Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1882-07-07
THE SCHOLAR IN POLITICS.

Among the many scholarly addresses de-
livered at the various College Commence
ments, this Summer, probably not one has
George VIM. Curtis before the Alumni of
Brown University. The interest in it has
been due in part TO its intrinsic ability and
interest and in part to the fact that it formed
similar occasion, delivered last year by Mr..
Wendell Phillips. Mr.. Phillips, in his cus-
tonary admirable English, and with his Gus
tomary unfair and sweeping generalization
from few one-sided facts affirmed the prac-
tical failure of the educated classes in this
country as moral and political leaders. MIR.
Curtis asserts, on the contrary, and conclusi-
velysproves, that in every epoch in our Ma
tional history, the trained intcllects of this
and other countries have moulded public
opinion, and inspired and directed the peo-
pie. lie points to Erasmus and to Luther
in the conflicts of the Reformation to
Prym, Hampden and Milton, univers-
ity men, leaders in the great political
revolution Ct England and to Samuel and
John Adams, to Jonathan Mathew, to James
Otis, to John Jay, 10 Thomas Jefferson, to
Scott and Livingston and Warren and other
leaders in our own country, "who in the pulpit,
on the platform and through the Press, CON
Quoted the mighty preliminary argument of
the revolution" all of whom were literally
educated men. In the brief period of the
Confederation, when ''the more perfect
union" was formed under the Constitution,
'the good genius of America was still the
educated mind of the country" OF the
Constitutional convention nearly two-thirds,
and of the leading debaters all, were college
men. Hamilton, Madison and Jay. Inter
preted the Constitution IN that greatest of
commentaries, which as the dome crowns
the Capitol, completed the majestic argu-
ment that, long before the sons of Harvard
had begun" And so onward he traces the
maintenance and development of the Gov
eminent, showing that "as educated Amer-
ca was the constructive power, SO it is still
the conservative force of the Republic"
Without denying the patriotism, influence
and power of others in asserting the indis-
soluble nature of the Union and the nation
atty of Freedom, he names such men rs
John Quincy Adams, Charles Sumner, Will
liam II. Seward, Longfellow, Whittier.
Lowell Claiming, Beecher and others to
prove that "the pioneers, the courageous and
independent leaders in public affairs, the
apostles of religious and civil liberty, have
been, In large part educated men, Mr..
Curtis continues
Every year at the college commencement
the American scholar is exhortcd to do his
duty. But every newspaper proves that he
is doing it, For he is the most practical
politician who shows his fellow citizens, as
the wise old sailor told his shipmates, that
'God has somehow so fixed the world that
man can afford to do about right" Take
from the country at this moment the educat-
ed power which is condemned as romantic
and sentimental, and you would take from
the army its general, from the ship its COM
pass, from the National action its moral
handspring. 1t is not the demagogue and the
shouting rabble ii is the people needing the
word of the thinker, and the lesson of ex-
perience, which secures the welfare of the
American republic and enlarges human liber-
ty. If American scholarship does not carry
the election to-day, 1t determines the policy
of tomorrow
This is, beyond question: II not universally,
at least largely, true. OF course there are
scholars and scholars-scholars who are
doctrinaries and Missionaries, and scholars
who bring to the service of the State knowl
edge of men, as well as of principles, and
practical craftsmanship as well as abstract
theories. These furnish the needed counter
check to the influence of the ranters and Wis
ionares. With them stand the men Of
scholarly minds, here and there one who
have made out to secure for themselves with
out the aid of the higher schools the learning
and mental training which they could have
acquired much more easily througha liberia
course of education, and who are thus emit.