(s^jJ^titH
      DISCOURSE

                     / ■>
        ON THE ADVANTAGES OF A



NATIONAL UNIVERSITY,
     ESPECIALLY IN ITS INFLUENCE ON THE




  UNION OF THE STATES;




      DELIVERED, BY REQUEST, TO THE



    ERODELPHIAN SOCIETY

            OF

      MIAMI UNIVERSITY,




ON THE SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THAT INSTITUTION,


       September 25th, 1832.



            ./
    --------------v--------------
   BY CHARLES CALDWELL, M. D.
      CINCINNATI:


E. H. FLINT, No. 158 MAIN STREET.


        1832. 
f
r
X. AND G. GUILFORD AND CO., PRINTERS.
. 
ADVERTISEMENT.
    A few years ago there appeared, in the Western
Monthly Review, two or three papers  on the subject
of a National University.  It is  quite probable that
between those articles and this discourse there  exists
a considerable similarity, as well in style and manner,
as in sentiment.  If so, the reason is, that they are all
the product of the same pen.  Yet, to avoid, as  far as
possible, any striking resemblance between them, the
writer, while preparing the discourse, was careful never
to look at the papers in the Review, nor even to think
of them.  It is deemed advisable to communicate this
information to the reader, that he may not suspect the
author of plagiarism.  The communication will fur-
ther apprize  him, that the views contained  in the dis-
course have not  been hastily formed. 
 
DISCOURSE.
GENTLEMEN, MEMBERS OF THE ERODELPHIAN SOCIETY.

    The general benefits of education, as the parent
of literature, science, and the arts, and an auxiliary in
morals and good government, have furnished, for ages,
a  standing theme of academical discourses.  Unwil-
ling, therefore, to  ask you  to accompany me over a
field, the full  harvests of which have been gathered
in by  others,  and  where  the gleanings might but ill
reward our toil in collecting them, I shall offer no
apology  for declining to select the  same  topics, as
the ground of the exercise I am about to engage in.
Partly moreover from your daily  studies, and in part
from other incidental causes, it is scarcely probable
that the  subject is less familiar to you than to myself
Nor can it fail to possess for you, in the spring-time
of your lives,  when your sensibilities are vivid, and
your fancies creative, a freshness and a charm, which
must have rendered it an object of the liveliest atten-
tion.   This  being  the case,  you are already so fully
apprized of its extent and value, that no effort of mine
could add to  the interest you naturally  feel in it, or
strengthen the impression your  minds have received
from the habitual contemplation of it. 
<;
    History has already made known to you, that the
different degrees of education  which the nations of
antiquity possessed, were the measures of the rank
and splendour they enjoyed.   Even their opulence
and power conformed invariably to the same standard.
You are not now to be informed that the astronomical
and literary attainments of ancient Egypt, limited as
they were, formed  the  brightest  symbol on the es-
cutcheon of that celebrated country, and will preserve
her name from oblivion, and confer on her reputation,
when,  like the  site of Troy, the  "city of the gods,"
the spot where her pyramids stood shall be disputed,
and the Nile alone will indicate to the traveller the
domain of the Pharaohs.  That the imperishable glo-
ries of Greece were the product, not of  the sword or
the truncheon, but of the pen and the chissel.   And,
that had not Rome cultivated letters, philosophy, and
the arts, she  would have continued, as  she began, a
nation of barbarians, and her renown in arms would
be slumbering in endless oblivion, beneath the ruins of
the power that achieved it.  With  these things you
are already  familiar.  It is also known to  you,  that
when the fruits  of education  had  perished, in the
downfall of the Roman empire,  and even the hope of
their reproduction was nearly extinguished, the  world
became, for centuries, as the result of that catastrophe,
a waste of ignorance, licentiousness, and  blood.  That
that period of desolation and dismay was called the
"Dark Ages," not more from its want of knowledge,
than from its destitution of virtue, and its pollution by
crime.   That the commencement of  the  return of
happier times received the name of the " Revival of
Letters," because it was the issue of mental cultiva- 
7
 tion.  That the event was hailed as the day-spring of
 a renewed civilization of the human race, and their
 emancipation from the tyranny of brutal domination,
 where strength had trampled Avith impunity on weak-
 ness, and vice had triumphed over virtue and honour.
 That modern nations rose in their moral and political
 standing, and improved in their general condition, in
 proportion as they welcomed and encouraged educa-
 tion, and partook of its benefits.   And that,  at the
 present time, education is the acknowledged source
 of their  prosperity, power, and glory, and, as such, is
 embraced and cultivated  by them, with an eagerness
 and energy corresponding to its importance.  Even
 under the blighting shadow  of despotism,  where the
 mass of  the people are merged  in ignorance and
 wedded  to slavery,  the higher orders  eagerly avail
 themselves of that great  fountain of knowledge and
 influence.
    These truths, I say, have been abundantly disclo-
 sed  to you, in the course  of  your studies.  And you
 have further learnt, that of all existing  governments,
 that of our own country is most vitally dependent on
 the general diffusion of the fruits of sound  education,
 for the continued purity of its principles, the stability
 of its general organization and subordinate institutions,
 the success of its measures, the prosperity of the na-
 tion, and the happiness of the people.  That if intel-
ligence and virtue, wisdom and patriotism, the fruits
alone of  mental culture, are valuable under other
forms of government, they are indispensable  under
ours. And that, while by the possession and  proper
use of them, we may  attain, as a people, an unparal-
leled degree of social felicity, and rise to the loftiest 
8
point  of political  greatness,  we must sink,  without
them, through corruption and misrule, to the deepest
abyss of degradation and misery.   Such  is the nature
of  our  government, that  we cannot  hold a midAvay
course.   To one extreme  or the  other we as neces-
sarily tend, as  the  needle does to  the  pole, or  the
plummet to the  centre.*
   *It would be easy to show, that, under the government of the
United States, a very limited amount of school-learning, diffused
among the  people, is calculated, politically speaking, to injure,
rather than to benefit them.   I allude to that degree of attainment,
which qualifies them merely  to read newspapers,  and  understand
the meaning of what they contain, without enabling them to judge
of its soundness.   A people  only thus far instructed, are in the
fitest of all conditions to be imposed on and misled by artful dema-
gogues and dishonest presses. When party  spirit runs high, and
the political passions become inflamed,  they are induced, by in-
triguing men, to read papers only on one side  of the question.  The
consequence is plain.  Not being able to judge of the truth of the
matter laid before  them, as respects either  the fitness of men, or
the tendency of measures, they are liable to be seduced  into the
most ruinous courses. Were  they unable to read at all, or did they
never see a newspaper, their condition would  be less dangerous.
Demagogues would have less power to delude and injure them.  In
the present state of our country, it is emphatically true, as relates
to the great body of the people, that
          " A little learning is a dangerous thing."
   The only remedy for the  evil consists in  the reformation of the
public  presses, or the diffusion of more  learning, knowledge, and
virtue among the people. The former, it is to be  apprehended, is
not soon to be looked for.  On the latter alone, therefore, rest the
fate of our government, and the hope of our country.  Let the
community at large be taught to think correctly and feel  soundly,
and they will not only have a secure protection against the false-
hood and corruption of  the presses; those sources of mischief will
cease to be encouraged.  They must then choose between  reforma-
tion and extinction.  At the present moment, some  of our public
presses are the arch-engines of evil to our country, and a disgrace
to the human character. 
9
    Such  you  already  know  to  be the  difference
between the conditions of educated and uneducated
nations.   Nor have you now to learn,  that between
the standing and enjoyments of different classes and
individuals of  the  same nation, a like difference is
produced, by different kinds  and  degrees of intellec-
tual training.   Hence the inference, alike  true and
momentous, which can neither be too earnestly incul-
cated on youth, nor too extensively  promulgated to
the world, that to education, in the true meaning of
the term, is man  indebted  for all  he possesses calcu-
lated to sweeten, dignify, and  embellish life, and ren-
der it an object of desire  to a being endoAved  Avith
intelligence and taste.   In an uncultivated  condition,
man is the most abundant  source of evil and  misery
to his fellow-man, as well as to himself.   These  con-
siderations enforce, as a paramount duty,  on pupils
diligence and ardour in the prosecution of their stu-
dies;  on teachers,  zeal and  faithfulness in the  high
trust committed to  them,  and on all, the encourage-
ment and promotion of the great work of instruction;—
that work, Avhich is to direct the movements and settle
the destinies, not alone of our own country,  but of the
human  family; and not alone of the present inhabi-
tants of the globe, but of all future  generations.   But,
waving  any further  reference to the general  influence
of education, I shall offer  to you  a few remarks on
some of its more  particular bearings.
    It has long  been inculcated, as a political maxim,
that, in  every country, the  education of  youth  should
conform to the  character of the existing government.
In the  enforcement of this, the nations of antiquity,
especially the Romans, Greeks, and Persians, were
              B 
10
 inflexible.  A deviation from the custom, if stubborn-
 ly persisted in, would have subjected the offender to
 banishment or death.   Nor are modern nations  in-
 different  to the policy, although they do not enforce
 it by so  severe a  penalty.*  The object of it is, to
 cultivate  in the minds of the people a spirit of loyalty,
 and a sentiment of patriotic attachment to their politi-
 cal institutions.  These feelings, united to a well regu-
 lated pride of country, may be made to minister, in a
 high degree, to the strength of a nation,  and the wel-
 fare of its  inhabitants.   Is the form of government
 monarchical?  According to the views I am consid-
 ering, principles and  opinions favourable to that form
 should  be  inculcated in seats of  learning of  every
grade, but  especially in those  erected  for children.
First impressions on this subject are not  easily eradi-
cated.   On the contrary, if they are judiciously and
forcibly made, they become a portion of the individ-
ual,  and  are as lasting as life.   It  is all important,
therefore, that  they be correct.   Is the  government
aristocratical,  democratical,  or mixed?    Policy  re-
quires that the same  rule be observed in the business
   * Within the last few years, the despotisms of Europe are be-
coming much more strict, on the subject of education.  The Uni-
versities of Germany, Prussia, and Russia and her dependencies,
are compelled, under heavy penalties, to conform, in their social
and political doctrines, to those of the governments, within whose
jurisdiction they stand. The principle there is deeply abused, be-
cause it is perverted to the support of injustice and tyranny.  The
subversion of the University of Wilna is an instance of this, which
will not be forgotten.  Future times will class it with the destruc-
tion of the Alexandrian Library.  Still the lesson taught by these
practices is the same—that  the permanence of a government de-
pends, in a high degree, on the education of those, who are citizens
or subjects of it. 
11
of  instruction.  From  their  earliest  years,  pupils
should be accustomed  to such  views,  and imbued
with such sentiments, as may render them friendly to
the institutions which protect them.
    As relates to this subject, it is worthy of serious
inquiry, what course may  be most advantageously
pursued, in our own country?  Our government is
peculiar;  in several  important particulars, materially
different from all others.  It is, in a special manner,
much more purely federative than any other that has
been  heretofore framed.   And this not only ranks
with its strongest features; as a fundamental principle,
it is second only to one  other.   Next to the Freedom
and Independence of the States, their Union on fed-
ederative ground  is the most vital provision of the
government, and should be  held the most inviolable.
It is that which our purest patriots and wisest states-
man have most highly  prized, and the possible sub-
version  of which  they  have contemplated with the
deepest solicitude.   The reason is obvious.   Every
consideration bearing on the subject proclaims it the
most essential to our security, peace, and power, as a
nation, and to our welfare, as a people.  And now
that there  hangs over it a storm-cloud of portentous
aspect, ready to discharge on it its accumulated thun-
ders, it has become  the duty, not only of every rea-
sonable and virtuous American, but of every one not
maddened by passion, or hardened by crime, to in-
quire  anxiously  how the impending desolation may
be averted?  Be it our business, then, on the present
occasion, to endeavour to answer the question, "Can
any scheme of education be projected, calculated to
STRENGTHEN THE UNION OF  THE  STATES?"  My 
12
reply is affirmative; and I give it confidently.  That
such a scheme can be devised, it is impossible for me
to doubt; nor am I without hope that it may also be
executed.  The nation possesses ample power, as
well as the necessary means for carrying into  effect
the measures contemplated.   I trust, therefore, that
it will not be wanting in the disposition to use  them,
as all  that is most important to it, both now and in
future, may depend on the issue.  For, should Dis-
union take place, it will not be an evil of inconside-
rable magnitude, or brief duration.   The breach  will
be as wide as pole  from pole, and as lasting as  the
elements of the human mind—unless it should give
place  to a forced consolidation, under a  military
despotism.  Edifices overthrown, cities laid in  ashes,
fortresses erased,  and navies destroyed may  all be
rebuilt, and appear again in renovated  freshness  and
beauty; and fields wasted by the hand of the spoiler
may  be restored by  industry and  the bounties of
nature.  But, once demolish  the fair  fabric of the
federal government, and  no earthly power can re-
construct it.   The mutual repulsiveness of its parts
will render their disseverance eternal; and its mighty
fragments, spread  over the surface of a dilapidated
empire, while they constitute the most  mournful  and
magnificent ruin that time has witnessed, will  pre-
sent  an everlasting monument of the madness of
those, whose hands disunited  them.
    Were the question proposed to me, " In what are
the  citizens of the United States, as a people, most
dangerously deficient?"  I would answer decisively,
 in a spirit of nationality—in that expanded and
practical loyalty  and  devotedness, which identify 
13
mankind with their native land.   That Americans
love their country, I  do not deny.   But they love
it only in subdivisions.   Their patriotism,  as indi-
viduals, does not cordially embrace the whole of it.
From  living under state governments, and feeling
their influence first and most immediately, especially
in personal and social interests, they are rendered so
sectional in their sentiments and sympathies, as to be
much more  of state than national patriots.   I regret
to add, that, in some sections of the country,  strong
and illiberal antipathies  are  fostered against others.
This unfortunate defect  of national patfiotism  was
strikingly exemplified in  several occurrences, during
the late war with Great Britain.  Did the enemy in-
vade any one of the States?  The inhabitants of it,
indignant at the insult, and deeming his footsteps a
blot in their  heraldry,  and a dishonour to their soil,
were ready to rise in mass to repel or  destroy him.
But the citizens of one State  felt much less solicitude
to expel the foe from the territory of another, more
especially a remote one.   When the West  and the
North  were the  seat of war, the East and the South
seemed scarcely sensible that the enemy was in their
country.  And the same was  true of the other sec-
tions of the  Union, when the  conflict  was  at a dis-
tance.   Many other alarming examples of a want of
national patriotism might be  easily cited.    In the
present condition of the  Republic, it is scarcely pos-
sible for the case to be otherwise.   Sectional and sel-
fish feelings and attachments are the natural growth
of sectional divisions and governments.  The States
are not sufficiently sensible of their dependence on
each other for the prosperity they enjoy.   They do 
11
not seem to know (or knowing, they forget,) that they
resemble a pyramid formed of columns, where each
one contributes to the strength of the  structure, and
where the removal of one endangers the fell of those
that remain.  In their pride and self-confidence, they
do not bear in mind that each one of them is neces-
sary to  the protection  and welfare of every other,
and that the  nation, which is the political offspring
of their union, gives protection to the whole. Nor
is it easy, in a period of peace and safety, to teach
them  this important truth.   They would learn it
much more readily under the pressure of adversity,
especially under that of a foreign war, (could  such a
one arise) which  would be dangerous to their Inde-
pendence.  The late Avar, already referred  to, was
not of that description.  No power  of the  enemy,
either in the field or on the ocean, nor  any  he was
able to bring to the contest, could have endangered,
in the slightest degree,  the freedom of the States.
   That my subsequent remarks, on the influence of
the scheme of education I purpose to recommend,
may be the more easily understood, and the more
correctly appreciated, it is requisite that I premise a
few further propositions.  In the  system of our fede-
ral  government, as in every other system,  where
action is maintained, there are two powers  in con-
stant operation.   And  they are  necessarily antago-
nists.  In the present case, they  are the  centripetal
and the centrifugal; and, although in direct opposi-
tion to each other, they are alike indispensable to  the
existence and perfection of the machinery they keep
in  motion.   But  a  fair equilibrium  between them
must  be maintained.   Destroy,  or too  far enfeeble 
15
either, and  the  other, taking the  ascendency,  and
acting without control, will produce confusion, if not
ruin.   The  solar system furnishes  the best illustra-
tion of this.   Its principles and movements constitute
the most perfect exemplar on the subject.  The cen-
tripetal power there is lodged in the sun, and holds
the planets  and their satellites  to  that body, while
the centrifugal attaches to the planets, and  tends to
throw them from him.  Let the former prevail, and
all  the subordinate members of the system will tum-
ble headlong into the central orb.  This would be
consolidation.   Let the latter predominate, and, in
the words of the poet, the same members will  "fly
lawless through the void," to the annoyance, if not
the overthrow of other systems.   This would be an-
archy.   To apply my illustration.
    In the federal system, the  national government
represents the sun, and the States and Territories the
planets that revolve around  him.   The federal Con-
stitution is the centripetal poAver, intended to retain
the States in their orbits;  and, through the  medium
of  their own constitutions, and the sentiments in
favour of their sovereignty and rights possessed and
warmly cherished by their citizens, the States have
the centrifugal power in  themselves.  While these
two forces balance  each other, the movements they
maintain and control will be regular, the harmony of
the system  will continue, the union will  be stable,
and the country prosperous.   In strict obedience to
constitutional law, the States will perform their duties
to their own citizens, to each other, and to the whole
Republic; and the national government will commit
no  usurpation of state  privileges.   Free  from  the 
16
danger of disturbing influences, the great federative
machine of state, complete and in good condition in
all its parts, will move magnificently onward, midway
betAveen the calm of consolidation, and the convul-
sions of disunion.  And it will present, in its course,
an unrivalled  spectacle of  moral  grandeur and na-
tional glory.   Some view  of the  opposite  state of
things, proceeding from  conflicting causes, will be
given hereafter.
   Here a question of infinite moment presents itself
to our consideration:  "Which of the two powers of
the federal system, the centripetal or the centrifugal,
gives  the fairest promise to gain strength with  years,
and ultimately predominate?"   To  this  an answer
may be easily given.  I regret to add,  that events
have  occurred to answer it  already, in  a way that
portends calamity to our  country.  The federal con-
stitution, as heretofore mentioned, forms the centripe-
tal power; and every thing that bears on the subject
shows,  that it derives no  additional strength from
time.   It  has not yet received, nor, from present ap-
pearances, does it seem likely to receive from the
people or  the States, that  sentiment of veneration and
regard, to which it is entitled, both on account of the
wisdom which marks it, and the pure  and august
source  from Avhich it emanated.   On the contrary,
there is too much  reason to believe,  that, as it in-
creases in age, it decreases  in strength;  that many
politicians are much more anxious to find blemishes
than  excellencies in it; or  if they can not find them,
to imagine them, or make them by false construc-
tions ; that it has therefore become an instrument of
much less authority with the States and the citizens, 
17
 than it was in former years; and that there is a grow-
 ing  disposition in the  country to weaken it still fur-
 ther, if not to treat it with entire disregard.  In fine,
 instead of being venerated, as it once was, as the re-
 cord of a voluntary  and solemn compact between
 the  States,  reminding them  of  their early  alliance
 and plighted faith, admonishing  them of their high-
 est interests, and binding them on principles of justice
 to their duties to each other, and to the nation, it is
 looked  on, by too many, with jealousy and dislike,
 as if it were a system  of fetters, framed without au-
 thority, and arbitrarily fastened on the members of
 the  Union, to clog their movements, and deprive them
 of full scope and freedom of action.
    Such, I say, is the case with the centripetal power
 of  the  federal  system.   In strength and influence
 it is palpably on the decline.  But  the condition of
 the  centrifugal  power is  widely  different.  That its
 strength is increasing with an alarming rapidity, can-
 not be denied, and ought not to be concealed.  The
 danger it portends should be boldly confronted, and
 unyieldingly  counteracted, by every means that can be
 brought into the contest.  Although the constitutions
 of the States, in which the centrifugal power is partly
 lodged, remain unchanged, it is far otherwise with
 the  spirit of state sovereignty, and the  opinion of
 state rights  among the people.  Within the  last ten
 years, or even a shorter period, they have been more
 than quadrupled in strength.  As relates to the sub-
ject  of them, sentiments are now  openly avowed, not
 only in the current discourse of certain political cir-
 cles, but in  public meetings and the capitol of the
 nation, which,  twenty years ago, would  have been
              c 
18
reprobated as seditious, if not punished as treasona-
ble.   Persons  uttering them would not only have
forfeited  public confidence;  they would  have lost
their standing in social life, and been stigmatized, as
disturbers of good order, corrupters of the commu-
nity, and enemies of the  country.  Those who were
once treated as conspirators against the Union, under
a celebrated character still living, never, in their most
secret communications, used language half so threat-
ening,  nor a fiftieth  part as  baleful  in its  effects, as
certain  honourable  legislators, and other  men of
distinction  do now, in the face of the nation.  But
words are only the heralds of deeds.  In such cases,
the usual course of human conduct is, to speak first
—in the commencement perhaps cautiously  and in
whispers, then more boldly  and audibly—and ulti-
mately to act.  Men  rarely plunge at once into con-
summate guilt.   Cataline had been a deep gambler, a
practised seducer, and a contemner of the gods, be-
fore he became the chief of traitors.  And  Arnold
had projected  various other fraudulent schemes to
possess  himself of  wealth,  before he  attempted to
sell his  country.  Thus, the meditated crime being
gradually approached, and rendered familiar by con-
versation and  reflection, its commission follows as a
matter of course.   So true is it, that
         " Vice is a monster of such frightful mien,
         " As to be hated, needs but to he seen;
         "But, seen too oft,  familiar with her face,
         " We first endure, then pity, then embrace."
 Such will  be the issue of the audacious and  unprin-
 cipled conduct of some of those, who speak so lightly
 of the federal  constitution, and so boldly of severing 
19
the Union.  They will pass from words to acts, and
attempt treason.   So  dangerous are deviations from
virtue, even in thought!
    But the circumstance, which, beyond  all others,
will strengthen the centrifugal tendency of  the States,
and thus  derange the balance of the system, is their
growth in population, wealth, and power.   In plainer
terms, their increase in  magnitude and   weight, as
political bodies.    That this will add to their disposi-
tion to recede from their federal centre, is  as certain,
as  that the  momentum of a large moving body  is
greater than  that of a small  one, when  the velocity
of  each is the same.*   Were the planets,  which be-
long to the solar  system, daily increasing in size and
weight, without a corresponding  increase in the sun,
   * Admitting that the centripetal and centrifugal powers of the
system were in equilibrium, when the federal government was es-
tablished, it is impossible for them to remain so, unless the federa-
tive ties be strengthened.  From the rapidity of their growth, in
population and wealth, the individual States feel their strength and
consequence increasing, in a corresponding ratio.  From this cause
they are less sensible of their dependence on each other and on the
nation.  They resemble the high spirited minor, advancing to ma-
turity, who feels every day less dependent on his parents and family.
Nor is this all.  Fresh sectional interests are opening and strength-
ening, which the States believe they could manage best themselves,
were they uncontrolled by national influence.  By these several
causes their centrifugal power, and their disposition to exercise it,
are necessarily augmented.   The balance between the  two  con-
trolling powers of the system, therefore, is not as perfect now, as it
was at the beginning.  And, unless prevented by suitable measures
tending to strengthen the centripetal bands, it will become every
day less so, until disunion must ensue.  Thus are the elements of
dissolution incorporated in the very nature of the federal system, and
nothing but wisdom, virtue, and energy can counteract their tenden-
cy. I regret the gloominess of this representation.  But my regret
is deepened, in a tenfold degree, from a conviction that it is true. 
20
they would ultimately escape from his  control, and
fly from their orbits into the wilds of space.   And
such, it is to be apprehended, will be the fate of the
States  of the Union, unless the centripetal power be
strengthened.  But no modification of the constitu-
tion of the United States to that effect can be made,
without the calling of a general convention.   And
even then, under the influence of the popular  views
and feelings,  which now pervade the country, there
is reason to believe  that that instrument would  be
made Aveaker, rather than stronger.   By far the most
effectual way then, if not the only way, to attain the
desired end, is to enlighten and nationalize the peo-
ple—^to augment their intelligence and virtue, and  in-
fuse into them a fuller measure of the federal spirit,
to the  exclusion of a portion of that which attaches
them inordinately to the States,  and to what are
erroneously considered their rights.
    Am I asked  how this purpose is to be effected?
I answer, chiefly in two modes.  The general diffu-
sion of sound education, in whatever way  it  might
be done, would greatly contribute to it.   By enligh-
tening the minds of the  multitude, and enlarging
their views, it would fit them the better to embrace
and comprehend federal measures, and set a proper
estimate on national  concerns.  They would then be
convinced, by the exercise of their intellects, that
both their interest and their duty bind  them to  the
Union; and the moral influence of suitable training
would complete the work.   But such training would
be indispensable.  All experience testifies,  that it is
not Avise in us to trust our conduct, in matters of in-
tense excitement, to the government of reason alone. 
21
 We are too much swayed by feeling to be secure un-
 der such direction.  All our faculties, then, moral and
 social, as well as intellectual, should be so disciplined,
 as  to harmonize  with each other,  and be rendered
 subservient to the same end.   Then would intelli-
 gence and virtue become the sponsors and foster par-
 ents of nationality, and do their part in counterbalan-
 cing the growing centrifugal tendency of the States.
   „ Another measure calculated to promote the same
 object is, to accustom the people, as much as possible,
 to contemplate national objects, and  weigh national
 interests; to approach them familiarly,  make  them
 topics of family and fire-side consideration and dis-
 course, experience constantly more or less of their
 influence, and thus become identified with them in
 their feelings.  To effect this,  every  thing that will
 admit of it, ought to be federalized—instituted I mean
 on  federative  principles, and arranged on a federate
 plan.  Like the general  government, it  should em-
 brace the States,  and have a national centre.  Thus
 we  have a national Judiciary,  Treasury, and Post-
 office establishment, whose influence in strengthening
 the  Union might be made immense.  A national Bank
 and Mint, more especially the former, contribute not
 a little to the same end, by interweaving  and identi-
 fying remote interests, supplying the people with a
national and uniform currency, and facilitating, be-
yond any other means, the intercourse of the States
 with each other, through  the channels of commerce
 and trade,   I doubt whether this effect of a national
Bank has  ever been considered and appreciated as it
deserves.  To me it  appears important.  Yet  I do
not  know that it was  even alluded to, in the debates 
22
of Congress respecting that institution.  Did time and
the occasion permit me to dwell on the  subject, the
nationalizing influence of  the United States Bank
might be clearly demonstrated.  Nor am I sure that
a national debt, to a reasonable amount, is a national
evil.  On the contrary, I verily believe, that it has
been to us a national blessing, and would so continue,
under  suitable  management.  A general scheme of
national roads  and canals, especially rail-roads,-by
facilitating travelling and other modes of intercourse,
and thus virtually contracting the boundaries of the
empire, would  minister incalculably to  the strength
of the  Union.   A few millions of dollars appropriated
annually in this way, for a short term of years, would
tend to save us from disunion, anarchy, and blood,
and might avert from us the necessity of expending
hereafter tenfold as much in destructive wars.  Nor
should the scheme to produce nationality  terminate
here.   Let the professions of Theology and Medicine
be also nationalized.  Let them, I mean, be so orga-
nized,  and their members so formed  into societies, as
to have currents of influence setting from each of the
States, and from different sections of the same State,
to be concentred in a great federal reservoir; and let
the issues from that reservoir be diffused, in return,
throughout the  Union.  And let Temperance, Peace,
Colonization, Bible, and Tract societies, and other in-
stitutions founded for moral and benevolent purposes,
be similarly organized and administered.   Let them
also have each a national  centre, and become nurse-
ries of federal feeling throughout the States.  Add to
these a society, nationalized in the same way, whose
sole object shall be the preservation of the Union; 
23
and the joint influence and benefits of the whole may
be made incalculable—I trust irresistable.   By com-
municating to the people proper views, and cultivating
and maturing in them correct feelings, with regard to
the rights, powers, and beneficial effects of the general
government, they will operate with a force altogether
unknown to mere statute laws.
   As time does not permit me to detail these schemes,
and exhibit them in all their elements and bearings,
I must be content with the brief reference to them
already made, and shall only add, that no difficulty
need  attend  the  establishment or administration of
them.   Should the experiment ever be fairly made,
our country will have reason to rejoice in the issue.
    But above all, let there be established  a national
scheme of early education.  If  wisely  planned and
organized, and ably conducted, that will become par-
amount, in its influence, to all the others.   It may be
rendered in time so powerful  an engine, in reviving
the faded nationality of the people, as to save the
Republic from the dangers Avhich threaten it.
    Youth is the period for the formation of habits.
The entire  being  of man is then flexible, and  may
be moulded at pleasure.
         " 'Tis education forms the common mind,
         " Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined."
"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when
he is old he will not depart from it."   Let the educa-
tion of youth  then be sufficiently federalized, and the
Union is secure.  The discontent of baffled ambition,
backed by a  spirit of faction and conspiracy,  may
occasionally  assail it;  but  its discomfiture wiH be
as that of the billows, which break  against the cliff, 
24
and fall in defeated fragments at its base.  Let each
American  youth feel that  he  is  educated for  the
Republic, and under its parental wing, and his being
will become national.   He will  have incorporated
with his nature the attachment of an ancient Persian
to his  country,  and  the  firmness  of a  Roman in
defending it.  And that attachment will be strictly
federal.  He Avill not love any portion of his country
less than he does under the present plans of educa-
tion; but he Avill love his whole country much more.
    The outline of a federalized scheme of education
may be briefly sketched.   It should embrace one uni-
versity in each State, with as many colleges, academies,
high-schools, and other subordinate seats of instruc-
tion, as may conform to the number, wants, and re-
sources of the people.  Add a National University,*
   *I know it has been objected to a National University, that it
will tend to produce a consolidation of the government.  The ap-
prehension is not only unfounded but ludicrous.  Let young men
be educated where they may, they will retain a sufficient amount
of state and sectional feeling to induce them to  oppose consolida-
tion.  So will the people at large.  That event can never take
place, except as a consequence of a dissolution of the Union.  One
of the necessary effects of disunion will be war between the States.
Out of this may arise some great and successful military chieftian,
who will conquer and subjugate the whole country.  A belief that
the government can be consolidated, on any other ground, is chim-
erical.  The natural tendency of the Union is to dissolution.  And,
unless that issue be guarded against, by every possible expedient,
it will inevitably occur.  Consolidation, on the other hand, is, from
the structure  of the Union, unnatural, as must appear to every one,
who  has made himself acquainted with it, and  who observes and
thinks.  I repeat, therefore, that nothing but military power can
produce it.  And no one can acquire a sufficiency of that power for
such a purpose, while the Union shall endure. 
25
as a federal centre, to which, in magnitude and means,
the other universities and colleges shall stand related,
somewhat  as the state governments do the national,
and the arrangement will  be complete.   Throughout
this great confederation of schools, by  far  the most
magnificent and powerful  ever erected, whose accu-
mulated light may be  made to reach, in time, the re-
motest confines of civilization, and penetrate even the
abodes of barbarism—in all these institutions, I say, let
such uniformity of instruction and discipline prevail,
that the lower may be suitable nurseries to the higher—
schools, technically so called, to academies, academies
to colleges, colleges to universities, and State universi-
ties to the National one, so that a family resemblance
may mark, and a kindred spirit actuate the whole.
In each one of this great nation of schools let the in-
estimable value of the federal union, and the para-
mount duty of preserving it, be thoroughly inculcated
by text-books and lectures—on the minds of children
incapable of comprehending the  reason of it, as  a
matter of faith, and on those of pupils more mature,
as a political truth, founded in the philosophy of hu-
man nature, and amply sustained  by history and ex-
perience.   Let a course like this be steadily pursued,
and I repeat, that the  union  of the States, cemented
originally by  the  blood of our fathers, and further
confirmed  by the sentiments of our posterity, will be
indissoluble.   So hopeless will be any attempt at dis-
union, that it will turn to quixotism;  and faction  and
intrigue will ultimately cease to dream of the project.
But, as has been already done, with regard to several
other topics, which have been only referred to, I must
again plead a want of time to analyze fully a federa-
              D 
26
 tive scheme of education, and discuss it in all its points
 and relations.  I shall therefore confine such further
 remarks, as I may have  to offer, to a single but lead-
 ing feature of it, a National University.
     In commendation of such an institution, we have
 as high  authority  as the Avorld can furnish, in favour
 of any untried experiment.  Washington, the father
 of his country, and one  of the most  unerring  judges
 of men and human affairs, earnestly urged its estab-
 lishment on the  legislature of the  nation.   Adams
 the elder, and Jefferson, two of the most distinguished
 statesmen and  sages that time has produced, did the
 same.   So  did Madison, who, in  depth of research,
 and solidity of judgment is  inferior to none  of his
 predecessors in the  Presidency.   So did Monroe,
 than whom a purer  minded  statesman, or a more
 honourable man, never graced the annals of patriot-
 ism.  And so did Adams the younger, who, for brill-
 iancy of genius, philosophical acuteness, and variety
 and extent of attainment, has no superior among his
 contemporaries.  Why the present chief magistrate
 has  declined to recommend  the  establishment of a
 National University, it does not fall within my province
 to inquire.  I shall not however disguise my  regret
 for his failure; the more especially, as  the present
 would be a most opportune period for the enterprise,
 the treasury being full,  the revenue abundant, and
 the national debt nearly extinguished.  Nor do I hes-
itate to add, that the establishment of the institution
would be infinitely more useful to the nation, and
would therefore, in an equal degree, confer more re-
nown on the chief magistrate, than the extinction of
the debt. 
27
    But, in favour of the erection of a National Univer-
 sity, there may be adduced other and weightier rea-
 sons, than the mere opinions of illustrious men.   The
 institution would raise to an unprecedented height in
 our country,  the tone of education, the standard of
 literature and science, and the rank and influence of
 their successful cultivators.  Thus would it not only
 prove to the nation a source of additional power and
 splendour at  home;  it would  increase, in an  equal
 degree, its foreign renown, and consequently its weight
 in inter-national concerns.   Am I asked in what way
 it would produce effects so extensive and  beneficial?
 I answer, through  sundry channels, a few of which
 shall be briefly considered.
    In grandeur, and all other imposing  and useful
 qualities,  the  University would correspond with the
 resources of the nation, and  the high character of the
 people for intellect and energy.  The buildings would
 be spacious, splendid, and commodious; the libraries
 extensive  and judiciously selected, and the suits  of
 apparatus complete—well fitted for  the purposes  of
 science, and prepared in the highest and costliest style.
 To these  fundamental requisites, all the other provi-
sions  of the institution would  conform.  The funds
 would be ample, the professorships  sufficiently nu-
merous to embrace every requisite point of knowledge
whether practical or ornamental, and filled  by the
ablest  and best qualified teachers; in the arrange-
ments  for exercise, amusement, and manly accom-
plishments, convenience and elegance would be skil-
fully united, and the whole would be  organized on
the most approved plan and principles of instruction. 
28
It would be an institution of modern  times, suited to
a liberal and enlightened period, not a servile copy of
originals that have descended to us from ages of igno-
rance and superstition.  The site would be some con-
venient spot in the District of Columbia, open to the
eye of the  nation and the world,  and subject to the
exciting and elevating influences of proximity to the
seat of the most august government that man has es-
tablished.   In fine;  the institution, when complete,
would be a great national monument of elegance and
sublimity for taste to  admire, and of usefulness for
judgment to approve and imitate.
    Thus provided with all that literature and science
require for their advancement, and suitably adminis-
tered by faculties  worthy of it,  the institution would
operate powerfully and beneficially in a threefold way;
on other seats of learning; on its own pupils; and on
the country at large.   I shall  offer a few remarks, by
way of illustration, under each of  these heads.
    Inspired by the example of the central univer-
sity, and  resolved on being as slightly eclipsed by it
as possible, and of rendering themselves, if not suc-
cessful competitors of it, at least worthy collaborators
in the same great cause, State universities and colleges
would imitate it in their provisions, and exertions to
excel.  They would, in a particular  manner, add to
their  libraries and  suits of apparatus, increase the
number of  their professorships,  select teachers of
higher qualifications to fill them, so  modify some of
their usages, as to fit them better to modern times,
and thus amend their style of instruction.  The ex-
 amples of the higher state institutions would be fol- 
29
lowed by the lower* ones, and an ambition to improve
would every where prevail, until the general condition
of education would be greatly enhanced, and ultimate-
ly perfected.
    This picture is no creation of the fancy.   In nei-
ther the drawing nor the colouring of it has the ima-
gination been  concerned.    Reason  and  experience
have  been  alone consulted in the work.  It is a rep-
resentation  founded in  nature,  and  conformable  to
two of the  strongest and  most  active faculties of the
    * One of the greatest evils of our country, as respects education,
 is the low  character and general incompetency  of the teachers of
 common schools.  The  leading object of the  inhabitants of most
 neighborhoods is to procure a " cheap school master," not a quali-
fied one.  In this they rarely succeed ; for though they may employ a
 thing called a teacher, to whom they pay but little, the sum they give
 him is thrown away—often much worse.   It is a price paid for initia-
 ting their children in bad habits—if not bad moral habits, miserable
 ones  as relates to  spelling, reading, writing,  ciphering, manners,
 and every  thing else  connected  with education.   Most country
 school masters are as unfit for their occupation as ignorance, illite-
 rary, and bad breeding can render them.   Those  who employ them
 to educate  their children, would scarcely confide to them the care
 of their cattle.  Some of them, I have seen, have reminded me of
 the school master met with, by an English traveller, in one of the
interior Provinces of  France.  "Pray  sir,"  said  the  traveller
"what do you teach these  children1?"  "Nothing,"  replied the
master. " Nothing! why sol '■'  " Because I know nothing myself."
"How long have you been a school master1?"  "Three years."
" What did  you do, before you became one? "  " I took care of the
chickens of the village." " Why did you follow such a humble em-
ployment'?" "Because I was fit for nothing  better."   It would
be well for many parents, in the United States, did they commit to
their school masters the care of their poultry yards, instead of that
of their children.  Until this radical and crying evil of incompe-
tent teachers of common schools shall be removed, it is folly to look
for  an improved education.   And nothing but higher salaries to
teachers can remove it. 
30
human  mind—the  propensities to imitate  and to
rival.  Man is essentially an imitative being;  and the
uniform direction of imitation is upward.  The high
never follow the  example of the low; the rich and
powerful of the feeble and  destitute.  The reverse is
the practice of the whole  human family.  I repeat
therefore, that such will be the  case with the  literary
institutions  of  our country.  The lower  will, as far
as possible, adopt the arrangements  and rules, and
aspire to the amended  teaching of the higher, until
the whole shall become instinct with the lofty spirit
of the National University, and shall vie with it in
practice.  Thus  will  the latter seat  of  learning be
not only a  great  centre-light, to diffuse its radiance
directly throughout the Union, but a source of power
to promote knowledge indirectly, by exciting other
institutions  to  laudable competition.   Like  the  sun
to the planets, whose  destiny he controls, it will give
light, and animation, and productiveness to the entire
federative system of schools.
    It has been alleged that the National University
will also operate powerfully, and to great advantage
on its OAvn pupils.  Nor is it conceivable how the case
can be otherwise.  It is a law of nature, that all things
produce in their own  likeness.   Great things are the
parents  of  great things, and small  things of small.
And this law  prevails as certainly in the moral  and
intellectual  world,  as  in  the  physical and  organic.
The human intellect then is no less subject to it than
the human body.   Wars, revolutions in nations,  and
other momentous occasions develop minds calculated
to act a suitable  part in them.   History abounds in
facts confirmatory of this.  The revolution  in Eng- 
31
land  produced  a Cromwell,  our own revolution  a
Washington, the French a Napoleon, and the South
American a Bolivar.  Great  deliberative assemblies
are the nurseries of great orators and debaters; and
Greece and Rome were indebted for their illustrious
men, to the grand events in the midst of Avhich they
grew.
    Such  will be the issue of the National University.
Great in  all its attributes, it will produce, on that
ground alone, corresponding effects in the formation
of scholars.  The  intellects of those educated in it,
will receive the  highest degree of development and
polish, of which they are susceptible.   Most  of its
pupils moreover, especially  that  portion  of  them
that shall  come from remote parts of the country,
will be youth of lofty promise—the elite of the na-
tion.  Few of any other description will  resort to it
from  a distance.  They will be peculiarly susceptible,
therefore,  of high excitement and honourable effort, in
relation to their  scholarship and intellectual standing.
Nor is it  easy to imagine a combination of circum-
stances, better fitted to produce such effects, than that
under the influence of which they will be placed.   In
whatever  is substantial and useful, as well as in what
is calculated to excite admiration and produce effect,
the institution itself,  as  already mentioned, will be
grand and impressive.  The very fact, therefore, of be-
ing a pupil of  it, and a candidate for its  honours, and
of having access to all its sources of improvement,
will be an incentive to ambitious aims and strenuous
efforts, in every mind of an elevated order.   Nor will
proximity  to the  seat of the national government, the
arena of great intellectual struggle and  achievement, 
32
and the theatre of vast and imposing events, fail to
contribute to the same end.   No youth of a common
spirit, much less of an aspiring  one, can remain un-
ambitious and inactive, in such a situation.  Nothing
can prevent him from resolving  and endeavouring to
prepare himself to apt, at  a future period, a distin-
guished part in the councils of his country—to become
a representative,  a senator,  a minister abroad,  one
of the heads of department at home, a judge of the
supreme court, or chief magistrate of the nation.
    Another circumstance which will operate on the
youth of the University, as  a powerful incentive to
attain distinction, will be, that their studies will  be
prosecuted and the result of them exhibited under the
eye of the  nation;  and not of this nation  alone, but
also of foreign ones.   The former of these effects will
take place through members of Congress and other
functionaries of the general government, who assem-
ble at Washington from all parts  of the United States,
and the latter through public ministers from abroad.
All striking occurrences in the University will become
known to these personages, who will rarely fail to give
them publicity.   In examinations and other modes of
trial, therefore, the standing and performances of the
pupils  will be subject to a  much  wider  inspection,
than those of the pupils of any other seat of learning.
Corresponding to this  will be  the extent of  the sphere,
through which  currency will be given to official re-
ports, and other forms of intelligence respecting merit
or the reverse—success or defeat, in contests for prizes
—honours  conferred,  or disgrace incurred.  Nor is
this all.  The youth of the University will  be assem-
bled not only from the several sections of  the United 
33
States;  the high reputation of the institution, united
to the spirit of liberty it will  foster, and  the  full de-
velopment that will be given, by its professors, to the
engrossing doctrine of human rights, will draw many
to it from foreign countries.   Some will repair to it
from Spanish  America and the West India  islands,
and  some from Greece,  Spain,  Poland, and  other
parts of Europe, where  personal and political free-
dom is prized.  A portion of  the intellectual chivalry
even of Great Britain, France, and Germany will be
found within  its  walls.  This  will become  another
ground of intense devotion to study.   It will produce
the most ardent and unremitting competition.  Among
the natives of the United States, the North  will en-
deavour to wrest the palm of scholarship from the
South, the East from the West, and  each  section of
the country from every other;  and between  Ameri-
cans and foreigners a similar struggle for pre-eminence
will be maintained.   In the latter case, the question,
whether the American mind  be, in any respect, infe-
rior to the European? will be finally put to rest, even
in the opinion of  uninformed  skeptics and prejudiced
enemies;  and our country will  not suffer in the com-
parison.   The issue will silence forever the impudent
prating, and cover with  odium the false statements
of the Halls and Trollopes,  and other unprincipled
British  scribblers, respecting the degeneracy  of man
in America.  No scene of competition equally anima-
ted will be exhibited in any other seat of the Muses.
The necessary result will be, pre-eminent excellence
in intellectual cultivation.   What  youth of a lofty
spirit and an ardent temperament, feeling that he has
intrusted to him a deep stake in the reputation of his
              E 
34
country, in a contest with a foreign one, or of the spot
where he was born, in a competition with another
portion of the same country, and  apprized  that the
result would be made extensively known to his own
honour or discredit—what high-minded young man,
engaged in such a trial* with  the eyes of those most
dear to him, rivetted on him, and their hopes and
fears alive to the issue, would fail to struggle for suc-
cess, virtually under the motto of "victory or death?"
What youth, I repeat, worthy of a place in the first
literary institution on earth, would not rather sink
under the toils of intense and unabated  study, than
fail in such a contest?  My appeal is to yourselves,
as a body of young men, familiar with ambition and
the pride that becomes you.   And I feel confident,
that, were you now to reply to it, your answer would
be none.   Under these circumstances, the graduates
of the University would be among the foremost schol-
ars of the age, and must attain a similar rank as phi-
losophers and statesmen, civilians and members of
the other learned professions.  The influence of this
state of things, with some of its accompaniments, on
the destinies of the Union, will be adverted to hereaf-
ter.   In  the mean time, its beneficial effects on the
prosperity of the country, and its standing with other
nations, must be obvious to every one.
    The maxim, that knowledge is power, is as true of
communities as of individuals.  Other things being
equal, the most enlightened people prove always vic-
torious,  in every contest, whether civil or military.
Is there a struggle for superiority in agriculture, com-
merce, or the arts?  knowledge decides  it.   And, in
Avar, ignorance and barbarism readily yield to civili- 
35
 zation and  science:  The conquest of  Mexico and
 Peru, by the Spaniards, and of numerous and pow-
 erful tribes of Indians, by the cavaliers of Jamestown
 and the pilgrims of Plymouth, are in proof of this.
 Nor, when all the circumstances of the case are taken
 into view, is the subversion of the Roman  empire, by
 the  hordes  of the north, in contradiction of it.   The
 knowledge  elicited and diffused through  our country,
 then, by the National University, will give us strength
 and splendour at home, and that will give us standing
 and influence abroad.   Deference will be always paid
 to us, our rights will be respected, and our friendship
 courted  by  other  nations, precisely in proportion to
 our  power  to protect  our rights, command respect,
 and confer  favours.  And that power will be in the
 ratio of the knowledge we possess, and  our wisdom
 and energy in bringing it into action.
    Am I asked, how the operations of a literary in-
 stitution, erected merely for the instruction of youth,
 can  produce such effects in strengthening the Repub-
 lic?  I answer, by enlightening the Republic, and
 diffusing through it sound and patriotic  dispositions,
 and  thus making it one.  It will be understood that
 the unity to which I allude is not a consolidation of
 the States, but a strict compliance, by them, with the
 duties enjoined  on them  by the federal  constitution.
 And this end will be greatly promoted, by the knowl-
edge communicated to youth, and the national spirit
cultivated and  confirmed in them, by the  education
 received in the National University.  That education
 will be so far federal,* as to represent federal princi-

   * Education rarely does more than it is intended  to do.  The
same  form of education, therefore, is not equally suitable for every 
36
pies and measures in their true character and rela-
tions, show them  to be  indispensable to the welfare
of the country, and in this way implant securely a
due regard  for them in  the juvenile  mind.   The
youth  thus instructed will ripen into men, and con-
duct, at a  future period, the affairs of the common-
wealth.  They will  become members of  the state
and general governments, and  may acquire, in time,
an influence not to be resisted, in maintaining harmo-
ny between them.   Perfectly master of the principles
of both, as well as of their delicate and important re-
lations, and  having no preponderating  biases on the
subject, they will  be the most competent judges and
the safest  arbiters, in all cases of difficulty between
them.  While they will prevent usurpation, on  the
part of  the national  government, they  will  so far
moderate  the  claims  of the  States, as to keep them
in obedience to the federal constitution.
    But this is not the only channel, through  which
the  National University will benefit us, as a people.
It will form not only great statesmen  and legislators,
but philosophers,  historians,  poets, and other men of
letters, of similar standing.   And each of these class-
es contributes its part to the power and prosperity of
a nation.  Whatever develops the natural resources
of a country adds to its strength.  But an enlighten-
ed philosophy alone can do this.  It alone can unlock
purpose.  That man may be well fitted to his destiny, he must be
carefully trained to it.  To imbue Americans, then, with true federal
and national feelings, they must be federally and nationally educa-
ted.  In no other way is it possible to foster and confirm in them
that attachment to the Union and the nation as a whole, which is
essential  to the preservation of the former and the due strength
and aggrandizement of the latter. 
37
 the  rich stores  of mineralogy, geology,  botany, and
 natural history,  and give free access to them.  And
 they are abundant sources of power  as well  as  of
 wealth.  The same is true of chemistry, mechanical
 philosophy, and the different branches of mathematics,
 more especially  astronomy, navigation, and engineer-
 ing.  They also are sinews of national strength.  And
 all these will be greatly advanced among us, by phi-
 losophers and mathematicians formed  by the system
 of instruction, to which I have referred; and of which
 a central University is to be the chief organ.  Great
 divines, physicians, and lawyers are likewise substan-
 tial and effective  elements of the  power of States.
 These also will  be the natural growth of a well con-
 ducted system of federal education.
   National  renown of every description is national
 strength.   To this, mere literary renown forms no
 exception.  It is not only an  element of power, but
 the most pure and lasting that belongs to the aggre-
 gate.   It endures long after the dissolution of all the
 others, and sheds a glory on their ruins.  By erecting
 a high literary standard, therefore, which the writers
 and  orators of the country shall emulate, a central
 University will add indirectly to the strength of the
 nation.  The warrior will wield his sword and direct
 his thunders  with the more spirit and effect, from a
 knowledge that  his story will betold and his deeds
celebrated by historians and poets of distinction; and
he will yield up  his life more gallantly, and with the
greater alacrity,  from a confidence that scholars will
erect to him a monument which will be unimpaired,
when mausoleums and pyramids shall be  but  frag-
ments  and  dust.   Of statesmen,  philosophers, and 
38
men of profession, the same is true.   They also are
cheered in their  labours, and strengthened in their
efforts to benefit their country, by the hope that their
names will survive, through some form of literary
composition.   So are all men of high standing and
public  usefulness—all, whose individual  reputation
may contribute to the renown of their native land.
Nature  has  implanted in them a love of fame,  as a
part of their  constitution;  and they do  their duty
more earnestly, and  to better  effect, from a  secret
trust that  some memorial of  them  will descend to
posterity,  in the pages of the scholar.  Such are a
few of the channels, through Avhich literature adds to
the strength of a nation.
    The condition of our native tongue, in the United
States, is far from being creditable to us.   It is nearly
as colonial now, as it was when we  submitted to the
British yoke.   We have no American standard of
taste in it, to  which,  as a people, we are  willing to
conform.  True,  we  have the  productions of Web-
ster; and  they are  works of great labour, erudition,
and value.  But  they are far from  being generally
received by us, as authority in letters.  In a spirit
highly discreditable to us, as an independent people,
we look too much to  Great  Britain for instruction in
lexicography, philology, and  the entire range of polite
literature.  This  is a species of dependence and ac-
knowledged inferiority, not  only humiliating to our-
selves, but which detracts from our standing, in the
view of foreign nations, and so far tends to hmit our
influence with them.  In stronger language, it dimin-
ishes our power.   A dependent condition, as respects
any thing essential to existence, influence, or fame, is 
39
 incompatible with the possession of full power, either
 national or individual.   Great Britain, France, and
 Germany owe much of their strength to their entire
 independence—their possessing within themselves all
 that is necessary  to scientific and  literary existence
 and rank, as well as to national glory.  Of ancient
 Greece and Rome the same was true.  I allude es-
 pecially to pacific and social power—strength at home
 and an ability to exercise a weighty influence  over
 foreign nations,  by peaceful measures and a  high
 example.   This is the power of knowledge and wis-
 dom;  a possession  much more  honourable than a
 mere capability to enforce submission by arms;  and
 an enlightened independence, on the  score of verna-
 cular language, forms a part of it.   To our attainment
 of this point of independence, nothing else  would
 contribute so essentially, as a National University.
 By either producing within itself the requisite ele-
 mentary works, or sanctioning officially those produ-
 ced by American  learning and talents elsewhere, that
 institution would soon establish a standard of literary
 taste and authority, which would be adopted by schol-
 ars, as well as by the public.  Such an establishment
 would be not only  convenient and reputable to us,
 but highly beneficial.  Being itself national, it would
 contribute in an eminent degree, both directly  and
 indirectly, to the  formation of a national literature,
 and would have much influence  in nationalizing the
people.  While, by aiding to confer on us a name in
 letters, it would enhance our standing abroad, it would
also become a ground of national pride to us,  and
bear its part in  binding us to a  common  centre at
home.   Great Britain  owes much of the pride  and 
40
firmness that sustain her in all her trials, and no little
of the influence she exercises in Europe, to her pre-
eminence  in  letters.  Sir  Walter Scott has added
more to the  solid and  permanent  strength of that
empire, by his writings, than Lord Wellington did,
by the overthrow of Napoleon.   Germany also is ra-
pidly strengthening herself on similar ground.   And
we shall do the  same, as soon as our  federal system
of education  shall be completed.
    Some  branches of science would be advanced in
this  country  in a higher degree than others, by the
establishment of a National University.  This would
be the case, in a special manner,  with astronomy, in
which, from a want of suitable apparatus and encour-
agement,  we are extremely deficient.   The United
States does not contain  a single observatory that can
be  called  respectable, much less complete.  Every
establishment of the kind  we possess, is restricted in
its means.  Hence, we are compelled to look abroad
for all improvements in that department  of knowl-
edge, which  is so surpassing in sublimity, as well as
so useful, and therefore so peculiarly fitted to give dis-
tinction to a commmunity that successfully cultivates
it.   But a National University would  remedy this
defect.  Corresponding  in  excellence with its other
provisions, its observatory  would be  furnished with
every  thing  necessary  to explore the heavens,  and
make  further discoveries in them, and to acquire a
full and practical knowledge of those already made.
Other high institutions, following the example set by
the central one, would  make suitable improvements
in their observatories, until our country would be as
abundant, as it is now deficient, in the means of pros- 
41
 ecuting astronomical science.   We should then be
 prepared, not only to vie with the nations of Europe,
 in our acquaintance with the heavens, but to discharge
 in time our long standing debt of knowledge to them,
 as relates to that subject.  The advantages which this
 condition of things would  confer on us, as a nation,
 both at home and abroad,  are too obvious to need a
 recital.   They  may be  summed up in the single re-
 mark, that it would give us a standing and an influ-
 ence in the empire of mind, not surpassed by those
 of any other  people.
    One object of the University would be, to prepare
 such  pupils as  might be destined  for public, rather
 than professional or literary life, to become accom-
 plished statesmen,  financiers, and diplomatists.   The
 science  of political economy, therefore, and of natu-
 ral and  international law would  be extensively culti-
 vated in it.   So would  physical geography and the
 science  of mind, branches  indispensable in the di-
 rection of the affairs of an empire.   Without a com-
 petent knowledge of mental philosophy, and the phy-
 sical  character of the various sections and localities
 of the globe, it  is impossible to  become an  accom-
 plished statesman.  The truth of this might be easily
 made appear, by an analysis of the  duties  of such a
 personage.
    There is reason to believe that the  globe we in-
 habit, especially in its polar  regions, and in the great
 western and southern oceans, is far from being fully
 explored.  To complete its geography, as well as  for
 the promotion of commerce and  the arts, many dis-
coveries are yet to be made;  some of them  no doubt
highly important.  And they must be made by mari-
              F 
42
time nations, of which the United States must become
ultimately the greatest.  In the way  of discovery,
Great Britain, France and  Holland, Portugal and
Spain, have already done much;  our own country
very little.  Hitherto our youthfulness, as a nation, has
excused us; but it cannot, in justice, excuse us any
longer.  If our fleets and navies can visit every ocean
and sea, in the concerns of commerce and war, they
can also contribute, under proper management, to the
further exploration of the globe.  Let them be en-
gaged, then, to a reasonable  extent, in  that business.
One successful enterprise of  this kind, might do more
for the glory of our  country, and the benefit of our
race, than scores of naval victories.   But the faculties
of the National University, familiar with the wants of
science, as well as with the best means of supplying
them, and being in habits of  constant intercourse and
intimacy with the executive  department of the  gov-
ernment, and acting virtually as a  scientific council
to it,  might  do much in  the suggestion, encourage-
ment, and direction of voyages  of discovery.
   By many other channels, which time does not per-
mit me to enumerate, might  this great institution dif-
fuse its influence throughout the nation.  Even mem-
bers of congress, and other high functionaries of the
government, might be enlightened and liberalized by
it, and rendered more competent to the duties of their
stations.  Ignorance and illiteracy,  coming within its
sphere, would be instructed, or put to shame and ban-
ished by it; and, in either  case, we should be less
annoyed and dishonoured by them, in the high places
of the nation.  The government would be more under
the guidance of cultivated minds.  Legislators would 
43
 endite their own speeches, and public men of every
 description their official communications.   No officer
 of the nation would render himself an object of pity
 or derision, by being compelled either  to think  or
 write by proxy.
    Am I asked  what influence all this would have
 in strengthening the union of the states?  I answer, a
 vital one.   Sound knoAvledge and correct feeling, un-
 der the common  appellation of intelligence and virtue,
 are the  only powers that can perpetuate the Union.
 Other things may act as auxiliaries,  but they alone
 are the rock of our safety.  Compared to them, laws
 to suppress sedition and punish treason, and all other
 legislative enactments, even though enforced at the
 point of the bayonet, are but  threads  to cables.  An
 enlightened and truly virtuous people will cling to the
 Union, with a resolution that no artifice or temptation
 can shake, and a grasp which nothing but death can
 relax.   But  it has been.already shown, I trust satis-
 factorily, that education is the only  source  of intelli-
 gence and virtue, and that the best scheme of educa-
 tion for the United States, is that of which a National
 University shall  be  the  centre.  By such a scheme
 alone, as I verily believe, can the youth of our coun-
 try be so trained, as to be rendered  truly national in
 their character.   And if they be not thus nationalized,
 the Union must dissolve.  It will return to  its origi-
nal elements, as our bodies do to dust, long before the
middle  of the present century, unless the  growing
sentiments of state rights, state sovereignty, and oth-
er popular prejudices of  the kind, be kept within  the
limits of the federal constitution. 
44
   But this is not all.   The power  and splendour,
which  the  scheme of  education  I am  considering,
must confer on the nation, would further add to the
strength of the Union.   Whatever may augment our
national glory must have this effect.  Man is instinc-
tively attached to what is great and illustrious.   He
especially delights in forming, in  his own person, a
part of it, because the relation is flattering to his vani-
ty and pride.  Great  Britain and France  may be
safely cited in confirmation of this.  In science, liter-
ature, arts, and their  accompaniments, those  empires
are great and glorious.   Hence their subjects are in-
ordinately  Avedded to  them.  Nothing  can  induce
them  to efface  or forget their national  birthright.
They may deeply complain of the abuses of govern-
ment, and oppose  them even in arms.   But no  mat-
ter.  In all that constitutes patriots, or gives character
to men, they are Frenchmen  and Englishmen still.
Let the empires be reduced to the standing of petty
powers, and the attachment of the subjects will be
also reduced. Of the  ancient Greeks and Romans
the same might be affirmed.  Their countries were
the most powerful  and illustrious  on  earth;   and
hence their patriotic devotedness was the  most intense.
They would have preferred  death, in any form, to the
extinction of their nationality.   Nor, as  respects the
United States and their inhabitants, will the case be
otherwise.   Give to the nation the power and splen-
dour, which a  federal scheme of education would
bestow, and, by that  consideration alone, the attach-
ment of the  people to it will be greatly strengthened.
That bodies attract in proportion  to their magnitude, 
45
 is as true in ethics, as it is in physics.  By a wise and
 vigorous administration of our affairs, the American
 nation is destined to be, in a short time, pre-eminent
 in power  and lustre over all others.  And that cir-
 cumstance Avill tend to the preservation of the Union.
 The several States will glory in being parts of so
 splendid an empire;  and their disposition to recede
 from it will be extinguished.  They will be convinced
 that the weight and respectability which each of them
 possesses, as well as the safety and prosperity it en-
 joys, when they are united and moving in mass, would
 be lost to them, should they separate and act in frag-
 ments.  They will be sensible of their resemblance,
 in this respect, to an army,  which, when advancing
 in column, is irresistible, but is  easily vanquished,
 when its array is broken.
    Two further grounds, on which a National Uni-
 versity would minister to the strength of the Union,
 and I am done.  Nor can I doubt that you will con-
 cur with me, in considering them  powerful; because
 you have yourselves experienced their force.
    Young men, especially  those  of warm tempera-
 ments and generous dispositions, are strongly attached
 to the place of their education.   Their  devotedness
 to it rises at times almost to idolatry.  Nothing is to
 them so lovely and sacred, as the  venerated walls of
 their Alma Mater; while  her  embowering  groves,
 assimilated  in their fancy,  to that of Egeria in the
 retirement of which  they have pursued their studies,
 and her classical walks, where they have often strayed
 in lonely contemplation, or in fellowship with friends,
 possess for  them  the  enchantment of consecrated
ground.   No other  spot of  earth, save  that which 
46
enshrines the relics of their forefathers, is so holy in
their sight.  From any hostile violation or unhallowed
touch they would protect it with their lives, or rejoice
to wash out the stain with their blood.  To your own
emotions, at the present moment, I dare appeal  for
the truth of this statement.
    But, as already represented, the capital of the na-
tion, or some other spot in  the District of Columbia,
would  be the seat of the National University.  To
that spot  would cling, with the unyielding force  of
filial attachment, the  affections of the pupils educated
there, in whatever section of the country they might
reside.  This  circumstance, as far as the early and
cherished prepossessions of distinguished men might
avail, would bind the members of the Republic to its
centre, with cords formed  of some of the  choicest
materials of our nature.  Should danger, from  with-
out or within, threaten the capital, identified with the
University in the minds of the alumni, they would
hasten to its defence, from  every point of the Union,
with resolutions and  means which it would be impos-
sible to resist.   Under such circumstances, Washing-
ton would be to them what  Paris is to Frenchmen,
and what Rome was to her sons who had been trained
within her walls.  Every thing would be done that
wisdom could devise or gallantry dare, to protect her
from dishonour, and preserve her inviolate, as the heart
of the nation.   Nor would  the sons of the institution
come alone.  From their standing and influence, they
would be able to bring  along with them a  sufficient
force of the chivalry of  the country, to insure success.
Thus would filial reverence and  love co-operate  in
strengthening the union  of the States. 
17
    But this is not all.  Youth is the period for the
 formation of friendships.   The mind  at that season,
 when nature is in blossom, being neither callous from
 care, nor flinty from  selfishness, is alive to all that is
 generous  and attractive.   Nor are  any  friendships
 stronger or more lasting, productive of higher grati-
 fication to  the parties, or of greater benefits to others,
 than those which are contracted in colleges and uni-
 versities.   The friendship of Damon and Pythias, so
 celebrated in story, commenced, as we are told, with-
 in academic walls.  And many others, less romantic
 indeed, yet equally unchangeable, formed under the
 habitudes of college life, might be easily cited.
    As already mentioned, many of the most high-
 gifted youth, from each state of the Union, will resort
 for their education to the National University. Here
 intimacies will be produced, and friendships to endure
 for life, contracted between young men from every
 section of the country, destined, at a future period, to
 become leaders  in conducting the affairs of  the Re-
 public.  Family alliances, in places remote from each
 other, will  also grow out  of  the same  influences.
 Hence will arise such an  extensive personal inter-
 course and wide  spread sympathy,  and such a con-
 stant interchange of intelligence and  kind offices, that
 the whole nation  would seem connected as one great
family.  At least there will be no portion of it that
will not have a knowledge of the local  concerns of
all the others, and feel an interest in them.  Thus will
spring up, out of  the moral and social relations of the
 University, a sort of national friendship and good will,
which must operate with no small power in preserving
the Union.   Statesmen, who have been intimate from 
48
 their boyhood, who confide implicitly in  each others
 rectitude and honour, and are at the same time person-
 al and long tried friends, will be much more likely to
 accommodate differences of opinion, conciliate ani-
 mosities, reconcile jarring interests, and maintain the
 harmony  and  integrity of the  commonwealth, than
 they would be, were they strangers.   This is certain,
 if any thing be so in  the  philosophy of man or  the
 history of governments.
    But the hour  admonishes me to close this dis-
 course.   Yet  the  subject of it, far from being fully
 discussed, has been but briefly noticed in a few of its
 points.  It will belong  to such of you,  therefore, as
 may feel an interest in  it, to follow out the considera-
 tion of it, at a more convenient time.
    Those of you, gentlemen, who are about  to take
 leave of this seat of learning, and embark on the tur-
 bulent ocean of affairs, will enter into life at a momen-
 tous crisis, in  the concerns of the nation.  Since  the
 perilous times of our revolutionary struggle, the pros-
 pects  of  our  country  have never been  so  gloomy.
 The darkest hour of the late war, when the  British
 bayonet,  associated with the merciless  hatchet and
 scalping knife, was busy on our borders, was sunshine
 to the present.  The murmurs of discontent through-
 out our land, waxing louder and louder, and the spirit
 of dissatisfaction becoming more general and embit-
 tered, threaten us fearfully with civil commotions.  In
 the eventful scenes likely to  grow out of this condi-
 tion of things, you will be called on to act your parts;
 and I do not permit myself to doubt that they will  be,
in all  instances correct  and honourable, and in many
 distinguished—such as may become high-minded pa- 
49
triots and virtuous citizens.   Though I cannot but feel
assured that, in your political capacity, the union of
the States will be the pole star of your movements,
I notwithstanding take the liberty earnestly to implore
you to that effect.   Let the Republic, and the whole
Republic* be the object of your most intense and de-
voted regard.   Whatever may be his standing as a
man, or his pretensions as a statesman, patriot, or mor-
alist,  distrust  the motives and reject the counsels of
him, whose language or measures lean toward Disu-
nion.  Admit not the fellowship, nor breathe even the
atmosphere of the modern Cataline.  He is smitten
with a moral leprosy, dangerous to youth, and no com-
munion should be held with him by the healthy.  No
matter what may be the ground, real or pretended, of
his dissatisfaction with  the  government; and no mat-
ter what his  OAvn condition* high or low,  rich or poor,
a private citizen or a public functionary; if he openly
advise or secretly suggest a breach of the Union, or if
his conduct  tend to that effect, he is a  traitor to his
country, and should receive, in the abhorrence of the
virtuous, if not from penal law, the reward of his crime.
    To bring before us, in its true character, the enor-
mity of those who would foster  sedition, and separate
the States, let us contemplate, for a moment, the na-
ture and magnitude of the  evil they meditate.   This
we may do,  in a degree sufficient to consummate our
detestation of those who would violate the integrity of
the nation,  by looking but for an instant on hasty
sketches of Union and  Disunion, and contrasting the
bright felicities of the one, with the deep desolation and
horrors of the other.
    Let the  Union  be  preserved, by a strict  obser-
G 
50
vance  of the provisions of the constitution, and the
government be faithfully administered  under a code
of salutary laws, and  the issue of the great political
experiment we are making, will be glorious, not only
beyond example, but beyond the anticipations of the
boldest calculator.   Extravagant as this  prediction
may possibly be deemed, it is notwithstanding justified
by the history of the past.  Hitherto our progress in
prosperity has  outstript  hope, and  filled  even the
measure of imagination itself.   Be  the Union main-
tained  then,  I say, and, in the full enjoyment of their
liberties and rights, the people of the United  States
will experience a degree of political and social happi-
ness, known only to themselves.   Content and abun-
dance will every where prevail.  Under the influence
of institutions founded in wisdom, and constantly im-
proving from experience and  fresh developments of
mind, and by the protected and productive industry of
the citizens,  the nation will advance in  opulence and
grandeur, until it shall leave far behind it, all that the
rivalry of other nations can achieve.  During the life-
time of some to whom I now address myself, the pop-
ulation of the States will surpass one hundred millions;
and, from various moral considerations, their weight
and power in the concerns of the world, will be far be-
yond their numbers.  From causes already cited, they
will be peaceful within; and no foe from without will
court destruction, by troubling their repose.  As soon
would the mariner challenge  to conflict the deep on
which he floats.  Humanly speaking, they will be at
the defiance of fortune.  No  earthly power will be
able to shake them in their purposes, or stay them in
their  march toward the object of their wishes.  By 
51
 their own wisdom,  aided by the strength  of  their
 navies, they will be the arbiters of maritime law; and
 through their fleets of merchantmen, they will receive
 into their ports an abundant supply of the riches of
 the world.  In all things that may minister to the pros-
 perity, strength, and splendour of the country, and the
 convenience, comfort,  and happiness of the people,
 their internal improvements will correspond  with
 their general  condition.   In a special manner,  their
 agriculture and manufactures will be in a state of high
 perfection; flourishing towns and cities will spring up
 in numerous places which are now overshadowed by
 forests, or rich in the gorgeous growth of the prairie;
 hills and mountains will be levelled or tunnelled, and
 roads and canals, of  the best construction, formed
 for the accommodation of the traveller  and  the man
 of  business;  and steam  vessels, and others of the
 choicest  workmanship, will cover, in numbers con-
 forming to the wants of the nation, the broad surfaces
 of our lakes and rivers.   Under the favouring auspi-
 ces of peace, and through a federal scheme of educa-
 tion, suitably conducted, the intellect of the country
 will be developed in an unprecedented degree, and all
 the products of mind correspondingly improved.  In
 fine: the Republic, I repeat, will present a spectacle
of moral  and political grandeur and glory,  new to
the world, and which no effort of mine can pourtray.
And our unrivalled prosperity, under free institutions,
will insure, in the end, the  overthrow  of despotism,
and the freedom of our race.
    Do you doubt the  accuracy of this  picture,  and
suspect it of exaggeration ?  Let me invite you to take
a calm retrospect of the last half century. Examine 
52
with care and inform yourselves correctly  what the
United States were  fifty years ago, compared with
what they are now.   Having done this, calculate rea-
sonably their future progress, under the same form of
government,  wisely  administered, and say,  on your
best judgment, whether I have either drawn or colour-
ed extravagantly, in the representation just submitted
to you.  Nor do I fear the issue.  You will promptly
acquit me of all exaggeration.   Such then will be the
condition of our country, in less than three fourths of
a century, if the Union be preserved.   The contrast,
could it be suitably drawn, would  furnish the more
striking and impressive picture.
    Let the Union be severed, by groundless discon-
tent, or the projects  of ambition, and all  these pros-
pects will vanish like  a vision, and a scene of realities,
the perfect reverse of them, arise in their stead.  A
great and  powerful nation, liberal and magnanimous
in its views, and peaceful in its temper, will be broken
up, not into two or three large communities,  but into
a number of feeble,  jealous, and fretful  ones.  For
but few of the States will coalesce with each other.
From pride and ambition inducing each of the larger
States to aim at supremacy, they will inevitably sep-
arate ; and should they consent to unite with any of the
smaller ones, it will be on such terms as wTill deprive
the latter  of independent sovereignty—a condition
which will be submitted to only as the issue of com-
pulsion.  These petty powers instead of viewing each
other as ancient friends and neighbours,  that had
fought, and bled, and triumphed in a common cause,
will burn with the mutual animosity of rivals and foes.
Their feuds, moreover, will  have the rancour and 
53
  bitterness of family hatred.  Hence, domestic concord
  will soon give place to civil commotion; the olive will
  Avither throughout the land, and the laurel spring from
  the blood-stained soil.  The industry and arts of peace
  will fail, and many of the fairest productions perish,
  under the unsparing operation of war.  The plough
  being exchanged for the sword, by the youthful  and
  vigorous, agriculture will be abandoned, or practised
  only by the feeble and incompetent.  Instead of fresh
  towns and cities rising in their pride and beauty, to
  embellish the country, and give comfort to the people,
  many of those already erected will be converted into
 scenes of desolation and mourning.  The brightness
 of day will be obscured by their smoke and ashes, and
 the darkness of night dispelled by their burning.  Of
 ravages like these, united to a general abandonment
 of productive labour, extensive poverty and wretched-
 ness, with their usual concomitants of profligacy and
 crime, will be the fatal issue.   Peaceful enterprise of
 every description being thus paralyzed, all that belongs
 to the permanent greatness and power of nations will
 necessarily retrograde.  If  the communities become
 comparatively strong and terrible in battle, it will be
 but for a season.   Their strength will be the offspring
 of unnatural excitement, and  therefore evanescent.
 It will be but the furious vigour of the bacchanal or
 the maniac, destined to fade with the fervour which
 produced it.   Their power and influence abroad, in
 common with their real strength at home, will be now
 but matter of history.   Not a remnant of either will
 survive, except in  mouldering ruins and  saddened
 remembrance.  No foreign nation will respect or con-
sult them, or have any other connection with them, 
54
than that of turning them to its own interest.   Their
naval force being also enfeebled, the petty remains of
their  fleets  will be  liable  to  insult and  aggression
which they dare not resent, and  their sea-coast  to
invasion  which  they will be  unable  to repel.   As
education cannot flourish amidst the strife of arms,
more especially intestine strife, mental  cultivation will
degenerate, and ignorance and comparative barbarism
usurp the places of civilization and knowledge.   This
disastrous condition of things will  be  aggravated, in
all its appalling qualities, by the ferocious border war-
fare that must extensively prevail.   From our national
temperament we are prone to extremes.  The French
and Irish perhaps excepted, we are more so than any
other enlightened people.  From being now uncom-
monly peaceful in our dispositions, we shall then be-
come, in an equal degree, belligerent.   The business
of war will  make a part of the stated occupation of
each  community.  Instead of peaceful and smiling
villages, garrisoned fortresses and  frowning batteries
will  mark the division  lines  between the  different
States.  In such a condition of things, bodies  of mi-
litia-men will be insufficient for the war-like purposes
of the country.  " Citizen soldiers," as they are fan-
cifully termed, dressed in gaudy attire, and marshalled
on a green-sward lawn, or strutting to music, through
the streets of a city, may gratify the gaze of the mil-
lion,  on a parade day, when all is  peace.  But
experience, as well  as history assures us, that it is
unsafe to confide in them on the day of battle.   Be-
sides ; the people will become dissatisfied with sleep-
ing on their arms, and being  constantly on the alert
to repel aggression.   They will prefer the existence of 
ft"
o5
  a regular soldiery among them to a life of such dis-
  quietude and ruinous interruption.  Standing armies,
  therefore, with all the expenses and other mischiefs'
  they involve, will form another feature  of the time I
  am  pointing to.   And these,  being themselves the
  product of war, will necessarily tend to the promotion
  of that evil.  The "pomp and circumstance" attend-
  ing  them,  will develop a  martial spirit among the
  youthful, which nothing can restrain.   Nor do men
  bred to  arms and prepared for battle,  submit with
  patience to the repose and ennui of a peaceful life, es-
  pecially if they  be loitering in the neighbourhood of a
  foe.  Like other  men enamoured of their profession,
 they delight in the practice of it.  Should no opportu-
 nity therefore to unsheath their swords be presented to
  them, they will seek one.   But this is not all.  The
 weaker States will contract alliances (most probably
 foreign ones) as  a  protection against the  stronger.
 Thus will they virtually  sink  into, colonies again,
 proving themselves, by the  act,  alike regardless and
 unworthy of  the  independence  and freedom which
 their heroic sires  bequeathed, as an inheritance, to
 degenerate  sons.  And England and France may
 meet again in arms, on fields that were once the abode
 of freemen, to  contend for the mastery over subjugated
 Americans.   The worst perhaps is to come.  After
 a long course  of the most embittered and sanguinary
 wars, a few rival chieftains, at the head  of powerful
 armies,  will agree to  partition  the nation between
 themselves, erect separate empires, assume  the dia-
dem,  and subject the country of Franklin  and Wash-
ington to  military  despotism.  Or a modern Philip
may arise, and lord it over the whole.   And thus will 
56
sink in  hopeless darkness, the watch-fires of liberty,
which our glorious ancestors had kindled on our hills.
Thus will fail, for ages, if not forever, the most sublime
and momentous experiment the world has witnessed,
to determine the self-governing capacity of man—to
solve the great  question, whether we  are the heirs of
reason  and virtue, or the minions of passion and the
instruments of misrule?  For the issue of this experi-
ment, be it successful or adverse, will not be confined
in its influence to ourselves.  It will thrill,  like the
lightning from Heaven, to the centre of every nation
that is panting for freedom.  If fortunate, it will be to
it the messenger of joy, and will brighten its prospects
with the day-spring of hope.  If the reverse, it will
proclaim to it a continuance of  its chains, and be the
herald of despair.  And while Freedom shall mourn
over the fallen and hopeless fortunes of our race, Des-
potism,  surrounded by the trophies of his recent vic-
tory, will sit more securely on his throne, and survey
with a sterner and less dubious  delight, the desolation
around  him.
    To  the  blood-stained  history  of the States  of
Greece, the annals of the fierce Italian Republics, and
the records of  wars between petty sovereignties in
other parts of Europe, I refer you  for matter to sus-
tain the views  I have here submitted to  you.   Tell
not me that we are a more discreet and reasonable
people,  and  will not run into such wild extremes, or
madly court  such fatal catastrophes.   To Heaven I
appeal,  for my  sincerity in declaring, that, all things
considered, I think we  are less so.  We  are  much
moreawfully stricken with political insanity, than eith-
er of the  early  and less enlightened people, to whom 
57
     I have alluded.  They never had a form of govern-
     ment like ours, nor enjoyed the  blessings  we  are
     about to forfeit.  They could not, therefore, be sen-
     sible of their value.  They were but unfortunate in
     never possessing what we shall  be criminal in tram-
»    pling under foot.   And for what?—A mere mess of
     pottage—in the shape of a few bales of cotton  and
     tierces  of rice!  For this—a thing  so unspeakably
     paltry, compared to the effects it threatens to produce
     —our birth-right as freemen is to be bartered, a nation
     is to be laid in blood, the happiness of innumerable
     and unborn millions blighted, the light and glory of
     the  most prosperous  and  promising empire forever
     extinguished, and the spirit of Freedom, like Hope,
     by the ills of the fated box, exiled from earth, to  find
     a resting  place in some more congenial and fortunate
     sphere!   Was  ever delusion so  fatal  before,  or mad-
     ness so triumphant?   But I forbear to pursue the
     subject any farther.  It is as much too weighty for
     words,  as it is  too painful to be dwelt on.
        Such, gentlemen, is the contrast, imperfectly drawn,
     between  the consequences of  the Union and Dis-
     union of the States.  The work is in  progress,  and
     you, I repeat, will be  summoned to bear your part in
     it.   And, might my aspirations avail, they  would be
     earnest and incessant, that your  labours in the mighty
     cause may redound alike to your own honour and the
     welfare of your country;  and that, by the means just
     indicated and such others as may be necessary, the
     fabric of the Federal Government, the most  glo-
     rious product of human wisdom, may be so strength-
     ened and confirmed as to prove as steadfast as
     Nature  and  as lasting as Time. 
 
^
w