Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1874-03-21
SOUTH wEsTERN UNIVERSITY.


city iof Memphis, the directors APP
pointed by the Synods Of Mississippi,
Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas
/ aud Tennessee will meet for the pur-
pose of locating the Southwestern
University. The establishment of
/ this institution is a determined fact,
the location alone being the object Of
the meeting at Memphis. The endow-
ment of said University is to be not
less than $500, 900. It Is supposed
that the competition for said location
will be narrowed 10 Huntsville, Ala
bama, and to Clarksville and Jackson,
/ Tennessee.
In determining this question Of To-
cation, the interests Of both parties
are 10 be studied, and the reason why
the directors should select this or that
] place, and why the people of any one
| locality should aim to secure the lOca-
ton are mutually involved in a COM
mon discussion. The object Of this
article is to set forth the reasons why
such an institution should be located
at Jackson. In another place We will
endeavor TO show why our people will
/ be sacrificing immense interests If
they fail to do all in their power 70
| secure this location. A mere inspec-
ton of q map of the United States,
without a word from us, will satisfy
the directors that the geographical
position of Jackson is an obvious re-
commentator. Our city occupies a
central position IN the vast valley OF
the Mississippi, that comprises the
two immense watersheds between
the Alleghanies and Rocky Noun
tains, a comparatively undeVelopcd
empire, appropriately designated
as the ''grandest habitation ever
prepared for man" Around our
West Tennessee centre, tower the
great commonwealth, of Mississippi,
Alabama, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana
Ohio; Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa,
Missouri, Arkansas and louisiana,
with all of which we are being
brought daily in contact and CONNER
cial intimacy by means of the great
and growing network of railway
travel. An inspection of a railroad
map will also show that Jackson is at
the intersection of two of the longest
lines on the continent, that it is at a
point nearly midway between New
Orleans and Chicago, and that by
means Of two roads it has direct con
nectiOn with these cities as well as
Mobile and ST. Louis. Bat it is I'M
necessary to dwell upoA matters of
mere detail that are patent at a glance
at a map.
One of the primary essentials to be
sought after in the location of an in
stitution of learning, as well as in the
selection of a home, is healthfulness,
and here we make one of our strong
est points in favor of our city. The
sanitary history of Jackson, Tenn,
for the year 1873, is enough to deter
mine where this University should be
established. Cholera, the enigma of
medical science, raging in the tropi-
cal heats of India and the frozen des-
erts Of Russia, sweeping over the Can
adas, and scourging the great lime
stone basin of Kentucky, Tennessee
and Alabama, this cosmopolitan pes
thence has never been known in our
midst. When the yellow fever bowed
the head of our commercial metropo-
lis in sackcloth and ashes, jackson
was the Zoar to which hundreds fed
for health and life while the plague
fire ragged in a thousand dwellings
elsewhere. We do not say these
things except for tho purpose of
showing the propriety of selecting a
place of exceptional and singular ex-
emption from epidemics, for a great
institution where hundreds of youths
will be congregated, hundreds and
thousands of miles from home, and
away from the hearths of parents and
friends.
1t would not be in good taste to dis
cuss the social character of the peo-
pie with whom we live and move and
have our being, in this connection,
further than to say that they will COM
pare favorably with other communi-
ties in all the essentials of a thrifty,
energetic, order-loving and upright
people. The prophecies of religion
and morality are conserved and re-
spected in a manner noticeable to the
stranger and the travelled man, Pu-
rity and piety characterize the repre-
sentative masses of the city and coun-
try around us, While the religious
are consistent and exemplary, there is
charity for the frailties and weak
nesses of others. 1t may be said
without the fear of contradiction that
i'll no city of the wide Christian earth
could the sick, the destitute, or dying
stranger be left in better hands by
disposing Providence, than with the
people who make up the population
of jackson, Tennessee. The I'M
known and friendless man or woman
might die neglected in our midst, but
the fact that that man or that woman
had thus died would be because the
intelligence had not been conveyed to
those who are at all times ready to
succor the unfortunate. Some one
has truly said that the gratuities and
kindHesseS of hospitality-the free
will offerings-are unknown to the
two extremes of human society, which
are found in barbarism on the one
hand, and in the highly artificial and
systematized civilization of the great
city Oh the other hand. These gratu-
tiles flourish best in the genial mid
die ground, that must be sought for
III substantial rural life and in the
smaller cities that take their coloring
from it. So much for the general I'm
ducements that we think ought to in
duce the directors to locate the Uni
versity at Jackson, and III addition we
can confidently assure them that the
libcrality of our pecuniarv offer will
be commensurate with the dignity
and gravity of the matter under con-
sideration.
I fastidIoUs gentleman of our ac-
ouaiutance was snmeyvhot avarcisel a