"What the new south wants now more than all else is education! education!! education!!! The statistics with which we have been made familiar recently in the debate in the Senate, of illiteracy in the south, are appalling, but not much more so than was the condition of the western states fifty years ago. The negroes being slaves were, of necessity, without education. The great mass of the white people were in the same condition, not because it was desired in the south, but because, from the sparseness of the population and the existence of plantations instead of farms, it was difficult to establish a system of public schools. A change in this respect cannot be brought about suddenly, but it is apparent that every southern state appreciates the importance of education of both white and black. It is the bounden duty of the national government to extend the aid of its large resources. If the action of the Senate is sanctioned by the House, and fairly and justly executed by the people of the southern states, there need be no danger from the ignorance of the next generation. I believe that these conditions will be the solution of the troubles of the south and make a great step on the road to prosperity and union in the south.
"Now, but a few words in conclusion. It is not merely common school education in the south that is needed, but it is higher education. It is all the learning of the schools, all that science has taught, all that religion teaches, all that medicine has found in its alchemy, all the justice which the law points out and seeks to administer; the south wants opportunity for that higher education which cannot be obtained from common schools, but which exists in no country except where common schools abound. It wants in its midst the places where the active leading young men of the south can gather in colleges and universities and there gain that higher education which prepares them to be leaders among men.
"I congratulate you, my countrymen, here in Washington, that, under the authority of the Methodist Episcopal church, a Christian denomination, under the name of the illustrious hero General Grant, there has been founded in the mountains of Tennessee, away up among the clouds and in the pure air of Heaven, in the midst of a loyal and patriotic population, an institution of learning which will be a blessing to all the people of the south, and I trust to all the people of the north. Every aid possible should be showered down from the north and south alike. Let them light their fires at this modern Athens upon the mountain top and they will shine forth all over our land. Here the young men of the south will fit themselves to lead in the march of progress and improvement. They will learn to vary their production, to develop their resources, to advance every race and generation in education, intelligence and patriotism, and with charity broad enough to secure all the people, of every race and tribe, the peaceful and unquestioned enjoyment of their civil and political rights. There is now no disturbing question of a sectional character which should prevent the north and south from moving in harmonious union. The two streams have united, and though for a time their waters may be divided by the color line, like the Mississippi and the Missouri at and after their junction, yet, in the end they will mingle in a great republic, not of sections, but of friendly states and a united people."
I attended a meeting of the members of the Ohio Society of New York, on the occasion of their first annual dinner at Delmonico's, on the 7th of May. It was a remarkable assemblage, composed almost exclusively of men born in Ohio, then living in New York, all of whom had attained a good standing there, and many were prominent in official or business life. There were over two hundred persons present. Thomas Ewing was president of the society, and Mr. Payne and myself sat on either side of him. I insert the remarks of General Ewing and myself as reported in the papers the next morning. Many speeches were made by others, including Senators Payne and Harrison. General Ewing, after the dinner had received ample attention, called the company to order and made a brief address, which was repeatedly applauded. He said:
"I hail and congratulate you, guests and members of the Ohio Society of New York, on our delightful and auspicious reunion. It is good that we are here. This large assemblage of Ohio's sons, coming from far and near, attests how strong and vital are the ties that bind us to our mother state. We have every reason to love and be proud of her. If American citizenship be a patent of nobility, it adds to the honor to have been born of that state which, almost in the forenoon of the first century of her existence, has shed such luster on the republic; which has given to it so long a roll of President, chief justices, judges of the Supreme Court and statesmen in the cabinet and in Congress—among whom is found not one dishonored name, but many that will shine illustrious in our country's annals forever; a state which, in the supreme struggle by which the Union was established as indissoluble and the plague of human slavery destroyed, gave to the republic even more than her enormous quota of noble troops, and with them those great captains of the war: Grant, Sherman, Rosecrans, McPherson.
"Gentlemen, we have not formed our society from a desire to culture state pride in any spirit of divided allegiance. No, no! There has been far too much of that in the past, and can't be too little in the future. We are first Americans—then Buckeyes. The blessings and misfortunes of our sister states are ours as well as theirs. The love of our own state and pride in her history spring largely from the fact that she and her institutions, in birth and growth, are purely American. She is the oldest and, so far, the best developed of all the typically American states. Neither Roundhead nor Cavalier stood sponsor at her cradle. She never wore the collar of colonial subserviency. Her churches and colleges are not endowed of King Charles or Queen Anne. Her lands are not held by grant or prescription under the Duke of York, Lord Fairfax or Lord Baltimore, but by patents under the seal of the young republic and the hand of George Washington, whose name will continue to be loved and honored throughout the world long after the memory of the last king and peer of Great Britain shall have sunk in oblivion.
"The early generation of her sons were not reared amid distinctions of wealth and rank and class, but in the primeval forest and prairie, where all stood equal and had no aid to eminence but strenuous efforts; where recollections of the sufferings and sacrifices of Revolutionary sires became inspirations of patriotism in their sons; and where nature threw around all her pure, loving and benignant influences to make them strong and great.
"Gentlemen, I now have the pleasure to present to you a typical Buckeye—the architect of his own fame and fortune—who stands below only one man in the republic in official station, and below none in the respect of his countrymen—John Sherman."
As General Ewing closed, there was a tumultuous scene. There were repeated cheers, and Colonel W. L. Strong called for three cheers in my honor, which were given. When I could be heard, I spoke as follows:
"Mr. President, Brethren All:—I give you my grateful thanks for this greeting. If you receive every Buckeye from Ohio in this manner, you will have the hordes of Ararat here among you. Such a reception as this, I think, would bring every boy from every farm in the State of Ohio, and what would become of New York then? You have gathered the sons of Ohio, and those who have been identified with its history, into a society where you may meet together and preserve and revive the recollections of Ohio boyhood and Ohio manhood. Why should you not do that? Why should you not have an Ohio society as well as a New England society, or any other kind of society? Our friends and fellow-citizens from old England's shore, from Ireland and Scotland and Germany, form their societies of the city of New York; and why should not the State of Ohio, more important than any of these countries by this represented?