i STEPHEN Bo WEEKS CLASS OF 1886; PHD TOE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIStRSTTY OF THBE DNHVERSiniY OF NOMl CAI80IMNA TIE WEEKS COLILECTION OF C378 UK3 I876W Jg UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 00039136746 This book must not be taken from the Library building. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.archive.org/details/addressofhonamwaOOwadd A-DDHESS OF HON. A. M. WADDELL, BEFORE THE Philanthropic and Dialectic Societies OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, JUNE, 1876. ADDRESS. "Gentlemen of the Philanthropic and Dialedio Societies: When the inhabitant of lowland, malarious region Tisits, at this season, the up-country, and inhales the ;atmosphere of the breezy hills, he experiences a sense of relief which is delightful, and which he would fain per- petuate. With a similar feeling of pleasure I am here to- day in response to the invitation with which you have lionored me. Out of the vitiated atmosphere of the |>oIitical metropolis, and under the burden of duties and responsibilities not yet completely fulfilled, I ceme to tiiis hallowed spot to discharge an obligation as high as any I have left behind me, and at the same time to en- Joy the sweet social intercourse of old friends within these venerable walls and beneath these classic shades. When yesterday I again entered the old campus, the flood-gates of memory were uplifted, and now as I stand liere the tide rolls in. If its multitudinous waves make m^isic within me, shall not my lips seek to give uttter- sinee to it, however inadequate? Oh how earnestly I CTave, for this one time at least, the divine gift of elo- •quence ! And how utterly destitute of it I feel in the presence of this occasion. It is one fit for the display of all the most brilliant gifts of intellect and oratory, and therefore it is one before which I stand abashed. It evokes all the poetry and sentiment which lie hidden in the inmost soul, but nrhich the unskilled tongue cannot sing in fitting meas- ure. It is the carnival of memory, held beneath the softening "light of other days" — whose mellow rays ^hine through the smiles and gild the tears of youth. (4) It recalls with vivid power, images that have long been buried beneath theaccumalated years ; it rekindles the light which shone in eyes now dimmed and gone- and sighs responsive to "the cheerful hearts now broken." This hour was made for genius ; not for me. Gome^ thou ethereal spirit once, if never again, and touch witli thy f][uickening power these faltering lips. Biding back in all their freshness and beauty the pale dead years- String again the silent harp and wake once more the music of the past Recall the friends of my youth Marshal them around me, and let their speechless elo- quence unite with me in the appeal which I make for our stricken Alma Mater. Inspire me with one breath of thine immortal nature that I may speak thy language to-day in her behalf, and thus aid in restoring her to her own again. It is impossible for you to fully appreciate and sym^ pathize with the overpowering emotions it awakes in those who trod these aisles as students in the long ago^ before the majority of you were bom. Just a quarter of" a century has passed &ince he Avho now speaks to yon entered this chapel in all the new-born pride of a matri- culate, and began to indulge the sophomore's dream. The seed planted here by the fathers fifty years before, had then grown to full maturity. Four hundred stu- dents thronged these buildings. Well endowed, andl patronized by all the Sputhern States, the University re- joiced in its strength and spread its beneficent influeBce far and wide. Pointing with pride to her many sons iia | all parts of the country who had reflected honor upon ' her from every post of distinction in Church and State^, and in all the professions and pursuits of life, and en- l.-irging <'0iitinuall ■ the sphere of her usefulijess, she was then at the ver}^ acme of her proud and honorable his- tory. Her trustees were a bodj'^ of men whom any p«oJIJ pie in an}^ country would have been proud to call their fellow-citizens, and the faculty who then guidfrl her "* •destinies — li3\v sIkiII I speak of them? Of the living inembers of that faithful band — only one of whom still iiiolds official position here — it is unnecessary for me to «ay more than this : the}^ have the hearty syrhpathy, the sincere respect and affectionate regard of all their old ;|vupils, particularly of the idle and good-for-nothing •ones who used to abuse their patience and try their tem- per, "gitoru?n magna pars fid y With a more tender and reverent spirit, and with heart s^s well as head uncovered, I would pay my humble tribute to the memory of tiiose other members of tlia l»and who "now rest from their labors." It is pleasant to "4liink that they may not be ujiconscious of this scene. The stars are now shining above us, although we will. Tiot realize the fact until night, and so it may be that the ■dead look with conscious eyes U[)on the deeds of the liv- ing, although we will not know it this side the tomb. It may be that the spiiitual bodies of those veneral)le j»-fin who once frecjuented this spot — one of whom, cljid ill the glorious livery of the Master, and engaged in Irs ■service, passed peacefully from tliis rostrum, consecraitd by the act, into blissful companionship with Him — are ttov/ here with us. It may be that, with them, are as- sembled a company of their former pupils, whose spirits tock flight from earth amid the flame and sinokeof bat- tle, from the weary hospital cot, or the peaceful fireside ■of home. If so, we may rest assured that they are not indiffeient spectators of this scene, but regard it witti anxious interest and deep solicitude. May the thought of their presence inspire us with renewed energy in the -cause in \vhich we are engaged. The time in the history of the University to which I liave referred as being the climacteric of her prosperity was one in which the country also had attained its high- est degree of peaceful progress. The union of co-equal States under the constitution and laws was never, per- haps, so firmly established in the hearts of the whole, jpeople. («) Educational facilities were daily increasing, the public- debt was, comparatively, small, abundant crops had blessed us, credit was unshaken, and money plentifuL In a word, the blessings oi Heaven were showered upon us continually. Such was the situation when the "sopho- more's dream," of which I have spoken, commenced. How sadly and strangely different has been the realiza- tion ! The greatest civil war of history has since then gwept over us, and left us desolate. A very large proportion of those who then dreamed, with me here in those happy days, have passed to the other shore. Those who are left, instead of realizing a. life of ease and prosperity and honor as they fondly hoped, in the halcyon days of their youth, have found them- selves face to face with adversities of which they never dreamed. Those of us who might very naturally dwell on the past, and the hopes and promises which it held out to us, really have no time for the indulgence of such reminis- cences. The more practical business of providing for present necessities absorbs our time and thoughts. I come, young gentlemen, not to speak to you of the dead past, with which you have no concern, but of the living present and unborn future. I wish to direct your attention, not to the fast- fading vision of a time gone by — which the elders naturally regard as a better time than, this — but to the stern realities which confront you and with which you must soon grapple in a patient and long; enduring contest. It shall be my aim, without the least- indulgence in florid rhetoric, to presentas pluiilly as poss- ible before you the changed .social and economic relations- of the Southern people, the guidance of whose affairs- must in a few short years fall into the hands of those who, like yourselves, are now receiving the inestimable- advantages of a liberal education, and to point out what* (7) seems to be the highest duty devolving upon us all, in view of the changed condition of affairs. We live in a new era, it is true, but thank God in the same good old land. Enthusiastic proselytes of the new regime have designated our good old State as new North Carolina. No, she is the same dear old North Carolina for whom our forefathers fought, and labored, and suffer- ed, and whom they crowned with deeds of glory — the same dear old North Carolina whose history sparkles with heroic actions which her sons have been too modest to claim — the dear old North Carolina who struck for liberty nearly ten years before any other American colo- ny — who made the first Declaration of Independence — whose sons gained the first victory oftheEevolution, and always been in the van of an assault and the rear of a retreat — the same honest North Carolina who always paid her honest debts, and preserved her credit untarn- ished, but will never acknowledge as her own the obliga- tions of her despoilers — the same glorious old North Carolina every one of whose true sons love, every inch of her soil — From where the rills Leap laughingly adown her Western hills, To where the Atlantic lifts her voice to pour A song of praise upon the sounding shore. No, there is nothing new about North Carolina except her unmerited calamities. These have produced the changed social and economic relations of which I have spoken, and to which I wish to direct my remarks. The great towering fact of the age, the central point m which the new circle of our civilization has been described is the transformation of the former laboring population of our country from a state of absolute slavery which excluded every civil and political privilege, into a condition of absolute civil and political equality. They are now invested with each and every right (8) franchise and privilege which attaches to any American citizen in his relations to the government, State and na- tional. This great, radical revolution in the social fa- bric is without precedent or parallel in human history. It is the political marvel of all ages, the ultimate results of which are awaited with curiosity by the civilized world. Out of this great metamorphosis have sprung consequences affecting the entire social and political or- ganization of all the Southern States, and indirectly of the whole countr3\ The full realization of this change is a cardinal point in the new departure wdiich we are compelled to make. Statesmanship — which is only another name for com- mon sense practically applied to the business of govern- ment — demands a recognition of it, in the legislation of the country, and the administration of public affairs. And it is no less the duty of private citizens than of pub- lic men to look it squarely in tiie face and make the most of it. This much, and only this much, I have to say on this subject because it was a necessary introduction to what will follow. If histor}^ contains an account of any people among whom general demoralization would have been more likely to occur, and would have been more excusable than amongst the Southern people after the late war, I do not know where to find it. If it tells of any people who, under such disintegrating forces pre- served more sublimely their integrit}', their virtue and their manhood than they, my eyes have never read the story. It is that you may perpetuate this spirit of integrity and manly virtue, that I would appeal to you to-day. Be assured, my young friends, that it is the very bed- rock upon which the future of our beloved country must chiefly rest, if that future is to be one of dignity, honor and prosperity. I would, feel that I had not lived in vain if I could impress in indelible characters on the mind and heart of ever}^ young man who hears me, those (9) two grand maxims of'our immortal Lle — the one penned in a letter to his son in the days of his prosperity, "Duty is the sublimest word in our lano;ua paticularly applicable to her, viz: 'That with the ex- ception of cofl:ee, there is not a product of the soil per- taining to the tropical or temperate zones, and which isi of real use to man as a food, which cannot be grown in it;" and when to this is added the fact that (saying noth- ing about our splendid western sheep-walks, or grazing.- (11) lands, or our cotton or tobacca soils, or our marble and' granite and sandstone quarries,) there are, basides, these, inexhaustible beds of coal and iron, iinnieiu=e for- ests of almost every kind of timber, and water powers equal to any in the world, we announce our possessions, as I have just said, of all the elements of wealth and power required to make a great State. In short, as I have had occasion at other times to say in discussing this, to me, most interesting topic, when from our own coal pits we dig the fuel, from our own ore beds we lift the iron, and with them from our own roll- ing mills we turn out the rails which shall be laid in all parts of our State, linking the mountains to the sea and the counties of the one border to those of the otherr— when we build our own factories and make our own machinery for spinning and weaving our own cotton and wool — when we make our own agricultural implements as well as our own laws — when we build our own ships as w^ell as- our own churches and' school houses — when we publish. our own books and periodicals and educate our own teach- ers—when we raise all we eat and all we wear — then, andl then only, will we accomplish the possibilities within our reach. But if you wish to see and to aid in producing this transformation, you will be compelled to practice- rigidly certain virtues and unwaveringly adhere to cer- tain habits which have not alwaj'S been characteristio-of our country. You will have to be frugal and industri- ous, more frugal and industrious than your fathers used to be. You will have to labor incessantly and econo- mize in every way in your power. This is the great lesson for us to learn now, and like every other les- son it is easier for you than for your seniors to learn. Begin then to practice these habits here and now in your- College days, and you will find that they will, in the course of a few years, become a second nature to you. Teach them to your, associates and j^our fellow-citizens bvv* (12) example as well as l)y precept. Aid in educating the public mind to the necessity for them, not only to indi- viduals but to the State in her struggle with adversity. 1 shall not discuss the moral advantages which would follow the practice of frugality and industry by a whole population like ours, although they are very evident. I am onl}'^ endeavoring to impress upon you the necessity for them to our advancement in material prosperity. It is not, I know, the most agreeable topic with which young men can be [entertained on an occasion like this,but|I conceive it to be the duty of every man occupying the position assigned me to-da}'' to, at least, comment briefly upon it. It is one which not only the Southern people, but the people of this whole country, have had forced upon their attention more painfully, perhaps, in the last few years than ever before in their history. But I shall not further dwell upon it. As it is a part of the genius of our people to stud}^ and participate in public afl'airs — the shaping of which in the past history of our country was controlled in such large degree b}^ Southern statesmen, and the future manage- ment of which must, to a great extent, (at least so far as our State is concerned), fall into your hands — perhaps a few reflections upon the general subject of government ma}'" not be inappropriate on this occasion. It is a curious fact of history that great men, like tlue giant trees of California, have always appeared in groups. In this country at the present day we soothe our vanity, when accounting for the absenca of such a group from the plain of politics by saying that the average intelli- gence and culture is greater than at any previous period of our history, and that the gifts and attainments which would now be lequired in order to force a general acqui- escence in the superiority of any one man over all his fellows, are almost if not quite impossible. It is a very consoling reflection to us, and will so remain — until the jiext constellation shall rise. Genius disdains the com- (13) moil level of even the highest average civilization. The necessities of its existence demand a higher atmosphere still. The possibilities of the human intellect will always outrange its achievements until it is swallowed up in the infinite mind. But there is, in the present condition of this country particularly, much to justify the assertion that the attainment of a position of recognized pre-emi- nence is, if not impossible, vastly more difficult than ever before. Of course I speak of a general intellectual pre-eminence universally recognized among intellectual men. It is safe to say that now-a-days an "admirable Orichton" could only exist by a miracle, for while the spread of knowledge is wider and more^evenly distribut- ed, it is unparalleled as an age of wonderful achievement in special departments of science and learning also. There is often more knowledge upon a variety of subjects to be found in a siLgle issue of one of the great daily newspapers of the present day than, perhaps, any dozen men possessed fifty years ago, and consequently — a? ev- erybody reads the newspapers, if nothing else — it is pre- eminently a smattering age; but to master the past and keep abreast with the present in any one department of knowledge is a task which taxes the resources of the pro- foundest intellects. Perhaps a Southern man might be pardoned for insist- ing that there is one exception to what I have said con- cerning specialities, and that is in regard to the science of government. If such a one should charge that there has been no real progress in that respect, I confess that- the answer would we difficult to find, unless one should undertake to show that it is really no science at all and point to existing govprnment?, State and ITational, as evidences of the truth of the position. We know that on that subject the mouths of very babes and sucklings are now wide open, and, if we do not learn wisdom from their utterances, we are at least compelled to be governed by them. (14,;) I am far fiom being a decrier of the present or a 'whiner over the faded glories of the past. The wise man ^vill always improve the one and turn his back upon the 'Other, except to learn lessons of wisdom for the future; but I have no sympathy with that self-sutlicient spirit .^vhich speaks patronizingly of the deeds of former gener- ations as creditable only according to the means of ac- complisiiment then in existence. In the field of statesmanship such an affectation of superiority at present would .be simply absurd. It is, doubtless, impossible to exaggerate the achievements of this century in physical science. The marvelous dis- covery or group of discoveries described b}' the term ^'spectrum analysis," which — simply as a mode of inves- tigation unconnected with practical results — is moat as- tonishing, is alone sufficient to make this age illustrious. it is, of course, unnecessary before this audience to dwell upon this magnificent triumph of science, but it is worthy of remark that although this process of analyzing the rays of light from the sun and stars, and thus ascer- taining the chemical constituents of th ee bodies would, at first, appear about as useless for practical purposes as any imaginable discovery of science could be, it was still the process by .which Bessemer learned how to con- vert in a few seconds a ton of casltUron into a ton of steel, and thus to establish a new industry. Anyone whohas heard Tyndall's lectures has realized a new existence, ^nd yet, if he has heard Wendell Phillips' account of the "'Lost Arts" he must acknowledge that more than a thousand years ago there were well-known scientific truths which are "not dream pt of in our philosophy." These achievements in the domain of natural scienceare going on continually, and are graduall}'^ elevating the human mind nearer and nearer to its final destiny ; but no such progress has been accomplished in the science of government. Having mentioned Mr. Phillips in this vConnectioia,: perhaps I eught not to omit saying that, al- (15) ithough it is said a French cLemist di-d succeed in mak- ing a diamond out of charcoal, the same experiment when attempted by him and his school of philosophers in matters of government is generally conceded to have proved a failure. The reason, perhaps, why greater progress has not been made in the science of government lies in the fact that, ♦despite the march of civilization, human nature, as ex- hibited by communities, has always been the same, and .statesmen have had to deal with the same elements in •every age of the world when constructing or preserving the fabric of government. But whatever the reason may be, the fact is indisputable, and it is a stumbling block to certain modern theories. It certainly would seem reasonable if the law of human nature is eternal progress, that such progress should be as marked in the governments established amongst men which demand their highest powers — as in the less im- portant affairs of life; and yet, if history is to be relied on, mankind have in this respect perpetually moved in a circle, beginning with despotism, and ending witii an- -ftrchy. If revolution was always reform, and change always progress, government would long since have at- tained the utmost perfection of which it is capable. Unlike natural science, the science of government re- quires, for its advancement, the cultivation of the moral as well as the intellectual elements of our nature, and, 1;herefore, it would seem that until men, as masses, are morally superior to what they have been, there can be no real and lasting improvement in human government. There is but little consolation in this, I admit, if we are to judge the future by the past, for the evidences of moral improvement particularly amcng those who ought to be exemplars, have not in latter days been very start- ling. And yet we should not despair. The remedy lies &i