"It is the false notion of honour which has unhappily possessed the minds of men, placing all dignity in the pageantry of state and the tinsel of office, which produces those collisions, jostlings, and acrimony of contending factions which sometimes shake the fabric of society to its very foundations: it is by the maddening influence of this false notion that men, whose claim to respectful notoriety is inversely as their desire to be conspicuous, are sometimes urged to abandon their obscure but appropriate position in the line, and to rush into the foremost ranks. When men shall have learned wherein true honour lies--when men shall have formed correct ideas of true and sober dignity, then we shall see all the ranks of society united as by a golden chain--then Ephraim shall not envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim;--then the occupant of the palace and of the cottage--then the man in lawn and the man in rags will, like the parts of a well-adjusted machine, act in perfect unison. Considering, then, the influence which in every community a few men are found to possess--considering, also, that each one of these influential men is sure to be followed by a party, we can hardly appreciate the obligation which rests upon them, to abandon all jealousies and suspicions--to merge every private and personal consideration in thoughts for the public good--and to bring a mind untrammelled, and free from every party predilection, to a solemn deliberation on the great objects of public utility.
"The education of our youth is the next subject to which I would direct your attention. 'Knowledge is power'--is an old proverb--but not the less true because it is old. This is the spring that regulates the movements of society--this is at once the lever and the safety-valve of human institutions. Without it society will either not move at all, or, like an unbalanced, unhelmed ship, move in a direction and at a rate that must eventually destroy it. Education corrects vice--cures disorders--abates jealousies--adorns virtue--commands the winds--triumphs over the waves--scales the heavens. In a word, education lays all nature under tribute, and forces her to administer to the comfort and happiness of man. Nor is this all that education does. It ennobles and elevates the mind, and urges the soul upward and animates it to deeds of high and lasting renown. Education opens sources of pure, refined, and exquisite enjoyment--it unlocks the temple of nature, and admits the awe-stricken soul, to behold and admire the wondrous work of God. An ignorant, vicious, idle community, has the elements of destruction already in its bosom. On the very first application of a torch they will explode and lay the whole fabric in ruins. A virtuous, orderly, educated people, have all the elements of national greatness and national perpetuity.--Would we be happy at home and respected abroad, we must educate our youth.