The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-08-19


ons that our people are more rela-
gioiis than many nations which have
established churches, but also that they
are far more religious under their
own voluntary system than they would ne
under any government establishment OF reii-
zion. We do not admit for moment that
or no establishment is synony-
nous with national piety or impiety. Now,
il a beneticent Christian government may
rightly leave the people to provide tnem.
selves with religious institutions. surely
may leave them 10 provide suitable unlver-
sites for the education Of their youth. Ana
here again the question of natlonaEhnlVer-
sity or no national university is BY no means
synonymous with the question, stali Tue
country have good unyersityor not! ne
ony question is, Shall we have university
supported and controlled by government, or
shall we continue to rely upon universities
supported and controlled by other agencies!
'rhere is, then, no foundation Whatever
for the assumption that 1t Is the duty OF our
Government to establish a national unlver-
sity. ] venture 10 state one broad reason
why our Government should not establish
and maintain university. If the people OF
the United States have any special destiny.
any peculiar junction in the world-lt Is 10
try to work out, under extraordinarily Ia
vorable circumstances, the problem OF irce
institutions for Heterogeneous, rlcD, muill'
tudnous population spread over vast Ter.
rilory. We, indeed, want 20 breed scholars,
artists, poets, historians, novellsts, engineers,
physicians, jjurists, theolosans, ana orators )
but, first of all, we want to breed race
of independent, sclf.reliant freemen, ca
pablo Of helping, guiding, and governing
themselves. Now, the habit OF being
helped by the Government, even if it DE TO
things good in themsclves-to churches,
universities, and Railroads.&c. most iDsldl-
Gus and irresistible enemy OF republican
ism; for the very essence OF rcpubllcanlsm
is self-reliance. With the continental ma
tion> of Europe it is an axiom that the 60
yernncnt is to do everything and is re-
sponsible for everything. The French
have no word for "pubic spirit" for the
sentiment is unknown to them. This AFFECT
DEPENDENCE on the government is an ac-
cursed inheritance from the days OF the
divine right of kings. Americans, on the
contrary, maintain precisely the opposite
theory-namely, that government is to do
nothing not expressly assigned it to do;
that it is to perform no function which
any private agency can perform as well !:
and that it is not to do o public good
even. unless that good be otherwise unat-
tainable. 1t is hardly too much to say that
this doctrine is the foundation of our public
liberty. So long rs the people are really
free they will maintain it in theory ana III
practice. During the war of the rebellion
we got accustomed to seeing the Govern
ment spend vast sums of money and put
forth vast efforts, and we asked ourselves,
WHY should not some of these great re-
sources and powers be applied to works Of
peace-to creation as well rs to destruction!
So we subsidized railroad and steamship
companies, and agricultural colleges, and
now it is proposed to subsidize university.
The fatal objection to this substituting pro-
cess is that it saps the foundations of public
liberty. The only adequate securities OF
public liberty are the national habits,
traditions, and character acquired and ac-
cumulated in the practice of liberty and
selI.controI Interrupt these traditions,
break up these habits or cultivate
the opposite ones, or poison that national
character, and public liberty will suddenly
be found deienceless. We deceive ourselves
dangerously when we think or speak as if
education, whether primary or university,
could guarantee republican institutions.
Education can do no such thing. A repub-
licn people should indeed he educated and
intelligent; but it by no means follows that
an educated and intelligent people will be
republican,. Do / seem to conjure up imagl-
nary evils to follow from this benehcent
establishment ola superb national university!
We teachers should be the last people to for
get the sound adyice-Otsta pr3Rc'pitS. A
drop of water will put out spark which
otherwise would have kindled Il confagra-
ton that rivers could not quench.
"Let us cling fast to the genuine American
method-the old Massachusetts method-in
the matter of public instruction. The essen
tial features of that system are local taxes
for universal elementary education voted by
the citizens themselves, local elective boards
to spend the money raised by taxation and
control the schools, and for the higher grades
of instruction permanent endowments ad-
minlstered by incorporated bodies OF truS-
tees. This is the American voluntary sys-
tenn. in sharp contrast with the military. deS-
potic organization of public instruction
which prevails in Prussia and most other |
States of continental Europe. Both systems |
have peculiar advantages, the crowning adj
vintage Of the American method being that f!
it breeds freemep. Our ancestors we'll I'M |
derstood the principle that to make people |
free and selt-reIant it ia necessary TO let them
take care Of themselves. even il they do not |
take quite us good care of themselves rs |
some superior power might.
And now, finally. let Us ask what should /
make Il university at the capital of the United |
States, established and supported by the
General Government, more national than |
any other American university. It might |
be larger and richer than any other, and it
might not be; but certainly it could not /
have a monopoly of patriotism or of catbo-
Lefty, or of literary or scientific enthusiasm. |
There is an attractive comprehensiveness |
and suggestion of public spirit and love OF
in the term national, but atterall |
The adjective only narrows and belittles the
noble conception contained in the word : uni
yersity.' Letters, science, art, philosophy,
law, and theology are larger ana
more enduring than nations. There IS some
thing childish in this uneasy hankerlng FOR
biz university in America, rs there Is also
n that impatient longing for distinctive
A merican literature which we so often near |
messed AS American life grows more
;arious and richer in sentiment, PASSION,
,hnurht and accumulated experience,
A merican literature will become richer ana
more Astounding, and in that better day let
"a hone that there will be found several uni
,ers;ties in America, though by no means
me in each State, as free, liberal, rich, ma
ional, and glorious as the warmest advocate
If = single, browning university at the nit
ional capital could imagine his desired instl-
;ution to become"
Upon these truly republican, truly philo-
sophie, views we shake hands with Presi-
lent ELIOT. Upon his pIatform-a plat
Torm for freemen-this whole country could
be once more united heart and hand. Self:
reliance and independence for the citizen