DELIVERED
W ' % /^sL ■ '
f Jl '■&
BEFORE THE AL11JTINI
3 :4 / '•
OF
i4§® ®©BDS[®g®Sp OQ^BCFJti
6pp$ siWb' w,' ' 1 '- v ' > .' *
October^, 1836,
BY
THOMAS W. HUMES.
KXOXVMXE:
PRINTED AT THE KNOXVILLE REGISTER OFFICE,
BY RAMSEY Sc CRAIGHEAD.
1836.
.rtr-"*-!.
KNOXVILLE, Oct. 7, 1836.
Mr. Thomas W. Humes:
Sii—At a meeting of the Alumni of East Tennessee College,
held the 6th inst., the undersigned were appointed a Committee, to express toyou the
thanks of the association, for the interesting and instructive Address delivered before
them; and from a belief that its publication would essentially promote the interests of
literature and science, we were directed respectfully to solicit a copy for that purpose.
Respectfully, yours,
THO'S. C. McCAMPBELL,
PEREZ- DICKINSON,
JOSEPH L. KING.
KNOXVTLLEa Oct. 8, 1836.
Gexteemex: /
The Address which you, in compliance with a resolution of the Alumni,
■requestfor publication, is readily offered to your disposal. JFor ihe commendatory
language of the resolution, and the courteous style of its communication by yourselves,
I feel sincerely grateful; and earnestly hope, that the address may exert some humble,
yet salutary influence, upon the cause of education.; and serve to dirdpt more of the
attention of thecommunity towards East Tennessee College.
I am, gentlemen,
Your obedient serv't.
THOS. W. HUMES.
Messrs. McCampeele, King & Dickixsox.
ADD3£E§$.
fbll6w a j. v m x i:
The approaching public commencement caonot'ftri4 to
awaken within ws, sad yetgrateful recollections. This consecrated
hill and these honored walls are intimately blended with all our as¬
sociations of the past. Here we once met, perhaps in the reckless
frivolity of youth, to hurry o'er the allotted task, and bound away
to the scene of some attractive sport, or with the discretion of
maturer years to bend each pliant energy in improving the swift-
winged hours as they |ew. There are few spots here, which are
not invested with the sanctity of some loved association. The
daily exhibition of human passion in miniature;—the bosom
swelling with generous emulation,—the eye kindling with the
fire of exultant pride,—the envious lip curling in scornful hate at
another's success, and the first manifestations of an incipient am¬
bition that yet may rise to distinction and command, is again ar¬
rayed before us. Again we writhe beneath the tortures of Qua¬
dratic Equations, or slowly and sullenly struggle on to the Q.
E. D. of the jvons asinorum, or again hang with fondness over
the glowing pages of classic song and story. But we awake
from the delicious dream of memory to find, that the days of our
boyhood—"those glorious hpurs when the unruffled river of our
life mirrored the cloudless heaven of our hope," are gone forever!
The venerable form which once presided among us, is no longer
here! The primitive simplicity of the Professor we loved, and
which, like the graceful entvvinings of the vine aroun^ some
stately oak, but added beauty and charm to his intellectual vigor,
no longer excites our admiration or demands our praise. The
green grass of his grave may wither, but the memory of his vir¬
tues cannot die!
To turn from these brief reminiscences of the past to the pre¬
sent, we find great cause for joy and congratulation in the increas¬
ed prosperity and high promise of our endeared Alma Mater.
4
They afford the sorest evidence that the public are casting away
at once their prejudices and their indifference, and coming for¬
ward to share in the fruits of that harvest, which is already ripe
for the reapers. Notwithstanding this, it has still difficulties to
encounter in aitjply fulfilling its proper design, which are not ap¬
parent to the cateual observer. The community do not seem to
appreciate the importance of a thorough Collegiate education.
While the superior advantages of instruction offered by our Col¬
leges, are acknowledged and applauded, yet, before the student
has become even initiated into the mysteries of science, he is
fretfully, impatient to mingle with the busy world, not to indulge'
his curiosity or gratify the ordinary passions of youth, but to
share in its glittering gains, or in common parlance, to "get into
business;" while the parent, equally unwise, is urging his son
forward upon the bosom of society, with a mere smattering of
knowledge,—the very child of impulse, without chart or com¬
pass to guide his wanderings upon the vast ocean of life. The
consequence is, that the Institution which is originally designed
to mould the intellectual character of ybfUth to the highest model
ofhuman perfection, through the industry and diligence of years,
is baffled in its purpose, and compelled to answer the undignified
end, of imparpng a sufficiency of knowledge to forgn the student
a disgusting xiomposition of egotism and folly, and yet not enough
to teach him his ignorance and his weakness. * The College be¬
comes degraded into a common school, and honest yet undiscern-
ingmen, regarding these miserable abortions as proper specimens
of its abilities, treat its high assumptions with insulting neglect
and eventually with contempt. Yet the fault does not attach
alone to the young man. He but imbibes the prevalent spirit of
society, and acts in accordance with it in the desertion of his
studies, and the devotion of all the elastic energies of his nature
to the acquisition of gain. To correct the evil, we must purify
its fountain. Evidently, the most prominent feature in the pre- '
sent condition of our society, is the prevalent, the almost absorb¬
ing desire for gain. The whole country is rife with the spirit of
speculation, and all is excitement and bustle and turmoil. There
is a constant and earnest rivalry abroad; but it is not a noble emu¬
lation for the good opinion of the wise and great,—it is not a
rivalry for power or fame, but a rivalry for wealth ! Power may
allure, but the treasures to which it opens the way, have greater
attraction than preferment itself. ^Money! is the universal watch-
5
word—the magic of whose name can open every heart, and give
impulse to the action of every hand. We seem to have forgotten,
in the feverish hurry of our strife, that we are intellectual beings.
More than all, we have forgotten that we are religious beings,
united by ties, mysterious yet strong to the unseen, interminable
future. Sometimes, the recollection of our immortality may flit
before us 'dike the airy vision of a dream;" but the-'inspitiation
of gain impels us on, to some new scheme of profitable enterprise,
and the recollection dissolves into habitual forgetf&Iness.] if the
student forsakes his solitary lamp for a moment, to pass oufc'intoiihe
world, the din of many voices, and the tramp of many feetspeeding
on to the temple of Mammon, come o'er his ears like the noise of
the rush of the whirlwind. Curiosity attracts him to the crowd,
and sympathy urges him on in its march, while his lamp is left
untrimmed to flicker away its life, and his books to moulder up¬
on their shelves. By the sincere philanthropist, these facts can
be witnessed with none other than the most poignant regret—
For there are evils connected with them,—evils, which must
follow in their train and are still too fearful to anticipate. We
may not hear the deep groanings of the volcano, which rise in
solemn warning from its bosom, yet the burning lava of its hid¬
den fires will soon come, and come, but to destroy. This rest¬
less anxiety to accumulate wealth;—this eternal grasping after
superior fortune-will not only periodically empty our Colleges,
of their inmates, but will infuse a spirit of bitterness in all the
fountains of kindness which flow from the human heart, and turn
them into wells of all that is unholy and hateful. We will wit¬
ness its dire influence in the destruction of the divine sympathies
of our nature for each other's weal and each other's woe. Let
the spirit increase and gather strength with its growth, and all
the hallowed ties which bind us to our kind, will wear away
under its corrosions, as the iron beneath the file, until "the last
link is broken." Envy, gathering effrontery with the multiplied
number of her votaries, will throw aside her eloak with her weak¬
ness, and meet us at every corner and in every lane, with her
brow of burning hate and her lip of triumphant scorn; while he,
who would once have grieved, will smile with joy at another's
misfortune, and "lie who has butteaps to give, must weep them
all alone." But this is not all. Its tendency is to the perver-
sion of all disposition to honesty. The integrity of mpstmen.is
but the minion of circumstances;—ever ready to yi^ld-to-tenap-
A
(>
tation, when impunity is certain, and the lure of the seducer is
bright. Few know the strength of their own hearts, because
they have nottested them in the furnace, or have feared to con¬
verse with them in the dread stillness of self-communion, to
learn, their courage and their power. Driven on in this danger¬
ous ignorance with the tumultuous throng, without leisure or in-
Tclinsrfmm to t^hinkj the strong-minded alike with the imbecile,
l|econ1e the slaves of the predominant purpose of their conduct,
atadjforgetful®f all else, in the hurried anxiety for its attainment.
Constantly gating upon any one object through the same medi-
wijludt more surely distort the sensual vision, than being
ever intent upon the acquisition of gain, will pervert the moral
sense. A disregard of all moral obligation from man to man,
will be the inevitable consequence; and the aggrandizement of
self, to the exclusion of the welfare of all others, will be em¬
phatically the ruling impulse of our actions,—the master princi¬
ple of the earth. And yet, without a mutual reciprocity of kind
feeling and kind deeds, society is but a name, and our world
another hell! Our fears may be deemed false and premature,
but the tendency of these things are well worthy of deep consid¬
eration. For we cannot console ourselves with the belief, that
their influence will be restrained alone to our relations as individ¬
uals. As certainly as the plastic character of the subjects of a
despotism may be moulded under the iron hand of their master,
so surely will the government of a republic partake of the pop¬
ular temper and habits, and present almost ever, a perfect ensam-
ple of the tone of popular feeling.
We are often pointed to the history of ancient republics, as
teaching a lesson of, to us, momentous interest. But we conn it
oVer, as silly children do their tasks, without any impression of
its importance. How seldom do we cast even a glance of anx¬
ious inquiry, to the desolation of Grecian and Roman pride?
And yet, there is a solemn voice of admonition comes from then
prostrate ruins, to the American people, sublime and touching in
its accents, Have we listened to the warning, or are we heed¬
lessly jjursuing the same conduct, which led them to immature
destruction?
Previous to the diffusion of that luxury to which the ruin of
the mistress of the world is ascribed, the prevalence of a sordid
desire for gain, gave lamentable indications of the decline of her
primitive purity. "The preferments of State were generally
coveted, as steps to the government of provinces, where fortunes
were amassed by every species of abuse, oppression and vio¬
lence." "The offices of state and the command of "armies, were
sought after, because they were lucrative;" and their first fruits
liberally poured into the laps of the publicans, to ensure future
emoluments through their suffrages. Licentiousness and luxuri¬
ous effeminacy were the results.. Avarice ruled ^ri Rome, until
a rival spirit, nobler, yet not less dangerous, rode iinto the ascend¬
ant in the person of a Caesar, and became the masterofdtgEi^es-
tinies. We give but the simple record of history .i/')The con¬
nexion between cause and effect is unalterably the same. Human
passions in the nineteenth century, have lost none of the viru¬
lence which marked .them in the days of Cataline; and without
the influence of some mighty restraint, their effects will be the
.same. When avarice becomes the absorbent principle with a
nation of freemen;—when every hand is earnestly grasping for
gain, and all energies enlisted in the contest for the ignoble prize,,
can we expect fidelity and purity in the discharge of public duty?
Can we conclude that the robes of an office of state, will divest
the citizen of the cherished desires and habits of private life, or
. exempt him from the contagion of the mono-mania, which reigns
around,him? Would it astound our ears, to hear of abuse, ex¬
tortion and violence in high places, when these flow but as legiti¬
mate results frorti the very organization of society? We make
no exclamations against the free devotion of honest industry to
its proper pursuits, but we must condemn that wild and morbid
desire for gain which is evidently becoming the dominant passion
in the land, and the tendency of which will be, to humble the
pride of our intellectual vigor to the dust,—to degrade our holy
religion into a heartless mummery, and, giving strong impulse
and free action to more violent passions lead on to riot and to
blood! Our country now occupies a-position, which however
elevated and glorious, will demand an union of the purest wis¬
dom, the loftiest patriotism, and the strictest scrutiny to main¬
tain. We have, in defiance of the pretended jure-divino of
kings, and the precepts of the political dogmatists of Europe,
proudly asserted the right and the power of self-government by
the people, and the experiment is now making with the eyes of
the world watching intently for its developements. We should
not prove recreant to our solemn responsibilities, nor is there
danger to our institutions from the open disaffection, or parrici-
s
dal infatuation of those who enjoy their blessings. Indeed, pop¬
ular governments should have greater apprehensions from the
influence of latent causes, which deeply seated in the bosom of
society^ like the gathering energies of the tempest, moving noise¬
lessly on to the accumulation of their might, silently yet surely
generate evils, too sudden to prepare for, and too violent to reme¬
dy Td one df these causes we have made allusion, as threaten¬
ing mtwh to our prosperity and peace. Our national wealth is
accaifiulating-iti no unequal proportion with our individual. Is
there no fear lest our grasping desire for gain as private citizens,
be suffered'to sway in the exercise of our international relations.
Is there no danger, lest unsatisfied with the already o'erflowing
coffers of our Treasury, we be impelled to treat our weaker
neighbors, first with indignity and next with violence,—first
conquer and afterwards spoil;—lest forgetful of our high destiny
as a people, we exult in the triumph of our arms, because of
thegolden harvest we expect will follow it, and subject ourselves
at the same time, to the withering contempt of the world and to
an early and fearful ruin? Should the hour ever come in our
history, when we war upon others, not in defence of our security
and our rights, but from mere love of conquest or of gain,—that
their territory may swell the limits of our own, and we grow
opulent in their ruin; that hour will the knell of our national dis¬
solution be tolled! Then will our history but mirror that of
Rome;—our career be as fitful and our end as inglorious. Would
that the prayer of a distinguished statesman of the South,. could
meet with a fervent response from the heart of every American.
"May the people not forget in the midst of their ardent pursuit
of gain, that virtue, patriotism, honor and intelligence, and not
wealth, are the only certain and durable foundation of national
prosperity and greatness." To preserve the recollection of this
great truth, amid all our engagements and duties however per¬
plexing, should be our first care, and to our Colleges and Uni¬
versities we look as its safest conservatories. For upon them
mainly depend the maintenance of a purified literature, correct
morals and an active religion. Upon them we must rely to check
the spirit of feckless innovation, or as we might better term it,
the rage for revolutionizing established customs and opinions;—
it matters not, whether of the growth of half a century, or
clothed with all the imposing sanctity of antiquity. The nov¬
elty of our political institutions,—the mixed character of our
9
community, composed as it is, of so many strange and incongru¬
ous materials, and the peculiar nature of the country, all unite in
the formation of new habits, feelings and opinions. It can be no
cause of surprise, that under these circumstances, some minds,
but partially cultivated, anxious to evince such" independence of
thought, as they conclude becomes republican freemen, and
their contempt for the wisdom of the past; shouldtte continually
running into extremes, and levelling mighty efforts to the over¬
throw of the existing order of things, and the a&mlssioja of the
most egregious absurdities in their stead. To decfuce a conclu¬
sion from facts, it would seem that the idea is gaining preva¬
lence, that we have actually reached the age of human perfec¬
tion. What was once the result of the assiduous application of
years, is now the attainment of a few brief months. Empiri¬
cism in every profession has become the rage. Physicians are a
patented invention, and assume the responsible guardianship of
human life, without deigning to listen to the previous teachings
of iEsculapius. The bar is degraded by the admission of un¬
fledged students, ignorant of the first principles of law, to blus¬
ter and rant at once to the discomfiture of their clients and the
torture of the Judge:—while even the more sacred profession is
dishonored in the eyes of the world, by mere babblers in Theol¬
ogy. The march of mind has been so exceedingly rapid, that
it has run far ahead of itself. It is possible that we may have ad¬
vanced in knowledge, but it is much to be feared that we have
lost in solidity, what we have gained in speed. Instead of ele¬
vating the minds of the people to the standard of intellectual
greatness, this standard must be lowered down to meet, not their
capacities, but their limited attainments in science and literature,
and in accordance with this sentiment, our Colleges are to he
pruned of their excrescences, by robbing them of our richest
adornments. We allude to the clamorous demand for their des¬
ecration of the study of the Classics; but we have not the time,
nor is it necessary to enter into a labored argument for their re¬
tention. The heart which could dictate their expulsion, must
be wanting alike in correctness of judgment and refinement of
taste. The hand which would commit these bright mementos of
the past to a dishonorable grave,—which would deprive us of the
thrilling pleasure of conversing with the unseen dead,—of ming
ling with the mighty spirits of old, in holy communion,—of
lingering over the details of the pristine glory of ancient States,.
10
exulting in the triumph oF the eloquence of their sons, listening
in rapture to the language of their poesy, and weeping over their
unfortunate decay, would not refuse to lay hold in violence upon
all that we have in most sacred trust. The intelligence of the
community forms an admirable and competent safe-guard against
this spirit of revolution or reckless innovation;—for innovation
we must callitf and deem it not the less worthy our honest de¬
testation fop thg name. But it must be met and subdued in its in¬
fancy, ere .if attains the hale vigor of its manhood. Like the
torrent fropy the mountains, feeble resistance will chafe its ener¬
gies, but to swell its impetuosity and increase its strength. Give
it way, and individual, aliko-withjconstitutional rights are inse¬
cure. Giver it way, and nothing of intellectual glory or moral
purity will be left among us to adorn our civil institutions. No
stone in the sublime temple to freedom we have built, will remain
unturned. All,—all will be overthrown. Its columns broken,
—its marble flooring defaced,—its porticoes destroyed,—and its
majestic dome which canopies half a continent wrecked into a
thousand fragments.
The prosperity of our Colleges is intimately blended with the
success of our experiment in government, and there is no time more
propitious than the present for our Legislators under the guidance
of an elevated wisdom, to extend the fulness of their bounty to
the higher institutions of learning in the State, that our greatness
may be perpetuated and our name made honorable. In the im¬
partial assignment, of the State's distributive share of the Surplus
Revenue, the friends of education have ardent hopes that those
institutions, the cherished objects of their care, will not meet
with neglect and indifference Their claims to legislative pat¬
ronage rest upon a basis of enduring strength; they cannot be set
aside,—they will not be overlooked. To the trustees of East
Tennessee College, much is due for their enterprize and care in
inducing its present prosperous condition, but to none can we
ascribe more honor than its presiding officer. To his judicious
policy,'—his patient industry and paternal guardianship, she
greatly owes her present exaltation and usefulness. Identified
as he is, with the growth of its youth, his name must be yet more
so hereafter, with the expansion of its maturity. Its future pat¬
rons and friends will appreciate his exertions, and cherish their
memory as a noble example of the active benevolence of the
age. God speed hirp in his efforts! May he meet bis award in
11
the elevated character and extended influence of the protege of
his adoption. May East Tennessee College, as a tower of fire
on the tops of our own loved mountains, send forth her light
from afar to warn and to guide. May the beams of her bright¬
ness be met by answering rays of light from distant mountains in
distant States, until darkness merges into light) ar^l our whole
country is radiant with knowledge and truth.