The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 4, December, 1834Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 4, December, 1834
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Strange as it may seem however, whilst the Governor in the part of his
report which we have quoted, seems to reason upon the idea that
Legislative aid is desired for the sole purpose of endowing an asylum
at the commencement, and that the annual cost of supporting and
educating the pupils is to be drawn from private sources,--he
nevertheless suggests as the preferable mode, that the Legislature
should annually appropriate a sufficient sum for the maintenance of a
given number of pupils at the institutions of Connecticut or
Pennsylvania. Let him speak in his own language:
"If the benevolent purpose of instructing the deaf and dumb be the
great object of those who desire the establishment of a seminary of
this kind in Virginia at this time, the principal question must be, by
what means can such an object be best attained? The considerations I
have mentioned will probably suffice to shew, that much proficiency
cannot reasonably be expected from a school of this kind created here
now, nor for many years yet to come, except at a cost to the public
very far exceeding any public benefit that could possibly be derived
from it. The benevolence of the object might perhaps justify such an
expenditure for its accomplishment, if no other means existed. But when
other means are open, by which the same benevolent purpose may be
attained, even better, and at much less expense, it seems difficult to
assign any reason why the better and cheaper mode should not be
preferred. This better mode seems to me to be, to appropriate a portion
of the sum it must require to create and to perpetuate such an
establishment here, to the advancement of the same object in some other
seminary already established in one of the other states. All the
eastern states (except Rhode Island, I believe,) have pursued this
course in regard to the seminary at Hartford, in Connecticut; and I
understand that New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland have adopted the same
plan with respect to the seminary in Pennsylvania."
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