r
them, we secure it to all our future generations; that in fulfilling
this duty, we bring home to our own bosoms the sweet consolation of
seeing our sons rising under a luminous tuition, to destinies of high
promise; these are considerations which will occur to all; but all, I
fear, do not see the speck in our horizon which is to burst on us as a
tornado, sooner or later. The line of division lately marked out between
different portions of our confederacy, is such as will never, I fear,
be obliterated, and we are now trusting to those who are against us
in position and principle, to fashion to their own form the minds
and affections of our youth. If, as has been estimated, we send three
hundred thousand dollars a year to the northern seminaries, for the
instruction of our own sons, then we must have there five hundred of our
sons, imbibing opinions and principles in discord with those of their
own country. This canker is eating on the vitals of our existence, and
if not arrested at once, will be beyond remedy. We are now certainly
furnishing recruits to their school. If it be asked what are we to do,
or said we cannot give the last lift to the University without stopping
our primary schools, and these we think most important; I answer, I know
their importance. Nobody can doubt my zeal for the general instruction
of the people. Who first started that idea? I may surely say, Myself.
Turn to the bill in the revised code, which I drew more than forty
years ago, and before which the idea of a plan for the education of the
people, generally, had never been suggested in this State. There you
will see developed the first rudiments of the whole system of general
education we are now urging and acting on: and it is well known to those
With whom I have acted on this subject, that I never have proposed a
sacrifice of the primary to the ultimate grade of instruction. Let us
keep our eye steadily on the whole system. If we cannot do every
thing at once, let us do one at a time. The primary schools need
no preliminary expense; the ultimate grade requires a considerable
expenditure in advance. A suspension of proceeding for a year or two on
the primary schools, and an application of the whole income, during that
time, to the completion of the buildings necessary for the University,
would enable us then to start both institutions at the same time. The
intermediate branch, of colleges, academies, and private classical
schools, for the mi