Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-05-24
NASHVILLE UNION AND AMERICAN TUESDAY, MAY "a 1870

fNSAe lSSAoN'hol APBONAo VI Via I'LL
a Yeatman, and Nichol, and Trimble, an
l. Hume, and Crabb, and many others, greai
a minded citizens the then remote wester
e village of Nashville. These appeal
l. would have been as so much empt
d breath but for the assurances given III 9
Il Cumberland College had FOUNDATION o
e at least 800, 900, the donation of til
: Mother State though the national Con
D gress, and guaranteed by the General As
sembly of the State of Tennessee. Be
+ cause of this supposed foundation, TIN
: remove was made, the eyes of education
, al America being upon it, and the bless
. ings of many Christian philanthropist.
accompanying and following. The
foundation however was strangely turned
aside though perverse, misguided and
unfaithful legislation, and after heroic
and martyr like toll of twenty-six years,
though skillfully seconded by very able
colleagues, as Troost and Cross and
Hamilton, he retired to a distant State
while still in the vigor of intellectual
strength, his great enterprise a failure,
his university without a student and with
out home. This failure was caused,
and inevitably caused amid the surround
lngs, for want of an endowment. For
the same reason his distinguished prede-
cessor, Doctor Priestly, the eminent
classical teacher of Baltimore, whose
successful efforts as head of the college
gave to its rolls the great names of Bell,
Foster and Others, failed. repeatedly
failed. For the same reason, the com
| pletely organized and highly use
full Grammar School now conducted
by the Board is destined to fail
Although differed with highly accom-
plished young teachers, and assisted by
the hearty, efficient and liberal co-opera-
ton of the President of the Board, il is
already beginning to bring the University
in debt. Even if the Board had the legal |
right to appropriate the income of the |
College Fund to the support of gram
mar school, still the slenderness of the |
foundation would surely cause failure in |
less than five years. 1t is utopian, utterly |
utopian, to attempt the maintenance of
school for the hun1aRities without a large |
and productive endowment 1t cannot be |
done in the thinly-peopled Southwest,
where the great majority of the inhabi-
tants early devote themselves TO the prac-
tical pursuits of life. 1t is not even at
tempted in the densely populated and
very wealthy region of the Northeast,
where fifty thousand dollars is esteemed
but moderate endowment for q profess
sors chair in Colleges which also charge |
their pupils handsome tuition fees. To |
make an independent, permanent, success
ful College, upon the English model, the |
one thing, without which all else is abso-
lutely vain and fruitless, is an endow-
ment always and truthfully styled THE
FOUNDATION. Let the Board of Trustees
OF the University of Nashville promptly
accept the safely guarded propositions of
the distinguished gentlemen now so op-
portunely presented, and long, very
long before our little boys attain to
years such as weigh upon us, that
foundation will have been securely laid. |
And so it will come to pass, that while
we the children have failed to see the
accomplishment of the cherished aim of |
our noble fathers, their grand children
will see the splendid vision fully realized,
and their remote posterity continue from
generation to generation to enjoy the un-
speakable benefits flowing from seat of
learning dispensing the triple knowledge
symbolized by Athens, Rome and Judea.
To be properly appreciated the ideas
above set forth respecting the present
and future endowment of
the Undergraduate Department should be
accompanied with the following hints
about the University as a whole.
Common sense, which is profound phi
losophy, teaches US that all institutions,
those designed to advance letters
and science, must be adapted to the wants, {
desires, and prejudices if you choose, of
the people upon whose good will and fOs- |
tering care they depend. Tropical plants |
will not flourish in temperate climates.
We are called upon in Tennessee to build
up great seat of learning for Tennessee {
ans, Kentuckians, Missippians and the
citizens of other kindred and contiguous
States. If we prudently, energetiCally,
and without further loss o. time address
to this work, we shall undOubt-
edly succeed For no city can surpass ,
Nashville in eligibility as the site {
for such an institution none has as
yet Outstripped us in the race. If, how
ever, We now stand still, or foolishly |
adapt our efforts to the wants of far older I
and far weather. communities, the SPLEEN I
did prize will be lost, and the diadem of | I
forever deprived of its brightest I
gem. In this connection the Board of | |
Trustees cannot too often, or too seriously,
what they owe to their imme-
1iate neighbors and fellow townsmen, who /
at various times have contributed so
largely to the wealth of the college. Our t
yOOdly city has always enjoyed an en-
7iable educational fame. In the North I
Is well as in the South it has long been | /
an intellectual centre. This, I
he noblest of all renown, it has in no | c
small degree acquired from the patient
aud poorly requited labor, of the earnest J
workers connected with the University | @
md the Academy-twin institutions CO. +
wal with the city. The ono trained | {
classes of young men whose lives, and il
leeds, and eloquence, have adorned Ten | 5
lessee the other, classes of young women C
whose polished grace, social elegance, and | ?
)rilliancy of mind, won admiration and p
aspect amid the wealthiest society of our f
greatest capitals, and whose self-denial,
fOrtitude and bravery when
lays of trial and calamity over shaded
heir land, proved them possessed of
yoman's purest and noblest traits. The
Trustees of these twin schools for boys
md girls nPrited well of their fel-
Ow- citizens half a century since, and
heir successors of to-day must emu =
ate their zeal, enterprise and liber-
Ility, else irreparable damage will ensue | i,
o Nashville and well deserved ignominy d
md shame to themselves. a
What this region of country now de- Il
hands may be readily accomplished I'M 81
Ter the guidance of this Board if it will 81
,ut in earnest do what all the people ex-
,ect it to do, and what by the very posi-
ion II holds it is pledged to all the people
If Tennessee TO do, to-wit, extend aid o
md cooperation to all who are able and G
Wiling to unite in founding and develop y;
ng any of the various departments of =
earning, art and science which together
constitute the University domain. 1t has
Ieen well said that university is Nam n
moth. 1t is not one school. 1t is great L
collection of schools, colleges, museums
md galleries. 1t requires city for its
PEDESTAL, an empire for its field. 1t is the S
CT mind and matter as COM V
lined by man. Ii
Under the auspices of our charter, we
hOuld have within brief period, first, :
IS the foundation of all the other schools, .
he Under graduate. This with its two =
old divisions of Academy and College
hOuld receive boys of ten years of age E
I