A Public Library

MR. EDITOR: There is not a citizen of any tolerable information in Davenport, who, if inquired of, would not earnestly say, that, of all the social needs of a public character, that which our citizens most require, is a public library.  Knowledge and a desire for it, are not confined to families who are able to provide an extensive private library.

The humblest boy or girl may possess a mind as aspiring, a fancy as poetic, a genius as lofty, and hopes as ambitious, as the most favored in the land.  No private library adorns the shelves of his humble home to which he may go for that mental ailment which a thirsting soul desires; no volumes of historic lore stand invitingly before him when great thoughts leap into being in that mind, ready to be molded into the statesman, the historian or the poet; and to appease that thirst, more ignoble occupation is resorted to as a relief, and thus the embryo of a great man may be irretrievably ruined; when, if a public library were accessible, no such dangers would ensue.

How many young persons are kept at the parental fireside by the charms of attractive books, and thus avoid the temptations and snares which beset the unoccupied minds of youth.  This lad, instead of traversing streets with unprincipled boys, stealing signs, doing mischief, and sowing the seeds of vices which may become crimes, would hang over the pages of Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico, or of Pern, his eye kindling at the brilliant exploits narrated, and his memory fed with historic traditions and recitals requisite for every scholar, and the foundations of that boy’s future greatness and usefulness is being laid deep and strong.

A public library at once becomes the encyclopedia of every boy and girl in our midst, resorted to  to settle questions of disputed history, sought for to enlighten the composition of the student, examined to test the accuracy of the public lecturer or the political orator, without which presumptuous ignorance might impose its pretensions upon public credulity, and counterfeit greatness be held in equal venerations with genuine scholarship.  Ours is especially a country where

“Honor and shame from no condition rise,”

and where upstart pretensions based upon lineage or wealth find no general favor, but where true merit is justly honored and caressed.  No elevation is so great that the humblest may not aspire to its attainments; and our form of government is one in which the cultivation of the mind becomes essential to the preservation of the public liberties.

Take the publication of a newspaper, Mr. Editor.  Suppose that but a numerical fraction of our citizens could read, how long, think you, would the daily journal continue to be published?  And is it not true, that the greater the attainments of a man, the greater is his demand for publications, and his library table every day covered with at least half a dozen dailies and as many magazines?  You then, more than any others have a direct interest in the topic I am discussing.  Your very prosperity, nay, existence, depends upon it.

What then shall we do?  This is easily answered.  Already there is the nucleus of a fine public library in our midst; belonging to the nearly defunct Young Men’s Literary Association, with about eight hundred volumes.  Unorganized efforts have been made by a few persons to preserve its existence, and to keep the library from being scattered, and they have made many sacrifices to this end.

They desire that the public shall take the matter in charge, shall come generously forward and place this Library upon safe and sure foundations.  A joint stock company is proposed, in which citizens can subscribe for shares, either in money or books, and thus rescue a library in the greatest danger of shipwreck, convert it into a public and endurable institution, and secure for the present and future generations a ceaseless fountain of public knowledge, whose blessings can be no more estimated than the stars be numbered.

Newspapers can secure the desired object by persistently urging, encouraging and sustaining every effort for the establishment and success of such a valuable institution.  To them it will be bread cast upon the waters; it will return after many days in increased subscription list, and enlarge patronage.

G. E. H.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 4, 1862, p. 1