xt7jq23qvv3s https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7jq23qvv3s/data/mets.xml Patterson, James Kennedy, 1833-1922. 1876 books b98-60-43710938 English J.A. Hodges, Public Printer, : Frankfort, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. International Geographical Congress (2nd : 1875 : Paris) Report of Prof. James K. Patterson, PH. D., commissioner of Kentucky to the International congress of geographical sciences : held at Paris, France, August 1st to 13th, 1875. text Report of Prof. James K. Patterson, PH. D., commissioner of Kentucky to the International congress of geographical sciences : held at Paris, France, August 1st to 13th, 1875. 1876 2002 true xt7jq23qvv3s section xt7jq23qvv3s
R E V01 KT
OF
PROF. JAMES K. PATTERSON, PH. D.
coIMtiSSIONER OF KENTUICKY TO 'rIE
I NTE RNATIONAL
CONGRE' SS
OF GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCES,
HIELD AT
PARIS, FRANCE, AUGUST
IST TO 13TI1, 1875.
FRANKFORT, KY.:
PRINTED AT THE KENTUCKY YEOMAN OFFICE.
JAMES A. HODGES, PUBLIC PRINTER.
1876.
This page in the original text is blank.
IN IOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
1ON1)Av-, FEBItUARY 7th, 1376.
MI . PR-E.TON offered the following resolution, lwhich was adopted,
viz:
v ;x'7 Th/, That 1,OC copies of the report of Prof. James K. Pattersol, who Nwas op-
tvintedl IXv (;ov. I.edli to ittenl(l the International ('ongrcss of (G;eographl ical Sciaenccs, at
is, an the vacr IS75, bie pllIte'l fo- thle u1sc of this I loIse.
IN SENATE,
TUSLDA Y, Fiiw-u x 8lXR Sth, I876.
Mr. LNDSAY- offeCrc the following joint resolution, which was adopted,
viz:
I it l'hSs, TI't ( ;0'v norf this t imino in-alt h appointed James K. TPntterson, I resi-
detit of thc A 'ri cltur'al an 1 Mceh anjial to(]leee of K enltulckl- I niversativ. ('oil isioSn' I
I'r'et'lt h s Slt e in ti li International Ciongress f ( eo-ra ileal Sciences ld in th city
"f lPrlis: nilti whrcreas,, the Goiernir Ias recdiveil a report from. Presidelat Pat trIson
al(e, nihing ill natter of in tcrest alt il value to thie people of this C(Tomi monwealth ; therefor
lie it
A'i--''A- / /' g// (,-'Ji-e/ -c1"sonzZ/'/t' C/' /1- (Tmmin-nre'w/ 0/' oAT-n/uli, That the uiLulic
Prin0ter i. inertcteJ to print and funrish each m embtier antd officer of the General As-emll y
tiftv cp tic- Orf .ail report.
Adopted by IHouse of Representatives February 9th, and approved
by the (Governor February i2th, IS76.
This page in the original text is blank.
REPORT
AGRICULTURAL ANDI) MECHANICAL COLLEGE,
KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY,
LEXINGTON, Ky., December Io, 1875. J
To lHis E.vrcl'c1Ccy JAMES B3. MCCREARY, GOVcruor of IedtucXJ':
DiL-R SIR: I beg to submit to you, and through you to the Legisla-
ture, the following report:
About the last of May I received an appointment from your es-
teemed predecessor, Gov. P. H. Leslie, to represent the State of Ken-
tucky in the International Congress of Geographical Sciences to be
holden in Paris, France, about midsummer. In order to be present
at its deliberations, as well as to attend the meeting of the "British
Association for the Advancement of Science," to be holden at Bristol,
England, I applied for leave of absence from my college duties till the
middle of November. This obtained, I set out about the middle of
June, and reached Paris in time for the opening session of the Con-
gress.
The International Congress of Geographical Sciences met for the first
time in 1874, at Antwerp, and was presided over by the distinguished
Belgian, M. Charles d'Hane Steenhtlyse. Its origin was due to MM.
Charles Reulens, Elie de Beaumont, d'Avezac d'Halloy, and Francis
Garnier, names representing the most advanced thought and scientific
culture of Europe. Its object is to discuss all facts relating to Geogra-
phy in its widest sense; to encourage discoverers, and promote discovery;
to demonstrate by facts the great importance of scientific research; to
encourage the nations to a generous emulation in promoting the diffusion
of knowledge, by the dissemination of learning; by the development of
their resources, and by the multiplication of such facilities for intercom-
munication as will bring distant people nearer and bind still more closely
together those with whom we are already in most intimate relationship.
The Congress of Antwerp adjourned to hold its next meeting in the
French Capital. At three o'clock on the first of AL-gust th, first
6
sitting was opened by the President of the Congress of 1874, who, in
a short speech, handed over the chair to Vice Admiral Baron de la
Ronciere Le Noury, President of the Geographical Society of Paris.
The great hall of the Tuileries, in which, during the empire, Napoleon
II. delivered the speech from the throne to the assembled Senate and
Corps Legislatif, had been set apart by the government for the sittings
of the Congress, together with as many government offices in the Tuile-
ries as mighlt be required for the sittings of the sections and for the ex-
j)osition which formed an accompaniment of the Congress. Among
the distinguished personages present were the President of the French
Republic, the Grand Duchess Mlarie, of Russia, the Grand Duke Con-
stantine, Sir Henry Rawlinson, President of the Royal Geographical
Society of London, M. de Semenoff; of that of St Petersburg, M. de
Buaumont, of that of Geneva, M. Correnti, who represented the Geo-
graphical Society of Rome, Hunfalvy of Pestli, and Weth of Amster-
dam. Of the celebrated travelers whose names are more or less familiar
to the general reader, there were present, Mill. Rholfs, de Sclhlagintweit
Sakfinlunski, the Marquis de Compiegne, Pinart, and Doctors Nachtigal
and Hamy. More than 400 of the most distinguished men of Europe
where in attendance, many of whom were sent by the respective States
whence they came. France contributed many of the more illustrious
members of the Institute, easily discriminated from the foreigners pres-
ent by the little red button worn on the left lappel of the coat, many
members of the Assembly, and many representatives from scientific
bodies in different parts of the nation. Next to France, Austria, Russia,
and Engrland were most largely represented, each of those nations send-
ing, in a representative capacity, many of their most distinguished scien-
tists. The Government of the United States was represented by Mr.
Nourse, and the State of Virginia by Col. Stevenson.
Admiral Le Noury, in opening the Congress, dwvelt upon the impor-
tance of the geographical sciences, not so much from their theoretical
as from their practical utility. He vindicated their claim to recognition
upon their fruitfulness as elements of production. Out of scientific ge-
o;,raphy grow commercial geography, economic geography, and political
geography, three sciences which modify, if they do not determine, the
whole fabric of modern civilization. The pioneers of commerce, of civ-
ilization, and of Christianity are the hardy travelers who venture into
rations hitherto unknown, in order to solve the problems which geogra-
7
phy presents. The known has been pressing back the unknown since
the first awakening of the human intellect. Most of the surface of the
earth has been traversed and mapped; but in addition to the unexplored
tracks, there are fields, vast and varied, upon which our knowledge is
still meagre. There are questions of the relation of geological formation
to surface and soil and climate; questions relating to the distribution of
animal and vegetable life; questions regarding the distribution of races
and languages; questions bearing upon the activities and industries, the
economics and commerce and statistics of nations, which have not been
answered, and which it will require years of patient research to investi-
gate and reduce to systematic knowledge. To discuss these and kindred
subjects this Congress assembles.
The address of Admiral Le Noury was considered to furnish a good
outline of the work to be done. A splendid banquet, which many of
the officers of State and civil and military functionaries attended, closed
the proceedings of the day.
I shall not attempt to present in chronological order the business of
the Congress, but merely to indicate the general method of procedure,
and the nature and scope of the questions discussed.
The Congress was divided into seven sections, each of which met
daily at IO A. M., and sat till I P. M. The members sat grouped
around a large table, with writing material and papers. Papers pre-
viously prepared were read with the sanction of the section, and when
finished, became subjects of discussion. A general sitting was held
every afternoon in the great hall of the Tuileries, attended by all the
sections, at which an abstract of the questions discussed, and the con-
clusions arrived at by the sections, were reported.
Section first was designated the Mathematical, and embraced Mathe-
matics, Geography, Geodesy, and Topography. It discussed the fol-
lowing questions: The substitution of the centesimal division of the
quarter of the circumference for the division called sexagesimal, and the
consequences thereof relative to division of time in Astronomy; dis-
cussion of recent inventions for measuring time and registering observa-
tions; utilization of telegraphic communication for measuring differ-
ences of Longitude; measure of an arc of the meridian in Southern
Hemisphere, particularly in the Argentine Republic; study of the
variations of gravity, by aid of the pendulum; instruments the most
simple, and methods the most rapid, for determining the magnetic
variation.
8
Section second, designated the Group Hydrographic, considered such
subjects as the following: Researches upon the depth to which the
effects of agitation of the surface of the sea extends; study of tides;
general laws; anomalies; choice of places the most appropriate for
observation of these phenomena; study of oceanic currects and their
causes; with the analogous phenomena in the great lakes; determina-
tion of sea temperatures at different depths. Causes of the high tem-
perature of the Gulf Stream; deep sea soundings, with the physical
and chemical observations inseparable therefrom.
The third section covered a wide area. It was denominated the
Group Physical, and included Physical Geography, General Meteorol-
ogy, General Geology, Botanical and Zoblogical Gcography, and General
Anthropology. Of the forty questions allotted to this section for dis-
cussion, my space requires that I should select only a few. Different
theories relative to the origin of mountains; the relations which exist
between the elevation of the surface and its geological constitution; to
investigate the origin and general movement of atmospheric whirlwinds
or cyclones, as well as their periods; to compare the meteorological
condition, ancient and modern, of countries where forests have been
destroyed, and to state the influence which the re-covering of mountain
tracts with forest and herbage has had upon the quantity of rain-fall,
and upon the outpour of waters upon the surface; the geographical dis-
tribution of plants and animals during the tertiary period, with the
consequences which result therefrom relative to the climatology of the
globe during that period, and relative to the distribution of land and
-water; geographical relations between the fauna and flora of the tertiary
period and those of the present day; the influence of causes anterior to
the present geological epoch upon the area occupied during our epoch by
vegetable species; species, orders, and families of plants which are char-
acteristic of great natural regions; to study the resemblances and differ-
ence-s which exist between the fauna of different islands of Polynesia.
Do the fauna of North and South America belong to the same zo6logi-
cal centre Geographical distribution of prehistoric races of mankind,
and of those which are regarded as fossil, and the relations of these to
those of the present epoch; the migration and transplantation of races,
and the displacement of one race by another; the distribution of man-
kind in ancient and modern times in Oceanica; discussion of the classi-
fication of WVallace-Malays, Negritos. &c.; distribution of the black
9
African races-dolichocephalic and brachycepbalic; of the American
races-Red-skins and Esquimaux.
To section four, designated the Group Historic, were assigned such
questions as the following: To establish upon the territory of Europe,
in l)rehistoric times, the existence of populations differing in instincts,
habits, and adaptitudes, accordinT to the monuments which they have
raised, and the works of art which they fabricated. Recent palzeon-
tological researches have revealed, upon different parts of the globe,
particularly in Europe, traces of the presence of man at epochs ante-
rior to the most ancient documents. What relation can be establish-
ed bctween these new nations and the most ancient authentic historic
documents Among the greater number, if not in all the principal
branches of the Indo-European family, there exists a duality of physical
type perfectly well marked, the black type and the blonde, in connection
wvitlh a unity of speech. This duality shows itself in the eastern branch
between the Persians and the Hindoos, and has a parallel existence also
among the Sclavs, among the ancient Greeks, and among the Celts.
WXhat has been done up to the present, or what can be done with the
data before us to explain this ethnological phenomenon
The fifth section, called the Group Economic, was of especial interest,
and comprised Gcography, economic, commercial, and statistic. Its im-
portance can best be shown by a statement of some of the questions it
discussed-such as the following: What are the general causes which
induce populations to emigrate and States to found colonies What are
the systems of colonization which have given, hitherto, results the most
advantageous to the mother county on the one hand, and to the colony
on the other In view of the progress of geography, and the develop-
ment of commerce, what are the best means of associating commercial
and scientific interests In what degree are merchant ship-owners able
to serve the interests of science in general, and of commercial geogra-
phy in particular, in stimulating collections, obtaining documents, and
all other sources of information What are the points where commerce
and industry can supply themselves to best advantage with fuel for gen-
crating motive power, whether in depots or in workable deposits, and
what is the approximate estimate of the quantity of such fuel in differ-
ent countries What are the most available stations on different parts
of the globe for fisheries, and the working of different marine products
What are the consequences of the clearing away or destruction of forests
upon the commercial, industrial, and agricultural condition of a coun-
10
try What are the natural laws which govern the origin, distribution,
increase, and decline of cities
Several of the questions discussed in the preceding Group are of
even more importance to us than to the States of the Old World. Our
resources in mineral, agricultural, and forest wealth are great, but little
known abroad-little known as yet, indeed, to ourselves.
Section sixth, called the Group Didactic, gave its time to the follow-
ing, among other questions: What are the practical means of making
more popular the elementary study of Geography and Topography
What ought to be the character of the geographical studies in the dif-
ferent branches of instruction, primary, secondary, and superior What
place does instruction in Commercial Geography hold, and according to
what method is this instruction given in institutions founded to further
commercial education What are the institutions founded to further
the acquisition of Geographical knowledge What are the best means
for co-ordinating and developing the labors of Geographical societies, and
therefrom the largest scientific results
The seventh and last section, styled the Group of Voyages and
Travels, concerned itself with questions relating to exploration, voyages
undertaken for purposes scientific, commercial, and artistic. In voyages
of discovery what are the principal obstacles which travelers encounter,
and how may these best be obviated What are the best methods to
recommend for the observation of latitude and longitude What com-
parative value ought to be given to the determination of heights by the
barometer and by geodesic processes What are the best methods for
photographing observations
All these questions, and many more, were discussed during the
sitting of the sections, which continued for nearly two weeks. I at-
tended principally the meetings of sections three and four, as being
more in the line of my previous studies than the others. On one
occassion I attended the sitting of the fifth Group, when the construc-
tion of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama was discussed under the
presidency of Ferdinand de Lesseps, to whom the vorld owes the Suez
Canal. The veteran engineer expressed himself quite sanguine of the
practicability of the work, and at a less cost than many of the estimates
previously made.
As illustrative of geographical science in its various subdivisions, an
Exposition was opened in connection with the Congress. Abundant
space was appropriated to every nation which chose to participate.
I I
France was best represented. Russia, Austria, Prussia, England, and
Italy followed in the order named. Switzerland, Belgium, and the
other minor States of Europe were well up. The States of the West-
ern Continent contributed little to the Exposition, the space allotted
to them being out of all proportion to their contributions. Even
Japan made a better figure, and contributed more than some of
those whose facilities were greater. Much to my mortification, the
United States was about the lowest in the list. Either the General
Government should have taken no part in the Exposition, or such
part as would have been creditable. The best map of any American
State or Territory which I saw there was executed abroad, and was
found outside the American part of the Exposition. Globes, maps,
charts, instruments of every conceivable size, scale, projection,
and construction, were to be found there in the greatest profusion.
Models of towns, harbors, public buildings, and reduced fac similes of
mountain ranges in relief, were numerous in the most of the collec-
tions, particularly that of France. Topographical maps in relief,
showing the relative altitudes and depressions of every part of France,
and on a very large scale, attracted the attention and elicited the ad-
miration of every one present. Large collections of prehistoric im-
plements, illustrative of the neolithic and palxolithic ages of man-
kind, as wvell as implements illustrative of savage, barbarous, and half
civilized life, were also on exhibition, chronologically and topograph-
ically arranged. Not only the actual condition of geography, but the
progress of it, was brought before the mind. Original maps, hund-
reds of years old, showing the first rude efforts of our scientific pred-
ecessors to realize their conceptions of surface and portray them
to others, stood as first in a series of which the elaborate maps de-
scribed above were the last. These, with the intervening projec-
tions, showed in panoramic view the rapid advance made from age
to age-from the rude mapping of Ptolemy and mediaeval geogra-
phers to the present day.
Two more features, which ought to have been added, would have
aided much. Each country should have been represented in its pro-
ducts and in its minerals. In neither was this the case, whether from
oversight or from a conviction that the scope of the exposition would
have been too much enlarged, I did not learn.
On the last day of the Congress a distribution of prizes, under the
presidency of M. Wallon, Minister of Public Instruction, took place.
I2
These were awarded by an international jury, which adjudged the
merits of the respective exhibitors.
I beg to submit to your Excellency, and through you to the Legis-
lature of Kentucky, the following considerations, suggested by my at-
tendance upon the Congress:
There are three things of wvhich this Commonwealth greatly stands in
need; capital to develop her great mineral and agricultural resources,
increase of population, and such provision for liberal and scientific edu-
cation as shall enable her properly to utilize and direct these. It is
unnecessary to dwell at any great length upon the extent and richness
of the mineral deposits of Kentucky. The reports made, from time to
time, through the public press, by Prof Shaler, Director of the Geolog-
ical Survey, certify their existence in the greatest abundance. There are
thousands of square miles of rich coal lands, with iron of the best quality
in immediate neighborhood thereto. These coal lands exist in the
eastern part of the State, in the wvest, and in the south-middle counties.
Neither does it need to be insisted upon that those countries and those
commonwealths which possess coal and iron in the greatest abundance
are, and arc likely to be, the great natural leaders in manufactures, in
commerce, in civilization, and in all that makes up the world's progress
in these days. To her coal and iron Great Britian, at present, owes a
great part of her industrial and commercial supremacy-a supremacy
which she never could have attained without them-a supremacy whose
continuance will be measured only by the duration of her mineral
treasures.
The singlc county of Lancaster has to-day a population twice as
great as Kentucky, with actual wealth ten-fold as great. This popu-
lation is sustained, and this wealth has accumulated in great part,
from the development of her enormous treasure of coal and iron.
From Manchester to Liverpool, and from each of these vast centres of
wealth and manufactures and commere, to Wigan and Bolton and
Preston and Crewe and Rochdale and Stockport, one is never out of
sight of dozens of tall chimneys, carrying their volumes of smoke
athwart the sky. For a distance of twenty miles from Glasgow the
whole country seems ablaze with blast furnances extending on either
hand as far as the eye can reach. Throughout Yorkshire, throughout
the " Black Country " of which Birmingham is the centre, and throughout
a large part of WVales, the same dense populations are met, the same
evidences of ceaseless activity are seen. In the Clyde, the Mersey,
I3
and the Tyne, from iron smelted and rolled and wrought in their respec-
tive localities, are built the great iron fleets of merchantmen which
cover every sea and every ocean, and reap the harvest of the commerce
of the world. If it was no idle boast of Sir Robert Peel, forty years
ago, that four hundred of his constituents could pay the national debt,
one may imagine how immensely greater is that wealth to-day, after
forty years of commercial prosperity such as Great Britain never knew
before, and which is almost wholly due to the development of her coal
and iron.
Such resources Kentucky possesses. The labor and the capital
only are wanting to make many of our counties like Yorkshire and
Lancashire, Lanark and Wales. Were our resources known abroad
as they ought to be, both capital and labor would immigrate hither.
Then we should see the hills of Eastern Kentucky and the coal fields
of the vest covered with tall chimneys and blast furnaces ; manu-
factures would spring up; cities would grow and wealth accumulate;
and Kentucky would take the rank among the great States of the
Mississippi Valley, to which by her resources and her geographical
position she is entitled. How is this to be accomplished
Reports made to the Legislature, embodying the results of surveys
and agricultural returns, seldom find their way abroad-seldom come
under the eye of the foreign capitalist. Foreigners have fared so ill
with investments in America that they look with suspicion upon all the
prospectuses of new schemes for constructing railroads, opening coal
mines, and building iron works. Erie stocks, and stocks of bankrupt
States, which have repudiated their obligations, are a stench in the
nostrils of foreign capitalists. How may this state of things be cor-
rected I would suggest that Kentucky make such provision as shall
enable a properly qualified commissioner or commissioners to attend
such International Congresses as that held in Paris; that he shall be fur-
nished with maps of the State, and maps of counties, certified copies of
its Geological Surveys; that these maps shall set forth carefully, and
with scrupulous accuracy, the geological formation of every county
where mineral wealth exists, its extent, approximate quantity and qual-
ity, and that these be accompanied with actual specimens of said
minerals, with the actual analysis of each, as determined by the chemist
of the survey.
I would further add, that a comprehensive statement, which should
serve as a descriptive letter-press accompaniment to said maps, be
14
prepared by a committee of competent men, and that copies of this
in English, French, Italian, Russian, and German, be placed at his or
their disposal for distribution among the members of the Congress.
All these documents should bear the official seal of the Common-
wealth as emanating from its Executive, under the authority and by
direction of the Legislature. This assurance would satisfy the for-
eigner that all the representations made were in good faith, and not
the catchpenny advertisements of fraudulent corporations. Were this
done for a succession of years, I am satisfied that foreign capital
would soon follow in the wake of prospecting parties sent by foreign
capitalists eager to find a profitable investment for the surplus mil-
lions now lying in their coffers, or yielding a maximum dividend of
two and three per cent. Foreigners will accord a consideration to
official parchments signed by Governors and Legislatures of Western
States which they will be slow to give to unauthenticated paper.
The State should also make similar provisions for exhibiting its
agricultural products, their kind, their quality, the yield per acre, with
the price of farming land and the price of labor. This would show
the condition of the owner of the soil and the condition of the culti-
vator. Thousands abroad would be glad of such certified informa-
tion as would enable them to make an intelligent choice of a home in
a Western State. They would learn therefrom the data which they
often seek for and never attain. In the second place, such legislation
as would directly encourage immigration should be enacted. A Bureau
of Immigration, such as exists in New Zealand, would attract to our
Commonwealth thousands of hardy men and women, who go instead to
the States North and Northwest to make their own fortunes, and add to
the material and moral strength of their adopted homes.
Of equal importance is the provision for liberal, scientific, and
technical Education. I shall say nothing here of the common school
or the academy. The State needs, and needs greatly, a first-class
university, adequately endowed, where all her youth may obtain as
good an education as can be had anywhere in America or out of it.
She requires a university where not only classics are taught, but modern
languages in their widest extent, Mining, Engineering, History, Political
Economy, Mental and Moral Science, Chemistry, Physics, Geology, Min-
eralogy, Botany, Zoology-in short, the whole circle of knowledge and
the whole circle of science. Education has made Germany, naturally
poor, the first country in moral and material power in continental
I5
Europe. Technical and scientific education, notwithstanding her enor-
mous natural disadvantages, is making her citizens and mechanics for-
midable competitors with English producers.
Great Britain, under the sagacious forethought of her statesmen,
sees the necessity for an education broader, higher, and deeper than
that for which she has hitherto made provision, if she will retain her
manufacturing and commercial supremacy. She remodels her old
universities, founds new ones, endows them, makes education virtually
compulsory, and makes such provision for technical and scientific train-
ing as shall enable her to keep the vantage ground already won.
To come nearer home, New England, with a poor soil and little min-
eral wealth, has, by her system of Education, moulded the thought and
shaped the destinies of this Republic to an extent out of all proportion
to her population. And here I beg to submit this important considera-
tion: There are two types of civilization in this Republic. One is rep-
resented by New England; the other is, or rather -was, represented by
Virginia. New England gave her impress largely to the two great
Middle States; still more largely to the States north and northwest of
us. The Virginia type prevailed over the States south and southwest.
It is needless to argue which of these is the better. There are some
elements in the one confessedly good which do not exist in the other.
As a whole, we prefer the Virginia type. But it Fis equally needless
to say that the great civil war gave it a rude shock-a shock from
which it may never recover-a shock, certainly, under which it staggers
to-day. Some of its institutions have been swept away. Burdened
with debt, crippled in trade, deranged in their social organization, par-
alyzed in their industries, the States of the south and southwest are not
likely to recover for years. Virginia has lost her leadership in the
South, and the civilization of which Virginia was the representative i
to-day in danger of being supplanted by one of a more aggressive type.
We ourselves have been unconsciously contributing to this result. Our
sons are sent to institutions to be educated where the dominant civiliza-
tion and the dominant influences are those of New England. We con-
tribute of our means to build up institutions beyond our own borders,
and to supplant ideas and traditions by which our early habits of thought
were moulded. There are elements doubtless good in the one and in the
other. In the conflict of opinion in the future, let us hope that what is
good in both will survive and co-ordinate themselves to the ordering
of a civilization and a polity which shall reflect all that is worth preserv-
ing in each. But the plea I make, and which I urge, is, that the mould
in which our early ideas were cast, and the framework in which our
habits of thought and action were set, are in danger of being obliterated.
It is a struggle for existence in which we ought not to abdicate our nor-
mal functions of co-ordinate thought and activity.
Now, the idea upon which I insist, and which I wish to impress
with all the energy I can upon your Excellency and the Legislature of
Kentucky is, that Kentucky is, and of right ought to be, to-day best
fitted by her origin, her traditions, her history, her geographical position,
and, above all, by her mineral and agricultural resources, to take the
leadership, and be the representative of the civilization which I have
denominated the Virginia type. But in order to do this it is necessary
that she should provide for the higher education within her own borders.
She needs a great University, which shall be to her what Oxford is to
England, what the Institute of France is to the French people, and
what Harvard and Yale have been to New England. And just as her
two great universities have contributed to differentiate English thought
and English speculation just as Harvard and Yale have largely moulded
the thought and character of the Eastern States, so will a university of
such proportions and such equipments as the Legislature ought to found
and endow, shape the destinies of this Commonwealth, and exert a large
influence upon those of the affiliated States with which she stands in
most intimate relationship. Wherever the intelligence of a nation lies,
there is its head, and wherever the head be, there is its capital. Rome,
for ten centuries after the fall of t