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 Hon. Robert L. Montague 
 
 OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 DELIVEKED BEFORE THE 
 
 ^ocictg of llumni of |Itlliam and |[arg ^'^llcgti 
 
 WILLIAMSBURG, VA., 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1870. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 
 
 CHAS. W. WILSON & C.)., PRINTEKS, ATLANTIC BLOCK, NORFOLK, VA. 
 
 187L 
 
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 Hon. Robert L. Montague 
 
 OF VIRGINIA., 
 
 Delivered iiefore the 
 
 jociclg of |lumni of ||illiaw and ianj tolleQC 
 
 • WILLIAMSBURG, VA., 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1870. 
 
 Pl'BLTSHEI) BY THE SOCIETY. 
 
 CHAS. AV. AVILSON & CO., PRINTERS, ATLANTIC BLOCK. NORFOLK, VA. 
 
 187L 
 

^DDF^E^?. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Society of Aeumni : 
 
 Amid the gloom of the present and the uncertainty of the 
 future, it is a source of congratulation to feel that there are 
 yet a few spots untouched by the iron hand of despotism, and 
 unpolluted by the foul spirit of agrarian innovation. 
 
 Here, within these venerable walls, consecrated to learning 
 and science, the relentless spirit of party and sectionalism has 
 been reluctant to enter ; and here, the mind untrammeled, is free 
 to contemplate the great truths of philosophy, and investigate 
 without molestation the princii)les of science, which, if rightly 
 appreciated, tend to elevate human character, and dignify human 
 conduct. 
 
 It has been said that " knowledge is power." This, in a certain 
 sense, or to a certain extent, is true. Knowledge properly gained, 
 and rightly employed, is power, is potent, all potent for good. — 
 But superficial knowledge, or knowledge misapplied, or wrongly 
 used, is power also ; but it is a power for evil, a power which has 
 wrung from millions tears of anguish ; a power which has often 
 retarded human progi-ess, and frequently baptized nations in woe 
 and misery. Knowledge without virtue is the most prolific of 
 all agencies for evil. Madam De Stael strikingly said that 
 "liberty, virtue, glory, knowledge, those kiadred and closely 
 " allied ideas, which form the proud retinue that attends on the 
 " natural dignity of man, cannot possibly be insulated in a 
 " separate state of existence ; the perfection of each of these 
 " results from the union of them all." 
 
 I shall not enter into, or dwell upon the minutiae or mere 
 details of what the world calls education — but I propose to 
 notice what is the high province of education in reference to the 
 reformation of the world ; and to this end I hold that all systems 
 of education, or schemes of improvement, whether in the con- 
 crete, or otherwise should be held subordinate to the grand 
 idea of the union of " liberty, virtue, glory, knowledge." Not 
 
that mockery of liberty, which extorted from one the phiintive 
 cry, ''Oh! liberty, liberty, what crimes have been committed in 
 thy name," but that lil)erty which when allied with " virtue and 
 knowledge," carries blessings in its train. 
 
 It is then, in my humble judgment, the high office of education 
 and the friends of education, to look constantly to, and seek after 
 the means, which will produce such an extension of the true 
 |)rinciples of learning as will finally eradicate error, and bring 
 about the union of " liberty, virtue, glory, knowledge." 
 
 This, then, is the duty of all ; and more especially is it the 
 duty of those who sit in the higher seats of learning. The dark- 
 ness which hovers over us at present is no excuse for supineness ; 
 the greater the gloom, the greater should be our efforts to dispel it. 
 It is true, mornfully true, that red fiery war has stretched its des- 
 olating hand over our plains and along our valleys, and our people 
 have suffered all its ineffable horrors, and experienced all its 
 dire calamities,. It was here that "Red Battle stamped his foot, 
 and nations felt the shock." While I see in this, much to lament, 
 much to weep over, yet I see nothing which should cause us to 
 hang our heads in shame, and cover our faces in hopeless dispair. 
 But, on the contrary, I believe we should arise from our lethargy, 
 " shake off the dust from our feet," and determine, with God's 
 help, that we will again travel the road of progress. Not that 
 progress which travels too fast; not that progress which knows 
 no law but it own unbridled will, and heeds no monitor save its 
 own licentious passions; but that steady, wise and earnest progress 
 which always leads to permanent and benign results. 
 
 Peace has been i)roclaimed, and shall we, Virginians, sons of 
 old William and Mary, fold our arms in ignoble rest, and like 
 Marius, amid the ruins of Carthage, weep away existence over 
 the bitter remembrance of past glories ? Let us arise, purified 
 by our afflictions, renew our courage and resolve that we will 
 resuscitate our State, and again place her where Washington and 
 Mason left her, the foremost in all that makes up true great- 
 ness, among the States of the North American Confederation, 
 if confederation it ever again shall be. 
 
 We should not despond, but should take courage from the 
 experience of the world, and the history of all nations. The 
 design of this address forbids an extended reference to history ; 
 but I ask what nation of any power or influence has not gone 
 through what we have, and suffered what we are now enduring ? 
 
 Look at solid and grand old England. How^ many intestine 
 wars? how many cruel and merciless revolutions? how many 
 of her sovereigns exiled or beheaded ? how many bloody 
 circuits — how many High Commission and Star Chamber 
 
decrees mark lier history? Yea, blot, if not disgrace it! Yet, 
 by steady and unswerving perseverance she has overcome them 
 all, and stands, to-day, in all that makes a people great, the peer 
 if not the superior of the States of the ()ld World. Behold 
 France ; active, restless, mrecurial France. Through what vicis- 
 situdes has she passed ? How often has she seen the mobocratic 
 fury, the fierce spirit of Demon itself, sweep over her confines? 
 Yet she is still great and powerful France. The equal of 
 the greatest of the nations of the earth. The annals of our 
 race present many dark passages, many dreary periods of disap- 
 pointment, disgust and despondency, ; they exhibit to us genera- 
 tion after genei-ation writhing in dull agony, and vainly 
 contending against the difficulties by which they are beset, with 
 hardly consolatory memory transmitted from the ancestral 
 time, with hardly a hope of improving fortune, to gild the fortunes 
 of the future. It is a sad spectacle, and history is full of such 
 melancholy pictures, nevertheless, the world through all its 
 changes has lingeringly lived on, and despite the most ominous 
 premonitions, has continued to survive, and, like the Phoenix, 
 to renew its youth at the appointed time. 
 
 Wars are terrible and dire calamities, the sorest evils of 
 humanity ; but they are inseparable incidents of the weakness 
 and vice of poor fallen man. Wars and great national convulsions 
 have been permitted by Providence from the beginning of history. 
 For what purpose, we may be too short sighted to see. It may 
 be that they are designed to purify society ; to develope and 
 keep alive the manhood of a people ; to prevent that weak effe- 
 minacy and listless enervation of mind and body, far more 
 deleterious to a people than the bloodiest wars. Be the design 
 what it may, such is the fact. War has ever been occuring and 
 recurring, and this will continue 'till the approach of that glorious 
 period, when all men shall acknowledge as their rightful ruler, 
 Him, who is the King of Kings, and Lord of all. 
 
 Seeing that woe and misery have been the heritage of all 
 people, it becomes our duty, and should be our high aim, to rise 
 from the slumbers which oppress us, to forget as much as 
 possible, the horrors of the past, and in the fear of God, hut not 
 of man, to go vigorously to work, to build up the waste places 
 around us, physical, intellectual, and moral. This, at present, 
 is the imperative obligation of every true Virginian. Here in this 
 venerable college the solid foundations of this great work 
 were laid 1693. Here we are operating in the intellectual and 
 moral field, a field broad and expansive, and "already white for 
 the harvest." A noble and heaven-descended work is this. Large 
 enough to occupy the whole capacity of the mightiest, and 
 
honorable enough to fill the full measure of the ambition of the 
 ni()8t ambitious. He who shall here succeed in instilling correct 
 principles into the miiuls of ten youths, will have done a great 
 work. He may send forth ten Lots, who, perchance, may save 
 a worse than Sodom. 
 
 And this brings us to the great question, how shall mau b^ 
 properly educated ? He who thinks and teaches that it can be 
 accom])lished by operating upon the exterior and neglecting the 
 interior — the heart, is a shallow thinker, and a dangerous teacher. 
 If the interior be right, then the exterior may be adorned and 
 beautified, and the inseparable symjjathy between the two, will 
 make up, so far as can be done in this world, the perfect man. — 
 But let the heart be wrong, and all external appliances will be 
 but the building up of a magnificent and splendid structure on 
 a foundation of sand — it may be ftiir and beautiful to look 
 upon, but at the first blast of the storm of adversity, it will fall 
 and fall irreparably. 
 
 A great deal has been said and written concerning the educa- 
 tion of the world, and men of great erudition and distinction, 
 such as Guizot, Temple, and others have put forth and advocated 
 the false doctrine, that " governments and institutions make the 
 people." That is, if the outward sepulchre be white and beauti- 
 ful, there will be no " dead men's bones " within. Mr. Guizot, 
 in his work on civilization, says, the inward is reformed by the 
 outward, as the outward by the inward. That is, if the outward 
 of man be comely and facinating, the inward will be the same. 
 That if the exterior be such as is calculated to increase human 
 pride, and flatter human vanity, this is to refoi-m the interior, 
 the heart, and make all within pure and lovely. Was ever 
 doctrine more false or fallacious ? And this is the dominant 
 idea of this country. This is what is. called the progress of the 
 age, that onward advance, which nothing is to obstruct, this, the 
 onward march whose goal is a universal human millennium, the 
 panacea for all the ills which " flesh is heir to." In other words, 
 this idea takes everything from God. It is the idea of the Red 
 Republicans of France and the Black Republicans of America. 
 A profound thinker and elegant writer of our time has said, 
 "that even in the convention of 1787, which framed the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, the French school i)revailed over 
 the English school of politicians, and gave an ascendency to the 
 principles of Turgot, Rosseau, and other infidel philosophers 
 of the last century." (Southern Review, vol. 1, p. 15.) 
 And these French principles called " evil good, and good evil." 
 They discarded and rejected the teachings of the prophet, pro- 
 noimced in that awful malediction, " Woe unto them that call 
 
evil. good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for 
 darkness." 
 
 In relation to these principles and their advocates — and 
 they produced the French Revolution of 1789 — Mons. De 
 Tocqueville says, " if the men of the Revolution were more 
 irreligious than we are, they were imbued with one admirable 
 faith which we lack ; they believed in themselves. They had a 
 robust faith in man's perfectability and power ; they were eager 
 for his glory, and trustful in his virtue. They had no doubt tJiey 
 were appointed to transform society and regenerate the human 
 race. When religion fled from these men's souls, they were 
 not left void and debilitated, as is usually the case ; its place 
 was temporarily occupied by ideas and feelings w^hieh engrossed 
 the mind, and did not allow it to collapse. These sentiments 
 and passions became a sort of new religion.'''' Here we see from 
 high authority, what were the principles or 1789, and the same 
 author tells us that there is no country in the world " where the 
 principles of the French philosophers of the eighteenth century 
 have been so generally adopted and applied to practice as in the 
 United States of America." 
 
 We knoW' that these French teachings are predominant in 
 this country. We know what evil they wrought in France, and, 
 alas ! alas ! we have felt and are now feeling what they have 
 done here. As in France, so here, " as each began with being a 
 god to himself, so soon he ended with becoming a devil to his 
 neighbor." 
 
 This is the progress of this age and this country. This is the 
 " new religion," at whose inexorable edict all men must fall 
 down and worship, or be cast into the w^orld's utter darkness. 
 This is the great, erroneous and false idea, the correction of 
 which, is the peculiar and high function of education. The 
 schools and colleges must combat it at every point. It is an 
 impious and soul-destroying doctrine. It arrogates all to self 
 and gives nothing to God. It entirely overlooks the eternal truth 
 that unless the fountain be pure, the waters will be as bitter as those 
 of Marah. It proposes that the outward demeanor and actions of 
 man shall reform the world, while the heart, the whole inner 
 man, is all deceit and corruption. It entirely ignores the grand 
 and true idea that until the heart is purified by the power and 
 grace of God, the external actions of man will be but evil. It 
 connives at the fact, that we live in " miserable days of external 
 splendor and internal rotteness." " What true progress has 
 there ever been except where Christianity has prevailed ? " — 
 What in China, the oldest and largest of earth's imperial 
 dominions ? What in Asia ? In Africa ? or in the Isles of the 
 
8 
 
 ocean, except here and there a few bright little spots, upon which 
 the bloody cross of Christ has been erected? The States of 
 Christendom alone, " in the true sense, obey the law of progress," 
 and they are gradually though slowly gaining on tlie darkness 
 and barbarism of the heathen world ! Milton, the great creative 
 genius of his age, and a christian, comprehended the true idea, 
 when he Avrote : 
 
 Alas I what can they teach and not mislead, 
 Ignorant of themselves, of God much more, 
 And how the world began, and how man fell, 
 Degraded by himself, on grace depending? 
 Much of the soul they talk, but all away, 
 And in themselves seek virtue, and to themselves 
 All glory arrogate, to (iod give none. 
 
 Deep versed in books, and shallow in themselves. 
 Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys. 
 And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge, 
 As children gathering pebbles on the shore." 
 
 All progress which emanates from any other source than the 
 radiant point which recognizes God as the true fountain of all good 
 and beneficent actions, are movements in the wrong direction 
 and will carry error and misery in their train. I admire art 
 and science. I feel a due pride in their achievements and triumphs, 
 but these are despoiled of their beauty and true glory, Avhen 
 they are elevated above God. Science may number the stars in 
 the firmament above. It may measure the fountains of the great 
 deep, and calculate with accuracy the altitude of its foaming, 
 angry billows. It may span the oceans with its electric wires, 
 and cause one continent to vibrate at the touch of the other. — 
 Art may perpetuate upon canvass the features of those long 
 silent in the repose of death, but what of all this unless God 
 shall be acknowledged as the great author of all ? Whence 
 came the human intellect so prolific of mventive genius ? 
 Whence the elements and agencies with which this intellect can 
 opei'ate ? Are all these the productions of weak, feeble man ? 
 No! no! they are benignant gifts, merciful emanations from that 
 Being, who " spake as man never spake," who ?aid " let there be 
 light, and there was light." To Him and to Him alone should 
 be given all the glory for man's achievements. The progress of 
 the Son of God is the only true reformation. " His reform 
 begins with the very heart of society, and works itself out upon 
 the surface. Though he found the world full of governmental 
 abuse, he assailed none of these things directly, but inculcat- 
 ing submission to the powers that be, he sought to bring those 
 powers themselves under the glorious dominion of truth, and 
 
9 
 
 justice, and mercv. Though his kingdom is not of this world; 
 yet, for all the kingdoms of this world has he planted principles 
 and powers, which shall gradually work out all their abuses, and 
 mould them into better and still better forms. His eye is ever 
 on the perfect, on the absolutely beautiful and right, on the radiant 
 image of all good ; yet, in the pursuit of this infinitely grand 
 ideal, we see none of the stormy violence or impatient weakness 
 of human reformers; on the contrary, passing by, with superhu- 
 man silence, the great external abuses around Him, Headdresses 
 himself directly to the great heart of humanity, without the 
 renovation of which, external changes are of no avail. Instead of 
 cutting off one tyrant here, or crushing one abuse there, he seeks 
 to enlighten the understanding everywhere, to purify the affections 
 and to fashion the will aright, in order that all abuses and 
 tyrannies may die out of the world, and disappear from among 
 men. In one word. He aims to make society all-glorious w'ithin, 
 in order that she may put on such external form as best becomes 
 her glorified state. And in all this, we scarcely know which the 
 more to admire, the calm energy with which he works, or the 
 God-like patience with which He waits. — (Southern Review, 1st 
 vol., p. 19.) 
 
 Here Ave see the true ground of all education. Mere intellec- 
 tual power can never elevate the world to the standard of true 
 greatness. Antiquity had its orators, statesmen, poets and 
 philosophers. In mere intellectual power, it is doubtful if they 
 have ever been surpassed. But was man elevated to his true 
 position ? Where are the principalities, powers and kingdoms of 
 those ages ? Was man by any of their systems brought to kno\V 
 himself, his weaknesses, his follies and his corruptions? The 
 teachings of Cicero and others are wonderful triumphs of purely 
 intellectual greatness, but even these fell short, far short of the 
 true point of man's destiny. It was not 'till the Rose of Sharon 
 spread its sweet and purifying ordors upon the face of the world, 
 that man began to move in the right direction. 
 
 The moral power of God's spirit, as it quietly moves over the 
 universe, is the great lever by. which the world is to be raised 
 and lifted from the sin and degradation in which it is buried. 
 It is, then, moral power which is to elevate the world. The 
 Bible and all the true lights of the Christian church teach this, 
 and the history of the world, and the experience of mankind 
 confirm it. If it were not so, how could the world ever be ele- 
 vated to that high moral grandeur which it will ultimately 
 attain ? Admit that intellectual power alone is competent to the 
 great task, and I ask, how, when, and where the unnumbered 
 millions of the poverty-stricken children of earth can ever attain 
 
tdi'i? j)ower? By the sweat of whose face will the world be 
 clothed and fed, while these mighty numbers shall be acquiring 
 this power ? Herein we see the wisdom of the Creator, and that 
 his plan of educating the world can be accomplished without 
 interrupting the avocations of life, or disturbing the harmonies 
 of society. This knowledge, the knowledge essential to education 
 in its true sense, can be acquired in the day-schools and colleges, 
 in the churches and in the Sabbath schools, in the workshops 
 and counting-rooms, in the fields and forests, and upon the "ever 
 rising billows of the sea." Then the great end and aim, and pur- 
 pose of all true education should be to elevate num to the graud and 
 glorious point of a believer in Christ. Every teacher in all the land, 
 in every school and college should be a true and earnest missionary 
 of the cross. All his labors, all his patience, and all his trials 
 should tend as steadily to this grand object "as the needle points 
 to the pole." Then will the world be lifted from the deep waters 
 of degradation, in which it is buried, to the Mount Ararat of 
 safety. Then will be seen and felt the consummation of human 
 felicity. Then the noble destiny of man on earth will be 
 fulfilled, and peace, truth and justice reign triumphantly through 
 the whole of God's mighty creation. As I have before said, it 
 is not my purpose to enter into the details or minutise of educa- 
 tion, but to point out some of the heresies and errors of the age, 
 which it is the province and duty of education to correct. 
 
 r next notice the modern dogma " that all men are created 
 equal." This is one of the offshoots of the error I have been 
 combatting, and a more glaring fallacy and dangerous heresy 
 was never presented to an ignorant and credulous world. Is an 
 ignorant and degraded Hottentot, a wild and savage Arab, a 
 conceited Jajianese or Chinaman equal to Bacon or Milton, to 
 Newton or Locke ? Could all the culture of all the schools and 
 colleges produce this equality ? The truth is, this doctrine is the 
 creature of infidelity, and will always bring confusion, discord and 
 strife. It unsettles the firmest foundations of human society, and is 
 pregnant with the seed of universal destruction to all good insti- 
 tutions, and will blast the best and purest of human aspirations. 
 In some respects all created beings and things have equal rights. 
 All have an equal right to the waters of creation, to breathe the 
 air of heaven, and to share in the breezes which cool the hot and 
 arid plains. All men have an equal right to call on the law for 
 the protection and vindication of their legal rights, but any thing 
 of a general and universal equality, in the social, political, and 
 physical — and I might say moral — world, is repugnant to reason 
 and in conflict with the divine economy of Providence. a3 seen 
 in all his created works. If all men were created equal, all 
 
11 
 
 would be Burkes or Marshalls, lunatics or idiot.-*. But look at 
 the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Are all the beasts of the 
 tield, all the fishes of the sea, equal ? Are all the birds of the 
 air? You have seen two stalks of corn in the same field, in soil 
 of equal fertility, both receiving the same attention, and upon 
 the one, you have seen the full grown, matured ear, and upon 
 the other, the shriveled, dried up dwarf, unfit for man or beast. 
 You have seen two trees of the same orchard, taken from the 
 same parent stock, planted alike, subjected to the same culture, and 
 upon one you have seen the rij)e luscious fruit, and upon the 
 other a noxious, offensive nondescript, from which the swine of 
 the field would turn with disgust. You have seen children of 
 the same parents, rocked in the same cradle, fondled upon the 
 same maternal and loving lap, sent to the same schools and col- 
 leges, subjected precisely to the same mental and moral training 
 and when grown to the full stature of manhood, the one has been 
 an intellectual giant, the other not six j^oints above an idiot. — 
 Will the advocates of general and universal equality explain this'/ 
 There is but one solution, which is this, this inequality arises from 
 the sovereignty and all power of God. If all men were created 
 equal, why does not equality exist after creation? If all men 
 were equal, infidelity would deny to God omni})otence, by 
 declaring Him unequal to the exercise of the sovereign 
 power of creating one being superior to another. It 
 would deny to Him the power to create "one vessel to honor and 
 another to dishonor," to decree that one star shall shine brighter 
 than another star. That He could not create the sun, with all 
 his transcendent glories, superior to the moon, whose lesser 
 glory pales into darkness at the appearance of his radiant splendor. 
 If, then, there is no such reality as general equality in the 
 animate and inanimate world, why, I ask, should there be any 
 exception in the case of man ? 
 
 Did not the same great Being speak all into existence ? Had 
 He not power and authority to impress His irreversible will of 
 inequality upon man, as well as upon His inferior creatures and 
 things? Has he not created some with one talent, and some 
 with five ; and is not the obligation to improve the one as great 
 as that to improve the five ? 
 
 " Independent of any positive regulations, the unequal indus- 
 try and virtues of men must necessarily create unequal rights. 
 But it is said all men are equal because they have an equal right 
 to justice, or to the possession of their rights. The reason here 
 assigned embodies a self-evident truth which no one ever denied ; 
 and it amounts to nothing more than to the identical proposition 
 than all men have equal right to their rights ; for when different 
 
12 
 
 inen have perfect and absolute rightf^ to unequal things, they are 
 certainly equal with regard to the perfection of their rights, or 
 the justice that is due to their respective claims. This is t^e only 
 sense to which equality can be applied to mankind. In the most 
 perfect republic that we can conceive of, the projwsition is false 
 and mischievous : the father and child, the master and servant, 
 the judge and prisoner, the general and common soldier, the 
 representative and constituent, must be eternally unequal and 
 have unequal rights." — (1 Black. Com. p. 809). 
 
 Subordination in every society is the bond of its existence ; the 
 highest, and the lowest individuals derive their strength and 
 security from their mutual assistance and dependence ; as in the 
 natural body, the eye cannot say to the head, I have no need of 
 thee; nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." 
 
 " Milton Avas so well convinced of the necessity of subordina- 
 tion and degrees, that he makes Satan, even when warring 
 against the King of Heaven, address his legions thus :" 
 
 '• If not equal all, yet free, 
 Equally free; for orders and degrees 
 Jar not with liberty, but well consist." 
 
 Shakspeare, the great master of human character and human 
 passions, beautifully expressed the same idea, when he wrote : 
 
 " Take but degree away, untune that string : 
 And hark, what discord follows, each thing meets 
 In mere oppugnaney. 
 Strength would be lord of imbecility. 
 And the rude son would strike the father dead. 
 Force would be right ; or rather right and wrong. 
 Between whose endless jar justice resides, 
 Would lose their names, and so would justice too." 
 
 In this general inequality we again see the wisdom of our 
 beneficent Creator ; for if all men Were equal, there would be no 
 field for that noble and magnanimous emulation in art and 
 science, which has done so much to improve our world ; to alle- 
 viate the pains and mollify and soothe the sorrows of weak and 
 fallen man. All equal ! then this world would become one great 
 stagnant pool, with not vitality enough to move its calm and 
 waveless surface to one ripple of grand and noble action ! Let 
 us then at once and forever discard and reject this noxious and 
 poisonous heresy : this pernicious offshoot of the French princi- 
 ples of 1789 ; this procrustean dogma, which makes men equal 
 by stretching the limbs of some and lopping those of others, 
 Let us recognize the reality of things as we see them ; as they 
 have been planned and arranged by Providence ; let each with 
 honesty and fidelity, apply himself to the culture of the talent 
 
13 
 
 he has ; let each, with severe vigor and stern devotion to truth 
 and justice, perform the duties, all the duties, of the sphere ill 
 which he has been placed, and then will the world blossom as 
 the rose, and its fruits be more beautiful and luscious than those 
 of the garden of the ancient Hesperides. Let us not impiously 
 attempt to improve upon the inscrutable wisdom of God, but let 
 our constant efforts be to conform our lives and our actions to 
 His will so far as revealed to us ; then shall we be truly and 
 surely preparing and educating the world for that glorious period 
 of fraternal equality when the " lamb and lion shall lie down 
 together," and the stormy passions of man no more shall rise to 
 jar the sweet concord of nature's music, or disturb the beautiful 
 harmonies of God's creation. 
 
 Closely allied to this idea of equality is another heresy, which 
 lias often filled the nations of the earth with bitter wailings and 
 piercing lamentations. I mean that principle of evil deeply imbed- 
 ded in the human heart, which is always reluctant to obey any law, 
 to submit to any restraint, but man's own unbridled will. 
 
 I call this principle radicalism : I do not, however, use it in 
 the party sense of the present time, but I use it because the term 
 best expresses my idea of the evil I shall endeavor to point out. 
 This is no new principle. It is coeval with man ; It was this 
 which caused Adam to rebel in the garden of Eden ; and from 
 that day to the present the world has been cursed with its pre- 
 sence. 
 
 Adam was commanded not to do a certain thing, but his spirit 
 rebelled, and he substituted his will for the command of his 
 creator ; and thus began sin and insubordination. From that 
 unhappy moment the world has labored under untold and un- 
 numbered ills. 
 
 If time allowed, it might be useful to trace its effects upon 
 mankind. But this cannot be done in one address — it would 
 take volumes to give correctly, aud portray with accuracy its 
 cruel and almost numberless horrors ; suffice it to say it was this 
 which overthrew the ancient republics. During the middle ages 
 it was somewhat checked and restrained by the feudal barbarism 
 which then prevailed. After this it was seen working out the 
 subversion of the modern Italian republics. 
 
 In France it grew and strengthened, till it culminated in the 
 revolution of 1789, when all its accumulated horrors seem to 
 have been emptied upon the heads of her ill-fated and unhappy 
 people. 
 
 It has ever been — and most wicked things are — a live and 
 active principle in the world. At this very time it is faithfully 
 manifesting itself throughout the old world. The popular cry 
 
14 
 
 of reform, of restless insatiate desire for change, now ringing 
 through the British Isle, under the teachings of Bright, Mills, 
 and others, are but the premonitory symptoms of the approach- 
 ing storm. Indeed, the whole European continent is vibrating 
 under the electric influence of its mighty touch. That great 
 and inimitable critic, and profound thinker, Carlyle, has long 
 since spoken, and said " the Sjteaking class may speak and debate 
 for itself, but the great dumb, deep buried class lies like an 
 Enciladus, who in his pain, if he complains of it, produces earth- 
 quakes." People are always complaining : The spirit of innova- 
 tion, of change, is wafted upon every breeze, and unless restrained 
 by the enlightening influence of some principle, or physical force, 
 it will burst forth, and the world will feel the shock of earth- 
 quakes. 
 
 Here in this country, we have seen and felt, to the full extent, 
 the enormities of this destructive doctrine. Here the democrat- 
 ical idea has been pushed too far, and when thus extended it 
 becomes pure radicalism. Here, every man (and I suppose it 
 will soon be every woman too) is not only a voter, but every man 
 is a sovereign ; and when all become sovereign, who shall be 
 supreme ? who shall control ? This democratic principle is now 
 so predominant in this land, that I ask what influence intellect 
 and property exert ? Property, next to the christian religion, is 
 the great conservative civilizing agency of the world. Is not 
 property here subject to the control of the great propertyless and 
 ignorant multitude, who know nothing and care less, of the 
 great truths which underlie all well-regulated societies and 
 governments ? The modern American idea that every man must 
 vote, that there must be universal suflfrage, and universal elections, 
 is the wildest and most eutopian scheme, the most stupid non- 
 sense that ever entered the head of man ; one which has never 
 brought forth any good, but always has been fraught with the 
 most dire consequences. This idea, when carried to its logical 
 results, means liberty without the restraint of law, and liberty 
 not controlled by law, is but the worst form of anarchy and 
 despotism. Yet, if one sees it, and is independent and bold 
 enough to proclaim what he sees, immediately the insane shout 
 is raised, crucify him, crucify him ; he is an enemy to the people 
 and to " the progress of the age." Poor creatures ! I pity and 
 forgive them, "for they know not what they do." But some of 
 the leaders know better ; these leaders "of the blind," are fast 
 conducting the people, and the whole country, to anarchy and 
 ruin ; but if they can get the five loaves and the two small fishes, 
 what care they for people, country, or God ? 
 
 I am, and always have been, a democrat, but never a mobocrat. 
 
15 
 
 i believe a democratic government, a representative government, 
 (such as the governments established in '76 and '87 ), is the best 
 human organization, which the world ever has ever seen ; in 
 these the people were so fully represented, and the responsibility 
 of the representative to the constituent so direct, and so well 
 understood and appreciated, that there could be no danger of 
 any permanent abuse of power. But we have nothing of this 
 sort now. Give me the democratic government of my fathers, 
 and no man will do more than I will, in my humble sphere, to 
 vindicate and uphold it. I am the warm friend of a democracy 
 <lefined and restrained by law ; but the enemy of that mad and 
 wild mobocracy, falsely called democracy, which rules the hour. 
 Will any man, after solemn and calm reflection, tell me what 
 produced our late terrible civil war, not rebellion, but great civil 
 tvar f Was it not the extension of the democratic feature in our 
 system to universal suflJrage, to universal elections? sectional 
 feelings, sectional hate, and sectional organization, have been the 
 "Illiad" of all our woes; and these now engendered, developed, 
 and nursed into being by the cause referred to. Did the framers 
 and ratifiers of the constitution of the United States ever con- 
 template such an enlargement of the elective franchise as we 
 have witnessed ? I have not the time, or is this the occasion, to 
 cite their opinions, but I challenge any one to show me any 
 opinion, or expression of the conscript fathers, sanctioning or 
 approving the doctrines which are now the common law of this 
 land. Can our system, or any other, stand such a pressure with- 
 out explosion ? Can there be any community of high and pure 
 civilization without a combination of persons and property ? If 
 you have a community of persons alone it would be a band of 
 savages. Was there ever any civilization where property in 
 some form did not exist, and receive the protection of law? If 
 there is no law to protect property, will the law of might, the 
 brute force of the multitude, do it ? Can there be any solid, 
 permanent governmental organization, unless property, one of 
 the great conservative civilizers of the world, has protection in 
 the departments of government by a voice and influence in the 
 selection of the representatives, or administrators thereof? It is 
 a cruel and inhuman doctrine, that whatever the majority wills, 
 is right, provided it has the material power to enforce its will ; 
 and this it now the supreme law of this land. That it will lead 
 to anarchy and ruin, the wise and prudent must see. Come it 
 must, unless the voice of reason shall reach, and enter the heads 
 and hearts of the great mass of the American people; and when 
 it does come the North as well as the South will feel the shock, 
 and reel under its merciless blows. Then will be felt and 
 
1(5 
 
 realized all the unwritten horrors of the French revolution. 
 
 But why lift my feeble voice in the vain eft'ort to arrest the 
 progress of this fell destroyer? I answer error fattens and grows 
 by its own inherent strength, and now is the time to warn, and 
 if possible, to arouse the people t(j a true sense of their danger, 
 that in the hour of infuriate madness, reason will have no abid- 
 ing place, that hope, of all man's comforts, is the last to leave 
 him, that human passions have their reactionary seasons; and 
 I have some glimmering hope, though I confess it is feeble and 
 faint, that this reaction may set in before the storm shall burst ; 
 and if one little word from me shall be effectual in causing some 
 to pause and reflect, then I shall have done some good to my 
 race. 
 
 Why will not men reflect and see whither this mad spirit of 
 mobocratic fury is leading them ? If they will think for ii 
 moment they must see its sad results all around them. 
 
 It was the wild cry of " vox j)opuli, vox Dei," which caused a 
 happy and prosperous people — a people speaking the same com- 
 mon language, inhabiting a land, washed by the same great 
 oceans, worshipping the same great common Father, to bathe 
 their hands in fraternal blood, to forget a common brotherhood, 
 and slay each other as if they were made by God for that cruel 
 and inhuman purpose. 
 
 But it may be asked if there is no antidote for this fearful 
 poison ? " Is there no balm in Gilead ? Is there no physican 
 here ? " Yes, there is " balm in Gilead ; " there is a " physician 
 here." But they must be sought and used. They are to be 
 found in the hearts of the people. The remedy is there. The 
 axe must be laid at the root of the tree. 
 
 Let the great heart of the people be purified, and the malady 
 will be healed. This can be effected by a proper system of educa- 
 tion, and to accomplish this, is the grand purpose of all true 
 education. Such an education of the people as begins and ends 
 with the heart, is the sure, the only cure for the terrible malady 
 which afflicts us. All other attempted remedies will be quack- 
 eries, the most dangerous and dreadful of all quackeries, because 
 they will bring calamity and ruin upon a whole. 
 
 I have thus attempted in my poor way to point out some of 
 the prominent and dominant errors of the age, and have 
 attempted to show that is the duty of education in its true and 
 just sense, to eradicate these errors, and heal these diseases. 
 
 And what part shall old William and Mary perform in this 
 great work of lifting up the human race to the lofty heights of 
 true greatness and true glory ? The first intellectual light of 
 our noble old State was kindled upon her venerable altars ; and 
 
17 
 
 from these altars she has sent into the worhl some of its most 
 gifted statesmen, its grandest orators, and most distinguished 
 jurists and heroes. When I remember these things, as one of her 
 "humblest sons, I feel that she should not be laggard in the 
 noble race to be run. Thrice purified by the consuming element 
 of fire, she stands rehabilitated in her ancient garments, and 
 shrines with all her pristine splendors. Resuscitated and revived 
 she stands to-day where she has always stood, and is ready and 
 willing to lead to honor, virtue and glory the children of our 
 oppressed, but beloved old commonwealth. Her claims upon 
 our people are pre-eminent. Her teachings and utterances have 
 always been sound conservative and eminently practical. Her 
 history is a bright portion of the fame of Virginia, and as long 
 as Virginia's name shall claim a place in history, the deeds of 
 William and Mary will stand recorded. It was here, I have no 
 doubt, that Jefferson conceived the grand idea of our noble 
 State University ; and she sits here to-day the mother of all the 
 colleges in the State, wdth no feeling of rivalry or jealousy to 
 any of her daughters. 
 
 There is room for all ; the youths of the land are hungering and 
 thirsting for correct and useful knowledge, and while the J.^wm7w 
 of this College desire to see all other institutions flourish, they 
 love their Alma Maier. She materially aided them in whatever 
 of success they have achieved. They feel a just pride in her 
 history, and in her triumphs. Thrice carried through the con- 
 suming flames of fire, they have seen her, Phcenix-like, arise 
 from her ashes more beautiful than ever, fully adorned, armed 
 and equipped for the struggle before her. What other institu- 
 tions has survived, or could survive, these fiery ordeals but this 
 venerable mother of learning. Shall she be forsaken? Shall 
 she ever have cause to point to any one of her sons, and exclaim : 
 " Tu quoque Brute f" I feel not, I hope a filial love still warms 
 in the hearts of her sons. Can they ever forsake her ; can those alive 
 forget those who sleep in death, and above all can they ever for- 
 get, or renounce the pure principles which she has ever inculcated? 
 
 She made the statesman and philosophers, who gave practical 
 form, shape and direction to the only teachings by which man 
 an govern himself. It is fashionable now-a-days to deride and laugh 
 at these, but "truth crushed to earth, shall rise again." 
 
 Yes, old William and Mary will again be lifted up, she will 
 again receive the aid of the virtuous and good. The pure 
 streams of intellectual and moral philosophy will again flow from 
 this grand old fountain, to invigorate and fructify our Common- 
 wealth. Virginia and William and Mary, one and inseperable. 
 Together they fell, together they will rise ! 
 
18 
 
 Virginia ! Virginia ! Bloody war has rolled its desolating 
 waves over her borders. Hundreds of her truest and most 
 gifted sons sleep the quiet sleep of death, beneath the shadows of 
 her mountains, beside the still waters of her rivulets, amid her 
 shady groves, beautified and adorned by the fair hands and 
 tender touch of her peerless and matchless daughters. Thous- 
 ands repose uncoflSned m the bosom of mother earth, with not 
 even rude stones to mark the spots where her jewels are buried. 
 But still, she is dear, honored, proud old Virginia, not as Macau- 
 lay said of Dante, too proud and sensitive to be happy, but too 
 proud to descend to meanness, and too noble to perpetrate injus- 
 tice upon the feeblest. 
 
 Oppressed she may be, but not humiliated or dishonored. 
 Man can oppress and torture his fellow-man, but man cannot 
 humiliate. This belongs to God alone. The body may be 
 cruelly tormented, but the spirit is God's, and as long as that is 
 self conscious of virtuous rectitude, the acts of man, however 
 harsh and rigorous, can never humiliate. There is something 
 within which laughs to scorn the petty cruelties and wicked follies 
 of malignant man. Virginia humiliated and dishonored ! When 
 the names of Washington and Henry, of Madison and Marshall, 
 of Mason and JeflTerson, of Pendleton and Grayson, of Monroe 
 and Richard Henry Lee, of Wythe and Roane, of Giles and 
 Randolph, of Rives and Leigh, of Tyler and Tazewell, of 
 Stanard and Upshur, of Dew and Tucker, of Robert E. Lee and 
 Stonewall Jackson, shall be torn from the rolls of fame ; when 
 her everlasting mountains shall bow their crests to the level of 
 the valleys beneath ; when all veneration for departed greatness 
 and worth ; when all respect for heroic actions and admiration 
 for virtuous deeds, shall have taken their eternal flight from 
 earth ; when the inspiring charms and fascinating graces of 
 woman shall cease to affect the conduct of man ; when ignoble 
 actions, base deeds shall be admired and respected by all 
 the nations of the earth, then, but not till then, will Virginia 
 hang her head in humiliation and dishonor. 
 
 Then let all true sons of Virginia arouse themselves to a just 
 sense of her position, and instead of engaging in the angry par- 
 tisan conflict of the hour, let them bear with patience, dignified 
 submission, and true manhood, the ills which afflict them, and 
 bind all their energies of mind and body to the resuscitation of 
 their State. Let them develop her physical resources, 
 elevate her moral position, and enlarge, adorn, and beautify her 
 intellectual borders. 
 
 The grand role she has played in the history of the world can 
 
19 
 
 never be eifaced. It may take years to regain her former posi- 
 tion ; but what is time in the life of a State ? It may be that 
 she will never again see such a system of representative govern- 
 ment as she aided in creating in 1787. I do not think she will. 
 The great principle of American public law, first enunciated in 
 an authoritative form by one of the sons of William and Mary, 
 that "governments instituted among men, derive their just 
 230wers from the consent of the governed," has, for the time 
 being, been discarded and set at naught, and it may never be 
 revived. But no matter what may be the shape and form of 
 the system finally settled upon, if Virginia will be true to herself 
 just to her past history, and ever mindful of her past glories, she will 
 in the new and untried experiments, be what she always has 
 been, the friend of truth and justice, the advocate and promoter 
 of whatever tends to mitigate human suffering, or to elevate 
 and ennoble human character. 
 
 Let us then, sons and daughters of Virginia, here, within 
 these venerated walls, make anew our covenants with each other, 
 and with one accord, raise our vows to Heaven, that our future 
 efforts shall be, as they have been in the past, true to the ancient 
 glories and traditions of our State and character of our people. 
 That, instead of despairing, we will take courage from our present 
 grievances, and bear thera with no weak, whining and obsequi- 
 ous complaints, but, that with true greatness of soul, we will rise 
 above them all, and exemplify to the world with what patience 
 and fortitude a true and brave people can bear the ills of 
 " man's inhumanity to man." Then shall all men see that all 
 the powers of earth and darkness combined, can never extinguish 
 in our bosoms the love of " liberty, virtue, glory, knowledge." 
 
 Let us ever remember that Virginia is our country, that we 
 have " a Sparta, let us adorn it." That it is here, 
 
 " Where health and plenty cheer the laboring swain, 
 Where smiling spring its earliest visits pay, 
 And parting summer's lingering blooms delay." 
 
 Let us see that the fires of purity and truth shall ever burn 
 brightly upon her altars ; lei us do what we can to correct the 
 pernicious errors of the day by spreading broadcast the true 
 light of education and religion. Then will she rise from the 
 troubles of the hour, and clothed in the christian panoply of 
 true greatness, will stand forth the pure, dignified and adored 
 mother of us all, and by the force of her great example 
 will other states be purified of their vices and cured of their 
 cruel heresies, and false theories. Then will Virginia stand 
 proudly erect before mankind, worthy of the wisdom of her 
 
20 
 
 great founders, and worthy of her iiauie, lohich w the )iy)ionyin of 
 purity itself. Then will this venerable pile be radiant with the 
 light of " liberty, virtue, glory, knowledge." Virginia and 
 William and Mary, one and inseparable! Esto perpetua ! 
 
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