USA > Georgia > A discourse delivered before the Georgia Historical Society : on the occasion of its 6th anniversary, on Wednesday, 12th February, 1845 > Part 3
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The University of Georgia has been chartered only about sixty --- and, properly organized not much over forty years. The difficulties attending its organization were many and formidable-and had not a few such friends as Baldwin, and Jackson, and Milledge, been found to sustain it by their counsel and influence and wealth it might have been abandoned.t .
But, though this Institution be of recent origin, we owe it to the memory of those who have labored most assiduously for its organization and support that a careful history of it be written. We owe it also to the names of President Meigs, and Brown, and Finley, and Waddel, and those who were associated with them that their labors and sacrifi- ces in the cause of knowledge in our State shall not be unknown. Our children are taught to read, in our common school-books, of the piety and self-denial and sacrifices of the Mathers, and Wheelocks, and Stiles, and Wetherspoons-great and good men, to whom the cause of virtue and education is deeply indebted. And while we would not detract from the praise, deservedly, due to these fathers in learn-
* President Quincy's Hist. of Harvard University, 2d vol. page 403. i See Appendix.
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ing, may we not, justly. place by their side the great and good men, who, in our own State, have labored as assiduously, and have made as great sacrifices for the cause of education ?
President Meigs commenced the exercises of the University, when no College buildings had been erected for the use of the institution. Recitations were often heard, and lectures delivered, under the shade of the forest oak -- and for years he had the almost entire instruction of the College, aided only by a tutor or some member of one of the higher classes. The institution was without library-without appara- tus-without Professors-without buildings-without productive funds ! And yet the President was called upon to instruct from forty to sixty students -- to superintend the erection of buildings, and, frequently, to meet the Board of Trustees and the Legislature at a distance from the seat of the College, leaving the institution under the superintendence of a tutor, or without any control, but the discretion of inexperienced youth. And yet, because he did not, in a few years, call together as many students as were found at Harvard or Yale, and give to the Col- lege as high a reputation as was enjoyed by those ancient Seminaries, he has been thought by some to have been deficient in zeal and in tal- ents.
Few men, perhaps, ever labored with more untiring zeal, and unre- mitted industry, than that faithful pioneer in the cause of learning in our State. His views upon the subject of instruction were enlarged, and the measures which he recommended to the Trustees of the College and to the Legislature were judicious-such as, fully, to sustain his char- acter as a man of learning, and one who had carefully studied the sub- ject of general education. The only failure on his part was a failure to accomplish an impossibility -- to build up, without means, a flourishing College. The Isrealites had nota harder task when required to make brick without straw, than President Meigs, when, under such circum- stances, he was required, to raise up, in a few years, an institution . which would compare with those which had been long established, and well endowed.
The successor of President Meigs was the Rev. John Brown, D. D., a most pious and amiable man-an accomplished gentleman, and a ripe scholar. - He had to encounter not less formidable difficulties than his worthy predecessor. When Dr. Brown entered upon the duties of his office, the late war with Great Britain was impending, and soon commenced. The whole frontier of the State was threatened with savage incursions, and the whole coast was exposed to the fleets and armies of our formidable enemy. Many of the students belonging to the institution were called into the service of the country, and the
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military excitement which every where prevailed, prevented a large portion of the young men of the State from pursuing their studies pre- paratory to entering College.
In addition to all these and other difficulties, the funds of the Insti- tution were, almost wholly unproductive-and, like his excellent prede- cessor, this good man was left without any sufficient means to accom- plish the work assigned him. Under such circumstances, Dr. Dwight could not have given the institution a respectable standing. Under different circumstances, Dr. Brown would, doubtless, have raised it to credit and usefulness.
Of Drs. Finley and Waddel, I need only say, that their names will, doubtless, ever stand among the most honored benefactors of the State. Dr. Finley was a martyr to the College .* But though he was engaged in the service of the institution only a short time, he infused, during that brief period, some of his own zeal into the minds of its friends and trustees, and gave an impulse and an energy to all its operations, which showed how invaluable his services would have been could his life have been spared a few years.
The Rev. Moses Waddel, D. D., succeeded Dr. Finley, and for ten years presided over the University-giving, perhaps, as universal satis- faction to the Trustees and citizens of the State as any man ever gave when engaged in the discharge of the duties of so important a trust. He accepted the offiec not for fame or wealth. Of the former, he had already acquired, both as a teacher and as a minister of the. Gospel, a measure sufficient to satisfy the most ambitious-of the latter, he had secured all that he considered necessary or useful to himself and to his family. The hope that he might be more useful to his fellow-men in this station than in any other, induced him, after repeated solicitations on the part of the friends of the College, to accept the Presidency. That he was a most devoted friend and servant of the institution -- that he spared no labor to benefit the State by raising the University to use- fulness, and that his efforts were crowned with remarkable success, need not be published to the citizens of Georgia.
I should do violence to my own feelings and injustice to departed greatness and worth, were I not to mention, in this brief reference to the University, the name of Dr. Henry Jackson, for many years ono of its most indefatigable and useful Professors. That he was not the President of the institution was because he would not be. To his
* He died of fever, evidently contracted while travelling, during the months of August and September, in order to raise funds for the purchase of a College Library, and to arouse the citizens of the State upon the subject of general education.
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reputation as a man of learning-to his ability as an instructor-to his gratuitous services while'in Europe, in procuring apparatus, and to his generous gift of a valuable portion of his library, the University is largely indebted for its increased reputation and usefulness.
The time and the occasion forbid an attempt to give a history of our State College-yet such a history I trust will be given-a history which I am persuaded will show that our State, when compared with other States, as to her efforts to establish and sustain the higher insti- tutions of learning, will not suffer as much as many have apprehended. In looking at what has been done for the cause of knowledge in our State, we ought to remember that we are yet in our infancy-the war- cry of the savage has hardly ceased from our borders, and over a large portion of our territory the forest still waves. To feel that we have done nothing because our University will not compare with the oldest institutions of the country, in the extent of its library and the number of its students, is as unreasonable as it would be for those institutions to feel degraded because they are, in these respects, inferior to the most distinguished Universities in Europe .* Under all the circumstances attending the efforts of those who have preceded us, they have done much for the cause of education-they deserve the thanks of the pre- sent generation ; and if, according to the circumstances in which we are placed, we put forth equal energy and manifest equal zeal, we shall deserve well of those who will succeed us.
But we act under very different responsibilities from those who have preceded us. We have now possession of our entire territory-our population is now in some good degree fixed-the number is rapidly increasing, and the habits and feelings of our people are fast forming. And what ought to alarm and arouse every patriot, is the fact that many of our people are uneducated, and that this class is increasing in a fear- ful ratio ! ! The scenes of a few past years, as well as the very nature of our civil institutions, admonish us, that with an ignorant and vicious population, these institutions are in imminent danger-and that the security which we now so confidently expect from the laws of the coun- try, will be lost. The history of the world admonishes us that our people must be educated or we must submit to tyranny-to the tyranny of the mob first, and finally to the tyranny of despotism to free us from the more grinding tyranny of the mob. The maintainance of a free government, while a majority of its subjects are ignorant, is an ab- surdity, too absurd to be entertained in this enlightened age. To hope that a representative republic can be sustained, and yet the majority of
*See Appendix.
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those who exercise the elective franchise be destitute of the very ele- ments of knowledge, is to hope against ' hope ! Our people must be educated-and our people may be educated ! We need not despair our past efforts in the cause of general education should not dis- courage us !
" We have" not " tried the experiment of public education, under the most favorable circumstances." Indeed we have not tried it all. We have a poor school system-a system which cannot, which ought not to succeed in our country. But we have not tried any system of general education-the attempts which have been made were too feeble to be called attempts ! We need not, and I trust we shall not conclude that the State must forever abandon this great and all impor- tant work ! Our people desire a system of universal common-school education. Devise a plan suited to their wants and they will adopt and sustain it. Give them the opportunity to educate their children, and they will embrace it. But any plan, to be successful, must be universal-the name and the principles of the poor school must be abandoned-we must open the school room alike to all-in this re. spect the State must become the parent of all -- and under her fostering care all her children must be trained up in knowledge, and be thus fitted to defend and honor their common parent.
To accomplish this work with success, the State must commit it to the care of a distinct department of the Government. There must be an efficient and permanent officer, to whom the whole subject of com- mon-schools shall be entrusted. There should be at the head of this department a man who will devote his lite to the accomplishment of the object, and who will consider its accomplishment the most desira- ble and the most enduring monument which can be erected to his memory.
We want a man who, by his pen and by his eloquence, can arouse the citizens of the State to the importance of this subject-a man who would visit, and revisit every county and neighborhood, and from a careful knowledge of the peculiar circumstances of each, adapt tho system to the respective wants of all. This would be a work suffi. cient to employ the most eminent talents ; and its successful accom- plishment would ensure a fame sufficient to satisfy the most ambitious. Who would not prefer, and greatly prefer, this inscription upon his tomb, "who, as superintendant of common-schools in Georgia, suc- ceeded in putting in successful operation a general system of clemen- tary instruction"-to this-" who was President of the United States, and during whose administration the country was most prosperous and
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happy ?" The great work of general education should be commenced at once, and with the determination that it must be accomplished, If ten years will not be sufficient for its perfection, twenty shall be de- votedto it-and if, in twenty years, it be only commenced, and one hun- dred be necessary for its fall accomplishment, it must be urged on until " knowledge cover the land."
But have we the means to effect this object ? Is not our treasury exhausted, and our public domain all divided among our citizens ? Other States are possessed of large school funds-they have made ample provision for the education of their children. But where can we find means to carry on so expensive a scheme of public instruc- tions ?
Many of our citizens are, doubtless, in error upon this subject. The most ample fund possessed by any State affords only a mere trifle in the annual expense of its public education.
Massachusetts has, perhaps, at this time, the most efficient and perfect system of common-school instruction in the United States; her permanent fund, for this purpose, is about one million of dollars, and its annual income affords less than fifty cents to each child educa- ted in her public schools. Connecticut has a fund for this purpose, amounting to over two millions ofdollars. This is the pride and the boast of the State, and often the admiration and almost the envy of other States. And yet this celebrated fund affords annually, only about one dollar and forty cents to cach scholar in her public schools. New York has about two millions of dollars vested in a common-school fund ; and last year about seven hundred thousand children attended her public schools : the interest on her school fund affording to each child about 15 cents ! !
Can it be possible that the want of a sum, so inconsiderable as that afforded by either of the school funds of these States, prevents Geor- gia from establishing and successfully sustaining a system of public education ! No, we want not the paltry sum of 18 cents, given to each of our children, to secure for them the blessing of a respectable edu- cation. But we want our people to feel the importance of the subject -we want our good taen, and our great men, and our rich men, and the rulers of the land, and especially every parent and guardian in the State, to feel a much deeper interest, than is now felt, in this subject. We want some general plan of education, which will afford its privi- leges equally to all. And with this system we want a permanent offi- cer, exclusively, devoted to this business-a man imbued with the
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spirit of his station, and possessing such talents as such a work ought to command, and such talents as the State can furnish.
Give us these, and the difficulties, which to many seem numerous, would soon vanish, and the obstacles which appear so formidable would be speedily annihilated.
A large portion of our State, when we consider the mildness of its climate, is as favorable' to the maintainance of permanent common- schools as any State in the Union. Much the larger portion may be laid out into districts, including a sufficient number of children to em. ploy a competent teacher, and yet requiring no child to go an unrea- sonable distance.
Would it be a reasonable objection to a plan of common-schools, that most of the children would be obliged to go five or six miles each day? Would such a distance require more bodily exercise than is absolutely necessary for the health of our children ? Were every child in the State, who attends school, obliged to rise in the morning at sun rise, and travel six miles, would he not be benefitted rather than injured-would he not be prepared for the duties of the school far bet. ter by such exercise, than by the listless hours which too many spend in bed, or the too violent sports in which others engage ? I apprehend the most valuable system of labor-schools which we could adopt, would be to send our children regularly to a school from 4 to 6 miles from home. Our people may be persuaded that a few miles distance is a matter of no importance in locating the school-house. It may be de- monstrated to them that the State can be laid out into districts, that a school permanently established in each, would be within a reasonable distance of nearly all.
We need not regard any existing civil or military divisions of the State-the subject is one of State interest, and should not be em- barrassed by any local considerations.
Those portions of the State, where the population is too sparse to afford a sufficient number of children, within a reasonable distance for one school, may easilybe provided for by the itinerant method. Hardly a family can be found in any county which will not be within four or five miles of a few other families. In that part of the State, where this sparse population is found, the climate is exceedingly mild and the means for constructing houses, which would be comfortable for a few scholars, are abundant and cheap. An intelligent teacher, spending his time, alternately, between two of these schools containing each only halt the usnal number of scholars, or successively with three or four, containing only one-third or one-fourth the number of children,
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generally found in schools, would, probably, benefit them nearly as much as though his whole time were spent with all united. But should such an arrangement not meet the views of the citizens, they might doubtless be induced to make provision for the boarding of their children, in turn, within the reach of the several school houses, and thereby have all instructed at the same time, though successively at different places.
A well digested common-school system of education-one which would be universal in its operation, would be productive of great con- venience to the citizens generally, as well as diminish the expenses attending the present method of sustaining schools through the State. That our private schools are both inconvenient and expensive, as well · as exceedingly imperfect, is acknowledged by all. Teachers are usually unwilling to engage in the business of giving instruction for a shorter period than a year. Parents must, therefore, bear the expense of the yearly tuition, and the loss of the services of the child, during any por- tion of the year in which those services might be much needed. This loss is, to many, an important consideration, and one which deters num- bers from educating their children. Many of the children and youth of the State are never sent to school, because their parents or guardians cannot have the privilege of doing this when it would be most consist- ent with their interests, and for such periods as suit the circumstances in which they are placed. This large and increasing class are there- fore permitted to grow up in ignorance-are subject to all the moral disabilities incident to a want of knowledge, and deprived of all that large share of happiness, which, in this age, conies to the man of com- mon education. The burden, therefore, of sustaining schools, at pre- sent falls upon a few, and falls upon them too with all the inconve- nience of the yearly system.
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Had we schools permanently established and limited to a suitable length of time, and that time fixed to suit the convenience of the citi- zens, the expense of the whole public education would not be as great as that attending our present private, partial and very imperfect system.
It is said that we have not, and cannot now obtain suitable teachers for our common schools. But a judicious system of public instruction would raise up teachers among us-it would hold out an inducement to many poor young men to prepare themselves for this service-a service which would soon repay them for the expenses incurred in preparing themselves for it, and give them a profession in which they could, with less difficulty, support themselves, than they now can in the ordinary pursuits of life. Such a system of public education would call to the
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school-house many who are now anxious to advance still further in the road to knowledge, but who find themselves wholly destitute of the means-it would ultimately bring forth thousands of young men from the humble walks of lite, who, but for such a system, would forever remain in obscurity, and who, under its fostering influence, would be prepared to honor and to bless the State. What is now doing in other States may be done in our own. To say that our citizens will not, when properly enlightened upon the subject, sustain a system of public edu- cation is, I trust, a libel upon their intelligence and their patriotism. All, I apprehend, which is now needed, is, the united and persevering efforts of those who feel that this is a subject of vital importance to the welfare of the State.
Our¡Legislature must be approached with petitions, and, if necessary, with remonstrance-our men of learning and influence must unite in pressing this subject upon our people-our towns and cities and literary societies must come forward, and, with united zeal and united counsel, aid in arousing public attention, and in enlightening the public mind, until the public shall act upon the Legislature, and the Legislature shall respond to that action by cheerfully adopting, and patiently and perse. veringly carrying out some general plan of useful instruction.
And might not the Historical Society of Georgia move in this matter, and exert an important influence upon our people and upon our Legisla- ture ? I am aware, gentlemen, that this subject may seem to have little connection with the object of your association. But if it have not now an important connection with the grand object of your society, it will be an important subject for the pen of our future historian. The honor and prosperity, if not the independence of Georgia, will, I doubt not, depend in no small degree, upon the course which the present gen- eration pursues with respect to this subject. The chartered rights which we have received from our ancestors cannot be preserved with- out that intelligence which is the only safeguard of rational freedomn.
The venerable arch upon which our constitution is inscribed, cannot be supported when its firm pillars are removed. The firmest of the three is now crumbling. The second already trembles upon its base, and the sacred instrument must soon be precipitated from its proud height, and become but the broken fragments of a once glorious mon- ument !
And might not Savannah, which has often taken the lead, and never withheld her aid in all that tends to the honor and welfare of our State, set also the examplo in the noble cause of general and systematic and permanent education ? Her citizens may reflect with pleasure upon
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the institution and the honorable efforts of the Georgia Historical Society-a society which has already brought to light many facts and rescued many records from impending destruction, which tend, in a high degree, to illustrate the history of the State, and to make known the virtues and the noble deeds of an ancestry worthy to be the founders of a great State. Savannah may rejoice at the triumph of her citizens in opening to the interior of the State a great highway, over which are brought to her wharves the various products of industry and of art, and upon which are daily returned to the doors of our people the ne- cessaries and conveniences and luxuries of life, which have been received in exchange for the fruits of their own labor.
Her inhabitants may also point, with grateful hearts, to her sacred temples and her schools and seminaries of learning-institutions where their children are blest with instruction, which fits them for use- fulness and honor in life-temples in which they are taught the pure and sublime precepts of that religion which, with the blessing of God, will prepare them for higher and holier and nobler employment. With more than pleasure can the favored inhabitants of this city recur to that unambitious, yet most useful association, which has so long, by its charities, dried the orphan's tears, and trained the friendless chil- dren of poverty to virtue and honor. Such a union as your benevolent Union Society has effected, and such blessings as that union has pro- duced on one worthy the great and good men to whose wisdom' and charity it owes its origin, and of those generous descendants and their worthy coadjutors who are still so unitedly and successfully accomplish- ing its praiseworthy, benevolent object. And with still more pleasure may the inhabitants of this highly favored city, behold the efforts of their wives and daughters, in finishing the good work which others bad left undone-going out in obedience to the command of their " Master" and compelling the children of poverty and ignorance to come and partake of the blessings of knowledge, which their charity has pro- vided. Would that the State would take pattern from the ladies .of your city, and imitate their noble example by providing a free school for all its children ! Do not the poor and the fatherless, who are scat- tered over the State, need the advantages of knowledge and the bless- ings of education as much as those of your city? Should not the State become a great Union Society-should not a general system of public free schools be provided, so that all her children may be rescued from ignorance, and under her fostering, parental care, be raised to usefid- ness and honor ?
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