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Life Of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet

Creator: Edward Miner Gallaudet (author)
Date: 1888
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, New York
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 2

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What has become of Julia Brace? I hope she will not be forgotten. You may think it chimerical, but I do believe she might be taught many words and perhaps to read, by having raised letters, in relief, as it were, which she might feel. This is the way the blind are taught at Amsterdam. I have a specimen of their type. They are now learning to read the Bible with their fingers.

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I long to see Hartford once more and to be in the midst of my deaf and dumb children. I feel more than ever devoted to the object. Be assured I shall not be deterred from prosecuting it by any obstacles. It's a good cause, and Providence, we have every reason to think, will crown it with final success. But we must feel our dependence on Him. Mere human wisdom and strength are broken reeds on which to lean. How much I want to hear of your welfare and that of your dear family -- may I say, of your spiritual welfare. How often while I was with you, did I wish to ask the question, but my heart failed me, whether you did indulge the hope of being born of God. Even now, perhaps, I am taking a liberty which it is sometimes thought even the closest friendship will not justify. Pardon me. You will not object, however, to my saying that it is often my most earnest prayer that all that dwell beneath your roof may receive the richest of spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, and that God may enter into covenant with each of your souls. Let me ask, also, your prayers for me, that I may be preserved in safety till my return, and above all, that I may be enabled continually to act with a reference to the glory of God and to the best good of my fellow-men.

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I have once written Alice, and I again write her. I shall hope to hear from her. Remember me affectionately to Mrs. C. and all your family and to other friends who may think of me. Yours sincerely,

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T. H. GALLAUDET.

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A few days after writing this letter, Mr. Gallaudet repaired to Edinburgh, with strong hopes of attaining the object he had so much at heart. But in Edinburgh, as in London, he was to encounter the Braidwood monopoly, and to find men of naturally benevolent dispositions and generous impulses, willing to recognize its binding force as against such an appeal from a distant foreign land as he most eloquently urged. Mr. Gallaudet's experience in Edinburgh is fully given in the following letters, the first being to Dr. Cogswell:

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EDINBURGH, Sept. 22, 1815.

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MY DEAR SIR: -- Not a syllable has yet reached me from Hartford. Indeed I am much grieved at this. I want to know your movements with regard to our project. I can not account for your silence. So many opportunities by which to write me, and yet four months now have elapsed since I left you, and I am wholly ignorant of what you are doing. I have written you and Mr. Woodbridge again and again, giving you a circumstantial detail of my proceedings. My last letters were sent by Mr. Junius Smith, who sailed in the Venus, bound for New York, the latter part of the last month. By him I gave you a journal of my proceedings at London. Strange that I should meet with any disappointment at the institution in that metropolis for the deaf and dumb! But so it was. Although I had frequent access to the school and several conferences with Dr. Watson, yet when I proposed any thing like an effectual arrangement for the accomplishment of my object, terms were offered me by the committee to which I could not accede. But of all this transaction, I have given both yourself and Mr. Woodbridge, by different vessels, a particular account. And here also I am surrounded with unexpected embarrassments. Mr. Kinniburgh, the instructor of the school in this place for the deaf and dumb, received his first instructions in his art from Mr. Thomas Braidwood, the grandson of the original Mr. Braidwood, to whom he bound himself not to communicate any information respecting the subject to any individual for seven years. Four years of this period have expired. I have been corresponding with Mr. Thomas Braidwood on this subject, in hopes that I might prevail on him to release Mr. Kinniburgh so far as his bond might refer to America. But Mr. Braidwood is not to be moved. This morning I received a positive refusal to my application. The reason for this which Mr. B. assigned is, that his brother, Mr. Jno. B., is in our country, -- the same gentleman of whom we heard as being in Virginia. The truth is, he left this place a few years since in disgrace. He was solicited to undertake the superintendence of a public school for the deaf and dumb. He conducted so badly and contracted so many debts, that he was obliged to abscond. What dependence can be placed on such a character! Still I do not despair. I hope yet to persuade the committee of the school here either that the bond under which Mr. Kinniburgh is laid is an illegal one, or at least that it has no reference to one from a foreign country. Still my success in this is problematical. I shall make all the efforts in my power. If I fail I shall resort to one or two private instructors in this neighborhood and in London, and if the state of France will permit, I shall visit the Abbe Sicard. I shall want more money to be remitted to Mr. Barlow. My expenses have been considerably increased by my unexpected delays and disappointments. Indeed I am confounded almost by this scene of trial which I have to pass through. But I do not despair. You must trust me that I will gain all the advantages I can for the promotion of our common object. I feel devoted to it. I long to see it accomplished. If you mean to have this business carried through, it will be necessary speedily to remit more money. Not that I am yet in want of it, but it is better to be beforehand in affairs of this kind. Perhaps I may yet have to expend some money in accomplishing my arrangements with the instructor here or with some private instructor in the way of a fee. Possibly an offer of this kind may yet move Mr. Braidwood. Mr. Kinniburgh wants no such reward. He is a most benevolent man. Should such an arrangement be necessary, how large a sum can you devote to this purpose? How much have you already raised? Rest assured I shall study economy in all my personal expenses; but if, after having devoted myself to this object simply on the condition at present of having my expenses defrayed, I am left in the lurch for the sake of a little money which I know could be raised in a short time in Boston and New York, I shall be extremely disappointed with regard to the generosity of my countrymen. For some days past I have been laboring to procure acquaintance among persons of influence here who may be able to assist me in any plans which I may finally think it expedient to adopt. Among these I feel a peculiar satisfaction in naming Dugald Stewart, Esq. And how do you think I found access to him? It was by means of Julia Brace, the little deaf, dumb, and blind girl, the importance of visiting whom I so strongly urged upon you, as you, no doubt, recollect. I mentioned her case to Dr. Buchanan, one of the clergymen of this place, observing that I should much like to communicate the facts respecting her to Mr. Stewart. Mr. S. happened soon to be in town. Dr. B. introduced me to him. I was invited to spend a day and night in his family at Kinneil house, about eighteen miles distant. I did this a few days since and left with him an account of Julia Brace with which he appeared to be much interested. I shall hope to see him in town before long. In the meanwhile Mrs. Stewart gave me a letter of introduction to Dr. John Gordon, the writer of the article "Deaf and Dumb "in the Encyclopedia, one of the committee of the institution here, on whom I have called, and I have no doubt that he will do every thing in his power to promote my object. He feels a deep interest in the general subject. But you can hardly conceive how slow a business it is to get at large bodies of men in this country. Several weeks, you recollect, elapsed in London before their committee could give me their ultimatum. And it will be some time before I can make my final arrangements here. I rejoice, however, that I came to Edinburgh. Here men of science have taken an interest in the instruction of the deaf and dumb. Here there are several pupils, men of respectability, of the former Mr. Braidwood's, with whom I can have an acquaintance. There is also one gentleman in town, and another thirty or forty miles distant, who have practiced this art; so that I shall procure a great deal of general information on the subject, even if I should not be able finally to get access to Mr. Kinniburgh's school. As soon as I make any definite arrangement I shall be careful to inform you by the first opportunity. I have been in Mr. Kinniburgh's school. Several of his pupils have made great progress; Turner, especially, whose letters are published in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia. I am now reading the Abbe Sicard's system in French, by way of preparation, in case I should visit him in Paris. He expects to publish a new work on the subject in the course of a few months. It will appear in London. Could I get all the necessary instruction in Scotland or England, and have a complete set of the Abbe Sicard's works, I should think it of less importance to visit Paris. But time alone can determine this. In the meanwhile, I hope my friends in Hartford will continue to remember me in their prayers, that I may be carried through this arduous undertaking successfully. Indeed I long to return. I feel more and more satisfied that, the simple, quiet, retired path of duty, in which we can in some way or other serve God and do good to the bodies and souls of men, is the only path of peace. Oh, that we may all be enabled to walk in it! During the short time that I have been in Edinburgh I have seen objects and formed acquaintances which, on the other side of the water, would, in prospect, have filled my soul with the most splendid visions of delight. To tread this classic ground, to be in the Athens of the world, and even to have intercourse with some of its greatest philosophers and literati, all this would promise much. But it has all served to convince me that nothing can satisfy the immortal mind but God Himself, and that so long as we divide our hearts between Him and any other object, so long there must be a tumult of wretchedness in our breasts.

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