Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-11-10
NASHVILLE AS AN EDUCATIONAL
POINT.
[coNrINUED.1

| uOOfC clbC tllS ll1hkoo "a OA~ SAoJ
whose name it adorns, amply sufficient fol-
all manner of edifces hereafter needed, and
capable at trihing expense of being made a
students paradise and the city's browning
emerald-a site which will for all coming
time Justify the taste and wisdom Of the
Trustees who selected it as such, and the
liberality of the Yeatmans and Nichols,
and other business men of Nashville, who
half century ago contributed to its pur-
chase. Buildings it has, all erected since
1851, for medical and academic departments,
commodious and abundantly sufficient to ac-
commodate first-class schools in each ofthese
| great subdivisions Of the University. These
buildings would require a very large sum
for their construction now. The stone
schoolhouse, which is the least ornamental
of the projected group, has been pronounced
by an accomplished scholar, educated in
Washington City, who has visited every
county in Tennessee, as being second only
to our splendid Capitol and without APP
proach by any other public building in Ten
nessee. To the late beloved Charles Tones,
Rector of Christ Church, are we indebted
for earnest and effective appeals to build it
of stone and not of brick; which appeals
we now respectfully refer to the Trustees
of East Tennessee University, that they
may, from the rich marble quarries at their
door, erect an educational monument
worthy the founders and the early history
of our twin sister, now the great Industrial
! University of Tennessee.
Well off in grounds, in buildings the Uni
versity is very SHINY endowed, its entire
funds, including the Montgomery Bell be-
quest, amounting to little more than one
hundred thousand dollars, just enough to
endow two chairs in an Eastern college.
The various schools hitherto kept open have
been maintained by fees paid by students,
drawn hither by the ability of the individ-
ual professors. These schools are at pre-
sent two in number, manned by Jealous
and self-denying officers, working to build
up Nashville under many disadvantages and
against great competitive odds. The atten-
ton of the Board of Trade is urgently called
to the necessities of these schools, and to
the propriety of at once taking efficient
steps in their behalf.
First, We have the undergraduate or
Academic Department, embracing in its
two subdivisions of Montgomery Bell
| Academy, and the College a ten years course
of study. This school is under the special
| direction of Gems. E. Kirby Smith and
] ~ OOIIlicOll3 doolSLC0 W At@A
and able corps of instructors. 1t has just
closed its first year under this administra-
ton most encouragingly, being already self
i supporting, having a large attendance OF
| scholars, and representatives of many States
beside Tennessee.
1t is at present, however, merely the
skeleton of the great and healthy body into
which it may be developed during the en-
! Tho loft chancellor Ot
the University, intended, when proposing
the plan of this school, in 1856, that it
should be fully and rigidly military in gov
eminent, exercise and discipline, while it
retained the usual College classes and
studies. Herein consists the peculiar ma
ture of the school. 1t is no new tangled ex-
pertinent, but rather the restoration Of old
ideas which in all countries and in
all centuries have worked good re-
| suits. President Noah Porter, the phi
losopher of Yale, the veteran educator,
in his recent much read and lauded work
on American Colleges shows conclusively
that the dOrmitory system of living is essen
tial to true college life, yet Astounding
| American experience shows that the dor
mitorv system as ordinarily administered,
is a failure. From north to south, from
tdoJ " NCSL, III bNOltg gSe@AS u ~ -
one unceasing, universal trouble among ed
ucators, Young and old, big and little, is
government. Our daily papers abound in
items showing the sad deficiencies in this
respect. Within the current year profess
sor in the most populous university of the
West has taken the extreme grouud of pro
posing that college faculties abdicate and
give up the government to the boys, and
terminate the unceasing warfare between
faculty and students, wherein the former
being units and the latter scores, the result
must always be one way. President Porter,
however, is right. The dorInitory is essen
tial to the existence of the college. 1t Is
nonsense to talk of taking boys and lads
from the parental roof and placing them II
cities and villages to do as they please,
The examples of West Point, An
napolis, PEcole Polytechnique of France
the great schools of Zurich, the
Episcopal College at Racine, and null
titude of others show that, with the military
system, efficient oversight and rule can be
maintained. In this system the large mum
Der of cadet officers fill up the gap between
teachers, bear the brunt of disagreeable duty
and so do away with that ungracious anC
ungTateful enmity which is the bane of or
binary American college life.
The present Chancellor of the University
from his high standing as West Poin
graduate, from his brilliant deeds as ;
youthful soldier in the Mexican war, from
his subsequent experience as Professor IL
his Alma Mater, from the distinguished
powers of command and execution dis
plaved in the four years Civil War, from
the repeated offers of high educational posi-
tions since then rendered him from ditferen
quarters, will, beyond question, justify tn
: Board of Trustees in committing the desti
MES of the University into his hands at thi
most critical period in its history. In com
mon, however, with all men who occup
such high executive positions, he must hav
the cooperation of the community in whic
he lives. Let this cooperation be as cor
T daily extended to him by the business mel
+ of to-day as it was to his predecessors il
1924 and 1855, and soon will be built up
, great college, contributing annually thou
sands to the wealth of Nashville.
Our citizens should at once place befOr
themselves the high ambition of maxim
their military college to the Southwest wha
the celebrated Virginia Military Institute
s to the Southeast. Situated in the same vi
t LACE with Westinghouse University,
e has an attendance of nearly four hundre
e students Let the State of Tennessee shoJ
| a little of her wisdom and liberality, o
. which Virginia prides herself, towards he
e higher institutions of learning by eIectin
a spacious stone armory on the Universit
i grounds, and by placing her military store
i and equipments under the charge of th
f officers and cadets of the University, Civ
d State aid and sanction to the institution an
d the work is done. By adopting sever;
e features of the Virginia laws, the MilitaT
? College could be made most useful aT
!, iliary to the cause of popular education
k Tennessee owes eqUitably heavy debt
n the University of Nashville. AS she has
d some degree recognized and met the claim
: of the sister college at Knoxville, our cit
e zens have great reason to expect and sole
this slight token of good will at her hand
If the board at whose instance this plail
spoken report is prepared will take the ma
ter in hand, the present Legislature VI
d doubtless move in the matter, since
) State armory is much needed and can in I
S, other mode be so cheaply obtained an
L maintained.
n, As the second constituent element in Il
% University, we have our Medical Colleg
n occupying a valuable and most accessib
y square, and housed in a very large and con
Of modious edifice, well supplied with appar
Re tus,models and specimens for instructiI