The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-10-01
ADDRESS OF
HON. ID. II. GEORGE,
Delivered at Starkyille, September 22d,
1879, at the Laying of the
Cornerstone of the
A. l. VI. College.

The business which has brought together
is one of serious import-the Inauguration Of
the 4. d NJ. College, by laying its corner
stone.
a. the enterprise is new, as it proposes new
methods OF education, and seeks TO attain new
ends, it is well some explanation should be
made of the purposes OF the Trustees
| shall Therefore point out some OF the dIih'
culties which are to be overcome, if success be
attained, and call attention to some OF the OBJ
jects which 1t Is proposed to be accomplished
and give some of the reasons which justify, ana
in my Judgment demand the liberal and gen
erous support Of the institution by the Leglsla-
ture and the public. .
shall unite what has heretofore in Mississippi,
at least been separated-high mental culture
and manual labor.
We propose to yoke these two forces together
and send them out on the mission OF building
up MISUNDERSTANDING her to that nigh
plane oi material prosperity and intellectual
and the genius Of her people entltIe her
EDUCATION OF BRAIN AND HAND.
We propose to educate the brain and the
hand together 70 make the same human being
both q thinker and a worker As God has CIV
en- each one Of his children both hands and
brains muscle and intellect we propose IN
training this work, to follow the order He has
pointed out; not TO mar or counteract It. lie
raw. us the physical and intellectual man uni
ted in oue-the mind to think and the body to
labor This is the perfect being that God crea-
ted and placed on this earth 70 work out his qes-
tIuv We propose to train and educate tins
being in illl MS faculties, powers and endoW-
1,.rts rs M. received them from his Creator.
We do not propose % make half men by stun
lIating the intellect into an abnormal activity,
and leaving the body to waste and perish; nor
do we propose to reverse TINS by developing
muscle unnaturalIy, and crushing out the spir-
itual and intellectual part OF our being.
We propose to make here ne dreamers, no
splendid and dazzling intellectual prodigies,
with neither the capacity nor the viii to do the
worlds work, nor the other hand, do we
propose to make machines OF men. mere auto-
nations. 10 be worked and moved by the Will and
intellect of others. We would endOw each man
with power to conceive and determine what
ne should do, and how II should be done, ana
with the capacity aud VIII to work ont prlncl-
cIIy with his own hands, ms own conceptions.
Within these halls and in these fields, as
part Of a system OF education, we propose that
study and manual labor shall 90 hand in hand,
so that the graduate Of this institution may be
able to know what to DO how to do it, and then
be able to do for himself what he has Judged
should be performed.
So much for the general aims OF this college.
But as neither all kinds Of manual labor can be
efficiently performed by one man, nor the whole
circle of human knowledge mastered by him,
we propose to select from this work and this
knowledge that which the needs Of Mississippi
most demand shall be performed and possessed
by her people.
The interests Of Mississippi are almost exclu-
sively agricultural. Her climate, her SOIL the
worlds need for her crops, the absence OF
mines, and quarries, and seaports, the tastes
and habits OF her people, all demonstrate that
the foundation Of her prosperity lies IN success
full agriculture.
The present condition Of our people, their
debts and embarrassments the present con- |
dition of our agriculture, our worn out and |
exhausted fields in the hill DISTRICTS tue need
of fertilization, our ignorance of the practice |
of any system of farming not based on the nat
ural fertility of the soil the disposition of
the people to remove to fresher and newer cOun-
tries; the prevalent desire to abandon agricul /
ture for other pursuits; the wish TO abandon /
country life and to try the precarious, and un-
certain, and over crowded business of cities |
and towns; the general decay, the shrinkage /
Of all values; the discomfort and unrest of the |
disappoin ted, the immObilitY of despair, all /
admonish us, that something must be dome
that there must be some change of our methods |
in the leading industry of the State.
PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE.
Recognizing the needs of the State, the Trus
tees of this institution propose to have taught
here, in large degree, that which pertains
to scientific and practical agriculture; lnclu-
ding in this term, horticulture and stock rails
ing; and to teach that in a way that the grad
uate shall really be fitted to follow and prac-
tice agriculture in all its branches. This is
our great aim for the present. In after years,
when agriculture shall have become more pros
porous, and in the needs of the State shall be
more in the direction of manufactures or 9TH
er industrial calings, the teaching of these
will have more attention
The education proposed to be given though
looking mainly to the fitting of the student for
n successful career in agriculture, will not, as
some enormously suppose, be small in amount
or ignoble in degree.
AMOUNT OF EDUCATION FOR AGRICUL-
TURE.
There is no way of pre- venting this. This
labor constitutes the wealth and furnishes the
comforts and Injuries of the world. In fact
wealth Is utterly yalueless except as an aC-
tual or potential purchaser of human labor or
its results. That which can be had without
human labor, however useful is without COM
mercial value. The air we breathe, though
essential to life, yet because it is the free gift
of nature, iuexhausuhle and free to all,
is not a thing which can be estimated
wealth. But let a mode be discovered by
which some substance may, by human labor,
be infused into the air, making itmore whole
some more health giving, and let the air thus
improved be capable of being confined to the
separate use of him who has thus improved 1t,
and then by this add ti0u of human labor il
becomes wealth and Is the object of the desires
and energies Of men.
If gold and diam nds were strewn all over
the land like pebbles on the sea-shore, they |
would become as worthless as a part of wealth
as the pebbles themselves.
DUTY AS TO LABoRERs.
Since then all wealth-au the comforts and
Injuries of life the product of human
labor; and since a maj GRITTY. of mankind are
and must always remain laborers, 1T IS the
clear duty of a free government instituted by /
the people for the common and equal good OF
all. TO 80 arrange its policies and administra-
tive forces, that this labor should be made of
the highest efficiency and produetiveness to
the laborer, and entirely accordant with his
physical, moral, intellectual and social we'll
being. IL there IS n stigma attached to 1t, 1t
must he removed if pleas ure and i'm provement
can be associated with it, the association must
take place. In agricultural pursuits, this as
sociation is easy and natural.
UNION OF LABOR AND KNOWLEDGE IN
AGRICULTURE.
Let the agriculturist learn the principles upon
which his calling rests; let him be taught that
which fits instead OF that which units him for
the work he has to do, and he will at every
step of his progress have occasion to think, to
investigate and determine. As his pillow turns
up the bosom Of the earth, he viii observe the
nature and character of the soil in different
uarts of the field and consider its adaptabilities
and its wants He viii think of the construction
of his plow-its best shape TO do perfect work,
and at the same time to secure the least resis-
lance t. its progress from the earth. And these
or similar mental operations Will accompany all
the labor he may perform. There Is not sim
gle operation on the farm-not blow stricken,
with which intelligence and thought may not be
profitably associated. A mind properly trained,
and thus exercised in all the employments of
the body, will grow and strengthen and with
its increased and increasing vigOr and strength, |
will be able to take in and solve all the great
problems of domestic and political economy
and last though not least will dignity and en-
noble its occupation, and bring to its pOssessor
the pleasures and the triumphs of knowledge
and intellect.
CREATIVE ART.
Agriculture is the only creative art. All
other works of men consist only in changing
the form of something already existing; and
this change is universally accomplished through
Il loss of destruction of some part of the matter
which has been metamorphosed. Agriculture
creates it adds to what before existed 1t
plants one seed and reaps one hundred it thus
augments by ninety-nine fold former existencies-
In this creative process the ag1iculturist uses
mainly the forces of nature. Shall he who
evokes, and subjects to the good and happiness
of mankind, the grand powers and capacities
of an infinite nature, be dullard and an idiot,