The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-06-09

Tho University OF South Carolina.
The Wilmington Star says:
''The University of South Carolina
will be closed after the present ses-
sion."
It is very strange that unfounded
rumors, injurious to the university,
arise from time to time at distance
from this oity. The institution has
been dispensing it's blessings since
the year 1904. It is known through
the length and breadth of the land
and beyond the Atlantic. There is
no reason to suppose, if left alone,
that its future career will not be
brighter and more useful than its
past. If all whom it has educated,
and all who are truly interested in
its welfare, (which should be equiva-
lent to saying all the intelligent men
in the State, would bear in mind not
only the public interests and the ad-
vantages of educating our youth ut
home, but the privations, labors and
incessant devotion to their duties of
the gentlemen who fill the professor
ships in the university, there would
be in every section some voice raised
to promote its prosperity and secure
its permanence.
From the catalogue before MS, it
appears that there arc 113 students
in attendance, and Seoenty lectures
and recitations every qoeek, or more
than 2,700 during the session of nine
months. We could mention, be-
sides, numerous other labors engaged
in Ivy the professors, not including
the weekly public lectures they de-
llvered from November last to May.
Their pay is inadequate to the proper
support Of their families; yet their
interest in the university has kept
them from seeking elsewhere posi-
tions easy for them to attain and
more remunerative. Any rumor that
prevents students from coming here,
and thereby strips from the profess
sors still more of their little income,
ought to be promptly met by the
trustees, (if they care for the univer-
sity as they should or by the alumni,
or by some friendly editor, if there
be in the State an editor who is
friendly to this institution. When
the university fails, all will then sing
a dirge, according to Carolina Gus
tom, and say some pretty things
about being blind to our welfare, and
sending tens of thousands of dollars
to build up the colleges and universe
ties of other States.
What good reason have we to sup
pose that the coming Legislature
will attempt to break down the uni
versity, or force upon it any innova-
tion which would render it less than
heretofore the resort of young gen
tlemen throughout the South who
desire to qualify themselves in the
higher branches of education? Only
Ignorance or malignity could prompt
such an interference with the univer-
sity as would drive its professors
and students abroad, and quench the
sacred light which has beamed within
its walls for more than half cen
tury. Until such folly or spiteful-
ness be exhibited, we feel safe in
denying any rumor about the discon-
tinnance of the university. II cannot
be discontinued by the Faculty, and
the Board of Trustees cannot discon-
-tinue it, except by authority from
the Legislature, and the new Consti-
tuition requires the Legislature to
continue it. Let this fact put to rest
all such rumors.
: Of all our State institutions, the
university stands forth now the only
remaining one, around which still
beams thelust of old Carolina noble
ness. While everything in Thebes
was laid prostrate by its enemies,
'their respect for literature left Pin
,dars sabode unharmed. The party tenn
'porarily dominant in the State have
room enough for the education of ne
gro boys, and should see to it, if they
have any wisdom, that the university
be left exclusively to the whites. Un-
less they do so. it will be university
in name only. It remains to be seen if
those crying loudest for education
intend to be its insidious enemies,
and to put out the lights on the affairs
Of learning, while attempting to
force q social equality which they
know can navar Ia rooin to;po3 TIn&;l