"I congratulate you on this assemblage
today. I congratulate our dear but unfortunate old State. I congratulate
you on the work that will will this day inaugurate. There are
representatives here in all the professions and departments of
life. All sufferers, yet all will show the future glories of
our country which will be the peer of any in this progressive
world in science, letters, and art. We have the element, whether
we look to war or peace. The present is far in advance of any
preceding age. If we stand still, we will be overwhelmed: the
world must be up and doing. The question is not what a nation
has been, but what she shall be permitted to be. In 1787, when
the State by their delegates were engaged for the common Union,
wise men predicted that the Southern States would excel in wealth
and power. These opinions were predicted upon the favorable soil
and climate and productions of the country. These hopeful anticipations
have not been realized. Mines in other countries have been developed,
while the rich abundant ores and mineral wealth of our Southern
land, have been undisturbed by the hand of enterprise. The sales
of the crafts of other nations whiten the seas, while our magnificent
harbors are destitute of the ships that bring commercial thrift
to other more enterprising countries.
"Why this failure? Charge it not upon
the Almighty, for he has done for no people as he has for us.
Other states have advanced in wealth, population, and power,
the lands of, which were not more fertile than ours -- the fault
is in man. The causes of this failure is due to slaves and negro
slaves. The Southern States have been outstriped [sic]. They
have made no progress in government or law. How much have they
contributed towards the development of the sciences -- for instance,
for the discovery of the wonderful application of electricity
in the transmission of intelligence, nothing is due the South,
it was a Northern invention. And where comes the engineers and
machinists that construct and put in motion all the products
of the mechanic arts are they not from abroad? In the Southern
States, it was a penal offense to educate the slave, and yet
there was no greater curse than to keep cheap laborers by keeping
them in ignorance, for thus labor became degraded to the laborer,
and the whites that engaged in manual pursuits, were assigned
a position half way between the whites and the negro.
"Another result of this system was that
the educated sought the learned professions. Even the business
of teachers consigned its followers to a class of laborers, and
labor was considered the badge of a slave, and idleness the badge
of ease.
"What real progress have we made in the
science of government -- where are our Bacons and Blackstones,
and even Burkes, our Storys, Bancrofts and Noah Webster. Where
do we find our trophies? What have we done even in agriculture.
"Why has God filled the earth with iron
and coal, if he did not intend us for a mechanical people? Why
did he confer upon us such water power and construct such splendid
harbors, if he did not design that we should be a commercial
people. If we do not avail ourselves of the advantage of these
indications, others will come and cast their lots among us and
enjoy the advantages that we have ignored. So deficient were
we in manual labor, that during our late struggle with the Northern
States, that we had to rely upon our enemies even for the clothing
to hid the nakedness of our troops, and that the camps of our
adversaries were often captured, not so much for the sake of
victory as to secure their arms. They threw away their inferior
weapons, and fought with the improved Yankee arms. If our people
had been so skilled in the manufacture of the implements of warfare
as those they had to confront, they would have been invincible
by any force.
"We were not deficient in the courage
and qualifications of our Generals -- not wanting in cultivated
intellect and capacity -- but were were deficient in educated
labor. We failed as a people, because we leaned on the negro;
everything was in bondage to him, and whether by fate or folly
'tis [?], and thank God for it. We must establish schools of
science and educate our children. Others will come in and supplant
us, and we shall perish truly from slavery. Our own sons must
be taught to build and operate all machinery. We must build up
schools of science. Our duty towards the negro is plain -- we
must educate and elevate him.
"We must have educated labor, acquire
a knowledge of mining operations, and skill in the manipulation
of all metals, in the [operation?] of all cunning devices in
wood, and the prosecution of every [nit?] that will tend to contribute
to material interests of the country, or to develop its wonderful
resources. Our children must take the lead and point the way.
Georgia, in the extent of its coal and iron and other metals,
exceeds Pennsylvania. We have [?] the social brand on labor.
This process carries with it elements of its own destruction.
It cannot continue: foreign laborers will be introduced, and
they will operate our mines, and secure the timbers in our magnificent
forest. And then the [ores?] will leap from their beds, and the
water falls will turn the busy spindle of the factory. They who
work these results will govern in the country, and will fix the
character of our country. The highest and [honored?] duty is
to build up this University: this is our [?][:?] constitute universal
scholarship for experts; make tuition in every department in
the University free; tear down the toll gates; let every son
realize that he has a patrimony in the University of Georgia.
There is nothing so costly as ignorance and nothing as cheap
as knowledge. Power is leaving thrones and taking up its abode
in the intelligence of the people; all resides in the intelligence
of the people. Cambridge and Oxford illustrate this. Two millions
per annum appropriated to foster these famous Universities serves
to give intelligent direction to thought and action in that small
but powerful kingdom. The marvelous victories achieved by the
Prussians at Sedan, Metz and other memorable fields on French
soil, attest the wisdom of Prussia in providing for the general
culture of her subjects, not only in the liberal arts, but to
become experts in all departments of mechanism and skilled labor.
Massachusetts has endowed her Universities with a sum exceeding
two millions dollars; Connecticut one million dollars, and New
York four millions of dollars, whilst the University of Georgia
has existed three quarters of a century, and has been the recipient
of $20,000 from a single citizen of Georgia."
