The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-08-13
For the anderson hutelligencer.
SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION.
Address to the People Of the State.

State of South Carolina, which shall, as Tar as
possible, supply the place of the venerable
COLLEGE which has been destroyed by the Leg
;sIature and which shall furnish an opportuni-
ey for the education of that portion of the peo-
ple of the State, who, in the present political
condition of its affairs, are practically excluded
from sill participation in the advantages OF
those educational establishments, which they
are heavily taxed to support, confidently appeal
to their fellow-citizens for their aid and sympa-
thy. :,
Without further reference to the painful
condition of public affairs, it is sufficient to
recognize the fact that the political power
which controls the State, has deliberately et-
fected such changes in the management OF the
South Carolina College as to destroy It's useful
ness by degrading its character. The whole
body of the Professors, men venerable Tor tneir
wears, their abilities and their character nave
heen removed without even the pretense OF
cause, only because their lives had been devo-
ted in service and sacrifice to the State. Their
places have been filled by men, who neither by
learning, ability or reputation, command the
confidence of the community. system OF
mixed admission has been adopted, which has
closed its doors to all of its accustomed stu
dents-a system so prejudicial to the interests,
and 50 repugnant to the feelings of all classes
in the commonwealth, that Congress, sustained
by the administration, has just refused to
sanction it by National Legislation, while
the avowed purpose of these changes Is to be-
little the past history, to destroy the old tradl
tions, and to obliterate forever the old charac-
ter of Soath Carolina.
The undersigned are perfectly aware OF the
whole breadth and depth of the political and
social revolution which has been worked at
the South by the result Of the late civil war
Without complaint they accept it in all its
fullness. They have no mission to defend the
errors of the past, and they are not foolish
enough to attempt to check the will of God.
TO that great body of their fellow-cit'zens to
whom the war brought freedom and political
rights, they feel nothing but good will, and
they would not interpose the slightest obstacle
to any progress they can make or desire to
make in their own improvement. Heavy as
the taxation they bear, they would feel them
selves amply repaid if every year found the
colored citizen of the State better informed as
to his duties, more capable of comprehending
his true interests, and nearer to the level OF
moral and intellectual culture of the white
man. But representing the race they DO, they
feel that they have filled no obscure or d'shon-
orable place in the history of the country /;
that their contribution of courage, OF culture
and of character to the national life, has not
been inconsiderable, and that the great Union,
at whose very existence they struck in obedl-
ence to what they had been taught from child
hood was their duty, would scarcely consent to
see eliminated from the national character, that
purity of private life, that devotion to public
duty, that obligation to pledged faith, that
we'll balanced order Of public policy COM
biniug in harmonious action the interests
of property and the intelligence of the pop
ular will, which formed the traditional stan
dard of Carolina life. Indeed, rather would
the national heart rejoice that these virtues,
for virtues unquestionably they are, should be
preserved to exercise their wholesome and ele-
waiting influences upon that common future,
which is now broadly open to the country, freed
from an institution which perplexed the con-
science of one-half of the nation, and IN self
defence forced sectional policy upon the
other.
The undersigned feel, therefore, that in es-
tablishing such an institution, their first duty
would be to put it under such influences, to
surround it with such associations as will pre-
serve the moral tradition of the State, and en-
courage an intellectual freedom not inconsis-
tent with true and loyal veneration for its
past history. This achieved the undersigned
feel that, connected with this spirit and elevat
ed by it, the most urgent need of the State is
a system of education which will fit its young
men to deal with the new condition in which
their lives are to be matured. One of the re-
suits of the great social revolution through
which the South is passing, and result per-
haps not altogether to be regretted, is that the
State is, as it were, commencing life anew; a
life in which every citizen is required to be a
worker, and in which the character and pros
perity of the State is dependent upon the en-
crgy and intelligence with which that work is
prosecuted. In the present condition of the
worlds culture, the undersigned do not think
argument necessary to show that what is need
ed is Scientific education. Everywhere indus
trial pursuits and the development of material
resources are shaping the future power and in
auence of nations; and with US, especially,
after the devastation of civil war, and the de-
struction of property consequent on the aboli-
ton of slavery, it is evident that our first need
=: L. ~oa4a-o tho ,uonlth of the State and that