Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1875-02-10
HIGHER LEARNING IN rENNEssER
some Facts About the sewanee Uni.
verrIty Of the sOn,b.


In every country there Is a class of
minds prone ~ magnify their own
possessions at the expense of those of
other people. The Chinese count the
rest of the world outside barbariaDs,"
and there are civilized Christians who
speak and write of their neighbors
somewhat after similar fashion.
They are only too ready TO have II
said that they "are the people aud wis
dom will die with them :" that they
stand In the midst of desert waters,
with the light of knowledge encir-
cling their heads and irradiating the
surrounding darkness, and there Is
none like them worthy TO be named
withing the entire range of their in
fluence.
In AN address delivered at the meet
ing, held last October in New York
city, in behalf of the University of the
South, Sewanee, Tenn, and published
in the Church and State, Net1 York
for December rs, l observe statement
not probably original with the
speaker, bat derived from Tennessee
layman, whose name is given, which
savors of this spirit of laudation of
ones own, to the detriment of others.
The Reverend gentleman is reported
as saying: a." 1t (the University of the
South) stands almost alone in an enor-
nous territory, with scarcely a rival.
| Instead of being under the shadow of
venerable schools of learning, IL ioohs
out from the hills o. Tennessee upon q
dredry waste, so far as means for high
er culture are concerned"
No doubt this statement served an
excellent purpose, oratorieally. The
average nearer delights in "glittering
| generalities," in sweeping declarations
that leave no opportunity for any for
| eign matter to obtrude itself into no.
! tice Such jealous concentration of the
| mind upon a single meritoriOus object,
| makes it loom up to view in solitary
grandeur, and the friendly, gener US
| sympathies for IL, are intensified by
the process. The misfortune is, that
| however rhetorical exaggerations OF
matters of fact may serve the laudable
end to which they are employed, in
| justice is often done. An inaccurate
| impression is given of the whole field
to which those matters relate, and
| things deserving at least equal Rtten-
ton in the foreground are completely
| ignored.
What is the truth in the case Z?
| There is great educational dearth in
| the region of country referred to, but
| it Is more especially in the provision
and work OF instruction, preparatory
! to college. Considering the great de-
| ficiencies of the youth of Southern and
| Southwestern States in this prelimi.
nary mental training and knowledge,
the disparity between those States,
(more particularly Tennessee, and the
Northeast, in respect to 1.-The means
| for higher culture" is very far from
| being SO wide as the Reverend speak
er supposes. The colleges within their
| limits, even without the University OF
the South, are numerous enough for
the young men who are at present pre-
pared for studies, properly collegiate
| That university, therefore, in view of
! the existing want, is by no means a
solitary higher institution of learning
Nor is 1t so, without reference to that
want. 1t stands close to the south
western gate of East Tennessee, in
which there are half dozen or more
such institutions; Tusculum College
at Greeneville, Hiwasse College at
jacksonville, Maryville College, Messy
Creek College. Kings College at Bris-
toll, on the frontier of Virginia, the
| Wesleyan University at Athens, and
East Tennessee University at Knox
vile.
To the northwest of the University
Of the South, and within the distance
of about IA hundred miles, are both
the University of Nashville and Cum
berland University at Lebanon, not to
mention other colleges in Middle
Tennessee, as, for instance, Stewart
College, at ClarksvIlIe. Even West
Tennessee, more exclusively cotton.
growing region, has it's provisions fol
higher learning at jackson, etc. Some
of these institutions ante-dated the
University of the South by decades OF
years, SO that it can not be said, as II
stated in the speech, that the means
of the higher education are not al
, ready provided, and the church PRO
! testant EpiscOpal) Ia the first in tn,
: field" Nashville University wal
: chartered first "a Cumberland Col
lege, in 1906, and in former years un
der the Presidency of the Rev. PhiliI
. Lindsey, ID. d., attained considerable,
!, eminence. Cumberland University
was organized in 1872, and botn befor
aud since the recent war, has done
: good educational work. East Tennes
- see University was cheTtered first as
III AOONs ~ as buCHCuuCht "a
was necessarily all institutions O
learning in the State, during the wal
In 1855, it resumed operations, an,
the state College established in it. l
now in a hOurishing condition. TIL
last collegiate year, it's corps OF in
:, structors numbered fifteen, and IL
g students, three hundred and eighteen
d In view of all these facts, it il a it'll
II difficult to understand how the Uni
d versity of the south should "look ou
from the hills of Tennessee upon
It dreary waste so far as means of bighe
n culture are concerned ~ unless indee
It its eyes are blinded, or being able t
n see, ii wears glasses 30 defIly construc
ted and oolored that green GASES in tn
If desert before il appear decided brown
# and fertile spots seem barren or pei
IF haps the language used by the speake
on the occasion named IL To be attribu
> ted to the "almost poetical statement
q given by a Tennessee layman," VIII
n must have drawn more largely upo
"a his own Imagination than WAS eXp'
dent or commemorate, and with artil
tic license must have darkened all tn
rest Of his picture, in order that III