Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1870-08-09
Tuesday Morning, August o, 1870.
The Demands of the Crisis for Liberal
Education.

Mr.. VIM. W. Downey, delivered on the oc-
| casion of laying the cornerstone of the Duff
fields Classical High School, July 21st, 1870.
Mr.. Downey is student of Hampden Sydney
College, and although scarcely twenty years
of age, gives promise of being an orator of
rare power and culture =
The scene that greets our eyes to. day should
swell our bosoms with delight, and thrill our
hearts with JOY. 1t is ON such occasions as
the present, that the pulse of the intellectual
world beats high; that her tagging energies
are quickened, and her dropping hopes re-
vived and mag;we not humbly hope, that
such will be the:case: to>day l see before
me the aged and the young, both men and
women, all gathered together in one common
asscmblage to do homage at the shrine of
learning. Another citadel is about to be
erected on the frontiers of knowledge and of
truth, against the insidious encroachments of
error, ignorance and vice. To-day we unfurl
the standard of knowledge to the breezes offs
critical fortune, and we are come to ask you,
| to rally beneath her sacred folds. Next to
the cultivation of the heart and conscience,
the assiduous culture of the intellect, is the
grandest and sublimest work, that engages the
time, tho talents. and the energies of man.
1t is work in which the bright and sunny
smiles of Heaven will rest upon US, and for
which the rising generation will thank us, and
all posterity will bless US. To you who are
now rejoicing in the prime of life, and in the
| vigor of manhood, let me say, when the frosts
of many winters shall have adorned your
temples with sivery locks; and the tooth of
time shall have furrowed the cheek and the
manly brow, where now sit enthroned in
lnatchless vigor, the virgin bloom of youth;
your children will rise up and call you blessed.
And now in honor OF the institution to
which we give birth to-day, we propose to in
| quire into Tile Demands Of the Crisis for
Liberal Education.
Every work of creation has its mission
| If this be true of irrational and inanimate
creation, how much more is it true of rational
creation 1t is not my purpose on this oc-
casion, however, to discuss in general mans
mission, but merely the important mission as
signed our Southern youths in this perilous
crisis Of our country's history.
And here allow me as briefly as may be
| consistent with the end in view, to lay before
you, some of the peculiar features which char
acterlZe the present crisis.
The booming Of cannon no longer re-echoes
over our lowering hills and fertile valleys
The rafting musketry, no logger at regular
intervals, discharges its clouds of smoke, and
liquid sheet of FIRE aud death. In a word,
the terrible tragedy of war is ended. The
curtain has fallen upon the last scenes in the
great drama. The night winds signing through
the trees, sing many mourntul requiem over
the tombs of our departed heroes while their
surviving comrades have long sought an-
swer to the question, vho are the dead those
who now crest from their labors and their
works do follow them," or those who broodIng
over their cOuntry's misfortunes, daily die
living deaths?
And now a siren voice, which would trans
form us into beasts, in treacherous and deceit
full accents, whispers, We have peace. Yes,
| we have peace, but such peace as when COM
pared with evils, would be found second only
to that terrible scourge of war which desc
lated our lands; laid bare the bosoms of our
| beautiful valleys; stripped of their stately
oaks our vast, majestic forests, verdant, grand
and imposing as any ever explored i'll the
chase by Gods and Goddesses led on by the
tabled Diana Redeemed the current of our
! limpid crystal rivers with mingled tide of
native and of alien blood and blighted the
| brightest hopes and prospects of our noble
Southern youth. The nature and character
of this peace are most aptly described in two
short lines:
.'AIark where his carnage and his conquest cease!
He makes solitude, and calls i-peace!'
Such is the crisis at which we have arrived !;
dark, gloomy, and toreboding. The future is
veiled in mystery, and is impenetrable. Few
and feeble are the rays of hope which some-
| times light up the dark recesses of the soul.
Butalas they only shed their refulgence over
the surrounding fields of darkness, to enable
us to apprehend more clearly their vast extent,
and the intensity of their gloom. All the
| enactments of the recent administrations, ap-
| pear but SO many presages of impending evils,
| traught with terror to humanity and to Justice.
Justice is q word long since erased from the
Radical vocabulary, and mercy never entered
| it. The storms of national overthrow have
not yet ceased to thunder in our ears. The
bow of promise seems lost in the angry
Heavens, and obscured by the dense clouds
which darken our political horizon. Our sky
appears black and portentous; and the huge
clouds gathering over its fGce, seem to be
marshalliDg their strength, to burst yet again
| in untold evils, over our devoted heads. The
offices of our country with their honors and
emoluments, have been set up as rewards for
deserion from principle and truth. An oath,
which is the only guarantee and safeguard of
the people in a free government, has been
stripped of Its dignity, and of its sanctity.-
| Such are the circumstances enveloping US.
Such, say, is the crisis at which we have ar
| rived.
In view of this, doubtless every patriotic
heart will pulsate in responsive echoes through
its silent chambers when assert, that all who
can doany thing for their country's good should
dol with their might. If a boats crew were to
find themselves being drawn in continually
diminishing circles towards the fatal mael-
strom, methinks they would ply their oars
with the frenzy of despair. So when our
glorious old ship of state, is being we'll nigh
dashed to pieces on the turbulent and surging
pillows of party feud and sectional hatred,
and is making rapid headway toward the ter
rible vortex of national oblivion, leaving the