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 YIRGINIA 
 
 HER PAST AND HER FUTURE. 
 
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 AN A "DRESS 
 
 X>El.mKKUl> BKKDUE 
 
 THE PHOENIX SOCIETY 
 
 WILLIAM x\yi) MAKY COLLEGE 
 
 WILLTAMS'in ItG, \A., February 23, lHr)2, 
 
 BY OLIVKR ]'. I; VLDWJN, ESQ., 
 
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VIRGINIA, 
 
 HER PAST AND HER FUTURE. 
 
 "tit. 
 
 AN ADDEESS 
 
 DELIVERD BEFORE 
 
 THE PHCENIX SOCIETY 
 
 WILLIAM AND MAKY COLLEGE 
 
 WILLIAMSBURG, A., February 23, 1852, 
 
 BY OLIVER P.BALDWIN, ESQ., 
 
 OF RaMOND. 
 
 ^ RICHM m), YA. 
 
 PRINTED BY E. . GALLAHER & CO. 
 1)2. 
 
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 ttHtttH^MH 
 
William 
 
 AND Maky College, ) 
 ■February 23, 1S52. J 
 
 Dear Sir: — The Phoenix Society of William and Mary College, through 
 U8, its Committee, present you its warmest thanks for the very able and 
 eloquent address which you h've, this day, delivered before it, and request 
 a copy of the same for publication. 
 
 Permit us. Sir, to oiier you, individually and in behalf of the Society, 
 the assuracce of our highest esteem, and to subscribe ourt^elves. 
 Your most obedient servants, 
 
 WILLIAM Y. PEYTON, "] 
 W. M. A. BRODNAX, 
 WM. WALTER DOUGLAS, I ,.,„„•,. ^, 
 JOHN H. IVEY, J-Commutee. 
 
 J. B. JETT. 
 W. A. TODD. 
 0. P. Baldwin, Esq. 
 
 Williamsburg, Va. 
 
 J 
 
 Willamsburg, February 23, 18ii2. 
 
 Gentlemen: — Your note requesting a copy of the address which I de- 
 livered, to-day, before the Phcenix Society, has been received. I am deeply 
 sensible of the kind and generous feelings which have prompted both this 
 request and the highly complimentary terms in which it has been com- 
 municated, it is from a grateful appreciation of those feelings, that I, in 
 accordance with your desire, place the address at your disposal. 
 
 With thanks for the courteous manner in which your request has been 
 communicated, and with the best wishes for the prosperity of your Society 
 and the individual success and happiness of its members, 
 1 am, gentlemen, with great, respect, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 0. P. BALDWIN. 
 Messrs. William Y. Peyton, W. M. A. Brodnax, Wm. Waller Douglas, Jno. 
 H. Ivey, J. B. Jett, W. A. Todd. ComndtUe. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 It is with unaiFected embarrassment, gentlemen of the 
 Phognix Society, tliat I rise to fulfil the honorable truBt 
 which jou have committed to my hands. I am here, an 
 untutored scholar, in the presence of those at whose feet I 
 should be gUxd to sit as a disciple. Engaged in daily pur- 
 suits of a profession which leaves but little leisure for 
 suitable reliection and study, I stand, poorly prepared 
 for such an occasion as this, before men accomplished in 
 learning, and trained to habits of thought and investigation. 
 But I had myself surrounded by circumstances and objects 
 calculated to relieve me from this embarrassment and to 
 withdraw me from all thoughts of self, whether of confi- 
 dence or of fear. I stand for the first time in the ancient 
 capital of Virginia. My feet press the sod which bears 
 the impress of the days of the giants. Around me fall the 
 hallowing shadows of the most venerable of Southern 
 Colleges, from whose walls have issued some of the bright- 
 est ornaments of American Statesmanship and Arms. The 
 genius of the place lays a sacred spell upon my suul. The 
 spirit of the day gives courage to my heart. I forget the 
 Present, for the Past is before me — the sublime and solemn 
 Past — its deep billows rolling silently over a thousand 
 graves, but its stars shining serenely and unquenchably in 
 the blue Heavens. 
 
 The subject, gentlemen, which I have chosen for the occa- 
 sion is, YiiiaiNiA, HER Past and hek Futuke, and the Du- 
 Tir:s OF HER Young Men. 
 
 It is well for States as for individuals sometimes to pause 
 in their onward career ; to survey the ground over which 
 they have passed ; to compare it with the present, and by 
 it to give impulse and shape to their future course. The 
 lessons learned from experience make the deej)est impres- 
 sion upon the mind, and, with all well regulated minds, exert 
 most iniiuence upon the conduct. It is with this view, it is 
 to learn a useful lesson for our own future, and not to min- 
 ister to feelings of self complacency, that I would invoke 
 
jou, "who are ere long to enter upon tlie active duties of life, 
 to recall for a moment the Past of Virginia. I know, gen- 
 tlemen, that Virginians are often reproached for tlieir ten- 
 dency to look backward, to exalt the merits of the foundei'S 
 of their State, and to (piaff inspiring draughts from the skulls 
 of their ancestors. But that a jnst and exalted apprecia- 
 tion of the past, and a frequent contemplation of the vir- 
 tues and greatness of its eminent cliaracters are not an idle 
 waste of time, nor inconsistent with a practical and ener- 
 getic spirit, is evident from the systematic and enthusiastic 
 manner in which the very critics who are most prominent 
 in bi'inging this charge against Virginia, celebrate the 
 character and tiie deeds of the Puritan foundei'S of New 
 England. On the day which they call Foretather's Day, 
 the sons of the Pilgrims, before the blaze of a hosi)itable 
 lire, and amid wine, sentiment and song, commemorate the 
 deeds of the stern and solemn men wdio, cold, weary and 
 tompest-tost, kindled amid the bleak snows of the North 
 the fires of their religious faith, and baptized their new in- 
 heritance with the blood of their heathen foemen. Vene- 
 ration of the past is therefore not inconsistent with the 
 most rigid and severe utilitarian spirit, and only be- 
 comes open to just censure, when indulged by those who, 
 boasting of the deeds, make no effort to emulate the spir- 
 it of their forefathers, and who convert their hard earned 
 laurels into a couch of inglorious repose. The acorn has 
 but little reason to glory that it has fallen fi-om the oak, 
 whilst the oak might be justly proud that it has risen from 
 an acorn. Yet, even the acorn would not be utterly ridicu- 
 lous in indulging some feelings of self satisfaction, for it 
 bears within itthe germ of a future, equally grand and beau- 
 tiful with the past. The man who boasts of noble blood 
 and is yet content with the condition of a boor is an object 
 to be despised, whilst the peasant who makes himself a 
 name by genius and energy is nature's true nobleman, 
 whose aristocracy bears the patent of Heaven and is re- 
 cognized by all mankind. The exiled Jew is not con- 
 temptible when, even amid the degradation and misery ot 
 ])0verty and persecution, he still exults in the valor of Da- 
 vid, the wisdom of Solomon, and the magnificence of the 
 Temple, for he looks forward to a time when one 
 mightier than David, wiser than Solomon and more glo- 
 lious than the Temple, shall come to gather the outcasts to 
 
their ancient home, and make the whole earth beantiful 
 with the r]o|)e of Israel. Uut, fur tlie Eoman and the Greek 
 who biiikl their wretched hovels amid the slirines of de| arted 
 greatness, and have no heart to desire nor arm to vindicate 
 their iiather's fame, we cease to feel any other emotions than 
 those of pity and almost of contempt. The broken shafts 
 of their temples, as the dreary wind sweeps thr(jiigh them 
 with its requiem notes, are not as melancholy as those more 
 dismal rnins of the human mind, in which not one quality 
 of greatness survives, and not one ember of ambition glows 
 upon an altar which gods and men have alike deserted. 
 
 Old Virginia ! Often as she is in the thoughts of her 
 children, and daily as she is upon their lips, the fresh- 
 ness of their aifections is unimpaired by the flight of years, 
 and she" even acquires new charms as she is viewed through 
 the mellowing atmosphere of time. Her former history 
 enlists both the love and the pride of her people. If we 
 simply contemplate her social and domestic character, where 
 shall we find such a character in greater perfection ? All the 
 circumstances in the condition of the primitive Virginians, 
 the rural life which they led, their constant struggles with 
 a savage foe, their domestic institutions which rendered each 
 man the ruler of a little kingdom, were calculated to de- 
 velop the MAN in his highest and noblest form ; to bring 
 out a spirit of independence, selt-reliance, courage and self- 
 respect. The relations of home and of the fireside became 
 peculiarly precious and sacred, because they were the chief 
 sources of happiness. In such a state of things the " influ- 
 ence and importance" of "Woman have, of course, been en- 
 hanced, and, as has been justly remarked by an able writer 
 on this subject, " this improvement in her social position, 
 as is always' the case, has been accompanied by a corres- 
 ponding im])rovement in her moral and intellectual facul- 
 ties." Now, could I take you to a Virginia fireside of the 
 olden time, and, happily, this is one of those features in her 
 social life in which there has been little change, you would 
 contemplate as lovely a domestic picture as any which the 
 eye can behold or the imagination conceive. You would 
 find there a miniature commonwealth, governed by equity 
 and reason rather than by arl)itrary rule, in which vice was 
 stamped wnth the brand of meanness, and virtue supjiorted 
 by the iron arm of pride. You would see the domestic and 
 social affections, the stronger and more intense, because 
 
concencrated upon a few objects. You would observe in 
 the education of the children, not only by precept, but by 
 daily conversation and example, the virtues of the heart 
 exalted at least to an equality with the gifts of the mind. 
 You would behold the mother, relieved from the drudg- 
 ery of menial toil, enabled to devote all the energies 
 of her soul and mind to the moral culture of her children. 
 And, after all, it seems to me that much as has been said 
 of the great men of Virginia, too little has been said of 
 the influence which has been exerted by the Virginia Wo- 
 man upon Virginia character. It is through her that beauty 
 and hai-uiony have been imparted to the strong and rug- 
 ged structure of Virginia greatness. It is through her agency 
 that the more heroic qualities, the fierce valor, the iron will, 
 the indomitable pride, the lion-like independence, of her 
 people have been tempered and hallowed by peculiar kind- 
 ness, frankness, gentleness, courtesy and truth. If Vir- 
 ginia has given to the world a Washington, by whom the 
 liberties of this country have been achieved, and the hope 
 of deliverance held out to all mankind, it is because the 
 social life of Virginia gave birth to lier^ the great and glo- 
 rious mother, upon whose knee " the future hero first stood 
 erect," and who taught him that genuine greatness consists 
 not alone in intellectual excellence, but in its union with 
 moral worth, and that it is only when based upon this foun- 
 dation that the proud structure can bid defiance to the 
 lightning and the storm ! And here I would say that 
 Woman, in such a state of things, need not envy the rude 
 and exciting career of man. It is her nobler pride, and 
 more enduring joy to plant in young hearts the seeds of 
 virtue and happiness ; to watch and train the tender plants 
 as they grow up to maturity ; to regale herself in the 
 spring time with their blossoms and foliage, and in old 
 age to sit under their broad branches, rejoicing in the 
 pleasant shade of the tree that shelters her evening, and glad- 
 dening her dim eyes with its golden and thick clustering 
 fruits of immortality. 
 
 If we proceed from those household virtues which lie at 
 the foundation of all national virtue, and without which no 
 nation can preserve free institutions, to personal chivalry 
 and prowess, where shall we find, even in the pages of ro- 
 mance, such an embodiment of generous valor and enter- 
 prise as Captain John Smith, a warrior and gentleman, who, 
 
if he had been one of the Pilgrim Fathers, would have 
 been eni'olled at the head of their list of illustrious men, 
 and have been commemorated at every festival, from Pil- 
 grim Ruck to San Francisco, as the most peerless hero ot 
 modern times ? If we speak of eloquence, where shall we 
 see sucli an orator as Henry, a man of defective education, 
 and learned only in the great vctlurae of human character, 
 who yet derived from nature an inspiration such as the 
 schools never taught, and whose eloquence swayed the minds 
 of men as the tempest heaves the great deep ? If we speak 
 of calm, sagacious and philosophic Statesmanship, where 
 shall we discover a greater than the author of the Decla- 
 ration of American Independence? If we turn to the rug- 
 ged and repulsive field of the law, where shall we behold 
 an intellect at once so massive and so simple as that ot 
 John Marshall ? If we speak of military science and va- 
 lor, what names in the annals of America more glorious 
 than those the thunders of whose victorious cannon have 
 just died away on the plains of Mexico, and whose martial 
 achievements have extended our territory from the Atlan- 
 tic to the Pacific ? If we speak of official distinction, what 
 State can present such a roll of citizens elevated to the 
 highest honors of the government ? And if we would seek 
 a character which combines in itself the Soldier, the States- 
 man, the Sage and the Christian ; which presents a picture 
 of greatness unmarred by ambition ; of the most exalted 
 patriotism and the most spotless private virtue ; a luminary, 
 dazzling as the sun, but without a spot upon its disc ; an 
 orb which enlightens without consuming — which is so bril- 
 liant that the darkest cloud cannot intercept its radiance, 
 and yet so mild that the weakest eye may gaze, uidiurt, 
 upon its glory — which, even when it has set, leaves upon 
 earth and sky a lustre before which all other lights grow 
 pale — to whom shall we look but to the world's one "Wash- 
 ington ? 
 
 But it is not alone examples of individual greatness 
 in every department of human exertion of which Vii-ginia 
 has reason to be proud. It is that here were first announced, 
 upon the shores of the western world, the true pi'inciples 
 of civil and religious liberty. It is that in the earliest pe- 
 riod of her history, and in advance of all others, A'irginia 
 first established free representative institutions, and present- 
 ed a model of free government which was imitated hv all the 
 
10 
 
 otlier colonies. It was Yirginia, whose Assembly, sitting 
 in Jamestown in 1624, (and i'ei)eatedly afterwards) enacted 
 the great principle that taxes should not be imposed except 
 with the consent of the representatives of the people, an- 
 nouncing that principle, even before its establishment in 
 the mother country, in the struggle with Charles the First. 
 It was Virginia which led the advance in resistance to the 
 unconstitutional taxation which the British Parliament en- 
 deavored to impose upon this country. It was Virghiia 
 which bore a prominent ])art in the struggle that succeeded, 
 and which afterwards led the way to tlie formation of the 
 American Constitution. It is she, whose influence has been 
 as powerful to preserve as to create, whose conciliatory 
 counsels have saved the Union from the destroying vor- 
 tex of civil war, and whose conservative spirit has arrested 
 every eftbrt to eml)roil the Ilepublic in the quarrels of 
 Europe, and waste in destructive battle those energies which 
 directed to the pursuits of peace have built us up and 
 made us one of the most powerful nations of modern 
 times. 
 
 Gentlemen, we have been speaking of the past. We 
 have been contemplating a })]easant picture of greatness 
 and prosperity. But, as we all know, that picture has, in 
 many respects, changed. Virginia, once the fiistin influence, 
 wealth and representation, is now the fourth in the halls of 
 Congress. The power which she once exercised only for 
 the common good, has passed to hands which exhibit a dis- 
 position to wield it for encroachment, aggression and evil. 
 There is at least this consolation remaining to her sons that 
 the days of lier inight and glory were never darkened by 
 oppression and injustice to her weaker neighbors. She 
 might have stood aloof from them in the hour when their 
 undiscij^lined yeomxanry were beaten back before the vete- 
 ran soldiery of Britain, but her generous heart beat respon- 
 sive to their calls for aid, she made their quarrel her 
 own, embarked her own blood and treasure in a common 
 struggle Vv'itli them, and gave to their cause the great leader 
 who led them in triumph from the land of bondage and 
 through the Eed Sea of Eevulution. "We see her afterwards, 
 in the plenitude of her strength and resources, not only ab- 
 staining with most scrupulous delicacy from oftering wrong 
 or insult to weaker States, but voluntarily parting, for their 
 benefit, with a domain more princely than the " shadowy 
 
11 
 
 forests, the plenteous rivers and wide skirted meads," which 
 old Lear bestowed upon his ingrate daughters. I will not 
 pause to pursue the contrast which will suggest itself to your 
 minds. The return she has received for all her munificence 
 is more painful to her contemplation than the wildest blasts 
 of her adversity and misfortune. The Mother of States 
 mi gilt with truth exclaim : 
 
 " The tempest in my miod 
 Doth from my senses take all feeling: elae, 
 Save what beats there — Filial ingratitude ! 
 Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand 
 For lifting food to 't ?" 
 
 But I will not dwell upon this unpleasant theme. Suf- 
 fice it to say that the strength of Virginia has departed, 
 but institutions remain which tempt the cupidity of those 
 who have stolen her strength. The strong man is slumber- 
 ing w^ith his head in the lap of Delilah. I take it for 
 granted that there is not a heart which beats in these halls, 
 or within her whole limits, which does not pant for the 
 restoration of Virginia, and long to see her again in the 
 vanguard of power and prosperity. Permit me, gentlemen, 
 in the remaining remarks which I propose to offer, to con- 
 sider the means by wdiich the object so dear to all our hearts 
 is to be obtained, and the motives for their exercise. 
 
 And, in the first place, we must cast off the tenden- 
 cy, so long pi-evailing among our people, to live entirely 
 in the Past, and learn to make the Present and the Fn- 
 ture the absorbing objects of our regards. I would not, 
 as the remarks already made have shown, impair the vene- 
 ration in which we should hold a great and virtuous ances- 
 try, but I would not indulge even this just and natural sen- 
 timent at the expense of practical duty. I can sympathize 
 witli the sensibility which is awakened by the gray old 
 ruins of a famous castle, but, to my eye, those mins are 
 even more impressive when they are mantled by a living 
 vine. I know that this is a rugged and an iron age, but 
 why not soften its harsh features with romance from the 
 Future instead of the Past ? "Why not gild its sharp out- 
 lines and its yawning fissures with the rays of the rising, in- 
 stead of the setting, sun ? Why look for the good times in 
 the infancy and corruption of man's condition — why not 
 expect them, in faith and hope, in the fuller development 
 of his intellectual and moral nature ? "Why not regard the 
 
12 
 
 brilliant intellectual lustre which flashes from the wonder- 
 ful and multiplied inventions of modern times, as the morn- 
 ing light of a millenial state? Why not, instead of sigh- 
 ing for an Eden in our rear, which we can never entei-, look 
 for an Eden in our front, more glorious than the lirst, in 
 which man shall be raised to more than his primitive ele- 
 vation, and the voice of God shall be heard once more in 
 the shades of the garden, holding communion with regene- 
 rated humanity '( 
 
 But, gentlemen, whilst we must not dwell in the past ; 
 whilst we must not make our home in the mausoleum of 
 departed greatness, we may and should learn a lesson from 
 the career of the foundere of the Commonwealth. And 
 what is the example which they have set us and which we 
 ought to imitate? It is an example of perseverance, of en- 
 ergy, of self-denial ; it is not one of reliance upon the Past. 
 In settling and founding this Commonwealth, they com- 
 menced a new era, and applied themselves resolutely to the 
 exigencies of that era. They were most of them men who 
 might have found, in the traditions of their ancestral line, 
 as soft a couch as any upon which their descendants repose. 
 But they chose a nobler part. They addressed themselves 
 vigorously to the new state of things, and the new sphere 
 of action in which they were placed. They cultivated the 
 wilderness, they subdued the savage, they planted the 
 seed of civilization, religion and liberty in the soil of the 
 new world. They laid the foundations upon which we are 
 called to build. They established free principles of govern- 
 ment and deflned the landmarks of authority. Their work 
 has been done and requires only vigilance and care for its 
 preservation. It is not knowledge of our rights that is now 
 wanted ; it is the power to protect them. We must adopt 
 their energy, resolution and self-denial, but we must apply 
 them to new fields of effort. The steamboat, the rail road, 
 the magnetic telegraph, and other wonderful arts have come 
 into being since their day. That nation is no longer the 
 greatest which devotes itself to military pursuits. The vic- 
 tories of peace have become more decisive than the triumphs 
 of war. Commerce, industry, trade and labor are revolu- 
 tionizing the world. It is by these means that England 
 has retained the supremacy she achieved by feats of arms. 
 Steam has been adopted in the old world as well as the 
 new, and bonds of iron are binding Europe into a confede- 
 
13 
 
 racy of nations. Even Russia finds them indispensable to 
 her purposes of military ambition and power, and has 
 availed herself of American skill in their construction. 
 "Were I called upon to point to an example in our own coun- 
 try of the means by which a State may acquire power and 
 wealth, I would direct your attention to the New England 
 States. It is a truth which will be made manifest upon in- 
 vestigation, that New England is not entirely indebted for 
 her prosperity to the favor of the General Government. 
 The character of her sons was originally formed upon a sys- 
 tem of independence, of self-reliance, of courage and reso- 
 lution. The dauntless spirit which led their fathers to for- 
 sake the luxuries of civilized life and pitch their tents in a 
 howling wilderness, still survives, and glows with increas- 
 ing fervor in the bosoms of their descendants. It was no 
 nursery plant, requiring a warm sun and artificial j)rotec- 
 tion, which has struck its roots into the New England soil. 
 A stm'dy tree indeed it must have been which, planted upon 
 a rocky cliff by the ocean side, growing up amid the roar 
 of winds and waves, wrestling continually with the tem- 
 pest, and exposed to the fury of the thunderbolt, has at last 
 attained the majestic altitude of a lofty oak, and spreading 
 abroad its leafy arms for a shelter to thousands, towers up- 
 Avards the more grand and beautiful from its victory over 
 an adverse fate. If the New Englander has prospered it 
 has been against as well as by the policy of the govern- 
 ment. He engaged in the pursuits of commerce and trade, 
 and from the heart of a rocky coast and the bowels of a 
 raging sea his strong hand plucked the elements of great- 
 ness, wealth and power. But, in the height of his prosper- 
 ity, a sudden paralysis struck down his fortunes. He resist- 
 ed to the last that change of governmental policy by which 
 this result was accomplished, but, when resistance became 
 inefiectual, what was his course ? Did he prepare himself 
 to forsake the rude soil where he had labored so long, only 
 to reap the bitter fruits of disappointment ? Did he sit down 
 with folded hands to mourn over the ruin which had come 
 upon his hopes ? Did he curse God and die ? No ! A 
 different spirit reigned in his bosom. He could not leave 
 the scenes of his youth, the battle-fields of his fathers, tlic 
 tombs that hold their bones, the theatre of his own past 
 greatness. He turned himself to new pursuits. The cur- 
 rent of his industry and enterprise forced out new channels. 
 2 
 
14 
 
 Over the whole laud his workshops rose, and the sound of 
 his cheerful toil was heard in the hammer ringing on the 
 anvil, the music of machinery clanging upon a thousand 
 water courses, and the hot breath of steam speaking with 
 its stormy voice of the stronger spirit that ruled its energies 
 and would not be subdued. Again prosperity returned, 
 again wealth poured in its golden tide, again the stern and 
 resolute will triumphed over all opposition. May not Vir- 
 ginia, without derogation from true dignity, imitate the 
 practical spirit which has achieved these results, seize upon 
 the same opportunities which New England has employed 
 and contend with her in a manly strife for opulence and 
 power ? I am not one of those who echo the fashionable 
 cant about the degeneracy of Virginia. It is not because 
 of degeneracy in intellect or in spirit that Virginia has 
 ftillen behind other States in wealth and greatness. It 
 is simply because she has neglected plain and practical 
 means of improvement, and employed her energies in fede- 
 ral instead of state affairs, 'i he ablest men of the South 
 have gone to Congress whilst the ablest men of the North 
 have remained at home, and devoted their talents and their 
 time to their domestic interests. And thus it has happened 
 that the South, with all her talent abroad, finds herself in 
 a minority in the councils of the nation, and the North 
 with all lier talent at home has obtained the majority in 
 Congress and in the country. That Virginia possesses the 
 Requisite energy is fully demonstrated by the successful 
 manner in which her sons have conducted the aftairs of the 
 nation in the council and its battles in the field. If half 
 the intjustry and perseverance she has exerted upon a na- 
 tional arena had been directed to her own aftairs, her har- 
 bors would, at this moment, be crowded with shipping, hfer 
 coasts with populous cities, and her forests would i-ejoice 
 and blossom as the rose. A distinguished lawyer of New 
 York was once asked why he did not go to Congress. 
 " What for V^ was the reply. " Why to shine, to gain lau- 
 rels," said the querist. " Yes, and when I come home and 
 my children ask for bread, can I feed them with the leaves 
 of the laurel V^ My friends, Virginia has been feeding too 
 long on laurels. They are unsubstantial f iod. They can- 
 not keep her from starvation. They are but a mocking 
 crown when they encircle the pale, cold brow of Death. 
 I have said, gentlemen, that this is a practical and utili- 
 
15 
 
 tarian age and that this spirit is more ftilly developed in 
 this country than in any other on the face of the gk)be. I 
 will admit that it has its excesses, and that nothing but a 
 higher object than mere personal gain can recommend it to 
 our adoption ; yet when we are considei'iug the best means 
 to restore the prosperity of Yirgim'a, M'e are bound to give 
 due weight to M'hat it has accomplished tor oui- country at 
 large. And I cannot more forcibly set forth the results 
 which it has achieved upon a national theatre than by qnc>- 
 ting an acknowledgment made by the leading organ of our 
 mother country, and a journal which has heretofore heaped 
 only ridicule and libels upon every thing bearing the name 
 of American. Speaking of the people of the United States, 
 the London Times says : 
 
 "In an interval of more than half a century it appears 
 that this extraordinary people have increased above 500 
 per cent, in numbers ; their national revenue has aug- 
 mented nearly TOO per cent., while their expenditure has 
 been increased lit*^le more than 400 ))er cent. The prodi- 
 gious extension of their connnerce is indicated by an in- 
 crease of near 500 per cent, in their imports and exports, 
 and 600 per cent in their shi])ping. Tlie increased activity 
 of their internal communications is expounded by the num- 
 ber of their post offices, which has been increased more 
 than a hundred fold, the extent of their post roads, which 
 has been increased thirty-six fold, and the cost of their post 
 office, which has been augmented in a seventy-two fold rii- 
 tio. The augmentation of their machinery V)f public in- 
 struction is indicated by the extent of their public libraries, 
 which have increased in a thirty-two fold ratio, and by the 
 creation of school libraries, amounting to 2,000,000 vol- 
 umes. 
 
 " They have completed a system of canal navigation, which 
 placed in a continuous link, %vould extend from London to 
 Calcutta, and a system of railways which, continuously 
 extended, would stretch from London to Van Dieman*s 
 Land, and have provided locomotive machinery by which 
 that distance would be travelled over in three weeks, at 
 the cost of 1 l-2d. per mile. They have created a system 
 of inland navigation, the aggregate tonnage of wliich is 
 probably not inferior in anVountto the collective iidand 
 tonnage of all tiie other countries in the world, and they 
 possess many hundreds of river steamers, which impart to 
 
16 
 
 the roads of water the marvelous celerity of roads of iron. 
 They have, in line, constrncted lines of electric telegraph 
 which, laid continuously, would extend over a space longer 
 by 3U00 miles than the distance from the ISIorth to the 
 South pole, and have provided apparatus of transmission 
 by which a message of 300 words dispatched under such 
 circumstances from the north pole might be delivered in 
 writing at the south pole in one minute, and by which, 
 consequently, an answer of equal length could be sent back 
 to the north pole in an eqnal interval." 
 Such, gentlemen, are the concessions of the London Times, 
 and here I wdll ask your attention to the fact that the great- 
 est empire of modern times, greatest in learning, in war, 
 in luxury, refinement and wealth, has presented the no- 
 blest tribute which has yet been given to the practical 
 spirit of the age, in that "• grand cosmopolitan Olympiad 
 of Industry" called the World's Fair; a work which was 
 the grand conception of her Prince, which was opened by 
 the Queen with more than the pomp and ceremony of the 
 opening of Parliament, and which she daily graced and en- 
 couraged with her presence and with every manifestation 
 of interest. Can a more striking contrast be imagined be- 
 tween the Past and the Present, than tlie Tournament of 
 former days, in which knight met knight in deadly com- 
 bat and the hands of Beauty dispensed the emblem of tri- 
 mnph to the superior in brutal strength, and this Fair of 
 the World's Labor, in which the fruits of the earth, of pa- 
 tient toil and mental ingenuity, were gathered in a crys- 
 tal palace, glorious and beautiful trophies of mightier vic- 
 tories than those of war ; in which Arts triumphed over 
 Arms ; in M'hich the discoverer, the inveutor, the architect, 
 the mannfacturer, and the laborer, took precedence of 
 the warrior, and received the respectful homage of Briton's 
 Iron Duke ; in which the Lion of England's Battles lay down 
 with the Lamb of her Peaceful Industry, and the organ's 
 sweetest notes proclaimed Peace on Earth, Good Will among 
 Men ? Flere was the human mind, enthroned upon the count- 
 less spoils which it had drawn from earth and sea; kings glad- 
 ly acknowledging its superior royalty and nobles rejoicing to 
 kiss its sceptre. Nor, in this connection, can I omit the 
 fact that, ridiculed as our country was at the commence- 
 ment of this exhibition, yet, in the end, it was admitted 
 that in every thing of practical iitility America had taken 
 
ir 
 
 the lead. Upon English soil, McCormick's ' Yirginia Reap- 
 er' gathered in a harvest of renown, of which any State 
 and any conntry might well be prond, and npon English 
 waters, beneath the shadow of Albion's white cliffs, and 
 with Albion's Queen looking on, an American vessel, con- 
 strncted by a son of the South, proved in the face of a 
 wondering world that, in peace, as well as in war, Colum- 
 bia " rules the waves." 
 
 Nor is the World's Fair the only striking evidence which 
 the times present of the appreciation of useful and practi- 
 cal pursuits in the Old AVorld. An eminent Virginian, 
 now in Paris, writes to a friend in this country that, in the 
 principal schools of France, distinguished as they are by 
 a high standard of science and learning, education is made 
 eminently practical by giving full development to the ap- 
 plication of science to the various heads of industry and 
 art, from which England, with her usual sagacity, has taken 
 a hint in the establishment of her " Government Schools of 
 Mines and Science applied to the Arts." Can it, then, I 
 ask, be beneath the dignity of Yirginia to imitate such 
 illustrious examples ? Is there not presented in these pur- 
 suits an honorable theatre for her youthful talent, and one 
 which promises greater benefits to it and the Common- 
 wealth than the crowded, miry and unprofitable field of 
 federal politics. 
 
 It is by such a course, and by such a course only, that 
 Yirginia can be raised to an equality with the other States. 
 Hail roads, canals, steamships, manufactories are the true 
 engines of conquest and supremacy in our age and our 
 country. The locomotive, with its attendant train of cars, 
 may not be as fascinating an object to a youthful imagina- 
 tion as a troop of armed horsemen, decorated with gay ban- 
 ners, careering over a fertile country, and leaving ruin, deso- 
 lation and broken hearts in their path. But there is something 
 to my mind even more beautiful as well as valuable in the 
 rail road which creates instead of destroys, which raises 
 happy cities on its margin, and makes new harvests spring 
 up in its path. And there is something even more sub- 
 lime as well as useful in the iron horse, flying with a speed 
 which laughs the trooper to scorn, yet never wearying 
 with his incessant toil ; moving with mysterious and resist- 
 less energy by day, and breathing sparks of fire from his 
 glowing nostrils as he scours the midnight path. There 
 
18 
 
 is a terrible magnificence, I admit, in the toars of a great 
 nation, when she lights up the firmament with the blinding 
 flashes of her wrath, and makes it echo with the startling 
 thunder])olts of destruction. But she appeals more both to 
 my respect and mj love when she is the silent and peace- 
 ful cloud from which fall gentle rains, noislessly, but con- 
 stantlj, to refresh the parched earth ; to cause grass to re- 
 vive and grain to grow ; to give a new bloom to faded flow- 
 ers, and make a desolate landscape smile, through its tears, 
 with the jo J and beauty of Paradise. 
 
 These potent engines of modern improvements — rail 
 roads and. canals — I would enlist for Virginia, to draw forth 
 the resources of her mountains and her plains and pour 
 them upon her rivers. I would not ask nor care what 
 particular locality they would benefit, so long as they 
 would raise Virginia in the scale of States. I would 
 know no Blue Bidge and no Alleghany, but would bind 
 her. East and West, with great, massive chains of iron, 
 through which, from the heart to the extremities should 
 circle the electric fire of patriotism, irradiating her whole 
 system with one eternal glow of common love and common 
 loyalty. I would unite the whole South in policy and inte- 
 rest, and bring its people together as the people of the 
 ]Srorth are brought together by those ties of close intercom- 
 munication which only an extended and combined system of 
 rail roads affords. I would develope her manufacturing 
 interests, encourage her ow^n schools and patronize her own 
 productions of every kind, thus drawing to herself skill, 
 labor and population, and, by establishing direct trade with 
 Europe, make her independent in fact as she is in name, and 
 give her the might to vindicate the right. 
 
 But am I told by those who dwell upon the dark side of 
 the picture and who love to mourn over the supposed de- 
 generacy of Virginia, that she is past redemption ; that her 
 lands are exhausted, that her wilderness and swamps can 
 never be reclaimed ; that she has had her day, and must 
 give way to fresher and younger Commonwealths ? I deny 
 the correctness of those melancholy views. I assert that 
 she is at this moment the newest and the youngest State in 
 this Union, and the richest in all that constitutes national 
 wealth. Her agricultural productions have been stea- 
 dily increasing for the last ten years, and it is believed 
 will be doubled at the termination of the next decade, 
 
19 
 
 but even if great natural obstacles existed, they would be no 
 impediment in the path of a great people. Let us look for 
 example and encouragement to the Old World. The most 
 powerful and the most fertile countries of Europe are those 
 like England and Holland, in which the art and industry of 
 man have successfully warred against the opposition of na- 
 ture. Look in particular at England. Our countrymen 
 who visit the mother land are charmed with the perfection 
 of her agriculture and with the productive capacity of her 
 soil. Yet, not two centuries ago, according to high autho- 
 rity, the arable land and pasture land of England were not 
 supposed to amount to much more than half the area of 
 the kingdom, and the remainder consisted of moors, forest 
 and marsh. John Ogilby, Cosmographer Royal, described 
 a great part of the land in 1675, as wood, fern, heath on 
 both sides, marsh on both sides. Upon one road, for forty 
 or fifty miles, there was not a single enclosure. It is also 
 stated, as highly probable, that in the course of little more 
 than the past century "^a fourth part of England has been 
 turned from a wild into a garden." The traveller who now 
 finds himself surrounded on all sides by the unequalled 
 beauties and richness of an English landscape, can hardly 
 credit the fact that, not two centuries ago, many routes 
 which now pass through an endless succession of orchards, 
 hay fields and corn fields, ran through nothing but heath 
 and swamp. In 169G, the whole quantity of M'heat, rye, 
 barley, oats and beans then annually grown in the king- 
 dom was somewhat less than eighty millions of bushels, 
 and the wheat was estimated at less than sixteen millions 
 of bushels. At present, an average crop of these produc- 
 tions is supposed considerably to exceed two hundred and 
 forty millions of bushels, and the ordinary crop of wheat 
 exceeds ninety-six millions of bushels, larger than the whole 
 crop of every kind in 1696. Does the agricultural condi- 
 tion of Yirginia present any such discouragements as those 
 which have been overcome in England ? or if it does are we 
 not as capable as Englishmen of successfully encountering 
 them. And if we speak of being behind the age in other re- 
 spects, what is the picture which a late historian gives us of 
 England at a period more than half a century subsequent to 
 the first settlement of Yirginia ? He tells us that could the 
 England of that day be set before Englishmen now, they 
 would not know one landscape in a hundred, or one build- 
 
ing in ten thousand. She had then but little more than 
 five millions of inhabitants ; the annual revenue of the 
 crown was about £1,400,000 ; agriculture was in a rude and 
 imperfect state ; the streets of London were involved in 
 such profound darkness as to make walking dangerous ; the 
 roads in the country were bogs and sloughs in which car- 
 riages were often swamped, unless they had six horses ; 
 sixpence a day was paid the weaver at the loom ; children 
 of six years old were thought fit for labor in the clothing 
 trade ; meat was so dear that it is estimated by Kino;, that 
 of the 880,000 families of England 440,000 only ate ani- 
 mal food twice a week, and the remainder ate it not at all, 
 or at most not oftener than once a week ; the great mass of 
 the nation lived almost entirely on rye, barley and oats ; 
 the paupers and beggars were estimated at 1,330,000 out 
 of a population of 5,550,000 ; as many as at present with 
 a j^opulation four times as large ; the rate of deaths in 
 the capital was one in twenty-three ; now it is one in for- 
 ty ; men died faster in the country than they do now in 
 towns ; noblemen had not the comforts which are now com- 
 mon to ther servants. Statesmen, without giving scandal, 
 could easily accumulate princely estates ; the most savage 
 intemperance of party spirit prevailed ; blood could not 
 flow fast enough to satisfy the thirst for political revenge ; 
 Whigs hooted at Tory victims and Tories at Whigs as they 
 passed on to execution ; there was no daily paper in En- 
 gland ; few of the gentry had libraries as good as English 
 footmen now possess ; female education was almost entirely 
 neglected ; the poetry and eloquence of Greece were not fa- 
 miliar even to accomplished gentlemen ; prisoners were 
 pressed to death for refusing to plead, and women burned for 
 coining ; moss troopers and robbers so abounded in parts of 
 the kingdom that the gentry and larger farm houses were 
 fortified, and parishes were obliged to keep bloodhounds for 
 the purpose of hunting free-booters, while there were por- 
 tions of the metropolis in which the warrant of the Chief 
 Justice could not be executed without the aid of a body of 
 armed men. 
 
 Not quite two centuries have passed since this period 
 and what a change ! Ye who speak of Virginia as " be- 
 hind the age," look upon that picture and see how man can 
 triumph over nature, and how, by the Divine aid, his own 
 nature can be elevated to almost angelic virtue and intelli- 
 
gence. Look upon this picture and tell me, why Virginia 
 should not, before some of these raven locks about me are 
 turned to white, become the England of the New World. 
 
 Virginia is marked out by the hand of her Creator for a 
 sublime future. Look at her extent of sea coast, her noble 
 rivers, her spacious harbors, her majestic mountains, her 
 mineral and agricultural treasures, her central geographi- 
 cal position in the confederacy ; her variety of productions ; 
 her climate, bracing among her hills as the breezes of Swit- 
 zerland and bland in her lowlands as the soft breath of 
 Italy. Young men of Virginia, this is the home which 
 God has given you, a home in which the ashes of your fa- 
 thers sleep, and which is lighted by the rays of their 
 never dying fame. Prove yourselves worthy this heri- 
 tage. Desert not your sacred trust. The God of na- 
 ture has intended this for the land of a great j^eople. 
 And great it will be, with your efforts, or without them. 
 Yes, if you slumber, others will enter in, and foreign hands 
 will perform your work. I doubt not, I cannot doubt, no, 
 not for a moment, the Jj'uture of Virginia. It looks upon 
 me now, sublime and beautiful, from her mighty hills ; it 
 smiles in her lovely valleys ; it flashes in her limpid streams ; 
 it sings in her mountain breezes ; it thunders in her ocean 
 waves. Here yet must be the great central seat of Ameri- 
 can commerce and power. The shipping of the world must 
 yet crowd these harbors, and the trade of the West and 
 even of California be poured upon these shores. Instead 
 of her sons forsaking their parent State, the sons of stran- 
 gers will come here and pitch their tents among your graves. 
 From the ruins of the old Virginia shall come forth the 
 living and life giving energy of the New, like a fresh and 
 transparent fountain s])ringing from the moss-covered ruins 
 of some gray old rock, sending forth a wide and fer- 
 tilizing stream to spread beauty and verdure wherever it 
 flows, and reflecting from its bright waters the starry glo- 
 ries of the skies. 
 
 If, however, gentlemen, these plain and practical pursuits 
 and that domestic ])olicy which I advocate, still seem 
 homely and unattractive, consider, I pi-ay you, the purjiose, 
 the glorious purpose which recommends them, and let that 
 consecrate it in your afl'ections. You will labo.i for the sake 
 of Virginia if not for your own sakes. We read in Holy 
 Writ that, amid the heat of day and the dews of night 
 
Jacob served Labaii in exhausting employments for fourteen 
 years, but he served him to obtain Rachael, and they seemed 
 as nothing for the love that he bore unto her. Let Virginia be 
 the object of your heart's deep devotion, and the heaviest toil 
 will be light, and the humblest path will be lofty which leads 
 you to her side. Keep in vieAv the purpose, gentlemen, the 
 purpose, not of your own individual aggrandizement, but 
 of the greatness of the Commonwealth. Enterprise, prompt- 
 ed by a principle of patriotism, will be in harmony with 
 the noblest features of Virginia character, and is not de- 
 rogatory or degrading like that which proceeds from a sor- 
 did desire of pecuniary gain, Heaven forbid that from such 
 a motive I should invoke Virginians to act. It is not to 
 build up gi'eat commercial and manufacturing marts for 
 the mere purpose of wealth and display that 1 would en- 
 list your enei'gy, but for the safety and power of Virginia. 
 I rejoice to say that, however far this old Commonwealth 
 may be behind the North in riches and luxury, she is still 
 unapproached in her ancient virtues, in truth, frankness, 
 generosity, integrity and disinterested love of country. Still 
 stand wide open her hospitable doors, and still her house- 
 hold fires burn l)rightly and purely uj^on their ancient altars. 
 Better, far better that she should forever be poor, if she 
 could also be independent ; better that the grass should 
 grow in the streets of her toAvns ; that her harbors should, 
 forever be solitary ; that eternal silence should reign in her 
 mountains, than that Math the wealth of the great cities of the 
 Avorld, slie should be cursed with their corruption of morals, 
 their abuse of female innocence, the wild lawlessness of 
 their poverty, and the heartless aristocracy of their wealth. 
 But, gentlemen, while increasing prosperity may bring such 
 evils in its train, we may hope that the stern virtues of the 
 Virginia character and our peculiar domestic institutions 
 will avert or greatly mitigate such a result, whereas, on the 
 other hand, we cannot find security in inaction, for if you 
 do not exert your own powers, you will inevitably transfer 
 to your shores a population which will build up the State 
 in wealth, but will spread a moral and social blight upon 
 it from the Ohio to the seaboard. Bear in mind that it is 
 not only self-defence, but absolute self-preservation that 
 calls you to action. The population of the North is daily 
 swelling by immigration from abroad ; the population of 
 Virginia is daily weakened by emigration from home. 
 
Every decade increases Northern power in the country and 
 in Congress. New territories will soon be erected into 
 States. And as Northern power increases who can gaze 
 withont alarm upon the dangerous doctrines in politics and 
 morals which seem to be prevalent among the mass of 
 the population. Abolitionism, threatening your dearest 
 rights, and slaying your citizens whose blood cries in 
 vain from the ground ; socialism and agrarianism seek- 
 ing to overwhelm the household and despoil its in- 
 mates ; religious fanaticism, giving birth to its Joe Smiths 
 and knocking spirits ; the miserable doctrine of interven- 
 tion, seeking to subvert the established policy of the coun- 
 try, and embroil her in the mazes of a foreign war ; and 
 lastly, that disgusting spirit of man worship, that germ of a 
 monarchical spirit, which is never so happy as when dangling 
 at the heels of distinguished foreigners, and which has just 
 completed its last and maddest of all freaks in exalting 
 a foreign adventurer over the head of George Washing- 
 ton ! Such are the wild, corrupting and ruinous doctrines 
 which have gained alarming strength among the popula- 
 tion in whose hands the reins of power are placed. Would 
 you defend Virginia, her institutions, her laws, her liberties, 
 the bright virtues of her social hearth against this impend- 
 ing and awful peril ? To whom will you look for succor ? 
 To the General Government ? What have your fathers, 
 with all their abilities and all their eloquence, achieved on 
 that arena? Your only course is to obtain the numbers by 
 which the engine of federal power can be controlled. For 
 that purpose, let us leave lofty dreams of the past and 
 imbue ourselves thoroughly with the practical spirit of the 
 age. It may be an humble, lowly and obscure vocation, but 
 it will be followed hj the safety, strength and prosperity of 
 the Commonwealth. Beneath the wide ocean of misfor- 
 tune, let us keep alive the spirit of energy and labor, work- 
 ing like the coral insect in the cavei-ns of the deep, until at 
 last an island slowly raises its head to the ocean's face, bid- 
 ding defiance to the fury of the waves, inviting to its calm 
 retreat the wandering birds of air, springing forth in vege- 
 tation, and bursting at last upon the astonished view, a 
 green and glowing garden in the midst of a waste of waters. 
 In conclusion, gentlemen, I would avail myself of the 
 commemoration of this great day to declare most emphati- 
 cally that in dwelling upon our duties to our own Common- 
 
wealth, I do not desire to weaken your affection to the 
 American Union. In the language of one of our most 
 illustrious Statesmen : " I am not one of those who indulge 
 the apprehension that a fervent and devoted attachment to 
 the particular State of our birth or adoption could lessen, 
 in any degree, the sentiment of duty and affection we owe 
 to our whole country. On the contrary, by a law of our 
 moral nature, all our public affections take their origin in 
 the small but magic circle which defines our home, and 
 thence spread, by successive expansions, till they embrace 
 and repose upon our country." I know that over the 
 American Union, as over the States of the South, clouds 
 still hover ; clouds which cast upon all the earth a melan- 
 choly shadow, for, be assured, when the golden cross of om* 
 Republic finally disappears from the firmament, the politi- 
 cal salvation of all mankind has no longer a foundation for 
 hope. No where else, as recent events have so fully 
 demonstrated, no where else on the whole earth is there the 
 slightest chance for the successful establishment of Eepub- 
 lican principles. The pearls thrown to the French swine 
 have been trampled under foot. Russia is advancing with 
 slow but certain progress to the shores of the Atlantic, and 
 unless the military passion of the French nation intercepts 
 her course, Europe will soon become Cossack. We cannot 
 and we ought not to interfere in the afiairs of the Old World ; 
 but we can, and our duty to mankind requires that we shall 
 preserve an asylum here for wronged and suffering hu- 
 manity. I know that the Union has been perverted ; that 
 its powers have been abused ; that it has been made the 
 engine of oppression, and that it still has its perils. But 
 how shall we best prevent farther injustice and future dan- 
 ger ? Not by paper bulwarks ; not by gusts of passionate 
 eloquence, but simply and alone by building up the trade 
 and industry of the South. Give the South the numbers 
 and they who willingly make aggression upon weakness 
 will cease to make it upon power. Whilst there may be 
 differences of opinion among our citizens in regard to the 
 value of the American Union, there can be no desire for 
 its dissolution, except as a remedy for worse ills, and no 
 feeling but of hope that the Union may be jireserved by a 
 faitliful adherence of the General Government to the Ameri- 
 can Constitution. Gentlemen, we hold in the hollow of 
 our own hands the shield and safeguard of Southern Rights, 
 
and with it the preservation and the perpetuity of the 
 American Union. It is for us to say whether George 
 Washington shall have been raised up in vain ; whether, 
 not the great leader only, but all the children of our politi- 
 cal Israel are to " die on the banks of Jordan in sight of 
 the promised land." It is for you to say whether Yirginia, 
 whicli led the way to the Union, shall not also lead the way 
 in the policy of preserving it by strengthening the foun- 
 dations of State independence upon which it rests, and by 
 relno^^ng from aggressive and dishonest spirits the temp- 
 tation to do evil. I doubt not that you will all agree with 
 me that if this Union can be preserved by ensuring a faith- 
 ful performance of the Constitutional compact, that object 
 is well worth the most earnest devotion of om' hearts and of 
 our lives. If we can retain the glorious traditions of the 
 past ; if we can hold together, without detriment to the in- 
 dependent sovereignties of which it is composed, that mag- 
 nificent confederacy which is rapidly making us first among 
 the nations, and causing our elder brethren of England to 
 do homage to the Joseph whom their oppressions drove 
 from his lather's house ; if we can secure that fdtuee, so 
 glorious beyond all expression, in which two hundred mil- 
 lions of people shall stand upon American soil, all free, all 
 educated, all speaking one tongue, all acknowledging one 
 God, and sending up their anthems of prayer and praise 
 like the sound of many waters — if we can secure such a 
 futm*e, then it is worthy of every toil, of every aspiration, 
 of every sacrifice, except the sacrifice of honor, of truth, 
 and of right. The only way to secm-e it, gentlemen, I am 
 as firmly convinced as of 2ny own existence, is to pursue 
 the course which I have endeavored to enforce in this ad- 
 dress ; to develope the resources and the industry of the 
 South ; to encourage its own labor, its own trade, its own 
 commerce, its own schools ; to abide by the graves of your 
 fathers, and never to forsake the Commonwealth which 
 looks to her young men to raise her Phoenix-like from her 
 ashes, and plume her pinions for a flight to the highest 
 Heaven of power and prosperity. Build up Souuiern 
 strength and you establish, by that act, the perpetuity of 
 the Republic. Thus alone can the Union of the States be 
 preserved ; thus shall it become eternal, dispensing blessings 
 to the most remot eposterity ; and standing serene, beauti- 
 ful and young in the old age of time, the last sunset of 
 3 
 
earth shall see its flag still flying, and in the millenial 
 morning its Stars, like those of Creation, shall sing together 
 for joy. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Phoenix Society, I might have select- 
 ed a subject more congenial to the literary tastes of this en- 
 lightened assembly, but I felt impelled, as the best acknowl- 
 edgment which I could make of the honor you have con- 
 ferred upon me, to speak upon a toj)ic which might have a 
 practical tendency, and contribute in some humble degree 
 to the ]3rogress of a State, the birth-day of whose greatest 
 son we this day commemorate in her ancient capital, under 
 the auspices of her most venerable institution of learning, 
 and in the presence of those who may ere long be called to 
 control her destinies. And I may add that it is among my 
 fondest hopes that, with the retm-ning greatness of the State, 
 the College of William and Mary may be restored to more 
 than its former influence and usefulness ; that its walls may 
 be crowded with youthful votaries of learning and science ; 
 and that when the State has risen once more to its feet, like a 
 giant refreshed with wine, it may be the exalted province of 
 this venerable College to temper, with a conservative influ- 
 ence, the progressive spirit of the times, to place in the 
 hand of Young Virginia the spear of Intelligence, and to 
 buckle upon her breast a shield of Virtue so bright that it 
 will reveal the lurking dangers of prosperity, and so strong 
 that it will resist the keenest shafts of adverse fate ! 
 
 LBJe'lO