The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1870-11-03

/ - M~AANHN - mA&AoacAAAA~rh H.
October, 1870.
M. Editor 81 have read your articles on
the Safe University. with pleasure.E The
prescription of the old Board OF Trustees
has purpose, beyond the mere qualification
Of partisan revenge on them for their fidell-
ty to the people, and the comforting OF re-
/ wards on their unworthy successors. II Is
not unknown 20 the bold bad man, who now
rules Mississippi, that the party which h.
leads cannot maintain its supremacy, unless
new members, taken from the permanent
and respectable class OF our citizens, can be
gained. One OF the great wants Of the
Radical party of Mississippi, is respectable
/ ~ in membership; this is the more ESSENTIAL
to IL, since IL has shown itself utterly cor
rupt and incompetent in the management OF
public affairs. To secure this, brides in the
way of office have been freely bestowed ON
those who have shown themselves willing
to serve them. SO few have been found
ready to betray their people, for the re-
wards of Office, that il is necessary in adj
dition 70 the common school system, that
University should be prostltuted TO The
corruption of the principles of the young
men of the State.
The party which controls, for partisan
purposes, the common schools and colleges
of State, must. Ia tie end control its poll
tics. With textbooks in the common
schools, in which Mr.. Lincoln is represent
ed as martyr, Generals Grant, Sherman,
and Sheridan as model heroes, and Mr..
Davis, Gen. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson As
traitors, the white children OF the State are
to be taught to despise the principles and
contemn the sacrifices of the Southern peo-
ple-their fathers and brothers-in the late
war for independence. This pernicious in
fuence is TO operate at large on all, through
the agency of the common schools. But
to be more sure of the work it was intended
TO so organize the University as TO make il
IA college propaganda TO educate the more
ambitious and gifted young men as apos-
ties If Radicalisn.
But it is objected N How can this be so
with reference to the University, when the
old Faculty is retained? They, il is said, are
true as ever. l dare say the Faculty, or
some of them, think so. But can they con-
ceal it from themselves that the effort is
being made to subject them to the domina-
tion of u Radical Board of Trustees, and
that one of their own members, Col. La
mar, oneoi the most gifted men of this or
any other State, was deemed unfit
for Professorship, because his
name and his efforts. were imperishably as
ISOLATED with the struggle for Southern In
dependence, and can they forget that his
successor, appointed by this same Board,
after his appointment made the re-
maTkable discovery, for one scarcely ever
out of office, that his present political
opinionsconcern nobody but himself.
How is this duplex and inconsistent thing
to stand? Is Conservatism SO black and
damning that it cannot be tolerated i'm the
Board of Trustees, (who, as Gov. Alcorn's
apologists say have nothing 20 do with edu-
eating the students), and yet so pardOna-
BILE that it amounts to no blot on the
escutchcon of professor? These questions
are pertinent; they need to be answered.
This impressible conflict between the Trus-
tees and Faculty, if the one be Radical and
the other Conservative, must inevitably re-
suit in one of two things. Either the Fac
ulty must turn Radical, or the Trustees
must become Conservative. Which is most
likely The Faculty arc quite, unobtrusive
men, unaggressive devoted to study, and
leading contemplative life. The Trustees
are professional politicians, office holders
and Office seekers, and what is equally i'm
portant they have been redeemed from
their natural and proper insignificance
through the merit alone of their active aud
bitter partisanism. Without Radicalism,
bitter and intenfe, they are nothing "but
sounding brass and tinkling cymbols."-
They owe all the consideration they re-
ceive to their position-they owe that to
their Radicalism! If they contested on
equal terms for the mastery, it is easy TO
see who must conquer. But they are not
on equal terms, The Faculty hold their
position at the will OF the Trustees, who
are wholly independent of the Faculty
1t is evident. therefore, that the University
is Radicalized already,or is undergoing that
process rapidly, but certainly.
Has it never occurred to the Faculty,
which is very evident to every body else,
that it is part of the scheme successfully
to radicalize the University that the old Fac
ty should be retained at first, so that the
public Indignation at the prescription OF
ed, and the old respect Sof the people for
that institution might be to some extent
preserved, and that the popularity Of the
old Faculty. with the students themselves,
used as snare TO entrap them into the
Institution. To have changed the Faculty
and Trustees, both at once, would have
been an open, undisguised scheme to Radi-
calize the University. To change the Trus-
tees and retain the Faculty, was a more
efIectual, because more insiduous means OF
doing the same thing. Without students.
the Radical University could do no harm.
To procure students, it was essential to re-
tain the old Faculty for a while, and reor-
ganize by degrees, stealthily, so that each
succeeding enorInity acting on public
mind, blunted and demoralized by its pre-
decessors, would pass unchallenged. so it
is ever, with the approaches OF corrupt
power. If in 1865, after emancipation had
been accomplished, negro suffrage with
white disfranchisement had been proposed. 1
it would have failed; but in 1867, when a
long course of unconstitutional actions had
been tolerated and acquiesced in, the public
morals had become debauched TO an extent
that it revolted at nothing, and negro SUI
premacy and white acknowledgements were |
welcomed by those who few years before |
would have resisted il with fire and sword !
In 1866 Gov. Alcorn thought the 18th |
amendment could not be accepted by US !
without dishonor; in 1865 he thought the
government which proposed il magnani- |
nous and liberal and In 1863 he discovered |
that not only the l4th but the 18th amend [
menrs was a salutary measure; and In 1870 |
he had advanced TO the position that objec-
tions on the part of the whites TO social |