Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-05-01
Original,
ADDRESS OF HON. D. WALLACE,

On the occasion OF laying He Corner-i iSton
of the Kings Mountain Military School
on the 22d of Apri1 1856.
WoRsHIpFUL MASTER,
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN -
To trace the rise and progress of an insti
tuition, which is exerting an important in
fuence upon the destiny of civil society, il
ever subject Of grave and interesting in
quiry, to the historian, the statesman and the
citizen.
The human races,-the States and EN-
pires of the world, are impelled to action, in
the great drama of life, under the impulse
of ideas 1t is ideas, then, which, under the
sanctions of the laws of Divine Providence
shape and control the fortunes of mankind
The ceremonials which We have here as,
sembled to witness, and in which each one
of US is to act part, are but the result
of ideas leng since conceived, whatever
may have been thei. source, and which have
produced, and are now producing important
results, in which the State has deep and
vital interest.
I deem this, therefore, an appropriate time
and occasion, to write the history of the ideas
and events, which have brought this as
semblage together, and express the we'll
founded hopes which this community has a
right to entertain and cherish, in regard to
their future effects upon its honor, dignity
and happiness.
Anterior to the year 1912, an annual ap-
preparation of eight thousand dollars was
made by the General Assembly of the State,
to dcfray the expenses ola corps of soldiers,
whose duty it was to guard the public arms,
in the Arsenal at Columbia; and the addi-
tional sum Of sixteen thousand dollars, to de-
fray the expenses of another corps, to per-
form like service, at the Citadel and Maga-
zine, in and near the City of Charleston
These two funds amounting together to the
sum of twenty-four thousand dollars, were
annually expended to protect the public
property; and this purpose gained, its ex-
penditure had no other effect upon the
fortunes of the State.
In December 1910, the Hon. John P
Richardson was elected Governor of South
Carolina, and on the first of January 1912,
he, upon his own responsibility, discharged
these two military guards, and converted
the Arsenal in Columbia, and the Citadelin
Charleston, into military schools; appointed
competent instructors to superiutend them,
and expended the above named funds in
defraying the expenses of each department
of these schools; and at the same time, with
out any additional expense, accomplished
the purposes of the law by requiring the
Cadets to perform the police duty before
performed by the soldiers. And thus, while
this large item in the annual expenditure
of the State was devoted to the great object
Of public instruction, the arms and public
property were as effectually guarded as
they were under the old system.
An important reform in the public ad-
ministration, was thus accomplished; for, in
stead of expending this fund to support a
band of soldiers, who unavoidably lived
life of demoralizing idleness, which is in
compatible with sound national policy,
the Arsenal and Citadel were converted into
schools Of practical science, and the fund
devoted to the great object of educating the
young men of the State, and qualifying them
for the important duties and responsibilities
Of citizens and they, in return for this pro-
vidential care over them, performed the
guard duty before performed by the soldiers,
and without the loss, of any portion of the
time, which proper attention to their stu
dies required
These facts evolve another, which it is
proper to bring to public notice. 1.-THE State
Military Academy we're abolished to day by
legislative enactment, the protection of the
public property would require the same ap-
preparation, to accomplish that purpose, that
was required at the beginning and as the
public property has been greatly increased
within the last few years, the reason for ma
king that appropriation would be proportion
ably stronger now than then. 1t is an error
then to suppose that a Cadet is educated graf
uitously in the State Military Academy, for
each one of them performs for the State
military service in guarding the public prop
erty, which is an equivalent for the education
and support he receives but as the number
of Cadets in the institution is greater than
is required to guard the public property,
the excess of this number are required to
pay their own expenses, and thus equal JUS
tice is meted out to the State on the one
hand, and the Cadets on the other.
Now, by assuming this appropriation and
the fourteen years which have elapsed since
the institution was founded, as a basis of
calculation, it will appear, that by this sim
gle act of wise craftsmanship, Gov'r Rich
ardson has already saved for the State, and
devoted it to the great purpose Of public in
struction, the sum of three hundred and
thirty-six thousand dollars; and in half
century, at the same rate of appropriation,
he will have saved and devoted to the same
noble object, the sum of one million two
hundred thousand dollars. This is the first
chapter of my history, but there is yet ano-
ther which is brighter still.
At the commencement of the General AS
sembly in November, 1912 Governor Rich
ardson, in his Annual Message, made known
to that body the policy he had pursued up
on the subject under consideration, and re-
commended that an act be passed making
that policy permanent. The Legislature,