The object of this Address, is to convince the public, that a reform,
with respect to female education, is necessary; that it cannot be
effected by individual exertion, but that it requires the aid of the
legislature; and further, by shewing the justice, the policy, and the
magnanimity of such an undertaking, to persuade that body to endow a
seminary for females, as the commencement of such reformation.
The idea of a college for males will naturally be associated with that
of a seminary, instituted and endowed by the public; and the absurdity
of sending ladies to college, may, at first thought, strike every one
to whom this subject shall be proposed. I therefore hasten to observe,
that the seminary here recommended, will be as different from those
appropriated to the other sex, as the female character and duties are
from the male. The business of the husbandman is not to waste his
endeavours, in seeking to make his orchard attain the strength and
majesty of his forest, but to rear each, to the perfection of its
nature.
That the improvement of female education will be considered by our
enlightened citizens as a subject of importance, the liberality with
which they part with their property to educate their daughters, is a
sufficient evidence; and why should they not, when assembled in the
legislature, act in concert to effect a noble object, which, though
dear to them individually, cannot be accomplished by their unconnected
exertions.
If the improvement of the American female character, and that alone,
could be effected by public liberality, employed in giving better means
of instruction; such improvement of one half of society, and that
half, which barbarous and despotic nations have ever degraded, would of
itself be an object, worthy of the most liberal government on earth;
but if the female character be raised, it must inevitably raise that of
the other sex: and thus does the plan proposed, offer, as the object of
legislative bounty, to elevate the whole character of the community.
As evidence that this statement does not exaggerate the female
influence in society, our sex need but be considered, in the single
relation of mothers. In this character, we have the charge of the whole
mass of individuals, who are to compose the succeeding generation;
during that period of youth, when the pliant mind takes any direction,
to which it is steadily guided by a forming hand. How important a
power is given by this charge! yet, little do too many of my sex
know how, either to appreciate or improve it. Unprovided with the
means of acquiring that knowledge, which flows liberally to the other
sex--having our time of education devoted to frivolous acquirements,
how should we understand the nature of the mind, so as to be aware of
the importance of those early impressions, which we make upon the minds
of our children?--or how should we be able to form enlarged and correct
views, either of the character, to which we ought to mould them, or of
the means most proper to form them aright?
Considered in this point of view, were the interests of male education
alone to be consulted, that of females becomes of sufficient importance
to engage the public attention. Would we rear the human plant to its
perfection, we must first fertilize the soil which produces it. If it
acquire its first bent and texture upon a barren plain, it will avail
comparatively little, should it be afterwards transplanted to a garden.
In the arrangement of my remarks, I shall pursue the following order.
I. Treat of the defects of the present mode of female education, and
their causes.