Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-02-28

lure OF tennessee 10 congress. IL pro-
poses the grant of one million acres of pub
lie lands to each State for the endowment
Of university in each State. The bill is
drawn so as to avoid any constitutional OBJ
jections, and in conformity with former
grants of public lands to the States for edu-
cational purposes. The bill is as follows:
"a bill granting public lands for the endoW-
ment Of university in each State.
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House
Of Representatives of the United States Of
America in Congress assembled, That there
be granted to each of the States now COM
posing the United States, and to each new
State as it shall be admitted into the Union
of the United States, for the purposes here
matter mentioned, one million acres of pub
lie land: Provided, That no mineral lands
shall be granted or selected under the pro-
visions Of this act
''See. 9. That the land aforesaid shall be
surveyed for appOrtionment to the several
States in sections or subdivisions of sections
not less than quarter section; and should
there be public lands in a State subject TO
3ale at private entry at Sl25 per acre, the
quantity of land to which such States shall
be entitled shall be selected from such lands
within the limits Of such State; and the
Secretary of the Interior is hereby directed
to issue to each of the States in which there
may be no public lands, or in which there
may not be the quantity Of public lands
subject to sale at private entry at Sl.25 per
acre TO which the State may be entitled
under the provisions of this act, land scrip
to the amount of the deficiency of its quota,
said scrip to be sold by said States and the
proceeds thereof applied to the uses and
purposes of this act, and for no other pur-
poses whatever: Provided, That no State
shall be permitted to locate said scrip with
in the limits of any other State or Territory,
but their assignees may locate the same On
any Of the unapprOpriated lands of the
United States subject to sale at private en-
try at Sl.25 per acre or less.
Sec. 3. That all the expenses of manage
ment and taxes, from the date of the selec-
ton of said lands, previous to their sales,
and all expenses incurred in the manage
ment and disbursement of the moneys
which may be received therefrom, shall be
paid by the States to which they belong,
out Of the treasury of said States, so that
the ireproceeds of the sales of said lands
shall be applied, without any diminutiOn,to
the purposes hereinafter mentioned.
OCNs 4 L lAdb alA A4OAlClS NGA4fGu nun
the sale Of the land or scrip aforesaid by the
States shall be invested in such stocks or
securities by the States as will Yield the
largest amount of interest consistent with
the security of the fund, and the fund so
invested shall constitute a perpetual fund,
the capital of which shall remain forever
undiminished, and the interest of which
shall be iuviolably appropriated by each
State which may accept the benefit of this
act to the founding, endowment, and main
tenance Of one State university within the
limits of such State, for the teaching of all
branches of learning usually taught in uni
versities: Provided, That each new State,
as it may be admitted into the Union of
the United States, shall be entitled to all
the benefits and subject to all the conditions
of this act"
1t is not designated by the introduction of
this bill to place the university in antagOn-
ism to the common schools. On the con-
trary, they will be found to be harmonious
and cooperative. After the proposed en-
dowment of the universities, there would
remain more than five hundred million
acres of our public domain which might be
lavisbed on common school. All the
traditions 0. of our Government in
culCate the supelistiVe importance Of
the education of the masses of our popUla-
ton. The university will furnish thous-
and facilities to one impediment to this
great object. Its influence is diffusive, not
centraliziHg. While all our citizens could
not receive a university education, yet it
should be made as liberal and accommodate
ing to the greatest number.
There can be no monopoly of learning.
The present age is but a pensioner on the
learning Of the past. We look to the Jews
for religion, to the Greeks for literature and
to the Romans for law. These, like mighty
streams, have swept over and through the
wrecks of empires and have united and
emptied their continent columns upon the
present age.
The universities first heralded the revival
of letters in the medieval ages of Europe,
and gilded European civilization like morn
ING upon the mountains. II is impossible to
measure the influence of the venerable uni
versities Of Paris, Bologna, SalernO, Vienna,
Heidelburg, Copenhagen, Upsala, Basic,
Zurich, Salamanca, Oxford, Cambridge,
Edinburg, Dublin; and on this side of the
Atlantic, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Nir-
ginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania,
besides many others. Bologna spread the
knowledge Of the civil law throughout
Europe. Oxford gave to the world Roger
Bacon, Blackstone, and Adam Smith.
Smiths "Wealth of Nations" has been
worth more to Great Britain than all her
Fast India possessions. 1t is a book for the
wOrld-the base of all modern political
economy. Cambridge gave Milton, Sir
Francis Bacon, and Sir Isaac Newton.
Tr,Sv- no cold 70 no tho rrraot
watersheds Of learning and civilization.
They pour their light and influence like
streams through all the channels of life.
They send their sons from State to State;
they enter into all the liberal professions;
into the pulpit, the field of authorship, the
editorial chairs, the halls Of Congress, the
colleges, academies, and schools as educa-
tors. and thus they reach by direct or refeC-
ted rays every mind in the land. They are
not the enemies of common schools, but
banan-trees of science.
May Congress grant the means to plant
one in each of our States, and, as used
borrowed figure on former occasion, "May
each one grow to be a mighty tree, and the
thoughts Of thousands Of men come and
lodge in its branches, and those branches
SpT6du 50 lOuB JudJ III TIE SIpluu tltc
Bonded twigs take root, and daughters
row about the mother tree.
a pillar'd shade
High overarch'd, and echOing walks between
walks where poetry may wander and
wreathe her blossoms around the stems,
and religion and learning may hymn the
praises of that wisdom to which science
eraCts the "hundred-aislld temple Such a
tribute by Congress would be honoring to
science, to the memory Of our noble ances-
tors, to liberty, to civilization, to posterity,
to the Representatives who record their
votes in its favor. Alexander offered all the
spOils of his eastern campaign for the priyi-
lege Of inscribing bis name on the temple Of
Diana. Here the Representatives may
make more glorious record for the eye Of
future ages by inscribing his name on the
temple Of science, which will be to his fame
"a forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time"
The Ne1CS says the Postmaster at Griffin
has received the following communication ::
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