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VOLUME ONE.
NO. FIFTEEN.
The University of the South at Selvanee, Tenn.
HERE is perhaps no more monumental
evidence of the aspiration, determina
tion, courage and cultured ambition of
the Old South than is embodied in the
plans for the establishment of a Uni
versity on Southern soil, financed with
Southern capital and designed primarily,
for the higher education of the Southern
youth. This is undeniably true of the
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first thoughts which, generated in the minds of
Southern men, resulted in the
founding of the University of
the South at Sewanee, Tenn.,
but it is equally true that the
completion of the institution,
after the devastating hand of
war had been so heavily laid
upon all the South, and its
brilliant, successful standing
to-day, is a fitting testimonial
to the indomitable energy of
the New y South, as well as a
memorial to yet other great
men who carried the project
to the possibility of a trium
phant consummation.
History of the Founding.
A history of the founding
of the University reads almost
like a romance, and in itself
it carries a refutation of the
charge that the ante-bellum
South was a nation of luxury
loving sybarites, indifferent
to mental culture and seeking
only physical diversions which
the possession of wealth and
which the inherited tendencies
of past generations so easily
inculcate. But, even during
the most prosperous period of
the Old South, when the fields
were rich with cotton, when
rice alone brought to planta
tion owners a princely reve
nue, when the yield of sugar
supplied the civilized world—
and excited its envy—even in
this environment of peace and
personal plenty, there was a
desire for founding on southern soil an institution
which should bring within the reach of the young
men of tht south all the intellectual advantages
which even the oldest and most advanced of North
ern universities could offer-
in 1857, despite the agricultural wealth of the
South, a million dollars of ready money was con
sidered a large sum, but to the promoters of the
University of the South even this amount was re
garded as small compared to the object they had in
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ATLANTA, GA., MAY 31, 1906.
By S. T. DALSHEIMER.
view. Therefore, “it w , z Mved that the Uni
versity of the South should U* Q ’in its operations
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till it should have an endowmei. Zj, .< least THREE
MILLIONS of dollars. Within t space of
twelve months a tract of eight or l housand
acres of land on the Sewanee Mountain v .cured
as the site of the University, on condition chat its
work should be begun within a period of ten years.
Money, too, was subscribed to the amount of
$500,000.00.”
Vielv of Campus, Unibersity of South.
Library and “Breslin Totoer containint chimes.
Quintard Memorial Hall.
So much for the initial efforts toward a stable
financial basis but great enterprises of this sort
originate within the minds of great men—of the
University of the South this is pre-eminently
true. During the years which preceded the War
between the States the political horizon was over
hung with dark clouds of doubt, of discussion and
of dissension——but over all there was one steady
light which burned the brighter because of the sur
rounding gloom-—this was the Episcopal Church,
whose influence and supremacy among the greater
number of Southerners in the past were never ques
tioned. The high officials of this church had for
long, years desired some institution of learning
which should, at least owe its origin to . the Church,
for those who believe in its tenets felt, as did Bish
op Otey of Tennessee, that “The key of knowledge
was the only, key which could be expected, with
God’s blessing, to solve the problems of that time”,
or, indeed of any time. It is,, then, to Bishop
the stone itself being of Tennessee granite and cov
ered not only the important documents relating to
the enterprise but in less tangible, though no less
potent shape, the hopes of the Southern people as
well.
Within a year of the laying of the corner stone
of the University of the South, the war cloud de
scended on the land and in the utter darkness which
it brought the plans of the clergy, the people and
prospective students, were alike laid low—even the
TWO DOLL AES A YEAR.
FIVE CENTS A COPY.
Otey of Tennessee, and to
his. distinguished confreres,
Bishop Elliott of Georgia and
Bishop Polk of Louisiana,
that the . germ of the idea of
establishing a great Southern
University, must.be credited.
‘ 4 These.three men were agreed
in. the belief that, while a
merely non-religious universi
ty might do harm rather than
do good no sectarian institu
tion would either receive or
deserve the confidence of the
public. But because the Epis
copal Church is firm in the es
sentials of faith and yet per
mits the largest liberty in
subordinate matters of opin
ion, they believed it to be pre
eminently adapted to organize
and direct a university which
should be distinctly religious
and yet too nobly catholic to
be sectarian.”
Securing Funds.
Having enunciated this the
ory, the work of making col
lections for the projected uni
versity began with the suc
cess already stated. This suc
cess was of so signal a char
acter, that within a few
months the promoters of the
enterprise felt justified in lay
ing the corner stone of the
University of the South, and
this ceremony was held on the
top of Sewanee Mountain—
