proprietors. This was the object for which all labored, and when success crowned the efforts of thrift and industry, the fortunate possessors of wealth bought estates, and surrounding themselves with their families and friends and servants, lived in patriarchal simplicity, in the exercise of a generous hospitality and the enjoyment of all the pleasures of rural life. All this must now pass away. Large estates will be sub-divided and sold. The race of liberal, refined and cultivated country gentlemen, the class which was the pride of Virginia, is destined to become extinct, and Virginia hospitality will no longer be a proverb. A hardy race of yeomanry, who will till the soil with their own strong arms, will supplant the large landed proprietors. Lands will be improved in productiveness and value. The material wealth of the country will be augmented. Thrift and rigid economy will be substituted for the lavish expenditures and wasteful profusion of the ancient proprietors. Baronial mansions. will go to decay, or furnish the material for dwellings better adapted to divided estates. Refinement, cultivation and elegant tastes will be constrained, as in the North, to seek refuge in cities and towns. In a word, old things will pass away, and all things become new.

"To those who estimate the social condition by a financial standard, this may be a subject of pleasing contemplation.

"For myself, I do not hesitate to avow that I do not belong to this class. To me the open door, the blazing hearth, and the warm heart of the old Virginia gentleman possesses a charm for which no increase in material wealth can supply an equivalent.

"You, young gentlemen, have an important mission to perform. In a few years the responsibility of giving tone to public opinion, and direction to the public councils of the South, will to a large extent rest with you. A wide field of usefulness lies before you. It will be for you to repair the ravages of war; to open up new sources of national wealth; to stimulate industry in all its departments; to explore our mines; to give active employment to our water power; to build factories; to substitute machinery for human labor;

to extend our systems of canals and railways; in a word, to give full development to all the natural resources which have been so bounteously lavished on our country.

"It will be for you also to care for the unfortunate and dependent race that has been cast loose among us. Let us all remember that no blame attaches to the negroes. They were our nurses in childhood, the companions of our sports in boyhood, and our humble and faithful servants through life. Without any agency on their part, the ties that bound them to us have been rudely broken. Let us extend to them a helping hand in the hour of their destitution. We can give them employment and guide their feeble steps in the paths of virtue and knowledge. Thousands who, in the first intoxication of freedom, wandered from their homes have returned to seek shelter and protection from their former masters. They should be received kindly, and encouraged in well doing; and we should spare no pains to improve their condition and qualify them, as far as may be practicable, for usefulness in our community.

"These are duties which address themselves alike to the head of the statesman, the heart of the patriot, and the conscience of the Christian *

*

"Public opinion is but the result of the individual sentiments of the members of the community. The more intelligence, therefore, that is infused into the aggregate mass of opinion, the higher will be its standard.

"Heretofore the educated classes have not fulfilled their duty to the country. They have too often sought to ascertain how the current flowed, and been content to drift on its bosom. This is a grave error. It is the duty of the educated classes to form, and not to follow public opinion. They should be its masters, not its slaves. They should assail with an unsparing hand popular delusions and errors, and seek to direct the sentiment of the people into right channels. The vice of modern times is moral cowardice. who were created to guide the opinion of the country, too often have not the courage to breast the popular current, and to accept the temporary defeat and disappointment

Men

which may flow from an unsuccessful effort to do so. They too often prefer to secure station and favor by pandering to the prejudices of the multitude, and many of the evils which have befallen the country have resulted from this cause.

"Let me, gentlemen, admonish you of the danger of pursuing this course. True, you may secure office and the outward semblance of honor by it, but they are dearly bought at a sacrifice of your self-respect-of your sense of duty to your country.

"There can be no nobler spectacle presented than that of an honorable man, standing as it were alone, breasting the storm of popular passion and prejudice. It requires more true courage to do so than to charge a battery; and, in the end, higher honor and more enduring esteem will be the reward of this noble self-sacrifice. Let your rule through life be to do what you believe to be right, without regard to the clamor of the public; and after the passions of the hour have passed away, you will enjoy the richest of all rewards, the confidence of your countrymen and the consciousness of duty faithfully performed."

CHAPTER XXXIV

TRUSTEE OF THE PEABODY EDUCATION FUND

R. GEORGE PEABODY, a native of Massachusetts, but for many years a resident of London, on February 7th, 1867, dedicated a large portion of his private fortune, between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000, to a foundation known as the Peabody Education Fund to be held by trustees, named by himself, and their successors, and the income thereof to be applied, in their discretion, for the promotion and encouragement of intellectual, moral and industrial education among the young of the more destitute portions of the Southern and Southwestern States of the Union. His purpose was that the benefits intended should be distributed among the entire population without other distinction than their needs and the opportunities of usefulness to them. Among the original trustees named by Mr. Peabody were Robert C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts; Hamilton Fish, of New York; General U. S. Grant; Admiral D. G. Farragut; William M. Evarts, of New York; William A. Graham, of North Carolina; George W. Riggs, of Washington; Rt. Rev. Chas. F. McQuaine, of Ohio; William C. Rives, of Virginia; John H. Clifford, of Massachusetts; and William Aiken, of South Carolina.

On February 23rd, 1871, Mr. Stuart was elected a member of the Board to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Admiral Farragut. Mr. Stuart had always been an earnest advocate of popular education. He found, therefore, the work of the Board congenial, and his association with its members most agreeable. During the eighteen years that he served on the Board he missed only two meetings, and he was a member of many of the most important committees. When the Board met in New York on October 6th, 1875,

the President announced the death of Governor William A. Graham of North Carolina, one of the original trustees, and Mr. Stuart paid the following tribute to his memory:

"Mr. President: Although I am laboring under a temporary disability, which renders it impossible for me to speak without physical pain, I cannot deny myself the melancholy pleasure of saying a few words in support of the resolutions which have just been reported by the committee.

"It was my good fortune more than thirty years ago to make the acquaintance of Governor Graham. He was, at that time, a member of the Senate of the United States, and I had been recently elected to the House of Representatives.

"It was a period of high political excitement; and a general coincidence of opinion on questions of the day brought Governor Graham and myself into personal association. It was during that period that the foundation of a lifelong friendship was laid.

"Some years later, we were associated as members of the Cabinet of Mr. Fillmore. During the two years and a half that we served together in that capacity, our acquaintance ripened into intimate friendship.

"When Governor Graham was nominated for the VicePresidency, with that delicacy which marked his conduct in every relation of life, he retired from the Cabinet, and, with the exception of one or two casual meetings, our personal intercourse was suspended until three years ago, when we were again brought together as members of this Board.

"I need hardly say to this audience that Governor Graham was a gentleman of high moral and intellectual endowments. He was a man of pure and spotless integrity. And, while he entertained decided opinions, he was never aggressive or intolerant in their assertion. To great dignity of character, he united an amenity and charm of manner which secured for him the respect and affection of all who knew him.

"He possessed a sound and vigorous intellect which enabled him to grapple with the most difficult questions; and