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The counsellors of Abraham Lincoln, during the stormy days of the Rebellion, were men of trained minds. "All the leaders," says Professor S. N. Fellow, "in that Cabinet were college-trained men.
The college-trained men have been especially quick to utilize this throne of power to guide the public mind to right principles and inspiring motives. The colleges must continue to be fountains whence shall flow a pure, earnest, and truthful literature, which will, in a great measure, determine the destiny of the present and future generations.
There is abundant evidence, however, which goes to prove that the college graduate has better chances for success than the non-graduate. It is admitted at the outset that some self-educated men have succeeded without a college education, while some college-trained men have failed in active life. It should be remembered that colleges do not exist to make ability, but to develop it.
This vast army of youth receiving instruction is regarded, on the part of some people, with a little disquietude, and it is believed that we are likely to have too many college-trained men and women. There are certainly no grounds for fear if we take education to mean the broadest culture for complete living.
We have learned, however, that these professions are not superior to other avenues in science and business. A college training is only a means to an end. It is giving a man fitness for work of any kind. The departments opening up to college-trained men in all lines of work are multiplying and expanding with each succeeding year.
Thomas Jefferson, author of the "Declaration of Independence," was a college man. Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, who took such a prominent part in the framing of the Constitution of the United States, were college-trained men. Three-fourths of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were college graduates.
The abstinence of men of property and position from overt politics, and the contempt that banishes political discussion from polite society, are among the first surprises of the visiting European to America, and now that, under an organised pressure of conscience, college-trained men and men of wealth are abandoning this strike of the educated and returning to political life, it is, one notes, with a prevailing disposition to correct democracy by personality, and to place affairs in the hands of autocratic mayors and presidents rather than to carry out democratic methods to the logical end.
Likewise, the colleges have contributed largely to the general prosperity and material progress of society. They are the real centers of power of this enterprising and progressive age. "The revival of learning and the epoch of discovery ushered in the epoch of natural science, which has made possible the epoch of useful inventions." College-trained men are the most practical and useful of men.
There are those who have obtained their training and knowledge outside of the college who have accomplished great good. There are pious and devoted men who are illiterate, but whose Christian work has been attended with more apparent results than some college-trained ministers. These, however, are the exception.
They redeem you, make you well-bred; they make "good company" of you mentally. If they find you with a naturally boorish or caddish mind, they cannot leave you so, as a technical school may leave you. This, at least, is pretended; this is what we hear among college-trained people when they compare their education with every other sort. Now, exactly how much does this signify?
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