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I had the pleasure to receive by the last post your letter of the 10th Inst. and those of the 26th of
June and 8th of July in the course of conveyance, these
two last I should have answered sooner, but I wished to decide, before I
wrote, whether I should pass thro' th or 8th of November when I
hope to have the pleasure of seeing you.
The late unfortunate occurrence at the real spies, and human Nature
revolts from the principle of Espionage in every shape: The corruption and
depravity of
With regard to my advice as to this unhappy occurrence itself, I should have
advised that the ordinance should have been suspended as to its operation
till the annual meeting of the Board, when it would probably be repealed
altogether. And with regard to the Students whose conduct in this instance
forms a most dangerous precedent; I think, with proper deference to the late
act of the
I have reflected much and seriously since this event on the causes of this
spirit of insubordination and the means of preventing it. It has always
existed in a considerable degree, the ordinance may be considered as only an
accidental cause; I think the real causes may be found in the defects of
Domestic education in the So. States, the weakness of parental authority,
the spirit of the Times, the arrangement as to vacation, and some errors of
Every man of discernment, who has lived 40 or 50 years, must have observed
and lamented the general decay of parental authority, and the consequent
presumption and loose manners of our young men. Boys of 16 or 17 years,
without judgment, without experience or almost any knowledge of any kind
arrogantly affect to judge for themselves, their teachers, and even their
parents in matters of morality, of Government, of Education, in fact in
every thing. The effect of the other general cause is visible throughout the
whole of their remonstrance. Nothing can be more ridiculous than Boys at school talking of "a sacred
regard to their rights," "the high and imposing duty of
resistance," and of "denouncing laws,"
&c., &c., the genuine Slang of the Times culled from the
columns of Newspapers; yet these very sounds are attended with the most
mischievous consequences. Over all these causes however the
I have understood and observed ever since the establishment of the temperament producing a general predisposition to any measure that
may break up the session, or interrupt business and distress the Faculty.
Two or three fellows more daring and unprincipled than the rest seize on
this Disposition and artfully turn it into the channel of a general revolt
against all authority: To Remedy this Evil I would earnestly recommend than
an ordinance should be passed at the next annual meeting establishing the
vacations exactly on the same footing as they are at
The Difficulty we have continually experienced in the management of youth at
this Institution has often written Laws, and that we have committed a
serious error in making an ordinance for every
thing, or in other words legislating too much. It is now my opinion,
that after describing the kind of punishment to be used on the
Establishment, and reserving in all cases the punishment of Expulsion to be confirmed by the discretion
of the Faculty. It may perhaps require some reflection to see the justness
of this remark, [owing] to certain habits among us of acting &
thinking, and I will only add, that the principles of the parental
Government are the true model for that of literary Institutions for youth of
all kinds from the University down to the common school: The parental
Government has no written laws, and I would observe that no mortal man could
govern his family if he adopted that mode. If he did, his whole Household
would become, like these students, lawyers and legislators, discussing his
ordinances, chattering about "their rights,"
"despotism," "duty of resistance,"
I have also been lead to doubt whether our practice of publishing in the newspapers annually the Distinctions made at
examinations may not be attended with consequences which if not the
immediate causes, operate at least powerfully with other remote causes to
produce many of the difficulties we have experienced; the objects of this
measure were to excite emulation among the students, gratify the parents,
and attract the public attention to the Institution: but I apprehend that it
has also had the effect of filling the young men with presumption, and a
vain imaginary consequence, which tend an ill effect upon their own conduct
afterwards, and gave them a pernicious influence among their fellow
students; and thus the mischief it produces greatly overbalances any good to
be expected from it: and perhaps it would be better to adopt hereafter the
practice of other Colleges who notice in the papers the commencement honors
only: and other reasons of considerable weight might be given for this
measure. That it is dangerous to depart from the paths of Experience is a
Truth I am more and more convinced of every day I live.
I was sorry to see a long piece in the
It will be l Jones