The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1866-07-26


prived your children of a rich inheritance
of property, you can and should give
them the priceless legacy of thorough
moral and intellectual training, a legacy,
compared with which, gold and silver are
but as dross.
Look not to legislation, or to official
patronage, nor alone to any public re-
sources, or aids, to make yourselves or
your children prosperous and happy. But
trust to your and their energy of charac-
ter and enlightened minds, and persever-
ing enterprise and industry. Cherish
these traits, and they will work out in the
future the same results as in the past.
The earth will everywhere blossom be-
meath you. You will be sure of exerting
your legitimate influence in every com
munity. You will be placed beyond the
reach of injustice and aggression. Rash
and weak counsels may involve the for
eign relations of the government; short
sighted or perverse legislation may do it's
worst to degrade you, and embarrass
your interests; but, if you resolutely ap-
ply your own resources of industry, skill,
and enterprise, to circumstances as they
arise, you will be able to turn them to
your advantage, and the great essential
of democratic sovereignty will be guaran-
tied to you, the pursuit and attainment of
individual happiness and prosperity: The
frantic attempts of craftsmanship by the
party in power, would call up a smile of
derision for their grotesqueness, but for
their daring impiety. But, be not alarm
ed; unless the American people are hope
lessly demented, have an abiding faith,
that the leaders of that party, with
trembling knees and faltering tongue, will
ere long read the handwriting on the
wall. Do not mistake them for the na-
tion. They are only a dominant party
and they will soon find men, better we
trust than themselves, thrusting them out
of their seats. 1t is the practice of those in
power, however obtained, to call them
selves the nation. In the days of her
fearful revolution, France furnished q
memorable example of it. At one period,
Brissot assumed to be the nation; then
Robespierre, then others whose names L
cannot recall, and finally, Bonaparte.-
But their arrogant dreams were soon dis
PEELED, and they awoke in rapid success
sion under the guillotine, or in exile
This is a pregnant parallel. Let not
these gentlemen exult too highly in the
exercise of brief and deeting authority.
What has happened to others in this
country, they must be liable to. Every
lover Of his country must blush for shame,
that any accident should ever have placed
the reins of power in the hands Of such
knaves, and heartily wish them a speedy
banishment to that obscurity, whence an
unkind fortune has dragged them.
In conclusion, my countrymen, let me
exhort you to foster high schools and
Academies, cherish our free schools, and
open afrcsh to all the fountain of knowl-
edge. One consequence of the war,
equally fearful with the sacrifice of life,
was the closing of our institutions Of learn
ing, and forcing the youth of the land in
the army; thousands have returned,
bankrupt in morals, and are growing up
in ignorance. These it should be our es-
pecial object to instruct and reclaim
The action of the Legislature should be
zealously sustained by our citizens.
With an impoverished constituency, and
a bankrupt treasury, the members of that
BODY, made appropriations for our State
University, Military Academies, and COM
mon schools, which done credit to their
firmness and enlightened judgments, and
exceeded our most sanguine expectations.
1t augurs we'll for the future Of our State,
and we accept it as an earnest of larger
appropriations, when the inancies are in
q better condition.
Iknow not, my countrymen, what more
munifcient donation any government can
foster, what prouder monument any peo-
nile can leave behind them, than by pro-
viding instruction at the public expense,
not as a scheme of charity, but of munich
pal policy. A school Of letters should be
planted by the side of every church in
every village and hamlet in our land
Other monuments of the art and genius
of many perish, but these, from their very
nature, seem, as far as human foresight
can 90, absolutely immortal. The tri-
umphal arches of other days have fallen
the sculptured columns have crumbled
into dust; the temples of taste and reli-
gion have sunk into decay; the Pyramids
themselves seem but mighty sepulchres
Fastening to the same oblivion to which
the dead they cover long since passed
But hero, every successive generation be-
comes a living memorial of our public
schools, and a living example OF their ex-
cellence. What consolation can be higher
what reflection prouder, than the thought
that, in veal and in woe, our children are
under the public guardianship, and may
here gather the fruits of that learning
which ripens for eternity. Cicero, Hor-
ace, Virgil, Homer, Demosthenes, Plato
and Aristotle, have done more to immor
talize Greece and Rome, than all their
military heroes, and long line of EN-.
perors; England will be celebrated
throug h the works of her poets, orators
1. -bor