Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1874-11-08

offered FIVE or six years before; but that
the public disasters had swallowed up
with them all individual wealth, and
had left the friends of the institution
pOwerless to lend it aid. They found
themselves unable even to do so much
as to provide for il the appliances neces-
safy to constitute properly college
upon the ordinary plan. 1t has, never
tlleless, for the past seven or eight years
been struggling on against a thousand
difficulties, steadily gaining something
fTom year to year, but still too feeble to
perform thatimpOrtant educational work
for which its situation and its surround
ings so admirably fit it, and which by a.
moderate assistance from sister commu-
mites more happily situated, it might
easily be made capable of performing.
1t stands alone in the midst of people
whose instrumentalities for higher edu.
cation have been almost completely an
initiated; and among whom the church
has not now single educational repre-
sentative throughout territory greater
than that of all the northern States from
Maine to Nebraska. The institution,
| therefore, appeals TO this great and lib
eTal and wealthy city to lend her that
| temporary aid which she cannot at pres
ent find among the suffering and impov-
eTished people who surround her. Nay,
rather il is the church herself which ap-
peals in her behalf, to the cultivated,
and enlightened, and pious of this pow
erful and prosperous community, to give
| through her the bread of life to multi
tudes who are ready to perish. This
claim is enforced by the consideration
| that there is no possible channel through
| which your benefaction can accomplish
| SO large results for the mental, moral
and religious improvements of people
who are your own brethren; or accom-
plish so much for spreading widely
abroad among the light of christian
knowledge; or bringing them under the
influence OF the church, of your love, or
gathering them within its pale, as by
this. You will not, | am sure, listen
with indifference to this appeal; you
VIII not defer TO later occasion the
consideration of its justice. There are
| reasons OF great weight why you should
yield it your attention before almost any
other that can be pressed upon YOU.
have said enough Of the present edu-
cstiOnal restitution of seven or eight
million of the southern people to make
it unnecessary to insist that the want is
great and urgent. A generation Is grow
ing up Immediately now, for whom
there exists no adequate educational
provision, and no provision at all in
sympathy with the church to which we
profess devotion. There is no instru-
mentality so peculiarly fit to supply this
want as the institution which makes
you the present appeal; for this iustitu-
ton which was deliberately, and with
much thought and study, projected and
planned for this very object. There is,
moreover, no competing plan. If this
fails, no other has been suggested to take
It's place. There is no wiser plan
conceivable; for this, as we have
seen, was prepared after faithful |
inquiry into the features Of the |
most successful educational institu- |
tons existing. But if any better plan |
lUere possible, it could only be wrought |
out by recommending at the beginning, |
and being liable to thousand delays |
and di5couragements, at a moment !
when immediate action is the urgent |
want of the hour. Such delays and dis |
couragements attend more or less upon |
all great undertakings. How more than |
inevitable must they be, when the I'M
dertaking proposed is nothing less than !
the Inauguration of q new educational |
enterprise of magnitude, among an i'm |
pOverished people! l am confident, !
therefore, that this appeal will not be |
made in vain. But l do not uge it |
simply on account Of the present and !
immediate good which your ben. |
efactions, whether modest or |
liberal, are sure to produce. | urge |
it because every present contribution |
will serve to strengthen the foundation |
on which, in coming years, the grand |
scheme | have endeavored to describe |
to you tonight, is destined surely to be
built up into q substantial reality. l |
urge it because the germ is still here |
living, though buried deep beneath 8 |
temporary ruin, which preserves within |
it the potentiality of a future growth, |
and vigOr, and expansion, and grandeur, |
rs largely in contrast with the insig- |
1ificance and feebleness of the present |
hour, as that of one OF the magnificent |
oaks of Sewanee with the acorn which |
lies unnoticed at its foot. For the /
splendid design which so nearly reached |
its fulfillment in 1860, will never be
abandoned. 1t had sunk too. deeply |
into the hearts of the people of the |
south ever to be lost to memory or to |
hope. 1t still survives in their affec- |
tons, and all the heavy disasters |
of the past have been pOwerless |
to dispOssess il of its hold. They |
know very well that its realization |
will not be for them, or for their time. |
Their arms are for the moment paralyZ-
ed, and their fortunes broken; but their |
faith and hope and energetic will are |
still unfailing; and the benefit which /
they do not expect for themselves, they |
look for confidently as the heritage of |
their children. The prosperity which |
once made the territory of the southern |
States the envy and the admiration of
the world, viii yet be renewed. The
wealth which the disasters of the past
have dissipated and wasted, will vet be
gathered again. And with renewed |
prosperity and wealth, will return new
energy, new life, new activity. When
that happier day shall arrive, our south
ern brethren will no longer need to seek
your aid in building up their shattered
Institutions; but they will never cease
TO remember that when they sought
it, they did not seek in vain.
And should it happen among The
of time, that the want may
yet be yours, as it is theirs to-day, they
will meet your appeals with q generosity
as cordial and cheerful as that which
you extend to them now. l urge you,
therefore, to contribute to the relief of
this struggling and deserving institu-
ton, not only because, in doing 50, you
will be accomplishing a present good
which is beyond calculation, but be-
cause you will, ut the same time, assist
in accelerating the resuscitation and the
ultimate realization of one of the most
schemes for the intellectual
elevation of people, and the ameliora-
ton Of the condition Of the human
race, that ever philosopher or christian
devised.