[presidents] Davis Inauguration Speech Transcript: Pages 31

Henry Davis's Inauguration Speech: Transcript

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With industry and enterprise, unexampled in the history of mankind, the desert was soon made to blossom like the rose; and the high places of the wilderness became the seats of the sanctuary of the living God. Wonderful people! Our fathers have told us your praises: we will tell them to our children: they shall tell them to theirs: and millions yet unborn shall rise up and call you blessed. Guided by their instructions and example, their descendants wisely pursued te same measures; and the God, whom they worshipped, smiled upon their labours.

Little more than two centuries since, the country which we inhabit, was one vast, dreary wilderness. The wild beast roared through the desert; and the heavens resounded with the shouts and orgies of men, not less savage than the beasts.

No building was erected for the instruction of youth: no church lifted its spire, in honour of the Friend of sinners: no messenger of life proclaimed, to perishing immortals, the glad news of salvation: and not one prayer, in the name of the Saviour, was offered to the God, who heareth prayer.

Here, peace and civilization, now diffuse their blessings on every side. Schools every where present themselves, for the education of our children. More than twenty colleges greet the eye of the traveller. And the incense of praise, ascends to the Eternal God, from a thousand temples.

The progress and improvements, which we have made in the various arts of civilized life, justly

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entitle us to a distinguished rank, among the most enlightened nations. The gross aspersion which has been thrown out against us, by a transatlantic writer of high distinction, That our country is a region inhospitable to science, and derogatory to the natural energies of man, is fully detected.

No other nation, of the same age, has risen to so proud an elevation.

We can boast of an Edwards, a Franklin, a Washington, who know no superiors in the spheres destined them by Providence. Many others might be named, both among the living and the dead, whom any country would be proud to call her sons.

To the patrons of science, of every age, great praise is due for our preeminent prosperity. Among men of this character, you, gentlemen the Corporation of Middlebury College, have an honourable rank. Under your auspices this institution, in a few years has risen to a degree of respectability, which furnishes a sure pledge, of its future usefulness to mankind. With a single excetion, no college in our country, of the same standing, has been equally prosperous. And considering the circumstances, in which you have been placed, and the means, which you have possessed, its prosperity is without a parallel.

To remind you of the importance of your charge, would be unnecessary.

Our churches, our senates, our courts of judicature, lookt o you, as the guardians of their future destinies. Your past exertions fully evince your deep

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sense of the importance of your trust; and inspire the friends of science and religion, with the strongest confidence, that what you have so successfully, and so honourably begun, you will steadfastly pursue; and that your future efforts, for the prosperity of this seminary, will be directed, by a wise references to the present generation, and to posterity.

A deep conviction, in my own mind, that this confidence is well founded, has operated, as a powerful motive, to accept the office to which you have invited me; and upon which I am now entering.

In discharging the duties of this office, I shall need, gentlemen, the aid of all your wisdom, and all your candour.

The governmet and instruction of a public Institution cannot be managed, with success, without vigilance and firmess in its guardians; and the best designs, through the imperfection of the human judgment, not unfrequently, lead to an unfortunate issue.

My hopes of of usefulness are strengthened, by the entire confidence I feel, of eing aided by your united wisdom and exertions; and my apprehensions are abated, by a firm belief, that you will regard, with favour, ill judged measures, when convinced, that they proceed from upright intentions.

The instruction and discipline of youth are, of all the employments of men, one of the most arduous and important. There is no undertaking, perhaps, in which, wisdom is more necessary for direction.

The goverment of men, whose characters are established, whose judgements are matured, and who are

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capable of forming correct opinions upon the subject of authority and the duty of subordination, is, from our inherent love of independence, and impatience under restraint, no easy employment. But to eradicate from the minds of the young, their innate propensity to inaction; to prompt them to vigorous exertion; to guard them from the dangers, to which their inexperience, and the impetuosit of youthful passions expose them; to impress them with just sentiments of the importance of government; to form them to correct habits of subordination; to restrain them within proper limits, without damping the ardour of ambition; to awaken in them an habitual and operative sense, of the duties, they owe to man and to God: this is a task of a very different nature.

In the administration of civil and military goverments, law, ordinarily, is the only directory; and nothing is required, but to determine its import, and to inflict its penalties.

But in a seminary of science, no such system can be adopted.The end of punishment, in most instances, is the reformation of the offender.

To provide before hand, the kind, and the degree of correction, which may prove the most salutary, for every possible act of indiscretion, in an collection of youth of different ages, manners, habits, and dispositions, is wholly impracticable.

The goverment of such an institution must be, in a high degree, a paternal governent. It must be a government of counsel and persuasion. the authority invested, must, in many respects be an

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authority of discretin. No pains are to be spared, to stimulate the indolent; to convince the refractory; and to reclaim the vicious.

But when the refractory prove incorrigible, and the vicious will not be reclaimed, counsel becomes usefulness, and forbearance a crime.

But in this case, his inexperience; his want of discretion; the intemperance of juvenile passions; the thought of incurring the displeasure of powerful connexions; of blasting the hopes and expectations of an anxious and affectionate faily; and of fixing a stain upon his character, which the tears of penitence, or the waters of an ocean cannot wash away, are considerations, that plead loudly for the offender, and address themselves to the tenderest, and most deceptive affections of the heart.

The path of duty, under such circumstaces, is a path filled with thorns and briars; and much firmness is necessary, in order to pursue it.

But there is a tribunal, before which we must all apepar, whose decisions will be infinitely more important than the censures of man. The throne of God is a throne of righteousness; and his will , which is but a transcript of his perfections, is the unerring directory of his imperfect creatures. The voice of justice, stern and inflexible, must be heard. When the interests of community demand a sacrifice, the sacrifice must be made. Government must be maintained. Law must be venerated.

Unless the fountan be kept pure, the streams will be polluted. Without discipline, a public sem-

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inary, instead of being a nursery of science and morality, and a blessing to community, degenerates into a nursery of licentiousness and dissipation, and becomes a curse. It is a sore up on the body plitic gradually gangrening the whole system. It corrodes and corrodes, till it affects the vitals of existence.

An education, obtained in such circumstances, is usually obtained, a t too dear a price. It is obtained at an infinite expense. At the expense of morals: at the expense of the soul.

The path of duty, which you have prescribed, I shall inflexibly pursue. The wisest systems of laws and regulations can avail nothing, unless rigidly maintained. Certainty of punishment, is the great barrier against crime, in every government, from the family, to the throne.

When I think of the importance, and high responsibility of the office, which I am assuming, my mind is hurried forward to the day, when, in the presence of men and of angels, I must stand before my Judge, to answer for my discharge of it. When I consider, that the dear youth, whose best interests are to be committed to me, will then rise up as witnesses, of my faithfulness and integrity, or of my negligence and guilt, I feel an awful solicitude. But the Master whom we serve is not a hard Master. He requires no more of us than he enables us to perform. I humbly rely on his grance for wisdom and direction: and, with this reliance, I devote the talents that he has given me, to his, and to your service.

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