Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1872-04-18
EAST TENNESSEE UNIVERSITY.
Reasons why Knoxville should Aid IT,

| IN a former article. Let us now conslu0l wy
subject in IFS social and literary relation to the
State and especially to the citizens Oh hhoA-
vile.
When there shall be 100 students in the Uni
yersitv. about 100, having completed the pre-
scribed course of study in one or all the de-
partments, will annually leave It's halls to re-
turn to their respective homes. Possessing
more mental training and enlarged ideas than
generally exist in their respective localities,
these 100 young gentlemen must needs exercise
beneficial influence upon society.
! IF the city aids the University pecuniarily
by lOaning its credit, if the citizens and Board
of Trustees strengthen and encourage the stu
dents and faculty in the discharge of their laborS
and duties by manifesting proper interest IN
the welfare of the institution, there IS reason to
hope that the East Tennessee University Will
soon take the pre-eminent position among the
Agricultural and Literary Colleges of the
South.
To Knoxville and its surroundings, nature
has been lavish Of her gifts y genial climate,
Italian Skies the summer heat tempered by It's
altitude by bracing GOODNESS, peculiarly CRATE
full to visitors from the terra catientG Of the
Gulf States, and pleasing landscapes, are few
Of the varied attractions possessed by the IA
vOred locality. From University Hill itself
perfect cone, about 100 feet high, you see across
Cumberland range to the Unaka mountains
With one coup Goeil, you see the House noun
tain, cultivated fields, smiling valleys, the river
and islands, wooded heights and the Smoky
mountains, with their peaks lifting their heads
above the clouds.
From North Knoxville on the Tazewell road,
looking southwark you see Knoxville, itself to
an artistic eye, a gem of beauty-yOu see wide
extended landscape, which is worthy OF and
will some day claim tribute of praise from the
pencil of Guido or a Raphael. Lyons View,
pleasant drive from Knoxville, was some
wears ago transferred to canvass by an
English artist of some celebrity. He said your
people ought to be lovers of nature and
patrons Of art, as you have highly interesting
country, which is scarcely surpassed by the
most secluded and charming hooks and
valleys of the Alpine regions. We were
slow to find it out. Indeed, [ can well re-
member when we used to apologize to
our Middle Tennessee friends for our hills and
mountains. Instead of being proud of the
marked and distinctive features of East Tenr
nessee, we were, to tell the truth, rathe-
ashamed Of them. But at length we are be-
ginning to be proud of our many-hilled city,
and Of our northumberland valley. These
are hopeful symptoms. We are losing the de-
sire to emigrate to the fiat lands of the prairie
region. And as we begin to love our homes, we
will take more pains to beautify and adorn
them. In one important particular East Ten
neSsee stands IN a more advanced and favored
position than any other portion of the South.
1t is in more direct and Immediate rapport with
the North. To it must first flow the wages Of
Northern immigration. In its workshops
Northern capital and enterprise will first seek
investment This great fact is highly impor-
tant Let us strengthen our position by divest-
ing ourselves of sectional prejudices. Let us
recognize and admit the great historical fact
from theEast came Light and knowledge; from
the North improvements, inventions and dis
CoVeries in the mechanic arts and physical sci
ence. To Germany the world is indebted for
the discovery of gun powder and the printing
press. And the German mind was the first to
throw off the trammes Of Romansm and give
birth to the Reformation. To the Northern
States of America we are indebted for the mag
netic telegraph and the steam engine, at least in
its application to navigation.
A well written article appeared in your pa
per short time since. considering Knoxville as
commercial centre. hope the time will come
when Knoxville will be regarded as a grand
central point for the study of the arts and the
diffusion of knowledge But it certainly will
not come until the citizens of Knoxville take |
more interest in the University; it will not
come until the city aids and fosters the Univer-
sity by moral and material support. l hope |
good time is coming as the Trustees do not now
have to be hunted down and captured to get a |
quorum, but manifest more rational interest |
in the prosperity of the Institution.
If the University should prove to be u decid- |
ed success, and | see nothing to prevent it, |
its direct and immediate influence upon |
Knoxville will be all the greater be- |
cause it is small city and will conse- |
quently be in more intimate relation and fire. |
quent contact with the Faculty, the alumni |
and the students. 1t is more easy for the cti-
zens to catch the inspiration from the literary |
atmosphere which pervades the halls of the !
University. Perhaps, and it is even highly |
probable, that future donations from the govern
ment made not to the States, but directly to the |
Agricultural Colleges, will enable them to pro-
vide all the educational facilities usually pre-
sented in Universities of the highest grade.
The United States with its wealth increasing
in geometrical progression, will soon be as abe
10 richly endow University in each State as
England was to endow her Oxford and Cam
bridge.
Knoxville commands the situation in Ten
nessee and if we are true to ourselves and to
the University, nothing can prevent our being
the recipients of additional bounties from the
government to advance the cause of education |
Why should Knoxville not be grand literary
center tor the South? Perhaps it will be said
hat it is as city, too small to aspire to this
position. This is no disadvantage. Large cities
ire more absorbed with the cares of commerce,
OuStle and turmoil of trade and traffic, the fas-
,inations of fashionable life and more daz-
lied with the lavish display of wealth
md grandeur. Seclusion is more favorable to
he development of literary taste. You must
nave the literary atmosphere, the contact of
mind with mind to kindle the electric spark of
genius. But if you have extensive libraries and
with the great masters, it is not nee
1ssary that the circle Of literatj should be wide
small States and country towns have produced
treat men and given birth to noble thoughts
Shakespeare was born and reared up in the viii
age of Stratford-on-Avon, and William Hum
'oldt wrote "KosmOs'' while in the tiny court
If Weimar.
Before we seriously entertained the lofty as
,iratiOn to make Knoxville the literary centre
or the South, we must enter upon prepare
DRY schooling of self-instruction. We must es-
ablsh reading-rooms, circulating libraries,
7oung mems library associations and have reg
liar courses Of lectures. Perhaps the city au-
hIorltleS would be induced to donate to city
library the Sl5, 200 which they once informally
to donate to the East Tennessee Uni
'ersity. And lastly, in view of the obligation ;
which devolves upon us toll foster the Uni !
ersity, let us each and all, individually and G
encourage the young men of Knox /
lille to prepare themselves to take a regular a
ollegiate course. And to that end, let alt the
chools for boys teach the preparatory course ]