be made for easy access to any species of 
 information at all times, much will be gathered, without 
 in the least diminishing the amount of more solid attain- 
 ments. The pupils will breathe a literary atmosphere. 
 They will be encompassed with the means and incen- 
 tives to every kmd of mental effort. They will be in 
 the midst of a learned society — and every hint they 
 receive may be improved. Books, lectures and ex- 
 periments may be read, heard or witnessed — even on 
 subjects which they cannot thoroughly investigate; 
 from which, nevertheless, much that is useful may be 
 acquired. It is worth while to know the elements — the 
 extent and general nature of the sciences — and to form 
 such an acquaintance with books, as to be able to esti- 
 mate their intrinsic and relative value. Thus circum- 
 stanced, they will acquire liberal and enlarged views 
 and feelings. Their horizon will be extended fiir be- 
 yond ordinary limits. They will direct their future 
 endeavours towards a more elevated standard and rank 
 of scholarship than they would otherwise have dreamt 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 57 
 
 of. The mighty dead with whose character and works 
 they have been conversant; and the living who have 
 directed their youthfid pursuits, will be in their eye, and 
 stimulate them to many a noble effort, long after they 
 bid adieu to the walls of Alma Hater. 
 
 But here too are dangers to be avoided. There is a 
 fashion, already prevalent in some of our colleges, to 
 attempt to teach their pupils everything. To hurry 
 them from book to book — and from science to science — 
 with such rapidity as rather to confuse the youthful 
 mind by its variety, than to enrich it with its abun- 
 dance. The rage often is to attend the greatest number 
 of lectures, not to master the subjects of any — to hear 
 and to see, rather than to study. We have only to cast 
 an eye over the course prescribed in many institutions 
 to be convinced that no more, at best, than a smattering 
 of the whole can possibly be acquired. By aiming at 
 impossibilities they do nothing as it should be done. 
 The public is often imposed on by the rich bill of fare 
 which is held forth ad capiandum. Parents, allured and 
 deceived by a long list of hard terms which they do not 
 understand, send their sons to seminaries which seem to 
 promise most; without stopping to inquire, or being able 
 to judge, whether the promise can be fulfilled. They 
 would readily appreciate the absurdity of any pledge, 
 from however respectable a source, to teach their sons 
 some dozen or score of mechanical trades within the 
 short space of four years. 
 
 But there is a still more grievous evil attendant on 
 this desultory system. A superficial course of reading 
 
58 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 has an obvious tendency to engender vanity and self- 
 sufficiency. Youth are fond of no^-elty and var-ietj^ — 
 and rigid aiDplication to any apparently dry and difficult 
 science or subject is readily dispensed with for the plea- 
 sures and eclat of universal knowledge. General reading 
 becomes the order of the day — and those who read most, 
 and can talk about the greatest number of books, bear 
 away the palm from the dull ploddiiuj student who may 
 chance to find in Euclid or Demosthenes full employ- 
 ment for his time and faculties. Against such a fashion 
 or such a system, and against any the least tendency 
 towards it, I beg leave, once for all, to enter my solemn 
 protest. It is ruinous to all scholarship — and never 
 forms humble, modest, useful citizens. 
 
 The grand aim of a college education, besides the solid 
 basis for a future superstructure, and besides the inci- 
 dental advantages to which I have adverted, ought ever 
 to be, to impart quickness in investigation and patience 
 in research — to give the power of grappling with difficul- 
 ties, accuracy of thought, and clearness of reasoning — 
 to form the judginent — to refine the taste — to instil 
 delicacy of feeling, and a vivid percejition of poetical 
 beauty and moral excellence — in a word, to develop 
 faculty, and to subject it to such training and discipline 
 as will ensure its future growth to manly vigour and 
 maturity. 
 
 Why then should we desire teachers in a college for 
 more branches than the pupils can learn? If I have 
 been happy enough to exhil^it my views fairly, I have 
 already assigned good and sufficient reasons for such a 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 59 
 
 provision, so far as it has a bearing on the reguhir stu- 
 dents during the appointed period of a college residence. 
 But we look further— we contemplate a system adapted 
 to the wants and pursuits of men after graduation. And 
 here appears its paramount advantage. Our own alumni 
 may remain here, or strangers from other institutions 
 may come hither, to prosecute their studies to any ex- 
 tent desirable — to master any particular science tho- 
 roughly — to expatiate more largely over classick ground 
 
 and to avail themselves of any aid or benefit which 
 
 such an establishment can afford them. There are 
 various other ways also in which the community would 
 be directly or indirectly benefited. A large body of 
 learned men might here be cherished, who, if leisure 
 were allowed them, might extend the boundaries of 
 science, and add to the elegant 'and useful literature of 
 the world. We might, in time, boast of our Linnoeus, 
 our Porson, our Heyne, our Newton, our La Place, our 
 Stewart, our Cullen, our Blackstone, our Robertson, our 
 
 Blair, our Paley, our but there is no end to the 
 
 catalogue — and no limit to the advantages which may 
 result to individuals and the State from our university 
 when liberally organized and endowed. 
 
 In the mean time, we are prepared to carry our pupils 
 as far as their previous attainments will enable them to 
 advance — and as far as they could advance in any col- 
 lege in our country. 
 
 III. On the subject of government it becomes me to 
 say but little and to promise nothing. Those who have 
 had most experience in the management of youth, know 
 
GO EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 full well the difficulties which it involves, and can best 
 sympathize with their fellow-labourers in this important 
 concern. So much depends on the previous training of 
 youth while under the parental roof — on the sentiments 
 there imbibed and the habits acquired — so much on 
 public opinion, both in the particular place where a col- 
 lege is situated and in the community at large — so much 
 on those who have the supreme direction and control of 
 its interests — that, it is not easy to mark out the course 
 to be pursued by a faculty, prior to any experience, in 
 circumstances which to them may be entirely novel. 
 In general, it may be remarked, that the government 
 of a college ought to be, as far as practicable, strictly 
 parental. Every instructor ought to conduct towards 
 his pupils, and to be esteemed by them, as a father or 
 elder brother. They o\ight to regard him as their best 
 friend, and to confide in him as such. Wherever tins 
 mutual confidence and afiectionate intercourse do not 
 obtain, the connexion will neither be happy nor bene- 
 ficial. 
 
 In a college, established upon the ordinary plan, the 
 youth are necessarily left much to themselves. They 
 constitute a large familj-, or a small community — have 
 their laws, rules, usages, rights and privileges — are 
 dealt with, not as children, but as young gentlemen — 
 the sanctions of authority, the rewards and penalties are 
 all addressed to the sense of duty, of honour and shame. 
 If they cannot be sufficiently controlled upon these prin- 
 ciples, or restrained by moral and religious considera- 
 tions, there remains no alternative but temporary or 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 61 
 
 absolute and final dismission from the institution. How 
 much therefore depends upon the prudent, judicious, 
 temperate, vigilant, mild, firm, equitable and faithful 
 administration of its government may readily be 
 imagined. On this subject it is much easier to specu- 
 late wisely than to execute skilfully. Some men may 
 entertain the best theory in the world, and yet be 
 utterly unfit for practical service. They may talk 
 sensibl}^ enough — prescribe well — and resolve how to 
 act in any given or supposable emergency — but when 
 the trying crisis arrives they know not how to avail 
 themselves of the peculiar features and circumstances of 
 the case, or when to seize upon the favourable moment 
 for prompt decision — or how to gain access to the heart 
 and understanding, or in what direction to turn the 
 popular current — or whether to exercise extraordinary^ 
 lenity or extraordinary severit3\ The}^ have not the 
 presence of mind — that complete self-possession — that 
 instantaneous and intuitive perception of what is proper 
 and expedient — which alone can command and ensure 
 success. They are, in a word, destitute of that natural 
 tact — thr.t instinctive sensibility to every expression of 
 the countenance, and to every symptom which a word, 
 a look or a movement may indicate — and which, though 
 no art, is superior to all art, and can never be learned 
 in any school. All the avenues to the human heart — 
 all the springs of youthful action, and all the modes of 
 allaying and regulating youthful passion, must be so 
 obvious and familiar, that a man may be said, at the in- 
 stant, rather to feel his way than to study or devise it. 
 
62 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 The government of a college differs so widely from a 
 military or civil government, that little aid or illustra- 
 tion can be borrowed from either. A General would find 
 it easier to maintain strict discij)line in an army — and 
 his Excellency to administer the laws of a State- — than 
 either to govern a college. And although it be nearly 
 allied to the parental, as has been stated, still the 
 government of a family is but an epitome, or remote 
 resemblance of that which obtains in a college — where 
 a hundred or more youths are assembled from every 
 quarter, and possessing every variety of character. 
 
 The characteristic vice of the present age is impatience 
 of control. It is manifested everywhere— and in regard 
 to almost every species of government from the domestic 
 to the imperial. The spirit of insubordination — of inde- 
 pendence — of freedom from restraint — of superiority or 
 indifference to all authority — is cherished from infancy 
 to manhood — and no very plausible occasion for its dis- 
 play is suffered to pass unimproved. Towards teachers, 
 especially, it assumes a more than ordinary virulence, 
 in consequence of the very absurd and erroneous senti- 
 ments which are prevalent concerning their character 
 and office. They are commonly regarded as petty 
 tyrants — as the abridgers of youthful pleasure — as un- 
 feeling, little-minded, arbitrary pedants, who delight in 
 imposing unreasonable burdens, and in inflicting unde- 
 served punishment. This illiberal prejudice is often 
 entertained by the parents as well as by their children. 
 The latter frequently imljibe it from the former. It is 
 deeply rooted in the public mind, to the serious injury 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 63 
 
 even of the best regulated seminaries in our country. 
 Its noxious fruits are more or less visible among all ages 
 and descriptions of pupils wherever assembled and by 
 whomsoever instructed. 
 
 Youth, therefore, not unfrequently come to college, 
 after having fought their way through the preparatory 
 schools, and acquired a reasonable share of adroitness in 
 evading law and in plaguAinj their teachers — anticipating 
 a system of vigilant espionage and rigorous discipline — 
 and fully prepared from the first to regard the faculty 
 as their enemies. They form a party by themselves — 
 a distinct interest of their own — view with suspicion 
 every measure or movement of the faculty — and resolve 
 to contravene and to thwart their plans as far as it may 
 be in their power. The evils and miseries of such a state 
 of things are too palpable to need naming. 
 
 \Yliy should it exist a single moment in any institu- 
 tion ? Is it a natural order ? Does it necessarily result 
 from the connexion ? No : it is" unnatural — contrary to 
 all good feeling and right principle. College officers, of 
 the proper spirit and temper, (and no others ought to be 
 employed,) will ever find their own happiness in render- 
 ing their pupils intelligent, virtuous and happy. This 
 too is their interest. It is their pecuniary interest to 
 promote the welfare of their pupils to the utmost of their 
 ability. How powerful a motive this may be to stimu- 
 late their efforts, can be duly estimated by all money- 
 making and monej'-loving men in the nation. Their 
 interest, their duty, and their happiness, combine to 
 inspire them with every tender sentiment towards the 
 
64 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 youth under their care, and with every disposition, 
 desire and endeavour to make them comfortable, con- 
 tented, cheerful — at the same time that they solicitously 
 guard them from error and vice, and seek to imbue their 
 minds richly with manly and useful science. 
 
 The prejudice, then, which exists against them, is 
 groundless, ungenerous and cruel. It would be ridicu- 
 lous and foolish for any set of teachers to study to 
 render themselves odious to their pupils and to the 
 public — or, in other words, to make themselves un- 
 happy, and their occupation unprofitable. But the true 
 secret of their unpopularity wdth the j-outh of their 
 charge, may generally be traced to their conscientious 
 fidelity. They seek to render them happy, not by in- 
 dulging their propensity to idleness and dissipation, but 
 by prompting them to industry, and by restraining them 
 from pernicious indulgences. 
 
 "Omnis disciplina gravis est puero." 
 
 Hence the opposition and the loud clamour against them 
 which we so often witness. Let parents then — let trus- 
 tees — let the public beware how they countenance and 
 encourage this wicked spirit which would free itself from 
 all wholesome control — and which, if suffered to gain the 
 ascendency, would convert any seminary into a sink of 
 iniquity and abomination. Uphold and fortify, by every 
 means in your power the dignitj' and authority of those 
 to whom you entrust the dearest interests of your chil- 
 dren ; or 3'ou will yourselves speedily reap the bitter 
 fruits of your own imprudence and folly. No efficient 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 65 
 
 college discipline can long be maintained where the voice 
 of the public is against it. None where parents and 
 friends denounce and counteract it. I fain would hope, 
 that, in me and my worthy colleagues, every well-dis- 
 posed youth, who becomes a member of this college, will 
 recognise his warmest, most devoted and affectionate 
 friends. If so, happy for them, and happy for us, will 
 be the connexion which is about to subsist. It shall be 
 our study to deserve their confidence, by steadily and 
 assiduously promoting their improvement and their wel- 
 fare to the best of our humble ability. 
 
 Lastly. In entering upon an enterprise so infinitely 
 momentous — in giving renewed existence and permanent 
 character to an institution destined to afiect the dearest 
 interests of this community to the latest generations — it 
 becomes us to take every step w^ith the greatest possible 
 circumspection, and with a solemn sense of the high 
 responsibility under which we act. It is with unutter- 
 able emotions of anxiety, of fear and trembUng, that I 
 venture upon the honourable part assigned me in this 
 great work. Especially, when I recollect what this in- 
 stitution has already been, under the masterly guidance 
 of its distinguished founders, the indefatigable labours 
 of its first most worthy instructors, and the faithful 
 administration of its late lamented President, whose 
 eminent talents, learning and virtues will long be the 
 proud theme of grateful panegyric in these consecrated 
 halls — and whose memory is embalmed in the hearts of 
 his affectionate and accomplished pupils. 
 
 When I consider the value of a single individual in 
 
66 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 reference to this life — and still more in reference to a 
 future world — and that his character and his destiny 
 may be fixed forever in this seminary — I involuntarily 
 shrink from the awful charge. What then must be the 
 sensation created by the contemplation of the hundreds 
 and the thousands who will here imbibe those principles, 
 and acquire those habits, which must render them bless- 
 ings or curses to themselves and to the world ? Who 
 is sufficient for these things ? No unassisted mortal 
 assuredly. To God we must humbly and devoutly look 
 — to the infinite Fountain of grace and wisdom I must 
 continually look — to the Eternal Giver of every good 
 and perfect gift we must all look for that support and 
 direction which we so eminently need. 
 
 May the blessing of Almighty God rest upon this in- 
 fant establishment, and crown all our exertions in its 
 behalf with success — that we may ever have abundant 
 reason to remember this day with joy and gratitude — 
 and be encouraged to still greater zeal and activity in 
 the cause which we have begun to espouse under aus- 
 pices so favourable and promising ! 
 
THE 
 
 CAUSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 IK TENNESSEE. 
 
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS, 
 
 AT CUMBERLAND COLLEGE, 182G. 
 
 Young Gentlemen : 
 
 Your academical career is now ended ; and you have 
 just received the usual honours and testimonials of this 
 institution. According to the opinion which too gene- 
 rally prevails, you have completed your studies. This, 
 I am persuaded, is not your own opinion. You have 
 already made a juster estimate of your own attainments ; 
 and of the vast and variegated field for future investiga- 
 tion which still lies before you, and which invites your 
 assiduous cultivation. If you have learned Jww to study, 
 and have acquired a thirst for knowledge, you will con- 
 tinue to study and to learn while you live. This, in- 
 deed, is the grand aim and object of all elementary 
 education. It is to discipline the mind, to develop 
 faculty, to mature the judgment, to refine the taste, to 
 chasten the moral sense, to awaken and invigorate in- 
 tellectual energy; and to furnish the requisite mate- 
 rials upon which to erect the noblest superstructure. 
 Hitherto, you have been laying the foundation; and 
 serving that kind of apprenticeship which may enable 
 
 you to march forward by your own diligent and perse- 
 
 69 
 
70 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 vering eiforts. Do not imagine, therefore, that your 
 work is done. You have only commenced your studies. 
 Whatever may be your future profession, jDursuit, busi- 
 ness or destination, let books, science, literature be your 
 constant companions. 
 
 Every man, who intends to do the greatest possible 
 good in his day and generation, will, every day, seek to 
 acquire additional information. He will gather it from 
 every source within his reach. His experience, his ob- 
 servation, his intercourse with the world, with men and 
 things, his daily occupations, his incidental associations, 
 the great volume of nature, ever open and spread out to 
 his view, the intellectual treasures of a hundred genera- 
 tions which have passed away, the records of heavenly 
 truth and wisdom — all will conspire to increase his 
 stores, and to qualify him for a greater and a wider 
 sphere of useful and virtuous exertion. 
 
 All the great and good men, who have enlightened, 
 adorned and purified the world by their labours and 
 their counsels, have been indefatigable in the pursuit of 
 knowledge, up to the last moment of their existence. 
 No matter how exalted any man's genius may be — 
 history demonstrates, that, genius has never achieved 
 great things without industry. 
 
 The lawyer, physician or divine, who limits his range 
 of thought and study to the mere mechanical rules, or 
 precedents, or forms, or prescriptions of his professional 
 rubrick, will never become eminent in his own particu- 
 lar profession, nor will he ever be distinguished as a 
 man. He may pass along with tolerable respectability, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 71 
 
 countenanced by the multitude of Lis brethren who are 
 like himself, among a people not wise enough to distin- 
 guish noise from sense, or technical jargon and pedantry 
 from learning and argument. But bring him into the 
 presence of the master-spirits of the land or of the age, 
 and he instantly shrinks into his native insignificance. 
 Mere professional business of any kind, when a man 
 never makes an excursion or voyage of discovery be- 
 yond it, always tends to narrow and contract the mind. 
 He may be expert in small things, in petty official de- 
 tails, like an artisan in his workshop ; but take him out 
 of his dail}' routine, from off the beaten track, and he is 
 bewildered and confused, or opinionated, obstinate and 
 illiberal. He cannot grasp a great subject, or compre- 
 hend a new moral theorem or proposition. He will dis- 
 cuss the interests of an empire as he w^ould treat the 
 cause of a client, or the case of a patient, or a point in 
 theology. Now all these may be important matters; 
 and so is the manufacture of a nail and of a pin. But a 
 man of intellect ought to aspire after higher objects, and 
 nobler attainments, and more expanded views. 
 
 In England, even the humblest artificers and me- 
 chanics, tradesmen and farmers, in almost every town, 
 are beginning to form associations for mental improve- 
 ment. They have procured libraries — they read literary 
 and scientific journals — attend lectures on chemistry, 
 political economy, mechanics, natural philosophy, his- 
 tory, mathematics — they study and converse with each 
 other at every spare moment or leisure hour. In a few 
 years, they will take the lead of half the professional 
 
72 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 men in the kingdom, unless the latter condescend to 
 follow their example. A similar sj^irit of enterprise 
 and improvement has already appeared in our larger 
 cities, and its march will be rapid, and its effects most 
 salutary. Our youthful candidates for the learned pro- 
 fessions, therefore, must prepare to enter the lists of 
 honourable competition with a new and vigorous race of 
 rival combatants for the prize of intellectual supremacy. 
 I know not what are to be your future professions or 
 occupations. Every honest calling ought to be esteemed 
 honourable. I address you as moral and intellectual be- 
 ings — as the patriot citizens of a great Republic. You 
 may be merchants, mechanics, farmers, manufacturers — 
 and yet be eminent^ distinguished and eminently use- 
 ful, if you will persevere in seeking after knowledge 
 and in making a proper use of it. The Medici — Necker 
 — Ricardo — were merchants or bankers : Franklin was 
 a mechanic : Washington was a farmer. By far the 
 greater part of our countrymen are and must be farm- 
 ers. They must be educated; or, wdiat is the same 
 thing, educated men must become farmers, if they would 
 maintain their just influence and ascendency in the 
 State. I cannot wish for the alumni of Cumberland 
 College, a more healthful, independent, useful, virtuous, 
 honourable, patriotic employment, than that of agricul- 
 ture. Nor is there any condition in life more favour- 
 able to the calm pursuits of science, philosophy and 
 religion ; and to all that previous training which ul- 
 timately constitutes wisdom and inflexible integrity. 
 Should our college eventually become the crand nur- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 73 
 
 sery of intelligent, virtuous fiinners, I shall esteem it 
 the most highly favoured institution in our country. I 
 have long thought that our college graduates often 
 mistake their true path to honour and usefulness, in 
 making choice of a learned profession, instead of con- 
 verting agriculture into a learned profession, as it ought 
 to be, and thereby obtaining an honest livelihood in the 
 tranquil shades of the country. 
 
 I mean not, however, on the present occasion, to offer 
 any advice as to the choice of a profession. Whatever 
 station you may occupy, or whatever be your pursuits, 
 never cease to gain knowledge and to do good, as God, 
 in his providence, shall give you opportunity. 
 
 But, in the second place, as you have yourselves en- 
 joyed superior advantages of education, it is reasonable 
 to expect that you will be the steady, enlightened, 
 zealous friends and advocates of education, in every de- 
 gree, and to the utmost extent, which the welfare of the 
 community may require. 
 
 I present to your patronage and support the grand 
 cause of education, in all its purity and excellence, and 
 without restriction as to its objects. 
 
 That learning has been often abused and perverted — 
 that many systems of education have proved ineffectual, 
 useless or pernicious — that most existing seminaries 
 might be greatly improved — I freely admit. Still, these 
 admissions detract nothing from the intrinsic value of 
 knowledge, nor from the paramount importance of edu- 
 cation. The native character, tendency and genuine 
 effects of any principle, system or institution, must de- 
 
74 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 cide its utility, and its claims to general adoption and 
 support ; and not the j)artial evils which human artifice, 
 or folly, or wickedness may render it the instrument or 
 the occasion of introducing and propagating. Under the 
 plea and sanction of religion and liberty, our world has 
 been filled with tumult, convulsion, crime and suffering. 
 Are religion and liberty therefore worthless, or injurious 
 to mankind ? Would 3^ou banish religion and liberty 
 from the earth, because both religion and liberty have 
 been most grossly profaned ; and employed, in ten thou- 
 sand ways, to deceive, oppress, and degrade mankind? 
 Then oppose not — condemn not education. The want 
 of it has occasioned most of the misery and crime which 
 have been inflicted on our world under the specious 
 names and imjDOsing authority of religion and liberty. 
 When or where did crafty ecclesiastics or politicians 
 ever succeed, under the guise of religion or liberty, in 
 cheating the people out of both, except where the peo- 
 ple w^ere so ignorant that they could comprehend neither 
 the one nor the other ? Without competent knowledge, 
 or without education, there can be neither religion nor 
 liberty. Religion implies knowledge. Its simplest prin- 
 ciples and dictates — its plainest duties and requirements 
 cannot be understood or performed, without previous in- 
 struction. This is true of every religion yet known — 
 and of every religion that can be conceived — of paganism 
 and theism — as well as of Christianity. Nor can liberty 
 be appreciated, acquired, defended or maintained, except 
 by those who have learned what liberty means. If reli- 
 gion and liberty, therefore, be, in any degree, desirable ; 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 75 
 
 if they be indispensable to the happiness and perfection 
 of our nature ; if they be justly prized above all other 
 blessings which bountiful Heaven has placed within the 
 reach of the human family ; then is the cause of educa- 
 tion sufficiently established. 
 
 By education, we mean, such a thorough cultivation 
 of all the -faculties of our youth, as will best prepare 
 them for the greatest usefulness and happiness. Let 
 this definition be kept in view during the whole pro- 
 gress of our argument and illustrations. Those of my 
 hearers who have reflected much on this subject will 
 not expect any benefit or information from the discus- 
 sion. They will patiently bear with me, however, while 
 I endeavour, in a plain popular way, to secure the good- 
 will of this audience, generally, to a cause which may be 
 emphatically styled the cause of the people. 
 
 Schools or Seminaries of education may be classed as 
 follows : namely, 
 
 1. Primary or Infant Schools. 2. Common Schools. 
 
 3. Academies, or Classical or Intermediate Schools. 
 
 4. Colleges or Universities. 5. Special or Professional 
 Schools: Such as those for Law, Divinity, Medicine, 
 Military or Naval Science, Agriculture, Architecture, or 
 any of the useful or liberal arts. 
 
 My remarks will be limited chiefly to Common Schools 
 and Colleges. 
 
 But, in the outset, I beg leave to state distinctly, that, 
 I do not ascribe omnipotence, or any uncontrollable sway 
 to education. I do not go the length of asserting that 
 man is absolutely and invincibly the creature of circum- 
 
76 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 stances or of education. That he may be made an angel 
 or a devil, or something between both, by any discip- 
 line or accidental associations. Still, to a certain extent, 
 and with certain qualifications, this is true ; and it is a 
 truth of revelation, no less than a deduction from reason 
 and experience. To exhibit at once, and in pretty bold 
 relief, the natural province, and legitimate power of edu- 
 cation, I refer you to an extreme case or two, and to 
 others of every day's occurrence. Suppose a person were 
 to grow up, from infancy to manhood, in a desert or 
 forest, without ever seeing a human being or hearing a 
 human voice — in what respects would such a wild man 
 differ from other wild animals ? Would he speak, or 
 think, or reason, or discriminate between good and e\'il, 
 virtue and vice, happiness and misery? Would he not 
 resemble the bears and the wolves of which he had been 
 the nursling, the pupil and the companion — and, like 
 them, shun the presence and the abodes of men ? Again, 
 were the son of a Solomon or a Bacon to be trained 
 from his birth among savages — would he not become a 
 savage in sentiment, manners, and habits? Indeed, it 
 requires but a rapid glance at the nations of the earth, 
 to perceive that the great mass of the people are every- 
 where formed by the circumstances, associations and in- 
 struction to which they are subjected. Where these are 
 most auspicious, human nature assumes its most attrac- 
 tive and dignified character. Where these are most 
 unfavourable, human nature appears in its most abject 
 and degraded form. This, as a general truth or fact, 
 none will dispute. If we pass from the ten thousand 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 77 
 
 varieties of national character, and the ten thousand 
 gradations of national excellence or depravity, to indi- 
 viduals of the most enlightened and most highly favoured 
 country in Christendom, we shall behold similar effects 
 continually resultmg from similar causes. 
 
 It requires a good deal of patient investigation and 
 minute analysis to ascertain how much of good and evil 
 may be instilled into the mind of every child, by the 
 means just specified, even when most destitute of regular 
 and formal education. Thus, a child could never learn 
 to speak, or to utter articulate sounds, without instruc- 
 tion ; or, what is the same thing, without an opportunity 
 of imitating others. Yet every child, not destitute of the 
 proper organs in a sound state, does learn to speak, and 
 that, too, without being sent to school for the purpose. 
 Thus, then, the first and most important of all arts is 
 insensibly acquired at an age when it is usually thought 
 superfluous or useless to commence the work of instruc- 
 tion. Further, of the many hundreds or thousands of 
 dialects actually spoken by mankind, the child always 
 learns the language of its parents and companions : and 
 he learns it more or less perfectly according to their 
 habitual use of it. If they pronounce it correctly, and 
 speak it Avith grammatical accuracy, purity and ele- 
 gance, he will speak it agreeably to the best rules of 
 orthoepy, grammar and rhetoric, w^ithout an effort, and 
 previously to the knowledge of any rule whatever. In 
 the same manner, and with the same facilit}^, a child 
 might acquire a number of languages, as experience has 
 fully demonstrated. Now, this simple fiict proves, first. 
 
78 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 that mucli, very much is actually learned by every child 
 in infancj^ : and secondly, that the amount and perfec- 
 tion of this knowledge depend entirely on the opportuni- 
 ties and advantages possessed. Were we to extend this 
 analysis to other particulars or departments ; to princi- 
 ples and habits, moral, economical, physical, intellectual, 
 religious, we should find the infant mind yielding to a 
 daily and almost invisible influence, which may mark its 
 character and destiny through life. 
 
 How important then to human happiness is it, that, 
 the first school — the infant school — the parental school 
 — should be a good one ? Here is the great nursery of 
 human weal or woe. Now, I care not whether children 
 ever go to a public school or not, if parents will keep a 
 better school at home, and do their dut}' to their 
 offspring. I care not whether our youth go to college 
 or not, if parents can and will teach them more efiec- 
 tually by their own firesides. But, unfortunately, the 
 great mass of parents have shown themselves but sorry 
 instructors and faithless guides to those who ought to 
 be dearer to them than their own life. They are them- 
 selves, in general, too ignorant, to say no more, to do 
 much. Hence, in our day. Infant Schools have been 
 established in many places, to supply this radical de- 
 fect. And report speaks well of them wherever they 
 have been tried. How far it maj^ be practicable or 
 beneficial to introduce them into our country, except 
 in large towns or manufactories, I shall not stop to 
 inquire. 
 
 In order to furnish the community at large with the 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 79 
 
 next Lest aid to parental instruction, and as a substitute 
 for it, after the first period of infancy, Common Schools 
 prefer the strongest claims to our regard. We hear a 
 great deal, at the present day, about common schools: 
 and one would imagine that they had already become 
 the favourites of the people. If so, then the cause of 
 liberty and virtue has gained much in our land, and we 
 need not despair of the Republic. Upon this ground we 
 can all meet and harmoniously co-operate. In this 
 grand enterprise, all the advocates of colleges in our 
 country will go hand in hand with the humblest of the 
 people, not merely in declaiming about the necessity and 
 importance of common schools, but in organizing and 
 putting into practical operation the best system that can 
 be devised. I have no fears that any of the alumni of 
 Cumberland College will ever prove recreant or back- 
 ward in this good work. 
 
 Common Schools, then, are needed in Tennessee. How 
 shall they be established? Let the people decide. What 
 character and form shall they assume ? Let every county 
 be divided into such a number of school districts or de- 
 partments as will conveniently accommodate all the in- 
 habitants. Erect comfortable and commodious school- 
 houses. Attach to each school-house a lot of ten acres 
 of land, for the purpose of healthful exercise, gardening, 
 farming and the mechanical arts. For the body requires 
 training as well as the mind. Besides, as multitudes 
 must live by manual labour, they ought betimes to ac- 
 quire habits of industry, economy, temperance, hardi- 
 hood, muscular strength, skill and dexterity. Employ 
 
80 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 teachers qualified to govern and instruct children in the 
 best possible manner. Pay them according to their 
 merit. Pay any sum necessary to command the services 
 of the best and most accomplished teachers. Parsimony 
 in this particular is not only impolitic ; it is mean, it is 
 absurd, it is ruinous. Better have no teachers, than to 
 have incompetent, immoral, lazy, passionate or indiscreet 
 ones ; however cheaply they may be procured. Their 
 influence will not be merely negative : it will be positive 
 and most powerful. I have often looked with horror 
 upon the kind of common schools and teachers to which 
 thousands of children, during several of their best years, 
 are cruelly and wantonly subjected in the older States. 
 But it is or was the fashion, in many places, to hire a 
 blockhead or a vagabond, because he would teach a child 
 for a dollar and twenty-five cents per quarter ! Now, if 
 there be anything on earth for which a parent ought to 
 feel disposed to pay liberally, it is for the faithful in- 
 struction of his children. Compared with this, every 
 other interest vanishes like chaff before the wind — it is 
 less than nothing. And yet, unless the world has sud- 
 denly grown much wiser, there is no service so grudg- 
 ingly and so pitifully rewarded. The consequence is 
 what might have been expected. Every man of clever- 
 ness and ambition will turn his back with scorn upon 
 the country school. He will become a lawyer, a physi- 
 cian, a merchant, a mechanic, a farmer, or a farmer's 
 overseer, in preference. Until school-keeping be made 
 an honourable and a lucrative profession, suitable teach- 
 ers will never be forthcoming in this free country. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 81 
 
 But what is meant by a common school education ? 
 This question has never been answered ; and it cannot 
 be very satisfactorily answered. Some may think it 
 enough that their children learn to read : others will 
 insist on writing : many will be content with reading, 
 writing and arithmetic. Others will add to the list, 
 grammar, geography, history — perhaps, practical mathe- 
 matics, physics, astronomy, mechanics, rural economy — 
 with several other branches of science and literature, as 
 ethics, rhetoric, political economy, geology, chemistry, 
 mineralogy, botany: — in short, where shall the limit be 
 fixed? Who shall prescribe the boundaries beyond 
 which a common school education shall never extend? 
 It is evident, upon the slightest reflection, that the 
 phrase common school education is a very indefinite one. 
 How far beyond the alphabet it may be carried, has 
 never been ascertained. Experiments are now making 
 in Europe, and in several sections of our own country, 
 which are calculated to give a totall}^ different aspect to 
 this w^hole concern. It has been discovered at length, 
 what indeed was always sufficiently obvious, that a boy 
 need not be kept at school eight or ten years to learn to 
 read his primer, write his name, cipher to the rule of 
 three, — and to hate books and learning for the rest of 
 his life. It has been discovered that boys may, in three 
 or four years, be taught a hundred-fold more, by skilful 
 teachers, in a skilful way, than their fathers ever dreamt 
 of learning at all. This is the grandest discovery of 
 our age. It will do more to meliorate tlfe moral, physi- 
 
82 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 cal and political condition of mankind generally, than 
 all other means ever yet devised. 
 
 The excellence and the extent of a common school 
 education, therefore, will ever depend on the qualifica- 
 tions of the teacher and the system which he pursues. 
 No man can teach more than he knows himself. Every 
 man can teach all that he does know. The more he 
 knows, the more useful will he be. In the humblest 
 school in the country, he will find some pupils to be 
 benefited to the utmost extent of his ability to instruct 
 them. And upon the Monitorial or Lancasterian plan, 
 he can teach any number. 
 
 Let us then speedily have common or elementary 
 schools so abundant and so wisely conducted, that, 
 every son (I say nothing now of the daughters) of the 
 commonwealth may be well and amply instructed. Let 
 him acquire a taste for knowledge, and he will never 
 cease to be a learner Avliile he lives. He will then be 
 fitted for usefulness and honour. He will always have 
 resources Avithin himself. He will be conscious that he 
 is an intellectual being ; and that intellectual pleasures 
 are among the purest, noblest and least expensive that 
 can be enjoyed. 
 
 But we must not stop here. Common schools are not 
 enough. They will not satisfy the public necessities. 
 The better and more efficient the common schools be- 
 come, the greater will be the demand for institutions of 
 a higher order. Multitudes of aspiring youth will pant 
 for more intellectual treasures. They will loolc out for 
 other seats of learning where they may advance still 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 83 
 
 further. Will you drive them to neighbouring or distant 
 States, and compel them to expend abroad the thousands 
 of dollars which sound policy, to .say no more, ought to 
 induce you to keep in circulation at home ? You must 
 then establish, in every county, one or more first-rate 
 Classical Schools or Academies, where the languages and 
 sciences may be more extensively and systematically 
 taught. Let some twenty or fifty acres of land be at- 
 tached to each of these seminaries, for the same purposes 
 that we have already assigned them to the common 
 schools. Here again I must avoid details. Merely 
 adding, however, that all this will not be sufficient. 
 Learning is like wealth; — the more we get, the more 
 we covet. No laws can prescribe the limit to mental, 
 any more than to pecuniary acquisitions. 
 
 We must have one or more colleges to receive the 
 numerous candidates for the highest literary honours 
 and attainments. Our sister States have them : and if 
 our youth cannot be accommodated at home, they will 
 go where they can be better served. Now, a great Col- 
 lege or University cannot be reared except at a great 
 expense. It is not like an ordinary school or academy, 
 which any enterprising individual, with moderate re- 
 sources, may establish anywhere. The aid of govern- 
 ment — the wealth of the State — or else the combined 
 efforts and contributions of many liberal individuals — 
 will be necessary to build up a college. Upon the Uni- 
 versity of Virginia above half a million of dollars were 
 expended before a pupil was admitted : and fifteen 
 thousand dollars have been appropriated annually for- 
 
84 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 ever to the support of Professors. And this was. the 
 work of the people's long tried champion and greatest 
 favourite — the very oracle of orthodox republicanism — 
 the immortal author of the Declaration of our National 
 Independence. 
 
 I do not say that Tennessee should forthwith vote 
 half a million of dollars, or any other sum, to a college. 
 But she ought to make ample provision for the intel- 
 lectual wants of her citizens. And she is able to do 
 this, cost what it may. Were a judicious system of 
 common schools and academies put into operation imme- 
 diately : within half a dozen years, there would be five 
 hundred youths in West Tennessee alone, eager to avail 
 themselves of the benefits of a college. And should 
 there be no college in West Tennessee, adapted to their 
 wants and wishes, they will cross the Mountains or the 
 Ocean in search of knowledge, and carry along with 
 them from two to five hundred thousand dollars a year, 
 as a tribute to the superior wisdom and intelligence of 
 distant or foreign States. Thus, in a single year, might 
 be withdrawn from the State more money than would 
 suffice to create a Cambridge at our very doors. This is 
 a consideration which every political economist ought to 
 appreciate, and which the legal guardians of the people's 
 welfare and prosperity ought gravely to ponder. It is 
 assuredly no light evil to any community, when capital 
 or income shall seek a foreign market without producing 
 an equivalent return. Every dollar thus forced away is 
 a dollar lost to the State. 
 
 I am well aware of the popular prejudices and appre- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 85 
 
 hciisions which are cherished in regard to colleges and 
 college graduates. I know that they are frequently re- 
 presented as the enemies of general improvement — as 
 having no sympathy, or community of feeling or interest 
 with the great mass of the people. That they consti- 
 tute a class or party by themselves, and that they ought 
 to be viewed with jealousy and suspicion by all the vigi- 
 lant patriotic guardians of our liberties. If there has 
 ever been any plausible pretext for such an opinion, it 
 certainly exists not in our country. I have never yet 
 heard of one liberally educated American who was not a 
 decided friend to every well-devised plan and measure 
 calculated to diffuse the blessings of knowledge univer- 
 sally. He is from experience, from conviction, from 
 principle, from patriotism, from philanthropy, the firm, 
 persevering and zealous advocate and promoter of educa- 
 tion among the people. He ardently desires that every 
 son and daughter of the Republic may be well educated. 
 And that his deeds have nobly corresponded with his 
 professions, let facts speak for themselves. This is logic 
 not easily to be encountered. 
 
 And if there be any friends of popular instruction, of 
 liberty and the rights of man, in the old world, they are 
 to be found exclusively among the best educated. The 
 demolition of despotism in France, and the establish- 
 ment of a free representative government in its stead, 
 were first thought of, canvassed and attempted by the 
 most enlightened men in the kingdom : and long before 
 the ignorant millions of that ill-fated country had ever 
 heard the name of liberty. And it was precisely because 
 
86 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 the millions could not comprehend its import, much, less 
 appreciate its value, that, Avhen once excited, th,ey be- 
 came ungovernable, furious, brutal, ferocious : and the 
 consequences need no recital or comment. Had the 
 people, however, been previously instructed in the first 
 elements of letters and politics ; had they learned how 
 to reflect, to reason and to judge, a very different result 
 would have been witnessed. Similar attempts have 
 been made, by a few enlightened patriots in other parts 
 of Europe, to meliorate the political condition of the 
 people, which, from a similar cause, have proved equally 
 abortive. 
 
 From the Colleges and Universities of Europe have 
 emanated those rays of light which have caused despots 
 to tremble on their thrones. And, at this day, those 
 great nurseries of truth and liberty are more dreaded by 
 the emperors, kings and princes of Russia, Austria, Prus- 
 sia and Germany, than any and all other enemies put 
 together. Hence the rigid system of police and jealous 
 espionage exercised towards them. Strange that repub- 
 licans should represent colleges as hostile to liberty, 
 when tyrants persecute them because they are friendly 
 to liberty. Youth cannot long be familiar with the his- 
 tory and institutions of Greece and Rome, without im- 
 bibing something of that enthusiasm for liberty which 
 inspired a Demosthenes, an Epaminondas, a Phocion, a 
 Cicero, a Brutus and a Cato. By the way, the friends 
 of liberty ought to be the last men on earth to decry 
 classical learning. 
 
 It was from the newly instituted colleges of Scio 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 87 
 
 and Bucharest, that, the first champions of liberty and 
 independence issued, to animate their fellow-bondmen 
 of Modern Greece to break the chains of their Moham- 
 medan oppressors. And they have made every effort to 
 establish schools, throughout their degraded country, to 
 teach lessons of liberty to the people. God grant them 
 success in their glorious struggle ; and a generous, high- 
 minded, patriotic, virtuous, enlightened Washington, to 
 direct their energies in the cabinet and in the field ! 
 
 Now there can be no better or stronger evidence in 
 favour of the general beneficial tendency of learning, 
 however obtained, than the fact, that, whenever, in 
 ancient or modern times, endeavours have been made 
 to procure liberty to a people, and wherever it has been 
 acquired, those endeavours were made, and that acquisi- 
 tion secured, by men of superior knowledge. Such is 
 the language of history from Moses to Bolivar. And 
 among the most enlightened philanthropists on the con- 
 tinent of Europe at this moment, the grand cause of 
 their discouragement and despair in regard to liberty, is, 
 that the people are too ignorant to be intrusted with 
 liberty ; and hence they feel constrained to remain inac- 
 tive. They fain would give instruction to the people, 
 in order to prepare and qualify them for free and liberal 
 institutions, would their masters permit them. 
 
 When our fathers commenced their almost hopeless 
 controversy with the mother country; who were the 
 kindred spirits attracted to our shores and to our aid 
 by the native charms and legitimate claims of liberty? 
 Not the degraded serf or feudal slave — not the illiterate 
 
88 EDUCATIONAL DISCOUKSES. 
 
 farmer or mechanic — but such men as might have 
 adorned the proudest court in Christendom — men of 
 whom their own country was unworthy — men who 
 understood the full import of the glorious cause to 
 which they were ready to sacrifice titles, and honours, 
 and fortune and life : — they were Pulaski, Steuben, De 
 Kalb, Kosciusko, La Fayette. 
 
 And who, allow me to ask my republican auditors, or, 
 if they please, to remind them of what, perchance, they 
 may have forgotten — who were the prompters, the main- 
 springs, the leaders of our memorable revolution ? The 
 answer to the question is upon ever}' schoolboy's tongue. 
 He will recount a catalague of jDatriots, who, for pro- 
 found knowledge and practical wisdom, were never sur- 
 passed in any age or country. Such were the friends 
 of our own liberties, at a time too, when they were not 
 only stigmatized as rebels, but were in hourly danger of 
 being hanged as rebels. They were the master-spirits 
 who aroused the people to resistance. They were honest 
 men, and they united in promoting the permanent wel- 
 fare of their country. Happily, the people, having been 
 generally educated at common schools, were sufficiently 
 iufonned to comprehend their rights, when tliose rights 
 were ably explained to them, and wise enough to be 
 guided by their superiors in wisdom. But had the intel- 
 ligent, tlie learned colonists of those days combined with 
 the English aristocracy in maintaining the ancient go- 
 vernment in all its plans of oppression, the people would 
 never have thought of a revolution. Had they been 
 enlisted on the side of the British ministry, we had this 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 89 
 
 day been the loyal subjects of his majesty, George the 
 Fourth. 
 
 They too, be it remembered, zealously espoused the 
 cause of education ; well assured that the goodly fibric 
 of libertj', whicli they had succeeded in rearing, would 
 speedily tumble into ruins, or become the citadel of some 
 future Caesar or Catiline, unless the rising and each suc- 
 cessive generation should be taught to maintain their 
 rights by fully comprehending them. Hence, whenever 
 they had opportunity, in the legislative councils of the 
 States or of the Nation, they endeavoured to secure a 
 legal provision for schools and colleges, either by the 
 appropriation of public lands, or by gradually accumu- 
 lating an adequate pecuniary fund for the purpose. To 
 the general truth of this representation, I am not ac- 
 quanited with a single exception among our revolu- 
 tionary heroes and statesmen. All the Presidents of 
 the United States have uniformly agreed in sentiment 
 on this subject. And who, of the long list of worthies 
 whom the people have delighted to honour as patriots, 
 has ever ventured to advocate a contrary doctrine ? 
 
 Franklin laboured, during his whole life, in the cause 
 of schools, from the humblest to the highest, and finally 
 succeeded in founding the University of Pennsylvania : 
 although his example has been often cited to prove the 
 inutility of all such institutions. He had himself con- 
 quered difficulties in the acquisition of science, which not 
 one of a million would ever think of encountering. And 
 he possessed too much good sense, and too much benevo- 
 lence to wish others to be left to the mere chance of 
 
90 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 creating for themselves a path to eminence, when a 
 great pubhc highway might be so easily constructed for 
 their convenience. He knew^ that an extraordinary ex- 
 ception to a general rule or laAv ought never to be urged 
 against the rule itself. 
 
 Washington devoted much of his time and all the 
 weight of his influence to the same object. And he, at 
 last, liberally endowed a college in his native State, 
 which still bears his name. 
 
 Jefferson, besides promoting the same great cause 
 during the long period of his public career, consecrated 
 the last seventeen years of his valuable life to the esta- 
 blishment of a University, upon the most permanent 
 basis and of the most enlarged dimensions. And centu- 
 ries hence, probably, the name of Jefferson will be more 
 revered and distinguished as the father of the University 
 of Virginia, than as a philosopher or statesman. 
 
 No man, it is presumed, will, at the present day, accuse 
 a Franklin, a Washington, or a Jefierson of any lack of 
 patriotism or republicanism. And no man need be 
 ashamed to follow their example. May their spirit rest 
 upon some favoured son of Tennessee; and may she 
 have the honour of perpetuating upon the page of his- 
 tory, a name worthy, in all respects, to be associated 
 wdth our immortal Franklin, Washington and Jefferson ! 
 This honour, I doubt not, she will have ; and that our 
 Academic Halls w411 hail him as a patron and bene- 
 factor, while virtue and science and liberty shall exist 
 in our land. 
 
 As I am dealing altogether with facts, and not with 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 91 
 
 theories ; and as I do not wish to go a hair's breadth 
 beyond the simple truth, I take leave distinctly to an- 
 nounce to you, that, I do not affirm that all men of 
 learning have, everywhere and under all circumstances, 
 been the friends of liberty and of human happiness. Far 
 from it. The position which I maintain is simply this ; 
 — that liberty and the best interests of humanity have 
 ever been ably and successfully advocated and promoted 
 only by men well informed ; and by the best informed 
 too of the age and country in which they flourished. 
 And, that, among ourselves, the most enlightened citi- 
 zens have ever approved themselves the most effectual 
 guardians of the people's rights. I admit also, that so 
 far as this argument is concerned, it matters not where 
 or how they acquire the requisite knowledge — wdiether 
 in common schools or high schools — in colleges or uni- 
 versities — at home or abroad — by their own unassisted 
 efforts and enterprise, or from . public institutions esta- 
 blished by the government or by individual munificence. 
 But until a better mode of arriving at the object can be 
 devised, we shall continue to regard schools and colleges 
 as indispensable. So long as the Republic shall need 
 learned men, we shall expect schools and colleges to 
 furnish them. They have already done the State some 
 service : and they are destined, we trust, to do it a great 
 deal more. 
 
 I am no blind admirer of colleges and universities. 
 There exists not one, in Europe or America, which 
 might not be greatly improved. The same may be said 
 of common schools, and of all human institutions. 
 
92 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 Shall we, therefore, put an end to every system of 
 education, because none has hitherto been faultless? 
 Will those who denounce colleges, pretend that common 
 schools are less obnoxious to censure; or that they are 
 as good as they need to be? Reformation — improvement 
 — is the order of the age — and it must be obeyed. The 
 work must be commenced and continued simultaneously 
 in all our seminaries, great and small. The cause is 
 one and indivisible. Colleges exert an important in- 
 fluence on the character of common schools : and these 
 again constitute the foundation of colleges. Unless 
 common schools be good, our colleges will not be good. 
 The intermediate schools or academies will not remedy 
 the defects of the one or the other. It is all important 
 to begin well. If boys enter college with idle and 
 vicious habits, they will probably continue idle and 
 vicious. If they have been well trained at home and 
 at school, they will be orderly, virtuous and diligent in 
 college. The graduates of our colleges generally will be 
 found to have received their bias to virtue or vice, under 
 the parental roof, and from their earliest instructors and 
 associates. If parents neglect their sons, or leave them 
 to ignorant or profligate preceptors or companions, during 
 childhood and early youth, they need not expect that 
 the discipline of any college on earth will operate upon 
 them any miraculous regenerating influence. Such boys 
 are ruined before they enter college : although parents 
 are generally charitable enough to blame the college for 
 their own inexcusable folly and cruel indulgence, when 
 their hojjeless sons disappoint their unreasonable expec- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 93 
 
 tations. Colleges have enough to answer for : let them 
 not be charged with sins of which they are innocent. 
 Nor let them be required to accomplish impossiljilities. 
 Supply them with pupils, who have been thoroughly 
 disciplined at home and at school — of a suitable age to 
 act with reasonable discretion, and who are really de- 
 sirous to acquire knowledge — and the public will hear 
 very little of the follies and dissipation of a college life. 
 No real friend of colleges, therefore, can ever be hostile 
 or indifferent to good common schools. 
 
 It were well for the community, if the professed ad- 
 vocates of common schools were equally well disposed 
 towards colleges. Their grand objection to them, be- 
 sides those already hinted at, is briefly this : — That col- 
 leges are designed exclusively for the rich — that the 
 poor cannot be benefited by them — and, therefore, that 
 the poor ought not to be taxed for their support, or that 
 the people's purse ought not to be burdened on their 
 account. 
 
 This specious and very sage objection contains several 
 sophisms and several falsehoods. 
 
 In the first place : Colleges, in our country, are not, 
 never were, and never can be designed exclusively for 
 the rich. For, in fact, many poor youths have been 
 educated in every college of the Union during every 
 year of their existence. But then, such poor youths 
 must usually belong to the vicinity, or at least to the 
 State, in which the college is situated. Neither Con- 
 necticut nor New Jersey would ever think of educating 
 at their colleges a poor youth of Tennessee : but many 
 
94 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 hundreds of poor, very poor young men of their own 
 States have been thus educated. Without a coUege at 
 home, every poor youth is necessarily cut off from all 
 hope or chance of any such privilege. 
 
 Again, between the rich and the poor, there is in the 
 community another class of citizens vastly larger than 
 both of them put together — the middling class, and the 
 best class — all of whom might educate one or more sons 
 at college, at an expense of from fifty to a hundred and 
 fifty dollars per year, who could never send their sons 
 abroad at an expense of from five hundred to a thousand 
 dollars a year. Will the State do nothing for this large 
 and respectable body of her citizens ? The merest trifle 
 contributed by each would place advantages within the 
 reach of the whole, which no individual could otherwise 
 possibly command. 
 
 But, in the second place, grant that colleges are de- 
 signed exclusively for the rich. What does a wise 
 policy dictate as the proper course to be pursued ? The 
 question is not, whether the rich shall, or shall not edu- 
 cate their sons at a college ; but whether they may do it 
 at home, or must do it abroad ? For with money, they 
 can do what they please. They can send their sons to 
 Philadelphia or Paris, to Oxford or Edinburgh. Would 
 it not be good policy then to require these rich men to 
 build up a college, suited to their own purposes, and at 
 their own expense ; and thereby constrain or induce 
 them to employ their funds, and to disburse their ample 
 revenues within the State, to the unspeakable benefit of 
 all classes of citizens, and especially of the middling and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 95 
 
 poorest, by encouraging every species of industry and 
 enhancing the value of every description of property, to 
 the full amount of the money thus prevented from going 
 into the hands of foreigners ? Were this matter rightly 
 understood by the people, they would presently perceive, 
 that, the main scope of the pretext so artfully employed 
 to mislead them, was, after all, at bottom, nothing more 
 than to spare the purses of the rich, to the manifest 
 detriment of the whole community — of the rich as well 
 as the poor — for the rich deceive themselves if they 
 imagine that they will be the gainers in any way by 
 such a course. It will cost a rich man ten times as 
 much to educate one son at a distant seminary as he 
 would be required to contribute, during his whole life, 
 for the erection of a college, according to any equitable 
 plan of assessment or taxation which might be adopted 
 for the purpose. 
 
 But, in the third place, — why all this clamour and 
 affectation of zeal in behalf of the poor ? Do men legis- 
 late only for the poor? Does the government exist 
 solely for the poor? Are the poor, and they only, 
 elected to office ? Is not some pecuniary or landed 
 qualification indispensable to any man's eligibility to 
 office ? Is the public mone}^ — ay, the people's money — 
 paid out in salaries to the poor — to poor governors, poor 
 judges, poor senators? Are banking, insurance, manu- 
 facturing, turnpike, bridge, or canal companies incorpo- 
 rated from among the poor, and chiefly for the benefit 
 of the poor ? One might imagine from the noise made 
 on the subject, that the poor were all in all to the State; 
 
96- EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 that the J were the precious objects of the goA^ernment's 
 special care and protection : Since their self-constituted 
 patrons virtually maintain, that, if they cannot all go to 
 college, there shall be no college. Why not decree, that 
 if the poor man cannot ride in a coach, there shall be no 
 coaches ; or that the rich shall not use them ? 
 
 Now the plain simple truth is, that the poor are never 
 taxed in our country for any purpose whatever. All 
 taxes are levied on property. Were twenty colleges to 
 be commenced to-morrow, the poor would not be bur- 
 dened a farthing. They would, on the contrary, be im- 
 mediately benefited by the demand thus created for their 
 labour, and by the liberal wages which would be paid 
 them. 
 
 But, in the fourth place, strictly speaking, there are 
 no ])oor in our country. Among the white population 
 there is no degraded caste. We have no class of poor, 
 like the poor of Europe. We impose on ourselves by the 
 imported terms and phraseology of transatlantic society. 
 And hence we talk as currently about the poor, as would 
 an English lord or German baron. Forgetting that the 
 poorest man in the Republic may become rich. The 
 richest of our citizens have been poor. The rich and 
 the poor are frequently related to each other. The rich 
 man may have a poor father or brother. And the poor- 
 est individual may be nearly allied to the most distin- 
 guished families in the land. Our state of society is 
 constantly fluctuating. Rich families daily decline : 
 poor ones daily advance. Wealth and poverty are mere 
 accidents. They are not hereditary in particular lines. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 97 
 
 or perpetuated in particular families. It is absurd there- 
 fore to declaim or to speculate about the poor as if they 
 were an oppressed, miserable, helpless class, like the 
 Russian or Polish peasantry. We have all been poor. 
 We may be poor again. When poor, we were obliged 
 to deny ourselves many comforts, luxuries and privi- 
 leges which we now enjoy ; and it was mainly by this 
 self-denial that we were enabled to improve our con- 
 dition. And such must ever be the case. K the poor 
 wish to rise above their present condition, they can do 
 so, everyAvhere in our country, by industry, prudence 
 and economy : and they will continue to do so, as long 
 as they shall be left to their own free energies. I trust 
 the time is far distant, when our government shall think 
 it worth while to perpetuate pauperism amongst us by 
 legal encouragement — by premiums in the shape of poor- 
 rates. 
 
 The only distinction which exists among our citizens, 
 worthy of notice, is between the educated and the un- 
 educated. The former engross all the wealth, offices 
 and influence in the nation ; while the latter remain the 
 victims of want, of crime, of infamy, and of punishment. 
 I here use the term educated in a very wide and compre- 
 hensive sense. That individual who has learned how 
 to labour at any honest occupation, and who knows how 
 to manage his earnings skilfully, is educated, and well 
 educated, compared with those who have been brought 
 up to no business; or who are destitute of sobriety, 
 prudence and economy. He may become rich and 
 honourable; while they are necessarily doomed to 
 
 VOL. I. T 
 
98 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 poverty and wretchedness. Between these two de- 
 scriptions of persons there is an impassable gulf. They 
 are further removed from each other than the lord and 
 his vassal : and the longer they live the wider will be 
 the distance between them. Whoever has grown up in 
 total ignorance of the means of acquiring an honest live- 
 lihood, and with vicious habits, may be regarded, in 
 general, as helpless and hopeless. Gross ignorance, at 
 least of everything good and useful, is the cause of all 
 the degradation in our country. Now although there 
 may be no effectual remedy for the evil which actually 
 exists, yet there is a preventive — its further progress 
 may be checked — its recurrence may be prevented. 
 This preventive remedy is instruction, moral, intellec- 
 tual, physical, religious. It is not only the cheapest — 
 it is the only remedy. If inveterate habits cannot be 
 changed ; take care that the children form better habits, 
 and imbibe better principles than their fathers. 
 
 Our country has expended, and continues to expend, 
 on courts of justice and criminal prosecutions — on 
 prisons and penitentiaries — for the punishment and 
 safe keeping of a few veteran and incorrigible villains, 
 vastly more money than would be required to give a 
 suitable education to all the absolutely indigent youth 
 in the nation. If government, therefore, instead of 
 wasting millions in the hopeless endeavour to reform 
 the hardened offender, would cause such children as 
 would otherwise be neglected, to be properly disciplined 
 and brought up, there would soon be little necessity for 
 prisons or penitentiaries. Here is the right end to begin 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 99 
 
 at — the proper starting point — the first step in the work 
 of general reformation, without which everj^ other will 
 be taken in vain. Happily, wherever the experiment 
 has been made, it has fully succeeded. Among the 
 thousands of poor children recently trained in the free 
 schools of the city of New York, not one has been sen- 
 tenced to Bridewell. Thus far then, at least, the rich 
 might be fairly taxed for the benefit of the poor. This 
 would not only be real benevolence — it would be the 
 wisest policy — the least expensive course that could be 
 adopted. And if the State should choose to do more ; 
 let a certain proportion of the most promising boys in 
 the common schools be annually advanced to the aca- 
 demy; and the best of these again to the college, at the 
 public expense. 
 
 It is worse than idle to object to colleges because they 
 do not educate the poor, and yet to refuse them the 
 means of doing it. If the State please, she can organize 
 and endow a college, so that the poor and the rich may 
 enjoy its privileges gratis. Or she may make such pro- 
 vision only for the poor, and compel the rich to pay. 
 She has it in her power to confer on the poor, in this 
 respect, whatever favours she chooses. If any honest 
 friend of the poor and the ignorant can devise a more 
 liberal or judicious system for their elevation in society, 
 it shall receive my hearty approbation and support. 
 
 Let it not be inferred from anything just said, that I 
 am an enemy to the penitentiary system. It is, when 
 judiciously administered, a good and necessary system, 
 in the existing state of our society. But it may, and I 
 
100 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 doubt not, will be, in a great measure, superseded b}' the 
 proper training of our youth, who would otherwise be- 
 come its pitiable subjects. 
 
 Having thus, at greater length than I intended, dis- 
 posed of some of the popular objections to colleges — 
 objections which I have frequentlj^ heard advanced in 
 Tennessee — I might proceed to show what a college 
 ought to be. But as I have, on a former occasion, ex- 
 pressed my "vdews pretty fully on this subject, I shall not 
 repeat them now. 
 
 I must be permitted, however, to say a word in behalf 
 of Cumberland College ; especially to my young friends, 
 who have just been adorned with her laurel, and who 
 will be regarded as her representatives before the public, 
 and whom she will regard as her natural and most 
 warmly devoted friends and advocates. 
 
 You have been told, or you have witnessed the various 
 fortune of this institution — its many and well-sustained 
 struggles for existence — its decline and failure after a 
 few bright days of sunshine and prosperity — its recent 
 resuscitation under circumstances which would have 
 discouraged and appalled men of ordinary capacity and 
 enterprise — its conduct, character and progress during 
 the period of nearly two years since its re-organization ; 
 and you cannot be insensible to the numerous difficulties 
 and obstacles, which it must still encounter, before it can 
 attain that pre-eminent rank to which she aspires. For 
 she will not l>e content with humble mediocrity, nor with 
 a mere equality with her sister institutions. She aims 
 at vastly greater eminence and usefulness than has yet 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 101 
 
 been reached by any of them. This aim will be pro- 
 nounced visionary by those Avho do not know what con- 
 stitutes the real excellence of a college, and by those 
 w^ho are ever disposed to predict a failure where they do 
 not wish success. 
 
 Men frequently, too, labour under an unfortunate pre- 
 judice on this subject. They presume that colleges must 
 be growing better as they grow older ; and distance of 
 situation greatly increases their reverence. Hence, a 
 venerable monastic establishment, a hundred years old, 
 and a thousand miles off, is conceived to possess advan- 
 tages which young Tennessee cannot hope for in a 
 century. Now I venture to assert, that, our infant 
 university might be made, in five 3'ears, superior to any 
 and to all the colleges in our country — if the people will 
 but decree it. Let us not be imposed on by mere names. 
 Buildings, books, apparatus, teachers, constitute the prin- 
 cipal expensive ingredients of a university : and money 
 can command them all, in as great abundance and per- 
 fection here, as in Europe or old America. We have the 
 full benefit of all past experience to begin with. What- 
 ever is excellent in existing institutions, we may adopt : 
 whatever is superfluous, or antiquated, or faulty, we may 
 reject. It is much easier to create a good institution 
 than to mend a bad one. Ancient usage naturally be- 
 comes prescriptive, and ordinarily prevents innovation 
 or improvement. 
 
 Upon the virgin soil of Tennessee, then, may be 
 reared a seminary, which shall eclipse, in grandeur of 
 design and felicity of execution, and in the wisdom of 
 
102 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 its arrangements and combinations, all other institutions 
 — if her sons will but prove true to themselves and faith- 
 ful to future generations. A more eligible or healthful 
 site for such an establishment cannot be found in the 
 Western country. Here is the place, and now is the 
 time for generous enterprise. Here let us erect a uni- 
 versity, so decidedly and confessedly superior in every 
 department, that a rival or competitor need not be 
 feared. Let us make ample provision for every spe- 
 cies of instruction — scientific, literary, professional — 
 which our country demands. Let education be ex- 
 tended to the physical and moral, as well as to the 
 mental faculties. Let agriculture, horticulture, civil 
 and military engineering, gymnastics, the liberal and 
 the mechanical arts — whatever may tend to impart 
 vigour, dignity, grace, activity, health, to tho body — 
 whatever may tend to purify the heart, improve the 
 morals and manners, discipline the intellect, and to 
 furnish it with copious stores of useful elementary 
 knowledge, — obtain their appropriate place and rank, 
 and receive merited attention in our seminary; so that 
 parents may, with confidence, commit their sons to our 
 care. Assured that they will be in safe and skilful 
 hands — under a government, equitable, paternal, mild, 
 firm, vigilant and faithful — where their every interest 
 will be consulted, their every faculty be duly cultivated, 
 and where every effort will be made to render them in- 
 telligent, virtuous, accomplished citizens. Does any man 
 doubt that such an institution will ever want patronage ? 
 Make it the best in the country; and will it not com- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 103 
 
 mand the patronage of the country ? Such an establish- 
 ment as we contemplate, the public mind is already pre- 
 pared for, and has begun to call for. This call is 
 imperative — it will be heard — it will be answered. We 
 must meet it or others will. 
 
 Our college is already as good and respectable as most 
 others ; certainly inferior to none in the West. It has 
 received the most flattering encouragement. No college, 
 in any part of our country, has, with the same means, 
 effected as much, or numbered as many students, in so 
 short a period. I may add, too, without exaggeration or 
 compliment, that, the orderly, moral, gentlemanly de- 
 portment of our students, during the past session espe- 
 cially, and of most of them from the beginning, would 
 have done credit to any seminary. And that they have 
 made extraordinary proficiency in the languages and 
 sciences, taught by our laborious and accomplished pro- 
 fessors, has been fully acknowledged by all who have 
 attended their public examinations or ordinary recita- 
 tions. The friends of the college, therefore, have no 
 ground for despondency on the one hand ; and we trust 
 that they will not be so far satisfied with its actual con- 
 dition on the other, as to relax their zealous efforts for 
 its future improvement. 
 
 In this great work, there is no resting place — no point 
 to stop at. With the increase of population, with the 
 march of mind and the progress of universal improve- 
 ment, we must keep pace. We must daily advance. 
 Perfection should be our motto and our aim, however 
 much we may ultimately fail of attaining it. Every 
 
104 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 successful step should prompt to another and a greater. 
 When we have gained one eminence, we shall he able 
 to descry a still higher and a more inviting ,- which, 
 when reached, must serve only to enlarge our horizon, 
 and extend our vision, and brighten our hopes, and ani- 
 mate our efforts, and cheer us in our labours, for the 
 welfare of mankind. 
 
 The Trustees of Cumberland College have purchased 
 one hundred and twenty acres of land to meet the va- 
 rious purposes of their contemj^lated university. It is 
 proposed immediately to commence the erection of a 
 series of buildings for the accommodation of students, 
 instructors and stewards; consisting of five additional 
 colleges, each sufficiently commodious for a hundred 
 students and three assistant professors or tutors, and of 
 seven houses for as many principal or head professors. 
 We shall then have six colleges, and twenty-five instruc- 
 tors, and accommodations for six hundred pupils. To 
 each college will be attached a refectory or boarding 
 house, with eight or ten acres of land for gardening and 
 exercise. The colleges will be erected at such distances 
 from each other as to prevent the usual evils resulting 
 from the congregation of large numbers of j^outh at the 
 same place. Professors will occupy houses on the in- 
 tervening lots : and there will be at least three officers 
 resident within the walls of each college. We shall thus 
 have six distinct and separate families, so far as regards 
 domestic economy, internal police, and social order; 
 while one Senatus Academicus will superintend and 
 control the whole. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 105 
 
 Gardens and mechanics' sliojis will be interspersed 
 among the various edifices, in such manner as to be 
 easily accessible to all the youth for improvement and 
 recreation. Whenever the present ground shall be thus 
 occupied, it will be necessary to procure fifty or a hun- 
 dred acres more, for a model or experimental farm ; that 
 agriculture, the noblest of sciences and the most import- 
 ant of the useful arts, may be thoroughly studied and 
 practised. At a future period, or as soon as the means 
 can be obtained, other suitable edifices, both useful and 
 ornamental, may be erected. The plan admits of inde- 
 finite extension; and in proportion to its enlargement, 
 its advantages will be increased, while the expense of its 
 maintenance will be diminished. 
 
 In order to execute our present desig-n, only about 
 $200,000 will be required. This sum might be fur- 
 nished by the State at once ; or in two, four, eight or 
 ten jears. Or it may be obtained partly b}- donations, 
 and parti}' by loan. Any individual, for instance, be- 
 stowing $20,000 may give his name to a college or to a 
 professorship : or any number of individuals, subscribing 
 that sum, may give any name the}' please to a college 
 or professorship. Suppose Davidson county, or even 
 Nashville were disposed to erect a monument to the 
 memory of her most honoured citizen ; what could she 
 do more grateful to him, more worthy of herself, more 
 beneficial to the Republic, than to contribute the sum of 
 $20,000 to build an edifice, on yonder hill, to be known 
 among all future generations as Jacksox College, 
 founded and endowed by the citizens of Davidson 
 
106 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 county or of Nashville, in the year what year 
 
 shall be designated ? If the appeal were made to her 
 generosity, her public spirit, her gratitude, her just 
 pride and magnanimity, I cannot deem so lightly of 
 her present citizens as to anticipate a refusal, which 
 would prove her alike unworthy of a great University 
 and of the Hero of New Orleans. 
 
 Let us calculate — we have, within the limits of our 
 city corporation alone, not less than four thousand free 
 white inhabitants. . Were each to give five dollars, or 
 were two thousand to give each ten dollars, or were one 
 thousand to give twenty dollars apiece, the object would 
 be accomplished without the aid of the county at large : 
 and who could feel the burden ? Thus, then, one col- 
 lege, at least, is provided for. Some others might pos- 
 sibly be erected by similar means, and in honour of 
 other meritorious individuals. 
 
 The little town of Amherst, in Massachusetts, which 
 does not contain one-half of the population, nor one- 
 twentieth part of the wealth of Nashville, raised, by 
 private subscription in 1821, the sum of fifty thousand 
 dollars to commence a college within its limits.* And 
 several other towns in our country have been equally 
 munificent. 
 
 Let no man imagine, that, in giving money to a col- 
 lege, he is doling out alms to an importunate or worth- 
 
 * Another sum of $50,000 was added to the funds of Amherst Col- 
 lege by the private subscription of its friends, during the last year 
 (1832.) And the sum of $100,000 was raised for the benefit of Yale 
 College by her alumni during the same year. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 107 
 
 less beggar. He does honour to himself hy the act; 
 and the institution honours him by accepting his 
 bounty; and is able to confer on him and his family 
 a greater and more durable honour than mere selfish 
 wealth can ever procure. The otherwise obscure names 
 of Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Bowdoin, Williams, 
 Brown, Bartlett, Phillips, Dickinson, Rutgers, will be 
 immortalized by the seminaries to which they have 
 been benefactors, and which will bear their names for- 
 ever. If honour, real honour, lasting honour, be worth 
 seeking ; here is the road to it. 
 
 If, however, nothing can be obtained from our legisla- 
 ture, or from our good city or county, or from indivi- 
 duals, we may borrow the whole sum of two hundred 
 thousand dollars, at an interest not exceeding six per 
 cent. — creating a transferable six per cent, stock — and, 
 in twenty years, we could easily pay off both principal 
 and interest, at the present rate of charges for tuition 
 and room-rent. It would be merely necessary, in order 
 to procure the loan, that the State should guaranty the 
 payment, or that responsible individuals should under- 
 write for us. And we can pledge ample means either 
 to the State or to individuals, to secure the one or the 
 other, from all hazard of eventual loss ; as I am prepared 
 to demonstrate, at the proper time to all competent 
 judges. Now it would be vastly preferable that the 
 money should be gratuitously furnished, because (to 
 specify no other advantages) the expenses of an educa- 
 tion at our university might be diminished one-half im- 
 
108 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 mediately; and thus would the portals of science be 
 opened wide to the great majority of our people. , 
 
 But the funds must and will be forthcoming from 
 some quarter. We are not to be deterred or frightened 
 from our purpose by any obstacles, real or imaginary. 
 We have very deliberately counted the cost : and 
 ONWARD is engraven upon our banners and upon our 
 hearts. 
 
 Who, let me ask — I put the question to this assembly 
 — to the good people of Tennessee — who will oppose our 
 projected institution, designed, as it is, exclusively for 
 the benefit of this people ? I will tell you. It will be 
 opposed by the faintrhearted, the cowardly, the ignorant, 
 the covetous; and by all the enemies of light, truth, 
 virtue and human happiness. It will be opposed by 
 that description of selfish, arrogant, self-sufficient, wouJd 
 he lords and Solomons, who exist in every petty village, 
 and wdio always oppose whatever does not originate 
 from themselves, or which is not submitted to their own 
 wise management and control. It will be opposed by 
 those who can, by any artifice or misrepresentation, con- 
 vert the scheme into a political hobby to ride into office. 
 It will be opposed by those who despair of getting out 
 of it a job — a bargain — a money-making speculation — 
 some paltry private gain or advantage. But it will 
 never be opposed by one honest man, by one honourable 
 man, by one enlightened man, by one patriotic man, by 
 one benevolent man, by one great or good man. 
 
 Here then, before the venerable fathers, who first 
 planted the standard of civilization and Christianity in 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 109 
 
 this recent wilderness, shall have left the scene of their 
 early toils and sufferings forever, let the banks of the 
 Cumberland be adorned with the majestic temples of 
 science and with the academic groves, which may 
 proudly vie with those which have conferred immor- 
 tality on the Cam and the Isis. 
 
 Alma Mater confidently appeals to her own inge- 
 nuous alumni ; and claims of them chivalrous fealty, 
 and honourable service, and lasting attachment, and 
 generous support. She will not appeal to them in vain. 
 And may she, as I doubt not she will, a thousand gene- 
 rations after all her enemies shall be forgotten, be the 
 ornament, the pride, and the glory of Tennessee ! 
 
 Having thus earnestly pressed upon your notice the 
 great cause of education, and the cause of our own infant 
 university in particular, as worthy of peculiar regard 
 and beneficence ; I may briefly add, in this connexion, 
 that every scheme and enterprise, calculated, in any de- 
 gree, to promote human happiness, will also claim your 
 countenance and support. You must be the leaders — 
 where others better qualified do not offer — in every good 
 work. I do not recommend to you merely those magni- 
 ficent and imposing projects for the melioration of the 
 condition of mankind, which are sufficiently popular to 
 command general respect; but, besides these, I recom- 
 mend to you those humbler, less dazzling, less conspicu- 
 ous, and, frequently, more disinterested modes of doing 
 good, which occur every day, in every village, and in 
 almost every family. Now, to be able to do good, in 
 any of the modes suggested or contemplated, remember, 
 
110 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 that, industry in acquiring knowledge or wealth will not 
 alone suffice. Nor will it be sufficient to abstain, from 
 degrading vice — from intemperance and gambling — from 
 every species of youthful irregularity and ruinous dissi- 
 pation. You must study prudence and economy in the 
 management of both time and money. A man, extrava- 
 gant in his ordinary expenses, fond of show and ostentor 
 tion, eager to be at the head of the fashionable world or 
 in the pursuit of fashionable pleasures and follies, is not 
 likely to be generous. He will never become a Howard 
 or a Franklin. The man of plain and simple habits, 
 who avoids all needless display and luxury, who is con- 
 tent with what is useful and comfortable, is the man 
 who has the most to bestow on objects of charity, bene- 
 volence and public utility. 
 
 Go then. Young Gentlemen, and prosecute with per- 
 severing ardour, the new course of study and discipline, 
 which is to qualify you to enter, in due time, upon the 
 great theatre of active, useful, honourable life. Be not 
 in haste to engage in those various liberal professions, to 
 which most or all of you, perhaps, intend hereafter to 
 devote your faculties. Wait, with patience, the full de- 
 velopment of your mental powers ; and continue long to 
 collect, with untiring assiduity, from every source, the 
 treasures of knowledge which are necessary to fit you 
 for eminence in any profession; and for the noblest 
 career of usefulness to your country, and for the most 
 exalted stations within her gift. Despise not — neglect 
 not any department of human learning, whenever and 
 wherever it can be consistently cultivated. No man 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. Ill 
 
 ever denounces, as useless or sui)erfluous, any science or 
 language with Avliicli he is himself acquainted. The 
 ignorant only, condemn : and they condemn what they 
 do not understand, and because they do not understand 
 it. Whenever, therefore, }'ou hear a man declaiming 
 against any literary or scientific pursuit, you ma}^ rest 
 assured that he knows nothing of the matter : and you 
 will need no better evidence of his total incompetency 
 to sit m judgment upon the case. Of all the learned 
 men of whatever age, country or profession, who have 
 benefited our world by their labours — who have been 
 most distinguished and most successful ? Precisely those 
 who have judiciously put under contribution, to the 
 greatest extent, every corner and recess of the grand 
 temple of science, which it was possible for them to ex- 
 plore. There is such an intimate connexion between 
 the sciences, such a perfect harmony of parts in the 
 great whole of human knowledge, that all may fre- 
 quently, like the rays of the sun, be brought to bear 
 intensely on a single point ; or, at pleasure, be spread 
 over an immense surface, diffusing light and heat and 
 joy to the utmost verge of civilized society. 
 
 Study, then, to improve all your time in the most pro- 
 fitable manner. Let your amusements be rational, vir- 
 tuous, seasonable, manly, and invigorating to body and 
 mind. Let order, and method, and system be adopted 
 and rigorously maintained. Study hard while you pro- 
 fess to study. Relax at suitable intervals, only to re- 
 turn with redoubled ardour to your books. Thus, 
 health, serenity of mind, elasticity of spirits, present 
 
112 EDUCATIONAL DISCOUESES. 
 
 enjoyment, future usefulness and honour will all . be 
 promoted and secured. 
 
 Be not, however, the blind idolaters of genius or of 
 science. Both may exist where not one lovely or com- 
 mendable trait of character can be found. The loftiest 
 intellect, without virtue, is but archangel ruined. In 
 God only, do we behold the perfection of understanding, 
 of wisdom, of knowledge, of holiness. And he is that 
 perfect standard which we are commanded to aim at. 
 Religion, which requires us to be like God, constitutes 
 the whole of moral excellence. And in proportion as 
 religion influences the heart and life, will be the moral 
 worth of any individual. There can be no principle of 
 integrity, of truth, of kindness, of justice, independently 
 of religion. No human laws, usages, institutions or 
 opinions can, of themselves, ever render any man per- 
 fectly honest in all his dealings and transactions with 
 his fellow-men. He has it continually in his power, 
 with a fair reputation too, to mislead, deceive, defraud — 
 and, in a thousand ways, to practise imposition. And 
 he is continually tempted to do this, in a country where 
 influence, oflice, money are the objects of universal de- 
 sire and ambition, and where success is regarded as the 
 criterion of merit and talent. He may not be a thief or 
 a robber in the eye of the law, or according to the ordi- 
 nary judgment of men ; and yet he may be habitually 
 more criminal than either, in the eye of infinite purity 
 and justice ; and would be so pronounced by any tribu- 
 nal of perfectly honest men, who could take cognizance 
 of all the motives, facts and circumstances. That man. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 113 
 
 who will take any undue advantage of another in a 
 bargain, or in any mode whatever, would steal or rob 
 just as soon, if he could do it with equal honour and 
 safety. Nothing does, nothing can, nothing ever will 
 restrain an}' mortal from any indulgence, pursuit, gain 
 or abomination which he covets, and to which no dis- 
 grace is attached, except the fear of God — or, what is 
 the same thing, religious principle. The most igno- 
 rant pagans, as well as the most enlightened sages on 
 earth, are restrained by this fear, or by this principle, 
 whether they are conscious of it or not. I mean so far 
 as they act from principle at all — and without reference 
 to human laws or opinions. The salutary and restrain- 
 ing influence of religion extends, in fact, throughout the 
 world. It is daily felt in all the relations of life. It is 
 apparent in the whole texture and organization of hu- 
 man society. All the peace, comfort, virtue and felicity 
 in the world, or which have ever been in the world, 
 flow, and have flowed, from religion. In proportion as 
 pure religion prevails, in the same proportion do we be- 
 hold human nature approximating the purity, happiness, 
 dignity and glory of angels. And in proportion as it is 
 anywhere neglected, opposed, despised, in the same de- 
 gree do vice, ignorance and misery abound. This is a 
 fact obvious to every man's observation. 
 
 It is absurd for any man to pretend to reject religion 
 altogeth ;r, because he is, in spite of himself, religious or 
 superstitious, in some form or other, whether his view^s 
 be right or wrong. It is madness and cruelty, because, 
 were it possible for him to banish religion from our 
 
 VOL. I. 8 
 
114 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 world, he would put an end to civil government, to 
 social order and to social existence. ^ 
 
 I shall not attempt to tell you what religion implies 
 or inculcates ; nor, of the many religions in the world, 
 which is the best. The worst is better than none. I 
 have no fear that any religion whatever will be pre- 
 ferred to the Christian. I have no fear that am' man, 
 who honestl}' and soberly examines the records and the 
 charter of our religion, will ever fail to acknowledge its 
 paramount claims, and to practise, at least to approve, 
 its precepts. And this is all that I now urge. Study 
 the Bible faithfully and praj'erfuUy, and you will learn 
 what true religion is. All who do this, with a proper 
 temper and spirit, will agree in essential points of doc- 
 trine, as well as in the essential rules of conduct. All 
 who diligentty study the Bible — ^from the Roman Catho- 
 lic to the Quaker — will think and act alike in all things 
 which are important, and they will never contend about 
 unimportant foniis or questions. Were the Bible re- 
 sorted to for our theology- and our ethics, instead of 
 human teachers or systems, all bigotry, fanaticism, un- 
 charitableness and persecution would disappear from the 
 Christian world. Ignorance of the Bible is the prolific 
 source, not only of error and superstition, but of all that 
 demon spirit of party and sectarism which rages among 
 those who profess the same faith, and which keeps 
 asunder brethren of the same family. 
 
 It assuredl}^ ill becomes those who are liberally edu- 
 cated to be illiberal and intolerant on the subject of 
 religion, or to manifest illiberal hostility against it. Nor 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOUKSES. 115 
 
 would such an anomaly ever be witnessed, were our 
 scholars to study the Bible as carefully and profoundly 
 as they study, or profess to study human science and 
 philosophy. Simply as an integral part of a liberal 
 education, it demands the most thorough investigation. 
 What right have men to dispute and dogmatize about 
 religion, when, in trutli, they know little or nothing of 
 the Bible, which alone can teach it ? Who is the self- 
 sufficient bigot, that deals out anathemas against all 
 who do not adopt the same peculiar phraseology and 
 the same ceremonial with himself? Who is the sneer- 
 ing captious skeptic, who is ever railing at the hypocrisy, 
 the credulity, the superstition, the weakness, or the in- 
 consistency of Christians — as if these were the genuine 
 fruits of Christianity, or constituted any part of its cha- 
 racter ? Who is it that deliberately intrenches himself 
 within the strongholds of his own understanding, and 
 affects to yield to the dictates and discoveries of reason, 
 and to do homage to the dignity of human nature at the 
 expense of revelation ? Who is it that denounces the 
 Bible as containing unintelligible mysteries and dogmas 
 — as imposing rules and precepts too strict and severe 
 for frail humanity — as presenting sanctions, and threat- 
 ening penalties, revolting to infinite justice and good- 
 ness ? They are to a man, ignorant of the Bible, and 
 of the heavenly spirit which pervades it. They must 
 be sent to school, before they can be reasoned with. 
 
 Happily, the reign of atheism has passed away. And 
 the fopperies of infidelity are no longer in fashion. Men 
 of sense are ashamed to avow the one, or to exhibit the 
 
116 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 other. Multitudes, however, at the present day,— and 
 those too, frequently, among the most intelligent and in- 
 fluential members of society — appear desirous to stand 
 on neutral ground. Not aware, perhaps, that the thing 
 is impossible. They neither oppose nor profess the 
 Christian religion. They give themselves very little 
 concern about the matter. They live under its general 
 influence, and participate in its general charities, and 
 seem to fancy themselves exempt from its more imme- 
 diate and authoritative control ; so long as they do not 
 submit to the discipline of any particular church. As if 
 it were at their option to obey or to disobey the divine 
 command — to be religious or irreligious — to admit or 
 reject as much or little of religion's precepts as may 
 comport with their inclination or imaginary interest. 
 Now, this is most egregious trifling with reason and 
 duty — with themselves and their Maker. Young per- 
 sons easily yield to these delusions, and are apt to think 
 that religion is not designed for them, and that it ill be- 
 comes them. Or that it will render them miserable, or 
 singular, or unfit for the business and concerns of the 
 world. I pass, however, all this sophistry, all these pre- 
 judices, misapprehensions and difficulties, and again refer 
 3-0U to the Bible for instruction. 
 
 If man was made to be rehgious — and that he was, 
 universal experience proves beyond the possibility- of a 
 doubt ; if, without rehgion, he is both worthless and 
 wretched — and that he is, the same experience as fully 
 demonstrates ; then is religion necessary, and equally ne- 
 cessary to all men. It is equally binding on all men — 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 117 
 
 on the lawyer, the physician, the statesman, the sol- 
 dier, the }outhlul f<tuclent — as on the clergyman, the 
 saint, or the sage of fourscore. It does not consist in 
 particular acts or ceremonies, nor is it restricted, in its 
 operations and inHuence, to particular times, places and 
 occasions. It regulates the temper, reigns in the heart, 
 and keeps alive the spirit of devotion, of purity and 
 love, wherever we go, or whatever may be our worldly 
 vocation. In every human pursuit or station, religion 
 supplies the only true principle of action, and points out 
 the only legitimate ways and means of success. Happy 
 the man, who, in every undertaking, in every purpose, 
 and during all his exertions and trials, can devoutly look 
 to God for direction, for assistance, for wisdom, for a 
 paternal blessing. 
 
 Finally, be courageous. Dare to be honest, just, mag- 
 nanimous, true to your God, to your country, to your- 
 selves, and to the world. Dare to do to others as you 
 would have them do to you. Most men are cowards. 
 They are afraid to speak and to act, when duty calls, 
 and as duty requires. I recommend courage as a great 
 and a rare virtue. Few men will suffer themselves to 
 be called cowards ; and yet they betray their cowardice 
 by the very course they take to avenge the insult. A 
 man may intrepidly face the cannon's mouth, and be an 
 arrant coward after all. There is a higher, a nobler 
 courage, than was ever displayed in the heat of battle, 
 or on the field of carnage. 
 
 There is a moral courage, which enables a man to 
 triumph over foes more formidable than were ever mar- 
 
118 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 slialled by any Caesar. A courage which impels him to 
 do his duty — to hold fast his integrity — to maintain a 
 conscience void of oifence toward God and toward men 
 — at every hazard and sacrifice — in defiance of the 
 world, and of the prince of the world. Such was the 
 courage of Moses, of Joseph, of Daniel, of Aristides, of 
 Phocion, of Kegulus, of Paul, of Luther, of Washington. 
 Such is the courage which sustains every good man, 
 amidst the temptations, allurements, honours, conflicts, 
 opposition, ridicule, malice, cruelty, persecution, which 
 beset and threaten him at every stage of his progress 
 through life. It is not a noisy, obtrusive, blustering, 
 boastful courage, which pushes itself into notice when 
 there is no real danger, but which shrinks away when 
 the enemy is at the door. It is calm, self-possessed, 
 meek, gentle, peaceful, unostentatious, modest, retiring ; 
 but when the fearful hour arrives, then you shall be- 
 hold the majesty of genuine Christian courage, in all 
 her native energy and grandeur, breathing the spirit 
 of angelic purity, and grasping victory from the fiery 
 furnace or the lions' den ; when not- one of all the mil- 
 lions of this world's heroes would have ventured to share 
 her fortune. 
 
 I fear God, and I have no other fear — is the sublimest 
 sentiment ever felt or uttered by mortal man. 
 
 May each of you, beloved youth, living and dying, be 
 enabled, in sincerity, before the Searcher of hearts, to 
 exclaim, — I fear God, and I have no other fear. 
 
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS. 
 
 [CUMBERLAND COLLEGE, OCTOBER 3, 1S27.] 
 
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS, 
 
 AT CUMBERLAND COLLEGE, 1827. 
 
 It may be expected that youth, who have been well 
 instructed in the elements of science, will continue to 
 study and to advance in knowledge while they live. 
 But it is not enough to know more than others, or to be 
 satisfied with a constantly increasing store of intellectual 
 treasures. A higher, a purer, a nobler end must be kept 
 steadily in view, than any selfish gratification or interest 
 whatever. "For unto whomsoever much is given, of 
 him shall be much required : and to whom men have 
 committed much, of him they will ask the more." 
 
 Such are the language and doctrine of universal 
 equity and reason, as Avell as of divine revelation. 
 Human responsibility is everywhere graduated accord- 
 ing to the talents, knowledge, privileges, means, oppor- 
 tunities, power, influence, actually possessed, or fairly 
 attainable by honest effort and industry. To whom 
 much is given — whether of genius and the means of 
 ample cultivation, or of wealth and the usual facilities 
 for the proper use of it — of him will much be required. 
 
 To you. Young Gentlemen, your country and the 
 
 world will look — they have a right to look — for supe- 
 
 121 
 
122 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 rior virtue and wisdom, for greater light and knowledge, 
 for more vigorous, more persevering, and more successful 
 efforts in the cause of human happiness, than from the 
 great mass of youth in ordinary circumstances. It is 
 already incumbent on you to ponder well and seriously 
 how you ought to live and act, so as to confer the great- 
 est benefits on your fellow-men. For, the doing of good 
 to others, according to the measure of your ability, is 
 the only return which you can render to God for his 
 distinguishing favours to you. This is precisely the 
 return which he demands. This is the scriptural and 
 the only rational test and evidence of real gratitude to 
 God. No man can show his gratitude in any otlier way. 
 To offer up to the beneficent Deity, for his daily bounty, 
 mere verbal thanks — however frequent, loud, long-con- 
 tinued, or apparently devout and fervent — and to do 
 nothing more — is sheer hypocrisy or fanaticism. No 
 artifice or cunning can elude or make void the great 
 law of heaven and earth, that, of him to whom much 
 is given, much shall be required. Nor can this law 
 ever be transgressed with impunity. If men receive 
 much, and make no suitable return, they necessarily 
 incur, and sooner or later, suffer the penalty of their 
 disobedience. The providence of God will not — does 
 not — permit them to escape. Their inordinate wishes, 
 their unhallowed desires, may be gratified ; their selfish 
 schemes may be executed; they may achieve or gain 
 all that they seek or aim at ; they may even reach the 
 loftiest pinnacle to which human ambition ever dared to 
 aspire — and what then ? With what emphasis may it 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 123 
 
 not be said of all sucli — "and He gave them their re- 
 quest, but sent leanness into their soul !" 
 
 Success is no decisive proof of divine favour, or of 
 individual enjoyment. Could every covetous man be- 
 come a Croesus, or every ambitious man an Alexander, 
 or every vain man a A^'oltaire ; it does not follow that 
 happiness would, in any degree, accompany, or result 
 from, the possession of riches, power, fame, genius or 
 learning. These become real blessings only as they are 
 legitimately acquired, and faithfully employed for the 
 benefit of others as well as of ourselves. 
 
 To be good, and to do good, are nearly convertible 
 terms, and necessarily imply each other. The man who 
 wishes to do good, must himself become good. And 
 again, every good man will do good. All your resolu- 
 tions to do good will avail nothing, until you first resolve 
 to be good. This will prove a very difficult or a very 
 easy task, according to the standard by which you esti- 
 mate goodness. There is a superficial counterfeit kind 
 of virtue or goodness which passes very current in the 
 world, and which is of easy acquisition. I shall not 
 stop to describe it. Fashionable life and fashionable 
 reading may be consulted for its true character and 
 value. 
 
 Genuine goodness or virtue consists in perfect obe- 
 dience to the divine law. I offer no proof of this posi- 
 tion ; because, if there be a divine law, none will deny 
 that it is our duty to obey it. I now take for granted 
 that there is a divme law ; and that this law is recorded 
 and explained in the Bible. By goodness or virtue then. 
 
124 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 I mean such moral excellence as the Bible requires and 
 inculcates. Whether men generally obey the divine law 
 at all, or to any considerable extent — whether any obey 
 it perfectly, or whether any can do this — I leave to the 
 decision of those who are best acquainted with the Bible 
 and with the human heart. That the law is holy, just 
 and good; that it ought therefore to be obeyed; and 
 that it is exceedingly difficult for man, constituted and 
 circumstanced as he is, fully to obey it, will not be ques- 
 tioned by those men who are universally acknowledged 
 to be the wisest and most virtuous of mankind. While, 
 on the other hajid, those men who proclaim it to be a 
 very easy matter to be good enough, or to do all that is 
 required of them, are precisely such as are not most 
 remarkable for kindness and purity of heart or conduct. 
 The same law which says — ''Thou shalt not kill — 
 Thou shalt not steal," — also says — "Thou shalt not 
 take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Thou 
 shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbour's. Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart — and 
 thy neighbour as thyself." Nay further — "Love your 
 enemies, bless them that curse you ; do good to them 
 that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use 
 you and persecute you. If ye forgive not men their 
 trespasses, neither will your [heavenly] Father forgive 
 your trespasses. And as ye would that men should do 
 to you, do ye also to them likewise." Such is a speci- 
 men of the spirit and extent of the divine law — of the 
 morality of the Bible — of the celestial purity and chari- 
 table constitution of the Christian religion. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 125 
 
 In the Bible you will learn, both, what you are com- 
 manded to become, and what you are commanded to 
 perform. And truly, the path of virtue and duty is 
 steep and arduous. But it is a law of our nature that 
 nothing valuable can be acquired without labour. The 
 highest virtue — and consequently the highest honour 
 and happiness — can be attained only by constant per- 
 severing vigilance and effort, agreeably to the divine 
 w^ill, and when crowned wdth the divine blessing. Com- 
 mence the great business of life then, in the fear of the 
 Lord. This is the beginning of wisdom. Refer every 
 purpose and every action to the w^ill of God : and ever 
 have in vieAv, not your own interest and gratification 
 merely, but the happiness and comfort of those around 
 you. 
 
 Wherever you reside, there study to do all the good in 
 your power. I say study, — for much laborious investi- 
 gation, much anxious reflection, much hard-earned in- 
 formation may be necessary to enable the soundest 
 judgment, frequently, to decide on the best plans and 
 means of attaining the most benevolent objects. It is 
 not enough to be willing to do good, or to desire to do 
 (rood — we must spare no pains to acquire all the know- 
 ledge that may aid us in doing it in the best manner 
 and to the greatest extent. ImMent benevolence — if 
 its existence be possible — or ill-directed, misapplied 
 benevolence may do as much injury as avowed selfish- 
 ness or misanthropy itself. 
 
 Young persons are apt to fancy that they would like 
 to do "ood on a grand scale — to be great benefactors — 
 
126 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 to immortalize their names — to fill the world with the 
 fame of their disinterested, patriotic, noble, philanthropic 
 achievements — to become the Luther, the Columbus, the 
 Howard, the Franklin, or the Washington of the age. 
 This however may be a very selfish, pitiful ambition — a 
 mere coveting of the renown, the glory, or the more sub- 
 stantial rewards, which such men, sooner or later, re- 
 ceive from the equity and gratitude of mankind. I 
 mean not to discourage you from aiming high — very 
 high — even at the loftiest mark. " Be 3^e perfect, even 
 as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," But do 
 not mistake your own views and motives. Every emi- 
 nent man, who has been good as well as great, has served 
 a long and laborious apprenticeship (and most probably) 
 in a comparatively humble and narrow sphere. He has 
 been content to do good every day to the extent of his 
 means and opportunities, without ever dreaming of the 
 honours and the homage which awaited him. Present 
 duty, uot future distinction, was the moving principle 
 and spring of action. Unhallowed ambition may indeed 
 conduct its votary to a throne : and the world shall call 
 him great: but the world — the impartial world — will 
 never pronounce him good. 
 
 Your field of labour may, at first, be very limited. 
 Cultivate it diligently, and it will gradually enlarge. 
 Be faithful in a few things : more will presently be 
 intrusted to your care. Your sphere of duty will widen 
 on every side, just in proportion to your industry and 
 fidelity. And although your deeds may never be cele- 
 brated in the records of this world's immortality, — still 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 127 
 
 your reward will be sure, as well as adequate and satis- 
 factory. 
 
 So long as ignorance and poverty, vice and misery 
 exist in our land and in the world, so long at least, will 
 be found an ample province for humane and beneficent 
 enterprise. In every hamlet and village — in every in- 
 habited section of our country — there is much to be done 
 for suffering and degraded humanity. I am not going 
 to enter into much detail on this fruitful topic. I will 
 barely specify two or three evils to which youth are 
 peculiarly exposed — which everywhere prevail to an 
 alarming extent — which it becomes us all most sedu- 
 lously to avoid ourselves, and to do what we can 
 through life to preserve others from their destructive 
 influence. 
 
 Hitherto, mankind have been disputing and contend- 
 ing chiefly about errors and heresies of a purely specula- 
 tive character : as if virtue, and happiness, and heaven 
 depended on the use of certain w^ords and phrases ; or 
 upon the implicit acknowledgment of certain proposi- 
 tions and doctrines, which, in their very nature, per- 
 haps, involve considerations absolutely beyond the pro- 
 vince of human reason — while practical truth has been 
 comparatively overlooked. Now, practical truth, or 
 truth which directly and necessarily influences human 
 conduct, is the only species of truth with which the 
 philanthropist is immediately concerned. Casuists, 
 theologians, metaphysicians, may argue and speculate 
 (in the same manner as they frequently have done) 
 forever, without contributing one iota to human im- 
 
128 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 proveinent and happiness : while the humblest indi- 
 vidual, who points out to his neighbour a mojde of 
 obtaining an honest livehhood, ought to be esteemed 
 a greater benefactor than all of them put together. 
 But the reign of m^-sterious absurdity and unmeaning 
 verhiafje, we trust, will have an end — and that men will 
 be induced to direct their energies to the melioration of 
 the character and condition of their fellow-men. Many 
 sentiments and usages which have been sanctioned by 
 the authority and wisdom of ages, and the propriety of 
 which, none perhaps, at the present day, will venture to 
 call in question, are destined hereafter, we believe, to be 
 renounced and condemned as erroneous and immoral. 
 
 The progress of practical moral truth is extremely 
 slow. Thus, for instance, the claims of mankind gene- 
 rally upon Christian benevolence were not recognized, 
 in any considerable degree, prior to the commencement 
 of the present century, nor are they even yet, except to 
 a very partial and limited extent : and the slave trade 
 itself was not denounced until within the memory of the 
 living generation. The habits of society cannot be easily 
 changed; and it is but seldom that any one dares to 
 oppose them. 
 
 Whatever is, is rigid, is a maxim of no small influence 
 in fact, even where its correctness would not be acknow- 
 ledged in terms. 
 
 " We must take society as it is, not as it sliould he," is 
 the usual apology for whatever evils happen to be tole- 
 rated in the community. 
 
 "We must enact laws to encouraa-e the manufacture 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 129 
 
 of domestic spirits, (pleads the politician,) for though 
 the people may be ruined in soul, body and estate, by 
 the excessive use of this physical and moral poison, yet 
 we must legislate for men as they are, not as they miglit 
 be." 
 
 " If I do not sell the liquor that intoxicates my neigh- 
 bour, some one else will" — says the publican, while he 
 deliberately pockets the price of his brother's infamy and 
 perdition. 
 
 In these instances, I advert to only one mode of the 
 operation of only one false principle or assumption — and 
 who can calculate the misery which it every day diffuses 
 throughout the entire population of our country? Who 
 can estimate the evil of intemperance ? 
 
 Whence is it that our prisons and penitentiaries — 
 erected at a cost of many millions of dollars — are 
 crowded with convicts, supported at an annual charge 
 to the public of millions more ? Whence is it that our 
 poor houses and poor rates, private charities and bene- 
 volent associations, are unable to satisfy the dail}' in- 
 creasing demands of clamorous pauperism? Let the 
 officers and the records of all these institutions — let the 
 dispensers of a nation's justice and of a nation's alms — 
 answer the inquiry. They will tell you that three- 
 fourths, nay frequently, that nine-tenths of these crimi- 
 nals and paupers have been ruined by intemperance. 
 
 It has been computed from authentic data, and pub- 
 lished to the world, that, during the last year, more than 
 ten thousand of our citizens Avere cut off, in the midst of 
 their days, by this one fell scourge. That, at least, fiftj' 
 
130 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 thousand more were destroyed by diseases occasioned 
 by intemperance. And that there are three hiyidred 
 thousand drunkards now living, or rather dying, in our 
 country. 
 
 It is moreover ascertained that, at least, fifty millions 
 of gallons of distilled Uquors, foreign and domestic, are 
 annually consumed by our people. Suppose the average 
 price to the consumer to be fifty cents per gallon, then 
 the amount expended annually on this object will be 
 twenty-five millions of dollars. And the pauperism occar 
 sioned thereby is estimated to cost some ten or fifteen 
 millions more. 
 
 Taking the population of the United States at twelve 
 millions, and that of Tennessee at six hundred thousand, 
 then Avill Tennessee, at the same rate of consumption, 
 expend |1, 250,000 a year for ardent spirits alone ; and, 
 in ten years, $12,500,000, without allowing for any in- 
 crease whatever in numbers, and without reckoning the 
 interest of the money thus annually expended. How 
 far, permit me to ask in passing, might such a sum go 
 towards providing the ways and means of educating our 
 children ? — of creating a permanent school fund for the 
 benefit of every family in the commonwealth ? 
 
 That I may not be thought to have presented an ex- 
 aggerated statement relative to Tennessee, I will add, 
 that, it has been recently communicated to the public, 
 from very high authority, that the annual expenditure for 
 intoxicating liquors in Massachusetts exceeds $1,300,000 
 for a population of only 550,000. I am willing to believe 
 that we are not quite so bad in this respect as our East- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 131 
 
 em brethren, and hence the estimate just given is much 
 more favourable. 
 
 Drunkenness however, it cannot be denied, is sapping 
 the foundation of morals — is filling the country with 
 miscreants and vagaljonds, with beggars and felons — is 
 imposing burdens on the rich and ruining the poor — is 
 impairing public virtue and destroying domestic peace — 
 is not only diminishing the enjoyments of this life, but 
 jeoparding the hopes of a better — is already an evil 
 more tremendous and threatening than war, or famine. 
 or pestilence, or than all combined — and is continualh- 
 increasing in a ratio which baffles calculation, and which. 
 in a few years, may defy all control. 
 
 Is there not scope here for the most active and in- 
 trepid benevolence ? Who will deliver his country from 
 the deadh- grasp of this mauj-headed monster ? Who 
 will devise a remedy for this most fatal disease Avhich is 
 already preying upon the vitals of the Republic ? 
 
 Many remedies have been proposed — the merits of 
 which I shall not stop to investigate. I pass all medical 
 prescriptions. I say nothing of the expediency of legis- 
 lative interference. Nor shall I expatiate on the benefits 
 that might be expected from the extensive and general 
 cultivation of the vine. I merely hint at the principal 
 remedy which ice can immediately apply — and M'hich 
 each of us can apply — and which is strictly of the moral 
 and preventive character. By our example, our counsel, 
 our instructions, we may do much. We can ourselves 
 abstain altogether from the use of ardent spirits — banish 
 them from our tables, from our houses, from our farms, 
 
132 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 from our labourers, from every place over wliicli we ex- 
 ercise control. This we can do. And this, every motive 
 and consideration of patriotism, benevolence, and Chris- 
 tian duty should constrain us to do while we live. If all 
 virtuous reflecting men, all honourable influential men, 
 all college graduates, all reverend clergymen, would do 
 this, the evil would be effectually checked, and it would 
 rapidly diminish. 
 
 How much of this very evil indeed is ftiirly attribut- 
 able to the countenance which such men have given to 
 it ? They have made it customary and fashionable to 
 drmk on all joyous and festive occasions — to treat each 
 other at every social visit — and thus to be continually 
 presenting temptation, in the most alluring form, espe- 
 cially to the young and inexperienced. For to them 
 nothing usually is so difficult to resist as the claims or 
 prescriptions of fashion. Here then the evil must be 
 arrested. The fashion must be changed. Ardent spirits 
 of every description must be forever proscribed, and 
 exiled from good company. In reference to this most 
 insidious and direful bane of human peace and virtue, 
 the motto of every young man, who aims at being good 
 or great, should be — "touch not, taste not, handle not." 
 With this enemy hold no parley — make no treaty, truce 
 or compromise. To hesitate, to listen, to tamper, is to 
 yield the victory; and, perhaps, to yield it forever. 
 
 I urge this point with all possible earnestness, because 
 it is so completely overlooked by the young, and l)ecause 
 a failure here is blasting to all their hopes. It will be 
 death to all their golden dreams and prospects of earthly 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOUKSES. 133 
 
 bliss and earthly honour. It -will make few their days : 
 and will render those few a burden and a curse to them- 
 selves, to their friends, and to the world. I urge it with 
 affectionate importunity, because I have seen issue from 
 colleges, consecrated to science, to virtue, and to piety, 
 most melancholy and heart-rending examples of all the 
 misery of which youthful intemperance, in its various 
 forms, is capable. Ah, ni}- young friends, did you know 
 the grief — the torture — which 3'ou may inflict in the 
 bosoms of those who love you most, and who would 
 esteem no sacrifice too great to save you from the snares 
 which beset your path, you would dash from your lips 
 the proffered cup, and spurn with indignation from your 
 sight, the wretch who would seduce you from wisdom's 
 ways. 
 
 Why is it that the scenes of intemperate mirth and 
 revelry — the haunts of folly and dissipation — nay the 
 very sinks of iniquity and abomination — are so often 
 sought and frequented ? Where shall we find an ade- 
 quate, or even a specious apology for such madness? 
 Why is it that the dictates and counsels of wisdom are 
 so often contemned by youth, when associated for the 
 noblest purposes — when engaged in the most exalted 
 and grateful pursuits — when professedly submitting to 
 that course of discipline and culture which will prepare 
 them to lead the way in honour's high career, and to 
 ascend the loftiest steeps of human greatness ? — To say 
 nothing of other and nobler ends to which well directed 
 and sanctified learning is ever subservient. Surely, if 
 there be anything in human prospects alluring and en- 
 
134 EDUCATIONAL DISCOUESES. 
 
 couraging; anything in itself calculated to impart 
 stability to character; anything to deter from, gross 
 and destructive vice; anything to prompt to enter- 
 prise and exertion; the privileged student or graduate 
 of a college is the individual, above all others, who 
 should be the farthest removed from all that is grovel- 
 ling and mean and licentious. It is he, if any one on 
 earth, whom we should expect to see asserting the dig- 
 Aity of his nature, and manfully contending for the 
 noblest prize within the grasp of mortality. 
 
 I proceed to the consideration or exposure of another 
 evil — which, like intemperance, may aptly be denomi- 
 nated Legion — for it is the cause or fountain of many 
 evils. I mean the tyranny of custom or fashion. We 
 have seen that intemperance occasions most of the 
 crime, and poverty and wretchedness in our country; 
 and that no small portion of this very intemperance is 
 the natural result of the general and fashionable use of 
 inebriating liquors. 
 
 But the despotism of fashion extends far and wide — 
 pervades all departments of human thought and action 
 — controls opinion — determines principles — regulates 
 manners and conduct — and moulds the passions and 
 affections at pleasure. 
 
 I need not advert to its resistless sway over the whole 
 mass of human expenditure, beyond the bare necessaries 
 of existence — over the dress, the equipage, the furniture, 
 the table, the entertainments, the amusements, the edu- 
 cation, the accomplishments, of the whole civilized world 
 — for here its absolute dominion has never been ques- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 135 
 
 tioiied. And how dreadful the bondage is — how ex- 
 cruciating the tortures of the hapless victims — may be 
 witnessed every day by any man who will open his eyes 
 upon what is passing around him — upon the anxious 
 struggle, the sacrifice of peace and comfort, made by the 
 several classes of the people in order to reach or surpass 
 those who are looked up to iis fasJdonable and honovrahle. 
 Very rich men ma}- indulge their vanity and ostentation 
 and caprice, without any pecuniary embarrassment or 
 inconvenience. Not so with the host of inconsiderate 
 imitators, of smaller fortunes, or of no fortune at all. A 
 rich man, it is true, ought not, in regulating his per- 
 sonal or family expenses, merely to consult the extent 
 of his own means. He ought, in duty, to consider what 
 his poorer neighbours can afford ; because they will be 
 sure to follow his example ; and that, too, precisely in 
 things the least useful, or entirely superfluous, or posi- 
 tively injurious to health and morals, as well as to 
 property. For the fact is, however absurd, that, when 
 any amusement, vice or pleasure becomes fashionable, 
 then will thousands throw away their scanty and hard- 
 earned pittance, in order to participate in the indul- 
 gences, the follies and the extravagancies of the great, 
 and to dissipate and sIkjvj off among those whom they 
 fooUshly account their hetters. " Pride (says Franklin) is 
 a beggar quite as clamorous as want, but infinitely more 
 insatiable." 
 
 Thus is it also in regard to opinions which govern the 
 world. There is, for instance, " the Law of Honour" — 
 as distinct from the law of the land, and from the law 
 
136 EDUCATIOI"^ AL DISCOUESES. 
 
 of God. "It is a system of rules constructed by people 
 of fashion" — and for their own special benefit and, con- 
 venience, — without the slightest recognition of the 
 duties which they owe to their Maker, — or to the mass 
 of the people, who are heartily despised as their in- 
 feriors. 
 
 "For which reason (says Paley) profaneness, neglect 
 of jDublic worship or private devotion, cruelty to ser- 
 vants, rigorous treatment of tenants or other dependents, 
 want of charity to the poor, injuries done to tradesmen 
 by insolvency or delay of payment, with numberless ex- 
 amples of the same kind, are accounted no breaches of 
 honour, because a man is not a less agreeable companion 
 for these vices, nor the worse to deal with, in those con- 
 cerns which are usually transacted between one gentle- 
 man and another. Again — the Law of Honour, being 
 constituted by men occupied in the pursuit of pleasure, 
 will be found, in most instances, favourable to the licen- 
 tious indulgence of the natural passions." Thus it allows 
 of drunkenness, prodigality, duelling, revenge, gaming, 
 and almost every species of sensuality and dissipation, 
 provided the fashionable mode be duly observed. 
 
 This Law of Honour, with many other equally pre- 
 cious institutions, we have inherited from our European 
 ancestry. And although we acknowledge among our- 
 selves neither nobility nor gentry — Avith Avhom, and for 
 whom exclusively, this law originated, and by whom it 
 is still sustained in the old world — yet so ambitious are 
 we of whatever savours of JiigJi life, that, without family, 
 or estate, or royal favour, or legal immunities, we have 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 137 
 
 introduced all the pompous phraseology and all the 
 aristociatic usages of that very country whose right to 
 govern us we have long since disclaimed and forever 
 renounced. 
 
 The subject, indeed, assumes an aspect sufficiently 
 ludicrous to be left to the ridicule and contempt of men 
 of sense; were it not for the serious interests which it 
 involves, and the blmd infatuation of our countrymen in 
 regard to it. Already we have among us an order of 
 men — a \eiy large one too — styled gentlemen ; as con- 
 tradistinguished from the rest of the people. What it 
 is that constitutes a gentleman, in ordinary parlance, I 
 shall not attempt to define. Perhaps wealth, or the 
 appearance of it, may be assumed as the main or indis- 
 pensable requisite. At any rate, we every day see 
 money transforming clowns and fools and blockheads — 
 and even not a few rogues and knaves — into marvellous 
 fine gentlemen. 
 
 Our concern at present, however, is simply with this 
 code of honour — this English, European, aristocratic 
 code — which our American gentlemen have adopted as 
 their own. 
 
 Like their transatlantic superiors — I have a right to 
 the term superiors, however offensive ; for in this matter 
 at least, they are servile copyists, mere humble and de- 
 spised imitators of what they can never effectualh^ reach 
 — like their transatlantic superiors then, they affect to 
 be entirely above — and too often prove themselves to be 
 above — the laws of their country. With these laws, in- 
 deed, they have no concern, except, it may be, to aid in 
 
138 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 manufacturing them for the benefit of the meaner sort. 
 And as to penal statutes — prisons, gibbets — these were 
 all contrived for the vulgar — for poor beggarly plebeians. 
 A gentleman, of the true imier, has no fear of them, and 
 no need of them. His pistol or dagger will answer every 
 purpose of judge, jury and executioner. He habitually 
 walks abroad in all the conscious dignity of irresponsible 
 freedom and independence. And even our little masters 
 — the hopeful sons of most gallant sires — long before 
 they ought to be trusted out of their mothers' sight, 
 sally forth to do valiant deeds in the village streets or 
 village school ; and show their spirit and their breeding 
 by the seasonable display of that most knightly — most 
 gentlemanly weapon — the Dirk. 
 
 Again — Our gentleman is a perfect pink of honesty 
 and fair dealing. He will not steal your horse or your 
 purse ; he will not counterfeit the coin of his country, 
 or forge a note upon his neighbour; — this would be 
 vulgar, and consequently, infamous. Whether he is 
 always equally scrupulous about appropriating to his 
 own use the property of others, under some one or 
 other of the ten thousand specious, genteel, fashionable 
 forms and pretexts, with wdiich honourable men are 
 sufficiently familiar — I respectfully submit to the de- 
 cision of those most competent to judge. 
 
 His veracity is never to be questioned with impunity. 
 He will not violate his promise or his word, nor injure 
 your reputation, if you happen to pass for a gentleman, 
 or belong to society. No, no — upon these points he is 
 exquisitely tender, delicate and guarded. But he may 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 139 
 
 unblushingly, and greatly to his honour, resort to all 
 manner of artifice and deceit, of falsehood and perjury, 
 in order to win and to betray the confidence of unsus- 
 pecting female innocence : and thus blast forever the 
 prospects, the character, the happiness of an honest 
 family, in every just sense of the term, incomparably 
 his superior. 
 
 There is, too, the gentleman gamester ; as well as the 
 hardened, crafty, unprincipled gambler. The practice 
 of gaming, I believe, is countenanced throughout the 
 world of fashion ; while, the vice of low, vulgar, petty 
 gambling is universally censured and denounced, as 
 ruinous to the morals and industry of the common 
 people. Between the practice and the vice, as exhibited 
 in the drawing-room and the alehouse, I leave it to the 
 casuist and the lawyer to point out the moral distinction 
 and to calculate the difference. Of the horrible effects 
 of gambling, as witnessed in most of the European capi- 
 tals and in the larger cities of our own country, it would 
 be impossible, by any language, to convey an adequate 
 idea. 
 
 It will not be inferred from anything already said, 
 that I lay to the charge of all persons who are regarded 
 as gentlemen, the whole or any part of the sins and fol- 
 lies j ast hinted at. I imagine, however, that I shall not 
 be misunderstood. There are gentlemen who w^ould do 
 none of these things — who bear themselves more loftily 
 — whose moral tone and spirit, whose wisdom and virtue 
 shed a lustre upon talent and station — ^but who, after all, 
 are subject to the law of honour, in some of its worst 
 
140 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 claims and features. — Who dare not exhibit the courage 
 and the independence which in heart they approve- and 
 admire. 
 
 Such a gentleman would shudder at the thought of 
 murder or assassination — nay he would scorn to ap- 
 pear discourteous or unkmd — he may be most humane, 
 tender, gentle, amiable and benevolent in temper and 
 practice — but he will, when the law of honour requires, 
 call you out, bid you defend yourself, and shoot you or 
 submit to be shot, Avith as much apparent coolness and 
 indifference, as if he were the sovereign arbiter of life 
 and death. He must do this or lose caste — forfeit his 
 standing in society — and be sneered at as a coward or a 
 saint. And who could brook the disgrace of being re- 
 puted '• to obey God rather than men" ? Who cuuld 
 forgive an injury or an insult, whether real or imagi- 
 nary, great or small, accidental or designed, with true 
 Christian meekness and magnanimity? Or who could 
 pass unnoticed an offence, however trivial or ideal or 
 constructive, when his peers j^i'oclaim that blood alone 
 can expiate the oflender's guilt, or satisfy the behests of 
 this inexorable law ? 
 
 I upbraid not individuals. They merely participate 
 in the bondage and the infatuation of general sentiment 
 and custom. So long as the infatuation and bondage 
 obtain, so long are all men of honour duellists virtually, 
 whether they ever fight a duel or not. Because all 
 acknowledge the same principles, and countenance the 
 practice. I advert to it, not in the spirit of the cynic or 
 illiberal censor — not for the purpose of personal rebuke 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 141 
 
 or crimination or reproach — nor as a convenient topic 
 for harsh inYecti\'e or loose declamation. But because 
 it is a great and growing evil — a national evil — the 
 plague and disgrace of the Christian world : — and with 
 a view to its correction and removal. 
 
 Cannot the code of lionour, which compels honourable 
 men to fight duels, be repealed or abrogated ? In its 
 favour or defence, I have never read or heard one argu- 
 ment, or the shadow of an argument, advanced from any 
 quarter or by any individual. It is, on the contrary, 
 universally condemned by duellists themselves — whether 
 successful or unfortunate — in the hour of victory or of 
 death — frequently before, and always after the fatal 
 meeting. Thej' generally speak of it in terms of repro- 
 bation, and lament the tyranny of custom, which drives 
 them, however reluctant and at whatever sacrifice, to 
 mortal combat — merely to satisfy the wanton, the capri- 
 cious, the abominable, the fiend-like demands of an arbi- 
 trary tribunal — which is nowhere visible or tangible, — 
 which can hardly be said to have a local habitation or a 
 name, and which, nevertheless, is universally and im- 
 plicitly obeyed, in open and reckless defiance of all that 
 is good, and just, and kind, and merciful, and holy, and 
 dreadful, in earth or heaven ! 
 
 Is this a custom or a law which is, in its own nature, 
 everlasting and unalterable ? — which is never to pass 
 away into the darkness and oblivion which have long 
 since shrouded most other Gothic absurdities and enor- 
 mities? As the law now stands, a man must, in certain 
 cases, give or accept a challenge, or men of honour will 
 
142 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 not countenance or acknowledge him as a gentleman. 
 Such is the law, and such is the penalty. Now, lei me 
 ask, cannot these same men of honour, whoever they are 
 or wherever to he found, put down this law, extirpate 
 this relic of feudal barbarism, and decree that no gentle- 
 man shall henceforth fight a duel, under precisely the 
 same penal sanctions — namely, the forfeiture of his place 
 in society as a gentleman or man of honour? Could they 
 not as easily abolish the law as they now sustain it? 
 Especially, as they all agree in denouncing it, and as the 
 rest of the world would heartily approve the measure. 
 I verily believe that it is in the power of some twenty 
 individuals, in each of these States, by acting in concert 
 and with decision, to render it as ungentlemanly, as dis- 
 honourable, as infamous, to fight a duel, as it now^ is to 
 commit any felony whatever. The object is at least 
 worth the experiment. 
 
 If it were ever expedient to summon a national coun- 
 cil or convention, to devise plans of deliverance from 
 oppression, or to seek a redress of grievances, then is it 
 now expedient ; for we are literally perishing under a 
 moral slavery the most ruinous, burdensome and de- 
 grading. And the man, or the men, who shall succeed 
 in rescuing the Eepublic from the despotism of opinion 
 — who shall break down the dominion of intemperance, 
 of gambling, of duelling — will deserve higher honour 
 than has been awarded to the sages, heroes and martyrs 
 of our glorious revolution. 
 
 Having thus glanced at some of the obliquities and 
 the general character of the dominant system, it may be 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 143 
 
 proper to add, that, I do not mean to censure anything 
 that contributes to the comfort and well-being of society. 
 Many things fashionable may be very good and useful. 
 The}' are so, however, not because they are fashionable, 
 but in spite of fashion. The extremes of luxury and 
 extravagance on the one hand ; of meanness and avarice 
 on the other, are to be equally avoided. Amiable man- 
 ners — genuine politeness — an easy, graceful air and car- 
 riage — unaffected refinement and delicate courtesy — are 
 very desirable and are justlv prized. Hence it is that 
 they are more frequently counterfeited than actually 
 possessed. Good manners — civilitj' — urbanity — it has 
 been well remarked — may be regarded as the homage 
 which h^'pocrisy frequently pays to virtue. A man 
 may be, in all his exterior, a perfect gentleman ; and 
 yet prove a heartless rake or villain after all. Real 
 good-will to others — kindness felt and cherished — an 
 honest, habitual desire and purpose to be useful — ^must 
 lay the foundation for the most solid, valuable and 
 durable politeness. I would recommend the school and 
 the writings of St. Paul, as infinitely preferable, in 
 forming the gentleman, Christian and scholar, to all the 
 Maxims and Letters of all the Rochefoucaulds and Ches- 
 terfields, dead or living, who have ever written or dog- 
 matized on the subject. 
 
 The principal remedy for the worst evils which pre- 
 vail amongst us is education. — The proper, thorough, 
 Christian education of all the people from infancy to 
 manhood. An education which commences at the ear- 
 liest possible period — which is faithful in the discipline 
 
144 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 and improvement of all the faculties, moral, physical 
 and intellectual— which keeps steadily in view every 
 virtue which can adorn and elevate the character of 
 man — and which regards each individual, not only as 
 a constituent part of the great national family, but as a 
 candidate for a holy and a happy immortality in heaven. 
 " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when 
 he is old, he will not depart from it." This I believe as 
 fully as I believe any other part of divine revelation. 
 God's blessing will crown with success the honest efforts 
 of those who conscientiously and faithfully obey his 
 commands, or employ the means which himself has 
 ordained. The children of the Republic must be rightly 
 and thoroughly discipUned, before we can hope to see a 
 community of temperate, industrious, economical, peace- 
 ful, virtuous, happy citizens. 
 
 The genuine American System has not yet been 
 practically developed. True, its spirit pervades the 
 Declaraticni of Independence— i\\d.i imperishable docu- 
 ment of human rights, to the support of which our 
 fathers, in 76, pledged their lives, their fortunes and 
 their sacred honour. True, it breathes throughout the 
 Constitutkm, which our venerable sages, in '89, solemnly 
 adopted as the sacred charter of American liberty. 
 But our practice must yet be made to accord with our 
 theory. 
 
 In this concern, as in many others, we are still sub- 
 ject to the doganas and usages of European masters. We 
 spealc, indeed, of the majesty of the sovereign people ; 
 but we ad towards them, at least in the matter of educa- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 145 
 
 tion, as do English lords and esquires to their vassals 
 and dependants. English gentlemen are as proud of 
 their liberty as Americans can be ; but then it is the 
 liberty of English gentlemen, not the liberty of the multi- 
 tude, that they boast of or care for. In reference to the 
 education of the labouring or operative mass of the peo- 
 ple, the simple and sole question usually is, what will 
 suffice them in their character and condition of labourers 
 or operatives .? — not, what will enable them to rise above 
 their humble, degraded and servile condition? Hence 
 it has become, or rather continued, customary for even 
 sensible and well-meaning men* among us, to maintain 
 the same aristocratic doctrine ; and to tell the very peo- 
 ple who constitute the bone and sinew of the Republic, 
 that they, the plain, honest, labouring farmers and 
 mechanics, have no need of learning, beyond a mere 
 common education, — which, according to their interpre- 
 tation of the phrase, implies no more than to read, write 
 and keep accounts. Now, is not this virtually to doom 
 the great body of the people forever to an inferior condi- 
 tion? — To keep them periDctually disqualified to claim 
 the privileges, to exercise the rights, to attain the dig- 
 nities of freemen, equally with those who are better 
 educated ?* 
 
 * The people are moreover told that a liberal education is not only 
 useless, or injurious, but very expensive. True, it does cost something. 
 The question is, does it cost more than it is worth ? I answer, no. A 
 good education is preferable to any fortune which any parent can be- 
 stow on his son in lieu of it. And parents in general can aiford to 
 educate their children in the best manner — certainly in a much better 
 manner than is now customary. I have never known an honest, sober, 
 
 VOL. I. 10 
 
146 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 But it is not merely to elevate one class of men to a 
 political equality with another, nor is it mainly to qualify 
 men for public offices, still less for professional eminence, 
 that I thus earnestly and repeatedly plead the cause of 
 education. It is chiefly to make better and happier and 
 more useful men, in all the walks and departments, in 
 all the pursuits and avocations, public and private, of 
 human society. Well informed men cannot be easily 
 imposed on by any species of charlatanry, fraud, quack- 
 ery, fanaticism, superstition, hypocrisy — by lawyers, 
 priests, physicians or demagogues. As knowledge shall 
 be diffused, professional services generally will be less 
 needed. Crimes will diminish. Prisons and penitentia- 
 ries, jails and bridewells, — those hot beds of depravity 
 and abomination — those seminaries of all manner of 
 iniquity — where every wicked propensity is indulged, 
 and every diabolical purpose matured, and every scheme 
 of villany and outrage most cunningly devised and pre- 
 pared for execution — where no culprit was ever yet 
 reformed — where even the juvenile novice is soon 
 transformed into a hardened, shameless, daring, reckless 
 cut-throat — those lazar-houses of sin and pestilence and 
 
 industrious man who could not give his children a good common educa- 
 tion — provided good schools, or properly qualified teachers were esta- 
 blished or could be procured within a reasonable distance. And 
 among our respectable farmers and mechanics, there are not many who 
 could not send their sons to college if they chose. And they would 
 do so, were they taught to prize knowledge more highly than lands and 
 negroes, or thau the follies and glitter of fashion, or than the gratifica- 
 tions of low grovelling dissipation. And after all, the complaint of the 
 expensiveness of an education comes with an ill grace from those who 
 will do nothing towards cheapening it. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 147 
 
 death — at once the curse and the disgrace of our coun- 
 try — which were established, and are now supported, at 
 an expense a hundred-fold greater than that of all the 
 colleges and schools in the nation — will gradually be- 
 come tenantless. 
 
 Degraded and degrading pauperism will vanish — with 
 crime — under the genial influence of virtue in union 
 with science. Every man, however humble his lot, will 
 be able to command and to enjoy an intellectual feast at 
 every leisure moment : and even while busily employed 
 in his daily labours for a subsistence, the great world of 
 mind and matter — the grand volume of nature, in all her 
 varied beauty and loveliness, is ever present to his view^ 
 and admiration. 
 
 Let knowledge be as free as the air which we breathe 
 — ^let it illumine the cottage as well as the palace — let it 
 adorn, elevate and dignify every human being — must be 
 the language and the wish of evei*y enlightened philan- 
 thropist. 
 
 The American System is now on trial before the world. 
 It remains to be seen, whether twelve millions of people 
 — or fifty millions — and we shall soon be fifty millions — 
 can exercise the rights and powers of sovereignty — can 
 govern themselves — live in peace and safety, liberty and 
 equality. And if so, to solve the problem of universal 
 freedom and self-government. For the American system 
 will, if successful, become the system of the world. I 
 believe it will succeed. The grand instrument, under 
 God, of maintaining and carrying it to perfection is, 
 must ever be, education. The education too of the 
 
148 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 very peoj)le, who, at present, in almost every part, of 
 the earth, are scarcely regarded as possessing any rights, 
 or as worthy of the slightest political consideration, or as 
 capable of any more refined mental enjoyments than the 
 savage or the brute. Labour, while you live, to build 
 up this truly American system, and thus to promote the 
 best interests of all the people — and of mankind univer- 
 sally. 
 
 And now, at parting, accept a word of honest and 
 kindly counsel. 
 
 " The first and most instructive lesson, which man can 
 receive, (says one of your college text books,) when he is 
 capable of reflection, is to tMnh for himself; the second, 
 without Avhich the first would be comparatively of little 
 value, is to reject, in himself that infallibility, which he 
 rejects in others^ 
 
 Eesolve, at your outset in life, to be independent. To 
 think, examine, judge and decide for yourselves, upon 
 all matters, practical and speculative. Adopt none of 
 the prevailing maxims and principles of the world, 
 without a thorough and candid scrutiny. Yield not 
 an implicit or an indolent faith to any creed or code — 
 political, religious, philosophical or fashionable. Use the 
 reason which God has given you, in the search of truth 
 and duty and wisdom. Canvass, with candor, every 
 doctrine which claims your acceptance or assent, of 
 whatever school, or by whatever authority it may be 
 upheld. Avoid all irritating and unprofitable disputes 
 and controversies — especially concerning the tenets and 
 mysteries of religion. But should you engage in a dis- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 149 
 
 cussioii in order to find out truth, do not presume, as is 
 too generally tlie case, that you are certainly possessed 
 of it beforehand. "Seest thou a man wise in his own 
 conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him." 
 Modesty, patience and humility will become you in 
 every investigation ; and at every stage of your progress 
 through life. When, however, you shall have ascer- 
 tained what is true — w^hat is right — what is suited to 
 your circumstances — what will contribute to your hap- 
 piness — dare to choose the good and to refuse the evil. 
 
 Never submit to the tyranny of custom. Keep aloof 
 from every species of fashionable folly, dissipation, 
 amusement, extravagance or pleasure — which, in the 
 first place, you do not or ought not to approve — or 
 which, in the second place, you cannot afibrd. Eesist 
 all sohcitations to intemperance, to gambling, to ruinous 
 vice of every name and description. " My son, if sinners 
 entice thee, consent thou not." " He that walketh with 
 wise men shall be wise ; but a companion of fools shall 
 be destroyed." In all your personal or other expendi- 
 tures, consult health and comfort — the extent of your 
 own pecuniary resources and the general good of society. 
 Remember the adage of the Avise man, that, "the bor- 
 rower is servant to the lender." That frugality, which 
 arises from order and economy, is the parent of liberality 
 of sentiment and generosity of conduct. Had Arnold 
 abstained from fashionable vices, and been content to 
 live within the limits of his income, he had not been 
 damned to everlasting fame as a traitor to his country. 
 
 Shun idleness as a most insidious and dangerous foe. 
 
150 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 Be diligent in business and study. Search after know- 
 ledge as for hid treasures. Labour patiently and perse- 
 veringljj and relax not while life endures. Genius never 
 achieves miracles — except by hard and long continued 
 application. The talents of a Solomon would avail you 
 nothing without industry. Every truly great man, 
 whatever may have been his early advantages of edu- 
 cation, has been, and is, self-made. He may, indeed, 
 build upon a goodly foundation — and he regards his 
 college discipline merely as a foundation — but he is 
 himself the builder. The superstructure is all his own : 
 and it is the work of years, perhaps of a long life. He 
 is the maker — the creator of his own fortune, fame and 
 eminence. And such must you be, if ever you rise 
 above the crowded ranks of humble mediocrity. 
 
 Cherish and maintain a sacred, scrupulous, inviolable 
 and universal regard to truth and integrity, in all your 
 intercourse, conversation and dealings with your fellow- 
 men. 
 
 Take not the holy name of God in vain. Regard the 
 practice of profane swearing as ungentlemanly and vul- 
 gar, as it is unlawful and wicked. Treat all rehgious 
 institutions with decorous reverence. 
 
 Be tolerant, liberal and charitable in your sentiments 
 and conduct. Never condemn, denounce or censure any 
 denomination, class, sect or party in the gross. You will 
 find good men and bad, wise and simple, among them 
 all. The spirit of bigotry, intolerance and persecution 
 is ever a spirit of ignorance or malignity or both. Abuse 
 no man for his opinions — much less for his religious 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 151 
 
 creed — and never ascribe to liis opinions or creed any 
 consequences which he himself dischiiras. As a tree is 
 known by its fruit, so a man may be known by his 
 actions — and of these we may, when necessary for the 
 welfare of ourselves or of society, lawfully judge. But 
 remember, that no heresy, of which you can be guilty, 
 is so criminal before the majesty of high Heaven, as the 
 practical heresy of uncharitableness. 
 
 Be courteous and kind to all. Flatter none. Deserve 
 the esteem of the virtuous. Court not, by undue com- 
 pliances, the favour of any. Humour not the follies and 
 caprices of the high or the low — of the many or the few 
 — of the rich or the poor. Seek to enlighten, improve 
 and benefit the whole, by your example, your counsel, 
 3'our influence, your learning and your property. And 
 eventually, the world will make a just estimate of your 
 talents and of your merits. While, in the mean time, 
 you will enjoy more real satisfaction than any unde- 
 served temporary popularity or applause could possibly 
 yield. 
 
 Your connexion. Young Gentlemen, with this Univer- 
 sity, as students, is this day dissolved. The affectionate 
 attachment of dutiful and generous alumni towards their 
 Alma Mater, we trust, will never be dissolved, but will 
 increase with the lapse of time, however distant may be 
 your residence, or whatever may be your future pursuits. 
 But the long looked for happy hour has, at length, ar- 
 rived, which frees 3'ou from college restraints, and which 
 sunders the ties of all college relations and associations. 
 That you are not insensible to the painful emotions 
 
152 EDUCATIONAL DISCOUESES. 
 
 which a final separation from intimate and beloved com- 
 panions must awaken in every amiable bosom, we have 
 had abundant evidence. 
 
 That, on other accounts, youth should be eager to 
 depart from the scene of juvenile effort, emulation and 
 discipline — however beneficial it may have been to 
 them — experience tells us is natural and common. 
 That they should contemplate with joyous anticipations, 
 the period, when they may be permitted to gather the 
 flowers which fancy strews along the path-way of future 
 Ufe, and to enter upon the proud theatre of manly enter- 
 prize and generous ambition, is not to be wondered at — 
 nor shall it receive from us any cynical rebuke or con- 
 demnation. 
 
 But there is an aspect, under which this subject pre- 
 sents itself to the eye and the heart of those who feel 
 the deepest interest in their welfare, solemn and awful 
 and melancholy and distressing beyond the power of 
 language to portray. It is the thought, that, in the 
 midst of all this buoyancy of spirit and of hope — of all 
 this earthly attractiveness and fascination — of all these 
 bright and cheering prospects — of all these dreams of 
 virtuous exertion and honourable distinctions — of all 
 those xDleasures, joys and rewards which seem to stretch 
 along to the remotest verge of itie horizon of youthful 
 imagination — and w^hich cluster around his every view 
 in the richest groups and most varied profusion, as if to 
 chide his delay and backwardness to improve the pass- 
 ing moment, and to seize the proffered bounty of nature, 
 thus pressed upon his acceptance — oh, it is the thought. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 153 
 
 that, at this very moment of purest sunshine, when all 
 creation seems to smile, and to hail with ecstasy the 
 commencement of that youthful career which promises 
 so much glory and happiness — it is the dreadful thought, 
 that, Death may be secretly lurking in the midst of the 
 happy company, and insidiously making his approach to 
 the vitals of some unsuspecting youth, on whose counte- 
 nance plays the almost heavenly smile of assured confi- 
 dence and unmingled delight in the fair scenes which a 
 long life is yet to realize ! Ah, my friends, would to 
 God, there existed no reason for this heart-rending — 
 and, to all human nature's proudest, noblest schemes — 
 most revolting, tantalizing, overwhelming thought ! 
 
 But when did a class of youth bid farewell to any seat 
 of science, to whom the thought would have been unsea- 
 sonable ? or from whose number, one and another have 
 not been summoned to judgment, within a few short 
 years or months after their departure ? 
 
 Rejoice, therefore, with trembling, in the yiew of that 
 resplendent, but most deceiving world into which you 
 are about to enter. Remember that you, Hke the gifted 
 alumni of other institutions, may be cut down in the 
 midst of the most brilliant and successful career — or in 
 the first stages of pious and benevolent efibrt — or before 
 you can even begin the work on which your hearts are 
 all intent. In their destiny, read what may be yours. 
 Let the dead speak and warn you to be wise. Let death 
 be provided for first, and above all things, then peace 
 and joy shall crown your earthly lot, be its complexion 
 what it may. Then the world shall appear in its true 
 
154 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 colours : and tliougii it may doom you to many trials, 
 labours and disappointments, yet you can ever look, 
 with a holy calmness and delight, beyond this tempestu- 
 ous ocean, to that tranquil haven — to that blessed coun- 
 try — where the wicked cease from troublmg, and where 
 the weary be at rest. 
 
 Let the Bible be the companion of 3'our future lives 
 and studies. Read it daily, and with humble prayer for 
 the illuminating influences of that blessed Spirit who 
 first inspired and revealed it. It will be a lamp to your 
 feet, and a light to your path, and a joy to your hearts, 
 in all your wanderings through life's checkered scenery, 
 and through death's dark valley. It will teach you how 
 to value, and how to improve time, talent, learning and 
 wealth — how to be honest — how to be religious — how to 
 be useful — how to be happy — how to live — and how to 
 die. 
 
 May the Almighty bless you with long life, health, 
 peace and prosperity — grant you the renewing, sanctify- 
 ing and saving influences of his Holy Spirit — make you 
 eminently useful in your day and generation. And 
 whether we ever meet again on earth or not, may we 
 all meet in heaven at last, and rejoice together in 
 heaven while eternity endures ; through infinite riches 
 of free grace in Christ Jesus the righteous, who is over 
 all, God blessed forever ! Amen. 
 
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS. 
 
 [CUMBERLAND COLLEGE, OCTOBER 7, 1829.] 
 
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS, 
 
 AT CUMBERLAND COLLEGE, 1829 
 
 The people oppose, for a season, plans and institutions 
 designed to promote their own welfare, through sheer 
 ignorance. When disabused of prejudice, and fully in- 
 structed in regard to their genuine character and ten- 
 dency, they usually become their warm and devoted 
 friends. This is a solid ground of encouragement to 
 persevere in any useful enterprise, until the people be 
 fully informed respecting it, for then their support may 
 be confidently relied on. The ever-memorable epoch of 
 our own glorious revolution may aptly illustrate this 
 position, and the general intelligence of our countrymen. 
 No country could ever boast of a larger number of en- 
 lightened, gifted, noble, high-minded patriots than were, 
 at that alarming crisis, found ready to hazard all things 
 in defence of their constitutional and inherited rights as 
 free-born Englishmen. But they would have struggled 
 in vain, had not the entire mass of the people been 
 
 ;N'ote. — The reader is requested to keep in mind that the following 
 "Plea for the University of Nashville" was delivered in 1829. No 
 alteration, in facts or dates, has been made to suit the changes which 
 have since occurred. 
 
 15t 
 
158 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 easily taught to comprelienci tliem also, and to enlist 
 with determined ardour in the common cause. Three 
 millions of people were never before in a condition to 
 act so honourably and promptly in a good cause, The 
 master spirits in that grand drama had but to sound the 
 alarm, and give the impulse ; and every man was at his 
 post, and ready to conquer or to die. I doubt whether, 
 at this moment, our country possesses half the number 
 of truly great men, in proportion to her population, 
 which adorned and directed her counsels in the cabinet 
 and in the field, from '70 to '89 ; — or a people half as 
 enlightened, taking the whole mass into view, as they 
 were at the period referred to. Intellectual and moral 
 improvement has not kept pace with the increase of our 
 numbers and resources. This is the decided opinion of 
 the most competent judges, and our history amply con- 
 firms it. 
 
 These general remarks apply to our literary institu- 
 tions — to our colleges and universities — with even 
 greater force and pertinence than to most other ob- 
 jects and enterprises which are often doomed to a 
 temporary unpopularity. Look at the rise and early 
 history of our most ancient seats of science — at Harvard, 
 William and Mary, Yale, and Nassau-Hall, for instance. 
 In their infancy, and for many years subsequently, they 
 had to maintain a constant struggle for existence. The 
 body of the people regarded them, for a long time, with 
 suspicion, envy, jealousy and apprehension — as destined 
 for the rich and honourable — as likely to raise up and 
 to perpetuate a learned and powerful aristocracy — as 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 109 
 
 aii}tliiiig, in short, rather than what they professed and 
 cLaimed to be. But their friends persevered — "Onward" 
 was their motto — in spite of popuLar clamour on the one 
 hand, and the cold indifference and sometimes direct 
 opposition of the royal government on the other. They 
 conquered — succeeded — and triumphed gloriously. And 
 these very institutions became the principal nurseries of 
 our revolutionary heroes and statesmen. By furnishing 
 well qualified instructors for common schools, they dif- 
 fused the light of science and truth over the continent, 
 and enabled the people to discern and to appreciate their 
 own perilous condition and jeoparded franchises. 
 
 The history of those colonial pioneers in the cause of 
 learning, virtue and liberty, is pregnant with instruction 
 to all men who entertain doubts or fears or prejudices in 
 regard to the character, influence and bearing of similar 
 establishments. Within sight of the oldest, and still 
 most celebrated university of our countrj-, commenced 
 the mighty contest which created a nation of freemen. 
 And her gallant sons poured out their blood like water 
 upon the battle field. They roused by their eloquence 
 every patriotic energy of their countrymen, and were 
 ever foremost to hazard and to sacrifice fortune and life 
 for the general weal. Then was the golden opportunity 
 for college-bred gentlemen to have secured for them- 
 selves stars and garters and mitres and estates, by rally- 
 ing round the royal standard, in support of legitimacy 
 and aristocrac}^, of the priest and king; and to have 
 placed their feet proudly upon the necks of the vulgar 
 and illiterate. So base a sycophant, so traitorous a tory, 
 
160 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 SO aspiring a tcould he lord, never disgraced a college 
 catalogue. Not one proved recreant to the caijse of 
 popular rights and liberty. Whatever their calling or 
 profession — lawyers, physicians, clergymen, merchants, 
 fanners — all the sons of Alma Mater — were found in 
 the ranks of hostility to Britain's claims and to Britain's 
 legions. 
 
 Nor ought it ever to be forgotten that, throughout the 
 original thirteen confederated colonies, afterwards States, 
 the best educated and most enlightened individuals were 
 decided Whigs ; — and in their wisdom, intelligence, par 
 triotism and integrity, the people reposed unlimited con- 
 fidence. And they were not deceived. These were the 
 men who directed the revolutionary conflict : and these 
 too were the men who formed the Constitution, under 
 which we now live in peace, prosperity and happiness, 
 unparalleled in the history of our world. 
 
 In this new world, west of the mountains, various 
 attempts have been made, and are making, to establish 
 the higher seminaries of learning for the benefit of the 
 rising and of future generations. These attempts have 
 hitherto proved abortive, or are yet in a state of inci- 
 pient and doubtful progress. I hazard nothing in assert- 
 ing that no such institution in the Western States has 
 as yet been placed on a foundation at all likely to 
 ensure its permanent existence and prosperity.* Colleges 
 and universities, in numbers sufficiently imposing, have 
 been gratuitously chartered by the Legislatures of diflfer- 
 ent States : — as if a mere nominal charter were all that 
 was necessary to constitute a college ! Many, no doubt, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. IGl 
 
 have been deceived, and continue to be deceived, hy the 
 name; while, of the substance, they remain as destitute 
 as before. Scarcely any portion of the civilized Chris- 
 tian world is so poorly provided with the means of a 
 liberal education as are the five millions of Americans 
 within the great valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 A dozen or more colleges and universities''' have been 
 chartered in Ohio and Kentucky, and w^e have five in 
 Tennessee. Not more than three or four of the whole 
 number can, in reason, be pronounced equal to good 
 second-rate grammar schools. A few enlightened in- 
 dividuals have constantly aimed at higher and nobler 
 results ; but generally they have failed in their anticipa- 
 tions, and been thwarted in their purposes. Colleges 
 rise up like mushrooms in our luxuriant soil. They are 
 duly lauded and puffed for a day ; and then they sink 
 to be heard of no more. Do our wise men fancy, that, 
 by the magic of a technical parchment, they can in- 
 stantly convert a school or academy, with its master 
 and usher, into a college — w^here the liberal arts and 
 sciences shall be adequately and thoroughly taught? 
 If so, why not transform at once every grammar school 
 in the State into a college ; and thus bring the means 
 of a liberal education to the door of every poor man's 
 cottage? Already, Western colleges, thus established, 
 have become the objects of ridicule and contempt in 
 every enlightened corner of the land. 
 
 The levelling system, w^hich is so popular and capti- 
 
 * Fourteen, precisely, have been chartered in Ohio and Kentucky — 
 and all, except two, are in a sort of operation. 
 VOL. I. 11 
 
162 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 vating with the multitude, may be made to operate in 
 two ways, with equal success — either by nullifying, alto- 
 gether every institution which implies or claims more 
 than ordinary privileges and distinction ; or by exalting 
 to equal rank everything of a similar generic character. 
 Thus, colleges and universities, as implying odious pre- 
 eminence, may be prevented from growing up among us : 
 or every petty village school may be dignified with the 
 name and legal attributes of a college — be em230wered 
 to confer academical degrees — and to doctorate every 
 stripling sciolist in the commonwealth. Pretty much 
 the same result would ensue from either of these sapient 
 schemes; and the latter seems to have found most fa- 
 vour in the Western country. Democratic and repub- 
 lican as we are, our citizens are strangely partial to 
 great names. Esquire, Honourable, Excellency, Major, 
 Colonel, General, Doctor, are as much coveted and as 
 eagerly sought after in this country, as are titles of 
 nobility in Europe. And foreign titled gentry, when 
 they condescend to visit us, are regarded and treated as 
 a superior race. The wealthiest and proudest man in 
 the United States would feel himself and family won- 
 drously honoured and renowned, could he be so fortu- 
 nate as to marry his daughter to an English earl or 
 even baronet ! This spirit, so utterly at variance with 
 our Constitution and avowed political doctrines, is suffi- 
 ciently contemptible to be left, without serious comment, 
 to the ridicule which it merits, were it not for some of 
 its deleterious practical effects on society. And among 
 these is the evil in question. Our people, at first, oppose 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 163 
 
 all distinctions Avlmtever as odious and aristocratical ; 
 and then, presently, seek with avidity such as remain 
 accessible. At first, they denounce colleges ; and then 
 choose to have a college in every district or county, or 
 for every sect and party — and to boast of a college edu- 
 cation, and to sport with high sounding literary titles ; 
 as if these imparted sense or wisdom or knowledge. 
 How long this puerile vanity will continue in vogue, it 
 is not easy to foresee. 
 
 At least, two small items may always be regarded as 
 indispensable to the prosperity of any American college 
 or university. Namel}': 1st. An intelligent, upright, 
 liberal, devoted, efficient, harmonious and enterprising 
 Board of Trustees, — who understand its interests, and 
 are ever ready to discharge their sacred and responsible 
 duties, w^ith untiring zeal, fidelity and perseverance. In 
 this one grand essential, our University, happily, has no- 
 thing to desiderate. 
 
 2d. Adequate pecuniar}^ funds. A university is neces- 
 sarily an expensive concern. Genius, learning, wisdom, 
 industry, and the most disinterested ardour in the cause, 
 can achieve nothing without the golden lever. Money 
 alone can erect the buildings, procure the library, appa- 
 ratus, cabinets of Natural Histor}, and all the other 
 requisite fixtures. And when all these are dulj- pro- 
 vided, money is still necessary to command the services 
 of talented instructors. A regular and certain revenue, 
 independent of the precarious and ever-varying income 
 from tuition fees, is essential to its successful operation. 
 No respectable college in the United States depends, at 
 
164 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 this moment, exclusively on the tuition fees derived 
 from students, for the means of paying its professors. 
 Every such institution has an independent income from 
 other sources — from the State Treasur}- — or from pro- 
 ductive funds, furnished originally by individual munifi- 
 cence or by the government. 
 
 Harvard University has an annual revenue of about 
 thirty thousand dollars, exclusive of tuition charges. 
 And all the other New England colleges have similar 
 endowments, to a greater or less extent. 
 
 The State of New York has, within a few years past, 
 appropriated in cash for the benefit of Columbia Col- 
 lege in her Metropolis, $86,225.— Of Union College, 
 $389,250.— Of Hamilton College, $106,800.— "Besides 
 lands, value unknown." And these large sums, amount- 
 ing to $582,275, were granted, not to give incipient ex- 
 istence to, but to enlarge and to help forward those 
 institutions — the pride and the glory of that truly 
 munificent and enlightened commonwealth — which has 
 also expended millions on common schools, academies, 
 medical colleges, penitentiaries, and internal improve- 
 ments. 
 
 WiUiam and Mary College in Virginia, has productive 
 funds to the amount of $120,000. Washington College, 
 at Lexington, in the same State, has a perpetual income 
 of $3000 from the liberality of its illustrious founder, 
 whose name it bears; besides a recent legacy of an 
 estate valued at $100,000. While the Universihj of 
 Virginia, the last, and not the least of the patriotic 
 achievements of the people's greatest favourite — the 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOUKSES. 165 
 
 gifted, philosophic and rcpubhcan Jefferson — is entitled 
 to a perpetual annuity from the Virginia Literary Fund 
 of $15,000 — in addition to the half million expended on 
 its beautiful edifices and various furniture. 
 
 The University of North Carolina is known to be one 
 of the richest in America. South Carolina College re- 
 ceives an annual grant from the legislature of twelve or 
 fifteen thousand dollars. Its buildings, library, appa- 
 ratus, &c. were all furnished by the State, and are of the 
 first order. 
 
 The University of Georgia has been equally favoured. 
 In 1821, a bill passed the Assembly of Georgia, appro- 
 priating $25,000 for the erection of a new college edifice, 
 and a permanent annual endowment of $8000, for the 
 support of the institution. And the University of Ala- 
 bama is about to go into operation with a productive 
 fund of at least half a million of dollars. 
 
 In this brief notice, I have not attempted details. I 
 have had in view chiefly the permanent means of sup- 
 port, possessed by some of our principal seminaries. As 
 to the entire amount expended on any one of our older 
 colleges, from its rise to the present time, it would be 
 difficult, perhaps impossible, to form an estimate. But 
 concerning its present actual revenue there can be no 
 mistake. And this was the single fact which I wished 
 prominently to exhibit, in order to demonstrate the fal- 
 lacy of the prevalent notion — that a college needs only 
 to be started — to be set agoing, Avith a few rude mate- 
 rials, and two or three teachers — and that then it must 
 needs sustain itself. I repeat, no such instance of good 
 
166 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 fortune exists in all our country. Nor will such a result 
 ever be dreamed of by any person acquainted with the 
 history and statistics of colleges. 
 
 In enterprising the establishment of a University at 
 Nashville, the honest purpose was fondly cherished from 
 the beginning, to render it m fact all that the name im- 
 ports. Its friends desired to lay its foundations deep 
 and broad. They felt that they were going to build for 
 posterity as well as for the living. That kind of ephe- 
 meral popularity, which is so cheaply purchased, and 
 which is never w^ortli the cheapest purchase, they 
 neither sought nor coveted. They did not expect to 
 see the gilded domes and lofty turrets of their Univer- 
 sity suddenly rising in splendour, and dazzling the eye 
 of every beholder. They knew that they could, at best, 
 achieve little more than the commencement of a work, 
 which must be fostered and enlarged and matured in the 
 progress, perhaps, of ages to come. They did, indeed, 
 confidently expect to accomplish more than they have 
 done ; because they believed that they had at command 
 vastly larger pecuniary resources than they have been 
 permitted to realize. How or wherefore they have been 
 deprived of these necessary means, it is not for me, on 
 this occasion, to account. Or what may be the conse- 
 quence of this failure and disappointment, it is not for 
 me to predict. 
 
 I did once flatter myself that the people of Tennessee 
 would rally round this infant seat of science, and take a 
 just pride in its grow^th and prosperity. I did suppose 
 that they would cherish an institution of their own — 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 1G7 
 
 established in their own flourishing Metropolis — in the 
 midst of their own territory, and of their own peculiar 
 manners, customs, climate, habits, and all those other 
 nameless indescribable somethings which constitute 
 ]io^iie — rather than continue to be tributary to distant 
 or foreign countries for the education of their sons, at 
 an enormous expense, and at other hazards infinitely 
 more momentous than any pecuniary sacrifice. I did 
 suppose that the good sense of the community would 
 soon perceive that a University cannot be in every town 
 — that it must have some one permanent location — and 
 that, when once fixed and in operation, all petty local 
 jealousies and rivalries would die away. — And that the 
 University of Nashville w^ould command the favour and 
 patronage of the public, because it w^ould be their own, 
 and not a foreign University. 
 
 In casting my eye over the Map of Tennessee, it 
 struck me from the first that this was precisely the 
 place destined by Providence for a great University, if 
 ever such an institution were to exist in the State, And 
 in this opinion I am fully confirmed by several years' 
 observation and experience. I am entirely satisfied that 
 it is physically impossible to maintain a University (I am 
 not now speaking of an ordinary college) in any other 
 town in the State. And for this single good reason, 
 were there no other : namely — A Medical School, which 
 may be regarded as an essential and as the most import- 
 ant department of a real university, can never be sus- 
 tained except in a large town or city — and the larger 
 the better. Nashville is the only place where a Medical 
 
168 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 School would even be thought of: and physicians know 
 full well that such is the fact. K Tennessee then, is to 
 have such a school, it must be established in Nashville. 
 
 How long will Tennessee continue to send her youth 
 to Philadelphia, or Cincinnati, or Lexington, to learn 
 the healing art? Or how long will she tolerate that 
 murderous quackery which her untaught striplings are 
 continually obtruding upon an ignorant and easily de- 
 ceived people ? Is it intended that none but rich men's 
 sons, who can afford to spend years at our Eastern cities, 
 shall aspire to this profession ? Or will she permit the 
 poor and friendless to form themselves for this responsi- 
 ble service, as best the}' can : and to blunder along into 
 successful and lucrative practice, by experimenting upon 
 the livmg subject instead of the dead, until they acquire 
 that knowledge and skill, which ought to have been 
 learned at school before they ventured to prescribe or to 
 operate at all? In this profession, more than in any 
 other, it behooves the legal authorities of the land to 
 interpose ; and to provide for the due qualifications and 
 fidelity of its members. — Because the people cannot 
 judge for themselves. When the aid of a Physician or 
 Surgeon is needed in any critical emergency — the Doctor 
 is sent for, as a matter of course, and implicitly confided 
 in : and if the patient be killed, or maimed, or disabled 
 for life — who is responsible for the injury inflicted? How 
 many are thus killed every year in our country and in 
 this State by such empiricks, can never be known. I 
 take it for granted, however, that every half-educated 
 young physician, who succeeds at last in getting a re- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 169 
 
 jputaUe share of practice, must have rid the world, rather 
 prematurely, of some dozen or twenty individuals at the 
 least, in order to qualify himself for his profession. 
 
 In most countries on the continent of Europe, espe- 
 cially in France and Germany, candidates for the medi- 
 cal profession are required by law to study at least four 
 years, winter and summer, at some regular well endowed 
 Medical College or University. And each pupil is obliged 
 to dissect from four to twelve subjects, provided by go- 
 vernment for the purpose, and then to sustain a most 
 rigid public examination, before a diploma, or a license 
 to commence practice even in the most obscure country 
 village, can be obtained. " In Italy, a study of six years 
 is necessary to obtain a degree for higher surgery : — The 
 practice of dissection, and the performance of the prin- 
 cipal operations on the dead body, are indispensable; 
 and an abundant supply of subjects is aiforded the stu- 
 dent in the prosecution of his pursuits." 
 
 In our country, the utmost that is expected in order 
 to procure an M. D. is attendance for two sessions, of 
 three or four months each, upon a course of lectures at 
 a Medical School, and a short apprenticeship with some 
 practising physician. And even this brief attendance 
 at the lecture room is frequently dispensed A\dth : and 
 scores of young men are licensed to practise medicine in 
 half the time that would be indispensable to learn any 
 mechanical trade whatever. It is easier, at this moment, 
 in Tennessee, for a young man to be qualified according 
 to law, to practise medicine, or any other learned pro- 
 fession, than to be duly qualified to shoe a horse or to 
 
170 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 build a dray. How long — I repeat the demand — are our 
 people to be thus cheated, trifled with, and oppressed? 
 Tyranny, the most cruel and arbitrary, may be exercised 
 just as easily by a republican legislature, or by an in- 
 flituated populace, as by an hereditary despot. And 
 when inflicted, it matters little to the unfortunate suf- 
 ferer, by what name, or under Avhat form. 
 
 Whether a University is of any use in training law- 
 yers, I shall not inquire. In point of numbers, we shall 
 always have a reasonable supply, learned or unlearned, 
 honest or dishonest — ^because the nature of our political 
 fabric, of our civil jurisprudence, and of all our legal 
 usages demands them ; and because all our important 
 civil offices, from the Presidential Chair downwards, are 
 filled by them. They will abound and flourish just in 
 proportion to the general ignorance and degradation of 
 the mass of the people. If this be an evil, the only 
 check upon it, and the only remedy for it, will be the 
 diffusion of knowledge among the people. Enlighten 
 and elevate the people, and they will have less occasion 
 and less disposition to resort to the glorious uncertainty 
 of the law. There are probably six hundred lawyers, 
 of one sort or another in Tennes>«!ee, who receive some 
 six hundred thousand dollars, more or less, of the peo- 
 ple's money annually, to aid in procuring them legal 
 justice — which is often no justice at all, and which 
 always costs more than it is worth. If to this be added 
 the wdiole array of judges, justices, courts, sheriffs, con- 
 stables, prisons, &c. our system of law and equity will 
 be found sufficiently onerous — and infinitely more ex- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 171 
 
 pensive and vexatious than the summary process of the 
 Turkish Cadi, and not half as certain or equitable at the 
 last. 
 
 I cherish no unkindly sentiments towards lawyers. 
 So long as the Gothic-Saxo-Norman-English system of 
 common, statute and bench-made law, which has been 
 represented as an interminable, overgrowing, incompre- 
 hensible, labyrinthian mystery of torture and extortion 
 — which Burke deliberately denounced, which Brougham 
 is diligently labouring to reform, and which Bentham in- 
 trepidly threatens to annihilate : — or, (to speak the lan- 
 guage of Blackstone and others,) so long as this intricate 
 and beautiful science, the very perfection of written rea- 
 son, to the lucid development of which the most inde- 
 fatigable and distinguished sages have nobly consecrated 
 their talents and their lives — so long as this much 
 lauded and much vituperated system, whether it be law, 
 science, mystery, or all combined, to which every known 
 epithet of praise and censure has been and continues to 
 be applied, and of which it is impossible for the un- 
 initiated, like myself, to form any conception, except 
 from its practical effects — so long as such a system, 
 whatever may be its qualities or tendencies, shall find 
 favour in our land, lawyers will be the oracles of truth, 
 wisdom and justice to the people. Lawyers too, there 
 must be, under any form of government or system of 
 jurisprudence. And a truly accomplished, hberal, up- 
 right, high-minded lawyer will ever prove a most 
 valuable blessing and the brightest ornament to any 
 community. Of many such eminently gifted and illus- 
 
172 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 trious jurists and advocates, our country may proudly 
 boast. It is for the people to decide, whether they .will 
 consent to be the passive slaves and dupes of mere petti- 
 fogging smatterers, by becoming themselves sufficiently 
 intelligent to detect and to discountenance every species 
 of knavish quackery. 
 
 As to divines, whether they ought to be learned or 
 not, is a question which otherS may decide according to 
 their own fancy. If people choose to have hispired men 
 for their spiritual guides, the less of human science with 
 which they may chance to be encumbered, the better — 
 at least, the more apparent and striking will be the evi- 
 dences of their inspiration. Fools will always be im- 
 posed on by the cunning under some pretext or other. 
 And all well informed men know what priestcraft 
 achieved in the dark ages, when not one in a thou- 
 sand of the laity could read, and when the Bible was 
 restricted to the cloister, w^here it often remained a 
 sealed book even to the privileged inmates and to its 
 authorized interpreters. 
 
 I leave out of the case then, at present, both lawyers 
 and clergymen — merely hinting mine own opinion by 
 the way, that neither the one nor the other would be 
 the worse for a thorough scientific education, whether 
 acquired at a university or elsewhere. 
 
 But our farmers ought, beyond all question, to be 
 liberally educated ; that is, they ought to have the best 
 education that is attainable. I do not say that everi/ 
 farmer ought to go to college, or to become a proficient 
 in Greek and Latin. I speak of them as a class : and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 173 
 
 by a liberal education, I mean such a course of intel- 
 lectual discipline as will fit them to sustain the rank 
 which they ought to hold in this Republic. They are by 
 right the sovereigns of the land, because they constitute 
 an overwhelming majority. Why do they not then, in 
 fact, rule the land ? Because, and only because, they 
 are too ignorant. And thus they sink into comparative 
 insignificance : and suffer themselves to be used as the 
 mere instruments of creating their own masters, who 
 care as little for their real welfare as if they were born 
 to be beasts of burden. Were it possible, I would visit 
 every farmer in Tennessee, who is not already awake, 
 and endeavour to arouse him from his fatal lethargy, by 
 every consideration which can render hfe and liberty 
 desirable ; and urge him to reclaim his abandoned rights 
 and his lost dignity, by giving to his sons that measure 
 of instruction which will qualify them to assert and to 
 maintain their just superiority in the councils of the 
 State and of the Nation, like men proudlj^ conscious of 
 their intellectual as well as physical power. 
 
 The same general remarks apply to mechanics and to 
 all the labouring classes, in proportion to their numbers. 
 An education, even of the highest order, may be as 
 valuable to them as to others. Li our free country, a* 
 farmer or mechanic, with equal talents and intelligence, 
 would be more likely to become a popular favourite, 
 than either a lawyer or the well-bred heir of an opulent 
 patrician family. Suppose a farmer could speak as well, 
 write as well, appear as well versed in history, geogra- 
 phy, statistics, jurisprudence, politics, and other matters 
 
174 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 of general and local interest, as the lawyer — would he 
 not stand a better chance of being elevated to the high- 
 est, most honourable, and most lucrative offices ? 
 
 The grand heresy on the subject of education seems to 
 have arisen from the usage which obtained at an early 
 period in modern European society, and which many 
 centuries have sanctioned and confirmed — namely : that 
 a learned or liberal education was and is deemed import- 
 ant only for a liberal profession, or for gentlemen of 
 wealth and leisure. Hence the church, the bar, and the 
 medical art have nearly monopolized the learning of the 
 world. Our people reason and act in accordance with 
 the same absurd and aristocratic system. The cui bono 
 is upon every tongue. "What good, it is asked, will 
 college learning do my son ? He is to be a farmer, a 
 mechanic, a merchant." Now, I would answer such a 
 question, in the first place, directly, thus: "A college 
 education, or the best, most thorough and most exten- 
 sive education that can be acquired, will be of immense 
 benefit to your son, simply as a farmer, mechanic, mer- 
 chant, manufacturer, sailor or soldier." And I would 
 patiently endeavour to show him how, and in what 
 respects; but I will not attempt to illustrate such 
 truisms at present. But, in the second place, I would 
 reply to my plain friend's interrogatory, thus : " Educate 
 your son in the best manner possible, because you ex- 
 pect him to be a Man, and not a Jioose or an ox. You 
 cannot tell what good he may achieve, or what import- 
 ant offices he may discharge in his day. For aught you 
 know, he may, if you do your duty by him, become the 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 175 
 
 President of the United States. At any rate, he has 
 reason and understanding, which ought to be cultivated 
 for their own sake. Should he eventually live in the 
 most humble retirement, and subsist by the hardest 
 manual labour, still he may enjoy an occasional intel- 
 lectual feast of the purest and most exhilarating kind." 
 If all our la])ouring fellow-citizens could relish books 
 and should have access to them, what a boundless field 
 of innocent recreation and profitable entertainment 
 would not be always at hand and within their reach ? 
 What a flood of cheering light and happiness would not 
 be shed upon the dark path, and poured into the bitter 
 cup, of millions of rational immortal beings ; who, at 
 present, rank but little above the brute in their pursuits, 
 habits and enjoyments? 
 
 In reference to elementary education, a parent ought 
 never to inqure what his child is to be — whether a 
 farmer or a lawyer — but should educate him in the best 
 manner practicable, and endeavour to inspire him with 
 sentiments of virtue and independence, which would 
 preserve him from the vulgar pride of being ashamed 
 to earn his living b}' honest industr}^ Besides, learning 
 is itself a treasure — an estate — of which no adverse for- 
 tune can ever deprive its possessor. It will accompany, 
 and console, and support him to the world's end, and to 
 the close of life. 
 
 Our farmers and labouring classes have as much 
 leisure for miscellaneous reading and study as the pro- 
 fessional — or even as the wealthy or fashionable idlers 
 who do nothing. Paradoxical as this may seem, it is 
 
176 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 notoriously the fact. Even in England, where this lei- 
 sure is not half so great as the poorest of our people 
 habitually enjoy, it has been discovered that the most 
 ignorant and debased and hard-worked manufacturing 
 operatives have abundant time for much intellectual 
 cultivation. 
 
 Poverty, indeed, in a strict sense, is not necessarily 
 the lot of any American. It is true, we hear a great 
 deal about the poor: and one might infer from news- 
 paper essays and demagogue speeches, that the poor were, 
 or ought to be, the only objects of legislative care and 
 public sympathy. — That they were a numerous, op- 
 pressed, unfortunate race, and that the rich were 
 their natural and worst enemies. Hence the unceas- 
 ing clamour and declamation against the rich from 
 certain quarters — as if every man who gets wealth 
 must of necessity grind the poor, and prosper at their 
 expense. Whereas, there are no poor, that is, no poor 
 classes — no serfs or villains — no degraded caste of 
 paupers, except the slaves, in all our happy country. 
 Our Constitution and laws secure to every man the 
 fruits of his own industry and talents. Our rich men 
 have all been poor. What was the condition of the 
 rich men of Tennessee, ten, twenty, thirty or forty years 
 ago ? Have they not all, or nearly all, risen from the 
 humbler conditions of life — and many from the lowest 
 poverty? And are they tJierefore unworthy or dangerous 
 citizens? Do they not deserve well of the State for 
 having thus meliorated their own condition and added 
 to its wealth, prosperity and reputation? Are they now 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. In 
 
 to be regarded with envy, jealousy, and suspicion, after 
 having given such decisive proof of superior in(histry, 
 economy, perseverance, enterprise or sagacity? What 
 would have been the present aspect of Tennessee if 
 every man had remained in his primitive poverty? Or 
 how could the poor be benefited if the rich were sud- 
 denly stripped of all their possessions ? Where is it that 
 the poor man fares best and prospers most? Is it among 
 the rich or the indigent ? 
 
 On the other hand, are not the abject, incorrigible 
 poor always idle, vicious, intemperate, reckless — and 
 therefore an incumbrance and a burden to the commu- 
 nity? Show me a poor man, in the enjojmient of health, 
 who never seeks to improve his condition, and I Avill 
 show you a man fit or fitting for the penitentiary or the 
 gallows. Your thrifty, prudent, money-making people 
 are universally the best members of society. To all 
 general rules there will be exceptions. I do not mean 
 to assert that every wretchedly poor man is a criminal. 
 He may be unfortunate, and a just object of charity. A 
 rich man, too, may be a knave, and a petty tyrant. I 
 beg to be understood as speaking generally on this sub- 
 ject, and in reference to the great body of the people. 
 As society advances in a new country, the distance be- 
 tween those who have amassed fortunes and those who 
 are born poor or who remain stationary in their original 
 poverty, becomes more marked and striking. And the 
 poor seem, or rather fancy themselves, fixed in their 
 humble condition, and are often in despair of any 
 VOL. r. 12 
 
178 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 amelioration. What can be done for them? I will tell 
 you. 
 
 Give them an education. Provide for them the means 
 of instruction to as great an extent and amount as pos- 
 sible. A well educated poor 3-outhwill always rise to 
 honourable distinction. One successful instance will 
 stimulate others to try the same course. And thus a 
 spirit of emulation — an ambition to excel — will be dif- 
 fused throughout the ranks of our poor fellow-citizens, 
 which will speedily elevate them to a respectable stand- 
 ing, and qualify them to reach the highest posts of 
 honour and fortune. This is a matter of every day 
 occurrence in the Eastern and Middle States. There, 
 the labouring farmer or mechanic, who would be thought 
 a very poor man in Tennessee, and who labours more 
 intensely than a Tennessee slave, strives by every effort 
 and sacrifice to procure for one or more of his sons a 
 liberal education. The son, thus educated, as soon as 
 he leaves college, is able to provide for himself, by 
 teaching school perhaps, until he studies a profession — 
 assists in educating his younger brothers — and, by and 
 by, appears among the distinguished lawyers, physicians, 
 divines, professors, legislators or judges of his country. 
 The good old father and mother are then ampty re- 
 warded for all their toils and self-denial, by a grateful, 
 honourable and affluent posterity; who cause their sun 
 to set in peace, and their gray hairs to descend with joy 
 and hope to the grave. 
 
 I have witnessed hundreds of such cases. Now 
 nothing of this kind could take place were it not for 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 179 
 
 the well endo-wed colleges ^Yith Avliicli that portion of 
 our country is favoured. Colleges are there, as they 
 will be everywhere, the genuine levellers of all distinc- 
 tions created by mere wealth. They open their doors 
 wide, and dispense their honours to merit, whether in 
 the garb of penury or affluence. And real merit will 
 presently find or create a path to just pre-eminence. 
 The poor man's son, who knows that he must live by 
 his wits, often outstrips, in the same career, the rich 
 man's son — because the latter trusts to his expected 
 patrimony, and therefore despises labour and exertion. 
 Visit an}^ Eastern college, and you will find nearly all 
 the industrious successful students belonging to the 
 middhng and poorer classes. Look again at the thou- 
 sands who are reputably practising the learned profes- 
 sions, and you will be told that they have nobly risen 
 from the humblest walks of life. They were once your 
 poor, (perhaps despised,) studious college lads, who had 
 no money to spend in the mad frolics and ruinous dis- 
 sipation, in which the sons of fortune and family sought 
 notoriety and academic rejioivn ; but w^ho have long 
 since dwindled into comparative insignificance, or sunk 
 into a premature grave. 
 
 How absurd then to depreciate and denounce colleges 
 as being hostile to the poor or beneficial only to the rich. 
 The truth is, the rich always build, endow and sustain 
 them, while the comparatively poor reap the principal 
 advantage. Were our opulent citizens desirous to erect 
 themselves into a distinct and superior order — a moneyed 
 aristocracy — they could not devise a surer method of 
 
180 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 compassing so foul a design, than hy discouraging and 
 fro^^ming upon every scheme for the dissemination of 
 loiowledge. Let them put down or prevent the esta- 
 blishment and groAvth of the higher seminaries — of col- 
 leges and universities — and the}' might then monopolize 
 all the intelligence and power of the State ; because they 
 could easily educate their own sons abroad at any ex- 
 pense, and thus fit them for the learned professions and 
 for all the higher offices of the Re^Dublic. "Will the peo- 
 ple tamely submit to so gross a usurpation, and suffer 
 themselves to be cozened out of their dearest birthright 
 and most valuable privileges ? 
 
 There are, we will suppose, five thousand rich, or 
 comparatively^ rich families, more or less, in Tennessee, 
 who are able and willing to give their sons a liberal 
 education somewhere. Shall the}' be induced or re- 
 quired to establish seminaries of the proper character, 
 at their own expense, here at home, and for their 
 own accommodation ? Or shall the}^ be discouraged or 
 prevented from doing this ; and thus be tempted or 
 constrained to send their sons to Massachusetts, Con- 
 necticut or New York, and to pay those States an 
 annual tribute of several hundred thousand dollars ? 
 Would not our poor labouring people be directly and 
 greatly benefited by the expenditure of this money 
 among ourselves ? 
 
 How could the poor, let me ask, in any possible way, 
 be injured or oppressed? They are not expected to 
 advance a farthing of the funds. What they have not, 
 they cannot give. The State could not extort from 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 181 
 
 them, in the shape of taxes, what they do not possess. 
 The poor then, and all their noisy pretended friends 
 may hold their peace, and quiet their patriotic alarms 
 on this subject. They may rest assured that their 
 empty purse will not be made the lighter by any literary 
 scheme which may be projected. Colleges have always 
 been reared by the rich ; and, no doubt, for the selfish 
 purpose of serving their own interests — while universal 
 experience demonstrates that the poor, after all, reap 
 the benefits in a ten-fold proportion. This is true, to a 
 considerable extent, even in England — still more in 
 Scotland and German}^ — and most of all in the portions 
 of our own country where such institutions exist. Such 
 will be the result here. Even our own University, em- 
 barrassed as it has ever been for w^ant of means, has 
 already educated several indigent youths gratis. And 
 this is more than is ever done at the Eastern seminaries. 
 For there the poor must pay as w^ell as the rich — except 
 such as are supported by some charitable fund or asso- 
 ciation. But there an education is esteemed a fortune. 
 And the father who can struggle along so as to carry 
 his son through college, is content to leave him to his 
 own exertions without further care or provision. Let 
 the rich then, from whatever motive, build up and 
 endow colleges ; and spend their money at home. We 
 shall soon see how the poor will contrive to avail them- 
 selves of the advantages thus presented to their view 
 and within their reach. 
 
 But again, between the rich and the poor, there is in 
 the communitj' another class of citizens, vastly larger 
 
182 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 than both of them put together — namely, the middhng 
 class, and the best class — all of whom might educate pne 
 or more sons at college, at an expense of from fifty to a 
 hundred and fifty dollars per year, who could never send 
 their sons abroad at an expense of from five hundred to 
 a thousand a year. Will the State do nothing for this 
 large and respectable body of her citizens ? Will the 
 people themselves continue blind and deaf to the sound- 
 est principles of policy, to the loudest calls of duty, and 
 to the most sacred claims of posterity? The merest 
 trifle contributed by each would place advantages within 
 the reach of the whole, which no individual could other- 
 wise possibly command. Let it be remembered, more- 
 over, that the rich or their children may become poor — 
 that the poor may become rich — that the intermediate 
 class may change places with both or either — and con- 
 sequently that the permanent interests of all must be 
 identical. 
 
 In this conuexion, I may further remark, that govern- 
 ment can always make provision, if it please, for the 
 gratuitous instruction of the poor at any college under 
 its control, or of which it may choose to become the 
 benefactor. Suppose the professors were paid from the 
 public treasury, upon the express condition, that all indi- 
 gent youths, suitably qualified, should be taught without 
 charge ; and that fees should be demandable only from 
 the rich, or from those able to pay. Such an arrange- 
 ment would be equitable, benevolent, and beneficial to 
 all the parties concerned. Should our M'orthy, en- 
 lightened and patriotic legislature see fit, in their 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 183 
 
 wisdom, to vote a permanent annuity to the colleges 
 at Knoxvillc and Nashville, sufficient to maintain the 
 whole or a part of their instructors, upon condition that 
 the poor meritorious j^outh of Tennessee, after liaving 
 passed reputably through the inferior schools, should be 
 privileged to complete their studies at those institutions 
 free of expense — they would confer a favour on the 
 cause of learning and upon the commonwealth, the 
 value of which would augment with the lapse of ages : 
 and posterity would revert to this as the brightest and 
 most auspicious epoch in their history. 
 
 In this way too, the State would soon be supplied 
 with accomplished schoolmasters. For, be it known 
 and remembered, that nowhere on earth does there 
 exist a good and efficient system of common schools, 
 except where colleges and universities are most gene- 
 rously cherished; and where the largest number of 
 poor youths are found among their alumni. These 
 become teachers of necessity. This is matter of fact — 
 of universal experience — and the most ingenious special 
 pleader in behalf of popular education cannot cite an 
 exception to the rule. The truth is, the cause of col- 
 leges and of schools of all sorts is one and indivisible. 
 And he who should attempt to establish good common 
 schools without colleges, would be compelled to import 
 a monthly cargo of foreign teachers, or stand before the 
 public a convicted Utopian visionary. 
 
 Men of talents and of adequate literary qualifications 
 will never become teachers of choice, except where the 
 profession is both lucrative and honourable. No occupa- 
 
184 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 tion is deemed more vexatious, and none is so utterly 
 thankless. But men will teach school rather tjian 
 starve : and when our colleges shall send forth their 
 2)oor graduates who must immediately do something for 
 a livelihood, they will of course be willing to teach. 
 They will look out for academies or classical schools in 
 the first instance : — and here they may train many per- 
 haps, poor like themselves, who will teach common 
 schools. Thus, in time, the market will be supplied. 
 All the schools will co-operate in the production of this 
 supply. They will mutually aid and sustain each other. 
 The most gifted and enterprising lads in the lowest 
 schools will contrive, no matter how poor, to advance to 
 the higher; and eventually by the beneficence of the 
 State as already proposed, they will gain admission into 
 the college. And thus the whole intellectual machinery 
 will be fairly at work ; and, by the State purse, may be 
 duly kept in operation forever. It will not then be 
 necessary to send our governors over half the continent in 
 search of civil engineers whenever a turnpike road is to 
 be formed or a canal to be dug — nor our agents all over 
 New England in quest of academical instructors when- 
 ever a college or high school for boys or girls is to be 
 established — nor to depend on the East for our lawyers, 
 physicians, divines, statesmen, judges, editors, bank- 
 clerks, musicians, genteel beggars, and castle-builders of 
 every name and degree. Some of these we shall then 
 have the sense to do without, and the others we shall 
 manuf\icture at home — and thus save both our cash and 
 our credit. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 185 
 
 Some very obvious truths need to be often inculcated 
 and reiterated, before they obtain a general currency, or 
 produce any practical effects. The people will decide 
 correctly about their own interests when fully instructed. 
 And in regard to schools and colleges, they would long 
 since have pronounced an enlightened judgment, had 
 half the pains been taken to inform, which have been 
 employed to blind, prejudice and mislead them. Should 
 the orthodox advocates of education succeed, in their 
 frequent attempts, in sundry ^vays, in gaining a few dis- 
 ciples to the true faith, some progress will of course be 
 made in the work of general conversion. I think it 
 would be easy to convince any honest man, learned or 
 unlearned, rich or poor, of the truth, sound policy, and 
 radical importance of all the positions usually assumed 
 on this subject. And I cherish the hope that all col- 
 lege graduates (always excepting jyro tempore renegade 
 candidates upon the stumjt,) will be the staunch, reso- 
 lute, intrepid, zealous friends of the college cause, and of 
 their own Alma Hater in particular. That they will be 
 friendly to common schools — to the universal diffusion 
 of knowledge among the people — is a matter of course. 
 For who ever heard of a liberally educated man who 
 was not the hearty devoted supporter of every judicious 
 common school system ? Such an anomaly our country 
 has not yet produced. Our most illustrious patriots and 
 sages have been the founders of colleges, and apostles in 
 the cause of universal education. 
 
 It is no uncommon thing, in our country, for men of 
 considerable influence to boast that they have never 
 
186 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 seen the inside of a college — that, like Franklin .and 
 Washington, they have advanced in knowledgQ and 
 reputation by their own unassisted efforts; and conse- 
 quently, that colleges are good for nothing, or at best 
 fitted only for the training of drones and blockheads. 
 Now, besides the extreme modesty of recording their 
 own names upon the same tablets with Franklin and 
 Washington, they might be reminded that those truly 
 great men never uttered such a boast, and never decried 
 such institutions. Franklin was the father of the Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania, and Washington endowed a col- 
 lege in his native State. No man, therefore, will ever 
 give any very convincing evidence that he resembles 
 Franklin or Washington, by a supercilious affectation of 
 contempt for colleges, or by a narrow, invidious, sys- 
 tematic, malignant hostility towards them. 
 
 We are exceedingly prone to boast of our own country 
 as the most enlightened, free and virtuous in the world. 
 The English entertain the same fancy in regard to their 
 country. Both probably are, in some respects, greatly 
 mistaken. More persons can be found in England, and 
 in several of our States, who cannot read and write, than 
 in many of the kingdoms on the continent of Europe. 
 A well instructed people cannot be enslaved, be the 
 nominal form of their government what it may. A 
 grossly ignorant people will be slaves, even under the 
 purest republican system. A man who will sell his vote 
 for money or grog, or who can be wheedled out of it by 
 the arts or eloquence of the demagogue, is not a freeman. 
 And there are thousands of snch persons in England and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 187 
 
 in America. These arc, to all intents and purposes, 
 bondmen — the mere pliant tools and instruments of 
 crafty and aspiring Catilines and Mirabeaus — and 
 would assist in placing them on a throne, just as rea- 
 dily as in elevating them to the humblest post of power 
 and distinction. Let a large majority of our people be- 
 come thus ignorant and degraded — and the most despe- 
 rate and daring adventurer, or the most obsequious 
 pander to the popular humour, will assume the imperial 
 purple, and laugh to scorn all our simple constitutional 
 paper guards and checks and rights and liberties. 
 
 In Scotland, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, 
 several of the Swiss Cantons, and Germany generally, 
 there are more universities, athenosa, gymnasia, ly- 
 ceums, higher, intermediate and common schools, pro- 
 portionally, than in any other region of the globe — 
 except New England and New York. In them it is 
 rare to meet with an individual who cannot read and 
 write : and it is equally rare to meet wdth a pauper or 
 a criminal. The mass of the people are represented, by 
 all impartial travellers, as being more intelligent, vir- 
 tuous, privileged and happy than any other population 
 in Europe. The lower orders, especially in some of the 
 smaller German States, are regarded as among the most 
 favoured in the world. Several Americans of distin- 
 guished talents and learning, wdio have resided for years 
 in those countries, testify to the same general fact. One, 
 with whom I am well acquainted, who recently spent 
 two years at Berlin, declares that he never met even a 
 poor l)oy selling matches in the streets of that royal 
 
188 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 metropolis, (and lie made repeated experiments of .the 
 kind,) who could not read, and readily answer any, com- 
 mon question on the historical parts of the Old and New 
 Testaments — so thorough and universal is the common 
 school system in that kingdom. Even in Austria, des- 
 potic as is the government, there are schools in every 
 village, the masters of which are paid from the imperial 
 treasury. "No one is allowed to marry who cannot 
 read, write, and show some acquaintance with arith- 
 metic. And, under a heavy penalty, no master can 
 employ a common workman who is not able to read and 
 write. Small works on moral subjects, written with 
 great care, are circulated among the lower classes. 
 Hence crimes are extremely- rare; and in the course 
 of a twelvemonth scarcely two executions take place 
 even at Vienna" — with a population half as large as 
 that of Tennessee, and with a most vigilant and ener- 
 getic police, Avhich never suffers a criminal to escape the 
 legal penalty. 
 
 Ill the above named kingdoms, provision is made by 
 law for the competent instruction of all the poor children 
 of both sexes without exception. In several of them 
 also, seminaries are established for the sole purpose of 
 educating teachers. Hence the body of the common 
 people are vastly superior to the same classes in every 
 other part of Europe where the government has not in- 
 terposed in their behalf Now, if the peasantry, the 
 labouring and poorer orders, are found to be intelligent, 
 moral, temperate, frugal, industrious, contented and 
 cheerful — with no haughty, feudal, baronial lords to 
 
EDUCATIOXAL DISCOURSES. 189 
 
 harass, molest or oppress them, as in Russia and Poland 
 
 — assured that they are exposed to neither extortion, 
 robbery nor murder — that the strong arm of power is 
 ever at hand, not to injure or distress, but to shield and 
 defend them from injustice, danger and violence — pro- 
 tected, in short, in the secure enjoyment of all their 
 natural civil rights, even though, like the clergy in Ten- 
 nessee, they may be destitute of every political franchise 
 
 — we cannot pronounce their condition so very deplo- 
 rable as to be without a parallel in countries presumed 
 to be much more highly favoured. For example — Eng- 
 lish travellers themselves seldom fail to point out the 
 striking contrast w^hich a happy, joyous, peaceful assem- 
 blage of German cotters on the village green, dancing to 
 the music of their own favourite flute and violin, pre- 
 sents to the ignorant, boisterous, swaggering, drunken, 
 fighting, venal mob, which they oftentimes encounter at 
 home at the hustings, the race-course, the stated fairs, 
 and other occasions of popular meetings and amuse- 
 ments. It is just possible too, that ice might have 
 reason to blush were a similar comparison instituted in 
 relation to the same matters. Even the periodical cele- 
 brations of our national independence are not always 
 characterized by the most musical concords or fraternal 
 harmony. Our election days, moreover, are not univer- 
 sally the brightest and happiest among the dies festi of 
 the calendar. Perhaps letters or music, or both com- 
 bined, might exert a salutarj' and humanizing influence, 
 auspicious both to our comfort and to our reputation. 
 Let us make the trial. 
 
190 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 If education can eflcct such marvels in countries 
 where the people have little or no agency in their 
 own government, what might it not achieve in a Ke- 
 public where every man constitutes an integral part of 
 the sovereignty? Were the Russian and Polish serfs as 
 well instructed as the German peasants, could they be 
 retained in a state of vassalage — adscrlpti glehce — 
 scarcely preferable to the worst species of West India 
 servitude? But the schoolmaster has not yet been 
 abroad among the millions, even in the chivalrous but 
 ill-starred land of our own illustrious Pulaski and Kos- 
 ciusko. It matters little, therefore, to the Polish boor 
 whether his master's master be Muscovite, Austrian, 
 Prussian, or native. Ilis own lot changes not with the 
 change of rulers. He has nothing to gain or lose in any 
 political revolution — except that, in every conflict, his 
 own blood may be shed, and his miseries and life be 
 terminated together. 
 
 In poor old Scotland, there are four ancient respect- 
 able universities, with the character of which every 
 body is acquainted. These furnish teachers to her ex- 
 cellent parochial schools. 
 
 In the Netherlands there are six universities. Their 
 several incomes, during the year 1828, were as follows: 
 Louvain, $48,000. — Liege, $28,000. — Ghent, $28,000. 
 — Leyden, $32,000. — Utrecht, $28,000. — Groningen, 
 $28,000. Each has a large Library, a Botanic Garden, 
 a Cabinet of Natural History, a Chemical Laboratory, a 
 Hospital, an Anatomical Museum, and a Hall for Dis- 
 sections. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 191 
 
 111 Germany, there are twenty-two (onee, forty) flou- 
 rishing universities — having each from thirty to ninety 
 distinguished professors and instructors — with immense 
 libraries and every other useful and desirable appendage. 
 To several of these, American graduates have often re- 
 sorted to complete their education. In the twenty-two 
 institutions just referred to, there were, in 1825, no less 
 than 1059 instructors, nearly all of whom had once been 
 poor youths — and 1G,432 students, more than half said 
 to be poor and destined to become schoolmasters. 
 
 In France, the system of education for the higher and 
 middling classes, has been recently pronounced the best 
 in the world, by impartial and enlightened judges, both 
 British and American. And the most efficient measures 
 are taking by the government to instruct the lower 
 classes — which have hitherto been deplorably neglected. 
 This mere glance at a portion of the old world and of 
 our own Eastern States, may suffice to teach us our in- 
 feriority in every gradation and department of education. 
 — That neither our poor nor our rich people are equally 
 privileged in this respect — that the cause of universities 
 and common schools is identical — that they prosper to- 
 o-ether or not at all — at least, that the latter never have 
 flourished where the former were overlooked. 
 
 I feel no disposition to undervalue my country, or her 
 institutions, whether political or literary. But I do think 
 it time to have done with that puerile vanity which leads 
 to incessant boasting and self-laudation — as if perfection 
 were stamped upon everything American. While we 
 cherish this arrogant, supercilious, overweening, self- 
 
192 EDUCATIONAL DISCOUESES. 
 
 sufficient spirit, we shall never seek nor desire im- 
 provement — because we fancy that the very acme of 
 human excellence has been attained. The first step 
 towards any ameliorating process is a consciousness of 
 our need of it. Let us dare to look at what is wrong, 
 vicious, defective, pernicious — at the very worst of our 
 case — and then intrepidly apply ourselves to .the re- 
 medy, to the work of correction and reform, with steady 
 perseverance, and resolute determination to exterminate 
 evil, and to advance the cause of truth, virtue, know- 
 ledge, freedom and happiness among all the people 
 throughout our land. 
 
 The grand inquiry of the present enterprising and 
 philanthropic age is — how shall the human race be made 
 better, wiser, happier ? Governments are beginning to 
 manifest a deep interest in this momentous theme. 
 Statesmen, as well as philosophers, are studying and 
 devising the ways and means to ameliorate the charac- 
 ter and condition of the great mass of the people. All 
 agree that education is the instrument to be emplo^'ed in 
 the work ; however much they may differ as to the kind 
 or degree adapted to the purpose. 
 
 Poverty, oppression, crime, are the great evils to be 
 eradicated or diminished. We have shown how the 
 two first Avill disappear under the magic influence of 
 the talented and faithful schoolmaster. And no truth 
 or principle has, perhaps, been more universally admit- 
 ted by men competent to judge, than that education is 
 the most effectual, if not the only preventive of crime. 
 Education, I mean, physical, moral, intellectual, reli- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOUKSES. 193 
 
 gioiis : Which trains Aouth to habits of industry and 
 morality, as well as to mental effort and discipline : 
 Which instructs them in some useful and honest occu- 
 pation to live by. as well as imbues their minds with 
 virtuous principles, a taste for knowledge and a thirst 
 for continued improvement. 
 
 Our legislatures, in several of the States, are alread}- 
 acting upon this principle : although the}' seem, in some 
 instances, to have begun at the wrong end, and with the 
 most unpromising and undeserving materials. The}' 
 have established, or are establishing penitentiaries for 
 the very laudable purpose, as the}' doubtless believe, of 
 reforming lazy, vicious, ignorant, hardened felons — by 
 adopting precisely the system which would have pre- 
 served them from crime and infamy, had it been resorted 
 to at an earlier period. That is, in these expensive. 
 commodious, well regulated penitentiaries, or rather 
 universities, the convicts are most thoroughly educated. 
 They are taught useful and lucrative trades, so that 
 they can, if ihey nnJl, in due time, earn an lionesi liveli- 
 hood. They learn to read, write and cipher — and often 
 acquire other branches of science and literature accord- 
 ing to their diligence and ability. They also receive 
 moral and religious instruction — study the Bible — com- 
 mit to memory its salutary truths and precepts — and 
 have the gospel statedly preached to them by pious and 
 devoted chaplains. They are kept from all vitiating 
 associations among themselves — are lodged in solitar}' 
 cells at night — are prohibited the use of inebriating 
 liquors altogether, however intemperate they may have 
 
 VOL. I. 13 
 
194 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 previously been : in short, they are most thoroughly 
 guarded, watched, employed, disciplined, instructed, se- 
 cluded from every temptation to vice, and cut off from 
 all opportunity of indulgence. So that, at the period of 
 graduation, they issue from these great State Schools bet- 
 ter qualified for active, useful and respectable life than 
 the mass of the common people generally in this country-. 
 Whether they actually become virtuous, useful and re- 
 spectable, is another matter. Such, however, is the end 
 aimed at by the system. 
 
 Thus, then, the State incurs the enormous expense of 
 making provision for the most complete and appropriate, 
 if not the most liheral education of its rogues and vaga- 
 bonds, while it oftentimes wholly neglects its unoffending 
 and unbefriended children and youth — who are growing 
 up in ignorance and vice — and who will not be recog- 
 nized as worthy of its fostering smiles and cares and 
 patronage, until after they shall have been condemned 
 as malefactors ! And then they are admitted gratis into 
 the colleges and universities which the State most de- 
 lights to honour and to cherish. The new penitentiaries 
 in Connecticut and New York are excellent models for 
 literary institutions — and mutatis miitanclis, among the 
 very best with which I am acquainted. If all the 
 schools in our country, small and great, were made, as 
 far as practicable, in their principal features, to resemble 
 them, I should have no fear of their complete success in 
 training up a generation to which crime and pauperism 
 would be comparatively unknown. 
 
 Give to the colleges at Nashville and Knoxville an 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 195 
 
 organization similar to the Auburn Prison — so far, I 
 mean, as regards the safe keeping, moral discipline, 
 healthful exercise and constant employment of their 
 inmates, and their absolute occlusion from all external 
 evil influences — and bestow upon each of them only a 
 moiety of the sum which Pennsylvania has already ex- 
 pended upon the outer yard walls of but one of her in- 
 cipient penitentiaries — (said walls have cost $200,000,) 
 — and they shall render the State more service in t^venty 
 years, than all the prisons of Pennsylvania will achieve 
 in a thousand ages, or than a score of penitentiaries would 
 effect in Tennessee to the end of time. And yet, proba- 
 bly, before the lapse of fifty years, half a million of dol- 
 lars will be expended, and with the best intentions too, 
 by this State, agreeably to the prevailing fashion, upon 
 such establishments, for the comfortable accommodation 
 of a few hundred criminals, who have forfeited all claim 
 to public indulgence, and certainly to the public purse. 
 Who deserve to be punished, not rewarded. And whose 
 punishment ought not, at the same time, to pwiish an 
 innocent community by its expensiveness. Criminals 
 ought always, as a matter of equity and policy, to be 
 dealt with in a way that would occasion the least pos- 
 sible expense to the people. In our country, on the 
 other hand, the wit of man has been exercised to devise 
 the most expensive mode. Criminals too have become 
 the objects of universal sympathy: and reformation is 
 all the rage. As if reformation were the only end in 
 view in subjecting criminals to the penalty of violated 
 laws. 
 
196 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 Eeformation is very desirable — but this is, by no 
 means, the sole or primary end of punishment. ' But 
 if it were, penitentiaries are not likely to effect it. And 
 if tliey could, the people ought not to be saddled with 
 the expense. All that class of offenders, who would be 
 sentenced to a penitentiary, ought to be banished forever 
 from the State and from the United States — or trans- 
 ported to some Botany Bay. Two objects, at least, 
 would be gained by the latter course. The State would 
 be freed from the burden of maintaining them, and from 
 all danger of further annoyance or injury by their ex- 
 ample or misconduct. And possibly a third advantage 
 would accrue to the culprits themselves — namely, their 
 eventual reformation. This is the only reformatory pro- 
 cess which experience has as yet fully tested — and this 
 has succeeded. Thousands of Old Baileij convicts have 
 become good citizens in America, South Africa, and New 
 Holland — who certainly would have been hanged in a 
 year, had they remained at large in England. I am 
 aware of the objections to banishment or deportation as 
 a mode of punishment to be adopted in our country, 
 either by any single State or by all the States in con- 
 cert; but I am confident that they can be easily and 
 thoroughly obviated. For example — Constitutional dif- 
 ficulties could be removed in a constitutional way — by 
 the power that formed the Constitution. And all the 
 States might agree in adopting a uniform system on the 
 subject. 
 
 I imagine our people have very little idea of the ex- 
 pense of prisons, or they would not be so enamoured of 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 197 
 
 them. In point of expense, colleges are as nothing in 
 the comparison — a mere drop to the ocean. K we could 
 ascertain the entire amount of money expended in the 
 erection and maintenance of prisons of all sorts, and for 
 the arrest, conviction and support of their inmates, 
 throughout the United States, during the last fifty 
 years, no argument or commentary would be necessary 
 on the subject. It has been estimated that the annual 
 pecuniary loss to the people of the United States by 
 crime is not less than from eight to ten millions of dol- 
 lars. The several annual reports of the Prison Disci- 
 pline Society have shed a flood of light on this dark 
 subject — have exhibited facts and details in regard to 
 expenditures, connected with defective or pernicious 
 systems of management and police, of the most astound- 
 ing and appalling character. I have neither time nor 
 space for quotations. In general, it may be remarked, 
 that our prisons yield no adequate return to the commu- 
 nity — that they have little or no tendency to diminish 
 crime, or to benefit either the criminal or the public — 
 that most of them are abominable nuisances and mere 
 sinks of iniquity and coiTuption, without a single com- 
 mendable feature or redeeming quality — that it is even 
 doubtful whether the best of them can, during any se- 
 ries of ten or twenty years, defray their own current 
 expenses by the labour of the convicts, especially if the 
 cost of the original outfit and all incidental charges be 
 fairly taken into the account — and that the ultimate 
 reformation of the criminal must be regarded as the 
 mere day-dream of credulous philanthropy. 
 
198 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 It is true that uncommonly favourable localities • for 
 certain kinds of profitable labour — chiefly in granite and 
 marl)le— in large cities or upon navigable waters — have 
 given extraordinary advantages to two or three Eastern 
 penitentiaries : and their directors have reported a con- 
 siderable excess of proceeds above the annual expenses. 
 Whether the interest of the outlay was included in the 
 items of expenditure does not appear. It is presumed 
 not. 
 
 If any method has been or can be devised by which 
 criminals may be made, not only to maintain themselves, 
 but to contribute something to the public funds by their 
 labour, it certainly would be wise and politic thus to 
 employ them, and thereb}^ compel them to render sub- 
 stantial satisfaction for the injuries which they have 
 23erpetrated. But society is under no legal or moral 
 obligation to burden itself with their gratuitous support. 
 This would be in effect to punish the innocent in order 
 to spare the guilty. Could the public, however, be 
 really profited by the labour of convicts, there would be 
 no inducement, on the score of expense merely, either 
 to hang or transport them. Even the murderer would 
 be as effectually dead to the world, if immured for life 
 at hard labour, as if he had been actually executed — 
 while some remuneration might be gained from his in- 
 dustry. 
 
 Still, the idea of reforming notorious criminals in a 
 penitentiary, and of turning them loose again in the 
 same community where they are well known, with a 
 ipprk of infamy upon their foreheads, and the conscious- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 199 
 
 ness of it in their hearts, does seem chimerical and 
 visionary in the extreme. If such unhappy and dis- 
 graced offenders are ever again to assume the character 
 and dignity and feelings of men, it must be in a strange 
 country and among new associates ; or among compa- 
 nions of their own caste, where none would have the 
 right or the effrontery to upbraid or to contemn his fel- 
 low. It is true, some fifty or sixty individuals, who 
 have left the Auburn Prison, are reported as reformed. 
 But time sufficient to test the fact has not yet elapsed. 
 Besides, most of them are stated to have become reli- 
 gious. If so, their reformation was owing to the chap- 
 lain, to the Bible, to rehgious instruction, and not ex- 
 clusively to the prison discipline — unless religious 
 instruction be a prominent part of it. That religion 
 may effect such a change will not be doubted ; because 
 it inculcates and inspires genuine humility. That kind 
 of humility which disposes a guilty man to submit, with- 
 out a murmur, to any obloquy, neglect, indignity or 
 scorn to which he may be obnoxious. But without 
 such an influence, I question whether it be in human 
 nature, that a man should issue from his prison cell, 
 and take his place in societ}^ as an honest, orderly, 
 respectable citizen. Who would regard or treat him 
 as honest and respectable — or employ and trust him as 
 such ? 
 
 If, after all, however, in reference to this momentous 
 subject, there be no alternative but a choice of evils — if 
 we mitst choose among the existing systems of prison 
 discipUne — I do not hesitate to pronounce the peniten- 
 
200 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 tiary system, as it is now in operation in New York and 
 Connecticut, vastly preferable to every other which has 
 been tried; while the common county jail system is the 
 very worst in our country. What that of Pennsylvania 
 will prove to be, future experiment must decide. 
 
 My object in adverting to this apparently not very 
 relevant, and certainly not the most grateful topic, was : 
 
 1. To notice the fact, that education is the only in- 
 strument relied on by our statesmen, politicians and 
 sages for any salutary revolution in the character and 
 habits of all classes and ages of criminals in our most 
 approved penitentiaries and houses of refuge. And 
 hence a fortiori to deduce the value and importance 
 of the very same instrument in preventing crime, by 
 suitably educating the young, that they may grow up 
 honest, industrious, intelligent and virtuous citizens. 
 
 2. To show that the expense of training up the young 
 is vastly less than must be incurred by the support of 
 a few adult criminals, as our prisons generally have 
 hitherto been constructed and managed. And that a 
 State had better expend its treasures upon her innocent 
 offspring than to be at unreasonable pains or expense 
 about incorrigible, hopeless, worthless offenders. 
 
 3. To direct attention to a few of our best regulated 
 penitentiaries as models for schools and colleges. From 
 my own humble experience in the business of education, 
 and from all the information which I have been able 
 to procure on the subject, I do believe that the only 
 efficient system for the complete attainment of every 
 desirable end, is tliat which keeps youth constantly em- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 201 
 
 ployed, body and mind, and wliicli exercises unceasing 
 vigilance and absolute control day and night — which ex- 
 cludes all vicious and vitiating associates and practices 
 — which superintends all the amusements and social in- 
 tercourse of the pupils — and which consequently requires 
 strong walls and numerous guards ; or a large body of 
 faithful, prudent, devoted Mentors to counsel, direct, re- 
 strain and instruct them at all times, in all places, and 
 under all circumstances. 
 
 Such a purely domestic system I never expect to see 
 in practical operation — at least, not to the extent most 
 likely to insure the happiest results. The expense 
 would be objected to by a people who can afford money 
 for every fashionable folly and extravagance. And its 
 strictness, however parental and salutary, would be com- 
 plained of by a people w^ho scarcely subject their chil- 
 dren to any restraint whatever. "We must do the best 
 we can then in the circumstances in which our lot is 
 cast. I am not the advocate of existing usages because 
 of their antiquity or authority. Nor am I fond of inno- 
 vations merely for the sake of novelty and experiment. 
 I am disposed to be reasonable in all things, and to make 
 the best of a bad or indifferent system. Colleges and 
 Universities have never been perfect, nor as good as 
 they might and ought to have been. The same may 
 be said of common schools, and of the higher schools. 
 They may all be greatly improved, even without any 
 remarkable or radical change in their organization. 
 Their character and utility must depend on the per- 
 sonal qualifications, fidelity and efforts of their in- 
 
202 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 structors and directors, more than on any or all other 
 circumstances. A college, of the old sort, may be bene- 
 ficial or noxious to the community, according as it is 
 judiciously or injudiciously managed. And since, in our 
 country, the sui3reme and absolute control of such insti- 
 tutions is usually commiitted to a Board of Trustees, they 
 of course are directly responsible to the public for their 
 proper government and instruction. 
 
 A principal cause of the excessive multiplication and 
 dwarfish dimensions of Western colleges is, no doubt, the 
 diversity of religious denominations among us. Almost 
 every sect will have its college, and generally one at 
 least in each State. Of the score of colleges in Ohio, 
 Kentucky and Tennessee, all are sectarian except two 
 or three ; and of course few of them are what they might 
 and should be ; and the greater part of them are mere 
 impositions on the public. This is a grievous and grow- 
 ing evil. Why colleges should be sectarian, any more 
 than penitentiaries, or than bank, road or canal corpora- 
 tions, is not very obvious. Colleges are designed for the 
 instruction of youth in the learned languages — in polite 
 literature — in the liberal arts and sciences — and not in 
 the dogmatical theology of any sect or party. Why then 
 should they be baptized with sectarian names? Are 
 they to inculcate sectarian Greek, sectarian mathema- 
 tics, sectarian logic, history, rhetoric, philosophy ? Must 
 every State be divided and subdivided into as many col- 
 lege associations as there are religious sects within its 
 limits ? And thus, by their mutual jealousy and dis- 
 trust, eflectually prevent the usefulness and prosperity 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 203 
 
 of any one institution ? Why does any sect covet the 
 exclusive control of a college, if it be not to promote 
 party and sectarian purposes ? 
 
 I am aware that as soon as any sect succeeds in ob- 
 taining a charter for a something called a college, they 
 become, all of a sudden, wondrously liberal and catholic. 
 They forthwith proclaim to the public that their college 
 is the best in the world — and withal, perfectly free from 
 the odious taint of sectarianism. That youth of all reli- 
 gions may come to it without the slightest risk of being 
 proselyted to the faith of the governing sect. This is 
 very modest and very specious, and very hollow, and 
 very hypocritical. They hold out false colours to allure 
 and to deceive the incautious. Their college is secta- 
 rian, and they know it. It is established by a party — 
 governed by a party — taught by a party — and designed 
 to promote the ends of a party. Else why is it under 
 the absolute and perpetual management and control of 
 a party? They very eagerly and very naturally desire 
 the patronage of other sects, for the double purpose of 
 receiving pecuniary aid, and of adding to their numbers 
 and strength from the ranks of other denominations. 
 
 Let any religious sect w^hatever obtain the absolute 
 direction of a college — located in a small village or 
 retired part of the country — where their religious in- 
 fluence is paramount, perhaps exclusive — where the 
 youth must necessarily attend upon such religious in- 
 structions and exercises and ceremonies as they shall 
 prescribe — where, in fact, they can witness no other — 
 where every sermon and prayer and form, where all 
 
204 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 private conversation and ministerial services proceed 
 from, or are directed by, the one sect — and, is it possible 
 that youth, at the most susceptible period of their lives, 
 should not be operated on by such daily influences, 
 during a period of two, four or six years ? How long 
 will the people be gulled by such barefaced impudence 
 — by such unreasonable and monstrous pretensions? 
 
 I do not object to any sect's being allowed the privi- 
 lege of erecting and maintaining, at their own expense, 
 as many schools, colleges and theological seminaries as 
 they please. But, then, their sectarian views should be 
 openly and distinctly avowed. Their purpose should be 
 specified in their charters: and the legislature should 
 protect the people from imposition by the very act 
 which invests them with corporate powers. Hitherto, 
 almost every legislature has pursued an opposite policy, 
 and has aided the work of deception, by enacting that, 
 in the said sectarian institution, youth of all sects should 
 be entitled to equal privileges. Thus the sectarian 
 manufactory goes into operation under the smiles, pa- 
 tronage and recommendation of the people's representa- 
 tives. Its friends puff it off, and laud it as the people's 
 school, and plead their liberal charter as the talisman 
 that is to guard the people against every insidious at^ 
 tempt at proselytism ; and urge the people to contribute 
 their money to build up their promising and most catho- 
 lic seminary. The bait is seized — the people are cheated 
 — and the sect has its college. Students of all denomi- 
 nations frequent it. And no man of sense and reflection 
 can doubt the consequences. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 205 
 
 There are sects in our countr}' wlio have succeeded in 
 this way, who never permit their own children to attend 
 any schools but such as they exclusively control, who pro- 
 fess the greatest liberality to the public on all occasions, 
 and who boast among themselves of the converts which 
 they have made from their dissenting pupils. I could 
 specify names and places, and adduce proof positive of 
 all the facts asserted, were it necessar3\ Let the people 
 see to it, or the remedy will soon be beyond their reach. 
 
 A p?</>Z/c college — that is, a literary and scientific col- 
 lege designed for the public generally — ought to be inde- 
 pendent of all religious sectarian bias, or tendency, or 
 influence. And it ought, when practicable, to be situated 
 in a town or city where the several sects, composing the 
 body of the people, have their own places of public 
 worship, to which their sons may have free access ; and 
 where the public eye may be constantly fixed on the 
 conduct of the Trustees and Faculty. And where every 
 artful attempt at proselytism would be instantly detected 
 and exposed. Some men are so constituted that they 
 cannot help being partisans and bigots. Such men are 
 not fit to be the instructors of j^outh, except where it is 
 intended that the dogmas of a sect shall be inculcated. 
 
 Science and philosophy ought to know no party in 
 Church or State. They are degraded by every such 
 connexion. Christianity, indeed, if rightly interpreted, 
 breathes a pure angelic charity, and is as much a 
 stranger to the strife, and intrigue, and rancour, and 
 intolerance, and pharisaism of party, as science and 
 philosophy can be. But so long as men are not content 
 
206 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 to be honest Christians, but will be zealous Presbyte- 
 rians, Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists, Quakers or 
 Romanists, we must so organize our jmhlic seminaries 
 of learning, as that all may intrust their sons to them 
 without fear of danger to their religious faith. 
 
 It has been objected to Nashville, as the site of a 
 University for the purposes of general education : — 
 1. That it is the centre of too much dissipation, ex- 
 travagance and vice. That a residence here might 
 endanger the morals and virtue of youth, and lead 
 them to ruinous indulgence and prodigality. This is a 
 specious objection — but it is merely specious. Small 
 towns and villages are generally more objectionable, in 
 these respects, than cities containing from five to fifty 
 thousand inhabitants. Experience has fully proved in 
 Europe, and in the older States of this Union, that large 
 towns or cities are greatly preferable to small ones for 
 such institutions. All the capitals and most of the 
 second-rate cities of Europe have their universities. 
 And wherever they have been established in small 
 towns, the students are proverbially more riotous and 
 ungovernable in their conduct, more boorish and savage 
 in their manners, and more dissolute and licentious in 
 their habits. 
 
 A large town, moreover, always affords greater advan- 
 tages and facilities for the acquisition of liberal know- 
 ledge than a small village. It has, comparatively, more 
 literary and scientific men — more individuals skilled in 
 various languages — more eminent professional characters 
 — larger libraries — more ample cabinets and collections 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 207 
 
 of natural curiosities and specimens of the arts — a more 
 enliglitened and refined society to polish and restrain 
 youth from vulgar practices and indulgences — a greater 
 variety of churches and other religious institutions to 
 enlarge the mind and prevent the growth of bigotry and 
 sectarism — and, in general, a more powerful and salutary 
 moral influence is exerted and felt than in a small pro- 
 vincial town or countrj- village. The empire of public 
 opinion is recognized and respected. A vigilant and ener- 
 getic police is ever at hand also to check the sallies and 
 control the renowninfj propensities of the thoughtless, the 
 turbulent, the idle, the reckless and the self-sufficient. 
 
 These and similar privileges an enlightened judicious 
 parent will not fail to appreciate. And in all these 
 respects, Nashville will be every year improving. It 
 has greatly improved within the last eight or ten years, 
 as every citizen, who has resided here long enough to 
 judge, will testify. I hiow that, in Nashville, unpro- 
 pitious as have been certain local and temporary circum- 
 stances, youth may be trained as safely and governed 
 as thoroughly as in any town beyond the mountains. 
 Youth often enter college spoiled : and the Faculty can- 
 not cure or reform them. But, in no instance yet, has 
 a \'irtuous, orderly, well-behaved youth been made worse 
 at our institution. If they come to the University, w4th 
 inveterate habits of idleness, vice or insubordination, 
 nothing more can be expected of its government than 
 that it speedily get rid of them. And this it has 
 seldom — without fear, partiality or favour — fjiiled to 
 accomplish. The good have not been injured ; nor are 
 
208 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 they a whit more obnoxious to evil influences here than 
 in an}^ town in Connecticut or New York. The ickhed, 
 if they cannot be recLainiecl, are, as a matter of course, 
 presently sent home to their parents and friends. 
 
 The good people of the Southern States generally, 
 labour under a singular delusion in regard to the bene- 
 fits which their sons are supposed to enjoy at Eastern 
 seminaries. They have heard much of the steads- 
 habits, excellent morals, and religious character of the 
 East; and they presume that their sons, while there, 
 will be precluded from all exposure to vicious tempta- 
 tion. This is a most egregious mistake. The Southern 
 youth, at Eastern colleges, are more exposed to all man- 
 ner of expensive and ruinous dissipation than they 
 would be at home. They invariably associate toge- 
 ther — are always presumed to have plenty of monej' — 
 are solicited from every quarter to spend it freely — are 
 trusted without hesitation to any amount by those most 
 interested in misleading and in fleecing them — are 
 courted and flattered, and made to believe that they 
 are superior to the natives, whose manners, customs and 
 maxims they affect to despise — are actuated and bound 
 to each other by the lofty and fastidious spirit of pro- 
 vincial clanship, and manifest, to a most ludicrous ex- 
 tent, all the pride and arrogance of aristocratic exclu- 
 siveness. Residing among strangers with whom they 
 are never domesticated, and whose peculiarities they are 
 accustomed to ridicule — far removed from the observa- 
 tion and controlling influence of that society to whose 
 tribunal alone they feel ultimately amenable — they as- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 209 
 
 sume the port and bearing of independent lordlings and 
 honourable reguhators of both town and college — and, 
 provided they manage to escape imprisonment and ex- 
 pulsion, they care not a rush about minor considerations 
 or temporary consequences. In due time, after squan- 
 dering, in this liopeful career, some two or three thou- 
 sand dollars each per annum, they usually succeed in 
 obtaining — what would seem to have been the sole 
 object of their Jiterary ambition — a Bachelor's diploma, 
 certifying to the world that they are accomplished in all 
 the liberal arts and sciences, and "adorned with every 
 virtue under heaven." With this precious trophy of 
 their academic achievements, they return home to 
 gladden the hearts of doting parents, and to receive 
 the gratulations of kindred and friends — but with heads 
 as empty as their purses — and oftentimes with broken 
 constitutions and dissolute habits which totally unfit 
 them for any useful vocation or honourable profession. 
 
 This is no exaggerated representation. That there 
 are exceptions, is readily granted. But, like the great 
 prizes in a lottery, they are so few in comparison with the 
 blanks, that nice calculators, who are skilled in the doc- 
 trine of chances, avouM not choose to hazard much upon 
 the issue in either case. On the contrary, at Nashville, 
 no youth from any section of the slave-holding States, 
 will ever dream that he is superior to the common law 
 of public sentiment — that he is above the reach of dis- 
 grace from the repulsive and frowning aspect of the 
 society in which he lives — or that his present comfort 
 and future respectability will not depend on the opinion 
 
 VOL. I. 14 
 
210 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 which the good, the wise, the inteUigent and the influ- 
 ential may form of his talents, industry, morals' and 
 gentlemanly deportment while a college student. In 
 the metropolis of Tennessee, every son of Tennessee 
 will look up with deference to the better class of citi- 
 zens as models for imitation; while at an Eastern vil- 
 lage he might look doicn with contempt upon the whole 
 population. And the sneer of a companion at the 
 Ycml-ees is, at any time, sufficient to efface from his 
 mind any salutarj' impression from the rebukes of au- 
 thority or the counsels of wisdom. 
 
 2. Nashville has been objected to on the score of ex- 
 pense — and with as little reason as every other. The 
 truth is, that the cost of an education here is less by 
 fifty and even a hundred per cent. — all advantages con- 
 sidered — than at any respectable Northern or Southern 
 college whatever. The price of board is one dollar and 
 seventy-five cents per week, and the other charges are 
 not so high as at many of our female and classical 
 schools. One hundred and twenty dollars defra}- the 
 entire college bills for all purposes (including board) 
 during the academic year of forty-two Aveeks. Contin- 
 gent expenses of every kind must be regulated, of course, 
 by parental discretion. The most rigid economy is re- 
 commended and encouraged, and, as far as practicable, 
 enforced. It is obvious that all articles imported from 
 abroad must be cheaper in a commercial emporium than 
 at an}- remote town in the country. Candidates for the 
 gospel ministry are, without distinction of sect or name, 
 admitted to all the privileges of the university at half 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 211 
 
 the ordinary charges. Poor young men, who desire to 
 help themselves, either by teaching in the public schools 
 or in private families, or by labouring on the college- 
 farm or in the workshops of our mechanics, may earn 
 more here than at any " Manual Labour" establishment 
 in the country. Every possible facility is given to this 
 species of commendable but voluntary enterprise : and 
 no manner of disgrace attaches to the individuals who 
 thus manfully strive to educate themselves. Every pro- 
 duct of the garden, the field and the workshop com- 
 mands a ready and profitable market. If it be possible 
 for a youth to icork his way through college in any part 
 of the world, he can do it here with equal certainty and 
 under peculiar advantages. In salubrity also, Nashville 
 is unrivalled : and consequently, students are rarely sul> 
 jected to any extra expense for physicians or nurses on 
 account of ill-health.* 
 
 I have chosen to dilate on these matters, trivial as 
 some of them may appear, because they have been 
 grossly, if not wilfully magnified and misrepresented; 
 and to show that there is no reasonable objection to 
 Nashville as a favoured and popular site for a great and 
 
 * Of the salubrity of Nashville — having resided here eight years 
 (I write this note in November, 1832) — I may be allowed to speak 
 with reasonable assurance. If there be a healthier place on the globe 
 than Nashville, I have yet to learn where it may be found. The 
 youth of Canada or Vermont would be as safe here as at home. No 
 acclimating process is necessary to adapt any constitution to our 
 seasons. Our town is composed of citizens from every part of Chris- 
 tendom. We have had students at the University from New York. 
 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and most 
 of the Southern States : and all have enjoyed uniform good health. 
 
212 EDUCATIOXAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 flourishing university. And also, to remind its real 
 friends, that the difficulties hitherto encountered and 
 still to be encountered, so far from discouraging future 
 efforts to advance the institution, ought rather to stimu- 
 late to greater, and more efficient, and more determined 
 exertions and sacrifices to insure its ultimate and com- 
 plete success. 
 
 Lord Bacon somewhere observes, that heroic desires 
 contribute greatly to health. If a man would succeed, 
 let him aim at great things ; and, by the blessing of God, 
 he will accomplish great things. 
 
 Little or nothing has been achieved in this country, 
 because only a little has been attempted. None of our 
 citizens have aspired to great things, and therefore even 
 their humble efforts have proved abortive. If we Avould 
 succeed in building up a seminary deserving the name 
 of a University, we must, at the outset, form a just con- 
 ception of the immense magnitude and importance of 
 the enterprise ; and then set about the work with cool 
 deliberate purpose and systematic skill. If the State 
 will not furnish the means or suffer us to use the ample 
 means originally provided by Congress, individual muni- 
 ficence must be relied on, as it has been in many other 
 places : and we must persevere, as importunate beggars, 
 until the public yield a due supply of their treasures to 
 effect the object — even though it be obtained by the 
 dollar from house to house. This is the way that all 
 our benevolent associations procure their tens of thou- 
 sands annually to carry on their mighty plans of uni- 
 versal improvement. In this way too, the various 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 213 
 
 religious sects are erecting and endowing colleges in 
 every part of our country. Let a religious body resolve 
 to-day to establish a college anywhere ; and, in a few 
 months, jou shall hear that they have some fifty or a 
 hundre.d thousand dollars to commence with. And }et 
 this is tlie land which proudly boasts of religious liberty 
 and equal rights, and which eschews all bigotry, intole- 
 rance and persecution. Cannot liberal and enlightened 
 men of all sects and parties unite for the purpose of 
 rearing one institution which shall never be under the 
 control of any sect or party ? 
 
 Such is the acknowledged character — such are the 
 pretensions and claims of our University. It is not 
 sectarian; and hence the ixirtisans of all sects stand 
 alcof from it. They are not satisfied with neutrality, 
 nor with equality of influence and privilege. The}' 
 must have all or nothing. Such men too, often suc- 
 ceed, by obstinate hostility and artful misrepresentation, 
 in gaining, at length, the entire and absolute mastery of 
 the very institution which had been the object of their 
 unrelenting malignant persecution. Will the guardians 
 of the people's rights and liberties consent to witness so 
 mortifying a result in the present instance ? Will they, 
 by neglect or covetousness, permit this truly catholic 
 establishment, which of right belongs to the people — to 
 all the people without distinction of sect or name — to 
 become the engine of any party whatever ? 
 
 Generous and high-minded men are never suspicious : 
 and, unfortunately, they seldom take that prominent 
 and active part in public afftiirs to which tlieir superior 
 
214 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 talents and virtues justly entitle them. The}^ suffer 
 busy, meddling, intriguing, selfish spirits to operate-upon 
 the popular mind, and to control the most important en- 
 terprises and institutions in Church and State, agreeably 
 to their own sinister and partial views. The gr^at, the 
 wise, the good are generally overlooked, because they 
 have too much modesty and self-respect to obtrude 
 themselves upon the public notice or to solicit public 
 confidence. Hence it is that such men often pass their 
 days in comparative obscurity : and it is only in seasons 
 of extraordinary emergency or extreme peril that they 
 are summoned, by the spontaneous voice of the commu- 
 nity, to assume the station and to exert the influence 
 for which none others are then deemed equal. They do 
 wisely, perhaps, in keeping aloof from the political 
 arena — from all the petty strifes and virulent controver- 
 sies of the ins and the aids — where success would be no 
 adequate reward for any moral or even personal sacrifice 
 — ^when a Clodius or a Wilkes w^ould be more likely to 
 win the day than a Phocion or a Hampden — and while 
 a Cincinnatus or an Aristides might indulge their rural 
 or philosophical propensities at home to their heart's 
 content, without fear of being forced into notoriety by 
 the sovereign people. But why should thej^ desert or 
 renounce the cause of science, of education, of morals, 
 of human happiness? May they not, without self- 
 reproach — nay, Avith conscious integrity and with the 
 noblest devotion to the public weal — stand forth the 
 friends and advocates of learning? Here is a sphere 
 fitted for their unostentatious and benevolent exertions. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 215 
 
 Our schools and colleges demand their aid. Have they 
 fortune, have they leisure, have they patriotism, have 
 they superior intelligence, talent, philanthropy — and 
 will they, can they, refuse to cherish and to promote 
 the infant seminaries of j^outhful instruction which are 
 struggling for existence under their eyes and at their 
 very doors — to which their seasonable countenance 
 and patronage would assure complete and permanent 
 prosperity- — and which, by their indifference and inac- 
 tion, may be checked and impeded — and, perhaps, be 
 blasted forever ? 
 
 The crisis has now been reached, which, it may be 
 presumed, will frighten from our ranks all the timid, 
 irresolute and faint-hearted ; but which will nerve with 
 new vigour and energy every bold, intrepid, magnani- 
 mous spirit, and put to a decisive test the moral stamina 
 and genuine character of every man who pretends attach- 
 ment and devotion to the noblest cause which can claim 
 his every talent and the most invincible perseverance. 
 Should this trying crisis be successfully passed, the 
 victory is sure — the University will rise and triumph, 
 and diffuse joy and blessings to thousands of the present, 
 and to millions of future generations.* 
 
 * That the purport of the foregoing discourse may not be misap- 
 prehended, it is proper to apprise the reader, that, simply as a college 
 for undergraduates, the University of Nashville is not inferior to other 
 American colleges. As thorough and extensive an education may be 
 acquired here as at any similar institution whatever. The qualifica- 
 tions for admission into the several classes and for graduation are 
 nowhere exceeded. The chemical laboratory, the apparatus for every 
 branch of experimental science, and the museum of natural history are 
 
216 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 [The candidates, having been admitted to their de- 
 grees, were addressed as follows.] 
 
 1. To you. Young Gentlemen, who have just received 
 the first public honours of this institution, I have but a 
 word to say. It has been my constant study and aim, 
 in the freedom of our colloquial intercourse in the lecture 
 room, to imbue your minds with correct sentiments on 
 most moral and practical topics. — And especialty to 
 teach you how to investigate and reason, that you may 
 discover truth, and, in all cases, judge for jourselves ; 
 and never yield a blind or implicit faith to the dogmata 
 of any sage, dead or living. You have commenced a 
 course of study which is to terminate but with your 
 lives. Your education, so far from being comjDleted, is 
 only begun. Hereafter, you must be your own instruc- 
 tors ; as all must be who hope to attain intellectual emi- 
 nence. You have mastered a few elementary principles, 
 which will enable you, by persevering industry, to ad- 
 vance slowly it may be, but surely, up the rugged hill- 
 second to none in the Eastern States. The mineralogical cabinet 
 especially — the specimens of which Prof. Troost (a pupil of the cele- 
 brated Hiiuy) has been collecting from every part of the world during 
 twenty years past — would be creditable to any European unirersity. 
 The college library contains two thousand volumes : and other libra- 
 ries, to which the Faculty and students have access, contain seven or 
 eight thousand more. Still, provision has been made only for under- 
 graduates, and for these only in limited numbers. "We need funds for 
 the permanent support of twenty professors, edifices for the accommo- 
 dation of five hundred students, a library of fifty thousand volumes, a 
 botanical garden, astronomical observatory, &c. — besides the profes- 
 sional and other departments which ought to belong to a university, 
 worthy of the resources, the population and the republican dignity of 
 Tennessee. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 217 
 
 side of science, till, at length, you gain honourable 
 admittance within the portals of the fair temple itself. 
 Never forget that you are students; and that much may 
 be learned every day, by a skilful and orderly arrange- 
 ment of your various pursuits, from men and books, and 
 from the grand volume of nature which is everywhere 
 spread open to your view and admiration. 
 
 2. In the next place, study to devote all your attain- 
 ments and faculties to the promotion of the best interests 
 of society, of your country, and of mankind. This must 
 be done frequently by a difficult, tedious, and discou- 
 raging process. If you would accomplish great good in 
 your day, you must consent to labour patiently, and to 
 attend to a multiplicity of apparently trivial concerns. 
 Society is often most benefited by men who can enter 
 into minute details — who can devise, encourage and aid 
 judicious schemes to enlighten the minds, and to melio- 
 rate the condition and morals of those around them. 
 Therefore, never imagine any object, however humble, 
 beneath you, if calculated to be useful to ever so small 
 a portion of your fellow-citizens. Franklin, when, at the 
 height of his fame, never lost sight of the poor mechanic, 
 nor ceased to suggest plans for his improvement. It will 
 be expected of you, as having enjoyed superior means of 
 education, to be yourselves the friends of education, in 
 every degree and to the greatest practicable extent. 
 Should you ever occupy seats in the legislative halls 
 of your country, remember that the cause of education 
 is paramount to all others; and that if this be tho- 
 roughly provided for, it will nearly supersede the neces- 
 
218 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 sity of all other legislation. If you shall ever be • ap- 
 pointed trustees of a great literary institution — an office 
 which ought to be deemed more dignified, as it is vastly 
 more important, than am- which this commonwealth can 
 confer — promote its interests with more zeal and fidelity 
 than 3'ou would jour own ; and guard its reputation with 
 the same sensitive jealousy that you would protect the 
 vestal honour of a sister. 
 
 3. Be temperate : and seek to promote temperance 
 among all over whom you may have influence. Intem- 
 perance, next to ignorance, is acknowledged to be the 
 greatest evil which afflicts our country. It is the direct 
 cause of most of the crime, disease, pauperism and 
 wretchedness which prevail among us. The only effec- 
 tual remedy for it has, at length, been discovered. It 
 is total and universal abstinence from spirituous liquors. 
 The moderate and temperate use of ardent spirits has 
 been, for years past, the occasion of all the intemperance 
 in our land. The man who drinks temperately has al- 
 ready entered the broad road to ruin : besides, he may, 
 by his soher example, make all his sons drunkards ; and 
 thus become a curse to societj' and to his own posterity. 
 The time has arrived, when, in some parts of our coun- 
 try, no persons who have any regard either to conscience 
 or public opinion, dare engage in the business of manu- 
 facturing, importing or vending distilled liquors in any 
 form. And, I doubt not, that, before many years elapse, 
 such will be the doctrine and practice throughout this 
 and all other Christian lands. Temperance Societies 
 have already achieved a more glorious and salutary 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 219 
 
 moral revolution, Avitliin the last five 3'ears, than any 
 human institution or agency had ever before effected for 
 the welfare of mankind in half a century. 
 
 4. Endeavour, by honest industry in some useful call- 
 ing or profession, to render yourselves independent. Vir- 
 tue depends, much more than is generally supposed, upon 
 pecuniar3' independence. In our happy land, every 
 healthy man may become thus independent in his cir- 
 cumstances, if he please. I do not mean that every 
 man must acquire what is called an independent for- 
 tune. He is truly independent, who habitually lives 
 within his income, whatever that may be, or however 
 honestly procured or earned. In this sense, the hum- 
 blest labourer may be independent. Franklin, again, is 
 high authority; and his own j^ractice furnishes the best 
 possible illustration of his excellent maxims. " If a 
 man (said he) w^ould preserve both integrity and inde- 
 pendence free from temptation, let him keep out of 
 debt." The Proverbs of Solomon are full of practical 
 wisdom on this topic, and deserve the serious stud}' of 
 every person just entering ujDon the theatre of public 
 life. The tyranny of fashion must be manfully resisted : 
 and all its capricious and oppressive mandates and re- 
 quirements must be disregarded from the outset, by the 
 young man who would rise, by his own efforts, to meri- 
 torious distinction in the world. Lord Thurlow, himself 
 an illustrious example of his own rule, used to say, that 
 the surest cause of success to a Barrister was "parts and 
 poverty." And I will add, that, with parts and poverty, 
 persevering application, consistent frugality, temperance 
 
220 EDUCATIOI^'AL DISCOURSES. 
 
 and integrity, — honour and eminence may be attained 
 in any profession by the humblest individuaL 
 
 5. Maintain a scrupulous regard to truth — on all oc- 
 casions — in small things as well as in great — in your 
 sprightliest conversations, no less than in your graver 
 and more deliberate statements and asseverations. Habit 
 is everything : and truth is too sacred ever to be trifled 
 with. Never dispute merely for the sake of victory; 
 but honestly search after truth with the calm docility 
 of a pupil, not with the pride and arrogance of the de- 
 termined champion. 
 
 6. Discountenance and abstain from the practice of 
 duelling. And never carry about your persons deadly 
 weapons of any sort, lest, in some moment of angry ex- 
 citement, 3'ou be tempted to use them to the fatal injury 
 of others and to the destruction of your own peace and 
 happiness. 
 
 7. Avoid all games of chance as 3^ou would pestilence 
 and death. 
 
 8. Guard against infidel sentiments. They will be 
 found as cheerless, as they have been proved to be un- 
 philosophical and noxious. 
 
 9. Cultivate a spirit of liberality, kindness and charity 
 towards all men, of whatever nation, creed, sect or 
 part}^ Never fancy yourselves infallible in regard to 
 those profound mysteries in speculative religion and 
 philosophy which have hitherto baffled the wisdom of 
 the strongest intellects, and which have converted the 
 weak and obstinate into fanatics, bigots and persecutors. 
 While you assert, with amiable firmness, what you be- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 221 
 
 lieve on satisfactory evidence, and while 3'ou adhere to 
 such forms and ceremonies as you deliberately prefer — 
 concede to all other men the same right, and allow them 
 to be as honest as yourselves. That pretending Chris- 
 tian, who denounces any other or all other Christian 
 sects except his own, who condemns their system, as- 
 perses their motives and questions their integrity, gives 
 ample evidence of his own narrow sectarian intolerance, 
 and hostility to the plainest principles of the gospel 
 which he professes. The differences which obtain 
 among the various Christian denominations are, in 
 general, of no great magnitude or importance; and 
 ought never to be made the ground of ridicule or abuse, 
 much less of hatred and invidious or malicious calumny 
 and persecution. Stand firm to the church of your elec- 
 tion, or in which 3-ou have been educated ; but never 
 suffer one unkindly sentiment towards other churches to 
 enter your bosoms. I have found excellent, enlightened, 
 and truly Christian individuals in every sect with which 
 I am acquainted — and my personal acquaintance extends 
 to more than twenty different sects, whose public worship 
 I have witnessed and all whose peculiar modes I have 
 carefully noted — and I have also met with knaves and 
 hypocrites in my own as well as in some other churches. 
 You are not to judge of Christianity from the un- 
 worthy conduct of its professors. You have a surer 
 guide — the constitution — the charter — the entire system 
 of our holy religion — as it descended pure and unadulte- 
 rated from the Father of lights and the Fountain of 
 truth and righteousness. Let this sacred book — the 
 
222 EDUCATIOXAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 volume of inspiration — the Bible — be the companion of 
 jour whole earthly pilgrimage, and the object of 'your 
 daily and unprejudiced study. How beautiful is that 
 religion which pervades all the precepts and lessons and 
 examjDle and conduct of its divine Author ? And how 
 different from that which is but too often inculcated by- 
 selfish, ignorant, deceiving, or self-deceived, pharisaical, 
 ambitious ecclesiastics or sj^iritual demagogues of every 
 name? The gospel breathes peace and good-will, for- 
 bearance, long-suffering, patience, forgiveness, mercy, 
 and love towards all men ; and can therefore never be 
 made to sanction angry dissensions, and bitter contro- 
 versies, and inquisitorial cruelties, and malignant re- 
 venge, and secret jealousies, and open violence, and 
 uncharitable constructions, and exclusive sectarian pre- 
 tensions. The gospel enjoins and inspires angelic purity 
 of heart and motive and life and conversation : and can 
 never countenance licentiousness or moral obliquity in 
 any form or degree. And that individual whose conduct 
 does not accord with the letter and spirit of the gospel, 
 in all its leading features, is not a genuine Christian, 
 however orthodox may be his creed, or however valiantly 
 he may contend for the true faith. 
 
 I caution you, therefore, to avoid the common error 
 of ingenious and intelligent youth, and of many distin- 
 guished professional and scientific men of the ripest 
 years, who pronounce hastily and unfavourably of the 
 Christian religion ; because so many of its advocates 
 have been a disgrace to it, as well as to reason and 
 humanitv ; and because so manv abominations have 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 223 
 
 been perpetrated in its name, and apparently under its 
 authority. Go to the record, and examine for yourselves 
 what this religion is. and what its professors ought to 
 be. And remember that you have an interest in the 
 result, deep and everlasting as the foundations of eter- 
 nity. This religion, if true, speaks the same language, 
 imposes the same duties, prohibits the same indulgences, 
 holds out the same promises, rewards, threatenings and 
 penalties to all men, without distinction, to whom it 
 ever has been, is now, or ever will be promulgated. Its 
 laws are binding equally on clergymen and lajinen, on 
 believers and unbelievers, on rich and poor, learned and 
 unlearned — on you and me — and no more on me than 
 on you. Therefore, whatever the gospel commands or 
 requires must be obeyed and fulfilled, at the peril of all 
 the misery and despair which it threatens. It promises 
 to the believing and obedient all the peace and happi- 
 ness which man is capable of realizing in this world, 
 together with joy unspeakable and full of glory in the 
 Paradise of God, when this fleeting scene shall have 
 passed away forever. 
 
 You will not have travelled far on the journe}' of life, 
 before you will perceive the want of heavenly consola- 
 tion and support. The current of this world's aflfairs is 
 seldom smooth and unruffled. Calamity arrives when 
 least expected ; and in a form and from a source never 
 anticipated. Friendship fails or is treacherous precisely 
 when most relied on or when most needed. Popular 
 favour is as transient and variable as the passing breeze. 
 Wealth vanishes when most idolized. Every endearing 
 
224 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 tie, every human support, every earthly good, may be 
 sundered or torn away. Even the treasures of htei'ature 
 and science, to the acquisition of which years of ardent 
 and painful labour have been devoted, may, at length, 
 appear almost valueless and insipid- — as they did to 
 Ealeigh, Grotius, Pascal, Selden, Locke, Newton — 
 at the approach of death, or in comparison with the 
 momentous truths and cheering promises of the Sa- 
 cred Scriptures, which bring life and immortality to 
 light. 
 
 Such is the course of universal experience. And if 
 the picture seem dark and repulsive, and inappropriate 
 to this joyous occasion, when you are fondly dreaming 
 of long life and uninterrupted felicity and honour — be 
 assured that I have no desire to cast a single shade upon 
 the bright perspective which youthful fancy delights to 
 contemplate. For I have been as young, as imagina- 
 tive and as sanguine as any of you : and although I do 
 not yet rank in years with the elders of the land, I 
 have lived long enough to inscribe "vanity of vanities" 
 upon all sul^lunary good ; and to be satisfied that some- 
 thing more than this poor dazzling world can yield is 
 essential to the aspirings of an immortal mind. I 
 would, therefore, in all sincerity and kindness, tender 
 to you the humble boon of my own experience, and ex- 
 hort you to be wise betimes, and to provide for the day 
 of trial and suffering and desertion and anguish, that it 
 steal not upon you unawares, and that you may draw 
 consolation from a heavenly fountain ; and be enabled 
 to submit with a Christian's hope and a Christian's spirit 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 225 
 
 to every dispeusatiou of Providence ; and thus finally to 
 triumph over every temptation and every foe, till you 
 reach, at last, the blessed, peaceful, hallowed mansions, 
 where the wicked cease from troubling and where the 
 weary will be at rest forever ! 
 
 15 
 
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS. 
 
 [CUMBERLAND COLLEGE, OCTOBER 5, 1831.] 
 
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS, 
 
 AT CUMBERLAND COLLEGE, 183L 
 
 Young Gentlemen : 
 
 To say that your education is now finished — as the 
 fashionable phrase is, in reference to youth on lea^dng 
 college— would be an egregious abuse of language. You 
 are presumed merely to have mastered the elements— 
 the alphabet, as it were— of a few valuable sciences and 
 branches of literature; and to have learned hmo to 
 study. With this scanty furniture, and intellectual 
 discipline, you are about to commence a course of more 
 thorough, varied and extensive research, which is to 
 terminate but with your lives. We take it for granted, 
 that this sentiment is deeply engraven upon your hearts. 
 We have laboured, as you will testify, to render it fami- 
 liar to your minds, as a truth or first principle, not tO be 
 questioned. As students— as learners then— you have 
 barely approached the threshold of that proud temple 
 of intellectual grandeur, which it will be the business 
 of future life to strive, by every honourable and manly 
 effort, to enter and to possess as your own. 
 
 Mere persevering application to books, or universal 
 readino-, however, will not suffice to ensure a useful, 
 
230 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 brilliant or successful career. A habit of reflection — of 
 profound inquiry — of calm, dispassionate, unprejudiced 
 investigation — of logical discrimination and rigid de- 
 monstration — must be acquired. I do not say tliat you 
 must first doubt in regard to all received principles and 
 doctrines, before you yield assent to any. Wliat is usually 
 denominated a skeptical turn of mind has seldom, if 
 ever, been found to be either very generous, or very 
 modest, or very docile, or very sagacious, or very bene- 
 ficial to mankind. It is no proof of genius, or mental 
 vigour, or manly independence. I warn you therefore 
 against that spirit of vulgar vanity and refined pyrrhon- 
 ism which affects to exalt itself above the wisdom, and 
 the faith, and the philosophy, and the common sense, of 
 the most enlightened sages and the most devoted bene- 
 factors of our race. But truth dreads no scrutiny. She 
 courts no concealment and no disguise ; and needs no 
 arbitrary or extrinsic support. She prefers her claims to 
 credence and acceptance openly and boldly, and disdains 
 all casuistic sophistry and all prescriptive dominion. 
 Fear not then, with the genuine temper of sincere learn- 
 ers, to examine into the nature and foundations of any 
 system or of any doctrine, however important, or how- 
 ever venerated, or however sanctioned, which may be pre- 
 sented to your consideration. If it be true and valuable, 
 you will be amply rewarded for your pains in the investi- 
 gation, by the strong conviction which will fasten upon 
 your minds, and which will induce you cheerfully to 
 acknowledge and manfully to defend it. 
 
 It Avould be absurd to accept even the Newtonian 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 231 
 
 philosophy upon the mere dicta of Newton, when you 
 have it in your power to judge of all the proofs and 
 evidence which led him to its adoption. It would be 
 absurd to take upon trust any mathematical result 
 whatever — any proposition of Euclid, for example — 
 when all the steps of the demonstration are at your 
 command. 
 
 A summary catechism of mere facts and doctrines is 
 never put into the hands of youth with a view to make 
 them proficients in science. Youth might in this way, 
 learn to prate like parrots, about the most abstruse prin- 
 ciples of science, and yet be totally ignorant of the basis 
 upon which they rest. Error, as w^ell as truth, may be 
 inculcated upon such a plan. A child may be taught 
 to say that the three angles of a triangle are equal to 
 two right angles — and this would be true. He might, 
 however, with equal ease, be taught to say that the 
 three angles of a triangle are equal to a dozen right 
 angles. In both cases, the party might continue through 
 life to repeat as truth the lesson of his master : and, in 
 both cases, he would be equally ignorant; that is, 
 equally incapable of giving a reason for his belief The 
 absurdity of such a procedure, in reference to the exact 
 and experimental sciences, is sufficiently obvious. And 
 Bacon and Newton have long since exploded the scholas- 
 tic dogmatism of Aristotle and Ptolemy. 
 
 The vast region of moral truth demands the same 
 patient, rigid, inductive process, in order to arrive at 
 satisfactory results. But here, unhappily, the world 
 has hitherto been accustomed to an indolent passive 
 
232 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 obedience to the prevailing system — without presuming 
 to question the why or the icherefore. Master spirits 
 there have been, in ahnost every age, who have nobly 
 stood forth as the energetic and benevolent champions 
 of the intellectual, moral, political, and rehgious rights 
 of the people. But their enlightened sentiments have 
 not yet obtained complete currency in any country ; and 
 in most countries they still remain locked up in the 
 minds of the initiated reflecting few. The efforts of 
 Peter the Great of Russia — of Joseph the Second of 
 Austria — and of the j)resent Grand Signior of Turkey — 
 to introduce certain improvements into their respective 
 empires, will serve to show how difficult and dangerous 
 it is to change popular customs, o^Dinions and habits, 
 even in matters of comparative indifference. Roger 
 Bacon, Copernicus and Galileo, were duly persecuted for 
 adventurmg beyond the prescribed limits of orthodox 
 philosophy. Wickliife, Jerome and Huss became the 
 victims of ecclesiastical bigotry, because they dared to 
 think for themselves in an age when impHcit faith was 
 the only passport to honour in this world, or to salvation 
 in the next. Hampden, Sidney, Russell, Milton, Locke, 
 laboured and wrote and suffered in behalf of human 
 liberty, long before the public mind was prepared to 
 profit by their example or their lessons. 
 
 So slow is the progress of moral truth into the gene- 
 ral mind, that numerous pioneers and martyrs in the 
 holy cause have been required to ensure it an incipient 
 existence, and to give it a progressive impulse ; that it 
 might, peradventure. under happier auspices, grope its 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 233 
 
 way into the dark places and strongholds of error, super- 
 stition and despotism. In recurring to the history of 
 Christendom, during the last three centuries, we shall, 
 on the whole, descry much substantial ground of encou- 
 ragement to persevere in similar exertions for the 
 benefit of mankind. Luther and Newton triumphed 
 where Galileo and Jerome failed. And the writings 
 of Sidney, Milton and Locke prepared the great public, 
 in another age and in a distant hemisphere, to act 
 at the bidding of Franklin, Washington, Adams and 
 Jefferson. 
 
 The art of printing has nearly dissipated the igno- 
 rance and prejudice which had so long and so pertina- 
 ciously resisted the progress of pure science. And the 
 fooleries of the Alchymists and Rosicrucians are not 
 likely to be revived. Science and philosophy have 
 gained the victory, and are suffered to advance, without 
 let or hinderance from any inquisitorial tribunal. 
 
 Moral truth has been less favoured. Still, she has 
 struggled nobly, and much has she achieved. The 
 popular mind has commenced its onward march. It 
 has discovered — what, indeed, Sidney taught, and for 
 which he dared to die a century and a half ago — that 
 kings and rulers were made for the people, and not the 
 people for them. That they are the servants of the 
 people, and that when they cease to promote the weal 
 of the people, they may no longer be trusted with 
 power. The kingly and priestly doctrine of passive 
 obedience and non-resistance has been exploded. The 
 arrogant claims of legitimacy and orthodoxy — that is, 
 
234 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 the code and the creed of the powers that be — ^have 
 been boldly challenged. The infallibilitj^ of the ehurch, 
 and the perfection of bench-made law, are shrewdly sus- 
 pected. And the whole fabric of prescriptive despotism 
 is daily assailed b}^ the intrepid spirit of reformation. 
 
 The world is more indebted to the immortal Franklin 
 for the judicious exhibition and wide diffusion of useful 
 knowledge than to any other individual within the last 
 hundred years. His sagacious and benevolent spirit 
 pervaded not only the mysterious laws of nature, but 
 the whole economy of domestic life and the policy of 
 national governments ; reached the fireside of the pea- 
 sant, the throne of the monarch, the altar of the priest, 
 and the rudimental principles of all civil institutions 
 and political associations. He imparted a momentum 
 to general improvement which has ever since been 
 steadily increasing ; in spite of the determined opposi- 
 tion of arbitrary power and the invincible obstinacy of 
 self-sufficient ignorance. 
 
 Adam Smith elaborated into s^^stematic expansion 
 man}' of the simple truths of the Franklinian school, and 
 thus created the beautiful science of Political Economy; 
 which is now taught in every college, and controverted 
 (and justly, in regard to some of its principles,) in every 
 legislative hall. 
 
 It> is of great importance to young men, and to all 
 men, to be able to appreciate the relative value of differ- 
 ent kinds of truth. Some things may be true, and yet 
 be unimportant. Some may be curious and interesting, 
 and yet be merely speculative. Some may be so pro- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 235 
 
 found and mysterious in their very nature, as to lie 
 utterly beyond our intellectual grasp. To dispute and 
 contend about anj' of these would be idle and uncha- 
 ritable. And yet most controverted points in theology 
 and metaphysics fall under one or another of these 
 heads ; as do nearlj' all tliose which constitute doctrinal 
 heresy in the judgment of most ecclesiastical judicato- 
 ries. Practical moral truth, on the other hand — such 
 truth as directly or indirectly influences conduct — is 
 important just in proportion to its moral practical in- 
 fluence. Every patriot, every philanthropist, every good 
 man, therefore, will esteem it his duty and make it his 
 dailj' study to ascertain the genuine character and ten- 
 dency of all such truth, or of all practical principles, 
 motives and doctrines. 
 
 Thus, for instance, every American citizen is by birth- 
 right a politician : and every man of superior talents, 
 education and influence, ought to be an enlightened 
 politician. It is his duty then to study jDolitics — not 
 merely the general science as taught in a few standard 
 class-books; still less, the narrow, selfish, local, I3arty, 
 personal politics of our village gazettes — but the great 
 principles of government, of legislation, of jurisprudence, 
 of international comity, of natural and social rights, of 
 political economy, in all their applications, general and 
 particular, which are calculated to promote the greatest 
 good of the whole body of the people. He should study 
 to comprehend the remote bearings, as well as the innne- 
 diate consequences of everj- measure. He should look 
 to the permanent welfare of the federal Union to which 
 
236 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 he belongs, as well as to the particular commonwealth 
 of which he is a citizen. Nor ought he ever as a politi- 
 cian, to countenance any system or project manifestly 
 injurious to any section or portion of the great National 
 Kepublic, in order to benefit his own State, or county, or 
 friends, or party. He should consider the preservation 
 of our constitutional union, by all constitutional means, 
 as a sacred obligation — as an object ever to be aimed at, 
 and never to be lost sight of. Personal predilections 
 and local interests ought never to bias his judgment or 
 bribe his integrity. 
 
 The American politician ought to be an Aristides 
 amidst the tumultuous hostilities and convulsions of 
 popular excitement and unprincipled ambition. He 
 ought to be a Franklin, just, moderate, sagacious, calm, 
 self-possessed, fruitful in resources and expedients, yield- 
 ing in trifles, immovable in great principles, — whenever 
 his country is distracted by the clamour and rage of 
 conflicting interests or imaginary wrongs. To soothe, 
 restrain and guide the ignorant infatuated multitude, — 
 to anticipate, counteract and defeat the selfish schemes 
 of false patriots and knavish demagogues — will require 
 no ordinary wisdom, firmness and address. A host of 
 such politicians our country now demands, and Avill ever 
 demand. Shall our colleges furnish them ? 
 
 To show the extent and intricacy of many a question 
 in the ordinary routine of everj' day legislation, the 
 American tariff might be specified. Does one man of 
 a thousand, among either its advocates or opponents, 
 throughout these United States, comprehend its object, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 237 
 
 its character, or its ultimate tendencies ? And yet all 
 are expected to give their suffrages according to the 
 opinion which they 'have been taiujld to entertain re- 
 specting it. I say nothing of its merits — whether good 
 or evil — right or wrong — constitutional or unconstitu- 
 tional — politic or impolitic — judicious or injudicious. I 
 merely submit this as a specimen to illustrate the neces- 
 sity of impartial and thorough investigation, in order to 
 be competent to judge for ourselves and for those over 
 whom we may have influence. Into the arena of party 
 politics or of party religion, you will bear me w^itness, 
 I have never descended. Against the bitterness, the 
 illiberality, the prejudice and the fury of party spirit, 
 whether in politics or religion, I have often warned you. 
 But the politics of no party, and the religion of no church 
 or sect, have ever been lauded or censured by me in your 
 hearing. And my last advice on this topic, is still the 
 same. So far as you may be politicians, live and labour 
 — and, if need be, — die for your country. 
 
 Since I have adverted to the subject of politics, as one 
 of engrossing interest to my countrymen, it may not be 
 ill-timed to caution you against that precocious and inor- 
 dinate desire after public offices, which is so prevalent 
 among our young men at the present day. Scarcely 
 have they completed a hasty novitiate at school or col- 
 lege, and lounged in a law office some six months or a 
 year, off and on, when they manifest a most confident 
 capacity and overweening eagerness to assume the re- 
 sponsibilities, and to wear the honours of office. Now 
 it strikes me, tha.t this is somewhat premature; and 
 
9?J 
 
 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 that it does not savour much of talent, or modesty, or 
 patriotism. Whether they will ever acquire skill by 
 practice — as our self-made physicians occasionally do, 
 after killing a dozen or two of their patients by way of 
 experiment — I pretend not to decide. 
 
 I advise you, however, to mind your own proper busi- 
 ness or profession, whatever it be, until you shall have 
 secured a competency to live on before you ever suffer 
 yourselves to become candidates for popular favour — 
 and, at any rate, before you consent to accept of any 
 office or subordinate appointment involving pecuniary 
 responsibility. Human frailty is not to be trusted under 
 the pressure of wants created by a fashionable style of 
 living, and but inadequately supplied by the meager 
 salary and perquisites, which usually attach to most of 
 the petty offices within the gift of the executive or legis- 
 lature of the Union or of the several States. How many 
 respectable individuals in our country, by acts of fraud 
 and embezzlement, to which their confidential posts 
 afforded peculiar facilities as well as extraordinary 
 temptations, have made shipwreck of their integrity, 
 blasted the fairest prospects, ruined their families, dis- 
 graced their connexions — and, perhaps, in the phrensy 
 of despair, have destroyed their own lives to avoid the 
 shame and the risk of a public trial ! 
 
 Better to labour hard and long — better to eat the 
 bread of carefulness and obscurity many years — than 
 thus to jeopard character under any circumstances, or 
 for any immediate relief or temporary advantage. No 
 man will long be virtuous who is not independent. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 239 
 
 Whoever lives beyond liis income, be it large or small, 
 has passed the limits of strict honesty, and is already in 
 the broad road to ruin. Resolve, then, at the outset, to 
 be independent ; and never to incur a debt which you 
 are unable to j^ay. Labour also to acquire as much 
 property as will ensure your independence in any station 
 which 3^ou may desire to fill, or to which your country 
 may invite you. 
 
 Public offices were created for the public benefit, and 
 not for particular incumbents. They ought always to 
 be conferred on those who are best qualified to serve the 
 people, and never to provide a maintenance for needy 
 aspirants or impudent adventurers. Whoever covets an 
 office merely to live by, gives pretty good evidence that 
 he is not fit for it. Whatever may be said about rota- 
 tion in office — and I like the doctrine, according to its 
 genuine republican and salutary construction — it was 
 never intended that every man should have every office 
 or any office in turn, or that an office should pass suc- 
 cessively to any given number of individuals, however 
 unqualified, but merely that any individual duly quali- 
 fied should be eligible at the pleasure of the electing or 
 appointing power. 
 
 It is the duty of every man to serve his country; but 
 it is not the duty of every man to seek, by any means, 
 foul or fair, to govern his country. A man may be a 
 true patriot, and not boast of his patriotism, or be eter- 
 nally preferring his patriotic claims to the people. Cati- 
 line boasted — Arnold boasted — and, no doubt, their 
 boasting satisfied some well meaning men that they 
 
240 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 were honest patriots. Cincinnatus and Washington, 
 however, fill a different page in the world's history. 
 
 How much of moral practical truth remains yet to be 
 discovered, or still to be introduced to general accept- 
 ance, cannot, of course, be even conjectured. The 
 science of Political Economy is but a branch of practi- 
 cal ethics; and jurisprudence is another. The whole 
 system of legislation bears more or less directly and in- 
 tensely on the moral character of the people. The legis- 
 lator, the statesman, the judge, is a moralist ex cathedra 
 for good or for evil. 
 
 All laws giving an arbitrary direction to the employ- 
 ment of capital — affecting the production, the distribu- 
 tion or the consumption of wealth; the tenure and 
 transfer of real property ; the rights of persons ; popu- 
 lar education ; the elective franchise ; — defining or regu- 
 lating pauperism, bankruptcy, oaths, appeals, rules of 
 evidence, religious tests, trials by jury, freedom of the 
 press, libel, taxation, judicial forms and procedures, the 
 entire criminal code — must necessarily exert a moral in- 
 fluence of some kind. Thus, for example : — 
 
 An injudicious system of Banking, established by law, 
 may open upon a community the floodgates of iniquity, 
 and lead to all manner of swindling and profligacy. 
 Witness the condition of several of the Western States 
 a few years ago. 
 
 Foreign commerce may be so regulated and restricted 
 as to render smuggling a lucrative, and even a reputable 
 business; and thus operate to the discouragement of 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 241 
 
 honest industiy, and to the diminution of the very 
 revenue which it was designed to augment. 
 
 Laws prescribing the market price or interest of 
 money may be so arbitrary and ill-timed as to serve no 
 other end but to tempt men to the legal crime of usury. 
 
 A militia .system, requiring occasional musters of the 
 peojile, may, hy the manner in which they are conducted, 
 be directl}' demoralizing. And it is always inequitable 
 when it exacts as much from the poor man as from the 
 rich — to say nothing of its utter inefficiency, as military 
 men have pronounced it to be in most of the States. 
 
 To incarcerate an honest but unfortunate debtor, is 
 always gratuitous and unavailing oppression. In most 
 instances, the creditor is more culpable than the debtor. 
 The latter is often the mere dupe of the former. In 
 nine cases out of ten, perhaps, the creditor ought to be 
 imprisoned rather than the debtor. 
 
 Three-fourths, it is universally admitted, I believe 
 nine-tenths of the crime, disease, pauperism and wretch- 
 edness in our country, are fairly attributable to intem- 
 perance. That is, to the current and temperate use of 
 ardent spirits by the people generally. The criminal — 
 made so by intemperance — is duly punished. But the 
 cause of his ruin remains untouched. The manufacturer 
 and vender of this moral and physical poison may sit in 
 judgment upon the victim of his avarice, and doom him 
 to the penitentiary or the gallows. 
 
 Gambling — that is, games of hazard — may be inter- 
 dicted under heavy penalties ; while horse-racing and 
 
 VOL. I. 16 
 
242 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 lotteries, which are themselves modes of gambling, and 
 which are always accompanied by every other species of 
 pernicious gambling, may be authorised and encouraged 
 by one and the same legislature. 
 
 Oaths may be administered so frequently, and with so 
 little solemnity, as very nearly to destroy their legal 
 utility, and utterty to divest them, in the eyes of the 
 people, of their religious character and sanctions. 
 Quakers and Moravians are proverbially remarkable 
 for their strict adherence to truth ; and their simple 
 affirmation is much less frequently questioned or sus- 
 pected than the more formal oath which is customarily 
 exacted from other Christians. 
 
 Excessive legislation, no less than vicious legislation, 
 is an evil, and is always to be deprecated. Men will 
 ever make a distinction, with or without reason, between 
 things mala in se, things in themselves unlawful, and 
 mala proJdhita, things which become unlawful from be- 
 ing prohibited by the legislature. 
 
 But I leave to jurists to expose the immoral tendency 
 of particular enactments, and of the whole mysterious 
 and labyrinthian system with which they are officially 
 and most painfully conversant. I merely present, as 
 a universally acknowledged grievance, the delay, the 
 uncertainty, and the expensiveness, of the system. This 
 is an evil which all feel, and of which all complain. 
 
 The army of the law — as it has been significantly 
 styled — comprising judges, magistrates, lawyers, mar- 
 shals, sheriffs, constables, &c. — amounts to some twenty 
 thousand men in the United States : and the annual ex- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 243 
 
 penso of the whole system cannot be less than twelve or 
 fifteen millions of dollars. That there is ample room for 
 improvement therefore, in some fashion, none will deny. 
 How the work is to be achieved, admits of much ques- 
 tion, and assuredly demands the gravest consideration. 
 Some experiments have been made, both in the old 
 w^orld and in the new, which promise lasting benefit — 
 either from the adoption of 7iew codes, or from a judicious 
 revision and simplification of ancient, complex and ill- 
 defined statutes and judicial decisions, and from their 
 lucid classification and arrangement under distinct titles 
 and intelligible principles. 
 
 The regret has been often expressed by several of our 
 most eminent patriots and statesmen, that, wdien our 
 fathers emancipated their country from the tyranny of 
 the British Government, they did not also free it from, 
 what they esteemed, the more galling tyranny of British 
 jurisprudence. Whether such an opinion were too un- 
 qualified, or altogether untenable, fiills not within my 
 humble province to decide. 
 
 My object, in this passing notice, is not to suggest the 
 remedy, but to testify against the evil — if it be an evil 
 — that some of my wiser and more enlightened pupils, 
 whose future lives shall be devoted to legal studies and 
 pursuits, may keep the subject steadily in view, and be 
 induced to give it that thorough, patient, philosophical 
 and patriotic investigation which its immense and daily 
 increasing importance demands. 
 
 It is difficult for the uninitiated to believe that the 
 administration of justice must necessarily assume that 
 
244 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 formidable, tortuous and everlasting delusiveness which 
 has hitherto distinguished it. It is difficult to believe 
 that the law must be made a j^rofound, intricate, and 
 almost iinlearnahle science or mystery — requiring, the life 
 of a Methuselah to comprehend and to expound it. It 
 is difficult to believe that laws cannot be so clearly ex- 
 pressed and rigidly interpreted as to be within the intel- 
 lectual scope of ordinary well educated men, or that such 
 men might not be safely entrusted with their righteous 
 application. It is difficult to believe that puzzling tech- 
 nicalities or cabalistic terms and phrases contribute, in 
 the least, to truth and equity; — however much they 
 may avail the purses of those who are duly skilled in 
 the adroit use of them. 
 
 I cannot think well of a system which is peculiarly 
 onerous and vexatious to peaceable, honest, industrious, 
 meritorious citizens ; and auspicious chiefly to the quar- 
 relsome, the idle, the mischievous, the unprincipled — to 
 the wily knave or reckless desperado — whose case can 
 never be made worse, but may be greatly alleviated 
 under the operation of its complex and ticklish mar 
 chinery. The former therefore dread and studiously 
 avoid it; while the latter are eager to court its smiles 
 and to presume on the chances of victory or acquittal. 
 The innocent and the injured are harassed and op- 
 pressed by it : the guilty and the litigious alone look 
 to it for favours. And, in both cases, the community 
 is a grievous sufferer. 
 
 The every day operations of our common law courts 
 (as I have witnessed them in other States,) exhibit 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 245 
 
 proof enough of the chicanery, the charlatanry, the ab- 
 surdity, the mockery and the abominable extortions to 
 which the liigh-mmded freemen of my country are often 
 subjected in their pursuit of justice. 
 
 I liave heard veteran lawyers declare — and they ought 
 to know, and to their opinion I always most respectfully 
 defer — that an honest unlettered farmer of good common 
 sense, would, Avithout the aid of any other law than that 
 which is engraved upon the human heart, decide the 
 petty differences which usually arise among neighbours 
 more equitably and satisfactorily, in general, than is 
 now Ijradicahle in any court whatever. Than is 7i(yw 
 practicable, they add ; because, allowing the decision to 
 be right, yet the expense incurred will make it a ivrmig — 
 will convert justice into injustice. And, in forty-nine 
 cases out of fifty, those who win in court according to 
 law, will lose in purse, and be much the w^orse for their 
 gains. 
 
 " Laws (says Mr. Jefferson) ought to be made for men 
 of ordinary understanding, and should therefore be con- 
 strued by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their 
 meaning ought not to be sought for in metaphysical sub- 
 tleties, which may make anything mean everything or 
 nothing at pleasure." It should not be left to the 
 sophisms of advocates w^hose trade it is to make the 
 worse appear the better reason, and to clear their clients 
 per fas et nefas, or to hold them in suspense until they 
 shall be fairly fleeced of all their earthly substance, and 
 be no longer worth the serving. 
 
 If the system which has hitherto prevailed, be, in its 
 
246 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 very nature, per23etual and unalterable — if nothing' can 
 be done to relieve future generations from the dogmas 
 of the present or the past — if we must continue to pin 
 our faith upon the sleeve or the ermine of a series of 
 courts without beginning or ending — then let us boast 
 no more of the march of mind and the triumphs of 
 liberty. Let us rather sit down in despair, with folded 
 arms, under the dark shadow of the deep-rooted tree of 
 despotism, which has been growing, and flourishing, and 
 spreading wide its branches, ever since the age of good 
 king Alfred, or at least since the glorious epoch of 
 Magna Charta, and which seems destined to grow and 
 flourish while an English world shall exist to feel its in- 
 fluence, and to acknowledge its blighting dominion. 
 
 I put all this, however, hj'pothetically — not dogmati- 
 cally. I admire the theory of the common law, when it 
 is said to be reason and the perfection of reason — or the 
 " application of common sense, disciplined and directed by 
 certain established principles, to the affairs of men." The 
 most perfect civil and penal codes that human wisdom 
 could devise, would not be literally and invariably adapted 
 to all times, cases and contingencies. Much latitude of 
 construction and discretionary jurisdiction would still, of 
 necessity, attach to the judicial tribunals. In all civil 
 cases not clearly provided for by statute, they would be 
 compelled to assume original powers and to decide ac- 
 cording to the spirit and analogies of the great legal 
 system of their country, and agreeably to the universally 
 recognized principles of reason and equity. Such is the 
 beautiful theory which w^e already possess. It is the 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 247 
 
 abuse and perversion of the theory — sanctioned by im- 
 memorial usage, and rendered capricious, versatile, cap- 
 tious and oppressive in its practical applications — that 
 jDrovokes censure and denunciation. The decrees and 
 judgments of courts, instead of being subjected to the 
 severe scrutiny and critical revision, to the controlling 
 power and modifying process, which the theory implies 
 and enjoins, have too often usurped the prerogatives of 
 the theory itself, and been blindly received as the very 
 oracles of reason and justice. Whether it is possible to 
 recur once more to simple elementary principles — to 
 avail ourselves of the wisdom and experience of other 
 ages and nations — and thus to set out u^^on a safer plan, 
 and to pursue a more natural, direct and obvious course, 
 under the guidance of pure unsophisticated reason — will 
 be seen when our future Marshalls and Kents and 
 Livingstons shall have expended their intellectual stores 
 and vigour upon the mighty task. 
 
 Cicero in his treatise De Legibus, remarks, " that law 
 {i.e. general, not positive law.) is the perfection of rea- 
 son, seated in nature, commanding what is right, and 
 prohibiting what is wrong. Its beginning (he adds) is 
 to be traced to times before any law was written, or any 
 express form of government adopted." And wherever 
 natural reason retains and exerts her j^aramount do- 
 minion and plastic influence, unchecked by absolute or 
 arbitrary power on the one hand, and unperverted by 
 the ignorance or passions of the people or of the 2Deoi3le's 
 servants on the other, no system of written or unwritten 
 law^ will prove incurably and desperately vicious. It 
 
248 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 will be gradually meliorated and reformed with the im- 
 proving and advancing spirit of the age. It will not be 
 deemed sufficient to ascertain what the rules of courts are : 
 — the policy of the rules themselves will be open to dis- 
 cussion ; and they will be fairly and thoroughly canvassed. 
 
 I am perfectly aware that innovation is not always 
 improvement. And that the wildest visionaries may be 
 found among radical reformers, political Solomons, and 
 economical utilitarians, as well as among religious zealots 
 and enthusiasts. But before an enlightened, sober, re- 
 flecting, practical people, the schemes even of the vision- 
 ary and the fanatic may be canvassed without danger. 
 They will ultimately be estimated according to their 
 value. 
 
 With us, the people are sovereign. They rule our 
 rulers. They give the tone and impulse to the entire 
 machinery of government. They constitute the empire 
 of public opinion — the last tribunal, from which there 
 lies no appeal. When they are wrong, all is wrong. 
 Improvement of every kind must commence with them 
 and be consummated by them. Every new principle of 
 action — every new moral or political truth requiring a 
 change in the popular habits — must first take root and 
 effect among the people, before it will reach the halls of 
 legislation or the bench of justice. The wise and the 
 good, indeed, must first agitate, arouse, and inform the 
 people; — but the joeople themselves must decide what 
 shall eventually be law and usage. How true, and yet 
 how lightly appreciated is the maxim of our republican 
 sages, that, upon the broad basis of universal intelligence 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 249 
 
 and virtue must rest the proud fabric of our boasted 
 liberties and popular institutions ? 
 
 Many wise men in Europe view with no friendly eye 
 the progress of knoAvledge among the people. They 
 augur no good, but much evil, from the universal spirit 
 of improvement and revolution which is everywhere 
 manifest. They anticipate the utter subversion of 
 ancient and venerable institutions, and the probable 
 prostration of all order, religion and government. They 
 dread the influence of the schoolmaster who is abroad, 
 and the lessons of reform which he dihgently incul- 
 cates. With their apprehensions I do not sympathize. 
 But with us, where every man already possesses the 
 elective franchise and is himself eligible to office, there 
 remains no alternative, but either to submit to the 
 government of an ignorant mass, who are themselves 
 controlled by knavish demagogues, or to give instruc- 
 tion to that omnipotent mass that they may be fitted 
 to govern, or to exercise the right of choosing our 
 governors in a judicious and independent manner. 
 
 A little learning, it has been said, is a dangerous 
 thing : and so it is, w^henever it is mistaken for a great 
 deal. And here is the danger to which we are now ex- 
 posed. Popular education is all the rage. Very well — 
 I am an advocate of popular education. I will go as far 
 and do as much to promote popular education as any 
 man in the commonwealth. But let us keep in view 
 the legitimate ends of a popular education. Is it to 
 supersede or to nuUify every other species of education ? 
 Is it to elevate every man who can read and write, to 
 
250 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 the rank and dignity of a dictator in the body politic ? 
 Is it to convert the labourer into a statesmen, anti the 
 workshop into a nursery of faction and discontent ? 
 
 A vast deal of pains are taking by certain individuals 
 in various parts of the country, to operate on the pas- 
 sions and prejudices of the worl'ing people, as they are 
 styled, for purposes best known to themselves. — As if 
 the said working people were subjected to any priva- 
 tions, hardships or disabilities, which are not common to 
 every class, order and description of our citizens. When 
 or where, since the foundation of our Eepubhc, has a 
 working man been denied a single j)rivilege or excluded 
 from a single office, simply because he was a working 
 man ? Have not the people always exercised the right 
 of judgment and of suifrage unrestricted and uncon- 
 trolled ? A working man stands on precisely the same 
 footing with every other man. If the people choose to 
 honour him with their confidence, no power on earth 
 can hinder them. Other things being equal, the work- 
 ing man — the farmer — the mechanic — has the chances 
 decidedly in his favour. And all this is just as it should 
 be. It is in accordance with the spirit of our Constitu- 
 tion — with the genius of republicanism — and with the 
 character of all our institutions. 
 
 But, then, the mere fact of being a working man does 
 not therefore qualify a man for pubhc office or entitle 
 him to it. He may be a good blacksmith — and as a 
 good blacksmith, be a very respectable and meritorious 
 citizen. But, assuredly, because he is a good blacksmith, 
 it does not follow that he should represent his district 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 251 
 
 in Congress or his country at the court of St. J<aincs. Tf, 
 however, in addition to his mechanical skill, or in spite 
 of the disadvantages of his position — if by extraordinary 
 genius and persevering application — he should acquire 
 the requisite intellectual qualifications, then he may and 
 doubtless Mdll enact the honourable part of a Roger 
 Sherman or of a Benjamin Franklin in the councils of 
 his country or among the diplomatists of Europe. But 
 neither Sherman nor Franklin rose from obscurity be- 
 cause they had been bred mechanics ; but because they 
 nobly cultivated the faculties with which they were 
 gifted, and thus created for themselves a path to future 
 eminence. And the same path to glory is still open to 
 every aspiring cottager's son in our land. No patrician 
 blood — no hereditary wealth — no family influence is 
 necessary to ensure success to any youth who will 
 submit to the training and discipline essential to the 
 end at which he aims. Ought more than this to be 
 coveted or conceded ? 
 
 Now, a common school education will not do this — 
 Lyceum lectures will not do this — no system of instruc- 
 tion designed for the body of the people w^ill do this. 
 They ma}^ be taught enough by these means to become 
 more useful citizens, more skilful farmers and mechanics, 
 and better judges of public men and of public measures. 
 And with the elements of knowledge, thus acquired, 
 many w^ill advance to higher attainments, and finally 
 reach, perhaps, the most exalted rank of intellectual 
 culture or of political distinction. 
 
 To become an accomplished statesman, a profound 
 
252 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 jurist, or an erudite scholar, must constitute the busi- 
 ness of life — whether the apprenticeship be served at 
 the plough, in the workshop, or in the college. 
 
 Within the whole range of moral research, religion, 
 of course, must ever occupy the first and highest rank. 
 No reflecting person can be indifferent to it. Man is a 
 religious animal, and he cannot, if he would, divest him- 
 self of its influence, under some form or other. Religion, 
 like civil government, has ever been found indispensable 
 to social existence. If religion, like civil government, 
 were left to the option of human wisdom and discre- 
 tion; — still, as there is much room for choice among 
 the various forms of civil government and modes of ad- 
 ministration, so would there be ample scope for the exer- 
 cise of judgment in selecting from among the numerous 
 religions in our world, that which, on the whole, is best. 
 In this view of the subject, it is probable that no diver- 
 sity of opinion would exist among ourseh^s, as to the 
 particular religion that should be adopted. I imagine 
 that, if all our wise statesmen and patriots were assem- 
 bled in general congress, to choose a religion for their 
 country, they would, without controversy or hesitation, 
 vote for the Christian religion. I do not say, for any 
 one of its perverted sectarian forms, but for simple un- 
 adulterated Christianity. I think they would prefer it 
 to Judaism or Mohammedanism, or to an}' species of 
 Paganism or modern Illuminism. If so, we have at 
 least as cogent reasons in behalf of Christianity, as we 
 have in behalf of a republican government — to the ex- 
 clusion of all others. It is the best we can find. We 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 253 
 
 must take it, or be content with a worse. For with no 
 religion, we cannot exist. Since then a religion we must 
 and will have — and since the Christian religion is incom- 
 parably the best ever known — who will, who can honestly 
 object to it ? 
 
 This simple view of the subject furnishes also no 
 mean a priori argument in favour of the higher and 
 more aAvful claims of Christianity to the faith of man- 
 kind. It is the best — and therefore most likely to be 
 true — to be, namely, w^hat it purports to be, a revelation 
 from the Deity. 
 
 My object, however, at present, is not to argue this or 
 any other matter. It is merely to guard you against 
 that specious sophistry and sluggish incredulity which 
 too often check or preclude all serious inquiry at the 
 very threshold, and leave the mind forever in darkness, 
 doubt and error. Christianity craves no aid or indul- 
 gence from human ingenuity or from human Aveakness. 
 There — in the Bible — lies the unsophisticated record of 
 her birth and character. Examine for yourselves. She 
 has had her enemies. These have slandered and misre- 
 presented her. Listen not to their ex parte testimony. 
 She has had false friends. And these have traitorously 
 betrayed her cause, and perverted her noblest attributes 
 for the basest purposes. Be not deceived by their plausi- 
 ble glosses or dogmatical interpretations. 
 
 Distinguish between the truth and excellency of Chris- 
 tianity as taught by Christ and his Apostles, and the 
 contradictory, extravagant and absurd exhibitions of it 
 by any merely human teacher or authority whatever. 
 
254 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 These may all be wrong ; and 3- et Christianity may be 
 good and true notwithstanding. Much infidelity, no 
 doubt, has arisen from a superficial glance at Chris- 
 tianity, as displayed in the books, creeds, formularies, 
 ceremonies, temper and conduct of certain Christian 
 sects and individuals. Even the ingenious and philo- 
 sophical Hume confessed that he had never perused the 
 New Testament with attention. Probably, most living 
 skeptics would, on inquiry, be found equally ignorant. 
 They take no pains to separate the gold from the dross 
 — the reality from its counterfeit. They look at the 
 muddy and poisoned streams, but never ascend to the 
 pure and living fountain. Whatever appears irrational, 
 or puerile, or degrading, or monstrous in Christian tenets, 
 rites or practice, they hastily ascribe to the Christian 
 system ; and then deliberately sit down " in the seat of 
 the scornful" — as if the question were settled positively 
 and forever. Be not seduced by such an example — 
 however exalted may be their station or their talents. 
 Their procedure is as preposterous, as it may prove ruin- 
 ous and irretrievable. 
 
 The Bible, of course, is the only authentic source of 
 information respecting Christian truth. It never can be 
 learned, in all its extent and genuine spirit, from any 
 human author or from any living teacher. Nor will it 
 ever be fully discovered hy those who consult the Scrip- 
 tures merely or chiefly in search of argument to sustain 
 a pre-conceived system of theology — a system in which 
 they may have been educated — a system which they 
 may have bound themselves, by the most solemn vows. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 255 
 
 to inculcate — a system which has been adopted, and, as 
 it were, incorporated with their habitual thoughts, feel- 
 ings and actions, pre^ iouslj- to any study of the Bible 
 whatever — a system, which, instead of modestly ap- 
 proaching the sacred oracles and humbly listening to 
 the divine response, boldl}- and presumptuously brings 
 Heaven's record to the test and to the torture of its own 
 self-suflBcient, infallible and despotic tribunal. 
 
 In our country a loud and angry clamour has been 
 recently raised against Christian ministers, and Chris- 
 tian philanthropists, and Christian efforts to spread the 
 gospel : — as if a general conspiracy had been formed to 
 undermine our political fabric and to usurp the civi] 
 government. We hear much about priestcraft, and ec- 
 clesiastical ambition, and religious intolerance — whether 
 w4th or without reason, I shall not inquire. I entertain 
 no alarming apprehensions on this score, from any sect, 
 church, or party, which freely gives the Bible to the 
 people, and which urges upon them the duty of studying 
 it, and which permits them to exercise their own judg- 
 ment m its interpretation. But I do apprehend danger 
 from the enemies of the Bible, whether avowed or secret, 
 whether infidel or Christian in name. The Bible is 
 either true or false. No honest man, believing it true, 
 could in conscience withhold it from the people. If 
 false, by what better or severer test can it be tried than 
 the ordeal of public opinion? Infidels, if candid and 
 sincere, cannot consistently dread its influence : espe- 
 cially as they do not impugn its moral precepts, or pre- 
 tend that it is hostile to liberty and the rights of man ; 
 
256 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 and more especially as it does not come in competition 
 with the higher claims of any other rehgion which they 
 would offer as a substitute. 
 
 What then shall we say of an}' class or denomination 
 of Christians, who, while they profess to reverence the 
 Bible, as their own standard of faith and practice, do 
 nevertheless studiously and s^'stematically refuse it to 
 the people, as too profound and mysterious for their 
 comprehension? The truth is, they are actuated by 
 selfish, sinister, sectarian motives. They are aware that 
 their own peculiar craft would be endangered, — that 
 the simple purity and verity of the gospel would be 
 arrayed against all their hypocritical pretensions, — and 
 that their usurpations over the consciences and under- 
 standings of the people would be uprooted and dissi- 
 pated forever. Are there any such Ghristians in our 
 country? — And do they prefer accusations of dishonesty, 
 intrigue, bigotrj' or ambition against their fellow-Chris- 
 tians ? Do the}' charge the friends and distributors of 
 the Bible with the foul project of compassing a union of 
 Church and State ? If there be such men among us — 
 and if they be actuated by such a spirit — we venture to 
 lay the sin and the danger, of which they complain, at 
 their own doors. They are precisely the lurking, in- 
 sidious, Jesuitical foes to Christianity and to both civil 
 and religious liberty, whom our real patriots have most 
 reason to dread and to guard against. Their actions 
 and their dogmas contradict their specious declarations 
 and ostentatious parade of zeal in the sacred cause which 
 they affect to espouse. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 257 
 
 Should this announcement, hjpothetical as it is, be 
 deemed invidious or uncharitable, — I beg to ask my 
 hearers what the}^ would think of any number of 
 American statesmen, who should, while professing to 
 be constitutional republicans, be artfully decrying the 
 Constitution, and disparaging its merits and sanctions, 
 or aiming to prevent its circulation among the people : — 
 or who should declare it to be a capital crime, like 
 treason or murder, for any man to read, or to possess 
 a copy of, the Constitution ; or who should insist on 
 their exclusive right, at all times, to substitute their 
 own commentary or interpretation in lieu of the instru- 
 ment itself; or to issue their own proclamation as the 
 paramount law of the land ? Would it be uncharitable 
 to doubt whether the said professing constitutional re- 
 publicans were truly and honestly constitutional repub- 
 licans at all ? Thus much, on this topic, we offer in self- 
 defence. We have ever advocated the cause of libert}* 
 and the Bible. In the present state of the world, w^e 
 believe the cause to be one and indivisible. We mean 
 to wrong no man or set of men. The case supposed 
 may be purely fictitious — and if so, our application and 
 deductions will be harmless and inoffensive. 
 
 Young men, and old men too, are exceedingly credu- 
 lous oftentimes in listening to the tragic story of Chris- 
 tian enormities; — as if every abomination perpetrated 
 under the Christian name, were chargeable to Chris- 
 tianit3\ And because a spmimis Christianity has been 
 for ages lording it over the world — proudly seated upon 
 the throne of empire, and controlling the policy and the 
 
 VOL. I. IT 
 
258 EDUCATIOXAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 destinies of nations — they therefore infer that gemiine 
 Christianity must also be ever seeking after political 
 supremacy. 
 
 True it is, religion has been and still is interwoven 
 with the civil polity of all nations upon our globe, with 
 only one exception. All governments, ancient and 
 modern, Jewish, Pagan, Mohammedan, (and even Chris- 
 tian since the beginning of the fourth century,) had and 
 have their religious establishments. And all religions, 
 except the Christian, seem naturally and necessarily to 
 enter into the very essence and structure of the govern- 
 ments which sustain and protect them. But here we 
 take our stand, and peremptorily challenge the universe 
 to produce an instance of any other rehgion besides the 
 Christian, which has ever obtained a permanent exist- 
 ence among men, mthout the aid of human government 
 — of the sceptre or the sword. No such case can be 
 cited. 
 
 Be it known then — and let the calumniators of the 
 gospel blush while they are constrained to admit the 
 fact — that, when the Christian religion was first promul- 
 gated, it disclaimed and rejected all State alliances. In- 
 stead of courting the smiles and patronage of any earthly 
 potentate, it boldly met the frowns and hostility of every 
 government under heaven. Silent and suffering, patient 
 and forbearing, charitable and unassuming, self-denying 
 and unambitious, it advanced in tlie popular favour by 
 its own native beauty and intrinsic excellence, by the 
 energy of truth and love, by the faithful and benevolent 
 labours, under God, of its own devoted and disinterested 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 259 
 
 advocates. It encountered national Judaism in Pales- 
 tine, and national Paganism throughout the rest of the 
 world. For three long centuries, it sustained the unmi- 
 tigated and malignant assaults of philosophy, learning, 
 wit, pride, power and superstition. When a majority of 
 the people had declared in its favour, the politic Con- 
 stantine became its champion and protector; and artful!}- 
 adopted it as the State religion, instead of heathenism, 
 which, until then, had constituted part and parcel of the 
 imperial code, as it had previously done of the republi- 
 can and regal systems, up to the days of Numa and 
 Romulus. 
 
 Here then, ancient usage was followed — the usage, 
 namely, of Pagan Rome. Her emperor had been the 
 head and hierophant of her religion and her temples ; 
 and he was not the personage to divest himself volun- 
 tarily of any of his inherited or acquired prerogatives. 
 His courtiers too were as pliant and obsequious as cour- 
 tiers, at all times, are wont to be. Had every Christian 
 bishop in the empire denied his right to rule the church, 
 and protested against this spiritual usurpation ; still, the 
 master of the world would have been at no loss for 
 instruments to effect his designs. The priests of Jupiter 
 — dignified Roman Senators — ambitious aspirants of any 
 name or rank — would have eagerly assumed the crosier 
 and the mitre, and discharged, with becoming gravity, 
 the prescribed functions of their now exalted and pow- 
 erful order. Princes can, at pleasure, manufacture 
 orthodox tools out of unprincipled sycophants. And 
 no doubt, at that period, there were enough of the right 
 
260. EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 stamp, within the pale of the visible Christian church, to 
 meet the demand. 
 
 From the reign of Constantine dovm. to the present 
 day, the Christian religion, in some form or other, has 
 been incorporated with the civil government, or esta- 
 blished by law, in every Christian land, with the solitary 
 exception of our own Republic. History, I repeat, does 
 not record another exception : nor can another be found 
 in our world at this moment.* Genuine religious liberty 
 has never been enjoyed in any other country. The very 
 acme of modern attainment, even in enlightened Chris- 
 tian Europe, is only a species of ill-natured, stinted, 
 grudging, jealous, extorted toleration of dissenterism. 
 If persecuting bigotry no longer celebrates its acts of 
 faith, or lights the fires of martyrdom, or fills with vic- 
 tims the cells of its inquisitorial dungeons, it is because 
 it clgres not. And pray, why not dare to do nou' what 
 Constantine, and all his successors in Church and State, 
 for some twelve or fifteen centuries, did not scruple to 
 perform ? It is because the people are reading the Bible, 
 and unlearning the cruel and slavish dogmas of worldly 
 domineering hierarchs. Wherever the Bible has had 
 unchecked circulation, there the demon of persecution 
 has become comparatively powerless. Let Britain and 
 Spain, in contrast, serve for proof and comment. 
 
 Is it possible, then, that the advocates of the Bible 
 can be plotting against the liberties of their country, 
 while in the very act of dispensing to the people the 
 
 * France, perhaps, excepted, since the revolution of July, 1830. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 261 
 
 New Testament, wliicli is the most perfect charter and 
 guarantee of human rights, ever yet contrived by man 
 or bestowed by Heaven? Let Mr. Jefferson speak to 
 this point. Christianity is, says he, "a reUgion of all 
 others most friendly to Uberty, science, and the freest 
 expansion of the human mind — when brought to the 
 original purity and simplicity of its benevolent insti- 
 tutor." 
 
 The American people, before and at the period of the 
 Eevolution, were better acquainted with the Bible, pro- 
 bably, than any other nation. This fact may, in part, 
 account for their devotion to the cause of liberty and 
 independence ; whilst the neighbouring French colonies 
 of the Canadas, among whom the Bible was compara- 
 tively unknown, adhered to the government of the 
 mother country. And, for the same reason, I suppose, 
 it may be announced, without breach of charity, and in 
 strict accordance with historic verity, that, among Pro- 
 testant Christians universally, juster notions of liberty 
 are entertained and exemplied in practice, than among 
 Roman Catholic Christians. If the fact be not so, — 
 (not, indeed, in reference to eminently enlightened and 
 gifted individuals, but to nations and the body of the 
 people generally,) — I shall cheerfully reject the infer- 
 ence drawn from it. 
 
 But, we are told, priests covet power. — That they 
 Avould all be popes if they could. — That they are as 
 ambitious as Caesar, and when they cannot be first in 
 Eome, they strive to become first in a village. — That, 
 if the most aspiring among them cannot attain their 
 
262 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 object in any existing church, or become the leaders of 
 existing sects, thc}^ forthwith set up for themselves, be- 
 come the apostles of a new doctrine, and the generals of 
 a new army in the church militant. This charge, to a 
 considerable extent, may be well founded, for aught I 
 know to the contrary. 
 
 I think it may, with more truth however, be affirmed, 
 as it has been, that "the grand pursuit of priests, as of 
 all other bodies of men, is power ; and that their pecu- 
 liar object is power over the belief of men," — which, of 
 course, includes or ensures every other sort of power. I 
 here distinguish between personal ambition, and the 
 ambition of a body or order of men. Between the sinrit 
 of corps [esprit de corps^ and individual interest. The 
 individual may be perfectly honest and disinterested, so 
 far as he is himself directly concerned, and yet be blindty 
 and absolutely devoted to the systematic advancement 
 and elevation of his own particular fraternity or profes- 
 sion. This ambitious self- aggrandizing spirit is as cha- 
 racteristic of lawyers, physicians, tradesmen, merchants, 
 and other bodies of men, as it is of priests — though not 
 so oljjectionable or dangerous in the former as in the 
 latter. And what is remarkable, a numerous body or 
 corporation of men will steadily and ardently pursue a 
 system of measures to effect their favourite object, which 
 not one of them would resort to or justify for his own 
 special benefit. Thus it is that the religious sects in our 
 country, with probably few exceptions, are labouring to 
 augment their respective numbers, wealth, power and 
 influence; — and by means too, oftentimes, which a 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 263 
 
 private Christian would be asliamecl, in his own ease, 
 to employ or openly to approve. It is precisely from 
 this irresponsible spirit of professional or sectarian am- 
 bition — as distinct from personal or individual am])ition 
 — that some good men augur peril to our civil liberties, 
 or, at least, to our domestic tranquillity; and, at any 
 rate, to all the generous and ennobling charities of genu- 
 ine Christianity. 
 
 "When I witness the strifes, the controversies, the mu- 
 tual jealousies and recriminations of opposing rival 
 sects, I am constrained to ask, what might not result, 
 should any one of these gain the ascendency, after years 
 of angry, embittered and furious conflict? For a ma- 
 jority, be it remembered, icUl govern. And a majority 
 of religionists of any name w^iatever, if sufficiently large 
 and powerful, united and determined, reckless and un- 
 principled, or ignorant, deluded and head-strong, can 
 do what they please — can alter the Constitution — can 
 demolish the government — can establish Judaism, or 
 Paganism, or Deism, or Atheism, or Romanism, or 
 Quakerism, or Episcopacy, or Presbytery. 
 
 It is well known that the several sects are now Ijoldly 
 striving to organize sectarian seminaries of education, 
 of all gradations, in everj^ part of the country, in order 
 (say their enemies) to exert i\\Q greatest possible influ- 
 ence upon the rising generation. We see them every- 
 where issuing sectarian newspapers and journals, which, 
 while they profess to be exclusively religious, do not fail 
 (say their enemies again) to exhibit their own political 
 temper and predilections, on all convenient occasions. 
 
264 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 And Ave may, (continue their accusers,) ere long, see 
 them mingling directly in all the party political agita- 
 tations of the day, and becoming important engines in 
 our popular elections. It is an easy matter to give to 
 every political measure a religious aspect. Not a ques- 
 tion can he agitated in any legislative assembly but may 
 be associated with religion. Every measure will be 
 deemed riglit, and therefore religious, by its advocates — 
 while the same measure will be denounced as wrong, and 
 therefore anti-religious, by its opponents. The most in- 
 different question imaginable is capable, in this way, of 
 being presented to the people as a religious question. 
 Such was the actual state of the Christian world, only a 
 few centuries ago, when every principle or question in 
 politics, in morals, in science and philosophy, was matter 
 of religion, and subject to ecclesiastical regulation. 
 
 No feeling, sentiment or passion is so strong and un- 
 controllable as religious passion ; and, in the bosoms of 
 the ignorant unreflecting multitude, it usually amounts 
 to phrensy. Candidates for office, in such a season of 
 religious ferment, will, of course, put themselves at the 
 head of one or another of the dominant sects. A 
 majority of some one sect may thus eventually prevail 
 in the State and National Legislatures — and then the 
 government virtually falls into their hands — and then, 
 who shall check or restrain them, when the people them- 
 selves have become their abettors and coadjutors? Sup- 
 pose a large majority of the citizens of Tennessee were 
 zealous aspiring Jews — would not all the offices in the 
 State be speedily filled by Jews ? And if this were the 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 265 
 
 case throughout the Union, would not ever}' officer of 
 the Federal Government be, of course, a Jew? And 
 what should hinder them, if so disposed, from establish- 
 ing by law, the Mosaic ritual and Temple worship as 
 the religion of the nation ? The name being changed, 
 the argument is equall}' applicable to any Christian de- 
 nomination. Nor would the prospect be in the least 
 brightened by substituting infidelity for Christianity. 
 All the evils now contemplated have hitherto proceeded 
 from mfidel Christianity or Christian infidelit}' . For, in 
 the garb and under the guise of Christianity, infidelity 
 has perpetrated deeds of cruelty and madness which 
 Paganism might blush at. 
 
 Infidelit}' too, in its own proper character, has been 
 equally intolerant, bigoted, persecuting and ambitious, 
 whenever it has had a theatre for action. Infidelity 
 may aspire to the mitre or triple crown, in one age or 
 country — and in another, erect altars to the goddess of 
 reason, and exterminate all who refuse to offer incense 
 to its idols. There are, no doubt, infidels in our coun- 
 try, who, to gain political power, w^ould either court a 
 religious part}^, or denounce any and all religious sects, 
 just as the popular sentiment might happen to be pro- 
 pitious to the one course or the other. Had Frederick 
 the Great been as pious or superstitious as James the 
 Second, his host of literary parasites would have been 
 as religious in appearance, as they were infidel in heart. 
 Unprincipled men never hesitate about names or means. 
 Our liberties ma}- be abridged or cloven down under a 
 Christian or infidel pretext — by the orthodox or the 
 
266 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 heterodox — by the Puritan or the liberal — by the 
 Catholic or the Protestant — whenever the 'people shall 
 be prepared to rallj^ around the standard of any despe- 
 rate adventurer — hut not till then. 
 
 Thus far I have merely traced to its natural conse- 
 quences, the tendency of all religious party spirit, when 
 acting strongly upon the popular mind. If there be 
 danger in the case, as has been proclaimed and reite- 
 rated by a thousand pens and tongues — or if there be 
 no danger whatever — and I leave others to judge — the 
 argument, as addressed to the people, proves invincibly, 
 that, in order to avert the danger, or to be assured that 
 no danger threatens, they must become sufficiently en- 
 lightened and wary to be above the arts and beyond the 
 reach of any insidious traitor or canting hypocrite. 
 
 In our country, all religions are equally favoured and 
 protected by the Constitution and laws. Not a shadow 
 of preference is shown to any one over the rest. The 
 rights of conscience are secured to all men without dis- 
 tinction. Here there is perfect equality. The Consti- 
 tution speaks not of toleratimi. Toleration is a term 
 unknown to our codes. Dissenters and heretics we can- 
 not have among us. Nor has any legal tribunal the 
 authority to arraign or harass or question any mortal on 
 account of his creed or mode of worship. All religious 
 sects stand on precisely the same footing. They are 
 equally orthodox and equally respectable in the eye of 
 the law. This being the fact, what right have the seve- 
 ral sects to abuse, asperse, and anathematize one an- 
 other? What right has one sect to denounce and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 267 
 
 unchurch another sect? What right has one church, 
 professing to reverence the Bible, to pronounce another 
 church, equally acknowledging the Bible, as its stand- 
 ard, to be unchristian or heretical? Or what right has 
 either to reprobate the other as aiming at an ecclesiasti- 
 cal establishment? When the fiinrit of both is the same: 
 and the spirit would, if it could, create a despotism over 
 both Church and State. 
 
 What right has any preacher of the gospel to inveigh 
 against the absent and unoffending members of another 
 sect — to assail their principles and their motives — and 
 to render them as odious to his own people as possibly 
 he can ? Whence did he learn his lessons of charity 
 and meekness — or acquire that moral courage which 
 prompts him to say of his fellow-Christians puljlicly and 
 collectively what he would not dare to utter, in a private 
 circle, of any one of them individually and by name ? Is 
 he specially privileged to infringe the Constitution of his 
 country and the gospel of peace — to deal out slander by 
 the wholesale — and, with impunity, to libel his neigh- 
 bours by the thousand ? If the common tale-bearer, the 
 vulgar tea-table gossip, the officious retailer of village 
 scandal, is universally despised — -if the malignant ca- 
 lumniator, the deliberate unprovoked slanderer, is liable 
 to severe legal pains and penalties — what shall be said 
 of the puny, arrogant, inflated, self-sufficient zealot, who, 
 from the pulpit, hurls his poisoned shafts, Sunday after 
 Sunday, against his brethren, the followers, it may be, 
 of another shepherd, just as wise, liberal and infallible 
 as himself? No species of persecution is so vexatious, 
 
258 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 exasperating and injurious, as that which fastens a bad 
 name upon its victims. The law of libel and defama-' 
 tion ought to reach the pulpit as Avell as the private 
 domicil. 
 
 A preacher, undoubtedly, has the right to promulgate 
 whatever doctrines, or to inculcate whatever lessons he 
 pleases, or whatever his church or party may require. 
 But he is not the keeper of other men's consciences, nor 
 the judge of their actions — of those, I mean, who do not 
 appertain to his own flock or sect. Besides, he is never 
 candid when he enters upon controversial ground. He 
 never deals fairly with those whose tenets he oppugns. 
 He bears false witness against his neighbour. I have 
 seldom heard from the pulpit a just representation of any 
 sect which it was the design of the preacher to attack or 
 to criminate. Nor have I ever read, in any polemical 
 treatise, a full and impartial account of the sentiments 
 or practice of the party which it was the object of the 
 author to confute, expose or write down. 
 
 I am willing that all sects should manage their own 
 affairs in their own way, and within their own legitimate 
 spheres. That they should believe what they please, 
 and employ as much spiritual terrorism, as they deem ex- 
 pedient, among their own voluntary disciples and asso- 
 ciates. I leave them where the Constitution has placed 
 them. Let them never pass the boundaries of their 
 own spiritual territories, nor invade another's dominion. 
 Let them learn to treat each other with courtesy and 
 Christian charity — with that "charity which suftereth 
 long, and is kind ; which envieth not ; which vaunteth 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 209 
 
 not itself, and is not pnfted up.— Which sceketh not her 
 own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil : rejoiceth 
 not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ;— Which bear- 
 eth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, 
 endureth all things. " 
 
 If I believe my neighbour, or any entire sect, to be 
 living in darkness and error— such as must, in my opin- 
 ion, endanger their salvation— I may go to him or them, 
 and endeavour kindly to enlighten, convince, reclaim 
 and save them. But assuredly, as a minister of the gos- 
 pel of reconciliation and good-will to men, I cannot pre- 
 sume to stigmatize them, unheard, and by me certainly 
 never warned or instructed, as heretics, infidels or hypo- 
 crites. I cannot ridicule, traduce, insult, or affect to 
 despise them. I cannot hate, and therefore seek to tor- 
 ment and destroy them, soul and body, in time and 
 throughout eternity. I would not treat a heathen thus 
 
 even were he a Nero or a Domitian — and shall I thus 
 
 act towards my Christian brother?— who, perhaps, after 
 all, (if the scene were laid in Britain,) differs from me 
 only in having been born on the opposite bank of the 
 Tweed, and in having been educated in a different Pro- 
 testant National Church— while both his church and 
 mine may be recognized as orthodox, and be equally 
 protected and cherished by the same common civil go- 
 vernment—and both acknoAvledge the same sovereign 
 as their temporal and spiritual head. 
 
 But am I individually, or is my church wantonly as- 
 saulted, misrepresented, calumniated— may I not retort 
 wdth equal severity, and not merely repel the charge, 
 
270 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 but render evil for evil, slander for slander, carry the 
 war home into the enemy's camp, and do him all the 
 injury in my power ? No, I may not. My master has 
 taught a different lesson — "Blessed are ye when men 
 shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all 
 manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." He 
 has left us an example of patient suffering, which we 
 are commanded to follow : — "who, when he was reviled, 
 reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; 
 but committed himself to him that judge th righteously." 
 In my remarks upon the legal equality of all religious 
 sects, and upon the charitable spirit which ought to cha- 
 racterize their mutual intercourse, I have not intended 
 to intimate that there is no reasonable ground of choice 
 or preference among them — nor that they are all equally 
 right or equally wrong — nor that it is immaterial which 
 should prevail — nor to designate which it would be 
 wisest and safest to encourage. These are matters 
 which I would not presume to decide for any man. 
 "Were I asked for an opinion in tlie case, I would refer 
 the inquirer to the Bible, as the only sure guide to enable 
 him to judge of the temper and claims of any sect what- 
 ever. He could not greatly err in associating with any 
 Christian church, which practises Christian charity, and 
 which arrogates no powers inconsistent with Christian 
 liberty, and which acknowledges no standard of ultimate 
 appeal but the Christian Scriptures. I have already said 
 that I fear no serious evil from any sect (except the seo- 
 tarian spirit, upon which I have animadverted,) which 
 freely permits, or rather directs every individual to 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 271 
 
 "search the Scriptures." I give my hand cordially to 
 any man, bearing the Christian name and exhibiting the 
 Christian temper and character, who is willing and anx- 
 ious to put into the hands of all the people the written 
 CONSTITUTION of the great Christian Republic. About 
 minor points I will not contend. And while I claim the 
 liberty to understand and interpret the Scriptures as best 
 I can, I cheerfully concede the same liberty to all others. 
 
 The people, if capable of reading and understanding, 
 will soon learn from the Bible to distinguish between 
 the ambitious zealot or spiritual demagogue, and the 
 honest minister of truth and righteousness. They will 
 learn that the religion of Him "whose kmgdom is not 
 of this world," needs not the strong arm of any civil 
 government to enforce its claims. That all intolerance, 
 superstition, bigotry and persecution are forbidden by 
 its very letter and by its universal spirit. That no 
 human tribunal has a right to control the thoughts and 
 the opmions of men, or to coerce and regulate the 
 conscience. That pharisaism, sectarism, churchism, is a 
 very different affair from genuine Christianity. That to 
 " contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the 
 saints," does not mean to fight, torture, hang or burn 
 men for the orthodoxy of any human church, or of any 
 ecclesiastical dictator, or of any adventurous reformer. 
 
 They will learn, that the most noxious heresy is 
 uncharitableness ; and that the worst enemy to pure 
 Christianity is sectarian ambition. 
 
 They will learn, that not one of the creeds of any ex- 
 isting church is formally and explicitly prescribed in the 
 
272 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 gospel, and therefore cannot claim either to supersede 
 the gospel, or to constrain any mortal to believe, or 
 assent to, what lie cannot find in the gospel. 
 
 They will discover, that no precise forms of worship 
 or of ecclesiastical government are enjoined by the great 
 Master himself — and therefore that none of them can 
 have exclusive preference or dominion, any further than 
 as voluntary associations may have adopted them. That 
 great diversity in matters of indifference or of mere 
 expediency — in externals, in forms, rites and usages — 
 may accord with the spirit of liberty and charity which 
 the gospel uniformly inculcates. And therefore ought 
 never to be made the ground of schism, or of mutual 
 hostility and excommunication. 
 
 They will learn, that practice is the only sure test of 
 orthodoxy or of personal religion. That the tree may 
 always be kno^^^l by its fruits. That man can judge 
 of his fellow-men only by their lives — by their daily 
 habitual temper and conduct, walk and conversation. 
 And whenever this grand fundamental truth in Chris- 
 tian ethics shall universally prevail, — there will be an 
 end of short-sighted, illiberal, persecuting, ambitious, in- 
 quisitorial sectarism and priestcraft. 
 
 Let the Bible, then, go to the people, without note or 
 comment. And we shall no longer dread the influence 
 of missionaries and preachers, whether male or female. 
 Christian or heathen, native or foreign — nor the machi- 
 nations of priests or infidels, of alamiists or fanatics, of 
 any sect, name or party. 
 
 If I have wearied my audience with this lengthened 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 273 
 
 discutssioii of a tlicme not strictly classical, and perhaps, 
 to most persons, not very interesting, I mnst find my 
 apology, not merely in the intrinsic importance of the 
 subject itself, but chiefly in the extraordinary excite- 
 ment of the public mind generally in regard to some 
 of its features and bearings. 
 
 Religion pure and undefiled, and its abuse and perver- 
 sion, are totally different matters ; and yet they are too 
 often and too easily confounded, both by the crafty and 
 the ignorant — and by none more fearlessly than by viva- 
 cious youth. To draw the line of distinction clearly, 
 and to remove this prima facie and most insidious ob- 
 jection to Christianity, I supposed would be rendering a 
 valuable service to my worthy pupils, at the moment of 
 their entrance upon the wide theatre of action and of 
 danger, which now awaits them, and which will soon 
 command all their talents and all their energies. 
 
 I have freely admitted and exposed the prominent 
 evils, incident to human frailty in the management of 
 religious affairs ; and I have pointed out, what appears 
 to me, the only certain and permanent remedy. The 
 odious usurpations of priestcraft, I have not spared. 
 Nor have I been indulgent to the obliquities and the 
 sinister policy of the sectarian spirit wherever it obtains. 
 To this spirit I have shown no favour; while I have 
 carefully abstained from all censure, either of particular 
 sects or of particular individuals. And candour compels 
 me here to add my testimony to the general integrity 
 and benevolence of the great body of our clergy, of all 
 denominations, who adhere to the Bible. A more faith- 
 
 VflT, T. 18 
 
274 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 fill find devoted ministry of the gos23el, I verity believe 
 cannot be found in any country. Of their disposition to 
 effect a union of Church and State, I solemnly aver that 
 I know nothing. In the course of my life, I have not 
 heard a syllable from any clergyman, in private or in 
 public, from the pulpit or the press, which could be con- 
 strued or tortured as indicative of any such purpose. 
 And if there be one such disguised enemy of liberty and 
 the gospel ; I doubt if he has dared to utter his senti- 
 ments, even in a whisper, to his dearest friend. He 
 would not be tolerated in any company, or by any 
 party, which professes to respect the Bible, and which 
 is willing to be judged by the Bible. From my earliest 
 youth to this day, I have heard from clergymen but one 
 opinion on this sul^ject — and that is, a decided reproba- 
 tion of all religious establishments. And were any 
 political or unchristian party to attempt to bring about 
 a union of Church and State; or, in other words, to 
 usurp dominion over the conscience — I feel assured that 
 the clergy would be the first to rise in arms against such 
 a project. 
 
 Still, notwithstanding this explicit declaration, I re- 
 tract nothing that I have advanced. And all history, 
 and the known character of human nature, warrant the 
 justice of my animadversions and inferences. The 
 blind, obstinate, overbearing, supercilious, aspiring spirit 
 of sectarism is ever to be feared, and must be closely 
 and vigilantly watched, to prevent the consequences to 
 which it naturally tends. This must be done with 
 good sense, judgment, discretion, mildness, and thorough 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSFS. 275 
 
 knowledge and discriniination — lest religion itself be 
 overAvlielmed in the ruins wliicli the madness of jea- 
 lousy and alarm might occasion. Intelligence and the 
 Bible, universally diffused among the people, alone will 
 preserve us from both extremes. 
 
 The signs of the times, assuredl}-, are not propitious 
 either to dispassionate inquiry or to political integrity. 
 Nor is it strange that the cause of true religion should 
 be involved in the rude assaults made upon its outworks, 
 or endangered by the indiscriminate abuse heaped upon 
 its imprudent or false-hearted supporters. Still, we are 
 
 iVee and our unparalleled Constitution is still worth 
 
 defending. We are religious still — and the Bible of 
 eternal truth will forever command the veneration and 
 the faith of all conscientious reflecting men. The 
 whirlwinds of party fury and religious fanaticism will 
 subside. The true patriot, the enlightened politician, 
 the common sense moralist, the guileless Christian ad- 
 vocate, will A-et be heard Avith respect by the people. I 
 do not despair of the Republic. Nor do I despair of the 
 gospel of charity and salvation. 
 
 The Republic and the gospel demand your vows of 
 eternal allegiance and fidelity to their sacred cause. 
 Live and die for your country, and for that holy reli- 
 gion, whose author is God, and whose aim is universal 
 peace, liberty and happiness. 
 
 Our aged and venerable sires — all who now direct the 
 afl\\irs of Church and State— must soon pass away from 
 this busy scene, and give place to another generation. 
 You, my young friends, in common with your contem- 
 
276 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 poraries, will occup}' their stations, and control the 
 destinies of your countrj-. 
 
 That you may live long, honoured and beloved, use- 
 ful and happy — that, when full of years and mature in 
 piety, you maj' behold the youth of another age more 
 enlightened, patriotic and virtuous than their fathers — 
 that so you may depart in peace and holy triumph, and 
 enter the blissful mansions of the celestial paradise, there 
 to unite in the hallelujahs of the Redeemed forever — is. 
 and mil be, the fervent prayer of him, who now bids 
 you an affectionate and a last farewell ! 
 
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS. 
 
 [CUMBERLAND COLLEGK, OCTOBER 3, 1832.] 
 
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS, 
 
 AT CUMBERLAND COLLEGE, 1832. 
 
 Hitherto, the graduates of our American colleges 
 have sustamed a character altogether worthy of the 
 high privileges with which their juvenile novitiate had 
 been distinguished, and eminently creditable to their 
 respective seminaries. Proudly, indeed, might the 
 guardian Genius of our prosperous Republic contem- 
 plate the noble band of patriotic youths, who, from year 
 to year, haA^e issued from our Academic Halls, and ex- 
 claim, with the exulting mother of the Gracchi, " these 
 are my jewels !" Through all the perils of revolution, 
 of war, of party strife, they have proved the foithful 
 and intrepid champions of national independence, of 
 civil and religious liberty, of popular rights, of constitu- 
 tional government, and of human happiness. There 
 may have been among them honest differences of 
 opinion, but in regard to radical principles there has 
 occurred but little to disturb the harmony and peace of 
 the great political confederacy. They have cheerfully 
 and zealously co-operated in the one grand work of 
 achieving the greatest happiness of the greatest number 
 
 of citizen freemen. That there may not have been some 
 
 279 
 
280 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 selfish, ambitious, reckless, and even traitorous sjoirits 
 among the number, it would be presuming too much on' 
 human virtue to affirm. But a solitary Judas will not 
 entail dishonour upon the whole body of the faithful. 
 
 Happy — thrice happy my country — glorious beyond 
 all previous example would be her destiny — could it be 
 assumed that all her enlightened and liberally educated 
 sons will ever be found true to her cause and devoted to 
 her welfare ! May we reasonably indulge in hopes and 
 anticipations so grateful and auspicious ? Are there no 
 ominous symptoms of yielding integrity, of spurious 
 treasonable ambition, of factious parricidal enterprise, 
 of desperate fraternal discord, already visible? Have 
 not some, at least, of our wise and learned and honour- 
 able men begun to calculate the value of our National 
 Union, and even to threaten its dissolution ? Is then 
 the fair fame of our infant Republic to be tarnished, and 
 the hopes of mankind to be blasted, by the very class of 
 citizens who should have died to prevent a catastrophe 
 so humiliating and disastrous ? Whence is it that such 
 men should thus be induced to jeopard national blessings 
 and national glory, actually possessed or certainly within 
 our reach, which have never yet been paralleled in our 
 world ? I am willing to believe that there is more 
 delusion than knavery in the case — that it is a 
 momentary phrensy which will soon pass away; and 
 that the gathering cloud will disappear long before the 
 tempest shall burst upon our still peaceful habitations. 
 
 But the existing crisis, whatever may be the issue, is 
 full of warning and instruction. Ten years ago — and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 281 
 
 who would have hazarded the prediction that the value 
 of the Union was likely to become, within any assignable 
 period of time, a subject of grave calculation or even of 
 speculative discussion? And yet, already, it is the 
 common theme of every newspaper and of every party. 
 The importance and stability of the Union, the advan- 
 tages and disadvantages of the Union, are freely and 
 universally canvassed. Its destruction therefore is 
 among possible events. And this is itself a fact of most 
 portentous bearing. It speaks a language which cannot 
 be misunderstood : and it necessarily creates doubt, mis- 
 giving and apprehension in regard to the future. We 
 may take for granted, as we confidently do, that the 
 measures of the present agitators and ^mUifiers will be 
 triumphantly defeated ; but still the melancholy convic- 
 tion fastens on the mind, that the union of these States 
 may hereafter, and perhaps at no very distant day, be 
 destroyed forever ! " One and indivisible" is no longer 
 the sacred motto of every American. In evil hour the 
 subtle enemy has invaded our delightful paradise^ias 
 cast the apple of discord into our once united and there- 
 fore invincible host — is eagerly prompting brother to 
 imbrue his hands in the blood of brother: — and yet 
 who, of all our honest industrious millions, has descried 
 his approach or suspected his insidious purpose? Are 
 they about to surrender their understandings, with their 
 lives and liberties, as a sacrifice to the very demon of 
 avarice and ambition — blindly — unconsciously — without 
 motive — nay in direct contravention to every principle 
 
282 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 and consideration wkich ought to influence rational, and 
 responsible agents ? 
 
 It has been often remarked, that where superior learn- 
 ing is restricted to a few, it is likely to be perverted and 
 abused to the injury of the many. And all history 
 affords ample evidence of the fact. Every species of 
 tyranny and high-handed injustice, practised on the 
 people by government, has found advocates and abettors 
 among the learned. They surrounded the throne and 
 crouched at the feet of Augustus and Nero, of Charle- 
 magne and Haroun, of Alfred and Henry VIII., of Sala- 
 din and Tamerlane, of Elizabeth and the Stuarts, of the 
 Popes and the Bourbons. Nor is there any lack of 
 them, at this day, in St. Petersburg, Rome, Madrid, Lis- 
 bon, Cairo or Constantinople, — so far as the mere instru- 
 ments of despotism or superstition may be required. 
 Their talents, science and skill are essential to the 
 schemes and political machinery of their masters. Thus 
 too, in the all-grasping aristocracies of ancient Rome and 
 modern Venice, learning, as well as wealth and power, 
 centred chiefly in the patrician order, and was therefore 
 generally its ally and apologist. And thus it has ever 
 been when monopolized b}' a small number. It is its 
 diff'usion among the people which causes iniquity in high 
 places to tremble — and either drags the despot from his 
 throne or converts the tiger into a lamb. What are now 
 the prerogatives of an English monarch compared with 
 those exercised by the Stuarts, the Tudors, and the 
 Plantagenets ? Had the people of England remained 
 stationary in their primitive darkness and ignorance. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 283 
 
 like those of Spain and Portugal, neither English nor 
 American liberty had ever been the theme of history or 
 of song. 
 
 But, unhappily, it is even yet possible for the people, 
 both of England and America, to be misled by the 
 crafty and ambitious, when aided by learning and intelli- 
 gence. A Gracchus may play the demagogue as well as 
 a Marius or Catiline. Ignorant people may be deluded 
 by a Wentworth or a Wilkes, by a Lord Gordon or a 
 Mr. Cobbett : and men have been everywhere eager 
 to avail themselves of popular excitement to gratify a 
 vaulting ambition. Our country, it is feared, has at 
 length reached the period of relaxing selfish prosperity, 
 when a few of her gifted sons are preparing to raise the 
 whirlwind and the storm of popular fury, in order to 
 mount to that dazzling pinnacle of distinction which 
 they despair of attaining by more legitimate means. 
 Such men can operate only on the ignorant and cre- 
 dulous. In no State of this Union are the people so 
 corrupt, venal, or barbarous as deliberately to sanction 
 any system of measures manifestly unjust or iniquitous. 
 They are not, like the beggarly rabble of degenerate 
 Rome, ready to sell their suffrages or services to the 
 highest bidder. Nor do they resemble the degraded 
 populace of a modern European Metropolis, that may be 
 roused by the flattering blandishments of a cunning 
 reformer or military adventurer. Our people are still 
 free and honest citizens. They will espouse the cause 
 of truth and liberty and justice, whenever they clearly 
 comprehend it. The demagogue therefore, who would 
 
284 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 mould them to his purpose, must first make them 
 believe that his object is righteous. — That the cause in 
 which he would enlist their zeal is absolutely and 
 unequivocally just. No man in this nation is suffi- 
 ciently talented, eloquent, and popular to seduce a large 
 body of the people, in any section of the country, to his 
 standard, unless they become thoroughly persuaded that 
 his aim is honourable and patriotic. They could not be 
 hired or flattered to abet injustice, or to elevate personal 
 lawless ambition. 
 
 But in regard to measures of policy and legislation 
 which they do not understand, it is easy, by incessant 
 misrepresentation and artful appeals, effectually to blind 
 and mislead them, until they fancy themselves egre- 
 giously wronged ; and that they are called on, by every 
 consideration of duty and interest, to seek by force that 
 relief or redress which is denied them by government. 
 While under the spell of this delusion, a fictitious 
 grievance is the same to them as a real one. They will 
 contend for what they believe to be right, as sturdily 
 as they would do were they assured of the fact by a 
 divine revelation. 
 
 Now precisely such is the present aspect of our 
 national affairs. Questions are in agitation before the 
 public, which but few of our ordinary citizens are 
 capable of fully investigating and appreciating for them- 
 selves. The Bank — the Tariff — Internal Improvements 
 — how many even of our most enlightened sages are 
 masters of these perplexing themes of universal discus- 
 sion and concernment? They have a length and a 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 285 
 
 breadth, a height and a depth — they involve so many 
 apparently dissimilar and conflicting interests — they 
 reach so far into the future, and affect so many rights. 
 so many branches of industry, so many local privileges 
 or prejudices — they bear so directly on doubtful un- 
 settled constitutional doctrines or constructions — are 
 alarming or harmless, beneficial or noxious, according to 
 opinions already formed relative to the powers reserved 
 by the several States or conceded to the General Govern- 
 ixient — that the wisest statesmen need not blush to 
 acknowledge the difficulty of an equitable adjustment, 
 and of arriving at clear, definite, unqualified opinions 
 which may be fearlessly inculcated at all times and in 
 all places. 
 
 Are these vexed questions, then, within the compe- 
 tency of every village editor and of every village 
 declaimer summarily to pronounce upon ? Are the 
 people — the mass of the people anywhere — adequate to 
 this high duty? Of course not. And hence the wily 
 demagogue has ample scope for the exercise of his 
 peculiar gifts. He may dogmatize in learned phrase 
 and pompous diction, without fear of rebuke or ex- 
 posure, until his auditors feel the conviction that all is 
 right or that all is wrong — as the case may be. For 
 both these opposite effects are produced by the same 
 means in different places at the same time. And in 
 each case the people are equally innocent and equallj 
 imposed on. They receive as oracular, the statements 
 and illustrations of their leaders — to whom they habitu- 
 ally look for information upon such intricate matters 
 
286 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 They are flattered too, at the same time that they are ^ 
 cheated. ' Not that their immediate instructors are 
 always wilful deceivers. They may be more fool 
 than knave. They may themselves be the mere uncon- 
 scious instruments of some great magician, who moves 
 the wires unseen behind the curtain ; and whose man- 
 date is law throughout all his dependent and affiliated 
 ranks. 
 
 I have such entire confidence in the unsophisticated 
 native integrity and good sense of the great body of 
 our people, as to affirm without hesitation, that not a 
 single State or county could be found which would 
 advocate injustice, knowing it to be injustice. The 
 people of Massachusetts, for example, w^ould not vote, if 
 they could do it with impunity and with the certainty 
 of success, to levy a direct tax on the citizens of vSouth 
 Carolina for their own particular benefit. Nor would 
 they sustain the tariff a single day if they knew it to be 
 oppressive to one portion of the Union, and beneficial 
 onl}' to another. They are taught, and they believe, 
 that it is equally advantageous to all. They support 
 it therefore as a great national blessing. If they err, it 
 is because they have lyeen badly instructed. Send them 
 to college, and perhaps they will be able to form a 
 better judgment. This would be' wiser and cheaper, 
 more humane and more logical, more republican and 
 more Christian, than to attempt their conversion at the 
 point of the bayonet. 
 
 In like manner, the good people of the South oppose 
 and eschew the tariff, not because it is in their view^ 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 287 
 
 a fiiir and equitable sj.steiii of taxation. The}- arc 
 willing to bear their due proportion of the public 
 burdens. Nor do they denounce it because it promotes 
 their own industry in common with that of the whole 
 Republic. But because they are instructed that it is a 
 Yankee project to render them tributary to the avari- 
 cious North. That it is virtually a direct and almost 
 prohibitory tax upon their agricultural staples, and 
 therefore ruinous in its character and tendencies. They 
 are further made to believe that it is the settled policy 
 — the inflexible determination of the despotic, arbitrary, 
 covetous North, to maintain this odious tariff, at all 
 hazards, henceforth and forever. And that the only 
 possible remedy is nidUficatloi} : which may lead — but 
 no matter — to civil war and to the dismemberment 
 of our glorious Union ! 
 
 Here, then, is a two-fold delusion. First, as to the 
 fact; and second, as to the remedy. The South is 
 made to believe that the North is deliberately unjust 
 and oppressive. Whereas, among the plain people of 
 the North, there exists no such design or desire. The 
 people, as such, would not do injustice to the Hottentots 
 — much less to their own brethren. The tariff may be 
 as partial and mischievous as the South represents 
 it ; but the North does not perceive or believe it to be 
 so. There is some difference between an injury inflicted 
 ignorantly and unconsciously, and another committed 
 with malice prepense and aforethought. And the very 
 gist of the matter lies in the qno animo — the purpose — 
 the intention. I do not believe that a majority of any 
 
288 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 one thousand American citizens, including manufactur- 
 ers themselves, could be found in any vicinage of New 
 England, New York, or Pennsylvania, who would insist 
 on a continuance of the tariff, if they believed it to be as 
 onerous on the South as the Southerners themselves 
 proclaim it to be. Nor would the Southerners be thus 
 madly exasperated, if they fully understood the senti- 
 ments of their well intentioned brethren at the North. 
 Nor would they, if left to themselves, ever dream of 
 nullification as a remedy for their grievances — admitting 
 them to be as gross and monstrous and unbearable, as 
 they are currently portrayed in many of their leading 
 journals and by not a few of their most prominent 
 statesmen. The remedy would be infinitely worse than 
 the disease, and could never secure the object profess- 
 edly aimed at, nor compensate for a thousandth part of 
 the miseries which it might entail upon themselves and 
 upon the whole Republic. I leave out of the account 
 political chieftains on both sides. They have their own 
 game to play. And it is precisely to expose this foul 
 play that I have glanced at a topic so unclassical, 
 and apparently so uncongenial with the spirit of a 
 literary festival. 
 
 What then is the proper and only remedy for all 
 such evils ? Undoubtedly, it is simply this : The people 
 must be more thoroughly instructed. If a dozen or 
 twenty knowing individuals can thus misguide and 
 deceive the multitude, either at the North or at the 
 South, they must be met and encountered by other 
 knowing ones of equal ability, if not of better prin- 
 
EDUCATIOXAL DISCOURSES. 289 
 
 ciplcs. "When the number of intelligent men in any 
 place is comparatively large, it will not be in the power 
 of one or a few to impose on the whole community. In 
 no State, city or county, could even a Pericles or a 
 Tully long control the popular mind, if opposed by a 
 Franklin or a Henrj-. It would be vain to eulogize the 
 tarift' in Philadelphia, if the people could discern and 
 estimate its [reputed, I do not snj, acknowledged] in- 
 justice. And equally vain to preach up nullification in 
 Charleston, were the whole subject thoroughly com- 
 prehended by the citizens generally. 
 
 Since then we cannot prevent the existence and 
 constant grow^th of learned men of some sort and to 
 some extent, let us have as many as possible. If they 
 are rogues all — why, then, set a rogue to catch a rogue. 
 If fifty league together to do harm, let us have a 
 thousand, and then union wall be impracticable: and 
 fifty thousand w^ill be still less dangerous. The more 
 the better. And if the whole sovereign people would 
 get knowledge, like Franklin in the workshop, or like 
 Jeflferson in the college, or like Washington on the farm 
 and in the camp, or like Whitney everywhere, the}- 
 would probably be none the worse either as private 
 citizens or public benefactors. 
 
 And here I take occasion to remark, for the special 
 benefit of my 3'outhful charge, that if they would 
 become qualified to command respect in the world 
 by their talents, their virtues, or their attainments, 
 they have yet a great work to perform. We have 
 heard and read much of self-made and self-taught men. 
 
 VOL. I. 19 
 
290 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 The truth is, that every eminent man — especially 
 among the literary, the scientific, the professional — ' 
 has been a self-made man. Bacon and Locke, Milton 
 and Newton, Burke and Mansfield were as truly self- 
 made and self-taught men, as were Johnson and 
 Franklin, Furguson and Rittenhouse, Herschel and 
 Fulton. The first enjoyed the advantages of a college 
 directly, the latter indirectly : and all attained distinc- 
 tion by the same intellectual process. They severally 
 availed themselves of all the instruments and sources 
 of knowledge within their reach: and persevering 
 industry, as a law of their existence, ensured them 
 victory and honour. Rumford, Hutton, Davy, Sherman, 
 Pope, Wythe were as much debtors to the college 
 as were Barrow, Edwards, Dwight, Fox, Scott or 
 Canning. The books, the science, the literary taste, the 
 universal consideration attendant on superior mental 
 endowments, which colleges had created, multiplied, 
 diffused, and everywhere exhibited, led Franklin, as 
 they have led thousands, to imitate, to master, to 
 emulate, to rival the excellence thus presented to their 
 view and to their ambition. Had there been no colleges 
 or seminaries of liberal learning — no literary or scien- 
 tific enterprise or spirit abroad — Franklin might have 
 been a Confucius or a Numa among barbarians, but he 
 would never have been the first of philosophers and 
 statesmen among the most enlightened nations of the 
 earth. 
 
 The great men of Greece were all nurtured in her col- 
 leges, in one or other of the modes just specified — 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 291 
 
 as had been those of Egypt and Babylon and Pha^- 
 nicia, centuries before. Her statesmen and her generals 
 were thoroughly educated and literary men. Among her 
 distinguished warriors were Pericles, Themistocles, Aris- 
 tides, Socrates, ^Eschylus, Sophocles, Thucydides, Xeno- 
 phon — the brightest names also in the catalogue of 
 her literature, eloquence and philosophy. Nor did the 
 Roman hero and politician disdain the arts and accom- 
 plishments of conquered Greece — as the Gracchi, the 
 Scipios, the Bruti, the Catos, the Luculli, the Civsars, the 
 Ciceros may testify. But when the learned colleges of 
 Athens, of Rome, of Alexandria were extinguished by 
 barbarian conquest, and all western Christendom had 
 become the prey of ignorance and despotism, letters and 
 refinement still lingered within the proud walls of 
 Bagdad, of Cordova and of Constantinople. At length, 
 in the 13th and 14th centuries, the university again 
 resumed its proper office, and began to scatter light 
 amidst the surrounding darkness — especially in Italy, 
 France, Germany, Holland and Britain. The ancient 
 classics were disinterred from beneath the rubbish of 
 ages — were studied, edited and admired. The art of 
 printing was seasonably invented. The capture of Con- 
 stantinople by the Turkish Moslems, in the loth cen- 
 tury, dispersed a host of veteran Grecians among the 
 schools of western Europe. Colleges were everywhere 
 established, enlarged and improved. And the first 
 grand result was the glorious Reformation. Here was 
 the dawn of modern liberty, and of that vast process 
 of amelioration which has been advancing and extend- 
 
292 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 ing far and wide ever since. The influence of enlight- 
 ening literature has been felt, not only in Protestant 
 Christendom, but throughout Roman Catholic Europe; 
 and is penetrating the strongholds even of Mohamme- 
 dan and Pagan priestcraft and degradation. All this 
 marvellous improvement has been effected by the uni- 
 versity and the schoolmaster. Let no man deem lightly 
 of the instrument which has elevated himself and mil- 
 lions of his kindred to so lofty a height in the scale of 
 being. — Which secures to him liberty of conscience, the 
 rights of humanity, the fruits of his industry, and all 
 the blessings and immunities of free institutions and of 
 self-government. 
 
 Wherever the university has been suffered to flourish 
 and expand, and to send forth its salutary streams 
 among the people, there have been growing up both the 
 capacity and the determination to resist all gross oppres- 
 sion. And there too a decided progress has been made 
 in all the arts of peace, and especially in the science of 
 government. In Spain, Portugal and Russia, a fool or a 
 ruffian may be tolerated on the throne, because the 
 university has been kept in bondage a^id the people in 
 io-norance. But were a Nero seated on the throne of 
 
 o 
 
 England to-morrow, he would not dare to violate a 
 single law of the realm. He could no more enact the 
 part of a Richard or a Henry, than the meanest subject 
 could commit murder Avith impunity. 
 
 But in our country, though we may not dread the 
 cruelties of a Nero, or the proscriptions of a Sylla, or 
 the usurpations of a Caesar, yet we may dread the arts 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 293 
 
 of a popular lavourite acting upon an ignorant and 
 excited people. We have no refuge or security from 
 popular insanity but in the virtue and intelligence of 
 the people themselves. This is our only bulwark 
 against the inroads of ambition and the wiles of selfish 
 profligacy. Every sensible man among us knows this to 
 be the fact. Our Washingtons and Franklins and JefFer- 
 sons have long since announced it: and though dead, 
 their warning voice is still heard and respected by every 
 enlightened patriot. Base and reckless and suicidal 
 is the policy which seeks to prostrate the college and 
 universit}^ under the specious pretext of giving to the 
 people a common school education. 
 
 I care as little about names as any man. K the name 
 of college or university be unsavoury in the ears of the 
 people or of the people's guardians and conscience keep- 
 ers, let it be cashiered. Let our colleges and universities 
 be called academies, lyceums, gymnasia, common schools, 
 or popular intellectual workshops — or by any other 
 republican appellation, if any more acceptable or less 
 invidious can be invented. It is the thing — the sub- 
 stance — the knowledge — the mental enlargement and 
 energy and power — that I would give to the people in as 
 ample measure as possible. That they may be sovereign 
 in fact as well as in name. That they may be capable 
 of knowing and guarding and asserting their owm rights 
 and liberties, without the second sight of any political 
 juggler or officious bankrupt Solomon. 
 
 I would create here in Nashville, or in Knoxville, or 
 in Memphis, or in each, a university or great conunou 
 
294 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 school — with accommodations for a thousand pupik — 
 with able instructors, libraries, apparatus, and all man- 
 ner of useful fixtures and appurtenances — at the ex- 
 pense of the Commonwealth. Every poor youth, pro- 
 perly qualified, should be admitted to its privileges 
 gratis. The rich might pay for their sons. But none 
 should be excluded for want of means. If more than 
 a thousand pupils should offer — enlarge the establish- 
 ment, or erect others upon the same plan. This would 
 be a species of internal improvement Avorthy of the 
 Republic, and which would elevate Tennessee to a rank 
 never jet attained by any people. And the Legisla- 
 ture which shall boldly lay the corner stone of such 
 a magnificent temple of popular instruction, will deserve 
 and will gain a glorious immortality, whatever may 
 be the verdict of their constituents or of their contem- 
 poraries. ^ Their magnanimous and enlightened patriot- 
 ism will be celebrated a thousand lustrums after the 
 petty interests and conflicts of this selfish generation 
 shall be forgotten. 
 
 I have asserted that colleges have done good, or that 
 learning has been useful. That, like wealth and power, 
 when possessed only by a few, it has been often abused 
 to the injury of others. That our college graduates 
 have generally been the faithful sentinels and advocates 
 of popular rights. That if any appear to be swerving 
 from the straight path of rectitude, it is because they 
 have discovered an ignorant mass on which to operate. 
 That the only remedy for the evil — the only prevent- 
 ive of its recurrence and of its rapid increase — is the 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 295 
 
 iiiiincdiato education of a much larger proportion of the 
 people. Not the giving tlu'ni what is called a common 
 school education — the most of them have this already — 
 and it does not suffice. The man who can merely read 
 and write is no match for the thorough-bred political 
 gladiator. He cannot dispel the sophistry even of the 
 village attorney or of the village gazette. He is just the 
 man to be led astra}' by the newspaper essayist. And 
 the newspaper is the very engine employed to gull 
 the people who can read, but who are too ignorant to 
 discriminate, to reason and to judge. 
 
 None but enemies of the people will ever gravely 
 maintain that a common school education, in the or- 
 dinary meaning of the phrase, is all they need.'-' This 
 would be virtually telling them to be hew^ers of wood 
 and draw ers of water under political task-masters for- 
 ever. Why is it that our law^yers rule the nation, 
 and fill all our lucrative offices, from the Presidency 
 downwards? Simply and solely because they can do 
 something more than read and write. If our mechanics 
 and farmers would enter the lists wath our lawyers, they 
 must acquire the same degree of intellectual power and 
 address. Nor would this prove a very difficult achieve- 
 ment. Take the common run of our lawyers — and like 
 
 * That I am hostile or indifferent to common schools will not be 
 suspected by any person in the least acquainted with my views on the 
 subject. I have been their public and zealous advocate on all suitable 
 occasions. Among others, I may refer to a series of essays, which 
 appeared in the Nashville Republican, during the winter and spring 
 of 18.31, under the caption of "Public Schools." 
 
296 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 our parsons — they are no great tilings. The mechanics 
 
 and farmers might easily beat them at their own game 
 and with tlieir own weapons. If they did but under- 
 stand their interests, they would unite with the school- 
 master, make common cause w4th him, and assert their 
 natural rights and influence in society. Let them take 
 this matter of schools and colleges into their own hands. 
 Let them rally around our most respectable and merito- 
 rious, though poor, persecuted and much reviled univer- 
 sity. Let them contribute the trifle of a hundred 
 thousand dollars or so, to its funds, and send to it a few 
 hundred of their clever youths to acquire the art of 
 lawyer-fighting — and we shall soon see them at the head 
 of affairs, as they ought to be. This is the best advice 
 that I can give them. If they prefer ignorance, and 
 are determined to keep their sons in ignorance — then, 
 farewell to all their greatness, and to all the dignity 
 which their position might justly command. They may 
 frown upon colleges — they may abuse them — they may 
 starve them — they may scatter them to the winds — but 
 the}^ only sink themselves the lower in the general scale 
 of humanity. Instead of training their own sons to 
 illustrate their names and to adorn the Commonwealth, 
 they will become the spoil and the scorn of every 
 European or Eastern adventurer who may choose to 
 settle among them. For they cannot interdict the in- 
 gress of as much talent and learning from abroad as will 
 suffice to discharge those public and professional func- 
 tions to which they would themselves be totally in- 
 adequate. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 297 
 
 I have been pleading the cause of farmers and me- 
 chanics for some ten or a dozen years past. Because 
 upon them, as enUghtcned, judicious, independent, pa- 
 triotic citizens, depend the destinies of this Republic. 
 The question is, shall they lead or be led ? Shall they 
 arrest and put down the factious spirit of unprincipled 
 ambition, or shall they tamely lend themselves as the 
 instruments and the victims of its desperate and treason- 
 able purposes? The crisis has arrived when the people 
 must speak and act wisely and resolutely, or their 
 ability to speak and to act, wdth decisive efficiency, will 
 be lost forever. 
 
 The lawyers are now^ our sole political guides and 
 instructors. They engross the learning of the country ; 
 I mean all that learning which is brought to bear on 
 government, legislation and public policy — for the ph}'- 
 sicians rarely intermeddle in these affairs ; and the 
 clergy ought forever to be excluded by law, if not by a 
 high sense of duty. Our farmers and mechanics there- 
 fore, who constitute the great body of the people, are 
 governed by the lawyers. Now it is not in human 
 nature, that in such a country as ours, there should not 
 grow up a sort of professional aristocracy, which in 
 time may become irresistible. Wherever there is a 
 privileged order, no matter how constituted — whether 
 like the patrician of ancient, or the ecdeslastic of modern 
 I^ome — it will, if not duly checked and counterbalanced, 
 in the long run, become overbearing and tyrannical. I 
 look to the college for a seasonable supply of counter- 
 vailing agents. I look to a well educated independent 
 
298 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 yeomanry as the sheet anchor of the Republic. I look 
 forward to the period when it will not be deemed anti- ' 
 republican for the college graduate to follow the plough ; 
 nor a seven days' wonder for the labourer to be intellec- 
 tual and to comprehend the Constitution of his country. 
 I am not unfriendly to lawyers. I could say much in 
 their praise, were I in the humour of pronouncing en- 
 comiums. In their proper sphere, they are useful and 
 necessary. But that they should engross the legislative, 
 judicial and executive functions of the government, is 
 neither republican, nor safe, nor, upon any ground, 
 defensible. There would be reason in the thing, if, like 
 the farmers, they composed a large numerical majority 
 of the population. But that a few thousand of any 
 particular profession, class or order should rule over 
 millions is as anomalous, and as inconsistent with the 
 genius of our popular institutions, as would be an 
 hereditary aristocracy possessing the same exclusive 
 privilege. The farmers have no alternative but to 
 yield their necks to the yoke, or to open up for their 
 sons a great highway to the scientific halls of the 
 university. Belonging, as I do, to their respectable 
 fraternity by birth, by early association and by all the 
 ties of kindred — the son of a lalDouring fiirmer, the 
 brother of labouring farmers, and the father, it may 
 be, of labouring farmers and mechanics — I cannot be 
 indifferent to their welfare even upon the most selfish 
 considerations. But I feel conscious of a higher motive. 
 I seek to elevate my country, by imparting to all her 
 sons the noblest attributes of humanity. That we may 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 299 
 
 be forever a nation of enlightened, generous, high- 
 minded, self-governing freemen. The envy and the 
 admiration of the world. 
 
 I have availed myself of every suitable occasion to im- 
 press on the minds of my pupils the sacred duty which 
 they owe their country, of endeavouring through life 
 to promote the cause of popular education. To do their 
 utmost to enlighten the public mind, and to establish 
 a system calculated to diffuse useful knowledge among 
 the labouring classes of the community. Let them be 
 the persevering, intrepid, uncompromising advocates of 
 the good old orthodox doctrines of our revolutionary 
 heroes and sages. Countenanced by such a veteran 
 phalanx of wisdom and philanthropy, and animated by 
 the noble purpose of perpetuating the liberty and happi- 
 ness of their country, they may well disregard the 
 undeserved and groundless hostility which lofty virtue 
 seldom fails to provoke. 
 
 I shall not stop to inquire what Tennessee has 
 attempted or effected for the instruction of her half 
 million of freemen. One thing I have heard however, 
 which, though too monstrous to be credited, I feel con- 
 strained just to glance at. It is this — that some former 
 legislatures, so far from having directly and munificently 
 aided the paramount cause of education amongst us, 
 have actually withheld from the schools and colleges 
 funds which had been solemnly appropriated to their use 
 bv the National Congress. This I presume to be mere 
 gratuitous slander. For, if true, it Avould be enough 
 to impart fresh lustre to the everlasting fame even of 
 
300 EDUCATIOXAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 the Goth and Yandal! History, however, will detail 
 the facts : and impartial posterity will sit in judgment. 
 I trust the present or a future legislature will correct 
 the error, if any have been committed by their predeces- 
 sors, so that the faithful historian may be enabled to 
 record the satisfaction to justice, law, and honour, upon 
 the same page which shall transmit the story of the 
 people's wrongs. 
 
 There is magic in a sound — in a name — in country. 
 Who does not love his countrj^ — one's own native 
 country — the hallowed home of his infancy, of his 
 kindred, of his fathers' sepulchres? How does it strike 
 the ear and thrill the bosom of the pilgrim ui a foreign 
 land? What citizen of this vast Republic, Avhen abroad 
 in distant climes, has not felt the glow of patriotic 
 enthusiasm and exultation mantle his cheek when the 
 proud name American has greeted his ears from the 
 voice of approving strangers — or burned with indig- 
 nation if mentioned m terms of disrespect or measured 
 praise? And are we about to forfeit our inherited title 
 to this glorious appellation ? x\re we to be known 
 hereafter as Tennesseans, or Carolinians, or Georgians, or 
 Kentuckians, or New-Yorkers — and not as Americans ? 
 We are the only people on this immense continent who 
 have acquired and appropriated, by universal consent, 
 the distinctive national epithet of Americans. The rest 
 are Canadians, or Mexicans, or Peruvians, or Colum- 
 bians, or Bolivians, or Brazilians. We, and we only, 
 are Americans. And who so base as tamely to suifer 
 this illustrious name to be merged in a dozen or twenty 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 301 
 
 little party provincial by-words — to be scoffed at by all 
 the world ? 
 
 Every individual of a great, magnanimous and ho- 
 noured nation, is himself a sharer of his country's glory. 
 Her reputation is reflected upon himself lie becomes 
 thereby more respectable in his own eyes, more chival- 
 rous in his sentiments, and more sternly patriotic in all 
 his purposes. His country's name, like a coronet of 
 nobility, is a passport to honour and distinction where- 
 ever he goes. Thus it was in the better days of the 
 Roman Commonwealth. Roman was a more august and 
 commanding title than that of satrap, prince, or king. 
 I am no blind admirer of Roman policy or of Roman 
 virtue. But I do admire that personal self-devotion 
 which could yield everything to country; and, as it 
 were, identify individual existence with the prosperity 
 and glory of the Republic. The patriotism of the old 
 Roman was large and generous, though utterly regard- 
 less of every principle of international justice and 
 morality. To Rome, as his supreme divinity, he con- 
 secrated his energies and his undivided homage. For 
 her, he laboured and fought and conquered and died. 
 His worst crimes were national, and were perpetrated to 
 advance the grandeur of Rome. He never dreamed of 
 elevating himself at the expense of his country. Of all 
 such mean, stupid, selfish, infamous ambition, he was 
 innocent and unsuspected. There was sublimity in his 
 single-hearted devotion to country — however lamentably 
 defective may have been the standard by which his 
 martial achievements were estimated. 
 
302' EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 Happily for us, American patriotism and ambition 
 may be gratified in a more legitimate sphere. Not in' 
 conquering other nations — not in extending the territo- 
 rial limits of the Republic — not in enriching our Metro- 
 polis with the spoils and ruins of a thousand cities — not 
 in blotting from the map of the world any rival Car- 
 thage or splendid Corinth — not in triumphs and ovations 
 and gladiatorial butcheries to amuse an idle, l^esotted, 
 rapacious rabble. We have no such objects of national 
 ambition. War is not our congenial element. We covet 
 no enlargement of territory. It is as vast already as 
 even Roman ambition could desire. We have only to 
 preserve it undivided and undiminished as a rich legacy 
 to posterity. Upon this grand point our patriotic efforts 
 must be concentrated. The union of the States must be 
 maintained at every hazard and sacrifice. This is the 
 first grand maxim of our political creed. It should be 
 inculcated in every school and by every patriot. It 
 should be instilled into the heart of every child, as a 
 sacred principle, by every parent. The Union of the 
 States should be the motto and the watchword of every 
 American, and be engraven upon the arms and the 
 banners of every party, sect, and institution of the land. 
 It should be heresy, treason, infamy, to compass its 
 destruction or to impair its foundations. 
 
 The Union safe — we have other noble national objects 
 to achieve. The arts of peace — science, literature, re- 
 ligion — whatever embellishes, whatever elevates, what- 
 ever purifies the character, and contributes to the 
 happiness of mankind — these it will be our study and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 303 
 
 our ambition to promote. We have a national literar 
 ture to create. Englishmen have affected to despise 
 us as a degenerate and vulgar race. We have taught 
 them some seasonable lessons at the cannon's mouth, 
 both on the land and upon the ocean. This species 
 of bloody rivalry, we trust, is at an end. We must now 
 contend for the prize of intellectual supremacy. For 
 though English literature is as much our inheritance as 
 the English language and English jurisprudence, yet 
 since we are refused the boon and are daily stigmatized 
 on account of our literary poverty and meagre scholar- 
 ship, let us have a literature strictly American — such as 
 Americans may be proud of, and such as British criti- 
 cism may no longer ridicule or annihilate. Let every 
 department of useful learning, of profound science, of 
 elegant letters, of manly authorship, be boldly essayed 
 and perse veringly prosecuted. 
 
 Providence has placed us on a lofty and conspicuous 
 eminence. The eyes of the world are upon us. We 
 have a glorious part assigned us : and deep and damning 
 will be our infamy if we fail to perform it. To us has 
 been intrusted the experiment, never yet fully tried, 
 whether a people can govern themselves without kings 
 or nobility or standing armies. To us is allotted the 
 enviable distinction of demonstrating, on the largest 
 scale, that any number of millions of free and equal 
 citizens may dwell together in peace, and exercise 
 all the prerogative of self-government without tumult, 
 anarchy or domestic warfare. We are to exhibit the 
 phenomenon of a well educated, intelligent, virtuous 
 
304 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 nation — free without licentiousness — religious without 
 a religious establishment — obedient to laws administered 
 by citizen magistrates, without the show of official lie- 
 tors or fasces, and without the aid of mercenary legions 
 or janizaries. We have it in commission to instruct the 
 world ill the science and in the art of government. 
 Should we march onward in the career of peaceful 
 philanthropy which Heaven seems to have destined and 
 marked out for us — what an invaluable inheritance 
 shall we not bequeath to the latest generations, in the 
 honoured — universally honoured — hallowed name of 
 American ? 
 
 In conclusion, I adopt the language and the senti- 
 ments of an eminent living statesman: and sure I am 
 that every American, to whom the unsullied splendour 
 of his country's glory is dearer than life, will respond a 
 hearty Amen. 
 
 "While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, 
 gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our 
 children. Beyond that, I seek not to penetrate the veil. 
 God grant that, in my day, at least, that curtain may 
 not rise. God grant that on my vision never may be 
 opened what lies behind. When my eyes shall be 
 turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in Heaven, 
 may I not see him shining on the broken and disho- 
 noured fragments of a once glorious Union; on States 
 dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; on a land rent with 
 civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! 
 Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold 
 the gorgeous Ensign of the Eepublic, now known and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 305 
 
 honoured throughout the earth, still full high advanced, 
 its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, 
 not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured 
 — bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory 
 as. What is all this ivorth ? Nor those other words of 
 delusion and folly, Liberty first, and Union afterwards — 
 but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living 
 light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the 
 sea and over the land, and in every wind under the 
 whole Heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every 
 true American heart — Liberty and Union, now and 
 forever, one and inseparable."* 
 
 Young Gentlemen : We now part, perhaps to meet no 
 more on earth. Soon, very soon, we must all meet at 
 the bar of the eternal Judge of quick and dead, to hear 
 the last solemn award wdiich shall fix our destiny for 
 weal or woe forever! How trivial are all terrestrial 
 concerns — the honours of literature, the renown of 
 heroism, the achievements of the patriot, the reputation 
 of the statesman, the delights of popularity, the rewards 
 of painful industry, or even the glory of country — when 
 compared with the awful and resplendent realities of a 
 future world, the blessings of immortality, the felicity of 
 Heaven, the holy friendship of angelic spirits, the un- 
 speakable love and approving smile of the King of kings 
 and the Lord of lords ! 
 
 To follow the meek and lowly example of Him who 
 
 * The Candidates were then admitted to their Degrees with the 
 customary formalities, and the following remarks were addressed to 
 them. 
 
 VOL. I. 20 
 
306 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 went about doing good — to imitate the unobtrusive 
 virtues of Him, who, when on earth, had not where to 
 lay his head — to secure a refuge in the mercy and 
 righteousness and atoning sacrifice of Him whose king- 
 dom is not of this world — to suffer contumely, reproach, 
 scorn, contempt, poverty, persecution and death for Him 
 who endured them all, without a murmur, for our sake 
 — will, in the great day of universal reckoning and 
 retribution, be accounted infinitely more glorious and 
 honourable than to have conquered armies or governed 
 empires, or than to have founded or saved republics. 
 The humblest disciple of the despised and crucified babe 
 of Bethlehem will then eclipse, in celestial splendour, the 
 proudest genius that ever astonished or delighted man- 
 kind. The martyr's crown will then have acquired a 
 value and a radiance, even in royal eyes, which a thou- 
 sand worlds could not purchase. 
 
 Therefore, set not your hearts upon this transitory 
 and delusive scene. With all your getting, get under- 
 standing. Covet chiefly that pure, enlightening, saving 
 wisdom which is from above. Seek first and above all 
 things the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and 
 you will be armed against every foe and be sure of the 
 divine favour and protection. Be Christians, that you 
 may be happy in time — happy in death — and happy 
 forever ! 
 
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS. 
 
 fDNIVfiRSITY OF NASHVILLE, OCTOBER 1, 1834.] 
 
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NASHVILLE, 1834. 
 
 Young Gentlemen: 
 
 Ten years have now elapsed since the attempt was 
 made to resuscitate and reorganize the institution which 
 this day enrolls your names among her Alumni; and 
 which you are henceforth to cherish and to honour as 
 your Alma Mater. 
 
 During this brief space, many extraordinary events 
 have occurred both to adorn and to disgrace the page of 
 our world's history. And even among ourselves, the 
 current of affairs has not flowed onward in unruffled 
 smoothness, or without giving rise to incidents calcu- 
 lated sometimes to cheer, and more frequently to dis- 
 hearten the friends of learning and education. 
 
 Death, too, has removed from the scene of action one 
 and another of our veteran advocates and coadjutors. 
 Nor has he spared the vigorous manly youth, who was 
 just beginning to consecrate his talents and energies to 
 the noblest cause within the scope of enlightened phi- 
 lanthropy. The Trustees, the Faculty, and the Alumni, 
 have all been visited, at successive periods, by the fell 
 
 destroyer : and several from each of these bodies have 
 
 309 
 
310 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 been summoned to their everlasting home. We have 
 paid the last melancholy tribute of respect to the 
 remains and to the memory of the venerable father, 
 the talented professor, and the juvenile companion of our 
 studies and of our affectionate counsels. 
 • We, however, have been graciously spared to witness 
 the celebration of the ninth joyous anniversary com- 
 mencement of our beloved University, under circum- 
 stances singularly calculated to elicit the sentiment and 
 the expression of unfeigned gratitude to our Almight}' 
 and most beneficent Preserver. While the exterminating 
 pestilence* has been sweeping over the land, carrying 
 death and desolation into thousands of happy families, 
 our little community has been guarded and defended by 
 the good providence of Israel's God and the Christian's 
 Saviour. And shall we — can we — forget the hand which 
 has thus protected and shielded us in the dark hour of 
 peril and terror and dismay ? No, my young friends, we 
 have been taught a lesson in the school of mourning 
 and anguish which can never be effaced from the heart 
 of sympathizing humanity. And our future lives will be 
 too short to evince the sense of that profound obligation 
 which binds us forever to the cause of truth and virtue, 
 of country and mankind, of religion and of God. 
 
 Under the auspices of my distinguished and revered 
 predecessor]- — the devoted pioneer of science in this 
 then almost savage wilderness, and the nursing father 
 of our still infant and still unendowed seminary — 
 
 * The Cholera. f James Priestly, LL.D. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 311 
 
 nineteen young gentlemen Avere admitted to the usual 
 academic degrees. And these first fruits of Cumberland 
 College, the University of NasJivlUe will ever be proud to 
 acknowledge, and to hold up as illustrious examples to 
 all her future Alumni. Five of these, we regret to 
 learn, have been cut down in the morning of life 
 and hope, of high promise and lofty aspiring : and they 
 survive only in the hearts of the few Avho knew and 
 loved them as sons, as brothers, and as friends. 
 
 One hundred and ten names have since been added to 
 the catalogue of our college graduates [exclusive of 
 honorary members.] And of these we mourn the pre- 
 mature decease of four gifted youths, whose generous 
 sympathy and support, whose moral and intellectual 
 worth, whose private and public character, can now be 
 estimated only by the glowing picture which hallowed 
 friendship was fain to portray.''' 
 
 * Alas ! who can tell what a day may bring forth ? Since the 
 above paragraph was penned, and since the last setting sun, another 
 of our worthiest and most eloquent sons has been added to this 
 melancholy catalogue. And again we mingle our tears and our 
 sympathy with a twice stricken, bereaved and disconsolate circle of 
 endeared relatives and friends. Whose loss, in this world, is indeed 
 irreparable, and above all human power to estimate or to alleviate. 
 Let them — let us — bow submissive to High Heaven's most righteous 
 decree : and endeavour to be ourselves also ready, at any moment, for 
 our departure to 
 
 " That undiscovered country, from whose bourn 
 No traveller returns." 
 
 Oct. 2d 1834. This day, another of the Alumni, Alphonso Gibbs, 
 Esq., of the class of 1832, died at the house of his father. Gen. Gibbs, 
 in this vicinity. Greatly beloved and lamented by all who knew him. 
 
 The total number of Uving Graduates is now therefore only one 
 hundred and nineteen. 
 
312 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 Our University then may be presumed to number, 
 among the living, one hundred and twenty individuals, 
 [the precise number, so far as can be ascertained, is 120,] 
 (exclusive of honorary members,) who have been deco- 
 rated with her laurel, and who are recognized as her 
 sons and graduates. To these may be added about 
 three hundred and fifty others, who have been educated, 
 to a greater or less extent, within her walls ; but who 
 did not find it convenient to remain long enough her 
 inmates to entitle them to the first degree in the Arts. 
 How many of the latter description may have been thus 
 partially trained under the former faculty, I have not 
 the means of ascertaining. Probably not less than 
 a hundred. Altogether then, five or six hundred young 
 men have enjoyed the privilege of studj'ing at this 
 institution, and of acquiring more or less of the ele- 
 ments of a liberal education. If these have done, are 
 doing, and are likely to do, their duty, in the various 
 relations, pursuits, professions, and offices of life, it will 
 not be denied that the University has rendered the State 
 some ser\ace. The tree is ever known by its fruits : and 
 by these it will be judged. Deeply as we are personally 
 interested in the fair fame and prosperity of your Alma 
 Mater, we cheerfullj' submit her reputation and her 
 destiny to this just and honourable test. We ask no 
 stinted indulgence, no condescending favour, no construc- 
 tive charity, no flattering meed of common place ap- 
 plause, no conventional unmeaning compliments which 
 in courtly phrase come gently to the ear but roughly to 
 the heart, — no, nothing in this fashion do we covet. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 313 
 
 We say — or rather, let the University proiidlj^ say — 
 there are our sons. We send them forth into the world. 
 And by the world's spontaneous verdict upon their train- 
 ing and their bearing will we abide. We calmly and 
 confidently await the world's decision : and we feel 
 assured of no mortifying disappointment. Our faith is 
 strong, unwavering, invincible. And our purpose to 
 persevere in the good work, which has thus far been 
 signally prospered in the midst of every species of 
 hinde ranee and discouragement, cannot be shaken. The 
 tongue which now speaks our high resolve, and bids 
 defiance to scrutiny, to prejudice, to jealousy, to coward- 
 ice, to calumnj^, to malevolence, may be silent in the 
 tomb long ere the glorious victory shall be achieved. 
 But, WE, the UNIVERSITY, live forever! And generations 
 yet unborn shall rejoice in our triumphs, and pronounce 
 the eulogium which our labours will have nobly won. 
 
 It is true, we boast of no rich governmental inheri- 
 tance or endowments — no splendid domain in the unap- 
 propriated Lands within our own territorial limits, or 
 within those of the Nation which stretch westward over 
 half the continent still unsubdued and unexplored. 
 Such a fair landed domain we once did dream of — but, 
 •'like the baseless fabric of a vision," it has evanished 
 '■into thin air," under the potent spell of the political 
 magician : or, if you please, under the wise policy 
 and equitable legislation of Tennessee's much honoured 
 and most honoural)le statesmen. From the liberal 
 grant of Congress, then, we anticipate no benefit what- 
 ever : at least, not until our own representatives in that 
 
314 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 august body shall cordially advocate our claims^ and 
 boldly present our appeal to the justice, honour, and 
 magnanimity of the Nation.* 
 
 We count not on the State's treasury, nor upon legis- 
 lative indemnification. We rely not upon ecclesiastical 
 patronage, or sectarian zeal, or individual munificence: 
 nor, indeed, upon any of the usual sources of pecuniary 
 revenue which have reared and sustained so many flou- 
 rishing institutions in other sections of our happy Re- 
 public. 
 
 We belong to no sect or party in Church or State, 
 We open our portals wide, and proffer our instructions 
 freely to enterprising moral youth of every political and 
 religious creed in the land. Literature and science, 
 language and philosophy, morals and virtue, unalloyed 
 and unclouded by the dogmas of any sect or school, we 
 inculcate and exemplify as best we can. And we appeal 
 to the common sense and equity of mankind for the 
 wisdom of our system and the honesty of our pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 We are the staunch uncompromising advocate of 
 genuine religion — of pure unadulterated Christianity — 
 but in all matters which distinguish one class or sect or 
 church from another, we leave our pupils to parental 
 
 * We mean not, however, to moralize or to complain. The story 
 of our wrongs we leave to the honest pen of the future historian. 
 Our title deeds we commit to the archives of the world's high court 
 of chancery, and bequeath them as a black-letter legacy to the anti- 
 quarian Cokes and Seldens of posterity, to illustrate the theory of our 
 plastic jurisprudence, and the practical omnipotence of our popular 
 parliaments. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 315 
 
 guidance and discretion ; and to the ministerial cares of 
 the clergy in our city to whom they severally 3 ield a 
 voluntary preference. Every religious denomination in 
 Tennessee has its church or place of worship in Nash- 
 ville; and to these our youth have free access at all 
 times. And they are required to attend the public 
 preaching of the gospel precisely as parents direct. 
 With their religious faith or peculiar theological creed 
 we never intermeddle in the slightest degree. That we 
 have been perfectly catholic and perfectly impartial in 
 this momentous and delicate concern — about wdiich the 
 most extraordinary solicitude and jealousy are wont to 
 be manifested — we dare venture to affirm. And we 
 know that we stand this day before the great public 
 altogether above suspicion. True, we have been and 
 still are denounced by the little bigots, and sapient 
 gossips, and loould he poj^es of all sects and parties. 
 But their petty jealousy, and insidious misrepresenta- 
 tions and unappeasable malignancy, we heed not. Our 
 course is fair, and honourable, and direct, and ever 
 onward. 
 
 That we are making a doubtful experiment, in the 
 estimation of most men, we are fully apprised. That 
 an institution, thus unbefriended, unendowed, unsup- 
 ported by any sect or party, without funds or patronage, 
 should ultimately succeed, is scarcely to be anticipated 
 in the ordinary course of events. And its failure has 
 been often predicted, even by those whose liberal views 
 and sentiments would lead them most heartily to rejoice 
 in the discovery that they were no prophets. 
 
316 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 Where then is the ground of our hope and of our 
 encouragement? It is in the growing strength and 
 moral influence of our own enhghtened, loyal, and 
 patriotic sons — who issue, year after year, from our 
 classic halls, imbued with the chivalrous spirit and 
 republican virtue of the brightest age of Greek and 
 Roman glory ; and animated by the celestial principles 
 of Christian magnanimity and benevolence — and whose 
 voice shall yet be heard by a generous and honest, 
 though hitherto much abused and misguided people. 
 It is in these, under the propitious smiles, and over- 
 ruling providence of the Most High, that we place our 
 confidence and garner up our soul's fondest aspirations. 
 They will never prove recreant or traitorous. The 
 claims of Alma Mater upon their affections, their zeal, 
 their labours, their influence, their talents and their 
 wealth, will ever be acknowledged as of paramount and 
 everlasting obligation. 
 
 Such, my young friends, are a few of the last words 
 which the University may be supposed to address to you 
 at this interesting moment, when she pronounces her 
 farewell benediction upon your heads, and offers up to 
 Heaven her fervent prayers for your earthly prosperity 
 and final salvation. 
 
 In the name of my respected colleagues, I congratu- 
 late you cordially upon the happy termination of your 
 college novitiate ; and upon the fair prospect of profes- 
 sional eminence and usefulness which now lies before 
 you. 
 
 On leaving college, however, you will have escaped 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 317 
 
 from no irksome restraints, because none have ever been 
 imposed by us, which the moral sense and mature reason 
 of all good citizens would not voluntarily impose on 
 themselves. As moral agents — as the subjects of moral 
 discipline — you will continue through life under the same 
 great moral code of rules and laws which the University 
 and the world alike recognize as of universal and perpe- 
 tual obligation. Do not imagine, therefore, that you are 
 about to enjoy more liberty, or a greater hcense, either 
 for the neglect of duty or the infraction of any positive 
 statute or institution, whether human or divine. 
 
 You have not been governed — we have never sought 
 to govern you — by mere arbitrary or magisterial au- 
 thority. We have laboured to inculcate the one grand 
 essential doctrine of self-government ; and to inspire you 
 with those just sentiments of honour, truth and virtue, 
 Avhich ought ever to influence and to regulate your 
 conduct. In a word, we have taught you to govern 
 yourselves ; and to respect yourselves. We have never 
 regarded or treated you as schoolboys. We have en- 
 couraged you to feel, to think, to speak, to act — as men, 
 as freemen, as gentlemen — but with the modesty, gentle- 
 ness and deferential docility which always characterize 
 and adorn the well-bred, ingenuous and high-minded 
 youth. We have lived together as friends and equals. 
 Our mutual intercourse has been maintained by a mutual 
 interchange of the kindly courtesies which our several 
 duties, ages and circumstances naturally and obviously 
 prompted and enjoined. 
 
 If any of you have ever, from youthful inadvertency 
 
318 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 or indiscretion, passed tlie boundary of strict decorum — 
 the error is already forgotten. If we have received evil 
 at your hands, or if you have slighted our counsels or 
 instructions, we have returned good for evil, — as the 
 literary awards, this day dispensed, will abundantly 
 testify. Henceforth we remember only your virtues. 
 Upon these we shall delight to dwell and to expatiate : 
 and these only shall we speak of and proclaim. For, of 
 our pupils, the world never hears aught from us but 
 good. In all their future conduct we take a deep 
 and lively interest. Our influence and exertions in 
 their behalf will never be expected in vain. In their 
 fair fame and prosperity we shall rejoice. And every 
 blessing bestowed on them will be reflected on ourselves, 
 and constitute the principal ingredient of our earthly 
 felicity. 
 
 As we have aimed to render you masters of the art 
 of self-government, so likewise have we endeavoured 
 to manage the difiicult process of instruction in such 
 manner as to make the work your own — a pleasure and 
 not a task. We have taught you how to study — how to 
 cultivate your own minds — how to advance, by daily, 
 and easy, and certain progress in every scientific and 
 literary department which you may be inclined to 
 explore. And we now dismiss you, under the full 
 persuasion, that you have learned how to educate your- 
 selves; that you possess the faculty and the desire of 
 intellectual improvement which will never permit you to 
 be idle, or to rest satisfied with any actual attainments, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 319 
 
 while 3-011 retain the power to enlarge their value or 
 amount. 
 
 The habit of self-government — of self-instruction — of 
 industrious persevering application, of thorough inquiry, 
 of profound investigation, of manl}^ independent think- 
 ing and reflection, of legitimate reasoning, of logical 
 induction, of rigorous demonstration, of discriminating 
 unprejudiced judgment, of resolutely embracing and 
 maintaining the truth and the right whenever and 
 wherever discovered — this habit, already partially ac- 
 quired, will, if duly confirmed by future exertions, 
 insure you an honourable, enlightened and command- 
 ing influence in society. 
 
 That you may realize all the bright visions which 
 youthful fancy may lawfully indulge — that you may 
 be truly great and truly good — as eminently happy, 
 honoured and useful, as talents, learning and piety can 
 render you — is the fervent prayer of your academical 
 instructors and associates. 
 
 Go hence in charity and peace. Fear God, and keep 
 his commandments. Seek daily supplies of wisdom and 
 instruction in the holy oracles of inspiration. Let the 
 Bible be your friend and counsellor. Avoid wicked 
 companions, seductive pleasures, corrupting honours, 
 degrading avarice, and all the blandishments of a 
 reckless ambition. Preserve a conscience void of of- 
 fence towards God and towards men. In prosperity be 
 meek and humble; and with gratitude acknowledge 
 vour heavenly Benefactor: and in adversity you will 
 
320 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 not be utterly forsaken, nor overwhelmed in the black- 
 ness of despair. The Sun of righteousness will illumine 
 the darkest path, and shed a cheering radiance upon the 
 ruins and desolations of all human grandeur. The fiiry 
 illusions of fervid youth must soon give place to the 
 sober realities of manhood and old age. The brilliancy 
 of genius, the hoarded treasures of knowledge, the 
 splendour of wealth and power and rank and office, 
 will avail nothing in the last great conflict with the 
 king of terrors. The whole world will then appear too 
 mean a price to offer for the humblest Christian be- 
 liever's hope. 
 
 May the Christian's hope, and the Christian's faith, 
 and the Christian's charity, and the Christian's joys, and 
 the Christian's heaven — all be yours ! 
 
 The blessing of the Father, and the Son, and the 
 Holy Ghost — the one living and true God — be upon you, 
 and abide with you, forever and ever. Amen ! 
 
SPEECH IN BEHALF 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF NASHVILLE. 
 
ANNIVERSARY COMMENCEMENT, 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NASHVILLE, 1837. 
 
 I HAVE made several speeches heretofore, on divers 
 occasions, in behalf of the University. I am going to 
 trouble you again with some remarks upon the same 
 very unpopular and very hackneyed theme. I mean 
 nmv to make the appeal direct to the good citizens of 
 Nashville; and to them chiefly, if not exclusively. 
 In the first place, I will glance at a few objections 
 which are currently urged or insiduously whispered 
 against the University. And, in the second place, I 
 shall endeavour to present a score or two of the many 
 thousand considerations which ought to induce you to 
 sustain it. 
 
 I. 1. The first class of objections, which we notice, 
 may be styled personal. These refer to, and implicate 
 more or less, the personal character and qualifications of 
 the trustees, president, professors, and other officers of 
 the institution. Of the trustees, I shall say nothing. 
 The Board consists of ex-presidents, governors, senar 
 tors, members of Congress and of the State Legislature, 
 magistrates, lawyers, physicians and farmers: of men 
 who have filled, or who now fill, the highest and most 
 
 323 
 
324 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 respectable offices in the nation : whom the people of 
 the Union and of this Commonwealth have delighted to 
 honour, and to whose wisdom and integrity they have 
 confided the dearest interests of their country. If such 
 men cannot be safely trusted to manage the concerns of 
 a university, to whom shall we look for a superior or 
 better superintendence? Probably no other Board of 
 Trustees in the United States can exhibit an array of 
 names so well known, or so eminently distinguished, or 
 so universally popular. And if you are not satisfied 
 with these, you must be hard to please indeed. 
 
 I shall pass the Faculty, also, without defence or 
 eulogy. Let each member stand or fall according to 
 his deserts. Let him be judged by his acts and by his 
 peers. A president or professor may be incompetent, 
 physically, morally, intellectually — or he may be culpa- 
 bly negligent and inefficient. But then, he is removable 
 at the pleasure of the Board : and, at the worst, he can- 
 not live always. He will soon be off the stage and out 
 of the way. His incapacity therefore, whether great or 
 small, real or pretended, ought never to be paraded be- 
 fore an intelligent public, as jeoparding the existence or 
 permanent prosperity of the University itself. He, I 
 repeat, may, at any moment, be got rid of: and at most, 
 he is but an accident, a circumstance — while the Univer- 
 sity lives forever. You would not denounce your coun- 
 try or your country's Constitution and republican form 
 of government, because you might not happen to ap- 
 prove the existing administration. The latter you may 
 assail and oppose with all your faculties of reason and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. dZO 
 
 aimiment and ridicule; while vet you will stand bv your 
 country and the Constitution and the republican sj^stem, 
 though a world w^ere to rise up in arms against you. So, 
 in like manner, stand by the University, whatever ma}' 
 be the character of its temporary governors and teach- 
 ers. If the University be in itself a good thing, or ca- 
 pable of being made good : do not desert or renounce it, 
 merely because some of its non-essential appendages may 
 not be particularly acceptable to your critical judgment 
 or keener sagacity. 
 
 2. The second class of objections assume a iKuiy 
 complexion. Party men, whether political or religious, 
 are apt to regard everything with partial eyes which 
 belongs to their own party; and to frown upon what- 
 ever is either neutral or lukewarm or dissentient or 
 adverse. They would have a party college — a political 
 or sectarian college. — A hot-bed for the rearing of politi- 
 cal partisans or religious zealots and sectarian bigots. A 
 college which disclaims party attachments is very likely 
 to be repudiated by all parties. Our University occupies 
 a position somewhat peculiar. Its trustees are composed 
 of very decided political leaders and champions of both 
 the great parties which divide our country at the present 
 crisis. Of the precise political creed or bias of the Fa- 
 culty, the speaker is entirely ignorant. He knows not 
 the politics of any of his colleagues. He has never 
 conversed with them on the subject: and he has never 
 heard an avowal of principles or predilections from one 
 of them. He cares not what their politics are, or for 
 whom thev vote. Thus it is also in regard to relidous 
 
326 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 opinions. Both trustees and faculty belong to different 
 sects and denominations. And the students are left to 
 their own free choice, or to parental guidance, in both 
 religion and politics. Their liberty has never been in- 
 fringed or interfered with in either respect. No attemj^t 
 has ever been made to proselyte a single youth to any 
 ftiith, political or religious. We all profess to be Chris- 
 tians and republicans : and we fain would have our pu- 
 pils to be honest Christians and consistent republicans. 
 This is the utmost of our aim, in all our labours, instruc- 
 tions and exhortations — so far as politics and religion 
 are in question. They may be Methodists, Presbyte- 
 rians, Baptists, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Quakers 
 — Whigs, Democrats, Federalists, Conservatives — we 
 care not — so that they are Christians and patriots. We 
 go for the Constitution of our country and for the reli- 
 gion of Christendom: and we stop not to notice or to 
 inculcate the dogmas of any school, sect or party. Such 
 was the system avowed at the commencement of our 
 connexion with the University and with this community. 
 We gave, to the public a solemn pledge to this effect at 
 the outset. Have we ever departed from our system or 
 failed to redeem our pledge ? We challenge the severest 
 scrutiny: and we defy contradiction. Our University 
 has never enlisted under the banners of any sect or 
 party, and we trust she never will. The youth of all 
 parties and of all sects are equally favoured, protected 
 and respected within her walls. And when they cease 
 to be so, it will be time enough to complain and to sound 
 the tocsin of alarm. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 327 
 
 3. A third objection arises from the locality of the 
 institution. Nashville is a gay, dissipated, fashionable 
 place — quite unfit for boys — dangerous to their morals 
 and to their purses. Is it so? Then, whose is the 
 fault? Is Nashville too wicked — too grossly wicked — 
 to be intrusted with a University? Dare you utter 
 such a plea, or pronounce so harsh a verdict ujDon your 
 own civic character? Will the citizens of Nashville 
 gravely affirm that they are so immoral, licentious and 
 profligate, that the juvenile stranger may not venture 
 to reside or sojourn among them without peril to his 
 virtue ? or will they permit others thus to asperse and to 
 slander them? That some of our respectable and intel- 
 ligent citizens have asserted and do believe that this 
 little city is too wicked for a college to prosper among 
 them, is true : for I have heard this opinion and belief 
 expressed with all the seriousness and regret of deep- 
 rooted conviction. It is obvious that the prevalence 
 of such a notion among ourselves and its publicity 
 abroad, must exert a sinister influence upon the pros- 
 pects and fortunes of an institution just struggling for 
 bare existence, and prove extremely discouraging to the 
 zeal and eflbrts of its friends. In the abstract, or speak- 
 ing absolutely, the objection may be well founded. But 
 comparatively, or in reference to other places, it is 
 groundless and impertinent. 
 
 Nashville is bad enough, no doubt. But it is not 
 worse than other cities, -towns and villages — whether 
 large or small — throughout the Union. You will search 
 in vain for a purer moral atmosphere either within the 
 
328 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 limits of our own Commonwealth, or in the adjacent 
 States, or even beyond the mountains. If Nashville, 
 then, be too wicked for a college, it follows, by parity 
 of reasoning, that a college ought not and cannot be 
 sustained in any city or town in the United States — 
 or in the world. For vice abounds everywhere: and 
 to an extent frequently, which would cause even Nash- 
 ville to blush at the thought of a comparison. And 3'et 
 colleges do flourish, and have flourished for ages, in 
 hundreds of these graceless cities and dissolute coun- 
 try villages. This argument or objection then is inap- 
 plicable and nugatory. It is urged, probably, by those 
 who know little or nothing about the real character and 
 condition of other places. Whatever is e\dl and perni- 
 cious within the range of our daily observation, we 
 notice, and reflect upon, and magnify, and talk about : 
 while of distant towns, we hear nothing but the good 
 and the fair and the favourable. And "distance always 
 lends enchantment to the view." 
 
 Again, if Nashville be really too wicked for a college ; 
 it is too wicked for schools of an\' description ; it is too 
 wicked even for a family residence. No parent ought 
 to live here. His children will be obnoxious to all sorts 
 of malign influences from their birth onward, through 
 every stage of domestic discipline; and in spite of all 
 his vigilance and solicitude. You ought instantly to 
 depart from a place wdiich you pronounce so abominably 
 depraved, and so imminently hazardous to the welflire 
 of your oflspring. But here you are, and here are jour 
 sons and daughters, and here ^ou and thev are likelv to 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 329 
 
 abide. Some of you, perhaps, may calculate to evade 
 both the argument and the dangers, by resolving to edu- 
 cate your sons at distant seminaries — where they will 
 learn better morals and acquire more correct habits. 
 Very well — by and by — after three or four years of rt- 
 nowning abroad — they will return home. What now 
 are their moral principles and habits ? Are they supe- 
 rior in these or any other respects, to the home-bred 
 natives of the West? Are they noio, after all this 
 foreign training and lavish expenditure, the immacu- 
 late paragons of virtue and intellectual refinement, 
 which your fond hopes had anticipated or your dream- 
 ing fancies had pictured? Are they proof against all 
 temptation and example and solicitation? Do they 
 walk erect amidst the moral darkness and desolations 
 which surround them? Let past experience answer 
 these and all similar interrogatories. The truth of the 
 matter is, the streams never rise higher than the foun- 
 tain whence they flow. Home, after all, is the source 
 and the standard of all morality to children. In refer- 
 ence to this most important concern, the poet has philo- 
 sophically declared that. 
 
 "Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." 
 
 It matters little where our youth learn language and 
 science — at schools however celebrated for sound learn- 
 ing and rigid discipline — they will seldom appear ambi- 
 tious to attain a degree of moral excellence above their 
 fellow-citizens and every day associates. They will 
 naturallv resume the tone and bearing, the manners and 
 
000 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 customs, the sentiments and prejudices of their native 
 city. Its fashionable follies and amusements and vices 
 will be eagerl}^ pursued and practised. Even the dread 
 of being accounted singular or austere or proud or un- 
 accommodating, will often prompt them to compliances 
 and excesses which they otherwise might have resisted 
 or avoided. 
 
 The standard of morals has never been elevated by 
 such a process in any community. The reformation 
 must commence at home, and be consummated at home. 
 If you would train up moral children, you must make 
 yourselves moral. And if you become moral yourselves, 
 
 1 take it your city will be moral. You complain that 
 your city is immoral — do you? Pray, who have ren- 
 dered your city immoral, and who keep it immoral? Is 
 it not your own work? Do not parents govern the city? 
 Do not parents create, countenance and sustain every 
 nuisance, and every species of noxious dissipation and 
 degrading amusement which abound in our midst? 
 What do you mean by complaining, and lamenting, 
 and whining, and mourning, and fretting, and preaching, 
 and praying, and denouncing ? Why do you not arise, 
 in all the majesty of your resistless and united strength, 
 and resolve forthwith to purify your own premises ; and 
 to put down every stalking monster of iniquity and 
 abomination which is rioting upon the heart's blood of 
 your unprotected offspring? Will you get drunk, and 
 expect your children to be sober? Will you profane 
 the name of your Maker, and expect your children to 
 hallow it? Will you desecrate the Christian Sabbath. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 331 
 
 and expect your children to keep it holy? Will you 
 frequent the theatre, the race-course, or the gaming 
 table; and expect your children to shun and to aljhor 
 them? 
 
 Ah, no — you will reply — we perpetrate none of these 
 enormities ourselves. We set a very good example, and 
 we do not withhold seasonable counsel and reproof and 
 admonition. But what can we do? The whole world 
 is against us. Our city is full of grog-shops and groce- 
 ries and other villanous establishments — duly licensed 
 and authorized by law to sell whisky and to create 
 drunkards, and to ruin our children and servants — 
 and all this to support government, and to enable a 
 few honest fellows to get a comfortable living. And 
 this is your plea — is it? It shall not avail you. If 
 your rulers misgovern you or abuse your confidence, 
 turn them out, and elect better men. I defy any mor- 
 tal to offer the semblance of a reason for the existence 
 of a single grog-shop in our land ; or for permitting any 
 man to retail inebriating liquors to minors or servants, 
 or to others to be drunk at his own bar or upon his own 
 premises. This is one of the most deplorable evils of 
 vicious and perverted legislation with which our country 
 is afflicted. It is precisely the evil which has hitherto 
 proved, and which is, at this moment, the most perni- 
 cious to the well-being of all our colleges without ex- 
 ception. It has been proclaimed a thousand times : and 
 legislatures have been everywhere appealed to and en- 
 treated in vain to abate it. The late Governor of Soutli 
 C'arolina, in his last message to the legislature, animad- 
 
332 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 verted, in the most indignant and eloquent language, upon 
 the mischievous influence of the wine and whisky shops 
 of Columbia upon the morals and discipline of the State's 
 University in that metropolis. The public complain of 
 the dissipation of colleges and of the riotous conduct of 
 the students, and none more loudly than our politicians, 
 our judges and statesmen, and yet they very deliberately 
 legalize and sanction and uphold the means and instru- 
 ments which effect all the mischief. Verily, they are 
 wise, sagacious, consistent, magnanimous gentlemen ! 
 
 It would be useless therefore to seek for a college or 
 school, in all the length and breadth of this mighty Re- 
 public, where intoxicating liquors cannot be procured; 
 or where the students may not indulge in their use, 
 or get drunk, if so inchned. If we would educate our 
 sons where rum and grog-shops cannot be found, we 
 must send them to Robinson Crusoe's Island or to the 
 Penitentiary. Here, by the way, I may just remark, 
 that the Penitentiary is the only University which the 
 government of Tennessee has condescended to build up 
 and to patronize. This is our grand State University : 
 and the work of education is said to be going bravely on 
 within its w^alls. It is already the people's favourite: 
 and its accomplished graduates will, no doubt, in due 
 time, occupy a prominent position in our most respect- 
 able and enlightened community. 
 
 Nashville, I have said, is bad enough: and I have 
 said also, that it is not worse than other places. I will 
 add moreover, for your especial edification and encou- 
 ragement, that I do not esteem it quite so bad as many 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 333 
 
 other towns with which I am acquainted. I know .some- 
 thing of Eastern colleges and cities, and of the conduct 
 and habits of their pupils and other youth; and I de- 
 liberately assert that our own students are at least as 
 orderly, temperate, decorous and gentlemanly in their 
 general deportment, and as decidedly moral in their 
 habits, as were those of any Eastern institution what- 
 ever a dozen years ago. I then arrived at the conclu- 
 sion, after much observation and experience, that our 
 Southern and Western youth might be more safelj- edu- 
 cated at home than abroad : and I have seen no reasons 
 since to change my opinion, but very many to confirm 
 it. This declaration, however, is not intended as a salvo 
 or apology for anything w^rong, defective, or vicious 
 in our own political or social organization. We have 
 much to deplore and very much to reform. I maintain 
 that Nashville ought not to be content with being as 
 good as her neighbours. She ought to asj^ire to the 
 highest degree of attainable moral excellence. Suppose 
 now, that Nashville could be made, and should become, 
 confessedly, the most moral, peaceful, temperate, tran- 
 quil, polished, intelligent, virtuous town upon this 
 continent; and that her schools of every order, and 
 description should be inferior to none in the land : 
 what would not be the inevitable and immediate re- 
 sult ? Why, to be sure, every good man would wish to 
 reside here ; and every wase parent w^ould, at almost 
 any sacrifice, endeavour to educate his children here. 
 And no man can estimate the increase wdiich would 
 thence accrue to the w^ealth and population of the city. 
 
334 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 I presume that such a revolution in our moral condition 
 would alone do more towards enriching us than all 
 other causes and means put together. 
 
 4. A fourth objection is grounded upon the supposed 
 or assumed inutility or inefficiency of a college educa- 
 tion. Your college-bred youth, after all, we are told, 
 are not superior to other 3'outh. What do they learn 
 at college which may not be learned elsewhere ? How 
 many drones and idlers and blockheads do not currently 
 issue from our colleges? What are they good for? They 
 are neither qualified for the learned professions, nor for 
 any active business or manual labour. True, nianj^ lads 
 go to college, and remain years at college, to very little 
 purpose. I will tell you why and wherefore. In the 
 first place : Multitudes enter college too young. This is 
 a radical error. College discipline is not adapted to 
 very young persons. They cannot be made to feel and 
 act as men, while they are children. The college is not 
 designed for such. In the second place: They enter 
 college frequently, also, without the requisite literary 
 qualifications. They are destitute of the necessary 
 amount of elementary knowledge. They have not 
 learned how to study — by themselves — in their rooms 
 — without the presence and constant aid of their teach- 
 ers. And, of course, they waste their time in frivolous 
 sports or mischievous pranks or desultory reading. 
 They seldom conquer these first difficulties. They do 
 not know how to avail themselves of the means and 
 facilities of instruction which a college furnishes — such 
 as lectures, books, specimens, apparatus, experiments. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. OOO 
 
 111 the third place : Not a few have been spoiled at 
 home. Their habits are irregular and vicious. Thej 
 will not be governed. They resist or spurn all au- 
 thority and control. They affect to be independent of 
 college rules and restraints. They fancy themselves 
 young gentlemen — far above the servile condition of 
 the orderly schoolboy — no longer amenable to the law 
 or the birch of the pedagogue — and yet incapable of 
 appreciating any generous appeal addressed to their 
 sense of honour and shame, to their interests or ambi- 
 tion. They occupy an anomalous or transitional position 
 — a sort of hetweenity, to use one of Mr. Jefferson's ex- 
 pressive neologisms. They can neither be chastised with 
 the rod, nor subdued by reason or argument or admoni- 
 tion or reproof They are utterly impracticable : and the 
 sooner they run off to the army or the navy, the better 
 for them and the college. I advise all parents who can- 
 not or do not govern their sons at home, never to send 
 them to college with the delusive expectation that they 
 will be governed there. Or if their habits are vicious, 
 let them not suppose that the college will reform them. 
 Such a miracle will never be realized. On the contrar}', 
 it has been to me a source of animating consolation, 
 amidst many discouragements, and of profound gratitude 
 to Heaven, that, to the best of my knowledge and be- 
 lief, not an individual 3-outh, who had been judiciously 
 trained at home and well taught at school, and possessed 
 of correct principles and habits, has been hitherto ren- 
 dered worse by a connexion with our university. 
 
 In the fourth place: One of the most frequent and 
 
336 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 prolific causes of disappointment, is the practi<;e of 
 sending boys to college to learn a part only of the 
 prescribed course of study. Or, in other words, to 
 become irregular students — as they are technically and 
 very significantly styled. This is a great evil — particu- 
 larly in our Western institutions. Youth, thus indulged, 
 are left very much at their own discretion. They study 
 what they please and when they please. They are not 
 candidates for degrees. And they care very little about 
 their standing as scholars, or their proficiency in any de- 
 partment of literature or science. When they have 
 lounged away a few sessions or months, they return 
 to their parents and friends, profess to have completed 
 their studies at the University; and pass as living 
 specimens and evidences of the absolute nothingness 
 of the University system. I do not mean to intimate 
 that every person who enters a college should be re- 
 quired to study the whole course usually prescribed 
 for graduation ; or that none can derive advantage from 
 the study of a part of said course. Many young men, 
 of sufficient age and stability of character, may doubtless 
 be intrusted with a discretionary power in this respect, 
 which would be dangerous to others. Some, from the 
 want of pecuniary resources, or from defects in their 
 early education which they think themselves too old 
 to remedy, or from being destined to a particular 
 vocation which renders the knowledge of certain sci- 
 ences or languages desirable or indispensable, or for 
 other obvious and satisfiictory reasons, ought to be in- 
 dulged to the extent of their wishes or necessities. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 66t 
 
 Such cases, however, could be easily provided for, as 
 they ever have been, without detriment to the institu- 
 tion, and much to the benefit of the parties thus accom- 
 modated. I take pleasure, on this occasion, in bearing- 
 testimony to the good conduct and persevering diligence 
 of many of our own irregulars while at college, and to 
 their successful and honourable career, as citizens, ever 
 since. But where no specialties exist to justif}- a relaxa- 
 tion or departure from the established order, parents act 
 unadvisedly and injudiciously in allowing their sons am" 
 license or option in the case. They are sure to abuse it. 
 The Faculty are always the best judges in these matters, 
 or they are not fit for their station and are unworthy to 
 be trusted at all. 
 
 And here I am led to notice a fiftli source of failure 
 or of parental disappointment and mortification. It is 
 the prevalent custom or practice of assuming to be wiser 
 than the children's instructors. The latter, at best, have 
 but a sorry and most unthankful ofiice to discharge. 
 Every father and mother, uncle and amit, brother, sister 
 and cousin — every big man and every little man in the 
 village — every newspaper scribbler and every youthful 
 orator — and everybody else — is a judge and a critic 
 and a reformer and a very Solomon upon the subject 
 and mystery of education. Upon this theme they can 
 all dogmatize, in the most confident and supercilious 
 strain of dictatorial superiority. Every little master 
 and every little miss, long before ihey reach their teens, 
 have learned to enact the spy and the censor upon the 
 discipline and the code and the system and the manners 
 VOL. I. 22 
 
338 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 of the laborious veteran schoolmaster of half a ceiituiy's 
 experience. It is a misfortune that every human crea- 
 ture understands the art and the science of education so 
 much better than do our teachers themselves. We all 
 cheerfully concede a measure at least of professional 
 superiority to our lawyer and physician, to our tailor 
 and barber, to our cook and coachman; and we repose 
 some degree of confidence in their skill and judgment. 
 But alas, for the hard worked and hard working peda- 
 gogue ! He can expect neither sympathy nor justice 
 nor candour from any quarter. Unless, mdeed, he will 
 himself set up for a radical reformer — adopt the innova- 
 ting spirit of the age — denounce all existing schools and 
 systems — declare himself the people's devoted servant, 
 and withal, the greatest genius and most modest person- 
 age in the world — profess to teach all sciences, arts and 
 languages, without pain or effort on the part of his 
 pupils, and in almost no time — then, verily, he will 
 be ]3uffed and lauded and courted and caressed and 
 rewarded, — to the utter amazement and mortal discom- 
 fiture of every honest, plodding, orthodox old Busby 
 and Parr and Wyttenbach in the land. Quackery and 
 empiricism and pretension and experimenting and mys- 
 tification are the order of the day among the people's 
 honoured schoolmasters, as well as among their favour- 
 ite lawyers and doctors and parsons and vagabond ocio- 
 llsts and political conjurers. 
 
 Again, sixthly: Parents ruin their sons by allowing 
 them too much money. Upon this point, much might be 
 said. The fact is admitted and deplored at every college 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 339 
 
 in the world. The remedy or rather preventive is with 
 the parents. If they will not withhold the means of 
 licentious indulgence, they must bear the blame and 
 share the disgrace. 
 
 But with all these drawbacks and obstacles and 
 concessions and allowances, without stopping to specify 
 any more, the University has educated, and is educating, 
 a sufficient number of meritorious talented youth to 
 confront the most skeptical and cavilling objector. We 
 can muster as noble a band of accomplished alumni, 
 as, from the age and circumstances of the Institution, 
 ought reasonably to be demanded at our hands. You 
 may view them and scan them and mark them in the 
 legislative halls of the nation and of several of the 
 States — in all the liberal professions — in public life 
 and in private — as magistrates, statesmen, editors, law^- 
 yers, physicians, merchants, farmers, teachers, ministers 
 and soldiers. Their Alma Mater is not ashamed of 
 them. Nor does she fear any comparison which may 
 be instituted between them and the graduates of any 
 college or university at the East or the West. By these 
 she is willing to be judged: and by these let the people 
 judge for themselves. Here the appeal lies to palpable 
 facts, to results, to fruits — which cannot deceive, and 
 which cannot be mistaken. 
 
 5. A fifth ctcl cajjfandnm objectioij, which is upon 
 the lips of every demagogue and every aspiring syco- 
 phant of the sovereign people, runs in this wise. The 
 university is designed exclusively for the rich — for 
 the aristocracy — and not for the poor, the democracy. 
 
340 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 the great mass of our labouring productive classes. 
 This species of sophistry can rarely be refuted, because 
 it is never believed by the canting knaves who employ 
 it, and because those upon whose ignorance and cre- 
 dulity it is designed to operate, are seldom accessible, at 
 least, on occasions when truth and intellect usually 
 assert their claims. I will, however, briefly advert 
 to two or three items or heads of argument in reply. 
 
 1st. The man who affects to espouse the cause of the 
 poor — who seeks to arouse among them a spirit of 
 discontentment, and of jealousy and hostility towards the 
 rich — who is perpetually haranguing and blustering and 
 clamouring about their rights and their wrongs — with a 
 view to his own political advancement — may always 
 be noted as a selfish, heartless, intriguing, unprincipled 
 office hunter. He cares nothing about the poor. And 
 when successful, he will be the first to turn his back 
 upon them in scorn and to trample them in the dust. 
 Such has ever been the course pursued by the popular 
 demagogue. For a season, and just so long as it may 
 suit his purposes, he is the bold, zealous, unflinching, 
 furious champion of the suffering, oppressed, plundered, 
 priest-ridden, bank-ridden, university-ridden, aristocracy- 
 ridden poor. They believe him, trust him, vote for him, 
 fight for him, huzza for him, toast him, worship him, 
 bear him onward and upward, until they behold him 
 safe in the palace and upon the throne : and then again 
 they shout hosannas, and long live, my lord, the Pro- 
 tector of the Commonwealth and the Defender of the 
 poor! But the tragedy or the comedy well over, and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 341 
 
 the delirium passed awa}^, and they are astounded to 
 find themselves as fiir beneath the footstool of their once 
 familiar Cromwell or Robespierre as they had ever been 
 beneath the regal pomp of the hated Stuart or Bourbon. 
 Now, how shall the poor be disabused of this folly ? how 
 shall they be disenchanted, disinthralled, emancipated, 
 and enabled to act for themselves? Send them to the 
 University ; where the Hampdens and Sidneys and 
 Pyms and Fletchers and Lockes and Miltons and La 
 Fayettes were duly qualified to comprehend the rights 
 of man — and of all classes of men, without distinction 
 or exception. 
 
 But, 2dly. K it be true that none but the rich can 
 avail themselves of the privileges of a college ; why 
 should they be obstructed or opposed in this particular 
 use of their wealth? K the rich choose to erect and 
 endow and sustain colleges for their own special benefit : 
 may they not do so without let or hinderance ? May they 
 not indulge their fancy or caprice or vanity or ostenta- 
 tion, if you please, in this matter of colleges as well as 
 in a thousand other modes quite as aristocratic — to say 
 the least? May they not live in palaces, ride in coaches, 
 glitter in gold and diamonds, and fare sumptuously every 
 day? Will you envy them or deny them every distinc- 
 tion and every indulgence which the poor cannot com- 
 mand? Now, it appears to me that, of all the ways of 
 expending wealth, the least harmful and obtrusive is 
 precisely this of building colleges. Suppose the rich 
 men of Tennessee should unite in contributing the 
 trifling sum of a million of dollars forthwith to con- 
 
342 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 struct and equip a decent little university, Avhere their 
 own sons might be taught to be modest and useful citi- 
 zens: would the poor be injured by such an appropria- 
 tion? Would a dollar be extracted from their empty 
 purse? No, not the fraction of a dollar. Pray then, 
 let the rich throw away their money upon colleges, if 
 they happen to be so minded. Possibly, they might do 
 worse with their money — worse for themselves, their 
 children, their country — and worse for you. Besides, 
 you would get all the working jobs which such an en- 
 terprise must necessarily create. And, if I do not mis- 
 take your craft altogether, you would not fail to make a 
 profitable acquaintance with the Mammon of unright- 
 eousness and filthy lucre during the operation. 
 
 3dly. It is a fact, not to be contradicted, that nearly 
 all the best educated and most learned men in our 
 countr}^ and in the world, are either comparatively poor 
 or have been poor. If they ever attain to wealth and 
 power and rank and office, they owe it all to their 
 talents and learning and diligence. And thus have 
 they been enabled to rise above their primitive lowly 
 condition and to assume their proper station, in spite of 
 the artificial, arbitrary, conventional barriers which 
 wealth and fashion and pride usually oppose — and, 
 happily, sometimes oppose in vain, to superior genius 
 and superior science. Still, very few studious literary 
 men are found among the wealthy classes even in our 
 own country — where every man is the architect of his 
 own fortune — and where every man, fool or knave, 
 may get rich, if he will. They are either content with 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 343 
 
 a moderate competency, or their organ of acquisitiveness 
 is not sufficiently developed, or the people have not 
 sagacity enough to employ them, or justice enough to 
 remunerate them for their invaluable services. 
 
 And therefore it is that the rich themselves fre- 
 quently ridicule and denounce the university and the 
 scholar and all liberal learning; — precisely because these 
 are associated in their minds with poverty and unthrifti- 
 ness and indifference to the main chance. They cannot 
 estimate even moral and intellectual excellence except 
 by the dollar standard. It is really .diverting to see, 
 with what superlative hauteur and contempt, they can 
 look down upon the poor student, the poor author, the 
 poor teacher, the poor anything, however ennobled and 
 exalted and refined by mental cultivation, and by the 
 possession of Heaven's rarest gifts and attributes. Your 
 unlettered, pompous, mushroom, purse-proud nabobs are, 
 in general, not only the most inveterate foes of col- 
 leges, but the most absurd, egotistical, overweening, 
 self-sufficient, iron-bound, leaden-headed, braying animals 
 in the whole world. They live only to hoard money : 
 and they expend it only for display. It requires a most 
 thorough education to know how to use a fortune gen- 
 teelly — not to say liberally and munificently. And of 
 all the caricatures of our common humanity, save from 
 the pencil of a Hogarth, the vulgar rich man who apes 
 the manners and polish and etiquette and fashionable 
 hi€7iseances — the airs, graces and persiflage — of the high- 
 bred gentleman! Why, such a lumpish millionaire 
 parvenu cannot eat a good dinner — as a good dinner 
 
344 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 was ordained to be eaten by all Christian men. He eats 
 as if he were running a race for a wager, or as if a cus- 
 tomer were still waiting at his counter to give him a 
 bargain. It is tantalizing, beyond the endurance of all 
 Greek and of all Roman philosophy, to be seated at a 
 dinner table, furnished and appointed in all respects, 
 comme il faut, merely to see the whole array of good 
 things evanish in the twinkling of an eye, and the mo- 
 mentous affair concluded, determined and summarily 
 despatched, before the genuine classical epicure could be 
 well prepared for a quiet and dignified discussion of the 
 first course. 
 
 Here then, we have a sort of two-edged objection 
 against colleges. The poor would fain cashier them, 
 because they are the pets of the rich. And the rich are 
 indiiferent, because they do not help their sons to coin 
 money. Both are equally wrong : and both equally mis- 
 take their own true interests. Both may be — both have 
 been — greatly elevated, and rendered better, wiser, hap- 
 pier and more useful by this very instrumentality — 
 which the ruder and more illiberal portions of each 
 seem so eager to destroy. 
 
 4thly. But, in the fourth place, the university has 
 ever been pre-eminently the poor man's friend. Most of 
 the older modern European universities were originally 
 charitable foundations — designed especially for the gra- 
 tuitous instruction of poor youth: and they have re- 
 tained much of this character and continued to perform 
 much of this work to the present day. It has created 
 the entire republic of letters, almost exclusively out of 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 345 
 
 the plebeian and indigent and humbler classes of society. 
 It has constrained monarchs and nobles, wealth and 
 power, to do homage to enlightened and cultivated intel- 
 lect. Wherever it has flourished, untrammeled and un- 
 rebuked by royal or popular arrogance, it has mitigated 
 or removed the evils of superstition and despotism, 
 of immemorial usage and prescription. It has ever 
 been the zealous advocate of genuine liberty and right- 
 eous government; notwithstanding the reproaches and 
 calumnies of the demagogue and the cynic. But I will 
 not dwell upon these topics, nor further enlarge upon 
 the ohjectiom which constitute the first division of my 
 subject. 
 
 These objections and a thousand others may be well 
 founded. In some instances, they may be literally true. 
 The university, no doubt, has been perverted and 
 abused. And so have Uberty and religion and science 
 and reason, and every human blessing and faculty. The 
 university has never been perfect; neither has any work 
 or attribute or institution of mortal man ever been 
 perfect. The university has been made the engine of 
 error and tyranny and priest-craft and all manner of 
 high-handed iniquity, in some age or country : so have 
 the church and the civil government, divine revelation 
 and human philosophy. Indeed, every name, capable of 
 abuse, and of being rendered subservient to the purposes 
 of avarice or ambition or selfish aggrandizement in 
 any form, has been thus employed and dishonoured. 
 If colleges are imperfect and sometimes pernicious, so 
 are common schools and the domestic nursery. And 
 
346 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 yet, I suppose, we shall not attempt to abolish either 
 families or common schools. Thoagh, it must be con- 
 fessed, the spirit of ahoUtionism is abroad in our land: 
 and while Eastern perfectionists are preaching up the 
 doctrine of the immediate and universal abolition of 
 slavery at the South and the West, and while certain 
 benevolent politicians proclaim the necessity of abolish- 
 ing the whole banking and commercial machinery of 
 the country, there are also sundry fair knights errant 
 boldly enlisted in behalf of the rights of woman, who 
 seem resolved to abolish all family monopolies, and to 
 create a new social arrangement altogether independ- 
 ent of man's lordly and usurped supremacy. Indeed, 
 abolitionism, and radicalism, and agrarianism, and ultra- 
 ism, and amalgamationism, and Loco-Focoism, and 
 Lynchism, and Fanny- Wrightism, are all the rage: and 
 whether any existing law or usage or institution shall 
 survi^-e the ferment and the struggle, is beyond our 
 prophetic ken to decide or to conjecture. But as our 
 motto is "never to despair of the Republic," we shall 
 proceed with our thesis, upon the presumption that 
 the University, at least, is to endure and to triumph. 
 And thus we arrive at the second grand di\dsion of our 
 augument or rather of our homily upon colleges. 
 
 II. We promised to suggest some reasons in favour of 
 colleges, and of our own University in particular. Here 
 I may remind you that, in rebutting certain attacks and 
 objections, I have already incidentally glanced at many 
 of the positive benefits which result from colleges. I 
 may further remark, that whatever consideration can be 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 347 
 
 urged in favour of education or of learning generally 
 or of any degree of it, is available and pertinent to the 
 cause in question. If a little learning be good and 
 desirable, a great deal is better and more desirable. If a 
 limited and imperfect education be worth something, 
 a superior and really excellent education must be worth 
 still more. And any argument which sustains the 
 former, will a fortiori apply to the latter. 
 
 Please, moreover, to remember my former concessions. 
 I am not contending for shadows or for names. Univei"- 
 sities, like common schools, may be and frequently are 
 very puny and pitiful affairs. In pleading for the 
 University, I plead for the University as it ought to be 
 — not as it actuall}^ is, either here or elsewhere. It is 
 the grand paramount cause of education and learning, 
 in the highest and noblest acceptation of the terms, 
 which I advocate. University is the word, used by 
 common consent, throughout the world, to designate the 
 species of institution where the largest amount and ex- 
 tent of liberal and useful knowledge may be acquired, 
 under the most auspicious circumstances, and with the 
 surest guaranty to the public against imposition and 
 charlatanry. 
 
 Now the University of Nashville, compared with my 
 own heau ideal of such an establishment, is but an 
 element — a mere atom — a foundation — a nucleus — a 
 corner stone — a first essay towards the glorious consum- 
 mation and perfection of my own cherished hopes and 
 anticipations. And I could say little more of any other 
 university in our country. I regard them all as being 
 
348 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 still in their infancy ; or, at most, in their early youth : 
 and that their rlglit to the title of unwerslty is yet to be 
 proved and confirmed by their future growth to vigorous 
 manhood and generous maturity. 
 
 The course of study provided for undergraduates, is 
 much the same in nearly all our colleges; and but few 
 of them have ventured further. To this extent, we 
 claim to be on an equal footing with our neighbours and 
 sisters. Our undergraduate course is professedly as ex- 
 tensive and diversified as usually obtains anywhere in 
 our country : and as high an order of intellectual attain- 
 ments is expected and required of our candidates for 
 degrees. 
 
 Several of our universities have the Faculties of Law, 
 or Medicine, or Theology, or all three, in addition to the 
 ordinary Faculty of Arts and Letters, or Philosophy. 
 These, of course, approximace nearer to the proper char 
 racter of a university than do the others. The English 
 universities of Oxford and Cambridge are similary con- 
 stituted, and have served as the models of our own. In 
 theory, at least — and in reference to the government, 
 discipline, systems and modes of study and instruction, 
 terms and periods of college residence, board in com- 
 mons, monastic seclusion, forms, habits, statutes, qualifi- 
 cations for graduation, and other details — the under- 
 graduates of the English and American universities 
 would seem to occupy the same relative position. And 
 so far as the undergraduates are directly and exclusively 
 concerned, the number of professors, whether larger or 
 smaller, may not be very material — provided always, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSFS. 349 
 
 there be enoiigli to teach all the pu23ils whatever they 
 arc capable of learning within the allotted seasons of 
 study. Neither are very large libraries important to 
 this class of students. They cannot read or consult 
 many volumes besides their text-books, during this brief 
 period. And were the university designed for no other 
 or higher end, it might be content with some dozen 
 or twenty professors or tutors for each hundred or two 
 hundred students; together with a few score thousand 
 volumes in its library; suitable apparatus for scientific 
 experiments and illustrations; museums of Natural His- 
 tory; mineralogical cabinets; and whatever specimens, 
 preparations, instruments and fixtures might be avail- 
 able either to professor or student. 
 
 But all this and vastly more would not reach our 
 idea of a complete or adequately furnished university. 
 Neither an English nor an American ^^outh has finished 
 his studies, when he becomes entitled to the degree 
 of Bachelor of Arts. He is then but barely qualified to 
 enter upon that wider and more interesting field of in- 
 vestigation to which the great University invites or 
 ought to invite him. He is yet to prepare himself for 
 public and professional life. English and American 
 graduates are seldom, on leaving college, further ad- 
 vanced in years and learning, than are the young men 
 on the continent of Europe when they commence their 
 studies at the university. Hence the university system 
 of the latter differs essentially from the former. The 
 two ancient English Universities can boast the most 
 splendid college edifices in the world; and libraries 
 
350 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 among the largest and most valuable in existence. And 
 their resident graduates may prosecute any course of 
 solitary and unaided study and reading which they deem 
 profitable or agreeable. Endowed fellowships also sup- 
 port a certain number of the most accomplished and 
 promising poor scholars: who frequently remain for 
 years in the assiduous pursuit of knowledge, and in the 
 tranquil enjoyment of the extraordinary advantages 
 afforded by a highly cultivated literary society and daily 
 access to the accumulated wisdom and erudition of the 
 illustrious dead. These are privileges which can never 
 be lightly estimated. But they fall far short of the 
 German and other continental universities. The Eng- 
 lish have comparatively few living teachers — scarcely 
 none for the liberal professions — while the German 
 are abundantly supplied. The English aim at great 
 excellence in the Greek and Latin classics and pure 
 mathematics 5 and to these they chiefly restrict their 
 public examinations for University honours and degrees. 
 And while the German aim at and attain still higher ex- 
 cellence in the classics and mathematics, they are ambi- 
 tious also to teach, or to possess the means of teaching, 
 every art, science, language and literature, ancient and 
 modern, speculative, practical, experimental and pro- 
 fessional. 
 
 The German universities consist of four distinct facul- 
 ties: Theology, Medicine, Law and Philosophy. Not 
 such meagre faculties as bear these names in England 
 and America. Instead of one, two, three, or half a 
 dozen individuals for Law or Medicine as with us, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 351 
 
 they frequently exhibit an array of a dozen or twenty or 
 forty names, of the most learned, gifted and laborious 
 men upon earth. Their office is no sinecure. They 
 are working men. Thus, in Berlui, the Law Faculty 
 consists of fourteen members, and the Medical of thirtj^- 
 two. This University w^as founded in 1810. And it 
 already ranks among the first in the world; and in some 
 branches of science the very first. In 1830, it had up- 
 wards of 100 professors and about 1800 students : 
 among the latter were 400 or 500 foreigners. The Ger- 
 man universities are in fact professional schools, and are 
 resorted to only hy young men, who are preparing for 
 the active duties of life, and never by boys, as is the 
 case in our colleges. Their Gymnasia, in which prepara- 
 tion is made for the universities, correspond in many 
 respects with our colleges. In the faculties of Law, 
 Medicine and Theology, is taught, of course, whatever 
 pertains to those professions. The faculty of Philosophy 
 comprises everything not embraced by the other three. 
 And no adequate idea of what this every tiling really 
 imports, can be formed except by a perusal of the xrro- 
 gramme of lectures usually delivered at a German Uni- 
 versity, during a single term, by the professors in this 
 Faculty. They may be said, almost without hyperbole, 
 to treat in their course of prelections, public and private, 
 de omni scihili et quihusdam aliis. They are working 
 men, as I have said : but, then, they do not labour for 
 naught and find themselves. They are amply remune- 
 rated both in honour and by solid Louis or Frederic dors. 
 They frequently attain to the highest political distinc- 
 
352 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 tions and civil offices. They are created barons and 
 counts — are employed as State counsellors and minis- 
 ters, and ambassadors to foreign courts ; and their society 
 is eagerly sought by nobles and princes and monarchs. 
 
 It is not my purpose, however, to attempt elaborate de- 
 scriptions and statistical details. Whoever has studied 
 the history, genius, character, government, modes of in- 
 struction, endowments, revenues, and all the concen- 
 trated waj'S and means and facilities of communicating 
 knowledge, which distinguish the most celebrated Euro- 
 pean universities, will be able to comprehend our 
 meaning when we speak of them as an order or species 
 of institution altogether unknown in the United States. 
 We have nothing like them or approaching them. If 
 Harvard and Yale resemble old Cambridge and Oxford, 
 it is only the likeness of the infant to a giant, or of the 
 Indian tumulus to an Egyptian pyramid. If the new 
 Universities of Virginia and of the City of New York 
 exhibit features similar to those of Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow or the recently established London University ; 
 still, they are but miniatures, and humble imitations — a 
 mere flotilla of gun-boats arrayed against Britain's 
 proud navy of gallant seventy-fours. But of the Ger- 
 man, French, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, Danish and 
 Russian Universities, we have no specimen or example 
 in all our vast Republic. Whether we ought to essay 
 the creation of precisely such institutions among us — or 
 whether, if established, they would be duly patronized 
 and sustained by our busy, restless, speculating, money- 
 making people — are questions open for discussion, and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. OOrf 
 
 which we shall not argue or decide on the present occa- 
 sion. 
 
 For the ordinary purposes of educating boys, generally 
 between the ages of fifteen and twenty-one, we have no 
 hesitation in giving the preference to such colleges as we 
 already possess : provided always, that they be made in 
 fojct what they assume and profess to be in name. Such 
 institutions, scattered over the land, at convenient dis- 
 tances from each other, are better adapted to the habits, 
 wants and circumstances of our widely dispersed and 
 comparatively poor population. They correspond to the 
 individual colleges, which collectively constitute the 
 great universities at Oxford and Cambridge : and which, 
 in the opinion of Milton, would have proved more gene- 
 rally useful and less objectionable on the score of im- 
 moral influences, had they been erected seperately at 
 some thirty or forty different points in the kingdom. 
 They resemble also the Gjminasia of Germany and the 
 colleges [so called] of France. A more rigid, effective 
 and salutary discipline and government can be main- 
 tained in seminaries of this class over boys of a tender 
 age, and where the number would seldom exceed one or 
 two hundred, than could be exercised over the same de- 
 scription of youth in a large university where a thou- 
 sand or more might be congregated. For it must be 
 borne in mind, that the students in the German, Scot- 
 tish and most other European universities, are governed 
 as men and subjects, not by the Academical Faculty, 
 but by the laws of the land and the city police— and, 
 
 VOL. I. 23 
 
354 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 when necessary, by the strong arm of the military 
 legion. 
 
 But I would not stop here. While I would duly 
 encourage and improve the common college, as we 
 should the common school, there ought to be in every 
 State, at least in each of the larger States, one institu- 
 tion of the highest order and most comprehensive and 
 commanding character. If we cannot achieve this ob- 
 ject in five or twenty years, it may be done perhaps 
 in fifty or five hundred years. If we cannot hope in 
 our day, to rival Berlin, Munich, Gottingeu, Leipsic, 
 Copenhagen, Vienna, Halle, Lej'den, Paris, Moscow or 
 St. Petersburg; we may commence the enterprise, and 
 leave posterity to carry it onward towards completion. 
 For complete, in the nature of things, it never can be. 
 It must be growing, advancing, enlarging, accumulating, 
 till the end of time. No university in Europe is com- 
 plete — not even in any one department. With libraries, 
 for instance, of from 100,000 to 700,000 volumes, they 
 are still adding to the number, and must do so while 
 a book or manuscript, not already procured, can be 
 found; or so long as new books shall be written and 
 published. Now there is not, in the United States, a 
 single libraiy which can be styled large or respectable. — 
 Not one, containing more than 30,000 or 40,000 volumes 
 — corresponding in numbers and rank to the tenth or 
 twelfth rate of European libraries. So it is with all 
 other collections, whether of the j)roducts of nature or 
 of art. No limit can be assigned to their increase. And 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 355 
 
 while America has scarcely begun this work, and while 
 Europe is ob\iouslj a centuiy or two in advance of us, 
 it may yet be affirmed that neither Europe nor America 
 will ever have completed either the wdiole or any one of 
 its thousand divisions. 
 
 If our National Government had appropriated the sur- 
 plus revenue, (while such a thing existed,) say, some 
 fifty millions of dollars — to the construction and en- 
 dowment of a national university — as I think should 
 have been done — a very substantial and well-propor- 
 tioned foundation at least might have been laid — far 
 superior indeed to the present actual condition of most 
 European universities. Still, this w^ould have been only 
 a foundation — a mere beginning after all — bold and co- 
 lossal in its features and dimensions, it is true; and 
 worthy of the Republic and the age which dared — oj' 
 rather dared not — to hazard the glorious undertaking. 
 Such a foundation, with an annual allowance of a few 
 millions, might, in the course of a thousand years, be- 
 come a w^orld's wonder — a something to be proud of and 
 to talk about. 
 
 A National or State Universitj^ ought to possess, or to 
 aim at possessing, the means of teaching all the sciences, 
 and everything, indeed, which it is desirable for any man 
 to know. Thus, in its libraries should be found one or 
 more copies of every valuable book extant in any lan- 
 guage, ancient or modern. Not that any mortal could 
 be expected to read even the title pages of a tithe of 
 them: But that persons of every variety of taste and 
 pursuit, might be able to gratify their curiosity, and to 
 
356 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 acquire the specific information needful for any purpose 
 or vocation. 
 
 In like manner, and for similar uses, specimens, living 
 or preserved, of every vegetable and animal and mineral, 
 peculiar to the earth, the air and the waters of our 
 planet, (or in their stead, the finest engravings and 
 lithographs,) ought to be sought for with diligence, and 
 procured at whatever cost of time or money. — Together 
 with botanic gardens, astronomical observatories, ana- 
 tomical and physiological preparations, models of all 
 sorts of machines and useful inventions, and the works 
 of the noblest artists or well executed copies of them. — 
 Such varied and opulent collections (still imperfect, in- 
 deed,) as already adorn many of the cities and universi- 
 ties of Europe. — Where may be seen and studied every 
 department, and almost every known product of nature 
 and of art; arranged, too, in the most convenient and 
 scientific and tasteful order, and imparting gratuitous 
 pleasure and instruction to all visitors and amateurs, 
 whether natives or foreigners. There are museums of 
 antiques, of coins, of gems, of busts, of statues, of pic- 
 tures, of manuscripts, of engravings, of medals, of monu- 
 ments, of machines, of models, of casts in g^'psum, of 
 fossils; of natural history, in each and all its branches 
 and provinces ; of Egyptian, Etruscan, Grecian, Roman 
 and other remains of ancient art and genius, still speak- 
 ing in behalf of the mighty dead, and of ages and 
 nations long since passed away. 
 
 I might accompany you, for examples ad rcm^ to Flo- 
 rence, and Rome, and Turin, and Milan, and Naples, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 357 
 
 jind Berlin, and Dresden, and Munich, and Vienna, and 
 St. Petersburg, and London, and a score of other places, 
 not unknown to scientific fame. But let us pause a 
 moment in Paris, and glance at two or three of its mar- 
 vellous creations, creditable alike to the liberality of the 
 government and the scientific taste of the nation. Be- 
 hold the Jardbi des Plantes: with its numerous and 
 diversified establishments, of some half a mile in length ; 
 with its groups of plants from almost everj region of 
 the globe; with its green and hot houses of more than 
 600 feet in length; with its vast menagerie of wild 
 beasts of every climate and latitude, distributed and 
 secured in ample and comfortable enclosures; with its 
 aviary, embracing every bird known in France and 
 many from foreign countries; with its splendid mu- 
 seum of natural history, also more than 600 feet long; 
 with its unrivalled zoological and fossil departments; 
 with its curious specimens of the animal remains of 
 the antediluvian world, not elsewhere to be seen; with 
 its extensive library and invaluable cabinet of compara- 
 tive anatomy; with its unequalled agricultural and bo- 
 tanical gardens; with its noble amphitheatre, in which 
 public lectures are delivered on all the physical sciences 
 and their application to the arts, and where Jussieu, Buf- 
 fon, Hauy and Cuvier have recorded their names for 
 immortality. "We pass the Pantheon, with its choice 
 selections in natural history, antiquities and paintings: 
 The Conservatory of Arts and Manufactures, with its 
 infinitude of machines and models: The Musee (TArtil- 
 Icrie, the repository of every warlike weapon, instrument 
 
358 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 and engine: The Royal Library, with its 700,000 vo- 
 lumes and its 80,000 precious manuscripts; and other 
 public libraries, containing a grand total of 2,000,000 
 books. And we arrive at the Louvre, with its proud 
 halls of sculpture; and its magnificent gallery of paint- 
 ings, 1400 feet in length; overwhelming alike all the 
 powers of human reason and imagination. But here we 
 m list stop. And yet, we are but at the threshold of this 
 mighty world of miracle and enchantment! 
 
 We have spoken of collections and fixtures. Our 
 University must have the requisite teaching force also. 
 Professors of every language, dead and living; of every 
 science, in all its branches and subdivisions, in all its 
 bearings and applications. To be more particular: 
 There should be professors or teachers, 
 
 Of Ancient classical languages and literature : 
 Of Oriental languages and hterature : 
 Of Modern European languages and literature : 
 Of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Astronomy: 
 Of Chemistry, Geology, Mineralogy, Comparative Ana- 
 tomy : 
 
 Of Archaeology, in reference to ancient nations, govern- 
 ments, jurisprudence, geography, mythology, arts, sci 
 ence, and still existing monuments : 
 
 Of Philology, Eloquence, Poetry, History: 
 
 Of Physiology, vegetable, animal and comparative : 
 
 Of Ethics, Politics, Logic, Metaphysics: 
 
 Of Constitutional and International Law : 
 
 Of Political Economy, National Statistics: 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 359 
 
 Of Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Drawing, En- 
 graving, Music: 
 
 Of Engineering, civil, military, and naval 
 
 Of Mechanics, principles and practice : 
 
 Of Agriculture, Commerce, Manufactures: 
 
 Of Fencing,* riding, swimming, and other manly and 
 healthful gymnastics : 
 
 Of Natural History, in every department : 
 
 Of all the Liberal Professions : 
 
 Of Biblical Literature: And of Eeligion, in such 
 forms and modes as may be satisfactory to the judicious 
 and reflecting portion of the community. 
 
 [The above is not given either as a complete enumera- 
 tion or proper grouping of the subjects for professor- 
 ships, but rather as a brief summary or outline of the 
 more obvious and important.] 
 
 There should be schools, in short, for all the sciences, 
 arts, languages and professions. So that no youth need 
 ever cross the ocean to study and learn what ought 
 to be taught much more safely and advantageously at 
 home. 
 
 Now, whatever other nations have achieved in behalf 
 of science, learning and education, we could accomplish, 
 sooner or later, by the aid of our national treasury. As 
 nothing, however, may be expected from the General 
 Government, and very little from the State Govern- 
 ments, until the spirits of Washington, Franklin, Jeffer- 
 son and Clinton shall preside in our councils, it follows, 
 either that our contemplated University must remain 
 a ccvstle in the air, or it must be built up by the people — 
 
360 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 by rich people too — or, at least, by those who possess 
 some property. It must be effected by private munifi- 
 cence, effort and enterprise. 
 
 If the Legislature of Tennessee will not create and 
 endow a university suited to this Commonwealth, the 
 people must do the work, or it will n4ver be done. 
 Were I a member of that body, and free from all col- 
 legiate and clerical connexions, I might possibly attempt 
 an argument or a speech upon this unpopular theme. 
 And I might say some plain things about justice and 
 honour and integrity — of imdemnification for wrongs 
 inflicted and rights withheld — of legislative, as well as 
 individual, obligations to fulfil contracts, to redeem 
 pledges, to pay debts, and to discharge, with a scrupulous 
 and rigid fidelity, all the duties of a responsible and 
 voluntarily assumed trust and guardianship. But as I 
 am not entitled to the floor, I will not address the House 
 at present. If the Legislature, however, will elect me 
 their representative to the Senate of the United States, 
 I will exert ni}' humble faculties to the \qyj uttermost 
 to induce the Government to make a new grant of a few 
 hundred thousand acres of wild land to our hitherto ne- 
 glected and povertj'-stricken colleges and academies; 
 and to absolve the State from all her past iniquities and 
 existmg liabilities on this score. I hope the Honour- 
 able Gextlemex Avill maturely deliberate upon this 
 singularly disinterested and modest proposition of mine, 
 before they proceed to a final choice. They will find 
 me, moreover, a most orthodox, independent, decided, 
 old-fashioned, constitutional politician; who will listen 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 361 
 
 respectfully to all their instructions, and then act just as 
 he pleases. — Always ''taking the responsibility," and 
 hazarding the consequences. 
 
 Let us now consider what we can do, and ought forth- 
 with to undertake. Though we might despair of ever 
 attaining to the regal grandeur of Berlin or Paris or 
 Oxford, we may assuredly venture to follow the example 
 of the little republican Swiss Cantons of Zurich, Berne, 
 Basle and Geneva. Of Geneva especially: the popular 
 tion of w^hich, including both city and country, scarcely 
 amounts to 50,000 — not much exceeding that of David- 
 son county. The University, or Academy, as it is com- 
 monly styled, of Geneva, has flourished during a period 
 of more than 450 years.* "The Genevese are as much 
 distinguished by their devotion to science as Ijy their 
 public spirit. And it excites admiration to see how 
 much they have done, and are still doing, with their 
 limited means, for the interests of learning and the ad- 
 vancement of society. This patriotic spirit extends 
 even to the labouring classes, who, to give an instance, 
 in 1815, when Decandolle wished for a Botanic garden, 
 
 * It has a public library of about 10,000 volumes; an observatory; 
 a museum of natural history, comprising Saussure's collections of 
 minerals, petrifactions, volcanic productions, insects and birds, together 
 with his choice assortment of philosophical instruments and chemical 
 apparatus ; Dr. Jurine's cabinets of ornithology and entomology, and 
 the fossils of St. Gothard; the mineral collections also of Pictet, 
 Tollot, Tengry, De Boissy, and De Luc ; Haller's herbarium ; Pictet's 
 philosophical apparatus ; cabinets of optical and mathematical instru- 
 ments; anatomical preparations and antiquities; models in gypsum 
 of ancient statues, groups, busts, and bass-reliefs; and some fine 
 paintings 
 
362 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 offered voluntarily to build, without remuneration, -a hot 
 house with all suitable appurtenances, and to furnish the 
 necessary glass at their own expense." 
 
 "The system of education which prevails at Geneva, 
 is perhaps not surpassed by that of any other city in 
 Europe. It relates to the studies of childhood, to those 
 of adolescence, and to those of the learned professions 
 of divinity, law and phj'sic. The first or lowest of these 
 departments resembles Eton and Westminster schools in 
 England. It is conducted by eleven masters, called 
 regens, under the superintendence of a rector, a principal, 
 and the academy of professors. Children from the age 
 of five to fifteen or sixteen are successively taught read- 
 ing, Avriting, orthography, arithmetic, geography, Greek, 
 Latin and Mathematics. The college (as this depart- 
 ment is designated) is divided into nine classes, each 
 having a separate and commodious class room. The 
 scholars generally continue a year in each class, and no 
 one is permitted to leave his form, till he is fit for being 
 promoted to a higher one. An account of the degrees 
 of good and bad conduct of every boy is regularly and 
 faithfully kept, which is summed up at the end of the 
 week. Twice every year prizes are distributed for good 
 conduct, and for progress in study; and once in the year, 
 generally in June, exercises are proposed to each class, 
 and prizes are adjudged to the best. These prizes are 
 distributed on the day called the day of promotion — the 
 day before that on which the properly qualified students 
 are promoted to a higher class. A grand solemnity is on 
 this occasion celebrated in the cathedral church, and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 363 
 
 is attended 1)y nil the public bodies in their robes, and hy 
 crowds of citizens of every class. On the celebration of 
 this fefe, in June 1814, eighty-eight silver medals were 
 distributed." Such is the Preparatory School of the 
 Universit}' of Geneva. 
 
 " The second department (college proper of our coun- 
 try) of the system of education at Geneva, is intrusted 
 to the professors, who occupy the highest station in the 
 Academy. It is subdivided into classes, called andltoires. 
 Four years' attendance is necessary to complete the stu- 
 dies of this department. The first two are devoted to 
 the Belles Lettrcs, and the last two to the different 
 branches of philosophy. When the student has com- 
 pleted this course, which he generally does at the age of 
 18 or 20, he may proceed to the study of divinity, law or 
 physic." Lectures are deUvered upon the most import- 
 ant subjects, scientific, literary and professional, by some 
 twenty or thirty learned professors. This excellent esta- 
 blishment, in which are usually educated more than 
 1000 pupils of all ages, is supported exclusively by a 
 population of about 30,000. The professors are held in 
 the highest estimation : and, when the pecuniary circum- 
 stances of the party will permit, the honour of teaching 
 is considered a sufficient compensation for its labour. 
 Even the inferior teachers, or regens of the lowest de- 
 partment, are sometimes chosen members of the Repre- 
 sentative Assembly. "There is certainly no place in 
 the world to which a father may send his children with 
 fewer anxieties than to Geneva." So eminently distin- 
 guished is this beautiful and favoured city for the intelli- 
 
364 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 gence, simplicity, refinement, moral purity, courtesy, and 
 literary spirit of its inhabitants. I would recommend 
 Geneva as a model and exemplar for Nashville. What 
 Geneva is, and long has been, Nashville may become; 
 if she will direct her attention to moral and intel- 
 lectual improvement, rather than to the frivolities, ab- 
 surdities and extravagance of fashionable luxury and 
 parade. 
 
 Again, there is no college or university in our own 
 country, which is above our ability to equal or even 
 to surpass. Expensive edifices may be dispensed with. 
 Neither the Scottish nor the German universities are 
 noticeable on this account. With a few exceptions, 
 their college buildings are cheap and plain — designed 
 chiefly for lecture rooms, libraries and other collections. 
 While the students generally board at private lodgings. 
 A few additional professors would render our under- 
 graduate department, or college pro^je;-, equal to the 
 very best, and superior to most, of our already popu- 
 lar and flourishing institutions. Let us examine two or 
 three of our ancient and most celebrated colleges in re- 
 ference to this point. The Faculty of Arts, in nearly 
 all of them, it may be remarked, consists of from two 
 to six professors. At venerable Harvard, the oldest 
 of them all, we find an array of twenty-two professors, 
 lecturers and instructors, — besides the president, who is 
 not a teacher, and the tutors, whose office is temporary 
 and their number variable. Of these, two are Lmo 
 professors, six are Medical, and reside in Boston, and 
 three are TJieoIogical : so that only eleven permanent 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 365 
 
 instructors remain for the undergraduates. And four of 
 these belong to the department of Modern languages and 
 literature : leaving after all only seven to do the work 
 which five jjerform at our college. Compared then with 
 Harvard, and excluding the three learned professions, 
 our present deficiency exists chiefly in the department 
 of Modern languages. At Yale college there are five or 
 six professors, besides those of the Law, Medical and 
 Theological schools or faculties. Both Harvard and 
 Yale usually employ each six or eight tutors, according 
 to the actual number of students — averaging commonly 
 between two and three hundred. These perform all 
 the drudgery of elementary drilling, and attend the 
 daily routine of recitations in the class room. While 
 the professors read lectures, and maintain the dignity of 
 science and of the iSenatus Academicus. Harvard pos- 
 sesses a library of 40,000 volumes — Yale about 8,000. 
 Our three college libraries contain upwards of 5,000 
 volumes. In scientific collections and apparatus, we 
 are not far behind either of them. 
 
 Next to Geneva, New Haven might serve as a pattern 
 for Nashville. It is celebrated, not only for its univer- 
 sity, but for its superior boarding schools and smaller 
 seminaries for the young of both sexes. The average 
 number of persons who are here from abroad for the 
 purpose of education is supposed to be rarel}^ below a 
 thousand. 
 
 In the University of Virginia there are nine " Schools," 
 as they are styled; or, in simple English phrase, nine 
 Professors: each the sole teacher of one school. These 
 
366 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 schools or professorships are denominated as follows: 
 1. Ancient Languages. 2. Modern Languages, 3. Ma- 
 thematics. 4. Natural Philosophy. 5. Chemistry and 
 Materia Medica. 6. Anatomy and Surgery. 7. Medi- 
 cine. 8. Moral Philosophy. 9. Law. Two and a half or 
 three of these professors teach the Medical students, and 
 are in fact the Medical Faculty. One occupies the chair 
 of Law. Leaving five or five and a half, including the 
 professor of modern languages, to perform the duties as- 
 signed to the Faculty of Arts in our colleges. Here it 
 is obvious to remark, that several of these ''schools" 
 must be radically defective. One man, for instance, 
 can scarcely ever be found competent to teach more 
 than one living tongue; that is, if correct pronuncia- 
 tion and purity of idiom and accent be required. Yet, 
 in the school of modern languages at this University, 
 are taught by its single unassisted professor, "the 
 French, Spanish, Italian, German and Anglo-Saxon: 
 and if desired, will be taught also by the same indi- 
 vidual, the Danish, Swedish, Hollandish, and Portu- 
 guese languages. Lectures on the literature of each 
 of the nations whose languages are taught, are delivered 
 twice a week, by the professor; and also lectures on mo- 
 dern history, and the political relations of the differ- 
 ent civilized nations of the present day." If all this be 
 icell done by the existing professor, I venture to affirm 
 that the like has never been performed heretofore or 
 elsewhere, and to predict that the like will never be 
 successfully accomplished again. This custom of ap- 
 pointing a professor of half a dozen or more modern 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 367 
 
 languages, which obtains so generally in our colleges, 
 must be discontinued. 
 
 In the School of Ancient Languages, " are taught the 
 Latin and Greek Languages, the Greek and Roman 
 History, Geography and Literature, and the Hebrew 
 Language." The instruction given by prelections and 
 examinations, comprises a list of subjects, which occu- 
 pies more than a large closely printed octavo page, in 
 the bare enumeration — as published in the Catalogue 
 of the University for the past year. From the same 
 authority it appears that the number of students at- 
 tending this school or professor, during the last session, 
 (ending July 4th,) was 78. Comment upon such a pro- 
 gramma of iwomises would be superfluous before any 
 adequate judges of classical and philological tuition. 
 Li most European schools, half a score of teachers, 
 at the least, would be required for the same amount 
 of labour; and nowhere else, in our own country, has 
 any similar feat been attempted. But I will not pursue 
 a criticism and comparison which might be deemed in- 
 vidious and uncandid. My object is not to disparage 
 other colleges, but to show how easy it is to reach 
 their standard, and to transcend it if we please. 
 
 The following professorships are already established in 
 the University of the City of New York. 1. Civil En- 
 gineering and Architecture: 2. The Literature of the 
 Arts of design: 3. Intellectual and Moral Philosophy 
 and Belles Lettres: 4. Greek Language and Literature: 
 5. Latin Language and Literature: C. French Language 
 and Literature: 7. Italian Language and Literature: 
 
368 EDUCATIOXAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 8. Spanish Language and Literature : 9. Associate profes- 
 sorship of do.: 10. German Language and Literature: 
 1 1 . Hebrew : 12. Mathematics : 13. Xat ural Philosoph y 
 and Astronomy: 14. Chemistry and Botany: 1-5. Law: 
 16. Geology and Mineralogy: IT. Arabic, Syriac. Per- 
 sian and Ethiopic: 18. The Evidences of Revealed 
 Religion. Here are five professors for four modern 
 languages; and three for the Latin. Greek and Hebrew. 
 Eight altogether for the usual undergraduate course. 
 exclusive of modem languages. This University, ac- 
 cording to its original plan, embraces four Faculties, 
 namely: 1. A Faculty of Letters and the Fine Arts. 
 2. A Faculty of Science and the Arts. 3. A Faculty 
 of Law. 1. A Faculty of Medicine. There are two 
 General Departments in the University. The first em- 
 braces the usual collegiate course of instruction which 
 has obtained in our country : and the second is designed 
 to embrace instruction in the higher branches of htera- 
 ture and science, and in professional studies. The latter 
 Department will probably resemble the European uni- 
 versities more closely than any other in our country. 
 The beginning augurs well for the liberality of the 
 great commercial metropolis of the Western hemi- 
 sphere. 
 
 Our first effort, here in Nashville, should doubtless be 
 to elevate the only department which we have hitherto 
 attempted to estabhsh; that is. the college for under- 
 graduates, or the Faculty of Arts. Science and Litera- 
 ture. It is desirable to have professors of German, 
 French. Italian. Spanish — perhaps of some other mo- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 369 
 
 deni languages — thougli a knowledge of none of them 
 has been made indifspen sable to graduation in any college. 
 Still, provision for their study is important. A professor 
 of Civil Engineering is loudly called for b}^ the special 
 exigencies of our country ; though even such a professor 
 is hardly yet to be met with at any of our older institu- 
 tions. There is ample scope also for new professorships, 
 by dividing and subdividing those already established. 
 And it will be easily perceived from my previous state- 
 ments, that distinct professorships may be multiplied 
 without limit — provided the pecuniary means for the 
 purpose can be obtained. 
 
 Whether a Preparatory Department should be con- 
 nected with our University, has been doubted. If it 
 should be resolved on, I have no hesitation in giving 
 a decided preference to the system of Geneva, already 
 adverted to.* 
 
 How soon it may be practicable to add the Faculties 
 
 * For various weighty reasons, I have hitherto objected to any such 
 connexion. Of course, in comparison with other Western collep:es. 
 our catalogue of students may frequently appear diminutive. In all 
 of them, the preparatory department, or college grammar school, fur- 
 nishes a large proportion of the names which are periodically pub- 
 lished in their catalogues of students. The four or five excellent 
 classical seminaries in the town of Xashville, with many others 
 throughout the State, constitute in fact the preparatory department 
 of the University : which is organized, in all respects, agreeably to the 
 plan which long experience at the East has sanctioned as the most 
 eligible. "With this explanation, our number of students, attached as 
 they all are to the four college classes, will be found superior to that 
 of the same order in most AVestern institutions. This number, for 
 several years past, has generally averaged from 100 to 125 — not 
 merely on our books, but actually present. 
 VOL. I. 24 
 
370 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 of Law and Medicine; and what shall be their character; 
 are questions more easily asked than answered. Such 
 faculties might be organized immediately, were we con- 
 tent to be on a par with Harvard, Yale, and Virginia. 
 But one or two professors of Law, and three or four 
 of Medicine, would not meet our views. There is, 
 in fact, no Medical School ui America or Great Bri- 
 tain at all comparable with many on the continent of 
 Europe, or equal to the wants of the profession. Thus, 
 in Paris, for example, the Medical Faculty consists of 
 twenty-three professors, eleven honorary professors, and 
 twenty-four associates — in all, fifty-eight. " In order to 
 obtain a Medical Diploma, the candidate must previously 
 have received the degrees of Bachelor of Letters and 
 Bachelor of Science, which imply an intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the Greek and Latin languages, History, 
 Geography, Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, Mathe- 
 matics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Botany, Min- 
 eralogy, Zoology, &c. &c. He must then assiduously 
 devote himself to the study of Medicine for four entire 
 years, and attend all the regular lectures. He is then 
 admitted to an examination, (held principally in the 
 Latin Language,) and if this be passed creditably, to his 
 degree." Not a few Americans, after being graduated at 
 our medical schools, resort to Paris to complete or rather 
 to extend their elementary studies. 
 
 As to Theology — probably, the least said or done, the 
 better. Still, if the various religious denominations 
 would consent to the measure, each might attach a 
 Theological School or Faculty to the University, for 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 371 
 
 the sole benefit of its own adherents, and to prepare 
 ministers for its own churches. The requisite funds 
 would be raised, managed and controlled by the party 
 creating such school, and be subject to withdrawal at its 
 pleasure. In like manner, the professors would be nomi- 
 nated and removed by the church or sect supporting 
 them. Thus, there might be a Faculty, composed of 
 Episcopal clergymen, nominated by the Bishop or the 
 Convention of the Diocese; others of Methodists, Pres- 
 byterians, Baptists, &c. subject to their respective eccle- 
 siastical judicatories. I could point out many advantages 
 as likely to result from half a dozen or more learned 
 Theological Faculties of divers sects, together with their 
 pupils, all residing at the same grand literary Head Quar- 
 ters, and freely associating, studying, conversing and dis- 
 puting with each other. I do not suppose that they 
 would ever agree to think alike; or that proselytes 
 would be gained by any one from the rest. They 
 might, however, acquire a more tolerant, indulgent, 
 catholic spirit; and agree to differ, with sentiments 
 of mutual respect, good-wdll and Christian charity. 
 They might learn that the worst heresy is uncharitable- 
 ness ; and that a holy life is the best, if not the only, evi- 
 dence of orthodox principles. 
 
 We are now endeavouring to make such additions 
 to our buildings and such improvements upon our col- 
 lege grounds as will furnish the necessary accommoda- 
 tions, and render the whole establishment more classical 
 and tasteful in appearance than it has hitherto been. 
 For the completion of this enterprise, already in pro- 
 
372 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 gress, we have been compelled to appeal to the liberality 
 of our citizens. We think the appeal will not be made 
 in vain. We ask for only fifty thousand dollars at pre- 
 sent. 
 
 The "Alumni Society" of the University stand pledged 
 to endow a professorship of one or more modern lan- 
 guages. They will doubtless succeed. 
 
 Our library may be increased indefinitely and rapidly 
 by individual contributions of such books as are not 
 needed by their owners or which can be very conve- 
 niently spared. 
 
 Let each citizen also add to our collections whatever 
 specimens of natural history or of art he may happen 
 to possess, or be able to procure. Thus, we shall soon 
 have large libraries, cabinets and museums. 
 
 I will now briefly advert to certain local habits or 
 conventional usages, which confer on the Northern col- 
 leges peculiar importance, and which elevate them 
 greatly in the public estimation. 
 
 In the first place: Throughout New England, New 
 York and New Jersey, the office of a trustee is regarded 
 as a most honourable distinction: and it is eagerly 
 coveted by the learned, the wealthy, and the most 
 eminent citizens. No man, in those States, can be 
 so exalted as to feel or fancy himself above or indiffer- 
 ent to this academical trust : and, in general, it is very 
 punctually and faithfully discharged. 
 
 In the second place : The office of president and pro- 
 fessor is universally looked up to as the highest and most 
 respectable which can be attained by the aspiring candi- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 373 
 
 dates for honourable rank in society. No political or 
 professional station takes precedence of these. Nor 
 would the head of any distinguished or opulent family 
 be ambitious of a more creditable vocation or post of 
 honour for a favourite and talented son, than that of a 
 college professorship. Hence it not unfrequently hap- 
 pens that a wealthy individual will spare no pains or 
 expense in educating a son expressly for this service. 
 And should no vacant chair seasonably offer, he will per- 
 haps himself endow a professorship in some college 
 on purpose for his son's accommodation. Thus, the pre- 
 sent Professor of Greek in Yale College, occupies a chair 
 endowed exclusively by his father — lately a respectable 
 merchant in the city of New York. On all public 
 solemnities and celebrations also, the principals of uni- 
 versities and colleges appear in the first or highest rank. 
 Thus, the people are taught to respect and reverence the 
 literary character, and the literary institution, and the 
 literary professor, and the whole teaching corps of the 
 Commonwealth.^^ We have little of this spirit among us 
 at the South and West. The vocation of the teacher is 
 not respected : and hence not many respectable men will 
 seek it as the business of life. Indeed, such is the preju- 
 
 * In Europe, as we have seen, the university chair is often illustrated 
 by knights, and baronets, and barons, and counts, and marquises — who 
 have as fairly earned and won the title as any successful military or 
 naval officer, as any fortunate statesman or accomplished jurist: as 
 witness. Count Berzelius, Sir John Playfair, Sir Humphrey Davy, Sir 
 David Brewster, Sir John Leslie, Count Lagrange, Baron Cuvier. Sir 
 Daniel H. Sandford, Baron Humboldt, Count Berthollet, Baron 
 Dubois, Marquis de La Place, Baron de Sacy, &c. 
 
374 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 dice, such the ignorance, and such the absurd injustice 
 and impolicy which prevail on this subject, that a man 
 of letters and science is hardly deemed fit for public 
 office of any kind. If he can write a book or deliver 
 learned lectures ex cathedra, it is taken for granted that 
 he is good for nothing else. At the East, not only the 
 most accomplished divines, physicians and lawyers, but 
 the most eminent statesmen and judges also, have been 
 elevated to university professorships and presidencies. 
 Of the latter class, may be named, among others still 
 living, Duer, Quincy, Butler, Kent, Story, Everett, 
 Adams. During the revolutionary war, the president 
 and a professor of the College of New Jersey were 
 members of Congress — and the first, a signer of the 
 Declaration of Independence. The present Governor of 
 Massachusetts will, no doubt, reach the uttermost goal of 
 his ambition, when he shall be privileged to finish his 
 brilliant career in the University where he first acquired 
 that reputation which attracted the popular notice and 
 demand for his political services. Here, I may remark 
 by the way, that Massachusetts is perhaps the only State 
 w^iich continues to bestow spontaneous honours and 
 unsought offices upon superior talent, learning and integ- 
 rity. And this is precisely the best educated and most 
 thoroughly democratic Commonwealth in the world. 
 Here, too, have been, from the commencement of its 
 colonial existence, and still are, more and better colleges, 
 academies and common schools than in any other pro- 
 vince or State of this continent. 
 
 In the third place : The great men of the East attend 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 3/0 
 
 the anniversary commencements of their respective uni- 
 versities. The trustees, of course, are present — the 
 clergy of all sects — teachers of every description — the 
 lawyers and the physicians — the Alumni from every 
 quarter — the governor and suite — the judges and the 
 legislature — the mayor and corporation — the wealth and 
 fashion and beauty of the vicinity — all the world are 
 there. It is a high day — the most joyous and interest- 
 ing day in the calendar — the grand literary festival of 
 the State. Legislatures and courts, if in session, adjourn 
 to participate in the intellectual banquet and to contri- 
 bute to its pomp and brilliancy. They will not merely 
 make a show, of attendance — march into the church and 
 march out again — but will remain, without moving or 
 fidgeting, to the end of the exercises, or of the exhibi- 
 tion. They will sit it out — nay, sometimes, stand it out. 
 I have seen gentlemen, old gentlemen too, literally stand 
 for five successive hours, and listen attentively and 
 respectfully to all the juvenile performances of the occa- 
 sion. Neither their dinner hell, nor a horse-race, nor a 
 coch-fight, would divert them from the proper duties and 
 proprieties of the day. We, too, may hope for some- 
 thing good and great, when we shall learn to manifest 
 a like sympathy and interest and zeal; and to act a 
 similar part in the periodical celebrations of our literary 
 institutions. 
 
 But I have too long lost sight of the main scope 
 of the second division of my discourse. 
 
 The consideration which should induce us to sustain 
 a first-rate university at Nashville, may be divided into 
 
376 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 special and general. The first relate to advantages 
 accruing chiefly to Nashville from its location. The 
 second to those which it will afford alike to the whole 
 communitj'. 
 
 Under the first head, w^e remark, 
 
 1. That a flourishing university will add greatly to 
 the wealth and prosperity of Nashville. This is an 
 argument which all can comprehend and appreciate. If 
 no other or higher motive should prevail, this would be 
 sufficient with any people, sagacious enough to discern 
 and to pursue their own interests. Such a university 
 would enable us to educate our sons at home; and thus 
 prevent the sending of many thousands of dollars out 
 of our city and State, to be expended abroad and for the 
 benefit of strangers. It would invite multitudes of 
 youth from all parts of the country and from the neigh- 
 bouring States, to study here and to spend their money 
 here : and thus would thousands of dollars flow into the 
 place, which otherwise would not come hither at all. 
 It is w^ell ascertained that Southern students at our 
 Northern colleges, spend, on an average, a thousand 
 dollars each per annum. A hundred such youth there- 
 fore, while resident at the North, consume at least a 
 hundred thousand dollars annually of Southern capital, 
 without yielding the slightest pecuniary return. And, 
 in like proportion for any number, more or less. This 
 is an enormous tax upon the natives, and ought not to 
 be tolerated. The education of one hundred Tennessee 
 youth in Connecticut for instance, during only the col- 
 lege term of four years, would withdraw from Tennessee 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 377 
 
 the round sum of four hundred thousand dollars. And 
 yet, the judicious expenditure of half this amount 
 at our own doors, and for the benefit of our own 
 mechanics, would provide a better institution of learning 
 than any which Connecticut can boast. Other schools, 
 too, of every gradation, would grow up around us and in 
 the midst of us, as preparatory and auxiliary to the Uni- 
 versity. So that, in a few years, a thousand boys (to say 
 nothing of the girls) might be in training here from the 
 States south of us : and how much money they would 
 bring along with them, I leave you to calculate. 
 
 But this is not all. Numerous families would select 
 this as their temporary or permanent residence, with a 
 view mainly to the education of their children. Thus 
 enhancing the value of all your property, and of all 
 your trades and avocations. Every house and lot in your 
 town, and every pleasant country seat or site within a 
 compass of five miles around you — would be in demand. 
 I could not name a more lucrative speculation or invest- 
 ment for any portion of your funds. The dividends, or 
 pecuniary benefits would be shared equitably and pro 
 rata by all : and none could possibly be a loser. Your 
 cotton crops may fail — your banks may fail — your trade 
 and commerce may decline — ^}^our merchants and manu- 
 facturers may run away — but the University will never 
 fail you, if true to yourselves, while there are children 
 in the land to be educated. 
 
 2. The University will confer upon our good city a 
 reputation and a celebrity, otherwise unattainable, and 
 in all respects the most desirable. 
 
378 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 3. The University will gradually create and collect 
 a literary society among us. Such a society exists in 
 every city and village in our country, where the univer- 
 sity has been fairly domesticated, and nowhere else. 
 "We have not what may be called a literary society in 
 Tennessee. Nothing like it. The phrase, even, is 
 scarcely understood. Our social parties and intercourse 
 manifest its total absence. We meet together to eat, 
 drink, sing, play and dance; and never to converse as 
 intellectual and intelligent men and women.* Now 
 I am no particular admirer of pedants or hlue-stocldngs. 
 But I do entertain the fancy that rational beings might 
 occasionally assemble at the social fireside for a rational 
 purpose : and where neither the Grecian nor the savant 
 would be voted a hore or a hear. I doubt whether it 
 be wise or expedient or creditable to ape the extrava- 
 gancies and ostentation of a London or Paris, of a New 
 York or Philadelphia. We cannot aftbrd it. We are 
 too poor. Why, I have heard poverty pleaded by not 
 a few of our reputed wealthy citizens, as an excuse for 
 not giving a paper dollar, when I have called on them in 
 my official character as Beggar General for the Univer- 
 sity; and urged, too, with that peculiarly grave and 
 lugubrious expression of countenance which never fails 
 
 * I have not said, nor do I mean to insinuate, that there are no 
 literary individuals in Tennessee. There may be as large a propor- 
 tion of literary men and women in Tennessee and in Nashville as can 
 be found anywhere, or as any native may choose to claim ; still, all 
 that is assumed in the text may be strictly true. There may be no 
 such thing as a literary society, or as social intellectual intercourse. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 379 
 
 to awaken my tenderest sympathies. And I do intend, 
 by and by, to get up something or other — it may be a 
 musical concert, or a subscription ball, or a benevolent 
 association, or a ladies' fair — for their especial relief and 
 benefit. Alas, the tyranny of fashion is too hard upon 
 them, and upon us all. We sport our dashing carriages 
 and expensive equipments of all sorts, at the hazard, 
 sometimes, of our honesty, and frequently at the sacri- 
 fice of all manly independence and domestic comfort and 
 generous hospitality. We give sumptuous entertain- 
 ments, and squeeze and jam and stuff and loine our 
 friends to death or under the table; in order to be 
 envied, or laughed at and ridiculed for our pains. In a 
 word, we imitate the aristocratic excesses of the great 
 cities : w^iile we overlook and disregard altogether what 
 in them is most worthy of our emulation and fully 
 Avithin our reach — and withal, vastly more simple and 
 democratic. Their literary taste and superior intelligence 
 and refinement, we might aspire to, and successfully aim 
 at, and profitably cultivate. A Parisian or Genevese or 
 Italian coterie, or soiree, or cojiversazione — where the 
 scholar, the artist, the author, the wit, the ethereal 
 spirits of both sexes, the beaux esprits of every clique 
 and profession, partake of the "feast of reason and the 
 flow of soul," free from the restraints and pains and 
 penalties of conventional formalities and courtly eti- 
 quette — never costs much to the host, and generally 
 proves exhilarating and delightful to the guest. Could 
 we introduce somewhat of the latter custom or fashion 
 into our social arrangements, I think we should be the 
 
380 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 gainers both in our purses and in our enjoyments. The 
 University will effect the revolution, and infuse the 
 proper spirit, and raise up the requisite elements for the 
 purpose — all in due time. I might expatiate much more 
 largely upon this topic — especially in reference to our 
 children, and to the general welfare of the community — 
 but I forbear. 
 
 4. The University will present facilities for the higher 
 education to the people here, which they could not other- 
 wise command. So that hundreds of parents might send 
 their sons to college, while they can board and clothe 
 them at home, who could never send them to a distant 
 seminary, where board and all other charges must be 
 paid for in cash and at high prices. Indeed, every 
 industrious, prudent, temperate man, however humble 
 his circumstances, living within a mile or two of the 
 college, might give his sons a liberal education ; and 
 thus fit them for any station, rank or profession, within 
 the scope of their talents and ambition. This would be 
 no common privilege. And experience, in other places 
 thus favoured, shows that the poor are not backward in 
 availing themselves of it ; much to their credit, and to 
 the future advancement and prosperity of their children. 
 Of all men in the world, therefore, the poor assuredly, 
 are the very last who should object to the establishment 
 of a university, calculated so directly to improve and 
 elevate their own condition, and to secure to themselves 
 advantages not otherwise attainable, — but which the 
 wealthy could purchase elsewhere and at any expense. 
 
 I now proceed to a hasty review of the general benefits 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 381 
 
 which the university proffers and insures to all classes 
 of the people wherever it exists and prospers. 
 
 I use the term luuverslty, I repeat, as equivalent to 
 the best possible system of education, and in reference 
 to the highest order and degree of intellectual and moral 
 cultivation. Wherever, and by whatever process, the 
 human mind is most effectually imbued and enriched 
 with the purest treasures of science and knowledge, and 
 where the whole man is duly trained and qualified for 
 the greatest usefulness, there is my university. Let this 
 definition be kept in view. I will not dispute about 
 words. 
 
 I affirm then, that the University, as just explained, 
 ever has been, is now, and ever will be, the grand con- 
 servative principle of civilization, of truth, virtue, learn- 
 ing, liberty, religion, and good government among man- 
 kind. To the university are we indebted for all the 
 useful arts, laws, morals, enjoyments, comforts, conve- 
 niences and blessings of civilized society. There has 
 never been a nation or community, highly enlightened 
 and civilized, where the university did not dispense its 
 kindly influences, or where it did not occupy a com- 
 manding position. The universities of Egypt, Chaldaea, 
 Pha'nicia, Assj'ria, Avere the sources and depositories, 
 not only of the science, literature and arts which so pre- 
 eminenth^ distinguished those ancient States during a 
 dozen or more centuries ; but they were the schools at 
 which the Grecian sages, Thales, Pythagoras, Plato, and 
 others, studied for many a long year; and whence they 
 transferred to a European soil the fruits of their labo- 
 
382 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 rious researches; and which, finally, the Roman and 
 other Western universities contributed to cherish and 
 to preserve, and to transmit to successive generations. 
 
 Had I time for the task, I should like to trace the 
 history of civilization from the garden of Eden, where 
 was planted the first university, with the Deity at its 
 head, and with the gifted father of mankind as his 
 immediate representative and vice-chancellor; thence 
 onward to the universal deluge; from Noah's ark, 
 along the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates and 
 the Nile, over the plains of Shinar and upon the east- 
 ern and southern shores of the Mediterranean; lingering 
 awhile at old Nineveh and Babylon and Tyre and Sid on 
 and Thebes and Memphis ; until we arrive at the golden 
 age of Grecian beauty and perfection; thence to repub- 
 lican and imperial Rome in her most literate and palmy 
 estate; with an occasional glance at the Grecian cities 
 and colonies in Asia, Egypt, Sicily; and note the condi- 
 tion and character of the university at each and every 
 step of our progress. Here would be instructive matter 
 for volumes, exceedingly appropriate to our argument; 
 which we must pass, however, without remark. But 
 the paramount influence of the university or of the 
 higher learning, during all these varying epochs, as a 
 preservative of civilization, will be apparent to every 
 competent and candid observer. 
 
 The nations of antiquity degenerated, or sunk into 
 barbarism, just as the university was neglected or 
 became extinct among them. During the Middle or 
 Dark Ages, the university throughout Christian Europe, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 383 
 
 was as a light hidden under a bushel; ready, indeed, to 
 shine forth in all its pristine splendours, as soon as the 
 Vandalism of the exterior and surrounding world could 
 be abated, and rendered docile and practicable. Still, 
 even, while the Christian university had, as it were, 
 retreated within the walls of the cloister and the mo- 
 nastery, and seemed resolved to leave the rude and 
 vulgar millions to their fate, it was gloriously exalted 
 and honoured among the Saracenic Moslems. If Athens 
 and Rome had been deserted by the muses and the philo- 
 sopher, it was only to find a more congenial home at 
 Cordova and Bagdad. If the doors of the university 
 were, for a time, hermetically sealed to the inquisitive 
 and aspiring youth of Christendom, they were thrown 
 wide open in every city of the Arabian Prophet's vast 
 empire — from the Lidus to the Pillars of Hercules. 
 Thus the Crescent, at length, protected and fostered 
 the science which the Cross affected to despise. But 
 at no period of our world's history, has the university 
 been, utterly prostrated, in all countries, at one and 
 the same time. Civilization and the university have 
 stood or fallen together. They have never been di- 
 vorced. They were created together; and amidst all 
 the changes and revolutions of human governments and 
 religions, they have dwelt together in peace and har- 
 mony. The university has never been found among 
 savages or barbarians: and all the nations and tribes 
 upon our globe are barbarians or savages at this da}, 
 where the university is not, or where its cheering and 
 illuminating beams have not penetrated. 
 
384 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 If to this broad statement, it be ol)jectecl, that science, 
 literature and refinement abound in regions where no 
 university has been estabUshed; I answer, that the 
 beneficial effects of the university are oftentimes ex- 
 perienced at great distances from its actual location. 
 The universities of Egypt extended their salutary and 
 redeeming spirit even to barbarous Greece. Those of 
 Europe are felt in America. And those of Massachu- 
 setts and Virginia may operate in Tennessee and Texas. 
 In the present condition of the commercial and mission- 
 ary world, the influence of the university is visible in 
 almost ever} quarter — in New Holland and the South 
 Sea Islands — on the banks of the Ganges and the Congo 
 and the Amazon — and wherever European or American 
 civilization has acquired even a partial or temporary 
 resting place. 
 
 If again, we be directed to self-taught and self-made 
 men, as a triumphant negative to our whole theory; I 
 tell you that self-taught men (as they are styled,) such 
 as Franklin, Ferguson, Shakspeare, Watt, Arkwright, 
 Henry, Fulton, Davie, are or were just as much in- 
 debted to the university, as were Bacon, Selden, New- 
 ton, Burke, Jefferson, Jay, Madison or Whitney. The 
 latter drank at the Fountain; the former at the streams 
 which issue from it. Had Franklin been born and bred 
 among savages, he might have become the first among 
 the prophets or chiefs of his tribe, but he would never 
 have been enrolled among the greatest philosophers and 
 statesmen of the civilized world. Washington, too, might 
 have been the Tecumseh or Black Hawk of the wilder- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 385 
 
 ness, but not the Saviour, the Founder, the Father of a 
 mighty Republic of enlightened and happy freemen. He 
 had studied in the school of Locke and Milton, of Sidney 
 and Hampden, of Tell and Phocion; and like them, was 
 liheralJy educated. He was not a scJiohir, in the strict 
 technical meaning of the term; though his scholarship 
 was respectable, and far superior to that of many a 
 college graduate. But a man may be a scholar without 
 being liberally educated or liberally minded, as he may 
 be liberally educated without being a scholar. Mere 
 professional men. whose studies and practice are re- 
 stricted to their professions, as lawyers, pln'sicians, 
 theologians, linguists, mathematicians, seldom possess 
 those enlarged, catholic, comprehensive views and senti- 
 ments which constitute genuine Jiheixdlfy ; and which 
 are essential to the character of the philosopher, the 
 publicist, the statesman, the philanthropist. They may 
 be admirable and exceedingly useful in their respective 
 and appropriate spheres, and worthy of all praise, while 
 they are content to act well the part which they have 
 learned and understand. Thanks again to the univer- 
 sity for both the larger and the lesser stars; but let 
 them move and shine in their own proper orbits. 
 
 But after all, we may be told that we need only a 
 small supply of university scholars; and that it is 
 not worth while to be at the expense of such an in- 
 stitution for so trivial an object. Conceding, for a mo- 
 ment, what I do not admit, that only a limited number 
 of thoroughly educated men are actually required, or 
 are, on any account, desjrable in such a community as 
 
 VOL. I. 25 
 
386 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 ours, let us see how many are wanted, and whence they 
 are to be procured. It has generally been assumed that 
 lawyers, physicians, clergymen, judges, jurists, cabinet 
 ministers, ambassadors to foreign courts, and teachers of 
 the liberable sciences, ought to be learned and accom- 
 plished men. I suppose it would not be amiss also, if 
 our legislators and politicians, our editors of public jour- 
 nals, our civil engineers, our bankers and financiers, our 
 conductors of all great private or corporate establish- 
 ments, were well educated. If so, the number must be 
 large — several thousand at the least. These must be 
 suitably educated here at home ; or a sufficient number 
 of our youth must be sent abroad for the purpose ; or we 
 must import them, ready made, from Europe or the other 
 States, that is, we must intrust to foreigners or strangers 
 our most important interests, offices and professions ; or 
 we must get along without them, in other words, employ 
 incompetent men. The latter alternative, I know, will 
 prevail; and, I know also, that it is popular. We do 
 employ incompetent men — sometimes from necessity — 
 oftener from choice, when we might get better. And 
 this arises from our general ignorance. I do not believe 
 that any man would employ an ignorant lawyer or doctor, 
 if he knew the fact, or were capable of judging of the 
 qualifications of the one or the other. Nor would 
 our people elect to any office a candidate whom they 
 believed too ignorant to serve them faithfully and effi- 
 ciently. But a very little sJiow of knowledge and ability, 
 with a good deal of cunning and impudence, will easily 
 impose on honest unsuspecting credulity. Here then, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 387 
 
 the uiiiversity will remedy two defects at once. It will 
 furnish learned men of every station where learning is 
 needful: and it will gradually enlighten and elevate 
 the general mind so as to be able to discriminate be- 
 tween the sciolist and the scholar, between obtrusive 
 overweening self-sufficiency and modest sterling merit. 
 
 If we could compute in dollars, by any species of 
 arithmetic, the loss of property and Kfe, of health and 
 comfort, and the injury to morals and religion, occa- 
 sioned, during a single year, by ignorant blundering, 
 specious, dogmatical, illiterate lawyers, doctors and 
 preachers, by vicious or excessive legislation, by judi- 
 cial injustice, by unskilful or fraudulent banking, by 
 venal, lying, superficial newspaper editors, by bullying 
 grog-shop politicians, by stupid drivelling schoolmasters, 
 by reckless, drunken, untaught steamboat and railroad 
 masters and engineers, by avaricious irresponsible stage- 
 coach proprietors and agents, by travelling mountebanks 
 and impostors, by all sorts of rogues and asses in high 
 places, — ^we should sum up an amount sufficient to pur- 
 chase, in fee simple, a dozen German principalities, uni- 
 versities and all; or enough to create a fund, the interest 
 of which would support our State government and insti- 
 tutions forever. 
 
 Ignorance never did any good, and never will or can 
 do any good. Ignorant men are good for nothing, except 
 so far as they are governed and directed by intelligent 
 superiors. Hence it is the order of Providence that, in 
 every well regulated community, children and all grossly 
 ignorant persons are held in subjection to age and 
 
388 EDUCATIONAL DISCOUESES. 
 
 wisdom and experience. No species or portion even of 
 the humblest manual or mechanical labour can be per- 
 formed until the party be taught how to do it. The 
 least that can be required of any man is, that he be 
 qualified for the office or vocation which he aspires to 
 occupy or pursue. Invincible ignorance alone is ex- 
 cusable. But even this will not justifj- his ambition or 
 desire to transcend his proper sphere, or his bungling at- 
 tempts to do what he knows not and cannot do. — As, for 
 example, to construct a telescope or chronometer, when 
 he has learned only to head a nail or point a pin ; or to 
 amputate a limb and heal the sick, when he has been 
 trained to ply the axe or drive a dray; or to dabble 
 in the law, because his speaking organs have caught the 
 perjjetual motion; or to guide a train of railway cars, 
 after having duly served a six years' apprenticeship to 
 the b.'irber's craft and mystery, as was lately done in 
 Virginia to the destruction of a score of lives and the 
 fracture of a hundred limbs ; or to preach the gospel, in 
 utter defiance of the well-known canon, "ne sutor ultra 
 crepidam," "let the shoemaker stick to his last and the 
 tailor to his goose." Now the barber may be a very 
 useful citizen and a very worthy gentleman — as gentle- 
 men are ye all, in this country, except us poor school- 
 masters — but if he has learned nothing more than to 
 shave the lieges and to rig out new upper stories for 
 ladies of a certain age, then may I be spared the 
 pleasure of a railroad jaunt when next he enacts the 
 ambitious Phaeton or daring engineer ! 
 
 I do not mean to insinuate that a mechanic or plough- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 389 
 
 man may not become an accomplished lawyer, artist, 
 statesman, or college professor. But, then, he must 
 study and learn whatever his new profession implies or 
 demands. His skill in the shop or the field will not 
 avail him here. Franklin was an excellent printer : but 
 his trade did not make him a philosopher or diplomatist. 
 Roger Sherman ^vas a very good shoemaker; but he 
 studied law and politics before he commanded the ear 
 and the reverence of Congress. James Ferguson was 
 bred a poor shepherd's boy : but his reputation as a writer 
 and lecturer upon Astronomy and Mechanics, was won 
 by his mastery of Newton's astonishing discoveries and 
 revelations. And the most learned Orientalist in Eng- 
 land, and a Professor in one of her imperial universities, 
 was once an illiterate labouring carpenter. But the saw 
 and the plane did not unlock for him the temple doors 
 of science or raise him to a peerless throne among its 
 votaries. 
 
 I honour every mechanic, and every farmer, and every 
 working man, who diligently and honestly pursues the 
 noiseless tenor of his way, without ever seeking a differ- 
 ent or higher calling. But if he would fain become a 
 ruler or office-bearer in the land, I must examine 
 his credentials and be certified of his knowledge and 
 qualifications. If these prove satisfactory, I will cheer- 
 fully accord to him my suffrage and confidence, and the 
 respect to which his extraordinary merit may be justly 
 entitled. I would rather be a good blacksmith, than to 
 be a sorry, empty-headed, pettifogging lawyer. The 
 blacksmith, for his particular vocation, is the better edu- 
 
390 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 cated, and the better principled, and the more deserving 
 citizen of the two. I suppose there are some five 
 hundred "attorneys at law" in Tennessee, who might be 
 converted into tolerably decent blacksmiths, much to 
 their own and the public's benefit, could they be induced 
 to submit to a reasonable discipline and schooling in our 
 Legislature's favourite university; which is, at once, the 
 cheapest and most efficient, manual labour establishment 
 in all the land. Its value and importance, too, will be 
 more apparent every year; and just in proportion to the 
 lack or failure of other institutions, and to the increase 
 of ignorance, idleness and quackery among us. 
 
 As the periodical press and tlie pulpit are calculated 
 to exert a more powerful influence upon society, for weal 
 or wo, than any other instrumentalities whatever, it fol- 
 lows, that, of all men living, ministers of the gospel and 
 newspaper editors ought to be the most talented, and 
 the most profoundly and extensively conversant with 
 every species of human learning. The editors of our 
 daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly journals, furnish a 
 large proportion of the readliuj of our people. They 
 wield an engine therefore of the most tremendous, 
 potent and responsible character. And if the univer- 
 sity be needed for any one class of public instructors or 
 functionaries rather than another, it is to furnish accom- 
 plished and erudite and trustworthy editors. Such as 
 Franklin became : and such as the illustrious and classic 
 authors of the Federalist might have been, had they 
 chosen to be editors, instead of being anonymous contri- 
 butors and correspondents. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 391 
 
 As to preaching the gospel, I am aware that some men 
 fancy that human learning is quite superfluous. And 
 that just in proportion to its absence, will be the 
 evidence of the preacher's inspiration and paramount 
 claims to the implicit faith and respect of the people. 
 All Scripture, history, reason and experience, however, 
 teach a very different doctrine. The university is indis- 
 pensable to the minister of the gospel. A large amount 
 and variety of intellectual furniture must be acquired by 
 the preacher, whether settled or itinerant, whether pas- 
 tor or missionary, or he Avill never be eminently useful — 
 probably altogether useless — or, most likely, injurious to 
 the sacred cause which he professionally and ostensibly 
 labours to advance. K knowledge sometimes puffeth 
 up, and renders its possessor vain and arrogant, does it 
 therefore follow that knowledge is an evil, and at war 
 with virtue and charity? Who are more assuming, in- 
 tolerant, dogmatical, overbearing, opinionated, exclusive, 
 self-sufficient, bigoted or ostentatious, than your igno- 
 rant, superficial, boisterous, declamatory preachers ? It is 
 notorious also, that the unlearned habitually make a 
 greater display of learning, parade more Greek and He- 
 brew without understanding a word of either, sport more 
 scholastic technicalities, and talk more about, books and 
 authorities and incomprehensible mysteries, than any 
 genuine scholar would ever adventure upon in the pulpit 
 or out of it. They thus expose themselves, and too fre- 
 quently their doth and the cause of Christianity itself, 
 to the contempt and derision of the intelligent and 
 discerning — w^ho know little or nothing of the Bible, 
 
392 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 and who judge of religion chiefly from the conduct and 
 exhibitions of this class of preachers. 
 
 If it be said that the Deity has no need of human 
 learning to propagate his religion, it may be replied, 
 that, neither has he any need of human ignorance. He 
 could, if he chose, dis]3ense with human agency alto- 
 gether. But we have yet to learn that Infinite Wisdom 
 has ever selected an insufficient or inadequate agency 
 for any purpose whatever. In the days of prophecy and 
 miracle, from Moses to Paul, he never employed human 
 ignorance in the work of religious instruction. If they 
 were not all educated in the universities of Egypt as 
 was Moses, or of Judea as was Isaiah, or of Babylon as 
 was Daniel, or at the feet of Gamaliel as was Paul, they 
 were well trained somewhere and by competent masters, 
 as were the fishermen of Galilee by Christ himself, 
 besides being endowed with the gift of tongues and 
 extraordinary communications for every emergency. 
 Witness the prophets and apostles, and the primitive 
 fathers and martja^s of the church. And since that 
 period, witness the reformers and missionaries and all 
 the bright luminaries of Christendom. If they did not 
 all study at the university, as did Wickliffe, and Huss, 
 and Jerome, and Luther, and Melanchthon, and Zuin- 
 glius, and Calvin, and Knox, and Cranmer, and Latimer, 
 and Whitefield, and Wesley, and Eliot, and Brainerd, 
 and Edwards, and Horsley, and Martyn and Swartz, yet 
 they learned from those who had been graduated at the 
 university, or from books which the university had cre- 
 ated and multiplied. — As was the case with Richard 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 393 
 
 Baxter, Andrew Fuller, William Carey, Robert Morri- 
 son, Adam Clarke, Thomas Scott, Cornelius Winter, 
 William Jay, Joshua Marshman, William Ward, and a 
 host of similar spirits. None of whom ever despised or 
 neglected human science, or affected to be above the wis- 
 dom of the university. K any of them commenced 
 their ministerial labours, imperfectly prepared, as, no 
 doubt, many did, they soon discovered their own defi- 
 ciencies ; and, like honest men, as they were, put them- 
 selves to school again and became humble persevering 
 learners. And thus, by extra effort and diligence, kept 
 in advance of their own pupils and hearers ; and, in pro- 
 cess of time, rose to distinguished eminence among the 
 most profound theologians and erudite scholars of their 
 day. Thus it has ever been, and ever will be, witli all 
 truly conscientious ministers of the gospel. However 
 ill-instructed or poorly qualified at the outset, they will, 
 like John Bunyan or John Newton, read and study, and 
 meditate and reflect, as best they can, whether immured 
 in a prison or sailing upon the ocean. Nor can I con- 
 ceive of a more pitiable object than a public teacher of 
 the Christian religion who is not always seeking and 
 thirsting after knowledge as for hidden treasures, or who 
 denounces learning, and is content to lead a life of idle- 
 ness and ignorance. 
 
 The Bible is a book, or rather a collection of books, 
 composed by divers authors, in dialects long since obso- 
 lete, during a period of some fifteen hundred years, and 
 treating of the most difficult, momentous and dissimilar 
 topics. And there is not a single science or branch of 
 
394 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 literature, within the whole range of human research, 
 which may not be profitably consecrated to its exposition 
 and illustration. Nor has there yet lived the man, who 
 found himself encumbered with too much learning 
 for this sacred work, or who could not bring his every 
 attainment and his everj^ faculty to bear upon it and to 
 contribute to its better accomplishment. Such men as 
 Seidell and Grotius and Locke and Newton and Jones 
 and Kennicott have amply testified that, to grapple with 
 the Bible, was no child's play. The astronomer, the his- 
 torian, the chronologer, the critic, the antiquary, the tra- 
 veller, the chemist, the geologist, have all and each in 
 turn, made discoveries which they fancied must tell 
 against Moses and his successors. And theologians, in 
 their ignorance and zeal, have hastily condemned and 
 repudiated their science, as well as their gratuitous and 
 false application of it. But a more thorough study of 
 Moses by the scientific, and a deeper acquaintance with 
 science by the theologian, have undeceived and recon- 
 ciled both parties. So that the two great volumes of 
 Nature and Revelation, equally. the product of the same 
 unchanging Divinity, are now acknowledged to harmo- 
 nize and to speak the same language. Not a principle 
 or fact has been established or brought to light, by the 
 brilliant labours of a Hutton, a Playfair, a Kepler, a 
 Herschel, a La Place, a Cuvier, a Hauy, a Champollion, 
 a De la Beche, a Buckland, a Lyell or an Ehrenberg, 
 which does not accord with the Mosaic history and phi- 
 losophy, when rightly interpreted; as the ablest living 
 divines cheerfully concede. Hume and Gibbon and 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 395 
 
 Halley and Voltaire and D'Alembert and Buffon and 
 Condorcet and Volney have yielded to a more en- 
 lightened school; as have the persecutors of Roger 
 Bacon, Galileo and Copernicus given place to a more 
 tolerant, charitable and scriptural theology. 
 
 But again, in a country like ours, where the people 
 govern, the university is greatly needed to furnish a 
 class of men sufficiently numerous and qualified to 
 enlighten the mass of the people upon general poli- 
 tics — upon the Constitution, government, laws, juris- 
 prudence, and institutions of the Republic. If every 
 individual cannot become familiar with these subjects 
 by his o^YTl reading and reflection, it is desirable at least 
 that an adequate instructor and guide should be at hand 
 on whose information and judgment he may safely rely. 
 Now the people are called on, at every election, to decide 
 upon some of the most intricate, complex and difficult 
 questions of State policy — involving their own and the 
 interests of posterity to an indefinite extent. And how 
 shall they vote upon measures which they do not under- 
 stand? What do thef/ know, or what do our compara- 
 tively wise men know, for example, about the just prin- 
 ciples of taxation, or tariff, or finance, or banking, or 
 usury laws — of our foreign relations, of our Indian 
 policy, of internal improvements, or of any constitu- 
 tional doctrine or controversy — or indeed, of the very 
 elements of political economy or jurisprudence or legis- 
 lation? And yet, they are expected annually to pro- 
 nounce aij or 710, without hesitation, on a dozen or more 
 untried projects, which it might puzzle even a Solomon 
 
396 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 fully to appreciate, in all their bearings, after the most 
 intense study and mature deliberation. Our political 
 candidates for office and our newspaper editors are the 
 exclusive monopolists of this entire department of popu- 
 lar instruction. I have two objections to this monopoly. 
 (1.) Forty-nine out of fifty of the said politicians and 
 editors are themselves too ignorant for the service. 
 And (2.) were they ever so well informed, they cannot 
 be trusted. It is their interest and their vocation to 
 mislead, deceive, liumhug and mystify the whole body of 
 the sovereign people. 
 
 The university has ever been the friend and the 
 nursery of common schools — when left to its own 
 natural freedom of action. In modern times, where- 
 ever the university has flourished untrammeled and 
 unrestricted by jealous, arbitrary authority, there the 
 common school has taken root and prospered also. This 
 fact is notorious, indisputable and undisputed. In no 
 country, at this day, do we behold the slightest approach 
 to a good common school system, except where the uni- 
 versity is honoured and liberally sustained. Scotland, 
 Prussia, Germany, Holland, New England and New 
 York may serve as proof and comment. I hold the 
 attempt to create and foster common schools, without 
 the aid of the university, to be utterly vain and nuga- 
 tory. It cannot be done. But establish an efficient, 
 free-working university anywhere — whether among the 
 Turks, the Tartars or the Hottentots — and the common 
 schools will spontaneously grow up around it and be- 
 neath its influence. — As certainly as light and heat 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 397 
 
 flow from the sun in the firmament. It is in fact the 
 great Luminary of the intellectual firmament. The 
 common school is the child and not the parent — the 
 effect and not the cause — of the university. The uni- 
 versity will furnish the teachers and the learning which 
 are indispensable to the inferior schools and seminaries : 
 and it will awaken the desire and the ambition among 
 all classes to acquire knowledge and to support schools. 
 
 It would be impossible, at this moment, to find in 
 Tennessee a hundredth part of the duly qualified in- 
 structors necessary to put into immediate operation any 
 general school system whatever. No man can teach 
 what he does not thoroughly understand. Whatever 
 art or science he professes to teach others, he must first 
 learn himself. K you would have competent teachers 
 of reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, history, geo- 
 graphy, the Constitution and laws of the land, and 
 whatever else our youth ought to learn at school in 
 order to become useful citizens, you must first provide 
 for their proper training. That is, you must send them 
 to the higher schools and colleges and universities of 
 your own or some other State. A thousand young men 
 ought now to be thus in training, or in a course of pre- 
 paration for the business of school-keeping. Send them 
 to the University, at the State's expense, and they will 
 not fail to become qualified for the service in due time. 
 Or, enable the University, by suitable endowments, to 
 open her doors to all comers, and to educate ever^^ poor 
 talented youth without charge; and you will soon be 
 supplied with indigent but accomplished scholars, who 
 
398 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 will be glad to teach for a livelihood. They will them- 
 selves become piogeers and missionaries in the cause of 
 education. They will search out and expose the wants 
 and destitution of the people, and will plant schools 
 in every village and in every neighbourhood where 
 children can be found. Tennessee, with her present 
 ample resources, might organize and endow a univer- 
 sity which could impart gratuitous instruction to all 
 her studious and deserving youth; and thus eventually 
 elevate the standard of education, and insure its advan- 
 tages to every portion and order of its rapidly increasing 
 population. If Nashville should not be deemed the most 
 eligible site for such an establishment, let the Legisla- 
 ture select a better.* 
 
 The university, again, is the steadfast ally and the 
 consistent advocate of liberty and the rights of man. 
 It ever has been so, except when checked and enslaved 
 by political or ecclesiastical despotism. The light of 
 truth and freedom has occasionally gleamed from the 
 
 * Having on various occasions heretofore, discoursed at large on the 
 subject of common schools — having reviewed the systems which obtain 
 in all our States and in several countries in Europe — having expressed 
 my opinion freely upon each, and also upon the expediency of pro- 
 viding schools for the education of teachers, &c. it was not my 
 purpose, in the above remarks, to do more than barely to point 
 out the dependence of common schools upon the University. Our 
 poor college graduates will, after all, prove our best common school- 
 masters, even though they may not be ambitious to teach for life. 
 Well educated and clever Americans will not be content to work like 
 Prussians, in comparative obscurity and poverty. The planter's over- 
 seer or negro-driver is better paid for his learned labours, than any 
 common school teacher in all the valley of the Mississippi. 
 
EDUCATIUXAL DISCOURSES. 399 
 
 portals of the university, even when most enslaved, and 
 when more than Cimmerian darkness prevailed around 
 it — as in the ages and persons of Roger Bacon and John 
 Wickliife. "While, at each successive struggle for human 
 liberty, from Luther to Hampden and Wilberforce and 
 Brougham, its most efficient cLampions and defenders 
 have issued from the university. 
 
 It was the university which awakened or rather 
 created the desire of ci\il and religious liberty in 
 France. And all the incipient measures and move- 
 ments of her grand, but disastrous revolution, were 
 suggested and directed by the wisest and most intelli- 
 gent of her educated sons. And had the people been 
 sufficiently enlightened to submit to the counsels and 
 guidance of Lafayette and liis illustrious coadjutors, the 
 result had been widely different, and as glorious as the 
 cause was just and honourable. She failed, because the 
 university had not been suffered to operate upon the 
 popular mind. 
 
 Greece, too, at the instance of her young men, who 
 had studied at the universities of France and Germany, 
 and at those of her own Bucharest and beautiful Scio, 
 shook off the Moslem yoke, which she had tamely worn 
 for centuries. And if her present institutions and forms 
 of government are not as liberal and generous as they 
 were in the days of Pericles and Miltiades, of Plato and 
 Socrates, it is because the university has not yet illumi- 
 nated and elevated the ignorant and besotted mass of 
 her degenerate population. 
 
 The university is, moreover, the dread and terror of 
 
400 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 every legitimate despotism in modern Europe. In spite 
 of all the vigilant jealousy with which it is guarded in 
 order to repress the spirit of free inquiry among its pro- 
 fessors and students, it is well known that they are se- 
 cretly imbibing principles which will one day reach, if 
 they have not already reached, the cottage and the 
 palace, the army and the church; and cause tyranny, 
 under every guise, to relax its iron grasp, or to fall 
 beneath the universal conviction of its injustice and 
 imbecility. In fact, already throughout German}^, and 
 several other countries, the condition of the people has 
 been greatly meliorated and improved, in consequence 
 of the diffusion of knowledge by the university; so that 
 the arbitrary or capricious exertion of despotic power is 
 seldom felt or witnessed. In this respect, they are in- 
 comparably better governed than Spain, Portugal, Italy 
 or Russia, Avhere the university has been still more 
 effectually controlled and fettered by the monarch 
 and the priest. I repeat then, that wherever the uni- 
 versity is itself free, it will, sooner or later, make the 
 people free — even while living under a nominal mo- 
 narchy or despotism. And it will as certainly qualify 
 them for self-government. 
 
 Spanish America has become independent — but the 
 people are not free. While, througliout British America, 
 whether colonial or independent, the people are and 
 ever have been free. The university was transported to 
 this new world in the gallant "May Flower," which 
 landed upon Plymouth rock the first little colony of 
 Anglo-American republicans. And it was forthwith set 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSFS. 401 
 
 up. in good style, in the town of Cambridge, where it 
 has ever since been the nurser}^ of common schools and 
 the guardian genius of constitutional libert}'. In the 
 university were bred the noble and gifted patriots, who 
 dared to assert and maintain, at every hazard and sacri- 
 fice, their own and their countrymen's indefeasible birth- 
 rights — as free born Englishmen — against every insi- 
 dious or violent effort to subject them to arbitrary 
 illegal domination. By these choice spirits was our 
 independence achieved: and to these are we indebted 
 for our national existence, and for all our free republican 
 pri\aleges and institutions. Our college graduates and 
 our college students were the first to speak, the first to 
 act, and the first to fight, in the cause of their country. 
 They were all Whigs then : and they will be Whigs for- 
 ever. 
 
 It is w^orthy of special remark, that the principal men 
 — the leading influential characters — the master spirits 
 of all the primitive English colonies, from Massachusetts 
 to Georgia, were individuals of the highest order of 
 talent, morality, education and respectability at home. 
 They came hither, not for wealth or power, but in 
 search of that political and religious freedom and tran- 
 quillity, which the peculiar circumstances of the father- 
 land seemed likel}- to deny them. The}' left behind 
 them the monarchy, the aristocracy and the hierarchy. 
 They brought with them the learning, the virtue, the 
 piety, the enterprise, the indomitable love of liberty, 
 which distinguished England's noblest sons, and what- 
 ever was strictly republican in her institutions. With 
 
 VOL. r. 26 
 
402 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 such exceiient materials, and under the most favourable 
 auspices, thej commenced the experiment of governing 
 themselves in the far off wilderness, agreeably to their 
 own interpretation of the English constitution, and with 
 such modifications as were adapted to their singular posi- 
 tion. From the beginning they were free : And it is the 
 glory of every true-hearted American, that his ancestors 
 have never been slaves; and that they would never sub- 
 mit for a moment to oppression in any form. They 
 would not be taxed even a farthing, without their own 
 consent. And they boldly drew their swords to main- 
 tain, and to transmit to their children, the grand funda- 
 mental doctrine of political rights, that taxation and 
 representation go together, and cannot be disjoined, 
 while Magna Gharta remains the bulwark and the boast 
 of English liberty. 
 
 Had our fathers been the degraded, sottish, ignorant, 
 pitiable and despised outcasts of British bridewells and 
 dungeons — as malice and envy have often proclaimed — 
 our destiny had been humble and wretched indeed. 
 Then we might have been slaves — hopeless and help- 
 less — from the prison-ship of our Adam and Eve — 
 grovelling and writhing beneath the tyrant's scourge, 
 and weeping tears of bitterness and anguish, through 
 ages of despair, to this dark and cheerless moment. 
 But Heaven had otherwise ordained. And the Uni- 
 versity, not Newgate, freighted the vessels which bore 
 to this then savage hemisphere, the founders of the 
 freest and greatest Republic that the Sun has ever shone 
 upon. Shall we continue free and great? Shall we — 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 403 
 
 will our posterity — always prove worthy of our and 
 their illustrious parentage? Yes — while we cherish, 
 and honour, and generously sustain the university — and 
 not a day longer. 
 
 There is no opinion or doctrine more universally 
 recognized — none more frequently or earnestly incul- 
 cated b}^ the advocates of liberty everywhere — than 
 that a purely republican form of government cannot 
 be maintained except by a highly intelligent and vir- 
 tuous people. To the very existence of our Republic 
 therefore, the university must ever be indispensable. 
 Intelligence there may be without virtue. But there 
 can be no virtue without intelligence. Every exercise 
 of virtue, or every virtuous act, implies some degree 
 of knowledge. The principles of virtue or of ethics 
 and religion must be studied — just as geometry is 
 studied. No man can practise or perform what he 
 does not understand, or has not learned how to perform. 
 Intelligent virtue or virtuous intelligence, if I ma}^ be 
 allowed such forms of expression, constitutes, just in 
 proportion to its degree and extent, the true dignity 
 of man. As citizens and as Christians — as the subjects 
 of a human and a divine government — as responsible to 
 society and to posterity and to High Heaven for all our 
 conduct, for all the good we neglect to do as well as for 
 all the evil we commit — we cannot be too diligent or 
 anxious in studying and learning how to discharge the 
 various and important duties incumbent on us; or in 
 ascertaining in what way or by w^hat means w^e may 
 accomplish the greatest amount of good. 
 
404- EDUCATIOXAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 And hence I am led to my concluding remarks upon 
 the general subject. 
 
 Intellectual pursuits are always salutary to body and 
 mind and heart. — The best preservative of good morals. 
 — The surest preventive of criminal and ruinous indul- 
 gences and practices. — The never failing source of the 
 purest enjoyments. Study contributes to health and 
 peace of mind. Studious men live the longest: and 
 they are generally the happiest men in the world. 
 They are harmless and inoffensive members of society. 
 They seldom annoy anybody, or meddle with other 
 people's affairs. They never engage in mobs or riots 
 or popular tumults of an}- kind. [I do not here allude 
 to college boys — who are not studious — and who are 
 often turbulent and disorderly for that very reason.] I 
 speak of men, devoted to science and literature. They 
 are peaceful and tranquil in their habits. And even 
 when they seem to do no good, they cannot be said 
 to do any positive mischief. Very rarely, indeed, have 
 they been charged with flagitious enormities or con- 
 demned for capital crimes. Not an individual of their 
 number can, at this day, be found in any prison or peni- 
 tenitiary in our own country — perhaps, in no country. 
 In England, the names of Eugene Aram and William 
 Dodd, stand forth solitary and prominent exceptions to a 
 general rule. And the fact, that their fate has created 
 a sensation not yet allayed or forgotten, proves how un- 
 expected and startling were their guilt and ruin. Edu- 
 cated and learned men have often been the victims of 
 tyranny and despotism. They have suffered every spe- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 405 
 
 cies of cruelty in person and estate — under barbarous 
 and sanguinary codes of law — administered by mer- 
 cenarj^ courts and packed juries — by bills of pains and 
 penalties, and ex fost facto statutes, enacted for the 
 occasion — and by that most convenient instrument of 
 legal ingenuity and refinement, constructive treascm, 
 which could consign to the scaffold or the gibbet the 
 most innocent and meritorious objects of a tyrant's 
 jealousy or hatred. They ever Imve been, as they ever 
 will be, foremost to suffer and die, martyrs to the sacred 
 cause of truth and liberty. For State crimes and for reli- 
 gicnis heresies, they have been often unrighteously mur- 
 dered, like Socrates and Tully and Sir Thomas More, 
 according to forms of law^, or without law, or in defiance 
 of all law. But the world has long since reversed the 
 sentence of their condemnation. For real crime however 
 — for the commission of the mala in se — very few have 
 hitherto, in any age or country, been condemned to death 
 or to infamous penalties. Of traitors, our own protracted 
 revolutionary war produced but one; and he, assuredly, 
 was not a literary or college-bred General. And if a 
 single individual since, of a liberal education and culti- 
 vated mind, has been justly or unjustly chargeable with 
 treasonable designs; let his lonely name be recorded as 
 the only instance of the kind which has occurred during 
 the half century of our national existence. And let it 
 serve as a beacon and a warning against all inordinate, 
 unhallowed and desperate ambition ! No university 
 catalogue in all our land, during a period of more than 
 two hundred years, has ever been disgraced by the name 
 
406 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 of a single graduate, convicted of an infamous 'crime, or 
 doomed to an infamous or capital punishment. And it 
 is yet the glorious and unparalled distinction of our own 
 favoured Republic, that not a drop of blood has ever 
 been judicially shed upon her virgin soil for a State 
 offence. 
 
 Finally: Reason or understanding ought to be assi- 
 duously cultivated and improved, because God has con- 
 ferred it on man for this very purpose. Litelligence is 
 an attribute of the Deity ; and a part therefore of that 
 divine image in which man was created. If, then, he 
 would be like his Maker or seek to regain his image, he 
 must daily grow in knowledge as well as in holiness; or 
 rather in knowledge in order to holiness. We are no- 
 where commanded in Scripture to get money or to 
 hoard up riches. But we are everywhere commanded to 
 seek after knowledge, to get wisdom and understanding 
 — to advance in every virtue, grace and moral excel- 
 lence, even to the most exalted standard of perfection — 
 to become holy as God is \\o\y. Now, to be useful or 
 virtuous or holy one degree, implies one degree at least of 
 knowledge. And so on, proportionably, to any extent 
 whatever. But we are bound to become as useful, virtu- 
 ous and holy as possible — to do all the good in our 
 power. And consequently, it is our duty to study and 
 labour, w ith unremitting ardour and zeal, to acquire every 
 species of information which can qualify or aid us to do 
 good. And I have not yet heard of any science, taught 
 in the university or elsewhere, which may not enable its 
 possessor to be more useful; and which therefore ought 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 407 
 
 not to be learned when practicable. No man can be 
 " growing in grace " or becoming better, in the scriptural 
 sense or in an}' sense, who is not constantly advancing 
 in knowledge and wisdom. Nor will any man evince 
 extraordinary judgment, candour or modesty, by boldly 
 denouncing the study of any science or language with 
 which he is himself unacquainted. 
 
 The universal passion for wealth, which everybody 
 cherishes and encourages, is condemned in Scripture and 
 by sound philosophy also, as avarice, covetousness, idol- 
 atry. We are exhorted to seek after "the true" and 
 more enduring riches — such as will accompany us to 
 another and a better world. It certainly does seem pre- 
 posterous and puerile for a man to labour incessantly, 
 during his whole life, to amass wealth, without enjoying 
 it himself or sharing it with others, without helping the 
 needy or advancing any great interest of society, de- 
 riving pleasure only from its acquisition and rapid accu- 
 mulation; and yet to be conscious, all the while, that 
 death, in a few brief years, will rob him forever of his 
 uttermost farthing. It will not descend with him into 
 the grave. He cannot carry it with him either to 
 heaven or hell. It has absorbed his every faculty while 
 living — closed up all the avenues of knowledge and 
 sympathy and benevolence and charity — rendered him 
 selfish, hard-hearted, proud, overbearing and oppresive — 
 and yet left him to perish, at last, the veriest slave of 
 the meanest and most relentless tyrant. But the intel- 
 lectual treasures of the inquisitive and persevering \dr- 
 tuous student will never be lost or forfeited. Of these, 
 
408 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 no earthly power can despoil him. These belong to the 
 soul — to the immortal spirit. And, if rightly em^Dloyed, 
 and honestly consecrated to their legitimate uses, they 
 will constitute a large measure of his heavenly inherits 
 ance and felicity. And he will be still adding to his 
 intellectual possessions, and be approximating to the 
 glorious likeness of his omniscient Creator by new and 
 continually increasing attainments, while infinity re- 
 mains to be explored and exhausted, and throughout 
 the illimitable ages of an ever beginning, but never 
 endino; eternity. 
 
A LECTURE 
 
 POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
LECTURE 
 
 POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 If there be any one truth, principle, maxim or doc- 
 trine more universally recognized among our countrymen, 
 at the present day, than another, it is this, namely: 
 That a free, republican, representative government can 
 be permanently sustained only by an enlightened and 
 virtuous people. Without an adequate knowledge of 
 their rights and duties, the people cannot maintain the 
 one nor discharge the other. And without moral in- 
 tegrity, they will soon become indifferent to both. An 
 ignorant and vicious community will ever be the victim 
 or instrument or sport of the ambitious, the crafty, the 
 venal, the factious, and the desperate. Neither the in- 
 telligence, nor the wisdom, nor the virtue, nor the pa- 
 triotism, nor the self-devotion, nor the unwearied efforts 
 of the few — supposing a few such to exist — can check 
 or control or counteract the capricious, furious, and ever 
 downward torrent of popular ignorance and corruption. 
 In such circumstances, the people themselves will eagerly 
 assist in forging the chains which are to bind them to 
 the triumphal car of their own favourite chieftain — 
 
 whether political demagogue or military conqueror — nor 
 
 4H 
 
412 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 will tliey dream of danger until their liberties shall have 
 been destroyed and their destiny sealed forever. 
 
 We have been so long accustomed to hear these posi- 
 tions proclaimed and reiterated, that we are ready to 
 conclude not only that they are everywhere pei'fectly 
 understood, but that they are practically illustrated 
 throughout the length and breadth of the Republic. 
 That we are the freest, most enlightened, most virtuous, 
 prosperous and happy nation in the world, is always as- 
 sumed as a matter of fact — about which there can be no 
 question — and whereof we may reasonably glory and 
 boast on all occasions, and in style and phrase the most 
 hyperbolical and overweening. If all sorts of travelling 
 and book-making foreigners do not praise us to our 
 heart's content, we at least make ample amends by prais- 
 ing ourselves. Self-knowledge however — agreeably to 
 the ancient adage, "know thyself" — has ever been justly 
 esteemed the most important kind of knowledge, and, 
 indeed, the first step towards the attainment of all other 
 useful knowledge, so far as individuals are concerned. 
 And I see no reason why the same rule and test should 
 not be as applicable to nations as it confessedly is to in- 
 dividuals. If, as a nation, we have defects, and wants, 
 and faults and vices, we ought to know them, in order to 
 ascertain the proper remedy. Are there not then symp- 
 toms sufficiently portentous, and daily occurrences suffi- 
 ciently alarming, to awaken the suspicion that our great 
 national fabric is not constructed altogether of the 
 soundest, purest and most enduring materials ? Are the 
 excellent constitutions of the Union and the States 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 413 
 
 everywhere duly revered, and most sacredly guarded 
 and obeyed? Is the supremacy of the laws uniA^ersally 
 affirmed and maintained? What mean the popular riots 
 and mobs and tumults which are currently witnessed in 
 every corner and section of our country? Do these be- 
 token no inherent malady, and no danger to our institu- 
 tions? Are our office-bearers and office-seekers, like 
 their predecessors of the good old Washington school, 
 the fairest specimens of genuine patriotism, of political 
 integrity, of magnanimous bearing, and intrepid moral 
 courage, that the sun has ever shone upon? I leave 
 these and a hundred similar inquiries, to the sober 
 judgment and truth-speaking conscience of my hearers. 
 I feel assured that, in relation to this w^hole subject, they 
 will not charge me with rhetorical exaggeration, nor set 
 me down as an idle and fanatical alarmist. 
 
 That we have reached a crisis which demands extra- 
 ordinary attention, and which threatens disastrous re- 
 sults, will hardly be denied. Still, I do not despair of 
 the Republic. We may experience all the horrors of 
 the storm and tempest, of the hurricane and tornado, of 
 the earthquake and volcano; and yet be preserved from 
 utter ruin. While there is life, there is hope. The 
 body politic may be diseased and convulsed, and yet 
 may revive and flourish wath renewed vigour, under the 
 judicious treatment of the skilful patriotic physician. 
 
 Tn many respects, our country has hitherto been the 
 theatre of novel and untried experiments. Our whole 
 system, indeed, has been from its commencement, re- 
 garded by the old world as a mere experiment. And 
 
414 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 not a few of our radical innovations have been de- 
 nounced as rash and hazardous in the extreme. In 
 every stage of our progress, we have been narrowly 
 watched, and jealously scrutinized, and invidiously de- 
 preciated, and often malignantly misrepresented. Ob- 
 stacles too, neither few nor small, have been purposely 
 thrown in our way; and eveiy species of unkindly and 
 insidious foreign influence has been exerted to thwart 
 and impede our onward march towards national vigour 
 and maturity. At the close of the great revolutionary 
 struggle for national independence, we were compara- 
 tivelj- a homogeneous people — brave, intelligent, uncor- 
 rupt. The sturdy and well trained descendants of the 
 pious pilgrims at the North, and of the chivalrous com- 
 panions of the gallant Raleigh, Smith and Oglethorpe at 
 the South, were amply and equally qualified for the 
 arduous task of self-government. But they did not fore- 
 see the immense territorial expansion of the Republic 
 which a few short years were to realize; nor the un- 
 paralled enlargement of the population both from natu- 
 ral increase and from the sudden importation of hun- 
 dreds of thousands of degraded, dissolute, turbulent 
 European paupers. They could not anticipate the 
 changes, the dangers, the corruptions, which might 
 thence speedily ensue. And, of course, they did not 
 provide the necessary preventive or remedy. They were 
 not insensible to the benefits of education, both intellec- 
 tual and moral. — For they had shared them liberally. 
 And they wisely laboured to secure the same advantages 
 for their children. We do not find, in all the writings 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 415 
 
 and official documents of the sages of that glorious and 
 heroic period, one heretical or discordant sentiment upon 
 this vital subject. They inculcated the importance — 
 they urged the necessity of universal education as their 
 only ground of hope for the preservation of the liberties 
 and privileges which they had periled life and fortune 
 and sacred honour to achieve. But they did not dream 
 that the men of that generation — the citizens of the ori- 
 ginal Atlantic States — were in duty bound to provide 
 also for the education of half a continent besides. Let 
 us not therefore lightly arraign or rashly censure our 
 noble sires, because they did not forthwith devise the 
 ways and means to plant schools and colleges and 
 churches throughout the wild forests and luxuriant 
 prairies of the mighty west; nor commence the work 
 of training the thousands of teachers about to be re- 
 quired to instruct the then unborn millions by whom 
 the transmontaine wilderness was presently to be sub- 
 dued and cultivated. 
 
 But however we may dispose of such preliminary 
 speculations, the simple fact is, that our population 
 from two and a half millions, has, within some fifty 
 years, been augmented to at least fifteen millions. The 
 means of education have not been furnished in a pro- 
 portionate ratio. Far from it. The deficiency is great 
 in several even of the oldest States, and much greater in 
 all the new ones. True, the public mind is beginning to 
 be alive to this enormous deficiency. The actual condi- 
 tion of the people is gradually becoming known. It is 
 already proclaimed in our public journals : " That there 
 
416 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 are a million and a half of children at least who have 
 no teacher; that thirty thousand schoolmasters are 
 needed at this moment, and that an additional annual 
 supply of four thousand will be needed for the regular 
 increase of our population." If this statement be even 
 an approximation towards the truth, it is enough to ap- 
 pal the heart of the boldest and most sanguine philan- 
 throphist. 
 
 I do not repose implicit faith in the statistics of igno- 
 rance, or intemperance, or profligacy, or irreligion, which 
 have been of late so officiously paraded before the public, 
 in anniversary speeches and reports, in pamphlets and 
 periodicals, for the benevolent purpose of awakening the 
 sympathy and commanding the purses of the rich. 
 Still, it must be admitted, there is a vast amount of 
 deplorable ignorance and reckless depravity among our 
 people. Of this fact, every man must be convinced, who 
 wall trust to the evidence of his own senses wdthin the 
 range of his daily observation, — however limited that 
 may be. Let him investigate the moral character and 
 condition of his own county, city, town, village or neigh- 
 bourhood; and he will be no longer incredulous on this 
 score. He need hardly read over the delectable catalogue 
 of absurdities and fooleries and quackery and frauds and 
 abominations inflicted and perpetrated by Mormonism 
 and Shakerism and Oicenism and Agrarianism and 
 Thompsonism and Partyism and LyncMsm and Aholitum- 
 ism and Perfectionism and Fanaticism and all sorts of 
 political and religious nUraism; — which everywhere find 
 ample scope and encouragement, and oftentimes reap most 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 417 
 
 golden harvests from the hopes or fears or excited pas- 
 sions of a besotted and uninstructed people. These and 
 other similar extravagances and monstrosities prove in- 
 deed the existence of much shrewdness and cmming and 
 misdirected intelligence on the one hand, as they do of a 
 vastly larger amount of gross ignorance and invincible 
 stolidity on the other. The first constituting the essen- 
 tial attributes of the accomplished knave and successful 
 impostor, and the latter supplying in abundance the 
 necessary dupes and victims to be operated upon and 
 mystified at pleasure by the former. But an observer 
 may leave out of view or pass over all this, if he please, 
 and yet witness enough to be satisfied that the land is 
 teeming with a wild luxuriant growth of untamed, un- 
 tutored, and licentious mobocracy. 
 
 All this is so obvious and palpable, that I feel con- 
 scious of having uttered the merest truisms in the hear- 
 ing of every reflecting person present. Be it so: then 
 are we prepared to grapple with the real difficulties of 
 the case. A perfectly equitable repuhlican government — 
 such as our own claims to he — can he maintained only hy 
 an intelligent and virtivous people. Granted by you all. 
 A republican government may be as unjust, as arbitrary, 
 as oppressive and despotic as any absolute monarchy 
 upon the earth. Everything depends on the character 
 of the sovereign in either case. And as in a republic 
 the people are sovereign, we must rely exclusively^ upon 
 the wisdom and honesty of the people for good laws and 
 faithful magistrates. Multitudes of our people are 
 neither intelligent nor virtuous: — granted. This fact 
 
418 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 bodes evil to the Republic — granted again. The only 
 prospective remedy or curative process, is the suitable 
 education of the young and rising generation, and of 
 each future generation : — granted, once more. How are 
 all the children of the Republic to be educated? — By 
 the establishment of good common schools all over the 
 land, say our statesmen and politicians : and the people 
 respond, amen ! Very good. This then is the all- 
 sufficient and acknowledged panacea. I shall not stop 
 now to analyze or to controvert its claims to our confi- 
 dence. I concede, for the sake of argument, the perfect 
 adequateness of the system recommended. I assume 
 that the universal diffusion of knowledge, by the agency 
 of COMMON SCHOOLS, wiU effect the desired reforma- 
 tion, and insure peace and prosperity to the Repubhc for- 
 ever. 
 
 The question recurs : How are such schools to be es- 
 tablished and maintained in sufficient numbers to meet 
 the demand? or is there no other possible mode of 
 reaching the same end? As to the first inquiry, vre have 
 the example and experience of a few of our own States 
 and of several European kingdoms, which may aid and 
 guide us in our researches and speculations. New York, 
 New England, Virginia, have tried the common school 
 system under divei^ forms and regulations, and with 
 various success. It will suffice, for our present purpose, 
 to notice briefly three of the systems referred to; and 
 which indeed, with slight modifications, comprise the 
 whole which have been thoroughly tested in our own 
 country. These may be distinguished and described as 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 419 
 
 the systems, 1st. of Connecticut, 2d. of Massachusetts, 
 and 3d. of New York. 
 
 In these several States, there is in one respect, a 
 coincidence of plan: That is, the Legislature has de- 
 clared that all youth shall be educated — the children 
 of the poor as well as of the rich. The difference 
 lies in the collection and distribution of the funds. 
 In these States, legislative aid is generally afforded 
 only in providing teachers. Books are furnished by 
 parents. The schoolhouse is erected by tax, imposed 
 at a legal meeting of the district; and all other inci- 
 dental expenses are defrayed either by a direct tax or 
 by voluntary subscription. 
 
 The means of paying teachers are derived in Con- 
 necticut from a fund: in Massachusetts from taxa- 
 tion: and in New York, from taxation and a fund 
 united. 
 
 1. Connecticut has a productive school-fund of about 
 two millions of dollars. The dividends annually made 
 to the schools, average about one dollar to each child 
 between the ages of four and sixteen. And the acknow- 
 ledged result of the experiment is, that the children of 
 Connecticut are not so well educated now as they were 
 previously to 1795 — when the present system went into 
 operation. The public schools in Connecticut are noto- 
 riously failures. And wherever a good school in that 
 State can be found, it is altogether supported by private 
 associations. The Connecticut system has scarcely an 
 intelligent advocate at home, and none elsewhere. It 
 aims at too much, and therefore accomplishes little or 
 
420 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 nothing. It cannot afford a reasonable compensation 
 for the services of half the number of competent in- 
 structors demanded by the population. And hence, 
 either not more than half the requisite number can 
 be employed, or, what is worse, the schools must be 
 committed to the most illiterate, indolent and worthless 
 of the whole tribe of pedagogues : who are content to 
 doze away their life for ten dollars per month rather 
 than labour in the field or shop for twenty. Besides, 
 while the people depend absolutely and exclusively on 
 the great State fund for the adequate support of their 
 schools, they very naturally become indifierent to the 
 whole concern. They feel no motive or stimulus for 
 individual eflbrt and enterprise. They blindly and 
 heedlessly, and }et confidently, look to the govern- 
 ment for the schooling of their children — as they do 
 to Providence for air and water — while they rarely 
 reflect on the importance of the one or the other. Men 
 seldom value what costs them nothing. x\ public fund 
 for the instruction of youth in common schools, is of no 
 comparative worth, merely as a means of relieving want. 
 Whether it can be made to subserve a nobler end, we 
 shall inquire hereafter. The good people of Connec- 
 ticut, as we learn from published official documents, 
 actually expended about an equal sum before their 
 school-fund existed, — and upon half the present amount 
 of population. And yet they never murmured at this 
 expenditure as burdensome or excessive. 
 
 Tennessee does not possess, and cannot hope soon to 
 accumulate such a fund : and if she could, the Connecti- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 421 
 
 cut system ought not to be thought of by her judicious 
 and patriotic sages. 
 
 2. In Massachusetts, taxafion is the sole reliance of 
 common schools. What maj^ be feasible and safe for 
 her, might be hazardous for other States, where the 
 people have not inherited the system of taxation, and 
 where public sentiment attaches less value to education. 
 It obtains however in New Hampshire, Vermont and 
 Maine. In all these States it works well : and appears 
 to answer every desirable end contemplated by the most 
 zealous friends of common schools. The mode of raising 
 the pecuniary means is of little consequence, provided 
 the 2^eople approve it. That the plan succeeds, and that 
 the people are satisfied, in the States just mentioned, 
 cannot be doubted. 
 
 The late Governor Bell of New Hampshire, says: 
 "The eflect of this system has been very salutary. 
 Scarcely a native citizen under forty years of age, of 
 either sex, can be found who has not been taught to 
 read and write their native language. It has elevated 
 the character of our population, in point of intelligence 
 and correct moral habits." 
 
 A distinguished individual in Vermont thus writes: 
 " However defective our laws on this subject may appear 
 to those who are abroad, the beneficial effects that have 
 resulted cannot be questioned. Very few men or women 
 can be found in this State, natives of the State, who can- 
 not read and write, and employ figures for common pur- 
 poses." 
 
 Gov. Lincoln of Massachusetts says: "The practical 
 
422 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 operation of the laws has been to secure in every district 
 and village of the Commmiicealth, the means of regular 
 instruction to children in the elementary branches of 
 learning, and where there was wealth and population 
 to justify the occasion, the establishment and support 
 of schools of competent character to prepare youth for 
 admission to college, or to enter upon the active business 
 of life. Certain it is, that there has never been any 
 want of interest manifested here, either in raising a 
 sufficient amount of money, or in attending to its most 
 useful application." 
 
 The late Governor Paris, of Maine, observes: "Tlie 
 sum required by law to be raised in each town, is equal 
 to forty cents for each inhabitant the town contains. 
 The penalty for neglect is a fine of not less than twiee, 
 nor more than four times the amount of the failure 
 or deficiency. There is not an individual in any town 
 within the limits of the State, who may not give his 
 children a good English education. In this mode the 
 school-fund is annually collected from the pockets of 
 the citizens; and is paid with more cheerfulness than 
 any other tax to which they are liable. The effect 
 of this system, is an intelligent and enlightened popu- 
 lation, not confined merely to the large towns, or their 
 vicinity, but spread throughout the State." 
 
 While I take it for granted that the good people of 
 Tennessee will not submit to taxation for the purpose of 
 educating their children; I must be permitted to add, 
 that, if ever a tax should be levied on the whole pro- 
 perty of a community for the benefit of all the citizens; 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 423 
 
 the most reasonable, the most equitable, and the most 
 useful, both in its immediate and ultimate results, would 
 be a tax for this specific object. No other object, indeed, 
 aimed at by any species of taxation, is, by many degrees, 
 comparable in importance to this. Cannot the poor man 
 be made to discern and to appreciate the boon which he 
 would receive from the rich, when they should provide 
 the means of tuition for his children? Cannot the rich 
 comprehend the advantages which would redound to 
 themselves, as well as to the whole population, if they 
 would consent to contribute their mite towards the 
 common education of all our youth, instead of being 
 reduced to the necessity of paying ten-fold more to 
 support thousands of idle paupers, vagabonds and 
 criminals — by poor rates — in poor houses — or in jails 
 and penitentiaries? From the latter burden, which 
 is daily augmenting, they can never be relieved, except 
 by the thorough instruction and discipline of the young 
 and rising generation. A little skill in vulgar arithmetic 
 — in the rule of Loss and Gain — to say nothing of ethics 
 or political economy — will enable them to calculate to 
 which alternative their own pecuniary interest should 
 inclme them. Moreover, the existing system of support- 
 ing the poor, and of punishing or reforming the criminal, 
 is not only the most expensive that can well be devised : 
 it is utterly nugatory in its operation and effects: it is 
 a positive encouragement to pauperism and profligacy. 
 The philanthropists and statesmen of England, where 
 this preposterous and suicidal system has had ample 
 scope for some three centuries past, pronounce it absurd, 
 
424 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 inefficient, and ruinous alike to both rich and poor. Let 
 experience teach us wisdom. Let the axe be hiid at the 
 root of the evil. Let ignorant children be duly in- 
 structed j and we shall be rid of ignorant thieves and 
 beggars. The schoolhouse and the schoolmaster will 
 be found cheaper than the prison, the sheriff, and the 
 judge. 
 
 Again, if the poor would examine their own relative 
 position in society, and the proportion of the public 
 burdens which they actually sustain, they might possi- 
 bly discover some ground of complaint: and also that 
 they are in fact taxed already to an amount which, if 
 wisely appropriated to the object, would be amply suffi- 
 cient to educate their own children. As mUitla men, 
 they are taxed equally with the rich. Whether they 
 regard this as a privilege or an imposition, I have never 
 inquired. The law however commands every poor man, 
 between the ages of 18 and 45, to attend militia musters 
 four days in the year. That is, virtually, to pay four 
 dollars cash, as a direct tax towards this one object of 
 common defence. His incidental expenses cannot be 
 less than four dollars more. Here then are eight 
 dollars, positive tax, demanded from every poor man 
 of a certain age, annually. Nor is this all. If we take 
 into the account the time wasted at military elections — 
 the money expended by officers and men in sundry ways 
 which it is needless to specify — the average annual ex- 
 penditure per man, rich and poor, officer and private, 
 may be fairly computed at ten dollars. I do not know 
 the number of our militia : But set them down at only 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 425 
 
 50,000 ; and here is a sum of |500,000, cheerfully paid 
 by our tax-loathing people every year : — a sum which, if 
 judiciously expended, would make every cottage smile 
 with intelligence, peace, comfort and independence. 
 Will the poor — will the rich — passively endure all this 
 without a murmur? and yet refuse to tax themselves for 
 precisel}^ the noblest end at which even the most selfish 
 parental ambition ought to aspire? 
 
 The militia system in general vogue after all is 
 confessedly a nuisance to the community. It does no 
 good. It has no tendency to form soldiers. Such is 
 the opinion of every real military officer in the Union. 
 Several of the States have already abolished the whole 
 system: and others are in a fair way to follow their 
 example. It is admitted that neither military tactics, 
 nor military principles or habits are ever learned or 
 acquired on the militia parade ground. But if we 
 must pay for a whistle — though at the rate of half a 
 million per year — let us also be willing to pay some- 
 thing to insure to posterity an enhghtened, virtuous, 
 free, and happy Commonwealth. 
 
 3. In New York, a mixed system obtains. She has 
 combined both the plans already described. And the 
 happy effects of her system, directed, as it is, by an able 
 and laborious Superintendent of Common Schools, are 
 fully illustrated in the annual Reports made to the 
 Legislature on the subject. 
 
 The State possesses a productive general school-fund 
 of nearlv two millions of dollars — besides lands held for 
 
426 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 the same purpose — and also local funds in several of the 
 counties. 
 
 The interest of the general fund, (about ^100,000) is 
 annually distributed among the School Districts simply 
 as an incentive to self-taxation and voluntary contri- 
 bution. It does not amount, at the utmost, to more 
 than one-sixth of the sum annually paid to teachers 
 alone: and to not more than one-tenth of the whole 
 sum actually expended by the people in support of 
 their schools. The statesmen of New York have 
 wisely adapted their school-policy to the known selfish- 
 ness of human nature. They hold out a motive to self- 
 exertion and liberality which is rarely resisted. They 
 say to a school district : we will give you. from the State 
 fund so much — say ^100, — upon the condition that 3'ou 
 raise by tax on your property an equal sum towards 
 paying your teacher: and that you provide a school- 
 house and defray all other contingent charges by volun- 
 tary contribution. It is not known that a single district 
 has forfeited its right to participate in the public bounty 
 by a failure to comply with the conditions prescribed. 
 
 The peculiar features and pre-eminent advantages 
 of the New York system are so well understood and 
 so universally acknowledged, that I deem it unnecessary 
 to enter into further details. These have been presented 
 to the public, from time to time, in nearly all our peri- 
 odical journals and newspapers; and of course, must be 
 familiar to my hearers. 
 
 " Schwartz, one of the most eminent writers on educa- 
 tion in Germany, observes, in his History of Education, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 427 
 
 that the St.ate of New York has the greatest number of 
 children in its schools in proportion to the whole popu- 
 lation, of any country he has found." Whether, in this 
 respect or in any other, New York excels Massachusetts, 
 I have not the means of accurately determining. 
 
 But supposing a school-fund to be provided or con- 
 templated, there can be no question about the decided 
 superiority of the New York system of disbursement 
 over every other which has been subjected to the test 
 of experience in any part of our country. If Tennes- 
 see therefore were already in possession of such a fund, 
 or should she ever be so fortunate as to procure one, 
 either from her own resources or from the public lands 
 of the national government, she will not hesitate, it is 
 presumed, to follow the salutary and successful example 
 of New York. 
 
 Still, rehus extantihus, what is to be done? We will 
 not tax ourselves: and a school-fund we have not. It 
 would require the saving of years to accumulate one 
 sufficiently large to be of any avail, even for distribu- 
 tion upon the New York plan, in the shape of rewards 
 and premiums to self-taxation. In the mean time, seve- 
 ral hundred thousands of our children may grow up 
 in ignorance. Until a new generation shall arise so 
 utterly ignorant and barbarous as to despise learning, 
 and be ready to vote all schools a nuisance, and the 
 growing school-fund good prize money to be shared 
 among themselves or their loving representatives. 
 
 Must we then wait: or must we despair? Neither 
 the one nor the other. I doubt the utility — (always 
 
428 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 excepting the New York system) certainly the neces- 
 sity of any school-fund whatever. Common educar 
 
 tion, as we have seen, was on a better footing in Connec- 
 ticut fifty or a hundred years ago than at this moment. 
 In the Southern States, every project of the kind has 
 failed. Mr. Jefferson declared in 1822, that the plan of 
 primary schools in Virginia had proved completely abor- 
 tive, and must be shortly abandoned : " after costing us 
 (he adds) to this day [1822] one hundred and eighty 
 thousand dollars, and yet to cost us forty-five thousand 
 dollars a year more until it shall be discontinued : and 
 if a single boy has received the elements of common 
 education, it must be in some part of the country not 
 known to me. Experience has but too fully confirmed 
 the early predictions of its fiite." 
 
 New York has been fortunate in accumulating an 
 ample fund wherewith to incite the people to help 
 themselves. Her policy in regard to common schools, 
 academies, colleges, and other scientific and professional 
 institutions — in regard to roads, canals, penitentiaries, 
 and houses of refuge for juvenile delinquents — is worthy 
 of all praise and of general imitation. In all these re- 
 spects, she has gone far ahead of most of her sister re- 
 publics. 
 
 But the question recurs : What can ive do ? I answer : 
 Present a motive sufficiently strong to induce the people 
 to educate themselves, or their children, by their own 
 industry. I mean not now to designate the precise 
 motive which ought to be thus addressed to the people. 
 I will merely suggest two or three as illustrative of the 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 429 
 
 general principle — which may however be practically 
 applied in a great variety of ways. It is evident that 
 some individuals, both rich and poor, do educate their 
 children, without any aid or impulse from the govern- 
 ment. They, of course, have a motive of some kind 
 Avhich urges them to this duty. Well-educated parents, 
 for example, be their circumstances what they may, 
 seldom fail to educate their children. They can appre- 
 ciate the value and importance of an education: and 
 with them, this is a sufficient motive. This is, in fact, 
 the operating principle and mainspring of the excellent 
 Massachusetts system. Were all our people thus en- 
 lightened, no other motive would be wanting to insure 
 the universal education of their children. But until 
 this shall be our happy lot, some motive must be sought 
 which will come home to the interests and feelings and 
 ambition of the great mass even of an illiterate commu- 
 nity. Such a motive is money. New York has saga- 
 ciously addressed this motive to her population; and 
 her object is achieved. She hires her citizens, or tempts 
 them by a trifling gratuity, to do for their children what 
 they could just as easily accomplish without it. For one 
 dollar in ten is too paltry a sum to be thought of as re- 
 lief or assistance. Whether this is the hest motive that 
 could have been proposed, is of no consequence to in- 
 quire. As we, however, cannot at present hold out this 
 golden motive, it is worth while to ascertain whether 
 some other will not answer quite as well. 
 
 In Austria — for even there the schoolmaster is abroad, 
 and his magic influence will ere long be acknowledged 
 
430 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 by the proudest despotism in Europe — no person is 
 allowed to marry who cannot read, write, and cipher. 
 Suppose we had such a law in Tennessee. In less than 
 a year, every marriageable bachelor and maiden in the 
 State would be able to read and write, at least. And 
 all the children in the country, of twelve years old 
 and upwards, would be striving to acquire the requisite 
 qualifications for matrimony — for every boy and girl 
 means to be married. Thus then, without the expendi- 
 ture of a cent of public money, or the imposition of any 
 tax whatever, or the delay of another year, we might 
 behold the entire rising generation stimulated to ex- 
 ertion and enterprise, which would insure them all 
 the advantages of a common school education — be 
 the amount of it whatever the Legislature should be 
 pleased to enjoin. How the people could command 
 the means and facilities for self-instruction, will be 
 explained hereafter. My object now is to submit mo- 
 tives to induce the desire and the effort. That the one 
 just named would prove effectual, I have no doubt. 
 And that it would promote the grand cause of matri- 
 mony itself, (a consideration by no means to be disre- 
 garded in a new country,) may be assumed; since 
 this would be viewed as the ultimate aim and reward 
 of every lad and spinster in seeking an education. Nor 
 would the end ever be lost sight of till it should be se- 
 cured. The Avhole race of old bachelors would sj^eedily 
 evanish from our smiling and happy land : and our fiiir 
 daughters would no longer be doomed to the pains 
 and penalties of "single blessedness." Every American 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 431 
 
 statesman ought, in spite of Maltlius and the Pope, to be 
 the champion of matrimony — while a quarter section of 
 our virgin soil remains uncultivated. Education and 
 matrimony would thus go hand in hand: they would 
 mutually act and re-act upon each other: and all the 
 benefits that mlijld result from so wise and opportune 
 a measure, Avould doubtless far transcend the calcula- 
 tions of the most sanguine utilitarian dogmatists of 
 either hemisphere. On this subject, '-the American 
 figure of Anticipation," as the English critics invidi- 
 ously style it, might have free scope, without danger 
 of running into hyperbole. 
 
 To this sage scheme, I see no very cogent objection; 
 provided it be within the constitutional limits of legisla- 
 tion. If not, the remedy is with the people. They, 
 like the British Parliament, are omnipotent. They can 
 create or demolish, alter or amend, constitutions at 
 pleasure. They can mend a bad, as well as spoil a good 
 one. And if they do not elect to foster popular educa- 
 tion in this Austrian fashion, they may authorize some 
 other mode of reaching the same end. 
 
 For example — and I am merely giving examples or 
 specimens of what is practicable ; leaving, as becomes a 
 loyal subject, the final choice to the wisdom of the com- 
 mon sovereign : — let it be ordained by law or by the next 
 amended Constitution, that, after a certain specified day, 
 no man shall be eligible to ofiice or have the privilege 
 of voting at elections, who cannot read and write. 
 This, too, would be a sufficient motive. And, in a few 
 years, scarcely a man of twenty-one years old and up- 
 
432 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 wards, could be found in the State incajDable of reading 
 and writing. Such a rule would be no hardship. Qua- 
 lifications for office and for the elective franchise, of 
 some kind, are universally required by law. Thus, a 
 certain age has always been prescribed as a qualification. 
 This is purely arbitrary — as many an individual could 
 vote with more discretion at the age of fifteen, than 
 others at the age of thirty. And yet it is necessary 
 that there should be a known invariable rule on the 
 subject. Property qualifications are always invidious, 
 unequal, and utterly inapplicable as a test of judgment, 
 honesty, or patriotism. But the ability to read and 
 write, is a qualification directly to the point. It is in- 
 dispensable to the attainment of any correct information 
 in regard to our government. Constitution, jurisprudence, 
 public measures, and public men. Without it, voters are 
 but mere machines, to be impelled by extraneous force — 
 by the arts, intrigue, flattery and misrepresentations of 
 demagogues. They are, in general, no better qualified 
 to give their sufirages at an election than so many in- 
 fants. I say, in general, because there have been shrewd 
 well-informed men who could not even read. Some such 
 there doubtless are now, and ever will be. They are 
 exceptions however to a great law of civilized human 
 nature. 
 
 It is absurd to talk of their rights to a people who 
 cannot comprehend them. Savages and slaves are 
 always ignorant : for none but grossly ignorant men 
 will remain in the savage state or submit to slavery. 
 And ignorant men are of necessity slaves iii the worst 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 433 
 
 sense. They are the dupes and passive instruments of 
 the more crafty and knowing. 
 
 All this may seem harsh and anti-republican. It is 
 nevertheless the doctrine of our Franklins and Washing- 
 tons and Jeflfersons and Jays and Marshalls, and of 
 every honest enlightened republican in the world. They 
 all declare that there can be no civil liberty — no reli- 
 gious liberty — no approach to self-government — except 
 where the people are thoroughly instructed : so as to be 
 capable of judging correctly and independently of public 
 men and of political measures. They all j^oint to popular 
 ignorance as the chief, indeed the only, source of their 
 apprehension and despondency in regard to the stability 
 of our admirable institutions, and the future destinies of 
 this glorious Republic. Examine their solemn, deliberate, 
 recorded opinions — their last legacies of patriotic affec- 
 tion — full of counsel and warning upon this very subject 
 — exhorting and entreating their countrymen, as they 
 value liberty, and w^ould transmit it unimpaired to pos- 
 terity, to seek after knowledge above all things, and to 
 diffuse its celestial light over every dark corner of the 
 land. Listen to the voice of the living veteran, who has 
 survived the wars and struggles and perils to wdiich his 
 country has been exposed since the morning of her inde- 
 pendence, and 3'ou hear the same counsel and the same 
 warning. 
 
 Desperate diseases demand desperate remedies. But. 
 in this case, there is nothing harsh or desperate. It is 
 proposed to elevate all our citizens to the rank of free- 
 
434 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 men. — To induce them, for their own good, to qualify 
 themselves to be in fact, what they claun to be in name, 
 To emancipate their minds from the thraldom of ig- 
 norance, and to render them fit to share the sovereignty 
 of the people with the people. Will they demur at such 
 a measure? What wise father, if he foresaw that he 
 should leave his children penniless, friendless, and desti- 
 tute of instruction, would not rejoice on his death-bed in 
 the assurance that his country had furnished a motive to 
 the acquisition of knowledge, which could not fail to in- 
 sure its ultimate attainment? Why should stature, or 
 age, or colour, entitle the human animal to privileges or 
 functions which he can neither appreciate nor fulfil? 
 Would the condition of a child be improved, or his hap- 
 piness be promoted, by freeing him from parental control 
 and permitting him to exercise all the rights of a citi- 
 zen? Is the untaught white man any better, any wiser, 
 any more noble or trustworthy, than the untaught Afri- 
 can or Indian? Wherever important rights are vested 
 or responsible trust confided, iliere ought to be found 
 correspondent qualifications — adequate intelligence, in- 
 tegrity, and judgment. 
 
 Do I expect then, that Tennessee will ever sanction 
 the principle, that the elective franchise should be asso- 
 ciated with intellectual cultivation, or be exercised by 
 those only who have been, or wdio shall be, educated to 
 a certain specified extent? Assuredly not. I cherish 
 no such visionary fancy. I believe it, indeed, the very 
 best measure that can be suggested in order to secure 
 tlie great object of universal education — and therefore I 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 435 
 
 despair of its adoption. The people will be told that it 
 is anti-republican. And yet, by the new Constitution of 
 Republican Colombia it is ordained that, after 1840, no 
 person shall enjoy the rights of citizenship who is un- 
 able to read and write. But, if the example of our 
 younger sister be deemed unworthy of notice ; or if we 
 disdain to imitate where we imagine our superior age 
 entitles us to take the lead; or if her doctrine be con- 
 demned as heretical; I have, a home precedent to cite, 
 directly relevant to the question. 
 
 By our own State Constitution — both old and new — 
 clergymen are ineligible to office : or in other words, they 
 are virtually disfranchised. I suppose, because the}- are 
 regarded as either too ignorant and opinionated, or too 
 wily and slippery, to be trusted : that is, because they are 
 knaves or blockheads. This is, no doubt, a most salu- 
 tary, judicious, and strictly republican provision. And 
 I laud the framers of the said constitution for their saga- 
 city and independence. They might however, it appears 
 to me, have ventured somewhat further, and extended 
 their excluding or disqualifying clause to all other 
 knaves and blockheads : and. if it had so pleased them, 
 to all who thenceforward should be unable to read and 
 write. There is nothing therefore in the principle 
 which can be pronounced by the sovereign people ob- 
 jectionable; since they have already sanctioned it to a 
 much greater extent than is now proposed : in reference, 
 namely, to one entire class and profession of the com- 
 munit}-. 
 
 And here I take leave to recommend that, in our next 
 
436 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 reformed Constitution, the article excluding from office 
 be made to comprehend all persons except farmers. So 
 that none but actual farmers shall be eligible to office. 
 This would be perfectly equitable, because the farmers 
 constitute the great body of the people, and therefore 
 ought to govern. It Avould prove singularly beneficial to 
 the Commonwealth, inasmuch as it would keep in their 
 proper places, all pragmatical, self-sufficient, beardless, 
 pettifogging lawyers — all impudent, blustering, cure- 
 aU.. high-pressure-steaming, quack-doctors— all meddling, 
 graceless, noisy, dogmatical, bigoted, ambitious parsons — 
 and all idle, dapper, brainless exquisites and loungers of 
 every name and degree, who have neither purse, charac- 
 ter nor occupation. While it would hold out the great- 
 est possible encouragement to agriculture, and the 
 strongest incentives to a generous ambition among all 
 classes and professions. Thus, the lawyer, the physician, 
 the schoolmaster, the merchant, the mechanic, and even 
 the newspaper editor, who should aspire to political dis- 
 tinction, would of course strive to acquire by honest 
 industry, the means of purchasing a farm and retiring 
 seasonably from professional pursuits and engagements. 
 Thus the business of farming would be honoured, as it 
 ought to be. And the public would ever have before 
 them experienced, intelligent, upright, independent and 
 responsible candidates for every office. This, too, would 
 excite a spirit of laudable emulation among the young 
 men brought up as farmers. They would be eager to 
 enter the lists with the accomplished lawyers and all 
 others, expected presently to settle as farmers in their 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 437 
 
 vicinity, and to canvass among them for the honours of 
 the Republic. 
 
 The onl}" exception to be provided for, would be large 
 towns and cities — where agriculture cannot be the occu- 
 l^ation of any portion of the people — and where offices 
 must be filled, and representatives be elected, without 
 any connexion with the adjacent country. 
 
 As a political economist — for I disclaim all desire and 
 intention of intermeddling with personal or party or 
 local politics — I might, in this connexion, add a remark 
 or two upon the expediency of taxing landed property 
 upon any plan or principle whatever. In a State, like 
 ours, where land is the most abundant article in the 
 market^ — where it is a mere drug — where millions of 
 acres are still unappropriated or unsubdued — it would 
 seem good policy, by all equitable and judicious means, 
 to encourage the ownership and cultivation of the soil to 
 the greatest possible extent. If so, then land ought to 
 be exempt from all onerous and discouraging impositions. 
 
 1. Because it is the common parent of the whole 
 people — the source and fountain of their necessary sub- 
 sistence — the sole efficient basis and nursery of all other 
 pursuits and avocations, and of the well-being and pros- 
 perity of the entire population, whether considered 
 collectively or individually. 
 
 2. Because capital vested in land is usually far less 
 productive than almost any other species of investment. 
 Farmers generally throughout the State cannot, with the 
 same pecuniary outlay and with the most unwearied in- 
 dustry and rigid frugality, reap as large profits as the 
 
438 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 merchant, mechanic, or manufacturer. For years to 
 come, even under the most auspicious circumstances, 
 much of their hand also must remain utterly unpro- 
 ductive — an idle or dead capital upon their hands. 
 
 3. Because, in order to secure a permanent, useful, 
 thrifty, contented, attached body of citizens, they ought 
 to be induced to own visible, tangible, innnovable pro- 
 perty. Land is such a property. And land-holders or 
 farmers are universally regarded as the bone and sinew 
 and main reliance of a free State. Land therefore ought 
 to be precisely the kind of property which every man 
 should most covet and most earnestly labour to possess. 
 This will never be the case where land is more heavily 
 taxed in proportion to its net yield or profit than other 
 modes of employing capital. Every shrewd, calculating, 
 enterprising capitalist will contrive to own as little osten- 
 sible taxable property as possible. He will devise a 
 thousand ways to keep it out of sight and yet most 
 gainfully employed. He will send it abroad — to the 
 North or to the South — wherever he can find a lucrative 
 market or an object of speculation: — or he will exact 
 usurious interest from his less fortunate or less wary 
 fellow citizens. 
 
 4. Because we are surrounded by half a score of 
 young Republics, where land may be had almost without 
 price — and where it may be improved without dread of 
 sheriff or tax gatherer. Emigrants will not come hither, 
 if they can do better elsewhere. Our own farmers will 
 run away to Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, or Oregon, 
 when they shall feel the pressure of an unequal system 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 439 
 
 of taxation, and find tlieir pockets growing empty in 
 spite of their honest efforts to fill them. 
 
 5. Because, with a territory of 40,000 square miles 
 just emerging from its primitive forest state, the most 
 ample facilities and urgent motives for its rapid meliora- 
 tion and solid improvement should be held out to the 
 people. 
 
 What is it that enriches, adorns and beautifies any 
 country? and renders it lovely and delightful to the eye, 
 and desirable to live in ? Is it not well cultivated fields 
 and gardens and meadows — substantial farm-houses, 
 mills, factories, barns, granaries, fences, hedges, orchards, 
 vineyards, flocks and herds — good roads, turnpikes, rail- 
 ways, canals, bridges, and every possible facility for safe 
 and speedy travelling and transportation — with a due 
 sprinkling of flourishing hamlets, villages, towns and 
 cities; abounding with well-built-churches, school-houses, 
 colleges, markets, and other public edifices? And what 
 should we deem of a system destined or purposely de- 
 vised to discountenance and to prevent all such improve- 
 ments ? Tax them — or tax the land in a ratio commen- 
 surate with all such useful and ornamental fixtures — and 
 the system is adopted by yourselves. Tax land agreeably 
 to its augmented value under the creative hand and 
 skilful management of the most deserving portion of the 
 people : and 3'ou paralyse the arm of domestic industry. 
 The farmer will hold on to his log cabin and worm fences 
 and horse-mill; and never dream of erecting a comfort- 
 able mansion of brick or stone, or durable structures of 
 any sort, which would add thousands to the value of his 
 
440 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 estate and to the general wealth of the community — 
 because, for these additional unproductive thousands, he 
 must be taxed ! And taxed as highly as if the said 
 thousands were yielding a revenue of ten per cent in the 
 shape of Bank stock, or of twenty or fifty per cent in the 
 capacity of sliaving loans — which last, by the way, would 
 escape taxation altogether, as they have heretofore done, 
 in spite of legislative ingenuity and legal terrors. I need 
 not ask, what would be the blighted, cheerless, poverty- 
 stricken aspect of our hitherto prosperous Common- 
 wealth under the operation of a system thus partial and 
 ill-devised. It requires not the gift of prophecy to 
 predict its inevitable doom. 
 
 The policy can never be safe or sound, which tempts 
 to concealment or evasion or subterfuge or trickery or 
 falsehood or dishonesty. No man ought to be deterred 
 from any useful pursuit or vocation, nor be afraid or 
 ashamed to acknowledge and to enjoy his possessions 
 openly before the world. No vexatious domiciliary in- 
 trusions or visitations by the legal assessor or collector 
 ought to be dreaded by any freeman. Nor ought laws 
 ever to be enacted which shall have the slightest ten- 
 dency to place him in such an awkward predica- 
 ment. 
 
 Again, if land must be taxed, it should be taxed 
 according to its actual yearly product — and not ac- 
 cording to its gross valuation, arbitrarily determined, 
 whether productive or unproductive. Or the land might 
 be distributed into classes (as first, second, third rate, 
 &c.) according to the quality of the soil ; and the tax be 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 441 
 
 apportioned aggreeably to such a fixed and well under- 
 stood system of classification. The last would proba- 
 bly be found the least objectionable mode. 
 
 G. But in the sixth place: In such a Commonwealth 
 as this — encompassed as w^e are by an illimitable wilder- 
 ness of fertile soil — land, farmers' land, I mean, (for I 
 say nothing of town lots,) ought not to be taxed at all. 
 Let the land go free — free as the water of our springs 
 and rivers — free as the pure atmosphere of heaven — and 
 then all our people will aspire to a landed competency 
 and independence. We shall be a community of intelli- 
 gent and happy ftirmers. The poorest mechanic and day 
 labourer will instantly realize the benefits of such an 
 exemption — as they would be the first to experience the 
 evils of a contrary policy. Land cannot be taxed, with- 
 out taxing every individual and every occupation and 
 every commodity in the State. The very milk and 
 bread and meat which the poor man eats, will be taxed ; 
 because they are the product of a taxed soil. He must 
 either labour for less, or pay more for each and all the 
 necessaries of life. 
 
 Should we expunge or alter one short section of our 
 new or amended constitution, and then boldly resolve, 
 that, henceforth, the lair lands of Tennessee shall be 
 free from taxation — free forever, or for a definite period, 
 sufficiently long for a satisfactory experiment — say for 
 fifty or one hundred years — the great body of my fellow 
 citizens might live to see this become one of the most 
 flourishing, if not absolutely the most flourishing Com- 
 monwealth upon the globe. 
 
442 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 7. Taxation is always an evil, unci should therefore 
 be rendered as light as possible. Men should be taxed, 
 not according to the gross value of their property, nor 
 according to their annual income or net profits — nor 
 according to what they own or produce or lay up as 
 clear gain — but according to their actual consumption 
 or expenditure. Tax not what they earn, but what 
 they spend. This is the only fair and uniformly equi- 
 table principle of taxation. Tax consumption (always 
 excepting the necessaries of life) and you allow the 
 people an option whether to pay or not, and also, to 
 what amount. This is the sj^stem adopted by the 
 General Government. Certain imported articles are 
 taxed: but no man is compelled to eat, drink, wear, 
 use or possess any foreign commodity whatever. He 
 can produce or procure all the mere necessaries of sub- 
 sistence at home, or of home production. He may pur- 
 chase the taxed or dutiable foreign goods or forbear 
 at pleasure. He uses little or much, as he chooses; and 
 pays according to the quantity or value actually con 
 sumed. Now although this precise mode of taxation 
 cannot be resorted to by any particular State, yet 
 the principle of taxing consumption may be made the 
 basis of any revenue code, and be applied in a difierent 
 fashion. 
 
 Objection 1. All this will be met with the triumphant 
 assertion, that, the entire State tax will be so very small 
 that none can feel it. I answer, that, it is the principle, 
 not the amount of the present burden, which deserves 
 attention and should awaken solicitude. Our fathers 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 443 
 
 fought seven long years for a 2)rinciple, and not for 
 the paltry tax of three pence upon the pound of 
 tea. 
 
 Objection 2. But the new Constitution has settled the 
 whole aflf^iir, and the land must be taxed ad valorem. 
 I answer, let the article upon taxation be repealed or 
 amended by tlie people, agreeably to the mode pre- 
 scribed by the Constitution : and the sooner the better. 
 
 That the farmers of Tennessee should have consented 
 to the introduction into the fjreat charter of their rights, 
 an article requiring the perpetual infliction upon them- 
 selves of the most annoying and oppressive species of 
 taxation ever yet devised hj impolicy or injustice, is 
 passing strange. They have sanctioned an instrument, 
 and delegated a power, which can scarcely be so con- 
 strued or exerted as not to prove detrimental, and which 
 maij be used with tremendous effect. Assuredly, our 
 farmers have not 3-et studied their own interests, or 
 learned how to govern themselves in the cheapest mode. 
 After all, the pecuniary burden is a trifle, compared 
 with the moral evils which the novel experiment seems 
 likely to occasion. These have been hinted at already : 
 and if a tithe of them shall be realized, then, farewell 
 to our character as well as to our prosperity. 
 
 Now, in all these remarks and suggestions, I profess to 
 aim directly at the welfare of the poor. I believe myself 
 to be their honest friend, and the uncompromising advo- 
 cate of every measure truly designed to better their con- 
 dition. I am equally sure that the interests of both 
 rich and poor are perfectly identical, under any code 
 
444 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 of free and equal laws, impartially administered. -The 
 chief object contemplated, and supposed to have been 
 effectually asserted by our revolutionary sages, was pre- 
 cisely to secure to every man the fruits of his own in- 
 dustry, talents and enterprise. In other words, to 
 enable the poor to become independent and wealthy. 
 Were our people wisely governed, faithfully instruc- 
 ted, and duly trained to habits of virtue, industry and 
 economy, there would be no abject or hopeless poor 
 in all the land. To bring about such a grand moral 
 revolution, is or ought to be the principal business of the 
 Legislature. When this object shall be attained, the 
 governing and law-making powers will have very little 
 to do. Their work will have been accomplished : and 
 they may thenceforth rest from their labours. 
 
 But, to return from a "rather long and perhaps not 
 very pertinent digression. 
 
 The people must be taught and induced to help them- 
 selves. This is the only eftectual remedy for ignorance, 
 poverty, and all sorts of misery. To relieve a beggar 
 for the moment is a trifle. But to put him in the way 
 to earn an honest and competent livelihood for the rest 
 of his life, is commendable and substantial charity. 
 I have shown that it is possible for a wise and pater- 
 nal Legislature, when duly authorized, if not already 
 authorized by the Constitution, to jiut into practical 
 operation a system of common school education, by 
 simply rendering such an education essential to the 
 possession or exercise of certain civil functions and 
 franchises. As I intimated, nothing more w\as in- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 445 
 
 tended than to illnstrate the principle of stimulating the 
 people to self-exertion by some commanding and para- 
 mount motive. What that motive ought to be, I leave 
 others to determine. 
 
 The people need be no longer dazzled or blinded 
 by the splendor of a magnificent school-fund — which 
 they will never live to see — however much they may 
 hear of it from those, who, for their suffrages, are ready 
 enough to make golden promises, and to excite extrava- 
 gant expectations, while they care not a rush for them 
 or their children. I have no great confidence in the 
 legislative management of large funds of any descrip- 
 tion or for any purpose. Past experience, in nearly 
 all the States, affords ample ground for this general 
 distrust. And the history of Tennessee legislation has 
 no tendency to diminish it. The College and Academy 
 fund of this State — originally the gift of Congress — 
 might have proved, under other auspices, adequate to 
 the noble purposes for which it was designed. I will 
 not ask how or wherefore that fund has been scattered 
 to the winds and nearly annihilated. But I do not 
 hesitate to say, that it has proved a curse rather than 
 a blessing to this Commonwealth. 
 
 In the first place, the people relied with implicit con- 
 fidence on the sufficiency of this large fund for the estab- 
 lishment and support of colleges and academies : and 
 therefore never felt the obligation of attempting any 
 thing in behalf of those institutions, either through the 
 instrumentality of the State treasury, or by individual 
 munificence and voluntarv contributions. The conse- 
 
446 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 quence is, that, to this day, ahnost nothing has been 
 achieved. 
 
 In the second phice, this same fund has been, from 
 the first, a bone of contention, on all possible occasions 
 and in every variety of form. And when the contro- 
 versies and enmities which it has excited and fomented, 
 will be allayed or extinguished, it is impossible to pre- 
 dict. Better had it been — infinitely better for the inte- 
 rests of science — if no such benefaction had ever been 
 bestowed or accepted. But let us forgive and forget the 
 past — while we submit to be taught a seasonable and 
 useful lesson from experience. 
 
 We should not hlindly follow even the good example 
 of other States. Had we, at this moment, a school-fund 
 as ample as that of New York, and were we to copy her 
 entire school code verbatim, I have not the most distant 
 idea that the practical operation and effects of the 
 system here would be equally salutary or at all similar. 
 Everything depends on the judicious and efficient ad- 
 ministration of the system — on the skill, fidelity, wis- 
 dom, zeal, perseverance, and strict accountability of all 
 the agents employed — and very much, I may add, on 
 certain moral, local and conventional peculiarities, to 
 which we are, and ever must be strangers. The scat- 
 tered population of the South and South- West — even 
 other things being equal — will never admit of a school 
 arrangement similar to that which obtains in the East- 
 ern villages. Mr. Jefferson distinctly perceived and 
 pointed out this difficult}^ in Virginia. And Louisi- 
 ana, after expending many thousands upon the experi- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 447 
 
 ineiit, has since made the same discovery. I am aware 
 that the sparseness of a planting popukition presents a 
 difficulty formidable to every plan of public schools, 
 designed for all classes of the people — a difficulty which 
 must be fairly met by the advocates of any system what- 
 ever. 
 
 I w^ould not have it inferred, however, from these 
 remarks, that I object to any feasible project for the 
 immediate or eventual accumulation of a school-fund. 
 But the grand heresy on the subject, which infects the 
 brain of not a few of our popular sages, is this eternal 
 projecting of some splendid visionary scheme for pos- 
 terity — while the existing thousands are Jieglected. 
 The people are continually directed to the future — 
 to their children's children — to the third and fourth 
 generations — wdien all ignorance is to be suddenly 
 dispelled — when the long wished for millennium is to 
 dawn — and universal intelligence, order, virtue, peace 
 and prosperity to prevail! This dilatory, procrasti- 
 nating, delusive policy in regard to popular educa- 
 tion, appears to be signally characteristic of no small 
 number of these States — whatever may be said of our 
 own. 
 
 The best preventive of future evils, is the speedy 
 eradication of existing evils. If we would render suc- 
 ceeding generations intelligent, virtuous and happ}-, we 
 must commence with the present. Delays are ahvays 
 dangerous; and on no subject more so, than in regard to 
 the suitable discipline and training of our children. 
 Is there a reflecting parent among us who will be satis- 
 
448 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 fied with the mere indefinite promise or prospect that 
 provision may be made hereafter for the education of his 
 remote posteritj', while his sons and daughters are grow- 
 ing up around him hke the wild natives of the forest? 
 
 My creed on the subject may be propounded in few 
 words: Instruct the present generation; and the whole 
 work is achieved at once, efiectually, and forever. When 
 the impulse is fairW given to the intellectual mass, the 
 march of improvement will be progressive: and no 
 ordinary obstacles will ever arrest it. There will 
 then be no lack of adequate motive to exertion and 
 enterprise in this behalf Each enlightened and culti- 
 vated generation will take good care of the succeeding. 
 And thus will the light of knowledge be transmitted 
 from father to son, without interruption, to the end of 
 time — or, at least, until, by some terrible convulsion, 
 our whole political aud social fabric shall be buried 
 in the ruins of expiring liberty and civilization. 
 
 Will it be pretended that the wealth of the State is 
 not sufficient to educate the children of the State ? Were 
 a law enacted to-morrow, no matter upon what ostensible 
 plea, requiring, under adequate penalties, every parent to 
 teach, or cause to be taught, his children to read and 
 write: would it be objected that many of the people 
 are too poor, b}' any efforts or sacrifices, to do this? I 
 answer fearlessly, the fact is not so. There exists not 
 in Tennessee, (nor in this Union,) a poor man, healthy, 
 industrious, sober and economical, who could not do it 
 with perfect ease. And if such a law should tend to 
 make poor men temperate, industrious and frugal : would 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOUKSES. 449 
 
 not this be a great blessing to themselves, to their fami- 
 lies, and to the public? How much of time and money 
 does every poor man squander annually in modes and 
 upon objects which are needless or injurious? I might 
 read a lecture upon this subject to our thriftless poor, 
 from the pages of Frankhn, Adam Smith, Say and 
 Jefferson, which, if it should be listened to, could 
 hardly fail to convince them, that self-denial, perse- 
 vering indus-try and rigid economy would soon render 
 them as completely independent, and as capable of duly 
 instructing their children, as the wealthiest nabobs of 
 the land. But such a lecture, though enforced by the 
 grave authority of all the political and domestic econo- 
 mists from Solomon inclusive to the present day, would 
 probably be no more regarded than an orthodox sermon 
 against fashionable amusements. Ay, the fashion! — 
 This is the tyrant that grinds the poor and befools the 
 rich. Our people pay, as I have said once before, half a 
 million of dollars every year to support a useless, oppres- 
 sive and absurd militia system — because it is the fashion I 
 They pay another half million to be well governed ; and 
 to be duly entitled, through the agency of their obliging 
 attorneys, to the contingencies and tender mercies of 
 their most wise and equitable laws. They cheerfull\- 
 pay two millions annually to the whisky cause. They 
 participate in all the excesses of the race-course, (the 
 worst species of gambling, by the way, ever yet con- 
 trived by human depravity,) and a thousand other ex- 
 travagant follies. They build prisons and penitentiaries 
 for the comfortable accommodation of petty rogues, who 
 VOL. I. -^ 
 
450 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 have not wit or money enough to escape clete-ction 
 or conviction; while your dashing swindlers and gen- 
 tlemanly assassins walk at large, and laugh to scorn 
 your whole array of legal terrors and penalties. All 
 this and more they endure and pay for — because it is 
 the fashion. And yet, forsooth, they cannot teach 
 their children to read and write ! 
 
 Suppose now, in order to insure the immediate instruc- 
 tion of all the children in Tennessee, it be assumed that 
 a system of common schools similar to that of New 
 York or Massachusetts is indispensable : is it practicable, 
 without a fund, to put so expensive a machinery into 
 operation forthwith? Undoubtedly it is; so far as the 
 mere matter of expense is in question. It is just as 
 easy, for example, to build schoolhouses and acadamies 
 as it is to build jails and courthouses. And when the 
 former shall be erected, they will probably be less bur- 
 densome than the latter in the keeping. In Maine — 
 and the common school system is said to be nowhere 
 mxore flourishing and effective — the average annual cost 
 to every inhabitant for its maintenance, is, as we have 
 seen, only forty cents. If the same system would 
 answer equally well here, and if it could be sustained at 
 the same rate: would it be impossible — would it be 
 grievously burdensome — to demand forty cents a year 
 from every white or free individual in the State, for this 
 confessedly most urgent and most important object? Or 
 would it be impracticable to levy the amount equitably 
 upon the i^roducth-e property of the Commonwealth? 
 I put all this hypothetically — and I really think that a 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 451 
 
 deficiency of pecuniary resources cannot be even spe- 
 ciously pleaded in bar of any such scheme. Whether, 
 on other accounts, it be expedient or pohtic, to tax indus- 
 try in support of idleness, or to tax virtue in favour of 
 profligacy — is quite a different affair. Whether the rich 
 — that is, whether those who have acquired wealth by 
 honest labour and skilful management — should be taxed 
 in order to educate the children of the poor, that is, of 
 the indolent or the abandoned, any more than they 
 should be taxed to feed and clothe them — is well worthy 
 of grave consideration. 
 
 But again : If the people will do nothing for them- 
 selves, nor submit to any species of taxation ; and if the 
 State treasury admit of an immediate appropriation of 
 ten, twenty, thirty, or forty thousand dollars to this object 
 — would it not be expedient for the Legislature so to dis- 
 pose of this sum as to secure the thorough instruction 
 of a definite portion of the people's children, rather than 
 to fritter it away in unavailing gratuities to every section 
 of the State at once? Why not provide effectually for 
 one, two, or more counties at a time, according to the 
 means at command? I am perfectly aware of the objec- 
 tion to any such measure. It would be denounced as 
 partial and unjust. The simple reply is, that it is 
 better to do a little well, than to attempt a great deal 
 and accomplish nothing. But how, or upon what prin- 
 ciple, shall the selection be made? Shall Wilson or 
 Bedford be favoured, while Davidson and Rutherford are 
 neglected? If no satisfactory rule could be established.: 
 — let the choice be determined by lot. I am a friend to 
 
452 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 equal rights, and to an equal distribution of a common 
 fund. But here the question would be, whether a given 
 sum of money should be expended for a valuable pur- 
 pose, or be thrown away. In the latter case, no mortal 
 could be benefited — in the former some might. And a 
 lottery would silence even the most invidious and un- 
 reasonable objector. This is but another hypothesis. 
 Constitutional objections may be obviated, as in other 
 cases, by amendment. 
 
 Instead however of the latter mode, superior as it 
 certainly is to the one generally prevalent, (to that, 
 namely, of doling out a small fund, by the dollar, over 
 a wide surface upon which it could produce no sensible 
 effect,) I would recommend a different course altogether. 
 I would appropriate such a fund exclusively either to 
 the erection of one great central school or university for 
 the gratuitous instruction of whatever youth might 
 choose to attend it; or to the education of a certain 
 number of schoolmasters in some well-conducted existing 
 seminary. The best and speediest mode of enlightening 
 a community, is to provide accomplished teachers for the 
 children and youth of such a community. One brilliant 
 blazing sun in the firmament, will shed around and be- 
 neath infinitely more light and heat than a thousand 
 twinkling stars. Plant a noble university in our midst: 
 and from its portals will issue streams of cheering light 
 upon every dark corner of the land. Whereas, if you 
 are content to get up a few scores of old-field schools, 
 that is, of mere farthing candles or feeble rush-lights at 
 various distant points in the wilderness, you will but 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 453 
 
 render the darkness more visible and repulsive. No 
 country was ever enlightened or elevated by such a 
 process. Show us a thoroughly intelligent population 
 anywhere upon earth — and you shall trace that intelli- 
 gence to the higher and the highest seats of learning — 
 and never to the inferior or lowest. Where are to be 
 found the best common schools in Europe and America? 
 Precisely where the college and university are most 
 honoured and cherished. I defy the most captious to 
 furnish a solitary exception. Light flows only from the 
 Sun. The moon and stars do but reflect and diffuse the 
 lustre derived from this original fountain. The Univer- 
 sity has created, and still nourishes and upholds, all the 
 common schools in the world. Demolish the university 
 — and you not only blot out the sun of science forever, 
 but you extinguish all the humbler and dependent lumina- 
 ries. Establish a University in New Holland or Caffra- 
 ria, and give it full scope and fair play; and the common 
 school shall grow up spontaneously around it. I speak 
 the words of truth and soberness — because I speak the 
 language and proclaim the results of experience. 
 
 The universities of Chaldea, Assyria, Phoenicia, Egypt, 
 Greece, Rome, were the fountains whence all the rivulets 
 of knowledge flowed among the people. Adam (or his 
 wife) was the first teacher of an elementary or infont or 
 common school. He was also the first founder, as he 
 was the first President, of a great and opulent and most 
 learned university. And he had been educated and 
 qualified for his high destinies in the University of 
 Heaven. 
 
454 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 Let Tennessee enable the University of Nashville to 
 train up a hundred young men annually for the sole 
 business of school-keeping, if she please — either by a 
 generous endowment at once, or by an annual appropria- 
 tion for the purpose. Or let the Legislature resolve to 
 educate, under their own special supervision, one hundred 
 poor youth, more or less, at this or some better institu- 
 tion, upon the express condition that they shall serve 
 the State as schoolmasters, or refund the money thus 
 advanced together with interest — and we shall soon wit- 
 ness the rise of common schools in abundance, and of a 
 character vastly superior to those currently known under 
 this denomination. Give us men competent to teach, 
 and desirous to teach for a living : and they w^ill work 
 their way to public favour and patronage. The uni- 
 versal complaint, even in the older States, is, that the 
 teachers of common schools are, in nine cases out of ten, 
 utterly unfit for their vocation; and bad teachers are 
 worse than none. To commit children to bungling, lazy, 
 intemperate, swaggering vagabonds, knaves, and smat- 
 terers, is very like perpetrating intellectual and moral 
 treason or assassination w^ith malice prepense. If there 
 be one object under the w^hole heaven which parents 
 should be eager to purchase at any price or sacrifice — 
 which is indeed above all price — it is the proper educa- 
 tion of their children. If there be one good object, 
 w^hich pre-eminently demands the profoundest attention 
 of the Legislature — it is this. When they, or the people, 
 shall succeed in obeying the divine command: "Train 
 up a child in the way he should go," — the promise 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 455 
 
 annexed will as certainly be fulfilled : " and when lie is 
 old, he will not depart from it." 
 
 In regard to those States where common schools are 
 allowed to be on the best footing ; it is worthy of inquiry, 
 whether they have proved reasonably and satisfactorily 
 efficient in promoting virtue and good morals. Here, 
 truth constrains me to answer, that, from public official 
 documents, it appears that crimes have fearfully in- 
 creased in Connecticut and New York during the last 
 eight or ten years. Whatever may be urged therefore in 
 behalf of the intellectual discipline adopted in their 
 schools — there must be a lamentable deficiency of moral 
 and religious instruction. This is a radical defect — ac- 
 knowledged and deplored by their own best citizens. It 
 adds another to the thousand melancholy proofs already 
 before the w^oiid, that no species of mental cultivation 
 can ever be truly beneficial, where the pupils do not, at 
 the same time, acquire moral and religious principles and 
 habits. Every teacher, in every school, from the infant 
 nursery up to the university, ought to be deeply imbued 
 with the purest spirit of Christian morality, and to 
 labour assiduously in moulding the hearts and lives of 
 his youthful charge agreeably to the only standard of 
 \drtue and integrity which is recognised among Christian 
 men. To educate Christian youth as heathens or athe- 
 ists, is at once absurd and monstrous. To expect such 
 youth to become good, moral, peaceful, orderly, religious 
 men, is to expect a miracle. In this all-essential attri- 
 bute, the New York system is little superior to that of 
 Connecticut : and both have proved egregious failures. 
 
456 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 I will never advocate or countenance a system which 
 does not tend directly to form good as well as intelligent 
 citizens. And it is perfectly fair and equitable to judge 
 of any system by its effects — as it is to judge of a tree 
 by its fruits. 
 
 In New England, with the exception of Connecticut 
 and Rhode Island, the school system is represented as 
 eminently successful in its moral and religious agency. 
 Her citizens are reputed to be the most intelligent, the 
 most enterprising, and the most virtuous in the world. 
 Such, at least, is their o^vn estimate of themselves : and 
 they ought to know. If the fact be so, we may cheer- 
 fully accord to their system the pre-eminence which it 
 has hitherto challenged in the opinion of mankind. 
 Should a Southerner or Backwoodsman happen to ex- 
 press any doubt about the fact, in consequence of certain 
 unlucky specimens of the Yankee character, which may 
 have fallen under his own eye, in the shape of tin-ped- 
 lers, book-agents, school-hunters, college-builders, venders 
 of wooden clocks, horn flints and such like notions, and 
 especially of reverend money beggars for all sorts of 
 pseudo literary and benevolent projects — if, I say, he 
 should be thus led to question the pie;'?/, though he might 
 concede the full measure of shrewdness and intelligence 
 claimed, he will be told that such is the unparalleled 
 purity of the moral atmosphere throughout New Eng- 
 land, that rogues cannot breathe it — that they will not 
 be tolerated at home — and that, therefore, to escape the 
 frowns and contempt of their countrymen, and to be at 
 a safe distance from the penitentiary and tread-mill, they 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 457 
 
 invariably emigrate or run off to the South and West — 
 there to live by their wits, that is, by cheating the na- 
 tives. It is thus, we are assured, that the term Yanhee 
 has acquired a notoriety and a meaning so equivocal and 
 unsavory. We are invited to study the Yankee at his 
 own fireside, and among his granite hills and beautiful 
 villages ; and we are boldly defied to point out his equal 
 upon the globe. All this is right. A people should be 
 studied at home, and be estimated according to their 
 home character. K it be true then, in Massachusetts for 
 instance, that public opinion is so sound and so potent as 
 to render it unsafe, undesirable or impracticable for the 
 profligate or dishonest to remain within her limits — that 
 they must either remove, or certainly be hanged or im- 
 prisoned — we must admit the general excellence of the 
 system under which, as children and youth, they have 
 all been trained. What would have been the result of 
 the experiment, if she had not been favoured with a 
 thousand safety valves to let off superfluous steam and 
 noxious gases — or if she had not been situated upon the 
 borders of an interminable wilderness, ready to receive 
 and to welcome all the idlers and knaves which she 
 could possibly furnish — it is bootless to inquire. 
 
 There are certain rather ominous indications hovrever 
 just now, which may cause a momentary suspension of 
 our faith in the New England creed. Sundry Quixotes 
 in that region have been, for several years past, engaged 
 in a crusade against all manner of error, wickedness and 
 oppression, and in endeavouring to rigid all the v'rongs 
 in the world. In their search after new fields of bene- 
 
458 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 volent labour, they have at length descried, and. they 
 appear to have taken a special fancy to, the coloured 
 population of the South and West. Under the goodly 
 and significant appellations of Anti-Slavery Societies, 
 Abolitionists, Amcdgamationists, Immediatists, &c., they 
 have manifested a calculating zeal and prudent courage 
 worthy of all admiration : while, with perfect safety to 
 their own persons, they have been busily digging the 
 mine and laying the train to blow sJcy high both the 
 negro and the white man throughout one-half of the 
 Republic. How New England is to be eventually dis- 
 charged of this rapidly increasing host of fanatics and 
 agitators — is the question. She cannot creditably retain 
 them unchecked and unrebuked in her own bosom. Will 
 her neighbours receive them ? Will she eject them by 
 force ? Will she restrain their liberty of speech or 
 action ? Will public opinion expel them, as it has here- 
 tofore expelled multitudes of rogues, enthusiasts and 
 impostors ? One thing is certain : they will not, as their 
 predecessors have been hitherto wont to do, venture to 
 seek their fortune or risk their necks south of the Poto- 
 mac or Ohio — so long as the right worshipful Judge 
 Lynch and the most redoubtable Captain Slick shall 
 hold office and be duly honoured amongst us.* 
 
 * The author having alluded to certain practices in a way that might 
 possibly be misunderstood, begs to state that he holds in utter abhor- 
 rence every assumption of power and every infliction of punishment by 
 any mob or portion of the people whatever, unauthorized by the laws 
 of the land. Abolitionists have the right to publish their opinions 
 whenever and wherever they please, if not prohibited by law : and to 
 the law only, and to tribunals established by law, are they amenable. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 459 
 
 Upon the whole then, I concUide that the New Eng- 
 land school system — though very good, perhaps the best 
 in the world — is not absolutely perfect : inasmuch as all 
 her sons are not trained up in the way they should go ; 
 otherwise, when old, they would not become either stroll- 
 ing sharpers or meddling emancipationists. 
 
 I have thus submitted to the consideration of my in- 
 dulgent hearers, sundry plans of common school educa- 
 tion which have been tried, or which are now in operation 
 in the several States — together with my own comments 
 upon them, which may go for what they are worth. I 
 have also thrown out a variety of suggestions upon the 
 subject generally, and in reference to other possible 
 modes of meeting the actual exigencies of the country. 
 And all this with a view chiefly to provoke or to induce 
 reflection and examination, and an interchange of opinion 
 among the people, upon this topic of deep and universal 
 concernment : That something may, at length, be done 
 towards the removal of the stigma which has hitherto 
 fastened upon the character of this land of heroes, in 
 the eyes of our sister Republics. Will Tennessee — 
 proud, gallant, chivalrous Tennessee — consent to become 
 the Boeotia of the Western World ? 
 
 I shall next consider the subject under a difierent 
 aspect. 
 
 A population, consisting chiefly of planters, or farmers 
 and labourers, where land is cheap and abundant, must 
 necessarily be thinly scattered over a large surface. 
 Such is the fact in regard to the great body of the people 
 in this State. In the Eastern and Middle States, the 
 
460 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 people reside in villages, or in clusters upon small farms 
 adjacent to each other. It is comparatively easy, in the 
 latter, so to arrange the school districts as to accommo- 
 date all the inhabitants. Such a convenient distribution 
 or location of schools cannot be made among us. I leave 
 out of view, at present, our towns and compactly settled 
 neighborhoods; — because in them any description of 
 schools, that the people choose, may be maintained. But 
 how is the country at large to be supplied ? Where only 
 a few families occupy a space of several square miles, it 
 is obvious that a central school would not suffice ; because 
 it would be too remote from the homes of most of the 
 children : and it is equally obvious that a school could 
 not be provided for each family, or for each half dozen 
 families, thus circumstanced. Some other mode of meet- 
 ing the demand, besides the ordinary school, must be 
 devised. This is one of the local difficulties to be sur- 
 mounted, at which I formerly hinted. This difficulty 
 may prove less formidable than I have supposed. I pre- 
 sume it to exist, however, to a considerable extent. And 
 in endeavouring to provide for such an exigency, I* hope 
 to suggest some considerations which may not be irrele- 
 vant to the condition and wants even of those who are, 
 in this respect, more fortunately situated. 
 
 The first and most important acquisition which a child 
 ever makes, next to that of articulate speech, is the art 
 of reading. The second, in importance, is writing : and 
 the third, is the knowledge of figures or common arith- 
 metic. It is certainly desirable that all our youth of 
 both sexes should be instructed in these three useful arts 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 461 
 
 at the least. But, in no case, ought a child to be suifered 
 to grow up amongst us without being taught to read. 
 Can this be done without public schools ? I believe it 
 may : and I will tell you how. If, in any family, there 
 be one individual w^ho can read, that individual could, 
 without serious interruption or detriment to any ordinary 
 occupation, teach all the other members of said family, 
 old and young, to read also. If, in every settlement or 
 vicinage, consisting of a dozen or twenty individuals or 
 families, there be one who could read, that one could 
 teach all the others in like manner to read. Let volun- 
 tary associations or classes, of from six to twenty per- 
 sons, (the members, for instance, of one family or of 
 several contiguous families,) be formed; and let them 
 agree to meet t^\'ice or thrice a week, for one or two 
 hours, as their numbers or convenience may suggest, — 
 to learn to read. And not many weeks or months will 
 elapse before all shall be readers. 
 
 In order to learn to read, it is by no means indispensa- 
 ble that the tedious everlasting method of the schools for 
 children should be adopted. The process may be ren- 
 dered extremely simple and easy. It is not necessary to 
 commence even with the alphabet, or to go through a 
 course of spelling in Dilworth or Webster. Adults have 
 been recentl}- taught to read in penitentiaries and else- 
 where, in a very short period — even within one or two 
 weeks, in some cases — who previously did not know a 
 letter. The chaplain or teacher opens his Bible — directs 
 the eye of his pupil to the first verse of the first chapter 
 —reads it distinctly — points out each ?ro?Y7 to the learner, 
 
462 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 and makes him repeat it — and so on to the end of the 
 verse. In a few minutes the pupil can read the verse 
 backwards or forwards. He now knows the words by 
 their i^liasis or appearance in the book. Here, perhaps, 
 the teacher stops awhile, and analyzes a word, naming 
 each letter according to its proper sound — and presently 
 the pupil will distinguish and name the letters also. 
 They then proceed to another verse, and to another : 
 and, by and by, the division of words into syllables is 
 explained — or the syllabic analysis may precede the 
 alphabetical — and thus the whole mystery of learning to 
 read is dispelled ; and it becomes an aftair of a few days 
 or hours. K convicts in a penitentiary, who are com- 
 pelled to labour from morning to night, and to be shut 
 up in solitary cells from sundown till daylight, can find 
 time to acquire, from the lips of charity, so invaluable 
 an art : will it be pretended that our free and happy 
 labourers could not spare time for the same purpose ? 
 And will none among themselves be willing to officiate 
 as guides ? 
 
 That all this, and more, is practicable, is perfectly 
 known from well-authenticated facts officially before the 
 public — from the testimony of scores of our contempo- 
 raries and countrymen, grounded upon their own obser- 
 vation and experience. Many children have also been 
 taught to read in this manner by individuals who have 
 never heard of M. Jacotot — and long before he was born. 
 By him, indeed, the method, with certain modifications, 
 has been announced to the world as a grand discovery; 
 and it constitutes the first stage in the process of his in- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 463 
 
 genioiis and greatly admired system of instruction. Let 
 every teacher, however, do the best he can. Let him 
 adapt his mode of instruction to the circumstances of his 
 pupils. He will succeed, upon any plan, within some 
 three or six months, in teaching his class or company to 
 read. Were such a system to be put immediately and 
 universally into operation in Tennessee, there would not 
 be an individual, between the ages of six and fourscore, 
 incapable of reading, at the end of a year, throughout 
 the State. Not a dollar is wanted for the purpose. Any 
 books will answer. Any place will do. Any hour of 
 any day or evening will suffice. Now, if there be but 
 one intelligent, patriotic, benevolent individual in each 
 district, town or county, who will undertake to enlighten 
 the people on this subject, and persuade them to co-ope- 
 rate in this good work of self-instruction, it will be 
 speedily accomplished. Sunday schools judiciously con- 
 ducted, in all parts of the country, w^ould certainly and 
 easily effect the same object. 
 
 Writing and arithmetic may be taught in the same 
 way. And in general, whatever the teacher knows, he 
 can communicate. Or, in other words, whatever is 
 known by any member of a class or association may be 
 possessed by all. But as I wish to avoid minute or 
 prolix details, I shall proceed no further in the develop- 
 ment of this voluntary, mutual, self-teaching system: 
 being confident that wherever it is attempted merely in 
 reference to reading, it will be amplified and extended, 
 as occasion may require. Our city and village Lyceums 
 
464 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 are, in fact, but a higher order or degree of the " same 
 species of liberal, gratuitous, mutual instruction. 
 
 To distinguish this from the common school system, I 
 have heretofore, on divers occasions, denominated it the 
 Social or Domestic system of education. And while it 
 seems singularly adapted to the wants and condition of 
 the great mass of the poor and ignorant, the wealthier 
 and more cultivated classes may avail themselves of its 
 benefits also. Might not the domestic system, in its 
 strictest sense, be made to supersede the public common 
 school system altogether? Why should a little child 
 ever be sent to school, who has a mother at home capa- 
 ble of teaching? A mother who can teach, and who 
 possesses the genuine spirit of maternit}', is always the 
 best possible instructress for her children, until they 
 reach the age of eight or ten or twelve. She can teach 
 them all that is expected from a common school infi- 
 nitely better than any schoolmaster. This she might do 
 without interfering with the business or comforts of a 
 well ordered domestic establishment. Children ought 
 never to be closely confined at an age when they cannot 
 study. Do young children stmhj while constrained to 
 sit, book in hand, through fear of the birch, during six 
 long hours, upon the bench (and such a hencli I) at school ? 
 They have not yet learned hoio to study : and, of course, 
 must either go to sleep, or passively submit to the daily 
 irksome and stupifying penance of doing nothing. At 
 home and under the eye of their mother, they can play 
 or work or receive instruction, as she directs, and as best 
 suits their years, capacit}- and disposition. How much 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 4G5 
 
 misery and vice and mischief and vexation of all sorts 
 might not thus be happily escaped ? What a generous 
 ardent love of knowledge might not thus too be excited 
 and cherished? instead of that dogged indifference or 
 unconquerable aversion to letters so frequently evinced 
 by boys, after a brief trial of the ordinary school dis- 
 cipline ? And who so fit as a pious mother to instil into 
 the heart of her child the purest principles of virtue and 
 religion ? 
 
 By far the larger proportion of schools for boys under 
 twelve years of age, with which I have been acquainted 
 in the course of my life, I would not hesitate to denounce 
 as nuisances and impositions. I have seen them in every 
 part of our country from Maine to Tennessee : and I feel 
 confident that most parents might, if they would, form 
 a domestic school at home, a thousand fold preferable to 
 ninetjMiine out of a hundred, on an average, of the 
 whole number of common schools in the United States at 
 this moment. Such has been my honest, deliberate and 
 avowed opinion for many years past. And that this 
 project of domestic education is not an idle day-dream or 
 visionary speculation, may be learned from the following 
 statement, made by Doctor Henderson respecting Iceland, 
 which he had then recently visited, and whose work has 
 been for several years past before the public, and is well 
 known. 
 
 " On inquiring (says he) into the state of mental cul- 
 tivation in Iceland, we are struck wdth the universal dif- 
 fusion of the general principles of knowledge among its 
 inhabitants. Though there be only one school in Ice- 
 
 VOL. I. 30 
 
466 EDUCATIOXAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 land, and that solitary school is exclusively designed for 
 the education of such as are afterwards to fill offices in 
 church or state ; yet, it is exceedingly rare to meet with 
 a boy or girl, who has attained the age of nine or ten 
 years, that cannot read and write with ease. Domestic 
 education is most rigidly attended to; and I scarcely 
 ever recollect entering a hut, where I did not find some 
 individual or another, capable of entering into conversa- 
 tion with me on topics which would be reckoned altoge- 
 ther above the understandings of people in the same 
 rank of society in other countries of Europe." Here it 
 is worthy of special remark, that the only public school 
 in Iceland is the University! The great mass of the 
 children are taught by parents at home : and common or 
 primar}^ schools are unknown among them. 
 
 In further proof that my general estimate of common 
 schools is not unsupported by high authority, I cite the 
 following passage from the late Governor Clinton's Mes- 
 sao-e to the Legislature of New York in 1826. "In the 
 first place, there is no provision made for the education 
 of competent instructors: of the eight thousand now 
 employed in this State, too many are destitute of the 
 requisite qualifications, and perhaps no considerable 
 number are able to teach be3'ond rudimental instruction. 
 Ten 3'ears of a child's life, from five to fifteen, maj^ be 
 spent in a common school : and ought this immense por- 
 tion of time to be absorbed in learning what can be 
 acquired in a shorter period? Perhaps one-fourth of 
 our population is annually instructed in our common 
 schools ; and ought the minds and morals of the rising 
 
EDUCATIOXAL DISCOURSES. 467 
 
 generations to be intrusted to the guardianship of incom- 
 petence ? The scale of instruction must be elevated : 
 the standard of education ought to be raised : and a cen- 
 tral school on the monitorial plan ought to be established 
 in each county for the education of teachers, and as 
 exemplars for other momentous purposes, connected with 
 the improvement of the human mind." 
 
 Should the social and domestic system be adopted in 
 Tennessee, so far as to enable all persons to read, and 
 many to write and keep accounts, then a large proportion 
 of our people would be educated to as great an extent 
 as is now practicable in most common schools : and none 
 would be destitute of the means of indefinite intellectual 
 improvement. Teach all to read, and multitudes, with 
 this humble outfit, would find or create a path to the 
 richest stores of knowledge. But we ought not to stop 
 here ; nor rest satisfied with what may be acquired at 
 home, or from the voluntary aid of friends and neigh- 
 bors. A little learning is better than none, and is never 
 dangerous except when mistaken for a great deal : or 
 when perverted and applied to unworthy purposes. But, 
 with a Utile, we are not to be content, if it be possible to 
 enlarge it. We must still have public schools. If chil- 
 dren, however, when they begin to go to school, can 
 read, and, in many instances, write and cypher also ; it 
 is obvious that it will be necessary to establish a totally 
 different species of common schools from those which 
 now exist among us. As many would be content with 
 the instructions of the social or domestic school, fewer 
 public schools would then suffice : and these compara- 
 
468 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 tively few might be made of a very superior order.' In 
 them might be taught all the useful and ornamental 
 branches of an English education, which are now re- 
 stricted to the High School or College. 
 
 In most of the States where a legal provision is made 
 for the support of common schools, the privilege of at- 
 tendance is limited to pupils between the ages of four or 
 five and sixteen. Now, will any mortal pretend that it 
 is necessary to be at school ten or a dozen years to learn 
 what is usually taught in our common schools ? The 
 whole might, by a judicious and skilful teacher, be taught 
 in one year — or, at most, in two or three. In our ordi- 
 nary academies too, seven precious years are wasted in 
 picking up a wretched smattering of Greek and Latin, 
 wherewith to enact the pedant, and thereby expose to 
 scorn and ridicule the very name of classic literature ; 
 or in imbibing towards it a spirit of relentless and em- 
 bittered hostility. Whereas, all that a youth needs from 
 a teacher, and a hundredfold more than he commonly 
 gets, might be acquired in less than half the time — toge- 
 ther with a taste for classical studies which would be 
 cherished and cultivated to the end of life. 
 
 Great and successful efforts are now making, in various 
 parts of our country, to elevate the character of common 
 English schools, as well as of all the higher seminaries. 
 This is an object well worthy the serious attention of 
 the patriot and philanthropist. 
 
 The intelligent public are aware that much has been 
 done also towards improving the methods of instruction, 
 in all its stages, and in every department of every 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 469 
 
 species of school or college. Education itself has become 
 a science : and it deserves the most profound study of all 
 who wish to be esteemed skilful and thorough educators. 
 It is well known that Edgeworth, Bell, Lancaster, Pes- 
 talozzi, Fellenberg, Jardine, Pillans, Dufief, Lasteyrie, 
 Degerando, Wilderspin, Hamilton, Harnisch, Jacotot, 
 Brougham, and others, have, in our times, been zealously 
 labouring to benefit the world by their experiments and 
 publications on this subject. 
 
 Education, indeed, is a topic about which everybody 
 feels competent to speculate and to dogmatize — while 
 few comprehend the nature or philosophy of the process. 
 Men who have had much experience in the business of 
 instruction, might, in general, be presumed to know 
 rather more about it than those who have never made 
 the attempt. At this particular time, the cause of edu- 
 cation seems to attract universal attention : and almost 
 every tyro fancies that he can enlighten the world upon 
 this commonplace and yet all-absorbing theme. 
 
 Whether the Greeks and Romans were novices in this 
 art, will be best ascertained by recurring to the pages of 
 their own historians, and to the monuments of classic 
 genius and literature which still command the admira- 
 tion of mankind. Whether we can hope to train, by 
 any novel machinery, greater and wiser men and women 
 than grace the annals of our English ancestry or our 
 own revolutionary epoch, may be shrewdly questioned. 
 I am, however, the advocate of improvement in every 
 thing. I do not subscribe to the doctrine : ' let well 
 enough alone;' provided the said well cnourjh can be 
 
470 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 made better. But innovation is not always improve- 
 ment. In every revolutionary period, novelty is liable 
 to be mistaken for amelioration. This is the revolution- 
 ary crisis of education. Men's heads are teeming with 
 Utopian projects and fantasies of reform : and the pre- 
 sent speaker may possibly be numbered among the vain 
 schemers of the times, by those who are religiously 
 wedded to the good old w^ays of their venerated grand- 
 sires. 
 
 I have not been able, however, to discover in any of 
 the authors already named, much that is really useful, 
 which had not been previously and forcibly exhibited in 
 the pages of Montaigne, Comenius, Cowley, Carew, As- 
 cham. Bacon, Locke, Milton, Fenelon, Dumarsais, Tana- 
 quil Faber, Bossuet, Low^e, Clarke, J. T. Philipps, 
 D'Alembert, Condillac, and others of a preceding gene- 
 ration. And whether these have added much to the 
 science or art of education, as unfolded by a still more 
 ancient school — by the Quinctilians and Ciceros and 
 Xenophons and Aristotles and Solomons of Rome and 
 Greece and Judea — may also admit of question. I am 
 not sure that even our modern Bacons and Lockes and 
 Miltons are entitled to higher praise than that of mo- 
 destly following in the orbit of the great luminaries just 
 cited. 
 
 But however wdse men may speculate about systems 
 or modes of education or about modern improvements in 
 the art, in one most essential point they all agree. And 
 this one point involves the whole mystery or philosophy 
 of education under every rational system. No man can 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 471 
 
 teaclL what lie does not himself anderstand. — Every man 
 can teach, if he icill, what he does perfectly understand. 
 The teacher then must be able and willing, or apt to 
 teach. He must possess the requisite intellectual furni- 
 ture, and also moral principle — or he cannot be trust- 
 worthy. He must be able to do the work, and he must 
 also love the work. 
 
 Thus, for instance, no man can teach Greek, who 
 knows nothing of Greek. Here is the real secret, by 
 the way, of the general antipathy manifested by our 
 Western youth towards Greek. They hear it denounced 
 and ridiculed — and they ridicule and denounce it — as 
 useless or unlearnable or both, — because they have never 
 been (might it. Now Greek is just as easily taught, and 
 may be just as easily learned, as any other language — 
 provided the master understands his business. If our 
 classical schools had thorough first rate Greek scholars 
 at their head, no such complaint would ever be uttered. 
 Boys would learn Greek as readily and as cheerfully as 
 they learn English. Our country is filled to overflowing 
 with adventurous Greeldings. But where are our Gre- 
 cians ? They do not come to us from the far East — nor 
 can they be found there. Not one in a hundred of our 
 American Greek professors or linguists would dare to 
 encounter the shades of a Busby, a Bentley, a Porson, a 
 Parr, a Burney, a Gesner, a Heyne, a Wolfius, a Hem- 
 sterhusius, a Wyttenbach, or of any one of the mighty 
 phalanx of Euro^Dean literary giants, who have been the 
 delight and the terror of their day and generation. 
 Happy, thrice happy would it be for the Common wealtli. 
 
472 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 if a legislative veto could be imposed, on this species of 
 most villanous charlatanry — by which our pockets are 
 picked, our understandings insulted, and the admission 
 of our children to the classic groves of Academus eftect- 
 ually precluded. 
 
 Supposing the teacher to be duly qualified — and of 
 course both judicious and sagacious — he will adapt his 
 instructions to the age, capacity and actual attainments 
 of his pupils. He will act towards them as a skilful 
 physician does towards his patients. One uniform pre- 
 scription will not answer for every age and habit and 
 constitution. The systems and methods of others he 
 will not despise. He will not servilely tread in the 
 footsteps of his predecessors; — nor strike out a new 
 path merel}^ for the sake of novelty or from an aifecta- 
 tion of singularity. His aim will be to communicate 
 instruction in the most expeditious and effectual manner. 
 He will borrow light and information from every quarter 
 — will combine the good properties, as far as practicable, 
 of all the known systems — and yet will teach in a man- 
 ner peculiar to himself He wdll constrain his pupils to 
 love their studies. He will make it their delight to 
 advance in knowledge and wisdom. And (as Milton 
 has it) will insensibly lead them up the hill- side of 
 science, usually indeed laborious and difficult at the 
 first ascent, but under his kindly guidance, will appear 
 so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and 
 melodious sounds on every side, that the harp of Or- 
 pheus could not be more charming. 
 
 To furnish an adequate supply of gifted teachers — 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 473 
 
 to induce men of the highest order of genius and talent 
 to become teachers — should be the policy of every wise 
 paternal government. The profession ought to be among 
 the most honoural^le — and in order to this, among the 
 most lucrative — in the land. Our statesmen, judges, 
 governors — our lawyers, physicians, divines — are all 
 formed by the school and university. And if we expect 
 the former to be enlightened and faitliful, we must make 
 the latter as nearly perfect as possible. — The principal 
 officer or commander-in-chief of every great literary 
 institution or seminary for juvenile instruction, ought 
 to possess a large measure of the wisdom of Solomon, 
 the learning of Selden, and the patience of Job. But 
 no man of superior intellect and lofty aspiring will ever 
 look forward to the occupation of the schoolmaster as a 
 profession to live by — while greater consideration and 
 better pecuniary recompense await him as a politician or 
 lawyer. The fault is in the very structure of our society. 
 The thorough education of our children is a matter of 
 secondary or trivial moment — and we grudge every 
 dollar that it costs us. Were a good education uni- 
 versally esteemed the most desirable object of human 
 ambition, as it ought to be — the people would be willing 
 to pay for it. And accomplished teachers would be 
 instantly forthcoming. Create a demand, and a sui> 
 ply will follow. Talent, like the diamond, will seek 
 the best market. 
 
 Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, were the master spirits and 
 the master pedagogues of Greece — and their illustrious 
 disciples did honour to their schooling. Give us such 
 
4T4 EDUCATIONAL DISpOURSES. 
 
 a constellation of glorious intellect — refined and- puri- 
 fied by Christian ethics — elevated and expanded by 
 Christian hope and Christian charity — and the Ilej)ub- 
 lic shall live forever. 
 
 Suppose each county in the State to be divided into a 
 convenient number of school districts, and a good com- 
 mon school to be duly organized and maintained in each 
 district: suppose each county to contain one or more 
 well-conducted classical schools or academies: suppose 
 the State to be provided with a first-rate university or 
 with several excellent colleges : Then let the poor chil- 
 dren, boys and girls, be all taught gratuitousl}^ in the 
 common schools whatever can be learned in such schools : 
 let a certain fixed number of the best behaved, most 
 talented and studious boys be selected from each of the 
 common schools, by competent judges appointed for the 
 purpose, and sent to the academy at the public expense : 
 In due time, again, select from these, in like manner, 
 a certain proportion to be educated at the college or 
 university. Such a system would directly benefit the 
 entire population, and especially the whole poor of the 
 State ; and would ensure a liberal education to the most 
 gifted and meritorious of our poor youth. This is an- 
 other obvious and practicaljle mode of diffusing the bene- 
 fits of every species and degree of education among the 
 most indigent and neglected classes of the community. 
 Why should it not find favour with the legal guardians 
 and professed champions of the poor? Why denounce 
 the higher seminaries as unfriendly to the poor, while 
 no effort is made to render them the greatest possible 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 475 
 
 blessings to the poor? Nearly all the great men in this 
 nation and in the world have risen from the humblest 
 ranks; and chiefly through the agency of the college, 
 directly or indirectly. But such a result is seldom or 
 never realized, except where especial provision is made 
 for poor scholars. The poor youth of Tennessee can 
 never hope for such facilities and advantages from the 
 colleges of other States. 
 
 A distinguished German divine, towards the close of 
 the 16tli century, thus quaintly expressed himself, in 
 "a sermon directed against those who said that high 
 schools were of no use: "Such thoughts come from 
 the suggestion of Satan himself, who is an enemy to 
 schools. K there were no high schools, the stronger would 
 put the weaker in a sack, and there would be no end of 
 this till people ate one another up. Head-law, and not 
 fist4aw, must govern the world ; but then men of learn- 
 ing do not grow on the trees, so that one has only to 
 shake them down, and, with reverence be it sjDoken, put 
 a pair of boots below for them to fall into." 
 
 I have so frequently advocated the cause of education, 
 in reference to every class and description of my fellow- 
 citizens, that I cannot hope, on this occasion, to command 
 attention by the mere novelty of argument or illustra- 
 tion. I rely solely on the importance and truth of my 
 positions, and upon the universal application, for even a 
 patient hearing. I have often pointed out the evils 
 resulting, or likely to result, from an illiberal hostility 
 to colleges and professional seminaries: and I have 
 demonstrated that the people at large must ever be 
 
476 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 wronged and oppressed by such a policy. If we have 
 no great literary institutions of our own, still some of 
 our opulent youth will find their way to distant institu- 
 tions; or educated individuals will come to us from 
 other States or from foreign lands; and thus we shall 
 have among us a sufficient number of comparatively 
 intelligent persons, at least to monopolize the profits and 
 emoluments of professional and official stations, and to 
 control the popular sentiment for their own special bene- 
 fit. I need hardly stop to expose the dangerous ten- 
 dency of such a monopoly. It is virtually vesting all 
 power in the hands of a few, and accords much better 
 with the genius of despotism than of democracy. The 
 Grand Turk and the Russian Czar have long since 
 adopted this verj- system. They choose to have about 
 them some eminently learned and accomplished ministers 
 to do their bidding — to aid in sustaining their dignity 
 and in executing their arbitrary measures. Without them 
 indeed, their crowns and thrones would speedily pass into 
 other hands. They know full well that knowledge is 
 power : and that mere brute force can never be skilfully 
 directed or successfully employed without it. 
 
 It is evident that the common schools will not suffice 
 to educate the governing mind of anj^ civilized empire, 
 kingdom, or republic. These will but prepare the peo- 
 ple to be the more easily managed and imposed on by 
 the specious sophistry and selfish cunning of the more 
 intelligent and ambitious few. The question with us 
 is not, how much or what kind of learning will qualify 
 a man to be a decent farmer or merchant or mechanic ? 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 477 
 
 But what will enaljle the fanner and mechanic to become 
 the most useful and influential citizens — to constitute in 
 fact the governing mind of the Commonwealth ? Clearly, 
 if they aspire to the government of the State, they must 
 become the most enlightened body in the State. Even 
 upon the hypothesis that much learning is dangerous or 
 pernicious — that it is apt to render men proud, arrogant, 
 overbearing, knavish or aristocratic — still, so long as its 
 possessors will contrive, by means foul or fair, to usurp or 
 engross all the prerogatives of sovereignty — the farmer 
 and mechanic must learn to wield this verj^ dangerous 
 but most potent engine, or tamely yield the sovereignty 
 to their wily superiors. They, too, must go to college. 
 
 I have been pleading the cause of our flirmers and 
 mechanics for some dozen years past. Because, upon 
 them, as enhghtened, judicious, independent, patriotic 
 citizens, depend the destinies of this Republic. The 
 question, I again repeat, is, shall they lead or be led ? 
 Shall they arrest and put down the factious spirit of 
 unprincipled ambition which is rife and running riot in 
 the land, or shall they blindly lend themselves as the 
 instruments and the victims of its desperate and treason- 
 able purposes? The crisis has arrived when the people 
 must speak and act wisely and resolutely, or their 
 ability to speak and to act with decisive efficiency, 
 will be lost forever. 
 
 I care not where or how they acquire the requisite 
 amount of intellectual furniture, so that it be acquired. 
 If they can and will create and uphold institutions, 
 suited to their purpose, superior to the universit}^ and 
 
4 / h E D U C A T 1 X A L DISCOURSES. 
 
 the college — so much the better. But let them not- be de- 
 luded by the fancy that common schools will ever insure 
 to them or their children, the rank and influence and 
 power which their numerical strength might fairly claim. 
 They will be priest-ridden, and lawyer-ridden, and doctor- 
 ridden, and demagogue-ridden, to the end of the chapter 
 of human perversity and chicanery, if they continue to 
 pin their faith upon the popular scheme of elementary 
 schools to the neglect of all superior institutions. Let 
 me not be misunderstood. I am the staunch advocate of 
 every species of grxd common schools, and of every prac- 
 ticable plan for the diffusion of useful knowledge among 
 the people — whether in larger or smaller measures — 
 whether by the State government or by individual effort 
 and munificence. But no system of popular education 
 can be complete or efficient or permanently successful, 
 which does not embrace within its hberal scope the college 
 and the higher sciences as well as the common school 
 and the spelling book. I would not exclude the farmers' 
 sons from any intellectual cultivation which the wisdom 
 and the wealth of the State could place within their 
 reach. I would bid them welcome to the pri^dleges and 
 instructions of the noblest univer.sity in the land. Or 
 rather, I would create a university for this verv' purpose, 
 which should be second to none in the world. 
 
 In population and political influence, Tennessee al- 
 ready ranks among the most important members of the 
 great Federal Union. And hitherto, she has done pre- 
 cisely nothing for the education of her children, either 
 rich or poor — except upon paper. About thirty years 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 479 
 
 ago. Congress granted one hundred thousand acres of 
 hmd for the endowment of two colleges within her 
 limits, and appointed her legislature their trustee to 
 locate said land in a body, and to sell it at not less 
 than two dollars per acre; and thus to provide a 
 fund of at least two hundred thousand dollars for the 
 support of the two colleges. Had the legislature ful- 
 filled the condition of this sacred trust, in good faith, the 
 original donation, at the minimum price for which the 
 land was to be sold, would, in twenty-five years, at six 
 per cent, simple interest, have amounted to five hundred 
 thousand dollars. To this day, the colleges have re- 
 ceived little or nothing from the avails of said land. 
 They have still therefore a legal right to the whole sum 
 last mentioned. The legislature is bound by every prin- 
 ciple of honour and law and equity, to indemnify the 
 colleges to the full extent of the injury inflicted. The 
 very best thing that the legislature can now do in behalf 
 of popular education is, forthwith, to perform an act of 
 simple justice. To resolve, namely, to pay to each of 
 the colleges two hundred and fifty tJiousand dollars, or 
 an annuity of fifteen thousand dollars to each forever. 
 Virginia, after expending half a million of dollars upon 
 the edifices, libraries, and apparatus of her University, 
 has heretofore appropriated, and has agreed to appropriate 
 in future, the sum of fifteen thousand dollars per annum 
 for its maintenance. South Carolina has been equally 
 liberal; and yet neither was ever assisted by Congress. 
 vSeveral of the States have done much more, and all have 
 done something for their colleges. Tennessee is the soli- 
 
480 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 tary exception. In this respect, she stands alone and 
 unrivalled among her peers. She is the only civilized 
 community upon the globe, which occupies so enviable a 
 position — which can boast the singular distinction of not 
 only neglecting and frowning upon her colleges, and of 
 never having bestowed a dollar upon one of them — but 
 of having positively withheld from them the charity of 
 strangers ! True, the legislature is but the creature and 
 servant of the people, and must do their pleasure. And 
 the sovereign people, I suppose, like other arbitrary and 
 absolute sovereigns, can do no wrong ; or, like the Pope, 
 must be deemed infallible. So much for the colleges. 
 The academies, with an equal grant of land from Con- 
 gress, have been dealt with after the same equitable, 
 royal, popish, summary fashion. 
 
 But it will be triumphantly urged, as a redeeming 
 set-off to the above, that much has been done and is 
 doing for common schools. [Which, by the way, be it 
 remembered, are designed to teach nothing more than 
 every mother is or ought to be qualified to teach much 
 better at home.] Yes, truly, a vast deal of legislation 
 has been expended upon common schools, and large 
 sums of money have disappeared from the public trea- 
 sury upon this service : but I def\' any mortal to desig- 
 nate the school or the child which has received the 
 slightest benefit from the one or the other. Upon 
 this theme, however, it is useless to descant. Every 
 popular folly must live its day out. A mammoth 
 school fund will be raised. The people have decreed 
 it. Their lands and limbs, their bread and labour, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 481 
 
 Avill be taxed to procure it. And when procured, it 
 will regularly pass into the hands of honest dismter- 
 ested school-agents or commissioners, who will take good 
 care of it — or it will get into the vaults of some favour- 
 ite State Bank to be kindly nursed and increased for the 
 benefit of posterity — or it will be distributed in conve- 
 nient loans to certain trustworthy citizens who live 
 only to serve the public — and finally it will puzzle 
 the lawyers, after receiving their fees from every 
 party concerned, to discover the ivJiereahout of its 
 actual existence, or to point out the course of its flight 
 beyond the reach of legislative control. 
 
 Am I then opposed to the common school fund system 
 which is so universally approved throughout the country ? 
 I answer again : I am opposed to no system which will 
 insure good schools or valuable instruction to the people 
 or to any portion of the people. I am opposed to the 
 system of doing nothing. I am opposed to the system 
 of robbing the people of their money under the ludi- 
 crous pretext of providing for the education of their 
 great-grandchildren's children. While no living man's 
 son or daughter will ever be taught a letter of the 
 alphabet or the difference between good and evil, right 
 and wrong, by the agency of any school fund in esse or 
 in posse. Reasoning from the past and the present, I 
 can discern nothing in the signs of the times or in the 
 tone of popular morals to warrant the anticipation of a 
 more auspicious result for the future. Greatly should I 
 rejoice, however, at any evidence or indication which 
 might justify a different and more cheering train of 
 
 VOL. I. 31 
 
482 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 reflections; or which might be calculated to inspire 
 the brightest visions of hope in regard to the existing 
 and each successive generation of my countrymen. 
 
 But, another hypothesis, and I have done. If the 
 people or their rulers were really desirous to educate the 
 poor children of the State — why not do it instantly and 
 effectually? If none of the modes already suggested 
 should be acceptable, yet certainly the work could be 
 done, for example, in the same manner as paupers are 
 fed and clothed at the public expense. Let each 
 county be required to provide for the adequate in- 
 struction of its own poor children, just as it provides 
 for the comfortable subsistence of its poor citizens. 
 There is no more difficulty in the one case than in 
 the other. Nor would the burden be very grievous. 
 I doubt whether ten poor children can be found in 
 each county, upon an average, whose parents or relar 
 tives could not afford them a common school education. 
 I will undertake to teach, at my own cost, all the poor 
 children of Tennessee not fairly included in the number 
 and description just specified. 
 
 I had intended to say something of the school systems 
 which obtain in Scotland, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, 
 Prussia, and the smaller German States — but I forbear. 
 Republican America may however learn much, even 
 from European monarchies, upon this vital subject. 
 And it would be quite as reputable, to say the least, 
 to follow their example in the judicious education of 
 our children, as to imitate them in their fashionable 
 vices, amusements and absurdities. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 483 
 
 Of our own humble University, it is not my purpose 
 to speak. It may not be worth your notice. I shall 
 certainly not pronounce its eulogium, nor recommend 
 it to your special patronage or consideration. It has 
 existed during the brief space of eleven [now thirteen] 
 years. Its history, if fairly told, would be curious, and 
 not altogether devoid of instructive incident. But it is 
 enough, on the present occasion, to be able to announce, 
 that, under the good providence of God, it has survived 
 the hopes and fears and wishes and predictions of both 
 friends and foes. And that it continues to exist, in 
 spite of untoward circumstances and events— in spite 
 of local nuisances and unsightly accommodations — in 
 spite of poverty and injustice — in spite of ecclesiastical 
 and political indifference and neglect and hostility — 
 in spite of all sorts of misrepresentation and abuse and 
 opposition from all sorts of people — in spite of the law- 
 yers, and clergy, and physicians, and merchants, and 
 farmers, and mechanics, and schoolmasters, and office- 
 hunters of every name and degree— in spite of religious 
 sectarian jealousy, fanaticism and intolerance — in spite 
 of infidel self-sufficiency and mawkish sentimentality — 
 in spite of innovating perfectionists and fault-finding 
 purists — in spite of whigs and tories, democrats and 
 federaUsts, nullifiers and consolidationists — in spite of 
 Nashville and all its wicked inhabitants — in spite of 
 Tennessee and all its great men and little men — in sj^ite 
 of the Legislature and the Trustees, the President and 
 the Faculty — in spite of the Presbyterians, high church 
 and low, old school and new — in spite of all the re- 
 
484 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 verend bigots and dogmatists and would-be popes, of 
 every denomination, in the Commonwealth: — ^^^es, the 
 hitherto unbefriended University still exists. And, if 
 her Alumni choose to inscribe, in adamantine capitals, 
 upon her walls of granite or marble yet to be erected. 
 
 EsTO Perpetua! 
 It shall exist and flourish a thousand ages after toe shall 
 be forgotten, and our names be obliterated from the 
 records of this world's glory and insignificance. 
 
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS. 
 
 [UNIVERSITY OF NASHVILLE, OCTOBER 3. 1838.; 
 
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NASHVILLE, OCTOBER 3, 1838. 
 
 Having completed the course of study prescribed by 
 the laws of this Institution, we congratulate you, Young 
 Gentlemen, upon the arrival of this auspicious, and by you 
 long wished for day, which sunders forever your college 
 ties and associations. About to enter upon a new scene 
 of study and of action, you, doubtless, with the elastic 
 temperament peculiar to youth, anticipate much, very 
 much, from the fair world which lies before you. This 
 is natural: and we cordially mingle our sympathetic 
 hopes and aspirations with yours, while we fervently 
 pray that you may never be disappointed. 
 
 Would you learn how to live, so as certainly to escape 
 disappointment? This is an inquiry unspeakably mo- 
 mentous to youth, however circumstanced; and espe- 
 cially to those who may be destmed to exert a more 
 than ordinary influence in their day and generation : — 
 or to feel themselves more acutely than others the morti- 
 fication and the anguish of blighted hopes, and the fail- 
 ure of well concerted plans and persevering labours. 
 
 But the protracted exercises of this Anniversary have 
 already preferred so large a demand upon the indulgence 
 of our respected auditory, that, I shall be readily excused 
 
 48T 
 
488 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 for not venturing into any elaborate details or formal 
 discussions on this or any other topic. Nor is it necessary 
 that I should. For all the lessons and counsels, moral, 
 religious, economical, literary or philosophical, which it 
 would be in my power to impart, have been communi- 
 cated and reiterated, from time to time, in the familiar 
 style of the lecture room, while, together, we have ex- 
 amined the theories and speculations of the wise and 
 good of diiferent ages and schools, or scanned the mo- 
 tives, principles and ends of human conduct, as developed 
 by reason, experience and revelation. You have been 
 directed also to the ablest and purest sources of informa- 
 tion ; as well as taught to investigate, to reflect and to 
 judge for yourselves. I shall, therefore, trespass but 
 a few minutes further on the patience of my hearers. 
 
 When I contemplate any one of the little bands of 
 youth which annually issue from our colleges into every 
 section of this extensive Republic, it is impossible for me 
 not to follow them in imagination into the busy world 
 and to trace with prophetic pen the various parts 
 which they seem likely to act on the great stage of 
 public life. 
 
 One, on whom rests the meek, gentle, dovelike spirit 
 of heavenly wisdom, bids fair to become an eminent 
 herald of the cross — a joyful messenger of peace to a 
 distracted world — a patient, laborious, faithful minister 
 of reconciliation to the guilty, the wretched and the 
 perishing. 
 
 Another promises to adorn religion in the more retired 
 walks of private life : — Where, by his holy example, by 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 489 
 
 his active, unobtrusive benevolence, to shed a lustre on 
 the Christian name, and to inspire peace and joy into 
 many an aching bosom, while he kindly fosters every 
 institution and patronises every plan which is calcu- 
 lated to meliorate the condition of suffering humanity, 
 and to promote the glorj- of his Master's name. 
 
 Many are looking forward to the bar, to the healing 
 art, to the army, to the navy, or to merchandise as their 
 future fields of enterprise and emolument: — but, with 
 what views and motives they will commence and prose- 
 cute their several schemes and labours, the Searcher of 
 hearts alone can know. Paternal affection bids them 
 all, God speed — but with a fearful anxiety, lest some 
 of them at least should venture to go forth without the 
 divine blessing and protection. 
 
 One, and another seems likely to take a distinguished 
 part in the government of his country, perhaps to become 
 a leader in the legislative councils, — a Senator — a Judge 
 ^-or even the Chief Magistrate of the nation — for who 
 shall set bounds to the ambitious aspirings of America's 
 talented and privileged sons? — With what trembling 
 solicitude does the tenderness of friendship watch his 
 every footstep, and mark his progress towards the goal 
 of his wishes ! "Will he be the stern, uncompromising 
 friend of virtue, of truth, of righteousness? Will he 
 rule in the fear of God? Will he prove a benefactor or 
 a scourge, a blessing or a curse, to the people who shall 
 honour him with their confidence? 
 
 But I behold another, — not, I trust, among the beloved 
 pupils here before me, but merely in mental vision, — 
 
490 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 perhaps a young man of native genius and high promise 
 — on whom parental fondness dotes — whose departure 
 from sacred home to the venerable temple of science was 
 the occasion of many a fervent prayer to Heaven for his 
 welfare — who received a kind father s parting benedic- 
 tion and a weeping mother's sad farewell embrace, with 
 a heart melted to tenderness, and resolved to gratify 
 their every wish. I behold him now, after an absence 
 of a few months or years, associating with the licentious 
 and the profane — neglecting study for the haunts of vice 
 and folly — sacrificing his precious time and the princi- 
 ples of virtue with wdiich parental piety had imbued his 
 once susceptible mind, at the shrine of forbidden pleasure 
 — at the festive board of intemperance — at the infernal 
 table of the gambler — and subsiding by degrees into a 
 state of habitual sensuality and confirmed skepticism! 
 Is this a spectacle which any man, wdiose heart is not 
 made of adamant, can contemplate with indifference? 
 
 A young man, the pride and the hope of his family, 
 standing, as it were, on the threshold of life, and just 
 going to enter upon the world's wide theatre — with 
 libertine principles and habits — with a hardihood in 
 vice which has steeled the mind and seared the con- 
 science against every good impression — into how deep a 
 gulf of perdition is he sinking? With what awful fore- 
 bodings do I follow" him in that downward career which 
 he seems determined to pursue ! Of how much misery 
 and crime may he not yet become the author? How 
 much moral devastation may he spread around him 
 in society? What ruinous and abominable principles 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 491 
 
 may he one day disseminate? How many innocent 
 persons may his seductive example and insinuating 
 manners lead astray from the high road of virtue 
 and peace — till they become as hardened as himself^ 
 and with him, sit down in the seat of the scornful there, 
 with united efforts and augmented wiles, strive to ex- 
 tend their dominion over others still — and to spread 
 wide the tempting and decoying net to catch and to hold 
 fast the unwary and unstable wherever they can be 
 found? 
 
 Will he become the apostle of infidelity — the bold, 
 active, determmed enemy of revelation — a Voltaire, 
 or a Paine? Or will he be the subtle, systematic, re- 
 fined, philosophising freethinker — a Hobbes, a Tindal, 
 a Bolingbroke, a Hume or a Gibbon? Or will he be 
 content, in a lower sphere, to mdulge in all the vanity 
 of sensuaUty and riot — to be what Rochester and Gardi- 
 ner were, before the grace of the Highest had awakened 
 them from their delirium of profligacy, and reclaimed 
 them, when on the verge of perdition — to live, at once, 
 a warning to the rake, and an encouragement to the 
 returning prodigal? 
 
 Can he be destmed for any great offices in public life? 
 Yes — even this is possible. For the world has seen the 
 uifidel, the scoffer and the libertme elevated to posts of 
 honour and power — and hailed with the loudest acclama- 
 tions of an mfatuated multitude. 
 
 But whatever may be his lot in life, however exalted, 
 or however humble — he must have mfluence of some 
 kind. The veriest vagabond on earth is scarcely so 
 
492 EDUCATIOXAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 degraded as to be unable to find a companion who may 
 not be made worse by his agency and example. He has 
 relations and friends and associates — and among these 
 he may appear even respectable. He may form connec- 
 tions, and become the head and the guide of a family, 
 which will look to him with affection and confidence for 
 counsel and direction. 
 
 Where, in the Universe, is the benevolent being who 
 would not be constrained to say — better were it for this 
 young man, better for his friends, better for society, 
 better for future generations, that he had never been 
 born, than thus to live, a curse to all within the sphere 
 of his contaminating principles and example ! 
 
 God grant, that these remarks may never apply to 
 a single youth who has heard them pronounced — much 
 less to any of those whom I directly address. 
 
 Do you wish to be respected, useful and happy m any 
 profession or calhng in life, whether pubhc or private, in 
 the Church or in the State ? Youth is the golden season 
 to prepare for it. Lay broad and deep the foundation 
 now. Let religion — the Christian religion, pure and 
 undefiled — be the comer-stone on which the whole 
 edifice shall rest. Aspire with a noble daring, to the 
 loftiest eminence. But let religion guide you in every 
 stage of 3^our progress, and influence every act of your 
 lives, and consecrate to God the object at which you aim. 
 This is the only kind of ambition which will conduct 
 you to true, substantial and ever enduring greatness: 
 and preserve you from those cruel disappointments 
 which drive to despair so many of the unsuccessful 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 493 
 
 candidates for Avorldly honours and distinction. For if 
 your views be limited exclusively or chiefly to this world, 
 you will assuredly be disappointed, even if you gain the 
 objects which you covet, and after which you strive and 
 labour with the most invincible ardour, resolution and 
 perseverance. Like Solomon, in the midst of all his 
 wealth, and luxury, and splendour, and power, and 
 grandeur, and glory, you will, with an aching heart, 
 inscribe "vanity of vanities" on all your honours and 
 possessions. Or like Alexander, after gathering the 
 laurels of a hundred victories, sigh for other worlds 
 to conquer. Or like Grotius, after ranging over the 
 rich and varied fields of science and literature in search 
 of fame, or of the philosopher's chief good, be con- 
 strained to confess that you have wasted life in labori- 
 ous trifling. " Heu vitam perdidi operose nihil agendo." 
 Disappointment will meet you, sooner or later, take 
 what course you may. The dearest objects of your 
 affections may be torn from your embrace, or converted 
 into instruments of unceasing torture. Your idols may 
 be dashed in pieces before your eyes — and the fragments 
 lie scattered around joii, — the ever present and upbraid- 
 ing mementos of your disloyaltj' to heaven's righteous 
 King, and of the folly of every earthly pursuit which 
 does not subserve the great end of your probationary 
 existence. Sorrow and pain and anguish and bitterness 
 of spirit will be yours, in spite of all your prudence, 
 sagacity, talents, courage and integrity. To the wicked 
 there is no peace. To the enemy of God there can be- 
 no permanent prosperity. To the votary of this world. 
 
494 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 ill an}' of its ten thousand alluring forms, there is or- 
 dained inevitable disappointment. Ever^^ sublunary good 
 will fail, and leave you comfortless. The evil days will 
 come, and the years draw nigh, w^hen you shall say, with 
 the sigh of anguish and despair, we have no pleasure in 
 them. 
 
 But in the Bible you wdll find an antidote and a 
 remedy — a preventive and a solace — a sure guide and 
 an infallible physician. Here you will be taught to 
 ey^ped, what the world styles, misfortune, calamity, 
 tribulation, adversity — perhaps persecution, poverty, dis- 
 grace : yes, even character, which is dearer than life to 
 every upright man, may be tarnished and prostrated, for 
 a season, by the insidious machinations of envy and jea- 
 lousy and malice — or blasted by the foul breath of in- 
 famy itself— or you may be wounded in the house of 
 your friends — (Zech. xiii. 6,) — for "the disciple is not 
 above his master, nor the servant above his lord." Still, 
 if your trust be in God, you will not be overwhelmed by 
 any disaster: you may have reason to say with an 
 eminent Apostle — " We are troubled on every side, yet 
 not distressed: we are perplexed, but not in despair; 
 persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not de- 
 stroyed." — 2 Cor. iv. 8, 9. Or with holy Job, be enabled 
 to exclaim, when stripped of all things — "Though he 
 slay me, yet will I trust in him." — Job, xiii. 15. Or in 
 the language of heavenly resignation — " Father, not my 
 will, but thine, be done."— Luke, xxii. 42. 
 
 Let the Bible, then, be a lamp to your feet, and a light 
 to }-our path — the man of your counsel and the hope of 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 495 
 
 your soul. (As this was my first — and has been my 
 constant — so let it be remembered as my last advice 
 to you, on this solemn and interesting occasion.) 
 
 I am aware that it has long been, and still continues 
 to be fashionable, among well educated men, to disregard 
 and neglect the Bible, as beneath or unworthy their 
 notice. They often affect to disbelieve it and to despise 
 it — and why? Because they know little or nothing 
 about it. Such persons are frequently met with — men 
 distinguished for wit and learning — lawyers — physicians 
 — statesmen — politicians — philosophers — accomplished 
 authors — who are nearly as ignorant of the character- 
 istic features and distinctive principles of the Christian 
 religion as heathens ; — and yet they are as dogmatical 
 in their opinions about it as if they were the only com- 
 petent and legitimate judges of its claims. 
 
 Now, as you will, probably, soon rank among some 
 of these classes, I counsel you to be a little more modest, 
 and candid, and equitable — and carefully to read the 
 Bible through, before you undertake to assert what it 
 does or does not inculcate. If you can find, anywhere 
 else, a system of morals or of faith, so well calculated to 
 render men good and happy in this world, and to furnish 
 them support, and peace and hope and confidence and 
 joy and triumph in death — or if you can account for 
 the fact, that, all mankind have been, and still are, poly- 
 theists and idolators, except Jews, Christians and Moham- 
 medans, who confessedly are indebted exclusively to the 
 Bible for their knowledge of the apparently simple, ob- 
 vious and natural truth, "that there is but one living 
 
496 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 and true God" — then you will have discovered two reasons 
 (as yet unknown) for the rejection of the Bible. And 
 until you can attain satisfaction upon these two points, it 
 will be hardly worth your while to travel far abroad 
 in search of other objections and difficulties which 
 necessarily attach to infideUty. For as to the boasted 
 and boasting and all-sufficient theism of the modern 
 school, it may be passed with the remark, that it has 
 never been heard of except where the light of divine 
 revelation has shown forth from the pages of the Bible 
 — even upon those who fain would extinguish it forever. 
 
 Again — and for the last time, probably, while I live — 
 I charge you, in the dread name of the eternal Jehovah, 
 to study this sacred volume thoroughly and honestly, 
 prayerfully and habitually. No man ever did this, and 
 remained a skeptic or an infidel — or became a bigot or 
 fanatic, an enthusiast or hypocrite, a churl or an an- 
 chorite. Let not the authority of great names bias your 
 judgment or command your assent. Spare no pains or 
 efforts in the search of truth — and when found, dare to 
 acknowledge and embrace it. Ignorance, among learned 
 men, is the parent of skepticism — as it is of superstition 
 among the great mass of the unlettered. 
 
 Christianity, in several respects, may be regarded as a 
 science — and it must be studied as carefully, diligently 
 and thoroughly as any science, in order to be under- 
 stood. It involves too the most deeply interesting — 
 the most profound — the sublimest philosophy: — the 
 philosophy of human nature or of the human heart 
 — of man as a rational accountable moral a.2;ent — of 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 497 
 
 man, in all his diversified and complex relations with 
 his fellow-men and with his Maker — during every stage 
 of his existence in time and throughout eternity. Your 
 progress in this truly divine philosophy will be marked 
 by practical results which cannot be mistaken. It will 
 be apparent in your temper and conduct. It will be 
 manifested by effects which no other philosophy has 
 ever produced — and which may be summed up in two 
 words, utterly unknown to every other system, and 
 which the world to this day can scarcely appreciate — 
 Humility and Charity. 
 
 . Be the friends and advocates of genuine religion, as 
 taught and illustrated by living example in the Bible : 
 and you will also be the steady, efficient and successful 
 friends of humanity, in every possible mode — the advo- 
 cates of every good principle, cause, enterprise, plan and 
 institution which the most enlightened wisdom and be- 
 nevolence shall be capable of devising and executing. 
 Take the Bible for your guide — and I have no fear of 
 the result. Your Alma Mater and your country will 
 never be ashamed of you — but will cherish you as their 
 favourite and favoured sons. Patriotism and philan- 
 thropy will claim you as their own. The ignorance, the 
 illiberaUty, the persecuting bigotry, the extermmating 
 intolerance of proud, supercilious infideUty, with all its 
 ostentatious hypocritical pretensions to kindness and 
 candour and charity — will blush in your presence — and 
 shrink away abashed, like the friend of darkness from 
 the face of angelic purity and majesty. 
 
 Your country has need of learned and Christian law- 
 
 voL. I. 32 
 
498 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 yers, physicians, clergjanen, statesmen — as it has of 
 Christian and learned mechanics, merchants and farmers. 
 The cause of religion, of education, of patriotism, of 
 humanity — is one and indivisible. Dare you, before 
 God, this day, pledge yourselves to support and to ad- 
 vance it? 
 
 A patriot without religion — like a gentleman without 
 honour — is a contradiction, virtually and in fact, if not 
 in terms. 
 
 Where, in all the annals of the ancient world — marir 
 lind — whether Jewish or Pagan — classical or barbarian 
 
 did you ever read of a true patriot who was not also a 
 
 religious man — or who at least, was not a friend to the 
 religion of his country? Look over the catalogue of 
 Greek and Roman worthies — and then answer the in- 
 terrogatory. And where on the page of history have 
 you found — or where upon this earth can you find — men 
 ashamed of religion — except^ — in Christendom ? And is 
 Christianity, let me ask, the only religion ever yet pro- 
 mulgated in our world of which man or woman has 
 reason to be ashamed ? (Shall woman too be ashamed 
 of the Christian religion ?) I have told you that if you 
 seek this world only, you will be disappointed : — either 
 by not reaching the object aimed at, or by discovering 
 its utter insufficiency to yield you solid comfort and 
 enjoyment when possessed. 
 
 I have told you also, that if you set out in life with 
 the fear of God before your eyes, and with his love in 
 your hearts, you may meet with much and various tribu- 
 lation — but that this will not make you wretched or 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 499 
 
 drive you to despair. On the contrary, if you absolutely 
 commit your ways to the Lord, you may pass, not only 
 unhurt, but triumphant, through the hottest fiery fur- 
 nace that human or diabolical malignity has ever pre- 
 pared for the destruction of the faithful. Or if you be 
 summoned to the horrors of martyrdom with James, and 
 Paul and Peter — ^your bosoms may still be calm, and 
 full of heavenly peace and hope and gladness — and your 
 fame, hke theirs, will not be eclipsed by the persecuting 
 and murderous Herods and Neros who may doom you to 
 the stake or the scaffold. 
 
 The usual course of Providence however is in this 
 wise — The votaries of the world flourish and prosper for 
 a season — and then come disaster, defeat, misery, char 
 grin, ruin — or at the best, disgust with the present, re- 
 morse for the past, and horrible misgivings and appre- 
 hensions for the future. 
 
 "VYhile, on the other hand, good men are frequently 
 proved at first by many severe and painful trials — for, 
 strange as it may appear to this world's wisdom, "whom 
 the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son 
 whom he receiveth." — Heb. xii. 6. 
 
 But, by and by, the dark clouds which, for a period, 
 lowered so portentously over their apparently devoted 
 heads — begin to disperse. The sun of prosperity begins 
 to shine — and shines brighter and brighter upon their 
 advancing years. Their old age is tranquil and happy. 
 They die universally respected, beloved and lamented. 
 Thus it was with Moses, and Job, and Joseph and 
 Daniel — and, many others, whose lives are recorded by 
 
500 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 the pen of inspiration for our encouragement and instruc- 
 tion. — "For them that honour me (saith the Lord) I 
 will honour, and they that despise me shall he lightly 
 esteemed." — 1 Sam. ii. 30. 
 
 But there is another world to prepare for, and " godh- 
 ness is profitable imto all things, having promise of the 
 life that now is, and of that which is to come." — 1 Tim. 
 iv. 8. Therefore " seek ye first the kingdom of God, and 
 his righteousness; and all these things shall be added 
 unto you." — Matt. vi. 33. 
 
 " Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not 
 unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways ac- 
 knowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not 
 wise in thine own eyes : fear the Lord, and depart from 
 evil." — Prov. iii. 5, 6, 7. 
 
 With this word of counsel. I commend you to the 
 grace of God, and bid you adieu. May the blessing of 
 the great Father of mercies be upon you and attend you 
 through a long, a useful, a prosperous and a happy life : — 
 May his Spirit sustain you in the last struggles of dis- 
 sohdng nature — and may the joys and the glories of the 
 heavenly Paradise be yours forever and ever! And 
 again, I bid you a long, a last, an afiectionate farewell ! 
 
SPEECH ABOUT COLLEGES. 
 
SPEECH ABOUT COLLEGES. 
 
 AT NASHVILLE, COMMENCEMENT DAY, OCTOBER 4, 1848. 
 
 It is often remarked of college graduates, that they 
 rarelj excel those who have been far less ftivored on the 
 score of education; and that, in fact, but few of them 
 ever attain to great eminence. This remark is made 
 either, 1, as an objection to the whole system of college 
 discipline — as being calculated rather to depress than to 
 encourage the aspirations of genius and the development 
 of intellect : Or, 2, as a direct censure upon the facility 
 with w^iich academic degrees are usually awarded; 
 namely, that they are frequently, if not generally, con- 
 ferred upon unworthy candidates. 
 
 1. As to the first objection, it may suffice to remind 
 all cavillers, that eminent distinction is rarely attained 
 by individuals of any class or profession or description 
 of men, under any circumstances whatever. But few, 
 exceedingly few, of the vast multitude of lawyers, physi- 
 cians, clergymen, artists, teachers, poets, orators, authors, 
 warriors, ever rise above mediocrity ; or acquire that kind 
 of relative or acknowledged superiority which will insure 
 a permanent reputation, or an honorable niche in the 
 
 grand temple of fame. The ncymina clara, the brilliant 
 
 503 
 
504 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 luminaries, the master spirits, of any age, must ev^^r be 
 few in number, in any given sphere of active or studious 
 enterprise. Of the many thousands of astute politicians 
 or political adventurers, of office holders and office seek- 
 ers, at the present day, in our own and in other countries, 
 how many, think you, will ever be known to posterity as 
 eminent statesmen, legislators, jurists, patriots, or philan- 
 thropists ? Brief, indeed, is the catalogue of names which 
 really adorn and dignify the page of our world's history, 
 during the three thousand ^^ears of which authentic 
 records have been preserved. 
 
 I do not make this statement with a view to disparage 
 or undervalue moderate or unobtrusive merit; or to inti- 
 mate that the million, Avho live and die undistinguished 
 among their contemporaries, are therefore not useful in 
 their day and generation. Far from it. They may act 
 well their part according to their several abilities and 
 opportunities ; and thus will have discharged their duty, 
 and satisfied every reasonable expectation. I have ad- 
 verted to an established law of humanity, to a universal 
 order of Providence, as applicable to colleges as to other 
 associations or communities; and not more stringently 
 applicable to them than to all others. Let any man, 
 who has a fancy for the task, run over the vocabulary 
 of human greatness — whether Oriental, Greek, Roman, 
 Mediaeval or Modern, — and he will probably discover 
 that a fair proportion of the whole had been regularly 
 trained in the colleges or high schools of their respective 
 countries. So much for the objection under this particu- 
 lar aspect. The university will never be found in arrears, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 505 
 
 when compared with the dominant spirit of the age and 
 countr}'. Political or religious despotism may impress 
 upon it a character in Spain and Italy Avidely different 
 from that which it assumes in Britain or America. 
 
 But if we regard the useful, the good, the laborious, 
 the faithful — in all the vocations where superior intelli- 
 gence is essential or available — we shall be able to form 
 a much juster estimate of the obligations which the world 
 owes to the university system ; whatever may have been 
 its vices or imperfections. Let us be thankful for the 
 benefits, and strive to remedy or remove the evils and 
 defects. 
 
 2. Colleges confer degrees upon unworthy candidates. — 
 I admit the fact. I wish it were otherwise. Of honorary 
 doctorates, perhaps the least said the better. Happily, 
 w^ith one exception, they do but little harm, even if they 
 do no good. I think that colleges, in this great model 
 Eepublic, might, with manifest propriety, cease to grant 
 the doctorate altogether. I see no reason why American 
 preachers, and schoolmasters, and authors of spelling 
 books and grammars, should not assume the D. D. or 
 LL. D. at pleasure, according to their taste or self-appre- 
 ciation; just as our whig and democratic loafers and 
 politicians contrive, by some process or other, to become 
 entitled or accustomed to the prefix or suffix of Colonel, 
 General, Esquire, Honorable, or His Excellency. Why 
 not? The exception just alluded to, is the doctorate of 
 medicine. This, whether conferred causa lioiwrls or in 
 course upon ignorant or unprincipled persons, is a griev- 
 ous injury to the public. — Because an M. D. is a passport 
 
506 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 to popular confidence and practice. Here the people 
 cannot judge for themselves. They rely on the testi- 
 monials thus dishonestly furnished by learned and re- 
 sponsible corporations. And hence irreparable wrongs 
 may be inflicted and endured before the Doctors utter 
 incompetency can be detected and exposed. That a 
 reform is needed here and everywhere, in the Medical 
 Schools and in reference to medical practice, I believe, is 
 the opinion of the enlightened profession generally, on 
 both sides of the Atlantic. 
 
 But the objection relates chiefly, I suppose, to the first 
 degree — the degree, namely, of Bachelor of Arts. Very 
 true : this degree is conferred by all the colleges in the 
 Union every year upon some unqualified — perhaps, in 
 the aggregate, upon many unqualified and very un- 
 worthy individuals. This arises from several causes. 
 1. From the fact, that a portion of the youth who enter 
 our colleges are deficient in intellect. They do not pos- 
 sess minds capable of high and liberal cultivation. Here 
 the native or raw material is wanting. " Non ex quo vis 
 ligno Mercurius fit." No college professors can work 
 miracles, or convert a blockhead into a Solomon. — 
 " Though the ass may make a pilgrimage to Mecca, yet 
 an ass he will come back." 2. From idle habits — from 
 lack of industry and application. No brilliancy of talent 
 will master any science or language without labour. 
 While persevering labour will ultimately triumph over 
 all difficulties, and insure success to even comparatively 
 humble genius. 3. From a defective school education 
 — the want of the requisite qualifications for a college 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 507 
 
 life — or from the extreme youth of the party when ad- 
 mitted. 
 
 In two words : Our lads enter college too young, and 
 without due preparation. They ought seldom, if ever, 
 to graduate under twenty years of age; and conse- 
 quently, should not enter the Freshman or lowest class 
 younger than sixteen. Up to this period, ample work 
 might be provided for them in the primary and classical 
 school or by the parental fireside. Let them be tho- 
 roughly drilled in Greek and Latin — in Arithmetic, 
 Algebra, Geometry, Geography — in one or more modern 
 languages, when practicable — at all events, in the En- 
 glish, so as to be able to speak and write their own 
 vernacular with grammatical accuracy and idiomatic 
 propriety. 
 
 At school, boys may readily learn the accidence — 
 namely, the inflections, the orthography, the etymology, 
 the signification of words — together w ith the mechanical 
 structure, the syntax and prosody of the ancient lan- 
 guages. And thus be prepared, in due season, to attend 
 the lectures and illustrations of the accomplished classi- 
 cal professor. In reading Greek and Latin books, the 
 first object usually is, to acquire verbal knowledge — a 
 kind of knowledge which children acquire with eager- 
 ness and facility under judicious instructors. The second 
 and final object is, to become acquainted with the mind 
 of the writer or Avith the argument of his book. Thus, 
 at school, boys often read portions of the most celebrated 
 authors — as Virgil, Ovid, Tacitus, Livy, Horace, Juvenal, 
 Cicero, Xenophon, Homer, Thucydides, Herodotus, Aris- 
 
508 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 totle, Demosthenes, Euripides, and others, more or less 
 — but then, as a general fact, they achieve little more 
 than a mere mastery of words and phrases. They do 
 not yet perceive, or comprehend, or relish the various 
 recondite beauties and peculiar excellencies, for which 
 the ancient classics have been studied and admired by 
 the ripest scholars of every enlightened age and nation. 
 They must be carefully grounded in the rudiments; and 
 gradually advanced, step by step, until their faculties — 
 strengthened, expanded, matured, and wisely disciplined 
 — become capable of holding "high converse" with the 
 mighty dead : with the sages, the poets, the orators, the 
 historians, the heroes, the statesmen, the patriots, of 
 glorious old Greece and Rome. 
 
 • Now it so happens, that a large portion of our college 
 students [Western as well as Eastern] are, at the period 
 of matriculation, but smatterers in the whole grammar 
 school course. — Not always from any fault of their own, 
 it may be, but of their teachers. Some of them can 
 hardly decline a noun or conjugate a verb, or distinguish 
 a square from a triangle. Nevertheless, they must be 
 admitted, and into a high class too. Their fathers urge 
 and insist on a trial. — The boys are such fine fellows, so 
 clever and diligent, they will soon make up all defi- 
 ciencies: just give them a chance among the junhrs for 
 a few weeks; and if they cannot go ahead, why then 
 put them back or down into their proper place — that is, 
 into a lower class. To be sure, such ill-furnished or 
 rather unfurnished youth are about as fit for the Junior 
 class as for the Freshman. And they might as well be 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 509 
 
 graduated forthwith, as after a two years' ruhhmg and 
 shamming, and making much ado about nothing. By 
 the waj-, as to going back : whenever a novice is per- 
 mitted to study on probation with any class, and is found 
 unable to proceed or to keep up with such class, he in- 
 variably complains of injustice if removed from it; and 
 loudly blames the Faculty for the very indulgence which 
 he and his papa were so earnest in soliciting at the out- 
 set. Very hard to please, are some boys and some fathers ! 
 
 Here I take occasion to state, that the classification of 
 applicants for admission into our college, is left exclu- 
 sively to the professors. They examine all candidates, 
 and put them into such classes as they think proper. 
 Each of them is sovereign in his own department, and 
 exercises the veto power at discretion. He may prevent 
 the advancement of a student into a higher class, or 
 exclude him at last from the privilege of graduation, by 
 declaring him deficient in the studies of his own particu- 
 lar professorship. Thus the whole affair of scholarship 
 and academic rank is committed to the sound judgment 
 and wisdom of those who are constantly engaged in the 
 business of teaching. 
 
 Again, most of the studies pursued at college require 
 maturity of intellect and judgment, as well as large 
 stores of elementary know^ledge. For example : Of what 
 use are lectures upon standard English classics, involv- 
 ing all the principles and properties of style and senti- 
 ment and taste and criticism, to persons who have never 
 read a page of one of them? — Or upon history, political 
 economy, ethics, logic, jurisprudence, international or 
 
510 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 constitutional law, philology, metaphysics? — Or upon 
 any grand division of philosophy or of elegant litera- 
 ture? The fact is, college prelections and discipline are 
 designed for well educated ^^ouths, on the verge of man- 
 hood. And these only can adequately profit by them. 
 
 "Smart boys" are apt to be discouraged when they 
 cannot keep up or advance equally with their class-mates : 
 and they frequently relinquish the attempt in despair. 
 They would rather be expelled than be turned back, or 
 degraded, as they unwisely term and esteem it. Hence, 
 they are ready for fun and riot and mischief and all sorts 
 of " renowning," which the genius loci may suggest, coun- 
 tenance, or abet. Here, especially, they are prone to 
 display their Simrtan craft and prowess in dissecting and 
 analyzing, according to the newest imported fashion, with 
 jack-knife or hatchet, sometimes Avith broad-a^e and 
 sledgehammer, the architectural beauties of our magnifi- 
 cent and unparalleled temple of science and the muses! 
 — Upon yonder " hill side, so smooth, so green, so full of 
 goodly prospects, and melodious sounds!!!" — * 
 
 [Milton was a capital schoolmaster.] 
 
 To be sure, in all this matter, parents judge erro- 
 neously and act injudiciously. Instead of approving 
 and sustaining the college authorities in directing the 
 
 * A mere trifle, compared with the feats of Vandalism often perpe- 
 trated in Eastern colleges. Our Western green-horns have much to 
 learn before they can approximate the sublime daring of the brother- 
 hood in some of the old States. Here no col]e,a;e buildings have ever 
 been burnt or blown up: here no professors have ever been killed, or 
 wounded, or assaulted, or threatened, or insulted — by students. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 511 
 
 studies of their sons, they complain whenever their own 
 favourite views and plans are not successfully carried 
 out. — That is, whenever their sons do not accomplish 
 impossibilities. 
 
 Thus again, when a college censure or penalty is in- 
 flicted upon a student — no matter how notoriously idle, 
 disorderly or licentious he may have been — his parents 
 and relatives are sure to be offended, perhaps irritated, 
 or greatly exasperated. They become his advocates, 
 apologists, defenders. They criminate, abuse, denounce 
 the poor Faculty, without stint or measure. The son is 
 a high-minded, honourable, brave, generous, good-hearted 
 young gentleman; who scorns all subterfuge and mean- 
 ness; and who would not lie for the universe! Not he. 
 In this particular at least, he is above suspicion ; and, 
 like the- Pope, infallible. While the Faculty are a parcel 
 of paltry pedants, pedagogues, bigots, charlatans — with- 
 out feeling, spirit, kindness, honesty, or common sense. 
 I am so accustomed to this result, that I never look for 
 or anticipate a different. I never expect any official 
 statement of ours to weigh a feather against that of the 
 darling boy. — We are all blind to our own faults and to 
 those of our children; while the eyes of the whole world 
 around us are wide open to both. While, therefore, one 
 parent complains loudly of injustice, in cases of college 
 discipline, a dozen of his neighbours are ready, from their 
 own knowledge and observation, to pronounce the com- 
 plaint, in that particular instance at least, unreasonable 
 and groundless. 
 
 No gentleman, or gentleman's son, will lie. Of course, 
 
512 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 not. I therefore never question the veracity of a student 
 under any circumstances whatever. Nor do I ever in- 
 sinuate the charge of mendacity or falsehood under any*" 
 ambiguous guise or less offensive phrase. I never imply 
 an accusation by word or look, or cherish unkindly sus- 
 picions. I assume that every person is truthful, honest 
 and just, until he is proved to be otherwise: and I treat 
 him accordingly. I hold up truth everywhere as too 
 sacred to be tampered ^dth ; and that a man should die 
 at the stake, rather than forfeit his word or trifle with 
 his conscience. 
 
 In this connection — and to account for certain rather^ 
 startling esoteric phenomena in college life — I take leave 
 to specify one remarkably liberal and convenient feature 
 of the ethical code, which obtains throughout the vene- 
 rable institutions of the far East, namely, that, " to lie 
 to the Faculty, is no lie at all." The student-craft in- 
 deed, in all ages and countries, rise above vulgar preju- 
 dices, and give a loose rein to adventurous genius. They 
 make it a point of honour to protect one another at every 
 verbal hazard or sacrifice, in all their wild feats of mis- 
 chief and jollification. They will not lie; assuredly 
 not; they do not call it lying; they merely invent mar- 
 vellous fictions like Homer, or tell merry tales like 
 Shakspeare; just to mystify credulous tutors, or to tran- 
 quillize the minds and lighten the purses of the good old 
 folks at home. They were off at a Fancy Ball, perhaps, 
 some twenty miles distant. The learned professor is 
 made to believe that they were at their places in the 
 recitation room all the while — but that he was so ab- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 513 
 
 sorbcd b}- his subject or spell-bound by the magic of his 
 own glowing eloquence, that he did not see them ! In 
 short, their object would seem to be : 1. To do as the}- 
 please, and to play off as many tricks as possible upon 
 all sorts of officials. And, 2. To come off with flying 
 colours at last — and with Latin diplomas which they can- 
 not construe; and which testify to as many untruths 
 as currently grace an ordinary newspaper editorial. 
 Whether this oriental improvement in morals has found 
 its way into our hackwoods apologies for Yankee uni- 
 versities, I leave the curious to inquire. 
 
 College students, you see, reason and act like all other 
 w^ell assorted bodies or fraternities of great and wise 
 men. Like politicians, who never dream of lying, when 
 they utter falsehoods, that is, tell tough stories, about 
 their political opponents or in their own behalf Be- 
 cause, with them, " all is fair in politics." Or like the 
 clerical leaders of religious sects, who, believing them- 
 selves always in the right and all others in the wrong, 
 never hesitate to declare and publish whatever may be 
 likely to advance their own cause or to damage their 
 adversaries. Because, in their creed, "the end justifies 
 the means." These honourable and reverend gentlemen 
 have adopted the principle of the aforesaid college code, 
 namely, that to lie to or about certain other antagonist 
 parties, is no lie at all. Thus the college, at last, is 
 about at par with the rest of the world. Not worse even 
 in this respect — but rather better. 
 
 Perhaps it would not be prudent to make any further 
 revelations in regard to university mysteries, or I might 
 
514 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 add, that I have known some dashing lads, at ourtim^- 
 honoured colleges, who, on the joyous day of commencing. 
 Bachelors of Arts, were as innocent of Greek, Mathe- 
 matics, Chemistry, and all the onomies and ologies as any 
 of your graduated city belles — and not half their equals 
 in English syntax and orthography — who have never- 
 theless astonished the natives by their subsequent per- 
 formances.* Upon the stump, in the legislative hall, at 
 the bar, in the metropolitan pulpit, at the camp-meeting, 
 they have foirly distanced competition, and borne off the 
 palm from the whole bookish tribe of rival aspirants. 
 These, to be sure, are rather strange abnormal cases; 
 and, according to the orthodox philosophy of cause and 
 effect, ought never to have occurred. Now whether this 
 brilliant success be ascribable to genius, to good fortune, 
 to post-collegiate development and diligence, or to the 
 extreme facility with which the people yield up head 
 and heart to the charm of musical delivery, ready utter- 
 ance, rhetorical flourish, bold assertion, dogmatical assu- 
 rance, indomitable self-possession, commanding presence, 
 or brazen impudence — is still a mooted point among 
 transcendental casuists; and must be left, like the au- 
 thorship of Junius or the quadrature of the circle or the 
 
 * Such perplexing, inopportune, eccentric phenomena, though vastly 
 encouraging to American go-ahead intrepidity, have proved the very 
 cruces criticorum to the plodding genus pedagogue, and overcast 
 with desponding gloom the anxious visage of many a laborious candi- 
 date for the dearly-bought and well-earned honours of a legitimate am- 
 bition. — Whose place, at last, will be found, it is feared in the galaxy 
 of some popular heroic Dmiciad. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 515 
 
 political faith of presidential candidates, to the decision 
 of posterity. 
 
 Whether any such prodigies have arisen in our own 
 Great West ; or whether any species or specimen of elo- 
 quence, inferior to that of Demosthenes or Tully, would 
 be tolerated by our enlightened, poetical, chivalrous popu- 
 lation ; may be answered by those who best know, or who 
 claim the right of pronouncing judgment in the premises. 
 The morality of a college is always regulated by that 
 of the community in which it exists. It can seldom be 
 elevated above the prevailing standard: it w411 rarely 
 fall below it. Boys cannot be persuaded that anything 
 is wrong, much less criminal or disreputable, which they 
 daily witness at home and in the fsimilies with which 
 their honoured parents associate. This is so obvious a 
 truism, that I might well pass it in silence, were it not 
 so generally overlooked by our dreamy " perfectionists" 
 in the theory of education. They expect that idle, 
 vicious, disobedient, reckless, profligate boys, who cannot 
 be controlled by father or schoolmaster, will be forthw ith 
 reclaimed, thoroughly reformed, and converted into dili^ 
 gent, dutiful, ingenuous, exemplary, accomplished college 
 students. Parents are often most urgent to guard their 
 eons, while at college, against the very practices and 
 indulgences which were never prohibited or rebuked 
 under their own roof.* Students at college will always 
 
 * A lady once requested me to cure lier son (as she expressed it) 
 of the bad habit of profane swearing. At the same time, adding, 
 that his father was unfortunately addicted to the same practice at 
 home among his children. 
 
516 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 exhibit or reflect the moral and religious character of 
 their domestic training. The code and conduct approved 
 at home, will be approved and exemplified in college. 
 I do not mean to affirm that parents are always culpable 
 or responsible for the faults or crimes of their children. 
 I judge no man or set of men. But this is certain: that 
 parents need never look to a college for any miraculous 
 moral regeneration or transformation of character. 
 
 Parents are not always sagacious in their selection of 
 schools. They seem not to be aware, that a man who 
 does not govern and bring up his own children judi- 
 ciously, is not competent to exert a salutary moral influ- 
 ence over those of other people. Whenever the sons of 
 a teacher are ill-bred, ill-mannered, disorderly, riotous, 
 profane, intemperate, lazy, vulgar, quarrelsome, unprin- 
 cipled — you have standing palpable evidence before your 
 eyes of his utter incapacity. His discipline is either 
 nugatory or vicious. 
 
 I repudiate the doctrine that popularity is the only 
 proof, or any proof, of sterling merit. Or that a college 
 is to be estimated by the number of its' students. A 
 large number is not desirable under any circumstances :* 
 and these should be duly qualified in all respects. I 
 wish none to apply for admission into our college except 
 such as are desirous to learn — who know how to study — 
 who have acquired correct moral principles and habits — 
 who are capable of taking care of themselves, without 
 the constant oversight of tutor or superior — who are cor- 
 
 * Such was the opinion of Milton. See his Tractate on Education. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 517 
 
 dially disposed to comply with the rules of the institu- 
 tion — and who will cheerfully study with any class or 
 division of a class, which the Faculty may designate as 
 best suited to their actual attainments, and most condu- 
 cive to their future progress. 
 
 Of the little company already educated at our institu- 
 tion, the discriminating public can fairly judge for them- 
 selves : and by their verdict w^e cheerfully abide.* They 
 have been, or may now be seen in both houses of Con- 
 gress, in several of the State legislatures, in the presi- 
 dential cabinet, at foreign courts, in many other import- 
 ant official stations, in the editorial chair, in all the 
 liberal professions, in the various respectable walks and 
 vocations of private life, in many of our best schools and 
 colleges as educators — and upon every battle-field from 
 the lagoons of Florida to the shores of the Pacific.f 
 And when or where has one of them failed in duty or 
 been recreant to his trust? Our university furnished 
 more officers and men to the army, during the late 
 Mexican war, than any other literary institution in the 
 land. Has a coward, think 3'ou, ever issued from her 
 portals, cro^\Tied with her laurel, or honoured with her 
 credentials? Who, among them, has disgraced the 
 proud banner of his country? or shunned the post of 
 
 * The number of regular graduates is 398. About 1500 have pur- 
 sued their studies at the University for longer or shorter periods, with- 
 out graduation. 
 
 I Not a few of them served as volunteers in the Florida campaign 
 of 1836, — and a much larger number in the late war. 
 
518 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 danger? or refused to lead the forlorn hope, or to die in 
 the arms of victory ? 
 
 Thus it was during the revolutionary struggle : thus it 
 has been ever since. The college has proved, at all 
 times and in all countries, the genial nursery of patriot- 
 ism and chivalry. 
 
 When this college was revived and reorganized at the 
 close of 1824, there were no simihir institutions, in 
 actual operation, within two hundred miles of Nashville. 
 There were none in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, 
 Arkansas, Texas, Middle or West Tennessee — and none 
 in Kentucky, nearer than Lexington. There are now 
 some thirty or more within that distance [of 200 miles;] 
 and nine within fifty miles of our city.* These all 
 claim to be our superiors ; and to be equal at least to old 
 Harvard and Yale. Of course, we cannot expect much 
 "custom," or to command a large range, of what is mis- 
 called, patronage. With so many formidable rivals and 
 opponents at our very doors — eager to welcome pupils of 
 all ages, and of every and no degree of literary qualifica- 
 tion — with capacious preparatory departments for A, B, 
 C — darians and Hie, Ha^c, Hoc-ers — promising to work 
 cheap; and to finish off and graduate, in double quick 
 time, and in the most approved style, all who may come 
 
 * I have a list, now before me, of twenty-five colleges or universi- 
 ties in Tennessee alone. — Several of these belong exclusively to indi- 
 viduals; and are bought and sold in open market, like any other 
 species of private property. They are invested with the usual corpo- 
 rate powers, and may confer all university degrees at pleasure. This 
 is probably a new thing under the sun: but Solomon's geography did 
 not extend to America. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 519 
 
 to them — it is wonderful that the reguhir eUxsses of our 
 humble "concern" should be maintained in a state of 
 even (2iMsi vitality. Or that a frugal, sagacious, dollar- 
 loving pubhc should condescend to remember us at all. 
 
 Besides, the several religious denominations have col- 
 leges of their own. And it is right, natural and proper, 
 that they should sustain them. As we belong to no sect 
 or party^ we have no sect or party to stand by and be- 
 friend us; to praise, puff, glorify, and fight for us. This 
 is, perhaps, the worst possible position. To be neutral — 
 of no side, of no party, of no creed — why neither poli- 
 tician nor pedagogue, church or school, would be re- 
 garded or trusted by any class. The jmte milieu is a 
 paradox — an anomaly — not to be tolerated in this fair 
 laud of religious freedom and equal rights. 
 
 Nearly all the preachers, teachers, editors, demagogues, 
 and other friends of the people, are hostile to us and to 
 Nashville. They give us a bad name. Our goodly city 
 they represent as a very dangerous place for }outh.* 
 And even some of our own grave citizens, occasionally, 
 admit the charge and confirm the imputation. I oiler no 
 defence or apology, and make no complaint. Let time do 
 its appropriate office : and the millennium will arrive at 
 last — in spite of colleges and croakers. 
 
 * Should a stray copy of this very learned and grave discourse 
 happen to fall into the hands of a distant reader, it may be proper to 
 remind him, upon the highest authority, that: "The citizens of Nash- 
 ville are distinguished for intelligence, refinement, courtesy, hospitality, 
 morality and religion." Young men of good habits may live here as 
 cheaply and safely as in any town in the Union. Young men of bad 
 habits cannot live safely or cheaply anywhere. 
 
520 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 "Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum, 
 Tendimus in Latium." — 
 
 We should despair, indeed, but for one cheering con- 
 sideration. We have, or ought to have, and eventually 
 must have, all the ladies on our side. Their interest, 
 their wisdom and their affections will enlist them in our 
 cause. How can they help it? Do not they see that the 
 much envied, and therefore calumniated, University fur- 
 nishes the best husbands in the world? Here I may 
 safely rest. — Causa dicta est. The ladies govern. And 
 all good young men will come hither to learn how to win 
 them. 
 
 The University has received, from the highest source, 
 one gracious complimentary notice, which I cannot for- 
 bear, in this rather auspicious connection, just to glance 
 at; and which I am pleased to recognize as appropriate 
 and well-merited. In substance, it is this : Our gradu- 
 ates generally, on leaving college, appear to wear their 
 academic honors meekly. They assume no haughty or 
 silly airs of superiority. — Betray no arrogance, pride or 
 vanity. — Affect nothing of the " Odi profanum vulgus, et 
 arceo," which is so often and so offensively characteristic 
 of the cloistered pedant, and of the lions of the village 
 school and country college. They seem to think their 
 education only just begun — not completed. Whatever 
 may have been their previous views or habits, they are 
 evidently anxious now to learn — to improve — to acquire 
 more and larger stores of knowledge. They are desirous 
 to attend the most distinguished colleges and professional 
 seminaries ; or to sit at the feet of any eminent Gamaliel 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 521 
 
 who can instruct or counsel them. They do not think 
 more highly of themselves than they ought to think. 
 
 To bring youth to this point — to this modest correct 
 self-appreciation — is a great achievement; and worth 
 more than any abstract amount whatever of mere lin- 
 guistic or philosophical lore. This is the crowning glory 
 of a university education. Indeed, this is its very es- 
 sence — its refining, elevating, life-giving spirit. Now it 
 is worthy of remark, that this happy result, this invalu- 
 able consummation, is often secured or attained amidst 
 the contact and collision of mind with mind of the youth 
 among themselves, in their common pursuits, discussions, 
 debates, and other trials of intellectual strength — and 
 under the gentle mesmeric influence of the daily lectures 
 of sensible and respected professors — by many who mas- 
 ter but little of the "hard studies" of the prescribed 
 curriculum. 
 
 But with this priceless acquisition — this enlightened 
 feeling, if I may so express it — this deep conviction that 
 they must labour all the more for time and opportunities 
 wasted or neglected — they go forth, true men, to do or die. 
 They often reach the highest honours : and they always 
 attract esteem as high-minded and right>minded gentle- 
 men. 
 
 In fact, I think that this is, chiefly and pre-eminently, 
 what is meant by a liberal education. 
 
 [The concluding monitory and religious portion of the 
 discourse, designed more especially for the graduating 
 class, is omitted.] 
 
NAME OF OUR REPUBLIC. 
 
NAME OF OUR REPUBLIC. 
 
 "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA."— "AMERICANS."— SHALL WE 
 ADOPT A NEW NAME? 
 
 [BKINQ PART OF AN ADDRESS DELIVKRED IN NASffVILLE OX COMMENCEMENT 
 DAY, OCTOBER 3, 1»49.] 
 
 At successive periods, since the achievement of our 
 national independence, various propositions have been 
 made to change the name of our Republic, on the 
 ground, first, that we have no right to our present 
 appellation; and, second, that it is neither distinctive 
 nor appropriate. Individuals of high character [as Noah 
 Webster, Washington Irving, etc.] and respectable lite- 
 rary associations [as the New York Historical Society — 
 See Report of Committee, March 31, 1845,] have argued 
 the case with all commendable zeal and ability in favour 
 of a change ; and they have gravely recommended other 
 names as more pertinent and expressive, as well as less 
 anomalous, ostentatious, and exclusive. I shall not re- 
 peat the arguments or reasons, poetical or political, spe- 
 cious and imposing though they be, which have been 
 thus ingeniously advanced. I take a different view 
 of the subject. 
 
 I maintain that we have the best possible rigid to the 
 
 style and name of "United States of America" and 
 
 525 
 
526 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 "Americans;" and that no others could be substituted 
 equally legitimate, significant or proper. 
 
 We assumed the name when there was not a single 
 independent State or nation of European origin upon 
 the whole western continent. A name theretofore un- 
 known and unappropriated. A name to which no 
 other people on the globe could then prefer a shadow 
 of claim. 
 
 This name has been recognized by all nations without 
 question or hesitation. 
 
 It has been used in all our public acts, documents, 
 constitutions and treaties — from its consecration in the 
 Declaration of Independence to this good day. 
 
 Our citizens have always, and everywhere, been called. 
 Americans by friend and foe. They have never been 
 known by any other name. It was spontaneously con- 
 ferred or rather adopted by all Europe, at the very out- 
 set of our national existence. Even our kind-hearted 
 mother England did not hesitate, though in scornful 
 derision, to denounce us as American rebels, or rebel 
 Americans — at all events, as Americans. And the 
 treaty of Paris finally settled the question, even in 
 her mind, never again to be mooted or debated. 
 
 The mere fact that other independent States have 
 since been established upon this continent, neither de- 
 prives us of our right to our own original name, nor 
 furnishes to any of them, either ground of complaint, 
 or the slightest title to the same appellation. 
 
 Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Chili, Colombia, and the 
 rest, must be content with such names as they have 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 527 
 
 acquired or may choose hereafter to adopt. They, too, 
 all concur in styling us Americans. If any of these 
 had been constituted simultaneously with our own go- 
 vernment, there might have been reason for an amicable 
 convention upon the subject, had a difficulty of the kind 
 arisen. 
 
 Ours, then, is the American Republic — The United 
 States of America — and we are Americans. A name 
 sufficiently euphonious, specific, definite, comprehensive 
 — and fairly won. Who would exchange it for Freedonia 
 or AUeghania or Apalachia, or any other hitherto sug- 
 gested or hereafter to be invented? Is it not pleasant 
 to the eye, grateful to the ear, dear to the heart, and 
 precious to the faith, of every honest Whig and Demo- 
 crat amongst us ? — nay of every hopeful friend of free- 
 dom and humanity throughout the world ? 
 
 Ought we not to rejoice in it? resolve to preserve it 
 unsullied? strive to elevate its true dignity? enlarge its 
 influence ? increase its brilliancy ? — until it shall acquire 
 a moral power and grandeur more effiictive, and a lustre 
 more resplendent, than any other which has ever graced 
 the page of history or insphed the muse of poetic 
 genius ? 
 
 Washington, in his Farewell Address, speaks thus: 
 •'The name of American, which belongs to you in 
 your national capacity, must always exalt the just 
 pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived 
 from local discriminations. With slight shades of differ- 
 ence, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and 
 political principles: — you have in a counnon cause fought 
 
528 EDUCATIOXAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 und triumphed together: the independence and liberty 
 you possess, are the work of joint counsels, and joint 
 efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes." 
 
 Our goodly name, it is true, has not been uniformly 
 and universally treated with as much respect as we are 
 prone to arrogate as its just due. We are rather sensi- 
 tive, fastidious and irritable under the lash of criticism 
 and rebuke. Yet gross slander, unmitigated abuse, de- 
 liberate misrepresentations — circulated not merely in the 
 daily metropolitan gazettes b}' mercenary jobbers, but 
 stereotyped in the sumptuous octavoes of the national 
 classic historian,* would seem to afford matter of grave 
 indignation, if not of charitable retaliation. Forbear- 
 ance may cease to be a \artue. But time heals disputes 
 as well as diseases — works miracles and exorcises evil 
 spirits and wicked demons. A brighter day is daAvning. 
 For although Ameriean has been, for more than half a 
 century, a term of reproach and derision in certain quar- 
 ters, yet even there a revolution appears to be in progress 
 and not unlikely to succeed. At least, present symptoms 
 are promising. Even the ultra tory British press, though 
 rather ungraciously, and as if by constraint, abates much 
 of its accustomed rancour and virulence when discoursing 
 about our strange country; and, now and then, puts 
 forth an utterance which almost savours of laudation. 
 These faint indications of returning rationality and jus- 
 tice, bespeak more of envy, jealousy or fear, perhaps, 
 than of frank generous good-will and hearty encourage- 
 
 * See Alisou, vol. i. p. 153. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 529 
 
 ment. Still, the bare semblance of righteousness is some- 
 what more grateful than indifference or contempt. Thej' 
 cannot any longer even affect to despise us. That dac- 
 has gone by — we are no longer a mere mass of vulgarity 
 and pretension — the refuse of European outcasts and 
 outlaws — the grovelling worshippers of Mammon — an 
 illiterate unwashed herd of democratic dolts and bluster- 
 ing demagogues — of semi-savage, barbarous, cowardly, 
 swaggering, insolent, braggadocios — of beastly inebriates, 
 duellists, cutthroats, lynchers, gamblers, knaves, fools, 
 manstealers, scoffers, atheists — and whatever else of 
 choice epithet their ow^n classic Billingsgate might supply 
 at command. Verily, we are at length somehochj — a posi- 
 tive quantity — a real substantive entity — and no mis- 
 take ! We are now recognized as a great nation, a gigan- 
 tic empire, a commanding and most potent republic — 
 fearless, intrepid, invincible — where difficulties exist only 
 to be overcome — and in whose vocabulary the word im- 
 possible never occurs. 
 
 Truly, this is a marvellous and very opportune dis- 
 covery ! 
 
 We have survived all manner of trials and disasters — 
 have passed through many perilous scenes of domestic 
 strife and bitterness and exasperation — have triumphed 
 over nullification and bankruptcy and repudiation — have 
 been to school, and learned how to make a book or two 
 for Edinburgh Reviewers to read and perchance to patron- 
 ize, and a few others for English Barristers and Benchers 
 to study, and to cite as authorities in the highest courts 
 of the kingdom — have achieved a trifle in sculpture and 
 
 VOL. I. 34 
 
530 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 painting, as well as in practical mechanics and scientific 
 researches — have extended the steamer, the canal, the 
 railway, the electro-magnetic telegraph, all over the land 
 and the waters — have supported religion, the church and 
 the clergy, by the voluntary action of the people— have 
 cherished the common school as an indispensable element 
 of republican health, vigour and prosperity — have shipped 
 millions of cotton to Europe, which ought to have been 
 manufactured at home — have welcomed to our shores 
 and broad lands hundreds of thousands who could find 
 neither food nor shelter in the old world — have cheered 
 the hearts and saved the lives of Ireland's famished and 
 perishing hosts, by our gratuitous and bountiful supplies, 
 during the most critical and expensive period of hostili- 
 ties with a border republic — have governed ourselves to 
 the entire contentment of the Whigs and the Democrats, 
 as either happened to be in the ascendant, without stand- 
 ing armies or onerous taxation, and without dread of in- 
 surrections, tumults, treasons or rebellions — have never 
 hanged a man for political crimes, nor abridged the rights 
 of conscience, or the freedom of speech, or the press — 
 have occasionally, too, exhibited a naartial spirit and 
 prowess, which few among the great potentates of the 
 earth would care to challenge or provoke — and we shall 
 outlive all present impending signs and tokens of calamity 
 and disunion, from provisoes and compromises, wise or 
 foolish, from iiro slavery ultraism or abolition fanaticism, 
 and from all sorts of political agitation, insanity, ambi- 
 tion, or empiricism. " Our Union, it must be preserved !" 
 It shall he preserved — is the loud, determined, fervent 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 531 
 
 response of the universal American heart. The very 
 name is a bond of union — and we will never yield or 
 forfeit the one or the other. 
 
 Here I must stop at the threshold of a tempting and 
 prolific theme — opening largely to self-gratulation for the 
 past and of glorious promise for the future. 
 
 We have been accused of ambition — of egregious terri- 
 torial enlargement propensities — because we have an- 
 nexed to our Union other States by fair purchase or by 
 the free consent and desire of their inhabitants — or 
 because we whipped the Mexicans with infinite odds 
 against us ; and then paid them for a portion of their 
 savage useless deserts [the gold regions were not then 
 dreamt of J a larger sum than they would probably have 
 demanded for the same, with Texas included, prior to 
 the conquest. This was at least magnanimous on our 
 part — if not customary, wise or politic. And yet we 
 have never held a single province, however acquired, as 
 a mere tributary dependency; to be governed and op- 
 pressed at pleasure by avaricious viceroys or licentious 
 pro-consuls. Every addition becomes, in due time, and 
 by a single constitutional provision, an integral part of 
 the Republic — a new State, with the same privileges, 
 laws and immunities as the immortal old thirteen. Such 
 has been the good fortune of Louisiana, Florida and 
 Texas. — And such will be the speedy lot of California, 
 Oregon and the rest of the conquered and purchased 
 territory, wherever situated or however circumstanced. 
 Now, who is benefited by this American system of an- 
 nexation? Not the general government at Washington 
 
532 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 — not Massachusetts, nor Ohio, nor Georgia, nor. any 
 individual State — but simply and exclusively, the citi- 
 zen, native and immigrant, of the annexed provinces. I 
 do not suppose that Tennessee derives any direct pecu- 
 niary profit or advantage from Texas — but the good 
 people of Texas are immense gainers by the transfer — 
 as any able economist may calculate, who will apply his 
 arithmetic to the task. That such additions of free-trad- 
 ing communities greatly enlarge the sphere of commercial 
 enterprise, of friendly intercourse, and of successful specu- 
 lation, will not be questioned. But these are benefits 
 common to all our citizens of every State. Hence all 
 controversy about a division of the spoils of a conquered 
 people, between different sections of the Union, is frivo- 
 lous and nugatory. There are no spoils or plunder to be 
 distributed. Not a Mexican has been robbed or deprived 
 of his property. And no American can get a dollar's 
 worth of it, or a foot of land, without paying for it. 
 
 History does not furnish, according to my poor reading, 
 many illustrations of a similar spirit or conduct. Neither 
 ancient Rome, nor modern Britain or France or Russia 
 ever conquered in this fashion. The civilized, intellec- 
 tual, refined, benevolent, chivalrous. Christian England, 
 queen of the seas, and the avowed champion of universal 
 negro emancipation, holds, at this moment, in absolute 
 serfdom or colonial subjection, more territory in Asia, 
 Africa, Australia, America, and the Islands of the Ocean, 
 than would equal in extent a dozen of our moderate 
 and modest republics. 
 
 In this sense, and in the European style, we have not 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 533 
 
 been, and never can become, without a radical change in 
 the genius of our people and institutions, a conquering 
 or ambitious nation. We are ready enough to fight in a 
 just cause, and when the crisis arrives, we shall repel 
 the invader — come whence he may. We will submit to 
 neither injury nor insult. But we have no disposition 
 to become aggressive — to create a war merely for the 
 sake of conquest. Such is not our vocation. Should 
 our neighbours, however, either at the North or South- 
 west, think proper to attack us, we shall beat them of 
 course — subdue them — and, if we please, annex their 
 country to the Union. What then? We shall merely 
 create a convenient number of sovereign independent 
 States like our own, and make all their people fellow 
 citizens and orthodox republicans. Such is the ex- 
 pansive character of our confederated democracy, that it 
 admits of indefinite extension — while it leaves all domes- 
 tic, local, municipal jurisdiction and control in the hands 
 of the people at home. I take it for granted, that our 
 Republic will, in reasonable time, embrace the whole of 
 North America. I think the inhabitants of the adjacent 
 countries will ask for annexation. It will come peace- 
 ably and as a matter of course — if we 'bide our time. 
 
 Here again I forbear. We have grown up into a 
 Republic, — such as the world had never witnessed be- 
 fore. I do not mean in magnitude or power, but in 
 hind. It stands in no historical category. Its model 
 or similitude can be traced in no human record nor in 
 any locality upon the globe. Our ancestors were a pecu- 
 liar people — were nurtured and trained under peculiar 
 
534 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 circumstances — and were eventually fitted to enact a 
 peculiar part — to construct a peculiar system of self- 
 government, exactly adapted to their then extraordi- 
 nary position, and to their subsequent growth and 
 development — however rapid, or however stupendous. 
 Let us cherish a grateful filial reverence towards our 
 noble ancestors — whether Puritan, Quaker, Catholic or 
 Cavalier. They were all men — good and true. The 
 fatherland could have furnished no better. They were 
 always freemen. They came hither to live and die free- 
 men. They were often annoyed, harassed, worried, vexed, 
 during a long colonial novitiate, by an unwise, illiberal, 
 jealous administration at home. — But they never surren- 
 dered a single attribute of the freeborn Englishman. 
 They endured much, remonstrated with dignity, and 
 resisted manfully every attempted encroachment. The 
 trial at arms came at length. The first effort to coerce 
 obedience to unconstitutional demands, was met, as none 
 but the free and the brave can meet the mercenary 
 veteran legions of imperious despotism. 
 
 The story of our singular colonial apprenticeship — 
 of the revolutionary war, [which was conservative not 
 destructive, undertaken to assert, maintain and perpetu- 
 ate our inalienable English rights, not to try novel experi- 
 ments or to demolish existing establishments,] — of the 
 causes and embarrassments which led to the adoption of 
 the Federal Constitution — of the origin, conduct and 
 consequences of the war of 1812 — and of various extra- 
 ordinary political and other phenomena down to the 
 present day — is, in some respects, familiar to everybody; 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 535 
 
 though few, perhaps, are conversant either with the un- 
 disguised facts, or witli the real motives, good and bad, 
 of the prominent actors. No master pen or pencil has 
 yet portra^^ed — pictured to the eye — engraven upon the 
 heart — the heroic and classic age of our American his- 
 tory — the age of Washington. But the main facts and 
 results are patent to the whole world. 
 
 We are now universally known and honoured as 
 Americans, Honoured as are none besides. From 
 Archangel to the Cape of Good Hope — from Dublin 
 to Canton — no national epithet will pass as currently or 
 command as high respect, as that of American, Abroad, 
 our citizens are all Americans : — not Tennesseans or Caro- 
 linians or Yermonters — not Whigs or Democrats or Feder- 
 alists. They are proud of their country, of their name, 
 of their government, of their sages, heroes and states- 
 men. 
 
 AH local, political or other domestic party distinctions 
 are lost, forgotten, disregarded — merged or absorbed — in 
 the one august name which reaches over and includes the 
 entire Republic, — One and indivisible forever! 
 
 We have a name gloriously illustrated and illustrious. 
 Our sacred duty is to maintain it untarnished. Every 
 educated youth especially, is a depositary and champion 
 of his country's good name. By his conduct and bear- 
 ing, at home and abroad, in private and in public, he 
 can do much to deepen, enlarge, exalt, and perpetuate 
 the favourable prepossession with which the American 
 citizen is everywhere received and welcomed. 
 
 Let every American, who travels or sojourns in a 
 
536 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 foreign land, remember that he is, for the time, -upon 
 his good behaviour, as the accredited official guardian 
 of his country's honour. As an American citizen, he 
 has no superior in rank or title. He is by birth, and 
 may be by his intelligence and deportment, the peer 
 of transatlantic nobility and royalty. 
 
 To be a Roman citizen, was once a distinction, coveted 
 by the proudest natives of every province and kingdom 
 conquered or protected by the Roman arms. It was not 
 only a passport, honorary and credential, the wide world 
 over, but a talisman of defence and security against all 
 arbitrary provincial tyrants, great and small, even under 
 the most corrupt and despotic forms of consular and im- 
 perial fanaticism. 
 
 "Civis Romanus sum," — "I am a Roman citizen," — 
 was the eloquent and effective plea, which caused the 
 unrighteous judge to tremble, which opened prison doors, 
 which arrested the executioner's arm, and which procured 
 for the doomed and otherwise helpless victim, a fair hear- 
 ing and impartial trial, according to the laws of Rome, 
 and before her most august tribunals. 
 
 "I am an American citizen," — shall, may we not hope, 
 prove not less potent or availmg, when uttered by the hum- 
 blest of our countrymen, in the wildest and remotest re- 
 gions of the globe? 
 
 But there is yet a name, which, when adequately appre- 
 ciated, rises, in its vast comprehension of the present and 
 the future, infinitely above all Roman, all Greek, all 
 American, lustre, fame, and grandeur. That name is 
 Christian. He who possesses all that the name implies, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 537 
 
 is a citizen of the Almighty's universal and everlasting 
 empire. He is advanced forever above and beyond the 
 reach of pain, disaster, sorrow and death. Ingratitude, 
 detraction, slander, falsehood, envy, jealousy, aml^ition, 
 revenge, malignity, persecution, and the ten thousand 
 other evil passions and devices of wicked men, may 
 assail him, or even adorn his brow with the crown of 
 martyrdom, — but still he is safe — for he is a citizen of 
 Heaven! Who would not be a Christian? as well as an 
 American? Why should not the two be inseparably 
 united? Why should not American Christian become 
 the characteristic distinctive appellation of our people? 
 so that we might justly be esteemed as the noblest, 
 holiest, happiest, freest, most disinterested and charitable 
 portion of the human family? Then would the philan- 
 thropist, the patriot, the repubhcan, the Christian, be all 
 combined and blended in the one great name, American. 
 And he would be joyfully hailed as the missionary of 
 liberty and hght, of religion and peace, of mercy and 
 salvation, to an oppressed, benighted, and perishing 
 world. 
 
LIFE A\D CHARACTER 
 
 PROFESSOR GERARD TROOST 
 
THE LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 PEOF. GERARD TROOST, M.D. 
 
 A DISCOURSE DELIVERED IN NASHVILLE ON COMMENCEMENT DAY, 
 OCTOBER 2, 1850. 
 
 Our University has sustained numerous painful be- 
 reavements within the last quarter of a century. Be- 
 tween seventy and eighty of her ingenuous and gifted 
 Alumni have thus early been numbered with the dead. 
 We have wept over their apparently premature de- 
 parture, and deeply sympathized with the sorrows of 
 surviving relatives and friends. Could we spread open 
 before you our brief college catalogue, and glance at the 
 names to which is prefixed the usual token of mortality, 
 we should revive reminiscences and associations most 
 thrilling to the heart of the speaker, and not less so to 
 that of many a hearer. We could tell of genius, talent 
 and industry — of rich and varied attainments — of rare 
 intellect, ripe scholarship, pure morals and gentle man- 
 ners — of modest worth, generous ambition and noble 
 philanthropy — in a word, of the thousand juvenile indi- 
 cations of future eminence and usefulness ; all . to be 
 suddenly crushed and withered in the very buddings 
 of anticipation; — but we may not linger upon this 
 melancholy, though grateful theme. The memory of 
 
 541 
 
542 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 their virtues and high promise is engraven upon the 
 hearts of those who knew and loved them best. 
 
 But, our fathers : where are thej ? The honourable 
 and respected Board of Trustees have been visited, too, 
 by the inexorable king of terrors. Alas, how many 
 endeared and distinguished names have been stricken 
 from the roll, and their remains consigned to the silent 
 tomb! Nineteen regular members of the Board — be- 
 sides three Governors, Cannon, Carroll and Polk, 
 who were members ex-qfficio — have deceased during 
 the period of my connection with the University, [26 
 years.] Of those who were members on my first arrival 
 at Nashville, only seven continue to hold that relation 
 at the present time. Thus speedily have passed away 
 from this mortal scene, the good, the great, the wise, the 
 brave — the soldier, the statesman, the jurist, the physi- 
 cian, the divine, the diplomatist, the Governor, the Presi- 
 dent — men of power and renown — destined, some of 
 them, to live in the hearts of their countrymen, and to 
 illustrate the page of the world's history throughout all 
 future generations.* I may add, that every member of 
 the first or original Board, whose names are recorded in 
 the charter of 1806, has deceased. 
 
 Of the Faculty, seven Professors and three Tutors, my 
 colleagues and associates, at different periods, have been 
 removed by death. — Only three of them, however, while 
 in the actual service of the University; namely, Pro- 
 
 * Among the number were two Presidents of the United States, 
 Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 543 
 
 fessors Boweii, Ilainiltoii and Troost. The first (Prof. 
 Bo wen,) died, after two and a half years' labour among 
 us, and after giving ample evidence of superior qualifica- 
 tions for the chair of Chemistry — esteemed and lamented 
 by his acquaintance and by the votaries of science 
 throughout the land. He had been a favourite pupil of 
 Professors Silliman and Hare, at New Haven and Phila- 
 delphia. Probably, no young man of that day had in 
 prospect a more brilliant career in the judgment of the 
 most accomplished of his scientific contemporaries.* 
 
 Professor Hamilton was better known. He was with 
 us many years; and so recentl}^ that few of our citizens 
 could have been strangers to his person or to his worth. 
 A more exemplary, conscientious, modest, consistent, 
 unobtrusive Christian gentleman has rarely been met 
 with anywhere : and a more faithful, patient, judicious, 
 persevering and successful teacher could not be desired 
 in an}' school or college. A thorough enthusiast' in his 
 professional studies and pursuits, it was his chief delight 
 to acquire knowledge, and to impart it to his pupils. 
 Amiable, gentle, respectful — never abrupt, harsh or re- 
 pulsive — always accessible and cheerfully communica- 
 tive — meek, humble, sincere — abounding in works of 
 charity and goodness — he calmly fell asleep, in the full 
 assurance of a happy resurrection and a glorious immor- 
 
 * George T. Bo wen was born March 19, 1803, at Providence in 
 Rhode Island ; and was graduated at Yale College in 1 822. He was 
 here elected Professor of Chemistry in the autumn of 182.5. He en- 
 tered upon the duties of his office March 6, 1826. He died October 
 25, 1828, in the 26th year of his age. 
 
544 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 tality, through faith in the merits and atoning sacrifice 
 of tlie Son of God, in whose name he had been baptized 
 in infancy, and to whose service his Hfe had been de- 
 voutly consecrated."'' 
 
 But a still more recent and most afflictive bereave- 
 ment must be the subject of our present discourse and 
 sorrowful meditations. A few weeks ago, the University 
 and the citizens of Nashville were summoned to pay the 
 last sad tribute of respect to the remains of the venerable 
 Professor Troost. No similar event has, probably, ever 
 created a greater sensation in this community-, or called 
 forth a more general or generous expression of feeling, 
 sympathy and regret. We all felt and acknowledged 
 that our loss was irreparable j and that we should never 
 look upon his like again. 
 
 In speaking here of such a man, I feel both the deli- 
 cacy of my position, and my inabilitj^ to meet the de- 
 mands of the occasion. Could I have foreseen that this 
 melancholy dut}^ would so soon, or even ever, have de- 
 volved upon me, I would have eagerly embraced the 
 many opportunities which a daily intercourse afforded, 
 of learning from the lips of my venerated friend, the 
 most remarkable incidents of his somewhat eventful life 
 and varied fortunes. I would have inquired more 
 
 * James Hamilton was a native of Princeton, N. J., and was gradu- 
 ated at the college there in 1814. He was highly distinguished as a 
 classical and mathematical teacher in Trenton and Burlington, N. J. 
 He was Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in the 
 University of Nashville sixteen years, at three several periods. He 
 died of cholera, June 21, 1849. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 545 
 
 minutely about the course and progress of his studies; 
 the character and number of his publications; and what- 
 ever else might contribute to a fair biographical notice 
 or decent obituary. Though for a year past, it was 
 obvious that his physical strength was gradually' dimi- 
 nishing under the weight of years and of a painful 
 chronic disease ; yet so calm, so cheerful, so uncomplain- 
 ing, was his habit, that I did not, could not realize that 
 his days were already numbered and his work accom- 
 plished. I beheld him speechless and dying before I 
 dreamed of any immediate danger — much less of so 
 sudden a dissolution. 
 
 The few facts and circumstances which I have since 
 collected from other sources, may be soon told. The in- 
 formation expected from his brother in Missouri, and 
 which, it was hoped, would be ample and satisfactory. 
 has not yet been received.* 
 
 Dr. Gerard Troost was born at Bois-Le-Duc, in Hol- 
 land, March 15, 1776. He died August 14, 1850, aged 
 74 years and five months. He was educated in the 
 schools and universities of his native country — chiefly at 
 Leyden and Amsterdam. He appears, at an early pe- 
 riod, to have manifested a zealous devotion to Chemistry 
 and Natural History; and more especiall}^ to the then 
 infant sciences of Geology and Mineralogy. 
 
 In 1801, the College of Amsterdam (Collegium quod 
 Civium Amstelodamensium saluti prospicit,) conferred 
 upon him, after a strict examination, the degree of 
 
 * Dr. Beuoit Troost, Kansas, Missouri. 
 35 
 
546 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 •'Master in Pharmacy," (in arte Pharmaceutica Magis- 
 trum, — as his diploma has it.) * * * "Accurate cum 
 in Latina lingua, Plantis, caeterisque simplicibus, et 
 varia ex his componendi mode, ut et in Theoria Chemico- 
 Pharmaceutica examinavimus ; et qure ex lege requi- 
 runtur ab eo composita Galenica, et Chemica medica- 
 menta confici vidimus. In quibus omnibus cum peri- 
 tiam suam et dexteritatem sufficienter probasset, quern 
 petebat, in arte Pharmaceutica Magistri titulum lubentes 
 concessimus," etc. — [Copied from his Diploma.] 
 
 Thus declaring him duly qualified and authorized to 
 practise as a pJiarmacist [or pharmaceutist.] We must 
 not confound this profession with that of the ordinary 
 druggist or apothecary in our own country. 
 
 Pharmacy [or pharmaceutics] is the art of preserving, 
 preparing, compounding, and combining substances for 
 medical purposes. As these substances may be mineral, 
 vefietable or animal, theoretical pharmacy requires a 
 knowledge of botany, zoology and mineralogy; and as it 
 is necessary to determine their properties, and the laws 
 of their composition and decomposition, a thorough 
 mastery of practical or experimental chemistry is equally 
 indispensable. The preparation of medicines was an- 
 ciently performed by the physicians themselves, who 
 also administered them to their patients. It became a 
 distinct branch of medical science at Alexandria in 
 Egypt, some 300 years before the Christian era. And 
 in most enlightened countries since, it has been regarded 
 as worthy of special governipental regulation and en- 
 courairement. Pharmacv too, like its parent or sister 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 547 
 
 art of medicine, has followed the fortunes of science and 
 the general diffusion of knowledge among the people. 
 
 The medical reforms of Paracelsus, in the sixteenth 
 century, introduced important changes into pharmacy. 
 Many chemical preparations were adopted; and the use 
 of mineral specifics, as, for example, antimony and mer- 
 cury, became more common. Still, the operations were 
 conducted without reference to scientific principles : but, 
 since the middle of the seventeenth century, the natural 
 sciences have continued to make steady progress; and 
 pharmacy, as well as medicine, has experienced the effects 
 of the improvement. So that the practice of pharmacy 
 is regarded in several European States, not only as a 
 learned and liberal profession, but as a highly responsible 
 trust or office. The degree, therefore, of Master of Phar- 
 macy, or Doctor in that art, as our colleges would express 
 it, implied no ordinary scientific attainments and moral 
 qualifications. It would be well for this and every other 
 country, were the vocation placed by law and usage 
 upon an equally elevated basis with that of the regular 
 physician. 
 
 Dr. Troost, it is understood, practised, as a pharmacist, 
 both at Amsterdam and at the Hague — though for a 
 brief period. As we find him soon after at liome in Paris; 
 and familiar with its language, and its immense reposi- 
 tories of nature and art. He was, for several years, a 
 pupil and companion of the celebrated Abb^ Rene Just 
 Hawy, — the author of a new system of Crystallograi^hy 
 •^in fact, the founder of the modern or present school 
 of mineralogy. For this distinguished and most ex- 
 
548 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 cellent man, he ever cherished a filial, grateful and 
 affectionate respect. He here translated into the Dutch 
 language, one of the earlier works ["The Aspects of 
 Nature,"] of Alexander Humboldt, [a copy of which he 
 has since presented to our college library.] For this 
 service he received the cordial thanks of the author: 
 with whom he maintained a friendly correspondence to 
 the last. 
 
 About 1809, he Avas appointed by the King of Holland 
 one of a scientific corps to accompany a naval expedition 
 to Java. The English effectually prevented the sailing 
 of the Dutch fleet: and it became necessary either to 
 relinquish the scientific enterprise or to devise some 
 other mode of conveyance. In order to escape capture 
 by the British during the long sea-voyage, he embarked 
 for New York or Philadelphia in an American vessel, to 
 seek a passage thence to the East Indies under the pro- 
 tection of our then neutral flag. Soon after his arrival 
 here, Louis Napoleon abdicated or resigned the crown of 
 Holland, [July 1, 1810;] and that kingdom was by the 
 imperial decree of July 10, 1810, incorporated with the 
 French empire. Java too, in the following year [1811,] 
 surrendered to the British arms, and ceased to be a part 
 of the Dutch colonial possessions, until the general resto- 
 ration of 1814. 
 
 In these circumstances. Dr. Troost resolved to remain 
 in this country, and to become an American citizen. 
 He first settled in Philadelphia — where he assisted in 
 forming the American Academy of Natural Sciences in 
 1812; and of which he was several years the President. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 549 
 
 Here he was occupied in scientifiic investigations, or in 
 the direct apphcation of s^cience to practical purposes. 
 Near the close of the late war with England, he engaged 
 with others in the manufacture of alum near x^nnapolis 
 in Maryland— the first of the kind ever attempted in 
 the United States. In this connection, owing to the 
 failure of the proprietors, he was a great sufferer in a 
 pecuniary point of view. 
 
 He then returned to Philadelphia; where he Avas ap- 
 pointed Professor of Mineralogy in the Philadelphia 
 Museum, 1821. He there delivered public lectures upon 
 that science, and also upon chemistry at the Philadelphia 
 College of Pharmacy. He made sundry geological ex- 
 cursions into New Jersey, New York, and other interest- 
 ing localities in the vicinity. 
 
 He removed, in company with Thomas Say, William 
 Maclure and others, to New Harmony [Indiana,] in 1825, 
 under the auspices of the then reputed philanthropist, 
 Robert Owen. He soon became dissatisfied with Mr. 
 Owen's impracticable novelties and peculiar social ar- 
 rangements. He thence removed, with his family and 
 mineral treasures, to Nashville in 1827. Here has been 
 his quiet and pleasant home ever since. 
 
 He was appointed Professor of Chemistry, Geology 
 and Mineralogy in the University of NashviUe in 1828; 
 and State Geologist m December, 1831. The latter ap- 
 pointment was renewed at every biennial session of the 
 Legislature until the last :— when that very economical 
 body abolished or discontinued the office. 
 
 1. State Geologist. How largely the State of Tennes- 
 
550 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 see is indebted to him for geologiccal surveys and learned 
 reports — towards the discovery and development of her 
 mineral wealth — cannot be conjectured, much less appre- 
 ciated. And yet, how cheaply gained! How meagre 
 the pittance doled out, by the representatives of the 
 million, to the master mind employed to enrich them 
 all ! Several of our sister States have been more liberal, 
 or rather, less unjust, towards their respective Geologists. 
 Though none could boast of a more accomplished, or 
 more faithful labourer, either in the field, or at the desk, 
 or in the laboratory. A few centuries ago, the services 
 of a public benefactor might have been undervalued or 
 ignorantly denounced, without exciting surprise, and 
 withont the consciousness even of wrong-doing. A 
 Roger Bacon, a Wickliffe, a Columbus, a Galileo, have 
 conferred [an inglorious] immortality upon nations and 
 ages of stolidity, barbarism, ingratitude and bigotry. 
 But the illuminated nineteenth ought not to be equally 
 tolerant of similar abuses. 
 
 Were I to indulge the sarcastic vein or give vent to an 
 honest indignation, I might contrast the impudent, domi- 
 neering, selfish, swaggering, successful career of the 
 brazen-faced and iron-hearted popular demagogue, with 
 the calm, subdued, patient, humble, retiring, modest 
 carriage of the laborious philosophical pioneer, who is 
 working out the great problem of human advancement, 
 and expending the rarest and richest faculties in the 
 gratuitous promotion of the welfare and prosperity of 
 his brother man. I might tell of the sneers and scoft- 
 ings and ridicule to which he is often subjected — to the 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 551 
 
 neglect, poverty, suffering, privation and even positive 
 persecution which await him — to the cold, heartless, 
 calculating, mis-named economy, which crushes his spirit, 
 and sometimes places upon his honoured head the crown 
 of martjrdom. The Naturalist, even now is almost 
 everywhere regarded, by the vulgar as a dreaming vision- 
 ary or puerile enthusiast — without common sense or 
 rational ambition. His priceless collections of stones, 
 minerals, fossils, plants, animals, is gravely pronounced 
 a humbug: and the office of State Geologist is inconti- 
 ^ nently voted a sinecure or nuisance.* But I forbear all 
 such invidious comparisons and criminating insinuations. 
 
 * Of William Maclure, it is related that: "When travelling in 
 some remote districts, the unlettered inhabitants seeing him engaged 
 in breaking the rocks with his hammer, supposed him to be a lunatic 
 who had escaped from confinement ; and on one occasion, as he drew 
 near a public house, the inmates, being informed of his approach, 
 took refuge in doors, and closing the entrance held a parley from the 
 windows, until they were at length convinced that the stranger could 
 be safely admitted." 
 
 Incidents of this kind, and many others which occurred to him, 
 appear to have influenced the following remarks in the Preface to his 
 Geology: "All inquiry into the nature and properties of rocks, or the 
 relative situation they occupy on the surface of the earth, has been 
 much neglected. It is only since a few years that it has been thought 
 worth the attention of either the learned or unlearned ; and even now 
 a great proportion of both treat such investigations with contempt, as 
 beneath their notice. Why mankind should have so long neglected to 
 acquire knowledge so useful to the progress of civilization — why the 
 substances over which they have been daily stumbling, and without 
 whose aid they could not exercise any one art or profession, should 
 be the last to occupy their attention — is one of those problems perhaps 
 only to be solved by an analysis of the nature and origin of the power 
 of the few over the many." [Memoir of William Maclure, by Samuel 
 George Morton, M.U., pp. 11, 12.] 
 
552 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 Our late worthy friend was never friendless ; nor was ho 
 ever the inmate of a debtor's prison or of the Holy In- 
 quisitors' dungeon. He lived and died, esteemed and 
 honoured and lamented by the wisest and best of his 
 contemporaries. 
 
 2. College Professor. As a college professor, he was 
 diligent, exemplary, punctual, and eminently instinctive. 
 He was always thoroughly prepared for lecture, experi- 
 ment, and familiar illustration, at the appointed hour. 
 Master of his theme, and felicitous in his manner of 
 exhibiting the dry details and subtile mysteries of^ 
 science, he could not fail to interest such of his pupils 
 as w^ere disposed to profit by his teachings. That the 
 number of these should have been so exceedingly small, 
 is matter of profound regret. He, indeed, spared no 
 pains or efforts to awaken a spirit of inquiry and to 
 create a proper enthusiasm in behalf of his favourite 
 studies. The fruits of his labours are yet to be gathered 
 by more fortunate successors. Learned foreigners and 
 other strangers from the far-off East, when visiting the 
 veteran sage and sun^eying his splendid, rare and costly 
 museum, have expressed astonishment, that he was not 
 daily surrounded by scores and hundreds of eager, at- 
 tentive, devoted disciples. Here then is proof, if proof 
 were needed, that unquestioned merit of the highest 
 order, does not alwa3^s and everywhere — not even among 
 the enlightened fathers and chivalrous sons of Tennessee 
 — command the reverence and patronage w^hicli might 
 be justly claimed or reasonably anticipated. No college, 
 within the wide range of the Mississippi Valley, I ven- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 553 
 
 ture to assert, lias ever provided such able and ample 
 means of instruction in the natural and experimental 
 sciences, as the University of Nashville has possessed 
 and cheapl}' proffered to the public for more than twenty 
 years past. Whatever may have been the defects or 
 faults or vices of the institution in other respects — and 
 for these I am no apologist — still, it has had no superior, 
 no equal, in the grand departments of Chemistry, Mine- 
 ralogy and Geology. How many youth have been at- 
 tracted hither solely or chiefly with a view to proficiency 
 in all or any of them? Probably not a dozen, or even 
 the half of that number.*'^ While devout pifgrims from 
 distant lands have come to do homage to the renowned 
 Professor, our own Western youth seem not to have been 
 aware that a prophet was in their midst. By all the 
 actual students of the University since 1828, and espe- 
 cially by the graduates, his memory will be reverently 
 and affectionately cherished. Whatever considerations 
 may have allured them to the University in the first 
 instance, or however indifferent any of them may have 
 been to his instructions, he will ever be gratefully asso- 
 ciated with all their reminiscences of college life. He 
 was so good, so kind, so patient, so indulgent, so fatherly 
 — he can never be forgotten or cease to be honoured. 
 However discouraging may have been the aspect of his 
 little auditor}^, he performed his duty faithfully, gene- 
 rously, and even hopefully, to the last. 
 
 3. As A Philosopher. Let us view him, for a mo- 
 
 * Scarcely any students ever entered for the express purpose of 
 
 cultivating the above sciences. 
 
654 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 ment, as a philosoplier ; for such he truly was. -As a 
 devotee to science — as a successful student and inter- 
 preter of nature — as a discriminating, sagacious, inde- 
 fatigable, cautious searcher after truth — he had few 
 equals. He arrived at no crude or novel conclusions 
 hastily. He did not generalize from doubtful or insuffi- 
 cient facts. He assumed no premises or data without 
 proof Anomalous or extraordinary phenomena did not 
 startle him, or prompt the premature utterance of a new 
 theory, or the claim to a grand discovery. He patiently 
 revised, restudied, re-examined; analyzed and experi- 
 mented; extended his inquiries and investigations; until 
 he could speak to the public with a satisfied conviction 
 of the certainty and value of his discoveries and deduc- 
 tions. 
 
 It would require a thorough and minute acquaintance 
 with his favourite and habitual pursuits — such as I do 
 not pretend to, and such as few possess — in order to 
 specify, or to render intelligible, the character or amount 
 of his attainments, or of his contributions to human 
 knowledge and general philosophy. With the three 
 great kingdoms of nature — animal, vegetable, mineral — 
 he was more or less intimately conversant. He had 
 read, I believe, every authority, book and treatise upon 
 natural science; from those of Aristotle, Theophrastus 
 and Pliny, down to the last elaborate volume of his old 
 friend, the octogenarian Humboldt, and the latest lively 
 hroclmre of his youthful correspondent, Agassiz. 
 
 He was, of course, au fait in the history of science. 
 Familiar with all the stages and changes of its pro- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 000 
 
 gress — with the conflicting theories, schools and systems — 
 Avith the diverse modes of classification and nomencla- 
 ture adopted and rejected — Avith all, indeed, that had 
 been achieved in every field or department of natural or 
 empirical philosophy. So that he could not be easily- 
 imposed on by any apparent novelty or by any pretended 
 discovery. Not content, hoAvever, Avith learning Avhat 
 others could teach, he Avas constantly engaged in ex- 
 ploring unknoAvn territory, for the extension and en- 
 largement of human knoAvledge. 
 
 Of his published Avritings, I cannot furnish even an 
 outline. They consist chiefly of translations, of commu- 
 nications to scientific journals and learned societies, or of 
 occasional pamphlets and geological reports. The result 
 of his latest researches Avas embodied in a monograph, 
 carefully prepared for the press, and forAvarded to the 
 Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, for publication, 
 only a fcAv Aveeks before his death. It is a treatise upon 
 the rare and hitherto undescribed encrinites of Tennessee 
 — Avith accurate and beautiful draAA^ngs, executed by an 
 accomplished artist of our cit}^ from the original speci- 
 mens in the Doctor's cabinet. This Avill prove a real 
 acquisition to science; and Avill add much, it is believed, 
 to the reputation of its author. This Avas his last labour 
 of love in liis chosen field : and in its elaboration, he ex- 
 pended the feeble remnant of his declining age and 
 health. He gradually Avasted aA\^ay, still at his post — 
 for he Avas at Avork in his laboratory only forty-eight 
 hours before he ceased to breathe — Avith a mind unim- 
 paired, though Avith physical strength scarcely adequate 
 
556 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 to the slightest exertion. He died almost pen in hand ; 
 and, we trust, with glorious visions of the beautiful world 
 which its beneficent Creator had enabled him so long to 
 study and admire, as the product and evidence of infinite 
 wisdom, power and goodness. 
 
 He was a member — regular, honorary or corresponding 
 — of most of the Scientific and Philosophical Societies in 
 Europe and America. Numerous testimonials of the 
 high estimation in which he was held by these learned 
 associations and by the whole scientific world, might be 
 readily furnished, were it necessary, or rather, not super- 
 fluous, on the present occasion. 
 
 As a philosopher, without arrogance, pride or preten- 
 sion, he pursued the noiseless tenor of his way ; free from 
 envy, jealousy or ungenerous rivalry. He knew how to 
 defend truth and to maintain his own opinions, without 
 decending to personal controversy or wounding the amour 
 propre of his opponents. He conceded to others the 
 intellectual rights and immunities which he claimed 
 for himself. He did full justice to the merits of his 
 brethren, and rejoiced in their success and prosperity. 
 He was ever ready to counsel, instruct and assist all 
 sincere inquirers; and to mark out for them the road 
 to fame and fortune. His very nature was so guileless 
 and unselfish, that, occasionally perhaps, he was imposed 
 on by the crafty and insidious, who craved his instruc- 
 tions for no very honourable purposes. 
 
 For every species of sciolism, quackery, and ignorant 
 assumption or rude presumption, however, he manifested 
 a dignified neglect or silent aversion. In extreme cases, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 557 
 
 he could administer a becomingly stern rebuke. He had 
 no particular fancy for .the schoolmaster or professor 
 who could teach all languages, ancient and modern, 
 together with all the sciences ; and write newspaper plar 
 giarisms upon lunar rainbows, and orthodox cosmogo- 
 nies in accordance with the dicta of Moses, De Luc, and 
 Cuvier.* He well understood, and could expose, the entire 
 process of deception resorted to. How easy to make a 
 pompous flourish and display before an assemblage of 
 laughing little schoolgirls or mischievous dozy sopho- 
 mores, by mouthing off, in sonorous style and with 
 appropriate magisterial solemnity, any amount of for- 
 eign gibberish or technical jargon, borrowed from Babel 
 or the lexicon, for that special purpose ! How easy too, 
 is it to astonish the natives by a newspaper column of 
 geological feldspar and horneblende, stolen from Lyell 
 or the Penny Cyclopaedia! What a profound Solomon 
 does not the writer speedily become in the estimation of 
 his fellow villagers ! He is forthwith the very man for 
 State Geologist, or for the presidency of the new college, 
 that is soon to eclipse all others in the Commonwealth ! 
 I have lately read, in one of our city papers, a school 
 prospectus, heralded, as usual, by a half dozen editorial 
 commendations, in which a single Yankee promises to 
 teach more languages and sciences than any score of 
 modest Newtons, Porsons, Davys, Bucklands or Brews- 
 ters would venture to attempt ! 
 
 * The audience readily understood the allusion here made to certain 
 advertisements and essays which had recently appeared in some of the 
 Nashville gazettes. 
 
558 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 Now our lamented friend could not countenance such 
 egregious charlatanry, nor tolerate any specimen of the 
 genus. He deplored the prevalence of this imposing and 
 insolent superficiality, and argued no good to the cause 
 of genuine science from its increasing popularity. Were 
 a man to advertise himself as duly qualified and pre- 
 pared to practise all the learned j^rofessions or a dozen 
 or two of the mechanical trades, I suppose he would 
 be pitied as a lunatic, or denounced as an impostor 
 or vain braggart. But when he proclaims his compe- 
 tency to teach all that is known or knowable in science 
 and literature, he is, without hesitation, taken by the 
 hand, trusted, patronized and enriched by a credulous 
 pubhc — especially if warranted by the customary pre- 
 paid newspaper puff extraordinary — though he may not 
 be master of his own vernacular or of vulgar arithmetic 
 to the Rule of Three! Whether this be a disease or 
 foll}^ peculiar to the West, I have not inquired. The 
 sooner we get rid of it, the better for us and our chil- 
 dren. It is humiliating to see how cant, and twaddle, 
 and bluster, and puffing, and effrontery, and ostentatious 
 egotism abound and flourish and succeed amongst us. 
 
 It is the easiest thing in the world to get up a popular 
 lecture about Geology or Chemistry or Mesmerism or 
 Phrenology or Engineering or Magnetism or Electricity 
 or Architecture, or ahout any other science, art or mys- 
 tery; and that too, without the slightest acquaintance 
 with the elements or first principles of one of them. 
 This is done everywhere by travelling or occasional lec- 
 turers. Hundreds of this class would have triumphantly 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 559 
 
 borne away the palm, by acclamation, from our late un- 
 pretending Professor, in the very departments of nature 
 which he loved and cultivated beyond all fair rivalry or 
 competition. He Avould have stood no chance of victory 
 on trial with flippant, strutting, obtrusive, thievish, jaclc- 
 daw impudence, arrayed in peojcoch finery, and all made 
 up and rigged out for the exhibition, and for the especial 
 divertisement of his most select auditory of fashionable 
 ladies and gentlemen. Not he. He would have been 
 voted a hove, or mere proser, by those who laud the other 
 to the skies. 
 
 In these allusions, comparisons and contrasts, I am 
 not digressing very far from my proper theme. It w^as 
 in reference to such abuses and absurdities, that Dr. 
 Troost seemed ever to be much excited, or to suffer the 
 calm philosophical temperament of his kindly nature to 
 be ruffled. Upon these, I have often heard him dis- 
 course strongly, freely, indignantly. Not because he 
 fancied himself to be slighted or wronged : far from it. 
 It was the injury, the insult, the opprobrium, thus in- 
 flicted upon science — sacred science — that roused his 
 spirit and provoked his resentment. 
 
 This enormous system of swindling quackery might 
 and ought to be put down by the omnipotent periodical 
 press. Newspaper editors create and destroy at pleasure. 
 They make our rulers, and rule them wlien made. They 
 manufacture public opinion and individual reputation. 
 They are the only recognized self-appointed guardians of 
 the people's rights and of the people's conscience. They 
 are ex-officio judges, critics, censors, of all public officers 
 
660 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 from the President to the town constable, of all authors 
 from Homer to Carlyle, of all institutions and professions, 
 of all discoveries and inventions, of all projects and 
 enterprises. They are the arbiters of fashion, morals 
 and manners — of taste, art, refinement, and all the 
 j)roprieties of social life. They puff theatre, church, 
 school or college; according to the dictates of purse or 
 conscience — their conscience being understood to he at 
 the bottom of their purse. The Saturday night's inimi- 
 table "bright, particular star,"' and the Sunday morning's 
 graceful popular preacher, share alike their disinterested 
 and judicious favours. They are privileged, by common 
 consent, to write about everybody and everything — de 
 omni scibili, et quihusdam aliis. And their sentence of 
 ajDproval or reprobation is duh" ratified by their gTave 
 and independent readers. Their utterances are deemed 
 oracular, and worthy of implicit acceptation. They are 
 popes all — and the onl}' living popes whose hnlls are 
 never dishonoured, — though their liUs often are I They 
 are infallible in their judgments and edicts — as no Roman 
 Pontiff ever was, is, or will be. That they should dogma- 
 tize stoutly, and affirm boldly, and decide promptly, and 
 arrogate largely — is a matter of course. The editorial 
 tripod is the seat of inspiration as well as of honour. 
 And wo to the luckless wight, who shall become ob- 
 noxious to the frowns of a tribunal from which there lies 
 no appeal. 
 
 I find no fault with this established constitutional pre- 
 eminence and paramount authority or absolute supremacy 
 of the press ; or with its upright, impartial, all-knowing, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. OGl 
 
 dignified, conservative, acconiplislied and most li))eral 
 conductors. I make no complaint on this score. I con- 
 cede omniscience and infallibility, however, to no other 
 caste or clique or fraternity' amongst us. And I now re- 
 spectfully bespeak their seasonable and potent interposi- 
 tion to annihilate the claims and pretensions of all rival 
 adventurers. Let the wordy pedant and the brainless 
 pedagogue, the bullying empiric and smattering sciolist, 
 and all others who profess to Avork miracles or to achieve 
 impossibilities in the divine art of education, be made 
 forthwith to know and to occupy their appropriate rank 
 and sphere. Do this, gentlemen editors, and we will sing 
 pwans, loud and long, in your praise and to your honour. 
 And may you live and reign a thousand years ! and still 
 find upon your banners esto perpetua as bright and cheer- 
 ing as at this present most auspicious deliverance ! !* 
 
 4. His Cabinets, Library, etc. A Avord about the 
 Doctor's extensive and diversified cabinets for the illus- 
 tration of Natural History, might be expected along with 
 our notice of him as a philosopher and instructor. Am* 
 enumeration or description, however, would fail to be 
 intelligible or satisfactory. It has often Ijeen asked, 
 when, where, how, did he contrive to amass so choice a 
 treasure of rare, curious and costly specimens both of 
 nature and art? Such a collection, indeed, as can hardly 
 be found in a half dozen of our largest cities or oldest 
 universities? For he had accumulated specimens not 
 onlv of the well-known minerals, rocks and fossils, but 
 
 * Scottice for delivery or utterance. 
 36 
 
562 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 of numbers discovered by himself — of new species of 
 crinoidea and other organic remains so abundant through- 
 out the West, together with not a few hitherto unde- 
 scribed birds, serpents, fishes, and especially the testa- 
 ceous mollusks of our rivers — as well as anatomical and 
 botanical preparations, in various forms, all well adapted 
 to the purposes of the lecturer and teacher — to say 
 nothing of his every-day chemical operations, for which 
 he was amply supplied. His library was large and 
 judiciously selected — abounding not only in the standard 
 works on science in several languages, but also in valu- 
 able engravings, prints and lithographs. To account for 
 such extraordinary results, we can only add, that his 
 heart was in the work — that he spared neither labour, 
 nor pains, nor expense, in the search and in the purchase 
 — and that his whole life was steadily and sagaciously 
 devoted to the object.* He commenced, after his arrival 
 in this country, with small means : for like his illustrious 
 masters, Hawy and Cuvier, he had to struggle with the 
 res angusta doml; and like them he persevered manfully 
 against all obstacles, from less to more, until in the pro- 
 gress of half a century, his few hundred native speci- 
 mens had increased to many thousands — gathered from 
 every locality on the globe which science had explored. 
 An hour's careful inspection of his actual possessions, 
 would give to the practised eye a far better idea of their 
 rarity and opulence than any mere verbal description 
 (^ould convey. Many of you have visited his rooms : 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 563 
 
 and you were not less surprised at the variety and multi- 
 tude of the curiosities which arrested your attention, 
 than charmed with the graceful urbanity of "the old 
 ilian eloquent," who delighted to tell you all about them. 
 And probably, on taking leave, you were more impressed 
 with the goodness of the latter than with the magnifi- 
 cence of the former. 
 
 Let us now contemplate the Doctor's character under 
 other aspects, and in other relations. 
 
 1. His private life was a model of the domestic virtues. 
 Though a genuine philosopher, he was no stoic. Though 
 a most laborious student, he was not a recluse. Though 
 devoted to science, and sedulously occupied in its solitary 
 investigations, he was alive to all the endearments of 
 social and domestic life. Cheerful, conversable, joyous, 
 playful, in the little family circle about his own delight- 
 ful fireside, he was there the centre of attraction, love 
 and reverence. The best of husbands and fathers, his 
 presence at home was always greeted with a welcome of 
 smiles and gladness and affectionate attentions, which no 
 mere conventional usage or prescriptive custom could 
 have elicited. His grandchildren loved him, not merely 
 as a parent, but as a friend and companion. He possessed 
 true, simple, native dignity, without a particle of aftecta- 
 tion or mock assumption. He never appeared to conde- 
 scend, or to exhibit a patronizing air and manner, when 
 conversing with inferiors in knowledge, age, or relative 
 social position. He was so affable, so benevolent, so ap- 
 proachable, so good, that everybody was at ease and 
 happy in his presence. 
 
564 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 He was a man of the world — a perfectly well-bred 
 gentlemen. He had travelled and seen much in various 
 countries; and had been early and long familiar with 
 the tone and atmosphere and Uenseances of fashionable 
 and intelligent society. He had none of the stiffness, 
 formality, awkward diffidence, offensive pedantry, im- 
 practicaljle reserve, or mauvaise lionte, which too often 
 mark the mere scholar and render him unfit for the 
 saloon or drawing-room. The savans of Paris, more 
 than those of any other European metropolis perhaps, 
 mingle on easy and equal terms with the most select and 
 polished aristocratic circles of the city. From such a 
 school, he came forth accomplished, as well in the art of 
 pleasing, as in the science of the Academy. As courte- 
 ous in his bearing, and as observant of etiquette, in all 
 companies, as if he had spent his days in a palace, rather 
 than in a college or in the museum of nature. 
 
 Even the urbanity of his manner was striking; be- 
 cause it was evidently more the result of sheer innate 
 kindness than of artificial training. No one ever fancied 
 that he had studied the art of pleasing or of being agree- 
 able; but that he was so, because he couldn't help it. 
 " Caput artis est decere — et celare artem." You never 
 suspected him of acting a part, or of being made up for 
 the occasion, or of any attempt at self-display or exhibi- 
 tion. He was as sincere in his manners as in his morals. 
 And in both, he might serve as a model, worthy of all 
 praise and of general imitation. 
 
 To say that he was an honest man, I suppose, would 
 be regarded as but common-place among people who are 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 565 
 
 all honest; and yvt a shrewd etliieal poet has declared 
 that, an honest man is the noblest work of God. Dr. 
 Troost was honest, in the full sense of the poet's sublime 
 meaning. In all pecuniary transactions and dealings, 
 he Avas, of course, punctual, exact, and faithful to en- 
 gagements. More than this, he was honest, just and 
 liberal in his feelings, sentiments and opinions, in his 
 language and conduct, towards his professional brethren, 
 as well as towards all other classes and individuals. 
 
 2. Was lie a genius? The answer to this interrogatory 
 will depend on the meaning which we assign to the term 
 genius. If genius be a purely creative faculty, such as is 
 commonly, though perhaps erroneously, awarded to Ho- 
 mer, Shakspeare, Milton, Scott, and Byron, I suppose it 
 would not be conceded to our late Professor. But if we 
 allow it a wider and more comprehensive scope, so as to 
 include those who achieve great ends by the legitimate 
 exercise of their intellectual powers; who enlarge the 
 boundaries of science; penetrate, develope and explain 
 the mysteries of nature; who, by persevering, indefati- 
 gable, well-directed industr}^, overcome all difiiculties 
 and obstacles; creating a pathway where circumstances 
 seemed to forbid an}^ progress ; and reaching the goal in 
 spite of all physical or conventional impediments; — then 
 was he a man of genius. What was the genius of De- 
 mosthenes, of Aristotle, of Cicero, of Columbus, of Bacon, 
 of Galileo, of Newton, of Franklin? — Unless it was the 
 spirit or inspiration which impelled them to icork, work. 
 WORK, ever and always? — To struggle onward, until 
 triumphant success had crowned their labours and tlieir 
 
566 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 names with a glorious immortality? What would -^Ae^ 
 have achieved without labour— and such labour as genius 
 alone would have submitted to or could have endured? 
 
 Having selected the proper field of action or enter- 
 prise, true genius goes right ahead, and never folters or 
 despairs. Where ordinary men would be discouraged 
 and give over the pursuit as impracticable, he plods 
 along, slowly, surely, hopefully, until the faint rays of 
 the distant sun begin to glimmer through the darkness 
 and to assure him that broad daylight is at hand. Im- 
 jMssible has no place in his vocabular}'. He is a man of 
 strong faith, of unfailing self-reliance, of untiring pa- 
 tience, of indomitable moral courage. 
 
 But, without disputing about words, we may safely 
 affirm, that Dr. Troost possessed a philosophical genius, 
 or precisely the kind of intellect best adapted to philoso- 
 phical pursuits. His was a well-balanced mind — vigor- 
 ous, discriminating, sagacious, logical and enthusiastic. 
 He exhibited a sound judgment, as well as an ardent 
 zeal, in the study and interpretation of the grand volume 
 of Nature. He loved truth, and eschewed all forms of 
 hypocrisy. He was wise, without cunning or craftiness. 
 He Avas all that he professed or claimed to be. He ac- 
 complished, in good faith, whatever he promised. 
 
 o. Wcos he self-made? He was as much a self-made 
 man as any of his contemporaries or predecessors. Every 
 man who has been or is eminent in any profession or 
 vocation, was or is a self-made man. The University 
 alone does not make great men, or even great scholars. 
 It merely aids self-exertion, and enables the young aspi- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 5G7 
 
 rant to start fortli at an earlier period and with a better 
 outfit, in the career which he has chosen: but every 
 stej) in his progress onward and upward is his own 
 voluntary act; or, in other words, he is all the while a 
 self-making man. — True in every age and country. We 
 call Socrates a self-made man. And yet, afier he be- 
 came the founder and president of the most renowned 
 school or university in the Avorld, and was attended by 
 hundreds of admiring pupils, we find among them but 
 one Plato and one Xenophon. And among the disciples 
 of Plato, we hear of but one Aristotle, though multitudes 
 had listened to his eloquent and most instructive lectures. 
 Now Plato, Xenophon and Aristotle, wdth all their supe- 
 rior advantages, were as truly self-made men, as had 
 been the great master, Socrates. 
 
 We justly admire the energy and heroism of the ob- 
 scure friendless boy, who nobly struggles against povert}-, 
 neglect, privation and ignorance — like Heyne, Davy. 
 Arkwright, and hundreds in Europe — like our own 
 Franklin, Henry, Sherman, Fulton, and a goodly host 
 of others, among the dead and the living — but even the\- 
 had to use the same means and to labour in the same 
 hishion as the most favoured and gifted sons of the uni- 
 versity. There is no royal road to science or to the 
 temple of fame. And no man has ever yet been distin- 
 guished for learning or usefulness without corresponding 
 industry. I dwell on this point, not because it is either 
 questioned or questionable among competent judges, but 
 because the young, and especially college students, are 
 prone to indulge the fatal heresy, that genius will com- 
 
568 EDUCATIOXAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 mand distinction ^\-itliout labour: and, what is worse, 
 they often fancy that they may establish a title to 
 grenius bv habitual idleness and an ostentatious neoflect 
 of text-books and professors. Just run over the cata- 
 logue of illustrious names, ancient and modern, and j^oint 
 out one exception, which you could honour as a model 
 or would be ambitious to emulate. 
 
 Dr. Troost, I venture to say, laboured more assidu- 
 ously to the last — even when broken down by age and 
 infirmities — than any of his pupils. Had he relied on 
 his genius, rather than his ability to labour, he would 
 never have mastered the a, b, c, of nature, or contributed 
 a smgie page towards its illustration. 
 
 4. He was a good man. So numerous and universal, 
 so obvious and striking were the traits of goodness in his 
 daily conversation and habitual deportment, that no- 
 thing which we can say, would add to the impression 
 already made upon this entire community. Everybody 
 Ivuows that Dr. Troost was a good man : but, possibly, 
 some of my hearers do not know that he was a peace- 
 maker : that he manifested his good will to men by em- 
 bracing every proper occasion to promote peace and 
 kindly feeling among those who happened to be at 
 variance with one another.* [Here certain letters were 
 
 * A single anecdote will sufficiently illustrate our meaning. "Who- 
 ever visited Peale's Museum, while in its zenith of popular favour, 
 must have noticed three remarkable portraits, suspended in a row 
 upon the wall of the picture gallery, and looking down upon the spec- 
 tator with a gracious and significant smile, as much as to say, hereby 
 hangs a tale, or here is a legend worth your hearing ; pray listen to 
 vour cicerone — he will tell you about us three. Our sruide begins : 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 569 
 
 read or referred to, and facts stated, illustrative of the 
 Doctor's peace-making character.] If the tree is known 
 by its frnits, if a man is to be judged by his actions, if 
 right conduct is the outward manifestation of right 
 principles, then will sentence of approbation bi3 pro- 
 nounced upon the moral character of Dr. Troost : namely, 
 that he was an eminently good man. 
 
 5. As a religionist, he belonged, by birth, education 
 and choice, to the sect or denomination known in Hol- 
 land as Remonstrants — and elsewhere as Arminians, 
 from their founder, James Arminius, who died in 1G09. 
 His followers included some of the first men in the re- 
 
 That, says he, is the portrait of the great Doctor A., and that is the 
 portrait of the learued Doctor B., and between them is the portrait of 
 the Peace-maker, the good Dr. Troost, whom everybody loves and 
 honours. His two friends, Doctors A. and B., among the most emi- 
 nent physicians of Philadelphia, were at deadly feud with each other : 
 they not only were not on speaking terms, but a duel or street-fight 
 
 was confidently anticipated by their, so called, mutual friends. But 
 
 this then scarcely known stranger amongst us — this worthy benevo- 
 lent Dutchman, who had bravely fought, as a volunteer, in defence of 
 his native country's independence — here in this city of brotherly love, 
 contrived to effect what none of our citizens seemed ever to have 
 thought of. In short, he made himself acquainted with all the grounds 
 of misunderstanding and hostility ; invited the belligerent parties to 
 his house ; made such explanations and representations as to bring 
 about, not only a cessation of arms, but a perfect reconciliation. So 
 that Doctors A. and B. became thenceforth more sincerely attached to 
 each other and to their common friend, than is usual among the mem- 
 bers of that faculty in any circumstances. The two reconciled Doctors, 
 in commemoration of the happy event, procured these three portraits, 
 placed that of Dr. Troost in the centre, and ever since he lias been 
 
 styled "the peace-maker." [We tell the tale as 'twas told to us 
 
 merely substituting A and B for real names.] "Blessed are the peace- 
 makers : for they sliall be called the children of God.'' — Matt. v. 9. 
 
570 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 public at the time — as Barneveldt, Hoogerbeets, Gi-otius, 
 etc. The doctrines of Arminius, under various modifica- 
 tions, prevail at this day, to a large extent, among 
 churches usually esteemed orthodox and evangelical. — 
 As in- the English established church, and in the Wes- 
 leyan Methodist churches of all countries. I am not 
 their advocate or apologist; nor do I judge or denounce 
 any who believe them, and love their brother man. 
 
 6. He was a happy man. Of course, a truly good 
 man must ever be a happy man. The m^ens comcla recti 
 is indispensable to inward peace and habitual tranquillity. 
 The man of a bad spirit, of bad principles, of Ijad con- 
 duct, is always discontented, irritable, and dissatisfied 
 with himself and with the world around him. There is 
 no peace to the wicked : and the way of [See Isaiah xlviii. 
 22, and Ivii. 21. Also Proverbs xiii. 15.] transgressors is 
 hard. — While virtue is its own best reward. A con- 
 tented mind is a continual feast. A complaining, mo- 
 rose, murmuring, censorious, envious, covetous Christian 
 is a solecism — a contradiction in terms. And yet, how 
 often do we meet with men who make loud and ostenta- 
 tious professions of Christian goodness, who nevertheless 
 are perpetually talking of their troubles or privations or 
 self-sacrifices, of their poor health and bodily ailments, 
 of their family or personal wants, of harsh treatment by 
 the brethren and by the world, and of the general 
 wickedness of all mankind except themselves! Now 
 our good Doctor had no affinity or sympathy with that 
 large species of morbid self-tormenting, or proud phari- 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 571 
 
 saic liumanit3\ The smile of contentment seemed ever 
 fresh and vivid upon his benignant countenance. 
 
 He had wisely chosen a genial vocation. Much of 
 human weal or wo depends on this very choice. To 
 prosecute any calling or business, which is either useless 
 or pernicious — however profitable — must be irksome and 
 repulsive, and therefore a source of constant annoyance 
 and self-reproach. Again, the most beneficial occupa- 
 tion, pursued only for gain — thereby mistaking the 
 means for the end — is scarcely less wearisome and un- 
 satisfactory. For example, to preach the gospel, merely 
 for worldly honour or emolument, would contribute little 
 to the preacher's happiness, however much it might en- 
 large his purse or his reputation. 
 
 In this afiair of life-work, two or three things are to 
 be looked after. 1. The work to be done, or the pro- 
 fession to be practised, must be honest, legal, useful. 
 2. It must be one suited to our capacity, taste and quali- 
 fications. — The best, indeed, that we are fit for. 3. It 
 must be pursued with a benevolent purpose — ^^vith the 
 hope and design of benefiting others as well as ourselves. 
 These considerations do not preclude a proper regard to 
 our own private or domestic interests. Every man is in 
 duty bound to earn an independent livelihood. — And 
 also, to support and cherish all whom Providence may 
 have rendered dependent upon his labours. Thus teacli- 
 eth Paul: "But if any provide not for his own, and 
 specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the 
 faith, and is worse than an infidel." — 1 Tim. v. 8. 
 Having fulfilled the demands of that charity which be- 
 
572 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 gins at home; having satisfied all the just and re-ason- 
 able claims which family or station can fairly urge ; our 
 obligations on that score extend no further. To devote 
 one's life to the single object of accumulating . wealth, 
 either for its own sake or for posterity, is sanctioned 
 neither by religion nor philosophy. Such a life would 
 hardly be pronounced wise, useful or happy. Extremes 
 in this case, as in others, must be avoided. There is 
 danger in both. "Give me neither poverty nor riches: 
 feed me with food convenient for me : Lest I be full, and 
 deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord ? or lest I be poor, 
 and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." Such 
 was the prayer of a very sensible man. — Prov. xxx. 8, 9. 
 Now in reference to all these views, motives and ends, 
 we think Dr. Troost was exceedingly judicious and fortu- 
 nate. He chose a profession which enabled him to be 
 constantly useful to others; which highly gratified his 
 own peculiar taste; and furnished him the richest enter- 
 tainment — the purest pleasure — a real feast of reason 
 without alloy or abatement. And though but moderately 
 rewarded by cash payments for his services, his frugal 
 habits and philosophical self-command qualified him to 
 enjoj^ with cheerful gratitude, and in the kindliest, most 
 hospitable manner, the good things which his patient 
 earnings could supply. He appeared always to have 
 enough; and not to covet what was beyond his reach. 
 At any rate, he did not complain, nor vex himself about 
 what could not be helped. Upon the whole, I have 
 seldom known a happier man. His daily vocation was 
 his delight. It created the very atmosphere which he 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. O i 6 
 
 inhaled, and which never failed to exhihirate and fortify 
 him for renewed exertions. Was there wisdom in such 
 a choice? Might not tlie Doctor, with less labour and 
 self-denial, have become rich and respectable in a dif- 
 ferent sphere or profession? Undoubtedly, he might: 
 and that too, without losing caste, either in the land of 
 his birth or adoption. For in both, fortune-making has 
 over been duly honoured : and the miUionaire is every- 
 where "the observed of all observers." 
 
 I shall not stop to inquire what the largest opulence 
 might have done for Jilm, had he possessed it: but to 
 most other men or their children, it has proved a curse 
 rather than a blessing. This is so generally acknow- 
 ledged, as to have become a matter of every day's observa- 
 tion, that l3ut little of manly excellence is ever expected 
 from the sons of wealthy parents. They want the usual 
 motive or stimulus to exertion, enterprise and self-reli- 
 ance. If they do not speedily become dissipated, waste- 
 ful, intemperate, reckless, profligate, gambling loafers 
 and nuisances; they are, at best, mere drones, idlers, 
 exquisites, and fashionable do-iwthings. In this respect, 
 our philosopher had the advantage. He lived to see his 
 children better off, more respectably established, and 
 more usefully employed, than most of their youthful 
 associates, who commenced life in affluent circumstances. 
 How- few of the latter are now their equals either in 
 fortune or reputation? To the heart of paternity, no- 
 thing is so grateful as the assurance that his children are 
 virtuous, dutiful, industrious, respected and prosperous. 
 This necessary ingredient in the cup of human felicity 
 
574 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 was therefore not wanting in his case. He lived and 
 died with the soul-cheering conviction that his posterity 
 promised to be all that he could desire ; and that they 
 would cherish and revere his memory. More than this, 
 neither wealth, nor rank, nor station can purchase or 
 command.* 
 
 Had he, in his solitary rambles among the rocks and 
 groves of our wild mountains and valleys, chanced to 
 stumble upon a mine of gold; and could he have appro- 
 priated millions to his own private coffers; he would 
 have been hailed and caressed as the most fortunate and 
 successful of adventurers. And, perhaps, even Geology 
 would have been exalted in the popular estimation, and 
 voted a very gainful and respectable science or profession. 
 What then might have been the destiny and character 
 of his children ? Let the worshippers of Mammon calcu- 
 late at their leisure. 
 
 But how did the Doctor contrive to get through his 
 long life of more than threescore years and ten, in such 
 laborious, and, apparently, thriftless, as well as repulsive 
 drudgery? Could his be a life of jileasurable enjoyment? 
 Let us see. To the curious and inquisitive, the pursuit 
 and acquisition of knowledge, of some kind, must be 
 always gratifying. The lover of history or astronomy 
 delights to ponder over the records of by-gone ages, or to 
 scan the heavens with his telescope : and we do not mar- 
 vel at his folly or enthusiasm. Why then should we 
 
 * Dr. Troost left oue son, Lewis, and one daughter, maiTied to 
 Albert G. Stein. Lewis Troost and A. G. Stein are among the most 
 eminent civil engineers of the Southwest. 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 575 
 
 ftincy that the history of the phiiiet which we inhabit, 
 as well as its structure and composition, might not be 
 equally interesting to another class of curious inquirers? 
 All real students love their books and their work. The 
 book of nature, to the student of nature, becomes more 
 and more fascinating, just in proportion to his ability to 
 understand it: and the more thoroughly it is studied, 
 the gre§iter the intellectual satisfaction in the pursuit. 
 
 How far science may proceed in the discovery of the 
 true history of our earth — of its various revolutions, 
 changes, formations — of its adaptations to successive 
 genera of animals and vegetables, before it was fitted up 
 for the habitation of man and of its present living occu- 
 pants — cannot be even conjectured. The geologist is 
 labouring in this grand work : and he has already made 
 good progress, and given evidence that he is in the right 
 way of ultimately arriving at most satisfactory results. 
 He has ever before him the cheering prospect of dis- 
 covery : as had Columbus of discovering a new world, or 
 of reaching the far off Orient by a new route. But even 
 should he not succeed in the main object of compassing 
 a complete or probable history of our globe ; he has, at 
 least, the constant satisfaction of increasing our acquaint- 
 ance wdth the valuable materials of which it is composed ; 
 and thereby of adding largely to human wealth and 
 general advancement in the useful arts. Simply then, 
 as a utilitarian, his studies are not profitless; while, as a 
 liberal contributor to liberal science, he scarcely has a 
 superior or equal in the whole range of philosophical 
 investigation. 
 
576 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 These are studies, moreover, worthy not only of the 
 loftiest intellect, but of the most devotional spirit. Moses, 
 Job, David, Solomon, Paul — appear to have taken great- 
 pains and great pleasure in the study of the Almighty's 
 wonderful works. For, says David, "The heavens de- 
 clare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his 
 handy work." — Ps. xix. 1. And Paul: "For the invisible 
 things of him [God] from the creation of the world are 
 clearly seen, being understood by the things that are 
 made; even his eternal power and Godhead; so that 
 they are without excuse." — Rom. i. 20. Says Job : " Dead 
 things are formed from under the waters, and the in- 
 habitants thereof." " He stretcheth out the north over 
 the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." 
 " He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds ; and the 
 cloud is not rent under them." — Job, xxvi. 5-8. 
 
 Solomon was not only very wise and learned, but also 
 a zealous advocate of learning. "Everj- prudent man 
 dealeth with knowledge: but a fool layeth open his 
 folly." — Prov. xiii. 16. "Wise men lay up knowledge: 
 but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction." — Prov. 
 X. 14. "How much better is it to get wisdom than 
 gold?" — Prov. xvi. 16. That his range of knowledge ex- 
 tended vastly beyond the mere ethical and literary, is 
 evident from the historical record. "And he spake of 
 trees, from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon, even unto 
 the hyssop that springeth out of the wall : he spake also 
 of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of 
 fishes." — 1 Kings, iv. 33. 
 
 These are good authorities at least, if any were needed, 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOUKSES. 577 
 
 for such sublime and elevating studies. And no man 
 need hesitate to follow their example. "An undevout 
 astronomer Is mad" — not more so than an undevout 
 naturalist — or than the devout oppugner of all natural 
 science. Even the latter, when better informed, is con- 
 strained to acknowledge : 
 
 "That what he views of beautiful or gran.; 
 In nature, from the broad majestic oak 
 To the green blade that twinkles in the sun, 
 Prompts with remembrance of a present God." 
 
 The study of nature does not prevent or impede the 
 study of revelation, or of general literature. The more 
 we learn of our earth's vicissitudes and revolutions, the 
 more shall we be inclined to read what man has recorded 
 of himself in all past time, and what God has taught us 
 in his word of both. Why should there be jealousy, sus- 
 picion or hostility between the parties thus engaged in 
 the same grand inquiry? — As if the Deity had given us 
 two conflicting revelations, on purpose to bewilder and 
 confound our intellectual vision, whenever we attempt 
 to scrutinize his works. Not thus, reasoned the royal 
 Psalmist, when he exclaimed: "0 Lord, how manifold 
 are thy works ! in wisdom hast thou made them all : the 
 earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, 
 wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and 
 great beasts." — Ps. civ. 24, 25. Nor would he have been 
 less devoutly inspired, had all or any considerable por- 
 tion of modem geology been patent to his contemplative 
 eye. The evidences are everywhere present, of extinct 
 races or species of animals and vegetables, wrought up, 
 
 VOL. I. 37 
 
578 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 ill the progress of unknown ages, into the very texture 
 of the mountains and valleys of the earth's surface — ^ 
 still speaking of the wisdom and power of the infinite 
 Eternal, as plainly as do the gigantic ruins of Thebes 
 and Nineveh of the exertion of human skill and energy 
 three thousand years ago. 
 
 Even in the limited sphere of operations allotted to 
 the encrini, and which engaged so much of Dr. T roost's 
 attention towards the close of life, we find marvels 
 enough to astonish and amaze the most unimaginative 
 mind. Says Buckland: "We may judge of the degree 
 to which the individuals of these species multiplied 
 among the first inhabitants of the sea, from the count- 
 less myriads of their j^etrified remains which fill so many 
 limestone-beds of the transition formations, and compose 
 vast strata of entrochal marble, extending over large 
 tracts of country in Northern Europe and North America. 
 The substance of this marble is often almost entirely 
 made up of the petrified bones of encrinites. Man 
 applies it to construct his palace and adorn his sepulchre ; 
 but there are few who know, and fewer still who duly 
 appreciate, the surprising fact, that much of this marble 
 is composed of the skeletons of millions of organized 
 beings, once endowed with life, and susceptible of enjoy- 
 ment, which, after performing the part that was for a 
 while assigned to them in living nature, have contributed 
 their remains towards the composition of the mountain 
 masses of the earth.'"-'' — D?\ BucTdancVs Bridgeioater 
 Treatise. 
 
 * The improved compound microscope has become one of the most 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 579 
 
 Assuredly, studies like these can never cease to absorb 
 and exalt the mind that is capable of pursuing them. 
 Dr. Troost was a scholar, in the good old English sense, 
 
 important instruments ever bestowed by art upon the investigator of 
 nature. " In almost every department of science are we indebted to 
 it for the extension of our knowledge, and the verification of previous 
 observation." The chemist, the pharmacist, the physiologist, the 
 pathologist, the physician, the botanist, the zoologist, have, by its as- 
 sistance, already achieved the most w^onderful discoveries. In the 
 hands of the geologist, the microscope is an instrument of magic 
 power; by means of which, from the inspection only of a bone or tooth, 
 the habits of the animal to which it belonged are decided ; the colossal 
 reptiles of the ancient earth are revived in all the reality of life and 
 being; and the early formations of our globe decked with their former 
 inhabitants and the vegetation which clothed them long ere man was 
 created the lord of all below. 
 
 "While the telescope enables us to see a system in every star, the 
 microscope unfolds to us a world in every atom. The One instructs 
 us that this mighty globe, with the whole burden of its people and its 
 countries, is but a grain of sand in the vast field of immensity ; the 
 other, that every atom may harbour the tribes and families of a busy 
 population. The one shows us the insignificance of the world we in- 
 habit ; the other redeems it from all its insignificance, for it tells us 
 that in the leaves of every forest, in the flowers of every garden, in 
 the waters of every rivulet, there are worlds teeming with life, and 
 numberless as are the stars of the firmament. The one suggests to 
 us, that, above and beyond all that is visible to man, there may be 
 regions of creation which sweep immeasurably along, and carry the 
 impress of the Almighty's hand to the remotest scenes of the universe ; 
 the other, that, within and beneath all the minuteness which the 
 aided eye of man is able to explore, there may be a world of invisible 
 beings; and that, could we draw aside the mysterious veil which 
 shrouds it from our senses, we might behold a theatre of as many 
 wonders as astronomy can unfold; a universe within the compass of a 
 point, so small as to elude all the powers of the microscope, but where 
 the Almighty Ruler of all things finds room for the exercise of His 
 attributes, where He can raise another mechanism of worlds, and fill 
 and animate them all with evidences of His glory !" — Dr. Chambers. 
 
580 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 as well as a savant and philosopher. He was well ac- 
 quainted with classic and general literature. He was 
 master of several languages, ancient and modern; par- 
 ticularl}-, of the Latin, German, French, English, and 
 his own vernacular of Holland. Few works, probably, 
 on any branch of natural science, were extant in these 
 languages, which he had not studied or examined. 
 
 This desultory sketch, with many claims upon your 
 indulgence, must suflBce for the present. With docu- 
 ments already promised, and with others very confidently 
 expected, I may hereafter, when more at leisure, recast 
 the rough materials at hand, and construct a memoir 
 more worthy of the distinguished subject. Unless, in- 
 deed, the task shall be accomplished by some abler pen. 
 
 And now, fellow-citizens, what monument, more dura- 
 ble than brass or marble, shall we erect to his memory? 
 Nothing occurs to me so appropriate to the occasion and 
 the man, and so honourable to this community, as would 
 be the purchase by the State of his entire collection, both 
 of specimens and books, for the use of the public. If thus 
 purchased, and deposited in a spacious apartment of your 
 magnificent capitol when finished, it would constitute the 
 greatest attraction within its walls to all scientific stran- 
 gers and visitors. It would become a school for the 
 young and inquisitive throughout the country. And 
 it would perpetuate the name of the founder and the 
 liberality of Tennessee. It would be known, in all 
 future time, as the Troost Cabixet; — purchased of his 
 heirs, and gratuitously offered to the public service. 
 
 Should the State decline the honour, then let the city 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 581 
 
 of Nashville secure the treasure, and have the whole 
 credit of the munificent deed. This opulent and grow- 
 ing metropolis should not hesitate a moment about the 
 purchase, if the State refuse. I do not urge this, either 
 at the instance of the family of the deceased or for their 
 especial benefit. I suggest it, because it would be dis- 
 graceful to allow such a cabinet to be removed from our 
 midst; and because the few thousand dollars demanded 
 for it, bear no proportion to its intrinsic or even commer- 
 cial value. — To say nothing of the benefit which future 
 generations would derive from its use and study. 
 
 "The Troost Cabinet" would be an invaluable acquisi- 
 tion and a glorious ornament to the classic halls of our 
 new University, which is about to arise, Phoenix-like, 
 from the ashes of the old, with all the splendour which 
 architectural genius and artistic taste can impart. — Where 
 liberal science and elegant letters, where sound morals and 
 heroic virtue and stem patriotism, shall be cultivated and 
 taught by high example and commanding talent. And 
 where multitudes of ingenuous aspiring youth shall con- 
 gregate, as to a pure fountain, to drink in wisdom and 
 piety ; and to learn to venerate the name of our illustri- 
 ous Troost, as the great and good benefactor of their 
 loved and honoured Alma Mater. 
 
 [It is proper to add that the author had resigned 
 the presidency, and that this was the last day and the 
 last act of his official connection with the University. 
 It had already been decided to erect new college build- 
 ings, etc.] 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Note A. — Dr. Troost was sent to Paris, for scientific 
 pursuits, by Louis Napoleon, King of Holland. — His 
 Passport was dated July 1, 1807. He had before tins 
 resided at Amsterdam and the Hague, probably as a 
 Pharmacist. He had twice served in the army. — Was 
 wounded in the thigh and also in the forehead. During 
 his last term of service, he was an officer of health of 
 the first class. 
 
 About 1809, he was commissioned by the King to 
 visit Java, as a sava7it. He sailed in an American 
 vessel, from a German port, to avoid the English, 
 bound to the United States. Intending to take pas- 
 sage thence in an American ship to the East. He was 
 soon after captured by a French privateer (which paid 
 little respect to our neutral flag,) and carried into the 
 port of Dunkirk. — Where he was deprived of his papers 
 and detained as a prisoner. Being soon released (when 
 his case was understood,) he proceeded to Paris. — Where 
 he was elected a corresponding member of the Museum 
 of Natural History of France. His diploma is dated 
 March 21, 1810. He, soon after, sailed for America. 
 His passport for the voyage is dated Paris, March 5, 
 
 583 
 
-58-i EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 1810, — authorizing him to sail in an American ship 
 from Rochelle to PhiUidelphia. 
 
 [I have seen the diploma and passports referred to 
 above. They were among the Doctor's papers, and 
 shown to me by his son.] 
 
 Before this, he had travelled much in France, Italy, 
 Germany, and Switzerland; and had collected a valuable 
 cabinet of minerals, which he sold to the King of Holland. 
 Or rather, as I suppose, he travelled and purchased as 
 the King's agent and at his expense. 
 
 Subsequent European events induced him to settle in 
 Philadelphia, where he married Margaret Tage in 1810. 
 He there established a laboratory for the manufacture of 
 drugs and various chemical preparations. 
 
 [The facts or incidents, mentioned above, were furnished 
 by his son.] 
 
 His second wife was, at the time of his marriage with 
 her, a widow, "Mrs. O'Riley, and the mother of two chil- 
 dren, a son and daughter. The son, after graduating at 
 the University in 1835, and after serving several years 
 as a civil engineer with every promise of eminence in his 
 
 profession, died in , highly esteemed and lamented. 
 
 The daughter is the wife of Thomas Crawford, Esq., 
 of the Planters' Bank in Nashville. 
 
 Mrs. Troost, the Doctor's widow, is beloved and re- 
 spected by all her acquaintance. 
 
 "He discovered the process of making alum from 
 lignite, for which he obtained a patent." So says a paper 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 585 
 
 handed me by liis son. But there is probably some mis- 
 take about the matter. 
 
 Alum, however, is still manufactured from the ore 
 found at Cape Sable, on the Magothy River, near An- 
 napolis, in Maryland. " This ore, which was extensively 
 worked during the late war under the superintendence 
 of Dr. Troost, consists of lignite, clay, sulphuret of iron, 
 and sand. It exists in beds of from six to ten feet in 
 thickness, covered by a stratum of sand." — Dispensatory 
 of the United States, Philadelphia, 1839, p. 70. 
 
 Dr. Troost's Cabinet contained specimens as follows : 
 
 1. Minerals — in number — 13,582. 
 
 2. Fossil organic Remains — Paleontology — 2851. 
 
 3. Geology — Rocks, etc. from granites to lavas, be- 
 tween 2000 and 3000. 
 
 4. Shells — not numbered. 
 
 5. Comparative Anatomy — mostly disposed of. 
 
 6. Zoology. Nearly all his birds, fishes, and other 
 animals were sent to Europe a few years ago. 
 
 7. Botany. — Do. 
 
 8. Indian relics from ancient mounds — with dresses — 
 ornaments — war-clubs and other weapons — arrow-heads 
 — images, etc. 
 
 The following is a copy of the letter received from 
 Charles T. Jackson, M.D., of Boston, Mass., respecting 
 Dr. Troost. It came to hand September 28, 1850; 
 
586 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 Boston, Sept. 19, 1850. 
 Dr. Philip Lindsley, 
 
 President of Nashville University. 
 
 Sir : — With emotions of the deepest regret, I learned 
 that my honoured scientific friend, Prof. Gerard Troost, 
 had been removed by death. Your communication of 
 15th ultimo, just received, bears testimony to his worth 
 as a good man and distinguished savant. I would, with 
 your permission, add my testimony to yours, assuring 
 you, and the late Dr. Troost's other friends, of the high 
 appreciation in which his scientific services were held by 
 American Geologists and Mineralogists, and of my own 
 profound respect for him as a learned and excellent man. 
 It was my good fortune to become somewhat intimately 
 acquainted with Dr. Troost in 1825, while travelling in 
 company with him and the late distinguished Geologists 
 and Naturalists, Maclure, Say, and Le Sueur, during 
 their scientific excursions through the counties of Sussex, 
 N. J., and Orange, N. Y. ; and I was struck with the un- 
 afiected simplicity of his manners, and his uniform kind- 
 ness and courtesy, as well as with his prompt and scien- 
 tific recognition of the minerals, and rocks, which it was 
 our object to examine. He was an accurate and scientific 
 mineralogist, and very correct crystallographer, remem- 
 bering with the most remarkable fidelity the exact angles 
 of known crystals of minerals, so that he readily dis- 
 tinguished rare and remarkable forms. 
 
 During the latter part of his life he devoted much of 
 his attention to the study of Fossils; and had mastered 
 
EDUCATIONAL DISCOUKSES. 587 
 
 the latest discoveries in paleontology. As State Geolo- 
 gist to Tennessee, he distinguished himself as a careful 
 examiner of the economical Geology and Mineralogy of 
 his State, and directed with ability the enterprise of those 
 interested in mining. 
 
 The University of Nashville and your State have lost, 
 in the death of Dr. Troost, a most valuable scientific 
 man ; and his friends, both in this country and in Europe, 
 deplore the loss of an amiable and most worthy man. 
 and an eminent savant. 
 
 With sentiments of high regard, 
 I have the honour to be 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 (Signed,) Charles T. Jackson, M.D., 
 
 State Geologist to the States of Maine, New Hamp- 
 shire, etc., and the United States; Chevalier de la 
 Legion d'Honneur, etc. 
 
 [Copy of note from the Trustees, requesting the publi- 
 cation of the preceding Discourse, etc.] 
 
 Nashville, October 23, 1850. 
 Dear Sir: — The undersigned have been appointed a 
 committee, by the Board of Trustees of the University 
 of Nashville, to obtain the original manuscript, or a copy, 
 (as you may choose to furnish either,) of your Discourse 
 on the life and character of the late Dr. Troost, delivered 
 at last Commencement. The object of the Board is, to 
 have the same printed and published; in order that it 
 may be preserved in a more durable form, and be more 
 extensively circulated. In performing this dut\- assigned 
 
588 EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 to the committee, they beg leave to express their opinion 
 of the high merit of the Discourse, as a literar}^ composi- 
 tion, and for the full, and just, and discriminating views 
 which it presents of him who was the subject of it; 
 which make it eminently worthy of a place in the 
 archives of the University. The committee, therefore, 
 respectfully request of you a compliance with the wishes 
 of the Board, as herein communicated. 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 rTnos. Washington, 
 Signed, < Sam'l D. Morgan, 
 
 I John Trimble, 
 
 Committee. 
 To Dr. Lindsley. 
 
 end of first vol. 
 
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