It is understood that the first number of the "Messenger," will be sent
forth by its Publisher, as a kind of pioneer, to spy out the land of
literary promise, and to report whether the same be fruitful or barren,
before he resolves upon future action. It would be a mortifying
discovery, if instead of kindness and good will, he should be repulsed
by the coldness and neglect of a Virginia public. Hundreds of similar
publications thrive and prosper north of the Potomac, sustained as they
are by the liberal hand of patronage. _Shall not one be supported in
the whole south?_ This is a question of great importance;--and one
which ought to be answered with sober earnestness by all who set any
value upon public character, or who are in the least degree jealous of
that individual honor and dignity which is in some measure connected
with the honor and dignity of the state. Are we to be doomed forever to
a kind of vassalage to our northern neighbors--a dependance for our
literary food upon our brethren, whose superiority in all the great
points of character,--in valor--eloquence and patriotism, we are no
wise disposed to admit? Is it not altogether extraordinary that in this
extensive commonwealth, containing a white population of upwards of six
hundred thousand souls--a vast deal of agricultural wealth, and
innumerable persons of both sexes, who enjoy both leisure and
affluence--there is not one solitary periodical exclusively literary?
What is the cause? We are not willing to borrow our
political,--religious, or even our agricultural notions from the other
side of Mason and Dixon's line, and we generously patronize various
domestic journals devoted to those several subjects. Why should we
consider the worthy descendants of the pilgrims--of the Hollanders of
Manhattan, or the German adventurers of Pennsylvania, as exclusively
entitled to cater for us in our choicest intellectual aliment? Shall it
be said that the empire of literature has no geographical boundaries,
and that local jealousies ought not to disturb its harmony? To this
there is an obvious answer. If we continue to be _consumers_ of
northern productions, we shall never ourselves become _producers_. We
may take from them the fabrics of their looms, and give in exchange
without loss our agricultural products--but if we depend exclusively
upon their _literary_ supplies, it is certain that the spirit of
invention among our own sons, will be damped, if not entirely
extinguished. The value of a _domestic_ publication of the kind,
consists in its being at once accessible to all who choose to venture
into the arena as rivals for renown. It imparts the same energy, and
exercises the same influence upon mental improvement, that a rail road
does upon agricultural labor, when passing by our doors and through our
estates. The literary spirit which pervades some portions of New
England and the northern cities, would never have existed, at least in
the same degree, if the journals and repositories designed to cherish
and promote it, had been derived exclusively from London and Edinburgh.
In like manner, if we look entirely to Boston, New York or
Philadelphia, for that delightful mental enjoyment and recreation,
which such publications afford, we must content ourselves with being
the readers and admirers of other men's thoughts, and lose all
opportunity of stirring up our own minds, and breathing forth our own
meditations. In other words, we must be satisfied to partake of the
feast, as it is set before us by our more industrious and enterprising
countrymen, and if peradventure, the cookery should not be altogether
to our taste, we must, nevertheless, with our characteristic courtesy,
be thankful,--and like honest Sancho, "bid God bless the giver."
It is not intended to be intimated that the aristarchy of the north and
east, cherish any unkind feelings towards the literary claims of the
south. Oh no! In truth, they have no cause whatsoever, either for
unkindness or jealousy. If we only continue to patronize their
multitudinous magazines, they will pocket our money and praise us as a
very generous and chivalrous race; or if, perchance, some juvenile
drama, or poem, or some graver duodecimo of southern manufacture,
should find its way to the seats of learning and criticism beyond the
Susquehanna, it is an even chance, that in order to preserve the
monopoly of the southern market, they will dole out to us a modicum of
praise, and render some faint tribute to rising merit. Without
therefore intending any thing invidious, or without cherishing any
unkind or unmanly sentiment towards our political confederates, we
ought forthwith to buckle on our armour, and assert our mental
independence. All their own lofty and generous spirits will approve the
resolution, and be among the first to welcome the dawn of a brighter
era in a region of comparative twilight. Their Irvings and Pauldings,
their Everetts and Neals, their Coopers and Verplancks, their Kennedys
and Flints, their Hallecks and Bryants, their Sedgewicks and
Sigourneys, will rejoice in the emancipation of the south, from the
shackles which either indolence, indifference, or the love of pleasure,
have imposed upon us. We are too old, and ought to be too proud to lag
behind even some of our younger sisters, in the cultivation of one of
the most attractive departments of human knowledge. It is folly to
boast of political ascendancy, of moral influence, of professional
eminence, or unrivalled oratory, when, in all the Corinthian graces
which adorn the structure of mind, we are lamentably deficient. It is
worse than folly to talk of this "ancient and unterrified
commonwealth"--if we suffer ourselves to be _terrified_ at the idea of
supporting one poor periodical, devoted to letters and mental
improvement. It would be an indelible reproach to us, that whilst we
waste so many thousands annually in luxury--whilst we squander our
means in expensive tours of recreation and pleasure,--and even
impoverish our resources in indulgences too gross to be mentioned--we
should be unwilling to contribute a single mite towards building up a
character of our own, and providing the means of imbodying and
concentrating the neglected genius of our country. Let the hundreds of
our gifted sons, therefore, who have talents and acquirements, come
forth to this work of patriotism, with a firm resolution to persevere
until victory is achieved. Let them dismiss their apprehensions,--that
because as yet they are unpractised in composition--and the highway to
literary eminence is already thronged with competitors--that,
therefore, the most vigorous effort will be vanquished in the contest.
In the race for political or professional distinction, who is
influenced by such timid suggestions? In that noble strife, which
animates southern bosoms to control by the magic of oratory the
passions of the multitude, or in a more learned arena "the applause of
listening senates to command"--who ever heard of discouragements and
difficulties sufficient to chill their ardor, or restrain their
aspirations? And yet is it less difficult to attain the prize of
eloquence--to rival the fame of a Henry, or a Wirt, than to achieve the
task of vigorous and graceful composition?
To our lovely and accomplished countrywomen, may not a successful
appeal be also addressed, to lend their aid in this meritorious task.
Their influence upon the happiness and destiny of society, is so
extensively felt and acknowledged, that to dwell upon its various
bearings and relations, would be altogether superfluous. It is to the
watchful care of a mother's love, that those first principles of moral
wisdom are implanted in childhood, which ripen into the blossoms and
fruit of maturer years; and it is to the reproving virtues and refining
tenderness of the sex, through all its mutations, from blooming sixteen
to the matronly grace of forty--that man is indebted for all that is
soft, and for much that is noble and wise, in his own character. It is
true that there is another side to this picture. If a woman's education
has itself been neglected; if she has been trained up in the paths of
folly and vanity--and been taught to ornament the casket in preference
to the celestial jewel which it contains,--she will neither be a fit
companion for the sterner sex, nor be qualified to assume the divine
responsibility of maternal instruction. To diffuse therefore not only
the benefits of moral but intellectual culture, among those whom heaven
has given to restore in part the blessings of a lost Eden--to withdraw
their minds from vain and unprofitable pursuits--to teach them to
emulate the distinguished names of their own sex, who have given lustre
to literature, and scattered sweets in the paths of science--is a duty
not only of paramount importance on our part, but claims the united and
cordial support of the fair and interesting objects of our care.
Let no one therefore presume to disparage this humble effort to redeem
our country's escutcheon from the reproach which has been cast upon it.
Let the miser open his purse--the prodigal save a pittance from his
health-wasting and mind-destroying expenditures--the lawyer and
physician, spare a little from their fees--the merchant and mechanic,
from their speculations and labor--and the man of fortune, devote a
part, a very small part of his abundance, towards the creation of a new
era in the annals of this blessed Old Dominion. It may possibly be the
means of effecting a salutary reform in public taste and individual
habits; of overcoming that tendency to mental repose and luxurious
indulgence supposed to be peculiar to southern latitudes; and of
awakening a spirit of inquiry and a zeal for improvement, which cannot
fail ultimately to exalt and adorn society.