THE CAUSE OF EDUCATION IN TENNESSEE.
AN
.ADDRESS
DELIVERED TO THE YOUNG GENTLEMEN
ADMITTED TO THE DEGREE OP
BACHELOR OF ARTS,
IN
®@SL3LS2@ls
AT THE
tfotttttjerawg Commencement,,
OCTOBER 4, 1826.
BY PHI2L1P X.XNDSX.EY, D. D.
PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE.
NASHVILLE:
Banner Press—J. S. Simpson, printer
1326.
ADDRESS.
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 generally
.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 investigation which still
lies before you, and which invites your assiduous cultiva¬
tion. If you have learned how to study, and have acquired
a thirst for knowledge, you will continue to study and to
learn while you live. This, indeed, 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 invigo¬
rate intellectual energy; and to furnish the requisite mate¬
rials upon which to erect the noblest superstructure. Hith¬
erto, you have been laying the foundation; and serving
that kind of apprenticeship which may enable you to march
forward by your own diligent and persevering efforts. Do
not imagine, therefore, that your work is done. You have
only commenced your studies. Whatever may be your
future profession, pursuit, business 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 observation* his in¬
tercourse with the world, with men and things, his daily oc¬
cupations, his incidental associations, the great volume of
nature, ever open and spread out to his view, the intellec¬
tual treasures of a hundred generations 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 exer¬
tion.
All the great and good men, who have enlightened, adorn-
ed and purified the world by their labours and their coun¬
sels. have been indefatigable in the pursuit of knowledge,
( 4 )
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 in¬
dustry.
The lawyer, physician or divine, who limits his range of
thought and study to the mere mechanical rules, or prece¬
dents, or forms, or prescriptions of his professional rubrick,
will never become eminent in his own particular profession,
nor will he ever be distinguished as a man. He may pass
along with tolerable respectability, countenanced by the
multitude of his brethren who are like himself, among
people not wise enough to distinguish noise from sense,
Or technical jargon and pedantry from learning and argu¬
ment. 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 beyond it, always tends to narrow and contract
the mind. He may he expert in small* things, in petty of¬
ficial details, like an artisan in his workshop; but take him
out of his daily routine, from off the beaten'track, and he is
bewildered and confused, or opinionated, obstinate and illi¬
beral. He cannot grasp a great subject, or comprehend a
Hew moral theorem or proposition. He will discuss the in¬
terests of an empire as he would treat the cause of a client,
or the case of a patient, or a point m theology. Nov/ 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 as¬
pire after higher objects, and nobler attainments, and more
expanded views.
In England, even the humblest artificers and mechanics,
tradesmen and farmers, in almost every town, are beginning
to form associations for mental improvement. They have
procured libraries—they read literary and scientific jour¬
nals—attend lectures on chemistry, political economy, me¬
chanics, natural philosophy, history, mathematics—they
Study and converse with each other at every spare moment
Cr leisure hour. In a few years, they will take the lead of
half the professional men in the kingdom, unless the latter
Condescend to follow their example. A similar spirit of en¬
terprise and improvement has already appeared in our lar¬
ger cities, and its march will be rapid, and its effects most
salutary.. Our youthful candidates for the learned profes¬
sions, therefore, must prepare to enter the lists of honoura-
( 5 >
lile competition with a new and vigorous race of rival com*
batants for the prize of intellectual supremacy.
I know not what are to be your future professions or oc¬
cupations. 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 eminently distinguished and eminently- useful, if you will
persevere in seeking after knowledge and in making a pro¬
per use of it. The Medici—Necker—Ricardo—were mer¬
chants or bankers: Franklin was a mechanic; Washington
was a farmer. By far the greater part of our countrymen
arejailQ must be farmers. They must be educated: or,
what is the same thing, educated men must become far¬
mers, if they would maintain their just influence and ascen-
deilcy in the state. I cannot wish for the alumni of Cum¬
berland College, a more healthful, independent, useful, vir¬
tuous, honourable, patriotic employment, than that of agri¬
culture. Nor is there any condition in life more favourable
to the calm pursuits of science, philosophy and religion; and
to all that previous training which ultimately constitutes
wisdom ana inflexible integrity. Should our college even¬
tually become the grand nursery of intelligent, virtuous
farmers, I shall esteem it the most highly favoured institu-*
tion in our country. I have long thought that our college
graduates often mistake their true path to honour and use¬
fulness, in making choice of a learned profession, instead of
converting 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 sta¬
tion you may occupy, or whatever be your pursuits, never
cease to gain knowledge and to do good, as God, in his pro¬
vidence, shall give you opportunity.
But, in the second place, as you have yourselves enjoyed
superior advantages of education, it is reasonable to expect
that you will be the steady, enlightened, zealous friends
and advocates of education, in every degree, and to the ut¬
most extent, which the welfare of the community may re¬
quire.
1 present to your patronage and support the grand causer
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 great¬
ly improved—I freel/admit. Still,these admissions detract
noting° ^rorn intrinsic value of knowledge, nor from the
paramount importance of education. The native charac¬
ter, tendency and genuine effects of any principle, system
or institution, must decide its utility, and its claims to gene¬
ral adoption and support; and not the partial 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 you banish religion andliberty
from the earth, because both religion and liberty have been
most grossly profaned; and employed, in ten thousand ways,
to deceive,oppress, and*degrade mankind? Then oppose
not—condemn not education. The want of it has occa¬
sioned most of the misery and crime which have been in¬
flicted on our world under the specious names and impos¬
ing 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 people were 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 principles and dictates—its plainest duties and
requirements cannot be understood or performed, without
previous instruction. 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
religion and liberty, therefore, be, in any degree, desirable;
if they be indispensable to the happiness and perfection of
our nature; if they be justly prized above all other bles¬
sings which bountiful Heaven has placed within the reach
of the human family; then is the cause of education suffi¬
ciently established.
By education, we mean, such a thorough cultivation of all
the faculties of our j^puth, as will best prepare them for
the greatest usefulness and happiness. Let this definition
( 1 )
be kept in view during the whole progress of our argument
and illustrations. Those of my hearers who have reflect¬
ed much on this subject will not expect any benefit or in¬
formation from the discussion. They will patiently hear
with me, however, while I endeavor, 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 he classed as
follows: namely,
1. Primary or Infant Schools. 2. Common Schools. 3.
Academies, or Classical or Intermediate Schools. 4. Col¬
leges or Universities. 5. Special or Professional Schools:
Such as those for Law, Divinity, Medicine, Military or Na¬
val 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 circumstances
or of education. That he may be made an angel or a de¬
vil, or something between both, by any discipline or acci¬
dental associations. Still, to a certain extent, and with cer¬
tain qualifications, this is true; and it is a truth of revela¬
tion, 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 education, I refer you to
an extreme case or two, and to others of every day's occur¬
rence. Suppose a person were to grow up, from infancy
to manhood, in a desert or forest, without ever seeing a hu¬
man 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 evil, 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
( 8 )
circumstances, associations and instruction to which the)*
i are subjected. Where these are most auspicious, human
nature assumes ite most attractive and dignified character.
Where these are most unfavourable, human nature appears
in its most abject and degraded form. This, as ,a genera),
fruth or fact, none will dispute, If we pass from the ten
thousand varieties of national character, and the ten thorn
sand gradations of national excellence or depravity, to in¬
dividuals of the most enlightened and most highly favoured
country in Christendom, we shail hehold similar effect^
continually resulting from similar causes.
It requires a good deal of patient investigation, and mi¬
nute analysis to ascertain how much of good and evil may
he 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 instruction; or, what is the
same things 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 ojr useless to commence
the work of instruction. Further, of the many hundreds
or thousands of dialects actually spoken by mankind, the
child always learns the language of its parents and compan¬
ions: Jand he learns it more or less perfectly according to
their habitual use of it. If they pronounce it correctly, ant)
speak it with grammatical accuracy, purity and elegance,
he will speak it agreeably to the best rules of orthoepy, gram¬
mar and rhetoric, without an effort, and previously to the
knowledge of any rule whatever. In the same manner, and
with the same facility, a child might acquire a number of
languages, as experience has fully demonstrated. Now,
this simple fact "pi'oves, first, that much, very much is actu¬
ally learned by every child in infancy: and secondly, that
the amount and perfection of this knowledge depend entire¬
ly on the opportunities ami advantages possessed. Were
we to extend this analysis to other particulars or depart¬
ments ; to piinciplcs ai d habit?, m,ora,l, economical, physical,
intellectual, religinu-, wo should find the infant mind yield¬
ing to a daily and *ibmst invisible influence, which may
mark its character and deslinv through life.
( 9 )
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 duty to their offspring. I care not whe¬
ther our youth go to college or not, if parents can and will
teach them more effectually by tljeir own firesides. But,
unfortunately, the great mass of parents have shown them¬
selves but sorry instructers and faithless guides to those
who ought to be dearer to them than their own life. They
are themselves, 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 defect.
And report speaks well of them Whereve r they have been
tried. How far it may be practicable or beneficial to in¬
troduce 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 next
best 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 ima¬
gine that they had already become the favorites of the peo¬
ple. 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 col¬
leges 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 Cum¬
berland College will ever prove recreant or backward 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 depart¬
ments as will conveniently accommodate all the inhabitants.
Erect comfortable and commodious school-houses. Attach
to each school-house a lot of ten acres of land, for the pur¬
pose of healthful exercise, gardening, farming and the me¬
chanical arts. For the body requires training as well as
b
( 10 )
the mind. Besides, as multitudes must live by manual la¬
bour, they ought betimes to acquire habits of industry, econ¬
omy, temperance, hardihood, muscular strength, skill and
dexterity. Employ teachers qualified to govern and in¬
struct children in the best possible manner. Pay them ac¬
cording to their merit. Pay any sum necessary to com¬
mand the services of the best and most accomplished teach¬
ers. Parsimony in this particular is not only impolitic; it
is mean, it is absurd, it is ruinous. Better have no teach¬
ers, than to have incompetent, immoral, lazy, passionate or
indiscreet ones; hbwever cheaply they may be procured.
Their influence will not be merely negative: it will be pos¬
itive 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
vagabond, because he would teach a child for a dollar and
twentyfive cents per quarter! Now, if there be any thing on
earth for which a parent ought to feel disposed to pay liber¬
ally, it is for the faithful instruction of his children. Com¬
pared with this, every other interest vanishes like chaff be¬
fore the wind—it is less than nothing. And yet, unless the
world has suddenly grown much wiser, there is no service
so grudgingly 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 physician, a
merchant, a mechanic, a farmer, or a farmer's overseer, in
preference. Untif school-keeping be made an honourable
&nd a lucrative profession, suitable teachers will never be
forthcoming in this free country.
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 mathematics, physics, astronomy, me¬
chanics, rural economy—with several other branches of
scienee and literature, as ethics, rhetoric, political econo-
my, 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 totally different aspect to this whole
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 dis¬
covered 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 melio¬
rate the moral, physical and political condition of mankind
generally, than all other means ever yet devised.
The excellence and the extent of a common school edu¬
cation, therefore, will ever depend on the qualifications of
the teacher and .the system which he pursues. JSo man can
teach more than he knows himself. Every man can teach
all that he does know. The more he knows, the more use¬
ful 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 while
he lives. He will then be fitted for usefulness and honour.
He will always have resources within himself. He will be
conscious that he is an intellectual being; and that intel¬
lectual 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 become, the
greater will be the demand for institutions of a higher or¬
der. Multitudes of aspiring youth will pant for more intel¬
lectual treasures. They will look out for other seats of
learning where they may advance still further. .Will you
drive them to neighboring or distant states, and compel them
( 12 )
to expend abroad the thousands of dollars \yhich sound po¬
licy, to say no more, ought to induce you to keep in circu¬
lation 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 attached to each of these seminaries, for the same
purposes that we have already assigned them to the com¬
mon schools. Here again I must avoid details. Merely
adding, however, that all this will not be sufficient. Learn¬
ing 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 nu¬
merous candidates for the highest literary honours and at¬
tainments. 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 College or University
cannot be reared except at a great expense. It is not like
an ordinary school or academy, which any enterprising in¬
dividual, with moderate resources, may establish any where.
The aid of government—the wealth of the state—or else
the combined efforts and contributions of many liberal in¬
dividuals—will be necessary to build up a college. Upon
the University of Virginia, above half a million of dollars
were expended before a pupil was admitted: and fifteen
thousand dollars have been appropriated annually for 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 au¬
thor of the Declaration of our N ational 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 intellectual 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 immediately: 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
( 13 )
or foreign states. Thus, in a single year, might he with¬
drawn from the state more money than would suffice to cre¬
ate a Cambridge at our Very doors. This is sL considera¬
tion 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¬
hensions 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 hav¬
ing no sympathy, or community of feeling or interest with
the great mass of the people. That they constitute a class
or party by themselves, and that they ought to be viewed:
with jealousy and suspicion by all the vigilant 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 liber¬
ally educated American who was not a decided friend to
every well devised plan and measure calculated to diffuse
the blessings of knowledge universally. 4 He is from expe¬
rience, from conviction, from principle, from patriotism, from
philanthropy, the firm, persevering and zealous advocate
and promoter of education among the people. He ardent¬
ly 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 them¬
selves. 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 dem¬
olition of despotism in Franee, and the establishment of a
free representative government in its stead, were first
thought of, canvassed and attempted by the most enlight¬
ened 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 the millions
could not comprehend its import, much less appreciate its
value, that, when once excited, they became ungovernable,
furious, brutal, ferocious: and the consequences need no
recital or comment. Had the people, however, been pre¬
viously instructed in the first elements of letters and poli*
( 14 )
tics j had they learned how to reflect, to reason and to judge,
a very different result would'have been witnessed. Simi¬
lar attempts have been made, by a few enlightened patri¬
ots in other parts of Europe, to meliorate the political con¬
dition 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, Prussia and
Germany, than any and all other enemies put together.
Hence the rigid system of police and jealous espionage
exercised towards them. Strange that republicans should
represent colleges as hostile to liberty, when tyrants per¬
secute them because they are friendly to liberty. Youth
cannot long be familiar with the history and institutions of
Greece and Rome, without imbibing 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 and
Bucharest, that, the first champions of liberty and inde¬
pendence issued, to animate their fellow bondmen of Mod¬
ern Greece to break the chains of their Mohammedan op¬
pressors. And they have made every effort to establish
schools, throughout their degraded country, to teach les¬
sons of liberty to the people. God grant them success in
their glorious struggle; and a generous, high-minded, pat¬
riotic, virtuous, enlightened Washington, to direct their
energies in the cabinet and in the field!
Now there can be no better or stronger evidence in fa¬
vour of the general beneficial tendency of learning, how¬
ever obtained, than the fact, that, whenever, in ancient or
modern times, endeavours have been made to procure liber
ty to a people, and wherever it has been acquired, those
endeavors were made, and that acquisition secured, by
men of superior knowledge. Such is the language of -his¬
tory from Moses to Bolivar. And among the most enlight¬
ened philanthropists on the continent of Europe at this mo¬
ment, the grand cause of their discouragement and despair
in regard to liberty, is, that the people are too ignorant to
be entrusted with liberty; and hence they feel constrained
( IS >
to remain inactive. 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 con¬
troversy 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 farmer or mechanic—
but such men as might have adorned the proudest court in
Christendom—men of whom their own country was unwor¬
thy—men who understood the full import of the glorious
cause to which they were ready to sacrifice titles, and hon¬
ours, 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 mainsprings,
the leaders of our memorable revolution? The answer
to the question is upon every schoolboy's tongue. He will
recount a catalogue of patriots, who, for profound know¬
ledge and practical wisdom, were never surpassed in any
age or country. Such were the friends of our own liber¬
ties, 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 welfare of their country.
Happily, the people, having been generally educated at
common schools, were sufficiently informed to comprehend
their rights, when those / rights w'elt^ ably explained to
them, and wise enough to be guided b^ their superiors in
wisdorfi. But had the intelligent, the learned colonists of
those days combined with the English aristocracy in main¬
taining the ancient government in all its plans of oppres¬
sion, the people would never have thought of a revolution.
Had they been enlisted on the side of the British ministry,
we had this 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 fabric of
liberty, which 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 succes^
sive generation shoulchbe taught to maintain their rights
( 16 )
by fully comprehending them. Hence, whenever they had
opportunity, in the legislative councils of the States or of
the nation, they endeavored to secure a legal provision for
schools and colleges, either by the appropriation of public
lands, or by gradually accumulating an adequate pecunia¬
ry fund for the purpose. To the general truth of this
representation, I am not acquainted with a single exception
among our revolutionary 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 pat¬
riots, 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 suc¬
ceeded in founding the University of Pennsylvania: al¬
though 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 ppssessed too much good sense, and too much benevo¬
lence to wis]? others to be left to the mere chance of creat¬
ing for themselves a path to eminence, when a great public
highway might be so easily constructed for their conve¬
nience. He knew that an extraordinary exception to a
general rule or law 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, liber¬
ally. endowed a college in his native State, which,still bears
his name.
Jefferson, besides promoting the same great cause dur¬
ing the long period of his public career, consecrated the
last seventeen years of his valuable life to the establishment
of a University, upon the most permanent basis and of the.
most enlarged dimensions. And centuries hence, probably,
the name of Jefferson will be more revered and distinguish¬
ed 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 Jefferson of any lack of
patriotism or republicani^n. And no man need be asham¬
ed 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 history, a name
(«)
worthy, in all respects, to he associated with our immortal
Franklin, Washington and Jefferson! T lis hoo >ur, 1 doubt
not, she will have; and that our Academic Halls will hail
him as a patron and benefactor, while virtue and science
and liberty shall exist in our land.
As I am deali ig altogether vwith facts, and not with
theories; and as^I do not wish to go a hair's breadth beyond
the simple truth, I take leave distinctly to announce to you,
that, I do not affirm that all men of learning have, every
where and under all circumstances, been the friends of
liberty and of human happiness. Far from it. The posi¬
tion which I maintain is simply this;—that liberty and the
best interests of humanity, have ever been ably and suc¬
cessfully advocated and promoted only by men well inform¬
ed; and by the best informed too of the age and country
in which they flourished. And, that, among ourselves, the
most enlightened citizens have ever approved themselves
the most effectual guardians of the people's rights. I ad¬
mit also, that so far as this argument is co cerned, it matters
not where or how they acquire the requisite knowledge—
whether in common schools or high schools—in colleges or
universities—at home or abroad—by thqir own unassisted
efforts and enterprise, or from public institutions established
by the government or by individual munificence. But un¬
til a better mode of arriving at the object can be devised,
we shall continue to regard schools and colleges as indis¬
pensable. So long as the republic shall need learned men,
we shall expect schools and colleges to furnish them. They
have already done tlie 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. Shall we, there¬
fore, put an end to every system of education, because none
has hitherto been faultless? Will those who denounce col¬
leges, pretend that common schools are le s obnoxious to
censure; or that they are as good as they need to be?
R-fjrmalion—improvement—is the order of the age—and
it mast 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 influence on the character of common schools: and
these again constitute the foundation of colleges. Unless com-
Q
( 18 )
Men schools be good, our colleges will not be good. The inter¬
mediate schools or academies will not remedy the defects of
theoneor the other. It is all important to begin well. If boys
enter college with idle and vitious habits, they will probably
continue idle and vitious. If they have been well trained
at home and a,t school, th^y will be; orderly, virtuous and
diligent in college. The graduates of our colleges gener¬
ally will be found to have received their bias to virtue or
vice, under the parental roof,.and from their earliest in¬
structed and associates. If parents neglect their sons, or
leave them to ignorant 01 profligate preceptors or compan¬
ions, during childhood and early youth, they need not
expect that the discipline of any college on earth will ope¬
rate upon them any miraculohs regenerating influence.
Such boys are ruined before they enter college: although
parents are generally charitable enough to blame the col¬
lege for their own inexcusable folly and cruel indulgence,
when their hopeless sons disappoint their unreasonable ex¬
pectations. . 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 impossibilities. Sup¬
ply them with pupils, who have been thoroughly disciplined
at home and at school—of a suitable age to act with rea¬
sonable discretion, and who are really desirous 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 advocates
of'common schools were equally well disposed towards col¬
leges. Their grand objection to them, besides those alrea¬
dy hinted at, is briefly this:—-That colleges are designed
exclusively for the rich—that the poor cannot be benefited
by them—and, therefore, that the poor ought not to be tax¬
ed 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, ne¬
ver 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 ex¬
istence. But then, such poor youths must usually belong
to the vicinity, or at least to the state, in which the college
(■»)
is situated. Neither Connecticut nor New-Jersey would
ever think of educating at their colleges a poor youth of
Tennessee: but many hundreds of poor, very poor young
men of their own states have been thus educated. With¬
out a college 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 col¬
lege,1 at an expense of from fifty to a hundred and fifty dol¬
lars 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 designed
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 educate 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 Ox¬
ford 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 con¬
strain 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 mid¬
dling and 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 un¬
derstood by the people, they would presently perceive, that,
the main scope of the pretext so artfully employed to mis¬
lead 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
( ^0 )
equitable plan of assessment or taxation which might he
adopted for the purpose.
But, in the third place,—why all this clamour and affec¬
tation of zeal in behalf of the poor? Do men legislate only
for the poor? Does the government exist solely for the
poor? Are the poor, an.d they oi ly, elected to office? Is
not some pecu nary or landed qualification indispensable to
any man's eligibility to office? Is the public money—aye,
the people's .money—paid out in salaries to the poor—to
poor governors, poor judges, poor senators? Are banking,
insurance, manufacturing, turnpike, bridge, or canal com¬
panies incorporated 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: that they were the precious objects of the govern¬
ment's special care and protection: Since their self-consti¬
tuted 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 com¬
menced to-morrow, the poor would not be burdened a far¬
thing. They would, on the contrary, be immediately bene¬
fited 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
poor 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 mrselves 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 re¬
lated to each other. The rich man may have a poor father
or brother. And the,poorest individual may be nearly al¬
lied to the most distinguished families in the land. Our
state of society is constantly fluctuating. Rich families dai¬
ly decline; poor ones- daily advance. Wealth and poverty
are mere accidents. They are not hereditary in particular
lines, or perpetuated in partic ular families. It is absurd
therefore to declaim .or to speculate about the poor as if
( 21 )
they were an oppressed, miserable, helpless class, like the
Russian or Palish peasantry. We have ill been poor*. We
may be poor agaii. When poor, we were obliged to deny
ourselves many comforts, luxuries and j rivileges which we
now enjoy: and it was mail ly by this self-denial that we
were enabled to improve our oo dition. And such must
ever be t'«e case. If the poor wish to rise above tl eir pres¬
ent cor dition, they can do so, every where it our cotn try,
by industry, prudence and economy: a.'d they will contin¬
ue to do so, as long as they shall oe left to their ovva free
energies. 1 trust the time is far distant, when our govern¬
ment shall think it worth while to perpetuate pauperism
amongst us by l^gal encouragement—by premiums in the
shape of poor r ites.
The only distinction which exists among our citizens,
worthy of notice, is between the educated and the unedu¬
cated. The former engross all tne wealth, offices and in¬
fluence in the nation; w iile the latter remain the victims
of want, of crime, of infamy, and of punishment. I here
use the term "ducated in a very wide and comprehensive
sense. Taa individu il who»has learned how to labouratany
honest occupation, and who kr ows how to manage his earn¬
ings skilfully,is educated,and well educated, compared w ith
those who have been brought up to no busir ess; or who are
destitute of sobriety, prudence and ecom my. He may be¬
come rich and honourable; waile they are necessarily
doomed to poverty and wretchedness. Between these two
descriptions of persons there is an impassable gulf. Ti-ey
are further removed from each other than'the lord and his
vassal: and the longer they live the wider will be th'e* dis¬
tance between them. Whoever has grown up in total
ignorance of the means of acquiring an honest livelihood,
and with vitious habits, may be regarded, in general, a?
helpless and hopeless. Gross ignorance, at least of every
thing 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 pre¬
ventive—its further progress may be checked—its recur¬
rence may be prevented. This preventive remedy is in¬
struction, moral, intellectual, physical, religious. It is rot
only the cheapevst—it is the only remedy. If ipvefnrute
habits cannot be changed; take care that the rl ildren
form better habits, and imbibe better principles than their
fhthers.
( n )
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 endea¬
vour 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 ne¬
cessity for prisons or penitentiaries. Here is the right end
to begin at—the proper starting point—the first step in the
work of general reformation, without which every other
will be taken in vain. Happily, wherever the experiment
has been made, it has fully succeeded. Among the thou¬
sands of poor children recently trained in the free schools
of the city of New-York, not one has been sentenced 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 bd 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 ad¬
vanced to the academy 5 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 en¬
dow, a college, so that the poor and the rich may enjoy its
privileges gratis. Or she may make such provision 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 fa¬
vours 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 appro¬
bation and support.
Let it not be inferred from any thing just said, that I am
an enemy to the penitentiary system. It is, when judicious¬
ly administered, a good and necessary system, in the exist¬
ing state of our society. But it may, and I doubt not, will
be, in a great measure,superseded by the proper training of
our youth, who would otherwise become its pitiable subjects.
Having thus, at greater length than I intended, disposed
of some of the popular objections t® colleges—objections
( S3 )
which I have frequentfy heard advanced.in Tennessee—1
might proceed to show what a college ougbtto be. But as
I have, on a former occasion, expressed my views pretty ful¬
ly on this subject, I shall not now repeat them.
I must be permitted, however, to,gay a word in behalf of
Cumberland College; especially to my young friends, who
have just been adorned with her laurel, and who will be re¬
garded 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 resusci¬
tation under circumstances which would have discouraged
and appalled men of ordinary capacity and enterprise—its
conduct, character and progress during the period of near¬
ly 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 be content with
humble mediocrity, nor with a mere equality with her sister
institutions. She aims at vastly greater eminence and use¬
fulness than has yet been reached by any of them. This
aim will be pronounced visionary by those who do not know
what constitutes the real excellence of a college, and by
those who are ever disposed to predict a failure where they
do not wish success.
Men frequently, too, labour under an unfortunate preju¬
dice on this subject. They presume that colleges must be
growing better as they grow older; and distance of situa¬
tion greatly increases their reverence. Hence, a venerable
monastic establishment, a hundred years old, and a thou¬
sand miles off, is conceived to possess advantages which
'young Tennessee cannot hope for in a century. Now I
venture to assert, that, our infant university might be made,
in five years, 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 principal expensive ingredients of a
university: and money can command them all, in as great
abundance ancf perfection here, as in Europe or old America.
We have the full benefit of all past experience to begin
with. Whatever is excellent in existing institutions, we
( 24)
nrnv adopt: whatever is Superfluous, or antiquated, of fatib
ty, we.may reject. It is much easier to create a good insti¬
tute _>a than to mead a bad one. Ancient usage naturally
becomes 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 its arrange-
me its and combinations, all other institutions—if her sons'
will but prove true to themselves and faithful to future
ge^-cations. A more eligible or healthful site for such an
es»a lishment cannot he found in the Western country.
Here is the place, and now is the time for generous enter¬
prise. Here let us erect a university, so decidedly and
confessedly superior in every department, that a rival or
competitor need not be feared. Let us make ample pro¬
vision for every species of instruction—scientific, literary,
professional—which our country demands. Let education
beexteodel to the physical' and moral, as well as to the
me iUl faculties. Let agriculture, horticulture, civil and
milil -try engineering, gvmnastics, the iiberal and the me¬
chanical arts—whatever may tend to'impart vigour, dignity,
grace, activity, health, to the body—whatever may tend to
purify the heart, improve the morals and manners, discip¬
line the intellect, and to furnish it with copious stores of
useful elementary knowledge,—obtain their appropriate
place and rank, aad receive merited attention in our semina¬
ry ; 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 he made to render them intelligent, virtu¬
ous, accomplished citizens. Does an) man d -ubtthat such
an institution will ever want patronage? Make it the best
in the country; and will it not command the patronage of
the country? Such an establishment as we contemplate,
the public mfod is already prepared for, ai d has begun to
call for. This call is imperative—it will be heard—it will
he answered. We must meet it or oti ers will.
Our college is already as good and respectable as most
others; cerfai dy inferior to none in the West. It has re¬
ceived the most flattering encouragement. No college, in
any part of our country, has, with the same means, effected
( 25 )
as much, or numbered as marly students,' in so short a,pe¬
riod. I may add too, without exaggeration or compliment,
that, the orderly, moral, gentlemanly deportment of our
students, during the past session especially, and of most of
them from the beginning, would have done credit to any
seminary. And that they have made extraordinary pro¬
ficiency in the languages and sciences, taught by our labo¬
rious and accomplished professors, has been fully acknowl¬
edged by all who have attended their public examinations
or ordinary recitations.* The friends of the college, there¬
fore, have no ground for despondency on the one hand;
and we trust that they will not be so far satisfied with its
actual condition 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
ma^ch of mind and the progress of universal improvement,
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 successful step
should prompt to another and a greater. When we have
gained one eminence, we shall be 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 animate 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 various
purposes pf their contemplated university. It is proposed
immediately to commence the erection of a series ofbuild-
*A.s this Address, which is published by order of the Trustees, is
hurrying rapidly through the press, the author has neither time nor
space for any additional statements or explanations relative to the
system of discipline and instruction adopted in the college, and
which has already produced the happiest results. Such decorous
behaviour, such general industry, and such thorough scholarship, he
has rarely, if ever before, witnessed. Among the peculiarities of the
system, he will mention one; viz. the total absence of every stimu¬
lus in the shape of premium, prize, or honorary distinction. This will
doubtless appear strange, without those details, which would ren¬
der the system actually pursued, intelligible to the reader.
As an apology for the mixed character of the Address, it may
be added in this note, that the occasion required something in the
way of counsel to the young gentlemen who were just leaving the
institution, and that the author took advantage of the occasion tp
appeal to the people in behalf of schools and colleges,
D
( 26 )
ings.for the accommodation of students, instructers and stew-;
ards; consisting of five additional colleges, each sufficient¬
ly commodious for a hundred student* and three assistant
professors or tutors,.and of seven houses for as many prin¬
cipal or head professors. We shall then have six colleges, and
twenty five instructers, and accommodations for six hun¬
dred pupils. To-each college will be attached a refecto¬
ry 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
youth at the same place. Professors will occupy houses on1
the intervening lots: and there will be at least three offi¬
cers resident within the walls of each college. We shall
thus have six distinct arid, separate families, so far as re¬
gards domestic economy,internal police,and social order;
while one Senatus Academicus will superintend and control
the whole.
Gardens and mechanics' shops will be interspersed among
the various edifices, in such manner as to be easily accessi¬
ble 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 hundred acres more,
for a model or experimental farm; that agriculture, the
noblest of sciences and the most invportant of the useful arts,
may be thoroughly studied and practised. At a future
period, or as soon as the means can be obtained, other suit¬
able edifices, both useful and ornamental, may be erected.
The plan admits of indefinite 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 design, only about
$200,000. will be required. This sum might be furnished
by the State at once; or in two, four, eight or ten years.
Or it may be obtained partly by donations, and partly by
loan. Any individual, for instance, bestowing $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 they 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
( *7 )
hill, to be known among all future generations as Jackson
College, founded and endowed by the citizens of Davidson
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 magnan¬
imity, 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 ddllars, or were one thousand to
give twenty dollars apiece, the object wouldbe accomplished
without the aid of the county at large: and who could feel
the burthen 1 Thus, then, one college, at least, is provided
for. Some others might possibly be erected by similar means,
and in honor 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 college,
he is doling out alms to an importunate or worthless beg¬
gar. He does honour to himself by the act; and the insti¬
tution 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 legislature,
or from our good city or county, or from individuals, we
may borrow the whole sum of two hundred thousand dol¬
lars, 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 pre¬
sent rate of charges for tuition and room-rent. It would be
merely necessary, in order to procure the loan, that the
stato should guaranty the payment, or that responsible in-
( 28 )
dividuals should underwrite 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 com¬
petent judges.* Now it would be vastly preferable that the
money should be gratuitously furnished, because (to specify
no other advantages) the expenses of an education at our
university might he diminished one half immediately; 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 ve¬
ry deliberately counted the cost: and forward 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 pro¬
jected institution, designed, as it is, exclusively for the benefit
of this people? I will tell you. It will be opposed by the
faint-hearted, the cowardly, the ignorant, the covetous; and
by all the enemies of light, truth, virtue and human happi¬
ness. It will be opposed by that description of selfish, arro¬
gant, self-surficient, -would be lords and Solomons, who exist
in every petty village, and who 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, convert
the scheme into a political hobby to ride into office. It will
he 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
*The plan for the future enlargement of the institution, of which
the mere outlines are sketched above, wasdevised exclusively on the
supposition that it would be necessary to borrow the requisite funds.
This will account for the apparent meagerness of its dimensions and
provisions. What was deemed practicable, rather than what is de¬
sirable, was aimed at. Should this first step however betaken, there
will be no difficulty in advancing. The Trustees, with great zeal and
unanimity, have already determined to do their utmost to achieve
the object contemplated. They have resolved, with the consent of
the Legislature, that their college shall hereafter be styled " The
University of Tennessee," as more expressive of its character, and
to distinguish it from another Cumberland College, not far distant, at
Princeton, in Kentucky. And they are about to apply to the Legis¬
lature for pecuniary assistance, wilh a fair prospect of success,
( 29 )
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 this recent
wilderness, shall have left the scene of their early toils and
sufferings for ever,let the banks of the Cumberland be ador¬
ned with the majestic temples of science and with the aca¬
demic groves, which may proudly vie with those which have
conferred immortality on the Cam and the Isis.
Alma Mater confidently appeals to her own ingenuous al¬
umni; 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 1 doubt
not she will, a thousand generations after all her enemies
shall be forgotten, be the ornament, the pride, and the glo¬
ry of Tennessee!
Having thus earnestly pressed upon your notice the great
cause of education, and the cause of our own infant univer¬
sity in particular, as worthy of peculiar regard and benefi¬
cence ; I may briefly add, in this connexion, that every
scheme and enterprise, calculated, in any degree, to pro¬
mote human happiness, will also claim your countenance
and support. You must be the leaders—avhere others bet¬
ter qualified do not offer—in every good work. I do not
recommend to you merely those magnificent and imposing
projects for the melioration of the condition of mankind,
which are sufficiently popular to command general respect j
but, besides these, I recommend to you those humbler, less
dazzling, less conspicuous, and, frequently, more disinterested
modes of doing good, which occur every day, in every vil¬
lage, and in almost every family. Now, to be able to do
good, in any of the modes suggested or contemplated, re¬
member, 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 dis¬
sipation. You must study prudence and economy in the
management of both time and money. A man, extravagant
in his ordinary expenses, fond of show and ostentation, ea¬
ger to be at the head of the fashionable world or in the pur¬
suit 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 ne edless
display and luxury, who is content with what is usefu 1 and
( 30 )
comfortable, is the man who has the most to bestow on ob¬
jects of charity, benevolence and public utility.
Go then, Young Gentlemen, and prosecute with perse¬
vering ardour, the new course of study and discipline, which
is to qualify you to enter, in due time, upon the great the¬
atre 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 fa¬
culties. Wait, with patience, the full development 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 profes¬
sion ; and for the noblest career of usefulness to your coun¬
try, and for the most exalted stations within her gift. Des¬
pise not—neglect not any department of human learning,
whenever and wherever it can be consistently cultivated.
^ o man ever denounces, as useless or superfluous, §my sci¬
ence or language with which 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, you hear a man declaiming against
any literary or scientific pursuit, you may rest assured that
he knows nothing of the matter: and you will need no bet¬
ter evidence of his total incompetency to sit in 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 un¬
der contribution, to the greatest extent, every corner and
recess of the grand temple of science, "which it was possible
for them to explore. 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 intense¬
ly on a single point; or, at pleasure, be spread over an im¬
mense surface, diffusing light and heat and joy to the ut¬
most verge of civilized society.
Study, then, to improve all your time in the most profit¬
able manner. Let your amusements be rational, virtuous,
seasonable, manly, and invigorating to body and mind. Let
order, and method, and system be adopted and rigorously
maintained. Study hard while you profess to study. Re¬
lax at suitable intervals, only to return with redoubled ar¬
dor to your books. Thus, health, serenity of mind, elasti-
( 31 )
city of spirits, present enjoyment, future usefulness and hon>
our will all be promoted and secured.
Be not, however, the blind idolaters of genius or of sci¬
ence; Both may exist where not one lovely or commenda¬
ble 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 re¬
quires us to be like God, constitutes the whole of moral ex¬
cellence. 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 jus¬
tice, independently of religion. No human laws, usages,
institutions or opinions can, of themselves, ever render any
man perfectly 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 con¬
tinually tempted to do this, in a country where influence,
office, money are the objects of universal desire and ambi¬
tion, 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 ordinary 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 pro¬
nounced by any tribunal of perfectly honest men, who
could take cognizance of all the motives, facts and circum¬
stances. That man, 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 any mortal from any indulgence, pursuit, gain or
abomination which he covets, and to which no disgrace is
attached, except the fear of God—or, what is the same thing,
religious principle. The most ignorant 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 saluta¬
ry and restraining 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 organiza¬
tion of human society. All the peace, comfort, virtue ami
( 32 )
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 behold hu¬
man nature approximating the purity, happiness, dignity
and glory of angels. And in proportion as it is any where
neglected, opposed, despised, in the same degree 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
altogether, because he is, in spite of himself, religious or
superstitious, in some form or other, whether his views bfe
right or wrong. It is madness and cruelty, because, were
it possible for nim to banish religion from our 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 preferred to the christian.
I have no fear that any man, who honestly and soberly exam¬
ines 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 1 now
urge. Study the Bible faithfully and prayerfully, and you
will learn what true, religion is. All who do this, with a
proper temper and spirit, will agree in essential points of
doctrine, as well as in the essential rules of conduct. All
who diligently study the Bible—from the Roman Catholic
to the Quaker—will think and act alike in all things which
are important, and they will never contend about unimpor¬
tant forms or questions. Were the Bible resorted to for
our theology and our ethics, instead of human teachers dr
systems, all bigotry, fanaticism, uncharitableness and per¬
secution would disappear from the christian world. Igno¬
rance 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 assuredly ill-becomes those who are liberally educated
to be illiberal and intolerant on the subject of religion, or
to manifest illiberal hostility against it. Nor would such
anahomaly ever be witnessed, were our scholars to study
the Bible as carefully and profoundly as they study, or "jp.ro-
%ss to study human science and philosophy. Simply as an
( S3 )
integral part of a liberal education, it demands the most
thorough investigation. What right have men to dispute
and dogmatize about religion, when, in truth, 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 incon¬
sistency of christians—as if these were the genuine fruits
of Christianity, or constituted any part of its character?
Who is it that deliberately intrenches himself within the
strong holds 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 revela¬
tion? 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 threatening penalties, revolting
to infinite justice and goodness? They are to a man, igno¬
rant of the Bible, and of the heavenly spirit which pervades
it. They must be sent to school, before they can be rea¬
soned 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
other. Multitudes, however, at the present day,—and
those too, frequently,among the most intelligent and influ¬
ential 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 them¬
selves exempt from its more immediate and authoritative
control; so long as they do not submit to t ie 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 reli¬
gion'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.,
Yo ung persons easily yield to these delusions, and are ^
to think tnat religion is not designed for them,
( 34 )
ill-becomes 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
you to the Bible for instruction.
If man was made to he religious—and that he was, uni¬
versal experience proves beyond the possibility of a doubt;
if, without religion, he is both worthless and wretched—and
that he is, the same experience as fully demonstrates; then
is religion necessary, and equally necessary to all men. It is e-
qually binding on all men—on the lawyer, the physician, the
statesman, the soldier, the youthful student—as on the cler¬
gyman, the saint, or the sage of four score. It does not con¬
sist in particular acts or ceremonies, nor is it restricted, in
its operations and influence, 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 voca¬
tion. 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 yourselves,
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 duly 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 dis¬
played in the heat of battle, or on the field of carnage.
There is a moral courage, which enables a man to tri¬
umph over foes more formidable than were ever marshall¬
ed by any Caesar. A courage which impels him to do his
duty—to hold fast his integrity—to maintain a conscience
void of offence toward God and toward men—at every hazard
jand sacrifice—in defiance of the woi ldf^ and of the prince of the
^orld. Such was thecourage of Moses, of Joseph,of Daniel,
rhstides, of Phocion, of Regulus, of Paul, of Luther, of
( 35 )
Washington* Such is the courage which sustains every good
man,amidst the temptations,allurements, honours,conflicts,
•pposition,ridicule,malice,cruelty, persecution, which beset
and threaten him at every stage of hisprogress through life.
It is not a noisy, obtrusive, blusteTing, boastful courage, which
pushes itself into notice when there is no real danger, but
which shrinks awav when the enemy is at the door.—It is
calm, self-possessed, rneek, gentle, peaceful, unostentatious,
modest, retiring; but when the fearful hour arrives, then
you shall behold the majesty of genuine christian courage,
ih all her native energy and grandeur, breathing the spirit
of angelic purity, and grasping victory from the fiery fur¬
nace or the lions' den; when not one of all the millions of
this world's heroes would haveventured to share lier fortune.
Ifear God, and I have no other fear—is the sublimes^; sen¬
timent 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 ex¬
claim,—I fear God, and 1 have no other fear.
g^y-In speaking'of intelligent men, enlightened men,learned men,
Ac.—the author hegs to be distinctly understood as not referring
merely to those who have been educated at colleges. T he phrase,®
liberal education, is commonly suppcsed to imply acollfge education;
and thus he may have employed it, when convenient. But, in gene¬
ral, he has used, or intended to use, the term liberal, when applied
to education, in a very liberal sense. He does not restrict it to any
particular course of study, as pursued in any seminary, however ex¬
tensive that may be—much less to the ordinary smattering of lan¬
guage and science obtained at most colleges. He would rather em¬
ploy it as characteristic of the sentiments and actions which bespeak
the enlightened and expanded mind; and which may b«? regarded as
the results, the fruits, the evidence ot a judicious and thorough youth¬
ful discipline. It does not follow then, that, because a man has been
to college, therefore be is literally educated, according to the just
import of the words. Many a man has passed through college, and
through life, without ever giving <he slightest indication of hav¬
ing been thus educated. While others, who were reveille in¬
mates of a college, have proved themselves lil erally educated—no
matter where or how they were trained. Washington, though ne¬
ver the student of a college, and more indebted to his noble mothendl
than to any and all other teachers, ever exhibited the most corrnfjfl
liberal and enlightened vicweon all subjects and occasions.^^^^^^
( 36 )
The average number of students in the regular classes of Cumber
land Colleg'e, during the past year has been uetween seventy and
eighty. These classes are so divided and subdivided, for the pur¬
pose of study and recitation, that every individual is enabled and
constrained to advance according to his actual ability. Such a va¬
riety in their studies and pursuits is provided, as to promote cheer¬
ful exertion, without distracting or confusing the mind. There are
only two vacations in the year—consisting of five and a half weeks
eacli—the one commencing on the first Wednesday in April, and the
other on the first Wednesday in October. There are no intermedi¬
ate holidays: and no vacation is allowed to the Senior Class, previ¬
ously to graduation, as is customary in other colleges. As there are
no honours or prizes to animate a few to extraordinary efforts, and to
discourage the majority altogether, so the whole are very desirous to
avail themselves of every privilege up to the last moment of their
collegiate life: and they find no difficulty in preparing appropriate
exercises for the public Commencement.
In the Preparatory Grammar School, attached to the college, there
are, at this time, about ninety pupils.
No departments, exclusively for Law, Medicine or Theology .have
as yet been established. Much, however, that is usually considered
as peculiar to each of those professions, is taught as part of the col¬
lege course. The Trustees have wisely consulted the welfare of the
great body of th°ir fellow-citizens, by making provision, in the first
instance, for such instruction as would be generally beneficial. They
are aware that*the learned professions—at least, those of Law and
Medicine—are already crowded to excess, and that the eagerness
of youth to engage in them ought rather to be checked than encour¬
aged. They are aware, also, that in proportion to the diffusion of
knowledge among the people, the necessity for professional services
of particular kinds will be diminished To the farmers, therefore,
they principally direct their regards. To elevate agriculture to the
first rank among professions and occupations is their aim. With this
object mainly in view, they have already appropriated ten thousand
dollars to the purchase of an apparatus and to the construction of a
Laboratory —besides employing a Professor of Chemistry, Experi¬
mental Philosophy and Natural History—so that the young farmer,
even though he should not be able to prosecute a regular college
course, may be instructed in chemistry, mineralogy, geology, l ota-
ny —in all the branches, indeed, of Natural History and Philosophy
which it may be desirable to cultivate. Here too, in like manner,
the youthful mechanic and the mechanic's apprentice will have an
opportunity of learning whatever may be advantageous to their fu¬
ture calling and situation in life. Youth may now, at this college,
be amply fitted either to enter upon the study of a learned profession,
or to engage in any useful business or employment.
It is contemplated however, indue time, and whenever the pecu¬
niary resources of the institution will justify the measure, to estab¬
lish Facilities for the learned professions. To gentlemen who now
do honour to the bar, the bench, the pulpit,and the healing art in Ten¬
nessee the college respectfully appeals for that generous patronage
which will enable her to train up successors worthy to occupy theii
»aces, when they shall be gathered to their fathers.
S r ■