Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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se t _i LtItIs. VOL. XXII. RATES TS. NE R , .. ON rU er o RATESNEWBERRY, S. C., NIDNES1)AY, JUNE 2 L3,188G. W. S.bshr anBROre?~N.2 An Educated Citizenship the Hope of Our Country. The following address was deliv ered by Hon. E. B. Murray before the literary societies of Newberry College on the evening of the 15th inst.: In all of the terse and beautiful ex pressions giving exposition to those principles which actuate human na ture, in which the writings of Eng land's greatest dramatic poet abound, there is per. aps none so full of thought and worthy of a more care ful personal application to every reader, than the admonition of Pol lonius to his son Laertes, who was about to travel, where the father con cludes wholesome advice by saying to him: 'This above all-to thine own self be true; and it must follow as the night the day-thou cans't not then be false to any man." In the centuries that are past, and which make the leaves of God's book of time, the human race has been slowly working out the destiny of its creation, and reaching onward with varying progress towards that perfection which it is not in the ken of man to limit. Standing to-day, as it were, upon some towering height, the Mt. Everest of civiliza tion, amid the glare and glory of the achievements of the 19th century, as history lifts the veil from the past and shows us through the corridors of the centuries that are gone, with their errors that are dead and their theories that have been exploded, it is impossible for us to do otherwise than exult in the greatness of man's progress and reverently recognize the blessings which surround and bear us on as a people, upon that tide which has been taken at its flood, and is leading on to more than for tune. The privileges and advan tages enjoyed to-day change the re lations which man bears to govern ment, and imposes higher obligations upon him than rested on the genera tions whose lives filled the centuries of the dead. For ages the contest for human rights has been waged, for ages the strong governments of earth held such absolute sway that indi viduality of action was impossible, individuality of thought was difficult .AJ expression was interdicted. The character and attainments of the citizenship of such countries was a matter of small moment. To-day a w theory of government is acted upo . Then the citizen was treated as if his existence were merely a matter of convenience for the govern ment. Now, in all the enlightened countries of the earth, government exists alone for the benefit of the people. This is conspicuously - true in our government where the greatest personal liberty exists, and of course such liberty carries with it as a corol lary the greatest amount of personal obligation. Therefore, I have con cluded to ask your consideration for a short time this evening to the fact that an educated citizentship is the hope of our country. With us the citizen is the sovereign, and the government is simply the agent. Each individual is the equal of every other individual before the law, and all the honors of * the government may be contended for by any citizen save alone the presidency to which only native citi zens are eligible. Every citizen not only has the right. but it is his duty to participate in the control of the * government throuyh the elective fran chise, and it is certainly incumbent on one undertaking to participate in a government to qualify himself by acquiring sufficient knowledge to judge of the needs and methods of >that government. It is no unco'n mnon occurrence to hear our govern ment censured, both for its acts of omission and of commission, and invariably the blame is attached solely to the officials who compose the government. This is a great mistake, for while such officials are primarily the just objects of criticism at the same time, it must not be for, gotten that the people themselves are responsible for the government. It is as good as they want it to be, or it is as bad as they are willing to have it. The fountain cannot rise higher *than its source, neither will you find the stream pure and sweet where the ring is vitiated and putrid. T here o in a country like ours, where the people arc the sourcie of all power, the only safety for the present and security for the future rests in the intelligence, the integrity- and the morality of the citizens. These qual ities can be inculcated by education alone, and that educatio? can only be accomplished by bringing the in dividuals of the State under the in fluence of wholesome, moral and in tellectual training. Realizing the importance of an educated citizen ship, there is not a State in our Union that has failed to take steps to en courage and to assist its citizens in mental culture as a moralizing and elevating influence. In the general acceptation of the term education, this theory is correct, for there is no * system of' education which dnoe not include both mental instruction and moral training. Mental instruction alone would not effect the moral de velopment of man directly, for the learning of the truths of physical science, mathematics, logic, or even the proper use of language itself would not change a man's nature. Such culture of the mind would heighten his capacities, and hence, if the man were moral before, he would be developed in his opinions, from the fact that his comprehension would be enlarged and his ability to employ his talents improved. If, however, he were immoral before, he would be apt to be made more im moral by simple mental instruction. You could never teach a rogue to be honest by cramming his mind with Euclid or even the beauties of chemical science or the principles of skillful syllogisms in logic. And this is the reason so many partially educated criminals may be found in our prisons. Their minds have been cultivated, but their moral training neglected. When some partially educated man commits a forgery,'as a certain class of citizens who get a small amount of mental instruction and desire to live without work sometimes do, many persons will tell you that it is a proof of the old adage, "a little learning is a dangerous thing," whereas, in fact. all such cases arise from the princi ples I have just stated. The mind has been instructed and the moral nature left untutored. "A little learning is a dangerous thing," but in the language of the late Prof. Mc Guffey, "none at all is still more dangerous." Mental instruction is not directly moral or immoral in its influence. It is simply the training of the mind and does not in itself effect the character of the student. It is the vehicle through which the moralist reaches the individual. It is by the use of language with reasons deduced from nature and from revela tion that he founds his system of moral philosophy and conveys it to the mind in such form as to command the concurrence of the student's judg ment. As I have said, there is no system of education which does not combine with mental instruction some form of moral teaching. This moral teaching begins with the sketches in our infants' primers, aid is carried through nearly every de partment of study except, perhaps, only the study of mathematics. It would be useless to detain this audi ence with any remarks upon the value of education. It is the one ac quirement which man may call his own, and which he is not liable to lose by adversity or misfortune. It is an individual-possession. Each man mu%t acquire it for himself, and when acquired, it cannot be taken from him, neither can it be be queathed by him to any other person. It gives to man new ideas and lofty thoughts. It enlarges the whole na ture, and is the source from which all social, as well as intellectual devel opments, has been made. To appre ciate the value of education we need only to take the rnde savage, who possesses very little beyond the un improved mind which nature gave him, and compare his state with the educated Englishman or American of the present day. All the progress that the world has made has come from education. It has given us the civilization of the 19th century, and its chief glory is that to-day the bless ings of education are participated in by the masses of the people, and this elevation of the masses is the source alike of our prosperity and of our power. It has given to all the peo ple of our country an inducement to press forward and prepare themselves for the battle of life, for here "every man is the architect of his own for tune." It has been a common be. lief that great differences exist be tween the minds of different persons in point of capacity, but experience, while confirming this theory to some extent, has demonstrated beyond question that nature has been much more equal in her gifts to men than was formerly supposed. There is far more difference in the uses which men make of the gifts which nature has bestowed upon them than there is in the gifts themselves, and for this reason the diligent boy accom plishes most in school, and the labo rious, painstaking man achieves more in life than men who start with more brilliant prospects, but less willing. ness to win success by patient labor. There are very few geniuses and equally as fe w idiots. The vast ma jority of mankind belong to that middle class with medium talents, which they can develop by assiduous toil, or by negligent application, dwarf andl waste. For this reason you will note that system and care ful method in the mastery of detail marks the student who will win thea highest honors in life, rather than the one who relies on his ready wits to car ry him through his studies. I cannot impress too strongly the necessity for this mastery of detail as one of the essentials to education. It meets us in every department of life, and ob serrean will soon onvincen one n that will take the trouble to notice. that the man or woman who cannot properly attend to the little things, the details of his or her avocation is most likely to prove a failure in the more important matters with which they have to deal. "Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things" is the language of nature as well as of Rev elation. In countries which rely upon large standing armies and coercion for maintenance of the government, the elevation of the citizens is not so im portant as here where, in the lan guage of the declaration of indepen dence, the just powers of our govern ment are derived from the consent of the governed. With us the whole fabric of our Union depends upon the aggregation of the individuals who are the inhabitants of the coun try. Its progress and elevation de pends upon the wishes of this aggre gation of individuals, and this mass of citizens can only be improved by forces which act upon the individuals who compose it. No force can be so dangerous to a republic as ignorance. It abounds in prejudice, in passion and in jealous rage towards all pro gress and improvement. It is the easy prey of the demagogue-the fer tile resource of the agitator. In all the ages of the world, it has been the source from which opposition to the establishment of unknown truth has sprung. It has the blood of the martyrs and the Savior himself at its door. In obedience to its behest, the pioneers in science have always been impeded, and even the great Galileo sleeps as the murdered vic tim of its intolerance. It has been the curse of nations-the bane of individuals. It is that negative foe of mankind which must be driven from our midst, because it paralyzes all that is good, and dwarfs the God given intellect with every noble aspi ration of man. The transformation which the Omnipotent Creator wrought upon the physical universe when by the word of His power spoke the fiat "Let there be light and there was light," changing darkness into day and revealing the glorious mys teries of creation was not greater than that transformation which would be wrought in the domain of mind if educated intelligence could be exchanged for ignorance. Oh what a change ! The work cannot be accomplished in its perfection by finite man. For more than six thou sand years the higher instincts and aspirations of man have been warring with the baser elements of his na ture, and the work is yet in its in fancy. The most enlightened na tions are striving to go on with the good work in which perfection can not be attained, though there appears to be no limit to the progression which strives to reach that state. The-civilized world to-day enjoys the progress that has been made in edu cation. It has nct,only given to the nations of the earth .the material blessings of commerce, of' Tmilroads, of ships, of telegraphs, of hunre of factories that supply innumerable necessaries and luxuries to man, and the various discoveries which con tribute to his health and his comfort; but it has given to him a social sys tem which is ennobling and pure; it has secured to him protection and the exercise of rights which were never known before; it has enabled him to grasp the truths of Revelation and derive from them a pleasure and hopes which are heightened by the beauty that is unfolded to him; it has explored nature with her won drous glory, and wrested from thne silent rocks and trickling streams and majestic dome of Heaven secrets which the centuries that are gone have never told before, and from which to-day "man looks through na ture up to nature's God.". This diffusion of education has brought a new factor into play be tween nations. That period has not come of which Pope sang: "AD] crImes shall cease, and ancient frauds shall fail, Returning Justice lilt aloft her scale; Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend And white-robed Innocence from Heaven de scend. No more shaln nation against nation rise, Nor ardent warriors meet with hatelul eyes, Nor fields with gleaming steel be covered o'er, The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more; But useless lances into scythes shall bend, And the broad falcon in a plough-shiare end." And yet the diffusion of education and the progress which it has made tends to the settlement of national disputes without a resort to war for three reasons. .1. The improvement that hlas been made in tile implements for war are so great that nations, re cognizing the fearful sacrifice of life which each must suffer, and the rea sonable certainty of success which superior numbers will give, are more careful of each others' rights than they were in ruder periods of the world's his'wry. This is, however, the least potent of the reasons to be assigned for the pacific tendency or education upon the world- 2. The fact that all civilized nations are now interested in the commerce of the world, and desire to preserve the balance of power between the nations af -the earth as ascunrity to their I peace and safety, has given rise to a demand by public sentiment for the settlement of difficulties by arbitra tion instead of a resort to arms. This moral sentiment is an e lucated sentiment, and its force is becoming stronger as the power of education becomnes more diffused. 3. Another, and perhaps most powerful force which education exerts upon the peace of the world is to be found in the sense of justice and regard for right which it creates in the nations themselves, by which unjust demands are not made or countenanced, and all aggressions are repressed or wil ling amends made for them. The manner in which this force operates upon the nations of the earth may be illustrated by an inci dent which is related to have oc curred to President Jackson. Short ly after Mr. Buchanan (afterwards President Buchanan) returned from Russia, where he had been appointed Minister Plenipotentiary by Presi. (lent Jackson, he went with a dis tinguished lady from Europe, who was visiting this country, to the White House for the purpose of in troducing her to the President. Knowing the President well, Mr. Buchanan went up to his private room where he found President Jack son in his dressing gown with slip pers on, unshaven and smoking a corncob pipe. He communicated to the President the object of his visit, and fearing that Old hickory might appear in the costume he found him, Mr. Buchanan, who was a model of etiquette and style, ventured to ask if the President would not make some change in his attire, whereupon, Gen eral Jackson knocking the ashes out of his pipe and looking straight at Mr. Buchanan, replied, "Buchanan, I want to give you a little piece of advice which I hope you will remem ber. I knew a man once who made his fortune by attending to his own business. Tell the lady that I will see her presently. Presently he en tered the room in full dress attire and saluted his fair visitor with such kingly grace that as she left she re marked to Mr. Buchanan : "your re publican President is the royal model of a gentleman." Education has taught the nations of the earth that their fortunes and prosperity depends upon attending to their own business instead of meddling with that of other nations, and the diffusion of knowledge presents this truth so clearly to the masses of the enlight ened nations of the earth that an im mense pressure is brought to bear upon the government to require the preservation of peace, and the gov ernment which ventures war and is defeated, as Louis Napoleon was in the Franco-Prussian war, is apt to share the fate of Napoleon, and go down to ruin for disregarding the moral sentiment of the age. Thus it will be seen that the gen eral advantages to the world from the diffuson of education are great indeed, and the blessings which flow from them would be sufficient to de -and_the eneouragement of a liberal educationirits_citizens by the gov ernment, but the qmesQon may also, be argued upon the nargomer plane of profit and loss. The ab5ity to make money, which the educated man possesses, is more than double that which the uneducated man has. Therefore, every citizen which the government can have educated is made more than twice as valuable as he would be without education. . But the force for good which an educated man possesses is not expended with in himself or limited to his own ac tions. Education is more than the words of a text book. It is an acqui sition which gives to its possessor brain power. That p)ower exerts itself uporn the avocation in which its owner may be engaged. His methods become the object of obser vation, and those around him profit from his knowledge. Much of edu cotion may be acquired by absorp tion, and methods which are the re sult of education are often taken up in a practical way by me" who could not explain them, and yet they serve them a most excellent purpose. For this reason a single ed ucated man who moves into a community will often work a revolution in its habits and methods. Not only is the prac tical education absorbed by the peo ple who have not the advantages of collegiate education, but the great majority of inventions which prove of the highest value come from edu cated men, and the benefits which they confer are enjoyed by all classes of citizens. Education is the work of a lifetime, It can never he com plete, andl the man lives to little pur pose who never learns anything after he gets his diploma. The expres sion, that a graduate has fenished his education, although sanctioned by use, is a gross misnomer. None save the idiot, who can only learn the simplest matters in life, can finish1 their education. Men sometimes stop their education, but it is no morei finished by that than this building would be finished if the workmen had: stoppe its erection before they < placed the roof upon it. Mr. Web ster says that finished means polished to the highest degree of excellence, complete, perfect; and cites as a use of the term a fnished poem, a finished education, but -no one ever knew a man who had a perfect, or complete education, or one that was polished to the highest degree of excellence. A poem would not be styled fin ished which stopped in the midst of a sentence, nor can an education be finished while there is more to be learned. All education should com bine the practical with the theoreti. cal to make it most valuable, and it should be especially directed to the avocation in which the man expects to engage in life. Of course the fuller the course of instruction which any man can pursue the better equipped he will be for life. The great want of the present day, in my opinion, is a system of thorough tech. nological schools. Our farmers, for instance, send their boys to college and expect them to graduate and return to the farm, but by far the majority of them dis appoint these expectations by going into some other business. The plant. er is disappointed, and in many in stances concludes that there is some inherent antipathy between agricul ture and education. Such a conclu sion does not follow. He has given his son an education which fits him for the counting house, or professional life, or for mining, or for the work of teaching. The boy has received no agricultural education and he leaves college knowing more about a dozen ther occupations than he does about agriculture, and he naturally drifts into some business that he knows something about. When a physician wishes to make his son a doctor, he sends him to college as long as he ,hinks best, and then graduates him from a medical college. If he stopped that boy when he left the iterary college he would not be apt ;o become a physician; but after he -akes the medical course he is better Iuahfied to practice medicine than ,o engage in any other avocation, and the result is, that nine times out >f ten he follows the profession for which he was educated. So the law ver, the civil engineer, the merchant, and the professor all have convenient schools in which they can have their joys trained to follow the avocations )f the parent. There are no conven ent schools in which a boy may ,ultivate the science as well as the ractical work of mechanics, (,r ma .hinery, or agriculture. He might )e entered to work in some machine shop where he would learn only so much theory as is necessary to )perate the manufacture in which hey were engaged. This, it strikes me, should be the work of the State's University. It would certainly prove )f great value, for with such a sys ;em the practical talents of the youths >f the State would be cultivated. Boys striving for an education can >ot afford to enter machine shops and quit their other studies in order ,o cultivate a talent for machinery or nechanics which they do not expect ,o follow as a business, but the a advantageously~ akn'ese schools as rpart 6t''a collegiate course. With ;hese departments added to our State University and the curriculum raised to a post graduate course the larmony of our educational system vrould be complete. I maintain that ,he State should support its Univer sity in such way as to avoid, as far as possible, competition with the ex sting colleges in the State. It should supply that class of instruc ,ion which is not accessible in the >ther institutions in the State, and and should not seek to crush them >ut by using the taxing power of the State to offer free tuition to the sons >f men who are able to pay for it hlereby seeking to induce an attend ance which they might not otherwise be able to secure. This odious fea :ure of our State University ought to be removed as a simple matter of ustice and right. The purpose here should be to build up and carry for ward the work of education, not to pull down or injure any good work ~hat is being done in the State. It is related of Gen. Robert E. Lee that iuring one of his fiercest battles in Virginia, while commanding the Con federate army, he had selected an elevated knoll slightly behind the ine of battle from which to observe hie fight and direct his army. On :his knoll stood a spacious shade tree inder which the General and his staff' were standing in their fatigue suits. Soon after the battle began, a brigade surgeon in all of the pomp >f uniform and position rode up and selected this shade tree as the place ;o receive the wounded. After is inuing his directions he peremptorily >rdered the unknown party to leave he ground. To this General Lee -eplied, there is room enough for >oth of us here. The order to leave vas repeated, and a guard to enforce t sent for. Before its arrival a cou 'ir with dispatches for General Lee rrived, and when the unassuming 1A crentleman opened the disatcihes the surgeon with confusion and stammered apologies started to leave, upon which Gen. Lee directed him to stay, repeating the assurance that there was room enough for both of them. So my friends, there is room enough for all of the colleges in South Carolina, and work enough for them all to do. As a citizen of the State, however, I must express - my sympathy with the protest which the denominational colleges of the State have made against the order which has been issued for them to go. Al though the taxing power of the State has been summoned to make them go, I have an abiding faith that the great people of South Carolina will correct this wrong and say to them, stay, there is room enough and work enough for all. Young gentlemen, with this occa sion you are placing down a mile stone upon your life's journey. The sands of another year of )our scho lastic life is ebbing beneath your feet. The year that is gone will be memorable in the lives of many of you. The golden thoughts which you have garnered from the abundant harvest of knowledge which sur rounds you are not means to fill the measure of your attainments. Tne shadows from your lives are falling far to the West. The sun is shining brightly in the East for you, and the hour is early morning. The day is yet unspent and before you. It will be easy to fill the hours with busy toil, and in each duty performed, and each difficulty overcome, you will gather increased strength for your future labor. Let the advice of old Pollonius to his son be your controll ing sentiment. Young men reared in the christian families of this coun try, and tutored in the pure fountains of knowledge, whose vivifying influ ences are shaping the character and the thought of this generation are the hope upon which our country's future greatness depends. They are manly. generous and -moral. They can well afford to be true to themselves, and in doing so, the highest interests of their neighbors and their country will be preserved. Remember, that as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so constant labor is the price of success. The world is large, but the various avocations in life are teeming with strong and hopeful men who will meet you in generous rival ry. If you would succeed where others fail, careful, diligent work, yes, work, must be your- rtion. What soever you undertake oughly, and remember that your time most valuable and the most precious . possession that you have. And in conclusion, let me commend to you the realization of the aptness of the simile of life which Tupper draws when he says: "A man's life is a tower, with a staircase of many steps, That, as he toileth upward, crumble successively behind him: No going back; the past is an abyss, no stopping, for the present perisheth. But ever hasting on, precarious on the foothold of to-day. Our cares are all to-day; our joys are all to-day. And in one little word, our life, what is :4 hn to-day?" A Double Br wa.~ Broadway is the principal thor oughfare of New York city, and it is undoubtedly the longest street in the world, for it continues up the whole length of New York State and into Canada. It is practically the prin cipal street of all the cities and towns which lie north of the metropo lis. But this wonderful thoroughfare is to be the subject of an experimnbe which will attract to it the attention of all who reside in great cities. The State Legislature has authorized a company to create a second Broad way extending the whole length of Manhattan Island. Eighteen feet below the surface there is practically to be a new street extending from curb to curb, in which shall be trans acted business as in any other street. It is expected that stores will be opened and traffic carried on as above ground, for it will be light in the daytime, b:'t it will be more blilliant at night from electric illum ination. On this lower street will be steam cars, not only for the accom modation of local travel, but which will connect with the railway system of the country. The traveler from New Orleans, Chicago, San Fran cisco, even in the City of Mexico, will be able to buy his ticket and check his baggage direct to the hotel, if his destination be the metro polis. New York is built on a nar row island. Many of its new build ings are great tall structures, eight and ten stories high, and the city has become crowded; hence the necessity for doubling Broadway, and at the present rate o( progress, it may be that during th. twentieth century a number of the cter leading thor oughfares may be a splicated in the same way.-Demorest's Monthlyj, for