Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1848-12-01

they had boarded. The great characteristic OF
mind 10 our young settlements Is that il IS vide
awake and luIe anxious about past acquisitions
or CONCEALED and consolidated institutions.
10 our age. and in our country, Emigration
brings The human mind into the best condition
for The propagation Of religion and refinement
The slubbomness aud prejudice Of old and Fixed
ways are broken u2. AL things are new. The
dali y necessity is 10 receive new ideas; 70 per-
form new actions. To create, to receive, to
prugrcss. is The very law Of new communities.
Tho repslencies Of older society are not vel
developed. The mind is hungry, active, absor.
bent. j is suid that emigration tends to bar.
barism, because men leave their institutions be
hind them; but they have not left thai instinct
behind them by which they must have some in.
slituton; they have left those which were old.
rickety and decayed as their houses; but, thank
God. they can make other, aud, for them, bet.
ter. la old communities, laws are made to pre-.
serve the possessions Of the rich; in new settle
mcnts they are made 10 project the poor, be.
cause they are made by the poor.
II. | will in the second place speak Cf the
wants Of the human mind in such a STATE. The
great need Of the mind in such state is. insti.
tutions adapted TO mold; that shall educate them
hot restrain, not opprcss them. The mind
never takes firm, fixed aspect, except under
continued influences. II is not action but c0urs.
rs Or action that give stamp and character to
men. That which men need is not a CLEAN or
sheet Of light, but a sun that shall shine all the
time, giving them a permanent daylighG they
need conters of permanent influence. This is
the true way of educating men. Ii is Gods
own way. The Jews we're so educated under
the most fixed and rigid family institutions. Ac
ter long years the Jewish character assumed a
permanency which it never lost and never will
Those nations, on the other hand, who were al.
wavs wandering have no national character
A nation that stands like a tree out upon the
prairie and receives the wind from oil quarters
acquires no peculiar shape. But take a tree
bv the forests edge, where il receives the wind
from one direction only and the tree grows
aslant. So take man or nation while the in.
ovidual or national mind is forming, and expose
to the action Of lluctuating or fixed and perma.
nent influences aud the character Of the man or
the nation will be in accordance thereto. The
first generation not only receives bias, but it
transmits it TO those which succeed tit goes
into the stock.
Let US now for one moment glance at the in
slitutions which the West wants. The fsr is
the family. II is sad to know how emigration
affects that relation. Go out into the Western
forest and ask the stranger: Where are your
father and your motherl-and it will bring tears
into his eyes for they are some by the Atlantic
and some beyond it. 'Fatherand' is not Ger.
man watchword alone.
| 1t is the youth and children OF a community
that must be nodded by institutions. But how
shall these children be nodded? Something
must be done first to mold the future fathers anC
mothers. Schools must be established. genera
intelligence and learning must be dffused. Bu
how shall schools be established without teach.
ersl There is another institution preparatory
TO that--the academy. But who is 10 teach the
academy, and what is TO mold the teacher? We
come back to that which is the father Of the a.
cademy--the colleges which prepare teachers
for the academy, as the academy for the school
There are two facts 10 which will call youl
attention at this point The first is that Civil
za;ion is always sown, for it is seldom indigo
nous to the soil; it is brought into a nation from
outside of itself, just as we light one torch a
another, or as we kinde one fire from the EN-
bcra of another.
Yet this must be so done as not to contravon
another law. Every community must be slim
ulated 10 develop itself. The work cannot b.
done for it. The foreign element cast into
must be Of the nature of stmulant. Gu
help is needed al the beginning-and needed t
create Institutions. If the West had but III
means of educating her own sons the develop
ed and prosperous Colleges of the East she couI
better supply her pulpit, her bar, and all her tea
chers, than they can be supplied from abroad.
Ill. am in the third place TO inquire what
the relation Of the East to this state of mind il
the West. And here, as speak for the mos
part 10 New.Engand men, shall be excused
! address my remarks chiefly TO you as such
but do not deem it remote from my subject t
observe that you who are natives Of New Yor
owe in q great measure the same debt to NeN
England which wish the West to coulract.-
Your fathers came from New England.
The problem of New England is the develop
} ment Of society by the development of indiUid
uGls. Society has been the garner-indivdual
, the grain. Ii was therefore for men that thu
} soil was opened and titled. In the first pac
our fathers left Europe under the generic in
pulse-the right of individuals to develop again,
the genius and wishes of organized society,"
This is the philosophical text of the history c
that day. Under that spirit every institution G
New England was planted. Her Church wa
independentand congregational. The member
governed themselves. The only peculiart
which This form of government can claim is it
tendency to develop the individual. 1t is char
ged with not being as compact and strong-hand
ed as sister institutions. 1t is true-and for rad
ical reasons. Their genius is the deve!opmer
Of bOdy-and SO of its members. But thi
prefers primarily 10 develop individuals, leavin
the society to develop itself. Our fathers chos
church government which tended to individu
al cultivation, responsibility and growth. Ne1
came the Common School, and here let me sa
with emphasis the COMMON School-the schoc
for the masses. 1t was not the education of
class that our fathers sought, but of the mas,
i /