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out increase of taxation or burden to our people, to place Georgia, so far as education is concerned, in the proudest position of any State in the Union. Let her educate every son and daughter within her limits, and she may then justly boast that she is the Empire State of not only the South, but of the whole Union. By this plan the public debt would be reduced, and the school fund increased, annually, $200,000; and the interest amounting yearly to $28,000 on the bonds delivered to the colleges, would be paid semiannually, out of the net earnings of the State road; and there would still be left an annual income from that source of $72,000, to be applied to other purposes."

The Legislature did not adopt the plan of the Governor, but took what was then regarded as an important step in the matter of public education. The State's bank stock, consisting of 1833 shares of the stock of the Bank of the State of Georgia; 890 shares of the Bank of Augusta; 186 shares of the Georgia Railroad and Banking Co., by Act of the Legislature of January, 1852, had been set apart, as a permanent fund, for the education of the poor. The Legislature to which this message was addressed, added thereto an annual appropriation of $100,000 of the net earnings of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, to be apportioned to the white children of the counties returned between the ages of eight and eighteen years.

His views expanded with the increase of intensity of his mind and emotions upon the subject of education, and as official duty and experience brought him to the contemplation of the subject in its limitless importance to the welfare of the people, and their descendants in the fu

ture.

The disaster of civil war intervened to prevent the consummation of his plans. But justice to a noble and farseeing patriotism and statesmanship, whose aims were thus thwarted and their grand results withheld from the people of the State, calls for the brief statement of his scheme for the promotion of the higher grades of learning, pre

sented to the General Assembly in November, 1860, by the permanent and liberal endowment of the

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA.

"The far seeing wisdom of those who framed our State constitution not only grasped but fully comprehended the importance of promoting the Arts and Sciences when they inserted in that instrument the following clause:

"The Arts and Sciences shall be promoted in one or more seminaries of learning; and the Legislature shall, as soon as may be, give such further donations and privileges to those already established (the State University was then established), as may be necessary to secure the objects of their institution.'

"This is still a portion of the constitution, which I, and each of you, have sworn to 'observe, conform to, support, and defend.' Have the spirit and intention of this provision of the constitution been carried into effect by the Legislature in the meagre endowment which the State University has received from the State? Have the objects for which the University was instituted been secured? If not, is the State not abundantly able to carry the spirit and intention of the constitution into effect without embarrassment to her government or burden to her people? If so, can we consistently, with the oaths which we have taken, refuse to make the necessary appropriation? These are questions well worthy the serious consideration of each and every one of us. But, aside from any obligation which the constitution imposes upon us, can we doubt the wisdom and sound statesmanship of such a course? I cannot think that it is sound policy for Georgia to refuse to endow her University, while her people send out of the State in a few years for the education of their children a sum of money more than sufficient to make the endowment which would be necessary to draw large numbers of the youths of other States to our University to be educated. This would cause Georgia to receive the money of other States, for the education of their children, instead of paying her money to other States for the education of her own.

"That State is always the most wealthy, powerful, and respected in which knowledge is most generally diffused and learning in all its branches most liberally encouraged. We cannot doubt that England is indebted in a very great degree to her Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and to the influences which have gone out from them, for her ability to dictate laws to a large portion of the world and to draw wealth from every quarter of the globe. Nor can we deny that Massachusetts by her liberal course towards her Cambridge, and Connecticut by her liberality to Yale College, have greatly enlarged their wealth at home and increased their influence abroad; and have been able through the instrumentality of their Universities to instil into the youthful minds of the educated of all the other States of the Union many of their own peculiar notions of religion and government, while they have drawn millions of money from other States for the education of their

children. Georgia has contributed largely to build up Northern colleges, and has purchased from them, or those educated by them, most of her text and school books and much of her literature. Most of those Northern colleges, which have shared so largely the Southern patronage, are now hostile to Southern institutions. Notwithstanding all this they still get Georgia patronage, because it is believed they can furnish educational advantages superior to those offered by Georgia colleges. This might not now have been the case had the money sent out of Georgia by parents and guardians for education been expended at our own University. Is it not time we had learned wisdom by experience? We claim that ours is the Empire State of the South. Why then should we refuse to endow and build up our University where the sons of the South may enjoy educational advantages equal, if not superior, to those offered by New England colleges; where authors may be reared and literature and school books produced which will enlighten and elevate the minds of our youths without subjecting them to abolition taint or New England fanaticism?

"After mature deliberation upon this question, I feel it my duty to recommend the appropriation of five hundred thousand dollars, to be paid in five annual instalments, of one hundred thousand dollars each, for the endowment of our State University. This sum, added to the present endowment, would be sufficient to construct the buildings, purchase the library and apparatus, and endow the professorships, necessary to make it, in a few years, a first class University; and would further enable the trustees to pay such salaries as would command the services of the most distinguished professors in the country. This would at once give the University a commanding position in the Southern States, and relieve us from the necessity of further patronising Northern Colleges. I think the heart of every Georgian should swell with pride at the contemplation. And I do not doubt, when the question shall be fully discussed before our people, that they will be found to be in advance of most of our politicians upon this subject. He who does right will seldom have cause to fear the popular verdict.

"The aggregate taxable property of this State is supposed to be, this year, about $700,000,000. The seventieth part of one per cent. upon this sum, will raise, annually, the $100,000. This will be a fraction less than one cent and a half, per annum, on each one hundred dollars' worth of taxable property, or a fraction over seven cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property, to be paid in five annual instalments.

"What Georgian is so destitute of State pride, apart from every consideration of patriotism and sense of duty, that he would refuse to pay this small sum to see our State University fully endowed, for all time to come, and put in a position of equality with any University in the Union? I think I know the great masses of the farmers and mechanics of our State, who are its very bone and sinew, and upon whom every other class of citizens is dependent for its support, well enough to say for them, in advance, that many of our public

men underrate their intelligence and liberality; and that not one in every twenty of them, who pays tax on one thousand dollars' worth of property, would hesitate a moment to contribute a dime and a half a year, for five years, for the purpose of building up a University which would place Georgia in the very front rank of all her Southern sisters, where the young men of the South who, in future, are to conduct its government, direct its energies and defend its honor, may be educated, without assisting by their patronage, to build up, elsewhere, institutions at war with our dearest rights. But it is not indispensably necessary that even the small additional tax above mentioned, should be collected from the people for this purpose. Each annual payment might be made out of the incomes of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, and the tax at present paid by the people of this State, be reduced within the five years; and we would still have money enough to meet promptly, in times of peace and prosperity, all the necessary expenses of the government.

"In return for this appropriation, the University should be required to educate and maintain, from year to year, such number of poor young men as the Legislature which makes the appropriation, may direct. I would suggest that the number be one from each county in the State; to be selected in such manner as the Legislature may prescribe. The young men selected as beneficiaries should be such only as have not the means to educate themselves, and whose parents are unable to defray the expenses of a collegiate education for them. Each should be required, when he enters the University, as a consideration for the instruction he is about to receive from the State, to sign a pledge of honor, that he will, if not providentially prevented, teach school, in Georgia, as many years next after he leaves the University as he was instructed in the University, or refund to the State the money expended in his education with lawful interest. The benefits of a collegiate education should not be confined to the sons of the wealthy; but the State should provide, as far as possible, for the education of moral young men who are talented and promising; and who, by reason of their poverty, are unable to educate themselves. From this class would rise up many of our most distinguished and useful citizens. Many of the brightest and most intelligent boys in Georgia are found among the poorest and humblest of her citizens. Inured to labor from their infancy, when the portals of the college are thrown open to them, they are not unfrequently found to outstrip the more favored students; and afterwards, when they come to enter the arena of active life, they are usually more energetic and more likely to become distinguished and useful than those whom necessity has never taught the value of personal exertion. Many of these young men would make teaching a profession for life, which few of the sons of the wealthy after graduating in college are willing to do.

"It is generally admitted by the most intelligent and best informed, that the establishment of a State University of a high character would work no detriment to the denominational, or other colleges of the State. The gradu

ates of our other colleges, desirous of pursuing their studies beyond the college course, and of fitting themselves, by still higher attainments in learning, for the duties of authors, professors, etc., would transfer themselves to our own University without being under the necessity of leaving our own State to secure the necessary advantages. The building up of the University, upon the plan proposed, would also do much to advance our common school project, as it would send out in a few years a large number of young men as teachers, truly southern in sentiment and well qualified for the position. This would supply, in a great measure, what is now a lamentable deficiency, and would elevate and give new life and vigor to our whole educational system."

In the same message, the Governor recommended a normal school for the education of female teachers, upon the plan, "that the girls educated there divide among themselves and do in their turn all the cooking, washing, and other labor necessary to be done at the school. Each would be required to furnish her own clothes. The actual cost of maintaining each in the school would therefore be the prime cost of the provisions used by each, together with books, lights, and fuel. At this school, which should be located in some healthy portion of our State, large numbers of young females, whose parents are unable to educate them, might be prepared to teach our primary schools, or indeed to teach in any of our schools. While receiving their scholastic education at the normal school, these young ladies would also receive a domestic education, which would be of great utility to them in any position which they might occupy in after life."

In all the brilliant career of Governor Brown, there appears at this day to the writer nothing that invests his sagacity with the appearance of prophetic wisdom like this of educating women without elevating their tastes, habits, and dispositions above useful labor, and without lowering their physical capabilities below its demands. If his theory could then have been applied to

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