ADDRESS OF DANIEL READ, PRESIDENT OF THE ■» j* f fate ||iiiticrj5itg of Jjivjotm DELIVERED IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN ACCORDANCE WITH AN INVITATION OF BOTH HOUSES, Wednesday Evening. Feb. 17th, 1869. PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SENATE. / * AD DR ESS OF DANIEL READ, PRESIDENT -OF THE DELIVERED IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN ACCORDANCE WITH AN INVITATION OF BOTH HOUSES, Wednesday Evening, Feb. 17th, 1869. PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SENATE. INDIANAPOLIS: ALEXANDER H. CONNER, STATE PRINTER. 1869. vn.vy P n r\ * A ADDRESS, Members of the Legislature — Citizens of the State of Indiana: Seventeen years ago this present winter, I stood in the hall of the House of Representatives of your State, of which I was then a citizen, and before the General Assembly and upon its invitation, in the presence of an audience of citizens as numerous and respec¬ table as it has ever been my lot anywhere to address, presented my views on a scheme of public education for the State. There were before me on that occasion, as I well remember, such men as Governor Wright, by whom I was announced to the audience, Oliver H. Smith, John W. Davis, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Judge Blackford, Calvin Fletcher, Bishop Ames, Robert Dale Owen, Douglass Maguire, Capt. Gibson, James Rari- den, and other eminent citizens of the State. There were also pres¬ ent such honored women as Mrs. Gen. Drake, Mrs. Wm. J. Brown, Mrs. Bolton, Mrs. Judge Hammond, Miss Laura Ream and others, the elite of your capital. I need not say to you, fellow citizens, that it was not the speaker, it was the subject which called together such an audience. It was at a time which was regarded as a turn- ing point in the history of the commonwealth. It was just after the new Constitution had been adopted by an almost incredible majority; and the first Legislature under that instrument was as¬ sembled to carry out its behests. New foundations were to be laid—old foundations were to be strengthened. It was at a time when a great people were speaking forth their will as to what kind of a commonwealth they would have. The question, what shall be the educational polity of the State, was one which especially interested all classes—both the people and the Legislature. The principle of universal education had been established by the Con¬ stitution, as completely and as broadly, as in any written constitu¬ tion ever formed. Every child, under the Constitution, was de- 4 dared to have a right to education, without money and without price, just as much as to breathe the air or tread upon the earth. The Convention forming the Constitution, in order to secure this right and render it forever possible and practical, had not only made all the property of the State taxable for the maintenance of schools, but had absolutely, without division or debate, turned over to the common school fund not merely the township fund, but every per¬ manent source of revenue that could be thought of, such as the Surplus Revenue Fund, the Saline Fund, the Bank Tax Fund, the Swamp Land Fund, all escheated property and other revenues which I cannot estimate. So that at this day Indiana has a larger school fund than any other State. I feel proud to say it—I feel proud of the little part I had in such a consummation. But the Legislation of the State was yet to be had, to carry out the sub¬ lime—yes, 1 say, sublime provisions of the Constitution. It was under such circumstances that 1 was called upon to ad¬ dress the Legislature. What 1 then said, and how 1 fulfilled the duty, may yet be seen in the public documents of the State. Here, fellow citizens, I might for a moment pause to give indul¬ gence to reminiscences which rush upon my mind. What an age of events since that occasion! What changes in your city—then but a village; in your State—with less than half its present popu¬ lation; in the nation itself! 1 can scarcely realize to myself that Indiana, which now has more than 2,500 miles of railroad, had then less than one hundred miles. What a change, too, in the rulers of the people. Where are the men mighty in council who in that day ruled the policies ol the State? Scarcely a single one left even to tell the tale of the political struggles and party tactics of the hour! What lessons, too, come home to our minds as we think of the # short-lived contests and strifes for political mastery ! They sea ceiy last half the generation that begets them. They are, absoiu ely, worth nothing, so far as they are contests for personal or party as¬ cendency, and are borne off as the merest drift and scum in the swift stream which constitutes the continuity of society. It is the great institutions of a State—it is its educational policies—its schools—its universities—its colleges of science and art—its benevo¬ lent institutions—its great works of improvement, which are the en¬ during monuments of its progress and civilization; and he alone is the true statesman—the statesman to be honored and remem¬ bered, who builds up these institutions for his State. 5 I stand before you again, fellow citizens, in this same Hall, after the lapse of so many years the citizen of another State, myself changed with all around me. I come to speak to you on the very same theme as then, a theme fundamental and vital in every com¬ monwealth; a subject above every other subject for the legislator: Universal Popular Education; what must be the institutions of the State to carry out the grand idea of educating the people in the best possible manner; how may your institutions of education be built up and perfected—made the glory and honor of the State, the pride and ambition of the people. I come to speak to you words of cheer, derived from your past history and progress—from what you have already done. The question of education is the great question now, as it was then, it is the question for all times. It is not a question relating to the material resources of the State. It is a question no less than this: What kind of a people are to make up the State itself? Who are to possess this fair domain ? Who are to enjoy the mag¬ nificent works of improvement which cover your soil? In short what shall the State itself be? For, Jet it never be forgotten, the people are the State; nothing else is the State. No sacrifice is too great, no labor too arduous to make wise, and virtuous, and intelli¬ gent citizens. Depend upon it, here is the greatest State action, this is the highest patriotism. It is the only reconstruction which will last. It is reconstruction for the North as well as for the South. The educator—he alone—not thsarily required. If Prof. Turner, then of the Jacksonville College, Illinois, was not the author of the measure, he was, at least, one of its earliest and most enthusiastic advocates. I confess I had myself little faith that the proposed measure could succeed in Congress, as then organized; but at the earnest and repeated solicitations of Prof. Turner, I wrote Mr. Douglass more than once on the subject Near the commencement of Mr. Buchanan’s administration, viz: December, 1857, the measure was so matured that it was brought forward in the form of a bill—a particularly well considered bill— the bill, indeed, which finally passed. This bill was referred to the Committee on Public Lands, was reported against by a majority— 14 a minority of the committee, however, making a favorable report— and was passed, under the operation of the previous question, by a vote of 105 to 102. The opposition came largely from those States where intelligent and educated labor was least valued. In the Senate it met the opposition of Jeff. Davis, I. M. Mason and Pugh of Ohio. The bill, however, passed that body by a vote of 25 to 22, and went to President Buchanan, who vetoed it. In the 36th Congress—the first Congress under President Lin¬ coln’s administration—the same bill was introduced into the Sen¬ ate, and passed that body by a vote of 32 to 7. It then went to the House and passed that body without any other debate than the able speech of Mr. Morrill, by a vote of 90 to 25, and was approved by the President July 2, 1862. Thus, after five years of delay and opposition, the measure be¬ came a part of the established policy of the country. Provision was thus made for the establishment and endowment of an Amer¬ ican practical scientific school. It was a great step forward. It will result, when all the States and Territories are represented in the grant, in the establishment of over forty such institutions. No man can calculate the results of this grand national movement now and for generations of men to come, if the States, as the Trustees, shall perform their duty wisely and well. The measure was the outgrowth of a strong and growing senti¬ ment, existing nowhere more strongly than in the Colleges. Indeed, Harvard, and Yale, and Union, and Columbia, had, through the munificence of Individuals, already provided for schools of agricul¬ tural chemisty, engineering, mining, and other practical arts. All the colleges were, in fact, struggling on in the same direction, but were hampered by the want of means. The projectors and advo¬ cates of the bill were, almost without exception, College men who saw the necessity of extending and modifying our system of edu¬ cation—of making it more practical—or, indeed, rather of uniting science with application. Harvard had gone so far in this practical direction that a writer in the North American Review said if any body would give the University a cotton mill, she would doubtless run it in the interests of science. This much I feel bound to say in behalf of myself and professional brethren, because some have represented that the col¬ leges were opposed to practical education, and in fact, the enemies of this particular bill. The very reverse is the truth. 15 Let us now for a moment look at the act itself making- the grant* What does the law provide? What does it require? What are the conditions which you on your part solemnly engage to fulfill and carry out ? First. Every State, except those in rebellion, may, under the act, receive a quantity of land equal to thirty thousand acres for each of its Senators and Representatives, according to the census of 1860, or in the States where there is not the land, scrip in lieu thereof, at one dollar and twenty-jive cents an acre. The least pop¬ ulous State receives ninety thousand acres, the most populous nine hundred and ninety thousand acres. The whole grant amounts to fourteen thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine square miles, or a territory, if the land were in a body, equal to the States of Massa¬ chusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, or about equal to Belgium or Holland. You of Indiana receive of the great national bounty, three hundred and ninety thousand acres, or equivalent scrip there¬ for, and Indiana is the fourth State in the amount received. Now what will you do with this great gift? That is the important question. Second. Provisions and restrictions are made in regard to the selection of the land; one of these being that no State shall locate its scrip within the territory of another, though, of course, its as¬ signees may do so. Mr. Cornell has made a large location of land with the New York scrip—pine land in Wisconsin and Michigan, which to-day would sell for ten dollars per acre, for t he benefit of the Cornell University—-thus swelling to immense proportions the magnificent endowment of that institution. Third. The whole expense of locating the land and managing the funds arising from the sale of the land, or of the scrip arising therefrom, must be paid by the State* Not a dollar can be paid out of the fund itself. This is an important improvement upon the Seminary, or State University grant. Fourth . The proceeds must be invested in safe stocks, yielding not less than five per cent, per annum. Fifth. What for? That question is answered in these words of the act itself: “ For the endowment, support and maintenance of at least one College, where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including mili¬ tary tactics; to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the Legisla- 16 tures of the States may prescribe, in order to promote the libera and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pur¬ suits and professions of life.” What grand and expansive views of Education! How the whole wide field of human learning is here embraced. No slur upon Classical studies—no spite against Latin and Greek even! The term “liberal,” as well as “practical,” are expressly used, as comprehending the objects aimed at in the education of the indus¬ trial classes in the pursuits and professions of life. No learning too high or too good for the industrial classes! What right has any man to step forward and propose to limit or annul these grand provisions ? There are still other provisions—wise, judicious—designed to preserve the fund forever intact. One-tenth of the capital may be used for the purchase of a site or a farm. No part of the fund can ever be applied to building or repairs* Not a dollar for brick or mortar. These must in some way be provided for by the State. No such condition of things can exist as in Minnesota, where the whole University fund was expended upon a building, leaving nothing to support the institution. An annual report is also re¬ quired, to be sent out to the country, and to all kindred institutions. Having accepted the grant, with its various conditions and obli¬ gations, it devolves upon the Legislature to prescribe the manner according to which the object of the grant shall be secured. Congress, in creating the endowment and prescribing its objects, and securing the fund by wise provisions, leaves the rest to the States. The questions which the States had to determine are such as the following: Shall there be one College, or more than one? Shall the College to be established, be united with a State Uni¬ versity already existing, or with any other existing institution, or shall a new institution, separate and apart from all others, be es¬ tablished and maintained? What shall be the particular organization of the institution— shall the tuition be free—shall the student be required to perform a particular amount of manual labor? Such questions are for the Legislature—only the Legislature must establish at least one College, where the leading object shall be to teach such branches as are related to agriculture and the me¬ chanic arts, including military tactics, without excluding scientific 17 and classical studies, in order, says the Bill, to promote the libera and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pur* suits and professions of life. Here is the true order: first, the liberal, the scientific; then follow the practical—first, to know , then to do. Here has been the popular objection to our Colleges—too much theory—too little practice. This the Colleges have been trying to correct, but had not the means; for, you must bear in mind, that apparatus for practice is exceedingly costly. When we think of the comprehensiveness of the education as required in this act of Congress, we cannot be surprised that the grant has nowhere been divided. That question was early settled by the action of the States accepting the grant. It was indeed settled beyond this, that the entire grant, even where it was largest, was insufficient to endow a single institution commensurate with the extent of the objects to be provided for. New York, with her nine hundred and ninety thousand acres falling to her share, not only did not divide or disperse the fund arising therefrom, but united it with the magnificent gift of Ezra Cornell of a half million in cash, together with lands and buildings worth half as much more. The same with Pennsylvania, though her share was seven hundred and eighty thousand acres, and Ohio, also, with her six hundred and thirty thousand acres. In the grandeur and comprehensiveness of the scheme laid down in the act, wts see why these great States, as in fact all the other States* perhaps without an exception, have united their land grants either with existing institutions already well endowed, or with new en¬ dowments created expressly to be united with the grant, and thus to build up institutions worthy the American name. The curse and bane of our highest literary and scientific educa¬ tion has been the undue multiplication of institutions for its sup¬ port. This is true of every part of our country, and more particu¬ larly of the Western States, until the name College , or the more high sounding one, University, is almost a subject of derision. On this subject I would be glad to repeat to you the opinions of the first educators of the country. But my time is too limited. I will, however, venture to give that of Henry Barnard, now the Commissioner of Education of the National Bureau* and also those of some other eminent men in the field of education. u The needs of society,” says Mr. Barnard, “have called these institutions into A. D. R.—2 existence in every civilized country, and in every age; but with us their real or supposed connection with religious or local inter sts have multiplied them beyond any demand for higher scholarship, and it is to be feared, not only to the injury of each other, but to the great detriment of the highest culture, which is only possible under the concentration, in a few centers of a large extent of coun¬ try, of a numerous body of learned and eloquent men, representing all the departments of literature, science and art, aided by cabinets, libraries, labratories and other means of exhaustive investigation and demonstration.” This is the opinion of a man who has ex¬ plored every European country, from the Mediterranean to the Baltic, in pursuit of knowledge as to all classes of institutions of education—a man who knows more on this subject than any other man living. Mr. White, now the Chancellor of the Cornell University, when, as a member of the New York Senate, advocating not only the unitv of the Land Grant Fund in that State, but its union with Mr; Cornell’s magnificent offer, utters this language: “We have thrown away the benefits arising from the concentration of higher educational effort, and have accepted all the evils arising from scattering and division until, instead of one or two strong institu¬ tions, we have a score of small ones—each feeble, each poor, each incompletely equipped, each obliged to resort to continual beggary, each forced to abate from thorough discipline.” What a picture? but how true—drawn to the very life! The language of Dr. Bowman, who is the founder of the Ken¬ tucky University, is even more forcible and striking. By T the un- paralelied zeal and efforts of this noble man in uniting several en¬ dowments, and through the wisdom of the Legislature concentra¬ ting them with the land grant, he has laid the foundation of a great University which will forever confer renown upon his native State. The large endowment, the number of professors, the various and complete appointments, in all the departments, the site of the Uni¬ versity, on the hallowed ground of Ashland, where the very air is redolent with patriotism, have already commanded success, and the Kentucky University, though but just starting, has, in its various departments, some six hundred students. Allow me now to say to you, my fellow citizens of Indiana, that in order to complete your educational system, you need, not only your noble Normal Institution—you need also a State University, . - i c i a University in the true sense of the word. You need a Uni¬ versity which will be an honor and an ornament to the State; one which shall everywhere be pointed to as among the great institu¬ tions of the nation ; one which, as a Michigan farmer said to me the University of that Stale did, will add value to everv acre of land in the State. As a State, you are bound to contribute such an institution to our national civilization. Your last Legislature made an annual appropriation of $8,000 to the University, but this is not enough. The University of Michigan has to-day over one thousand students, and this is not a count of boys and girls—a drag-net to make a show of numbers, but of professional and col¬ lege students. But Michigan expends from $60,000 to $80,000 a year. It is judiciously done, and hence the secret of her success. Do you expect to do the same with one-fourth the amount ? Do you know how many of your young men go out of the State for their education, because you have no institution of that high ordpr which meets their wishes ? At least one hundred and fifty students from Indiana seek their education in other States. You have now a great opportunity. ] must be permitted to say to you what I have said to other State Legislatures : unite the land grant with the University Fund, or, if any would choose a different form of wording, turn over all the University endowments, build¬ ings and appointments to the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, in as full and ample a manner as though created for it alone. I cannot anywhere express different views. In order to carry out the programme of subjects required to be taught in the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, you need all the elementary in¬ struction now given in. the University. Why duplicate the very means you have? Why reject what you have, in otder to create, at a large cost, the same thing ? I have just visited three Agricultural schools, and very carefully examined their plan and workings. A large portion of the course is identical with that in your University. Even military instruction is, I understand, now provided in the University; that also is re¬ quired in the proposed college. Reorganize, enlarge, modify your State University as you think best—that is wholly in ypur power as a Legislature—but there is every reason for the uniop of these funds, and thus doubling their capacity. What is the idea pf the American University as in the process of 20 time it has developed itself? It is the college of literature and sci¬ ence with its associated schools of application, its practical and pro¬ fessional schools. In this sense, Harvard, which was originally but the college, has, with its super-added schools of law, medicine, en¬ gineering, mining, and other practical schools, become the Univer¬ sity. So Yale, which is still called college , is, with its associated school, the proper University. The same is true of Michigan, and I am laboring to bring the Missouri State University to this ideal. This is the University which your present educational advancement requires. You want the practical school to round out and com¬ plete the University. The united funds so far from being too much, are absolutely not sufficient for an institution such as you need and ought to have. The University Fund is •insufficient for the Uni¬ versity. Still less will the land grant support the College of Agri¬ culture and Mechanic Arts in all the amplitude required by the con¬ ditions of the grant. If you unite the two funds by making the proposed College a department of the University, you can at once expend every dollar coming from the grant, upon the strictly agricultural and mechan¬ ical arts; if you attempt to make it a separate institution, you must expend most of the fund to provide elementary instruction—the very instruction which you now have in the University. Hence those States which adopt the wisest educational policy, have turned over this fund to create or support a department in an existing in¬ stitution which already affords much of the instruction required. r fhus Connecticut has given her share of this bounty to the Shef¬ field Scientific School, which is a Department of Yale. Rhode Island has given hers to support a Scientific School in Brown Uni¬ versity. Vermont unites hers with the endowment and scientific collections of Vermont University. New Hampshire forms such q. connection with Dartmouth as to make the new institution essen¬ tially a department of that institution. Massachusetts alone of all the States, divides the fund, giving one-third to the school of Tech¬ nology at Boston, already having a large endowment, and the remainder to the Agricultural School at Amherst, which enjoys all the advantages of Amherst College. New Jersey gives her portion to establish a Scientific School in connection with the New Bruns¬ wick College. New York unites her whole share arising from 990,000 acres with the immense Cornell endowment. Kentucky and Wisconsin give their proportion of the grant to their State Universities. While Pennsylvania, Maryland, Michigan and Iowa, give theirs to Agricultural Colleges which had been established before the grant was made. I cannot doubt but Missouri, which is one of the States which has not yet acted, will follow in the line of safe precedent, and give this fund for the required College to be a part of the State University. I ought to add that the county of Boone and town of Columbia, where the Missouri University is situated, offer a bonus of not less than $75,000 for the location. In Wisconsin, the bonus for the location was a cash subscription of $40,000 from the county. In Massachusetts, the town of Amherst gave $50,000 as a condition. These localaids were required in addition to the advantages and inducements offered by the University. States may often learn wisdom from the example of successful business men. Fortunately we have such examples, on this very subject, of some of the most sagacious business men of this or any other country. Mr. Abbott Lawrence, after he had attained great wealth, resolved to establish a practical scientific school. Where did he place it? Why, as a department in connection with Har¬ vard University. Joseph E. Sheffield established a similar department in connec¬ tion with Yale. He did not think of making a separate and inde¬ pendent school. George Peabody, in establishing scientific museums, costing $150,000 each, placed one in connection with Harvard University, the other in connection with Yale College. In the union and concentration of your educational forces there is strength and power. To divide is to weaken, to waste, to de¬ stroy. It is to have two feeble and contemptible, starving, begging institutions instead of one strong institution. Do vou know the annual cost of our highest institutions? Har- vard expends nearly $200,000 a year, and her President, in his din¬ ner speech at the last commencement, declared that, in order to keep up with the progress of the times, she must have $100,000 a year more. Yale expends $130,000, and has within four years re¬ ceived benefactions to the amount of $728,000; this besides Mr. Peabody’s gift of $150,000 for a museum. Columbia, New York, expends $150,000. Michigan, as I have said, from $60,000 to $80,000 a year. Concentrate the two funds, and you will have the means of making a noble beginning. Yon will thus best carry out the de¬ sign of both endowments. They will mutually aid each other. You will elevate the practical arts; you will make the trades pro¬ fessions; you will place the educated farmer and mechanic on the same plane with the lawyer, the physician, and the clergyman, and make them the peers of each other. I shall never forget, members of the Legislature, the language of a Senator of the Wisconsin Legislature, after the University Bill had passed that body. It was the Hon. Jackson Hadley of Mil¬ waukee, a man who had been for years a leader of all the great measures of the State,—an active leader of his party,—a man who remained at his post while he was literally dying piecemeal. He had introduced the bill, and when it became a law, making it an assured fact that Wisconsin was to have a University worthy the State, he said to me: “ 1 now at last feel that I have done some¬ thing. All the rest of my legislative life may go; for, what is a State, in the scale of civilization, without its great institutions?” May you, members of the Legislature, at the close of this ses¬ sion have the same satisfaction. May you have the satisfaction— nay more—the pride which I felt when your worthy Superintend¬ ent said the other evening, “ The State of Indiana has eight mil¬ lions as her School Fund.” I said to myself, I too had a share in creating this fund. As a member of the constitutional convention I voted for every measure to increase the School Fund. Had I not done so, I should feel ashamed to stand here to-ni ght. But, fellow citizens, I have too long detained you. I have spoken upon topics in regard to which, possibly, you may feel that I have transcended the limits of propriety. But if a lifetime of service in the cause of education here in the West—if long years of experience, and as careful an examination of our American institutions of learning as it is possible to make—if these will entitle me to speak freely on subjects of education here in the West, then surely I may claim that privilege ; I am at least bound by no special, local or personal interest or ties. I speak for the State, and for the interests of the country, so far as bound up in Indiana. 1 confess to this much of Western pride, 1 would have in all our Western States, institutions at least equal to those of any other portion of our common country, and I propose and advocate in regard to these institutions, the course by which alone, in my judgment, this end may be attained. 23 But, upon still another ground, T claim the right to plead before the altar of our common country for all those institutions which tend to unite and exalt the American people. Upon that altar, my family has devoted sacrifices, compared with which my life is the merest nothing. That altar is even yet all wet and dripping with the blood of one, and another, and still another more precious than that of my own heart. The last victim (two brothers had already fallen) was that dar¬ ing young officer, (he was a graduate of your own University, and a law student of Judge Hughes,) the Adjutant General of the Army of the James, who planted himself before the High Bridge of the Appomattox, and there with his three regiments held in check Lee’s whole retreating army. The heroic stand which he with his gallant few made at that pass, the very Thermopolae of the war, where nearly every man of that Spartan band sacrificed his life in desperate hand-to-hand resistance, brought about the grand event which at once followed. The tournament of death in which he, the commander, and his foe- man the leader of Lee’s cavairy, fell by each others hand in deadly encounter, Vvas almost the last scene of blood in the nation’s great tragedy. In that young hero, my only representative, perished my pride and my brightest earthly hopes, and I stand before you now but a barren trunk, stripped by the ruthless hurricane of war which has swept over the land, of every branch and green leaf. One object, fellow citizens, alone remains to me—to live my life over in the lives of pupils as good, as true, as patriotic, as accom¬ plished in person and mind, as well as fitted to perform all the offi¬ ces of peace and war, as was he whom I had looked to represent my name and family when I should be gone. And now I renew the vow which I have recorded before God, to spend whatever of life remains to me in ennobling and making glorious, so far as in me lies, that country regenerated and saved by blood poured from my own veins and mingled with that of the vast army of patriot martyrs. This is my apology, if any were necessary before such an audi¬ ence as this, or, when I stand here in Indiana, where I spent some of my best years, this my apology for freely uttering my sentiments for the upbuilding of grand and noble institutions which will dig¬ nify, adorn and illustrate not only Indiana, but through her the na¬ tion itself, our common country, our glorious Republic, its only stain now washed crut by patriot blood. ' . ■ ■ . . ■ ; ffctj . I, { l * ■ ■ ■ ; . ' ■' I ‘ • ' t ... • ' ’ ■ '