Southern telegraph., 1838-11-07

lecture receives confirmation from the fact
that the blockading vessels had been with
drawn from before Matamoras and Tampi-
CO, and were concentrating on Vera Cruz.
NJ q. Commercial Bulletin.
EXTRACT FROM AN ADDRESS
On " The Importance of Letters in the Mis-
sissippi VdlIey''-deIirered before the
Bellies Letters Society, at the Annirersa-
ry Commencement in Oakland College,
April 5, 1888. BY Rev. S. v. B. MAR
SHALL, Professor Of Languages.
We pride ourselves on our free insttu-
tions. We talk of liberty and its blessings
as they are found in the United States
And stranger knowing nothing of the
United States except from its citizens and
hearing us talk of the blessings and ad-
yantages of our happy land, would be led
TO suppose that the golden age Of fancy and
the poets had returned to the world, and
that America had the honor to have ushered
itin. So proud do we feel of our liberty
and our free institutions, and so much and
so benevolently do we sigh for their intro
duction among the other nations of the
earth. What land of kindness and phil
anthropy is this land Of freedom A very
nursery of poets and orators Lied with
fancy; all OF whose sons says pretty things
about liberty and talk eloquently and weep
and sigh over the desolations Of all countries
but their own.
Now far be it from me to depreciate the
~ l,n IF a r.
stitutions could not SO far desecrate the
blood of the Revolution split so freely by
thousands who then acted and now sleep
with the immortal Washington. The gent
us of our government and institutions is un-
paralleled by any other on earth. In their
theory, and IN the elements Of grandeur
which they contain, there is nothing among
men that bearscomparison with them. But
they, after all, are but the means to an end
yet TO be accomplished. They arc the
foundations on which are TO be reared the
monuments of grandeur and Of blessings.
What is liberty, long and much boasted, ex-
allied, American liberty nothing but a
change of governmental forms or of gov
eminent itsel(9 The reduction Of the pri-
mary elements ofsociety to something like
an equality, making power and station eli
giblo and accessible to all? Or even if
you please the definition and security of
certain rights of property and person?-
These indeed are invaluable blessings
But is this all that are mean by liberty i!
Then indeed would We be little better off
than the native tribes of these once unbro-
| L. ,,bO a., Il
disgrace to human nature; yet more Grim
inal than they, because we have enjoyed
higher advantages, with knowledge how, to
use them, while we have tramplcd them un
der our feet and neglected them. Ii we
would carry out the incipient designs which
impeled our fathers to the achievements of
the Revolution, we must build upon the
foundations which they have laid.
This we seem indeed to be doing in every
respect but in the the most important -
And, while we rejoice to know bat this has
not been altogether neglected, and even
perhaps while il has been attended to, TO a
degree beyond that of any other country OF
equal age whether ancient or modern, yet
we are constrained to confess and regret that
it has not received an equal share Of aten-
tion with the other departments, and espe-
cially has il not received any thing like that
amouat and proportion Of attention thai
| is due to its importance. b
| Who will affirm that there has been
lamong the citizens of our country general.
lily, as much anxiety and as much exertion tc
cultivate their minds as to get rich? And
who will affirm that the education of the
country has received the one hundredIh
part ofthe attention and legislation that al
most any other of her interests has receiv-
ed? Had it been so, then indeed might we
boast of our liberty, and of the excellence
of our free principles and Institutions; and
We comd point to the cultivated mind and
the literary institutions of our country; to
the intelligence and virtue, and the bless.
ings which always accompany them, ditfus-
cd throughout the land as the abiding and
| indisputable proofs of the propriety Of our
boasiing. How, moreover, without these,
can we recommend our forms Of govern
lmentto the acceptance and adoption of 9th
| er countries! When we talk eloquently Of
our liberty, and sigh over their degradation,
will they not call for the proofs Of our su-
periority, and smile and laugh at US when
we fail to produce themf And then point'
ing to their universities and other monu'
ments of mental superiority, will they moi
| triumph over us and mock us with ouI
shame. Would they not tell us as we might
Justly tell some Of our foreign would-be-wise
abolitionists, that we would show both oul
modesty and good sense much more, by
minding our own business and not meddllns
with that of others, uutl at least we shonl1
become better acquainted with III VII
YOU tell them of our WEALTH. The powel
Of wealth dies away in its own immediate
vicinity, unless it be employed in the con
structiOn and endowment Of some valuable
institution that shall stand as lasting mon