James Hervey Otey Papers Box 1 Folder_2 Document 5

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[....] which recommend the domestic education of the men who are to minister among us, at the sacred altar. The necessity and advantages of professional training are as great in the one case as in the other; and the evils and inconveniences attending to our reliance, as at present, upon transient and itinerant teachers, are perfectly obvious to reflection. With them the business of instruction, so far from being a professional employment, is only a temporary expedient. Their aim for the most part, is not the accumulation of professional experience and skill, but the amassing of money to advance themselves to some more eligible or lucrative business. These few considerations, and many more will present themselves to reflecting minds, are surely sufficient to make us desire the permanent services of persons educated among ourselves, and who for that reason may well be supposed to be better acquainted with our habits and manners, and consequently better qualified to mould the minds and characters of our children. Should the question be asked, why place the projected Seminary under Episcopal control and supervision, a ready answer is suggested by the practice of other denominations. Why is it, that of the eighty incorporated Colleges in our land, more than three fourths are sectarian institutions, founded and sustained by denominational efforts? The reason is, that the sentiment has become extensively if not universally prevalent, (a sentiment fully justified by the history and relative condition of all our colleges) that the prosperity of a Literary Institution is nearly if not quite inseparable from that interest which can be alone secured to it, from the care and attention of some one denomination of Christians. And shall our venerable Church manifest less practical solitude for the intellectual and moral culture of her youth, than the other religious denominations of the land? Besides it is but just to state that the Literary departments of the Institution will be open to the admission of students without distinction; at the same time it is due to candor to declare, that moral education, or that which relates to the formation of character will be considered of paramount importance - that in achieving it, the Bible will be used as the only instrument - that the bible will be practically regarded as an ultimate, sufficient, and authoritative standard, whose promises and precepts containing an expression of the will of God, furnish at once the motives, the reasons, and the rules of human duty. And can it be expected of Episcopalians, that unlike all other denominations they shall entrust the moral and religious training of their children to those whose opinions and modes of worship differ widely from their own? Such is a brief outline of the Institution for which we solicit aid. Not a single consideration of personal advantage enters into the motives which have led us to desire [....]

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