American union. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1855-1859, 1855-07-21
ADRayss $
To the Fcmale Seminary and Citizens of Nor.
gantown, by Ed. D. B. PurintOn, July 6, 1855.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

6dntuWh, Dy Eid. u. ID. furinL0n, july D, 1850.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
No age ever cqualed ours.
She is the child Of all the past. The
tolls, the suferings, the discoveries, the
achievements of all time and all lands,
have been garnered, 3 rich inheritance
For us and our children forever. He,l
who created the worlds by his word,
end supplied and embellished them by
bis Spirit, has evincea like power, wis
dom and love, in his providential agen-
cy connected with the events of time.
Hence the wonderful facts we behold.
A great and growing nation is free, and
Freedom, so long invoked, so welcome
and SO successful in her attempts to
difiusc happiness in her reign, has, be-
fore the world, convicted of perjury ev-
cry suborned witness that Despotism,
alarmed and cnraged, has ever sum-
moned to testify against her. Rcpos-
ing beneath the auspices of Freedom,
humanity, refreshed and invigoratcd,
voyages boldly over many an untried
and pathless sea of discovery and in
vention; and, despite all motives of am
bition or cupidity, lays each treasure
gained, upon the altar of the public
veal. ." ~
Art, onriching and beautifying our
homes with the useful and tasteful pro-
ducts of her kill,-Commerce, with
her myriad steamers upon all the wat
crs of the globe, and coursing her fiery
stccdy along plains, over wales and thro'
mountains, bearing the wares of every
craft and the fruits of every cline, and
blending in unwonted fraternity all ma
tions and tongues from pole to polc,-
Science, constructing her almost invis-
ible railways in the air, and employing
the locomotiveness Of the thunderbolt
to convey, in trice, to points distant
thousands of miles, the whispers of love,
the fluctuations of trade, the tidings of
lwar;- Christianity, waking her vota-
ries from the sleep of ages, to carry her
celestial torch to the very heart of the
empire OF Death, and to scatter broad
cast upon the soil, vast harvest for
angel reapers unite to make this the
most glorious age that has dawncd up
on the world. ..
While we would eyer consult Judi
ciousness, and recognize in prudence a
cardinal virtue, we are not of the num-
Der who bewail every change, as an oh
truslve and dangerous innovation, and
all Improvement as thOughtlcss horse
rushing to the battle, or plunging from
some frightful prccipicc into the dark
and appalling depths below. If, in her
rcsistless course, Progress sweeps away
or burics from sight some things invest
ed with Importance in our esteem, she
more than atones for the seeming tres
pass, by the appropriation of Natures
forces and by the multiplication Of
great facilities. .. .. 1........
There is, in the eye of tho philanthro-
pist, scarcely a moro interesting pccu-
liarity of our peculiar age, than its
tendency to supply all classics Of the
young with the means of cducation.-
The child of the bcggar may become
the son OF Science, and from the wild
est mountain gorge may issue the lad,
whom, in his maturity, q nation, i
world, shall delight to honor, and who
will receive the boncdictions Of poster
| ity to tho end of time. Nor is this aao
content with dilIusing education among
all classes Of males merely. We aspire
to make our daughters women, as we'll
as our sons men; and the capacities,
relations and duties of women begin to
be better understood. Hence the nu-
mcrous Institutions like this which VIC
have the honor to address.
Woman is summoned from her re-
trcmcnt to a more active and honora-
bic part III society. The fond parent
feels the necessity of something more
in a daughters education than what re-
latcs to reading, writing and the toilet.
That we may be fully understood,
we say plainly and omphatically. that,
with the misnamed " Womhn's Riobts'i
movement of our times we not only
have nc sympathy, but look upon It
WIN plty una disgust. That woman
have been wronged, in some respects,
VIC will not deny; but we have no tbo't
OF making amends by calling them to
the learned professions, by appointing
them Generals in our armies, or by pla.
cling them i'll Legislative halls or the
Presidential chair. Rev. Antonictto
i. Brown, Miss Lucy Stone, ESD,
Brig. Gen. Sarah b., of the u. s. omr. m
my, Hon. Mrs; Mary N, Speaker Of
the House OF Representatives, and An.
MA Maria s., President u. S. A.. arc
forms which We hope never to sec re.
cognised in american or Christian or
civilized literature. It seems to us
That the poor unfortunate and mascu.
line wof,Iori oo1 fc,,,;,,:,u ....i .st