Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-10-31

adorns the land. The University of Virginia, IN
1925, was the westernmost institution of learning,
of any dignity, and it. although founded by the
Apostle of Liberty" and with corpslOf Profess
sOrs of unsurpassed scholarship. had feeble and
barren life for many years. because it had rejected
can Impregnate and fructify human learning
Afterwards that spirit came and brooding dove
like over that favored spot made 1t pregnant with
the richest frutage which the womb of knowledge
has given to our Southern land 1t was there that
within thirty years young Learning began feeby
with lettering steps to crawl up the sides of the Ale
ghany Mountains, and now here am l. OF its first
and least worthy pupils, before the first dec2dence
of my life has begun, called by ten Bishops of the
most enlightened Church on earth, and by ten sOYe
reign States of the freest Peep earth to aid in
augurating University of dignity equal OxfOrd ard
Cambridge, Jena and GOttingen Harvard and the
University of Virginia in answer to the aXOus cry
the absolute necessities of the teeming millions of
freemen who drink the waters of the Rocky Noun
tains.
Now, my countrymen | ask you in the simplest
! confidence, are not my assumptions proved? Does
not your religion, does not your socialism, does not
your liberty, demand that you should be here? Is
1t not well, Christians Shareholders freemen, for
us to be here? Yes it Is well for US to be here be-
meath the very oaks which sheltered our fathers
from tn storms of Heaven and the Indian rife. 1t
Is well Tor US to stand this mount in top AMI be-
hold the jeemlhg and bOundles> weG Oh, which for
/
see the ihIghty masses Of our People who gath
! erIng IT, and call to them ami bid them come UD To
these fountains and drink of the pure stream which
! the wand OF Knowledge strikes from these rocks
| They are more limped, more refreshing than the
| springs which sparkle out of the mountain side
they more fertlizng than the full food of the
| Father OF the Waters. Like tue dsws they come
down on our darkness, give growth and strength,
! and rise again to meet the opening glOres Of the
dawn OF Heaven. NY cOuntrymen to M it seems
very meet and proper for us to be here
There is no antiquity here. | have recited to vnu
! in general terms, all the history which has been
! brought here. There are no monuments here mark
ing the yHstgcs of man no pyramids OF forty ccatu
res no fragmentary memorial OF lost civilization;
no PartnenOn portico which dropped the
| honey from Plato's lips; no Coliseum where the
! world master revealed no grand and solemn ca
| thedral where every echo resOunds with a majesty
history nO.purple light of romance and chiyalry
no rOseHte hue of art and poetry All is new fresh
from the forming hand of God. We the the first.
We are primeyal here. Our only character is the
aunulation Of the oak, our only history is the bud
| the leaf and the autumn wind We have come to
| the heights of the Sewanee to begin epoch. But
thanks to our blessed Church and liberties we
come bringing history, and gifts, and treasures
from all times and people have to inscribC
upon the rolls of the vast young empire beneath us
all that men have fought for prayed for hoped for
build chambers for our treasures, more precious
than Syrian rubies, more potent than the Macedo
Man sceptre, and we opened up the tree tops tha
the light of Heaven might shine upon them. We
come with the richest treasures, gathered through
all time all the earth, and laying them here a
the feet of our cOuntrymen, we bid them take, take
for ever Jewel which is taken, like early gathered
fruit, leaves more ylgor behind every torch which
is lighted like the crystal. flashes its flame back tC
its source