STATE MILITARY ACADEMIES. 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 CALLIOPEAN SOCIETY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CITADEL ACADEMY, 
 CHARLESTON. 
 
 BY F. W. CAPERS, A. M. 
 
 Charleston, <S. <£. 
 TENHET AND CORLEY, PRINTERS, 
 48 Broad-Street. 
 
 1846. 
 
 Pamphlet CMMon 
 Duke University Library 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/statemilitaryacaOOcape 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 If we might claim for any subject of general concern, 
 that it should rank in public estimation according to the 
 value of the interests which it involves, none would 
 challenge a more careful attention than Education. 
 
 The most limited experience will illustrate its influence 
 over individual character ; — an influence so great, that 
 there is little of what is noble in conception, or glorious in 
 achievement, or pure and inspiring, or vile and abominable 
 in passion, that may not derive its origin or strength from 
 this source. Its power over national prosperity is attested 
 by history, in results of startling magnitude. Under all 
 forms of government, it has supplied to executive autho- 
 rity its most available support, or certain overthrow. 
 Here, we may observe it, elevating the condition of a 
 people ; there, riveting upon them the chains of error and 
 superstition ; at one time, kindling and quickening the 
 sense of national oppression, to punish misrule in revolu- 
 tion ; at another, blasting every bud of generous and 
 manly sentiment to instil the precepts of passive submis- 
 sion to tyrannical sway ; — always giving tone to public 
 sentiment, controlling the prejudices, and shaping the 
 destinies of a people. 
 
 Hence, that intimate affiliation in kind, which must 
 ever exist between different forms of government, and 
 the systems of education practised under them. This 
 connection is rendered less obvious in modern times, by 
 the more complex machinery of government and the 
 subtle disguises which modern legislation often assumes, 
 but in the history of the past, the constitutional pro- 
 visions of every state exhibit some favorite scheme of 
 
educational policy, designed to frame the national charac- 
 ter after an approved model, upheld by law. While we 
 contrast the institutions of Lycurgus and of Solon, our 
 minds anticipate the opposite characters they formed. 
 We expect to find the Spartan, at once devoted to his 
 country, and heartlessly brutal in all the relations of 
 domestic life ; alike capable of executing the horrid 
 mandate of the " Cryptia," or the sacrifice of Thermo- 
 pylae. We expect to find the Athenian polite, humane, 
 and cultivated. But whether we admire the splendid 
 galaxy of genius and excellence which was Athens' proud 
 ornament, or trace her history to its tragic close, when 
 corruption tainted the nation's heart, and the Roman 
 soldier trampled the garland of her glory under his feet, 
 we perceive that neither her institutions, nor her policy, 
 nor her freedom are ours. They lacked that great con- 
 trolling faith, by means of which governments have been 
 made to recognize new policies and man to learn new 
 duties. The Athenian Socrates saw the star that an- 
 nounced its coming in the birth of Christ ; and could his 
 noble heart have caught the full import of those prophetic 
 rays, though the hemlock had repaid his efforts to imbue 
 the minds of the Athenian youth with the tenets of Chris- 
 tianity, Paul had found no altar "to the unknown God," 
 nor half ten thousand others, in the streets of Athens, — 
 but in its stead a Christian Church, and in the Socratic 
 sect, a Christian brotherhood. 
 
 Christianity itself, although deriving its origin from the 
 teachings and the cross of Christ, has been perverted from 
 its proper ends, to subserve the vilest purposes. Early in 
 its history, vice, ignorance and folly conspired to extinguish 
 this beam of holy light, with discordant and corrupting 
 elements, gathered from Pagan ruins. God gave it ca- 
 pacity to live and burn its way through the superincum- 
 bent mass ; but the flame emitted from the papal pinnacle 
 of its high abuse, was a lurid, uncertain glare, in whose 
 light men grew mad, and passion, thirsting for forbidden 
 vengeance, " let slip the dogs of war" upon Jerusalem, or 
 opened the flood-gates of persecution at home. There 
 was heat enough in one stray ray, however, to fire a mine 
 of well appointed energies in the heart of Luther, from 
 
7 
 
 whose great mission the mild arid genial influences of a 
 pure Gospel have been extended throughout Christen- 
 dom, — overturning spiritual despotism, and diffusing new 
 views of human responsibility. Step by step, in gradual 
 advance, free principles have gained steady progress, 
 until, in " the land shadowing with wings," freedom reached 
 her full maturity, and a deed of inheritance in the Decla- 
 ration of American Independence. From the spirit of its 
 tenets , and our constitution, where sovereignty is vested in 
 the people, and loyalty lost in patriotism, we derive that 
 criterion of fitness, by which every feature of educational 
 policy, proposed, or practised, among us, must be tested. 
 Precedent is misapplied in argument to defend whatever 
 militates against it, or falls short of its requisitions, — for 
 we stand confessedly, " the first experiment of self-govern- 
 ment by a free people," and it behooves us to consult our 
 own necessities rather than the dogmas of European na- 
 tions, whose political creeds differ in nature and in aim 
 from that we have adopted. 
 
 The protection of our institutions is with the people. 
 They hold control over the destinies of the nation, and 
 must be suitably educated for the perfect exercise of this 
 high prerogative of citizenship. Nor can this be effected 
 without the culture of " the whole man, with all his facul- 
 ties, — subjecting his senses, his understanding and his 
 passions, to reason, to conscience, and the evangelical 
 laws of the Christian Revelation." In whatever respect 
 he falls short of this degree of mental and moral culture, 
 just in that proportion is he disqualified for the rank of a 
 good citizen. 
 
 It is evident that results so important, cannot be accom- 
 plished by unaided individual exertion. It is, therefore, 
 the part of parental care, from the time of the intellect's 
 earliest development to that of its maturity, — to regulate 
 the influences about him, — to assist the early essays of 
 judgment, — to check the propensities of nature, or guide 
 them to a proper channel, — to infuse the generous im- 
 pulses of patriotism, and, generally, eliciting the latent 
 principles of reason and conscience, to construct upon 
 them the basis of a freeman's character. 
 
8 
 
 Bat neither reason nor humanity will exempt the State 
 from all share in the education of her sons. It is her 
 part, not only to supply the needed auxiliaries of schools 
 and colleges, hut to bestow beneficiary instruction within 
 their walls, liberally, that the means of acquiring a com- 
 plete and generous education may be within the reach of 
 the humblest citizen. 
 
 It is the part of each individual legislator to feel as the 
 Prussian counsellor has written, " that in every poor mail's 
 son, there was a being who would complain of him before 
 God, if he did not provide for him the best education 
 possible" 
 
 In the light of these general truths, I invite your atten- 
 tion to an exposition of the nature and tendencies of that 
 system of education which South Carolina has authorized 
 in the establishment of her State Military Academies. 
 And where could I more appropriately maintain their 
 accordance with the spirit of freedom, than in the First 
 Annual Address before a Society of Cadets. 
 
 The question, whether the policy which has ordained 
 the use of these Academies, for the protection of the 
 State Arsenals, is wise or not, is irrelevant to my purpose. 
 I make bold to say, that its practicability is no longer a 
 matter of experiment. These duties have been faithfully 
 performed ; and it certainly offers no objection to the ma- 
 terial of which the guard is composed, that the place of com- 
 mon soldiers is supplied by young men of ingenuous dis- 
 position — the sons and brothers of our fellow citizens. My 
 remarks upon the present occasion, however, have more 
 to do with the education al provisions of these Academies. 
 If we notice differences between the system they illustrate, 
 and others more usually adopted, it becomes a matter of 
 the gravest import, to know what they are, and why they 
 have been authorized. Yet, it is often mortifying to dis- 
 cover, that, whilst that feature in their regulations, which 
 enjoins the introduction of military discipline, and instruc- 
 tion in military affairs, is generally known, public informa- 
 tion has accredited to them little else. The instructions in 
 Mathematical and Physical Science, embracing a course 
 
9 
 
 more extensive than that of a large majority of the Institu- 
 tions of the nation, — recitations and lectures, upon the 
 identical texts of our best universities, in History, Belles- 
 Lettres, and Metaphysics, — all are overlooked, and the 
 mere drill and uniform made to constitute the " ultima thule" 
 of our educational ambition. Had such opinions rested on 
 a basis of truth, I should have felt myself bound, by every 
 sense of patriotic duty, to meet their discussion with 
 opposition, rather than the support which, however feebly, 
 is now heartily offered. 
 
 The prominent importance given to Mathematical and 
 Physical Science, in the course of studies pursued at these 
 Academies, is authorized, alike by their power as an agent 
 in mental culture and their bearing upon the wants of life. 
 
 The rudiments of Mathematics may be taught in such 
 a manner as to educate the intellectual faculties, at an 
 earlier age than those of any other science. The idea of 
 number is among the first which the mind conceives, and 
 in supplying a symbol to express it, which may be done 
 at a very tender age, this mental training is begun. The 
 child must observe and compare these symbols before he 
 apprehends their meaning and pronounces their name. 
 The difference in value of the same symbol, according to 
 position, necessitates the same intellectual process, as that 
 by which the mind achieves a just discrimination between 
 the varying conditions of any subject of inquiry, before 
 judgment. This exercise, has furnished at once the alpha- 
 bet of calculation and of logic. The whole art of reason- 
 ing, says " Lavoisier," is but a language well arranged, and 
 Algebra the most perfect. Nor has there ever been a 
 careful student of its methods, who did not approve the 
 sentiment. How simple, yet how powerful its notation ! 
 mark in what strict analogy with its laws the general con- 
 struction of language follows, — its symbols combined to 
 form words in the expressions which represent quantity, 
 and these into sentences expressing equality or the con- 
 trary in every degree, — its " rules" so many deductions 
 of reason, and its " examples" the illustrations of their 
 truth. 
 
 The study of Geometry opens the widest field for this 
 drill in the art of reasoning. The young student is as- 
 
 , % 2 
 
10 
 
 sured at every step, as lie passes from judgment to judg- 
 ment through the complete argument, and is guarded by 
 habit against hasty deductions, while its accurate phrase- 
 ology, exhibits the most forcible illustration of the power 
 and compass of language. No one can comprehend, in 
 all the fullness of their import, the simplest definitions of 
 Geometry, without such an exercise in precision of ex- 
 pression as is met with no where else. 
 
 But the study of Mathematics is especially valuable in 
 the cultivation of the power of abstraction, — that power 
 by means of which the understanding is enabled to sepa- 
 rate the qualities or attributes of objects, and which, 
 therefore, forms the ground-work of classification. It is 
 a mistake, often made, to suppose this process unduly 
 severe. The infant employs it ,untaught. It is natural to 
 man, as an intellectual being, and equally capable of culti- 
 vation with any other. Its office is clearly discerned in 
 every process of the mind. Without it all knowledge is 
 resolved into its original elements, and confined to indi- 
 vidual things. For how shall we determine " the agree- 
 ment or disagreement of our ideas," in any valuable sense, 
 without such acquaintance with their attributes or qualities 
 as this operation of the mind alone, can give. Where, 
 beside, can the imagination procure material for the 
 splendid structures of the Arts, — in poetry, painting, mu- 
 sic or achitecture, — or memory receive from its methods 
 of classification— from its power, as a function of intel- 
 lect, to deduce general truths from particular ideas, — that 
 systematic and philosophical arrangement of facts, which 
 links them together by affiliation in kind, according to true 
 and important relations. 
 
 These functions of the mind, provide the only foundation 
 of Belles-Lettres scholarship, in that habit of analysis, 
 which is reason's sense of vision in all the creative efforts 
 of the intellect. Pope says, he lisped in numbers, — yet, 
 many a blotted manuscript attests the labor he bestowed 
 upon his noblest performances. And Byron — the bard 
 whose soul was fire — wrote no stanza of Childe Harold 
 that was not interlined. Why should genius feel such 
 uncertainty in giving utterance to conceptions of power, 
 but for the fact that the most exquisite sentiment, the 
 
1 1 
 
 sublimest imagery, — the whole array of figurative lan- 
 guage, are the subjects of its application, equally with the 
 most elaborate deductions of reason. Without it, grace, 
 delicacy, splendor, have no fitness, no appreciable sub- 
 stance in the arts. Unchecked by this curb of criticism, 
 imagination cannot perform her perfect office, but strays 
 away from truth, in aimless ramblings, or if called into 
 service, by subjects of stirring thought, presents, invaria- 
 bly, a ragged mass of finery, rudely torn from many 
 splendid garments in memory's store-house, but worthless 
 for any purpose of chaste adorning. 
 
 Painting and Sculpture cannot attain even a decent 
 respectability among the Arts without the influence of 
 analysis upon the artist's taste. Without it the games of 
 Palaestra had furnished no ideal of beauty, grace or gran- 
 deur to the Greek, — no such names to glory, as those of 
 Phidias, Praxitiles, Glycon, Zeuxis, Apelles, and the whole 
 catalogue of those who adorned the age of Pericles, — no 
 such offspring to Grecian genius, as the Antinous, or the 
 Cnidian Venus, — the Farnesian Hercules or the Dying 
 Gladiator, — no such topics for the pen of Pliny, as the 
 Demon of Athens by Parhasius, — at once fickle, irascible, 
 unjust, inconstant, yet placable and compassionate, vain- 
 glorious, yet humble, brave, yet cowardly. 
 
 In this habit, we observe the best preparation for suc- 
 cessful study in the science of mind and matter. Indeed, 
 these sciences owe to its agency, in the most remarka- 
 ble degree, whatever advance they have made beyond 
 the merest initials of knowledge. By its light, the laba- 
 rinthal intricacies of the human intellect, were threaded, 
 until successive charts of exploration laid bare its nature 
 and supplied material for a classification of its functions 
 and their positive description. By its light, the inmost 
 caverns of the human heart were searched, — the motives 
 of action and the power of prejudice and passion un- 
 masked, — that man might know himself. 
 
 If we look to the material world, how vast the number 
 of its achievements ! How sublime their character ! By 
 its aid, we see Astronomy escape from the meshes of the 
 Ptolemaic net, and rise in true majesty to Heaven, — 
 divesting its starry orbs of that dark mantle of mystery 
 
12 
 
 and magic, in which astrology had robed them, and in 
 one single, simple principle, revealing the law that binds 
 her circling spheres in an harmonious system. By its 
 aid, Geology has abandoned the vain and often impious 
 dogmas of the Cosmogonists, — and limiting her inves- 
 tiagtions to the " Crust" of the earth, has combined the 
 data which it furnishes in a noble science, — disclosing that 
 vast series of created beings whose organic remains lie 
 imbedded in strata miles beneath our feet. 
 
 Mathematical science is of prime educational import- 
 ance, also, — by reason of the direct bearing it has upon 
 the wants of practical life. Possessing Algebra, the Geo- 
 metries, Trigonometries, and the Calculus, Mechanical 
 Philosophy and Astronomy, are within the student's 
 grasp, not in the profitless sense of a. mere collection of 
 phrases — (profitless to practical life, although they em- 
 body facts,) but because of his power to apply their prin- 
 ciples, whenever pleasure or necessity demand. He is 
 able to delineate the Topography of a country and run 
 its bounding lines, and appropriates mechanical agents in 
 construction, with a confidence in their capacity to bring 
 about required results, which experience does not weaken. 
 The heavens become his familiar home. He names their 
 constellations, not from mere memory, but because of 
 reason, to whose far-seeing eye they have provided ce- 
 lestial points of observation, from which it has descried 
 the comet in the azure depths of infinite space, — marked 
 the path of its progress across the orbit of the spheres, 
 which roll beneath his view, called its name, and prophe- 
 sied its periods. 
 
 In professional life, all sciences are useful, but these 
 supply the elements of success in an extraordinary degree. 
 Is the man a Lawyer ? Apart from the influence of their 
 elements upon his mind — the merits of a thousand cases 
 depend upon their principles. Is he a Physician ? How 
 shall he hold, with credit to himself, that position of emi- 
 nence in his profession, which every one should strive to 
 attain, — how shall he attain it, without the aid of Physical 
 Science ? The skeleton of the human frame, " the per- 
 fect work of an unerring engineer," is the concentration 
 of all the mechanical principles developed in nature about 
 
13 
 
 us. The human l^ody, alive, demands the laws of lluidin , 
 for the comprehension of the circulation of the blood ; 
 the laws of Pneumatics, Acoustics and Optics, to under- 
 stand the action of the lungs in respiration, in utterance, 
 or the phenomena of light and hearing; while Chemistry, 
 Mineralogy and Botany, are elements so essential in the 
 science of Medicine, that ignorance of their principles is 
 ruin, without the office of the friendly label. Is he an 
 Agriculturist, — a Planter or Farmer ? They unfold the 
 nature of his soil, — the quality of manures, and their 
 adaptation to the culture of his grain, — the influence of 
 temperature and climate, and varying seasons upon the 
 objects of his daily toil, — the crops of his field. And 
 shall the Clergyman, vested with the high ministrations of 
 his holy office, prefer to neglect these sciences ; when, 
 without them, he may not cope with his infidel adversary, 
 or wrest from his grasp those engines of specious argu- 
 ment by which his faith is assailed ? No ! Let him have 
 them, and, beside the power of argument, his spirit shall 
 catch a holier inspiration, from a juster view of the ma- 
 jesty of God, whose spirit, in the beginning, moved on 
 chaos, to create the heavens and the earth. 
 
 Since, therefore, Mathematical and Physical Science 
 not only afford a noble means of mental training, but are 
 most intimately associated with the wants of practical life, 
 the prominent importance given them, in this system of 
 education, is amply justified. 
 
 But why reject the dead languages ? Have you no 
 veneration for the voices of Cicero and Demosthenes ? 
 Far from it. We honor their tones, but if mere reve- 
 rence for the past must determine our educational policy, 
 the voices of the Caliphs demand high consideration. 
 
 We do not forget the glories of the past, however, be- 
 cause we feel the necessities of the present. In the 
 midst of galvanic fires and gaseous fumes and subtle 
 agencies of Mechanism and Magnetism, we must be 
 pardoned for the wish to conquer and appropriate these, 
 before we amuse ourselves with the Classic Microscope. 
 
 There was a time, when the Latin and Greek languages 
 could not be considered as ornamental branches of Edu- 
 
14 
 
 cation only, but were a necessary precursor to the 
 attainment of every other knowledge. Then, man's very 
 duties to his fellow and his God, were hid in Latin books ? 
 to be dolled out in petty driblings from the mouths of lord- 
 ly dignitaries, — but that day has passed. Trembling be- 
 fore the mandate, Love thy neighbor as thyself, or 
 through policy or party zeal, an English sovereign broke 
 down this barrier, — this Egyptian barrier, — between the 
 people and Education, to give God's message to his sub- 
 jects. Soon after, the courtly prerogatives of Education 
 were extended to a favored few, and the wealthy invited 
 to Oxford and Cambridge. Now, the spirit of liberty has 
 razed that barrier to its foundation, giving to the art 
 of Printing its busiest employ in setting English type. 
 Not only are Bacon, Locke and Newton, read in English, 
 but every author of the Augustan age, — and we prefer to 
 graft the beauty or the strength of these dead tongues 
 upon our living stem, rather than make the language we 
 speak, a shoot from the old Latin stock. Yet we must ac- 
 cord to them high rank as instruments of mental culture. 
 There are ample means within their reach of educing 
 every function of the mind. The boy who daily cons his 
 grammar and lexicon, to reveal the hidden meaning of his 
 text, has given to memory and reason, useful exercise, and 
 is advancing towards that habit of analysis which exerts 
 so controlling an influence on the destiny of man. There 
 is abundant source of moral profit in the noble instances 
 of fortitude, justice, humanity, benevolence, filial piety 
 or patriotic devotion, which its page unfolds ; while, with 
 a lure of exquisite beauty, its muse of song entices the 
 imagination away from her mental nest, upon the classic 
 flight. But the moral lesson has been learned before, 
 upon a father's knee, and has its daily illustrations in life 
 about him ; the habit of analysis has its best training in 
 the Mathematics, and the imagination soars with English 
 wings upon a bolder, wider, loftier flight than Greek or 
 Latin pinion ever dared. 
 
 Since Isaiah prophesied, no age of the world has pro- 
 duced an intellectual majesty more commanding, a dignity 
 and grandeur more entirely unparalleled than is exhibited 
 
1.-) 
 
 in the writings of Milton and Shakspeare. In what phase 
 of view the ancient Hades is the equal of Milton's Hell 
 and Paradise, I am at a loss to discover. 44 The terrible" 
 has no portraiture like that of Satan's doom, or his inter- 
 view with " the snaky sorceress" that guarded hell-gate, 
 while the whole work abounds in passages of sublime con- 
 ception, far beyond the reach of any other pen. There 
 is no need of such caution as Blair gives to the reader of 
 Homer, when he requires him to " divest himself of our 
 modern ideas of dignity and refinement ; to reckon upon 
 finding characters and manners that retain a considerable 
 tincture of the savage state ; moral ideas as yet imper- 
 fectly formed, and the appetites and passions of men 
 brought under none of those restraints, to which, in a 
 more advanced state of society, they are accustomed ; 
 but bodily strength prized as one of the chief heroic en- 
 dowments ; the preparing of a meal and the appeasing of 
 hunger, described as very interesting objects, and the 
 hemes boasting of themselves openly, and glorying very 
 indecently over their fallen enemies." 
 
 Here it is, that we discover the principal source of su- 
 periority in the modern over the ancient poets. The 
 ancients accomplished all that the most exalted genius 
 could, under the circumstances of their lives. Nature, 
 about them, supplied the richest material for the combina- 
 tions of fancy and the imagination in descriptive poetry, 
 and they attained supreme excellence in all that relates to 
 physical qualities and attributes ; — but, nature above them, 
 branded with pagan folly, gave no such scope for reflec- 
 tion as Christian science has disclosed. The brightest 
 glow of poetic fire failed to sublime from their heaven 
 itself, " wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy r 
 debate, deceit, malignity, lust," and all the host of "vile 
 affections" that reigned with Jove in Olympus, — and on 
 earth, " changed the glory of the incorruptible God, into 
 an image made like to corruptible man." The future, 
 therefore, shed no moral radiance on the efforts of ge- 
 nius, — spread no such field of contemplation, as that which 
 grasps the entire destiny of man, — the beauty and glory 
 and power of that faith by which the feeblest achieve 
 victory over the terrors of death, to di*> as 
 
16 
 
 " Sels tiie morning star, 
 
 Winch goes not down behind the darkened west, 
 Nor hides, obscured, amid the tempests of the sky, 
 But melts away into the light of heaven." 
 
 Paul quoted "Cleanthes," on Mars Hill, in the words, 
 " For ye also are his offspring ;" but, think you, the poet's 
 conceptions of the phrase were those of Paul? Could 
 Cleanthes have followed him through that splendid argu- 
 ment addressed to the Corinthians, which the Apostle 
 concludes in such matchless eloquence ? — No more than 
 the hymn to Jupiter gave one new idea to his view, or 
 added anything to the vigor of his expression. 
 
 As far as the abstract power of language is concerned, 
 analysis confirms the opinion of Sheridan, that the English, 
 uniting the beauty of the Latin with the strength of the 
 Modern German, is the equal of the ancient Greek, and 
 superior to all other tongues, — ancient or modern. Elo- 
 quence, therefore, has no trammel on her spirit by the re- 
 striction of her choice to the one language. She can find 
 in the Anglo-Saxon basis all she needs of strength, and in 
 appropriated derivatives, all she wants of ornament ; — 
 but in her noblest essays, the origin of words is farthest 
 from her consideration. The orator asks only to feel 
 their fitness to convey the sense he intends. "Thoughts 
 that breathe" will find utterance in "words that burn." 
 
 But it may be asked, — Are not the Latin and Greek 
 languages necessary to professional life ? — Useful, they un- 
 doubtedly are, but not necessary. The spirit of Law and 
 the great principles of Law, which occupy by far the 
 greater portion of a Lawyer's attention, are independent 
 of any set form of words. In Medicine, nomenclature pos- 
 sesses a higher degree of importance, — but the wants of 
 the age have at last begun the abolition of any other than 
 English phraseology, even in England. There, Chem- 
 istry has received new terms, and by an Act of Parlia- 
 ment, Medical prescriptions, and the Druggist's labels 
 are required to be written in English, — and if we look to 
 the rest of the world, — all nations, except our own, have 
 rendered the -nomenclature of science intelligible to a 
 student in his vernacular tongue. Why, then, should we 
 copy British forma and British policy, against the neces- 
 sities of life ? 
 
17 
 
 The Dead Languages are rejected under this system, 
 furthermore, because, in view of practical life, the time and 
 labor bestowed upon them is incommensurate with the re- 
 sults which they accomplish, under favorable circumstan- 
 ces, — while their highest uses are lost in at least an equal 
 number of cases. Between the ages of twelve and fifteen, 
 a period of life rich in the capacity of a virgin soil, — their 
 study most frequently excludes all other subjects from a 
 suitable attention, without reflecting any valuable influence 
 upon the taste or imagination of the student. He is ac- 
 customed to expect no other reward for the industrious 
 plodding with which he has converted some fifty or sixty 
 glorious lines of Virgil or Xenophon into barbarous 
 English, than the approbation of his teacher, who con- 
 cludes, — justly enough, perhaps, — that a criticism upon 
 the style or sentiment of the text would not be apprecia- 
 ted, and requires nothing from him beyond the grammati- 
 cal construction of a sentence. In process of time, this 
 disregard to the purity, eloquence or grace of the author, 
 becomes a habit, and so fixed, that his Professor at Col- 
 lege, failing to overcome its influence, abandons in despair 
 the only luxury of his labors, and leaves to the depart- 
 ment of English Literature, the province of teaching this 
 classical student, what it is that constitutes the pure Hel- 
 lenism of Demosthenes, or the chaste Latinity of Cicero. 
 Alas, for the value of his diploma if Science has shared 
 a similar fate ! 
 
 But there is still other ground for its rejection. The 
 classic toll most generally required at our collegiate insti- 
 tutions, before matriculation, offers a formidable obstacle 
 to the diffusion of education among the poorer classes of 
 the people. I do not like this toll, which bars the col- 
 lege doors against the poor man's son, if he cannot pay it, 
 though genius beam from every feature of his face. We 
 should have shaken it off when we annulled the rest of 
 Great Britain's taxes, upon the mass for the benefit of a 
 privileged few. In the disciplinary code of the Virginia 
 University, Jefferson laid down the true Republican policy, 
 when he allowed to the parent or guardian of every stu- 
 dent, a choice among the subjects of study. It must be 
 conceded, however, that the operation of this open svs- 
 3 
 
18 
 
 tern in colleges is connected with many disadvantages. 
 The arrangement of classes, and the requisitions of the 
 course suppose the Latin basis, whether it exists or not, 
 and seldom furnish to the student of science, sufficient 
 regular employ ; nor is the standard generally adapted 
 to his particular necessities, in view of the practical ap- 
 plication of his knowledge in life ; and hence he returns 
 to his farm, or his merchandize, or his trade, — although 
 with some valuable impress upon the character of his 
 mind, — certainly with no material ready for immediate 
 use, and tending to make him either a better farmer or 
 tradesman, or a better man, often, with no counterpoise 
 in the gentleness of his heart, to the indolence which he 
 has contracted in a partial course, amidst the enticements 
 to dissipation every where about him. His education fits 
 him for no phase in life, and he is ridiculous in all. Re- 
 sponsible for science, in all its departments, while he 
 extols the Grecian orders, he guesses at the dimensions 
 of a Grecian column or the perspective of a Grecian front. 
 A long farewell to Bridge, or Bank, or Culvert, he con- 
 structs ! The very title to his lands depends upon a plat 
 whose lines he cannot verify. He lives, without an aim 
 in living, or if he has ambition, with vague notions of the 
 means by which he will attain his end, — trusting rather to 
 some trick of fancied genius to place him on the pinnacle 
 of his hopes, than to the muscle of intellectual effort. 
 Bewildered by the blaze of scientific discovery which 
 flashes from a thousand points of eminence above him, — 
 he is the constant dupe of " silly notions," until a bitter 
 experience has pointed out his error and left him late in 
 life to renew the studies of his boyhood ; one item more 
 in the daily proof that the assemblage of young men to 
 live together in college buildings, without continual em- 
 ployment, is prejudicial to sound republican education and 
 good morals. 
 
 Contemplate his case, and that system of education 
 which I advocate, and if their is any developement in the 
 one for which you do not find a complete preventive in 
 the other, it will be discovered in military organization ; — 
 a most powerful auxiliary in moral, intellectual and physical 
 education. 
 
19 
 
 A high state of health is a necessary consequence upon 
 the perfect cleanliness, the regular habits, and continual 
 exercise, which the requisitions of a Military Academy 
 uniformly demands. At dawn of day, the stirring notes 
 of the reveillie, arouse its inmates to duty. In self-de- 
 fence the signal must be obeyed ; — for the Orderly of the 
 week is seconding its summons, and the Sergeant is pre- 
 pared to note the student's absence from the roll-call and 
 the morning prayers. Should these recollections fail to 
 start him, a new doze has scarcely acquired stealthy 
 possession of his senses, before the everlasting " officer 
 of the day," is at the sleeper's side with his formal "Are 
 you sick, sir" and the odious book and pencil, which con- 
 signs him to the recitation-room, or the hospital. Before 
 the sun has risen, every bed is made, rolled and strapped ; 
 every chair, brush, coat and cap, is in its place, and all 
 made ready for " inspection." Now, the day's duties 
 begin, and he goes to their discharge most cheerily. Who 
 mopes, or talks of headache, that puts out his light at nine 
 and rises at daybreak. The ball-play, the drill, the con- 
 stant marches, short, but always quick, to the mess, the 
 recitation or parade, keep his blood in healthy circulation, 
 and expand the muscles of his body, while the exactions 
 of tactics shape their development, and defy a downcast 
 look or a round shoulder. 
 
 Has the " study-call" sounded ? The strictest silence 
 must be observed, and the Cadet must be in his room, 
 and at his table with his books by his side, for " sentinel." 
 and " sergeant," and Professor, are all on duty to remind 
 him of his fault, or compel the observance of rule from 
 the refractory. 
 
 But, it is in moral education, that we discover the 
 highest excellence of military organization. It stands to 
 moral lectures, in place of illustrative example. From 
 the commandant of the corps, to the last private on the 
 roll, each feels a common responsibility, of which none 
 may divest himself, while he holds office or wears the uni- 
 form. The interest of the whole body, is the particular 
 concern of every individual member, and hence the una- 
 nimity with which all — officer and student alike — accord 
 
20 
 
 obedience to the exact requirements of military discipline. 
 It is not one's personal friend or foe, who speaks, when 
 an authorized order is given, but his fellow, — cadet who 
 commands as he obeys, in the discharge of established 
 duty, which neither may violate without offence to the 
 honor of the corps. Through this principle, a habit of 
 self-restriction is established, in all his ^military duties. 
 Notice a sentinel on post. For two long hours he must 
 walk that lonely round. The stillness of midnight is about 
 him, and tired of his tedious task, down goes the musket 
 and weary nature seems to sleep. But does he sleep ? 
 Go, cross the path of his tour, and you will meet a 
 different fortune than has been my lot, if his unexpected 
 challenge and the quick sequel of a levelled bayonet, does 
 not prove that he is still awake. A trust has been reposed 
 in him, which his reputation compels him to respect, lest, 
 through his default, the honor of his corps should lose 
 some rose from its chaplet ; and in storm and night, in 
 summer and winter, he is faithful to duty under its control, 
 and feels a pride in self restriction for its sake. 
 
 Military discipline is valuable, furthermore, by reason 
 of the security it affords against idle and dissolute habits. 
 
 It is prejudicial to good morals, that young men should 
 live without restraint, or pass a moment unprotected by 
 some check to youthful ardor — some corrective to temp- 
 tation. Many a father has sent his son from the parental 
 roof, noble, industrious and energetic, to acquire an edu- 
 cation which has proved the curse of his life, because of 
 this deficiency, — one, which is fully met in the regulations 
 of a Military Academy. For, if it is unmilitary that any 
 individual should leave its boundaries without the know- 
 ledge of the officer of guard, — whose business it is to 
 note the time of leaving and the time of return, — and 
 these regulations control the student's conduct otherwise, 
 as I have endeavored to exhibit, I hazard nothing in the as- 
 sertion that the introduction of military discipline into any 
 institution of learning, where youth are collected in masses, 
 and live in Commons, would tend to obviate such conse- 
 quences, and supply a moral power, to School and Col- 
 lege government, which could not fail to send out from 
 
21 
 
 their halls a greater number of good men and accom- 
 plished graduates. 
 
 The objection sometimes urged against Military organi- 
 zation, that it begets an undue Military spirit, and a dis- 
 taste for any other than Military occupation, is founded 
 in its abuse, and applies, least of all, to State institutions. 
 The Cadet comes from the people for the express pur- 
 pose of acquiring such an education as will best qualify 
 him to serve his country and himself in any avocation of 
 life to which his inclination may lead him. He knows 
 before matriculation that his diploma will give no military 
 employment, and returns to the people, expecting prefer- 
 ment at no other hands. Such military spirit as would 
 lead him to accept office after graduation, is most care- 
 fully cherished, that the State may receive the benefit of 
 his knowledge, in the elevated character of her militia. 
 Surely patriotism will approve any efforts consistent 
 with the spirit of Republicanism, which have this object 
 in view. 
 
 And now, let me ask, in what respect does this system 
 of education conflict with the genius of our government ? 
 Does it offend because of popular enlightenment ? Its 
 doors are open to all, free of any tax beside a capacity to 
 learn. Because of society? Self-restriction for duty's 
 sake, and a high sense of common responsibility is daily 
 habit under its laws. Because of science and literature ? 
 Its course of studies is nearly that of West Point. 
 
 If it must engender servile emotions in the breasts 
 of those who are subject to its influence, making them 
 willing instruments in ambitious hands to rear an odious 
 despotism upon the ruins of the Constitution of the State ; 
 if it has robbed the Cadet of his Sabbath, and his Bible, 
 and his God, to make a Spartan soul under military disci- 
 pline ; — then away with it, forever, from the borders of 
 the land. But let not the State mistrust it unadvisedly. 
 Let her officers be faithful to their trust, and she need not 
 fear its influence over her sons. Time cannot fail to 
 prove it a strong bulwark of defence, and a lasting honor. 
 
22 
 
 Young Gentlemen of the Society : 
 
 It was my design, — after having discharged the duty 
 which your partiality had assigned me, — to urge upon 
 your consideration the dignity and responsibilities of your 
 position, and of the mission in life which, as Cadets, you 
 are called upon to fulfil ; but the labors of this week have 
 left me unequal to the occasion, and I must forego that 
 pleasure. I can do no more than thank you for the gift 
 of such emotions as fill my breast upon this first anniver- 
 sary of your society. As your officer, your professor, 
 and your friend, no less than as the founder of your So- 
 ciety, I rejoice in the prosperity which has attended your 
 literary efforts. Take courage from the present success, 
 and nerve up for new acquirements. What though you 
 have not the Latin and the Greek ! They form no part 
 of Truth. You have found your way to the iEgean and 
 the Euxine in an English packet. Did your knowledge 
 or your patriotism suffer that Xenophon or Thucydides, 
 Livy or Sallust, was not the Pilot? In no wise. There 
 are ample means within your reach for effecting every 
 object proper to your Society, and if you are true to 
 yourselves, your institution must furnish to the State, 
 citizens qualified for any station, whether of War or 
 Peace. 
 
George Washington F/ owen 
 Me morial Collection 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 ESTABLISHED By THE 
 FAMILY OF 
 COLONEL FLOWERS