Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1857-10-16

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of the State fund, aud that be report to the board Of
the Literary fund aud to the legislature. The medical
college and the university to be superintended by their
board of visitors and rector. and the military Institute
to be placed under the superintendent of its board
and the executive, as at present.
The cost of the schools would then be, 22l, 30 90
The salary Of the rector, 5000 Oh
Total cos. per annum, sas6. 200 90
Leaving for investment s242 427-226,2OO Sl6,227 OU
This system would introduce proper superintendence
and accountability it would reach from the highest
down to the lowest grade of instruction it would
meet the wants of the richest and the poorest 1t
would create the means of making competent teachers
of our own, and would provide for all our children to
the full extent of all our means. Ii would bring
every infant under II and over years OF age, within
about 3 miles of a primary school, and every
vouth over ~ and under Ii, within about 8 miles
of a high school. | know of but few, OF any,
serious objections to this plan. The most Sc
rious obstacle 10 its execution 10 a tact, wbich 10 very
curious to observation in our State-a fact which 10
very striking 10 the history of a people like our own.
Fix your eve on the map OF Virginia, and let lt rest
on Charlottesville as the point OF an angle WHO one
line running South. East to Williamsburg. aud the
other South West to Emory and Henry College ana
you find every College in the State, except one, BE-
thany in Brooke, lying South in one third OF our Ter
ritory. William and Mary, Hampden Sidney Kan
dolph Macon, Richmond, Lynchburg, Washington,
Roanoke and Emory and Henry are all south 0t thal
angle, and Bethany is in the extreme Nortn'W est'-
This ia a remarkable fact; and it shows the extent 10
which our State has been stripped of is own home
patronage to the higher schools OF LEARNING. we
know that the NORTHEAST and North valley and
North. West portions Of our State a.e among The most
distinguished sections for intelligence and education,
and vet they have no Colleges but one. This can be
accounted for only by the habit Of their people in
sending away their sons to Northern institutions
Our chief desire now il TO educate them as we'll, II
not better, at home. To attain that end, and III
measure to remove the sectional objection to taking
the Colleges as we find them, | propose the estao
lishment Of thee Lec Colleges-one 10 be located NJ
the head OF the X anawha, or at the Blue Sulphur
Springs, or at Weston, or somewhere in the heart oi
the North. West Of rans.Aleghany-aDd one at
Winchester in the valley, aud ole near FrederIcks
burg on the RappahannoCk, for the North East.
would, with the State funds, purchase the Blue
Sulphur establishment, and there endow a Hygsla
College-One without 9 winter session, at the very
fountain OF health, TO attract every Southern you.h
TO summer sessions, and thsre | would establish 6
MGglin institute, a special agricultural school To
teach the applied sciences OF chemistry. natural PHI
losophy, mechanics, botany, geology, comparative
anatomy, veterinary surgery. natural history, NUS
bandry and domestic economy, and ancient and mo-
dern languages. This should be a school for cold,
mountain culture; and a counter school for the warm
er climate Of the low lands should be established some
where in Spotsylvana or Caroline, without a summer
session, on the plan Of Father Won Thaer OF Prussia.
His book of Domsstic Economy has never yet been
opened in any school that | know of in the United
States. Every upstart can spout a smatterIng OF
Adam Smith or Say on Political Economy; but Ask
him how much money q man must have to buy go
much land-ask him the due proportion between nix,
ed and floating capital on a plantation-an lie VIII
stare at you for your meaning. More men have been
ruined in Virginia, by ignorance OF the answer TO that
question, than by any other cause known to me, ex-
cept brandy, fox hounda and horse racing.
| wish 10 SEQ two scIools q. least for instruction IN
all the applied sciences OF agriculture. tIey Til! lie
specialized which will not compete win The Othe.
purely literary ingtitutious. Agriculture is the only
source of our wealth, and yet il bas nov6r been aided
by the State. The State Agricultural Society has
been endowed by the Spontaneous contributing OF the
Eeoyle, and that body, perhaps, might be induced TO
INCEST a portion OF it's funds in two such schools, and
take them under its superEtendence and care and pa
tronage, for the bonus Of $4,000 per nm. ~ Irola tho
treasury of The Literary fund.
With these three additions TO the members OF our
colleges; I would take them as they are. They are
established, known, and are higher in their stan
dsrd than they ever we're before. They have
teen working in our fields Of culture without pat
ronage IL all time past, aud now are worthy
of any and all which 1aI be bestowed. They have
won their own local habitation2 ana their .lemes.
and arr entitled to the hire now to be distributed, until
they shall have 80 fulfilled their end that they shall have
stimulated the further multiplication OF colleges To the
point when a new distribution shall be called ior, ana
then our means will, / hope, be 80 magnitied as 10 be
enough stli &c encourage all We will, then, by all
means, take the ni.e stabilized colleges as they are
and establish three new ones to meet presenI wants.
Indeed, this local objection is a boon, It It will estab.
lish three new colleges and make two OF them the tos.
ter mothers Of agriculture.
But, it will be said that the thirty high schools to
each college cannot BIZ distributed among the colleges
as they arc new .ooet6d. : l;:ilc examination will
show that this apportionnent, With three new colleges
added can easily be made. / cannot enter into the
details here, and it ia a subject which may we'll be left
TO a convention of the colleges, under the ultimate de-
cision Of the rector of the university. The various Ia
cuItiel Vii gladly arrange any difficulties or Unequal
tiles of this sort among tLelh5elveS.
Again 1t may be urged that the mos Of our es.
tabli.hed colleges are sectarian in their character
and influence. And | say. what if they arel The
Literary fund is the peoples fund, and the religions
gelical sec,s all have iDstituiiols Of learning under
their patronage. | don't know one of them which
proselyte through the schools, and il is we'll for us
we had religious sects to establish and foster
Tor without them there would have been
but few if any established. They have nurtured our
of learning and done the most for public
and private instructions; they deserve the need Of
our bounty. God forbid that we should not have a
variety of sects OF religion, and that all should not
bs tolerated. | ask only that they will acknowledge
"Christ crucifed," and that each in is own way will
worship the only true and living God. Seotarism will
keep alive that rivalry and competition in the
churches and schools which will forever prevent the
green scum of a state of stagnation. Activity and
u ICQuIlO kbot W oiobi9 ioNO NV hSitc al |
s%ects-not any and all religions, or rather
any or all delusions-but all of the Christian faith.
Christianity ia O part Of our republicanism, not by
but py fait!:, and habit, ana history, and l
would deeply deplore to zee sny institutions, rellgi.
Gus or literary, in our land, inscribed to the 'uu-
known God" The only limitation to patronage of
should be that they are Christian. | would not
give the literary income TO the Mormon, or Turk, but
| would not inquire TO what church any faculty Of Il
college belongs, 80 long as I knew them TO be Chris
tian, and preaching and teaching the word of eternal
What. then, If some OF our colleges are me,ho
dists. and some bdptlsts. and some pfesoyterians aud
some episcopalien-our people are mostly mstho:
dis,s, baptists, presbyterians, and episcopsllans and
to say you wont ~pstronize methodists, baptists, pres.
byterians and episcopalians, il to say you won't pa
tronizs your own psopls. And let any body dare to
that! TIE university has its chaplain, and the
Christian religion is there aoi noRledg aud taught
and practiced-and who would have it o%iherwise?
A union of Church and State i, odious, but Chris.
tianiiy binds us at our baptism. at our marriage, aud
seals US at death. 1t is the test Of our truth in courts
of justice on earth, and by it we will be tried in the
Of heaven, according TO our faith, hope and
charity. Who would himself ignore it, aud who
would have his child not taught its holy precepts =
who can teach it to them like The good and great
and holy llen vho have moatiy tounied aud kept
the burning cGSls Of Our old 2OllegeS-the alma
matters Of all men of power or promise in OR midst.
Sectarism, then, no more than sectionalism, il q sound
objection TO this plan.
Another and the last objection is, that thia plan may
or interfere win Tue Established govern
nent of the colleges. On the contrary, We prefer
each shall be left to its own Independent govern
ment. Let each for itself establish lis own discip
its own course of study. and its own role Of ex
We propose only that each which accepts
the State bounty, shall BIZ simply subject 10 superin
tendence, examination and report by The rector OF the
He is taken as the officer best chosen,
aside and apart from political and religious bia.
elected by a board Of visitors, selec. men appointed
by the chief Executive Of the State, and known for
q ,r,,j,,n ytrt,,a ra,,it md ditrDifu Tho t,arinu. |
plans pursued by different college governments it il
best 10 bring into rivalry and competition, in order TO
sse which may prove best. The colleges. therefore.
left to their own separate and independent govern
ments. The rector will report only upon the opera
tions and results of each and oil.
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