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ADDRESSES AND PAPERS 
 
 BEARING CHIEFLY ON 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 RICHARD McILWAlNE, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 RICHMOND, VA.: 
 Whittet & Sheppbrson, Printers 
 
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 pBSARY of OeNGREfiS. 
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 Copyrighted, 1908. 
 
 BY 
 
 Richard McIlwaine. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The leading motive in issuing this volume is to put 
 its contents in permanent shape, easily obtainable by 
 readers who care to become acquainted with them. Eight 
 of its twelve components are already in print but in such 
 form as to be inaccessible to most persons. 
 
 The other four numbers (VII-X), connected closely 
 with Public School work, are believed to be of equal 
 value and in the present state of educational progress 
 throughout Virginia and the South to be distinctly in 
 accord with it. 
 
 The papers about Hampden-Sidney College give some 
 account of the oldest institution for higher education in 
 the South, the College of William and Mary alone ex- 
 cepted. It still stands after a century and a quarter of 
 active collegiate w^ork, and deserves the regard of all 
 lovers of sound learning coupled with high ideals of 
 personal character. Several of her younger sisters in 
 Virginia have outstripped her in equipment and number 
 of matriculates but none in fitting men for high and 
 noble usefulness in life. The whole volume, especially 
 the biographical sketches and the two concluding ad- 
 dresses, will be found to contain much adapted to awaken 
 the aspirations of ingenuous youth, along with the desire 
 to lead pure and honorable lives : "to make the most of 
 themselves" as citizens of a free government and im- 
 mortal beings, destined to a never-ending existence. 
 
 The Author. 
 
 Ric/imotid, Va., September /, igoS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Inaugural Address. (Hanipdcn-Sidney, Virginia, June 13, 
 
 1883)., 8 
 
 The Relation and Services of Hampden-Sidney College to 
 THE Presbyterian Church and to the Cause of Edu- 
 cation and Religion. (Second Presbyterian Church, 
 Richmond, Virginia, February 5. 1888)., 21 
 
 Hampden-Sidney College as an Educational Force, From 
 the War of the Revolution, to the War Between 
 the States. (Memorial Chapel, Hampden-Sidney, 
 April 20, 1903)-, 39 
 
 Does College Education Pay? (Issued and circulated about 
 
 1896 or 1897) 66 
 
 Lewis Littlepage Holladay. (Hampden-Sidney Magazine, 
 
 April, 1892) ., 72 
 
 Some Essentials in the Improvement of Our Public 
 Schools. (Opera House, Farmville, Virginia, Sep- 
 tember 16, 1902) ., 81 
 
 Local Taxation for Public Schools Under the Present 
 State Constitution. (Cooperative Education Com- 
 mission, University of Virginia, July, 1904)., 96 
 
6 CONTENTS. Page 
 
 The Relation of the Citizen to the Public Schools. 
 (Hampton, Virginia, December 7, 1904, under the 
 auspices of tlie Co-operative Education Commission)., 109 
 
 The Family and the School. (Second Presbyterian Church, 
 
 Richmond, January 6, 1905)., 124 
 
 Matthew Fontaine Maury. (The Puljlic School Teachers 
 and older Pupils, Manchester, Virginia, April 14, 
 1905)., 134 
 
 President William McKinley. (Memorial Service of the 
 Constitutional Convention of Virginia, September 19, 
 1901)., 153 
 
 Suffrage. (Democratic Conference of the Constitutional 
 
 Convention, January 6, 1902)., 161 
 
ADDRESSES and PAPERS BEAR- 
 ING CHIEFLY ^;^ EDUCATION. 
 
 y 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees: 
 
 IN assuming the duties to which you have called me, 
 I do so with diffidence coupled with hopefulness. 
 I am abashed when I think that I am to be the successor 
 of the Smiths, and of Alexander, Hoge, Gushing, Carroll, 
 Maxwell, Sparrow, Green and Atkinson ; but I am com- 
 forted by the thought that their virtues are imitable, and 
 that their strength was in God. I am cheered, too, by 
 the consideration that I am the unanimous' choice of your 
 honorable body for this high position ; that your selection 
 was not based on friendly solicitation or on evidence 
 furnished by others, but upon your own intimate knowl- 
 edge of my character, attainments and mode of life, and 
 that I have the assurance of your cordial cooperation in 
 any efforts I may make to enlarge and extend the use- 
 fulness of the College whose interests are entrusted to 
 your care. Permit me to say that there is no body of 
 gentlemen with whom I would prefer to be associated. 
 It has been my fortune to be acquainted with many of 
 the good and great, but I have met none whose senti- 
 ments and aims seem to me to be more exalted or which 
 more entirely secure my sympathy and approval ; and I 
 confidently anticipate both profit and pleasure from the 
 relations we arc to sustain to one another in the future, 
 
8 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 I esteem myself happy, too, on being inducted into 
 office, to believe that my colleagues in the Faculty arc, 
 without exception, "the right men in the right place," 
 who could not be profitably exchanged for any others, 
 and that they have the entire approval not only of your- 
 selves but of all the friends of the College. I will be 
 pardoned, I am sure, for special allusion to the unalloyed 
 pleasure I feel in the reestablishment of close personal 
 relations with our senior professor, who, as my class- 
 mate at Hampden-Sidney and room-mate at the Univer- 
 sity of Virginia, and the unwavering friend of my whole 
 life, is "grappled to my soul with hooks of steel" ; who 
 has now served the College longer than any person in its 
 history, and with an intelligence, fidelity and success 
 surpassed by none, and to whom she owes a debt of 
 gratitude which I trust it may be in your power, as I 
 know it will be your pleasure, to recognize in some sub- 
 stantial form at no distant day. Nor can I forbear to 
 express my personal regret that I shall be deprived of the 
 counsel and intelligent assistance of Professor Kemper, 
 whose kindness and urbanity, together with his zeal for 
 the College, have won for him the respectful and afl!ec- 
 tionate regard of us all, especially of those whose sons 
 at times have needed and received his generous assist- 
 ance. I am sure he will carry with him the warm regards 
 and best wishes of a host of friends, and that we will 
 all be glad to know of his future success and happiness. 
 I should be recreant to my feelings did I not make some 
 worthy mention of our valued friend and associate, our 
 honored ex-President, Dr. Atkinson, of whom I am 
 rejoiced to speak as Professor Emeritus of Mental and 
 Moral Philosophy, and to say that his name and fame 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 9 
 
 will continue to be linked with those of the College, and 
 that if returning health shall permit, his services will still 
 be at her command. The silent influence of such a man 
 amongst us is a heritage of inestimable value, and should 
 the good providence of God restore him to association 
 with our young men and to participation in their instruc- 
 tion, we will all regard it as a priceless blessing. It is to 
 me, too, a pleasing reflection that my official life begins 
 here at a time when, by the testimony of all, there is 
 enrolled on our catalogue a list of students whose zeal in 
 study has never been surpassed, and whose amiable bear- 
 ing, and refined demeanor, and gentlemanly conduct do 
 honor to the institution of which they are members, and 
 give promise of the happiest state of things for the 
 future. 
 
 I find much, then, in the Board of Trustees, in the 
 Faculty and among the students to encourage me on 
 assuming a position which in some of its aspects, will be 
 one of difficulty, and the responsibilities of which no wise 
 man would willingly seek. And I am persuaded that if 
 the members of our institution continue united in mutual 
 regard, and stand together in the discharge of their sev- 
 eral duties, and all labor in their places for her highest 
 interests, it is no uncertain prophecy to say that the 
 burdens of none will be too heavy, and that a glorious 
 success will crown our eflforts. 
 
 As we gather here to-day, ladies and gentlemen, we 
 celebrate the centennial of the corporate life of Hamp- 
 den-Sidney. It was in 1783 our College was chartered by 
 the Legislature of Virginia and entered upon its career 
 of usefulness as one of the collegiate institutions of the 
 land, it having previously existed only as a private enter- 
 prise under the care of Hanover Presbytery. It was 
 
10 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 established to be a seat of sound learning, of religion 
 and of good morals, and such, under various vicissitudes, 
 it has continued, until we find it to-day stronger in every 
 real element of streigth (except in its chief officer and the 
 number of students) than it has ever been before. Its 
 Faculty is larger and more able ; its endowment, lament- 
 ably small as it is, is more ample; its surroundings are 
 more pleasant ; its friends are more numerous ; its culture 
 is broader and higher ; its influence is more salutary and 
 extensive; its prospects are brighter than at any former 
 period. The labors, prayers and sacrifices of her friends 
 in the past have not been in vain. The vigilance of her 
 trustees has borne fruit. The self-denials and labors of 
 her Faculty have achieved a gratifying success. The love 
 of her sons is her strength and hope. Her diploma is 
 regarded as one of the best in the land. Her name is 
 never mentioned except with respect, for there is here" 
 no sham and no pretension, but solid work and useful 
 results. 
 
 But having said this, shall we not candidly confess 
 that "we have not yet attained, neither are we already 
 perfect." The fathers builded wisely. Their descend- 
 ants have done something in carrying out their designs. 
 Much yet remains to be accomplished. I will not be 
 esteemed wanting in reverence if I say that the College 
 is not quite up to the demands of the present age in some 
 respects, and that while she stands before us as a vener- 
 able matron to be loved, and honored, and revered, she 
 needs to be more beautifully arrayed, and more tenderly 
 cherished, and more bountifully sustained than she has 
 been. The loyal hearts of the people of this portion of 
 the State, and of the Presbyterians throughout our whole 
 Synod, must be rallied to her support. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. ii 
 
 Hampden-Sidney is the only College in Southside 
 Virginia, from Piedmont to the sea. It was established 
 to meet the wants and contribute to the welfare of this 
 entire section, and while Presbyterian in origin, it was J 
 
 designed by expressed enactment to be, as it has always 
 been, undenominational in its instructions. Our fathers 
 said, "though the strictest regard should be paid to the 
 morals of the youth, and worship carried on evening 
 and morning in the Presbyterian way, yet, on the other 
 hand, all possible care should be taken that no undue 
 influence shall be used * * * to bias the judgment 
 of any; but that all of every denomination shall fully 
 enjoy their own religious sentiments, and be at liberty 
 to attend that mode of worship that either custom or 
 conscience makes most agreeable to them, when and 
 where they may have an opportunity of enjoying it." 
 
 Hampden-Sidney is the only College in Virginia, 
 West Virginia and Maryland which, being founded by ^ 
 Presbyterians, maintains a prevailing Christian and 
 Presbyterian influence. Her usefulness, then, should ex- 
 tend to all classes and denominations throughout South- 
 side Virginia, and to Presbyterians in the whole Synod 
 and to the descendants of Virginia Presbyterians every- 
 where. She has claims upon these such as no other 
 literary institution can assert, and she must be kept true 
 to the mark of securing a high literary and scientific 
 education, and at the same time of furnishing that social, 
 moral and religious culture, without which our institu- 
 tions of higher grade will necessarily degenerate into 
 skepticism and immorality. The character of the gentle- 
 men who compose the Board of Trustees and Faculty 
 gives ample assurance that these high ends will be kept 
 continually in view, and our fellow-citizens and brother 
 
12 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 Presbyterians may rest assured, in committing their sons 
 to our guidance, that we will do our best to send them 
 home, at the end of their college course, not only ripe 
 scholars, but refined Christian gentlemen, whose aspira- 
 tion in life shall be to do their work well, and to work 
 for the cause of truth, and of God, and of their country. 
 The question has been widely and seriously raised, 
 whether in the present state of American society there 
 is any reason for the continued existence of such insti- 
 tutions as Hampden-Sidney ? Whether it is not best to 
 let our colleges die and to unite our efforts in the up- 
 building of our great universities, where scores of pro- 
 fessors and thousands of students may be gathered? 
 Not to dwell on many arguments adapted to weaken the 
 force of this suggestion, it is sufficient to say that the 
 tendency of some of our great literary institutions seems 
 to be largely skeptical, and their spirit far from what 
 serious Christians deem safe for immature youth to come 
 in contact with. It is also true that university instruc- 
 tion, if it be what it professes, is poorly adapted to meet 
 the wants of the class of young men whom the colleges 
 aspire to teach and help. It is to be feared, indeed, that 
 many so-called universities are badly named, and that a 
 much larger proportion of their students are unbcnefittcd 
 than those of our faithful and less ambitious colleges. 
 It is also clearly a mistake to say that the gathering to- 
 gether of very large numbers of professors and students 
 is, of itself, conducive to higher effort on the part of 
 either, while it is certain that there is involved in it a 
 total loss of social communion between the teachers and 
 the taught, and of the personal example and stimulus 
 which are such important elements in the proper training 
 of the young. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 13 
 
 It may also be said that most of the students who 
 attend the universities take only such partial courses of 
 study as bear directly on their life-work, and that the 
 effect of this is hurtfully to narrow the culture of many 
 of our professional men. The colleges in their prescribed 
 curricula of study now stand before the country as advo- 
 cates of broad and generous learning, and are the chief 
 opponents of that contracted system of merely technical 
 education, which must prove damaging to true scholar- 
 ship. Institutions which offer facilities and temptations 
 to young men to neglect important branches of liberal 
 culture are not to be praised, but blamed, and whatever 
 other good qualities they may possess cannot be esteemed 
 the peculiar friends of the higher education. If the stu- 
 dents prepared for them by the faithful discipline and 
 drill of the colleges be stricken from their catalogues 
 they will lose a large part of the material from which 
 first-rate scholars are to be made. So true is this that 
 the most thoroughly pronounced, though the youngest, of 
 American universities not only offers inducements of a 
 very high order to the graduates of other colleges, but 
 has found it necessary to institute a regular collegiate 
 department to prepare students for its own university 
 classes, the sine qua non of admission to which is a 
 diploma from a college of good grade. When our other 
 universities shall imitate this honorable example they will 
 occupy their true positions. 
 
 But the crowning objection to the abandonment of 
 our colleges is the restriction which would at once be 
 put on education, for a very small proportion of the 
 young men who frequent them would ever be able to 
 attend the more distant and expensive universities. 
 Society would thus lose the salutary influence of a larga 
 
14 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 class of educated men, and the depreciation thus occa- 
 sioned would be fatally manifest in all the departments of 
 business and professional life. It is impossible to esti- 
 mate what our colleges have done and are doing for the 
 promotion of intelligence, the inculcation of virtue, the 
 establishment of freedom and the extension of religion 
 among our people ; and it behooves every true patriot, 
 no less than every sincere Christian, to cherish these 
 institutions as the bulwarks of liberty and the conserva- 
 tors of society. 
 
 Another question of even nearer and more practical 
 concern to us has been mooted by some of the best 
 friends of our college, to wit: whether it would not be 
 wise to change its location to some more accessible point, 
 and perhaps to the suburbs of onje of our larger cities? 
 It is alleged. that remoteness from the great centres of 
 life and activity, and from the main lines of travel, want 
 of contiguity to a populous community from which many 
 students might be drawn, and difficulty of access, to- 
 gether with the fact that our situation is in a region not 
 naturally rich and fertile, and consequently not likely to 
 secure rapid growth and improvement, stand in the way 
 of its greatly enlarged usefulness. It is vain to say that 
 there is no force in these suggestions. They are impor- 
 tant and deserve consideration, and have been thoroughly 
 weighed by those who have the interest of the College 
 at heart. But these things are not all that can be said 
 and deserve to be considered on the subject, and in a 
 matter of such importance it behooves us to act with 
 much deliberation and on the best advice. 
 
 It is obvious, on the other side of the question, that 
 our present location has the prestige of the past in its 
 favor. The memories of more than a hundred years 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 15 
 
 cluster about this spot. In days of yore such men as 
 Patrick Henry, Wilham Cabell, Sr., Paul Carrington, 
 James Madison, John Nash, Nathaniel Venable, Everard 
 Meade, Joel Watkins, John Morton, Thomas Reade, 
 Peter Johnston and others of Virginia's worthies met 
 here to consult for the welfare of the infant institution. 
 The affections of many generations of students now alive 
 find their focus at this point, and the descendants of 
 honored sires who have long since fallen asleep, from all 
 parts of our common country, look this way with rever- 
 ential, ancestral pride. Union Theological Seminary, too, 
 the fair and vigorous and beautiful daughter of 
 Hampden-Sidney, in the fullness of her strength and 
 usefulness, and destined to scatter yet richer and larger 
 blessings over the land through her learned and conse- 
 crated sons, sits here by her side, and would be left 
 disconsolate at the departure of her mother. Then we 
 have a hundred acres of land, the gift a hundred years 
 ago of Peter Johnston, the ancestor of many distin- 
 guished Virginians, among whom General Joseph E. 
 Johnston will ever stand prominent, and many more 
 broad acres acquired by gift and purchase from others, 
 with a commodious college building and five professional 
 residences, with spacious grounds, besides the steward's 
 hall, and other appurtenances, which can not have cost 
 less than from $60,000 to $75,000, most of which would 
 have to be sacrificed by a removal. Then our endow- 
 ment, amounting at present to over $100,000, has been 
 secured for the institution, located where it is ; and it is 
 doubtful whether the wishes of many of the donors 
 would be consulted by a change of place. Then, again, 
 it is by no means certain that our comparatively secluded 
 situation is not a factor of great value in the educational 
 
i6 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 advantage we offer. There is here as entire freedom 
 from temptation to idleness and vice as can be found 
 anywhere. Our community, though small, is homoge- 
 neous, social, refined, literary and elevated. It is doubt- 
 ful whether you can find on earth a higher moral tone 
 than exists in old Prince Edward ; the people are among 
 the most upright, conscientious and truth-loving in the 
 world. Our soil, too, while not rich, is generous, yield- 
 ing abundant returns to good treatment, and is destined 
 some of these days to be occupied by a large and thrifty 
 population. Then we must remember that our location 
 is about midway between the mountains and the sea, in 
 a section proverbially healthful and free from the di=:- 
 eases incident to the higher and lower regions of the 
 State, so that during more than a hundred years only 
 two students of the College are known to have died of 
 disease on this hill ; that our situation is in the midst of 
 a population of some 230,000 white people, who have no 
 other college in their section ; while on the north of 
 James river there are two colleges and a university ; in 
 the Valley a college and a university, and in Southwest- 
 ern Virginia two colleges, and just on its borders an- 
 other. When we consider the Presbyterian population 
 of this and other States' from which we may expect to 
 draw patronage, our present location has, perhaps, the 
 advantage of any other. It is not improbable, too, that 
 at t:o distant day a railroad will come to our very doors, 
 and that our community will on its advent be enlarged by 
 the accession of a desirable population, and even now we 
 are only about an hour from direct railroad communica- 
 tion with all parts of the country. So that, summing uj) 
 the argument on both sides, it seems that the advantage 
 is in favor of remaining where we are, and that the ques- 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 17 
 
 tion being thus settled, had best be definitely set at rest, 
 and the friends of the College throughout our own State 
 and elsewhere be summoned to its support in order to 
 make it what it ought to be. 
 
 The day has long since passed, if it ever was, w^hen 
 it is possible to develop a first-rate literary institution 
 without an adequate endowment; and no college in the 
 land has higher claim on account of past service, as well 
 as because of its possibilities of future usefulness, than 
 Hampden-Sidney, Our great want at present is money. 
 We have an admirable corps of instructors, but they are 
 poorly provided for. One of our professors, a gentle- 
 man of high culture, is about to leave us to assume a 
 position more attractive in some of its features and with 
 an ampler salary. Two others, but for their love of their 
 alma mater, would long ago have been drawn off by 
 tempting offers from other institutions. It is doubtful 
 whether we can retain our younger men permanently 
 unless we offer them more substantial inducements than 
 at present. A professor ought to receive a salary large 
 enough to enable him to support and educate his family 
 in comfort, to exercise the rites of cheerful and refined 
 hospitality, to secure an abundance of books, periodicals 
 and apparatus adapted to his department, and to lay by 
 something for his declining years and for his family 
 after his decease. This is necessary to his full efficiency 
 as well as to the highest welfare of his students, and for 
 the reputation of the institution with which he is con- 
 nected. But we need funds for other purposes besides 
 professors' salaries. There are certain incentives and 
 stimuli to proficiency in special departments of study 
 through prizes given to their most meritorious students, 
 which other higher institutions feel it important to em- 
 
iS ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 ploy, and which might well be introduced here, were the 
 means at hand. Honorable competition would quicken 
 effort after excellence, and would tend to elevate the 
 general standard of our scholarship and to enhance our 
 reputation, by sending forth annually a body of men 
 peculiarly distinguished in their special branches of work. 
 When we look at the external appearance of things 
 about us, a catalogue of wants too long for enumeration 
 easily suggests itself. Our college building stands out in 
 the open campus, naked and unadorned as it was when 
 the finishing toviches were given to it some fifty years 
 ago. It is a very fine structure, solidly built and well 
 adapted to our purposes ; and the addition of a cupola, of 
 porticos in front and rear, of blinds to the windows and 
 of some comparatively inexpensive repairs, would make 
 it attractive to the eye and delightful as a residence for 
 students. Our college grounds, too, capable of beautiful 
 arrangement and display, mutely invite us to enrich and 
 improve them. The health of our young men also de- 
 mands that a well-appointed gymnasium for their physi- 
 cal culture shall be secured, so that their bodily strength 
 may keep pace with their mental growth, and not be 
 sapped and destroyed by it. We need additional appara- 
 tus for our chemical, and philosophical, and geological, 
 and astronomical, and mathematical departments. We 
 must have a library fund, the income of which will pro- 
 vide books of reference for our professors and students; 
 and a library building, in which, perhaps, more spacious 
 halls may be provided for the young gentlemen of the 
 literary societies. Will I be thought too sanguine when 
 I say that at the earliest practicable moment the old 
 kerosene lamp ought to be supplanted on this hill by gas 
 or electric light? and that the day may come when an 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 19 
 
 adequate supply of water may be secured not only for 
 all the comfortable uses of life, but even to sustain a 
 little fountain on the campus, with a little lake fed by 
 its refreshing streams, on the margin of which shall 
 grow beautiful flowers, begirt on every side by pleasant 
 walks hidden among trees and shrubs, upon which the 
 boys and girls of that time may promenade on commence- 
 ment day, and educate one another in the art of love, 
 as their predecessors were accustomed to do amid ruder 
 scenes. This may be all a dream, a fancy, an illusion of 
 the imagination, but it is pleasant to think of, and will be 
 realized if the money can be secured; for the good Book 
 says, "money answereth all things," which in this con- 
 nection means it will do a great deal for Hampden- 
 Sidney — if we can only get it. 
 
 Institutions, like men, are in danger of embracing 
 and cherishing an idea with such strength and persistency 
 as to exclude other vital truths necessary to a normal and 
 healthful development. Such lack symmetry, and while 
 they may do valuable work in an important direction, 
 they miss their full measure of usefulness by failing to 
 pioduce the full-orbed impression which is essential to 
 perfectness. In this day no system of education will 
 stand the test of examination which overlooks the 
 esthetic. "The true, the beautiful and the good" are 
 closely related. In the development of our institution, 
 with the view of its attaining its highest and largest use- 
 fulness, we must put it abreast of our sister colleges in 
 all those elements of refined culture which are exerting 
 so beneficent an influence in educating the better classes 
 of our American society. Hampden-Sidney, looking to 
 the mountains on the one hand and to the sea on the 
 other, and inviting to her halls aspiring youth from all 
 
20 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 sections of our common country, must be prepared not 
 only to give them a hearty welcome and to conduct them 
 into the arcana of sound learning and up to the broad 
 plains of high moral and religious life, as she has always 
 done, but must also greet them with such surroundings 
 and furnish them with such instructions as shall educate 
 all the better elements of their natures, and stimulate 
 tliem to seek the highest improvement of which they are 
 capable and at once to do honor to themselves and credit 
 to their College, and be a blessing to their race in their 
 future lives. 
 
 Such, gentlemen of the Board of Trustees, is the 
 object to which we should address ourselves in the con- 
 duct of this venerable institution ! Such is the aim I 
 propose for myself, and in which, I am sure, my brethren 
 of the Faculty will concur ! Such, we invite our under- 
 graduates and alumni and the friends of the College here 
 and everywhere to help us to make old Hampden-Sidney, 
 so that as she goes forward in the second century of her 
 existence she may continually grow more vigorous and 
 beneficent, and dispcnce her blessings to Church and State 
 in ever-enlarging measure, and everywhere be known, 
 and honored and loved, because of the merits of her 
 sons. 
 
THE RELATION AND SERVICES OF 
 
 HAMPDEN-SIDNEY COLLEGE TO THE 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND TO 
 
 THE CAUSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 AND RELIGION. 
 
 "Because of," or, as the Revised Version puts it, "For the sake 
 of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good."— 
 Ps. cxxii. 9. 
 
 THE Psalm from which the text is taken is a pane- 
 gyric on Jerusalem. The point of view from 
 which the Holy City is regarded is as the seat of the 
 theocracy, whence proceed the law and government 
 under which the temple is maintained and the house of 
 God is protected and blessed. "For there are set thrones 
 of judgment, the thrones of the house of David." Its 
 stability and strength are the defence of Zion; its wel- 
 fare is the welfare of the house of God. Therefore, the 
 sacred writer continues, "Pray for the peace of Jeru- 
 salem ; they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within 
 thy walls and proseprity within thy palaces. For my 
 brethren and my companions' sakes I will now say, Peace 
 be within thee. For the sake of the house of the Lord 
 our God, I will seek thy good." 
 
 The thought I wish you to seize and appropriate is 
 this : that whatever institution is promotive of the inter- 
 ests of the church of God appeals to the believer in God 
 for his affectionate sympathy and support. Of course, 
 this instruction assumes the existence of the fact that 
 
22 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 the church, as the divine instrument in sanctifying and 
 saving men, commands the profound regard of every be- 
 hever, whether Jew or Christian. To it are committed 
 the oracles of God, the ministry of the word, the admin- 
 istration of the sacraments. It is the school of Christ. 
 In it are found the means of grace. Out of it, there is 
 ordinarily no hope of salvation. 
 
 It must not be forgotten, however, that while the 
 church is a divine institute, it is found in the world, is 
 surrounded by antagonistic influences, is engaged in con- 
 flict with the powers of evil ; and as it has a human side, 
 is weak and fallible, and must be maintained through the 
 sanctified effort and sacrifices of God's people. Its ex- 
 istence on earth in every age has been conditioned on 
 strenuous endeavor, and all its advances have been the 
 result of suffering and labor and devotion. 
 
 There are three institutions in modern society, closely 
 allied to one another, on the conservation of which the 
 welfare of mankind depends. These are the family, the 
 church, and the state. In the original constitution of 
 things they were blended in one, the patriarch of the 
 household being at once its priest and its king, as well 
 as its father and teacher and guide ; but as the race in- 
 creased and society became complicated and interests 
 were multiplied and diversified, it was necessary for 
 defence and protection, no less than for the culture and 
 development of the community, that these three great 
 functions should be allotted to three separate and dis- 
 tinct, and yet mutually inter-dependent, agencies. From 
 the family, as the fountain and nucleus of society, there 
 have emerged, on the one hand, the state, and, on the 
 other, the church : the state, which is entrusted with the 
 secular, material and temporal interests of the commu- 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 23 
 
 nity; and the church, to which belong the nurture and 
 care of things spiritual and divine, and which ever points 
 to God and a better life. Each of these is divine as it 
 obtains the sanction, approval and blessing of God, and 
 leads up to God. Each is human as it grows out of the 
 needs of mankind, exists among men and for men, and 
 is administered by men for their own interests and for 
 the glory of God and the good of the race. Home, 
 church, country! There is magic in these words. They 
 awaken the warmest affections of the heart, and solicit 
 the most earnest efforts of which the soul is capable. 
 Taken separately, each exercises its own peculiar spell. 
 Taken together, they constitute the grand motive of life 
 — the sum of human duty. 
 
 We, my brethren, can never adequately appreciate 
 our indebtedness to Christianity for the blessings which 
 we now deem inalienable, nor can we ever sufficiently 
 estimate the struggles by which they have been won and 
 handed down to us as a birthright. It is fortunate for 
 us indeed that we arc descended from a race which, even 
 before its conversion to Christianity, possessed many 
 domestic virtues, which, when sanctified by the gospel, 
 have led up to the sacred conception of the family which 
 now exists with us and wherever the Protestant faith 
 is accepted and lived in its purity. It is also no less a 
 cause for thankfulness that our ancestors, wandering 
 away from their remote homes in the far east, and 
 settling by successive occupations in northern Europe, 
 have, throughout historic times, maintained their love of 
 personal independence, and hating tyranny, whether in 
 church or state, have ever been ready to defend the right 
 and to proclaim the liberty of the subject. It ought, too, 
 to be the occasion of never-failing gratitude to us, as it 
 
24 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 is the source of never-ending blessedness and hope to the 
 world, that when it appeared there was no longer room 
 in Europe for those who wished to worship God accord- 
 ing to the teaching of his word, an asylum was opened 
 for them in America, where, after long, persistent and 
 successful struggles, it has been assented to and agreed, 
 that God alone is Lord of the conscience; that every 
 man is a freeman, and that every man's house is his 
 castle. 
 
 Now I assert it as a fact, and did time permit, it 
 could easily be proved from a large induction of histori- 
 cal data, that all this has come to us, directly and in- 
 directly, through the influence of the gospel of Christ, 
 and that it is to the church of God we are indebted as 
 the chief instrumentality in securing this great boon. 
 Without stopping to prove this, I remark that, as a fact, 
 we find ourselves in the possession of these noble benefits, 
 at once the gift of God and a priceless heritage, won by 
 honored sires through centuries of strife. We enjoy a 
 pure and spotless domestic life; we are members of a 
 Christian commonwealth, the church of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and call no man master on earth ; we are citizens 
 of a free government, administered by the people and 
 for the people, under which every man is equal before 
 the law and entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness." This grand heritage is ours, and we are 
 responsible to ourselves, to our fellowmen and to God for 
 its maintenance. And as we look over the world to-day 
 and see so large a portion of it sitting in the abomina- 
 tions of heathendom, and then to nominal Christendom, 
 and behold an imperfect Christianity producing imperfect 
 fruit for the welfare and happiness of the people, we 
 may well rejoice in the beneficent gifts of a gracious 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 25 
 
 Providence, and determine afresh that, by the help of 
 Almighty God, we will defend and preserve them, and 
 hand them down, unimpaired and improved, to genera- 
 tions yet unborn. They are the purchase of the virtue, 
 intelligence and piety of those who have gone before, and 
 these are the conditions, and these alone, on which they 
 can be conserved and perpetuated. If America is to 
 continue the land of the free, and to stand as an inspira- 
 tion to the nations of the earth; if the church is to 
 remain pure from foreign domination and the dispenser 
 of the truth and blessing of God; if our hearthstones 
 are to be preserved from contamination and the fires on 
 our domestic altars to burn on with a sacred and celestial 
 flame, it must be by the conservation and dissemination 
 of the principles of morality and religion, intelligently 
 embraced as convictions from God's word. 
 
 It was such thoughts as these that filled the hearts, 
 and nerved the arms and encouraged the efforts of the 
 fathers of the American Revolution, and inspired the 
 Christian patriots of that day to build up a government 
 based on virtue, enlightenment, and religion. It was this 
 impulse which took hold of the founders of the Presby- 
 terian Church in Virginia more strongly, perhaps, than 
 on any other portion of the people, and led them, even 
 in the very throes of the Revolution, to establish institu- 
 tions which have ever since proved blessings to the com- 
 monwealth and the church of God. These consecrated 
 and far-seeing men knew that the struggle in which they 
 were engaged was for home, for church, and for country ; 
 that every earthly interest was involved in it, and with 
 almost inspired prescience foresaw that if freedom were 
 won it could be maintained only by intelligent consecra- 
 tion to God and the good of society. One of the most 
 
26 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 interesting pages of American history is to be found in 
 the annals of old Hanover Presbytery in these times, and 
 one of its most important features is the concern felt and 
 the measures adopted to provide for the scholastic, moral, 
 and religious education of the youth of the State. 
 
 At a meeting of this venerable body, held in the 
 J county of Charlotte, in the year 1774, the subject of 
 
 Christian education was prayerfully considered, and it 
 was determined to establish an academy for the educa- 
 tion of youth on the east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 
 In February, 1775, this institution was located in Prince 
 Edward county, was opened for students in January, 
 1776, and the spirit of American independence being 
 abroad in the land, was named H ampdcn-Sidney , after 
 the two English patriots who sealed their love of con- 
 stitutional freedom with their blood. The school was at 
 once filled to overflowing with students, and among the 
 first acts of the Legislature of Virginia after independ- 
 ence had been acknowledged, was the incorporation, in 
 1783, of Hampden-Sidney College, under a charter broad 
 in its provisions and ample in the privileges it conferred. 
 In that instrument these memorable words occur : "And 
 that, in order to preserve in the minds of the students 
 that sacred love and attachment they should ever bear 
 to the principles of the present glorious Revolution, the 
 greatest care and caution shall be used in electing such 
 professors and masters, to the end that no person shall 
 be so elected unless the uniform tenor of his conduct 
 manifests to the w^orld his sincere afifection for the liberty 
 and independence of the United States of America." 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the history of Hampden- 
 Sidney has ever been in accord with this patriotic declar- 
 ation. Even during the pendency of the Revolution, its 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 27 
 
 students were formed into a company under the com- 
 mand of the president, Rev. John Blair Smith, and 
 marched to Wilhamsburg and placed at the service of 
 the Governor of the Commonwealth. So, too, in the 
 war of 1812, the young men, under the command of John 
 Kirkpatrick, a late graduate, who was then pursuing his 
 theological studies under Rev. Dr. Moses Hoge, the 
 president of the college, took part in the defence of 
 Norfolk, and were for some time in service. And again, 
 in our late war, Captain J. M. P. Atkinson, better known 
 to you as my predecessor, led the Hampdcn-Sidney Boys 
 out to the field of conflict in defence of what they be- 
 lieved to be the rights of constitutional government. 
 
 I mention these things in order that you may see that 
 our college has ever been true to the calls of duty, and 
 that it has a title to the gratitude of the State and country 
 which ought not to be overlooked. 
 
 But my special object at this time is to show the 
 claims which Hampden-Sidney has on the Presbyterian 
 Church at large, and on the Synod of Virginia and on 
 this church in particular. 
 
 My reason for bringing this subject to your attention 
 at this juncture is that the time has arrived when it is 
 necessary that a large addition shall be made to the funds 
 of the college, unless its usefulness is to be greatly im- 
 paired. Until recently our appliances and facilities for 
 education were fully abreast of those offered by our 
 sister colleges. But such advances have been and are 
 being made by other institutions, that we are falling 
 relatively behind, and must be distanced in the race unless 
 efficient and speedy means are used to put our college 
 in a foremost position again. Not only have the incomes 
 of the University of Virginia and of Washington and 
 
28 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 Lee been enormously increased of late years, but Ran- 
 dolph-Macon, and Richmond, and other colleges, are 
 going forward with surprising and gratifying rapidity. 
 May God bless them all, for they are excellent institu- 
 tions, doing excellent work for the church and country ! 
 Virginia has nothing in which she has more reason to 
 rejoice than her literary institutions. 
 
 But while the Methodists and Baptists are thoroughly 
 equipping their colleges and fitting them for enlarged and 
 permanent usefulness, shall the Presbyterians of Virginia 
 hold back and allow their college to fall behind, and fail 
 of the work it ought to achieve? 
 
 We have at Hampden-Sidney a faculty of six profes- 
 sors and also a fellow, annually elected to give instruction 
 in sub-freshman studies. Our professors are gentlemen 
 of marked ability, cultivated scholars, exemplary Chris- 
 tians, and most laborious and earnest in the discharge 
 of all their duties. We have over one hundred students, 
 the sons of our ministers, elders, and Christian people, 
 whose general bearing, behavior, and studiousness can- 
 not be excelled by any similar number of young men on 
 the continent. We have a college building one hundred 
 and sixty feet long by forty wide, an excellent structure 
 of solid masonry, which, with some improvements, can 
 be made all that is wanted in such a building. Besides, 
 we have a commodious steward's hall and five profes- 
 sorial residences in a fair state of preservation, and in 
 addition, we have about two hundred and fifty acres of 
 land, on and in the midst of which these buildings stand. 
 
 Our endowment amounts to $110,000, and w^e have 
 a building fund of something more than $8,000, which 
 we are now endeavoring to increase in order to erect 
 buildings absolutely necessary to the well-being of the 
 college. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 29 
 
 It will be seen from this statement that we already 
 have a good foundation. Our Board of Trustees has 
 authorized an effort to raise $250,000 in addition, 
 $200,000 for permanent endowment, and $50,000 for 
 buildings and improvements. 
 
 As to the location of the college, I may say that I 
 regard it one of the most desirable in Virginia. It is in 
 a portion of the State where it is greatly needed ; is the 
 only institution of high grade in Southside Virginia be- 
 tween the mountains and the sea, and is in a region 
 proverbially healthful, and distinguished for its moral 
 and religious influence. Union Theological Seminary is 
 immediately adjacent, and the intercourse maintained 
 between the faculties and students of the two institu- 
 tions is mutually salutary. Our community is composed 
 entirely of the families and students of the college and 
 seminary, and cannot be excelled for the genial and 
 kindly influence exerted on our young men. The historic 
 associations of the place, too, while not computable in 
 figures nor measurable by square and compass, are of 
 inestimable value in forming the character and moulding 
 the life of those committed to us. It is something for 
 our young men to feel that they are at a place venerable 
 on account of the mighty men who have labored there, 
 and full of memories of those who have there been 
 trained for life, and have illustrated in their work the 
 highest excellencies of which human nature, refined and 
 elevated by grace, is capable. 
 
 The needs of Hampden-Sidney are many. It is im- 
 possible to administer a college efficiently in these days 
 without large funds. This is a progressive age, and any 
 institution which is not advancing must retrograde. To 
 stand still is to go back. 
 
30 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 We need a large endowment fund, which will yield 
 a regular and permanent annual income, for the pur- 
 pose of increasing the support of our hard worked and 
 cultured professors. It is with professors as it is with 
 preachers and doctors and lawyers and other profes- 
 sional men. Adequate support means increased efficiency, 
 more thorough consecration, better work. We also need 
 more professors. Our faculty ought to consist of ten 
 instead of six professors. We need to make large addi- 
 tions to our library, and especially to secure such works 
 of permanent value connected with our different depart- 
 ments of instruction as are being continually issued from 
 the press. If we are to have a progressive, live institu- 
 tion, our professors and older students must have access 
 to the best and latest researches and discoveries which 
 are being made by learned men in different parts of the 
 world. We need to found scholarships and fellowships 
 as encouragements to meritorious students, and to give 
 aid to deserving young men struggling in poverty to 
 secure the boon of education. Then we need immediately 
 a large building for lecture rooms, society halls, library 
 room and chapel. This is a want which must be supplied 
 ere we can obtain much increase in the number of our 
 students or in the enlargement of our influence. We 
 also need very much a department of physical culture 
 and a gymnasium, with the latest modern appliances for 
 the development and training of the physical system. 
 The day has long since passed when it is considered safe 
 to educate the mind without corresponding attention to 
 the body. It is now a recognized fact that there is a 
 most intimate connection between the spiritual and physi- 
 cal natures. Hygiene has, therefore, come forward as 
 an important study, not only for the physician, but for 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 31 
 
 the intelligent layman, and no college can long maintain 
 itself which neglects its' theory and practice. I should 
 regard the man who will furnish us with a well appointed 
 gymnasium as a public benefactor, whose name would 
 deservedly be handed down to posterity as an enlightened 
 patron of learning. And so I might tell you of other 
 things needed in order to make Hampden-Sidney what 
 we, as Virginians and Presbyterians, would like to see it. 
 I desire that our college shall be the equal of any other 
 in the land, so that our people may feel, when they send 
 their sons to us, that not only in educational, moral and 
 religious advantages they have secured what they Avant, 
 but that in every other respect they will obtain all that 
 they can get elsewhere. 
 
 And now some of my hearers who have been kind 
 enough to listen to me thus far may be ready to say: 
 "Yes, we assent to all you urge. The principles you an- 
 nounce are true, and the contemplated improvements are 
 desirable, but what is that to us? Why bring your 
 institution before us in God's house, and on the Sabbath 
 day ? What have we to do with it ? What claims has it 
 on us?" 
 
 In attempting to reply to these inquiries, which are 
 legitimate and proper, and deserve a candid answer, I 
 remark that Hampden-Sidney is your college, and de- 
 serves your support. The Methodists regard Randolph 
 Macon, and the Baptists Richmond College as their col- 
 lege, and in the same sense Hampden-Sidney belongs to ^ 
 the Presbyterians of the Synod of Virginia. It was ^ 
 established by Presbyterians, is administered by Presby- 
 terians, and is employed by Presbyterians as their edu- 
 cational institution. I suppose that five-sixths of the 
 candidates for the ministry and of the sons of ministers 
 
Z2 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 within the bounds of our Synod, who are in a course of 
 collegiate training, are at Hampden-Sidney, and five- 
 sixths of all our students are sons of Presbyterians. 
 More than one-third of all the students who are at 
 present, or who for some years have been at Union 
 Theological Seminary, are alumni of Hampden-Sidney. 
 From the foundation of the college it has been the nur- 
 sery of gospel ministers, and I suppose that nearly 
 one-third of all its graduates, besides a large number of 
 its undergraduates, have become preachers of the gospel. 
 Scores of our men are now living who are doing yeoman 
 service in the cause of God and truth. If the names of 
 the sons of Hampden-Sidney were stricken from the rolls 
 of the Synod of Virginia and the Southern Presbyterian 
 Church, an irreparable loss would be felt. What would 
 the history of Presbyterianism in Virginia during the 
 past and present generation be without such names as 
 John Kirkpatrick, John L. Kirkpatrick, William S. 
 White, Theodorick Pryor, Benjamin M. Smith, Robert 
 L. Dabney, Moses D. Hoge, William U. Murkland, and 
 scores of others, who have drunk from the fountains of 
 learning and religion at our old college? What she has 
 been to Virginia and the South may be illustrated by 
 what she is to Richmond. Not only your own pastor, 
 but the senior editor of our religious paper, the three 
 successive pastors of the Fourth church, and the min- 
 ister just called to the church in Manchester, are all 
 Hampden-Sidney men. So in Baltimore, in Washington, 
 in Raleigh and Wilmington, N. C, in Atlanta, in Selma, 
 and at many other prominent points in every Southern 
 Synod from Maryland to Texas, and from Missouri to 
 Florida, and also in Greece, in Brazil, in China, in Japan, 
 v/herever the work of our church extends, there Hamp- 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 33 
 
 den-Sidney men are preaching the gospel of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and by their pure and consecrated Hves are 
 pointing and leading men to God. Has she not been in 
 the past, is she not now a power in sustaining the church 
 of Christ ? May I not ask you to join me in the solemn 
 asservation of the psalmist, "For my brethren and my 
 companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. 
 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will 
 seek thy good." 
 
 But it is not only for its direct services in training 
 preachers that Hampden-Sidney deserves well of you. 
 It has also done a noble work in educating pious lawyers 
 physicians, merchants, who are leading officers and lay- 
 men m some of the churches. They are found not only 
 in Virgmia and the South, but in the far-off West and 
 Northwest, and on the Pacific slope, and wherever they 
 go they carry with them the principles, habits, and truths 
 m which they have been educated. 
 
 But perhaps next in appreciable value to the work 
 which our college has done for the gospel ministry is 
 the service rendered in the cause of Christian education 
 It was from Hampden-Sidney that the venerable Samuel 
 Doak, one of its first corps of teachers, and the founder 
 of Presbyterianism in Tennessee, went forth to establish 
 a college across the mountains. He carried on the backs of 
 mules the first library which was ever on the west of the 
 Alleghanies, before a wagon road had been cut across the 
 mountains. From that day to this Hampden-Sidney has 
 been among the foremost institutions in the land in fur- 
 nishing Christian educators for our colleges and schools. 
 The largest institution in the South is to-day presided ' 
 over by a Hampden-Sidney graduate, the venerable 
 Landon C. Garland, chancellor of Vanderbilt University 
 
A 
 
 34 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 The present presiding officer at our own State University 
 and another member of its faculty are Hampden-Sidney 
 men, and another, the lamented and gifted Southall, 
 lately fell at his post as professor of law. Two of our 
 graduates have been presidents of Davidson College; 
 one a professor of Washington College ; one of Washing- 
 ton and Lee University ; one is now in Richmond Col- 
 lege ; one in the University of Texas ; another is the 
 noble chancellor of Central University, Kentucky ; an- 
 other is the founder of the Southwestern Presbyterian 
 University, and now Professor of Biblical Literature at 
 that institution ; another is professor in your own Theo- 
 logical Seminary ; five are professors in our own college, 
 and there are many others in colleges and at the head of 
 classical and high schools, male and female, throughout 
 the country. These all, without exception, so far as is 
 known to me, are serious and earnest Christian men, 
 who, besides the service they render to sound learning, 
 are exerting an influence and doing a work of unspeak- 
 able value among the young for Christ, and in behalf of 
 virtue and religion. I therefore recall your minds to the 
 words of the psalmist, and urge you, "for the sake of the 
 house of the Lord our God'' to "seek the good" of this 
 venerable and useful college. 
 
 Another point of interest in Hampden-Sidney for this 
 congregation is, that it is the first, and, so far as is known 
 to me, the only institution in Virginia which makes the 
 history and literature of the Bible a part of its cur- 
 riculum, and proficiency in this course a requisite for 
 graduation. Our students are thus made acquainted 
 with the facts of Scripture history, and somewhat with 
 the Bible from Genesis through apostolic times ; and in 
 the senior class a thorough course on the Evidences of 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 35 
 
 Christianity is given, in which the students are instructed 
 in the grounds on which our holy rehgion rests, and 
 fortified against skeptical objections brought against it. 
 Our young men are thus not left to be carried away with 
 the wild vamperings of an Ingersoll, or the learned soph- 
 istries of a Renan, a Strauss, or a Baur, or the scientific 
 vagaries of a Darwin, a Spencer, or a Huxley, but are 
 guarded and instructed as to the real foundations on 
 which our religion is based. 
 
 Had I not detained you so long already, I would now 
 ask you to attend to some reminiscences of the men who 
 have presided over this venerable institution. I can do 
 little more than mention their names. And, of course, 
 the founder of Hampden-Sidney Academy, Rev. Samuel 
 Stanhope Smith, who became president of Princeton 
 College, must be mentioned ; then John Blair Smith, the 
 first president of the college, and one of its first Board of 
 Trustees ; then Drury Lacy, the maternal grandfather 
 of your pastor, who, as vice-president, filled the office for 
 several years with distinguished success; then Archibald 
 Alexander, who afterwards founded Princeton Theo- 
 logical Seminary, who gave the prime of his life to 
 Virginia, and who, with his colleagues, John Holt Rice 
 and Conrad Speece, made Hampden-Sidney a blessing to 
 his native State ; then Moses Hoge, the elder, who came 
 to the college in the maturity of his powers and filled the 
 presidency with great ability, acting at the same time as 
 Synod's Theological Professor, and who died in this 
 position — a man of extraordinary scholarship, of vast 
 powers as a preacher, of wonderful influence over all 
 classes and conditions of people, under whom the college 
 received the form of an institution of the highest grade 
 then known in the State ; then Jonathan P. Cushing, and 
 
36 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 Sparrow and Carroll and \\'illiam Alaxwcll, the accom- 
 plished literateur, the eminent lawyer, the elegant gentle- 
 man, and the devoted Christian ; then, coming to our own 
 times, Lewis W. Green, the eloquent orator and inspiring 
 teacher, whom all his old students, and I among the num- 
 ber, remember with gratitude and admiration; and last, 
 but not least, J. M. P. Atkinson, the devout man of God, 
 heroic and whole-souled, who for twenty-five years, by 
 valued instruction and holy example, educated the youth 
 committed to his charge. The mention of the names of 
 these men is an inspiration, and I summon them before 
 you and ask, Will you let an institution for which they 
 labored suffer, now that the age is threatening to leave 
 it behind? "These all died in the faith, not having re- 
 ceived the promise, but having seen it afar ofif," and in 
 their names I call on you to come forward and aid in 
 realizing the wish that was uppermost in their minds, 
 that this old college should be thoroughly furnished to 
 do the work assigned it by its historic position and the 
 demands of the age. 
 
 I once heard an eloquent minister utter the following 
 words before a large audience: 'T believe," he said, 
 "that if there is a spot on earth over which a window in 
 heaven always stands open through which blessings con- 
 tinually descend in sanctifying and saving power, that 
 spot is Hampden-Sidney." God has greatly blessed the 
 college, not only as an educational centre, but as a spirit- 
 ual force. The minister who uttered those words was 
 your pastor, my friend, Dr. Hoge, Avho, from his birth, 
 has been identified with the college. He was' born there, 
 was educated there, was for a time in his youth con- 
 nected with the instruction of the institution ; has for 
 thirtv-five vears been one of its most valued and honored 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 37 
 
 trustees ; was twice elected its president, and would again 
 have been the unanimous choice of the trustees but that 
 it was known that he could not and would not leave his 
 charge in Richmond, and he is regarded to-day by his 
 aljiia mater as her chosen son, second to none other. I 
 am here now by his invitation, and am sure that every 
 word I have spoken finds response in his breast. I would 
 suggest, with modesty, that Dr. Hoge's relation to the 
 college being altogether unique, and wholly unlike that of 
 any other living man, it would be appropriate that some 
 memorial of him should be erected there in his honor. 
 I know, indeed, that his grand memorial is found in this 
 splendid edifice and in this' noble church of living souls 
 which I now address. These are the results of his life- 
 work, and shall endure throughout generations. But I 
 know, also, that it would be a joy to his heart to have 
 his name indissolubly connected with Hampden-Sidney, 
 which has received so large a share of his affection, and 
 to which he acknowledges himself to be under so great 
 a debt of gratitude. I suggest, therefore, that, by the 
 endowment of a professorial fund, or the erection of a 
 building, or the creation of a library fund, this congrega- 
 tion and Dr. Hoge's friends in Richmond shall signalize 
 his services' and perpetuate his influence at Hampden- 
 Sidney. I am sure there is no man on earth whom you 
 so admire and honor and love, and that, whatever you 
 deem right and wise in the premises, you will do. And 
 may God add his blessing for Christ's sake. Amen. 
 
 [Note.— To prevent misapprehension, the following remarks 
 are deemed proper: (i) The foregoing discourse was prepared 
 for a Presbyterian congregation. Had the audience been promis- 
 cuous, more stress would have been laid on what has been done 
 for other churches, especially the Episcopal, to which the services 
 
38' ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 of Hampden-Sidney have been somewhat marked. (2) Under 
 other circumstances, too, fuller mention would have been made 
 of what Hampden-Sidney has done in educating men who have 
 filled the highest positions of responsibility in the country, from 
 the presidency of the United States down through all grades of 
 governTnental employment, state and federal, in all departments 
 of administration, judicial, legislative, and executive. (3) The 
 names of distinguished ministers and the high educational posi- 
 tions held by graduates of Hampden-Sidney specifically mentioned 
 are those which occurred to the writer in the rapidity of com- 
 position. There are many others w^ho richly deserve notice, who 
 were necessarily omitted. (4) Only three of the distinguished 
 men named and alluded to in the body of the discourse hold a 
 literary degree other than that conferred by Hampden-Sidney, 
 and few ever enjoyed instruction in any other literary institution. 
 Nearly all got their whole literary training at this college, and 
 can adopt the language of one of the most distinguished of their 
 number : "As I look back on life, I attribute whatever of use- 
 fulness I have attained and whatever of influence I have exerted, 
 to the training and inspiration I received at this place, while I 
 was a student of the college."] 
 
HAMPDEN-SIDNEY COLLEGE AS AN EDUCA- 
 TIONAL FORCE FROM THE WAR OF 
 THE REVOLUTION TO THE WAR 
 BETWEEN THE STATES. 
 
 THIS institution is an outgrowth of Hampden-Sid- 
 ney Academy, founded by Hanover Presbytery in 
 1775 and opened for students January i, 1776. Its patrons 
 designed it to be thoroughly Christian, but non-sectarian 
 in its government, privileges and instruction. Hampden- 
 Sidney College was incorporated by the General Assem- 
 bly of \'irginia in 1783 under a broad and generous' 
 charter, which has never been altered or amended, and 
 stands next to William and Mary among institutions, 
 south of Mason and Dixon's line, in the period of its 
 collegiate existence. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, afterwards President 
 of Princeton College, was the first Rector of the Acad- 
 emy, and Rev. John Blair Smith, afterwards President 
 of Union College, N. Y., was' the first President of the 
 College. They were brothers and both graduates of the 
 college of New Jersey. 
 
 In the list of charter members of the college are 
 found the names of such well known Virginians as 
 Patrick Henry, James Madison, William Cabell, Sr., Paul 
 Carrington, Everard Meade, John Nash, John Morton, 
 Thomas Reade, Joel Watkins, William Booker, Thomas 
 Scott, Sr., James Allen, Nathaniel Venable, Peter John- 
 ston and others of like degree, all of whom were among 
 the founders of the Commonwealth and the defenders 
 
40' ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 of its liberties and wliose descendants now constitute an 
 important portion of its inhabitants and of the people of 
 many states of the American Union. 
 
 The land on which the College is located, a tract of 
 ninety-seven acres, was donated to its trustees by Peter 
 Johnston, Esq., a patriotic Scotchman, a citizen of Prince 
 Edward county and the father of Peter Johnston, Jr. 
 (called little Peter), who entered the Academy in 1776 
 and while a student, at the age of sixteen, ran away from 
 school and became A. D. C. to Light Horse Harry Lee 
 during the Revolutionary War and afterwards a distin- 
 guished judge in Southwestern Virginia and the father 
 of General Joseph E. Johnston and U. S. Senator J. M. 
 Johnston. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston was also grand- 
 son of Peter Johnston, Sr., who is the progenitor of 
 many scores of the leading citizens of \'irginia and other 
 states. 
 
 In estimating the educational value of an institution, 
 however distinguished its services may have been in the 
 production of technical educators, it would be a narrow 
 view to confine the scope of inquiry to the area occupied 
 by those who have directed their lives wholly to this end. 
 Every educated man is an educational force, and what- 
 ever may be his specialty, naturally and necessarily, dif- 
 fuses influences of a culturing and elevating character. 
 "What is that," says Coleridge, "which first strikes' us, 
 and strikes us at once in a man of education? And vvliioh 
 among educated men, so instantly distinguishes the man 
 of superior mind, that (as was observed with eminent 
 propriety, of the late Edmund Burke) we cannot stand 
 under the same archway during a shower of rain, with- 
 out finding him out. Not the weight or novelty of his 
 remarks ; not anv unusual interest of facts communicated 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 41 
 
 by liini. It is the unpremeditated and evidently habitual 
 arrangement of his words, grounded on the habit of fore- 
 seeing in each integral part, or (more plainly) in every 
 sentence, the whole that he intends to communicate. 
 However irregular and desultory his talk, there is method 
 in the fragments."* 
 
 On the other hand, every intelligent man, whether 
 trustee or professor, or student, who is vitally connected 
 with a literary institution, along with what he consciously 
 seeks and attains, cannot fail to gain higher ideals, to 
 imbibe something of culture and refinement and to obtain 
 a nobler inspiration for life, from the environment in 
 which he is placed. 
 
 It would be an epoch-making revelation, if the edu- 
 cative influences exerted on the original trustees of 
 Hampden-Sidney College by their association with one 
 another and their joint and individual efforts in its behalf 
 could be fully depicted. How wide, important and far- 
 reaching in its effects on their personal advancement, and 
 on their families, their neighbors, the State of Virginia 
 and the country at large was the communion with one 
 another in the great work which brought them together, 
 no mortal can reveal or even faintly trace. For example : 
 the name of William Cabell, Sr., of Nelson county, is 
 found among the corporators of the college, as it had been 
 among the curators of the Academy from the first. He 
 was a brother of Nicholas Cabell, Esq., of the same 
 county. Several of the near relatives of these men are 
 found among the early students of Hampden-Sidney ; 
 notably William H. Cabell, afterwards Governor of the 
 State and judge of its highest court for forty years, and 
 Joseph C. Cabell, afterwards a graduate of William and 
 
 * The Friend. Section 2, Ess. 4. 
 
42 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 Mary College and in later life a distinguished and influ- 
 ential member of the Senate of Virginia and the inde- 
 fatigable and successful co-laborer of Thomas Jefferson 
 in securing the founding of our great university and 
 without whose persistent and intelligent efforts, it is 
 l)robable that all Mr. Jefferson's endeavors would have 
 been futile and gone for nought, f It cannot, indeed, be 
 categorically asserted, but it may be rationally surmised 
 that the influence of Hampdcn-Sidney on the elder Cabell 
 and of Hampden-Sidney and William and Mary on the 
 younger generation had something to do in smoothing 
 the path for the establishment of our highest educational 
 institution. Just as a spark of vital religion in the heart 
 and life of a man is intended to be a light to the world 
 and as it is like to leaven which is meant to diffuse itself 
 throughout the whole social fabric, so education in its 
 higher, nobler aspects must make itself felt, and where- 
 soever and in whomsoever found, show itself a potent 
 factor in the upbuilding of institutions and the enlighten- 
 ment of mankind. 
 
 If this be true, then what a mighty force must have 
 been exerted by such institutions as Hampden-Sidney 
 College during the period beginning with the Revolution- 
 ary War and ending with the war between the States. 
 What an impression for good must have been produced 
 throughout the State and far beyond by the lives' and 
 example of hundreds of educated lawyers, publicists, 
 physicians, ministers of the gospel and others, who sat 
 at the feet of the venerable men, who taught at this 
 institution during those auspicious days, and who in 
 association with one another in the class-room, in the 
 
 t Thos. Jefferson and the University of Va., by Herbert B. 
 Adams, p. 54. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 43 
 
 literary societies and on the campus', found inspiration 
 for effort and for the high and noble career to which 
 many of them attained. 
 
 It would be both wearisome and vain to encumber 
 these pages with even a partial list of the names and 
 deeds of the men who studied and got their inspiration, 
 during this period at Hampden-Sidney and afterward 
 honored their alma mater and themselves by serving their 
 generation wisely and well in positions' of high trust 
 and responsibility. Such an effort would require more 
 than a folio volume for its completion instead of a brief 
 article of a few pages, but it may be well in entering on 
 the special topic of this paper and as integral part of it, 
 to tell of a few of the sons of the old College whose 
 illustrious deeds may serve as examples of many men, 
 equally or scared}^ less distinguished and all of whom 
 must have exerted an important influence, direct and in- 
 direct, on the educational welfare of our beloved Com- 
 monwealth and scarcely less beloved Southland. 
 
 Lawyers and Publicists. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that in the list of the first 
 class which graduated from the College (1786) two 
 names, John W. Epps and Kemp Plummcr, occur which 
 are treasured as sweet memories by multitudes of rela- 
 tives and admirers ; both native Virginians', but the 
 reputation of the one connected with his native state and 
 the national government, and of the other with the State 
 of North Carolina. 
 
 Hon. John W. Epps was a native of Prince George 
 county; lived in Chesterfield county and later in Buck- 
 ingham. He was a planter and a man of large means, a 
 bold, aggressive speaker and had great influence among 
 
44 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 his fellow citizens. He was nephew and son-in-law of 
 Thomas Jefferson, having married his cousin, "Polly." 
 "His manners were frank and engaging, he was highly 
 educated and particularly pleasing in conversation, while 
 his character was in every way worthy of the high 
 opinion that Jefferson frequently expressed concerning 
 him." * He was a member of the National House of 
 Representatives for many years and was chairman of 
 the Committee on Ways and Means. Later he was a 
 member of the U. S. Senate and resigned after 1819 on 
 account of ill health. He is said to have been "the only 
 man who beat John Randolph before the people for 
 Congress." 
 
 Hon. Kemp Plummer was a native of Gloucester 
 county, and after graduation at Hampden-Sidncy, studied 
 law under Chancellor Wythe. About 1790 he removed, 
 with his widowed mother and family, to North .Carolina 
 and opened a law office at Warrenton, where he soon 
 became a successful practitioner. "His manners were 
 uncommonly agreeable, his speeches exceedingly interest- 
 ing, clear and pointed, and his reputation for strict in- 
 tegrity gave him great weight with judge and jury. He 
 was soon at the top of the local bar with a remunerative 
 income, practicing, besides at home, in the counties of 
 Halifax, Nash and Franklin." In 1794, he was elected 
 to the Lower House of the Legislature^ and in 181 5 and 
 1816, was a member of the State Senate, and in both 
 positions rendered important service. He was once 
 offered the high office of Governor, but on the advice of 
 his wife (a prudent woman) declined it because of the 
 expense of living at the capital. When he died, the 
 village newspaper, "Tlic Warrenton Republican," said of 
 
 * The True Thomas Jefferson, p. 45. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 45 
 
 him: "He was the glory of our Httle world, the pride 
 of the village, the ornament of the county, an honor to 
 the Bar, a friend of the poor, the bold advocate of the 
 country." This is high praise, and well deserved, but 
 the most prized tribute among his descendants is the 
 name which, by a long course of honorable dealing he 
 earned, "The Honest Lawyer."* 
 
 The career of these two honorable gentlemen, the first 
 begotten of their alma mater, fitly, though in some re- 
 spects inadequately, represent many scores of her sons 
 who, as lawyers and publicists, have performed eminent 
 services to their country and exerted a masterful and 
 exalting influence over the generations to which they 
 belonged. Consider then, the beneficent effects of the 
 lives of such men (sons of Hampden-Sidney) as the fol- 
 lowing, and scores of others: William B. Giles, of 
 Amelia, lawyer, orator, member of Congress and of the 
 U. S. Senate, Governor of Virginia and member of the 
 Constitutional Convention of Virginia of i829-'3o; Wil- 
 liam Henry Harrison of Charles City county, a student 
 of Hampden-Sidney in 1789 and one of the founders of 
 the Union Literary Society, officer in U. S. Army from 
 ensign to general, Secretary of the North Western Terri- 
 tory, U. S. Minister to Columbia, member of Congress 
 and U. S. Senate, President of the United States, but his 
 usefulness cut short by his untimely death ; George M. 
 Bibb, of Prince Edward, a graduate in the class of 1791, 
 studied law, emigrated to Kentucky soon after it was 
 admitted into the Union, filled its highest offices including 
 those of Chief Justice and Governor, served in the 
 United States House of Representatives for several 
 terms and in the U. S. Senate, where he distinguished 
 
 * Dr. Kemp PlniTuiier Battle, in The Kaleidoscope of 1900. 
 
46 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 himself greatly by a speech on "States Rights" in reply 
 to Daniel Webster, and occupied the position of Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury under President Tyler's administra- 
 tion ; William S. Archer, of Amelia, member of Congress 
 from 1819-1835 and afterwards of the U. S. Senate; 
 William C. Rives, of Albemarle, member of Congress 
 and of U. S. Senate, twice U. S. Minister to the court 
 of France, a writer and speaker of wonderful beauty and 
 power, "Statesman, Diplomatist, Historian, the most 
 eminent citizen of Virginia!" (Alexander Brown) ; Pow- 
 hatan Ellis, of Amherst county, a distinguished lawyer in 
 Mississippi, member of Congress and U. S. Senate from 
 that state and U. S. Minister to Mexico ; William H. Mc- 
 Farland, of Lunenburg, afterwards the cultured lawyer 
 of the city of Richmond and for many years president 
 of the Farmers' Bank of Virginia; Richard K. Cralle, 
 of Lunenburg, the distinguished biographer of John C. 
 Calhoun ; Andrew LIunter, of Jefferson county, one of 
 the ablest lawyers of his day, the prosecutor of John 
 Brown, and member of the Confederate States Congress ; 
 LIugh A. Garland, of Nelson, professor of ancient lan- 
 guages in Hampden-Sidney College, member and clerk 
 of the U. S. House of Representatives, and biographer 
 of John Randolph; David May, of Chesterfield, one of 
 the leading lawyers of Petersburg for more than forty 
 years, whose irreproachable character and cheerful piety 
 were an inspiration to all who knew him ; William Bal- 
 lard Preston, of Montgomery, member of the Virginia 
 Senate, of the House of Representatives, Secretary of 
 the Navy, and member of the Virginia Convention of 
 1861 ; William M. Tredway, of Prince Edward, Circuit 
 Judge and member of U. S. Congress'; Alexander Rives, 
 of Albemarle, member of Senate of Virginia and Judge 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 47 
 
 of U. S. District Court ; William Daniel, of Cumberland, 
 eminent lawyer and law writer and Judge of the Court 
 of Appeals of Virginia ; John B. Floyd, of Montgomery, 
 member of House of Representatives, Secretary of War, 
 Governor of Virginia, General C. S. A. ; Thomas W. 
 Ligon, of Prince Edward, lawyer, member of U. S. 
 House of Representatives and Governor of Maryland; 
 Thomas Stanhope Flournoy, of Prince Edward, lawyer 
 and member of Congress ; Charles S. Mosby, of Pow- 
 hatan, the leading lawyer at the Lynchburg bar for many 
 years, "The Addison of the Virginia Bar;" Sterling 
 Price, of Prince Edward, farmer in Charlton county, 
 Mo., member of Missouri Legislature and U. S. House 
 of Representatives, Brigadier General in Mexican War, 
 Governor of Missouri, President of State Convention of 
 1861, Major-General C. S. A.; John W. Stevenson, Lou- 
 doun county, member of Legislature of Kentucky, leader 
 in Constitutional Convention of 1849, member of House 
 of Representatives and U. S. Senate and Governor of 
 Kentucky; Thomas S. Bocock, of Buckingham, lawyer 
 and member of Virginia House of Delegates, of United 
 State Congress i846-'6i, Speaker of Confederate 
 States House of Representatives ; Stephen O. South- 
 all, of Amelia, member of House of Delegates, learned 
 lawyer and Professor of Law at the University 
 of Virginia from 1866 to 1883 at his death; William 
 Cabell Carrington, of Charlotte, lawyer in city of Rich- 
 mond and editor of "The Times," elected to the Legis- 
 lature but died before taking his seat ; A. M. Branch, of 
 Buckingham, lawyer in Texas, member of Senate of that 
 State, member C. S. Congress and elected to U. S. 
 Senate in 1868; John T. Thornton, of Cumberland, 
 eminent lawyer and man of splendid forensic power, 
 
4S ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 member of Virginia Convention of 1861, Colonel of 
 Cavalry and killed at the head of his regiment ; Roger 
 A. Pryor, of NottOM^ay, lawyer, editor, member of Con- 
 gress, Minister to Greece, General C. S. A., judge of 
 highest court of the State of New York; P. W. Mc- 
 Kinney, of Buckingham, lawyer, member of House of 
 Delegates of Virginia, Captain C. S. A., Governor of 
 Virginia; B. J. Epps, of Nottoway, lawyer. Judge of 
 Dinwiddie county, member of the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion of Virginia of i90i-'o2; R. M. Venable, of Prince 
 Edward, lawyer, for more than thirty years professor in 
 the law school of the University of Maryland, Trustee in 
 Johns Hojjkins University. 
 
 Physicians. 
 
 The services of Ilampden-Sidney to the medical pro- 
 fession and through it to society at large has been 
 scarcely less distinguished and influential than in behalf 
 of the legal brotherhood and statesmanship. Probably 
 as many physicians as lawyers have been turned out from 
 the college but as' their position in life is not so much 
 before the public eye, they are less known. It happens 
 that in the first graduating class (1786) we find the 
 name of George Cabell, Sr., an older brother of Judge 
 W. H. Cabell, whose professional life was spent in the 
 city of Lynchburg, and received the highest encomiums. 
 In the class of 1789, we find James Jones, of Nottoway, 
 who received a thorough medical training in European 
 schools and whose distinction as a physician and pub- 
 licist is one of the traditions of his county. In the class 
 of 1801, we find the name of William S. Morton, son of 
 Maj. James Morton, of Prince Edward, who, for un- 
 flinching courage during the Revolutionary War, received 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 49 
 
 the soubriquet of "Solid Column," which he carried 
 throughout life. One who knew Dr. Morton well says, 
 "He was a great man, physically, mentally, and morally.'' 
 In the class of 1804, occurs the name of Addison Wad- 
 dell, son of Rev. James Waddell, "The Blind Preacher," 
 who for nearly fifty years practiced medicine in Staun- 
 ton, "a learned and wise physician and a deeply read 
 metaphysician and theologian." Next comes J. P. I^Iet- 
 tauer in the class of 1807, born in Prince Edward and 
 spent his whole life in his native county, one of the 
 founders of the Philanthropic Literary Society, surgeon 
 in the U. S. Army during the War of 1812, founder of a 
 medical school at his home from which went out scores of 
 men well prepared for the professional career, the 
 mventor of many valuable surgical instruments and ap- 
 pliances and a distinguished writer and practitioner. 
 Passing over more than a score of men whose beneficent 
 lives and services deserve mention, we come in 1828 to 
 the name of Edward C. Fisher, of Augusta county, who 
 for a long series of years was superintendent of the 
 Asylum for the Insane at Raleigh, N. C, and a specialist 
 of high repute. In 1831 we come to the name of Robert 
 Southgate, of Norfolk, for many years a surgeon in the 
 U. S. Army and held the same position in the C. S. A. 
 Again skipping several scores' of men whose lives were 
 a benediction to the communities in which they lived, we 
 find the name of William D. Booker, of Prince Edward, 
 (i860- '61) who has practiced his profession in the city 
 of Baltimore for thirty years and whose eminence has 
 been recognized by the trustees of Johns Hopkins Uni- 
 versity in his elevation to a professorship in the medical 
 school of that institution. 
 
50 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 Ministers of the Gospel. 
 
 Were it not for restriction in space, it would not be 
 difficult to give the names of some hundreds of ministers 
 of the gospel, good and useful men, who received their 
 preparation and inspiration at Hampden-Sidney College 
 and who have done much in promoting education in 
 Virginia and the South. There are few more potent 
 educational forces to be found in any community than 
 the lives and work of preachers of the Gospel. They 
 are of inestimable value, too little prized by the thought- 
 less but duly recognized and appreciated by intelligent 
 people everywhere. 
 
 In the first class' sent out from the College, there are 
 found two men who became ministers of the gospel, 
 Theoderick ISIcRoberts and Nash Legrand, and in most 
 of the classes since, one or more of the graduates have 
 devoted their lives to the ministry, and in some cases 
 eight or ten arc found in the same class. Furthermore, 
 during the period under consideration, it was not un- 
 common for young men looking forward to the ministry, 
 specially those who entered late in life, not to attcmjit 
 a graduating course, but to content themselves with such 
 elective studies as are necessary as the foundation of 
 theological training and it is believed that the number of 
 such will approximate the number of those who received 
 their diplomas'. Happily this state of things no longer 
 exists to the same extent at Ilampdcn-Sidney or else- 
 where. 
 
 Little can be learned of Theoderick McRoberts be- 
 yond the fact that he became a useful minister, but of 
 Nash Legrand, Rev. Dr. W. H. Foote in his "Sketches 
 of Virginia" gives an interesting account, in which it is 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 51 
 
 stated that two or three years of his earher ministry 
 were spent in evangehstic work in Virginia and North 
 Carohna and that fifteen years of his hfe were given to 
 fruitful and exhausting labors in Cedar Creek and 
 Opequon Churches in Frederick county. Among the 
 closing sentences of "the Sketch" occurs the following- 
 "Thus lived and thus died one of the best and most suc- 
 cessful^ ministers of the gospel Virginia has ever pro- 
 duced." "No other preacher in the state held his people 
 more closely to the gospel standard or extended his influ- 
 ence farther or left behind a sweeter remembrance." 
 
 Passing over the interval between 1786 to 1825 
 mentioning only the names of a few men of special 
 prominence and connected, directly or indirectly with 
 education, such as Clement Read, of Charlotte; William 
 Hill, of Cumberland, afterwards of Winchester; Samuel 
 Davies Hoge, professor in Hampden-Sidney College 
 pastor of churches in Virginia and Ohio, and Professor 
 of Mathematics and Physical Science in the University 
 of Ohio; Jesse Turner, of Bedford; John Kirkpatrick, 
 of Mecklenburg county, N. C, afterwards the eloquent 
 orator and consecrated minister of Cumberland county 
 Va.; Drury Lacy, of Prince Edward, afterwards of 
 North Carolina, and President of Davidson College- 
 Wm. S. White, of Hanover, afterwards of Nottoway' 
 Charlottesville, and Lexington and closely identified with 
 the University of Virginia and Washington College and 
 Washington and Lee University; we come to the name of 
 Ihomas Atkinson, a native of Dinwiddie county after- 
 wards a student of law at Yale College and a praciitioner 
 for seven years, later studied for the ministry in the 
 Episcopal Church, subsequently rector in the cities of 
 Lynchburg, Norfolk, and Baltimore and Bishop of the 
 
52 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 Diocese of North Carolina from 1853 to 1881. The 
 writer of this sketch remembers him as a gentleman of 
 chaste and extensive culture, of courtly bearing, of fine 
 common sense, of unaffected piety, whose influence for 
 good was widespread and pervading. 
 
 Among the graduates in the next class was Theo- 
 derick Pryor, of Dinwiddie, who afterwards graduated 
 in law at the University of Virginia and practiced a short 
 while, after which he pursued a course at Union Theo- 
 logical Seminary and became the pastor of the Presby- 
 terian Church in Nottoway county, where most of his 
 ministerial life was spent and where he was identified 
 with every important interest of the people, a man of 
 the highest and purest character, a preacher of imprcs- 
 sivencss and force and surpassed by few in effective 
 power of presenting important truth, a diligent and be- 
 loved pastor and friend. P^ew men ever had more or 
 warmer admirers or did more during about sixty years 
 of active service in the advancement of truth and right. 
 
 The class of 1829 was remarkable in that of nine 
 members, six became ministers of the gospel and one 
 (Landon C. Garland) a distinguished educator. Of the 
 ministers, two were Episcopalians and four Presbyte- 
 rians, one of each set, besides a long and fruitful min- 
 istry, did much for the promotion of education. The 
 first of these is Geo. W. Dame, a native of Manchester, 
 N. H., and nephew of Jonathan P. Cushing, at that time 
 President of Hampden-Sidney College. After his grad- 
 uation Dr. Dame was Professor of Physical Science in 
 the College. He then studied privately for the ministry 
 and was rector of the Episcopal Church in Danville for 
 more than a half century, during most of which time he 
 was at the head of an academy for young ladies, from 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 53 
 
 whicli many of the best women of Virginia were turned 
 out. The other was Benjamin M. Smith, of Powhatan, 
 afterwards pastor of the churches of Danville, Tinkling 
 Springs and Staunton, and for nearly forty years Pro- 
 fessor of Oriental Languages in Union Theological 
 Seminary. Dr. Smith was author of a commentary on 
 the Psalms and Proverbs and was' a luminous and exten- 
 sive writer on other subjects; a genial gentleman, an 
 indefatigable worker, for many years trustee in Wash- 
 ington College and Washington and Lee University, and 
 did more to promote the solid prosperity and usefulness 
 of Union Theological Seminary than any man who has 
 yet lived, except Dr. John Holt Rice, its eminent founder 
 and first professor. 
 
 In the class of 1832 appears the name of John L. 
 Kirkpatrick, of Mecklenburg county, N. C, pastor in 
 Lynchburg, Va., Gainesville, Ala., and Charleston, S. C, 
 President of Davidson College from i86o-'66 and Pro- 
 fessor of Moral Philosophy in Washington and Lee Uni- 
 versity from 1866 till his death. 
 
 In the class of 1835, we find the name of J. M. P. 
 Atkinson, of Dinwiddle county, brother of Bishop 
 Thomas' Atkinson, a Presbyterian minister, in early life 
 a missionary in Texas, afterwards pastor at Warrenton, 
 Va., and Georgetown, D. C, and for twenty-six years 
 President of Hampden-Sidney College. He was a man 
 whose character was clear as crystal, of undaunted cour- 
 age, firm in his convictions and courteous in their expres- 
 sion. As captain of the "Hampden-Sidney Boys" he 
 took part in the fight at Rich Mountain in 1865 and after 
 the capture of Pegram's command returned to college, 
 brought it safely through the war and reconstruction 
 
54 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 times down to 1883, when he died, honored and beloved 
 by all who knew him. 
 
 Passing by a number o£ distinguished and useful men, 
 we come in 1839 to the name of Moses Drury Hoge, born 
 at Hampden-Sidney in 1818, while his father was pro- 
 fessor and his grandfather was President of the College, 
 the pastor for fifty-five years of the Second Presbyterian 
 Church, Richmond, of which he was the founder, con- 
 ducting a school for young ladies (about 1850) several 
 years that he might give his salary to the church building 
 which now stands as a monument to his unselfish devo- 
 tion; the humble man of God, the true patriot, the 
 eloquent preacher, for more than forty-five years the 
 trustee and untiring friend of his alma mater, ever ready 
 to help in every good cause, for years before his death 
 the foremost citizen of the commonwealth, and who on 
 the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his pastorate 
 received tributes of honor, esteem and affection from all 
 classes of citizens, including Jews, Catholics, and un- 
 believers, such as perhaps were never before accorded 
 to any man in Virginia. 
 
 And so the list of such ministers might be extended 
 indefinitely in telling of John B. Shearer, of Campbell 
 county, who, while minister in Halifax, founded Cluster 
 Springs Academy, was afterwards the reviver and Presi- 
 dent of Stewart College, Tenn., out of which, chiefly by 
 his exertions, the South Western Presbyterian University 
 grew, and who next was President of Davidson College, 
 N. C. ; Thomas Wharey, of Prince Edward, who on ac- 
 count of his fervid and persuasive eloquence was called 
 "the Spurgeon of Virginia" ; of Peter Tinsley, for thirty 
 years rector of the Episcopal church at Walnut Hills, 
 Cincinnati, Ohio ; of Lindsay H. Blanton, of Cumberland 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 55 
 
 county, for many years a useful and beloved pastor in 
 Kentucky and the reviver and chancellor of Central Uni- 
 versity at Richmond, Ky., and its co-ordinated schools; 
 of William U. Murkland, of Baltimore, for twenty-five 
 years among the leading divines and pulpit orators of 
 that city; of Robert A. Gibson, of Petersburg, rector in 
 Parkersburg, W. Va., and Cincinnati, Ohio, and Bishop 
 of the Diocese of Northern Virginia ; of Edward H. 
 Barnett, of Christiansburg, pastor in Abingdon, Va., and 
 Atlanta, Ga., and many more. 
 
 Educators. 
 
 The names of many of those included under the pre- 
 ceding head might properly be brought under this sec- 
 tion. All, indeed, there given have had much to do witli 
 the advancement of education by active and direct effort. 
 Those that are to come were largely or exclusively en- 
 gaged in this department of work as' the business of their 
 lives. 
 
 As far back as 1788, in the third class graduated from 
 the College, the name of James Blythe, of Mecklenburg 
 county N. C, is found. He afterwards studied medicine 
 and theology and adopting the ministry as his profession, 
 found his field of labor in Kentucky, Ranke in his His- 
 tory of Lexington, (Ky.) says': "The first president of 
 Transylvania University, Rev. James Moore, was suc- 
 ceeded by Rev. James Blythe, M. D., who was born in 
 North Carolina in 1765 and was educated for the Pres- 
 byterian ministry. He came to Kentucky in 1791 and 
 two years after was ordained pastor of Pisgah and Clear 
 Creek churches. He continued to preach up to the time 
 of his death. For six years before his' accession to the 
 Presidency of the University, he was professor of math- 
 
56 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 ematics and natural philosophy and often supplied the 
 pulpit of the First Preshytcrian church. He was presi- 
 dent for nearly fifteen years and after his resignation 
 filled the chair of chemistry in the medical college until 
 1 83 1, when he accepted the Presidency of Hanover Col- 
 lege, Ind., which prospered greatly under his charge."* 
 
 In the class of 1791 looms up the name of Moses 
 Waddell, of Iredell county, N. C, who was afterwards 
 closely connected with the States of South Carolina and 
 Georgia in the capacity of preacher, teacher, and presi- 
 dent of Franklin College, out of which the University 
 of Georgia grew. So rapid and solid was his progress' as 
 a boy at school that at the age of fourteen years his ser- 
 vices as a teacher were sought, which profession he 
 followed for six or seven years until he entered 
 Hampden-Sidney as a student. After his ordination to 
 the ministry, he gave his life chiefly to teaching, and 
 founded the famous Academy at Willington, S. C, at 
 which such men of national reputation as John C. Cal- 
 houn, Legare, McDuffie, and Petigru of South Carolina, 
 and Cobb, Longstreet, Crawford, Gilmer, and Appling of 
 Georgia, received their youthful training. He was after- 
 wards elected to the Presidency of the University of 
 Georgia. "Of this institution, while not the founder, 
 he was the reviver and first successful administrator. 
 Franklin College, as it was also styled, opened its doors 
 to its first students as late as 1804, and after fifteen years 
 of what seems to have been sheer struggle for existence, 
 there was a virtual suspension of its' existence until Dr. 
 Waddell was invited, in its darkest hour, to undertake its 
 restoration and improvement. The invitation, to his 
 
 *The Kaleidoscope, 1900, p. 32. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 57 
 
 earnest religious nature, came like a summons to a heaven 
 appointed duty, and in this temper, he began and prose- 
 cuted the work, so that in ten years he had started the 
 institution upon a career of usefulness and honor.* The 
 Hon. John C. Calhoun, who was both his' pupil and 
 brother-in-law, says of him : "He discharged punctually 
 and faithfully the various duties attached to all his pri- 
 vate relations. He was sociable and amiable, but not 
 without a due mixture of sternness and firmness. As a 
 minister of the gospel, he was pious, zealous, and well 
 versed in theology generally. His style of preaching was 
 plain, simple, earnest. He addressed himself much more 
 to the understanding than to the imagination or passions'. 
 As a teacher he stands almost unrivaled. "f 
 
 In the year 18 13, we come across the name of Ed- 
 ward Baptist, a native of Mecklenburg county, the son 
 of a Presbyterian mother and an Episcopal father, not 
 only a collegiate graduate but a student of theology at 
 Hampden-Sidney under Dr. ]\Ioses Hoge, and a devout 
 admirer and friend of his ahna mater and his venerated 
 perceptor, afterwards became a Baptist minister and 
 settled in Powhatan county. It is said that early in his 
 ministerial life he founded a school in the bounds of his 
 congregation which grew into a Baptist College, and was 
 afterwards removed to Richmond and became the foun- 
 dation on which Richmond College is built. Certain it is 
 that he "held influence among the Baptists second to 
 none in his day ;" that he was "a. prime mover in the 
 organization of the Virginia Baptist Association in 1822 
 and drafted its constitution ;" that "he was also origina- 
 
 * The Kaleidoscope, 1902, p. 17. 
 t Presbyterian Encyclopedia. 
 
58 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 lor of the Baptist Educational Society and the Baptist 
 Seminary, and by appointment instructed a number of 
 young men who were students for the ministry."^ "He 
 seems thus to have been one among the originators or 
 suggestors of Richmond College ; in a sense the fore- . 
 runner or beginner of the work done by it, though he 
 never had any connection with the college as such. In 
 1838 he moved to Alabama, where he did most valuable 
 work and lived and labored till i863.§ 
 
 Among the graduates of 1823 we find the name of 
 Robert Burwell, of Dinwiddle county, who, with Jesse 
 S. Armistead, of Cumberland county, and Thomas P. 
 Hunt, of Charlotte county — all graduates of Hampden- 
 Sidney College — constituted the first class in Union Theo- 
 logical Seminary, an institution which grew out of 
 Hampden-Sidney College by natural evolution, and which 
 for the first two or three years of its existence was main- 
 tained on the college premises and largely through the 
 self-denial and assistance of its professors. Mr. Burwx>ll 
 was a laborious minister of the gospel and lived to the 
 great age of ninety-three years. From the date of his 
 licensure to 1884 he was untiring in his Christian and 
 ministerial eflForts, giving about fifty of the later yeans 
 of his life to the work of teaching young ladies, first at 
 Hillsboro, N. C. ; then as principal of the Female College, 
 Charlotte, N. C, and last as principal of Peace Institute, 
 Raleigh, N. C. During this time he had more than 
 twelve hundred pupils under his care. The influence of 
 his example and instruction on the women of the South 
 and through them on society at large has been immense 
 and always good. 
 
 t Baptist Encyclopedia. 
 
 § Prof. C. H. Winston, Richmond College, Va. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 59 
 
 In George E. Dabney, of Campbell county (class 
 1826) we have the example of a man who devoted his 
 whole life to education as its chief end, first as principal 
 of New London Academy; then as Professor of Ancient 
 Languages at Washington College, and afterwards, from 
 i85i-'6i, when the college was closed at the beginning 
 of the war, Professor of Latin and French in Richmond 
 College. At the close of the war he was authorized to 
 take charge of the college premises along with President 
 Ryland and open a private school. He died in 1868. 
 Rev. Dr. C. H. Ryland, treasurer of Richmond College, 
 who was his pupil, speaks of him "as' a man of high 
 learning and fine Christian character, reserved and quiet, 
 but of recognized ability." 
 
 In the class of 1829 comes Landon Cabell Garland, 
 of Nelson county, one of the most distinguished educa- 
 tors that the South has produced, taking a professorial 
 chair at Washington College immediately on graduation, 
 afterwards professor and President of Randolph-Macon 
 College, then President and Professor of the University 
 of Alabama, afterwards Professor in the LInivcrsity of 
 Mississippi, and his honored life was crowned as Chan- 
 cellor of Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tenn., 
 where he died in 1895. "If Virginia ever gave birth to a 
 man who did more real service to the manhood of the 
 South, his name and place would be hard to find."''' 
 
 Although Robert L. Dabney, of Hanover county, was 
 not a graduate of Hampden-Sidney, he was its student 
 for two years in the Sophomore and Junior classes, after 
 which he taught a year or two and then entered the Uni- 
 versity of Virginia, where he took the degree of M. A. 
 
 * Irby's History of Randolph-Macon College, p. 43. 
 
6o ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 He always recognized his indebtedness to Hampden- 
 Sidney and was its steadfast and active friend throughout 
 life. In the early days of his ministry at Tinkling Spring 
 church, Augusta county, he taught a school for boys, 
 from which some men afterwards distinguished in life 
 were turned out. From 1853 to 1883, he was successively 
 professor of Church History and Theology in Union 
 Theological Seminary, a man of extensive and accurate 
 learning, a robust thinker and writer on a great variety 
 of subjects, a born teacher, trained and developed under 
 McGuffey at the University of Virginia and adopting the 
 best features of his method and also of that of John B. 
 Minor, diverse from each other but both admirable of 
 their kind, and when brought together by Dabney, attain- 
 ing as great perfection as can ])erhaps be reached in the 
 art of communicating knowledge, awakening thought and 
 stimulating to effort. In 1883 Dr. Dabney accepted the 
 position of Professor of Moral Philosophy in the Uni- 
 versity of Texas, which lie filled until within a year or 
 two of his death, when he resigned on account of im- 
 paired vision. He was a man of masterly ability and 
 exerted a great influence in his day. 
 
 In the class of 1842 we find the name of Charles S. 
 Venable of Prince Edward, which is closely identified 
 with the educational history of Virginia and to some ex- 
 tent with that of two other states and which wnW be borne 
 in honored remembrance by his old boys for many years 
 to come. After graduation he spent a year in post- 
 graduate study at his ahna uiafcr, also studied at the 
 University of A'irginia and subsequently at Berlin and 
 Bonn, Germany. He w^as Professor of Mathematics at 
 Hampden-Sidney for ten years, of Physics and Chemistry 
 in the University of Georgia, of Mathematics and As- 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 6i 
 
 tronomy in South Carolina College. In 1861 he was 
 Captain of the Engineer Corps in New Orleans and 
 Vicksburg and from 1862- 1865 was A. D. C. to General 
 Robert E. Lee. From 1865-1891 he was Professor of 
 Mathematics in the University of Virginia, during sev- 
 eral years of which he was chairman of its Faculty and 
 rendered important service in enlarging the resources 
 and appliances of the institution. He was also trustee 
 for the Miller Manual Labor School in Albemarle county, 
 and as such, was of incalculable value in developing it 
 into the splendid sphere of usefulness it now fills. Indeed, 
 he discharged the duties of every position he occupied 
 with the highest credit to himself and thorough satis- 
 faction to everyone connected with him. His work, both 
 at Hampden-Sidncy and the University of Virginia, was 
 remarkable not only in the classroom but in his inter- 
 course with and influence over the students. In the 
 words of the late Professor L. L. Holladay, who was 
 both his pupil and colleague, "Venable excelled both as 
 an instructor and in his knowledge and control of stu- 
 dents." Wherever the writer meets his old boys, they 
 speak of him with admiration and afifection. "To have 
 lived and worked with a man so true in word and deed, 
 so pure in act and lofty in motive, so generous and so 
 brave, is one of heaven's best gifts. May his influence 
 be everlasting; his memory kept green forever."* 
 
 We now skip to the class of 185 1, where along with 
 other names richly deserving of mention, we find that of 
 Robert Dabney, of Powhatan county, who possessed one 
 of the brightest intellects and best stowed minds in the 
 college, a beautiful speaker and strong debater, ranking 
 
 * Prof. W. M. Thornton in the Kaleidoscope of 1901. 
 
62 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 with P. W. McKinney in forensic power and his chief 
 opponent for the speaker's medal in the Philanthropic 
 Society. After graduation, he studied at the University 
 of Virginia, was' a member of the House of Delegates 
 t86i-'62, served in the 4th Regiment of Va. Cavalry. 
 After the war he was elected Professor of Moral Phil- 
 osophy in the University of the South at Sewanee, which 
 position he filled until his death in 1876. His old stu- 
 dents showed their appreciation of his instruction and 
 example by the erection of a monument to his memory. 
 In the class of 1852, we select the name of Joseph 
 IMcMurran, of Jefferson county, nearly the whole of 
 whose life was devoted to the instruction of the young. 
 In Green Academy, Huntsville, Ala., at Chatham, Va., 
 as principal of the Montgomery Male Academy of Chris- 
 tiansburg, Va., he made himself felt. One of his pupils 
 at the last named school, Dr. Robert W. Douthat, Pro- 
 fessor of Latin in the University of West Virginia, pays 
 the following tribute to his memory: "I w^as for three 
 years during the formative period of my life under the 
 very excellent instruction of Dr. Joseph McMurran, than 
 whom I never had a better teacher, more patient, more 
 polished, more impressive, more inspiring. Dr. McMur- 
 ran always had a large school in Christiansburg and was 
 very generally looked upon as another 'Arnold of Rugby,' 
 the very embodiment of patience and love, who under 
 the great Taskmaster's eye lived to serve humanity and 
 in doing this', to glorify God."* He served faithfully 
 and courageously during the war between the States, 
 after which his chief work was the upbuilding of Shep- 
 herd College, Shepherdstown, W. Va., at the head of 
 
 * Kaleidoscope, 1902, p. 21 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 63 
 
 which he was for ten years. "Besides the sixty-five 
 teachers which he turned out in these ten years, others 
 of his pupils have entered all the departments of life, as' 
 ministers, lawyers, legislators, physicians, merchants, 
 farmers, queens of the home."t Dr. McMurran was 
 President of the County Board of Education and for 
 five years a member of the West Virginia State Board 
 of Examiners and of Teachers' Institutes. 
 
 In the class of 1853, there are two names that deserve 
 to be kept fresh and green in the annals of Hampden- 
 Sidney and in the history of education in Virginia, repre- 
 senting two men very unlike in physical appearance and 
 in some personal characteristics, but both possessing fine 
 ability, genial disposition, excellent scholarship, thorough 
 conscientiousness and unsullied piety ; bosom friends at 
 college and throughout life, and not far separated in 
 death, the one, Charles W. Crawley, of Charlotte, a Meth- 
 odist ; the other, Lewis" L. Holladay, of Spottsylvania, a 
 Presbyterian; the first spending the whole of his life, 
 with the exception of two years as tutor in Randolph- 
 Macon College, in the instruction of private and public 
 schools ; the second, with the exception of one year in 
 post-graduate study at the University of Virginia, prom- 
 inently connected with his alma mater as professor of 
 Phyisical Science from the beginning to the end of his 
 career, than whom no one ever enjoyed more of the 
 respect, confidence and affection of his colleagues and 
 pupils. Crawley filled his place as well as any man 
 could, and was blessed by those who knew him. Holla- 
 day, in a more exalted position, and exerting a wider 
 and more potent influence on a larger circle of educated 
 
 t Kaleidoscope, 1902, p. 22. 
 
64 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 men, accomplished his hfe work as effectively and use- 
 fully — I had almost said, completely — and his name and 
 influence are a benediction to multitudes. Both did much 
 to advance the progress and history of education in Vir- 
 ginia and the South through the men who came under 
 their instruction and guidance. 
 
 There still remain the names of three ante-bellum 
 students of Hampden-Sidney whose influence in educa- 
 tion has been so potent that their record must be given 
 briefly : the first of whom is Joseph W. Southall, of 
 Amelia, who subsequently attended William and Mary 
 College, became a practitioner of medicine and a member 
 of the Senate of Virginia, and is now serving his third 
 term as State Superintendent of Public Instruction, in 
 which position his intelligent and indefatigable labors 
 have been of much value in enlarging and improving the 
 public schools of the State and in stimulating to higher 
 ideals of education. The second is Charles H. Winston, 
 of Chesterfield (class of 1854), Assistant Professor in 
 Ancient Languages at Hampden-Sidney, Professor of 
 Ancient Languages in Transylvania University, Ky., 
 President of Richmond Female Institute, Professor of 
 Physics and Astronomy in Richmond College since 1873, 
 a constant worker in summer normal schools in Virginia 
 and North Carolina, a popular lecturer on religious and 
 scientific subjects, a cultured gentleman, a man of the 
 purest Christian character, whose influence for good is 
 widespread and effective. The third is Walter Blair, 
 of Richmond, (class 1855), who, immediately after grad- 
 uation, was made Assistant Professor of Ancient Lan- 
 guages at Hampden-Sidney, and after two years Profes- 
 sor of Latin and German; subsequently spent three years 
 in German Universities, served in the Richmond How- 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 65 
 
 itzers during the war from 1861 -'65, after which he 
 resumed his chair which he filled with marked ability till 
 1896, when he resigned on account of failing eyesight; 
 a thorough scholar, a conscientious and faithful teacher, 
 a noble gentleman, whose influence in behalf of refined 
 culture will be felt for years to come. Many of the 
 men, trained under his hand, now fill educational posi- 
 tions' in leading Colleges and Universities in Virginia and 
 the South, and carry on the work so nobly done by him. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 It is regretted that these sketches are necessarily so 
 fragmentary and incomplete, not for want of material 
 but because of restriction in space. It is even more 
 regretted that the names of many richly entitled to men- 
 tion have to be omitted. It is believed, however, that 
 enough has' been said to illustrate the position of Hamp- 
 den-SicIney as an "educational force" of great value to 
 Virginia and the South and to show that from the first 
 day it opened its doors down to and through the period 
 covered by the war between the States, has done much 
 for the church and country. It may also be remarked 
 that if the scope of our inquiry permitted a statement 
 in regard to its work to the present time, it could easily 
 be shown that during the past forty years its influence has 
 not been less potent. The old College, sitting on the hills 
 of Prince Edward, in the same position and under the 
 same charter that it has worked from the beginning, 
 has at present as in the past, high ideals of scholarship 
 and character and endeavors to send out into the world 
 men well prepared for its duties' and who with masterful 
 energy, address themselves to their performance. 
 
DOES COLLEGE EDUCATION PAY? 
 
 THIS question has been discussed of late with much 
 vigor. The opinions of leading men in different 
 parts of the country and in various walks of life have 
 been gathered, some of which have obtained currency 
 through the daily and weekly press, while others have 
 been embodied in special treatises. 
 
 The trend of thought seems vastly in favor of the 
 affirmative, the facts and figures going to show that edu- 
 cated talent, while in the minority, is predominant and 
 increasingly in the ascendant in all high places of trust 
 and influence. A recognized authority, from data deemed 
 ample and reliable, estimated that one of every forty 
 college-bred men has attained distinguished usefulness, 
 whereas only one in ten thousand of those who have not 
 enjoyed this advantage has risen to a like position, the 
 proportion in favor of "college education" being as 
 250 to I. 
 
 On the other hand, a few gentlemen (notably two) 
 of national reputation, great wealth, and, in certain direc- 
 tions, of large beneficence, and some others following 
 in their wake, have aligned themselves on the negative 
 and declare that "education is overdone;" that "the aver- 
 age youth ought to go to work at from twelve to fifteen 
 years of age," and that "he will be much more likely 
 to achieve success and make the most of life" by thus 
 early taking up some special line than by wasting his 
 time in intellectual improvement and thus unfitting him- 
 self for the stern realities and arduous labors to be en- 
 countered in the future. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 67 
 
 "What Is Proposed. 
 
 In what follows, it is proposed to look at this ques- 
 tion from a practical standpoint, which, so far as ib 
 known to the writer, has not heretofore been duly 
 occupied, by taking the facts as set forth in the life of 
 a single college during a brief period of time as an ex- 
 ample of what has been done by this college throughout 
 its history, and of what has probably been paralleled and 
 possibly exceeded by other similar institutions in Vir- 
 ginia and throughout the country. The college selected 
 is Hampden-Sidney, chartered in 1783, with a continuous 
 history from that time, and the period is the decade from 
 1883 to 1893. The reasons for these selections is that 
 the writer has entire familiarity with the institution and 
 period chosen, and can certify to the substantial accuracy 
 and correctness of the facts presented. 
 
 Facts. 
 
 An accurate count shows that during the period above 
 named — the sessions of 1884-1893 — one hundred and 
 forty-one A. B. graduates went out from Hampden- 
 Sidney College. 
 
 As preliminary to the main inquiry and vitally con- 
 nected therewith, it is a matter of interest to know where 
 these young men came from ; what was the profession or 
 vocation of their parents; what prospect they had of 
 making their way in the world without an education. 
 
 Their Nativity. — Ninety-six were Virginians ; twenty- 
 five West Virginians ; six Texans ; four Kentuckians, and 
 the remaining ten from six Southern States. 
 
 Employment of Parents. — Of the fathers of these 
 youths, fifty-seven were farmers ; thirty-seven ministers 
 
68 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 of the gospel ; twenty-eight, business men ; eight, lawyers ; 
 seven, physicians; tlircc, mechanics, and one a teacher. 
 
 Financial Status of the Families. — Of the whole num- 
 ber, it is not believed that more than one-fifth possessed 
 any estate beyond what was necessary, with wise econ- 
 omy, for the household maintenance, and of those who 
 were better off, not many were in affluent circumstances. 
 While these young men were all, or nearly all, sons of 
 people of the highest respectability, they were mostly 
 so circumstanced in childhood and at college as to en- 
 force carefulness in expenditure and, in some cases, much 
 self-denial. Few could expect to enter life with any- 
 thing to depend on except their character and education 
 and their own efforts. Some supported themselves in 
 whole or in part by money earned through their own 
 labor before entering college, and during the vacations 
 of their college course. Others were partly on borrowed 
 money, which they have repaid. A few, after leaving 
 college, have aided in the education of younger brothers 
 and sisters, and so have been later in entering their life- 
 work than otherwise would have been the case. 
 
 Present Status of these Young Men. — What has be- 
 come of these one hundred and forty-one young men, 
 some of whom left college as far back as' 1884, and some 
 as late as 1893? This is an interesting question, and its 
 answer is the crucial test by which our main inquiry is 
 to be decided. The facts arc worthy of close attention 
 and ought to be carefully considered. Here they are: 
 
 Of the whole number, thirty-nine selected the Gospel 
 ministry as their profession, six of whom became for- 
 eign missionaries, one died before finishing his prepara- 
 tory course, and one is reported to have changed his 
 profession. Thirty-three chose education as their life 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 69 
 
 work, fourteen of whom became professors in universi- 
 ties and colleges of the South, six have died, one is in 
 infirm heahh, and one is engaged in post-graduate uni- 
 versity study. Thirty elected the law as their vocation, 
 all of whom except three are successfully, and most of 
 them to an unusual degree of success, engaged in their 
 work ; two are now pursuing professional study, and one 
 is reported to have abandoned his profession. Twenty- 
 one entered business, three of whom are editors, two 
 cashiers of national banks, two are expert chemists, and 
 one has died.* Fourteen selected the medical profession, 
 one of whom is in infirm health, and one, after teaching 
 for years', is engaged in professional study. Four are 
 farmers, diligently and successfully at work. 
 
 Summing Up. 
 
 From this statement it appears that of the one hun- 
 dred and thirty-one graduates of the afore mentioned 
 decade now alive and in health, one hundred and twenty- 
 five hold honorable and influential positions in society, 
 command the respect of their fellow men, and are either 
 at, or making their way to, the front ; four, after years' 
 of self-denying effort, hope soon to engage in their 
 chosen work, and only two have become discouraged and 
 abandoned the purpose of their life. They are found 
 in seventeen states of the Union, in Washington, D. C, 
 and in three foreign countries, standing in their lot and 
 doing their work well. 
 
 Let these facts anszver the question zvith ivhich ive 
 began: Does college education pay? 
 
 * Of the eight who have died, four .deaths were from typhoid 
 fever, three from pulmonary consumption and of one the cause 
 is unknown. None were from diseases contracted at college. 
 
70 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 Non-Graduates. 
 
 But it may be asked, What has become of the non- 
 graduate students who were at Hampden- Sidney during 
 the ten years under consideration, and who after one, 
 two or more sessions, for one cause or another, left col- 
 lege without diplomas? 
 
 To this inquiry the ready response is given that many, 
 perhaps a large majority of them, are filling places of 
 trust and responsibility, and have earned the confidence 
 of their fellow men, and that among them the college 
 has some of its most honored alumni and warmest friends 
 and supporters, who acknowledge the debt they owe 
 their alma mater for the training and impulse they 
 received at her hands. Of a number, however, no in- 
 formation is' attainable, and consequently no such safe 
 induction in regard to them is possible as in the case of 
 graduates. 
 
 It must also be understood that "college education" 
 means a certain prescribed course of useful knowledge 
 mastered, and a definite amount of intellectual and moral 
 training achieved, and that it is by those who have gone 
 through the curriculum and come out victors at the end, 
 the character and worth of any system of education are 
 to be judged. Every worthy college asks to be tested by 
 this standard. If its graduates obtain competent knowl- 
 edge, thorough training and healthful impulse, and are 
 fitted to fill well important positions in the world, it 
 shows by its fruits that it is doing good work, and that 
 youths who find it possible will act wisely in obtaining 
 its aid in developing and fitting them for completed man- 
 hood. College training helps men "to make the most of 
 themselves"; to enjoy life on a higher plane; to do more 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 71 
 
 for their fellows; to serve God more fully and truthfully. 
 It places before them ideals seldom presented elsewhere, 
 and excites aspiration after better things, not so likely to 
 be awakened amid other surroundings. 
 
 Tlic prime factor in inspiring and moulding manly 
 character is the Christian family. Next, and subsidiary 
 in potent inHuencc, is the Christian college. No young 
 man, zvho is able to secure it, can afford to do without 
 "college education." In the highest sense of the word, 
 It pays ! 
 
 Richard McIlwaine. 
 Ilampden-Sidney, Va. 
 
LEWIS LITTLEPAGE HOLLADAY, 
 A. M., LL. D. 
 
 THE subject of this sketch was born February 2^^. 
 1832, at Bellefonte, Spottsylvania county Va., 
 the ancestral estate of his forefathers since 1702, when it 
 was' patented by the British Crown to John Holladay, 
 the progenitor of the family in Virginia. He sprang 
 from an honorable and sturdy race of people, several of 
 whom were distinguished in church and state. In his 
 early youth, his father, Lewis Littlepage Holladay, M.D., 
 purchased an estate in the county of Orange, where he 
 practiced his profession and reared his family and where 
 most of his children settled in life. It was from this' 
 home that young Holladay, a modest youth of 17 years 
 of age, having been nurtured in piety and received such 
 educational advantages as his neighborhood afforded, in 
 the month of August, 1849, '^vended his way by private 
 conveyance over the country roads leading to Hampdcn- 
 Sidney College, never dreaming that his whole life with 
 the exception of one year was to be spent here or that 
 he was to become so important a figure in the history of 
 the Institution whose instruction he was seeking. When 
 he entered college he was already a member of the Pres- 
 byterian church, having become so at his home under the 
 ministry of the late Rev. Daniel B. Ewing, D. D., for 
 whom he always cherished a very affectionate regard, 
 and it may be well to remark here that throughout his 
 college course and in an intimate personal acquaintance 
 with him during the remainder of his life extending over 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 73 
 
 more than forty-one years, I never knew him to say a 
 word or to do an act unworthy of a Christian. This 
 testimony is borne by one, who during his student Hfe 
 at Hampden-Sidney, was far from being a Christian but 
 who knew well what to expect of one and was ever 
 keenly on the watch for inconsistencies and blemishes 
 in those professing to be such. Holladay's purity of 
 speech and behavior was ever untarnished; his truthful- 
 ness in word and deed was transparent; his' rectitude of 
 character and life was never questioned. 
 
 On entering college he was found prepared in every- 
 thing, except Greek, for the Freshman class. On that 
 study he had to go the Preparatory School, then taught 
 by a tutor entirely separate from the college classes, in 
 the upper story of the Steward's Hall, and so rapid was 
 his' progress that when the ante-Christmas examinations 
 came on he stood with the regular Freshmen and took a 
 leading place in his class. It was just after this time, at 
 the beginning of the second term on January 3, 1850, that 
 I first made his acquaintance, became his classmate and 
 soon formed an intimacy and friendship with him which 
 strengthened with passing years' and only ended with his 
 lamented death on July 23, 1891. When I first met him 
 he was a plain-looking country boy, dressed in home- 
 spun, as most of the students were at that day, among 
 whom were our present honored Governor* ; Rev. John B. 
 Shearer, D. D., LL. D., and other men who have since 
 reached distinguished eminence and usefulness. There 
 was' nothing about him to foretell the man of mark, ex- 
 cept a bright twinkle in his eye ; a quick responsive move- 
 ment of his features and a strong cordial grasp of the 
 hand. These characteristics and the qualities of intellect 
 and heart back of them soon won for him the esteem and 
 
 *P. W. McKinney. 
 
74 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 affection of every man in college and, while in no sense 
 was he ever a college hero, there was no one on the roll 
 who was more universally respected and loved. Not 
 only the good fellows but the bad fellows (of whom we 
 unfortunately had a superabundance) ; not only the 
 Freshmen but the Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors ; not 
 only the bright men and hard workers but the dull fel- 
 lows and idlers ; not only his brethren of the Philan- 
 thropic Society but the Unions, all liked and honored 
 Holladay. He was recognized as easily the first man 
 in his class in point of scholarship and was never known 
 to fail in a recitation or other college duty or to be guilty 
 of a breach of college decorum. He was as popular with 
 the faculty as with the students, and the faculty con- 
 sisted of very able men. They were Lewis W. Green. 
 D. D., President and Professor of Moral Philosophy; 
 Charles Martin, LL. D., Professor of Greek and Latin ; 
 Charles S. Venable, LL. D., Professor of Mathematics', 
 and Joseph R. Wilson, D. D., LL. D., Professor of Phy- 
 sical Science. Dr. Green was a genius ; an orator who 
 moved his audiences at times with thunderous eloquence ; 
 a most inspiring teacher and a high man every way. Dr. 
 Martin was a broad and accurate scholar, perhaps the 
 fullest man on "TJie Hill" at that day, deeply interested 
 in the students, possibly a little inclined to watch them 
 too closely, but earnestly engaged to save them from 
 trouble and to make them good men. Dr. Venable was 
 the youngest member of the faculty but recognized as the 
 equal of any of them, strict in the classroom, a superb 
 teacher, sympathetic with the boys, and intuitively under- 
 standing how to govern them, showing even then the pos- 
 session of abilities which have fitted him to become the 
 Nestor of the faculty of the University of Virginia. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 75 
 
 Dr. Wilson was then a cultured young preacher and an 
 ardent student of science. He made his mark here and 
 impressed himself not only on the students but on the 
 people of the neighborhood and surrounding counties by 
 his brilliant sermons, and was soon called to Staunton, 
 Va., then to Augusta, Ga., then to Columbia Theological 
 Seminary and is now Professor of Theology in the 
 Southwestern Presbyterian University at Clarksville, 
 Tenn. These men all loved and admired Holladay 
 throughout life and the two last named, who survive 
 him, still honor and cherish his memory. 
 
 There is not much else to say of his college life. It 
 v/as regular, systematic and successful. He was a fine 
 student, was fond of innocent fun, took regular exercise, 
 observed early hours and got plenty of sleep; was a 
 cheerful and pleasant companion but allowed no man 
 on any pretense to interfere with his appointed time for 
 study ; was a punctual attendant on his literary society, 
 an ardent Phip. and performed every duty assigned him 
 but never ventured on his feet except when duty com- 
 pelled him. And herein he made, perhaps', the largest 
 mistake of his college life. He might have become a 
 ready and facile speaker, for he possessed every power 
 essential to it, except that afforded only by practice. He 
 was chock-full of humor; had a ready wit which was 
 sharp and bright, and might have greatly enlarged his 
 sphere of usefulness, had he only cultivated the art of 
 speaking. As it was', he seldom appeared before a popu- 
 lar audience and never except under distress and had no 
 comfort in it until he had finished. 
 
 He graduated in the class of 1853 with the highest 
 honors, and delivered the valedictory, which was a 
 modest and feeling address and made some of us cry. It 
 
ye ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 was the first time I ever saw a tear stand in his eye, but 
 he was a sympathetic, loving friend and this parting from 
 those he loved deeply stirred his emotions. There had, 
 from the Freshman year up, been from fifty to sixty 
 men in the class but they had been gradually sifted out 
 until after the final examination there remained only 
 nine, as follows : Lindsay H. Blanton, now the distin- 
 guished Chancellor of Central University, Ky. ; John B. 
 Burwell, major in the Confederate Army and for many 
 years President of Peace Institute, Raleigh, N. C. ; 
 Charles W. Crawley, engaged successfully most of his 
 life as a classical teacher in which he obtained eminence 
 — as good and true a man as ever lived. He died in 
 Cumberland county about two years ago ; John H. Davis, 
 the beloved pastor of Black Walnut Church, Halifax 
 county, a fine preacher and a noble man ; Samuel H. 
 Davis, one of the best men in the class, who passed 
 through Union Theological Seminary and became the 
 pastor of the Church in Amelia county, where he died 
 in 1858, lamented by all who knew him ; Edward M. 
 Henry, for many years a merchant in Norfolk, Va., and 
 for a time mayor of the city; Lewis L. Holladay, the 
 subject of this sketch; Matthew L. Lacy, at" one time 
 pastor in Lewisburg, W. Va., now in IMonroe county, 
 W. Va., the leading man in his Presbytery and one of the 
 foremost in the Synod of Virginia ; Richward Mcllwaine, 
 the writer of this sketch. Every man of us, except one, 
 became a preacher or teacher. There was not an inferior 
 fellow among them. Without exception they have led 
 honorable and useful lives. It is a distinction to belong to 
 such a class' and to have been intimately associated with 
 such men. 
 
 Immediately on graduation, Holladay was elected by 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 77 
 
 the Board of Trustees tutor of the Preparatory School. 
 This office was far different from that of Fellow now 
 known in college, and the duties were very dissimilar. 
 The tutor was a schoolmaster and his pupils were boys, 
 mostly young, but some of them nearly full grown and 
 venturesome, whom he had not only to teach, but to gov- 
 ern and control, and sometimes to flog. My distinguished 
 friend, Major R. M. Venable, leading Professor of Law 
 in the University of Maryland, at Baltimore, who was a 
 scholar at the time, testifies to the faithful and successful 
 performance by the tutor of all his duties including the 
 use of the rod. Dr. Richard Busby, head-master of West- 
 minster School in the boyhood of the famous John Locke, 
 boasted before he died, that sixteen of the bishops who 
 then occupied the bench had been birched with his "little 
 rod," and it would be interesting to know how many men 
 were helped during that year by the discipline adminis- 
 tered by the young tutor. He was muscular and strong 
 and unacquainted with the emotion of fear, and when one 
 day (according to Major Venable's account) a conspiracy 
 among four or live of the older boys was formed to bring 
 his authority into contempt, all having agreed to stand 
 by the aggressor, no sooner had the offence, which was of 
 a serious character, been given, than he was seized and 
 dealt with so summarily that his compatriots stood back 
 and let him bear the brunt of the tutor's indignation. 
 There was order and decorum in that school from that 
 day on, and it turned out some distinguished men. 
 
 In the fall of 1854, Holladay entered the University 
 of Virginia. His life there was uneventful but he came 
 out at the close of the session with diplomas on Latin, 
 Greek and Mathematics, besides attending the class on 
 Physics but not offering for graduation. At the end of 
 
78 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 this session he was elected Professor of Physical Science 
 in Hampden-Sidney College, which position he continued 
 to hold throughout life. At times during his incumbency, 
 he taught for longer or shorter periods the classes of 
 Latin, Greek, Mathematics and Moral Philosophy and 
 for several sessions during the absence or sickness of 
 the President performed the administrative duties of the 
 College — all to the entire satisfaction of the trustees, the 
 faculty and the students. For many years he was also 
 clerk of the faculty and curator of the college. In the 
 year 1856, soon after he entered on his professorial 
 duties, Prof. Holladay was united in marriage to Miss 
 Nannie Morton, of Buffaloe, Prince Edward county, who 
 continued throughout his life his beloved and trusted 
 wife, and who, while now mourning and deploring his 
 loss, is comforted by the thought that no woman ever 
 had a truer or purer man for husband. 
 
 In estimating Prof. Holladay's rank as a professor, it 
 goes without the saying that he was thoroughly qualified, 
 faithful in the performance of his duties and a good 
 teacher. The late President Atkinson, who was his col- 
 league for twenty-five years, told me that he had attended 
 his classes for a session and that he regarded him a very 
 fine lecturer, and one of the best instructors he ever 
 knew. Perhaps the marked excellence of his' teaching, 
 apart from and beyond the regular and necessary drill 
 of the classroom, consisted in its power to reach and 
 stimulate the great majority of his students. Very few 
 young men passed under his hand, however inattentive 
 they might be in other departments, who were not waked 
 up and made to think. It was as an educator rather than 
 a specialist that he was peculiarly distinguished, and he 
 thus impressed many minds, aroused them to a con- 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 79 
 
 sciousness of their powers and put them in the way of 
 using their abihties. 
 
 As a member of the faculty and officer of the college, 
 Prof. Holladay obtained deserved eminence. Possibly, 
 from temperament as well as a matter of judgment, a 
 little too disinclined to note offences until they had be- 
 come flagrant ; possibly, too, when they were no longer 
 concealed but must be dealt with disposed to be some- 
 what too lenient, his error, if he erred at all, was on 
 the right side, and it may have resulted in aiding and 
 saving more than it injured. However this was, he was 
 a tower of strength in the faculty, every member of 
 which loved and trusted him, and he was greatly honored 
 and respected by the students. As a Christian, Prof. 
 Holladay was modest and unassuming but earnest and 
 practical. As an elder in college church, his services 
 were constant and cheerful. Perhaps no man in the com- 
 munity at the time of his death had so strong a hold on 
 all classes and conditions' of people in and out of the 
 church. He was kind to the poor ; sympathetic with 
 those in distress ; a welcome visitor to the sick ; a coun- 
 cellor to the troubled. He was preeminently a man of 
 peace. He loved it ; "studied the things that made for" 
 it and communicated it to many souls. He was a very 
 generous man. His was not a religion that consisted in 
 "good wordb', that butter no parsnips," but he was ever 
 ready to help in every good work and in proportion to his 
 means was a bountiful giver. As a citizen he was in 
 thorough accord with his neighbors and friends on all 
 questions of policy ; was public spirited and ever ready 
 to bear his portion of every burden. 
 
 In the year 1885, he received the degree of Doctor 
 of Laws from Central University, Ky. ; an honor espe- 
 
8o ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 cially pleasing to him as it was conferred by an institu- 
 tion presided over by his old friend and classmate, Rev. 
 Dr. L. H. Blanton, and which several years before had 
 honored him by an invitation to one of its professorial 
 chairs. 
 
 His death was both sudden and unexpected. One 
 afternoon at five o'clock I saw him apparently in health 
 and engaged in pleasant friendly conversation. The next 
 morning at the same hour I was summoned to his resi- 
 dence, but he was not there. The body was laid out for 
 burial. The spirit had departed to the better world. 
 Using the language in a Christian sense, the words em- 
 ployed by Xenophon to describe Socrates may well be 
 applied to this incomparable man : "He was so pious, 
 that he did nothing without the advice of the gods ; so 
 just, that he never injured anyone even in the least; so 
 completely master of himself, that he never chose the 
 agreeable instead of the good ; so discerning that he never 
 failed to distinguish the better from the worse. He was 
 just the best and happiest man possible." 
 
SOME ESSENTIALS IN THE IMPROVEMENT 
 OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 THE importance of our public schools to society and 
 the State cannot be over estimated. Conditions in 
 Virginia at present are vastly different from what they 
 were formerly and the only hope of the wide diffusion of 
 good educational advantages lies in the public schools. 
 Classical academies and institutes, under private owner- 
 ship or maintained by associated effort, doubtless have 
 their place to fill and many of them will continue to exist 
 as indispensable factors in promoting higher education, 
 but not one in a thousand of the boys and girls of Virginia 
 has the means to attend them. Church schools, too, under 
 sectarian impulse, may be maintained here and there 
 more or less regularly, but really there is no need of 
 them and no place for them in a country like ours, where 
 thought is free as the air and every one is at liberty to 
 embrace that form of doctrine which commends itself as 
 truth. They have never had any strong hold on the 
 people of Virginia and I regard the present reaction in 
 their favor as the result of well-meant sectarian zeal, 
 wrongly directed. What we need under a republican 
 form of government where the people belong to many 
 different church organizations, is a point of unity where 
 they can come together and bring their combined ener- 
 gies to bear in behalf of a primary and secondary 
 education, good for all and open to all. The nearest 
 approach to this' yet discovered and that which most fully 
 
82 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 meets the demands of the case, is found in the public 
 school system, properly developed and administered. It 
 is by no means perfect. What we are aiming at is its 
 improvement. 
 
 But just here, at the very beginning, we find our- 
 selves encompassed by serious' embarrassments. A capi- 
 tal difficulty confronts us by reason of our heterogeneous 
 and scattered population. If the people of Virginia were 
 wholly white or wholly colored, the problem would be 
 simplified, but about one-third of the population of the 
 state and more than one-half of the population of Prince 
 Edward and its' sister counties is composed of negroes, 
 social contact Avith whom in the schools is impracticable 
 and impossible. No one, not living under these condi- 
 tions, can form an adequate idea of the difficulty and 
 perplexity caused by them. But, my friends, the fathers 
 and founders of the Old Dominion, among whom were 
 tlie first settlers of Prince Edward and its sister counties, 
 overcame difficulties and put aside perplexities in laying 
 broad and deep the foundations of this commonwealth, 
 and so you, their children, under changed conditions must 
 meet your responsibilities and bear your burdens. God 
 has been with us in the past and will doubtless continue 
 with us in the future. All we need to insure success is an 
 intelligent appreciation of the situation and a determined 
 and persistent discharge of the duties growing out of it. 
 
 In the development of my subject, I ask your assent 
 to the following propositions: ist, We need better 
 schools and school houses. 2nd, In order to secure these 
 we must have competent and well paid teachers; longer 
 school terms, fewer school houses and submit to local 
 taxation as a supplement to the fund derived from the 
 State. 3rd, In order to this, we must have more 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 83 
 
 sympathetic interest in the schools by the people, more 
 faithful and enlightened superintendents of schools and 
 more intelligent and patriotic school trustees. 
 
 I need dwell but a little while on my first proposition, 
 for it is generally admitted that schools outside of cities 
 and towns are not infrequently poor, the teachers often 
 incompetent, sometimes immoral ; and the school houses 
 ugly, uncomfortable, and badly furnished, with excep- 
 tions here and there, but the exceptions' so rare in rural 
 communities as rather to emphasize than to disprove the 
 rule. 
 
 Let us for a moment look at this' state of facts. We 
 must be careful, however, not to exaggerate the evils, 
 but only to look them squarely in the face. 
 
 It is a depressing fact that many of our schools 
 change teachers every year, or at least, every year or 
 two. There is no permanency about them. Teachers 
 and children come together as strangers and by the time 
 they get acquainted, they part. There is no knowledge 
 of the pupil, of his capacity, proclivities', and character- 
 istics, on the part of the teacher, and no affection and 
 kind regard for the teacher by the pupil. There is no 
 permanent interest in one another and no steady progress 
 in the school. Things are at a dead level. A minimum 
 of instruction is given and a minimum of progress made. 
 
 The case is, however, in many instances, worse than 
 this, for the testimony is overwhelming that not a few 
 of our public schools are taught by men and women of 
 little education, whose example and influence are far 
 from inspiring and whose instruction is of little worth. 
 Others testify that in some cases' teachers are immoral. 
 I have been told of a white teacher, who was known in 
 his neighborhood to be utterly untrustworthy, and two 
 
84 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 gentlemen in this county have asserted in my presence 
 that a certain colored school taught hy a certain colored 
 teacher is a hot bed of dissension and the breeding place 
 of all sorts of foolish and vain expectations, while the 
 children are taught little or nothing of value, but become 
 adepts in vicious practices. 
 
 As to school houses, it is very sure that comparatively 
 few of them are neat and comfortable and elevating in 
 structure or surroundings. They are generally little 
 wooden affairs without architectural beauty or propor- 
 tion and devoid of paint or other adornment, stuck away 
 in the edge of a piece of wood, or worse, of an unshaded 
 held, the faithful picture of forlorn hopelessness and of 
 the entire absence of aspiration. The inside of these 
 seats of learning, where the future sovereigns of Virginia 
 are being prepared for the high duties of citizenship, are 
 as uninviting as the aspect from without, with not a 
 thing that is pleasing to the eye and not much convenient 
 to the hand or stimulating to the mind. It is a dreary 
 waste within as without. 
 
 2nd, May I now take it for granted that you agree 
 with me in thinking that "we need better schools and 
 school houses?" If so, then the question arises, how are 
 we to get them ? In reply to this inquiry, I beg to restate 
 by second proposition, to wit, "we must have competent 
 and well paid teachers, longer school terms, fewer school 
 houses and must submit to local taxation to supplement 
 what is derived from the State fund." 
 
 A competent teacher is a well educated teacher, a 
 thoroughly trained teacher, a teacher truly interested in, 
 and who gives his time and attention to, his work; a 
 person, whether man or woman, white or colored, whose 
 character is above reproach and whose conduct is beyond 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 85 
 
 suspicion. This is the kind of teachers we endeavor to 
 get in our institutions of higher learning and it is the 
 "kind we ought to seek for our pubhc schools. No parent 
 ought to be willing to entrust his child to the care of 
 an ignorant, ill-mannered or immoral guide. The school 
 authorities are culpable if, without proper inquiry or 
 wilfully, they impose such a teacher on confiding parents. 
 All such ought to be weeded out of the profession. 
 Better close your school than have your children injured 
 by the defects and misdemeanors of such creatures. 
 
 But if you want good teachers, you must give them 
 reasonable compensation for their services. Well do I 
 remember that many years ago I was told by a venerable 
 minister of the gospel of the pittance he received as his 
 salary, to which I replied in astonishment, "Why, doctor, 
 that is dreadfully poor pay," when he said, ''Poor pay, 
 poor preach." So I say, "Poor pay, poor teach." If you 
 want a good teacher, you must pay him, just as when 
 you want a good lawyer, or doctor, or carpenter, or 
 blacksmith, you pay him the value of his service. It is 
 ridiculous to expect educated and high-minded men and 
 women, except in rare cases in which they submit to it 
 in the interest of religion and as a means of doing good, 
 to endure extraordinary privation and cut themselves off 
 from profitable employment in order to educate other 
 people's children. It is ridiculous, but it is about the size 
 of the public expectation that for the pittance of $32 per 
 month for male teachers and $26 per month for females 
 in schools with about five month's terms, these competent 
 individuals shall give their time to teach the young idea 
 how to shoot and guide their immature feet into the 
 paths of virtue and goodness. It is a vain hope. You 
 already have as good and in many cases much better 
 
86 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 teachers than your money pays for, and if you wish the 
 teaching and the schools improved, you must use means, 
 and if need he submit to privation, to obtain competent 
 teachers and useful schools. 
 
 As subsidiary to this, we must have longer school 
 terms; i. e., more of the time of the teachers must be 
 employed than four, five or six months in the year. I 
 am aware that in pressing this point, I have to meet an- 
 other patent and potent difficulty, to wit, the fact that in 
 our rural communities, many parents find it necessarv 
 to have their children over ten or twelve years of age as 
 helps on the farm and cannot afford their absence until 
 the crops are gathered in the fall, or longer than the time 
 when it is necessary to pitch the crops in the spring. This 
 necessity is not universal but in some parts of the state 
 it is general and it constitutes a very great barrier to 
 perfecting the schools. 
 
 In some of the counties of North Carolina, this diffi- 
 culty is met in the follow ing manner ; the annual school 
 session is divided into two terms of five months each, 
 the first for younger children up to ten years of age, 
 running from May to September inclusive, and the sec- 
 ond for older children over ten years old, running from 
 November through March, thus furnishing a ten months' 
 session to the teacher and school accommodations in the 
 same house for double the number of children who could 
 otherwise be provided for. This plan is set forth lucidly 
 in an interesting paper read before the Richmond Meet- 
 ing of the Southern Educational Association by Col. S. 
 F. Venable and is said to be working admirably in Bun- 
 combe and perhaps other counties in North Carolina. 
 Whether it is practicable or not in \''irginia and I^rince 
 Edward is a question for school trustees in conference 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 87 
 
 with patrons of the schools to determine. Certainly 
 something must be done to employ teachers for a longer 
 term, if good schools are to be maintained. For employ- 
 ment for the longer term of itself increases the pay of the 
 teacher. A man or woman whose time is occupied for 
 ten months is in a much better position than one who is 
 employed for only a part of that time. 
 
 But the salary at present given to most country teach- 
 ers is ridiculous. It is less than many laboring men re- 
 ceive, less than reputable mechanics, or workers in facto- 
 ries' or successful boot blacks earn, and we ought not to 
 be content to allow those to whom are assigned such im- 
 portant and elevated duties, from a social, intellectual or 
 moral standpoint, to do this important work at starvation 
 and depressing wages. The teacher ought to be well paid 
 and the school houses neat, comfortable and well fur- 
 nished. All admit the justice and economy of this. 
 
 The improvement in teachers implies an improvement 
 in the school houses, their furniture, appliances and sur- 
 roundings, but this advance cannot be made so long as 
 such an unnecessary multiplicity of schools exist. Ac- 
 cording to the report of the Superintendent of Public 
 Instruction for 1 900-1 901, there were only five out of 
 forty-tw^o white schools in Prince Edward which main- 
 tained an average attendance of twenty pupils', while 
 there were twenty-one — exactly one-half — which fell be- 
 low fifteen pupils. I know of three schools in this county 
 in an area where there ought to be but one. It is objected 
 that if this consolidation is accomplished some of the 
 scholars will have to walk two or three miles, which, to 
 me, seems to have no force whatever. Some of you, and 
 many of your fathers and mothers, and grandfathers and 
 grandmothers walked three, four or five miles to school, 
 
88 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 and it made men and women of them, and the children of 
 this generation are no better than their forebears. Many 
 of the most able, influential and useful men of former 
 times and of the present day in the Commonwealth of 
 Virginia had this experience, and it is a necessary inci- 
 dent to the scattered condition of our population that it 
 shall continue a while longer, if the educational advan- 
 tages offered our children are not to continue to be the 
 merest farce. 
 
 As I said a moment ago, "we must have well-paid 
 teachers and neat, comfortable and well-furnished school 
 houses." How is this most desirable end to be attained? 
 Something else is necessary besides the diminution of 
 school houses, and I insist that one of the great desiderata 
 in accomplishing this object and without which it cannot 
 probably be attained, is increased taxation — local taxa- 
 tion in addition to what the State furnishes. 
 
 According to advanced sheets of the Virginia School 
 Report for 1900-1901, the total State fund for last year 
 amounted to $1,029,373.80, which was all in hand to pay 
 for administration and all other charges, together with 
 the support of the schools. Let us suppose that the 
 whole fund were devoted to the support of the schools, 
 then there would have been but $1.47 per capita for the 
 school population of the Commonwealth ; $2.69 per cap- 
 ita for the pupils enrolled ; and $4.57 per capita for those 
 in daily average attendance. This shows you how wretch- 
 edly inadequate the State fund is to the support of repu- 
 table schools and how necessary it is that it be supple- 
 mented by local taxation. 
 
 Governor Montague, the honored Chief Magistrate 
 of Virginia, has said sententiously and wisely, "I would 
 rather have one good school within five miles of my house 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 89 
 
 than five poor schools at my door." "Good schools" are 
 what we need. Are you wilHng to pay for them? 
 
 In the Constitution of the State of Virginia under 
 which we are now Hving, there are found two provisions, 
 not heretofore existing, which it is beHeved go far in 
 aiding in the solution of this knotty problem. 
 
 The first of these is found in section 173 in the Article 
 on Taxation and Finance, and is as follows : 
 
 "The General Assembly may authorize the Board of 
 Supervisors of any county or the council of any city or 
 town to levy an additional capitation tax not exceeding 
 one dollar per annum on every such resident within its 
 limits," (i. e., on every male resident not less than twenty 
 one years of age,) "which shall be applied in aid of the 
 public schools of said county, city or town, or for such 
 other county, city or town purpose as they shall deter- 
 mine." 
 
 The object of this provision is two fold — (i) to get 
 some tax from every male citizen, so far as possible. At 
 present, many citizens pay no tax for the support either 
 of the schools or the government; (2) in counties, cities 
 and towns that desire it, to give larger support to the 
 public schools. 
 
 The second provision is found in section 136 in the 
 Article on Education and Public Instruction, and is as 
 follows : "Each county, city, town, if the same be a sepa- 
 rate school district, and school district is authorized to 
 raise additional sums by a tax on property, not to exceed 
 in the aggregate five mills on the dollar in any one year, 
 to be apportioned and expended by the local school au- 
 thorities of said counties, cities, towns and districts in es- 
 tablishing and maintaining such schools as in Iheir judg- 
 ment the public welfare may require." 
 
90 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 The object of this provision is entirely different from 
 that of the former, to wit, to clothe the people in the 
 counties, cities, towns and school districts of the State 
 with authority to tax themselves for the maintenance of 
 graded and high schools, a most important feature which 
 must be added to our public school system, in order to 
 give it full efficiency. I am glad to see that the county 
 of Charlotte is the pioneer in laying hold of this privi- 
 lege and has determined to levy a tax for the full amount 
 allowed for the purpose of establishing within her bor- 
 ders schools of a higher grade than have existed there 
 heretofore. Shall not Prince Edward come next? Will 
 not the trustees of our several school districts and the 
 people of the county awake to the importance of this mat- 
 ter and give our young people, male and female, the op- 
 portunity to fit themselves for higher and broader and 
 larger usefulness in life? 
 
 In this connection, I beg to call your attention to the 
 "Southern" or "Ogden Educational" Movement, which 
 has aroused much interest, north and south, and which, 
 I understand, is organized and intended to stimulate, fos- 
 ter and assist just such advances in education as I am 
 advocating. But let it be noted as certain that nothing 
 can be expected from this source until we express a will- 
 ingness to co-operate and to do for ourselves what is in 
 our power, whereas if we move towards the goal, they 
 will join hands with us in the establishment and mainte- 
 nance of a first-rate system of public education. Fortu- 
 nately for Prince Edward, it has strong and influential 
 friends among those most intimately connected with this 
 movement. First, there is Dr. J. L. M. Curry, chairman 
 of the Campaign Committee for the whole South, who 
 knows Prince Edward well and has some close associa- 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 91 
 
 tions here. Then there are Dr. Charles W. Dabney, di- 
 rector of the Bureau of Information and Investigation, 
 and Professor J. D. Eggleston, secretary and editor, both 
 born and bred in Prince Edward and graduates of its old 
 College, Hampden-Sidney. Then there are Dr. Robert 
 Frazer, for some years resident among you as president 
 of the State Female Normal School, and Hon. Henry St. 
 George Tucker, than whom there is no more broad- 
 minded gentleman in the Commonwealth — field agents 
 for Virginia. In view of these facts and the possibilities 
 which they appear to open up, I exhort the people of 
 Farmville and Prince Edward to arouse themselves to 
 embrace this opportunity, to put your shoulders to the 
 wheel, every man to take up cheerfully his part of the 
 burden and thus place the old county far in advance along 
 educational lines of what it has ever been in the past. 
 
 Third. But if all this were //;/ fait accompli, something 
 else is necessary. The system would not be complete, for 
 there would be no assurance for the future that through 
 lack of interest on the part of the people or by reason of 
 maladministration by those in whose hands school man- 
 agement is placed, there will not be gradual deterioration 
 and peraianent inefficiency and therefore I come to my 
 third and last proposition — to wit : "We must have more 
 sympathetic interest in the schools by the people, more 
 faithful and enlightened superintendents of schools and 
 more intelligent and patriotic school trustees." 
 
 I. An essential element in the prosperity of any insti- 
 tution of learning is the cordial support it receives from 
 its patrons and the people by whom it is surrounded. 
 Without this, the schools of whatever grade may get 
 along in a hum-drum kind of way and do good work, its 
 teachers faithfully but drearily performing their duties 
 
92 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 and the scholars going wearily through with their tasks', 
 but where there is lack of inspiration, approval and en- 
 couragement from without, the actors are thrown back 
 on the sole reserve of conscientious discharge of duty ; 
 the strongest, the most stable, the most trustworthy of 
 all correct incentives to action indeed, and yet, which 
 when alone, often leaves the soul in disconsolation and 
 doubt. Even strong men, engaged in arduous work, need 
 the sympathy and expressed regard of their fellows' for 
 their comfort and support and full efficiency. How much 
 more men of sensitive organism and tender women, em- 
 ployed in the onerous task of developing the intellectual 
 faculties of the young, of placing before them the mental 
 pabulum by feeding on which they will acquire growth 
 and strength and stimulus for higher endeavor and of in- 
 fluencing them by wholesome instruction and example to 
 avoid the evil and choose the right and good in life. 
 Surely the teacher of all men deserves the sympathy and 
 encouragement of right-thinking and virtuous people and 
 every community ought to keep alive, and on proper oc- 
 casion to express its sincere interest in its schools, in 
 their work, in their teachers, in their pupils. No com- 
 munity can afford to leave its schools alone without coun- 
 tenance, sympathy and assistance. Every man, woman 
 and child, be he patron or pupil, or without any direct 
 connection therewith, ought to feel himself under obliga- 
 tion to do all in his power to speed the good work and to 
 cheer on those immediately engaged in it. The influence 
 for good of such sympathetic consideration and action 
 will be two- fold — (i) in stimulating teachers and pupils 
 to higher aims and efforts; and (2) by a natural and 
 necessary reaction on the community in elevating its tone, 
 enlarging its intelligence and putting it on a higher plane 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 93 
 
 of living and acting. By all means, my f rie.Kls do what 
 you can to promote the welfare of the needful mst.tu- 
 tions within your gates, and, so far as m you hes, m- 
 fluence your neighbors in .his and the adjo.n.ng count.es 
 to do the same. In blessing others, you will also be 
 
 "'T But not only must the attitude of the people to- 
 wards the schools be friendly and helpful It ,s essent.al 
 that the officers into whose hands these vital .ntejests are 
 entrusted, the superintendents of schools and the schoo 
 trustees, shall be men of character, of nUelhgence, o 
 loyalty to duty, whose only concern in the d..diarge of 
 official functions is to promote the welfare of the schools 
 and of those connected with them. 
 
 That this has not been the case always is too plain to 
 require discussion ; that it is not universally true at pres- 
 ent is well known to those, who during late months, have 
 given attention to the subject. While many of these offi- 
 cers have been and are excellent in every respect and 
 have performed their duties intelligently and assiduously 
 any others have not been worth a fig -d have tised 
 their office for personal ends. There is no doubt abou 
 this Its exact truth cannot be seriously questioned b> 
 anyone informed on the subject. A young man. a grad- 
 uaie of Hampden-Sidney College, taught a public school 
 :„ one of the eastern counties of the State. He never saw 
 the county superintendent until the closing day of the ses- 
 sion, when that gentleman put in an appearance, shook 
 hands with him, told him that the patrons of the school 
 were pleased with him, and would be glad to have him re- 
 turn and bade him good-bye. In one of the most impor- 
 tant counties of the State, a '-'""' ^"f -^'"'^"P:;; 
 tendent was superseded by a man of dubious character 
 
94 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 and life, who had a poHtical pull and who was of no man- 
 ner of use in the office to which he was appointed. In 
 another county, a physician of political influence and 
 large practice was appointed to this office, wdio in the 
 nature of things was incapacitated by professional en- 
 gagements from attending to its duties. These are speci- 
 men cases and the thing was seen to be so bad that in 
 our late Constitutional Convention, it was seriously con- 
 sidered whether it be not better to abolish the office alto- 
 gether, and many were avowedly in favor of this propo- 
 sition, but after protracted conference it was deemed 
 wiser to continue the office and to constitute the State 
 Board of Education so that it would no longer be a politi- 
 cal body, but most largely composed of educators, de- 
 voted to the work throughout the State, whose appoint- 
 ments will henceforth be made in the interest of the 
 schools and not of a political party. It is hoped that this 
 arrangement will gradually eliminate the worthless school 
 superintendents and fill their places with good and effi- 
 cient men. 
 
 The matter of school trustees is also one of great im- 
 portance. Many of them are competent and disinterested 
 and discharge their duties wisely and well. ]\Tany others 
 use the office to secure positions for relatives and friends, 
 regardless of fitness and for the location of school houses, 
 not for the convenience of the community, but of them- 
 selves or of certain favored individuals. Nepotism and 
 favoritism are the two curses which attach to this office. 
 They must be gotten rid of or there is little prospect of 
 much improvement. In the late Constitutional Conven- 
 tion I was anxious to have the election of school trustees 
 by the people engrafted on the fundamental law of the 
 land as an indispensable principle, but after full exami- 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 95 
 
 nation of the question under our peculiar circumstances 
 and the possibihties growing out of them, it appeared 
 wiser to leave its adjustment to the Legislature. It is 
 hoped that the General Assembly will see its way clear to 
 deal with this question at an early day. In my opinion, 
 we will never have good and efficient school trustees until 
 they are made directly responsible to the people and the 
 people have authority to turn out unworthy and put in 
 good men. 
 
 And now, ladies and gentlemen, I have endeavored as 
 briefly as possible and in plain, straightforward language 
 to lay before you some of the prominent defects of our 
 public school system, with the suggestion of some im- 
 provements which will add greatly to its efficiency and 
 usefulness. In the final analysis the responsibility rests 
 on the people, on you and on me. It is the duty of every 
 citizen to keep himself informed on these questions and 
 in touch with all movements for the betterment of our 
 social condition. We must look to the character and 
 ability of those who make and administer our laws and 
 put intelligent and honest men in official positions. Next 
 to the church of Christ, including in it the Christian 
 family, the school-house is the most important factor in 
 the enlargement of intelligence, the increase of virtue and 
 the elevation of our social status. We owe it to God, to 
 our country, to our State, to our county, to our families, 
 to our friends, to the rising generation and to generations' 
 yet unborn, to do all in our power to promote and perfect 
 this great agency for the betterment of mankind. You 
 cnn do something towards this end. I can do something. 
 Let us arise and be about it. 
 
 I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your kind pres- 
 ence and attention. 
 
LOCAL TAXATION FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
 
 UNDER THE PRESENT STATE 
 
 CONSTITUTION. 
 
 Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 THERE are two provisions in the Constitution of 
 Virginia which authorize ''local taxation for public 
 schools." 
 
 The first of these is found in section 136, under the 
 "Article on Education and Public Instruction," and is as 
 follows: "Each county, city, town, if the same be a sepa- 
 rate school district, and school district is authorized to 
 raise additional sums by a tax on property not to exceed 
 in the aggregate five mills on the dollar in any one year, 
 to be apportioned and expended by the local school au- 
 thorities of said counties', cities, towns and districts in 
 establishing and maintaining such schools as in their 
 judgment the public welfare may require: provided, that 
 such primary schools as may be established in any one 
 year shall be maintained at least four months of that 
 school year, before any part of the fund assessed and 
 collected may be devoted to the establishment of schools 
 of higher grade. The boards of supervisors of the sev- 
 eral counties and the councils of the several cities and 
 towns, if the same be separate school districts, shall pro- 
 vide for the levy and collection of such local school taxes. 
 
 The second provision is found in section 173, under 
 the "Article on Taxation and Finance," last clause of the 
 section — as follows: "The General Assembly may au- 
 thorize the board of supervisors of any county or the 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 97 
 
 council of any city or town, to levy an additional capi- 
 tation tax not exceeding one dollar per annum on every 
 such resident within its limits, which shall be applied in 
 aid of the public schools of such county, city or town, or 
 for such other county, city or town purpose as they shall 
 determine." 
 
 Both these provisions are local and voluntary and can- 
 not be enforced except through the supervisors or coun- 
 cils' elected by the people. Both, therefore, conform to 
 the fundamental principles of local self-government. 
 They are not imposed by superior authority, but are vol- 
 untarily assumed. Both have in view primarily the im- 
 provement of the advantages offered the children of the 
 locality and ultimately the increased intelligence and cul- 
 ture of the people, the enlarged interest of householders 
 and tax-payers in the betterment of their school system, 
 and, generally speaking, the purification of the franchise, 
 the elevation of the masses, the promotion of virtue, the 
 advancement of civilization and the making of our State 
 in reality, as well as in name, "the land of the free and 
 the home of the brave — "the land of the free," of men 
 delivered from the thraldom of ignorance, sensuality and 
 vice, who think and act for themselves independently and 
 correctly, who keep before them high ideals of right and 
 of life, and who ever seek to improve their own condition 
 and the condition of those about them practically, intel- 
 lectually, socially and morally; "the home of the brave," 
 of citizens, who, having tasted the blessings of freedom 
 and of intellectual and social light, have the courage of 
 their convictions and are ready, if need be, to exert in- 
 fluence, to make sacrifices, to endure hardness and to put 
 forth effort not only for themselves and their families, 
 
98 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 but for their fellows, not so highly favored and for gen- 
 erations yet to come. 
 
 The first provision, v^^hich allows the assessment of a 
 tax of five mills on the dollar of property has reference 
 wholly to the upbuilding of the public schools and their 
 improvement from every point of view, and is already at 
 the command of the legalized authorities to be put into 
 operation at their discretion. In carrying out this pro- 
 vision the General Assembly has enacted that, "the board 
 of supervisors of each county . . . shall levy a tax 
 of not less than seven and a half cents, nor more than 
 twenty cents, on the one hundred dollars of the assessed 
 value of the real and personal property in the county for 
 the support of the public free schools of the county and a 
 tax of not less than seven and a half cents on the hundred 
 dollars of the assessed value of the real and personal 
 property in any school district for district school pur- 
 poses." The General Assembly also provides that if the 
 levy is not sufficient for county or district school support, 
 on a petition from the county school board, the question 
 of other school taxation may be submitted to the qualified 
 voters of county or district. 
 
 The second constitutional provision, which permits' a 
 supplementary poll-tax of one dollar, can be utilized only 
 by act of the General Assembly and may be directed to 
 the upbuilding of schools or to any other useful purpose. 
 It is to the first of these methods that reference is made 
 chiefly, as the second will probably not be called into 
 action until the resources' of the first are exhausted or to 
 accomplish some subsidiary purpose with only indirect 
 reference to public schools. 
 
 It is worthy of special remark that not only cities and 
 counties have the privilege of levying a local tax for 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 99 
 
 schools, but that "towns, if separate school districts," and 
 "school districts" subordinate to counties are accorded the 
 same right. This fact is of interest because it gives scope 
 for improvement not only to the larger divisions of the 
 school system, but also to their more alert and progressive 
 sub-divisions. If a county as a whole is unwilling to bear 
 voluntary taxation, while one of its districts feels able 
 and anxious to advance, the latter cannot be kept back 
 by the lethargy or poverty of the former, but is free to go 
 forward in its beneficent endeavor to perfect its school 
 facilities and advantages. This provision is of great 
 value — (i) as it enables small bodies of aggressive and 
 enlightened citizens to combine for the betterment of 
 their conditions, and (2) as such action sets an example 
 which will probably be followed by adjacent districts and 
 counties. 
 
 The most notable thing, however, about the provision 
 in section 136 is that the local tax collected is "to be ap- 
 portioned and expended by the local school authorities of 
 such counties, cities', towns and districts in establishing 
 and maintaining such schools as in their judgment the 
 public welfare may require," the only proviso being "that 
 such primary schools as may be established in any school 
 year shall be maintained at least four months of that 
 year, before any part of the fund assessed and collected 
 may be devoted to the establishment of schools of higher 
 grade," i. e., it is mandatory that the primary schools 
 shall be kept open at least four months in the year, 
 though they ought to be, and doubtless in most cases will 
 be, maintained for a much longer period. 
 
 Here, now, is something entirely new in the Constitu- 
 tion of Virginia — a provision which looks indeed to the 
 prevalance of good primary schools as the essential basis 
 
loo ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 of all others, and these to be maintained a certain mini- 
 mum of time, but which has for its chief object the estab- 
 lishment of graded and high schools' to such an extent as 
 the judgment of local authorities may deem necessary for 
 the public welfare. This, then, is a provision that looks 
 to higher education, which has for its object not merely 
 to communicate the rudiments, but the awakening of the 
 intelligence to higher departments of thought and leading 
 it along lines which tend to incite aspiration and effort 
 and cause it to seek after high and noble things and to 
 exercise itself in obtaining and using them. The public 
 school fund derived from the State, with the addition of 
 so much of that gotten from local taxation as may be 
 necessary to maintain primary schools for all children at 
 least four months in the year must be used for that pur- 
 pose. After that, every dollar obtained from local tax- 
 ation may be employed by local authorities in improving 
 the educational advantages of the district, county or city, 
 as "the public welfare may demand." 
 
 It ought also to be emphasized that while five mills 
 on the dollar of property is the maximum of local tax 
 allowed in any one year, supervisors of counties are re- 
 quired to levy annually three-fourths of one mill, and at 
 the request of the school board may levy as much as two 
 mills on the dollar of property to meet the needs of the 
 county schools and the same amount for district schools. 
 If they fail to levy enough to supply the wants of the 
 schools, then, on petition in writing from the school 
 board, they are required to refer the question to the qual- 
 ified voters of the county or district, as the case may be. 
 It is important to notice that in such vote, instead of the 
 maximum allowed, any smaller amount agreed on — say, 
 one mill, or even the half of one mill — may be taken. I 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. loi 
 
 am careful to call your attention to this point — (i) be- 
 cause a very large portion of the tax-payers in the coun- 
 ties in vast sections of Virginia are poor and find any in- 
 crease of taxation burdensome; (2) because local taxa- 
 tion, if not cautiously managed, will arouse antagonism, 
 hurtful to the cause and an impediment to progress; (3) 
 because there seems to be in the make-up of a good many 
 men an almost irrational prejudice against increased 
 taxation, however laudable the object or promising and 
 profitable its results. The old maxim, Festina lentc 
 (Hasten slowly) is certainly applicable here. 
 
 Two things are naturally suggested by what has been 
 said — (i) Local taxation is not generally popular in the 
 counties, and needs' to be handled with discretion. I say 
 "in the counties," and, with some exceptions, this is true, 
 and yet it is in the counties that interest chiefly centers, 
 as cities and towns are abundantly able to take care of 
 themselves and are generally doing so; (2) any perma- 
 nent improvement in the public schools is' involved in and 
 dependent on local taxation and can hardly be attained 
 without it. 
 
 The only remark that needs to be made under the first 
 head is in reference to the kind of men who ought to be 
 chosen as superintendents of divisions and school trus- 
 tees. It goes without the saying, that they ought to be 
 men of intelligence, of information, of industry, of unsel- 
 fishness and of courage, who, having undertaken a trust 
 have moral force enough to recognize the obligations they 
 assume and to address themselves to their discharge. It 
 is a reproach on the Commonwealth of Virginia that in 
 the past its public school system has been so largely a part 
 of the political machine. It is a harbinger of good for 
 the future that the State Board of Education, as at 
 
102 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 present constituted, has declared the system non-political 
 and taken steps for its administration as such. But I 
 seriously doubt whether the system will ever become 
 what it ought to be until these officials are elected by the 
 people, and thus made directly amenable to the people. 
 These men have high and holy responsibilities resting on 
 them, and it is their province to understand the duties 
 they owe, to manifest interest in the sphere of effort they 
 occupy and to evoke the sympathy and co-operation of 
 their neighbors and fellow-citizens in all plans for for- 
 ward movements. When they fail in this they ought to 
 drop out and leave room for others capable of handling 
 the situation. The best judges of these qualifications and 
 of the discharge of these duties are the people for whose 
 benefit the schools are maintained and among whom these 
 school officials live and act. When the people have confi- 
 dence in the integrity, wisdom and zeal of their officers, 
 they will listen cheerfully to their suggestions, follow 
 their advice and co-operate in their measures. 
 
 The second point — namely, the dependence of the 
 school system on local taxation for improvement — needs 
 fuller elucidation and illustration. 
 
 I have it on high authority, as proceeding from the 
 officers of the superintendent of public instruction and 
 the secretary of the State Board of Education, that "the 
 best school systems are to be found where the local taxes 
 are relied on to run the schools," and, again, "if our 
 schools are to be improved, the improvement must come 
 from additional funds raised by local taxation." These 
 are pregnant sentences' and mav well awaken profound 
 interest on the subject. 
 
 If the question be asked, In what localities the best 
 school systems in the United States are found? the an- 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 103 
 
 swer will come back readily from all lips qualified to 
 speak, in the North Atlantic, North Central and Western 
 divisions' of the country — in Massachusetts, New York, 
 Michigan, California, etc. — and the answer is justified by 
 the facts. The schools in those divisions and representa- 
 tive States have longer terms, are better housed, pay 
 more remunerative salaries, have more ample appliances' 
 and generally offer their pupils far better advantages 
 than those in the South Atlantic and South Central div- 
 isions. It is also true that the grand divisions of the 
 country which lead in educational facilities also derive 
 much the larger share of the funds used by them from 
 local taxation, while the divisions in which the advan- 
 tages are least have made but little advance in this direc- 
 tion. Thus, in the North Atlantic division, for every dol- 
 lar secured from the State, $5.44 are raised by local tax- 
 ation, and in the North Central division, $8.86 are raised 
 by local taxation for every dollar obtained from the State. 
 On the other hand, in the South Atlantic division only 
 $1.52, and in the South Central division $1.07 is gotten 
 from local taxes for every dollar received from the State. 
 At the same time, the North Atlantic division raises four 
 times as much per pupil of school age as does the South 
 Atlantic division, and the North Central division about 
 the same proportion in advance of the South Central 
 division. 
 
 An identical lesson is learned from a comparison of 
 the more and less advanced States of the American 
 Union, when taken separately. For example, for every 
 dollar in Massachusetts derived from State taxation, 
 $126. are raised from local taxation, 98 per cent, of its 
 school fund being local, whereas in Virginia the State 
 and local taxes are about equal. The result is that in 
 
I04 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 Massachusetts $22.37 ^^^ secured for every pupil of 
 school age, while Virginia furnishes $3.50 for the same 
 class. So, too, in Ohio $6.51 are secured by local tax- 
 ation for every dollar from the State, and $13.38 assured 
 to every pupil of school age, while in Kentucky only 50 
 per cent, of the amount received from the State is se- 
 cured from local taxes, and but $4.41 contributed per 
 pupil.* 
 
 We need not, however, go outside our own borders to 
 learn the same lesson, though, perhaps, in not so striking 
 a manner, for the principle of local taxation has been 
 applied in some of the cities and towns of Virginia to an 
 extent that is gratifying, and to some extent in a few of 
 the counties, and with results that may well inspire the 
 remainder of the State to higher efforts in this direction. 
 Let us take a few of these cities at random and compare 
 what is being done by them with the efforts being made 
 by the counties and note the dift'erence in results. In the 
 city of Danville more than twice as much is raised by 
 local taxation as is gotten from the State ; in Richmond 
 and Lynchburg more than three times as much, and each 
 has a school term of nine or ten months, and every child 
 has access to a graded and high school, whereas in Prince 
 Edward not more than two-thirds as much is secured by 
 local taxation as from the State; in Brunswick not a 
 third ; in Amelia and Buchanan a little over a half, Prince 
 Edward having a school term of five and a half months, 
 Brunswick five and a fourth, Amelia six and a third, and 
 Buchanan four and two-thirds months. The counties are 
 
 * The foregoing figures are derived from United States Com- 
 missioner of Education. Report, 1902. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 105 
 
 also sadly below the cities in school houses and property, 
 the qualification of teachers, libraries, appliances, etc.** 
 
 It seems now to be pretty clearly shown that local tax- 
 ation has been the solution of the problem of school im- 
 provement, where such advance has been made. It is a 
 natural inference that whatever forward steps are to be 
 taken in future must be brought about by the same means. 
 
 How, then, is the cause of local taxation to be ad- 
 vanced? What means can be employed hopefully to 
 arouse interest, so that the people will come to submit 
 cheerfully to an increase of their burdens' for the eleva- 
 tion of their race? 
 
 1. In reply to this question, I have already stated my 
 belief that it will be hard to bring it about so long as 
 division superintendents and school trustees are appointed 
 as at present. They are too far removed from the people 
 and consequently little cordial sympathy exists between 
 them and the people. It makes little difference to any one 
 whether the Governor, Attorney-General or Superintend- 
 ent of Public Instruction is elected by the people, as at 
 present, or by the Legislature, as formerly, but it makes 
 a world of difference whether local officers are appointed 
 by a foreign authority or elected by the people, whom 
 they are to serve. 
 
 2. Again, a persistent effort must be inaugurated in 
 every county and in every district of every county to in- 
 terest the people, individually and collectively, in educa- 
 tion, and to incite them to higher endeavor for the wel- 
 fare of the young. The school house must be made an 
 attractive place, the center of intellectual and social light, 
 the meeting ground of neighbors and friends in common 
 
 ** These figures have been gotten from the Virginia School 
 Report, i902-'03. 
 
io6 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 interest for the advancement of knowledge and culture. 
 In order to this, the schools must be brought more fre- 
 quently and prominently to their attention as objects of 
 great worth, their work be explained, their needs be made 
 known and the community thus be brought into cordial 
 sympathy with them. The assistance of the pulpit and 
 of public meetings may well be invoked in this behalf. It 
 is difficult to get people to submit to sacrifices for things 
 about which they know and care nothing, but once im- 
 press them with their vital importance and secure their 
 personal interest, and the victory is won.' This is not a 
 matter of merely individual concern. While a beginning 
 must be made with individuals, it must not stop there. 
 Each individual must let his influence be felt, that a gen- 
 eral awakening may be accomplished and maintained. 
 This is, as I understand it, the prime object of "the Co- 
 operative Education Commission of Virginia," assembled 
 here to-day. It is to enlighten the minds and awaken the 
 dormant energies of the people of the Commonwealth 
 and its constituent parts in behalf of the Public School 
 System, so that there may be good graded schools and at 
 least one high school in every county. How necessary 
 this is in the matter of local taxation, which lies at the 
 basis of all such advance, is illustrated by the following 
 authentic facts which have come to my knowledge lately. 
 In one of the counties of our State, usually regarded as 
 highly favored in some respects, and in the olden time the 
 abode of families of wealth, education and social culture, 
 not long since the Board of School Trustees agreed to re- 
 quest the supervisors to levy a tax of one mill on the 
 dollar of property for the special improvement of the 
 school-houses, some of which are a reproach to our civil- 
 ization. The trustees' wished to ask for two mills, but 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 107 
 
 were dissuaded for fear that they would get nothing, and 
 having experience that ''half a loaf is better than no 
 bread," adjusted themselves to circumstances and pre- 
 ferred the request. One of the supervisors, a man of 
 high character and an efficient and liberal minded officer 
 in view of the approaching meeting of his board, and 
 desiring to inform himself of the views and feehngs of 
 the tax-payers' of his district, sent them mdividually a 
 written communication, stating in brief, clear angviage 
 the facts of the case and asking their opinion m the prem- 
 ises When last heard from he had received seventy- 
 three replies, eleven of which are favorable and sixty-two 
 opposed, some of them violently and uncompromisingly 
 to the tax. Among the latter are men of intelligence, of 
 considerable means and of large influence. 
 
 Now here are facts-facts that must be admitted, 
 reckoned with and provided against, and they indicate 
 that the people as a whole are little interested in the pub- 
 lic schools, opposed to local taxation and wil ing to let 
 what they regard as "well enough alone." They cheer- 
 fully take what the State gives them or can be derived 
 from sources outside of themselves, but as to making per- 
 sonal sacrifices to achieve results, that is out of the ques- 
 
 *'°"Manifestly, if this state of thought and sentiment 
 continues to prevail, the outlook is discouraging in the 
 extreme. It must be modified, rectified, reversed, or 
 thousands and tens of thousands of noble youth, possess- 
 ing -rand possibilities, must still be denied opportunity of 
 self-'dcvelopment and left in situations from which they 
 cannot disentangle themselves, instead, of being helped 
 forward to lives of large and distinguished usefulness 
 Every interest, civil and social, intellectual and moral, 
 
loS ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 financial and economical, political and religious' must be 
 left to suffer and the old Commonwealth, once so re- 
 nowned in the annals of war and the councils of peace, 
 be content to struggle on with only a secondary position 
 in the galaxy of States and the work of the world. But, 
 is this to be? I call on you, Virginians, to answer this 
 question ! I call on you, educators, gathered from all 
 parts of the State, with your minds enlightened and your 
 spirits aglow for the uplifting of your fellow-citizens', to 
 make reply ! I call on you, members of the Co-operative 
 Education Commission, lately inaugurated for a cam- 
 paign against ignorance and deterioration, and in behalf 
 of the enlarged intelligence and increased virtue of the 
 whole people, to say whether these objects are not grand 
 enough, good enough, glorious enough in their achieve- 
 ment to inspire the zeal, animate the courage and direct 
 the energies of every lover of freedom? 
 
 This is no school-boy task that is before you. It is 
 no merely academic problem that you have to solve. It is 
 not a transient work to be performed in a day or a year 
 or a brief series of years, that you undertake. It is the 
 enlightenment and elevation of a large portion of the citi- 
 zenship of the State. It is the bringing of them into line 
 with the progress, the best thought, the most approved 
 methods of the age. It is their conversion from a state 
 of ignorance, indifference or hostility to one of friend- 
 ship, co-operation and personal endeavor. It is the 
 uniting of our people throughout all our borders' in one 
 common effort, each to promote the welfare of the other 
 and all to conspire for the well-being of each. It is to 
 fulfill the Royal Law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
 thyself" ; to measure up to the Golden Rule, "As ye would 
 that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." 
 
THE RELATION OF THE CITIZEN TO THE 
 PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 I do not know how better to introduce the subject to 
 which I am to ask your attention than by the quota- 
 tion of some sentences from Mr. Andrew Carnegie's "Tri- 
 umphant Democracy." In speaking of the danger to this 
 country from the teeming milHons' of foreign immigrants 
 pressing into it, he says : "The generosity, shall I not say 
 the incredible generosity, with which the republic has 
 dealt with these people, met its reward. They are won 
 to her side by being offered for subjectship the boon of 
 citizenship. For the denial of equal privileges at home, 
 the new land meets them with perfect equality, saying, be 
 not only with us, but be of us'. They reach the shores of 
 the republic subjects, (insulting word), and she makes 
 them citizens ; serfs, and she makes them men, and their 
 children she takes gently by the hand and leads to the 
 public schools which she has founded for her own chil- 
 dren, and gives them without money and without price, a 
 good primary education as' the most precious gift she has, 
 in her bountiful hand, to bestow upon human beings." 
 
 We of the South are not much concerned, on our own 
 account, with the question of foreign immigration. It is 
 most largely with our native population, white and negro, 
 that we have to deal. The terms of the proposition to be 
 treated in our discussion, however, are the same with 
 those so clearly and truthfully brought to view in thf"* 
 sentences — Citizenship and the Public Schools. 
 
no ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 One of the chief grounds of gratitude which presents 
 itself on this occasion is that we are citizens of the State 
 of Virginia, of the United States of America. I have not 
 time to exphcate this statement, nor do I regard its expH- 
 cation important. The mere recognition of the fact of 
 citizenship in one of the oldest and noblest of the Com- 
 monwealths of our great republic is enough to awaken 
 the profoundest feelings of honorable pride and thanks- 
 giving in the heart of him who is heir to this' inestimable 
 boon. To be a Roman citizen about the time of the Chris- 
 tian era was both an honor and safeguard; to be an 
 American citizen in its twentieth century carries with it a 
 thousand- fold more of blessing and advantage. 
 
 The people of Virginia — native and naturalized, male 
 and female, white and colored, old and young — are its 
 citizens. As such they dwell under the aegis of its protec- 
 tion, and are assured of the possession and enjoyment of 
 their inherent rights. We live under a government "of 
 the people, by the people and for the people," "sit every 
 man under his own vine and under his own fig-tree" in 
 the exercise of our undisputed privileges and are gath- 
 ered here to-night in friendly conference to consider 
 some questions of importance to ourselves as individuals 
 and to the body-politic as' a whole. 
 
 It is one of the prime principles both of moral and 
 sociological science, that when men come together in or- 
 ganized society, they are bound together by ties of recip- 
 rocal obligation. No relation exists in this world which 
 does not carry with it corresponding duty. Human life 
 is a scene of mutual action and re-action, of giving and 
 receiving, of reciprocation. This principle is imbedded 
 in our natures, revealed in our every-day activities and 
 expressed in the language used in ordinary intercourse. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. iii 
 
 Take, for illustration, a few of the familiar antonyms of 
 our mother tongue, and note the instruction they give — 
 husband, wife; parent, child; teacher, pupil; seller, 
 buyer; master, servant; State, citizen. Each term of 
 these couplets appears in a sense to be antithetic, and yet 
 each expresses relation and interdependence — no hus- 
 band, no wife; no parent, no child; no teacher, no pupil ; 
 no seller, no buyer; no master, no servant; no State, no 
 citizen, and vice versa. The one cannot exist without the 
 other. They co-exist in their existence, and in their co- 
 existence there arise obligations from one to the other. 
 They are correlatives and from their mutual relations 
 emerge duties and responsibilities, important and impera- 
 tive, which cannot properly be overlooked or disregarded. 
 The State owes the citizen protection, defence, assistance 
 in the maintenance, enjoyment and prosecution of his 
 rights; the citizen owes the State fealty, loyalty, service 
 in its endeavors to promote the progress, well-being and 
 happiness of its people. 
 
 How far the State may. go in affording its inhabitants 
 assistance is for its qualified citizens to determine by con- 
 stitutional provision and legislative enactment. When its 
 sphere of action has been settled and it proceeds to per- 
 form its functions, by the law of reciprocity it is the duty 
 of every citizen to stand by and aid it in its efforts to 
 effectuate the objects placed before it. 
 
 The State, then, we see, is a complex unity, with man- 
 ifold functions, reaching out in various directions', all 
 having the same end in view — to wit: the establishment 
 and promotion of the welfare of the people as individuals 
 and as an integral whole. 
 
 One thing, committed to the oversight of the State, 
 and now generally agreed on as important and indispen- 
 
112 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 sable to the public well-being, is the education of the 
 masses. It has been determined and embodied in the or- 
 ganic law, that ignorance is a monstrous' evil, a menace to 
 civilization, a bar to prosperity, the parent and fosterer 
 of vice, the harbinger of crime, destructive of the rights 
 of the people and injurious to the integrity of society and 
 of the State itself. It is, also, generally conceded that if 
 Virginia is to regain and maintain her ascendency in the 
 sisterhood of States and to retake her place in the van- 
 guard of civilization, it must be through the educated in- 
 telligence of her population. Hence the establishment 
 throughout the Commonwealth of a comprehensive sys- 
 tem of "public instruction and education," the design of 
 which is to give the rudiments of knowledge to every 
 child and higher training to all who show themselves able 
 and willing to take advantage of these opportunities. The 
 Constitution of the State, explicated and enforced by its 
 laws, has clearly and irrevocably determined on a broader 
 and deeper intellectual and moral culture for all classes 
 of her people as essential to their welfare. 
 
 I have thus endeavored to place before you as briefly 
 and clearly as may be the principles which underlie the 
 solution of the problem — "What is the relation of the cit- 
 izen to the public schools?" If my diagnosis and pre- 
 sentation of the situation are correct, I think you will 
 agree with me, that from every point of view — personal 
 and public, social, economic, patriotic, ethical and relig- 
 ious — the attitude of the citizen to the public schools' 
 ought to be sympathetic and helpful. 
 
 I do not mean by this that every citizen ought to send 
 his child to the public schools. There may be good rea- 
 sons why he should not do so. This is a free country, and 
 if a parent or guardian prefers some other system of in- 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 113 
 
 struction for those committed to his care, it is right for 
 him to act on his convictions. 
 
 Nor do I assert that the citizen is under obHgation to 
 neglect his personal afifairs — his family, his business, his 
 church — in order to minister to this important interest. It 
 is true that a man's' personal interests are largely depend- 
 ent for good or evil on the intelligence of the community 
 in which he lives, and it therefore behooves him to give 
 what attention he can to this department, but often his 
 whole time is necessarily absorbed in the discharge of im- 
 perative obligations, and there are those appointed and 
 delegated by the State, whose special duty it is to attend 
 to the schools, and who are responsible before the law 
 and their own consciences for intelligent assiduity in their 
 several spheres of employment. 
 
 What I do intend to suggest and to press on your in- 
 telligent consideration is, that after these delegated 
 agents — the State Board of Education, the State Superin- 
 tendent of Public Instruction, the Division Superintend- 
 ents, the County and District Trustees and the Teach- 
 ers — have given full service, there is still a sphere of in- 
 fluence and effort which belongs to the citizen, without 
 whose aid the schools cannot attain their complete use- 
 fulness. There is need of the co-operation and support 
 of the community, and of every community, in order to 
 the realization of the full benefits' of the system. 
 
 It is the recognition of this fact and the profound 
 conviction produced by it, that inspired certain gentlemen, 
 interested in and prominently identified with education, 
 to unite in the formation of "the Co-operative Education 
 Commission of Virginia," the object of which is to arouse 
 public sentiment and to secure concert of action on the 
 part of the people. 
 
114 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 This movement is greatly needed. There is still some 
 hostility and much apathy throughout the Common- 
 wealth. It can only he removed by the diffusion of in- 
 telligence and by personal and aggregated influence in 
 rall3'ing the people to the help of the State. 
 
 Another interesting question connected with this sub- 
 ject is, How can the individual citizen contribute to the 
 welfare of the public schools? What can he do to ad- 
 vance their interests, increase their usefulness and en- 
 large their power for good? What can he bring to the 
 common effort? I reply that he can give his sympathy, 
 his influence, the inspiration of his example and such 
 help as circumstances may permit and justify. 
 
 But individual effort alone will not avail. It is good, 
 as far as it goes, but there is need of combination and 
 aggregated force. It is, therefore, recommended that 
 county, district or communal associations be formed, em- 
 bracing in their membership the citizens of a community, 
 larger or smaller, with the avowed object of aiding in 
 this movement. 
 
 To promote this object a modest leaflet has been is- 
 sued and widely distributed with the special design of 
 suggesting and encouraging such organizations. It is an 
 unpretentious publication, and all the better for that. It 
 is just six inches long and three and a half inches broad, 
 and yet it is worth many times its' weight in gold. It is 
 infused throughout with good, every-day common sense, 
 and presents a scheme of effort practicable in its pro- 
 posals and methods. It does not call for the flourish of 
 trumpets or the beating of drums, the large expenditure 
 of money or the great absorption of time, but marks out 
 a plan by which busy men and women may come together 
 for the performance of a service of inestimable value 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 115 
 
 without detracting from their vitahty, but with accretions 
 of force for their ordinary employments. 
 
 ( 1 ) The name of the proposed organization is attrac- 
 tive, "The Scliool Improvement League of ," and 
 
 sets forth clearly the object in view. While this title is 
 single and definite in its significance, it contains three im- 
 portant thoughts — (a) It is a league, an alliance, a combi- 
 nation. It is a recognition of the old adage, "In union 
 there is strength." Its members come together with a 
 common purpose and to attain a common end. (b) The 
 end in view is the schools, already established by the 
 State and fostered by the cities, counties and districts. 
 These schools exist, are at work and are generally doing 
 some good work. But none of them has attained the 
 ideal and many fall far short in many respects. There- 
 fore, the (c) controlling thought is their improvement, 
 the amendment of their deficiencies ; the infusion of new 
 life, and interest and power. 
 
 The formation of one of these leagues, therefore, 
 means the creation of a new factor, in addition to those 
 provided by law, for the promotion of the welfare of the 
 rising generation, and is a tribute to the future. 
 
 (2) The "constitution" proposed for these leagues is 
 a model of brevity and simplicity, dealing in a few sen- 
 tences with their membership, officers, management, quo- 
 rum, executive committee, meetings and amendments. It 
 is also proposed that each "league" shall become a con- 
 stituent part of the "Co-operative Education Commis- 
 sion," and participate in its work, and that the effort shall 
 be made to improve every school in the community. 
 
 (3) The "suggestions" of the leaflet, following the 
 constitution, are timely and useful, but do not call for 
 special remark, and so I pass on to the important point of 
 
ii6 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 (4) "Aims." These leagues may be formed, but un- 
 less inspiring objects claim their attention, they will be in- 
 efficient and accomplish nothing. If there is one thing 
 which excites the disgust of serious-minded and earnest 
 people, it is the show of something while nothing worthy 
 is in view — sham — 'whereas, if a high and noble purpose 
 is indulged, the object of which is practicable, the warm- 
 est impulses of the heart are enlisted. It is, therefore, 
 important that those who are interested in school im- 
 provement shall seek to know their real condition, their 
 defects as well as their excellencies, that being intelli- 
 gently informed, means may be found to elevate and ad- 
 vance them. It is not suggested that every citizen is com- 
 jietent to this task. On the contrary, it is freely conceded 
 that many are not, and that here, as everywhere, leaders 
 are needed. What is essential is for the men and women 
 of earnestness and good, common sense, who, when they 
 see a thing, are able to know it, to understand the adapta- 
 tion of things to one another, the relation of antecedent 
 and consequent, of cause and effect, of means and end ; 
 how one thing being brought about, another may be 
 secured, to come forward and take part in this great ef- 
 fort. The preachers, the doctors, the lawyers, the busi- 
 ness men, the mechanics, the farmers, the working peo- 
 ple, the women — all who are accustomed to look after the 
 every-day affairs of life — must be enlisted with the 
 school officials in studying and solving the problem now 
 thrust upon us. It is a plain and practical thing that 
 demands attention. It is a matter in which every one is 
 more or less concerned, whether the interest be recog- 
 nized or not. It ought not to be difficult to arouse this 
 interest and to rally it to the achievement of the desired 
 result. Every man, woman and child in the Common- 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 117 
 
 wealth, who will enter on the work with zeal and intelli- 
 gence can do something to aid in its accomplishment. 
 
 To me, one of the most valuable and salutary aspects 
 presented in the working of these "school improvement 
 leagues," especially in the rural districts, is the socializing 
 and elevating influence exerted on their membership. 
 The churches of all denominations have done, and are 
 doing, much in this direction, and I trust and believe that 
 they will continue to be increasingly useful in breaking 
 down social barriers by the dissemination of intelligence 
 and the inculcation of righteousness. In the "school im- 
 provement league," however, a new sphere of social ac- 
 tivity is opened — not antagonistic, but helpful to the 
 churches, broader in its area, more comprehensive in its 
 constituency, embracing not only the members and fami- 
 lies of one church, but of all the churches, and if there be 
 such, of no church, banded together with the noble pur- 
 pose of extending and promoting the intellectual ; and as 
 a corallary, the moral, social, economic and religious wel- 
 fare of the whole community. The school-house thus be- 
 comes, in a high and true sense, the centre of communal 
 life, the place where the children and youth are taught, 
 developed and fitted for active duty in the world, where 
 the older people meet together for conference and action 
 on these important interests, and, as occasion may sug- 
 gest, for social, intellectual or festive enjoyment. I can 
 think of nothing more humanizing, elevating and benefi- 
 cent in its operation or more promising in its results'. 
 
 And now, as to the specific service that may be ren- 
 dered by the individual citizen in connection with the 
 "school improvement league," it seems to me that 
 
 (i) One important thing is the establishment of a 
 good understanding and concerted action between the 
 
iiS ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 superintendent and trustees of schools on the one hand 
 and the people of the community on the other. There are 
 communities where such relations do not exist. It is the 
 fault of the officials in some cases and of the people in 
 others. Wherever the blame rests, this condition ought 
 to be looked into and rectified. Without this, the best in- 
 terests of the schools cannot be maintained : with it, there 
 is good ground for hope of progress and steady advance. 
 Any citizen of firmness and good sense can be of eminent 
 service in such a contingency in rectifying wrongs, re- 
 moving obstacles and stimulating progress. 
 
 (2) Another thing that may be greatly advanced by 
 the effort of patriotic citizens is the development of such 
 an estimate of the worth of education and the advantages 
 which flow from it that the community will be prevailed 
 on to submit to such "local taxation" as may be necessary 
 to bring up the schools to the point of efficiency. This 
 desideratum has already been attained in some of the 
 cities, towns, counties and districts, but few have reached 
 the point that needs to be gained, and some steadfastly 
 refuse to do anything. Of the opponents, some are men 
 of wealth, while others possess' small means. Now, it is 
 easy enough to denounce these voters and say it is arrant 
 selfishness in the well-to-do citizen and ignorant, short- 
 sightedness in the man of straightened circumstances to 
 occupy this position, but we will never make converts by 
 such a course. What is needed under these conditions is 
 a campaign of education, the diffusion of information, 
 the display of rational considerations, the awakening of 
 thought, the presentation of true and noble motives' to 
 action. One of the severest indictments ever brought by 
 the Almighty against his ancient people is, "Israel doth 
 not know : my people doth not consider." One of the 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 119 
 
 most refreshing and uplifting sentences in the Old Testa- 
 ment is, "A book of remembrance was opened before him 
 (God) for them that feared the Lord and thought upon 
 his name." The grand distinguishing characteristic of 
 man is the power of thought. The original meaning of 
 the word "man," in the old sanskirt, is "to think." Man 
 is by his constitution a thinker. "Reason," says a late 
 writer, "is the guide of the soul." All our other powers 
 are dependent on it for direction. When a man thinks 
 accurately and correctly and acts on his thinking, he ful- 
 fills' the object of his being. When he fails to think, he 
 sins against his own nature and against God. Wonderful 
 words are these of the immortal dramatist : 
 
 "What a piece of work is man ! How noble in reason ! 
 How infinite in faculty; in form and moving, how ex- 
 press and admirable ! in action, how like an angel ! in 
 apprehension, how like a god !" 
 
 The Psalmist, nearly three thousand years before 
 Shakespeare, speaks' to the same effect, "Thou hast made 
 him (man) a little lower than the angels and hast crowned 
 him with glory and honor." 
 
 All that is great and glorious in human achievement 
 is the result of thought embodied in action. 
 
 And yet how often do we find men with little intel- 
 lectual development, no power of consecutive thought, re- 
 fusing to look at more than one side of a question, bound 
 down by narrow prejudice, "cribbed, cabinned and con- 
 fined" within the compass of selfish feeling. But when 
 you come to know them, they are often 'well-meaning 
 men, just in their dealings and kindly in their expres- 
 sions. They do a neighbor a favor or a friend a service, 
 if it does not cost too much. They are amenable to rea- 
 son, when they can be gotten to listen to it. 
 
120 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 What such men need is to have the light turned in on 
 them ; to be brought to see things as they are and not as 
 they conceive them to be; to have the scope of their 
 vision broadened, to be awakened to reflection, to have 
 high and holy motives set before them, and thus to be led, 
 kindly and persuasively, to change their position and to 
 become factors for good in the community, instead of an 
 incubus on its progress. 
 
 I am persuaded that a great work can be done along 
 this line by the members of the School Improvement 
 League, individually and in co-operation, and that in 
 communities where such effort is needed, one of the chief 
 objects of the association ought to be, to convert oppo- 
 nents and arouse the listless. We need to present a united 
 front and to bring the combined influence of the people to 
 bear in behalf of school improvement and the uplifting of 
 the rising generation. One of the most difficult things with 
 which we have to grapple in many communities is to gain 
 the consent of the tax-payers to "local-taxation." Until 
 this is done, little advance can be made. When it has 
 been accomplished, progress will be assured, although 
 there may be much else that requires attention. Let the 
 thinking men and women of the Commonwealth go for- 
 ward, undaunted in the good work, and the victory will 
 be won. 
 
 (3) Other important objects to which the School Im- 
 provement League may well give attention are the con- 
 solidation of schools, longer school terms, competent 
 teachers, better school-houses, the beautifying of school 
 rooms and the grounds around them ; the introduction of 
 manual labor teaching, school libraries, etc. I have time 
 only to suggest these matters for your consideration. 
 They are all important and ought to be looked after. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 121 
 
 I beg now to express the profound conviction that the 
 future of our grand old Commonwealth is largely de- 
 pendent on the movement we are met here to-night to 
 foster and promote. We have come to the parting of the 
 ways. You will not regard me as disloyal when I say 
 that Virginia of to-day does not occupy the relative posi- 
 tion in the galaxy of States once accorded her by univer- 
 sal consent. Other Commonwealths have outstripped her 
 in population, in wealth, in manufactures, in agriculture, 
 in commerce, in the development of natural resources, in 
 political prestige, in moral force and influence, and, be- 
 yond all, and in part at least, explanatory of all, in educa- 
 tion. 
 
 While it is true that our State University and other 
 institutions of higher learning, male and female, are do- 
 ing a noble work, and that some of our public schools of 
 all grades, from the primary to the high school, are meet- 
 ing the requirements of their position under the condi- 
 tions' that surround them, it is also true that a burden of 
 ignorance rests on the State that is at once appalling and 
 destructive. More than one-fifth of our population over 
 ten years of age are illiterates. According to the latest 
 published statistics from our State Board of Education, 
 it appears that forty-six per cent, (nearly one-half) of 
 the children and youth of school age do not attend school, 
 and that of the whites, forty per cent, are non-attendants. 
 Of those who go to school, nine-tenths' drop out before 
 they reach the high school. Many of our school houses 
 are wholly unfit for the culture and elevation of beings 
 endowed with immortal minds. Many of our teachers, 
 while doing the best they can with their equipment, have 
 had no opportunity to prepare themselves for the work 
 in which they are engaged. 
 
122 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 This condition of things does not exist exclusively in 
 any one section of the State, but more or less' in all parts. 
 Is it to continue or shall it be rectified? If improvement 
 is to be brought about, how is it to be accomplished? The 
 provisions of our State Constitution are adequate. Our 
 laws are what they should be, or, if not, they can be made 
 so at the next session of the Legislature. We have a full 
 corps of school officials' and have had them for many 
 years. And yet something is lacking, and that something 
 is the cheerful, hearty, persistent interest and concur- 
 rence of the rank and file of our citizenshij). The work 
 rests, my friends, on you and me. Let us and our fellow- 
 citizens throughout our borders be true to our vocation, 
 and the old State will arise and resume her place among 
 the advanced forces of our civilization. 
 
 One more thought and I am done : You have heard 
 the preachers of all denominations, and not only the 
 preachers, but the officers and members of all the 
 churches, say that religion is the principal thing which 
 lies back of progress ; that Christianity is the indispen- 
 sable factor in the regeneration of mankind, and that in 
 order to bring about the abatement of vice, the growth of 
 virtue, the purification and elevation of society and the 
 greatness of a people, there must be the adoption and 
 practice of the principles inculcated in the Bible. You 
 have heard them speak thus. I have heard them. I have 
 spoken this way myself, and I am not here to-night to 
 recant my well-settled convictions, or to contravert the 
 intelligent opinions of my brethren, but I want to ask 
 each one of you, and all of you together, whether you 
 have not heard and do you not believe it to be true, that 
 ''education is the handmaid of religion," that educated, 
 enlightened people are more apt to be moral, useful and 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 123 
 
 Christian than ignorant and untaught people; that one 
 great demand of Christianity is that those who embrace 
 it shall be lights in the world and helpers of others in 
 their development and preparation for usefulness? These 
 things belong to the very rudiments of thought and the 
 religious life, and it seems to me, lay a heavy responsibil- 
 ity on each and every one of us, and specially on those 
 who profess and call themselves Christians, to rally to the 
 standard now erected in behalf of a broader and deeper 
 education for the children and youth, of the enlighten- 
 ment of the masses' of our people and of a higher, nobler, 
 purer and more affective and effective civilization among 
 all classes of our citizens. Virginia will then become a 
 beacon-light to the land, to the world and to posterity. 
 
THE FAMILY AND THE SCHOOL. 
 
 I appear before you, brethren, as a substitute for the 
 brother on whom this duty was originally devolved, 
 other important engagements demanding his attention at 
 this time. The subject assigned me, "The Family and 
 the School," is complex, though its elements stand closely 
 related and interdependent. Each is or ought to be of 
 deep significance to every thoughtful mind. Indeed, I can 
 think of nothing, after an abiding concern for our per- 
 sonal relation to Christ and the unremitted exemplifica- 
 tion of his teaching, that deserves, and ought to receive, 
 more of our thought and effort. 
 
 I regret that the subject allotted is so large and the 
 time allowed for its discussion so brief, that my remarks 
 must necessarily be fragmentary and somewhat discon- 
 nected. Nevertheless, it may be, that I shall be able, by 
 the blessing of God, to focus your attention on some of 
 its prominent features, so that your relations and obliga- 
 tions to these fundamental institutions shall be more fully 
 realized and your lives be enriched and made more fruit- 
 ful than heretofore. If so, I shall thank God and take 
 courage. The word "family" or "families" is found many 
 scores of times in the Old Testament scriptures, and gen- 
 erally in the sense in which we receive it, and but once in 
 the New Testament, and then with a larger meaning than 
 that in which we shall treat it. The word "school" does 
 not occur in the Old, and only once in the New Testa- 
 ment, and then with a significance not relative to our sub- 
 ject. A discussion of these scriptural terms would not 
 be materially helpful, as we accept and shall treat them. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 125 
 
 as they are already understood and used in popular inter- 
 course. 
 
 A well-known and trustworthy contemporary, Dr. 
 Carroll D.Wright, United States Commissioner of Labor, 
 has described the family as "a crucial social unit," "the 
 keystone of society," for it results, from that happy asso- 
 ciation of the sexes by which the human species is per- 
 petuated and extended, by which the affections are de- 
 veloped, and by which the interest which compels one 
 unit to preserve and cherish another, is fostered. 
 
 Another distinguished author, Dr. Noah K. Davis,* of 
 the University of Virginia, in treating of the family, says, 
 "The relations are generally sufficient for the unfolding 
 of the domestic virtues, the building of character and the 
 enjoyment of home life. . . By its primacy it stands 
 as the unit of society and the State." 
 
 Another writer of world-wide reputation, the late Dr. 
 Henry Calderwood, of the University of Edinburg, 
 speaking from a higher standpoint and in a yet loftier 
 strain, says : "As the family is the primary unit in society, 
 moral law applies directly within its constitution in a 
 manner analogous to that in which moral law applies 
 within personal life. Governing and working power be- 
 long to it as to the individual life and the play of feeling, 
 affection and emotion, belongs to it as a unity, in closest 
 analogy with all that is characteristic of a single life. The 
 relations of husband and wife, parents and children, 
 brothers and sisters, constitute a true unity, in the moral 
 significance of which it becomes apparent how strong and 
 how great is this central though smallest type of the 
 social organization. This unity belongs to the very struc- 
 ture of nature, which we seek to account for when we 
 
126 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 raise the all-embracing problem of the universe as a 
 whole. 
 
 "The unity of the family is founded on biological and 
 ethical laws conjointly, for both apply throughout family 
 life just as in individual life. Here lies the provision for 
 order, purity, government and harmonious activity. In 
 constitution of the family, the marriage bond is presup- 
 posed as the essential condition of social life, and this 
 constitution is sustained by recognized application of 
 moral law equally to both sexes. The obligation to phy- 
 sical, intellectual and moral purity is the same for all, and 
 family life becomes the watchful guardian of social 
 purity. The law of purity applies to man as to woman — 
 to woman as to man — with no trace in reason for making 
 the slightest difference in our judgments'. There is noth- 
 ing more clearly destitute of moral or rational warrant 
 than the opinion which would distribute on a different 
 scale the condemnation of social vice. 
 
 "All the relative duties of the social life grow from the 
 applications of universal law to the relations existing in 
 accordance with the bonds which nature has ordained. 
 The fact that moral law bears equally on all is the se- 
 curity for a sustained unity. Thus, if moral relations be 
 studied as represented in family life, it will be seen how 
 difficulties are to be met, and how increased strength and 
 vitality of social life are to be secured, by special recogni- 
 tion of the duties and inalienable rights of each personal- 
 ity, taken with the claims which these give on others. For 
 it is when we look steadfastly at those difficulties which 
 spring from the entire dependence of the young on paren- 
 tal authority (or on authority regarded as its equivalent) 
 that we see how dependence and independence are to be 
 harmonized. It is because parents are subject to moral 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 127 
 
 law exactly as children are, that, we find provision for 
 defence of the weak, not merely in the affections, but in 
 the duties of the strong. Moral law thus carries a guide 
 to all organization on a more extended scale, which must 
 be in large degree voluntary, and must involve the rival 
 claims of the weak and the strong. In every family the 
 father and mother have in their own hands the applica- 
 tion of the principles concerned in the government of 
 communities and nations. There is no more striking ex- 
 ample of dependence than appears in the life of children, 
 and there is no case in which the acknowledgment of per- 
 sonal rights seems more difficult, as a duty to be persist- 
 ently fulfilled. It is comparatively easy to insist on abso- 
 lute submission, but it is a quite serious difficulty in the 
 circumstances, to make full account of the claims of per- 
 sonality, testifying without stint to the reality that moral 
 law controls those in authority as well as those who arc 
 subject." 
 
 I have chosen to give you the fundamental principles 
 which underlie and explain the structure, functions and 
 obligations of the family as the teaching of approved 
 scientists and thinkers rather than in my own language : 
 (i) Because I feel sure this method will convey more 
 briefly and lucidly the important thoughts thus' presented, 
 and (2) because the authority of men of accredited intel- 
 lectual power and discrimination carries along with their 
 utterance a force, valuable and useful in itself, in addi- 
 tion to the instruction they impart. You have in the para- 
 graphs just quoted the highest results of scientific investi- 
 gations and philosophic thought. The principles an- 
 nounced appeal to your candid consideration and impar- 
 tial judgment. If they are true, they ought to be accepted, 
 adopted and lived up to. 
 
128 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 Are they not true ? Let us see. I ask every one pres- 
 ent to follow me with close attention, to give heed to the 
 voice of your own consciousness that you may discover 
 for yourselves whether the truths now set before you are 
 not immediately, directly and intuitively given and 
 whether you are not bound to receive them as absolute 
 truth about which there is no doubt. I ask, then, is it not 
 true that the family, such as those to which you and I 
 belong, is' "the crucial social unit," "the keystone of so- 
 ciety," the fundamental "unit of society and the State"? 
 In other words, can there be any society or State without 
 families out of which they proceed, and is not the char- 
 acter of society and the State dependent on the character 
 of the families that compose them for the complexion 
 they take? If family life is marked by purity, temper- 
 ance, justice and benevolence, will not social life be 
 radiant with these virtues and will not the citizens of the 
 State carry into their dealings with one another, and with 
 the State itself the attributes of kindness, integrity, truth 
 and the observance of obligation? In fine, are not fami- 
 lies like little fountains from which issue rivulets, some 
 sweet, some bitter, which coalesce and form the great 
 stream of social, civic and political life? 
 
 Again, is it not true that the family as the primary 
 unit in society is amenable to moral law ; that every mem- 
 ber of the household, whether husband or wife, parent or 
 child, brother or sister, is' equally bound by it; that its 
 observance or non-observance determines the character 
 of the family life for good or evil ; that as every member 
 has rights, so each owes correlative duties, and that under 
 these conditions, the family is the place for the unfolding 
 of domestic virtues, the building of character and the 
 enjoyment of home-life"? 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 129 
 
 It seems to me that these are self-evident truths, and 
 beyond the pale of contradiction. If so, then from every 
 point of view — national, social, political, patriotic and 
 philanthropic — we ought to cherish and purify and elevate 
 our home life, make it the scene of our dearest joys and 
 purest happiness, and protect it, so far as in us lies, from 
 the intrusion of every sordid, impure and corrupting 
 thought and influence. 
 
 It may be said in deprecation that the argument now 
 adduced proceeds wholly from a temporal point of view, 
 appealing wholly to the humanitarian side of life and 
 overlooks the aspirations of the soul after a higher and 
 better — even an eternal life. 
 
 To this objection, I reply that in a sense the criticism 
 is just, but that if the domestic circle is such a sacred 
 place, when the demands of our earthly life alone are 
 considered, it ought to be guarded and cultured and im- 
 proved with constant assiduity and endeavor by men of 
 every creed and of no creed ; much more does it behoove 
 those who acknowledge "one Lord, one faith, one bap- 
 tism, one God and father of all" ; who bow down before 
 the one Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ with adoring 
 gratitude, and look up to the Holy Spirit of promise by 
 whom they are sealed to the day of redemption, to give 
 heed to these truths and adjust their lives in accord 
 therewith. 
 
 I beg also to suggest that the moral law, of which we 
 have been speaking, found as a human characteristic in 
 every clime and every age, is the law of God ; that it re- 
 sides' and presides in every human breast, written there, 
 according to the teaching of the great apostle, by God 
 himself ; that its mandates coincide with those of the law 
 given on Sinai, and that it is a sin against our own nature 
 
130 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 and against Almighty God to do anything which docs not 
 measure up to this standard or to fail to do anything in 
 accord therewith, so far as it is in our power to do it. It 
 is our duty, as the professed disciples of Christ, not only 
 to obey the explicit commands of God's Holy Word, but 
 to give heed to the monitions of conscience, and in every- 
 thing under all circumstances to do that which is right 
 and true and good and to put behind us every false and 
 deceitful thing. And applying this principle to our family 
 life, we cannot fail to see that there rests on us an imper- 
 ative obligation to consecrate it to the service of God and 
 to make the most of it, not only for the good of society 
 and the State, but in view of those eternal interests, 
 which are involved in all others, but which transcend all 
 others in grandeur and worth as the heavens are high 
 above the earth. 
 
 Did time permit, 1 should be glad to say something as 
 to the duty and privilege of aiding to bring the happiness, 
 comfort and elevating influence of home life into families 
 now destitute of its joys, but I must content myself with 
 this bare reference, leaving the matter to your prayerful 
 consideration, while I pass on to speak a little while about 
 "the school," including the private and the public school, 
 the primary, grammar and high school grades, the acad- 
 emy, the college and the university, where children and 
 youth are taught and trained, and where they are pre- 
 pared by studied methods and varying stages for the 
 duties and avocations of life. 
 
 I do not think it is claiming too much to say that next 
 to the family and the church, and it must not be forgotten 
 that the family is, or ought to be, an integral part of the 
 church, the most important factor in forming the char- 
 acter and training the young for JiigJi and noble useful- 
 ness is the school. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 131 
 
 It has been truthfully and beautifully said that "edu- 
 cation commences at the mother's knee, and every word 
 spoken within the hearsay of little children tends to the 
 formation of character," but it cannot and ought not to 
 end there. It ought to be progressive and as extensive 
 as conditions admit. 
 
 Dr. Carroll D. Wright, already quoted, says : "Educa- 
 tion is a mark of civilization. Wherever in the history of 
 the world tribes, communities. States or nations have 
 made any advance, they have provided in some way for 
 the education of either a part or the whole of the popula- 
 tion." The desirableness — may I not say the necessity — 
 of this is better understood to-day than ever before, so 
 that in most civilized countries provision is made to some 
 extent for the education of the masses of the people, and 
 in many to a large extent. The United States is not be- 
 hind any other country in its efforts in this direction. 
 According to the report of the United States Commis- 
 sioner of Education for 1899-1900, there were 22,253,050 
 persons of school age. Of these, 15,341,230 were enrolled 
 in public schools, exclusive of kindergartens, colleges and 
 universities. 
 
 "The percentage of the population enrolled in public 
 and other schools is higher in the United States than in 
 any other country of the world. The percentage is 23.3." 
 
 According to the Virginia school report for the year 
 i902-'3, there were 8,965 schools opened within the 
 bounds of the Commonwealth, with an enrollment of 
 375,601 pupils. In the city of Richmond there were 2^2 
 schools opened, with a school population of 24,937, o^ 
 whom 12,203 ^vere enrolled in the public schools. 
 
 I give you these statistics, the magnitude of which 
 may well arrest your attention, but cannot dwell on them 
 
132 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 for the want of time. They indicate that much is being 
 done, and that much more needs to be done, and, above 
 all, they appeal to the patriotism of every citizen and the 
 religious sentiment of every Christian. Are these schools 
 what they ought to be? They are powerful agencies for 
 good or evil. What kind of education are they giving? 
 What kind of influence are they exerting? Are the teach- 
 ers professionally competent? What is their moral atti- 
 tude and example? Are the surroundings of the pupils 
 sanitary, refining, elevating, inspiring? What improve- 
 ments can be made, promotive of the physical, intellect- 
 ual, moral and religious welfare of the young ])eople? 
 What can be done to get the thousands who forsake the 
 schools to attend them? Whose duty is it to look after 
 these things? 
 
 I think I hear you say, The school officials and teach- 
 ers have these matters in charge and on them the respon- 
 sibility rests, and you say truly, But it is also true that 
 the school officials and teachers can do little without the 
 sympathy, co-operation and support of the people. There 
 is something, therefore, for every good citizen — male and 
 female — and specially for every good Christian to do in 
 the improvement and upbuilding and utilization of the 
 schools of the land in furthering the interests of society, 
 in conserving the purity and integrity of family life 
 through their influence on the children, in bringing out 
 into the world men and women of high moral character, 
 prepared to grapple with its problems, to do its work, to 
 stand courageously for what is true and right, and in 
 their turn to lend a helping hand to the progressive ad- 
 vancement of coming generations. 
 
 Next in importance to the exercise of simple faith in 
 the Lord Jesub' Christ, and the consecration of all we 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 133 
 
 have and are to his service, I do not know of any sphere 
 of activity in which we may do more for the glory of God 
 and the upbuilding of his' church in the world than by 
 constant and persistent effort to hallow and exalt family 
 life and to make the schools of our land fountains of in- 
 tellectual, moral and spiritual power. 
 
 "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatso- 
 ever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, what- 
 soever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
 whatsoever things are of good report : if there be any 
 virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things ;" 
 let them adorn your lives, give them effect in your homes, 
 let them irradicate your intercourse with your fellowmen, 
 bring them to bear, so far as you can, on the children and 
 youth of the land and the world, and "the God of peace 
 shall be with you," for in blessing others, you yourselves 
 shall be blessed. 
 
MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 IN preparing a sketch of the distinguished gentle- 
 man, whom I am to present to you, I have had ac- 
 cess to six or eight of the latest European and American 
 encyclopaedias and to his biography, written by his 
 daughter, Mrs Diana Fontaine Maury Corbin, aided by 
 his nephew. General Dabney H. Maury, C. S. A. From 
 the former, I have been able to ascertain not a single fact 
 or incident except in the most meagre form. The latter, 
 so far as I am able to learn, contains the only authentic 
 account of his life, and while it is far from being all w^e 
 could wish, either in fullness or completeness, it contains 
 much valuable information, and is an interesting and valu- 
 able book. My plan has been to go through this work with 
 care, selecting pivotal incidents and events, as far as prac- 
 cable, in chronological order and clothed very largely in 
 the language of the author. In this way I am able to give 
 you a more interesting account of the man and to set him 
 before you more in his true and simple greatness, than if 
 I allowed myself larger latitude. 
 
 In the galaxy of her distinguished sons, whom intelli- 
 gent Virginians delight to honor, Matthew Fontaine 
 Maury stands in the front rank. He was of Huguenot 
 ancestry through the Maurys and Fontaines, who arrived 
 in \'irginia in 1714. On his mothers side he was a de- 
 scendant of Dudas Alinor, who received a land grant 
 from Charles H. in 1665. No more honored, patriotic 
 and useful citizens have dwelt in our Commonwealth 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 135 
 
 than those belonging to these famiHes, the members of 
 which are now widely scattered throughout the United 
 States. 
 
 In 1790, Richard Maury, father of our hero, married 
 Diana, daughter of Major John Minor, of CaroHne 
 county, and settled in Spottsylvania county, where their 
 fourth son, the subject of this sketch, was born in 1806. 
 When Matthew was in his fifth year his father emigrated 
 with his family and settled in middle Tennessee, about 
 eighteen miles north of Nashville, where the boy assisted 
 his father and brothers in farm work. He was brought 
 up to work, to obey and to regular religious observance. 
 He obtained elementary education in the old-field schools 
 of that period and region, and having fallen from a high 
 tree when in his twelfth year and been so injured that his 
 father thought he would never be fit for farm labor, he 
 was allowed to enter Harpeth Academy nearby, where he 
 became a diligent and successful student. 
 
 His brother, John Minor Maury, entered the navy as 
 midshipman at the age of thirteen, and after most stir- 
 ring adventures, rose to be first lieutenant of a frigate 
 and flag captain of a fleet. He died of yellow fever at 
 sea, leaving two sons, one of whom became Major-Gen- 
 eral Dabncy Herndon Maury, C. S. A. 
 
 In 1825, Hon. Sam Houston, then member of Con- 
 gress from Tennessee, obtained for M. F. Maury a mid- 
 shipman's' warrant in the navy. His father, however, 
 having lost one son at sea, did not approve his acceptance 
 of this position, and refused his consent, his assistance 
 and even his parting blessing. Nevertheless, Matthew 
 determined to enter this profession, and with a horse pur- 
 chased on credit, and with thirty dollars, paid him as as- 
 sistant in a school, he started on his journey, reaching his 
 relatives in Virginia with fifty cents in his' pocket. 
 
136 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 His biographer mentions three incidents of interest 
 connected with this trip : ( i ) Arrived among his Minor 
 kin in Albemarle, a special entertainment was accorded 
 him. When the ice cream was handed him first as the 
 honored guest, having never seen any before, he aston- 
 ished the negro waiter and tried the good manners of the 
 company by transferring a teaspoonful of the unknown 
 sauce to his own plate and sending on the rest. (2) While 
 at his uncle's house in Fredericksburg, he met for the first 
 time his little cousin, Ann Herndon, twelve or thirteen 
 years old, to whom he was married nine years later in 
 1834. (3) At Fredericksburg, he sold his horse for the 
 price he agreed to pay for him, and immediately for- 
 warded the money to the gentleman in Tennessee from 
 whom he was purchased. 
 
 At the period of Maury's entering the navy (1825) 
 there was no naval academy, and the young midshipman 
 had to acquire his nautical education on shipboard. Bear- 
 ing on this state of things, T will be pardoned for giving 
 a brief account of my only personal contact with this re- 
 markable man. It occurred at the close of the session of 
 i853-'4 at the University of Virginia, when he made the 
 annual commencement address to the students. I remem- 
 ber well his appearance, his massive brow, his kindly ex- 
 pression, his gentle manner, his impressive bearing, and 
 I recall his opening words, not given in the extract 
 printed in his biography. They were somewhat as fol- 
 lows: "Young gentlemen, it is' the custom in the navy, 
 when a young man enters as midshipman, for him to seek 
 the guidance and assistance of some older and more ex- 
 perienced seaman to help him acquire the knowledge 
 necessary to enable him to fill the important position to 
 which he aspires, and as you are about to leave your 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 137 
 
 alma mater and venture on the voyage of life, I have 
 come, having gained some experience of the sea, to give 
 you some simple sailing directions, which may help you 
 the better to prepare to meet the breakers and to shun the 
 rocks and quicksands which beset your path." He then 
 went on in a most instructive way to draw from his per- 
 sonal experience important lessons which I am sure have 
 been of much practical value to many who heard him. I 
 find on reading his life, that his address was' a transcript 
 from his personal mode of action, when fitting himself 
 for the great duties he afterwards performed. His biog- 
 rapher says, that after he entered the navy, it soon be- 
 came evident that he had resolved to master the theory 
 and practice of his profession, and was steadily pursuing 
 that object, regardless of difficulties and obstacles. Active 
 and observant, he merited and obtained a reputation for 
 strict attention to the various details of duty and conse- 
 quently was often selected for special service. 
 
 During the first year of his' service, he visited the 
 coast of England on the frigate Brandywine, which con- 
 veyed the Marquis de la Fayette to France, by whom he 
 was kindly noticed. On his return to the United States 
 he was transferred to the "Vincennes," which was fortu- 
 nate in that his accommodations were much better and 
 more favorable to study, so that at the end of the voyage, 
 he was able to stand and pass his examinations', though 
 not at all distinguished in them. 
 
 In 183 1, six years after he entered the navy, he was 
 appointed master of the sloop-of-war "Falmouth,"' 
 ordered to the Pacific coast, in which he had a room to 
 himself and pursued his studies with ardor. He had the 
 Bible and Shakespeare at his' fingers' end and made him- 
 self master of much other good literature Tt was on the 
 
138 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 voyage to Rio de Janeiro, en route to the Pacific, that he 
 conceived the idea of the celebrated "Wind and current 
 charts," which have done so much for commerce and 
 made his name famous throughout the world. Before 
 leaving New York he had searched for reliable informa- 
 tion about winds and currents, but obtained none. It was 
 also on this voyage that he observed and studied the phe- 
 nomena of "the low barometer" off Cape Horn, and 
 wrote his first scientific paper for publication, which 
 afterwards appeared in the American Journal of Science. 
 He also began at this time to prepare a work on "Naviga- 
 tion," the material of which he had been gathering for 
 some time. From the "Falmouth" he was transferred to 
 the schooner "Dolphin," on which he performed the 
 duties of first lieutenant, until he joined the frigate 
 "Potomac," in which he returned to the United States in 
 1834, when he married, as heretofore stated, his fee to 
 the minister being the last ten dollars he possessed. Soon 
 after marriage, he put his work on "Navigation" to press. 
 After the appearance of this volume, he Avas assigned to 
 duty in making surveys of southern harbors. After being 
 engaged thus for more than a year he obtained a few 
 weeks leave of absence to visit his parents in Tennessee, 
 whom he wished to bring with him to reside with his 
 family in Virginia. On his' way back, having given his 
 seat on the inside to a poor woman, who could not stand 
 the exposure of the cold air at night, he was thrown from 
 the top of the stage coach and seriously injured. This 
 accident injuriously affected his prospects in the navy, 
 but soon after his return to Fredericksburg a series of 
 anonymous articles' from his ])en on nautical subjects, en- 
 titled "Scraps from the Lucky Bag," having appeared in 
 TJie Southern Literary Messenger (Richmond) and their 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 139 
 
 authorship having become known, great attention was 
 awakened not only by the discussions, but in regard to 
 their author. So deep was the impression that the 
 National Intelligencer (Washington) and other journals 
 urged his appointment as Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 In these papers he urged the adoption of "steam as a 
 motive power in navigation," and proclaimed "a new era 
 in naval warfare," that of big guns and small ships. He 
 also in the same year (1839) called attention to "the 
 great sailing circle" as a means of shortening the distance 
 between Europe and America. He also wrote on "Direct 
 Trade in Southern Bottoms," and advised that "a navy- 
 yard and fort" should be established at Memphis' and 
 Pensacola." In 1843, he wrote a further article on 
 "building a dock and navy-yard and school of instruc- 
 tion" at Memphis, which was done, and for which he de- 
 serves credit. In June of the same year, he read a paper 
 on "The Use of Blank Charts on Board of Public Cruis- 
 ers" before the National Institute, and in July before the 
 "President and Corps Diplomatique" ; a much-talked of 
 paper, entitled "The Gulf Stream and Its Causes." In 
 another "Scrap," he urged the establishment of forts, 
 arsenals and a ship canal from Illinois river to Lake 
 Michigan to connect with Memphis navy-yard and to 
 transport ships to and fro in time of war." When it be- 
 came known that Maury was the author of the "Scraps 
 from the Lucky Bag," his ability was universally ac- 
 knowledged and he was put in charge of the "Depot of 
 Charts and Instruments," which he developed into "the 
 National Observatory and Llydrographical Department 
 of the United States." 
 
 When Maury distributed his "charts and sailing direc- 
 tions," they were not much regarded at first, but Captain 
 
I40 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 Jackson, of Baltimore, having followed them in a voyage 
 from the United States to Rio, he made the voyage out 
 and back in the time often consumed in the outward voy- 
 age alone. An active interest was now excited in all 
 parts of the world, and he gained intelligent and zealous 
 friends and assistants everywhere. To show the accuracy 
 and benificence of Maury's work, the case of two ships 
 which left New York abreast and reached San Fran- 
 cisco the same day is cited. The fame of his "wind and 
 current charts and sailing directions" rang round the 
 world. Hunt's Merchants' Magazine of May, 1854, esti- 
 mates the annual saving to the commerce of the United 
 States on the outer voyage to be at least $2,250,000, not 
 estimating the return trip or the saving in wreckage of 
 vessels' and human lives. 
 
 The value of this system having been demonstrated, 
 the sympathy and assistance of European nations were 
 now invoked and readily accorded. Secretary Dobbin, of 
 the navy, gave it as his conviction in a letter to Senator 
 Mallory, that "this officer (Maury) has not only added 
 to the honor of his country, but saved millions of dollars 
 to his' countrymen." It was while analyzing and tabu- 
 lating millions of observations, that Maury wrote "The 
 Physical Geography of the Sea and Its Meteorology," 
 which Humboldt pronounced "one of the most charming 
 and instructive books in the English language." Upwards 
 of twenty editions of this book were sold in England, to 
 say nothing of America and the continent, and it was 
 translated into French, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish and 
 Italian. In T853. "a congress' of nations," chiefly inter- 
 ested in commerce — England, Russia, Belgium, France, 
 Holland, Sweden and Norway, Denmark, Portugal and 
 the United States (with Maury as representative) asseni- 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 141 
 
 bled at Brussels for the further development of meteor- 
 ological research, applicable to land as to the sea. In 
 1857, Baron Von Humboldt, at the age of ninety, wrote 
 Maury: "It belongs to me more than to any other travel- 
 ler of the age to congratulate my illustrious friend upon 
 the course he has' so gloriously opened." In 1880, Senator 
 Vest, of Missouri, said in a speech before the Forty-sixth 
 Congress of the United States : "The whole signal service 
 of this country originated with the navy, not with the 
 army. The man who commenced it, in whose brain it 
 first had existence, was M. F. Maury. . . This same 
 man by his system of research upon the ocean . . . 
 saved to the commerce of the world from $40,000,000 to 
 $60,000,000 annually." The Weather Bureau system of 
 this and other countries proceeded from his brain, though 
 he has received no credit for it. 
 
 It was Maury, also, who instituted deep-sea sound- 
 ings, who prophesied the existence of a telegraphic pla- 
 teau at the bottom of the sea between America and 
 Europe ; who discovered and suggested the place for the 
 Atlantic cable and the kind and size of wire to be used. 
 
 At a dinner in New York to celebrate the arrival of 
 the first message across the Atlantic, when called on to 
 give an account of the work, Dr. Cyrus W. Field arose 
 and said : "I am a man of few words : Maury furnished 
 the brains, England the money and I did the work." Yet 
 these services were unrequitted and are, to a considerable 
 extent, unknown. Admiral Fitz Roy, an eminent savant 
 of the British navy, said of him, "One of his most distin- 
 guished characteristics was disinterestedness. . . His 
 sole object was to benefit mankind at large." 
 
 I must take a moment to call attention to the most un- 
 gracious act of a naval retiring board appointed by au- 
 
142 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 thority of Congress to retire inefficient naval officers. It 
 was simply a recommendation that M. F. Maury, along 
 with others, be dropped from the list. Equally marvellous 
 is the fact that the recommendation was adopted, and 
 Maury found himself shivering out in the cold. The 
 country was indignant and the press throughout its length 
 and breadth rose up, almost as one man, and demanded 
 not only his reinstatement, but his promotion. 1 am sorr^^ 
 to say that Senators Davis of Mississippi and Mallory of 
 Florida (one afterwards President of the Confederate 
 States and the other his Secretary of the Navy) were, 
 apparently, both before and during the war, opposed to 
 Maury. Nevertheless the will of the people prevailed 
 over narrow-mindedness, and Maury was restored and 
 promoted. 
 
 About this time he received an autograph letter from 
 the Grand Duke Constantine, commander-in-chief of the 
 Russian navy, in which the following sentences occur: "I 
 must confine myself to the expression of my sentiments. 
 They are as exalted as are your own merits ; and in my 
 official capacity, I may say to you that you do honor to 
 the profession to which you belong, as well as to the 
 great nation which you have the honor to serve." 
 
 Maury continued to write on a great variety of sub- 
 jects, "Light-Houses on the Florida and Gulf Coasts," 
 "Systematic Observations on the Rise and Fall of the 
 Mississippi River," "The Defence of the Lakes and the 
 West," "Drowned Lands Along the Mississippi," "Steam 
 Navigation to China," "A Ship Canal and Railroad 
 Across the Isthmus to the Pacific," "On the Commercial 
 Prospects of the South," "On the Valley of the Amazon," 
 "Our relations' with England," etc., all of which have 
 borne fruit, though some of them tardily. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 143 
 
 About this time, his "chart" was published, "with two 
 lanes laid down, each twenty-five miles broad, for the use 
 of steamers in going and returning across the Atlantic, so 
 that they might avoid collision." In speaking of this dis- 
 covery, the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser and Gazette 
 said: "We agree with Professor De Bow's view, that 
 Lieutenant Maury is certainly entitled to the rank of one 
 of the greatest benefactors of the age." The London 
 Times, at a later date, speaking of the loss of the "Ville 
 du Harve," remarked, "If she had followed Maury's 
 steam lanes, this terrible loss of ship and life would have 
 been avoided." So impressed were the merchants and un- 
 derwriters of New York with their value that they pre- 
 sented him $5,000 and a handsome silver service. 
 
 Maury was a stout man, about five feet six inches in 
 height; he had a fresh, ruddy complexion and clear ten- 
 der blue eyes. In later life, he was quite bald. His coun- 
 tenance bespoke intellect, kindliness and force of charac- 
 ter. In manners he was most affable and courteous : in 
 conversation, he was always evolving great ideas — as Mr. 
 Calhoun said of him : "He was a man of great thoughts." 
 He made loving companions of his children, invited their 
 confidence and freely gave them his. Yet his word was 
 law, and that no one ever dreamed of disputing. His 
 dear wife — his "darling Annie" — was the idol of his 
 heart. Like few great men, he was greater the closer one 
 got to him. He never had a study or anything like a sanc- 
 tum, where his wife and children could not come. He sat 
 in the midst of his family, with papers spread out before 
 him, unconscious of what was going on. He taught his 
 children at the breakfast table and for an hour or two 
 after. Their mother taught their Bible lesson and cate- 
 chism and the girls had regular tasks in mending and 
 
144 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 darning. The family could attend only Sunday morning 
 service because of the distance between their home and 
 church, but Maury conducted evening service at home, 
 which was read verse about, "the stranger that was 
 within the gates" generally taking part. 
 
 One of the most remarkable productions of this re- 
 markable man is a letter, published in the Southern 
 Churchman, in the year 1855, on the relation of '"the 
 Bible and Science," in which he exhibits not only intimate 
 knowledge of the text, but most intelligent comprehen- 
 sion of its meaning. He was a devout believer in the 
 authenticity and inspiration of the sacred scriptures. In 
 i860 he delivered the address at the laying of the corner- 
 stone of the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tenn., 
 in which the following sentences occur: "Physical geog- 
 raphy makes the whole world kin. Of all the depart- 
 ments in the domains of physical science, it is the most 
 christianizing. . . Astronomy ignores the existence of 
 man: physical geography confesses that existence and is 
 based on the Bible doctrine that the earth was made for 
 man." "Upon no other theory can it be studied : upon no 
 other theory can its phenomena be reconciled ! . . I 
 have been blamed by men of science . . . for quoting 
 the Bible in confirmation of the doctrines of physical 
 geography. The Bible, they say, was not written for 
 scientific purposes, and is, therefore, of no authority in 
 matters of science. I beg pardon. The Bible is authority 
 for everything it touches. . . When I, a pioneer in 
 one department of this beautiful science, discover the 
 truths of revelation and the truths of science reflecting 
 light on one another, how can I, as a truth-loving, knowl- 
 edge-seeking man, fail to point out the beauty and rejoice 
 in the discovery." 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 145 
 
 In the year 1858, Lieutenant Maury delivered an ex- 
 tensive series of lectures in cities of the North and West 
 on "The Atlantic Telegraph," "The Highways and By- 
 ways of the Sea," "A System of Meteorological Observa- 
 tions'," "The Workshops and Harmonies of the Sea," etc. 
 Of these lectures, the Cleveland (O.) Plaindealcr says: 
 "They have all the thrilling interest of romance, all the 
 charming simplicity of narrative, and yet the grandest 
 and most sublime principles of science are grappled with 
 and discussed with the erudition and ability of a master 
 mind." 
 
 But now the prospect of a great calamity was darken- 
 ing the land. Maury made earnest efiforts' to avert war, 
 maintain peace and insure to the South her equal rights 
 in the Union. He addressed earnest appeals to the Gov- 
 ernors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Dela- 
 ware to stand in the breach and stop this fratricidal strife. 
 It was too late. President Lincoln called on Virginia for 
 troops to subjugate the seceding States. Virginia replied 
 by casting her lot with her seceding sisters. Maury re- 
 signed and took his stand with his native State. No 
 sooner was his resignation known in Europe than most 
 flattering offers from Russia and France were conveyed 
 to him in Richmond by the Russian and French ministers, 
 accompanied by the Prussian Envoy, who came, they 
 said, "to pay their respects and make their adieus to the 
 philosopher and man of science, who had given up all, 
 everything he had save honor, at the call of his native 
 State in her trouble." 
 
 Maury, while gratefully appreciating and acknowledg- 
 ing these honorable proffers, as graciously declined them, 
 because his allegiance and service belonged to Virginia. 
 
 In writing to a friend about this' time, he says : "The 
 
146 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 President refuses to accept my resignation. The object 
 of this will be plain enough to you. But in such a case, 
 the halter has no more terror than the bullet. Death is 
 death. Our cause is just." 
 
 On the loth day of June, 1861, Maury was appointed 
 by the Confederate Government chief of the Seascoast, 
 Harbor and River defences of the South. In his post he 
 assisted in fitting out the "Virginia" for her short, but 
 destructive career. He also invented a formidable tor- 
 pedo to be used both for harbor and land defence, besides 
 contributing in other ways to the protection of the South- 
 ern seaboard. Torpedo warfare was reintroduced to the 
 world by our Civil War, and it was the practical mind 
 of Maury which appreciated its power and developed its 
 efficiency. In the summer of 1862, after overcoming 
 many difficulties, Maury proceeded to mine the James 
 river below its fortifications, and it was this that saved 
 Richmond from capture at a much earlier date. 
 
 While engaged in this work, without having been con- 
 sulted and strongly against his wishes, he received an 
 order to go to Europe to purchase torpedo material, a 
 duty that might have been performed by any junior offi- 
 cer. It is probable that we here again see the hand of 
 President Davis and his Secretary of the Navy, and there 
 can be no doubt that the loss to the Confederacy by his 
 removal was irreparable and, may be, fatal. 
 
 The first and second years of the war Maury wrote a 
 series of papers, published in the Richmond Enquirer, 
 urging the government to build a navy without delay and 
 showed that it was practicable. 
 
 In October, 1862, he sailed from Charleston, S. C, 
 and arrived safelv in England, where he remained during 
 the war. While there he assisted in organizing a society 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 147 
 
 "for the promotion of the cessation of hostiHties in Amer- 
 ica," and "a petition for peace in America" was sent by 
 "the people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
 Ireland" to "the people of the United States," but it ac- 
 complished nothing. "The great American Hydrogra- 
 pher," however, met with much sympathy and kindness. 
 His valuable labors and books had secured him a host 
 of friends. During his stay in England he spent his time 
 in perfecting his discoveries and in the conduct of experi- 
 ments connected with torpedo warfare. 
 
 On May 2, 1865, under orders from the Secretary of 
 the Navy of the Confederate States, he sailed from 
 Southampton, and on arrival at St. Thomas, West Indies, 
 received the crushing intelligence of the fall of the Con- 
 federacy and the murder of President Lincoln. He now 
 felt it to be his duty to follow the fortunes of his stricken 
 State, and determined to surrender his sword, which he 
 did to the United States officer commanding the Gulf 
 squadron," accompanied with a letter, the first paragraph 
 of which is as follows : "In peace as in war, I follow the 
 fortunes of my old native State, Virginia. I read in the 
 public prints that she has practically confessed defeat and 
 laid down her arms. In that act, mine were grounded 
 also." He was strenuously advised not to return to the 
 United States, as "vengeance against the leaders" was 
 openly proclaimed. Mr. Charles Francis Adams, at that 
 time United States Minister to England, said to a friend 
 of Maury's, "All his friends should advise him not to go 
 back to the United States yet. The feeling there is bitter 
 against him, and I believe that a step of that kind on his 
 part at this time would be unfortunate for him." 
 
 Maury was' left at Havana without a country or a 
 home, and far from friends whom he could consult. He 
 
148 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 had always felt a warm regard for the Archduke Maxi- 
 milian, and when that unfortunate prince undertook the 
 regeneration of Mexico, Maury offered his services and 
 arrived in Mexico in June, 1865. He was welcomed by 
 the Emperor and Empress, and was offered a place in the 
 ministry, which he declined, but accepted the position of 
 "Director of the Imperial Observatory." 
 
 Maury now formed a grand scheme for the coloniza- 
 tion of a New Virginia in Mexico, which was cordially 
 adopted by the Emperor, who appointed him "Imperial 
 Commissioner for Colonization," and concurred with him 
 in measures to make the plan effective. 
 
 The course pursued by Maury in entering the service 
 of Mexico did not receive the approval of his friends 
 either in Europe or America. Commodore Jansen, of the 
 Netherlands Navy, General R. E. Lee and others wrote, 
 dissuading him from the enterprise. He, however, 
 thought that he was right, and, from indications, would 
 perhaps, have done much for the upbuilding of Mexico, 
 but for the unhappy and prohibitive state of things w^hich 
 existed. 
 
 Maury now got leave of absence to join his' family in 
 England and not long after his arrival received the fol- 
 lowing letter from Maximilian : 
 "My Dear Councillor Maury : 
 
 "It was with pride that I heard of the scientific tri- 
 umph just achieved and due to your illustrious labors. 
 The trans-Atlantic cable, while uniting both hemispheres, 
 will continualy recall to their minds the debt of gratitude 
 they owe your genius. I congratulate you with all my 
 heart, and I am pleased at announcing to you that I have 
 appointed you Grand Cross of the Order of Guadaloupe. 
 
 "Receive the assurance of the good wishes of your af- 
 fectionate, "Maximilian." 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 149 
 
 It was not long after this that the tragic death of 
 Maximihan was announced to the world. 
 
 The Emperor of Russia made Maury "Knight of the 
 Order of St. Ann" ; the King of Denmark "Knight of 
 Dannebrog" ; the King of Portugal "Knight of the Tower 
 and Sword"; the King of Belgium "Knight of the Order 
 of St. Leopold" ; the Emperor of France "Commander of 
 the Legion of Honor," while Prussia, Austria, Sweden, 
 Holland, Bremen and France struck gold medals in his 
 honor. The Pope also forwarded a complete set of all 
 the medals which had been struck during his pontificate, 
 as a mark of his appreciation of Maury's service in the 
 cause of science. His services were also recognized by 
 numerous learned societies at home and abroad. 
 
 Maury lost all his property in the States, and the fail- 
 ure of a bank caused him the further loss of all the 
 money brought from Mexico. Soon after his arrival in 
 England, however, "a Maury testimonial," promoted by 
 his friends', Commodore Jansen and Rev. Dr. Tremlett, 
 consisting of three thousand guineas in a silver casket, 
 was presented to him at a banquet presided over by Sir 
 John Parkington, First Lord of the Admiralty, surround- 
 ed by representatives of nearly all European governments 
 and distinguished officers of their armies and navies'. 
 General Beauregard, C. S. A., was also present. 
 
 Maury now set to work with his electrical torpedo, 
 and was in Paris for a time, where he was employed by 
 the government of Napoleon HL The french authorities 
 were delighted. At St. Cloud, the Emperor himself made 
 the circuit and exploded a torpedo, and Maury was in- 
 vited to become a Frenchman and accept service under 
 Napoleon. 
 
 On his return to London, he opened a school of in- 
 
150 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 struction in electric torpedoes, which was attended by 
 Swedish, Dutch and other officers. For this work, he was 
 amply remunerated by the governments whose officers 
 were under his instruction. He was also fully occupied 
 in the preparation of a series of geographical text-books. 
 
 Although Alaury had always been a devout Christian, 
 it was not until this year (1867) that he became a regular 
 member of the church. He was confirmed by Bishop 
 Quintard, of Tennessee, then in London, at Dr. Trem- 
 lett's church, in Belsize Park. 
 
 In 1868, the degree of LL. D. was conferred on him 
 by Cambridge University, in recognition of his literary 
 and scientific merits, and of his eminent services to man- 
 kind. Alfred Tennyson and Max Miiller received the de- 
 gree at the same time. This same year, the political ob- 
 jections to Maury's return to the United States were re- 
 moved by the proclamation of general amnesty. He had 
 been offered the "Directorship of the Imperial Observa- 
 tory" by the Emperor of the French, and the superintend- 
 ency of the University of the South at Sewanec, but he 
 declined both. He had accepted the Chair of Physics at 
 the Virginia Military Institute, arrived in the United 
 States in July, 1868, and was duly installed in his profes- 
 sorship the following September, but his residence not be- 
 ing ready for occupancy, he did not enter on his duties 
 till the next year. He, then, set himself busily to work in 
 the instruction of his classes along lines which had inter- 
 ested him during his whole life. He was invited to make 
 addresses in Alabama, Virginia, Tennessee, Massachu- 
 setts and Missouri. In May and October, 1871, he de- 
 livered a notable address on "The Development of the 
 Agricultural Bureau at Washington," as a means of help- 
 ing the farmers and increasing the wealth of the country, 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 151 
 
 which called forth enthusiastic action, invoking the 
 United States Government to grant these reforms and im- 
 provements. At the National Agricultural Congress at 
 St. Louis in 1872, he strongly urged the importance of ,m 
 "international conference" between the leading agricul- 
 turists and meteorologists of all countries. 
 
 His health gave way under the fatigue and exposure 
 of this last trip and about the middle of October, he re- 
 turned home. As he crossed the threshold, he exclaimed 
 to his wife, "My dear, I am come home to die !" After 
 four months of patient suffering, borne with pious resig- 
 nation, he entered into rest, February i, 1873, his last 
 words being "All's well." 
 
 His life was a consecrated one — consecrated to God. 
 to duty and to the promotion of the welfare of mankind. 
 He was wholly unselfish. He was at once a patriot and a 
 philanthropist ; a man of the highest personal honor and 
 of unimpeachable integrity. His distinguishing mental 
 characteristics from his youth were the power of clovi 
 observation, chastened imagination and careful generali- 
 zation from observed facts. On his early cruises as a 
 midshipman, he saw things and saw them in their relation 
 to other things, and drew conclusions from what he saw, 
 as no other mariner from the days of Noah had seen and 
 concluded. He was a man not only of intellect, but of un- 
 daunted courage and perennial industry. By day and by 
 night he was' at work ; at work for no selfish end, but for 
 the betterment of mankind. His motive in life was to do 
 somebody — everybody — good. His was a world-wide 
 beneficence. Beginning at home, he was a loving and 
 gracious husband, a kind and solicitous father, a loyal 
 son and brother. He was an humble, sincere and devout 
 Christian, taking the Bible as his standard and conscience. 
 
152 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 enlightened by truth, as his guide. Having enjoyed nar- 
 row educational advantages in youth, as a scientist and 
 literateur he became the peer of the most learned savants 
 of his time, and far outstripped the vast majority of the 
 highly educated men of the world. He was a man of gen- 
 ius — of that kind of genius alone worth having, which, 
 when it sees a thing, takes hold of it, masters it and turns 
 it to account. No man has done more for his country and 
 the world. Few have accomplished anything like so much. 
 His name is known and honored wherever civilization ex- 
 tends. He is recognized as one of the great benefactors 
 of mankind. His mortal remains rest in Hollywood, the 
 cemetery of your sister city near by. 
 
 When I think of this remarkable man, sans pcur ct 
 sans rcproche, giving his life for the welfare, and confer- 
 ring benefits of untold magnitude and unending duration, 
 on his country and the world, treated with ingratitude 
 and malevolence, I thank God that there is an assize In 
 the future, at which wrongs will be righted and even- 
 handed justice accorded to all. 
 
PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY. 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention, Ladies 
 and Gentlemen: 
 
 I remember distinctly that when I was quite a youth 
 I heard in my native city of Petersburg, on the oc- 
 casion of the death of a distinguished and highly honored 
 citizen of the United States, a thrilling discourse by an 
 eloquent minister of the Gospel, based on the text, "Ceaso 
 ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein 
 is he to be accounted of." 
 
 A world-renowned preacher, when called to declare 
 the will of God to man before the court of France, as he 
 rose in the pulpit of Notre Dame and looked around on 
 royalty in all its' blazonry of splendor, and the nobility of 
 the kingdom, its lords and ladies, and pomp and circum- 
 stance, stretched out before him in glory and magnifi- 
 cence, paused and seemed lost in contemplation, and then 
 began a discourse which has survived the lapse of time, 
 with the impressive words, "There is nothing great but 
 God: there is nothing terrible, but judgment." 
 
 As we are gathered here to-day at a time when men 
 are usually engaged in secular work; as this convention 
 has interrupted its ordinary course of proceedings and by 
 resolution is assembled for religious worship ; as through- 
 out our common country our fellow-citizens have for- 
 saken their accustomed avocations and betaken them- 
 selves to the house of God in recognition of a common 
 sorrow and in obeisance to the Lord of Lords and the 
 King of Kings, it behooves us to bow humbly and revcr- 
 
154 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 ently before His throne and acknowledge Him Lord 
 of all. 
 
 Perhaps never in the history of mankind has there 
 been more heart-felt and universal grief than during the 
 past days preceding and following the death of the hon- 
 ored and beloved Chief Magistrate of the Republic. All 
 parties, all creeds, all peoples throughout Christendom ; 
 the potentates of earth in common with those who fill 
 humble positions in society; all, with the exception oi a 
 few enemies of mankind, sit together under the shadow 
 of a common grief and cry out to God for help. 
 
 To me this fact has great significance. Not only does 
 it bear witness impressively, as nothing else could do, to 
 the noble character and exalted worth and illustrious .ser- 
 vice of our lamented dead, but over and above and be- 
 yond this, it implies that deep down in the constitution of 
 the human soul there are noble and generous instincts 
 that on occasion rise superior to minor differences of 
 opinion, break asunder the shackles of sect and party, and 
 assert the existence within us. amid all the weakness and 
 sinfulness of our nature, of the Divine spark of justice 
 and truth and right which has not been wholly extin- 
 guished. 
 
 We learn from classic history that the people of Rome 
 were wrought up to the point of frenzied enthusiasm 
 when an impassioned orator stood before them and cried 
 out in their hearing, "Homo sums ct humani nihil a mc 
 alicniim piito" ("I am a man and I deem nothing pertain- 
 ing to man foreign to me") ; and so to-day we find our- 
 selves in common with our fellow-citizens throughout 
 this broad land and our fellow-men throughout the world, 
 laying our tribute of reverential homage on the bier of 
 our departed chieftain, acknowledging his virtues and 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. i55 
 
 holding him up as an example of all that is' good and 
 great in American citizenship and in human nature. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Convention, this is well, but it is not 
 all, and does not express the full significance of this occa- 
 sion. If, assembled here, we content ourselves with mag- 
 nifying the dead, however justly and truthfully, and fad 
 to gather lessons of wisdom and grace from his life of 
 consecration, and his death of faith and hope, we have 
 missed the crowning lesson of the sad event which has 
 brought us together, and are engaged in a heathen rather 
 than a Christian service. 
 
 There are, Gentlemen of the Convention, some trite 
 and commonplace instructions to be drawn from the mo- 
 mentous crisis through which we are passing, and the cir- 
 cumstances which have brought it about, which I should 
 fail in duty did I omit to call your attention, and the neg- 
 lect of which would leave you without the benefit which 
 ought to be derived from this solemn service. It is true 
 that these lessons are not infrequently impressed in our 
 experience of life from other sources, but seldom, per- 
 haps, so forcefully and imperiously as at present. We do 
 well, therefore, to consider carefully and lay to heart to- 
 day the warnings, the admonitions, the instructions which 
 are tided in upon us this sad hour. 
 
 Bear with me, Mr. President and gentlemen, as I 
 stand here not merely as one of your number, permitted 
 to voice your feelings on this great occasion, but also as a 
 minister of Christ, whose duty it is to speak the truth in 
 His name, to draw from the Providential dispensation 
 which rests upon us, and present, as best I can, some sim- 
 ple lessons, in simple language, for our common instruc- 
 tion and use. Ah, it will be a sad thing if a single one of 
 us passes through these scenes untaught and unblessed. 
 
156 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 Let us, then, one and all, give solemn heed to the voice of 
 God as he speaks to us to-day and, having heard, let us 
 determine that by His gracious help, we will live up to the 
 teachings He gives. 
 
 Perhaps the most obvious and universally accepted 
 lesson which has been borne in on our minds by the sad 
 series of events through which we have passed is one that 
 has already been alluded to, the uncertainty of life — a 
 lesson learned, indeed, from many other sources, but, 
 alas ! how sadly neglected ! We know that man is born to 
 die ; we know that death may meet us anywhere and at 
 any time, and yet how prone we are to put the thought 
 away from us and to go heedlessly on in reckless indiffer- 
 ence to the future. Men deem all men mortal but them- 
 selves. To-day God speaks to us with a voice loud as 
 the thunder of the skies and impressive as the grave and 
 eternity, and says : "Go to now, ye that say, to-day or to- 
 morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a 
 year, and buy and sell, and get gain ; whereas ye know 
 not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? 
 It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time and 
 then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the 
 Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that." Our be- 
 loved chieftain, who a few days ago was in the fulness 
 of manly vigor, with the prospect of prolonged and hon- 
 ored usefulness, now lies in the cold embrace of death, 
 and from his voiceless tenement of clay comes the mes- 
 sage: "Prepare to meet thy God." "Let every day be 
 spent in His fear and His service." 
 
 Another lesson which comes' to us to-day from the life 
 and death of our lamented President is that we ought to 
 cultivate and cherish a spirit of broad charity and hu- 
 manity, of kindness and forbearance towards our fellow- 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 157 
 
 men, a disposition to accord to our fellow-citizens of 
 every degree what rightfully belongs to them, while at the 
 same time we strenuously assert and maintain our own 
 rights, inherited and justly acquired. If there is an in- 
 struction which comes to us from the life and death of 
 William McKinley, the honest man, the exalted patriot, 
 the illustrious chieftain, it is this. 
 
 It is not contended that at the beginning or during the 
 earlier part of his political career he had reached t^;'is 
 high altitude. Exalted character is not the creation of a 
 day, nor is it produced by leaps and bounds, but it is of 
 gradual formation under the inspiration of noble prin- 
 ciples and high ideals'. It presupposes and involves man- 
 ful struggle, thoughtful effort, voluntary self-sacrifice, 
 large-heartedness and absolute truthfulness. You cannot 
 have character without that. Its acquisition is slow and 
 gradual, and after conquest upon conquest only is finally 
 complete, and when complete its possessor stands before 
 the world the noblest work of God, the ideal of humanity 
 — the only perfect exemplar of which is our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the Son of Mary, the Son of God. And perhaps 
 at the time of his death he whom we honor to-day had 
 approached as near this point as any living man. 
 
 It is told of Alexander the Great that when he was 
 about to enter on the conquest of the East, the Philoso- 
 pher, Aristotle, the instructor of his youth, made bold to 
 advise him to crush out the alien nations that lay in his 
 path, but to treat with leniency the Greek peoples with 
 whom he should meet; to which the conqueror, wiser 
 than his teacher, made the noble response : "It is not my 
 mission to crush and to destroy, but to unite and reconcile 
 the nations of the earth." 
 
 Such seems to have been the spirit of our departed 
 
158 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 hero in private life and in the administration of the 
 affairs of his country, and under this' patriotic and Chris- 
 tian poHcy he did much to bring all parts of our hitherto 
 disunited country to the indulgence of mutual respect and 
 into bonds of cordial fraternity. 
 
 Shall his generous example be lost? Shall we not 
 cherish and honor it, and in our private and public rela- 
 tions endeavor to come up to this high ideal ? It was the 
 great Justinian who gave to the world the following defi- 
 nition of justice: "Jusfitia est constaiis ct pcrpcHia volun- 
 tas cuiquc siium tribuendi" ("Justice is the constant and 
 perpetual good-will to give to every man what belongs to 
 him"). Hundreds of years before Justinian, an inspired 
 prophet, speaking in the name of God, had said, "He hath 
 shewed thee, O man, what is good: and what doth the 
 Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy 
 and to walk humbly with thy God?" Thus we have 
 this day brought to our ears and impressed on our hearts 
 the same important lesson from four very diverse 
 sources — from the life and death of one of the noblest 
 of Americans ; from the gracious though ephemeral out- 
 burst of the conqueror of the world ; from the pen of a 
 renowned Roman jurist, and from the everlasting Word 
 of the everlasting God. Oh, let not the appeal be without 
 effect on your hearts and lives. 
 
 The only other lesson which I shall venture to bring 
 to your attention is found in the answer to the inquiry, 
 What was the basic principle on which, as a foundation 
 of adamant, the reverent and upright character of Wil- 
 liam McKinley rested? What is the adequate explanation 
 of his inflexible justice, his broad-minded charity, his un- 
 deviating adherence to what he thought right, his pure- 
 heartedncss and devout patriotism? What was' it that 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. i59 
 
 made him the man that he was, that in Hfe won for him 
 the affectionate regard and confidence of those who knew 
 him, and that at his death sent coursing throughout our 
 greJt repubHc and all around the world, along with the 
 thrill of horror at the dastardly act which laid him low, 
 an unbroken wave of deepest distress, w^hich filled all 
 hearts with sadness and all eyes with tears? Has' such a 
 spectacle ever been beheld before in the history of the 
 world ? Explain it ! Make reply to your own souls ! 
 
 To me the answer is evident. I have not far to go to 
 find a satisfying explanation of what he was while living, 
 and of what he is to his countrymen and mankind, now 
 that he is dead. ''He that dwelleth in the secret place of 
 the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the 
 Almighty." He drew the inspiration of his life from con- 
 verse with the throne of Heaven. He was an avowed and 
 honest believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He accepted 
 the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the 
 guide of his life. Their doctrines were the sheet anchor 
 of his soul ; their commandments were a lamp to his feet. 
 He could say with the Psalmist, "The Lord is my light 
 and my salvation ; whom shall I fear ? The Lord is the 
 strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" The 
 teachings and example of Jesus were the rule of his con- 
 duct, and walking in the ways of truth and holiness, he 
 went by degrees from strength to strength, growing in 
 grace and in the knowledge of his God and Saviour ; and 
 in the practice of what he saw to be true and right and 
 Sfood, he became the man that he was, the ruler that he 
 Avas — the saint that he is. 
 
 But he has gone from us. While we are engaged in 
 this service, the last sad tribute of respect is being paid 
 
i6o ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 to his mortal remains as they are being consigned to the 
 tomb by his kinspeople and friends. "Earth to earth, dust 
 to dust, ashes to ashes." But, oh, what a precious thought 
 that "to be absent from the body is to be present with the 
 Lord," for says the seer, "And I heard a voice from 
 heaven saying unto me, write, Blessed are the dead which 
 die in the Lord from henceforth ; yea, saith the spirit, 
 that they may rest from their labors and their works do 
 follow them." 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention, in 
 bringing these desultory remarks to a close, how can I 
 better repay the genial kindness that I have received at 
 your hands since we have been assembled here, than by 
 indulging and expressing the fervent wish and hope that 
 every one of us may possess like precious faith with Wil- 
 liam McKinley, and that by the aid of heavenly grace, we 
 may be enabled to fill the several spheres' of activity 
 allotted to us so wisely and well, that when the summons 
 comes to join the ranks of the innumerable departed, each 
 shall enjoy the confidence and regard of his fellowmen, 
 and hear the welcome plaudit, "Well done, good and 
 faithful servant," 
 
SUFFRAGE. 
 
 Mr. Chairman: 
 
 WHILE I feel sure that the views I am about to 
 present will meet with a cordial response from 
 many members of the convention and from the great 
 mass of intelligent citizens of Virginia, I fear they may 
 arouse the antagonism of gentlemen who have already 
 declared themselves hostile to the enactment of principles 
 which I regard essential to the welfare of society and fun- 
 damental to the moral, educational and economic progress 
 of the Commonwealth. 
 
 I desire, therefore, at the beginning of my remarks, to 
 assure those who differ with me that the views I enter- 
 tain have been arrived at after large observation, careful 
 investigation, and prolonged and profound thought, and 
 to invoke their candid, patient and thoughtful attention 
 to what I have to say. 
 
 I shall endeavor to be entirely impersonal, and to treat 
 each question discussed with absolute fairness. If I err 
 in either respect, it will be from oversight, and not with 
 design. I have no object in appearing before you but the 
 ascertainment and enforcement of truth, and to aid in the 
 wise and just settlement of the suffrage question. 
 
 I do not stand here. Mr. Chairman, as a theorist, but 
 as a man of practical affairs, who has had large dealings 
 with his fellow-men. and who looks with a keen eye at 
 conditions as they actually exist, and with an earnest 
 desire to see them improved. 
 
i62 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 It will readily be granted by every member of the con- 
 vention that the purpose which has brought us together is 
 to frame a constitution adapted to the needs of the peo- 
 ple of Virginia — an instrument which, when completed 
 and adopted as the organic law of the Commonwealth, 
 shall embody those seminal principles which are fitted in 
 their effective application to promote the welfare of every 
 dweller within our bounds, and to restore and perpetuate 
 the honor and glory of the old State. 
 
 It will also, doubtless, be conceded, that in order to 
 attain this high object, it is necessary to study the real 
 conditions existing ; not in any one locality to the exclu- 
 sion of others'; not merely with reference to one interest 
 without regard to others; not with a narrow and sec- 
 tional intent, but with a broad, enlightened and patriotic 
 spirit, infused and dominated by an intense and supreme 
 desire for the rehabilitation of our lost fortunes, the re- 
 establishment of our ancient renown, and the placing of 
 the old Commonwealth on an enduring foundation of vir- 
 tue, intelligence and economic strength. 
 
 Let me recall your attention, Mr. Chairman and gen- 
 tlemen, to the fact that we are here to legislate in the in- 
 terests of nearly two millions of people, about two-thirds 
 of whom are of Anglo-Saxon lineage, the remnant being 
 of African descent ; that while, with inconsiderable ex- 
 ceptions, they are natives of the soil they inhabit and in- 
 heritors in common of an honorable history, they differ 
 widely in many respects — some dwelling by the waters of 
 the sea, and others in mountain fastnesses ; some inhabit- 
 ing cities and towns, and others' the rural districts ; some 
 following agricultural, others pastoral, others mechanical, 
 others mercantile, others professional pursuits, while a 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 163 
 
 large portion of the population live by daily bodily toil. 
 Some are educated and intelligent, others are ignorant 
 and stupid; some are cultured and refined, others are 
 brutal and immoral ; some are well-to-do, a few wealthy, 
 others are poor, and the majority possess but small means. 
 
 Here, then, we have briefly and imperfectly the prob- 
 lem given us for solution. We are to legislate for all 
 these classes, and to meet all these conditions, in such 
 manner that every citizen, of whatever locality or circum- 
 stance, may not only receive even-handed justice, but find 
 in the organic law of his State and the civic and political 
 arrangements emanating therefrom, incentive and inspi- 
 ration to elevate his character, enlarge his' view of life, 
 and improve his economic and social status. Any lower 
 apprehension of the work before us is fatally defective, 
 and destructive of the great end to be attained. Keeping 
 steadily in view these high and noble objects in the con- 
 struction of every portion of the instrument we are now 
 framing, we will present to the people of Virginia a con- 
 stitution adapted to their needs, and v/hich, in its opera- 
 tion, will prove a benediction to all parts of the Common- 
 wealth. 
 
 It will readily be gathered from what has' now been 
 said that I do not stand here as an advocate of any par- 
 ticular section, or of any sectional restrictive measures in 
 regard to suffrage. Restriction in suffrage is demanded — 
 imperatively demanded — by the exigencies of the situa- 
 tion in the Southside, from which T come, but no less in 
 Tidewater and the Piedmont region and the Valley and 
 the Southwest and Northern Virginia. The need is uni- 
 versal, not only in the country, but in the cities and 
 towns ; not only among the blacks, but among the whites, 
 
i64 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 in order to deliver the State from the burden of illiteracy 
 and poverty and crime, which rests on it as a deadening 
 pall, sapping its energies, corrupting the sources of politi- 
 cal and social vitality, and lowering it in the eyes of its 
 own people no less than in the view of those who are 
 without. 
 
 Since the assembling of this convention, it has been 
 acknowledged again and again by gentlemen from differ- 
 ent sections of the State that politics in Virginia are cor- 
 rupt ; that there is a large purchasable element, especially 
 in the white sections; that voters arc bought and sold; 
 and that generally there is no assurance that the will of 
 the electors is truly expressed by the election returns. In 
 the contested election case lately ventilated before this 
 convention you have an object lesson of how things are 
 not infrequently managed, not only in this, but in other 
 sections of the Commonwealth. I am informed that in 
 the Ninth Congressional District there has hardly been a 
 national election in twenty years in which large fraud has 
 not been charged. The same thing is perhaps true, or 
 nearly so, in the Second District, the Ninth being in the 
 extreme western and the Second in the extreme Eastern 
 portion of the State, and each to a greater or less extent 
 representing the condition of things throughout the Com- 
 monwealth. The black belt has no monopoly of wicked- 
 ness — political, social or civic — but it prevails more or 
 less throughout our borders ; and this being true, the 
 remedy to be applied must be adapted to meet conditions 
 and bring about a cure wherever the evil is found. 
 
 Let us make a more elaborate and thorough diagnosis 
 of the existing state of things, that, understanding the 
 disease, we may know how to adapt remedial agencies. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 165 
 
 I suppose that there is scarcely a member of this con- 
 vention who is not glad that it holds its sittings' in our 
 beautiful capital, the city of Richmond, of which we are 
 justly proud; and as we meet its citizens and are wel- 
 comed into their hospitable homes, and sit with them in 
 their houses of worship, and visit their schools and col- 
 leges, and see what a great work is being done in educa- 
 tion and charity, we are fain to exclaim: "Surely this is 
 the abode of virtue, of intelligence, of religion" ; and so it 
 is, seen from the point of view most obvious to us ; but 
 let it be noted that Richmond, in common with other 
 cities, has another and a darker side ; not only a horde 
 of ignorant and corrupt negroes, but no inconsiderable 
 mass of depraved and vicious whites. Go down into the 
 lower parts of the city, and you will behold a different 
 spectacle from that which greets our eyes in our usual 
 perambulations, for there you will behold not a few speci- 
 mens of our white fellow-citizens that will awaken at 
 once your pity and disgust. It is this element which con- 
 stitutes a menace to society, which, under the manipula- 
 tion of corrupt political leaders, constitutes the balance of 
 power in elections, and by which the voice of intelligent 
 and upright citizens' is stifled at the polls, and incompe- 
 tent and bad men are put into office. It is not the negro 
 vote which works the harm, for the negroes are generally 
 Republicans, but it is the depraved and incompetent men 
 of our own race, who have nothing at stake in govern- 
 ment, and who are used by designing politicians to accom- 
 plish their purposes, irrespective of the welfare of the 
 community. No one, therefore, is surprised to learn that 
 at least one department of the city government is in an 
 equivocal position ; that certain of its' officials have been 
 
i66 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 accused in the public prints of receiving bribes, and that 
 some of its thoughtful and leading citizens are unwilling 
 to trust its people with the poor privilege of electing their 
 own magistrates. 
 
 But Richmond is not alone in this condemnation. The 
 state of things in Norfolk is said to be even and far 
 worse, so that the city is now, and has been for years, 
 dominated by a political ring or rings, which have con- 
 tributed to the lawlessness and violence of the population 
 to an intolerable degree. I do not wonder that the gentle- 
 man from that city (Mr. Thorn) cries out with protracted 
 utterance and in piteous tones for help, while I think that 
 he makes a capital and destructive blunder in supposing 
 that the elimination of the negro vote will bring relief, lie 
 is aiming to heal the hurt of the daughter of his people 
 slightly, for there is a mass of vicious and incapable 
 whites, which must be debarred from suffrage before it 
 will be possible for a better state of things to exist. What 
 is true in this respect of Richmond and Norfolk doubtless 
 finds its counterpart in other cities. If the consensus of 
 opinion of delegates on this floor from cities of the first 
 class were gathered, it would probably be unanimous in 
 support of this view. 
 
 Soon after my election to the position which I hold 
 among you, I received a letter from a friend — one of my 
 old pupils — now a prominent lawyer in one of our moun- 
 tain counties, who wrote in substance as follows : 
 
 "We have, in county an ignorant and vicious' 
 
 white element in our population, which is as destructive 
 of purity in politics, and as injurious to good government, 
 as the negroes are in your section of the State." 
 
 I was not unprepared for this specific information, 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 167 
 
 having for the past twenty years spent a portion of every 
 summer in this region, not at its health resorts', but among 
 the people of its towns and counties; my personal obser- 
 vation coinciding with and confirming the testimony of 
 my correspondent. Moreover, coming nearer home, and 
 referring to statements made on this floor, before our 
 committees and in private conference, the conclusion is 
 inevitable that in some of these counties there is a degree 
 of poverty, illiteracy and lawlessness among whites which 
 must be reckoned with and provided against if our or- 
 ganic law in its construction and administration is to pro- 
 mote and maintain the dignity of the Commonwealth and 
 to accomplish the welfare of its people. We must prepare 
 a constitution equal and just in its provisions, impartial in 
 its application, and which shall be effective not only in 
 curtailing the evils we deplore, but in enlarging the intelli- 
 gence, the virtue, the prosperity, and the happiness of all 
 
 the people. 
 
 In my honest judgment, the bete noire which has con- 
 fronted this convention from the day on which it assem- 
 bled up to the present hour, which has palsied its energies' 
 and made it comparatively inefficient for the purposes 
 which called it together, is the contention that it is our 
 duty, as far as possible, to disfranchise every negro, and, 
 at all hazards, to enfranchise every white man in the 
 Commonwealth. This untenable proposition was evi- 
 dently adopted as a truism by the Suffrage Committee of 
 this convention, was made the basis of its conferences, 
 and is the probable explanation of the unsatisfactory and 
 divergent schemes proposed for adoption. Gentlemen 
 have been trying to do what, in the nature of the case and 
 under the Constitution of the United States, cannot be 
 
i68 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 done without fraud; and which, if the inhibition of the 
 Constitution did not prevail, ought not, under existing 
 conditions, to be attempted. This question of suffrage is 
 broader and more far-reaching than the mere matter of 
 curtaiUng the negro vote, imminent and imperative as 
 that is. It concerns the honor, the welfare, the integrity 
 of the State as a whole, and must be dealt with as such. 
 
 I beg now, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, to ask your 
 attention to some specific facts, gathered not from per- 
 sonal observation or from authentic rumor, or from oral 
 testimony, but based on authoritative statistical reports', 
 compiled by State officials, most of which arc in the hands 
 of every member of this convention, in support of my 
 contention that in order to subserve the interests of the 
 Commonwealth and to place its people on a basis of sub- 
 stantial and enduring prosperity, conditions must be met 
 and provided for in no single section of the State, but as 
 they exist throughout its borders. In order to show this 
 conclusively and beyond contradiction, I have selected for 
 comparison the Ninth Congressional District as a typical 
 white district, and the Fourth Congressional District as 
 a typical negro district. I propose to give you facts and 
 figures, and let them answer the question whether some 
 common, efTective remedy is not needed for both, to cure 
 the evils found in each. 
 
 I find the following facts, germane to this subject, in 
 regard to the Ninth District : 
 
 ( 1 ) There are more than nine times as many white as 
 negro voters. 
 
 (2) There are 4.6 white voters who can read and 
 write for one who canot read and write. 
 
 (3) There are 2.1 negro voters who can read and 
 write for one who cannot read and write. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 169 
 
 (4) There are 4.2 voters of both races who can read 
 and write for one who cannot read and write. 
 
 (5) There was one felony for the year 1900 for every 
 
 105 voters. 
 
 (6) Taxes are paid at the rate of $2.62 for every 
 
 voter. 
 
 (7) DeHnquent taxes are due at the rate of 44 cents 
 
 for every voter. 
 
 (8) Allowance for jurors paid by the State was 19.3 
 for every voter. 
 
 (9) Received into the penitentiary, 106; or one in 
 every 489 voters. 
 
 (10) Criminal expenses were $38,482.77, or 74 cents 
 for every voter. 
 
 Corresponding facts for the Fourth District are as 
 follows : 
 
 (i) There are about 1-6 less white than colored 
 voters— that is, for every 83-100 of a white voter there is 
 a negro voter; or, for every 830 white voters there are 
 1,000 negro voters. 
 
 (2) There are 10.8 white voters who can read and 
 write for one who cannot read and write. 
 
 (3) There are 1.6 negro voters who can read and 
 write for one who cannot read and write. 
 
 (4) There are 2.7 voters of both races who can read 
 and write for one who cannot read and write. 
 
 (5) There was i felony case in 1900 for every 268 
 voters. 
 
 (6) Taxes' were paid at the rate of $3.11 for every 
 voter. 
 
 (7) Delinquent taxes are due at the rate of 28 cents 
 for every voter. 
 
170 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 (8) Allowance for jurors paid by the State was 9.7 
 cents for every voter. 
 
 (9) Received into the penitentiary, 41 ; or, one in 
 every 912 voters. 
 
 (10) Criminal expenses were $15,841.93, or 42 cents 
 for every voter. 
 
 Comparing these facts with one another, we find : 
 
 First. That the Ninth District has greatly the advan- 
 tage of the Fourth in the preponderance of white popula- 
 tion ; the proportion in the former being more than 9 to 
 I ; in the latter, less than a half of the whole. 
 
 Second. That the proportion of white voters who can- 
 not read and write in the Ninth District is more than 
 twice as great as in the Fourth District. 
 
 Third. That the proportion of negro voters who can 
 read and write in the Ninth District is 33 per cent, larger 
 than in the Fourth District. 
 
 Fourth. That the number of both races who can read 
 and write is 50 per cent, greater in the Ninth than in the 
 Fourth District, in proportion to voting population. 
 
 Fifth. That there were 2y^ times more felonies in pro- 
 portion to voting population in 1900 in the Ninth District 
 than in the Fourth. 
 
 Sixth. That 49 cents more taxes in proportion to vot- 
 ing population were paid per capita in the Fourth than in 
 the Ninth District. 
 
 Seventh. That delinquent taxes in the Ninth District 
 are in excess of those in the Fourth, at the rate of 16 
 cents for every voter. 
 
 Eighth. That allowance for jurors paid by the State is 
 twice as large in the Ninth as in the Fourth District. 
 
 Ninth. That nearly twice as many in proportion to the 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 171 
 
 number of voters were received into the penitentiary 
 from the Ninth District as from the Fourth District. 
 
 Tenth. That criminal expenses were nearly twice as 
 large per voter in the Ninth as' in the Fourth District. 
 
 Now, let us look these facts squarely in the face and 
 consider their significance. Remember, they are facts, 
 and you cannot get away from them. You have the evi- 
 dence on which they rest in your possession, and no quib- 
 bling or tergiversation or denial will avail. We must 
 accept them, reckon with them, provide against them. 
 
 There is a bad state of things in intelligence, in morals, 
 and in economic conditions in both districts, worse on the 
 whole in the Ninth than in the Fourth, and in the former 
 it is chiefly among the whites, while in the latter mainly 
 among the negroes. It is evident that in both there are 
 many who enjoy the privilege of suffrage who have no 
 permanent interest in the community and no intelligent 
 apprehension of the duties growing out of it, and who are 
 entirely unfit for its exercise. In the Ninth District, as 
 already shown, this is chiefly among the whites ; while in 
 the Fourth it is chiefly among the negroes ; but whether 
 white or black, they are equally unqualified for this high 
 function, and ought not to possess it. 
 
 It is contended by some that voting is a right, and not 
 a privilege ; that it is inalienable and indefeasible, and that 
 no man can be justly deprived of it. This position has 
 been asserted on this floor; but it is evident, from the 
 history of governments — the American Republic in com- 
 mon with others — that it cannot be maintained. No man 
 ought to be allowed to vote who has not sufficient intelli- 
 gence to understand what he is doing, and, besides, has 
 not some interest in the government, which will induce 
 
172 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 him to vote aright As a fact, paupers, idiots, criminals', 
 duellists, women and minors are disfranchised, and the 
 reason which underlies these exceptions is the reason on 
 which I insist as the sufficient ground for the disfran- 
 chisement of those who have not something at stake in the 
 maintenance of law and o.der, whether they be of the 
 Caucasian or the African race. 
 
 A friend has furnished me some extracts from The 
 Outlook, an influential journal published in the city of 
 New York, on this subject, which seem to be sound and 
 incontrovertible. In the issue of May 24th last the editor 
 says : "No man has a natural right to share in the govern- 
 ment under which he lives. He has a right to be pro- 
 tected in his person, property, family, reputation and 
 liberty; and if the government affords such protection, 
 he has no ground on which to demand, as his right, per- 
 mission to participate in it. Suffrage is a prerogative and 
 responsibility, and who shall exercise that responsibility 
 is to be determined by the existing government. This is a 
 practice justified both by philosophy and history." 
 
 In the issue of July 27th he wrote as follows: "The 
 argument that suflfrage is a natural right appears to be 
 specious rather than sound. The argument may be thus 
 stated: 'No man is wise enough and good enough to gov- 
 ern his fellow-man ; no class is wise enough to govern an- 
 other class ; therefore every man should share in the gov- 
 ernment of the State.' That conclusion is a non sequitur. 
 The fact that no man is wise enough and good enough to 
 govern his fellow-man does not warrant the conclusion 
 that every man is wise enough and good enough to share 
 in governing his fellow-man. Suffrage is an artificial, not 
 a natural right. It is created by, and dependent upon. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. I73 
 
 law; a means and not an end; and the conditions on 
 which it should be granted by those who have it to those 
 who have it not are wholly to be determined by the con- 
 sideration of the question, What conditions of suffrage 
 will probably secure the more stable, just and free gov- 
 ernment ?" 
 
 These principles appear to me unanswerable, and 
 emanating from New York city, and the source from 
 which they come, have special significance at this time. 
 
 But it may be said in reply to this contention, that it 
 makes no distinction between the white man and the 
 negro; that the United States Government recognizes 
 racial lines in the disfranchisement of Indians and 
 Chinese, and that the negroes ought, as a race, to be de- 
 prived of suffrage. 
 
 In reply, I beg to say, that no member of this conven- 
 tion, and no citizen of Virginia, is more profoundly con- 
 vinced than I of the intellectual and moral superiority of 
 the Anglo-Saxon and the corresponding inferiority of the 
 African and American negro. I believe that they are 
 separated by nature and the God of nature by an im- 
 passable gulf, and T view with horror anything looking 
 towards breaking down the social and domestic barriers 
 naturally and necessarily existing between them. On the 
 other hand, T do not hesitate to say that there are few 
 Virginians, if any, who, from childhood to mature years, 
 in times of slavery, during the war between the States, 
 and since that period, have lived on nearer terms" of kind- 
 ness and sympathy and confidence with the negroes than 
 I. I know their good points ; I appreciate their weak- 
 nesses ; I have done, and shall continue to do, all in my 
 power for their welfare. I am their friend, as I am the 
 
174 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 friend of the white man, devoutly desiring the prosperity 
 and happiness of both, at the same time recognizing the 
 disparity between them, and the absolute social and do- 
 mestic separation which must continue to exist; but, so 
 far as regards the matter in hand, as to the right of suf- 
 frage, dealt with fairly and squarely under the domina- 
 tion of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the 
 Constitution of the United States, there is no difference. 
 We may justly inveigh against these amendments. We 
 may denounce them as the outgrowth of passion and hate 
 and political corruption ; but there they are, a part of the 
 organic law of the land, recognized and sanctified as 
 such by a section of the Bill of Rights already adopted by 
 this convention. 
 
 This being true beyond contradiction, it is in order to 
 ask, as I now do for your candid consideration. Who is 
 the more injurious factor in a community, an ignorant, 
 immoral and lazy white man, or an ignorant, immoral and 
 lazy negro? Who of these goes most readily from vice 
 to crime, and by his crime most frequently darkens the 
 fair escutcheon of the Commonwealth? Who contributes 
 less to the productive energy of the State, and is more apt 
 to continue in poverty and degradation ? Without pausing 
 for a reply or consuming your time in fine-spun distinc- 
 tions, which add nothing to the elucidation of the subject, 
 T reply emphatically, and in vicAv of what has already been 
 said, both; both are "injurious factors in a community"; 
 both "readily pass from vice to crime" ; "neither contri- 
 butes anything to the wealth and welfare of the State"; 
 and as a corollary, I add, that both ought to be eliminated 
 from the sovereign and controlling element of society, 
 and have pressure and incentive brought to bear upon 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 175 
 
 them to elevate themselves and fit themselves for citizen- 
 ship, and to see that their children attain a higher plane of 
 virtue, intelligence and economic worth than they occupy. 
 
 It is now time to consider what are the qualifications 
 for suffrage which ought to be laid down for all classes of 
 our people — in the east and the west, in the mountains 
 and by the sea, for whites' and blacks alike. What are the 
 terms which are believed to be equal and just in their ap- 
 plication, and which will probably prove effective in elimi- 
 nating the evils we deplore and in promoting gradually 
 but surely the permanent welfare of the people of the 
 Commonwealth ? 
 
 This is the question which has been uppermost in the 
 thoughts of many members of the convention from the 
 day of its assembling, and which impends at present and 
 authoritatively demands a reply, and to which, in my 
 judgment, the gentleman from King George (Mr. Alon- 
 cure) has contributed the nearest approximation to a cor- 
 rect answer yet submitted to the convention. 
 
 If the facts heretofore stated be true, and the princi- 
 ples announced sound (and they seem to be incontrovert- 
 ible), the answer to this inquiry is not far to seek, and it 
 is this : 
 
 Let those citizens of Virginia, not debarred by other 
 sections of the Constitution, who are assessed with a poll- 
 tax of $1.50 and a State tax on property of the value of 
 at least $150, be registered and remain on the registration 
 list permanently. Before they are allowed to vote, require 
 a certificate to be presented to the officers of election, 
 showing that these taxes have been paid six months be- 
 fore election. After January i, 1904, require every appli- 
 cant for registration, in addition to the above prerequi- 
 
176 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 sites, to present his application in writing, done with his' 
 own hand in the presence of the registrar. Make no ex- 
 emptions except of soldiers resident in Virginia who have 
 actually served in time of war in the armies of some State 
 of the Union, or of the Confederate States, or of the 
 United States. Add the viva voce vote, and stop. 
 
 This simple prescription, equally administered, will 
 give us a clean-cut franchise law, which will, at one 
 stroke, lop off a large mass of the incompetent and cor- 
 rupt voting population of the Stat£, and put its govern- 
 ment in the hands of the intelligent tax-paying portion of 
 its citizens. It will be effective in ridding us of the ignor- 
 ant and vicious negroes, and of the abandoned and worth- 
 less whites, and will insure the vote being counted, and 
 reported as cast. 
 
 The chief objection that I have heard urged to this 
 scheme of suffrage is that, along with many stupid and 
 vicious whites, some worthy and good citizens will be dis- 
 franchised. And this is doubtless true : but it must be 
 remembered that this is one of the necessary incidents of 
 organized society, and that no citizen has a right to com- 
 plain of such abridgement or to regard it as a hardship, 
 when it is essential to the welfare of the body politic. 
 Every one of us has to yield many rights and privileges 
 by reason of our relations to society, and whatever is 
 necessary for the social well-being must be given up by 
 the individual. I will not insult your intelligence and 
 waste your time in arguing or illustrating this proposition. 
 It is self-evidcntly true and universallv recognized. 
 
 It is also reasonably true that most of those fit by in- 
 telligence and character to discharge the duty of suffrage, 
 and who are disfranchised, will not continue long in this 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 177 
 
 position, but will be incited to go to work to accumulate 
 something, and will soon enter the ranks of qualified 
 voters, who will contribute to the welfare of the State, to 
 their own personal benefit, and to the exaltation of the 
 dignity and prosperity of the Commonwealth. 
 
 Some of the grounds on which this simple and effec- 
 tive mode of dealing with this important subject are based 
 are as follows: 
 
 1. It is honest and just and right. You need no "un- 
 derstanding clause" or "grandfather provision," about 
 which thoughtful men everywhere not only doubt, but 
 from which they shrink with moral aversion. You will 
 not be afraid of the courts'. Conscience will not torment 
 you. You can look into the face of God and feel that you 
 have His approval. 
 
 As has already been shown, no man is entitled to the 
 privilege of voting who does not value it and know how 
 to use it, and who has no such interest in the community 
 as will conduce to his using it aright. No injustice is done 
 any one who has not character and industry enough to 
 accumulate the paltry sum needed to make him a voter, 
 and if at first some worthy men are debarred, it is not 
 injustice to them, but an incentive to put themselves in a 
 position where they can be admitted to suffrage right- 
 eously. 
 
 2. The adoption of such a suffrage requirement will 
 immediately add thousands and tens of thousands of 
 names to the list of tax-payers within the State. Who can 
 estimate the number in Virginia at the present time who 
 exercise the right of voting and who have far more than 
 $150 worth of property, but who never list or pay taxes 
 on their property ? Such men will be brought to the book, 
 
178 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 and if they wish to vote will have to come forward and 
 bear some share of the burden of sustaining the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 3. Another desirable end that will be accomplished is 
 found in the incentive furnished the young men of the 
 Commonwealth to save, instead of squandering, their 
 earnings ; to accumulate something, so that they may be- 
 come and be recognized as independent and rightful 
 voters, with all the privileges and immunities appertain- 
 ing thereto. At present our young men have no such in- 
 centive and inspiration, and too many of them not only 
 live up to, but squander their means and acquire habits of 
 thriftlessness, and instead of becoming productive factors 
 grow into bummers and incompetents and dead-heads — 
 an incubus on society. Now, let our young men learn that 
 in order to occupy a reputable position among their fel- 
 lows, they must be possessed of this modicum of property 
 and they will go to work to acquire it, and, having suc- 
 ceeded, the desire of accumulation will be stimulated, and 
 the number of thrifty and independent citizens will be 
 largely increased. I verily believe that if this scheme be 
 adopted more will be done for the financial progress of 
 the State, for its economic strength, for its growth in 
 inoral power, than by any other means that can be de- 
 vised. Who can doubt that within ten years the number 
 of tax-payers in old Virginia will be at least doubled, and 
 perhaps trebled ; that capable men will be found for posi-' 
 tions of importance in our cities and towns, and that our 
 country regions, now being stripped of population, will 
 gradually fill up with aspiring and earnest men, who will 
 add to the resources of the Commonwealth by increasing 
 its productive capacity, and found homes, w^hich will be 
 the abode of comfort and happiness. 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 179 
 
 4. The last ground on which I put the proposition I 
 support is that it will do much to purify politics by purg- 
 ing and elevating the electorate. As at present consti- 
 tuted, the voting population in a portion of the State con- 
 sists largely of ignorant negroes, who have no more intel- 
 ligent interest in the result of elections than so many 
 sheep. In other portions of the Commonwealth there is 
 by no means so large, but an appreciable, element of 
 white voters more venal than the negroes, and in politics 
 more corrupt. Both these elements will be eliminated, 
 and, as a consequence, bossism and ring-rule will be 
 abated ; honorable, intelligent gentlemen, who, under the 
 corruption now existing, have withdrawn from the arena, 
 will come forward as active and controlling factors in the 
 government, to the manifest improvement of every inter- 
 est held dear by intelligent people. Thus, instead of the 
 rascality and fraud so commonly practiced, and the con- 
 sequent choice of incompetent and sometimes of base 
 men, for governmental service, we may expect to see the 
 return of the day when Virginia's honored sons are 
 among the foremost in the land, and the old Common- 
 wealth shall take and hold her rightful place in the galaxy 
 of States'. 
 
 But I \v\\\ be asked, What about the Norfolk Demo- 
 cratic Convention of 1900? Did it not promise that no 
 white man shall be disfranchised?" To which I reply by 
 asking, "Did the Norfolk convention have authority to 
 make such a promise ?" "Was not its action in this mat- 
 ter ultra vires?" "If it had power to bind this convention 
 in this respect, does not its power to bind reach to any 
 and every other point which it chose to handle ?" This is' 
 a reducHo ad ahsiirdum, and I therefore assert, without 
 
i8o ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 fear of successful contradiction, that the dictum of that 
 convention has no more legitimate force on this body or 
 on any member of it than the pronunciamento of the 
 secret conclave of the Pope of Rome, or of a circle of 
 mumbling Buddhist priests in India or China. We are 
 here to obey the behests of no man or body of men, but to 
 consult together and conclude what is best for the people 
 of Virginia, and to embody that in its organic law. 
 
 "But what about the promises made before the late 
 election on the hustings and in the newspapers, by certain 
 members of this convention, and other trustworthy citi- 
 zens, to the effect that no white man of Virginia shall be 
 disfranchised as the result of our work?" To which I 
 reply, as I have frequently replied to such inquiries, that 
 the convention has never made any stich pledge, and that 
 the promise rests on the responsibility of those who made 
 it, and only on that. It is far from my purpose to reflect 
 on their action or to impugn their motives. All that I as- 
 sert is that their action does not bind me or this conven- 
 tion. They are intelligent, they are upright, they knew 
 what they w^ere doing, they are responsible for what they 
 have done ; but they cannot implicate me or any other per- 
 son for whom they were not specifically authorized to 
 speak. 
 
 But I am told that "the statements were made ; that 
 they w^ere made by gentlemen of character and worth" ; 
 and it is added, "that if they were not contradicted, any 
 man who failed to contradict them became responsible for 
 them !" 
 
 Were there not such an element of Jesuitry and dan- 
 gerous error in this contention as to render it destructive 
 of good morals and of the very foundations of society, it 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. i8i 
 
 is so silly as to be amusing and mirth-provoking. That I, 
 forsooth, can give to the world an opinion in regard to 
 some important matter within the province of this con- 
 vention, and an assurance that it will be done in order 
 that certain conditions may be brought about, and that, as 
 a consequence, any one or all of you, who become cogni- 
 zant of the facts and fail to declare yourselves to the con- 
 trary, put yourselves under obligation when the matter 
 comes before the convention to sustain my opinion by 
 your vote and to bring to pass the prophesy I have made, 
 is too ridiculous to be considered. 
 
 If moral absurdity can rise higher than this, I can re- 
 call no instance of it in the course of history or exper- 
 ience. 
 
 We stand here, then, gentlemen, as freemen, intelli- 
 gent freemen, with no shackles on our limbs or con- 
 sciences ; not to do what others dictate, but what our in- 
 telligent judgments indicate to be right and best for the 
 interests of the great State we represent ; and I beg you 
 not to disgrace the "Mother of States and Statesmen" by 
 putting such equivocal and suspicious provisions into her 
 Constitution as the "understanding" and the "grand- 
 father" clauses. I assure you that neither of these pro- 
 visions meets with the approval of the enlightened and 
 God-fearing people of Virginia. I have talked to many 
 citizens of Richmond, and of other portions of the State, 
 and have met with none who do not spue these things out 
 of their mouths. The idea of enacting anything that may 
 be repudiated by the Supreme Court of the United States 
 is abhorrent to them and to me. On the contrary, they 
 demand that we shall resort to the same honorable and 
 straightforward means used by the fathers and founders 
 
i82 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 of the republic in order to rid the electorate of the ignor- 
 ant and incompetent classes. There is no other way of 
 doing it that I have seen pointed out, or that I can think 
 of, in accord with the maintenance of the honor and dig- 
 nity of the Commonwealth, or of our own personal in- 
 tegrity. 
 
 But there is a knottier problem yet to be considered — 
 a question of casuistry — which probably perplexes and 
 rests heavily on the minds of some of the members of this 
 convention. It may be stated thus : What is the man to do 
 who in his canvass, or as a condition to his election as a 
 member of the convention, specifically stated that so far 
 as he is concerned, he would vote for the disfranchise- 
 ment of no white man? How is he to get around this 
 pledge? How is he to retain his' self respect and the confi- 
 dence of his fellow-citizens if he votes for a scheme of 
 suflfrage which, in the nature of things, must disfranchise 
 some of this class ? 
 
 Suppose that there is a member of this convention 
 who stands in this attitude, who put himself in it believ- 
 ing that it was possible to maintain it, and that it was for 
 the welfare of Virginia that it should be maintained, but 
 who has now become convinced that it is impracticable, 
 that the best interests of the Commonwealth, its honor 
 and its dignity, the virtue and the well-being of its peo- 
 ple, demand, that, along with the great mass of irrespon- 
 sible negroes', some irresponsible whites must be debarred 
 from suffrage : is he bound to be guided and governed in 
 his actions as a member of this convention by former 
 and immature impressions or by later and settled convic- 
 tions of what he deems right and just and honest, and 
 demanded by every interest of enlightened statesmanship, 
 
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 183 
 
 by every economic and moral consideration looking to the 
 prosperity and happiness of the people? He is in a di- 
 lemma ! Which horn shall he choose ? He must take one 
 or the other ! If he acts on former and immature, though 
 honest, impressions formed and expressed prior to neces- 
 sary investigation, he violates present intelligent convic- 
 tions, casts his vote against what he believes to be essen- 
 tial to the good of society, and, so far as in him lies, does' 
 what he can to perpetuate the degradation of his people, 
 acting as a mere tool to carry out the ignorant and ill- 
 considered wishes of his constituency. H, on the other 
 hand, he follows the leading of his conscience and judg- 
 ment, enlightened and instructed by a more thorough per- 
 ception of the facts of the case and the demands' of his 
 situation, he acknowledges himself to have been guilty of 
 error in making a heedless pledge, but fulfils his duty as a 
 representative of the people by obtaining for them a form 
 of government which shall promote their best interests, 
 and in its wholesome and health-giving effects' tend to 
 crown the old Commonwealth with glory and honor. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, all of us were probably told in our 
 childhood, by honorable and solicitious parents, that "two 
 wrongs never make a right." So far from its being true 
 that because a man has been guilty of a wrong he ought to 
 adhere to it, exactly the reverse is true. Just so soon as I 
 am convinced that I am wrong in thought, in feeling, in 
 action, I must forsake it, turn from it, and choose and do 
 the right. "To thine own self be true, and it will follow 
 as the day, the night, thou canst not then be false to 
 any man." 
 
 Some of you, I am sure, will remember that pregnant 
 sentence which flowed from the pen of the immortal 
 
i84 ADDRESSES AND PAPERS. 
 
 Robert E. Lee in a letter to one of his sons, then a cadet 
 at West Point: "Duty," says he, "is the subUmest word 
 in the English language." What we ought to do, it is our 
 duty to do. Duty is present, pressing, imperative — what 
 the great Kant called "the categorical imperative." It 
 cannot be guiltlessly shirked, but must be unflinchingly 
 met and discharged, and the obligation resting on every 
 one of us is to meet our responsibility as we see it, know- 
 ing that we must give account to our consciences, to our 
 fellow-men, and to our God. 
 
 Rev. Lewis W. Green, D. D., who was well known in 
 Virginia fifty years ago as one of its most learned, elo- 
 quent and useful citizens, has left on record a sentence 
 something like the following: "Honesty, honesty, honesty ! 
 Nothing but upright, downright, straightforward honesty 
 will avail as the basis of good character." 
 
 And so I say that "honesty — and nothing but honesty, 
 upright, downright, straightforward honesty" — will an- 
 swer in the frameivork of the fundamental law of an en- 
 lightened Commomvealth ! 
 
 I thank you, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, for your 
 kind and patient attention 1 
 
Sh^ 18 mQ 
 
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