The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1883-12-04

lBy Rev. Charles Rseecher

OF the ouening OF the Medical Department OF the Flor
II the first settlers of Florida had been differ
ent men from what they were, Florida nigh
have To- day not only the Oldest city of the Re
public, but the oldest college. ST. Augustine, by
many years the oldest European CITY in Tho
Union, can show us perfect specimen Of me-
diaval iOrtlhcation, but it is reserved for d
| younger, farer city 10 found a university. A
more beautiful site for such an institution it will
he difficult to find in this country or even in The
old world. And when consider how last the
nation is growing, II is not late for such an un-
dertaking. We call Harvard and Yale old, yc,
Harvard is only about $50 years old, Yale 1873
while the University of Virginia is but year
older than your speaker II is not late for Flor.
ida to do noble deed of that kind if she has
among her sons a few of .JtfersOn's spirit, his
love of learning, his desire TO improve society,
his tar-sighted benevolent regard for poslerity.
His greatness as IL statesman has cclipsed his
fame AS scholar. thorough mathematician,
| an able well-read lawyer, good classical stu
| dent, architect, musician, patron OF arts, n
promoter OF Improvements in agriculture, COM
| merce, manuactures-hew was many sized man,
| hit 10 be the founder of a university-his nobcst
| lte's work to which in the midst Of thousand
| cares and tolls he devoted some of the best en-
ergies Of forty years.
| A distinguished Alumnus of Harvard has re.
| Gently created sensation in the educational
world by deprecating classical study, and particu-
|
any good lie has forgotten even the letters of
| the alphabet
But Jeffcrson's biOgrapher says that a remarka
! bic feature of the laws drawn by him when on a
| committee of revision of the chaotic Statutes of
| Virginia, is the prcamblcs, compact loaded with
meaning which still illuminate Virginia law
| books" Mr.. Parton thinks he must have derived
| the idea from Plato, who says in his book on
laws: L" Music has its overtures and discourse its
introduction, but Of the tones and higher strain
Of law no one has ever yet uttered any prelude"
| please myself with thinking ii was such pas
sages of the kindred Greek that induced Jcfcr-
son TO compose those noble prcambles.
W. uld Jefferson say Greek never did him any
good? Did he ever forget the very letters of the
alphabet?
At period of life when he was in his prime,
in the very vortex OF political conflict he writes
TO DR.. Prestly: / thank my knees Him
who directed my early education for having put
In my possession this rich source of delight, viz.
the ability to read Homer in the original"
Jefferson felt as Gladstone would feel, whose
works on Homer, the rclaxations OF Statesman
ship, would be the honorable lites work OF most
men.
so should every scholar feel Every new Ian
guage doubles mans scope-ralscs him Tin al
gebraic phrase) to a higher power Even an lni-
perfect mastery of the most perfect tongues, is
more precious than gold Why then did this
many sided man devote so much time and
thought to founding University? Not because
ii was popular, for he compares himself 10 ply
sican, obliged to prescribe remedies to patient
unconscious of need.
Not because he undcrvaued common schools;
he sought to introduce them in every tow in the
State
Not because there were no apparently insur-
mountable obstacles. Debt was an obstacle
Many fine estates were deeply involved. Slavery
was an obstacle, which he and his friends George
Wyihe, George Mason, and Others tried to re-
move.
He did it because he saw that common
schools lead up to, and are completed in the col
lege and university, and because he was wise
and good enough to conceive and execute q great
plan for the ,Iaining of future generations, lead
ers and led, rulers and ruled the thinking few
and the acting many.
Some of the chief obstacles he had to contend
with Providence has removed from our path
Florida has some advantages Uhc common
school system for exampe) he sighed for in vain.
Florida has nearly az many square miles of
arabic land as old Virginia and great many
mere square miles Of arabic water, a thousand
miles OF sea coast, rich with the wealth of
and plOwed by the fisherman 8 busy keel Flor
ida can sustain dense a population to the
square mile as Virginia or any other State. She
can raise most of the crops that other States
can, and some-the tropical semi-tropical,
peculiar to herself.
Can she not raise brains of as fine fibre and
of rs large size? Were the then future genera
tons of Virginia more likely to appreciate cul-
ture science art, scholarship than the now fu-
ture generations of Floridians? g?
All the motives that impelled him to found
a university for Virginia, would impcl him. if
living, and here, to found university for Flor
ida-and those motives will impel us, if we are
wise and benevolent like him. And if Virginia
expended 100000 in the work, and has appro-
priaed annually to this time $4,000 year,
Florida may well inquire whether true wisdom
and all noblest motives do not summon her
to go and do likewise. So that when the
great enterprises recently inaugurated shall be
completed, when the rich bottom lands Of South
Florida are reclaimed and teeming with cane,
cotton and coffee, when the grain-barge loads at
ST. Louis and unloads at Fernandna, without
breaking bulk, and the worlds commerce takes
a shortcut across Florida and Panama or Tehu-
antepec to the Pacific, and wealth and popula-
tion begin to roll in upon US, we may not stand
lowest In the scale of intellectual development
They tell US that these great works are impos-
sible. Some may say university is impossible.
One is reminded If what Calonne said on GER
tain occasion 10 Marie Anioinette. Said the
Queen: 4" l fear that this measure is q matter of
difficulty" Madame" replied the minister
if it is difficult it is done if it is impossible, it
shall be done"
M. Lessups might reply as Mirabeau once did,
when his secretary said to him q" M. lie Comte
what you require is impossible" "Impossible!
said Mirabeau, springing up, Ne me dites JAM
dtS &C OCte US WOt (NeVeT meDtlOn 10 me t0At
beaslly word y
Suez was difficult, it is done Panama is i'm
possible, it shall be done. Witness the follow
ing cut from the Age Of Steel.
"The Panama Canal Company have nearly
10000 men, thirty steam excavators, forty loco
motives and 800 tip carts at work, and claim to
have taken out two-thirds of the great cut be-
tween Obispo and ParaisO. The rapidity of the
work will be much hastened during the winter.
the most favorable season, when $1,000 men will
be employed. One American dredge, the Her
cules, removes 5000 cubic metres of earth a day.
The port works AT Colon are nearly complete
and the whole work will be finished in two
years."
So Of other impossibilities nearer home
Florida only needs to say they shall be done.
Where there is will there is a way, whether it
be a waterway or q railway. or Way of Wis
dom. We want Florida to be great in all ways
intellectual and moral as well as material We
want Florida TO be the land not only of floricul-
ture, but of culture. A land of genius and learn
ing educating on her own soil both leaders and
led, rulers and ruled, common people and un-
common, native-bOrn and born-again.
We want Florida to provide berally for all
departments, Classical, Mathematical in Theol
ogy and in Law, in Medicine and in the Arts
and Sciences, with all needed appliances of Lii
| brary, Museum, Chemical and Philosophical Ap
paratus. AS she now attracts by her climate
| and her physical beauties, so we would have her
| attract by her culture and her scholarship.
| As fair CASTLE used TO draw students from
| colder regions of the North to her Salamanca,
her Valladolid and other renowned Seminaries,
50 Florida, instead Of sending her thou
| IL, Avot;DX 70 Dlof,