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UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH.
For the Union and Dispatch.
The trustees of the University of the South are devoting themselves with earnestness to the work of establishing this great educational project. The meeting held last October at Sewanee, and which was presided over by the lamented Bishop of Georgia, has been followed by a special meeting held at Montgomery, Ala., on the 13th February, at which representatives were present from North Carolina to Arkansas. The whole subject was considered and the discouragements arising from the condition of the country were fully acknowledged in all their force and bearing, while at the same time the pressing need of education at the South, to fit our sons for maintaining, with intelligence and dignity, their position as citizens of a country on which our Creator has bestowed his choicest gifts, was deeply felt and strongly expressed.
The Bishop of Tennessee made an encouraging report of the prospect of obtaining funds to meet the immediate requirements of the institution, and a confident belief was entertained by all that the appeal to the churchmen and public spirited people of the South for the amount now needed to begin the work would be responded to.
The trustees decided to open a school for boys at University Place, to the control and direction of which the best talent attainable in the country should be secured, and every arrangement made to make it in the fullest sense worthy of the name which it will bear of the University High School, prepared to furnish a thorough and judicious training for advancement into higher classes and schools of the University which it is intended afterwards to establish.
The fact was recognized that in the present condition of the country such a preparation was requisite, and it was most advisable to begin the work of the University by founding that portion of its work at once.
It was stated by those familiar with the facts, that in addition to the advantages of health and seclusion afforded by the University location, there would be the very important element in its favor at this time that the board and support of students can be obtained at far less cost than in any other part of the country, thus furnishing to our impoverished people all the advantages of a superior education at a low and practicable cost.
The only need now, in order to place the University High School in immediate opperation, is the erection of a few plain and suitable buildings, which can be put up at a small comparative cost.
It was also decided to request the Vice Chancelor, Bishop Quintard, of Tennessee, to visit as soon as possible the various
dioceses with the view of soliciting, by a general appeal, the funds required. It was also resolved to appoint one of the lay trustees to act with Bishop Quintard, as a commissioner, in obtaining funds, etc., and also to take general charge of all the business affairs of the University {handwritten: "place" struck through}. Maj. Geo. R. Fairbanks, one of the lay trustees from Tennessee, was chosen to fill this position, and has accepted the appointment.
Bishop Quintard tendered to the Board the new building at Sewanee known as Otey Hall, and erected by him for the Sewanee Mission and Training School, which was accepted. The newly consecrated Bishop of Louisiana, Bishop Wilmer, expressed himself as warmly interested in the success of this great enterprise, and that as successor of Bishop Polk, the great founder of the project, he should feel peculiarly indentified with it, and would do every thing in his power to carry it forward. Certainly no more noble tribute could be paid to the memory of that great and good man than to rear the walls of the University which was the most cherished object of his thoughts and life.
UNIVERSITY.