Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-08-08

1 OoskAS hOANJ oAO 4SAy 6eNANA ~ oA~ ~AS"-S
ured up in the annals OF our nation o
hundred millions the names of thous'
md or more eleUes of the Nashville
Military College, boys though most o
them were, will shine conspcuously
bright. As an educational idea or pro-
ject so successful did it prove, that to-
day the leaders of the national armies
are calling upon Congress to make the
idea one Of general application, by en-
grating the military feature upon one
leading college in each State.
During the years 1862, 63. GA and 50
the spacious grounds and buildings of the
literary department were occcpied as two
immense army hospitals. The anticipa-
ton and presence Of Asiatic cholera de>
tered the board from taking any steps
towards recognizing said department in
1856. In the autumn of 1867 the Mont>
gomery Bell Academy was opened as the
preparatory department ofthe university.
This institution is based upon hand.
some bequest from christian gentleman
for a admitted charity school. Its success
full workings during the two years OF its
existence demonstrates the feasibility Of
pay and free scholars attending the same
lessons; and proves that the city has no
more need of boys high school sepa.
rate and distinct from this than has, to
use q famous Tennessee figure Of speech,
. toad with side pockets. .ss.ti 81 l.-sa
At the present time men active in
educational schemes have brought before
the Trustees of the University plans for
. Department of Law, and also for De-
partment of Science, Literature and
Arts. 1t is designed that the professors
in these important branches of the Uni
yersity shall, as in the medical, receive
no regular salaries from the Board, but
depend for remuneration upon the fees
paid by students attracted hither by the
fame Of the University, the reputation of
thecity and the zeal of the teachers.
These two departments will add much to
the efficiency of the University; directly
by the number Of new students, law and
literary, brought here, and indirectly
by the numbers added to the great
medical and preparatory schools in
consequence of the completeness thus
given the whole institution. Here, how
ever, we are in danger of making halt
ruinous in every way to the interests of
Nashville for want Of some four or five
thousand dollars. The buildings as left
by the hospital authorities are not ft for
lecture rooms. The Board of Trustees
have no means to refit the buildings exc
cept by sale of valuable property at
very low rate. As board they have
made the fortune Of the university by the
far-sighted tenacity with which they
have for fifty years held on to real
estate, and by the fidelity of their
official agents watching over and
caring for the property Of the institu>
ton during the civil war. This policy and
fidelity persevered in for another fifty
years will place the future of their trust
beyond contingency. No wise minded
citizen of Nashville would wish the
board to depart from this mode of ad-
ministering a trust in which every one,
rich or poor, has so much at stake. The
board have a right at this juncture to
stand still until aid is offered from out
side quarters. The city of Louisville as
q municipality created its university with
law, medicine and literature taught in
handsome buildings, with good libraries
and complete apparatus For more than
thirty years this action of the city gov-
eminent has met with universal appr0ba-
ton from the inhabitants of Louisville.
Within the last ten years more than
half a dozen cities in France with pop
ulation of from twenty to thirty thousand
souls have obtained from imperial gov
eminent the privilege of founding cOl-
lege or a faculty at the expense of
the municipalities. Here in Nash
vile our city rulers have not brains
enough to give their University cup of
cold water; and hence it need not excite
surprise that for want Of brains they
have squandered since 1865 more thou
sands than would have suficed to build
in everlasting stone our whole brilliant
and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT place for the soul
with all its noble aspirations for the
future and refining communions with the
past Nashville as city must hereafter
foster It's great universities and acade-
mics, or else Lexington or Louisville, or
Atlanta, or Lebanon, or Memphis, or
Knoxville, or all, will tear from its lag
gard and niggard brows the laurels it is
no longer worthy to wear.
The trustees of the University have a
right to expect much from private lib
erality and munifcence in building upon
the foundations so carefully laid and
preserved by their foresight and faith
fulness. As already mentioned the
christian faith and zeal of our predeces-
sors twenty, thirty, fOrty-fve years since,
mainly contributed to place the University
in a condition for successful working and
indeed bestowed the present magnificent
and valuable University Square and a
large portion Of the vast buildings which
now need repairing and furnishing. II
cannot be that the present generation
| of Nashyillians have no soul for
| the intellectual, that while Jealous fol-
factories, fair grounds and railroads, they
| will prove Indifferent to the very inter.
| ests which have given their city a great
| name in all the land. A citizen of Chi
| cago who had given hundred thousand
| dollars to one school of reEgiOn in his owl
city and many thousands to dtferen
seats oflearning in his native State 0
Virginia, but the other day sent checl
for five thousand dollars to Washington
College. We have men of equal wealth
in Nashville. Have we none of equal spirit
The truth must be told, our people Low
fine houses, fine horses, fine parties an
fine clothes too much and the publ
veal too little. In the North and Eas
the millionaires give by the hundreds Q
thousands, the rich by the tens of thou
sands, and the poor by the tens and hun
dreds. And so the Northeast has mad
all the land its tributary and vassal, be
cause it had brains and developed brains
| If we do not wish to be hewers Of woo
| and drawers of water we must 90 and