^^aiBRARY OF Congress. 
 
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 Chap. 
 
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 <3gi7^ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.r^^ 
 
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 '\ ^ n 
 
 SPBECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. Nr J. HAMMOND, LL.D., 
 
 Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the 
 University of Georgia. 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE JOINT SESSION OF THE 
 GENERAL ASSEMBLY NOVEMBER 17, 1897. 
 
 ** The question of the child should displace that of the criminal; 
 the building up of our people more important than that which treated 
 of their falling down." 
 
 ATLANTA, GA. 
 
 (Franklin Printing and Publishing Company.) 
 
 Geo. W. Harrison, State Printer. 
 
 1897. 
 
)1 
 
 g3 
 
 b-,.v 
 
HISTORIC SCENE IN JOINT SESSION. 
 
 The speech of the Hon. N. J. Hammond, LL.D., Chairman of the Board 
 •of Trustees of the University of Georgia, was published in the daily Constitution 
 of November 18th, 1897, with the following editorial: 
 
 A TEST 
 
 OF STRENGTH. 
 
 TBiere was an inter- 
 esting test of strength 
 In the proceedings 
 which preceded the re- 
 ception of the senate 
 
 by the house of representatives Wednes- 
 day. 
 
 When, on the day before, the house 
 liad before it the request of the trustees 
 of the state uni\ersityto be given a heai'= 
 ing in joint session, since the message 
 they had to deliver was intended for the 
 entire general assembly, Mr. Blalock and 
 a number of his partisans made an effort 
 to have the petition sidetracked by grant- 
 ing an hour in the evening for the pur- 
 pose stated. In the proceedings which 
 followed, as indicated yesterday, it be- 
 came plain that the house of representa- 
 tives Would not consent to such side- 
 tracking of an important occasion, and 
 that the temper of the members was to 
 give the trustetrs the hearing which they 
 ■desired. Receding then from their ^ex- 
 treme position, the opponents of the uni- 
 versity moved that the hearing be in 
 committee of the whole, thus confining 
 it to the house alone, and not in joint 
 session. The specious plea was made 
 that, if the trustees should come before 
 the house, they should come in commit- 
 tee of the whole so that they might be 
 questioned. There was a great deal of 
 mystery about important questions 
 which might be asked. The friends oi 
 the university, desiring no wrangle and 
 satisfied of the justice of their cause, 
 consented to this motion, and the order 
 was made for the reception of the 
 trustees by the house in committee of 
 the whole at 11 o'clock on the day fol- 
 lowing. 
 
 In the meanf^me the senate, which had 
 been equally notified by the governor of 
 the desire of the trustees to meet the 
 general assembly in joint session, 
 promptly granted it, and fixed the hour 
 of 10:30 o'clock for the hearing. ^When 
 this action of the senate was conveyed 
 to the house an hour or two before the 
 appointed time, the adherents of Mr. 
 Blalock again rallied and made an at- 
 tempt, first, to amend the senate's joint 
 resolution by making it a night session 
 instead of during the morning hour. The 
 many pleas which were put up for avoid- 
 ing the joint meeting were amusing. But 
 finally, when called to a vote, the friends 
 of the university rallied, and by a vote 
 of almost 3 to 1 they decided to concur 
 with the senate, and to give the trustees 
 that fitting reception about which there 
 should ^have been at no time any ques- 
 tion upon the part of anybody. When, 
 therefore, the secretary of the senate 
 announced to the speaker that that body 
 was at the door, and when a few mo- 
 ments later the board of trustees, head- 
 ed by Governor Atkinson and Former 
 Governor McDaniel, entered the hall, 
 it was old Georgia again — the Georgia 
 which had pride in its past and ambition 
 in its future, and a spirit too broad for 
 any petty policy, and indicative of the 
 great future ahead. It was a test ot 
 strength — it meant that there would be 
 no hesitation in the onward march of 
 Georgia; it meant that her son^ would 
 be true to her interest, and that -no one 
 need have any fear for Georgia as long 
 as such sentinels are upon the watch- 
 tower. 
 
THE SPEECH 
 OF HON. N". y. 
 HAMMOND. 
 
 The appearance of 
 Hon N. J. Hammond, 
 in his character as 
 chairman of the 
 board of trustees of 
 the state university, 
 before the joint session, was remarkable 
 in many respects. Immediately facing 
 him sat the present governor and one of 
 the most respected of our former gover- 
 nors. Ranged in a circle were the dis- 
 tinguished members of the board ot , 
 trustees of the university — prominent 
 among whom was the trembling but stal- 
 wart form of Hon. William H. Felton. 
 The senate was present in full strength — a 
 body of forceful men whose faces gave 
 plain indication that by no action of 
 theirs should the standard of Georgia be 
 lowered in any particular. Then the 
 seats of the house were filled. Scattered 
 all over il were to be seen men famous 
 in the history of Georgia, as well as 
 those upon whose young shoulders'- the 
 future rests. They were assembled to 
 listen to the discussion of one of the 
 most important questions which can ever 
 agitate a people. A significant incident 
 had just preceded their assembling. One 
 of the distinguished members of the 
 house, in his anxiety to bring thfe convict 
 question forward, insisted that it had 
 the right of way under the rules. No mat- 
 ter how the decision was reached that he 
 was in error, the fact remains that such 
 a decision was reached — that the ques- 
 tion of the child should displace that of 
 the criminal; that the building up of our 
 people was more important than that 
 which treated of their falling down. 
 
 Mr. Hammond never spoke in b€tter 
 voice or to more effective purpose. He 
 traced clearly the duties which devolved 
 upon the two committees whose work is 
 now the subject of discussion in the two 
 branches of the general assembly. He 
 went on to say that the first committee, 
 popularly known as the Brown commit- 
 tee, was a joint committee organized in 
 1896 for the purpose of investigating ful- 
 ly and specifically the status of the 
 university as regards education, with 
 the express injunction that nothing they 
 
 should do should impair the usefulness 
 of the institutions of the state. Then 
 several months later another committee 
 was "'^organized — a house committee and 
 not joint — whose sole authority to exist 
 was to audit the books and accounts ot 
 the different institutions, and to whom 
 was not committed any question of poli- 
 cy attaching to any of the departments. 
 Having thus made clear the duty which 
 rested upon the two committees, Mr. 
 Hammond went into the main question 
 and traced the early history of the uni- 
 versity, how it was tne outcome of the 
 ardent desire of early Georgians for edu- 
 cation, how faithfully it had performed 
 its work through all the years until the 
 present time. iFrom that he took up 
 the charge that the university was in 
 some way inimical to the denomination- 
 al .^•colleges, and went on to show that 
 the taxation complained of by the de- 
 nominational colleges was in the natural 
 trend of legislation throughout the Unit- 
 ed States; that for all legislation of that 
 character presented in congress the 
 Georgia members had voted; that in the 
 convention of 1877, where were present 
 Baptists and Methodists, graduates of 
 'Mercer and of Emory, without a dissent- 
 ing voice they agreed to those very sec- 
 tions which some of their adherents at 
 this day claimed to have been placed 
 there as an act of antagonism. Mr. 
 Haramond successfully disproved any ef- 
 fort to make it appear an act of antag- 
 onism, and showed that it was the trend 
 of modern legislation. Turning back 
 from this point, the speaker took up 
 the land scrip fund, traced its purposes 
 and quoted the eloquent appeal of the 
 lamented Ben Hill, in which he stated 
 that the great and overwhelming need 
 of Georgia was education — education 
 where her. brain, mind and heart might 
 be developed to their fullest capacity. 
 From that to the disposition of the land 
 scrip lund, which was participated in by 
 Bishop Pierce, by Robert Toombs, by 
 Benjamin Hill and by other men illus- 
 trious in Georgia, against whose patriot- 
 ism no •'charge could be brought — these 
 were the men who accepted this money, 
 and these were the men who have out- 
 
lined the manner in which the money 
 should be earned hy the university. To 
 attack their work would be to attack 
 themselves, and consequently the read- 
 ing of their names was the most com- 
 plete answer which could be made to 
 that phase of the question. 
 
 SUBJECT 
 TO THE 
 
 But the claim was 
 made that the college 
 lacked in its practical 
 application of agricul- 
 XEGISLATURE. ture. It was at this 
 point that Mr. Ham- 
 mond made a telling stroke when he re- 
 minded the legislature that the trustees 
 of the university were but the creatures 
 ■of the law; that they had acted up to 
 the present time in full obedience to the 
 law and within its limits; that it was no 
 part of their duty, nor was it permittee 
 to them to spend one cent in buying 
 ground upon which to carry out a prac- 
 tical farm. The very act under which 
 this money was donated by the United 
 States, and under which it was accepted 
 by the state, provided that 10 per cent of 
 the ^money could be devoted to the pur- 
 chase of such a farm. That was an act 
 which devolved upon the legislature, and 
 not upon the trustees. During all the 
 years since Geor^a has had possession 
 of this money she has had in her treas- 
 ury continuously $24,300 w^hich her leg- 
 islature could have devoted to that pur- 
 pose, but which it has persistently failed 
 to do. Who should be blamed therefor 
 — the legislature which had the money 
 and failed to appropriate it, or the 
 trustees who had not the money and 
 who remained within the limit of their 
 legal powers? 
 
 The speech of Mr. Hammond was able, 
 logical and convincing. He went into 
 the very meat of the argument, and he 
 so laid bare the purposes and objects 
 of the law, the work of the university 
 trustees and the duty of legislatures, 
 that there was no possible answer which 
 could be made to him. When at the 
 conclusion of his speech, it was an- 
 nounced that those mooted questions 
 which had been whispered about might 
 
 be asked, there was not one who had the 
 temerity to rise in his place and begin 
 the work of catechising. It was a* splen- 
 did tribute to the ability of the distin- 
 guished chairman of the board of 
 trustees, whose unanswerable defense of 
 Georgia's great institution of learning 
 forbade the asking of the questions 
 which were so ominously threatened. 
 
 One of the most not- 
 
 HON. WILLIAM ^^^^ scenes which has 
 
 ever been witnessed 
 
 H. FELTON'S .„ .^^ ^ • , • i 
 
 in the Georgia legisla- 
 
 SPEECH. tive assembly was the 
 
 last appearance, prob- 
 ably, in public of the venerable and dis- 
 tinguished Dr. William H. Felton. 
 
 It was with trembling step and un- 
 steady gait, calling for the support of 
 those who walked by him, that this dis- 
 tinguished Georgian took hiS' place in 
 the charmed circle which surrounded 
 the speaker's desk in the house of rep- 
 resentatives. It was with one acclaim 
 that members of the house and senate 
 called upon him to go to the stand that 
 they might once more hear his sonorous 
 voice and witness that famous "halle- 
 lujah lick^' for which he haS' been so dis- 
 tinguished. Responding to their call, 
 the doctor was helped to the speaker's 
 stand, where he sat, not having the abil- 
 ity to keep upon his feet. A death-like 
 stillness prevailed, but the strong, clear 
 voice of the speaker, so striking in con- 
 trast to his feeble appearance, could 
 have broken tumult and commanded 
 peace even in the camp of his enemies. 
 He spoke as a farmer to farmers; he 
 spoke as a Georgian to Georgians: he 
 spoke as a university alumnus to men 
 who were anxious to place Georgia high 
 in the rank of educational progress. His 
 feeling references to the commencement 
 exercises of the years between 1840 and 
 1850— years which gave to Georgia such 
 distinguished men — were heard with 
 sympathetic interest. 
 
 While his speech in behalf of the uni- 
 versity was on an entirely different line 
 from that which had been followed by 
 Mr. Hammond, it was far-reaching in its 
 
effect upon his auditors. It did not take 
 the speaker long to place himself in the 
 hearts oT his hearers and to appeal to 
 the manhood of Georgia for future gen- 
 erations. He made one of the strongest 
 arguments which has ever heen heard, 
 in one respect, when he brought out the 
 point that the university was the prop- 
 erty of the state. If a business man 
 owned a piece of property and found 
 that it was not being managed accord* 
 Ing to his ideas, would he dismantle and 
 destroy it, would he abandon it and seek 
 a new place or would he proceed to rem- 
 edy the evil existing? In other words, 
 if a man owned a house and found it 
 was leaking, would he move out and 
 leave the building to the bats or would 
 he send for a man and have the repairs 
 made? The university is Georgia's ed- 
 ucational property. The legislature has 
 the right, unquestioned, to displace the 
 entire board of trustees and to elect a 
 new board, if by doing that, compliance i 
 with the legislative will can be had. The 
 legislature has the right, unquestioned, 
 to fix the course of study from the firsi 
 year to the last. It has the right to 
 make important or unimportant, as it 
 chooses, any department in the course of 
 study. If the agricultural department 
 is not being managed as it should be, the 
 
 duty of the legislature is plain — it is to. 
 command the trustees to make such 
 changes as may be necessary, and these 
 trustees', as the servants of the legisla- 
 ture, will not be slow in rendering obe- 
 dience. 
 
 The fact that the members felt that 
 this was the last time the doctor might 
 ever address them gave a melancholy 
 tinge but increased the interest with 
 which they heard his words and the im- 
 pression which his parting advice might 
 make upon them. 
 
 SinVtlilED 
 UP. 
 
 The day was a grand 
 triumph for the uni- 
 versity. Face to face- 
 with the whole sub- 
 ject, with the history^ 
 which the university 
 has made, with the trustees who now con- 
 trol it, with all of the arguments present- 
 ed, opposition and criticism meTfed away 
 as darkness before the rising sun. The 
 occasion was a masterful resurrection of 
 the true Georgia spirit, which has 
 bouyed up the state in the past and 
 which will carry her to a glorious fu- 
 ture. 
 
 I I ' s 
 
MR. HAMMOND'S GREAT SPEECH. 
 
 Full Text of his Magnificent Defense of Georgia's University. 
 
 Mr. President, Mr. Speaker and Gentle- 
 men of the General Assembly: I am the 
 mouthpiece this morning, by authority, of 
 the board of trustees of the university. 
 They by law are public servants, subject 
 to the control of the general assembly. In 
 the university no man of them has any 
 personal interest. For serving the univer- 
 sity, no man of them gets any pay, except 
 occasional thanks and much criticism. We 
 have been selected according to the forms 
 of law to take charge of a great public 
 interest. Ton, as the guardians over us, 
 are inquiring into that administration. We 
 desire to present in our own way, subject, 
 if you please, to any questions which you 
 desire to ask upon any pertinent question, 
 the views which we have on the important 
 matters which now divide public senti- 
 ment. 
 
 The Hostile Sentiment. 
 
 I may be pardoned for saying that there 
 is in the air some hostile sentiment to the 
 university. I believe that every man who 
 feels unkindly to it feels so because he is 
 misinformed or uninformed as to the 
 whole facts concerning the matter. It is 
 not at all uncommon for everybody to 
 make mistakes about everything, and 
 therefore it is no harm for everybody, 
 however intelligent they are and whatever 
 their position, to hear both sides before 
 making a judgment. When I was a school- 
 boy, in the little copy of "Watts on the 
 Mind," in which I learned to read, there 
 was this story: Timon had a dog, which 
 went into a church on the Sabbath day, 
 and a man pulled out his pistol and shot 
 the dog dead. An old sister said: "What 
 a shame! Timon' s dog was the gentlest 
 dog in the city, the most lovable dog in 
 the city, and for that man to shoot him! 
 What business had he with a pistol in his 
 pocket and to shoot it off at that dog while 
 the holy gospel was being preached?" 
 Some man said, "Wait, that was the best 
 dog in town, that is true, but he went 
 mad"— and the old sister then said: "What 
 a blessing it was that the man had his 
 pistol and could shoot him to prevent 
 harm being done!" She had simply heard 
 from the other side and changed her opin- 
 ion, thaf was all. She was right on the 
 facts which she first had; she got right on 
 all the facts, by a change in her mind, 
 after hearing the other side. 
 
 What brings us here? Two committees 
 were raised in this general assembly last 
 winter. The resolution creating one of 
 them was approved on the 22d of Decem- 
 ber, 1896, and is to be found at page 337 
 of the Georgia Acts of 1896. It made a 
 joint committee of representatives and sen- 
 ators, and authorized them to call upon 
 the chairman of the board of trustees and 
 two other members of the board of tru&- , 
 
 tees to be selected by him, who should 
 confer upon the following subjects: "To 
 ascertain the amounts received by the 
 state university from the federal govern- 
 ment; to investigate and determine if this 
 money is being properly applied and used 
 in such manner as will best promote the 
 interests for which it was intended, and 
 to report the result of their investigations 
 to the next session of this house, accom- 
 panied by such suggestions and recom- 
 mendations as will, in their judgment, best 
 promote the specific interest for which said 
 money is appropriated, and at the same 
 time make such recommendation as will 
 provide for the state university In such 
 manner as becomes the state of Grcorgia 
 to care for her principal institution of 
 learning." That committee is called (and 
 I speak of it so because you better under- 
 stand Tt that way) by the name of its 
 honored chairman, the Brown committee. 
 
 Another resolution was passed that is 
 not published in the acts because it was 
 not joint, but simply a resolution of the 
 house. This was passed on the 3d of Feb- 
 ruary, 1897, and was as follows: "Resolved, 
 That a committee of .five be appointed by 
 the speaker of the house, whose duty it 
 shall be to investigate each of the differ- 
 ent departments of the state government 
 and also the different institutions of the 
 state, and to report to the next session of 
 the general assembly the expense of main- 
 taining each of said departments and in- 
 stitutions and recommending such reforms 
 and rules of retrenchment as in its wisdom 
 may be advisable without injury to the 
 said departments or institutions." That 
 committee was appointed and is known as 
 the Blalock committee. 
 
 Trustees Not Notified. 
 
 You will observe now that the joint com- 
 mittee was made and intrusted with a spe- 
 cific object. Its number was twelve, like 
 a jury. It was to notify the trustees of the 
 investigation, so that the trustees might 
 appear and examine witnesses, cross-ex- 
 amine, and all that. That committee took 
 testimony, which I suppose (I have a right 
 to suppose) will be produced before this 
 body when it makes a report. With that 
 committee existing by law, charged with 
 the specific object of making this inquiry, 
 I put it to every candid man. what right 
 have we to suppose that the Blalock com- 
 mittee would do more than go and inves- 
 tigate our finances and see whether we 
 had economically expended the money that 
 was in our charge? That resolution made 
 no provision for notice to the trustees. 
 The trustees had no notice of their sitting. 
 We met in June, after that resolution had 
 been passed. As a body we invited the 
 Blalock committee to meet us at -Athens 
 
during the week that the law compelled us 
 fo sit there, and they acknowledged the 
 receant of our invitation, but they came 
 not. If, therefore, it did not suit their con- 
 venience to be there until vacation, are we 
 to be blamed for it? I am not blaming 
 them. But are we to be blamed that they 
 did not meet us? Some newspaper said 
 that they were not well organized under 
 the law, and that the trustees ought to pay 
 no attention to them. Lest a false impres- 
 sion would get out in that regard, I pub- 
 lished over my official signature that 
 everything that the trustees had at Ath- 
 ens or elsewhere was subject to their in- 
 spection, of which they had notice— perhaps 
 not served according to law— but they 
 went; they saw; they reported that our 
 finances were all right. I have been told 
 today that they wrote to our chancellor a 
 letter that ttiey were coming there, which 
 letter was received in Athens on Saturday 
 night, when he was away, and by his wife 
 was sent to Dr. White on the following 
 Monday, and that they came there on 
 Monday, and that they saw Dr. White and 
 Professor Hunnicutt, and perhaps others 
 for aught I know, but no trustee was no- 
 tified of their coming. No trustee, I sub- 
 mit, would have anticipated that they 
 needed more than our treasurer at their 
 meeting to do their duty. I have no comr- 
 .plaint to make, but when they take that 
 view we ought not to be prejudiced by an 
 opinion made when we were not notified 
 of the meeting. 
 
 Before 1 go away from this, and with 
 a view to come back to it if it be necessa- 
 ry, I wish to call your attention pointedly 
 to both resolutions, concluding with the 
 declaration in the Blalock committee that 
 ho one of these institutions shall, and in 
 the other that the university shall not 
 suffer any detriment, "We charge you," 
 said the general assembly, "as our public 
 servants, to go and make certain investi- 
 gations, but you shall touch not the life 
 of that institution, touch not its limbs; 
 "do it no harm." And this general assembly 
 has pronounced judgment in advance, 
 therefore, that if anything they recom- 
 mend will do it harm, they will have gone 
 beyond their power in the premises. 
 
 About Dr. Boggs. 
 
 We are here for another reason. For the 
 first time in the history of the state the 
 chancellor was not allowed to address the 
 general assembly in the day time. I know 
 you did it with a view to save expenses; 
 I know how valuable your time is; but, 
 members of the general assembly, when 
 you consider how important is that in- 
 terest, not only ito yourselves, but to 
 posterity, I beg of you hereafter to give 
 an hour, or two if it be necessary, when 
 the chancellor comes under the statute 
 and says he is here according to law to 
 tell you what he thinks about the condi- 
 tion and interests and wants of the uni- 
 versity. 
 
 I may say— I will say— that because I 
 was here and saw that the general assem- 
 bly w^as not here to hear his speech, I 
 was anxious that we should in some way 
 appear before you, and I am afraid that 
 in your effort to save time in not hearing 
 the chancellor you have lost time in get- 
 ting us in here. Not that I expect to oc- 
 cupy as .much time as he did. but it took 
 sonae time to get us in. 
 
 Certain things have been said with re- 
 gard to the action of the trustees that 
 need review, and I have determined in 
 certain portions of my argument to read 
 to you certain extracts that I have made, 
 rather than bring the books before you, 
 and because that was more convenient, 
 and especially because I wished to be ac- 
 curate in what I say. Therefore, if I seem 
 to keep my eyes too much on paper, un- 
 derstand that the purpose is to keep my- 
 self to the truth. It is sa.d that on certain 
 occasions, when Aristides was about to 
 address the people of Athens, he prayed 
 all the gods that he might speak nothing 
 but the truth. Fellow citizens, I pray to 
 that unknown God, of whom Paul told 
 Athens five htindred years afterward, that 
 I, a public servant, discussing a great pub- 
 lic interest this day, shall speak nothing 
 but the truth— the truth as I understand it, 
 the truth as I understand the history of 
 the country will prove, the truth as I 
 invite you to examine and see for your- 
 selves its verity. 
 
 The So-Called SCostile I/egislation. 
 
 It has been said by some that the uni- 
 versity and its friends had been and are 
 enemies to denominational educational in- 
 stitutions in the state. That cannot be 
 true, in the light of history. The constitu- 
 tion of 1877 was made by the best men, 
 selected by the best people all over the 
 state of Georgia. It was to get rid of the 
 constitution of 1868 that we understood had 
 not been made by us. Take a list of the 
 members of that convention which made 
 that constitution, and recall who they 
 were and what they were, and we will need 
 no other reply to persons who make such 
 charges. 
 
 Some have claimed that certain sections 
 of the constitution of 1877 were inserted 
 therein for the express purpose of injuring 
 the denominational colleges of this state. 
 Let any one of you take the list of mem- 
 bers of the convention which made that 
 constitution and recall who they were and 
 what they were, and he will need no 
 reply, we think, to the charge. We would 
 ilot be invidious by mentioning individuals; 
 but take a few of distinguished Baptists — 
 Respess. Joe Warren and his venerable 
 father, one of the charter members of Mer- 
 cer; Tharpe, one of its oldest graduates; 
 Porter, Gibbs, Jackson, Judge Lawson, also 
 one of its trustees; Matthews, Judge 
 James Brown, the eloquent Judge Wright, 
 of Rome. (The head of the Baptist college 
 has not spoken here, and we count his 
 silence as disapproval.) Among Methodists 
 take such men as Tim Purlow, the brilliant 
 young George Pierce, your present mem- 
 ber. Pace, one of the trustees of Emory, 
 and many others who might be named. 
 Take Flewellyn, not a Methodist, but a 
 member of the Brown committee. Did those 
 men. in making the constitution, have 
 any idea of fighting Emory and Mercer? 
 
 In 1848 the great agricultural state of 
 Wisconsin declared: "Nor shall any money 
 be drawn from the treasury for the bene- 
 fit of religious societies or religious or the- 
 ological seminaries." In one form or other, 
 that has been repeated since that time 
 in sixteen of our twenty-three constitutions 
 that have been made during that interval. 
 In 1850, by Michigan; in 1851, by Indiana 
 and Ohio; in 1857, by Oregon; in 1859, by 
 Kansas; in 1864, by Nevada and Maryland. 
 
Maryland, the home of the grand old Bish- 
 op Emory, for whom that institution was 
 named, in its constitution of 1864 forbade 
 any gift even by private persons, without 
 legislative sanction, by deed or will, lo 
 any minister, public preacher or preacher 
 of the gospel, or denomination as such, or 
 to their support or benefit, except land, not 
 more than five acres, for sites to be used 
 only for such church or burial grounds. 
 And that was repeated in her constitution 
 of 1867, though both required belief in Gou 
 and a future state of rewards and punish- 
 ments to make one competent as a juror. 
 Recall the fact that while Maryland was 
 the first state which procla.med freedom 
 of conscience in this union, at or about 
 1867, nearly one-third of her great city 
 Baltimore was owned by the Catholic 
 church alone. The same thing was declared 
 in the constitution of Nebraska in 1866, 
 and in 1868 Mississippi put into her con- 
 stitution the provision of that of Ohio. 
 It was in the constitution of 1868 of the 
 state of Georgia, in that of 1870 of Illinois, 
 in Pennsylvania's of 1873. in Missouri's of 
 1875, in Colorado's of 1876, arid Texas in 
 1876 in her constitution declared: "And no 
 law; shall ever be enacted appropriating 
 any part of the permanent or available 
 school fund to any other purpose what- 
 ever; nor shall the same or any part there- 
 of ever be appropriated to or used for the 
 support of any sectarian school." 
 
 In August, 1876, in the house of repre- 
 sentatives of the United States, Mr. Blaine 
 proposed to amend the constitution of the 
 United States so that it would read as 
 follows: "No state shall make any law 
 respecting any establishment of religion, 
 or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; 
 and no money- raised by school taxation 
 in any state for support of public ^cnoo s. 
 or derived from any public fund therefor, 
 nor any public lands devoted thereto, shall 
 ever be under the control of any religious 
 sect; nor shall any money be raised, or 
 lands so devoted, be divided between re- 
 ligious sects or denomination <? " That was 
 voted upon on the 14th of August, lS7e. 
 when it passed the house by a vote of ISu 
 yeas to 7 nays. Among the yeas in the 
 •house you will note Lamar, of Mississippi, 
 the dead senator, one of Emory's greatest 
 alumni; General Phil Cook, Dr. Felton 
 and William E. Smith. In the sen- 
 ate it was passed by 28 to 16, not 
 having a two-thirds majority. Among the 
 yeas in the senate were Thomas M. Nor- 
 wood and John B. Gordon; and so far as 
 I know (I have not looked at the record), 
 no Georgian opposed it in the house. 
 
 When, therefore, the suggestion of such 
 a clause in our own constitution was miade, 
 \t came as the natural result of the then 
 condition of the public mind. It needed no 
 animosity to any institution to frame it, 
 and thougb each denominational institution 
 in the state had many of its friends pres- 
 ent, no man thought of making any charge 
 of hostility to them, or of opposing the 
 passage of the provision which prevents 
 denominations from taking money out of 
 the treasury. 
 
 It has been also thought by some that 
 the constitutional limitalea tax exemption of 
 church property, etc., was prompted by 
 like hostility. The foundation of that • 
 charge is equally Taaseless. Let any one 
 take up the journal of the Georgia constitu- 
 tional convention of 1877, and look at the 
 names of the committee on finance, taxation 
 
 and public debt, at page 42, and then the 
 committee on revision of the laws, at page 
 54, and he will find both of thena made up 
 largely of friends of the denominational 
 colleges, of graauates from them, and of 
 men whose constituency were deeply in- 
 terested in their successes. At pages 351 and 
 356. you will find that both in front of and 
 below the clause which exempted church 
 property, etc., various amendments were 
 suggested and acted upon, but that nobody 
 thought of enlarging the exemptions there- 
 in proposed. See also the stenographic re- 
 port of the discussions had in the conven- 
 tion, at pages 296, 297, 298 and 299. The truth 
 is that at that time nobody seemed to 
 think tl^at any broader exemption of church 
 property or church college property ought 
 to be made, or was desirable. Certainly not 
 one word of hostility to the denominational 
 colleges was spoken, nor one suggestion 
 by any of their friends that any hostile 
 purpose existed. Why it should now be 
 charged, we are at a less to know. If the 
 general assembly should see proper to ex- 
 empt a larger amount of church property, 
 and denominational college property, the 
 board of trustees of the University of 
 Georgia, so far as we know, would vote 
 like other citizens on the subject — perhaps 
 some one way, perhaps some another. 
 Having been in the board for twenty years, 
 I do not recall ever to have heard any ex- 
 pression from any member of the body on 
 that subject. If any exemptions which 
 those colleges did have were repealed by 
 the constitution of 1S77, either their friends 
 thought it right to repeal it, or were care- 
 less, or perhaps did not know even of the 
 exemption. We doubt whether any mem- 
 bers of the board of trustees of the uni- 
 versity knew of the existence of the act 
 of 1857, unless they were such members as 
 were also members of the boards of trus- 
 tees of Emory or of Mercer. Up to within 
 the legislative prohibition in the past few • 
 years, it was not at all uncommon for the 
 same persons to be members of both 
 boards. We believe Judge James Jackson, 
 Bishop . George F. Pierce. Governor Col- 
 quitt and others were members of the 
 boards of "both Emory anii of the Univer- 
 sity up to their deaths. 
 
 We recall all this history, not with a view 
 to argue whether the constitution was 
 right or wrong, but simply to vindicate 
 ourselves against any charge of maliginity 
 awa.;nst any denominational school on the 
 part of p.ny friend of the university who 
 viiay have narticipated. directly or indirect- 
 ly, in aiding the making of that constitu- 
 tioi'. 
 
 For m-j self I say that an act selecting one 
 or two or any ntimber of these colleges for 
 exemption was and always will be wrong. 
 The exemptions, limited or unlimited, should 
 apply to all equally. 
 
 The University Funds. 
 
 Pardon me for a digression now to tell 
 you what funds the university has. In 
 1821. it had from the sale of lands given 
 by the state in part, but more from the 
 lands given us by that old friend of Thom- 
 as Jefferson. John Milledge, the great 
 grandfather of your librarian. $150,000 in pa- 
 per, for which payments the lands them- 
 selves were bound. But because they could 
 not be collected regularly, because they 
 were not a permanent investment. Georgia 
 said. "I will take your $150,000 of paper and 
 give you my obligation that I will owe you 
 
10 
 
 $100,000 and pay you the interest on it for- 
 ever, but never pay you the principal." 
 That makes what the constitution calls 
 the "constitutional debt" of the state. 
 Then the legal interest in Georgia in com- 
 merce was from ten to fifteen per cent. 
 Georgia promised us 8 per cent, and she 
 has paid it like an honest state ever since. 
 Governor Gilmer died. He left 815,000 to be 
 used for the education of school teachers. 
 It was given to Toombs and Reese and Mc- 
 Daniel and others, and they turned it over 
 to us. That makes $15,000 of the funded 
 debt, on which we draw 7 per cent, to edu- 
 cate school teachers— given us by Gilmer. 
 You didn't appropriate it. Terrell gave 
 $20,000, on condition that we would use 
 that for lectures in agriculture only, and 
 that is finded in 7 per cents for the bene- 
 fit of agriculture. It was given in 1854, 
 long before the United States started to 
 help. We had the chair in agriculture and 
 the lectures in agriculture there before the 
 act of 1862 gave us anything. Governor 
 Joe Brown gave us $50,000— in what? In 8 
 per cent Georgia bonds, and they were 
 funded in 1881 under your authority, in 7 
 per cent bonds. We got from Conley's sale 
 of the lands given to us by the United 
 States $243,000. The state, for some reasons 
 too tedious to explain, did not turn it all 
 over to us, but we got the interest. That 
 which was turned over to us was funded, 
 and 7 per cent is paid for that, for the 
 uses as specified under tl>e acts of con- 
 gress. 
 
 Now let us look at the result. I do not 
 mean hy these hgurts to blame anybody. 
 I do not mean, to hurt anybody. Before 
 God, I feel kindly this morning to all the 
 world. I mention it to illustrate the argu- 
 ment that I desire to put. That Metho- 
 dist Who has done so much for Georgia, 
 George Seney, gave Emory $125,000. Can 
 Emory show it today? Has she not lost 
 over $40,000 of it? Why? Because she had 
 to go out in the market and get securities, 
 and the securities themselves broke, rail- 
 roads crumbled and Emory suffered. Take 
 Johns Hopkins, the best institution in the 
 whole southen states a«! to endowment^ ex- 
 cept that of Texas, and she would have 
 gone to the ground because of bad invest- 
 ments tjut for the help of Baltimore to save 
 its life. Take Pennsylvania university, the 
 great institution whose investments were 
 in the Lehigh Valley railroad, supposed to 
 be the hest in the country. They had the 
 bottom knocked out of them, and the state 
 had to pocket the loss and give again to 
 the University. Other Instances of such 
 losses are everywhere. 
 
 The act of 1881 declrred when we gxDt 
 any money we should not go into the mar- 
 ket and go about investing it in Central 
 railroad or Georgia railroad stocks, or any 
 thing else, but bring it here and put it in 
 Georgia's treasury. She gives 7 per cent on 
 It, not for our us"^. hut for hers, for the 
 education of her children. It was wise, 
 conservative, honest. There is talk about 
 repealing it. Repeal it, if you like. It 
 cannot hurt anybody now. The money is 
 already funded. We can and are occasion- 
 ally putting in another thousand dollars, 
 as the interest accumulates on the Brown 
 fund, and therehy enabling a few more 
 Brown fund boys who are poor, to be edu- 
 cated. If you wish to take it away, take 
 It! But let It be understood that the board 
 of trustees hegs you, in behalf of that 
 fund, which they have been administering, 
 and the good of which they know, to let 
 It alone— to let It alone. 
 
 Now, having spoken of that endowment. 
 
 you aee what money we have. The de- 
 tail. -3 you all get by the reports. They 
 oug'ht to be known by heart to every Geor- 
 gian. They have been published once a 
 year ever since they happened, and some- 
 limod many times a year. 
 
 Now I want to say a word of history 
 about free tuition ana that I may be accu- 
 riie in that 1 intend to read the history. 
 
 About Tree Tuition. 
 
 The policy of Georgia originally was to 
 admit no students free into hor schools 
 or into Franklin college or the university, 
 except those who came as paupers. Tne 
 trustees of the university, then Franklm 
 college, admitted the eons of ministers, or 
 'boys preparing for the ministry, without 
 charge, upon certificate of their inability to 
 pay tuition, and also certain prize pcholars 
 from different schools in the state. In the 
 scholastic year 1869-70 there were twenty- 
 seven free pupils, while all others paid $100 
 tuition each. The constitution of 1868 abol- 
 ished all distinction between the rich and 
 poor in the common schools. 
 
 In the summer of 1871 our lamented ex- 
 senator, Hon. Benjamin H. Hill, made a 
 speech, in which, after depicting the terri- 
 ble disaster to our state consequent upon 
 the war. he undertook to tell how alone 
 cur fortunes could be restored; and I may 
 say, how alone they have been restored— 
 by what Emory and Mercer and the uni- 
 versity and subordinate coUeges in the 
 state have done. 
 
 Speaking at our state university, he said 
 in that speech, the reading and re-reading 
 of which would greatly benefit every citi- 
 zen of our state: 
 
 "The beginning of ail improvement in 
 Georgia lies in the enlargement of our 
 system of education. Education is like 
 water; to fructify, it must descend. Pour 
 out fioods at the base of society, and only 
 at the base, and it will saturate, stagnate, 
 and destroy. Pour it out on the summit, 
 and it will quietly and constantly percolate 
 and descend, germinating every seed, feed- 
 ing every root, until over the whole area, 
 from summit to base, will spring 'the ten- 
 der blade and then the ear, and then the 
 full corn in the ear.' 
 
 Mr. Hill seems to have had in mind the promise 
 of Moses to the Israelites in the wilderness: "For 
 the land whither thou goest in, to possess it, is not 
 as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, 
 where thou sowedst thy seed and watered it with 
 thy foot, as a garden of herbs; but the land, whith- 
 er ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, 
 and drinketh water of the rain of heaven." 
 
 Continuing, Mr. Hill said: 
 
 "The first necessary step in any educa- 
 tional system, therefore, and the first, the 
 highest, the holiest duty now pressing 
 upon every Georgian, is to build up this 
 university. This is our summit. This is 
 the Ararat on which the ark that bears all 
 that is left of our old civilization must rest 
 from the storms and waves of revolution, 
 and send out the life and strength and hope 
 of a better civilization, which shall not 
 again be destroyed. 
 
 "In organizing a complete university, I 
 would, in the first place, preserve a full 
 and rigid college curriculum for all who 
 desire a strictly classical and literary edu- 
 cation. I would then add all independent 
 polytechnic schools, courses of study, ab- 
 stract and applied, scientific, regular, and 
 elective. I would provide every facility to 
 make and accomplish the universal scholar 
 and the special expert. Nothing desirable 
 or useful in knowledge should be better or 
 more thoroughly and cheaply acquirable 
 elsewhere. I would have teaching by lee- 
 
11 
 
 tures, by recitations, and by experiments 
 and shifting examinations, individual and 
 -class, written and oral. 
 
 "In the next place, I would make tuition 
 free in every department of the university. 
 I would pull down the tollgates which bar 
 the passage of light, and knowledge should 
 go to the ignorant mind as air goes to the 
 tired lungs, and water goes to the parched 
 lips. Every father in Georgia sliould be 
 taught to feel and made to rejoice that his 
 son had a patrimony in the university of 
 
 Those were the views of a statesman, as 
 
 well as a Methodist, 
 
 You may read the speech in "Benjamin H. 
 Hill's Life and Speeches," by his son, at 
 pages 345-6. 
 
 In 1872 James M. Smith, the son of a 
 Methodist preacher, who had himself toiled 
 through poverty up to eminence, laboring 
 In the blacksmith shop with his father for 
 ia living, was the governor of our state. It 
 fell to him as such to dispose of the $243,- 
 000, the product of the lands granted by 
 the United States under the act of 1862, 
 which lands had been sold by Governor 
 €onley. On the 30th of March, 1872, he de- 
 livered that fund to the trustees of the 
 university, under a contract that they 
 would establish a college in the university 
 to be known as the Georgia State College 
 of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. The 
 contract specified the nine different pro- 
 fessors and the subjects to be taught by 
 them in that college. It provided that the 
 engineering department of Franklin col- 
 lege should be transferred to the new col- 
 lege. It declared that said sum should be 
 invested in seven-per-cent bonds of the 
 ^tate of Georgia. Issued under the act of 
 January 18, 1872, "and that the money so 
 invested shall constitute a perpetual fund, 
 the capital of which shall remain forever 
 undiminished, except as hereinafter men- 
 tioned, and the interest of which shall be 
 inviolably appropriated to the endowment, 
 support and maintenance of the college, 
 organized by the board of tnistees of the 
 University of Georgia as hereinbefore set 
 forth. That the leading object in said col- 
 lege shall be, without excluding other scien- 
 tific and classical studies, and Including 
 military tactics, to teach such branches of 
 learning, as are related to agriculture and 
 the mechanic arts, in such manner as the 
 legislature of this state may prescribe." 
 
 The only diminution of the fund to be 
 allowed was that 10 per cent of the $243,000 
 might be expended for the purchase of 
 lands for sites of experimental farms, 
 "when authorized by the legislature of this 
 state, and not otherwise." We had to have 
 your authorization. And twenty-five years 
 have passed, and the legislature has never 
 authorized us to spend a dollar of that 
 money for a farm. And yet we are blamed 
 for not having a better farm, when you 
 have got $24,300 of funds In your keeping to 
 buy a farm, and we cannot spend 't until 
 you say so, under the contract and the law 
 of congress. 
 
 The fifth article of that provision was: 
 "Free tuition Is hereby granted in this 
 college to as many students, residents o£ 
 this state, as there are members of the 
 general assembly of Georgia, and In addi- 
 tion to this free tuition in the college, all 
 such students are likewise entitled to the 
 advantages of the different departments 
 of the University of Georgia, without 
 charge." 
 
 Free tuition for fifty other students was 
 igiVen. on condition that the recinienta 
 should teach school for as many years as 
 they were In the university. 
 
 On February 6, 1873, the city of Athens 
 
 donated $25,000 in her eight-per-oent bonds 
 to the university, to be used in the con- 
 struction of a building for the use of the 
 State College of Agriculture and the Me- 
 chanic Arts; and the legislature by act of 
 February 10, 1874, ratified that issue of 
 bonds, and provided that they or tlieir 
 proceeds "shall be used solely for the pur- 
 pose contemplated in the donation." 
 
 In 1875 Dr. H. H. Tucker, the great Bap- 
 tist divine, then chancellor of the univer- 
 sity, in his address before the general as- 
 sembly, said that there were then in the 
 university 315 free scholarships, of which 
 250 were chargeable to, the land scrip fund. 
 
 Athens built the $25,000 house, the best 
 which the university had up to 1896, and 
 we have been drawing her 8 per cent ever 
 since. The free scholars increased on the 
 pay scholars until 1881, when the state made 
 tuition, as Hill had said ten v^ars before it 
 should be made, free to every department 
 Of the university. The thlirty pay students 
 in the university, out of the 155 in attend- 
 ance at that time, were paying but about 
 $2,100 tuition, and an appropriation of $2,0(;0 
 enabled . and commanded the board to 
 break down all distinctions between the 
 classes of pay and free students. 
 
 The men who were actors in this busi- 
 ness, and who made the contract with 
 Governor Smith, need no defense as to 
 their motives and their purposes. When 
 their names are mentioned, their own well- 
 known h-istory will answer all charges that 
 they were infiuenced by any narrow pur- 
 pose, any design to injure any other insti- 
 tutions, with anything covert, unmanly 
 or unpatriotic. Many of them who joined 
 In that contract with Governor Smith are 
 dead. Among these are Charles .J. Jen- 
 kins. Mark A. Cooper, W. L. Mitchell, Wil- 
 liam Dougherty. R. D. Moure, H. V. M. 
 Miller. David W. Lewis, Senator B. H. 
 Hill. Judge Iverson L. Harris, Senator Jo- 
 seph B. Brown. Robert Toom.bs, B. C. Yan- 
 cey. Samuel Ba,r!ieit, D. A. Vason, ,!udge 
 Jsmes Jackson, J. L. Seward, Bishop 
 George F. Pierce, Judge M. J. Crawford, 
 Judge Samuel Hall. Stephen Thomas, Bish- 
 op John W. Beckwith, Judge James A. 
 Gresham. Dunlap Scott, W. H. Hull. Gov- 
 ernor James M. Smith, Y. L. G. Harris and 
 John C. Rutherford. Those who lived when 
 that contract was made, and are still with 
 us, are J. A. Blllup®, D. C. Barrow, Lamar 
 Cobb, M. P. Barrow, Senator A. O. Bacon. 
 John Screven, Senator John B. Gordon and 
 myself. Those who l-iad not died were still 
 members in 1881. The board consisted of 
 about forty persons when reorganized and 
 reduced by law. but all the appointees were 
 old members except Judge Hutchlns. 
 
 Recalling that list of the trustees of 1872. and 
 myself la^st, reminds me of Grady's speech at a 
 table of millionaires in New York, when he said: 
 '•Here are a dozen of us, representing in our own 
 right two hundred millions of dollars, without 
 counting me." In each name of those dead men 
 is an argument in our favor. One could spend 
 hours telling of their worth. I will only recall, as 
 specially pertinent, that good man. Young L. G. 
 Harris, of Athens, from whose will, this year, 
 Emory had a magnificent gift', and the University 
 got nothing, though he had lived so near it so 
 many years. Can it be said that he was an enemy 
 to denominational education in Georgia? Recall- 
 ing the names of those mighty dead, with as noble 
 a pride as swelled the bosom of the mother of the 
 Gracchi, our old mother can say of them: "These 
 are my jewels, each a diamond of the first water, 
 brilliantly reflecting the glory of this common- 
 wealth." 
 
 The great Bishop George F. Pierce lived 
 and moved amongst us, an active member 
 
12 
 
 of the board of trustees of the universJty 
 and of Emory col'-igj and a bishop of }ijs 
 church, until 1884, when he died, leaving a 
 path of glory beihiind him. Take him for 
 a specimen of a man occupying a position 
 who ought to have complained if any one 
 should have, and ask any one to show you 
 where he ever charged that in the matter 
 of free tuition in the university any one 
 had the thought, or any conduct justified 
 the thought, that its purpose was to injure 
 Emory or any other institution. Quote, if 
 you please, any sentence that he ever ut- 
 tered against free tuition in the university. 
 Quote, if you please, any protest against 
 funding the university fund. When such 
 a man, by his position called on to speak, 
 is silent, he becomes a witness for our slide. 
 
 Not only was the board in existence in 
 1S81, orgen.'zed as already mentioned, but 
 the charter had been amended in 1878 so as 
 to allow the Georgia State Agricultural So- 
 ciety to add four additional trustees to the 
 beard, who by the act were required to 
 be "practical farmers, whose leading avo- 
 cation shall be agriculture." Under that 
 act of 1818-9, page 95. the agricultural so- 
 cietv elected such men as James Fannin, 
 of Troup; Felton, of Marshalsville; Byrd, 
 of Polk, and our present representative 
 from this district, Hon. L. F. Livingston. 
 
 The bill of 1881 for free tuition was in- 
 troduced by Judge N. L. Hutchins, not 
 then a judge nor trustee of the university. 
 It passed the house on the 17th of Septem- 
 ber by 100 yeas to 30 nays. Among the yeas 
 were duBignon, Miller, Northen, Turner of 
 Munroe, and Peek. I stop a moment on 
 Peek. He is- a farmer, as are many of you. 
 We have had a controversy lately some- 
 what in the newspapers, not elsewhere, be- 
 tween two professors, on the question 
 whether "agriculture" can be taught ped- 
 agogically or not, one saying that there is 
 no book writ'len on "agriculture" from 
 which teaching may be made pedagogical- 
 ly, and the other saying that while it is 
 true that there is no book on the subject, 
 he has compiled some notes which he pro- 
 poses to have printed in a book when op- 
 portunity offers and he shall feel financial- 
 ly able. I allude to Professor Hunnicutt. 
 Certain questions were put to Professor 
 Hunnicutt by the Brown comrnittee, or in 
 its presence. He was asked if there was 
 any book on agriculture. He answered 
 "there is no book on 'agriculture' as such, 
 but I have some notes on the subject, and 
 expect to have them made up into a book 
 for use in teaching agriculture." In 1881, 
 that farmer Peek introduced into the house 
 of representatives a bill to appoint a com- 
 mittee to get up and compile a book on 
 "agriculture," because there was none. 
 And I caU him to witness now and decide 
 the dispute between White and Hunnicutt. 
 The legislature wouldn't appropriate the 
 money to make it. White says there Is 
 none; Hunnicutt says there is one, but it 
 is in his pocket. That Is the controversy. 
 The trustees have nothing to do with it. 
 
 That bill of 1881 for free tuition passed 
 the senate on the 23d of September, by yeas 
 26, by nays 13, with Governor Boynton, then 
 president of the house, not voting. I men- 
 tion that because these were good men who 
 so voted. I Indorse every man's name whom 
 I have called. They are men who did not 
 do anything from light motives or un- 
 patriotic purposes, but did these things be- 
 cause they believed them to be right. If 
 there had been no funding bill, we might 
 have invested our funds in the Central 
 
 railroad, and let them go to Davy Jones's 
 lodger. You kept them dn your pocket,, 
 and they are safe for your children for- 
 ever. 
 
 Some talk of paying 7 per cent interest 
 to the university as a great thing. Does it 
 moke a man poorer when he takes money 
 oU)t of one pocket to put it into another? 
 
 1 must hasten to a conclusion. 
 
 The real reasons for free tuition actuating 
 the board of trustees, so far as I know 
 them (from having been a member of the- 
 body since the act of 1871), were, first, to 
 meet the demand for free education which 
 bad been voiced by Rill in 1871, and to- 
 break down the class distinctions between 
 the agricutural students and the students 
 in the other branches of the college, which 
 to some were unpleasant and which the 
 faculty reported to us were injurious to 
 the institution. When we began that busi- 
 ness, under the contract with Governor 
 Smith in 1872, the keynote to all oar sub- 
 sequent action was spoken by our "chan- 
 cellor, old Dr. Lipscomb, in his report of 
 October 24, 1872, in the following words: 
 
 Against Separation. 
 
 "On no account should the two schemes 
 of education be dissevered. So far from 
 being antagonistic, tliey help each other. 
 So far from being incongruous, they are 
 in perfect harmony. A specific and inde- 
 pendent education in agriculture and the 
 mechanic arts will be just as hurtful as 
 any other sort of specific education. The 
 harm is in the petty exclusiveness, the 
 meager individuality, the insulated person- 
 ality that all such systems generate. A 
 community can never be made a v/ise and 
 compact community if a single class is 
 educated in a single thing, for the strength 
 and grandeur of a community must always 
 be in the ideas and feelings which, despite 
 of the inevitable laws of social distinctions, 
 are shared alike by all. If our young mind 
 does not experience this coalescence of 
 thought and sentiment by means of edu- 
 cation, it is certain that no subsequent 
 contact will ever issue in any union of 
 opinion and action. 
 
 "Apart from this great social effect noth- 
 ing can be more beneficial than to bring 
 together young men who propose to them- 
 selves widely different spheres of educated 
 life. 
 
 "The competition is between mind and 
 mind, and not between professions and 
 trades. Furthermore, we shall give dignity 
 to labor when we give intellect to labor, 
 and this can only be done by educating our 
 young men together for all the honorable 
 pursuits of business." 
 
 This utterance by the chancellor was not 
 new. It was but the echo of the declara- 
 tion of our great Chief Justice Lumpkin 
 in 1849, when, in a case reported ih tlie 
 sixth Georgia reports, p. 569, he declared 
 that botany, chemistry and philosophy in 
 all its branches had been in this country 
 republicanized, and that all the professions 
 should be here put upon a level with all 
 other callings, and that "all factitious dis- 
 tinctions in society, created by professions 
 or anything else, should be discouraged." 
 
 So far from injuring denominational col- 
 leges. I verily believe that free tuition in 
 the university has been their salvation,, 
 as well as ours. The impulse thus given 
 to the churches to bestir themselves has 
 borne fruit a hundred fold. If that be 
 true, whether the intention of the friends 
 of the university was good or bad, if the 
 result under providence has been to build 
 up and magnify those educational institu- 
 tions, and they are now prepared not only 
 
 
13 
 
 to soar along by the side of, but even rise 
 higher than the "old eagle," what would 
 be the result If now the general assembly 
 should forsake the university, and cut off 
 the means by which free tuition became a 
 reasonable and an accomplished fact? 
 
 And now you are asked, while three eagles 
 sail in freedom and independence in the mid 
 air. to pluck the feather of free tuition 
 from the old eagle, the university. Junius 
 said. "The feathers which adorn the royal 
 bird support his flight. Rob him of his 
 plumage, and you fix him to the earth." 
 You make a mistake if you think of abol- 
 ishing free tuition in the university. If 
 you do, w^here will you stop? You have 
 been recently told from this place: stop 
 at the "three R's." That means, then, 
 that you must charge tuition at yovir tech- 
 nological school; that means that you must 
 compel payment of tuition at Milledgeville 
 at your industrial school; that means, too. 
 that you must charge tuition at the sepa- 
 rate school of agriculture if you intend 
 to establish one; because all of them are 
 above the "three R's." Let me tell you 
 before you abolish free tuition anywhere, 
 ask the people who sent you here what 
 they think about, it. I know that there are 
 jiien who would like to abolish it in the 
 university and nowhere else — some for one 
 reason and some for another— mostly for 
 mistaken reasons. Let me warn you: don't 
 do it. The richest gift that Georgia has 
 made to the generation is free tuition from 
 mudsill to turret, and the man who strikes 
 it at one place — mark my words!— will live 
 to regret it, unless he dies soon. 
 
 I come now to a liver question — removal. I mean 
 a question that is in politics. In 1895 the 
 question of taking away from the univer- 
 sity the land scrip funds and building an 
 institution at Griffin was before this house. 
 It was discussed in the committee on agri- 
 ■culture, where every man was a farmer — 
 -except Evan P. Howell — and his father was. 
 In 1889 it was declared to be a matter of 
 sufficient importance to cut a figure in a 
 gubernatorial canapaign. The matter was 
 inquired into. Two gubernatorial cam- 
 paigns had occurred since then, and yet 
 some were not satisfied with the results. 
 Other general assemblies of this state had 
 considered the question and decided that 
 the proposed change was not advisable. A 
 like bill was defeated before the agricul- 
 tural committee of the house in 1890. In 
 1894 the State Agricultural Society was ask- 
 ed, on the 9th of August, to indorse such 
 a movement and refused. In 1895 it did 
 resolve that the experiment station should 
 have the agriculttiral funds from the 
 United States, but upon condition that the 
 general assembly should permanently en- 
 <iow the university. It linked the two rec- 
 ommendations together. Nor did it favor 
 removal. It only looked to a union of the 
 station and fund at one place. Here is 
 that proceeding: 
 
 "Major Newman Introduced the following 
 resolution: 
 
 " 'Resolved. That the State Agriculttiral 
 Society of Georgia memorialize the general 
 assembly of the state to provide a liberal 
 endowment of the University of Georgia, 
 and that the fund known as fSe land scrip 
 fund be devoted solely to the support of 
 an agricultural and mechanical college in 
 connection with the experiment farm.' 
 
 "The resolution was seconded by Major 
 Ryals, of Chatham, and discussed by 
 Messrs. Barrow and Bailey, of Spalding, 
 and others. 
 
 "Mr. J. S. Newman amended to change 
 the wording of the resolution so as to 
 3nake it read, 'money received from the 
 
 federal government,' instead of 'land scrip 
 fund.' The amendment was accepted and 
 the resolution adopted unanimously." 
 
 Mr. Brown's bill provided for no endow- 
 ment of the university, but left there a 
 vacuum. 
 
 The action of the Brown bill, in the com- 
 mittee on agriculture in 1895, was as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 After the discussion on the bill, the fol- 
 lowing resolution was passed by a vote 
 of 22 yeas to 10 nays: 
 
 "Resolved, That the committee report 
 back to the house as a substitute for house 
 bill No. 273 the following preamble and 
 joint resolution: 
 
 "Whereas. The house committee on gen- 
 eral agriculture has carefully considered 
 the condition and work of the State College 
 of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, now a 
 co-ordinate department of the state uni- 
 versity and located at Athens, and thor- 
 oughly discussed the question of its sepa- 
 ration from the university, be it 
 
 "Resolved, by the house of representa- 
 tives, the senate concurring. That the gen- 
 eral assembly approves and indorses the 
 connection of the state college with the 
 university as wise and economical and 
 deprecates any further agitation of the 
 subject of its removal therefrona as detri- 
 mental to the good of the college and the 
 educational interests of the state general- 
 ly " 
 
 In that committee on general agriculture, 
 the vo'te on Howell's substitute for house 
 bill No. 273 was taken November 14, 1895. 
 For the substitute, 22, and against the 
 substitute 10, as follows: 
 
 Ayes — Allen of Pickens, Bell of "Webster, 
 Coleman of Emanuel, Durham of Oconee^ 
 Gaines of Hall, Howell of Fulton, Jarrell 
 of Oglethorpe, Low of Liberty, McDaniel 
 of Fannin, McGough of Monroe, McCurdy 
 of DeKalb, Moore of Clayton, McWhorter 
 of Greene, McDonald of Ware, Pittard of 
 Oglethorpe, Smith of Hancock, Smith of 
 Rockdale, Smith of Telfair, Stokes of Gil- 
 mer, Thompson of Banks, Walden of 
 Glascock, Vaughn of Twiggs — 22. 
 
 Nays — Brown of Pulaski, Ferguson of 
 Lee, Blair of Douglas, Dennard of Wil- 
 cox, Futrell of Crawford, Gibson of Charl- 
 ton, Hill of Terrell, Henderson of Forsyth, 
 Sandford of Burke, Clements of Montgom- 
 ery— 10. 
 
 Absent—Collins of Tatnall, Fletcher of 
 Irwin, Gregory of Murray, Hudson of 
 Baker, Latham, of Campbell, Owen of 
 Dooly, Roberts of Jasper, Franklin of 
 White, Greer of Harris, Harvey of Bryan, 
 Jones of Dodge, McClure of Dawson, Pool 
 of Warren, Shaw of Berrien. 
 
 It was never reported to the house, I be- 
 lieve. 
 
 The matter Is here again — here by men 
 who beUeve it ought to be done. I am not 
 questioning their honesty at all. But they 
 are men who I think are mistaken, and I 
 am willing for anbody to examine the 
 facts and see who is right. Let us take, 
 for instance, some other history, to illus- 
 trate the matter. 
 
 Manual I/abor Schools. 
 
 In 1877, George G. Smith, Jr., of the 
 North Georgia conference of the Method- 
 ist Episcopal church, south, published his 
 "History of Methodism in Georgia and 
 Florida." The author was the grandson 
 of Isaac Smith and John Howard. His 
 book was dedicated to Lovick Pierce, D.D. 
 Surely the ex'tract which I read from it 
 will be taken as good evidence upon all 
 
14 
 
 matters of interest connected with Emory 
 college. 
 
 At page 500, after having given the strug- 
 gle between Culloden and Covington for 
 the location of a church school, and hav- 
 ing stated that Covington was selected as 
 the place, and told wliat great preparations 
 were made for its success, the author 
 stated as follows: 
 
 "For four years the Manual Liabor school 
 progressed with almost unprecedented pop- 
 ularity, such was the public desire to 
 connect a knowledge of agricultural pur- 
 suits with a course of literary and scien- 
 tific instruction in the education of the 
 young of our sex. The superintendent had 
 application for admission from six sur- 
 rounding states, and also from Florida, 
 then a territory, and such were the urgent 
 appeals to admit students from abroad 
 that the conference felt itself constrained 
 to pass a resolution, interdicting the ad- 
 mission of pupils from other states, until 
 the claims of their own people were first 
 met. Indeed, the popular estimation of the 
 system was such, that the superintendent 
 reports that during the period mentioned, 
 and up to the time of the establishment of 
 Fmory college, he was constrained, for 
 want of sufficiently aniple accommodation, 
 and in conformity with the conference 
 'resolution,' to reject probably 500 appli- 
 cants from abroad. It still continued for 
 about two years afterwards in active op- 
 eration under the superintendence ot Rev. 
 G-eorge H. Round. The college boiard then 
 bought out the concern, assumed its debts, 
 and the system was abandoned. It is true 
 that among so large a number of students, 
 promiscuously assembed and received from 
 all classes of society, and during the prev- 
 alence of OUT 'peculiar institution,' there 
 were many pupils who were reluctant to 
 conform to the rules and duties of the 
 farming department. Such annoyances were 
 to be expected in working out this com- 
 plex regime, so novel and untried in the 
 south. i3ut this was not regarded as the 
 primary and fundamental cause for aban- 
 doning the system. It was debt, constantly 
 accumulating, inexorable debt. To keep 
 the complicated machinery in motion re- 
 quired the inevitable incurrence of ex- 
 penses which the utmost possible clear in- 
 come frona the farm proved insufficient 
 to meet. To supply so large a body of in- 
 experienced workers, for only three hours 
 in the afternoon of each day, it became 
 necessary to stock the farm with two or 
 three times as many horses or mules, 
 plows and gears, hoes, axes, etc., as any 
 thrifty farmer would require, who could 
 employ his hands in cultivation during the 
 whole day, Saturday Included, but which, . 
 by long standing usage in other schools— 
 the students claimed. From this triple 
 supply of farming implements there was 
 necessarily a greater loss by breakage, 
 waste, blacksmith's bills, etc., to which 
 may be superadded the large annual 
 amount paid to the students for every 
 hour's work, and the interest on the mon- 
 ey invested without corresponding returns 
 from the farm. It proved to be, therefore, 
 an onerous, unprofitable and losing enter- 
 prise, and prudence required its abandon- 
 ment. And the same fruitful sources of 
 financial disaster have caused the failure 
 of almost every other similar establishment 
 In the north and west. Perhaps, however, 
 an Institution supplied with a large 'sink- 
 ing fund* or a liberal endowment might be 
 warranted in reinaugurating the system, 
 and thus securing the benefits which the 
 
 combination of labor with study promises 
 to bestow." 
 
 That is the experience of one such agri- 
 cultural school. And if you go now to es- 
 tablish a separate institution where agri- 
 culture alone shall be taught, under the 
 law you may not take one dollar of the 
 United States funds to build a fence or a 
 gate, for the buildings not a cent. Are you 
 prepared to endow another institution in- 
 the state? You hear grumbling all aroun<5 
 nowadays over 5-cent cotton. I here say 
 in my place that agriculture is better 
 taught at the university even with the 
 bad equipment which we have, than you' 
 would have it taught elsewhere. 
 
 If that witness, G^eorge Smith, be not 
 satisfactory because the time about which 
 he spoke is long ago, let me call attention 
 to Senator Morrill, the father of this sys- 
 tem, a man of great learning and great in- 
 fluence throughout the union, still in his 
 old age a leading senator. In 1893 he said: 
 "Perhaps the most expensive system of 
 education of any in the world is the sys- 
 tem of practical science so taught as to 
 give a broader field for the industrial 
 classes;" and Senator Blair, chairman of 
 the committee on educational labor in the 
 senate of the United States, on the 17th 
 of May, 1890, said: "Perhaps, contrary to 
 the general impression, the proper equip- 
 ment of one of these colleges is far more 
 expensive, being at least ten times greater 
 than that of an ordinary classical institu- 
 tion. A college of agriculture and mechanic- 
 arts is not a cheap affair, and the sooner 
 we awake to the idea that it will and ought 
 to cost something to spread the knowledge 
 of facts and principles which will change 
 the drudgery of common toil to the digni- 
 ty and delight of intellectual and ennobling 
 occupations, the better. To accomplish thi& 
 is the work of this system of institutions." 
 
 The B'rown Committee. 
 
 The Brown committee in the course of 
 its investigation weiTt to see the equipment 
 of the different rooms at the university. I 
 cannot tell you just what they were, but 
 they w^ill. Go into the room devoted to 
 Greek, and what is its equipment? 
 Benches for the boys to sit on— for we 
 have no chairs. A little bookcase with the 
 books that the boys have to use and the 
 literature pertaining thereto: $500 would 
 buy out the whole lot. Latin is about in 
 the same situation. Go into our schools 
 where the sciences relating to agriculture - 
 and the mechanic arts are taught. Take 
 the models of bridges, of houses, of walls, 
 the various charts and no on toy which 
 engineers are educated and their costly in-; 
 struments and what is their worth? In 
 my report of this year as chairman of the 
 board you will notice that I mention, in 
 enumerating the rooms of the new build- 
 ing, a "balance room." That is a room' 
 sealed up and locked, in which are kept 
 balances which the air from a crack In a 
 window would unbalance, so sensitive are 
 they, and which cost from $450 to $1,000 
 apiece. These are used in teaching chem- 
 istry, etc. "Take anything related to philr 
 osophy. chemistry, botany, biology, all the 
 books and all the appliances worth thous- 
 ands upon thousands of dollars. "Will you 
 take them away from us to build elsewhere, 
 where you must make a donation of at 
 least $100,000 even to house them? Tou will 
 never do it. never. 
 
 It is said that you may not teach "the 
 sciences related to agriculture" without a 
 
15 
 
 farm. I admit you cannott do it well. t 
 have seen, however, good cooks who had 
 nothing but an oven and a lid on which 
 they made excellent bread, on which some 
 of us were brought up. They could have 
 cooked better on a stove, still better on a 
 range. Some may have thought that fire 
 made of coals was better than the wood 
 fire— that fire made by gas was still better. 
 
 You may teach a student astronomy, the 
 names and positions of the planets and 
 constellations and their courses and rela- 
 tions without, but you can do it better 
 with an orrery You can do it better with 
 telescopes. But they cost thousands of 
 dollars. 
 
 Now, you have two farms in Georgia. 
 One is an experimental farm simply, not 
 to teach anybody anything. It is to prac- 
 tice experiments, that is the language of 
 the United States, and your language in 
 the act accepting the gift, etc. I admit 
 that if a student saw the experiments it 
 would help him, like the cook would be 
 helped by working with the fine gas 
 range, or the student of astronomy by 
 using the ejxpensive telescopes, etc. But 
 the station is not necessary to education, 
 not necessary to a high order of educa- 
 tion. What is wanted for a high order of 
 education is a model farm where agricul- 
 tural instruction may be aided by demon- 
 stration. And we now have a farm of 
 that kind connected with a. chemical lab- 
 oratory and a collection of biological speci- 
 mens and other appliances for teaching 
 the sciences related to agriculture, not 
 bought by that fund, for you took most 
 of it and sent it down to Griffin. 
 
 Thi.s thing is not new. It has been tried. 
 
 South Carolina, after having ruined her 
 university by passing laws allowing white 
 and colored men to be educated together 
 there, and thereby bringing it down In 
 public estimation, did make a separation, 
 but kept together its agricultural and its 
 mechanical schools. It had, to enable it 
 to do this, the Clemson donation of his 
 farm of 800 acres of improved land and 
 other property worth over $100,000 (which 
 by Clemson's will could not pass without 
 establishing the agricultural and mechani- 
 cal schools both on that farm), and all 
 proceeds of the Hatch bill of 1887 and half 
 of the proceeds from the Morrill bill (the 
 other half the negro college has), and the 
 large annual appropriations by the state 
 without which, or its equivalent, no such 
 success as is claimed for that college in 
 South Carolina could be had. Besides, in 
 South Carolina, that is a new experiment, 
 begun only in 1890. They began wit.h over 
 800 students. In 1894 they had fallen to «12. 
 of whom only 122 were in agricultural 
 courses. In 1895, we are informed, they 
 had. all told, considerably less than 300 
 students; how many in agricultural courses 
 we do not know. It is both agricultural 
 and technological. In the only act we 
 found in 1895 on the subject it had an ap- 
 propriation of $7,965.81 as annual interest 
 on the Clemson fund, plus $50,000, plus 
 $53,562 special fertilizer tax, making a total 
 of $111,527.81 for one year. See Repts. and 
 R. of So. Ca.. page 383. 
 
 Tlie lyEisslssippi School. 
 
 I know that Mississippi has one that Is 
 comparatively successful, but it is but 
 comparatively so and this curriculum is 
 
 low. Here is the report of ten years of ita- 
 proceedings. I show you what they turn 
 put. M<ark you, now, both agriculture and. 
 the mechanic arts are taught there. Here 
 is the report of 1890-91, reviewing what 
 they had done for ten years. They had 
 that year 275 students. The year before 
 they had 282, the year before that 319— fall- 
 ing off, as you will observe. Let us see: 
 "Occupations of graduates," statistics lor 
 the ten years previous show farmers 13. 
 teachers 14, lawyers 11. Eacli farmer had 
 a lawyer ready to start with. Farming 
 with other occupations 7, perhaps they 
 were lawyers; dairymen 6, engaged in 
 agriculture and experiment stations 3 — em^ 
 ployed at their three stations perhaps; 
 creameries 3, bookkeepers 6. merchants 4. 
 engrneers 4, physicians 2, clerks 1, medical 
 students 7. The total in ten years was &1. 
 Of that 275 in attendance in 1891-92 I am not 
 sure that I have the amount correctly, but 
 I think that over half of them were in. 
 what was called the "preparation school," 
 preparing to get inside of the walls. 
 
 Take the institution for the past year 
 and it is the same way. Eight graduates, 
 agricultural seniors 11, mechanic seniors 4, 
 agricultural juniors 10, mechanic 7, agricul-* 
 tural sophomores 32. mechanic 10, fresh- 
 men 86 and preparatory 145, out of a total 
 of 368. Half are studying in agriculture 
 and half in technology. Its university has 
 more farmers' sons than has the agricul-^ 
 tural school they are already supporting. 
 They have their agricultural and tech- 
 nological instruction both iu the same in- 
 stitution, and all that they can muster 
 today is 368, 145 of whom are children in 
 the preparatory school, and they admit fe- 
 males also. That school has been in 
 progress since 1880, seventeen years, and 
 that is what they have produced. It costs^ 
 the state annually many thousands of dol- 
 lars. I do not mean to decry it. I am 
 merely telling you that the fancy notion 
 that you can have an adequate agricultural 
 college and still leave the university unin- 
 jured is a mistake that will work the ruin 
 of the university and of the educational 
 interests of the state. 
 
 In this which I now say I am not speak- 
 ing authoritatively, but I believe I speak 
 the sentiment of every member of this 
 board: If it did not hurt the university 
 for you to take the money and establish a 
 separate agricultural college, and I were 
 In the igeneral assembly, I would vote 
 against it every time. Why? Because It 
 makes a distinction between the sons of 
 the farmers 8*nd the sons of everybody else. 
 Why? Because you propose to give the 
 farmer's son an education not equal +o the 
 education of his neighbors. It is said that 
 old Brother Hunnicutt had but two "field 
 students." That is true. His language Is, 
 "I had but two that would take my whole 
 course." I have not seen it reported; 
 that was what he said when I was present 
 in the Brown committee. I supposp th^v 
 -will report it. He said: "I have a class in 
 botanv of «verfls:e 60." An<^ if that is so, 
 hp is teaching them agriculture. He ad- 
 mits the farm is not good. Why? Because 
 we gave fifteen acres of the best land ana 
 the houses on i/t to the state of Georgia 
 for a normal college and cut the farm in 
 two. But he and we have been trying since 
 six years ago to get a better farm, and 
 the reason we haven't done it is that it 
 
16 
 
 has been hard to sell the oM. Now we 
 have an excellent one. In his last report 
 he said — and it was w^hen we had the oild 
 farm and hadn't bought tne new one— 
 "Make my annual $500 appropriation and I 
 will make this farm, the bad one that I 
 have got, a proper and agreeable place to 
 make all that is right for teaching demon- 
 Siti*a Lively, a model farm for teaching these 
 tstudents." 
 
 He may not be a good witness on that 
 subject. Some of you may te better farm- 
 ers than he; but since that time we have 
 bought a better farjn. Some people have 
 said that they have prodded us to buy it. 
 We have the written records that we have 
 been trying for six years, besides our char- 
 ecters to answer such a charge. You know 
 how difficult it has been to make negotia- 
 tions in the past few years. And we have 
 had to maneuver, and have had to buy 
 the new farm with our own money. You 
 have rever appropriated that $24,200 to buy 
 a farm. It is said that the professor lost 
 $75, I think about that sum, on his farm 
 last year. L#et only everj' farmer who 
 didn't lose something on his farm last 
 year vote against us. and we will get a 
 majority. 
 
 Professor Hunnicutt. 
 
 When I desired to find out when and how 
 he got before the Bialock committee, he 
 wrote me (I have his letter) that he was 
 over here in Atlanta helping about some 
 books, etc., and it w^as suggested by Mr. 
 Bialock that as he., was here he might 
 answer some questions before the com- 
 mittee. He was rot questioned thoroughly 
 upon all these things. You never could get 
 him to admit that that farm was a splendid 
 farm, because it was not. But you turn 
 him loose in fhe farm we have now, and he 
 will tell you that he can make it hum, and 
 that he can teach boys all about agricul- 
 ture. 
 
 I admit that he may think it had better 
 be moved somewhere else. He is only one 
 man, and if his opinion is better than ours, 
 take it. Dr. Boggs comes and says he is 
 in favor of female education, etc. A peti- 
 tion was presented to our board to grant 
 female education at the university. What 
 did we say? We said we submit to our 
 masters, the legislature, whether they want 
 it. Could you blame us because Dr. Boggs 
 said so and so, or Dr. Hunnicutt said so 
 and so? We are responsible to you, and 
 they to us, and it is just as important to 
 keep things in regular order in the depart- 
 ment of the university and of the govern- 
 iment as it is in the army. Their private 
 opinions should not control you or our 
 tooard. 
 
 The state unwisely scatters Instead of 
 concentiating its educational funds. Our 
 Methodists are "wiser In their generation." 
 They recently declared: "In discharging 
 the duty of supervising and giving direc- 
 tion, so fa,r as the power extends, to the 
 great work of education by our church, it 
 will be the aim of the board — 
 
 "1. To promote the endow^ment of exist- 
 ing colleges which have the elements of 
 success and the necessary conditions of 
 usefulness. 
 
 "2. To repress the tendency to multiply 
 institutions with inadequate prospects of 
 support, which has strewed our territory 
 with more dead colleges than we have now 
 in operation, and dragged to the dust with 
 them the credit of indorsing conferences." 
 
 Mr. President, I must cease to speak very 
 soon. I have tried in feeble "vtay to place 
 
 these things before the general assembly. 
 I have no earthly interest that is not com- 
 mon to every one of you, in education in 
 the state of Q-eorgia. Born and bred here, 
 I expect to laj^ my bones aown by the side 
 of my father's^ on our old soil. I will have 
 jno monument. I expect my memory to be 
 blotted out, and my space to be filled by 
 others. Old Jefferson said: "I wish it put 
 on my monument, 'He founded the Univer- 
 sity of Virginia.' " So I, wish my friends to 
 say of me that while he lived he toiled for 
 >eduoation in his istate, for free education 
 to every son, and when time can bring it 
 about, to every daughter in the land. (Ap- 
 plause.) I would tell you, if necessary, to 
 put your hands into the purse of, the state 
 to help t'he university, bult for G-od's sake, 
 and for the (sake of youn children and your 
 grandchildren, don't rob it! Whether the 
 fund is legally where it is, is a question for 
 the) judges, and mot for the law makers. 
 Let the university keep its fund. Let it 
 feel at least that the people of Georgia 
 appreciate its worth, for its history and 
 for what it has done. 
 
 If there be any member of the board of 
 trustees who will not do his duty when 
 commanded, take off his head, and fill his 
 place with a man who will; but for God's 
 sake spare the head of the Institution. 
 That is your property. That Is where the 
 foundation of your greatness was laid; not 
 becausal we would injure Jumory or Mercer 
 or any other institution. Let the eagles 
 tly all logetuer, and excite the ambition 
 of every child in all, the land for a com- 
 plete education. 
 
 And when I think of sainted old Bishop 
 Pierce, with a brow as brave as an arch- 
 angel's, looking at those picking at thi& 
 old eagle and undertaking to pull Emory 
 above in its flight, by pulling the feathers 
 from the wings of the university— and see 
 his utterances of 1852 used to mar the 
 present friendly harmony in Georgia — I 
 know that his righteous indignation is 
 boiling over. B would to God that I could 
 have him here before this body, and ask 
 him to stand in your presence and answer 
 the question, "What would you do, sainted 
 bishop?" 
 
 I am, done. I ask you to look into thesb 
 affairs closely, carefully, honestly. I know 
 you will. The duty of a legislator is a 
 fvery high one. Have you ever thought of 
 how it has been described by that great 
 ipoet, Virgil, when painting the scenes upon 
 the shield of Aeneas? How slight a dilfer- 
 ence it makes betweei pandemonium and 
 Iheaven? Here is a man tied to a rock, and 
 beneath his feet are hi.-siug furies. That 
 is Cataline, the triitor, and tJiat is hell. 
 Here is one other man only sitting un- 
 covered, with an honest, brave brow, and 
 Dothing around him but his glorified coun- 
 tenance. It Is the holy ghost of Cato 
 dispensing laws. That was the way, many 
 hundred years ago, the thought of the world 
 esteemed the high office of a law maker. 
 Take no thought on either side of this great 
 question without investigation. Sometimes 
 the slightest mark changes the whole cur- 
 rent of thought and fact. The painter 
 depicts upon the canvas a beautiful bended 
 woman with falling hair, and in her hand 
 a box. That is Pandora turning loose upon 
 the world all the ills that ever existed. 
 Throw around her head only a circle, and 
 it is Mary Magdalene, the saint, whom, the 
 Lord forgave, and who today In her ex- 
 ample is the hope of the whole world. 
 Watch closely. See that you make no 
 
17 
 
 mistake about the facts. Take Solomon's 
 advice: "My son, look straight on." Shoot 
 from a rifle straight to the mark, and do 
 not scatter like an old blunderbuss. 
 
 Come down to the real investigation of 
 the question. Make no vote until all the 
 reports are printed, and all the evidence Is 
 pnnted. Investigate most thoroughly upon 
 •all the light you have, and upon your oaths 
 to support the constitution, and when you 
 shall have done it, the glad acclaim will 
 go out over these old hills and vales, and 
 men, women and children will shout: "Once 
 more the university is safe. Thank God for 
 free education for me and mine." (Long 
 applause.) 
 
 At the conclusion of Mr. Hammond's 
 speech the following occurred : 
 
 Representative Little : "I move that if there is 
 any member of the General Assembly who desires 
 to ask him or anv member of the Board of Trustees 
 any questions that he may be permitted to do so." 
 
 President Berner : "I understand that the Chair- 
 man of the Board of Trustees and the Board stand 
 ready to answer any question that anv Represent- 
 ative or any Senator may choose to ask them." 
 
 No questions were asked. 
 
 s 
 
 REV. DR. FELTON'S SPEECH. 
 
 After loud calls of "Felton," Senator Battle said : 
 "I move that this joint session do hear from Dr. 
 Felton." This was unanimously adopted. 
 
 Pres'dent Berner: "I have the pleasure of in- 
 troducing to you Dr. William H. Felton, the old 
 man eloquent of this commonwealth." 
 
 Dr. Felton said : 
 Gentlemen of the General Assembly : 
 
 My physical disabilities prevent my standing 
 while addressing you, and this I ask you to excuse. 
 
 (The speaker alluded to other scenes in this leg- 
 islative nail in which he had been an actor.) 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : I am a Georgian, 
 a native Georgian. Since 1765 I and my immedi- 
 ate family have lived upon Georgia soil. I am a 
 farmer, as all my fathers were. From the dny I 
 left school I have devoted myself to agriculture. 
 I am an Alumnus of the University of the State of 
 Georgia, and I say here, with all earnestness, pro- 
 priety and correctness, that I am absolutely loyal 
 to Georgia, loyal to agriculturists, and loyal to the 
 University of your State. (Applause.) 
 
 I say here intelligently, understandingly, that I 
 believe that the prosperity of the University and 
 of our beloved State are so indissolubly connected, 
 so interwoven with each other, that if you impair 
 or strike down the one, you will work irreparable 
 injury to the other. 
 
 I feel like Judge Story, when he remarked, speak- 
 ing of Christianity and the Government of the 
 United States, that there was no established relig- 
 ion and should not be, that there was no law 
 which did exist, or should ever exist, connecting 
 the Government and Christianity, but substan- 
 tially he stated that Christianity and the United 
 States Government are so interwoven with each 
 other that whenever you strike down the one you 
 strike down the whole. 
 
 And I answer here to-day thai the University of 
 Georgia, its history and its career, is so interwoven 
 with the history and career of Georgia that when- 
 ever you strike the University you strike dowi) and 
 irreparably destroy and mar the glory of Georgia. 
 
 I could not excel bur honored Chairman, Colonel 
 Hammond, when he dwelt upon this and upon the 
 glory of this State, and the University of this State. 
 I remember that in 1838, nearly sixty years ago, I 
 entered that University as a freshman, graduating 
 in 1842, Take simply the contemporaries of my 
 brief four years in that University. (He spoke 
 then of Rev. Benjamin Palmer, Prof, LeConte, 
 Thomas R. R Cobb, Benjamin H, Hill,) 
 
 And I say here to-day : strike down that School, 
 remove its funds, build your separate school for 
 farmers only, emasculate this grand monument of 
 Georgia's history— and I say you will well nigh 
 irreparably damage and ruin and destroy the glory 
 of Georgia's achievements. 
 
 I am a farmer. I want every farmer educated. 
 It is the sincere purpose of my life, the sincere ob- 
 ject of my public career ; but, my friends, let me 
 say that an educated farmer is only, in my judg- 
 ment, an educated man who has turned his atten- 
 tion specifically to agriculture. (Applause.) 
 
 An educated farmer— a school for farmers. Well, 
 no objection to farmers having a school. Call it a 
 farmers' school. But, I say, can you educate a man 
 as a larmer without educating him as a man ? 
 What constitutes skill, or experience, or anything 
 that IS valuable as connected with the farmers 
 labor? You must make him familiar with chem- 
 istry, with geology, with biology— with every 
 branch of science that makes the educated man; 
 and when you have the educated man, and place 
 him upon the farm, he is the educated farmer. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 Some months ago I read a little communication 
 from the honorable gentleman from Pulaski, Col. 
 Brown. It appeared, I think, in some of the At- 
 lanta papers. He had been away from here — over 
 in Mississippi— to examine into the Agricultural 
 College of Mississippi, and he came back perfecly 
 enthusiastfc over the great success of the Missis- 
 sippi Agricultural School. A thorough education 
 could be obtained there, he said ; and he gave us 
 an object lesson : The President's son (a Mr. Lee, I 
 believe), had graduated at that school an accom- 
 plished scholar at this school of agriculture in 
 Mississippi, and now, says the honorable gentle- 
 man from Pulaski, he studied law, and has become 
 a professor of law in the Chicago University. 
 (Laughter and applause.) 
 
 He urged the establishment of a similar school in 
 Georgia, that tne graduates might tackle the un- 
 seemly brier patches of Georgia. I want to inquire 
 how hHs the bright and promising graduate of the 
 Mississippi college tackled the brier patches of Mis- 
 sissippi? (Laughter and applause.) 
 
 (He alluded to Mr. Berner and Gov. Atkinson as 
 former colleagues ) 
 
 I wanted to meet with this General Assembly. I 
 wanted to come before them as a Georgian and a 
 farmer, with all the sincerity of my heart loving 
 the University and praving for its advancement, 
 day in and day out— praying that, whatever may 
 be the results of the future, the loving wing of the 
 everlasting God may shelter old Georgia. (Ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 I want to beg this General Assembly— Georgiar s 
 like myself — many of them farmers like myself — 
 many of them, I have no doubt, loyal and true to 
 the University :— I want to beg them, in the name 
 of Georgia, in the name of your constituency— five- 
 cent cotton has made us all alike poor— save this 
 public fund from change or damage, and the edu- 
 cational system and the educational advantages 
 of Georgia from everlasting wreckage by remov- 
 ing this public fund. Do not do it, fellow Geor- 
 gians. Do not do it, legislators of the State. I 
 pray you, touch not this sacred fund— sacred to 
 intellect and intellectual culture of the people of 
 Georgia. 
 
 Col. Hammond has told you whenever you re- 
 move this fund, the effect will be to strike down 
 free education in Georgia ; that is the end. 
 
 Technological School, and Industrial School at 
 Milledgeville would have to charge tuition too. 
 
 But God forbid the day you write over the en- 
 trance of every educational institution 4n Georgia 
 these words: " The poor cannot come here." God 
 forbid ! 
 
 Are you ready to return the making of these 
 laws, to turn its scholars, to turn it all over to the 
 Methodists of the State of Georgia ? God forbid ! 
 No, sir. I know that you will not do it. Open all 
 these to the industrious and meritorious of your 
 
18 
 
 "State. Tell all the young men and women of your 
 State, too often engaged in the merest drudgery to 
 sustain life, that nere they may obtain an educa- 
 tion free of charge by the State. Let the message go 
 forth from the action of this body in this hall, go 
 forth to every poor girl and boy in Georgia : "Look 
 to ufefor your education. Yonder you can get edu- 
 cation free, free at the Industrial School, free at 
 the Technological school, free at the University, 
 free everywhere. Georgia appropriates its public 
 funds for the education of is children." 
 
 I assert to-day that this fund should be preserved 
 because it gives free education in the Srate of 
 Georgia. I assert to-day that if you remove the 
 public funds from that institution you destroy the 
 University of this State. That is all. These small 
 private benefactions will not support the Univer- 
 sity of our State. They will not support the public 
 institutions of Georgia. 
 
 If there are defects there, order them removed. 
 If you have football, baseball, dancing, and you 
 don't want them, order their suppression. You 
 are the supreme masters of that University. We, 
 the trustees, are your servants, to obey, and the 
 Chancellor and every member of the Faculty and 
 every member of this Board of Trustees can be 
 .removed in an hour by this Honorable General 
 As-embly. 
 
 Because a man who had a fine house found a 
 
 defect in it, would he therefore raze it to the 
 ground ? Those men who propose to pull down 
 the University are acting just like that foolish man 
 would do. Order it adjusted according to your 
 will. Make it all that Georgians would have it be. 
 That is the point. That is what we ask ; that is 
 what we desire. If you want agriculture advanced, 
 why, advance it. If you want any particular study 
 given more attention, order it done. I pray you 
 as masters not to pull down and ruin and everlast- 
 ingly blast it, but to improve it and make it all 
 that you and your constituents would have it. 
 
 Pardon me, Mr. President, I must close. I only 
 meet here as a Georgian ; I only talk to you as a 
 Georgian. I have no childron to educate there. 
 I have no personal interest, but I am a Georgian, 
 and there is nothing on earth that gives me more 
 pleasure than to say that. Wherever I go and 
 wherever I am in the future, it will always be the 
 pride of my life to say: I am a Georgian. (Ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 Keep it worthy of Georgia. Make it worthy of 
 your grand old Commonw^ealth. You have the 
 means, you have the authority, you are the 
 supreme masters of that University ; now come 
 up and make it, I repeat, worthy of Georgia. But 
 never, I pray you, touch one dollar of its endow- 
 ment to remove. Never destroy it, as you value 
 the honor and glory of your State. (Applause.) 
 
 ^^ 
 
SPKECH 
 
 or 
 
 HON. N. J. HAMMOND, LLD., 
 
 Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the 
 University of Georgia. 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE JOINT SESSION OF THE 
 GENERAL ASSEMBLY NOVEMBER 17, 1897. 
 
 ** The question of the child should displace that of the criminal; 
 the building up of our people more important than that which treated 
 of their falling down." 
 
 ATLANTA, GA. 
 
 (Franklin Printing and Publishing Company,) 
 
 Geo. W. Harrison, State Printer. 
 
 1897. 
 
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