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Page 15
CHAPTER VIII
CONTRASTS
It has already been emphasized that the Jukes always mingled blood of
their own quality in their descendants, and that the Edwards family has
invariably chosen blood of the same general tone and force. Who can
think for a moment that the Jukes would have remained on so low a level
if the Edwards blood had been mixed with theirs, or that the Edwards
would have retained their intellectual supremacy if they had married
into the Jukes. The fact is that in 150 years the Jukes never did mingle
first-class blood with their own, and the Edwards family has not in 150
years degenerated through marriage.
It is pre-eminently true that a mighty intellectual and moral force
does plough the channel of its thought and character through many
generations. It would be well for any doubter to study the records of
thoroughbreds in the animal world. The highest record ever made for milk
and butter was by an animal of no family, and she was valuable only for
what she could earn. None of her power went to her offspring. She was
simply a high-toned freak, but an animal with a clean pedigree back to
some great progenitor is valuable independently of individual earning
qualities.
No more would any one claim that the Jukes would not have been immensely
improved by education and environment, or that the Edwards family could
have maintained its record without education, training, and environment.
The facts show that the Jukes first, last, and all the time neglected
these advantages, and that the Edwards family, with all its
intermarrying, has never neglected them.
The Jukes were notorious law breakers, while the Edwards family has
furnished practically no lawbreakers, and a great array of more than 100
lawyers, thirty judges, and the most eminent law professor probably in
the country. James Bryce in his comments upon America places one of this
family at the head of legal learning on this continent. This was
Theodore William Dwight, LL.D., born in New Haven, July 18, 1822;
graduated from Hamilton College, 1840; professor there 1842-58. In 1858
he went to Columbia College, organized the law school and was its
president for thirty-three years.
Some of the most eminent official city attorneys of Philadelphia, New
York and Chicago have been found in this family. Ex-Governor Hoadley, of
Ohio, a descendant of Jonathan Edwards, is now the head of perhaps the
leading law firm of New York City or of the country. When one studies
the legal side of the family it seems as though they were instinctively
and chiefly lawyers and judges. It simply means that whatever the
Edwards family has done it has done ably and nobly. There is no greater
test of intellectual majesty than that which the practice of law puts
upon a man. When James Bryce pays his grand tribute to Dr. Theodore W.
Dwight, president of Columbia College law school, it signifies more
intellectually than to have said that he was president of the United
States.
None of the Jukes had the equivalent of a common school education, while
there are few of the Edwards family that have not had more than that.
Few were satisfied with less than academy or seminary if they did not
go to college. There is not a leading college in the country in which
their names are not to be found recorded. They have not only furnished
thirteen college presidents and a hundred and more professors, but they
have founded many important academies and seminaries in New Haven and
Brooklyn, all through the New England states, and in the Middle,
Western, and Southern states. They have contributed liberally to college
endowments. One gave a quarter of a million as an endowment for Yale.
In Yale alone have been more than 120 graduates. Among these are nearly
twenty Dwights, nearly as many Edwards, seven Woolseys, eight Porters,
five Johnsons, four Ingersolls, and several of most of the following
names: Chapin, Winthrop, Shoemaker, Hoadley, Lewis, Mathers, Reeve,
Rowland, Carmalt, Devereaux, Weston, Heermance, Whitney, Blake,
Collier, Scarborough, Yardley, Gilman, Raymond, Wood, Morgan, Bacon,
Ward, Foote, Cornelius, Shepards, Bristed, Wickerham, Doubleday, Van
Volkenberg, Robbins, Tyler, Miller, Lyman, Pierpont, and Churchill, the
author of "Richard Carvel," is a recent graduate. In Amherst at one time
there were of this family President Gates and Professors Mather, Tyler,
and Todd. Wherever found they are leaders even in college faculties.
Those who know what Gates, Mather, Tyler, and Todd have stood for as
president and professors of Amherst will appreciate what Jonathan
Edwards' blood has done for this college.
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