Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-05-24
The Present Condition and
y Prospects of the University.

an adjourned meeting OF the Board OF
Trustees, fixed for Saturday, May 81
This meeting was not held, but was post
poned until next Saturday. In order tina
the members of the Board may have full
opportunity TO consider the subjects dis
cussed, the author avails himself of the
liberality of the press, and thus present:
il in print to all concerned:
UNIVERSITY OF NASHVILLE, May 81, 1870.
To the Honorable Board of Trustees
Gentlemen: In view of the important
business now demanding you attention,
the undersigned respectfully begs leave TO
submit the following report. Many points
are necessarily touched upon with too
much brevity. This is unavoidable in
handling a subject SO extensive and so
controyerted as that of University Educa-
tiOn, which demands volume rather than
"a pamphlet for its discussion.
The Collegiate Department of the Uni
vetsity of Nashville has IFS origin in GER
tain Legislative enactments of the General
Assembly of the State of North Carolina
and of the Congress of the United States.
by said enactments an institution or
learning was created and partially en-
dOwed in the year 1906 under the name
Of.cumberland College. The ''Univer-
sity of Nashville" became the legal style
and title of the college, by an act of .he
Legislature passed November q, 1926.
This mere nominal change was made
chiefly 10 distinguish it from another
Cumberland College then recently estab-
lished in Kentucky. The original grant
OF $4,000 acres of land by Congress was,
byIegislative management, for many years,
rendered utterly unavailable. AT length,
after thirty years vexatious delay, the
General Assembly, during the session of
1SS7-S agreed to allow the University the
half of township or IL, 520 acres of
land in the 0coee District, then recently
acquired from the Cherokee Nation, in
lieu of its claim upon the State for both
principal (uot less than 800, 000,) and
interest for thirty years-so long with
held. This compromise yielded to the
University its college fund now amount
ing to some fifty thousand dollars, invest
cd in Tennessee bonds, the annual income
being 81, 220.
From the above brief statement two
facts are evident, to-wit: First, that the
property and funds held in trust by this
Board were intended by their donors as a
lift 70 the people of the entire State, and
se condly, that college" IN the ordinary
American sense of the word must at all
events be kept in operation by this Board.
The State of North Carolina and the
United States of America created ''COl.
iege" or Under graduate Department of
University. TO this Department in fact
belong ell the lands and funds under the
control Of the Board, excepting only such
funds as may be held under special be-
quests or donations. The Board has no
right TO make use either of lands or
funds for the establishment or support of
schools either above or below the colleg-
late Department, if by so doing the latter
ia, crippled or suspended. On this point
there has never been any difference OF
opfllion. When early in 1855 the then
Faculty of the College resigned, distin-
eruishe6 educators, in view of the great
difficulty of maintaining a College in
Nashville and of the repeated failures OF
the Board in their efforts TO do so, recon-
mended the propriety of using all the
buildings and resources of the University
in the establishment of postgraduate
DEPARTMENTS, or professional schools,
they were at once silenced by the
declaration of an eminent legal mem5er of
the Board, that the college was precisely
the Depalt ment of the University which
the Board in fulfilling its trust was COM
PEELED to keep open, even though by so
doing it should be prevented from open
IN professional schools altogether. And
AGO Jrdingly the Collegiate Department
xvas reOrganized under the charge OF
Messxs, johnson and Owen, and upon
soch q plan as TO make it impossible to
create l.ebts against the Board for probes
sdr's salaries or contingent expenses.
In 1870 The Board finds itself very
much in the s2me situation as in 1850.
With large and valuable College Build
incs most beautifully situated within tie
limits of q wealthy, refined and growing
city; and with an income from its College
Fund not sufficient to pay one half the
salsry of the principal or head of the
institution, as such officers are now paid
While TO the popular eye the institution is
wealthy, its buildings and grounds at
tracing universal attention, 1t is in reality
Moor very poor. Its endowment is utter
" Inadequate even to the keeping in re-
nsir its large and costly buildings, and to
he propcr caring for lie libraries, APP
,,arat,is. ct cetera 1t has always de-
nended and must for years continue to
depend upon tuition fees for the payment
of its corps of teachers.
And here comes a consideration never
yeS,e lost sight of by the Board in plan
m;aS for its College. Throughout Ameri-
"a e,sfy permanently prosperous College
~ eontoflled and supported by some reli-
lions REORGANIZATION. Throughout Chris
sepdom for the past fifteen centuries the
church has uniformly claimed, and ordl-
uar;ly with general consent, a controlling
snapence over institutions of learning in
sended for BOYS and youth. Indeed, IN
the greater portion of the civilized world
these institutions are q direct outgroWtn
from or creation of Christian beneVOlehcc
and philanthropy, IS in the case OF our
Montgomery Bell Academy. Now II 20
bAnneus that from the very nature OF the
,,ririn of our College, and OF its entire
bistory-alwsys declared TO be ChnsOen,
.,at not denominatiOnal or sectarlan-no
one Christian Church can take 1t under
charge or undertake 70 feed and clothe It,
Yet the past twenty years have been pre-
,.isely the period when from Maine to
FLORIDA. from Jersey to CaliforniS, al
branches of the American Church have
manifested q profuse liberality in estao-
fishing and endowing institutions OF learn
ing. reminding one of the phiianthroplc
zcSl- the far-sigbted bcnefceHce and he
Christian faith so conspicuously exhibited
nv our Angl Saxon f0refathers upon Btu
ish soil some six or seven centuries ago
During the past few years the conIrlou-
lions 10 our church colleges from ChIls-
tisn philanthropisis, made during lie or
bv beouest, are counted by millions,
almost by tens of millions. Yale L 'ihge'
founded by q half-dozen poor but large
minded and noble-hcarted Congregational
:, Inisters. has received vastly more IN
~,.;a way during the decade now closing
han N all the long years of its previous
st,;s..rv,> This statement is true OF frlhce-
IN cSsleoe, the child and the glory OF the
son sSrsSlJyterian Church. Beyond
80, In Qua Young American Republic
= IN meSiaVsl England, and France
- 81 Germany. the Church Is TO be The
Sn and guide of our great educational
;iOs,j,T,sous. With US now. - WIN our
ETropcan progcnitors OF old too 'e6 u