Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-03-02

his experience of last summer. He was
graduate Of Brown University, and on re-
visiting it last year he found that it had
greatly advanced. They had over twenty
professors and large number of students,
giving far higher education than when he
had attended it, though it was at that time,
he thought, first-class college. 1t had an
endowment Of between six and seven
hundred thousand dollars. A graduate of
about five years ago who had been
to Germany and stayed there three
years, actually got up and had the
impertinence to tell the gentlemen
who were the Board of Trustees and the
alumni of the college that they ought to be
ashamed to put that little school forward as
university. That was what had to be
met. Education was progressive, and the
| people must be educated. If thew did not
do it, they did themselves great damage,
and they could not do it without abundant
| facilities, which could not be obtained if
they FILTERED away their work upon twenty
different colleges in all these Southern
States. He believed all these institutions
were doing a good work. But if they
wished to occupy the position which the
| Baptists as a denomination could OCCUPY,
they must make progress in the way he had
indicated. At the North their denomina-
ton did not occupy the position socially
that it did at the South. The reason
was that education in the North
had been fifty years ago, and has been from
that time to the present day, to very con-
siderable extent, in the hands of the Pres
byterians, and, therefore, though they were
small body, and though they were a body
which had not the social position which
came to the Episcopalians of this country,
in great many of the States, from the fact
| that the Episcopal religion was the estab-
lished religion in the different colonies be-
fore the war for Independence although
that was the case, yet they and the Con-
| gregationalists, by their influence in educa-
ton, had elevated themselves to a high
social position and controlling influence,
so far as the North was concerned.
To-day, the Old and New School
Presbyterians and the Congregationalists
of New England controlled the thinking
people of the North to a very considerable
extent. In the North the Baptists were &C
complishing much by concentration. In
the South they had not the same abund-
ance Of means, and they must, therefore.
husband their resources with greater care.
Adopting this policy they could build up an
institution that would give them the whole
South. Give it to them-no, not to them,
but to God.
Prof Noah K. Davis, LID, said he
agreed with DR.. Boyce on many points, but
he could not admit that there was no insti-
tuition IN the South deserving the name of a
college. He thuoght the BaptiSts were def
Gent in one thing, and that was selfrespect.
They had not sufficient self-assertion.
He believed many of their institutions
gere crippled through this very falling He
believed graduate of Richmond College
could go to German university and stand
as high as graduate of any other college
in the South. They were doing as well as
they could under the embarrassed circum-
stances which surrounded them since the
war. Their difficulties were gradually dis
appearing under the hands of earnest and
determined workers and their educational
interest were increasing, rising and becom-
ing more and more promoted throughout
the South. he believed the best system of
education was to prepare students for the
university in colleges conducted something
after the German gymnasia. They should
be put through a course of mental
and tried system of classical training. For
this purpose a college with an endowment
of $3.50, 700 was all that was necessary. He
did not think the suggestion to get two or
more States to unite on college, was prac-
teal so long as there were State lines in ex-
iStence. He did not know place in the
world where there were two communities
that were recognized by the citizens thereof
as separate political communities where
they had ever united in any general enter
H.
unite for such purpose. He believed a
college could be supported in each State of
the Union if the Baptists were only true to
themselves. '-'--',
DR.. Shelton thought there should be
system of schools below the present col
leges, and one great central
institution above them. The
Baptists of the North had been advocating
with considerable zeal and energy the eS-
tablishment of academies all over the land
in order to prepare students for the regular
college classes. That was what was needed
in the South. Then, as had been argued
by Prof. Davis, the colleges should be en-
ployed for the special and specific work of
giving the boys mental training to fit
them for the Central University.
The Convention adjourned at l P. NJ. till
1870 o'clock in the evening.
EVENING SESSION.
The Committee of Arrangements pre-
scented the following resolutions:
Whereas, We have learned that the
Trustees Of the Southern Baptist Theologi-
cal Seminary have intimated a willingness
to remove the institution to some eligible
location more central than Greenville, pro
viding an adequate endowment shall be
raised in the State asking for the location
of the Seminary within its bounds, there
fore,
Resolved, by this Convention, l.
That the city of - would be
a central and otherwise eligible location for
the seminary; 2, that as an inducement to
the trustees of the seminary to remove it to
this place we pledge ourselves on behalf of
the Baptists of Tennessee to raise -
thousand dollars whenever the assurance of
the Board of Trustees shall be given that
our proposition is accepted; 3, that in adj
dition to the fund of endowment we pledge
ourselves further to secure free of cost to
the institution the use of commodious
lecture rooms with suitable grounds on
which to erect buildings for dormitories for
students and residences for the professors.
DR.. BOyce narrated briefly the history of
Iue OeluIudTy anu Tic IllduueI Ill WHICH IL
came to be located at Greenville, South
Carolina. Prior to the war an effort had
been made to raise an endowment fund for
the institution. Two hundred thousand
dollars in bonds had been subscribed
when the war broke out. These bonds fell
due in 1861, 1862 and 1868. Some of them
were paid in Confederate money. OF the
remainder, amounting to $4,000, only
$4,000 had been collected up to the present
time. Since the close of the war the Sem
mary had been in a crippled condition, and
had been maintained solely by subscriptions.
He had never found the brethren slow in re-
spending to his appeals. But the Board felt
that the institution should be placed on a
permanent position, and if it could be done
by removing it, they were willing to estab-
fish it in some other locality. 1t had gained
the affections and confidence of the Baptist
denomination and there was a prestige
connected with it that they couldnot afford
to lose. A principal object in desiring to
move the institution was to get to a
place where there were railroads
centering, by means Of which young stu
dents could preach Throughout the adjacent