Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-11-09
NASHVILLE AS An EDUCATIONAL
!. -, II. POINT. - - -

by J. b. Lindsley, Chairman OF the
Committee ON EducaffOn- 4L
A small town or city is occasionally made
famous by the great excellence of some one
fabric, educational institution or art gale
~. A large city may be created by the
enormous expansion of single great COM
mercial or manufacturing interest. Ordi-
narily, however, great and influential cities
are built I'D by energetic and active men
cooperating with each other in planning
and carrying forward variety Of pursuits
which mutually react upon and aid one the
other. Mechanical and mercantile are the
agencies which build up populous cities; ;
educational and governmental those which
give influence and fame to cities. The
former furnish the body; the latter the
soul. great soul in little body has hon
or and homage, reign and renOwn among
the human family A great body with lit
tie soul has nought of either, but rather ig-
nominy and contempt. A great body with a
great soul is the perfection of man. There
are cities In christendom, counting their in
habitants by the hundred thousands, which
in the great world Of intellect count as
| ciphers. There are other cities with pop
ulation so limited as barely to be entitled to
| the name, which are known and hOnored
by the lovers of liberty and religion every
| where. And there are still others, centres
| of manufactures and great marts of com
merce, which reckon their chief glory TO
be the possession Of great names in science,
literature, art and religion.
As to the father his own is the dearest Of
| all families, so to the citizen his own is the
| chief of cities. Here alone can he exercise
| the civic virtues. His city is part of him
self. He is part and parcel Of the city.
l His own interests cannot be separated from
those of the city. The interests of the city
| are the interests of its citizens. Hence, as
| Nashvillians, we are community. To
| gether we must advance and prosper, or
else decay or grow poor. We may never,
| like Pittsburg or Manchester, become an
immense manufacturing city, or like Liver
| pool or Baltimore great commercial mart,
/ or like Glasgow and New York combine
| the triple crown of commerce., manufactures
and science; but we may become like
Geneva or Edinboro, city famed and re-
| spected for industry and trade, for science
and art, for liberty and religion. We may
| build up here and leave to our children's
children city so compacted and complete,
! with all the elements of the highest Chris
| tian civilization, as to render them unwil
ling to exchange their lot for that of any
| other municipality in our wide imperial
republic. This attainable end, so desirable
| and so nObly worthy Of all patient labor
| and self-denial, can be wrought out if, at
| the present eventfll crisis in the history of
our goodly little city, our leading citizens,
who have heretofore worked separately at
individual enterprises, will with breadth Of
mind and true public spirit, without envy
and without jealousy unite together in adj
van6hg all laudable undertakings, for the
sake of building up the general good. As
| Nashvillian, and nothing but a Nashvil-
Ian, from early childhood thoroughly
cognizant with the inner and outer life of
the city, and by years Of travel enabled
| to compare it with that of very many
| other cities, the writer must say that want
Of public spirit and of generous cooperation
has ever been our misfortune and bane.
| The do-nothing critics have checked our
growth and progress by hanging like dead
weights upon the skirts of the active men,
who ever and anon have endeavored to
rouse from stupid and inglorious lethargy.
Long since Nashville should have been
| thriving, active city of a hundred thousand
people. Dethrone the do-nothings who are
forever decrying and pulling down their
betters, and in ten years Nashville viii
have reached point in numbers and wealth
and influence, which will enable her to take
rank with the leading cities of the land.
In organizing the Board of Trade refer
ence has been made to these cardinal prin-
ciples, with hope that while individual
selfishness in its legitimate sphere would
stimulate each citizen to aim for and de-
serve success in his special calling, civic
| pride and farsightedneSs would unite all in
| the furtherance of such great enterprises
/ for the public good as can only be carried
| forward by The combined efforts of many.
Hence education has with great proPriety
| been included among the interests to be
cared for by the Board. And well may the
/ friends of education be cheered by the de-
/ termination of this Board to make it one
of the great interests of the city. For the
| annals of modern times prove that business
men are chief patrons of learning, art and
science. All the great institutions of Anglo
Saxeny have received the means of outfit
and sustentation chiefly from the
liberality of great-hearted business
men - who, while confined mainly
to the engrossing pursuits of active, compe-
| titive life, have vet shown their love for and
appreciation of the higher qualities and
powers inherent in man by literally endow-
ing churches, schools, colleges and univer-
sites. This broad fact, so honorable to the
merchants, manufacturers, bankers, etc,
etc, of England and America, has ever bee n
| gratefully acknowledged by the recipients Of
their bounty from the days Of HeriOtt to
those of Peabody and our own Montgomery
Bell. When the business men of Nashville
are fully awakened to the magnitude and
promise of her educational interests, an i'm
petus will be given them, never to cease.
The business men of Boston, New York
and Philadelphia have not only founded and
splenddliy endowed great schools and great
libraries and great museums in their respec-
tive cities. but to them mainly do Harvard,
Yale and Nassau Hall owe their buildings,
Unfit and maintenance. One family of mer-
chant princes so set forward the genius and
talent of Florence as forever to iden-
tify its own name with that of Ital-
ian art and culture. Let the business
men of Nashville take hold of this sub
ject in earnest, make themselves acquainted
with the solid and lasting foundations laid
by the unwearied and self-denying labOrs
of good men and able, during three genera a
lions now past-study well the admirable
position and facilities of Nashville as a great
educational site-combine in one harmoni-
Gus whole the various institutions now in
existence-add others readily created-and
promote good feeling and cooperation be-
tween all the intellectual enterprises now
separately adjoining and vivifying the city,
and in very short time that which Char
lottesville and Lexington now do for the
Southeast, will here be accomplished for the
Southwest. No Insignificant prize is this.
No unworthy ambition is it to desire such a
prize. Yet it is perfectly within our reach.
Nothing but stolid indifference and suicidal
selfshness can prevent our seizingit. With
out wishing to be dognatic as to the de
tails or special features of plan intended
to show what may be made of Nashville as
a great educational centre, we will endeav-
or, in the brief space allowed
this report, to throw out few hints which
may be taken upand improved upon by our
practical business men. As such they wish
to have great institutions of learning in and
around our city, because the crowds of stu
dents attracted by them from distance
add vastly to our material interests-be-
cause the facilities they furnish for educa-
ting our sons and daughters retain large
sums of money at home, and what is better
yet, enable us to enjoy the society of our
own offspring at the very time of life when
| that society is most enchanting to u.s. and