poison there, and leave it blackened, if not blasted by the contagion. I call upon you all to look around you in the world, and see if its dignities depend on virtue. Do you not everywhere behold villians, insensible to all the obligations of morality and patriotism, whose wealth alone secures to them the smiles and honors of the world, when, too, in the very acquisition of it they have violated not only the kindly feelings of nature and humanity, but the sternest principles of truth and justice? Yet, it matters not, though a scoundrel may have robbed his mother, his father, his brother, his friend, or his country, if he has done it in a way to screen himself from a prosecution, and save his ears, though he may basely have put into his pocket ten thousand dollars of the money of the people, for which he never rendered a single act of service, yet having secured it, he may furnish feasts, and honest men will condescend to share them. Nay, more, he may means of ending obtain a place in the Legislature of his State, and there present evil procure the passage of an act, for his own private and especial benefit-an act, bearing upon its very face a lie, and having for its object nothing more or less than the securing of a legal fee in his dishonest and "itching palm"; and yet not only escape the vengeance due to crime, but continue to legislate for the very people he has thus betrayed and dishonored. I call upon you, the guardians of the morality, as well as the rights of the people, to put your faces against their abominations; and by adopting the system of education before you, prepare the way for exterminating these evils. The people should be instructed to respect nothing but virtue; to despise and tread upon a villian, though his limbs be arrayed in gold and fine linen.

The mere contemplation of such an institution as the one proposed, would strongly tend to accomplish this re sult. It would be a sublime and noble spectacle to see body of young men, associated together under the sanction

a

Education the

conditions.

The proposed colyoung men to serve

lege would fit

their country.

be elevated.

and patronage of their country; the direct and exclusive object of whose education, should be the attainment of excellence. It would relieve them, too, from the degrading consciousness of dependence, to know that while they were qualifying themselves to serve their country, they could, in a course of healthful exercise, produce what was necessary to sustain and support themselves. It would dignify labour, and make it respectable, not only in their eyes, but those of the community; and would thus furnish a powerful incentive to general industry. It is impossible Agriculture would to detail, or even to anticipate, the many advantages which might result to the country, from the agricultural department of the college. Agriculture, the most important interest of North-Carolina, for we are essentially a body of farmers, would there be systematised and reduced to science: the professor of agriculture would be chosen for his knowledge of the elementary principles, as well as the practical details of the science; and, in the conduct and government of the college farm, might throw a body of new light on the subject, which would be eminently serviceable to the whole community. Next in importance to the department of agriculture, is the military professorship. It is admitted to be incompatible with the spirit The militia would of our government to keep on foot a body of mercenaries ; and hence it has been laid down as one of the cardinal principles of our republican policy, that to the militia should be left the defence of our liberties. Is it not greatly important then, that they should be efficiently disciplined and instructed? Who that has attended the arrays of our militia, and witnessed their clumsy and ungraceful evolutions, but must laugh to scorn the idea of their offering effectual resistance to a disciplined foe? I am sure I do not err, when I say that ten thousand men, who had seen service-ten thousand courageous and disciplined troops, thrown upon the coast of North Carolina, might overrun the State with fire and sword. Let not my

be rendered efficient.

the general mili

the people.

sentiments be misunderstood. The light of heaven nc where shines upon a braver or a hardier race than that of North Carolina. I do not believe there is on earth a Wise to provide for people, with bolder hearts or stouter hands, than those we try education of represent; but the history of all time has shewn, that, in the field, the best and noblest efforts of valour are vain without discipline. If we would be wise, therefore, and act upon the lessons of the past, let us now, when it is in our power, lay the foundation of a general military education for our people. If it be desirable that they should be disciplined at all, and our policy is mainly founded upon that principle, then it is obvious they should be well disciplined; so that, in time of need, they may stand forth, the guardians of our liberties, our women, our children, and our firesides. Among other interesting results, this 'important one would inevitably attend the adoption of the system before you. It does not propose to make enlight ened citizens of those merely, who shall be immediately educated under it; but through them, to reach and instruct the great body of our people. It is to be remem- Those educated to bered, as the condition on which their country is to under- various places in take to educate them, that she is to have a paramount and indefcasible title to their services, for six years from the day on which their education commences; and that, after they have been supported and instructed for three years at the Political College, they are to be distributed through the State, at such stations as the Rector and Visitors of the College shall think proper to assign them, and there serve the other three years in disseminating among their countrymen the benefits of that education, and that discipline, which their country shall have conferred upon them. We shall thus have created for ourselves a body of instructors eminently and efficiently qualified to superintend the morality and intellect of the State, and to give a just and enlightened direction to it; and when district schools shall have been established throughout the State, the Political College can remain as a focus for the concen

be teachers at

the State; effects

of the plan.

tration of the genius of the country. It would be a nucleus, round which the sentiments and affections of the people would form-it would give life and soul to the State-it would be to her, what now she has not, a heart, equally enlivening and animating all her parts, and would soon absorb the stupid and selfish prejudices now entertained by one portion of our people against the other. The men who should be educated there, would be particularly qualified to contribute to this result. One of the principles of the measure is to extend the aid of the State only to those who are unable to educate themselves. Taken, therefore, from the humblest grade of life, and exalted by education, they would, when they returned among their countrymen, have more authority and influence with them, than those of equal abilities, but higher birth, and better fortunes than their own. It is impossible at this time to enumerate all the advantages which might result from such an institution, or even adequately to discuss the details of the measure itself. Perhaps, however, among other reasons for opposition, it may be objected to, on the ground of the smallness of the number which it proposes to educate. To this, I answer, that the cated; only a few. sparceness of our population, diffused as it is over such an extensive space, and the condition of our fiscal concerns, forbids, at this time, the thought of educating all our people; and it is, therefore, proposed to select from among them such a portion as our funds will enable us to educate, and qualify them to instruct the others. It may be answered, too, that if the number of young men to be educated, compared with the whole number of the State, be small, the sum to be raised by the State to support and educate them, compared with the whole amount of the funds of the State, is proportionately small. The interest of it might be raised from the property of North Carolina, and so trifling would be the portion which each man would pay, that unless reminded of it, he scarcely

All the people can not now be edu

State annually contribute a hundred times as much as their share of it would amount to, to improve the breed of game cocks and race-horses. Besides, a hundred men, educated in the manner proposed, would be worth to the State more than a hundred thousand, with a mere smattering of education.

educated men.

has done for his

In all ages, in all countries, we find that in difficult and The value of a few dangerous emergencies, the safety of many has depended on the few; and in a decisive crisis, a hundred such men would be worth to us far more than the "rascal counters" which we should expend upon them. They might be worth to us our liberties. Sir, would you ask for an instance of the amazing influence, which even one great mind, happily cultivated and fairly developed, could exercise over the interests, the character and the fame, even of a learned and powerful nation. None who have communed with him, ever can forget the divine spirit that breathes and burns in every line of the immortal Scottish tales. As an author, he has done more for his country, than ever what Walter Scott man before did for his country. He has rescued Scotland country. from comparative obscurity and oblivion, and made her a holy, and a haunted region. Every vale of his native land has been lighted up with a ray of his genius, and her mountains and her caverns are peopled with the children of his fancy. Among his pages, her chiefs and sages rise, like "spirits conjured from the vasty deep," and stand embodied there, in the eternal panoply of truth-truth avouched by history, and consecrated by genius. Their thoughts, their deeds, their very forms, have all the warmth and freshness of life; and we hear, and see, and almost feel them, with as palpable distinctness, as if they yet "lived, and moved, and had their being." But whence the mighty power, that could thus, "as with the stroke of an enchanter's wand," call back the vanished models of past excellence, to act as monitors of living men, persuading us by their eloquence, and exalting us by their example, to the pursuit of virtue and excellence? Whence,