Vol.il AUGUSTA, GA., DECEMBER li, 1844. Ko. 25. 
ORATION OF THE REV. GEO. F. PIERCE. 
Delivered before the Alumni Society of Franklin Col- 
lege, at Athens, in August. 
Gentlemen of the Alumni Society: 
Although notified in due season of my ap- 
pointment to address you, and accepting with I 
good will to serve you to the utmost of my poor | 
ability, yet 1 have been thrown by the stress of j 
circumstances upon a very hasty preparation. ; 
I rely for your indulgence upon the occasion’ | 
hallowed as it is by the memories of the past, i 
and rich in the associations of the present. 
It is a time for grateful joy and hearty co-n- 
gratulatim. Alter the lap.se of years, from 
widely separated sections of our country— from 
our various fields of labor, usefulness and pro- 
fit, we meet in the brotherhood of Literature at 
the shrine of our earliest devotion, to renew the 
vows of unforgotlen friendship and pledge a still 
fervent loyalty to our time-honored Alma Ma- 
ter. Who, among us, does not feel the inspira- 
tion of the hour— the spell of memory— the 
gushing of a heart-warm joy, as Athens, though 
oft unvisited, yet ne’er forgot, rises upon his vi- 
sion amplified, enlarged, adorned, but still the 
same in her gray hills— yon rolling stream and 
these Academic retreats? The thoughts — the 
hopes of College life, come thronging back upon 
the bosom with the freshness, the awakening 
thrill of their first conception ! At friendship’s 
altar the past and the present meet, and while 
yet in the flush of vigorous and aspiring man- 
hood, chastened but not subdued ; often defeat- 
ed, though sometimes triumphant 5 looking back 
to the period when hope wms strongest in our 
hearts, and ambition turned every thought in 
longing anticipation to the spirit-stirring scenes 
of opening life ; the review compels us to feel, 
even amid the gayety and the gush of this annu- 
al convocation, that the glow, the charm, the 
hrilliant dreams of earlier life are dimmed and 
gone, andthatthejoy oftkis resuriection is but 
an illusion of the memory — the witchery of a 
gladsome hour, too bright to last, and destined 
again to the shadow and the grave. Yes, gen- 
tlemen, the scenes of former days are gone to re- 
turn no more. They may revisit us in our mu- 
sing moods, or rise in mimicry of life at a time 
like this, and beguile us into forgetfulness for a 
iittle season, but the stern events that bestnd the 
track of life, forbid the entertainment — dissolve 
the panoramic show and stir an almost agoni- 
zing consciousness of the flight of years. The 
sympathies of oar Anniversary with emollient 
power may soften the rugged features of the 
past, and throw the enchantment of distance 
over the objects that belong to it; nevertheless, 
the contrast of early aspirations with subsequent 
disappointments — ^the changes of person, loca- 
tion and character — the new relations — the bro- 
ken ties, must strike painfully upon the spirit ; 
and in the graveyard hush that steals over the 
bosom, we can hear the foot of Time, the con- 
queror, as he steps through the silent gloom, en- 
riched by the spoils of which we have been be- 
reaved. 
Assembled as we are, to commemorate the 
days long gone, attracted by the feelings and 
bound by the ties of a common experience — fa- 
vored as we have been by Providence and pa- 
rental kindness, debtors alike to God, our coun- 
try and our kindred — responsible at every tribu- 
nal which Heaven has ordained or society 
erected, for the adjudication of character, it be- 
comes us to e-vamine ourselves, to ask and an- 
swer, what we are? — what we have done? — 
what we are doing for the elevation and happi- 
ness of our kind — the dignity and glory of our 
country? These inquiries are relevant to the 
time, the place and the objects of this associa- 
tion. The honest settlement of these questions 
is demanded by the responsibilities of the fu- 
ture, whether the investigation shall excise the 
glow of conscious rectitude or overwhelm us 
with the confusion ot undeniable guilt. The 
shame of personal unworthiness, whether abso- 
lute or comparative, is not to be merged in the 
fact ot general delinquency and so bereft of its 
condemnation; nor will the exultation of gene- 
rous merit degenerate into vanity by the com- 
parison, but the spirit ol honorable rivalry kind- 
led by the contemplation, will rush to reitieve 
the errors of the past, and though doomed to 
struggle., is yet destined to conquer. There is 
a moral beauty, aye, grandeur, in the principle 
ot association — gathering kindred spit its in hal- 
lowed fellowship, taking hold upon the strength 
of numbers, if by the combination of our ener- 
gies we seek with a noble ambition the more 
effectually lo promote our mutual improve* 
ment, intending to consecrate all our acquisi- 
tions to the great cause of our country’s weal. 
Some reflections upon Georgia — lier Literary 
Institutions and the obligations of her educated 
men may serve to combine utility wdth enter- 
tainment, and will not, I trust, prove an inap- 
propriate or unacceptable offering from your 
humble speaker. Identified by birth, education 
and affection, with this my native State, her 
character is dear to my heart, and her true glo- 
ry the object of my ambition. One of the old 
thirteen — canopied by a genial Heaven— irra- 
diated by the light of a glorious Sun — consecra- 
ted by the blood of the Revolution — endowed by 
nature with capabilities vast and varied — circled 
on the East by a line of coast indented with har- 
bors andbays, inviting to commerce, an interior 
of forests, hills and vales, fruitful of every good— 
a mountainous Western section with salubrious 
air, and mines of unexhausted mineral and me- 
tallic wealth, and scenery rich in the beautifuland 
the sublime, she stands among her sister States, 
with equals, few; superiors, none. Every ef- 
fort to enrich and adorn has met a due reward, 
and the tests of experiment upon her capacities 
have developed a fecundity of resources wide 
as her territory and multiplied as her wants. 
A diamond of the first water, a line of purest 
light has followed the hand ot the lapidary in 
every attempt to give fctfm and symmetry to her 
material. In every department of labor or dis- 
covery enterprise has received a response which 
j ustified the original confidence of the operator, 
and rebukes the fitful spirit of the people and 
the selfish legislation of their representatives. 
While the productions of the soil, the aspects of 
nature, the hereditary feelings of the citizens, 
our domestic institutions, and the powerful in- 
fluences of climate, all concur to foster and ma- 
ture those developments of mind, best adapted 
to lofty sentiments— to refinement of taste, and 
to emancipation from the bondage of vulgar 
views ; yet, is education circumscribed — its va- 
lue depreciated — its benefits when conferred, 
prostituted, and the very taste for literature 
merged in angry contests about politics or in 
utilitarian schemes, (falsely so called) that be- 
sot the understanding and "deprave the heart by 
ministering to the characteristic sin of the 
nation. We occupy before the world the 
singularly inconsistent position of boldly as • 
sorting equality of rights and privileges under 
the constitution of the country — denouncing ev 
ry invasion of our rights, actual or constructive, 
with vehement passion, and yet tamely submit- 
ting to a must inglorious dependence tor all the 
agencies by which taste is to be refi.ned or sen- 
timent cultivated. With equal mind lo con- 
ceive, and more leisure to execute, we have 
done and are doing less to augment and diver- 
sify the national literature than the inhabitants 
ot almost any other section of this great con- 
federacy. The loftiness of our pretensions and 
the capabilities of our population considered, 
and contrasted with our stupid idleness — our 
disreputable lethargy^— our degenerate ambition, 
we deserve ihe reproach of our contemporaries, 
and ought to feel the compunctions of an honest 
shame. Plied by all the stimulants that ever 
sprung the activity of sentient beings, ' et State 
pride. Southern spirit, noble emulation, have 
all been kept in abeyance, and sloth has laid an 
embargo upon all ourlaculties and monopolized 
them for herself; and to disabiliiies, thus entail- 
ed, habit has suneradded incurable callousness. 
Oh, when shall we awake from our oblivious 
sleep — cast off the wrinkled, withered skin of 
superannuated folly, and, arrayed in the raiment 
of intelligenc-e, go forth to redeem the land by 
restoringher independence ? 
The sublime exploit of our fathers in estab- 
lishing our political freedom has entailed upon 
us the high moral duly of perfecting arui perpe- 
tuating the blessing. This is to be accomplish- 
ed, not so much by adorning cities, clearing 
rivers, extending commerce, building railroad.?, 
(important as these may be,) as by the moral 
and intellectual improvement of the people. In 
times of peace, this is a primary obligation of 
government. It is the instinctive dictate of 
common sense and the oracular decree of en- 
lightened wisdom. But the first want of every 
people is the last to be supplied by modern 
statesmen. Engrossed with questions of finance 
and commerce, of boundaries and treaties, with- 
out paltry schemes of personal promotion and 
parly domination, they have made the theory of 
our government a satire upon its practice. li 
is a cardinal doctrine of the Republic that the 
enlightenment of ihe people is the glory and the 
guardian of our tree institutions ; and yet this 
broad principle, this conservative truth, is left 
unaided and alone to make its fortune in the 
world, and like the cures of a charm, works its 
moral wonders without a visible agency. It is 
a national amulet — a sainted relic of ancestral 
patriotism, the jewel of America and the scorn 
of kings, the pledge of popular dignity and the 
terror of ambitious demagogues. If action and 
opinion corresponded, all this, all these it might 
accomplish, not by magic and mystery, but in- 
telligibly, according to the lelations of cause 
and effect. Considered socially and politically, 
the principles ot virtue and right education are 
the main elements — the life-giving principles of 
stability in the institutions of popular go- 
vernment, of honor among the people, and of 
all that gives amenity and grace to the manners 
and sentiments of society. But when these 
great interests are under the ban ol legal protec- 
tion, slighted, stinted, displaced in compliment 
to ignorant prejudices or party tactics, or turned 
over as matters of individual responsibility, 
quite beyond or below the notice of legislatures 
