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New Orleans Weekly Crescent.

Monday Morning, January 21, 1859.

The University of the South

Since the distinction of "The South" has been de-
fined in its proper understanding[,? ;?] indicating a sec-
tion of the whole country in which there are marked
peculiarities of manners, thought and institutions
which distinguish it from the northerly portion of
the Confederacy, there has justly been a continually
realized feeling of the insufficiency of educational
advantages for the sons of the South. We had no
great institution of name and fame, no venerated
_alma_mater_ of which the diploma was the holder's
endorsement for the accomplishments of scholarship,
and to which he could point with pride and gratitude
as the fostering mother of his intellect, not only in
the graces of general erudition, but in the cultivation
and perfection of the peculiar instincts which would
send him forth a true and enlightened Southron, to
give him a confirmed Southern American bias at the
same time that he would be fitted for cosmospolitan
adaptation to life anywhere.

In this great lack of the means and place of
thorough education, the only course which could be
pursued was adopted, and that was the sending of
Southern youth to Northern institutions, to Yale or
Harvard--where, with the classics and belles lettres,
they at the same time drank in poisonous prejudices,
through the numerous influences inevitable, whether
designedly or undesignedly, brought to bear, which
sent them back to their homes, in many instances,
lukewarm Southerners--learned, indeed, but most ill-
instructed. Recognizing these things, it has long
been the idea of thinking Southerners, who, with
reason, despaired of such being the fruition of private
enterprise in its behalf, that it should be the work of
the Governments of the States to found, erect and
endow an institution of learning which would do
away the necessitites of subjecting our youth to cor-
rupting influences, and of importing clergymen, pro-
fessors and literary men, for few well-educated South-
ern men assume these professions, those sent to North-
ern colleges being mostly the sons of wealth, who are
absorbed in after life by the professions of medicine,
or of law and politics, or whose means render no pro-
fession necessary. But Governments have not had
the duty in consideration, civic corporations, to whom
it would next devolve, have neglected it, and there
has been no general sentiment in favor of a movement
to the end being inaugurated by a religious denomi-
nation, as the impression was that its efforts would
point to sectarian aggrandizement.

Such was the status of a thought which all felt
must one day be realized to a result--such was the
consideration of a want which all knew must some-
time be supplied--when two years ago the dilemma
in which it was placed was badly grappled with by a
religious denomination, the Protestant Episcopal
Church, acting by its high authorities, which with
Southern catholic spirit resolved to set the ball in
motion, to be untrammeled in its movements by any
sectarian bounds until its perfected work shall stand a
monument of Southern enterprise, the watchtower of
Southern literature and enlightened progress--a pop-
lar institution for the benefit of the whole people of
the South, its character such as is set forth in the fol-
lowing extract from the Address of the Board of Trus-
tees of "The University of the South:"
And we call upon the men of the South to rally
around us ; not upon churchmen only, but upon all
[good men?] and true of whatever na[an and p?]rofession !
We hav [undertaken this thing as?] [cause?]
there was no other way of doing it [?]
of such an university [?]
its principles, v[is?]
sense intend[?]
extend t[h?]
--its [?]