New-York tribune., 1867-07-31
VIRGJNId ADVANCING.


gina, since she promises to become in the
future everything which she has not been in
the past. AS the mother of great men, she
has exhibited coRlplacency which the fasti-
dious in language might denominate arrogance,
but as the nurse of many happy and prosper
GUS and well-educated communities, she will
have more equitable claim upon the appro-
baton of mankind. The American idea Of
public greatness is not that of rare and isO-
lated individual distinction, but rather OF
capacity for public affairs so generally diffused
that the incapable are the exceptions. Our
theory excludes hereditary honOrs and family
distinctions, the boast of heraldry and the
pomp of power yet it was to precisely these
social features that oldschool Virginans clung
with a tenacity which poverty rather ntensi-
fed than abated. The democracy of the State
was of a purely theoretical character-it was
doctrine without embodiment, and profession
without practice. Prudence, economy, enter
prise commercial and agricultural assiduity,
were almost unknown. There were great
landed estates held by individuals, but they
were often wastefully managed, often unpro-
ductive, and not seldom through mistaken no.
tions of hospitality source OF positive en-
barrassment to their titular owners. The con-
sequence was kind of splendid squalor, like
nothing so much as the hand-t0-mouth magnih-
cenco once so common in Ireland. 81 was once
present" says Noah Webster, "at an enter
tainment given by young planter In Vir-
" ginia, who had much land, and many slaves.
He arose at two o'clock next morning, pawned
"his knee-buclles, and some other articles
gave his landlord note for sixty dollars
" and rode off without paying his hair-dresser."
"I once heard Washington remark adds Mr..
Webster, that from the Northern to the
Southern States the agricultural improve
ments are in an inverse proportion to the
number of slaves" These little extracts con-
tain whole Libraries of political economy.
In such condition of affairs, 1t was only
natural that public education should be neg
lected There were one or two dilapidated and
ill-managed colleges for the rich, but for the
poor there was scarcely any educational pro-
vision Whatever. There were a few Yankee
school-masters employed, but Halleck, the
poet, humorously mentions the contempt In
which these rowing pedagogues were held by
the aristocratic planters. The majority of these
not only did not profess to desire public edu-
cation, but they deprecated it as'unnecessary,
dangerous, demoralizing. In our own time we
have heard Gov. Wise passionately hurting his
inyectves against the common school system
of New-England and denOuncing the spread
Of knowledge with ludicrous vehemence. He
was among the last of the Virginian aristo-
Gratis. The breed may be considered extinct
with the social system which produced and
fOstered 1t.
We beg that our sentiments may not be mis-
understood We should find no pleasure In
dwelling upon these features of by-gone era
if we were unable to contrast them with the
dawn of better days. We can point with en-
couraging triumph (whatever may be the feel
ings of Gov. Wise) to the Virginia Teachers
Convention lately held in Lynchburg; to the
proposed establishment of State Department
of Public Instruction; to the admission at the
Convention, that education is the right or the
masses, and should be afforded at the public
charge No less parsonage than Gen. Lee
made report on school discipline, breathing,
il we may say so, the very spirit OF the late
Horace Mann. An extract from this report has
already appeared in these columns, ana our
readers will agree with us in the opinion that
clearer and more orthodox sentiments could
hardly have been set forth even in Massachu-
sets. Gen. Lee evidently knows how to repair
the damages which he has helped to infict,
and has found out very persuasive method OF
leading loyal men to forgiveness and forget
funess of the past.
There are two ways of favorably regarding
established systems Of Public Instruction. In
the first place, the sentiments, opinions, mo-
tiyes which induced their establishment, are all
of happy augury. And these arc Independents
OF comparative success or failure. The noble
desire dignifes the experiment. The mere wish
for social culture is, in itself, one Of the most
liberal of feelings. The ignorant father who
determines that his son ! shall have better
chances, cost what of selstdenial they may, has
already himself taken Q degree, 1t Is only of