New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-07-02
Rns1NEss VALUE OF KNOWLEDGE.

BUSINESS VALUE OF KNOWLEDGE.
Mr.. Charles Francis Adams in an ad-
dress before society Of Harvard Unive1-
sity, comments on the singular fact that
the recognition of learning as public in
terest was peculiar to the Anglo American
colonies which formed the present Union.
This is bis language:
Let US for moment cast glance over
the surface Of the globe and notice how
very small proportion of the vast regions
which have felt the stamp OF European
colonial enterprise has contributed any con,
siderable share to the mental or TIE merai
advance mept of man. The ready way 10
account for this deficiency is by the tact
that much the largest portion OF tnese &C
uuisiuions have been treated eOleiy IN me
light of commercial speculations, the prohts
Of which were to be gathered with little
regard to any other object than the accu-
mutation of wealth at home. Hence springs
a habitual sense of vassalage materially
impairing the development OF the noolest
aspirations OF the race.
To show that there is no sectional claim
for this development. Mr.. Adams gener-
ously says:
1t is not an uninteresting fact. illustrative
of the great change then taking place IN
our whole social system, that 1t dld not
derive it's origin from within our own
borders. L. came from a spot whence OF
all others we should least expect 1.-THE
College Of William and Mary, in the colony
of Virginia. What it was that prompted
the youthful students there to make nearly
Simultaneous oyertures to those Of all other
colleges then known in America for the es-
tablishmeut of affiliated societies for self
Improvement in literature and philosophy
does not clearly appear. Be this as
il NAV, it seemed the dawn OF
new era when institutions OF learning
in America determined to oversteP
the narrow limits of colonial authority and
look broadly over the continent. Not the
least singular circumstance attending ~
was that the project was carried on with
the most industry precisely at the most
critical period of the war, and at moments
when the fortune Of the struggling colonies
at the South seemed at its lowest ebb. Con-
currently with the first meeting held here
Lord CORVALLIS was making his way over
all opposition in North Carolina toward the
very point in Virginia where the originating
college was situated. Yet there seems 10
have been no relaxation of these pursuits,
so much more congenial with times OF
peace.
These extracts show that these old Eng
lish speaking colonies were in accord and
that without the cooperation OF New
England and Virginia in field and council
the Union would have had no existence.
As an evinence of the close connection be-
tween freedom and knowledge, there has
been published list of the students who
quilted the college Of William and Mary
for the battle-felds Of the revolution. The
same thing may be said of Harvard. Two
if not three of the chief universities of the
colonies were occupied by the hostile
troops of England. But from the alumni
of these universities emanated most OF the
State papers of the revolution. 1t could
not, without depression, be explained how
the people who together founded
successful republic, and whose moral
conceptions of citizenship were identical,
should afterward have become deadly and
destructive enemies. 1t is plain that in
their enlargement other elements Of con-
stitutlonal Interpretation and OF political
ethics may have crept in, and insensibly
the impulse Of progress may have veered
in a direction which would neither have
met the approval of Adams nor Of Jeffer-
son. These speculations are. however,
foreign to the object Of this article. 1t
was to remind our citizens that they
attach too little Importance to learning
either as an element of freedom OF even Of
wealth. Like the contemporaries of those
who founded the first American UNIVERSE
ties, our citizens may have treated the ac-
auisitions of wealth in 1.-the sole light of
commercial speculations, the profits Of
which were to be gathered with little re-
gard to any other object than the accumu-
lation of wealth at home"
Yet there is no such source Of freedom
and permanent wealth as knowledge, and
we know nothing SO well calculated to
promote both as the education and utili-
zation Of the whole public intellect in the
government, in the arts and industries Of
civilization and progress.