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 STATE NORMAL COLLEGE. 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH, 
 
 DELIVERED AT // 
 
 Nashville, Tenn. 9 Dee* 1 9 1884. 
 
Historical Sketch 
 
 NORMAL COLLEGE, 
 
 XASHVILLE, TENK 
 
 A.1ST ADDEESS 
 
 BEFORE ITS 
 
 OFPIOEBS' J^ISTJD STUDEIsTTS 
 
 Ninth Anniversary, Dec. 1, 1884, 
 
 EBEN S. STEARNS, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 Chancellor of the University and President of the College, 
 
 
 
 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 Elm Street Printing Company, Nos. 176 and 178 Elm Street. 
 
 1885. 
 

Historical Address. 
 
 On this first day of December, 1884, the State Normal College com- 
 pletes its ninth year. I have been accustomed, on its recurring anniver- 
 saries, when possible, to call attention to its early life, and to trace its 
 development from period to period. As now, another year has just 
 been added, closing up its first nine years ; and as, in the course of 
 nature, each year diminishes the number of those who were conversant 
 with its humble beginning, I can not, perhaps, do a greater service to 
 the College, than by asking your patient attention, while I endeavor 
 to recount, and to place on record, somewhat in detail, its important his- 
 tory. 
 
 As one of the consequences of the great and general reaction which 
 commenced soon after the close of the late Civil War, the attention of 
 thinking, patriotic men was, with new interest, aroused to the neces 
 sity for a more complete and more generally diffused education of the 
 people ; and strenuous efforts were made to establish free schools 
 everywhere. But it was, of course, readily seen, that however great 
 exertions might be put forth to accomplish this object, they would 
 prove of little value, unless some scheme should be devised and intel- 
 ligently pursued, by which these schools should be properly conducted 
 and taught. The exhaustion of the country, with the poverty and 
 depression of the great mass of the people, consequent upon the war, 
 opposed almost insuperable obstacles to every undertaking of magni- 
 tude requiring capital for its prosecution. 
 
[4 J 
 
 The singularly munificent gift of George Peabody, in the month of 
 October, 1866, by which he devoted "millions of his money to pro- 
 viding the means of education for the children of those Southern and 
 Southwestern States which had suffered during the Civil War, with- 
 out other distinction than their needs and the opportunities of useful- 
 ness to them" (Pro. Tr. P. E. Fund, p. 304), at once so bountiful 
 and so timely, did much — perhaps more than all other things — to en- 
 courage and infuse new life into the devoted pioneers of an education 
 of the people and for the people, raising the hopes of the philan- 
 thropist and patriot that the time would soon come when, the horrors 
 of fraternal strife remembered only as a black page in history, geo- 
 graphical and all other sectional distinctions obliterated, the American 
 people should see eye to eye, and our bright land, for which God has 
 done so much, should stand among the foremost, grand in its material 
 prosperity, but nobler far in its refinement and cultivation of the 
 sciences which develop the human mind,, expand industries, and chain 
 the forces of nature — the arts which, while they ameliorate and en- 
 noble man's condition, diffuse the blessings of peace and happiness on 
 all around. 
 
 It is not my purpose to eulogize George Peabody here, or to re- 
 peat the oft-told story of his most useful life ; his name is, and ever 
 will be "a household word" in every part of the civilized world ; and 
 the memory of this noble son of the "Old Bay State" will remain ever 
 fresh and green, until her granite hills crumble to powder, or the 
 mighty Atlantic ceases to beat against her rock-bound shore. 
 
 Mr. Peabody, after declaring in general terms the motive and ob- 
 ject of his gift, placed it in the hands of a Board of Trust, selected 
 by himself ; many of them his intimate friends, and charged them with 
 its preservation and administration. Such a body of men was proba- 
 bly never before brought together for any purpose ; certainly not in 
 this country and in this age. Such intelligence, extensive learning, 
 wisdom in counsel, eminence at the bar, the forum, in legislative 
 halls, on the highest seats of justice; the profoundest statesmen, the 
 grandest heroes ; and, when in the course of time, God has called one 
 
[5] 
 
 and another of them to himself, gentlemen of highest repute in all 
 that is great and good, have taken their places. 
 
 The time would fail me, and I might exhaust your patience, should 
 I attempt to speak of each of these distinguished persons in fitting 
 terms, but I can not permit this occasion to pass, without bringing more 
 prominently before you one or two of this Board of Trust, and par- 
 ticularly one whose name is known the world over, and honored as 
 widely as known, one whose ancient and distinguished family, whose 
 rich and varied learning, whose wisdom in counsel, whose fervid elo- 
 quence, whose pure and noble heart have commanded a just homage 
 and made him for years the pride, almost the idol, of his native State ; 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States when 
 James K. Polk was President, and foremost in the respect of his 
 countrymen everywhere. I speak of Robert C. Winthrop, the 
 venerated Chairman of the Board from the first ; George Peabody's 
 personal friend. It was to him Mr. Peabody imparted in confidence 
 his grand design, before he announced it to the public ; he was his 
 counselor, and into his hands he literally piled his "securities." The 
 Southern people owe Mr. Winthrop a debt of deepest gratitude for his 
 great interest in their welfare, and for the far-seeing wisdom and skill 
 with which he has discharged the duties of his office. His constant 
 solicitude for the usefulness, efficiency and development of this Col- 
 lege, his wise counsels, never grudgingly given, his steady encourage- 
 ment and support, his personal friendship, I shall ever hold in most 
 grateful remembrance. 
 
 "The Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund," soon after its 
 organization and incorporation, made choice of the late Dr. Barnas 
 Sears, as their principal executive officer, with the title of "General 
 Agent." Dr. Sears, as is well known, was one of the most learned and 
 eminent of American scholars ; as an educator, he had had a large ex- 
 perience, and, as a man of affairs, was peculiarly sagacious and far-see- 
 ing. His knowledge of men and things was great. Dignified, 
 gentlemanly and conciliatory in manner, firm in what he considered 
 right, he won the confidence and love of all classes of people in a re- 
 
[ 6] 
 
 markable degree. Mr. Peabody's Trustees have, I think, always 
 regarded this selection of General Agent as singularly happy. Mr. 
 Peabody himself was still living, when the execution of his trust and 
 the administration of his great donation commenced ; and his Trustees 
 thus had opportunity to learn, from his own lips, the principles on 
 which he wished it to be managed, and to receive his hearty approval 
 of the course they proposed to pursue. 
 
 During the next few years, every possible effort was made to place 
 before the people, in the most favorable light, the vast importance of 
 universal public education. By untiring efforts of voice and pen, and 
 a wise, but liberal use of the income of what was now generally known 
 as the "Peabody Education Fund," the communities which had not al- 
 ready done so, were induced to establish common school systems, and 
 organize schools at all the most prominent places of influence. 
 
 Then was seen and felt, as never before, the necessity for well-in- 
 structed, carefully trained, earnest and faithful persons to manage 
 and to take the charge of them. It was accordingly proposed by the 
 Peabody Trustees, after a few years, to devote, henceforth, a consider- 
 able portion of the money at their disposal, to assist in the establishment 
 of one or more Normal or Training Schools, in which young men and 
 women, suitably endowed by nature, in mind, heart and body, should 
 be instructed and qualified to undertake and carry forward this great 
 work of free education. 
 
 While the General Agent, Dr. Sears, was casting around for a suit- 
 able place for the commencement of such a scheme, a vacancy in the 
 Peabody Board, occasioned by the decease of one of its members, was 
 filled by the election of a Tennesseean, a gentleman well-known as 
 a friend of the people, who, by his intelligence and uprightness, had 
 made for himself friends everywhere. He was thoroughly acquainted 
 with the wants of the community, and anxious to advance its interests. 
 He was, too, an old college friend of Dr. Sears, and possessed his con- 
 fidence. 
 
 I do not know with whom the proposition, to establish the con- 
 templated school in Tennessee, originated : it might have been good 
 
[ 7] 
 
 Judge Watson, — Dr. Sears, in a notice of his decease, says, the school 
 might not have existed but for him, or possibly, even some other per- 
 son ; but this much is well known, early in the year of our Lord 
 1875, the General Agent made a second or third journey to Nashville ; 
 was, I think, the guest of — at all events, was in consultation with — 
 Judge Watson, visited the State Capitol, was welcomed with great 
 heartiness by the popular and distinguished Chief Magistrate, Hon. 
 James D. Porter, was invited to address the State Legislature, then in 
 session, and made, as was naturally to be expected, an exceedingly 
 favorable impression in behalf of his plans, upon all who listened to 
 the words of wisdom that fell from his lips. The Governor was in ac- 
 cord with his views, the Legislature were, at least, well disposed, and 
 all seemed ready to encourage and help on the enterprise. A State 
 Board of Education was established, the organization of a Normal 
 School or Schools was authorized, and colleges, universities, etc., were 
 granted power to make over their property, the whole or in part, for 
 the use of such institutions. 
 
 Dr. Sears now offered, in behalf of his Trustees, $6,000 per annum, 
 to support a normal school in Nashville, provided the State of Tennes- 
 see would appropriate an equally large sum for the same purpose. But 
 the session had nearly expired when the proposition was made, or the 
 State felt poor, or the object was not properly appreciated perhaps ; 
 at any rate, no action was had. The enterprise, as far as Tennes- 
 see was concerned, would have utterly failed, and the grand oppor- 
 tunity would have been lost, or at least have been indefinitely post- 
 poned, had not the ancient University of Nashville come to the front 
 at that moment. 
 
 This is not the fitting time to present a history of this well-known 
 institution, now approaching its hundredth anniversary ; and, in the 
 light of her action, then and since, it is unnecessary to descant upon 
 the far-reaching wisdom and most liberal spirit exhibited by her dis- 
 tinguished Trustees. It is enough, that the General Agent of the 
 Peabody Board was not suffered to leave the city after his failure with 
 the State, without an interview. The result was offer and agreement 
 
[8] 
 
 on the one side and the other, by which the University of Nashville 
 gave the use of its grounds, buildings and funds to the proposed 
 school, as represented by the newly -formed State Board of Education, 
 one of whom was the Judge Watson of whom I have already spoken, 
 another the President of the University Trustees, and an early grad- 
 uate ; its Chairman, Gov. Porter, a graduate and a Trustee ; and a 
 fourth, a graduate, a son of the second President, and former Chancel- 
 lor, and for a long time an earnest, unwearied and eloquent advocate 
 of such a school. So that I venture to presume that the act of thus 
 making over, to some extent, for two years, the use of the property and 
 income, to that Board, must have seemed to the Trustees, at the time, 
 not much unlike placing it in the hands of a committee of their own 
 number, with instructions to make the normal school experiment. The 
 transaction was not, however, wholly free from conditions and reserves ; 
 one of the most important of which was, "that its principal officer 
 and his assistants should be selected, and their compensation fixed, by 
 the University Board. They should make their own repairs, improve- 
 ments," etc. 
 
 The State Board of Education formally accepted the proposition of 
 the University of Nashville, as thus presented to them. They, also, 
 courteously waived any legal right they might have had, and invited 
 the Trustees of the University, aided and counseled by, and in full 
 co-operation with, the Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund, to 
 take the necessary steps for organization, select a President, teachers, 
 etc., etc. These gentlemen immediately conferred with Dr. Sears, as 
 it was fully understood and desired by all concerned that they would 
 do ; and modestly presuming that he knew better than they what 
 sort of a man was required to start and carry on the enterprise, as well 
 as where to find him, and remembering too, perhaps, that when found, 
 he would be expected to work in harmony with the great designs of 
 the Peabody Board, by which his salary was to be paid, they re- 
 quested Dr. Sears to nominate a President. 
 
 Soon after this, my own intimate personal knowledge of the incip- 
 ient undertaking commences ; and as neither I, nor any one else, can 
 
[9] 
 
 complete the history of the past nine years, without frequent and 
 prominent reference to the part I have had in it, I trust I shall not 
 seem liable to the charge of egotism or immodesty in what remains 
 to be said. 
 
 Having spent some. years as an educator, with, I think, a fair share 
 of success, and achieved a reputation in which I may be permitted to 
 take an honest pride — having had a pretty large acquaintance with 
 normal schools, and been for several years at the head of one which 
 boasts that it was the first of its kind planted on American soil, — I 
 had finally settled down as it were, for the last few years, as the 
 head of an institution, organized by myself according to my own 
 notions, with new and beautiful buildings, and endowed with a fund 
 of some $300,000. But, near the close of a summer's vacation, which 
 had been mostly spent in journeying from place to place, as I felt in- 
 clined — as I was resting after a Saturday afternoon's ride — a letter, 
 well-worn and soiled with following me around, was put in my hands. 
 It was from Dr. Sears, who, while I was connected with the State 
 Normal School in Massachusetts, had been the Executive Officer of her 
 State Board of Education. In it, Dr. Sears, after stating briefly what 
 was proposed in Tennessee, went on to say, "The University of Nash- 
 ville is to be converted into a normal school with very high aims, and 
 we wish to put you at the head of it." This was my first intimation 
 of what had been going on in Tennessee, and was further comtemplated. 
 The offer was kind and exceedingly honorable, but I did not see any 
 good reason why it should be given any special consideration, and in 
 order to prevent a greater loss of time, telegraphed at once a negative 
 answer. Courtesy to Dr. Sears, who had done me the great honor to 
 select me for this enterprise, out of the numbers within the range of 
 his acquaintance, required, of course, an additional and more de- 
 liberate reply by letter ; but though meant to be decided and final, the 
 answer does not seem to have been satisfactory. A second letter soon 
 came from him and others, urging me to review my decision, or at 
 least to go to Tennessee and look the ground over before deciding final- 
 ly. The time at the command of each party was very short, but the 
 
[10] 
 
 trip was inviting, and good friends urged me to go, that I might not 
 seem to treat too lightly so honorable an invitation. The visit to 
 Nashville was a short one, included between the morning and evening 
 trains, but it afforded time to see much and hear much, and for a most 
 pleasing and lasting impression to be made upon my mind by the evi- 
 dent enthusiasm and cordiality of those by whom I was received. 
 
 Before I left the city, however, I felt obliged to say to these 
 gentlemen, "I am prepared to decide the question now, if you desire, 
 and my answer will still be in the negative" ; but, as some seemed to 
 think such a decision would be too hasty, I added, "If you prefer that 
 I should take time to consider what I have seen and heard, I will tele- 
 graph you my reply soon after my arrival home ;" and this opportunity 
 for reflection only confirmed my reluctance to give up my pleasant 
 home and its attractive surroundings — the school, so much to my 
 mind — for a new enterprise, which any one could see would be most 
 difficult and delicate in management, in which much more and harder 
 work would have to be undertaken ; a doubtful experiment as things 
 were, at best, in which success would add but little perhaps to a repu- 
 tation well-earned, and failure would be most disastrous. 
 
 But among my personal friends and advisers were many who, like 
 me, sympathized with the South in her trials, who urged me to make 
 the sacrifice ; and here I might be pardoned for saying, that the pecuni- 
 ary inducements held out were not in themselves alluring, for I was 
 not offered, and to this hour have never received, a greater compensa- 
 tion than I had been in receipt of for years. 
 
 Four reasons, however, induced me finally to send an affirmative 
 answer to Nashville, viz.: The urgency of friends ; The opportunity for 
 doing good in a field of labor not unfamiliar ; The hope that, escaping 
 the protracted rigors of a Northern winter, my health might be more 
 permanently assured; and lastly, a cloud of sorrow, which had recently 
 clothed myself and family in mourning, and imparted sadness to my 
 home and its associations. So you will see that the office I have held 
 here the last nine years, was not of my own seeking, and was assumed 
 with not a little shrinking and reluctance. 
 
[11] 
 
 My reply was received and confirmed by the parties concerned 
 immediately ; and the Trustees of the old University made me its Chan- 
 cellor, with all the rights, duties and privileges belonging to that office, 
 as well as President of the new school. 
 
 By the terms of the original agreement, the ''Montgomery Bell 
 Academy," then occupying a suite of rooms in this building, was to 
 become connected with the Normal School, and to constitute its "Model 
 or Experimental Department." As it was found to be impracticable 
 to organize the Normal School at once, and as the patrons of the 
 Academy were beginning to be impatient under the delay, the Trus- 
 tees of the University concluded that it would be best to select for this 
 Academy a corps of teachers and organize it in the manner in which it 
 had thus far been carried on, as a temporary arrangement. Accord- 
 ingly, Prof. J. W. Yeatman, who had formerly been connected with 
 it; Prof. S. M. D. Clark, also a former teacher, and Prof. W. R. 
 Garrett, who had been a successful teacher in Pulaski and other places, 
 were appointed and placed in charge. So that this Academy was al- 
 ready in operation and occupying rooms, as I have said, in the Uni- 
 versity building, when the Normal School was opened. 
 
 Closing up my business where I had been, as soon as possible, I ar- 
 rived in Nashville towards the last of October, 1875, and immediately 
 commenced a survey of the field and made preparations to organize the 
 contemplated school. 
 
 It must be confessed the prospect was not very cheering. Obstacles 
 of the most formidable proportions seemed to arise on every side. Ex- 
 cept the few who had given me encouragement at the outset, the 
 most seemed either ignorant of the object to be secured, or indifferent. 
 That there were those who were hostile to the whole scheme, I do not 
 doubt, but they did not appear actively on the ground. The very sur- 
 roundings were forbidding. This building, of which we might almost 
 say as did Dr. Johnson of English " Durham's mossy fane," that "it re- 
 minded him of rocky solidity and indeterminate duration," was, in 
 important respects, quite another affair from what it is to-day ; and, 
 
[12] 
 
 with its modern furniture and other appliances, would be scarcely re- 
 cognized by its occupants of nine years ago. 
 
 At the suggestion of Dr. Sears and others, I selected, as my assist- 
 ants in organizing the school, two ladies, who were soon here, ready for 
 any good word or work to which they should be called. 
 
 These ladies had each been carefully educated and trained in one of the 
 best and most prominent normal schools in the country, as well as else- 
 where ; the one had had a large, and both a valuable, experience in the 
 business of teaching. One, after a long and successful career, faith- 
 ful, earnest and skillful in performing the duties required of her, left 
 us for another sphere of usefulness beyond the seas ; the other, than 
 whom no institution had ever a more accomplished instructor, 
 more apt to teach, and that in many branches of knowledge, from low- 
 est to highest ; more devoted and successful in her work ; like generous 
 wine, which each year after the vintage improves, shall each succeed- 
 ing class of students find, if possible, still better than did the last. 
 
 It was finally determined to open the school on the first day of De- 
 cember. As that time approached, much solicitude was felt respect- 
 ing the number of persons who should be enrolled as pioneer students. 
 By the most careful canvass that could be made, it was ascertained on 
 the evening of November 30th that there might possibly be eight young 
 ladies in attendance. Some one asked, "Will you attempt to organ- 
 ize with so small a number?" "Yes," I replied. "But suppose you 
 do not find more than half that number to-morrow, will you com- 
 mence?" "Yes," I answered, "I will." "But," said some one of 
 the company, smiling, "if none present themselves, what will you do?" 
 "Then," said I, "I will organize myself into a Normal School ; we be- 
 gin to-morrow." And on the morrow commence we did. Thirteen young 
 ladies presented themselves, were examined and admitted, and the first 
 steps of organization were taken. To be sure, to make up the number, 
 perhaps, the Secretary of the Board of Education put in his daughter, 
 and I did likewise mine. 
 
 In the evening of that memorable first day of December, 1875, the 
 school was more formally inaugurated by appropriate exercises in the 
 
[13] 
 
 Kepresentatives' Hall at the Capitol. His Excellency, Gov. Porter, 
 presided. Col. Trousdale, then the active and efficient State Superin- 
 tendent of Public Education for Tennessee ; Hon. Edwin H. Ewing, 
 President of the Trustees of the University of Nashville; Judge 
 Samuel Watson, representing the Trustees of the Peabody Education 
 Fuud ; and the newly-constituted Chancellor and President made ad- 
 dresses, which were afterward published. Music by the U. S. A. Band, 
 at that time stationed here, enlivened the occasion. Then, and thus, 
 the Normal School began its career. 
 
 That its growth would be slow and sure, was all that was expected. 
 "Festina lente," said Dr. Sears in one of his characteristic letters. 
 Again, May 1876, "A good Normal School in a great State must 
 grow. You ask for suggestions, I will give you one : ' Let patience 
 have her perfect work.' " "Call no man master," he says in another ; 
 1 ' do not try to follow any precedents, or any other school, but act 
 according to your own judgment ." And on these important underlying 
 principles the school has been carried on to this day. 
 
 Thus we began. One little room sufficed for chapel, class-rooms, 
 and all school work ; philosophical and chemical apparatus, collections of 
 specimens, etc., and books for use in instruction, we had none; an an- 
 cient Bible — here it is — was all we found available, and with that good 
 book as our corner-stone, we struck out boldly. 
 
 The large publishing house of A. S. Barnes & Co., of New York, 
 had made a large donation of text-books for such schools as were ap- 
 proved and aided by the Peabody Fund, and, in our great necessity 
 and destitution, at the suggestion of Dr. Sears, we attempted to avail 
 ourselves of it. Unfortunately, there was little on this book-list 
 which we could use. Their efficient and popular agent, Mr. J. E. 
 Dorland, visited Nashville about this time, and finding how we were 
 situated, volunteered to make such arrangements with his house as 
 would enable us to avail ourselves of the donation in such books as 
 were adapted to our wants. This aid was most important and timely ; 
 and I am glad of an opportunity to place on record a most liberal trans- 
 
[14] 
 
 action, without which we must have commenced our work at serious 
 disadvantage. 
 
 It is proper to state here, that it was the plan at first to charge a 
 moderate tuition of, I think, $16 a term, for the enjoyment of the 
 privileges of the school. This rule, at my suggestion, was never en- 
 forced, and after a time a substitute was introduced in the small fee 
 now charged — "For use of such books as are provided by the College, 
 and to help defray incidental expenses." 
 
 Just after the summer of 1876 had closed, the school lost, by death, 
 one of its earliest and most devoted patrons and friends — Judge 
 Samuel Watson. An Eastern man by birth, though a Southerner by 
 adoption and long residence ; a college classmate of Dr. Sears at 
 Brown University ; tender and affectionate in his social relations ; a 
 skilled and trusted man of affairs; a Trustee of the University of 
 Nashville ; a member of the Tennessee Board of Education ; a Trustee 
 of the Peabody Education Fund ; a most intelligent and devoted friend 
 of popular education ; he had great influence in the preliminary work 
 of establishing this institution, as I have before indicated. His wise 
 counsels, intelligent co-operation, hearty sympathy and genial smile 
 of encouragement will be always remembered. 
 
 During the first year, ending December 1, 1876, the school grew in 
 favor and prospered beyond the most sanguine expectations of its 
 friends. Its first anniversary was not only the occasion of general 
 congratulations, but of an event then wholly novel and unique in its 
 character. These pleasant class-rooms were untidy and dilapidated ; as 
 has already been intimated, there was no convenient lecture-room, no 
 chapel for daily devotions, no philosophical or other apparatus, no 
 geological or other cabinet, and — worse than all — no money with which 
 to make improvements. These grounds, beautiful as they are, but 
 whose capacity for ornamentation is yet but partially developed, were 
 then but little more than an unsightly pasture, almost destitute of 
 trees and shrubs covered with weeds grassless and graceless. Here, 
 too, the want of money was sorely felt. But I had the good fortune — 
 I have sometimes thought perhaps, the inspiration — to conceive a plan 
 
[15 ] 
 
 at this juncture, which resulted in the beginning of a series of out- 
 door improvements, which, I trust, will never be relinquished until 
 our campus literally "blossoms as the rose." 
 
 The scheme was a "grand memorial tree-planting," in which stu- 
 dents, teachers, graduates of the University, officers of the State, and 
 all friends were invited to participate. A public meeting was held 
 on the afternoon of December 1, 1876, our first anniversary, in the 
 present lecture-room, where the nature and design of the memorial 
 tree-planting was set forth. Able and eloquent speeches were made, 
 songs were sung by a select choir from the teachers of the public 
 schools — for, though we were already making some noise in the com- 
 munity, we could not offer much music — and finally the whole assem- 
 bly repaired to the grounds in front and planted three trees, as was 
 fitting, to the memory of Geo. Peabody, Philip Lindsley, greatly dis- 
 tinguished in the line of University Presidents, and in honor of Dr. 
 Barnas Sears, then still living. 
 
 Having placed my own spadeful of earth around the roots, teach- 
 ers, students, members of Montgomery Bell Academy, who assisted at 
 this tree-planting, and friends followed, and thus, by these joint con- 
 tributions, each tree was planted. Then, on that and succeeding days, 
 nearly every student planted a tree for himself ; old graduates of the 
 University planted them in memory of loved classmates ; others as a 
 tribute of affection to their own dear ones, already in their many-man- 
 sioned home. 
 
 It could not, of course, be expected that every tree thus planted 
 would live, but we have been greatly favored, at least, in that particu- 
 lar; and had not our city government, and too many of our citizens, 
 been unwilling to restrain the almost omnipresent cow, and permitted 
 these marauders to break in upon our campus and forage upon our 
 choicest trees, these grounds might, long ago, have been the most 
 beautiful in this region. 
 
 The newspapers of the time immediately took up the idea of a 
 "Memorial Tree-planting" with marked approbation, and spread their 
 favorable comments over the land, and this, as stated by Dr. North- 
 
[16] 
 
 rop, widely connected with Memorial and Arbor Day Tree-planting, in 
 one of his lectures last spring, some of you will recollect, was un- 
 doubtedly the first occasion of the kind in the country. 
 
 The first annual Commencement was held, and the first class grad- 
 uated, on the last Wednesday in May, 1877. The occasion was one 
 of great interest and no small solicitude to the friends of the school. With 
 a class of only seven, and a corps of instructors consisting of but three, 
 it seemed almost presumptuous to present ourselves before the public 
 in the Masonic Theater ; but, confident in the ability of the graduates 
 — knowing well the extent of their acquisitions — we did not hesitate 
 to set them before a generous public as representatives of the new 
 school, and to subject it, through them, to any candid criticism. A 
 newspaper statement before me declares, that "the exercises occurred 
 in the presence of a crowded parquet, dress-circle and gallery." 
 "Some of the prettiest woodland scenery available was used, and a 
 large stand of flowers placed in the middle of the stage. The front 
 was neatly festooned, a beautiful wreath hanging in the center of the 
 arch." The students made quite acceptably the music required. 
 The venerable ex-Governor Neil S. Brown delivered a most interest- 
 ing and valuable address. "Then came the graduating exercises." 
 I continue to quote. "Miss Lizzie Le Bloomstein (have you ever 
 heard of her?) opened with a 'salutatory' on the subject, 'A Good 
 Cause Makes a Stout Heart.' She read in a clear, distinct voice, 
 which could be heard with ease at the extreme end of the hall. In 
 closing the essay, her voice assumed a deeper tone to accord with the 
 pathetic nature of her subject, which called forth earnest applause and 
 showers of elegant bouquets." Thus they spoke of our first Salutatorian, 
 in 1877, and were this a fitting occasion, I am sure multitudes of 
 graduates would acknowledge, with gratitude, that nearly seven years 
 of service in her Alma Mater have won for her a still wider applause, 
 and more copious showers of such bouquets as typify appreciative and 
 loving hearts. 
 
 The Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund having, for some 
 twelve years, devoted their income to the establishing and fostering 
 
[17] 
 
 public schools in the Southern States ; in the year 1876, determined 
 upon a new departure, which should contemplate the gradual with- 
 drawal of aid from the schools, now generally able to sustain them- 
 selves, and the application of a much larger proportion of their income 
 to encourage and assist in the education and training of persons to 
 take the charge and instruction of them. Some proposition looking 
 in that direction, made quite early by Dr. Sears, and revised, I think, 
 by the late General Dick Taylor, of New Orleans, gave origin to a 
 resolution, passed in October, 1876, establishing a "limited number 
 of scholarships, for the benefit of all the States aided by the Peabody 
 Fund," worth $200 a year, for two successive years, at this Institu- 
 tion. 
 
 The immediate design of these scholarships was to aid such States 
 as were not able to establish schools for themselves ; not by offering a 
 substitute for normal schools, for such a school filled to overflowing 
 could receive but a very small proportion of the great army of teachers 
 required in the public schools, but by assisting to train exceptionally 
 promising young men and women for this business, who, on their re- 
 turn to their own States, should be prepared to illustrate in themselves 
 and their work the most philosophical, thorough, complete and successful 
 forms of public education known in our times, and so become apostles 
 of what, with doubtful propriety, some delight to call ' ' the new edu- 
 cation ;" examples of the highest instruction, exerting everywhere a 
 wide and salutary influence upon their brethren and sisters in the 
 work and the people generally. 
 
 Twenty -five such "scholarships" were immediately offered to the 
 States on the most liberal conditions of which the case admitted, but 
 met with no response from any of them, until the session of 1877-78, 
 when, as the result of much effort and the exercise of considerable 
 leniency, a few persons were found ready to seize the offered boon. 
 Georgia and Virginia were the first States to respond to our invitation; 
 and, as my books show, the first scholarship payment made was to 
 seven students, of whom the first on the list was a young lady from 
 Atlanta, Ga. It soon, however, became generally known to the 
 
[ 18 ] 
 
 educational authorities of the States that these important advantages 
 had been offered by the Peabody Trustees, and, since that time, there 
 has been no lack of persons eager to appropriate them. The great 
 difficulty has been for the State Superintendents of Public Instruction 
 of the different States, on whom the duty devolves, to make such se- 
 lections of candidates as would answer the ' ' conditions " on which the 
 scholarships are to be assigned and enjoyed. 
 
 And here I may be permitted to say, that in my relations to these 
 gentlemen, with many of whom I have had some personal acquaintance, 
 and with every one of whom I have had such frequency of corre- 
 spondence as could not fail to give me a pretty fair knowledge of them 
 as public educators, and of their readiness to co-operate with us when- 
 ever and however called upon, with no thought of compensation for 
 their services except the " luxury of doing good," I have formed a 
 high opinion of their general ability. It is pleasant to record my full 
 conviction that in no part of the country can be found in such public 
 offices a corps of more intelligent, earnest, faithful, self-sacrificing 
 gentlemen, comprehending the great duties of their office more fully, 
 and more skillful in meeting them, than the Superintendents of Public 
 Education in the Southern States. 
 
 The great event of the year 1878, was a somewhat protracted visit 
 from the wise, beloved and distinguished General Agent of the Peabody 
 Education Fund, Dr. Barnas Sears. The visit was threefold in its 
 purpose. 1st. That he might see for himself this new Institution, 
 and acquaint himself with the nature and success of the work under- 
 taken, both with reference to widely-extended and far-reaching plans 
 for the future, and the adaptation of the instruction and training 
 afforded to meet the views of his Trustees, whose deep interest in its 
 success had been already developed, as well as the immediate and pros- 
 pective wants of the States proposed to be particularly benefited. 2d. 
 To deliver the annual address at the Commencement ; which he did to 
 the great satisfaction of all concerned, and which was deemed by his 
 Trustees as of sufficient importance to be printed in the Minutes of 
 their next annual meeting. And 3d. To consult with the Trustees of 
 
[19] 
 
 the University of Nashville, and the parties concerned, respecting 
 existing and prospective relations between this Institution and the 
 " Montgomery Bell Academy," still occupying rooms in the University 
 building, and retaining a nominal connection with the Normal School. 
 The result of many conferences was the conviction that this Academy 
 could not be advantageously used as a Model or Training Department, 
 and that any further attempts to convert it into such a department 
 would seriously hazard the best interests of each school. It was ac- 
 cordingly agreed that this connection, such as it was, should be 
 severed, but that, for a few years, until some contracts previously 
 made could be completed, the Academy was to continue its occupancy 
 of a portion of these buildings and premises. 
 
 It was at about this time that our school was found to have assumed 
 such a character and proportions as fully entitled it to appropriate to 
 itself the title of COLLEGE, with all and singular, the rights, duties 
 and honors belonging to such a grade, becoming not only a State Normal 
 School as concerns Tennessee, a Collegiate Department of the University 
 of Nashville, but also in accordance with the views of the Trustees of 
 the Peabody Education Fund, a professional College for all the South- 
 ern States — not designed, however, to be a substitute for local, State or 
 other normal or training-schools, but a supplement to them all, in 
 which special instruction and training should be carried to as high a 
 degree as circumstances would admit. In my many interviews and 
 protracted consultations with this wisest and best and most patriotic of 
 men, Dr. Sears, the principles were established, and ultimate purposes 
 developed, which have been my guide in the conduct of the College to 
 the present day. And it affords me unspeakable pleasure to acknowl- 
 edge my great indebtedness to the wisdom and steady support of Dr. 
 Sears, while he Jived, as well as most heartily to his no less distinguished 
 successor, Hon. J. L. M. Curry, and others of the illustrious Board 
 of Trust so ably represented. 
 
 Passing over many other matters of deep interest, and sometimes of 
 grave importance to the College, I come now to speak, as briefly as the 
 subject will permit, of a crisis in the affairs of the College of the 
 
[20] 
 
 utmost importance, and on which its future destiny seemed to 
 depend. 
 
 The original agreement between the contracting parties, entered into 
 in the spring of 1875, bound the University of Nashville to surrender 
 the use of its grounds within prescribed limits, and the buildings 
 thereon, and the income of their funds, amounting to about $6,000, to 
 aid in the establishment and support of a Normal School, to be substi- 
 tuted for the customary Literary Department, for two years, on certain 
 conditions, to which reference has already been made. 
 
 The Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund were to give a like 
 sum of money for the same object and period of time. The State of 
 Tennessee, as before said, gave nothing ; and, of course, its Board of 
 Education deemed it advisable to act rather as a Board of Visitation 
 than otherwise. The contracting parties had no doubt of the success 
 of the enterprise, and, apparently, regarded the limit of two years as 
 a possible safeguard, with no actual intention or expectation of with- 
 drawal at the close of the period. It was, however, confidently ex- 
 pected that the State Legislature, at its next session, would make an 
 ample appropriation of money to relieve, in a measure, or, at least, sup- 
 plement, the funds derived from the other sources mentioned. But 
 this successive Legislatures declined to do, leaving the whole burden 
 of support and development upon the University of Nashville and the 
 Peabody Trustees. In the meantime, the rapid growth of the Col- 
 lege and the high position it had assumed demanded enlarged quarters, 
 more teachers, and the beginning, if no more, of important improve- 
 ments. The separation of the Montgomery Bell Academy, moreover, 
 reduced the University Fund one-half. The Peabody Trustees, with 
 characteristic liberality and extreme anxiety lest the College on which 
 their hopes for the higher education of Southern teachers so deeply 
 centered, should suffer in consequence, on the representation of the 
 General Agent, increased their appropriation to $9,000, in consideration 
 also of the fact that an increasing number of students on their 
 scholarships were pursuing their professional studies at the College. 
 A growing uneasiness, however, soon exhibited itself among the 
 
[ 21 ] 
 
 friends of the College — its restricted accommodations ; its being obliged 
 to share its premises with the Academy, and its want of still greater 
 funds for the increasing necessities of the institution, with no im- 
 mediate prospect of a change for the better, together with the apathy 
 of the public in regard to its wants, was truly disheartening. The 
 State was disinclined to render aid ; the Trustees of the University 
 of Nashville felt that they were doing even more than could be re- 
 quired of them, and the Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund, 
 with great reluctance, determined to withdraw their interest in the 
 Normal College from Tennessee and transfer it to a more appreciative 
 and genial clime. Proposals of a most liberal and nattering character 
 were made by various States, and notably from Georgia, whither the 
 General Agent was, at length, instructed to remove their interest, pro- 
 vided that, after a careful consideration of the question, it should seem 
 advisable. To effect the preliminary measures for this removal, both 
 Dr. Sears and I were invited to meet the State authorities at Atlanta, 
 where, early in the spring of 1880, the hospitable and courteous Gov- 
 ernor, now U. S. Senator, Colquitt, entertained us for several days at 
 the ''Executive Mansion," and where negotiations were at once en- 
 tered into. 
 
 The proposals of the State of Georgia, and of institutions and citi- 
 zens, were liberal and attractive ; but unforeseen difficulties were 
 opened up by the conferences held, having their origin in the State 
 Constitution. It had been finally settled that the College was to re- 
 main no longer in Tennessee, and any claims she had to offer, as was 
 understood, had been disposed of. To me, personally, the proposed 
 change was, in almost every one of its aspects, to my advantage and 
 pleasing, and yet I could not quite divest myself of the feeling that 
 the ultimate good of the College would be better secured where it was 
 already located than elsewhere, if only the Tennessee parties could be 
 made to see it in the same light and to offer acceptable terms and con- 
 ditions. Impressed by this feeling, and taking advantage of a delay 
 in the negotiations at Atlanta, I excused myself from the conference, 
 and, without suggestion or advice from any person, took the responsi- 
 
r 22 ] 
 
 bility of returning to Nashville, where I urged renewed and immedi- 
 ate action on the part of such as could be consulted at so short a 
 notice, and was so far successful in reopening negotiations as to induce 
 the General Agent to postpone, for a day or two, the final decision. The 
 result, in short, was, new efforts and pledges on the part of the Trus- 
 tees of the University of Nashville, including the removal of the 
 Montgomery Bell Academy into other quarters ; requiring the erection 
 of a new building for its occupancy, and of a "Chancellor's residence," 
 at their own expense ; an assent to other important changes, which the 
 good of the College required, and a guarantee on the part of friends 
 that not less than $4,000 in money should be raised for the College 
 with all convenient speed — from the State if possible, but if not, from 
 citizens who promised to pay this sum in larger or smaller subscrip- 
 tions. The readiness with which all classes of the citizens of Nash- 
 ville subscribed to this "guarantee fund," and the quickness with 
 which the work was done, was at once an evidence of the appreciative 
 liberality of our people, and a compliment to the College. No history 
 of the College would be complete or just which should fail to note this 
 memorable transaction. In the meantime, I received notice from Dr. 
 Sears that the obstacles in the way of our removal to Georgia were 
 likely to be removed, or made of no account, and leaving the final de- 
 cision to an explicit "Yes or no, by telegraph." That answer was 
 what you have foreseen ; and, as a consequence, the College remains in 
 Tennessee to this day. 
 
 The people of Georgia were sorely disappointed ; and there were among 
 them those who had sacrificed much time, and had offered to make large 
 gifts to secure the College. They had, perhaps reasonably, supposed 
 that the decision would be in their favor, and this would indeed have 
 certainly been the case could all arrangements have been satisfactory, 
 and had not your President assumed the responsibility and been suc- 
 cessful in the negotiation referred to. No person could have more 
 thoroughly entered into and appreciated their feelings than I ; but the 
 interests involved were of too great magnitude, and too far-reaching 
 in consequences to be controlled by personal feeling on either side ; and 
 
[ 23 ] 
 
 I confess it one of the greatest trials of my life, when the responsibility 
 of a final answer was devolved upon me. The magnanimity which 
 these Georgians have ever manifested toward all parties concerned, is 
 as unusual as it is worthy of the highest praise. 
 
 If any wish for a more detailed account of these transactions, I 
 would refer them to the Minutes of the Peabody Trustees, and to Com- 
 missioner Orr's report to the Legislature of Georgia. 
 
 The visit to Georgia with Dr. Sears gave me, for a second time 
 since the organization of the College, and after another course of years, 
 a protracted opportunity to examine with him, in the privacy of his 
 own room, the organization, instruction and management of the Col- 
 lege in its minutest details. The result was to give me a confidence 
 in the work I was conducting, and to afford encouragement under 
 many trials, never to be forgotten. These invaluable interviews were 
 ended by my return to Nashville ; and it is with deep sorrow I have to 
 record that, when I parted with this great and good man on the steps 
 of the "Executive Mansion," at Atlanta, it was to close, for this world, 
 my personal intercourse, except by letter during a few brief weeks. 
 His last public act was his official signature to a document relating to 
 this College. His decease occurred early in July, at Saratoga, N. Y., 
 whither he had gone with, at best, a forlorn hope of renewing his 
 health. A few days afterward, in the simplest and most appropriate 
 manner, the funeral obsequies were held at Brookline, Mass., near 
 Boston, at which I had the sad honor to assist as a pall-bearer and sole 
 representative of all this extended South country he loved so well, this 
 side of Washington. 
 
 Fitting notice of the decease of Dr. Sears was taken by the College 
 at its opening in October, for an account of which you are referred to 
 the Minutes of the Peabody Trustees for that year. 
 
 The Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund, after much anxious 
 investigation and consideration, selected from the many candidates of- 
 fered to their notice as General Agent, Hon. J. L. M. Curry, D.D., 
 LL.D., of Richmond, Va., a gentleman already widely known in pub- 
 lic life, and distinguished for his vigorous intellect, his literary attain- 
 
[ 24] 
 
 ments, his eloquent and commanding oratory, his knowledge of the 
 Southern people and their wants, and his acceptableness to them. I 
 may also be permitted to add, he was a personal friend of Dr. Sears, 
 well acquainted with the nature of the Peabody Trust and Dr. Sears' 
 views respecting it, and moreover, unquestionably his first choice as a 
 successor. How fortunate this selection, and how wise, efficient and 
 successful his administration of the great affairs devolved upon him, is 
 too well known to require even a passing notice here. 
 
 One of the first duties committed to the new General Agent, was the 
 perfecting of the negotiations entered into between Dr. Sears and other 
 parties respecting the permanent location of our Normal College. As 
 a result, the Trustees of the University of Nashville, in • accordance 
 with their pledges, commenced to raise upon the property the funds re- 
 quired, and, in due time, removed the Montgomery Bell Academy to 
 the new building erected for its occupancy, and built also a commodi- 
 ous and tasteful dwelling for a "Chancellor's residence." 
 
 The Forty-second General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, after 
 much discussion, and for the first time in its history, appropriated a 
 sum of money in aid of the College. Up to this time all appeals had 
 been unnoticed, except by the Assembly previous, which appointed a 
 joint committee to examine the affairs of the College from its begin- 
 ning in 1785, down through the University of Nashville and the 
 Normal College to the then present time, but which found nothing on 
 which to base even a report. The Forty-second Genernl Assembly 
 was, doubtless, much influenced by the eloquence of Dr. Curry, who 
 made to them a most persuasive appeal, and was stimulated, no doubt, 
 greatly by the efforts of the many gentlemen whose names were at- 
 tached to the guarantee fund before mentioned ; and it is possible — I 
 would not blame them if it were so — the Legislature might have felt like 
 the great man in the Bible, to whom the poor widow's persistent appeals 
 were so disagreeable. At all events an appropriation was made in the 
 spring of 1881, of $10,000, for two years each, $2,500 of which was 
 to be appropriated to schools where children of African descent were 
 being educated, and $2,500, or as much of it as should be required, to 
 
[ 25] 
 
 establish State scholarships, of $100 each, for two years, in Tennessee; 
 so that, practically, this first State appropriation amounted to but lit- 
 tle over $5,000 a year for College purposes, and out of that we were 
 expected to give twenty -five scholarship students free tuition. The 
 first installment of this money was drawn by the College in November, 
 1881, about three years ago, when it had been already in operation 
 and supported by the University of Nashville and the Peabody Educa- 
 tion Fund nearly six years. This aid, though small, was thankfully re- 
 ceived, and enabled us to effect some of our most important improve- 
 ments, and in providing chapel, society -rooms, library, etc. 
 
 The succeeding Legislature, that of 1883, went a step further, and, 
 having abolished the State scholarships, accepted the offer of the 
 Peabody Trustees to give to Tennessee a number of scholarships equal 
 to the most favored of the States, amounting now to fourteen, provided 
 the State would appropriate not less than $10,000, free from all incum- 
 brances, per annum in aid of the College. Twenty thousand dollars 
 would, I suppose, more than cover the entire sum yet drawn from the 
 State Treasury since the College was organized, though the entire 
 sum appropriated has been distributed in the budget for the coming 
 year by the Tennessee Board of Education. 
 
 The chapel, where we now are, embraces the space once occupied by 
 the Montgomery Bell Academy, the Erosophian Society, a recitation- 
 room and the University library, separated from each other, except, of 
 course floors and ceilings, by heavy brick walls extending from ground 
 to roof. The old chapel, where we once assembled for devotional and 
 other purposes, has been converted into a commodious lecture-room and 
 a room for the use of the teachers. The cumbrous, unsightly and 
 unhealthful stoves, of which we were obliged to use in this building 
 some sixteen or seventeen, were removed, and steam-heating, by the 
 most approved apparatus, was substituted throughout the building. 
 At the same time, the " old barracks," as it was then called a large, 
 unsightly and useless pile of brick, erected originally for a military 
 school, and rapidly falling into irreparable decay — was rescued, by 
 placing upon it a new roof, so constructed as to permit the removal of 
 
[26] 
 
 the most of its supporting walls. These heavy walls were safely re- 
 moved, and two spacious and appropriate rooms were constructed, one 
 at each end of the building, for the use of the two students' societies 
 now occupying them ; and in the removal of the libraries and appurte- 
 nances of these societies, so anxious was I lest anything should be injured 
 or misplaced, that, at the expense of many days in the heat of summer, I 
 not only personally superintended the work, but with my own hands 
 placed every book in both of those libraries, in precisely the same 
 order and relative position upon the shelves in which the societies had 
 left them at the close of the session. The University library was in 
 like manner provided for and removed. Thus, though I confess it 
 tasked my engineering skill quite heavily, was Lindsley Hall rescued 
 from destruction and utilized in such manner as to make it an exceed- 
 ingly valuable building to the College. 
 
 The chapel was formally dedicated on the afternoon of May 5, 
 1882 ; on which occasion an address was made by the Chancellor, 
 followed by appropriate speeches from the venerable President of the 
 University Trustees, His Excellency Gov. Hawkins, Trustees of the 
 University, members of the Tennessee Board of Education, of the 
 City Government of Nashville, etc. The dedicating prayer was offered 
 by Dr. J. W. Hoyte, and the exercises were enlivened by music, 
 vocal and instrumental, by members of the College. 
 
 More recently still, the "Old Faculty House," so called, has been 
 removed, except a portion, which has been converted into one of the 
 finest "Sanitary Gymnasiums" in the South. This was, as some of you 
 already know, dedicated near the close of the last session, and has now 
 been opened for the benefit and enjoyment of our students, under more 
 complete direction than any of the kind known to me, and from which 
 the most important and valuable results are sure to follow. 
 
 Besides this, and now approaching completion, we have one of the 
 largest and best equipped working Chemical Laboratories in the region, 
 in which our students are not only to be taught the first principles of 
 chemical science, but their practical application in connection with 
 laboratory work, under the instruction and superintendence of a 
 
[27] 
 
 learned and skilled master. Here they will be taught the great facts 
 on which the necessities and comforts of daily life most largely depend, 
 and how to apply this knowledge in common schools by the aid of the 
 simplest and cheapest apparatus ; and here such as have a natural 
 taste for such studies and the requisite time and perseverance for 
 thorough study and the most extended original investigation, will be 
 able, after their collegiate course has terminated, to perfect their ac- 
 quisitions. There seems to me to be literally no limit to the advantages 
 to be hoped for by both the College and the community, from such a 
 Chemical Department and such a laboratory as we propose. 
 
 Our Normal College, here let me remind you, is not a literary col- 
 lege in the ordinary acceptation of that term, but is, in nature and de- 
 sign, professional; its object, the very reason of its being, is unique 
 and well-defined ; hence, from beginning to end, from first to last, we 
 endeavor to maintain a strictly professional character. Consequently, 
 all studies are pursued with special reference to their being, in the 
 most scientific, thorough and economical manner, imparted to the 
 children and youth of the country. No lesson or exercise is wholly 
 acceptable unless it can be reproduced in a similar or better manner 
 than that in which the instruction has been received. In other words, 
 "pedagogy," as it is sometimes called, is at the foundation of every 
 study and exercise, from the beginning to the close of the student's 
 course. Were this not the case — were our requirements, necessary as 
 we are now situated, to be relaxed, and the studies to become more 
 general — our number of students, as I have the best of reasons for 
 knowing, would soon become so great, that to find them shelter and 
 proper instruction would be wholly out of the question. I have, from 
 the first, been looking anxiously and hopefully for the time when 
 very much, perhaps the most, of the mere study of branches of 
 knowledge should be done in the unprofessional institutions, and when 
 our work would be merely such reviews as the science of instruction 
 might require, with such additions merely as breadth and fullness of 
 acquisition might demand. But that day, though it evidently ap- 
 proaches, is not yet. I may remark, as I pass on, that, as our object 
 
[28] 
 
 is to educate and train persons for service in the instruction and man- 
 agement of schools, and especially public schools of every grade, our 
 College, in its very organization, is designed to resemble the highest 
 grades of these schools, with a responsible head and assistants, rather 
 than a collegiate President and Faculty composed of specialists in 
 professors' chairs. 
 
 Besides the additions and improvements already effected or in con- 
 templation, to which allusion has been made, there is another which 
 must at a proper time be introduced. I refer to a model or training- 
 school — something like, and yet more extended than the Montgomery 
 Bell Academy arrangement referred to in the earlier part of this address 
 — a graded school composed of children representing the two sexes, and 
 the various ordinary conditions of life ; a school which, in grounds, 
 buildings, furniture, and all kinds of equipment, should be as nearly 
 perfect as possible — a model worthy of examination and adoption ; a 
 school which, in its organization and conduct, should be typical of the 
 best thought and experience of the age ; a school properly officered 
 and conducted so as to preserve continuity of instruction and manage- 
 ment, in which our pupils should spend a portion of time in careful 
 observation and another portion in actual practice under the immediate 
 eye of the head teacher, subject to his direction anol criticism, and 
 subject to a full and impartial report from both parties to the head of 
 the College. Such a school was connected with the normal school 
 which I taught many years ago in Massachusetts, and from it most 
 important advantages were derived. A still better, or, perhaps, an 
 additional arrangement, will, T hope, in time be effected with one or 
 more of the schools in the vicinity ; the attempts thus far made to secure 
 this object in the past have not met with success. Whatever additions 
 or improvements are in progress, or not fully completed, you may be 
 sure that, with a constant eye to the present and prospective wants of 
 this part of the country — to the closest possible adaptation of the edu- 
 cation and training it affords to the peculiarities of the people — its 
 friends will never cease to labor for its completest development and 
 highest usefulness. 
 
[ 29] 
 
 It has been my somewhat remarkable fortune to organize 'and con- 
 duct this now most important institution for nine years, with what 
 success the proud reputation which our College enjoys in all these 
 Southern States, if no more, abundantly declares] ; opposed by obstacles, 
 encompassed by difficulties, most formidable in character, and through 
 crises which would have destroyed it, had it been less securely founded, 
 and this, too, with a responsibility to three distinct Boards of Trust, 
 composed of gentlemen of the highest distinction in the State and 
 Nation, with relations to each other and the College imperfectly de- 
 fined, but all deeply interested in its welfare. I am sure, I shall be 
 pardoned, if, under such peculiar circumstances, I take an honest 
 pride in the fact that I have enjoyed the confidence of these three 
 Boards during so long a period, and that nothing has disturbed our 
 mutual harmony. 
 
 The deep and still growing interest felt by the "Trustees of the 
 Peabody Education Fund," whose venerated and most distinguished 
 President, in his opening address to his colleagues at their last annual 
 meeting in New York, calls it "Our great Normal College at Nash- 
 ville," will not be diminished so long as its success continues to realize 
 their hopes and expectations. 
 
 The Trustees of the University of Nashville will still generously de- 
 vote their spacious and beautiful campus and its classic buildings — a 
 heritage rich indeed, if estimated at present money values alone — to 
 secure for it an appropriate home. 
 
 And the State of Tennessee through its Board of Education will, it 
 is confidently believed, continue its fostering regard and aid in its sup- 
 port. 
 
 And should the time come, not many years hence, when the Pea- 
 body Fund shall lay down the great trust it has administered with 
 such signal wisdom and usefulness to our country so many years, ac- 
 cording to the will of its illustrious founder, I confidently believe 
 that our Normal College will be found, in the beauty of its grounds, 
 the appropriateness of its buildings, its facilities of every kind for 
 carrying out their well-known views for the higher education of 
 
[30] 
 
 teachers, and in its substantial success worthy to be remembered with 
 favor. 
 
 I regret that, in closing this perhaps too extended address, I can 
 not speak to you in fitting terms of many of the individual members 
 of the three Boards of Trust, to whom I have had occasion to allude. 
 Of two or three I have already spoken. Would time permit, I would 
 like to bring more prominently before you such men as Ex-Governor 
 Porter, an Alumnus and Trustee of the University of Nashville, whose 
 words of encouragement, when I first saw him in his office in yonder 
 Capitol, did much toward determining my connection with this enter- 
 prise, whose wise counsels I have so highly valued, whose friendship I 
 have so long enjoyed, whose many visits to the College, from time to 
 time, were so welcome, and amid the clustering honors of whose ad- 
 ministration, none in the coming ages will shine with greater luster 
 than the Normal College he so hopefully fostered. His recent elec- 
 tion to the Peabody Board was but a natural and most fitting tribute 
 to him as a scholar, statesman, gentleman, and cordial supporter of 
 their great purposes. I would like to speak of Dr. W. P. Jones, one 
 of the pioneers of Common Education in the South, and a life-long 
 advocate of public schools as the very corner-stone of freedom and re- 
 publican institutions, a gentleman whose high moral principle and un- 
 flinching integrity, as well as great ability in the execution of many 
 most important trusts, public and private, have won for him the im- 
 perishable regard of his fellow-citizens, and to whose timely counsel 
 and efficient aid this College owes its lasting gratitude. 
 
 Of Dr. J. R. Lindsey, formerly Chancellor of the University, the 
 learned and accomplished historian of Tennessee, to whose early and 
 persistent efforts in behalf of popular education, the whole South is 
 greatly indebted. 
 
 I would speak of Hon. A. J. Porter, also an Alumnus and Trustee, 
 whose wise advice and prompt assistance in many a doubtful case, I 
 have never sought in vain. Of Col. Reese, one of the very first to 
 welcome me to Nashville ; and many others with whom I shall ever 
 regard it as an honor to have been associated, and whose personal 
 
[31] 
 
 friendship will be prized as long as memory lasts. But I must 
 close. 
 
 In an early letter from Dr. Sears, lie says, "Under the fostering care 
 of Boards of Trust, this College is destined to become the pride of 
 the South." Often and most hopefully has this expression been re- 
 peated, and as I have reviewed its nine years' history, and noted its 
 steady progress and development, its widely extended reputation in all 
 these States, I am justified in declaring with gratitude to God, who has 
 so signally blessed it, my belief that the realization of these hopes is 
 not distant. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Names of persons composing the Board of Trust interested in the 
 Normal College, at its organization, December 1, 1875. 
 
 Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund. 
 
 Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, Pres't, . Massachusetts. 
 
 Hon. Hamilton Fish, . . ' . . New York. 
 
 Gen'l Ulysses S. Grant, . . . United States Army. 
 
 Hon. John H. Clifford, .... Massachusetts. 
 
 Hon. William Aiken, .... South Carolina. 
 
 Hon. William M. Evarts, . . . New York. 
 
 George W. Rjggs, Esq., . • Washington. 
 
 Samuel Wetmore, Esq., .... New York. 
 
 George Peabody Russell, Esq., . . Massachusetts. 
 
 Hon. Samuel Watson, .... Tennessee. 
 
 Hon. A. H. H. Stuart, . . . Virginia. 
 
 Gen'l Richard Taylor, .... Louisiana. 
 Surgeon Gen'l Joseph K. Barnes, U. S. A., Washington. 
 
 Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite, . . Washington. 
 
 Right Rev. H. B. Whipple, . • Minnesota. 
 
 Rev. Barnas Sears, D. D., General Agent, Virginia. 
 
L 32] 
 
 Trustees of the University of Nashville. 
 
 Hon. Edwin H. Ewing, .... President. 
 His Excellency, Jas. D. Porter, . Ex-officio. 
 
 Francis B. Fogg, Esq. 
 Jacob V. McGorock, Esq. 
 Hon. Charles Ready. 
 Wm. T. Berry, Esq. 
 John T. Bass, Esq. 
 Hon. Wm. F. Cooper. 
 Robt. C. Foster, M. D. 
 Alex. J. Porter, Esq. 
 Abram L. Demose, Esq. 
 Frank T. Reid, Esq. 
 
 Samuel Watkins, Esq. 
 
 Hon. John Trimble. 
 
 Chas. K. Winston, M. D. 
 
 A. V. S. Lindsley, Esq., Treas. 
 
 Hon. Samuel Watson. [& Sec'y. 
 
 John Overton, Esq. 
 
 Hon. H. H. Harrison. 
 
 Hon. Samuel Morgan. 
 
 Hon. E. H. East. 
 
 Wm. B. Reese, Esq. 
 
 Eben S. Stearns, Chancellor. 
 
 State Hoard of Education of Tennessee. 
 
 His Excellency, Jas. D. Porter, Ex-officio President. 
 
 J. Berrien Lindsley, M. D., LL. D., Secretary. 
 
 Hon. Edwin H. Ewing. J. J. Reese, Esq. 
 
 Luther G. Tarbox, Esq. R. W. Mitchell, M. D. 
 
 Eben S. Stearns, 
 Julia A. Sears. 
 
 Instructors. 
 
 . Chancellor and President. 
 Emma M. Cutter. 
 
 " The Pioneers/' Present and Enrolled as Students, De- 
 cember 1, 1875. 
 
 Lizzie Lee Bloomstein, 
 Mattie Capps, 
 Augusta Gattinger, 
 Alida B. Harrison, . 
 Lizzie Keel, . 
 Louise Lindsley, . . 
 Alice R. Phillips, 
 Agnes W. Putnam, 
 Josephine Roesfeld, 
 Callie Sneed, 
 Mary A. F. Stearns, 
 Fannie Whitnorth, . 
 Virginia Z. Wilson, 
 Elizabeth Woodfin, . 
 
 Nashville. 
 
 Livingston Co. 
 
 Nashville. 
 
 Nashville. 
 
 Nashville. 
 
 Nashville. 
 
 Nashville. 
 
 Coffee Co. 
 
 Nashville. 
 
 Alexandria. 
 
 Nashville. 
 
 Nashville. 
 
 Nashville. 
 
 Nashville. 
 
Hollins 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 022 158 990 7