Whereas, A large number of persons, many of them of a suitable age for instruction, reside in various portions of our country, without any means afforded them for improvement, either physically, mentally or morally, in consequence of mental incapacity, being objects of deep commiseration, and too often made the subjects of contumely and abuse: And whereas, They must remain in that condition unless the fostering hand of the Legislature is extended to their relief; and whereas, no efforts have as yet been successful in the establishment of any asylum for idiots in this country, although they are in successful operation in Europe: therefore, Resolved, That a committee be appointed in each State represented in this convention to memorialize the Legislatures of their respective States to establish asylums for the education of idiots, as soon as practicable. Mr. STONE, chairman of the committee on a periodical, presented a series of resolutions as their report, which were temporarily laid upon the table, to be taken up at a subsequent period. A paper was then read by Prof. I. L. PEET, on the "Moral State of the Deaf and Dumb, and the means and results of Religious Influence among them." MORAL STATE OF THE DEAF AND DUMB PREVIOUS TO EDUCATION, AND THE MEANS AND RESULTS OF RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE AMONG THEM. MORAL STATE OF THE DEAF AND DUMB PREVIOUS TO EDUCATION, AND THE MEANS AND RESULTS OF RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE AMONG THEM. No human condition can be imagined more deplorable than that of the uneducated deaf-mute. This remark should be limited in its application to those whose deafness is congenital, or has been occasioned soon after birth. Those who have retained their hearing till the ages of four, five or six years, enjoy a higher scale of existence. They may lose their remembrance of articulate sounds, and as a consequence their ability to speak; but the germs of thought, knowledge and language have been implanted in their minds through the ear. The same peculiarities, therefore, cannot be predicated of them, as of that still more unfortunate class, who have never had intellectual contact with their kind. A blind person may call forth tears of pity, when we think of the beauties in nature from which he is forever debarred, but though no cheering ray may pierce his sightless eye-balls, light still bursts upon his soul. The hopelessly insane man excites our compassion as we view the wreck of mind, yet we remember that there was a time when he enjoyed rational existence, and that if he improved this aright, he is destined to the highest exercise of his moral and intellectual in another world. Upon the idiot we look with feelings akin to those with which we regard the brutes which perish. But in the uneducated deaf-mute we see mind, possessing all the powers with which it was created, yet prevented from exercising them upon their appropriate objects, intellect confined within a prison house of clay. |