The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-07-14
Address Of Commodore
Ne. r. Maury before the Virginia
Educational Associations.

Gentlemen Of the Educational Association i:
You have desired me to address you upon
''rhe Changes which the Rapid Progress
and DEVELOPMENT of Physical Discoveries
and the Altered Condition Of our People
have made necessary in the System of
Southern Education
Though we all feel this altered condition,
vet few have fully comprehendcd and none
felt the extent of it upon the Common
wealth. especially in its moral and social
aspects. But whatever be its extent social
", there is one point upon which we must
insist and reSolutely carry out, and that
point IS. that our system Of education shall
be such as to enable the South to MAINTAIN
her moral and intellectual supremacy.
The secret of this supremacy, before the
war, was mainly with the daughters OF
virginia. and chiefly i'll those hlgh ana loitiS
principles which it was their wont 10 ihsIlll
into the minds of their sons anu dausltels
before they began to try the Toltu, ~ h .tI
to buckle on the armor Tor inc srea' o'''''0
of life. .,, a., ,ho
A, Gallant and as brave in the war as Ine
sons or Virginia have shown themselves to
In vel il, has always seemed 10 me that The
,u,y her daughters bore themselves in the
Struggle was rs truly heroic and far more
The principles Of religion, morality, and
virtue. which the sons OF Virginia learn ut
,he maternal knee, more than anything
that wus peculiar to her schools and col
ienes, won for her the distinction of "1he
Mother OF Statesmen" and enabled her
| sons for SO many years to manage the Fede-
| raj Government, to rule Congress, and die
tate the policy Of the country.
We must take care, therefore, to pre-
serve this, the dearest, most important, and
lovely, feature in our system of education,
and guard the domestic circle from all the
"isns" and "hi.her law doctrine with
which we are threatened from other lati-
! tuucS.
| The part which southern women perform
| in the education of southern men is still,
hold, the best and most important part i'll
| the system of southern education. With
Us the custom is, and has been, for the
mothe: herself, instead OF turning them
| over TO the schoolmarm as soon almost as
| they can lisp, to train her children until
they are ten or twelve years old.
1t is ut this early period OF life then, and
| there, OH the knee and by the family altar,
| that those principles have been instilled
| into the mind of the southern youth which
make them prize honor and the mems con-
sra more than fortune or life itself.
| Trained at home in the paths OF virtue,
and well-grounded in the principles of mo-
r;llity and religion, they are then sent forth
| to schools and colleges moi. to get, but to
continue the education which they COM
| menced in infancy.
| With minds thus ballasted they are pre-
pared to receive instruction in all depart
menls of human knowledge without fear or
danger of being upset or led off into inf
| deity and atheism by any false teachers
| with their so-calied new lights.
| Ouryouth, with their minds thus strength
ened and fortified ut home, are prepared to
| follow the revelations of science with bold
and dauntless tread, having no more fear
that Their belief in the Bible is to be shaken
by pouring over the book Of nature than
your man OF science has that the truths in
one branch of physical research can be up
set by the discoveries in another.
| The idea never entered the mind of the
astronomer that his science was in any dam
| ger Of being proved lie by the discoveries
| in chemistry. Neither did the idea that the
I discoveries of science can conflict with the
truths of revelation ever enter the head of
your southern youth, who in his early
years enjoyed the blessings OF this Tire.
side--domestic, parental, southern instruc.
tion.--to which allude.
1t il chiefly owing to the influence in after
years OF this home-training that aScribf
Tho lead which southern men have taken
| in tho councils Of the nation and in The
conduct OF public affairs generally; and il
| Is wholly owing to it that the intldel notions
and doctrines Of the Germans. the atheism
of the French, the Mormonisms ind spirit
ualisnls, and the other countless "isms. .
which Rre DO rife In the North, have moi