The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-11-21
Gen. Hampton on the False Education Of the
Tiunno -


The recent address of Gen.. Wade Hampton,
delivered in Frederick City, Md, is full OF
grand and noble thoughts. Wegive an extract
on the subject of education, in which he urges
the training of young men to become practical
aud intelligent farmers: ~.
OF three pressing wants, the lack of proper
education among our people, especially among
the great body Of our farmers and planters, 1t
has been specified as the first and most serious.
I am not one of those who measure the virtue
and intelligence of a people by their ability to
read and to write. There is. as much truth as
poetry in the aphorism i''
ga little learning is dangerous thing" .
The fatal mistake of the age, atleast in some
portions of this country, springs from the prev
alent belief that mere intellectual training is
of itself sufficient for all the purposes of this
life, without that better education of the moral
sense, which can alone teach man his duty TO
hisneighbor and to his God. In the ceaseless
unseemly struggle for place and riches which is
debauching the moral tone Of so large part
of the population of this country, all true edu-
cation is neglected, and many young men are
launched on the sea of life with intelects sharp
ened at the expense of all the higher faculties,
which are left undeveloped and uneducated.
The wild pursuit of wealth as the only object
of life-"the cursed greed Of gold"-leayes no
time for the proper training of heart and SOU,
and too much of what is falsely called educa-
ton has for its whole end to impart only such
knowledge as will qualify its possessor to enter
the mad race forpower, wealth and other mere
temporal blessings. The caustic words of the
Roman satirist, describing that education which
teaches that money is the chief good, are sadly
applicable to many of Il our youth, who are
taught in the same. school:
tMake money; honestly If you can, but, if
not honestly, make money by any means:
It is this pernicious teaching that is making
SO many Of the people lose their ancient and
hardy virtues. and it is against this abuse OF
all high and true education that now protest,
not against education itself 1t lis undoubtedly
good thing to know how to read and write,
but the mere possession of these rudiments OF
education profits man but little, unless his
nobler faculties are directed in the proper way ;
and it is mistake to suppose that because he
can read and write he is better man or more
intelligent citizen. The Athenians, it may safe
ly be assumed, though the great body of them
were without these requirements, were quite as
we'll ,yersed in literature, science, politics and
the polite arts, as the people of New England,
whose boast it is that their system Of free
schools has difused. education more generally
among the people than in any other country !;
and the; experience of every thinking man in
the South will bear me out in the assertion,
that in all the elements which go to make up
true pdAhonesty, truth, honor, faith,
courage and intelligence own people, all
unlettered as, many of them. are, have proved
themselves, in war as in peace, at least the
equals of those who pride themselves on their
superior, eddeation. But while these are facts
which cannot be successfully controyerted, it
qeSs aos tft of the s full Of BODY Of mind
and Of heart should be neglected, and it is in
behalf of this higher and nobler education
that L now appeal to you and through you to
the people of the South.