Wesleyan College - Veterropt Yearbook (Macon, GA)

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5oniett)incj of Wesleyan. A N unsuccessful effort was made in the early twenties by Mr. Duncan Campbell, of Wilkes county, to secure a charter for a woman ' s college. This clear-headed man who introduced the bill to the legislature was in advance of his times; in advance, in some respects, of even this enlightened age; at least, in advance of certain portions of his native state, for this bill provided that the trustees of this institution should consist of fifteen males and fifteen females. We do not know how it is in all portions of the state, but we do know that in this particular section women have not risen to the dignity of membership on school boards. Although the law makers of that time gravely shook their heads and opposed Mr. Campbell ' s bill, for they knew that an educated womanhood could bring only disaster to the state, still the women found a strong champion in the person of Mr. Daniel Chandler, who in a remarkable address on female education, delivered at the State University in 1835, aroused interest in this subject throughout Georgia. This address had in it the ring of true persuasive eloquence, and carried conviction to the minds of his hearers and readers, for the address was published and broadly distributed. In refutation of the idea that woman cannot master the sciences or the higher branches of literature, he referred to the long bright throng of women that shine resplendent down the dim vista of the past, tlun added: “If you descend to modern times the light of truth will disclose empires won by female valor, scepters wielded bv her

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hand, crowns lying at her feet, men the tools of her power, and the world the theatre of her greatness. Give woman an opportunity and science will be her handmaid, philosophy her companion, and litera- ture her plaything. Give the female the advantages of the same instruction with the male, offer her the same opportunity of improvement and she will struggle with the boldest mind for mastery in science and letters, and will outstep in the proud race for distinction the favored objects of parental solicitude and legislative bounty.” This from a man in behalf of woman. Then he added : “ In our country there are sixty-one colleges, and the disgrace of the nation be it known, not one of them dedicated to the education of woman. No apparatus explains the principles of her studies, no library throws its collected light on her neglected mind. She has no sanctuary where she can place her shrines, no altar before which with saint-like devotion she can make her prayers one sweet sacrifice. Child of promise, thy day of liberation is nigh. Knowledge has raised her eyes to heaven and sent to its glittering throne, a prayer of faith in thy behalf. On its power, I rely; in its efficacy I trust!” And he did not trust in vain. This was in 1835, and the next year a charter was obtained for the Georgia Female College, which school in about five years became Wesleyan College, the first institu- tion to recognize the rights of women to a liberal education. Many colleges of higher grade and richer endowment have thrown open their doors since that day, many male universities have followed in the wake and admitted women within their portals; but to the Wesleyan belongs the distinguished honor of being the first chartered institution in the United States, if not the world, established upon the plan of a regular college for women. As Georgians, as Southerners, we take pride in this fact, and now appeal to the women of the state without respect to religious creed or faith to unite with us in saying, 4 All hail to the South, the leader in the grand enterprise ; all hail Georgia, upon whose brow the fair jewel of Wesleyan rests like a diadem ! all hail Wesleyan, the pioneer college for women ! Let us echo the sentiment uttered at the first commencement exercises, “Beacon star in the night of years, we greet thy beams with rapture and hail the sign of promise as did the Roman mother the lambent fire that played round