c 
 
 W279De 
 
relating to the endowment of "Washington Uni- 
 versity," St. Louis, Mo.; addressed to friends 
 in New England, and especially in Boston, who 
 have heretofore placed it in my power to under- 
 take and prosecute works of religion, patriotism, 
 and philanthropy, in the West, 
 
 By WILLIAM G. ELIOT. 
 
 Boston, Mass., 
 
 May 11, 18G4. 
 
J 
 
 c 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 This statement, with slight changes, was prepared, 
 as an address, to be delivered in several of the Boston 
 churches. It is now printed for private circulation, 
 as the most convenient method of bringing the sub- 
 ject before those who have the ability and disposition 
 to promote the cause of sound learning and liberal 
 culture. They are most respectfully requested not 
 
 to lay it aside, without careful consideration. 
 
/^AST THY BREAD UPON THE WATERS; FOR THOU SHALT FIND IT 
 AFTER MANY DAYS. GIVE A PORTION TO SEVEN, AND ALSO TO 
 EIGHT; FOR THOU KNOWEST NOT WHAT EVIL SHALL BE ON THE 
 EARTH. 
 
 T^OR THE MEMBERS SHOULD HAVE THE SAME CARE ONE FOR AN- 
 OTHER. AND WHETHER ONE MEMBER SUFFER, ALL THE MEMBERS 
 SUFFER WITH IT; OR ONE MEMBER BE HONORED, ALL THE MEMBERS 
 REJOICE WITH IT. 
 
 TN THE TFME OF WAR IT IS THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY TO PREPARE FOR 
 THE RETURN OF PEACE. 
 
IN presenting a new interest and a new claim for your 
 consideration in times like these, I feel the need of 
 your kindest and most friendly indulgence. 
 
 The office of soliciting (some persons would call it by a 
 harsher name) is never one to be coveted. It is always 
 painful, not unfrequently repulsive. It has no charms or 
 attractions whatever ; and nothing but a sense of duty in a 
 good cause, could, under present circumstances, have im- 
 pelled me to undertake it. A thousand times easier is it 
 for every generous mind to give than to ask another to 
 give. If any man is to be envied, it is he who enjoys at 
 once the control of riches, and the will to consecrate them, 
 from day to day, to works of beneficence and charity ; and 
 the knowledge that I address many such is my best encour- 
 agement to-day. 
 
 The same knowledge, of which I have had so large expe- 
 rimental proof, relieves me from the more disagreeable part 
 in the work of solicitation, — that of argument and persua- 
 sion. The arts of the rhetorician have no place and no 
 use here. Glowing promises and eloquent periods would 
 only do prejudice to my cause. My part is simply to pre- 
 sent a plain statement of facts; proving, if I can, that an 
 opportunity of great and increasing usefulness is offered, 
 under circumstances which justify the urgency of my pre- 
 sent appeal. I know that it must seem untimely and 
 
unreasonable. There are so many claims before us which 
 belong to the time, created by the exigencies of war, and 
 which must be met at all events, that the establishment of a 
 University on the banks of the Mississippi, twelve hundred 
 miles off, may well appear, at first sight, a matter of 
 secondary and remote interest, which belongs to other people, 
 and can quietly be set aside to wait its turn. The success 
 of my appeal depends upon answering this fair and natural 
 objection. I must prove to you that this is an exceptional 
 case, which not only justifies but requires exceptional treat- 
 ment. I must present before you a work of unquestionable 
 and rare importance, which is not of merely local or sec- 
 tional interest, but which belongs to the cause of liberal 
 culture, polite learning, enlarged humanity, and by the 
 accomplishment of which we shall do a work of Christian 
 philanthropy, of patriotism, — strictly speaking, a national 
 work. For the establishment of a University, upon the 
 broad foundation of unsectarian Christian principles, in a 
 region like the Valley of the Mississippi, the central region 
 of the United States, whose population is destined hereafter 
 to give tone and character, whether for good or evil, to the 
 political existence of the whole country, may well be called 
 a Christian enterprise ; and its success will be an enduring 
 national benefit. The blotting-out of Harvard University 
 would be a loss, not only to Massachusetts and New England, 
 but to the nation and the civilized world. 
 
 The work which we have undertaken, and already brought 
 to the point of almost certain success, is the establishment 
 at St. Louis of a University which shall be to the whole 
 Valley of the Mississippi what Harvard University has been 
 to New England, and which shall hold a place with her, as 
 a daughter with a mother, in the Republic of Learning. 
 
 We feel ourselves, in the main, strong enough to accom- 
 plish the task, great as it is ,* but, at the present juncture, 
 
arc in need of the assistance for which I now appeal to you. 
 We ask it, however, not as mendicants asking alms, but as 
 workers for a common cause, in the broadest field of human 
 culture, who have put their own shoulders to the wheel, 
 and mean to keep them there, although calling upon Her- 
 cules for help. 
 
 To succeed in my attempt, I must show you — 
 
 That it is a vitally important and practicable work ; 
 
 That it needs to be done thoroughly and without de- 
 lay ; 
 
 That it is already upon a good foundation; and that those 
 who have it in hand have proved themselves strong and 
 faithful, so that it is wise and safe to give them what they 
 ask. 
 
 Perhaps this last point is the most important ; for I be- 
 lieve that the hesitation of wealthy men to give large sums 
 of money generally comes, not from an unwillingness to 
 give, but from their want of confidence in the agents by 
 whom it is to be applied. It is incumbent upon me, there- 
 fore, even at the risk of egotism, to report progress, to 
 render an account of my own stewardship as an agent and 
 missionary in the time past, so that you may judge of our 
 trustworthiness for the future. 
 
 Thirty years ago, I was ordained as an evangelist or mis 
 sionary for the West, in the Federal-street Church of Boston. 
 This is the only ordination or installation I have ever 
 received ; nor has any other form of ministerial settlement 
 ever been used. I may perhaps, without arrogance, claim 
 to have acted under that original seal of sanction from that 
 time to this ; and the church of which I am the minister 
 may justly be accounted a mission-church of your found- 
 ing. 
 
 When I went westward, it was by a stage-coach journey 
 
8 
 
 of three days and nights from Baltimore to Pittsburg, and 
 by a three-weeks' weary steamboating to St. Louis. There, 
 after three or four months of youthful effort, my congrega- 
 tion (at first, through the influence of curiosity, more than 
 a hundred) had steadily dwindled, until it numbered from 
 eight to twenty, with a prospect of continued decrease, and 
 with the seeming certainty of soon reaching the vanishing 
 point ; but there were a few warm hearts there which had 
 the sap of life in them, and refused to die. Some of them 
 are still bravely working, but nearly all have fallen asleep. 
 We were not easily discouraged. The thought of abandon- 
 ing the cause did not occur to us ; and we determined, God 
 helping, to build a church. By the utmost exertion, we 
 could raise a thousand dollars there ; and I came, as a mat- 
 ter of course, to the fountain-head of our enterprise to 
 solicit aid, with small promise of success, and with little 
 encouragement from anybody, at first, but with most liberal 
 and satisfactory result. In Boston and elsewhere we re- 
 ceived full three thousand dollars ; which was more than 
 we had asked, and all that we needed. That was your first 
 bread thrown upon the Mississippi waters. Has it not re- 
 turned to you, in the only way you expected it to return, 
 after many days ? For I remember, that, in that first appeal, 
 we promised to regard your contributions, not as a gift, but 
 as a loan, an investment in our hands ; that, receiving it, we 
 would pledge ourselves to expend in charity and missionary 
 enterprise the annual interest on the amount. In the two 
 years while building our church, we did this, and could do 
 but little more ; but since our first church was built, until 
 this time, we have expended and now expend annually, 
 in the uses just named (I do not include our own 
 support or educational enterprises), an average amount 
 considerably larger than the principal so invested, besides 
 having established a permanent mission-house at a cost of 
 
twenty-five thousand dollars, with a partial endowment 
 already secured. Our first church, with subsequent enlarge- 
 ment, cost us seventeen thousand dollars. The house in 
 which we now worship, the Church of the Messiah, cost, 
 with land and furniture, a hundred thousand, nearly all of 
 which was paid by direct donation : for, after the first sale 
 of pews, it appeared that our debt on the day of settlement 
 would exceed fifty thousand dollars; and the alternative 
 was bankruptcy or liberality. The latter was chosen by 
 some fifteen or twenty individuals ; and, at the first balan- 
 cing of our new church-books, we had no debt, and, thank 
 God, have never had any since. 
 
 For the ten years past, our parish has included about two 
 hundred and fifty families, with an average of two hundred 
 church-members, and three hundred and fifty to four hun- 
 dred Sunday-school scholars, including the Mission-house 
 School. Such has been the growing-up of the seed sown by 
 friendly hands ; for, be it remembered, their timely help 
 was indispensable to us. Without it, according to all 
 human judgment, we must have failed ; and, if we had 
 failed then, a long series of unsuccessful attempts might 
 and probably would have been the result. It was the timely 
 aid, the right thing done at the right time, that gave to us a 
 healthy infancy, and secured subsequent growth. 
 
 But I should do great injustice to our missionary church 
 if I left its record here. You have perhaps been surprised 
 and pained that no second church of our communion has 
 grown up in St. Louis in all these thirty years ; and I share 
 deeply in the regret, almost in the mortification. Perhaps 
 we have not been sectarian or controversial enough : but 
 the fact is, that we have lived in a city of rapid growth, 
 where every thing was to be done at once ; and all manner 
 of work has been pressing upon us all the time. In all 
 enterprises of charity, philanthropy, education, and public 
 
10 < 
 
 improvement, the harvest has been great, and the laborers 
 few ; and, of these, the Church of the Messiah has always 
 furnished a generous proportion. We have only one church 
 to this day ; but I keep within the literal truth in saying, 
 that in the establishment of public schools, of asylums, 
 hospitals, institutions of charity and learning of whatever 
 kind, and in the general ameliorating influences of society, 
 no denomination of Christians has done more than our single 
 Church of the Messiah. It was not sectarian seed that you 
 sowed, and the crop has not been sectarian. 
 
 Especially, at this time of national trial, would I speak 
 with pride and gratitude of the influence steadily exerted 
 in the direction of loyalty and freedom. I do not claim 
 ever to have been a bold or radical reformer ; but, on the 
 contrary, am, by nature and principle, of the moderate 
 school. Most dearly do I love the quiet and gentle agencies 
 by which God brings to pass the grandest results. The still 
 small voice speaks more pleasantly to my ears, more forcibly, 
 more like the divine voice, than the mighty wind and earth- 
 quake. My congregation also has been composed of diverse 
 materials from all parts of the country, with all gradations 
 of culture, not one-fourth of them educated in what is 
 called Liberal faith ; with all shades of political opinion ; 
 with extreme diversity of social prejudices, from the pro- 
 slavery secessionist to the abolitionist of the most ultra 
 school. But I rejoice to believe, that, in its steady and 
 quiet working, our church has exercised not only a real but 
 a marked and visible influence in preparing the community 
 for the terrible shock of rebellion, and in saving Missouri 
 from the ruinous vortex of secession. The conflict was 
 much closer with us than you can easily understand ; and 
 the issue for a long time trembled in the balance. For six 
 months, the Confederate flag was flaunted in the streets ; 
 and the city authorities feared to excite a mob by taking it 
 
11 
 
 down. Not a single national (lag was openly shown, during 
 this period, from one end of the city to the other; but there 
 were hundreds of Union hearts taking counsel together, and 
 thousands of Union hands getting ready to resist. Of these, 
 our friends supplied not a few of the boldest, most energetic, 
 and resolute ; and our whole undivided moral influence, by 
 word and act, by pew and pulpit, was given to the Union 
 cause. They who adhered to the other side left us in the 
 beginning of the strife ; and the places which knew them 
 have known them no more. Some of them I was sorry to 
 lose, and am sorry still ; for they were persons, both men 
 and women, whom I respected and loved ; and I hope, when 
 the delusions of the hour have passed, they will return to 
 receive the welcome that is ready for them. But our duty 
 was too plain for hesitation ; and with steadfastness of pur- 
 pose we have tried to perform it. 
 
 With pride I think of these things, and devoutly thank 
 God for them, now that the danger is past, and our State 
 is loyal and free ; but I should not be excusable in speaking 
 of them, if it were not to strengthen myself in a new rela- 
 tion, by showing that the former seed, sown on the waters, 
 has returned after many days in fruits of loyalty and patriot- 
 ism not less than in those of charity and religion. 
 
 The part we have taken in the humanities of the war, you 
 already know. The people of St. Louis have worked faith- 
 fully and well ; but the helping hand of New England made 
 the whole difference whether we could do the work which 
 providentially devolved upon us or not. At first, three years 
 ago, we were almost devoid of means and strength for any 
 work of loyalty ; and, at the time of our first modest appeal 
 to the women of New England, — may God bless them ! — 
 our infant Sanitary Commission had not a dollar in the 
 treasury, nor a garment in the storehouse. The necessities 
 of the sick and wounded daily increased. Their cry for 
 
12 
 
 help came to us night and day. We began to be in despair 
 at the magnitude of the task we had undertaken. Then, 
 unexpectedly, in answer to that humble request, from the 
 generous heart of New England there began to flow an 
 uninterrupted and continually increasing stream of bounty, 
 which filled our storehouses to overflowing. To our own 
 surprise, and that of the whole community, we were able 
 to meet every call for help, and to extend our labors over 
 the whole Western Department ; nor have we been under 
 the necessity, up to the present hour, of refusing any applica- 
 tion for the relief of suffering, in the hospital or camp, in 
 the army or navy, among our own troops or the prisoners 
 in our military prisons, whether the applicants were white 
 or black, bond or free. The half-million dollars sent to us 
 by New England has done an untold amount of good. It 
 has not only been one-third of our whole receipts, but, 
 coming promptly and almost unsolicited as it did, it stimu- 
 lated and made available all the rest. It was the seed sown 
 by the waters, on fruitful soil ; and we may reasonably say, 
 that every tiling that the Western Commission at St. Louis 
 has done is due to the cordial and timely helping of our 
 New-England friends. The largeness and importance of 
 that work you have yourselves the means of estimating; 
 but probably you will never know the amount of good to 
 the Union cause from the fact of the gifts coming direct 
 from New England to the West. It was a time when there 
 was a great deal of foolish talk about Yankee selfishness 
 and thrift, and demagogues prated about leaving New Eng- 
 land out in the cold, — as if they could ever be in the cold, 
 who carry the heat in their own bosoms ! — when this prac- 
 tical answer of brotherhood was given. Massachusetts 
 women replied to the reproach and threat by sending to 
 Missouri troops all the comforts and luxuries of the sick- 
 room. They sent stands of colors to Iowa regiments in 
 
13 
 
 Arkansas. They kept our storehouses full of the works 
 of their own hands, labelled all over with kind messages of 
 praise and love for the brave Western boys ; so that not a 
 single regiment of all the Western States failed to know 
 that New England was taking care of them as if they were 
 her own. As indeed they were ; for we are all members of 
 one body. But the directness of the sympathy did a world 
 of good, far more than if the same relief had proceeded 
 from a general fund. It was the " cords of love " binding 
 the East and the West together ; and no more effectual 
 agency of Union was ever employed. I am glad of this 
 opportunity of expressing to you the warmth of gratitude 
 everywhere felt among our Western troops. They have 
 fought better for it ; and you know they have fought well. 
 Let New England ever be in danger, and every Western 
 man will be a soldier in her defence ! God grant that you 
 may never know what it is to surfer as we have suffered in 
 Missouri ! You know nothing of the evils of civil war here 
 as we know them ; but you have given a " portion to seven, 
 and also to eight," let come whatever evils may upon the 
 earth. 
 
 The effects of the war upon Missouri have been especially 
 calamitous. We have suffered the usual fate of " debata- 
 ble ground," and have been devastated and laid waste by 
 both armies. Nor are these words used figuratively. 
 Many whole counties have been literally depopulated. On 
 some of the principal roads you may travel fifty miles, with- 
 out finding a farm with buildings or fences standing. A 
 large part of the country merchants, traders, and farmers 
 have been made bankrupt. The St. Louis merchants lost, 
 almost without qualification, every thing that was due to 
 them from the interior; while their whole Southern trade 
 was suddenly and entirely cut off. We have suffered just 
 as Boston did by the embargo previous to the war of 1812 ; 
 
14 
 
 and, for nearly three years, business was completely pros- 
 trated. It will take many years of quiet and prosperity to 
 regain, throughout the State, its former condition of social 
 wealth. Still more, a complete revolution has taken place, 
 not yet perfected, in the industrial interests of society ; in- 
 volving the necessity of the re-organization of the working 
 classes in all the relations between employer and employed. 
 I do not speak of this with regret, but, on the contrary, 
 with joy and thankfulness. Herein we shall find the great 
 and sufficient compensation for all present and past suffer- 
 ing, the abundant reward of loyalty, that Missouri is becom- 
 ing, and has already in principle become, a free State. 
 But you will readily see that a radical social change like 
 this, taking place suddenly, without the needful moral pre- 
 paration, in the midst of civil commotion and guerilla war, 
 involves change in every thing. Old things must pass 
 away ; all things must be made new : those are the right 
 words ; for it is, properly speaking, the regeneration of so- 
 ciety, — new modes of life; new ideas of well-being and 
 respectability ; new estimates of labor and the laboring 
 classes ; new principles of political economy ; new sources 
 of prosperity. 
 
 And what are the agencies by which such great changes 
 can be directed and controlled, so as to result in permanent 
 good ? They are but two, — Religion and Education. The 
 whole rising generation, of both sexes, must be educated 
 upon the new basis of freedom, and for the new state of 
 things which freedom is inaugurating. There must be a 
 new moral atmosphere, by breathing which in the churches, 
 the schools, the colleges, the young may be healthfully pre- 
 pared for the new responsibilities to be devolved upon them. 
 Such influences have already been at work energetically and 
 effectually, and have unquestionably been the means of 
 saving Missouri to the Union. Free pulpits, free schools, 
 
15 
 
 and the infusion of New-England blood, in natural alliance 
 with all unconditional Union men, especially in the city 
 of St. Louis, have been the leaven of salvation to the 
 whole State. But for these, Missouri would have been a 
 rebel State, beyond all power of prevention ; and it is now, 
 by the continued and increased efficiency of like causes, that 
 the social reconstruction must be perfected, if at all. And 
 is it not equally evident, that, under the circumstances in 
 which we are placed, with impaired strength, with divided 
 counsels, with partially reconciled interests, with the oppo- 
 sition of old but not inactive ideas, and with the necessity 
 of immediate results, the work must be done in part by 
 missionary and fraternal co-operation? If we could afford 
 to wait to do a gradual work for a gradually progressive 
 community, it would be different, and we should need no 
 help. That is what we were doing before the Rebellion 
 began ; but now, under greatly increased difficulties, we 
 must forestall opportunity, and do the work of ten years in 
 one year, so as to have the best educational agencies at 
 work instantly, and with full power, to establish the right 
 standard of thought and culture by which the destiny of 
 future generations will be determined. 
 
 The direct influence of the higher institutions of learning 
 upon the public mind and morals cannot be overestimated. 
 It is scarcely inferior to that of the public free schools them- 
 selves. The character of a community depends on that of 
 its leading men. Educate the leaders of society in just 
 principles of statesmanship, political economy, public and 
 private morals, and you are educating all. Carry refine- 
 ment, liberal culture, good taste, the love of learning, into 
 the families of the rich and influential, and you will soon 
 give tone and color to the masses. Let the upper classes 
 remain under false systems of instruction, and the multi- 
 tude must suffer the consequences. How sadly we have 
 
16 
 
 seen this illustrated at the present crisis in the Southern 
 States ! We are accustomed to say that the Rebellion is 
 the fruit of ignorance among the masses ; but quite as much 
 can it be referred to perverted education, and want of ele- 
 vated culture, among those to whom the masses looked for 
 guidance. The founders of a university are a power behind 
 legislation, and control it. They put the pilot on board the 
 ship, and save it. It is good to have educated followers : 
 we must have educated leaders. If the blind lead the blind, 
 both fall into the ditch. 
 
 In a note to Palfrey's " History of New England," I find 
 an assertion, made by Lord Cornwallis, that the founding of 
 Harvard College hastened American Independence by a 
 hundred years. We may add, that the record of its alumni 
 has become an important part of the history of the United 
 States. 
 
 With convictions such as these, and under the deepest 
 sense of responsibility, we have been acting for many years 
 past, and are now hastening our work by the necessity of 
 the case. We are beginning no new plan ; and are reluc- 
 tantly compelled to ask aid, which, under different circum- 
 stances, would have been unnecessary to complete the plans 
 begun. 
 
 In my first appeal, I asked your help to build a Christian 
 Church ; promising to make it equal to its best prototypes, 
 if we could. 
 
 We are now engaged in a more general work, to establish 
 on Western soil an American University, with the determi- 
 nation to improve upon our originals, if we can, by greater 
 breadth of foundation in the beginning, and by higher reach 
 of study in the course of time. 
 
 Let me recite to you our progress thus far, that you may 
 judge of what remains to be done. 
 
 Ten years ago, a St. Louis merchant, being a member of 
 
17 
 
 the Missouri State Legislature, happened to sec on the desk 
 of a colleague an educational charter which struck him as 
 particularly good. Without consultation with any one, he 
 selected seventeen names of personal friends, adopted the 
 charter, with a few modifications, under the name of Eliot 
 Seminary, and obtained its passage. It took us by surprise, 
 and, at first thought, caused some amusement, for none of 
 us had dreamed of such a thing; and an educational enter- 
 prise seemed quite beyond our strength. But, upon exami- 
 nation of the charter, it was found to be a document of 
 extraordinary merit, and capable of the grandest use.* Its 
 possession constituted a divine call; and, after talking it 
 over for a year, we determined to organize under it, and go 
 to work. Nine years of very hard work it has been, and not 
 altogether without result. 
 
 The puzzle at first was where to begin. The whole edu- 
 cational field was open before us, unoccupied except by the 
 public schools and a few indifferent private seminaries. 
 Whether to establish a boys' or a girls' school, an institution 
 for the industrial classes, or a scientific school, or a college, 
 was for some time held in doubt. At last, we found that 
 one would not interfere with another, but, on the contrary, 
 that, by uniting many interests, each would be promoted ; 
 and we determined to undertake them all. Our charter 
 authorized us to establish any thing we pleased, to hold an 
 unlimited amount of property free of all taxation, and to 
 direct our affairs according to our own judgment. We 
 determined not to let such privileges die for want of use. 
 It looked like rashness or over-ambition, but has proved to 
 be the highest prudence. 
 
 The first and obvious action was to change the name, so 
 as to avoid personal and sectarian interests ; and, by a pro- 
 
 * Appendix A. 
 3 
 
18 
 
 digious stride, Eliot Seminary grew at one step into Wash- 
 ington University, — a name suggested by the accident of 
 our charter being signed on the 22d of February, and by 
 our organization on the same day of the ensuing year. It 
 was also appropriate as indicating the unsectarian and unpo- 
 litical, but yet the American and Christian, basis on which 
 we had determined to build. 
 
 The general result of the nine-years' work, without trou- 
 bling you with details, is as follows : A practical or indus- 
 trial department, which we call the Polytechnic Institute. 
 It has a reading-room, and library of seven thousand volumes, 
 for mechanics and apprentices ; its evening schools and 
 scientific lectures, and all the various plans and arrange- 
 ments which can promote the improvement and education 
 of the industrial classes. 
 
 A female department, called " Mary Institute " (a name 
 suggestive of home virtues), with a hundred and twenty 
 scholars, in a convenient building erected for the purpose 
 and admirably located, and with a corps of teachers nowhere 
 to be excelled. It is an excellent school, a daily benedic- 
 tion to the community, but needing additional endowment 
 to secure its highest usefulness. It is under the University 
 charter and control, but has no immediate educational con- 
 nection with the University proper, except in the partial 
 privilege of its lectures, and in the important services of its 
 professors whenever required. 
 
 An Academic or Preparatory Department ; called Acade- 
 mic, because, at the time when established, we did not know 
 whether a college would ever follow. It corresponds with 
 the Boston Latin School or Exeter Academy ; and we are 
 striving to make it as good, in all the work of preparatory 
 education. It includes a " commercial " class, in which the 
 classical languages are not studied. 
 
 The Scientific and Collegiate Departments are established 
 
19 
 
 with a curriculum of study not materially different from 
 that of Cambridge, but with the addition of the modern 
 languages ; and we hope soon to add two years of a post- 
 graduate or properly university course. In the Preparatory 
 and College Departments, there are now not quite two hun- 
 dred students. The standard of study is as high, and the 
 system of instruction as thorough, as anywhere in the United 
 States ; and our professors are men who stand upon equal 
 ground with those in the older colleges. There is room for 
 indefinite improvement and enlargement ; but it is some- 
 thing to have a right theory of action, and a true ideal. 
 
 You will observe that our Western University has three 
 leading and characteristic peculiarities. First, It is entirely, 
 and, so far as human arrangement can secure it, perma- 
 nently, free from sectarian and political control. 
 
 Secondly, It extends to womanhood the same educational 
 advantages, so far as practicable, as are acknowledged to be 
 requisite to make manhood strong. 
 
 Thirdly, It plants itself upon the broad foundation of 
 practical and social life, with belief that the interchangeable 
 relations thus established between men of the highest cul- 
 ture and men of practical skill, between the thinking head 
 and the working hand, will do them both good.* 
 
 To these I may add, that we dispense with the " dormi- 
 tory " system usual in colleges, and thereby avoid a large 
 part of the annoyances and demoralizing influences of college 
 life. 
 
 Do not, however, be deceived by words. A university 
 upon paper may be a very small affair in fact ; and so, in 
 some respects, it is, and for a long time will be, with us, 
 in comparison with the old institutions. We have, for exam- 
 ple, as yet no College Library, and are compelled to send our 
 
 * Appendix B. 
 
20 
 
 students to the Mercantile Library, at a distance of three- 
 quarters of a mile. We have almost no philosophical 
 apparatus ; although we have an excellent chemical labora- 
 tory well furnished, and an educational observatory, with a 
 good telescope and other needful instruments. Our profes- 
 sors are learned and accomplished men : but we have not more 
 than half enough of them ; and those whom we have are 
 overworked, and, I am sorry to say, underpaid. We are also 
 obliged to depend partly upon gratuitous labor, which in 
 such cases is never the best ; and, for several years past, I 
 have myself occupied the chair of Intellectual and Moral 
 Philosophy and cognate studies, — a laborious duty, from 
 which I am most anxious to be relieved. Worst of all, the 
 college classes are small, and must be so for many years to 
 come. Perhaps an average of ten graduates is all we should 
 promise ourselves for some years ; for we have adopted a 
 rule to give degrees to no one, except on examination, 
 which causes a great many _to drop off midway in their 
 career. Our hope of success is not in quantity, but quality. 
 There are enough second-rate colleges, which ought to be 
 called academies or high-schools, already ; and we do not 
 mean to make one more. To establish a proper standard of 
 classical and scientific culture is our great aim, in part 
 already attained ; and we would rather graduate one good 
 scholar annually than a hundred poor ones. It would also 
 be a greater work ; for the hundred are soon lost in the 
 crowd, the one is the teacher and renovator of society. 
 
 With all these admissions of weakness, we are now edu- 
 cating three hundred pupils ; nearly all of them those who 
 will occupy the prominent places in the community. Fifty 
 of the whole number are educated without pecuniary re- 
 turns. The scholars in the Polytechnic Evening Schools, 
 at one time numbering four hundred, are all taught gratui- 
 tously. Our aim is to give the best education at the lowest 
 
21 
 
 possible price, and thus to obtain a controlling and elevating 
 influence upon the educational interests of the West. 
 
 The financial condition of the University, in its various 
 departments, is reasonably good, and affords a basis for suc- 
 cessful action in the future. 
 
 The College buildings and laboratory, with the ground on 
 which they stand, cost us seventy-nine thousand dollars. 
 They arc adequate to the proper care of three hundred 
 pupils. 
 
 The Female Seminary cost, for building and lot, fifty 
 thousand dollars, and is now worth more. 
 
 We have unimproved land in the city limits, worth, at 
 present valuation, eighty-five thousand dollars. It has been 
 given to us from time to time, and will eventually be of 
 considerable value. 
 
 There is also a small endowment-fund of seventy-five 
 thousand dollars, yielding six thousand per annum. 
 
 The Polytechnic Institute, though an important and vital 
 part of the whole enterprise, has never been permitted to 
 embarrass the rest, and is now in secure condition. The 
 edifice in progress of erection is in the central part of the 
 city ; built of stone, a hundred and five by a hundred and 
 twenty-seven feet on the ground, and five stories high, with a 
 basement for machinery and steam-power. Ample funds are 
 already provided for its completion, which will require ten 
 or twelve months : and the total outlay will not fall short of 
 one hundred and sixty thousand dollars ; a large sum, but 
 we wish to make it a representative building of the conjoined 
 industrial and educational interests. It is also constructed 
 to yield a revenue, from stores and lecture-rooms, probably 
 of four or five per cent on the whole investment ; which 
 will partially sustain the Institute in its legitimate opera- 
 tions. 
 
 The nine years in which this progress has been made 
 
22 
 
 have been, for the great part, years of difficulty and 
 embarrassment. The first two years, 1855 and 1856, were 
 prosperous; but 1857 was a year of financial crisis in St. 
 Louis, and only by the utmost exertion did we stem the 
 adverse tide. Things were beginning to look better in 1858 
 and 1859, when the muttering thunder of Rebellion, at first 
 mistaken for the noise of a popular tumult, began to be 
 heard. The "real conflict in St. Louis commenced a full 
 year before you felt it in New England, or believed that it 
 would come. Social animosities became very bitter, and all 
 public enterprises felt the malign influence. Then followed 
 the three years of Rebellion and civil war, shaking our 
 State and city to their foundations, and threatening the 
 ruin of all. 
 
 Such are not the nine years which one would have chosen 
 for philanthropic schemes ; and failure in them would have 
 been no disgrace. That we have not failed, but regularly 
 advanced, is due to the great exertions and personal sacri- 
 fices of a few men. Obstacles have been converted into 
 helps, difficulties into encouragements, by the redoubled 
 energy which they have called forth. 
 
 In the year preceding the war, the climax of difficulty was 
 reached. It seemed as if our hold on the community was 
 failing, and a strong partisan opposition was growing up 
 against every thing which had a New-England stamp. For 
 a time, I almost questioned whether we could ride out the 
 storm ; but the Directors held a meeting, looked the whole 
 thing in the face, and authorized the President to raise an 
 endowment of a hundred thousand dollars, and twenty-five 
 thousand to complete the College Building. In two months' 
 time, by great exertion and self-sacrifice, this was done ; 
 a part of the endowment, however, being in real estate. 
 The effort secured our continued existence ; and, with 
 greatly reduced numbers, we were enabled to go on. 
 
23 
 
 I think we were nearer death then than we shall ever again 
 be. 
 
 In the present year, two months ago, the Polytechnic 
 Institute had come to a stand. The building was one-third 
 finished, and had been standing still for two or more years. 
 Meanwhile prices of material and labor had advanced, and 
 the estimates had to be nearly doubled. It looked like a 
 defeated plan ; and a severe blow would thus have been 
 given to our whole Institution. An informal meeting was 
 therefore held on the 11th of last March, the result of which 
 has been that seventy thousand dollars have been sub- 
 scribed and secured to be paid in progress of the building, 
 and on demand ; making that department of our Institution 
 virtually an accomplished fact. It is by having succeeded 
 in this that we have now felt encouraged to undertake the 
 completion of the whole work. 
 
 The total amount contributed thus far in the establish- 
 ment and support of Washington University, as shown by 
 our books, is four hundred and seventy-eight thousand dol- 
 lars. Of this, seventy-five thousand dollars, endowment- 
 fund, is yielding a revenue. The unimproved real estate 
 cannot be productive for a great many years to come. A 
 large amount has been used for the buildings, and lots on 
 which they stand ; but nothing has been done extravagantly. 
 There must be such a basis for every institution. It is the 
 foundation, without which growth is impossible. I am able 
 to say that not a dollar has been squandered or lost ; and 
 our property in actual possession is now worth the total 
 sum above expressed, free from all encumbrance or debt. 
 
 Four-fifths of all received has come from my own congre- 
 gation ; being, for seven years, an annual average of fifty 
 thousand dollars, — a good educational return from the 
 seed sown thirty years ago. Nor need this large proportion 
 surprise you. Our Institution is strictly unsectarian, and 
 
24 
 
 is so organized that it cannot be converted into sectarian 
 uses. This is universally recognized by those who send the 
 scholars. But, in any community, the number who will take 
 hold of unsectarian work is small ; and, in this instance, 
 the fact of our having begun the enterprise naturally leaves 
 the burden of it upon us. I commend it to you, however, 
 on no other basis. In all its parts, in all its principles, 
 in all its development, it is and will be unsectarian. Do 
 not give a dollar to it on any other expectation. So far as 
 sound learning, liberal culture, impartial study, and the 
 intercourse with men who can impart these, may contribute 
 to build np our ideas of Christian truth, and no further, 
 have we as a Church any tiling to gain ; but, while this is 
 true, it is none the less true, that the labor must chiefly 
 devolve upon those who began it. Men of large mind and 
 unsectarian thought in all the churches are working with 
 us ; but we must principally depend upon ourselves. 
 
 And again : the whole number in any community who are 
 willing to give liberally to such enterprises is small. Even 
 in Boston, it is not very great ; but in a new community like 
 St. Louis, where the first necessity is to create a demand for 
 advanced education, the number of donors will be propor- 
 tionally less. Accordingly, I find that eleven individuals 
 have given three hundred thousand dollars. Of these, only 
 two or three are what would here be called rich men. 
 Several of them have given from fifteen to thirty per cent 
 of all they are worth ; and one at least has given sixty per 
 cent, and has recently expressed his willingness to give one- 
 half of the remainder, if the work requires it. It is this 
 earnest resolution of a few men, and not the numbers or 
 the wealth of the donors, to which our progress thus far is 
 due. 
 
 Most earnestly do I invite your co-operation with us. It 
 would not require many donors, even on a smaller scale of 
 
25 
 
 munificence, to place us in a position of impregnable 
 strength ; and let me assure you that the enterprise is 
 almost as impersonal to us as it would be to you. Our 
 University motto is, Non nobis solum (" Not for ourselves 
 alone ") ; and our motive has been, as purely as yours would 
 be, the desire of doing good. The names of donors, with 
 amounts given, have never been made public in St. Louis, 
 and are known to very few. The list has never been read 
 or presented at any meeting of the Directors themselves, 
 and is not at all accurately known to any of them, 
 except the Treasurer and myself. The gentleman who 
 gave the lot on which the Polytechnic Institute stands 
 bought it for thirty-seven thousand dollars, and had it con- 
 veyed directly to the University ; so that his name does not 
 appear at all. Pardon me for alluding to such things. I 
 know that it is a violation of good taste ; but I am speaking 
 to friends. My object is to interest you in a great work 
 which we are finding beyond our unaided strength ; and I 
 know of no way to succeed but by telling the truth exactly 
 as it is. 
 
 My appealing to you at all is solely at my own suggestion, 
 not by the advice of friends at home. At first, they op- 
 posed it ; for we have felt pride in doing the whole work 
 ourselves. But when the absolute necessity came of rais- 
 ing additional means, not only for employing new professors, 
 but to keep those we have, — money depreciating in value, 
 and the rate of interest declining more and more, — it 
 seemed to me unreasonable and unwise to ask another two 
 hundred thousand dollars from the same men who have 
 already done so much. 
 
 And yet let me frankly say, that what we shall do 
 will be increased, not diminished, by whatever assistance we 
 receive. If I could obtain here the full amount just named 
 for endowment, I pledge myself to gain among ourselves an 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 equal additional amount in course of the next two years, 
 so as to accomplish the whole work in the most thorough 
 manner. The encouragement thus given would double our 
 own zeal. If I fail here, I return with great discourage- 
 ment. Our progress will be slow and labored ; but, never- 
 theless, we shall not abandon the enterprise. 
 
 The cost of advanced education, which is the character- 
 istic work of a university, is far greater than commonly 
 supposed. The endowment of Columbia College, New 
 York, is one million six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 
 That of Harvard is only a little less, independently of its 
 college property ; and its annual income is one hundred 
 and fifty thousand dollars, which is not enough. Under 
 the most favorable circumstances, we shall have to continue 
 our average rate of giving, ourselves, for many years to 
 come, and still look for the gradual accretions which time 
 will bring. 
 
 I know how incessant are the demands. It seems as if 
 there were no end of them. " That of an hour's age doth 
 hiss the speaker ; each minute teems a new one." It is so 
 here, and it is so with us. This spring, the citizens of St. 
 Louis will have raised among themselves, in three months, 
 nearly two hundred thousand dollars for sanitary uses, 
 independently of all other demands. We are living at an 
 extraordinary epoch, which justifies and requires extraordi- 
 nary action. No sacrifice can be too great, no generosity 
 too large, for the exigencies of the time. A new day is 
 dawning upon us, after how dark a night ! new and glorious 
 hopes, after how great despondency ! It is the hope of a 
 true national existence. It is the day-dawning of a real 
 Republic, in which slavery and secession, the twin treasons, 
 will be equally impossible. If we were required to give up 
 every thing in a reconstruction like this, the purchase would 
 be cheap. Are not our sons and brothers giving their lives 
 

 27 
 
 for it? At such a crisis, it is competent for us to ask, " In 
 what direction and for what special uses shall we consecrate 
 property and life so as to serve our country best?" but not, 
 "How shall we best keep them for ourselves?" " Neither 
 said any of them that aught of the things he possessed was 
 his own," might well be our rule. 
 
 Cast your mind backward to three years ago, and see what 
 you would have given to feel as we all feel now. It is a 
 glorious thing that we have a Missouri to work for ! She 
 was nearly -gone, snatched like a brand from the burning, 
 an empire in herself. 
 
 " Strengthen the things that remain." That was the text 
 of a sermon preached in Roxbury three years since. A 
 good earnest, strong-hearted sermon it was ; but to prove 
 wiiat? That, if the country should break to pieces, New 
 England would still be a great nation, with life in itself; 
 and so it would, and I thank God for that. But how much 
 better is it, infinitely better, to be an integral part, living 
 members of this great Republic, the United States of 
 America ! Such is our hope now. For this we are work- 
 ing, all for each, and each for all ; " and whether one 
 member suffer, all the members suffer with it ; and one 
 member be honored, all the members rejoice with it." It 
 is no time to count the cost. We must simply do all we 
 can ; and, as our day is, so shall our strength be. 
 
 But we must work while it is day, or the night may come 
 in which we cannot work. It is no time for waiting, for 
 hesitation. No good cause should be left to languish. If 
 so left, in times like these, the best enterprise will quickly 
 die ; or we ourselves may die, and unfinished work dies with 
 the worker. Almost finished, almost persuaded, almost 
 saved ! We must change the almost to quite, and give no 
 rest to our souls until the work is done. 
 
 The enterprise in which we ask aid is not merely of local 
 
28 
 
 interest : if it had been, I should not have come here now. 
 The Mississippi Valley is the central region of the Union ; 
 and Missouri is the centre of it. Whatever tends to the 
 moral elevation of that great district is for the general good. 
 It is rapidly gaining the strength which is so excellent for 
 the giant to possess ; and, we trust, will never be disposed to 
 use it like a giant. But means must be employed, if we 
 would secure the end. In the time of war, we must prepare 
 for peace. No more important work can present itself to 
 the Christian patriot, and no time should be lost in doing 
 it. Surely there must be those, even before the strife and 
 conflict cease, who will regard these ultimate interests 
 wisely. Unless they are secured, the whole object of the 
 war itself will be lost. A true social reconstruction of 
 seciety is what we need, and religion and education must be 
 the agencies employed in its accomplishment. 
 
 For more than forty years, Missouri has been the battle- 
 ground of Slavery and Freedom. It was there that the 
 first fatal compromise was made, and afterwards its equally 
 fatal repeal. By its convention, the first ordinance of 
 emancipation was passed ; which, with all its imperfections, 
 was the death of slavery, and made the soil free, — the first 
 instance in all history of a people divesting themselves of the 
 slave-power, which everywhere else has required emperors 
 or parliaments or presidential proclamations for its over- 
 throw. 
 
 Does not Missouri deserve well of the whole country ? 
 and is it so utterly unreasonable in us, who have striven to 
 hold her, and are striving to prepare her and the region 
 about for the rightful use of the influence they are destined 
 to exert, — is it untimely for us to ask your aid ? It may 
 seem like a large amount, two hundred thousand dollars, 
 for increased endowment. But less will not do ; and some- 
 how or other, and somewhere, I must find it. 
 
29 
 
 Do not measure our work by its present insignificance. 
 " The house that is building is not like the house that is 
 built." The seed sown is good, in good soil, with good and 
 improving atmosphere, by the side of the Father of Waters ; 
 and the cultivators to whom its care is intrusted are faith- 
 ful. With continued cultivation and enlarged means of 
 culture, it will grow to become a great tree ; and its fruit 
 shall contribute to the healing of the nation. 
 
31 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ORIGINAL CHARTER. 
 
 An Act to incorporate the Eliot Seminary. 
 
 Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri as 
 follows : — 
 
 Sect. 1. — James Smith, John How, Hudson E. Bridge, Wayman Crow 
 (with thirteen others), and their associates and successors, are hereby 
 constituted a body corporate and politic, by the name of " The Eliot Semi- 
 nary ; " and by that name shall have perpetual succession, and be capable of 
 taking and holding, by gift, grant, devise, or otherwise, and of conveying, 
 leasing, or otherwise disposing of, any estate, real, personal, or mixed, annui- 
 ties, endowments, franchise, and other hereditaments, which may conduce to 
 the support of said Seminary, or to the promotion of its objects. All property 
 of said Corporation shall be exempt from taxation ; and the sixth, seventh, and 
 eighteenth sections of the first article of the act concerning corporations, ap- 
 proved March 19, 1845, shall not apply to this Corporation. 
 
 Sect. 2. — The management of the affairs of this Corporation shall be 
 vested in a Board of seventeen Directors. The persons herein named shall 
 constitute the first Board of Directors. Vacancies occurring in the Board by 
 resignation, death, or otherwise, shall be filled by the Board. 
 
 Sect. 3. — The Board of Directors may prescribe the course of instruction 
 in said Seminary, and organize the Institution under such regulations, and 
 provide in such way, as they may deem proper for the appointment of its pro- 
 fessors, teachers, and other officers ; and may make such by-laws and rules as 
 they may deem necessary for the management of the Institution. 
 
 Sect. 4. — This act shall take effect upon its passage. 
 
 Approved Feb. 22, 1854. 
 
 The present Board of Directors is composed of the following 
 persons : John How, Wayman Crow, John M. Krum, John 
 O'Fallon, James Smith, Seth A. Ranlett, Charles A. Pope, Tho- 
 mas T. Gantt, George Partridge, James II. Lucas, Hudson E. 
 
32 
 
 Bridge, Henry Hitchcock, James E. Yeatman, Samuel Treat ; and 
 William Gr. Eliot, President. Vacancies, as they occur, are filled 
 without reference to any thing except willingness and ability to 
 work. 
 
 AMENDMENT OF CHARTER. 
 
 Upon application of the Directors, the following amendment to 
 the charter was obtained, in 1857 : — 
 
 An Act to amend an Act entitled "An Act to incorporate the Eliot Seminary." 
 
 Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 Sect. 1. — The name of the Corporation now known as the "Eliot Semi- 
 nary " shall henceforth be " Washington University ; " by which name the 
 said Corporation shall have, hold, and enjoy all the property, rights, franchise 
 and endowments, immunities and privileges, conferred upon and belonging to 
 the " Eliot Seminary." 
 
 Sect. 2. — No instruction either sectarian in religion, or party in politics, 
 shall be allowed in any department of said University ; and no sectarian or 
 party test shall be allowed in the election of professors, teachers, or other 
 officers of said University, or in the admission of scholars thereto, or for any 
 purpose whatever. 
 
 Sect. 3. — It shall be the duty of the Board of Directors of said Univer- 
 sity, upon being informed of any violation of the second section of this act, 
 forthwith to institute an inquiry into the charge or charges that may be pre- 
 ferred, in respect thereof, by any credible person, in writing, against any 
 officer of said University ; and, if it shall appear that any officer of said Uni- 
 versity has violated the said second section of this act, the Board of Directors 
 shall forthwith remove such person so offending from any office which he 
 may then fill in any department of said University; and such person so 
 removed shall be for ever thereafter ineligible to any office in said Univer- 
 sity. 
 
 Sect. 4. — In case the Board of Directors, upon being notified in writing, 
 by any credible person, of a violation of the second section of this act, shall 
 refuse or neglect to investigate the charge hereupon preferred against any 
 officer of said University, it shall be competent for the St. Louis Circuit Court 
 or the St. Louis Court of Common Pleas to compel the Board of Directors, 
 by mandamus, to perform their duty in investigating such charge, and to show 
 their performance of such duty to the satisfaction of the Court having cogni- 
 zance of the matter ; and all proceedings under this section shall be summary, 
 and conducted to a conclusion with as little delay as possible ; and the power 
 hereby given to said Courts may be exercised by the Judge of either of said 
 tribunals in vacation. 
 
33 
 
 EXTRACT FROM CATALOGUE OF 1858. 
 
 The present members of the Corporation have no sectarian 
 purpose to serve. They earnestly desire that the University 
 .should attain a high moral and religious character as a Christian 
 Institution in a Christian republic ; but they equally desire that 
 the narrow principles of sectarianism and party-spirit may never 
 be allowed to enter. They have undertaken to establish, upon a 
 broad American foundation, an Institution of learning, practical 
 science, and art; and, under the blessing of God, nothing shall 
 divert them from their purpose. 
 
 On the 22d of April, 1857, the formal inauguration of Wash- 
 ington University took place, by appropriate exercises, at Acade- 
 mic Hall, and by an oration delivered by Hon. Edward Everett in 
 the Mercantile-Library Hall. The Scientific Department was 
 organized at that time. The Collegiate Department was organ- 
 ized in 1859 ; and the first senior class was graduated in June, 
 1862. 
 
 The amount of funds needed for the establishment and proper 
 endowment of a university is far greater than would be at first 
 supposed. To secure the best talent, competent salaries must be 
 paid ; and the best facilities of education, in apparatus, library, 
 buildings, &c, must also be supplied. At the same time, the 
 rates of tuition must be kept down, so as to open the institution to 
 as large a number as possible, and free scholarships endowed for 
 the benefit of deserving pupils who are in indigent circumstances. 
 For these purposes, a half-million of dollars could be immediately 
 and advantageously used, without extravagance ; and the attention 
 of liberal and wealthy men is earnestly called to the subject. The 
 time has come for the West to found its own institutions, to edu- 
 cate its own children. St. Louis is to be the metropolitan city of 
 the West ; and there is no good reason why there should not be 
 established here a University of the highest class, with advantages 
 of education equal to those offered in the best institutions of Ame- 
 rica or Europe. Time is requisite, undoubtedly : but, with 
 sufficient funds, the usual work of many years may be accom- 
 plished in one ; and those who begin the work may have the 
 satisfaction of seeing it accomplished. With this hope, and to 
 
34 
 
 show the principles on which specific endowments are invited, the 
 fifth, sixth, and seventh articles of the Constitution are here in- 
 serted : — 
 
 Art. 5. — Endowment of Professorships. — Any person may endow, in whole 
 or in part, a specified professorship in the said University ; and if, in the opinion 
 of the Board of Directors, said endowment shall be sufficient for the perpetual 
 support of said professorship, said professorship shall bear the name of its 
 founder for ever, unless, at the time of the endowment, he shall otherwise 
 direct. 
 
 Art. 6. — Endowment of Departments. — Any person may found, by an 
 adequate endowment, a specific department in said University, provided the 
 plan of its organization and its purposes are approved by the Board of Direct- 
 ors ; and if said endowment shall, in the opinion of said Board, be sufficient 
 for the perpetual support of said department, it shall bear the name of the 
 founder thereof for ever, unless he shall otherwise direct at the time of endow- 
 ing the same. 
 
 Art. 7. — Specific Funds. — All funds and property, of whatsoever nature 
 or description, contributed to the endowment or founding of a professorship 
 or department, shall for ever be faithfully applied to the specific purpose for 
 which contributed, and to no other object whatsoever, without the written 
 consent of the donor or founder thereof, or of his heirs or assigns, and also 
 the written consent of two-thirds of the Directors first had and obtained ; 
 provided, however, that said funds and property in this article named shall 
 never be diverted from the purposes of said University. 
 
 B. 
 
 In further illustration of these views, an extract from the 
 " Appeal of the Polytechnic Institute to the Public " is here ap- 
 pended : — 
 
 " It seems to us that the time has come when a broader and more liberal 
 view of the educational wants of our age and country should be taken ; when 
 mechanics, manufacturers, merchants, miners, farmers, boatmen, in a word, 
 when all who are in anywise associated with material and industrial pursuits, 
 should insist upon having for themselves all the facilities necessary to a tho- 
 rough training at least in those natural sciences and kindred studies, on the 
 full knowledge and right application of which the success of their daily enter- 
 prise so largely depends. Every person in the workshops of our city is 
 constantly using, in his department of labor, some mathematical, philosophi- 
 cal, or scientific principle, the mastery of which would save him from much 
 useless experimenting, and from the loss both of time and valuable materials. 
 
35 
 
 if we could estimate, with mathematical precision, the value of the raw mate- 
 ria] and labor 08eleB8ly expended each day, the loss of which would have been 
 avoided had the workman possessed a fair knowledge of the scientific and 
 philosophical principles involved, it would be found that at least one-third of 
 the whole is actually wasted. Yet many workmen possess a large fund 
 of knowledge, acquired by toilsome and expensive experiments in the work- 
 shops, particularly with reference to the special processes of their respective 
 arts, which remain unknown to the scientific world; and in the daily labor of 
 their employees, or of those under their management, they arc among the 
 best, and, in most cases, the only teachers large numbers of their fellow- 
 workmen ever have. In the libraries and laboratories and universities of the 
 country, on the other hand, are garnered up untold treasures of facts and 
 principles, which, if drawn out of their comparatively hidden recesses, and 
 diffused through the workshops and along the busy avenues of trade, made 
 to come into constant and immediate contact with operative industry, would 
 give an unimagined impulse to all the useful arts, and rapidly advance the 
 nation in its material, intellectual, and moral power and prosperity. It is no 
 new complaint, that science, in the hands of its devotees, rests too much in 
 the region of abstract truth and speculation, instead of being closely wedded 
 to productive industry ; that whilst the latter is daily testing the accuracy of 
 the former, and applying its'truths to practical ends, it has not hitherto been 
 deemed sufficiently important that those to whom the application is intrusted 
 should be perfectly trained therefor by a fitting study of the natural laws and 
 physical agencies and mechanical principles with which they are constantly 
 dealing. And it is equally to be regretted that the devotee of science, in 
 exploring the secrets of the universe, does not deem it necessary to descend 
 from the abstract investigations to superintend or even observe the daily 
 workings of his scientific discoveries in the various departments of physical 
 labor. To no inconsiderable extent, this has been owing to the false and 
 imperfect views of a liberal education which have obtained in the learned 
 world, and especially in the higher educational institutions, — our colleges and 
 universities. Most of the latter were founded on the partially obsolete models 
 of Cambridge and Oxford in England, and the merely classical and scholastic 
 colleges on the European continent. Whilst polytechnic and mining and 
 agricultural schools have sprung up in England, France, and Germany, to 
 meet the wants of our utilitarian age, but little has been done in this country 
 to meet the still larger and more pressing want here. Our free-school system 
 has given us many advantages, the fruits of which are to be seen, not only in 
 the Patent Office, but wherever labor-saving machinery is employed. Still 
 only a small step has been taken in the right direction. Education does not 
 stop with the schoolroom. Essential as are school discipline and training, it 
 is obvious that by far the largest portion of useful knowledge distributed 
 through society was acquired after the school-days had terminated. Hence 
 the need that school education should receive a practical direction, and be 
 largely extended, and that the fruits of his mature experience should not 
 he confined to the individual possessor. Highly educated labor is needed 
 alike on the farms of our country, in its mines, along its avenues of trade, in 
 
36 
 
 its workshops, at the counter, and in the public marts. In modern society, 
 the mechanics, manufacturers, farmers, merchants, miners, — those who move 
 the wheels of national industry, and give to individual and associated enter- 
 prise its warmth and healthy activity, — ought to be the educated classes ; 
 learned not so much, it may be, in mere scholastic or literary studies, as in 
 all that pertains scientifically and practically to their respective departments 
 of industry. It is true, this requires an extended range of thought and study, 
 for all of the sciences are near of kin to each other ; but who should be so 
 familiar with the laws of matter as he whose daily task it is to handle and adapt 
 it, in all its varied and changing forms, to answer the never-ceasing wants of 
 the age 1 We do not decry or underrate classical or literary acquirements, or 
 any branch of learning ; nor do we deny to the so-called learned professions 
 their just claims : we merely assert for the workshops and industrial pursuits 
 their right to a corresponding degree of intellectual culture, appropriately 
 directed to their departments or calling in life. 
 
 " A moment's reflection upon the present and prospective condition of St. 
 Louis Avill justify our views. Situated in the midst of the great Mississippi 
 Valley, the richest agricultural and mineral region on the globe ; with naviga- 
 ble rivers extending in every direction, and bearing even now a commerce 
 far larger than the whole foreign trade of the Union ; with railroads com- 
 menced, tending to and stretching from her, wherever her multiplying 
 necessities demand ; with the richest deposits of coal, iron, lead, and copper 
 almost at her very doors, — who can state in too extravagant terms her future 
 destiny in commerce and manufactures, if her citizens are true to themselves ? 
 If, then, her material advantages are so vast, and promise so brilliant a future ; 
 if she is to become, as is hoped, the principal workshop of this great Valley, — 
 is it not obvious that we have no time to lose in fitting for their task those 
 upon whose knowledge, energy, and skill her greatness and prosperity are to 
 depend 1 
 
 " It is but recently that our practical miners learned, that, through a lack 
 of a little scientific knowledge, they had been laboring for years to destroy, 
 as useless, a large portion of the most valuable products of their mining 
 operations. So, in our workshops, men often toil for months, and it may be 
 years, in random experiments to detect some better or less expensive mode 
 of manufacturing a desired fabric, when the knowledge of a few simple truths 
 in mechanics or chemistry would have taught them that all of their misdi- 
 rected efforts must end in disappointment, whilst an easy or cheap remedy or 
 agent was waiting at their hands ready for use. If the coming generations of 
 St. Louis mechanics and manufacturers, and business-men in all pursuits, are 
 thoroughly educated for their respective callings, our city will add to its 
 material such superior educational advantages as will enable her far to out- 
 strip her many rivals. If all workmen, from the proprietor and foreman to the 
 youngest apprentice, combined with his manual skill and dexterity a thorough 
 knowledge of the mechanical laws, and of the properties, both mechanical 
 and chemical, of the various substances on which he works ; knew how 
 to avail himself, to the greatest advantage, of every principle, property, and 
 agency in Nature ; in short, if science and art should unite and work together, 
 
37 
 
 and through the same person, — who could place a limit to the progress of 
 either, to their expansion and growth, under such never-ceasing action and 
 re-action on each other 1 And what as yet animagined and wonderful disco- 
 veries in science, and productions of inventive genius, mighl not flow there- 
 from ! The boundary-line between the discovered and undiscovered is at OUT 
 feet always ; and one Stride, properly taken, may pass ns safely over. And 
 who would he BO likely to take that stride as he whose mind is thoroughly 
 trained in all departments of scientific inquiry, and whose manual skill has 
 been acquired by a life-long employment among those very substances and 
 agencies out of which the unknown and hidden truth is to be dragged to 
 light ! 
 
 " The amount of knowledge already in our workshops was obtained gene- 
 rally after long, tedious, and expensive experimenting, and is too often 
 imparted to workmen by a like slow process. Hence the importance of a 
 frequent interchange of information among the workmen themselves, as well 
 as between the workmen and the learned in science. Ample facilities for such 
 an interchange of thought ought to exist in every city ; and it is one of the 
 principal objects of the Institute to furnish them to St. Louis. It is thus 
 each can become both a teacher and a pupil, alternately imparting and receiv- 
 ing the most useful hints and practical information. Their ability thus to 
 teach, and their need to be thus instructed, none know better than themselves. 
 The process is going on daily in every establishment where several men are 
 employed. The sum of sound knowledge distributed through the workshops 
 has never been properly appreciated, and never will be until the workmen 
 meet, and interchange views with each other. Each has much to teach, and 
 much to learn ; and the same may be said of every other useful citizen. By 
 freely associating with each other in a common library, and reading and con- 
 versation room, and occasionally listening to an able lecture on some one of 
 the sciences or useful arts ; by having at their command the best treatises on 
 the subject they wish to consider, and ample means of testing the accuracy 
 and utility of their observations; by comparing the results of their experience 
 and experiments ; by an examination of the best models, and the use of pro- 
 per philosophical apparatus in pushing their investigation, — they will not only 
 stimulate research among themselves, but give to each the benefit of the 
 combined researches of all ; and hereafter it may be thought proper to secure 
 for the Institute, in furtherance of its general design, the services of some one 
 thoroughly qualified therefor, whose duty it shall be to answer the inquiries 
 that may come from the workshops of the city, to explain the principles 
 involved, test the quality of materials used, analyze them when required, and 
 subject to scientific examination and experiment every new and doubtful pro- 
 cess in art. 
 
 " The field of action proposed by the Institute has been but slightly 
 explored. It is the field of American industry, left hitherto, for the most part, 
 without the aid which science should furnish, or that associated effort could 
 give. The so-called learned professions have not only whole libraries written 
 upon their respective pursuits, or departments of thought and research, but 
 frequent gatherings, at which each contributes to the common stock the fruits 
 
38 
 
 of his severe "studies, observations, and experience. Thus they have con- 
 tinued to advance with rapid strides, placing under contribution all the intel- 
 lectual powers of each member of the profession; laying hold of, and 
 appropriating to their own use, all the treasures of science, philosophy, letters, 
 and art. A similar mode of progress should be adopted by those engaged in 
 industrial pursuits. In addition to the many books written already upon the 
 useful arts, there are numberless unwritten volumes scattered through the work- 
 shops, as yet unknown to bookwrights, and unrevealed to the poular lecturer. 
 Those scattered treasures of knowledge can be discovered, accumulated, and 
 made to yield a large product daily, to answer often, in the various workshops 
 and manufactories of the city, all the purposes of the best labor-saving inven- 
 tions of the age. 
 
 "But enough has been said to unfold the main and leading design of the 
 Institute. It addresses itself to every citizen in the community, but with 
 especial force to those who are actively engaged, either as capitalists or work- 
 men, as employers or employed, in the industrial arts of St. Louis. Every 
 such person should become a member, and contribute by his energy, zeal, 
 information, and experience, to push forward the enterprise with vigor, to 
 enable it as soon as possible to attain the proportions and accomplish the pur- 
 poses contemplated by its organization. Its success thus far has been great, 
 although public attention has scarcely been directed to it. With proper 
 co-operation on the part of those who are seldom found to hesitate when a 
 good work is to be done, the Institute cannot fail, in the course of a few years, 
 to become all that its patrons fondly expect of it."