America as a Field for the Exertions of the Christian Scholar by William Bross
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Title:America as a field for the exertions of the Christian scholar.

an address delivered before the alumni of Williams College / By William Bross.

Author:Bross, William, 1813-1890.

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Print Source:America as a field for the exertions of the Christian scholar. an address delivered before the alumni of Williams College / By William Bross.

Bross, William, 1813-1890.

55 p. ; c 23 cm.

Chicago,

Printed at the Tribune company’s book and job office, 1866.

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me7c ams a -FiOeZ6 for t7e xert-o7s of tAe C7stin SooZar. AN ADDRESS

DELIVERED BEFORE THE ALUMNI OF I LLIA M S O L L E GE) BY HON. WILLIAM

BROSS, [OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS,] CLASS OF

I 838, At the Commencement, Tuesday Afternoon, July 31, 1866. Song of t,7’e Old (hu,rch at, Williarnstoun,. 3 LOEM, DELIVERED ON THE SAME

OCCASION, BY REV. J. CLEMENT FRENCH, OF BROOKLYN, N. Y. CLASS OF I 8 5 3.

CHICAGO: PRINTED AT THE TRIBUNE COMPANY?S BOOK AND JOB OFFICE. I 8 6 6.

1.,r-0.

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To Lieut. Governor, WILLIAM BROSS, Chicago, Ill. To Rev. J. C. FRENCH, Brooklyn, N. Y. GENTLEMEN, The undersigned, having listened with great pleasure to the Address and Poem, this day delivered before our Society of Alumni, respectfully request of you copies of the same for publication.

JONAS KING. JOSEPH WHITE. S. H. CALHOUN. JOHN L. T. PHILLIPS. JAMES A.

GARFIELD. WILLIAM HYDE. A. C. PAIGE. HENRY L. SABIN. C. F. SEDGWICK.

CALVIN DURFEE. DAVID DUDLEY FIELD. N. H. GRIFFIN. J. Z. GOODRICH. WILLIAMS

COLLEGE, July 3 I, XI866. To Rev. Drs. JONAs KING and SIMEON H. CALHOUN, Major Gen. J. A. GARFIELD, Hons. A. C. PAIGE, C. F. SEDGWICK, DAVID DUDLEY

FIELD, and others: GENTLEMEN, We-thank you for the compliment contained in your note of July 3ISt. Such a request from such a source, we do not feel at liberty to refuse, and, therefore, we most respectfully submit our manuscripts to your direction. Very Truly, your Obedient Servants, WM.

BROSS. CHICAGO, Ill., Aug I O, I 8 6 6. J. CLEMENT FRENCH. BROOKLYN, N.

Y., Aug. 8, I866.

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ddress. Mr. President, Brethren Alumni, Ladies and Gentlemen: NOTHER year has passed away, and again , our Alma Mater bids her sons a cordial welcome to her time-honored festival. The occasion prompts to a review of duties performed and plans to be matured for future usefulness. It is our pride in all respects a just and an honorable one -that Williams College was intimately and largely identified with the origin and the development of those great Christian movements, which, within the last fifty years, have planted the Gospel in every quarter of the globe, and which, it is believed, will expand and grow, till, by their lifegiving power, they banish ignorance and vice and despotism from the face of the earth. Then shall ” The kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.” t - G:- l 6 4

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4 It may be well for the graduates, the students, and the friends of a college whose history is thus interwoven with the religious progress of the age, occasionally to examine its home field, and to discuss their duties with reference to that. The higher the standards of social and religious excellence rise here, the more overshadowing and powerful will their influence for good be upon other nations. The truth of this statement will not be disputed, and therefore, without further preface, I announce as the subject of this address AMERICA AS A FIELD FOR THE

EXERTIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOLAR. And first, a few words as to what has been accomplished in the past. When, amid the blasts of December, I620, the Pilgrim fathers landed upon Plymouth rock, they planted upon this continent the germs of a new principle. “Freedom to worship God” is the religious element of that principle, and the political is expressed in the Declaration of Independence, “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and under their combined influence, in less than two centuries and a half-a far shorter period than nation ever before matured in the world’s history -America has taken rank as a first class power, and though among some

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5 of our religious denominations the term bishop is still retained, practically we have “a church without a Bishop, and a state without a King.” It was a cardinal maxim among the founders of our free institutions, that in order to keep the church free from superstition, bigotry and intolerance, the christian must be educated; and in the state, as no despotism is so remorseless and insatiable as that of a debased and vicious rabble, that the safety and the stability of society must rest upon the virtue of the people. Hence, they planted the church and the school house side by side, and he who assumes to be an American statesman, and would undervalue or ignore either of these in his principles or his practice is an empiric-a disgrace to the name and the fame of his country. It was the vital power of an intelligent Christianity that enabled our fathers to subdue the savage wilderness, on the borders of which they settled, and the more savage men who dwelt in that wilderness, and finally to wrest our independence from the British crown. Subsequently it addressed itself to developing the resources of our vast country, to establishing common and high schools, founding colleges and universities, and building churches in the new towns and cities that were rapidly growing up, as settlements pushed westward. So thoroughly did they do their work, and so effi

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6 cient has it been in moralizing the people, that as Greece, a mere speck upon the map of Europe, gave philosophy and literature and law to all succeeding ages, so will the little valleys of New England and the Middle States give religion and liberty and law to all this vast continent. To practice the passive virtues was also imposed upon them, for the christian spirit of the country had to bear as best it could the arrogance and the brutality of the “sum of all villainies,” which had entrenched itself in the fairest portion of the land. Having feasted for three generations upon the toil of the submissive African, insolent by years of swaggering rule in the council halls of the nation, and reaching the climax of insane wickedness described in the adage “whom the gods will to destroy they first make mad,” in I86I the slave power grasped at the very life of the Republic. The christian patriotism of the land at once rushed to the rescue. During the ever varying struggle for the next four years, more than a million of men met the foe in mortal combat; and hundreds of thousands, upon the battle field, or starved in the dens of Libby, of Salisbury and of Andersonville, sacrificed their lives upon the altar of American freedom. When defeat came, as it often did, and thick darkness brooded over the land, the still small voice of Him “who holds the nations in the

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7 hollow of his hand,” whispered in the ear of the slumbering soldier at midnight, breathed around the family altars in thousands of Christian homes, and cheered the soul of the immortal Lincoln, saying, “Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God.” It is not superstition, but sanctified faith, to believe that that Spirit watched over the strife at Donelson and Vicksburg; fought with Farragut below New Orleans; drove back the rebellion on the bloody fields of Gettysburg; guided Grant and his heroes amid all the thunders of the Wilderness, and bore the flag of the nation in triumph above the clouds on Lookout Mountain. It was that Spirit, infusing courage and endurance and power into the patriotism of the land, that gave us the victory. To that we owe the proud consciousness that the foot of the slave pollutes not the soil of American freedom. The venerable temporary chairman of the Baltimore Convention, that re-nominated Mr. Lincoln in 1864, enunciated the striking historical truth “that the only enduring, the only imperishable cement of all free institutions, has been the blood of traitors.” The foundations of the Republic during the last four years were laid broad and deep in that cement, and the temple of the nation’s glory, from foundation to cap-stone, is sacred to the mem

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8 ory of thousands of the noblest patriots who have shed their hearts’

blood to give that temple immortal renown. The principles of the Declaration of Independence are now understood and acknowledged, and “
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are the heritage of all. A new era has dawned upon the nation, and it becomes the christian scholar to inquire what new duties the change has imposed upon him. To understand and to appreciate the importance of those duties, the christian scholar must study the extent and the resources of the field which Providence has still ready for him to cultivate. I am well aware that to state how large and how rich that field is, even in the exact language of sober facts and figures, will subject me to the charge of dealing in Western exaggeration.

To speak of our country as an ocean-bound Republic, stretching nearly four thousand miles from the Atlantic to the Pacific, savors strongly, in the minds of thousands of our own people, of the “spread-eagle” style of oratory; and the complacent Englishman, whose vision reaches all the way from John O’Groat’s to Landsend -the entire length of a little island which we could drown out of sight in Lake Michigan -would receive the statement with his most sarcastic sneer. I can be charitable towards these feelings, for dwell

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9 ing myself, for nearly a score of years, a thousand miles away towards the setting sun, and having for all that time studied carefully the extent and the resources of the Mississippi Valley, I had, till the last summer, no just conception of the magnificent heritage which Providence has reserved for us and for our children. Having crossed the continent with the Honorable Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the shores of the Pacific, I feel that I have some right to speak of the magnitude and the riches of that heritage. I beg you, therefore, in imagination, to go with me to the top of that peak in the Rocky Mountains which looks down from the north upon the South Pass, and there spread out before you the map of the Republic. Look eastward, and, if you please, stretch your line upon the map, and you will find yourself more than two thousand miles from the eastern rim of the Valley of the Mississippi, where its most easterly springs murmur among the mountains of Western New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Your eyes rest upon, but it is about impossible for the imagination to grasp, the capabilities for good that slumber in the largest and the richest valley upon the globe. Geographers tell us that it contains 1,237,31 I square miles, or nearly one-half of the area of the entire Republic, and that steamers can navigate the *. I:I’I: ELI. - - -
n….

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I0 great river and its branches for seventeen thousand miles. Gathering its strength from the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains, from the beautiful Itasca, far away towards the frozen zone, and from the western slopes of the Alleghany mountains, the Mississippi pours its mighty wealth of waters into the Gulf of Mexico, amid the rice fields and the orange groves of Louisiana. The vast valley which it drains embraces all the productions of the tem perate and the torrid zones-everything that can minister to the necessities and even to the luxuries of the highest civilization. In agricultural and mineral resources, with the population to develop them, it is no exaggeration to assert that the capacities of this valley are equal to those of all Europe combined. The child is already born who will see it contain at least a hundred millions of people. Now there is only about one-tenth of that number there, and it is safe to say that not half of the Mississippi Valley is now settled. What a mighty work is there here for the christian scholar to do! Not only are hundreds of thousands of farms to be opened; mines of untold richness to be developed, towns and cities and railways and telegraphs to be built; but schools and colleges and churches are to be planted and endowed, and thor oughly established, in the western half of the Missis

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II sippi Valley, for fifty millions of people. The foundations for all these should be laid before the last student that graduates from our venerable 4lma Mater on the morrow is gathered to his fathers. It should be added that no line can be drawn equally and exactly dividing the valley of the Mississippi; but it is entirely safe to say that not more than half of it has been brought directly under the influence of christian civilization. Hundreds of thousands of people are pouring into this great valley every year. They come from all the older States and from Europe -Ireland and Germany furnishing by far the larger number. The christian preacher and teacher, the farmer and mechanic, the merchant and business man, the physician and the politician - for though too rare, he also should be a christian should all be mingled with this ever increasing stream of foreign emigration, in sufficient numbers to thoroughly imbue it with the spirit of our free christian institutions. But what is needed for the millions who are soon to inhabit the Mississippi Valley is equally essential to the settlement and the safety of the other portions of the Union, and, therefore, again recurring to our position upon the Rocky Mountains, with the map of the Republic open before us, let us turn our attention to the South-West. The streams that you see leap . * o :.I *e $ 9999

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12 ing down from the mountains, unite to form Green river, the principal branch of the Colorado of the West. Skirting along between the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains and the eastern rim of the valley of Great Salt Lake, the Colorado breaks through the Pacific coast range, forming, for a hundred miles, the most wonderful and sublime scenery, and enters the head of the gulf of California nearly a thousand miles from the South Pass. The valleys along the upper branches of the Colorado, are undoubtedly capable of sustaining a very considerable population, especially if, where needed, a thorough system of irrigation is introduced, and besides, as portions of this great valley are doubtless very rich in the precious metals, it will, in a generation or two, be a very important section of the Union. Comparatively little is yet known about it, and in almost its entire extent, whatever capacities it has, are open to the direction and the moulding influence of the christian civilization of the age. Still retaining our elevated position, and looking west, the streams course towards the north, and form the south fork of the Columbia. Looking across the adjacent valleys, we can see, or imagine that we’ see, the north-eastern rim of the valley of Salt Lake.

This valley is some four hundred miles long, north and south, bv three hundred broad. The

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13 mountains that almost surround it, are the peers of the great ranges five hundred miles to the east and west of it, and hence they wring the moisture from the winds that sweep over them, and thus become the source of several large rivers. All these fall into Salt Lake, from which there is no outlet to the ocean. Evaporation and the winds of heaven furnish its only relief from the waters that constantly pour into it. Scarcely any rain falls in this valley during the summer; but by supplying its place by irrigation from the rivers and streams that flow down from the mountains, the Mormons have proved that it can be made immensely productive. Salt Lake is a very beautiful and most prosperous city, of some twenty thousand people, and there are a hundred thousand in Utah, living mainly by agriculture. Now that slavery is abolished, one of the most important works for Christianity to do upon this continent, is to wipe out polygamy from the beautiful valleys of Salt Lake. Whether, like slavery, the blood of traitors and patriots, mingled in fearful torrents, can alone rid the earth of this stupendous crime against the morality and the decency not to speak of the Christianity of the nation, no right-minded man can doubt that its days are numbered. From a week’s somewhat intimate acquaintance with Brigham Young and his leading

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I4 men, we were satisfied that they understand this perfectly; but whether they will determine “to die in the last ditch,” defying the laws of the government; whether Brigham will have another revelation peremptorily abolishing it; or they will all remove quietly to the islands of the Pacific ocean, remains to be seen. Certain it is, that in some form it must yield to the christian civilization of the age, for the nation cannot endure so deadly a cancer upon the body politic. It is, in round numbers, a thousand miles between the Rocky and the Sierra Nevada mountains. The country has a great number of valleys of which that of Salt Lake is a type. Many of them are capable of sustaining a very considerable population, and in Nevada, in the hills and mountains that sur round them, are found the most extensive and the richest silver mines upon the globe.

The mineral riches of Nevada must, in a few years, make her a leading State. In these central valleys, therefore, we find the most ample fields for the best exertions of the christian scholar. Looking from where we are supposed to be, to the north and west, the valley of the Columbia, the third in size, but, if its mineral wealth be taken into the account, the second upon the continent, lies spread out before us. Among the western slopes of

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I 5 the Rocky mountains, drained by the Columbia, are scores of rich and beautiful valleys, whose resources are all still untouched by the hand of the white man, and of which this generation should take possession and appropriate them to freedom and the church of the living God. From the South Pass it is more than a thousand miles to where the Columbia pours its immense floods into the Pacific ocean. Up among the mountains of Idaho and on the lower Columbia, there are some settlements and a few towns and cities, but the christian scholars of the older States have an opportunity to lay here the foundations of several great States, the power and the wealth of whose future no finite mind can estimate. Lying mainly west of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada range, and stretching for a thousand miles along the Pacific ocean, are California, Oregon and Washington. The two former are States, it is true; but they contain only about half a million of people, and in large districts the country is unsettled, and of course christian institutions, in all their numberless specialties, should be established there. The christian philanthropists of the Pacific coast have made the most astonishing progress in founding schools and colleges, and in building churches, for it is now only seventeen years since our Protestant

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i6 civilization fairly began to take possession of that most valuable and important section of the Union. But the work has, in fact, just commenced, and the older States should give them their prayers and their money, and, what is of still greater importance, send them their sons and daughters, thoroughly educated for the high duties imposed upon them. A single hundred years will suffice to build up a vast empire upon the Pacific; and the present generation of educated men must determine what the character of that empire shall be. Looking north and south along the Rocky mountains, for five hundred miles in either direction, there is territory enough to make a dozen Switzerlands, and in the 2,ooo000,000ooo of square miles of which we have taken so rapid a glance, making all allowance for settled portions of it, for mountains and for sections incapable of cultivation, at least one half of it is still open to settlement. Here we have ample territory to form twenty States as large as Ohio. I have spoken briefly of the agricultural resources of the country; but he who studies its mineral riches becomes absolutely bewildered with the as tounding developments already made, and the cer tainty that a very few years will suffice to pour into the lap of the nation such golden streams of wealth

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I7 that all the civilized world will look on in utter amazement. Before the nation celebrates the cen tennial anniversary of its Independence - it is to be hoped at least three or four years before that - the Pacific Railway will span the continent. Then will Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Utah and Nevada, bring forth their vast treasures of gold and silver, that have been stored away in their mountains since the dawn of creation, to pay off the debt incurred to save the Republic from being destroyed by the most infamous rebels that ever cursed the earth. It seems providential that this wealth in solid gold and silver-the dream of De Soto and all the old explorers of the continent-should have remained hid away till precisely when it was wanted for the noblest purposes. The richness of these mines and the rapidity of their development, are among the most astonishing facts in the world’s history. Twenty years ago California was a Mexican State; now her chief city of more than a hundred thousand inhabitants sits like a queen at her golden gate, and she gathers beneath the stars and stripes the commerce of Asia. Yearly California contributes nearly fifty millions of dollars to the treasures of the nation. Five years ago Idaho was inhabited only by bears and Indians; we met last summer on the Columbia river in a single shipment from that terri Z

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tory, by Wells, Fargo & Co.‘s Express, $g9o,ooo in gold, and we were assured that in I866 the Owyhee mines would actually yield silver by the ton. Four years ago Montana was not known upon the map; last year she gave an account at the government revenue office for a yield of sixteen millions in gold. The mines of Colorado have produced some thirty millions since they were opened in I859, or I86o, and with new and improved methods to reduce the ores, there is really no assignable limit to the amounts that may be secured from them. Utah is undoubtedly rich in gold and silver, the latter especially, as Gen. Conner and his brave soldiers have abundantly proved. The silver mines in and about Virginia City, and in the Reese River range of mountains in Nevada, have already surpassed, both in their extent and richness, any others heretofore known. We saw last summer more than a ton of silver bricks in the express office at Virginia City; and to make shipments of that amount is there a very common occurrence. I have no question that these mines will yield more than twenty millions during the present year. From a somewhat extended visit among them I can fully indorse the opinion of Bishop Simpson, who stated in the Cooper Institute after his return from Nevada, that “there was wealth enough there to give every I 8

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I9 solder who has returned from our battle fields a musket of silver instead of iron, and there would be silver enough left to plank our noble iron-clads more heavily than they were ever plated with iron. There are now upon the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and in the valleys between them and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, perhaps three hundred thousand people. Complete the Pacific Railway, as it will be within six or eight years, and in twenty years from to-day, from three to five millions of prosperous freemen will be there, and our gold and silver mines, from a yearly product of less than a hundred millions, will pour into the coffers of the nation five hundred millions of dollars. The responsibility imposed upon the church by so vast an amount of money, placed every year within the reach, may we not hope within the control, of the Christianity of the nation, is almost overwhelming. Let our people fully adopt and act upon the principle, “The silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts,” and who could estimate the intellectual and the moral grandeur to which the Republic would attain! But should the christian scholars of the land, shrinking from the toils incident to the development of these new countries, prefer to live at their ease amid the refinement and the elegance of

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20 the old States, then will vice seize this vast wealth, and decking herself in scarlet, “sit at the door of her house in the high places,” and the most fashionable avenues, as well as the most filthy lanes in all our cities, and political and social corruption will stalk at noonday throughout the land. Then, though you count your wealth in untold millions, shall “your gold and silver be cankered, and the rust “aye, the rust, not the right use ” the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.” This fearfully graphic language of inspiration describes perfectly the effect of unsanctified riches upon individuals and nations. How often have the older members of my audience seen large estates, accumulated by the most rigid economy and the most untiring industry, squandered in idleness, fashion and vice by the children who inherited them; and in the second, if not the first generation, these children -it may be of pious parents -end their days in the poor house, perchance with tile delirium tremens, or it may be upon the gallows! So also with nations. The luxury and the vice engendered by wealth have destroyed more governments than the sword ever did; and this should warn the educated men of the nation to guard against the next great power that will threaten the life of the Repub

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21 lic. It is the power of unsanctified wealth to corrupt and debase the national mind. The history of the great armies and the terrible navies which four years of rebellion brought into being will, while the nation remains virtuous, cause all other nations to let us severely alone; and future projected rebellions, with the fearful punishment of the last staring them in the face, will not dare to commit the first overt act of treason. There is, it should be stated, no direct and necessary connection between wealth, and social and individual demoralization. So far from that, thousands of our christian patriots are proving that it can be used for the wisest and the holiest of purposes. Let the yearly surplus profits of our bankers, merchants and business men generally be consecrated to sending the gospel to other nations; to establishing schools and colleges and churches in our own land; to sending your educated christian sons and daughters, or the sons and daughters of your poor neighbors, to the new States and territories of the Republic; to starting them in business there, and thus giving them the means to control the very foundations of society: let that surplus be devoted to establishing and sustaining everything that is noble and true and good, and more especially, as Dr.

Chalmers said of Scotland, to ” plying the boyhood of our land with the lessons of the Bible,” and then

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22 shall the gold and the silver, though there be five hundred millions poured every year into the lap of the nation, not ” eat your flesh as it were fire,” but like the dew and the rain, the sunshine and the lifegiving breeze to the waiting fields, they shall quicken and strengthen and adorn every capacity of our ocean-bound, and what is far better, our Christian Republic, and it shall expand and grow in wealth and virtue and power, and become the joy and the glory of the whole earth. In order to secure for our country this last and highest achievement of our christian civilization, it should be the life-toil of each educated man to make that specialty to which he devotes his energies, subserve the best interests of his fellow men and of the church of our Divine Master. Almost every department of business, and certainly every profession, afford ample scope for the best exertions of the christian scholar. To illustrate and enforce these general statements, it may be well to specify several particulars.

The immense and varied agricultural interests of the country need the best efforts and the direction of the christian scholar. For him “The sluggish clod which the rude swain Turns with his share and treads upon,” has themes of most important study. How he

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23 can make it yield more largely to the toil of the husbandman, and thereby contribute more to individual and national wealth and progress, is a most important problem. It is one which the noblest minds have not thought it beneath them to investigate. For ages it has been conceded that farming pursuits have the most ennobling effect upon individual character, and what higher sphere of duty can be found than to improve and give direction to these great interests? Educated men should alone aspire to that most responsible position, for they alone can fill, and therefore retain it. No other interest at present certainly is so large, and contributes so much and so directly to the wealth and the life of the nation. Where else can we look as to what are sometimes called the ” rural districts” with such entire confidence for that sterling integrity, high-toned moral and religious character; sound, shrewd, practical common sense; that unswerving patriotism, which alone can save the church and the state from empiricism, chicanery and vice? Great cities are too often festering sores upon the body politic, whose deadly influence it requires all the energy and the virtue of the country to counteract. The educated christian farmer can and should exert an influence scarcely second, and in some respects superior, to that of any other man in the commu

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24 nity. It is largely his duty to keep our social life and political power pure at their very source, and “woe worth the day” when he shall cease his efforts, or for any reason they shall become abortive. Educated christian manufacturers and business men have a wide and most productive field to cultivate. As their profits are larger than those of the farmer, so are their responsibilities to use them in those efforts which tend directly to promote the social and the religious welfare of society, proportionably larger and more pressing. What opportunities does the manufacturer who employs hundreds of operatives, have to influence them for good, and how nobly do many of them fulfill the duties of their position! To our business men and merchant princes in the past, and now upon the stage of active life, are our educational and other benevolent institutions largely indebted for their efficiency and wide-spread elevating influence. Need I point you to this noble edifice,*- or mention the names of William E. Dodge, Amos Lawrence, and the patriot soldier who sleeps by the granite rock near Lake George I mean, of course, Ephraim Williams? The history of American colleges and of * The exercises were held in the Gymnasium, a noble building erected by the munificence of Hon.

J. Z. Goodrich.

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25 our christian institutions and societies for spreading the gospel in our own and foreign lands, furnishes hundreds of examples worthy of imitation by all our patriotic wealthy citizens. The man who piles up a large fortune for hungry and too often worthless heirs to squander in fashion and vice, dies “as the fool dieth,” while he who through life uses it to promote the intellectual and the religious welfare of society, and after providing sufficiently for those nearest to him, bestows the balance, when leaving the world, upon some institution or object for the elevation of his race, has fulfilled many of the noblest objects of his being. Of what are called the learned professions, one, at least, is devoted to the moral and religious welfare of the race, and as such, it needs little more than a passing notice here. While it is necessary that the pulpits in the older States should be supplied, let me say to those young men who have the ministry in view, that America furnishes now almost as wide and certainly as important a field for you to cultivate, as was spread out before the divines whose self-denying labors have become identified with the early history of the Republic. More than half the territory of the Union is still open to the establishment of churches, the founding of schools and colleges, and manning them with christian teachers

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26 and professors, and in fact there is no limit to the necessities of the new States and territories for the labors of the educated, enterprising, devoted preacher of the gospel. I submit that it is much easier to establish churches when society is forming in the new settlements, than it is to break down the barriers to the truth which vice will be sure to build with every year of their growth. Let the churches, therefore, whenever the young and the enterprising determine to leave their midst to dwell in the unsettled portions of the magnificent Valley of the Mississippi, or among the rich mines in the Rocky Mountains, or in the great valleys west of them, send, with the same train that takes them, the educated and thoroughly earnest preacher of the gospel, and give him the means to establish the church and to open the Sunday school at once wherever your sons and your daughters decide to make their home. And let the christian physician go with them too, as the efficient promoter.of everything that is good. In all the vast unoccupied territories of which I have spoken, he can wield, as in fact he does everywhere, a commanding influence in promoting the best interests of society. True, in the new settlements he may not immediately obtain that pecuniary reward which is justly due to his services; but

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27 growing up with the country, and his early investments, small though they be, growing with it, he will in the end generally find his highest ambition in this regard more than realized. America not only furnishes a wide field for the medical practitioner; it also prompts him to the highest exertions as an observer of natural phenomena. The sciences to which he devotes his attention, and from which he derives his remedies, are still far, verv far from perfection. Be it his to detect the footsteps of the “pestilence that walketh in darkness, and the destruction that wasteth at noonday,” and to discover the means and to find out the remedies to stop their ravages. Be it his duty to be learned in all the mysteries of chemistry; to seek and to find through them, and from every other source, new healing agents in the animal and the vegetable kingdoms, and let him apply them to the relief of human suffering, and to increasing the span of human life. Every life he prolongs or saves; every new and valuable remedy he discovers; every contribution he makes to human knowledge, benefits his country. And when called away from communing alone with nature, he stands by the couch of his suffering fellow man, looking beyond mere second causes, let him contemplate the wisdom and the goodness of Him who gave us life and being; who

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28 made man so fearfully and so wonderfully; who established the relations between disease and the remedies by which he hopes to check it, and let him devoutly point the suffering to the Holy One who alone can bless all these to his recovery. Thus laboring as a physician, the christian scholar will do what he can to advance and sustain that reverence for sacred and divine things, those elevating and ennobling influences, which alone can save the nation from a deluge of infidelity and vice. I need scarcely add that they would inevitably destroy it. To specify still further, America furnishes the most ample field for the exertions of the christian lawyer and jurist. His influence is specially needed in all the new States and territories to neutralize and counteract that of the soulless shyster, and the degraded judge, whose decisions are made for money or to shield his companions in crime. Our statutes may be ever so wise, our laws ever so just and comprehensive, we must have the christian lawyer to advocate and the christian judge to administer them, if they are to punish the guilty and protect the rights of the citizen. Into all the rich mineral districts the very refuse of humanity -the gambler, the thief and the murderer -
first rush, and make society, if society it can be called, a very pandemonium upon the earth. Such a state of

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29 things soon becomes intolerable, and the American asserts his love of justice and his reverence for law by the summary code of Judge Lynch.

Murder and robbery are then granted but a short shrift, and a stout cord and the nearest tree rid the world of these monsters in crime. No mawkish sentimentality, no solemn mockery in the shape of pleas of insanity, come in here to cheat justice of her dues. True, such things are irregular, yet they are the homage which necessity forces men to pay to those broad fundamental principles of right and truth which lie at the very foundations of all government. In the history of California, Nevada and all our new States and territories, there are abundant illustrations of all these statements. W’hen vigilance committees’and lynch law have done their work - for they seem about inevitable in the early settlement of rich mining districts - then it is that the christian lawyer and judge come in to lay the foundations of society in the principles of universal justice; to prove to their fellow citizens that liberty and law are alike essential to each other. If, looking beyond the rewards of the present, the lawyer and the jurist aspire to a name that shall be immortal, where among the nations of the earth can fame be so surely attained, and where else can it be so widely extended and so enduring? Long before

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the second century of our national existence has passed away, two hundred millions of intelligent freemen will honor the memory of those noble christian men who now lay the foundations of our statutory and national law in the principles of equal and exact justice to all men. All decisions based upon caste -upon the wicked dogma that one class of citizens “have no rights which another is bound to’respect,” must be wiped from our jurisprudence. He who most ably defends or most wisely interprets the constitution of his country as the supreme law of the land; he who with the ripest scholarship and the most commanding eloquence, protects the right and denounces the wrong, will be sure of a high place in the hearts and the history of his country. Fortune and fame in the present, and immortal honor in the future, will be his sure reward. The legal profession has mainly furnished statesmen for the Republic. The wide and critical acquaintance with history and literature essential to success in it; the sharp and vigorous contact of mind with mind at the bar; the enthusiasm and effort and eloquence to which the defense of all that is good and true and right constantly prompts, and the thorough study of political economy, of the common and constitutional law which it demands,

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31 all tend to make the successful, accomplished statesman. If, with all other essential attainments, he is thoroughly a christian man, he has the widest and the surest opportunities to inscribe his name high upon the records of his country’s fame. To be, if possible, more explicit, let me add that however exalted the genius, and however powerful the eloquence of the statesman may be, his highest claim to immortality must rest upon his firm and his consistent adherence to those broad principles of right and duty which are laid down in the teachings of the Holy Scriptures. Moses upon Sinai and our blessed Saviour upon the mount, enunciated truths which are deeper and broader, more profound and more enduring than all the arts of diplomacy and all the wisdom of mere statesmanship. In the ratio which our President and Cabinet and Congressmen who have to make laws to reconstruct society in the States lately in rebellion, conform their action to these holy principles, will their work endure and will posterity honor their memory. It is for them to choose between the scheming of the merely selfish politician, the low arts of the demagogue, and the enduring contempt which they will be sure to inspire; and the principles of divine justice and eternal truth embodied in the laws they

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32 enact, and the immortal renown which that action will secure. Need I mention that the art and the literature of the land, to attain the highest achievements and the most enduring fame, should be deeply imbued with the spirit of our holy religion? Alas, too often in the past has genius made the canvas and the marble speak the language of vice. But has not the history of the world proved that genius with all her magic power cannot stamp the seal of immortality on that which is vile and degrading? To borrow a figure from our honored President, ” Genius deeply imbued with religion is as the evening cloud that lies in the sunlight, radiant and skirted with glory; without piety it is the same cloud, cold and dark, when that sunlight is gone.” Let therefore the brush of the painter and the chisel of the sculptor, guided by the loftiest genius and inspired by those holy emotions which a pure faith alone can cherish, bring out only those works which make the nation wiser and happier, purer and better, and the hand that wields them shall be immortal. And how often has literature been made to minister to the worst passions and the most debasing propensities of the race. Yet, though genius march with stately dignity through the magnificent periods of Gibbon; though it charm and glow and

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33 flash in the graphic numbers of Byron, if blotched all over by vice and sin, its most finished efforts must be consigned to an immortality of infamy. But I mistake. They have no real, not even a bad immortality, except to the mere student; for among the people their memory, like that of all the wicked, “shall rot.” I submit, therefore, that he who aspires to the front rank in American literature should be an humble, devoted christian. He should see and recognize in all our history the wisdom and the power of Him who reserved this continent for the home of a freer, a purer and a nobler civilization than the world has yet seen one whose tree of liberty is planted upon the banks, and whose roots are nourished by “the waters of the river of life, and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.” Where else in the wide world can the genius of literature find such examples of lofty patriotism; such heroic energy in battle; such patient, sublime suffering in the hospital and the prison - a country with brighter skies; wider and richer fields; grander rivers; more magnificent lakes, and lofty mountains - a progress, in all that adorns and ennobles the race, more rapid and glorious! How wide and how inviting, therefore, is the field which America offers to him who would discuss and develop these noble themes in prose or, make 3

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34 them thrill all future ages in the magic numbers of poetry! Let the christian scholar whose culture and whose genius fit him for the task, address himself earnestly to the work, for therein shall he reap honor and fame, and efficiently promote the purity and the stability and the glory of the Republic. Finally, I insist that it is of vital importance to the nation that its high priests of science should be humble, decided, and thoroughly christian men. In all ages scepticism has seized every new fact in science to cast doubt upon, and if possible, to invalidate the divine authority of the scriptures. If at first there is found to be any apparent discrepancy between the commonly received interpretation of the Bible and the facts of science, a more careful and correct study of the sacred word, and a wider induction and a more searching analysis of the facts, have always shown that man’s ignorance was at fault; not the wisdom of Nature’s God, nor his teachings in the scriptures of truth. The christian scholar believes that so it will always be in the future. Whatever pathway he pursues through the wide domains of science, let him ever be on the alert to find new illustrations of the personality and the goodness of ” Him who is excellent in counsel and wonderful in working.” In our vast country, stretching nearly four thousand miles from ocean to

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35 ocean, and fifteen hundred north and south, the objects of scientific interest and investigation are practically without limit. While the observer, beginning with the most tiny grass or the humblest flower, scans each variety of the vegetable kingdom till he stands in amazement beneath the big trees of California, or searches into the deeper mysteries of animal and vegetable life; while the geologist runs his cross-section four thousand miles across the continent, and reads in the rocks of the “everlasting hills” the silent and solemn history of our planet from the earliest dawn of its existence; while the astronomer points his telescope to the skies and detects new suns whose light has just reached this far-distant planet; while he defines and illustrates those laws which bind the universe together, linking the mote that floats in the sunbeam with the mightiest sun that circles the throne of the Eternal; while the philosopher studies the capacities and the wonderful workings of the human soul as the most correct image of the mind of Him who made it; let the christian scholar, whose pure and exalted genius fits him to grasp the truths of all science, illustrate from them the wisdom and the goodness, the power and the glory of Him “who spake and it was done, who commanded and it stood fast.” Year by year let him post up the science of the

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36 world, and show, as he surely can, that the God of Nature is the one only living and true God; that He whose hand formed all worlds, and who made the laws that govern them, is the christian’s God - the Divine Author of the Scriptures - the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whose atonement we have sure hope of redemption and eternal life. So doing, the christian scholar shall control the leading minds of the nation, and thus hold the entire people in the belief and the practice of those fundamental truths of the gospel which alone can give stability and vital power and enduring glory to the Republic. BRETHREN ALUMNI: I have illustrated, as best I could, our duties as christian scholars to our country. To many of us who for more than a quarter of a century have been fighting the battles of life, the time for aggressive labor may be nearly over. It is not for us to change our homes or the pursuits to which our energies have been devoted. Be it ours to direct, with all the wisdom and the experience and the strength we possess, the national wealth and the national mind into those channels which shall the most efficiently promote the intellectual, the social and the religious welfare of the Republic.

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37 To the younger graduates let me say, gird up your loins like men, for you have a magnificent heritage. The work you have to do is a noble work.

The progress of the country since we graduated has been truly amazing.

Then, a few short lines of railway in the Eastern States were all the country could boast, and the steamship and the telegraph were unknown.

Now, the ocean steamer vexes every sea; the locomotive has leaped over the Alleghany Mountains, and is now far away across the Missouri, a thousand miles beyond them; and you can send your messages of love and of mercy, far outstripping the sun in his course, across the continent by the lightning line. But yesterday we heard that the Atlantic cable was successfully laid, and Europe, Asia and Africa exchange congratulations with the great Republic by the lightning’s flash through the dark, slimy caves of old ocean. The press, from being a state, almost a mere neighborhood affair, gathers its news by telegraph from every quarter of the globe, and scatters thousands upon thousands of copies daily from all our large cities. The gold and silver mines of California, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Montana and Colorado, exhaustless and absolutely fabulous in their richness, have all been discovered within the last twenty years. Science in all its departments, has

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38 made the most satisfactory progress, and slavery, that terrible incubus upon the prosperity and the integrity of the country that loathsome plaguespot upon our national honor-has been wiped out by the blood and carnage of the last four years. Your means, therefore, to achieve great results for good are vastly increased, and your responsibility to use them wisely and well is also increased in a corresponding ratio. Study to know how great and how rich is the field which, as christian scholars, America has spread out before you. Wherever your lot may be cast -in the great valley of the Mississippi; way up among the gold and silver mines and the magnificent parks of the Rocky Mountains; on the banks of the great Columbia, or upon the Pacific coast, where the breezes from Japan and China shall play upon your brows; there do you become identified with every effort that can elevate your fellow men; there do you practice and diffuse all around you the principles you have been taught here in Williams College; seize every new discovery in science; control, as near as may be, all the wealth, and so direct every capacity and power of the.

country that they may the most effectually promote and secure the social, the intellectual and the religious welfare of the race. So may you see what never has been seen, a whole people moral, intelli

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39 gent and virtuous, and therefore free, prosperous and happy. May it be yours to contribute efficiently and most largely to so glorious a result, and thus may you see and realize for our country the brightest anticipations, and for yourselves the reward of the American christian scholar.

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TRIENNIAL CATALOGUE. 0 CLASS OF 1838. *Edvardus-Payson Hawkes, Mr. 1851
at1’ Rowland-Sears Howes, p. Mr. Johannes Isham, j. *Foster Lilly, Mr.

1855 st 44 Theophilus Page, j. Josephus - Christophorus - Yates Paige, j.

Carolus Peahody. David Pease. Johannes-Van-Pelt Quackenbush,, Mr., M. D.

Coll. Med. Alb. 1842, ibique Obstet. Prof. JOHANNES WELLS, j. Mr.

*Edvardus Whiting. 1844 at 25 Franciscus W4illiams.’ 3 Davis Alton, j.

Willard Brigham. GULIELMUS BROSS, e. Mr., Vice Gub. Reip. 111.

Josephus-Merrick Bush, j. Daniel-Reed Cady, Mr. JAcosus-DENIsoN COLT, j.

Med. Juris. Prof. Schol. Med. Berk., Curator. Cole-Heman Denio, j.

Gulielmus-Norris Edwards, p. Mr. Henricus-Martyn Field, e. Mr., S. T. D.

1862. Thomas-Elmory Hall. FREDERICUS-HERRING HASTINGS, j. OF I853.

Marcus-Nelson Horton, p. Mr. Nathanael-Woodhull Howell, j. Mr.

Georgius-Gilchrist Martin, Mr. Robertus-Carolus McEwen, M. D. Coil. Med.

et Chir. Nov. Ebor. I856. Harvaius-Gulielmus Milligan, Mr. M. D. Univ.

Louis. I863. Henricus-Austinus Miner. u Crthurus Mitchell, Mr., Laf.

Tutor. Yohannes-Keep Nutting. t3 Franciscus-Nathan Peloubet.

Carolus-Enochus Perkins, j. Henricus-Millen Sabin, p. Mr. Henricus-Jugustus Smith. Carolus-Augustus Walters, p. Mr. ,eremias-Evarts W4alton.

(Carolus-Carroll Whitney, Mr. Robertus-Henricus Williamson, Mr.

*Jacobus-Samuel Woods, M. D. alibi. 37 1860 et29 Robertus-Johannes Adams.

Johannes-Ezekiel Baker. Samuel-Davis Barr, p. Mr. Johannes-Steward Barry.

ERASTUS-NEWTON BATES, j. M Georgius-Boughton Bates, a. Orlando-Cullen Blackmer, p. Edvinus Byington, M. D. U Nov. Ebor. I859. Gulielmus Cheney, merc. Mr. Jacohus-tlpheus Clark, Mr. *Jacobus-Lawrence Clarke, p.

Henricus-Ellsworth Daniels, j. Leveus Eddy, Mr. Egbertus-Henricus Fairchild. Tho mas-Burton Forse. ,ustus-Clemens French, Mr. Theodorus 4dolphus Gardner, h Carolus-Franklin Gilson, p. Georgius Hazeltine.

)ohannes-McClellan Holmes, I\ * Stelligeri. CLASS 1863,t 3 Mr.

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Aong of the Id hurch ,4t W7Liiabmstow n, Nass.* BY REV. J. CLEMENT FRENCH, Brooklyn, N. Y. T was-is not-yet is-old ruined shrine, GROWThick matted now with mem’ry’s greenest moss; The hill is bare-its glory gone - no sign Save fire-swept rocks, which sunset glints across, Erst builded with a snowy-fingered spire; That fall’n, it wore a huge pine apple crown Then, tower and temple, the remorseless fire, Unheeding Sabbath’s sanctity, struck down. Yet, as the wanderer over sun-beat sands, Sees distant, shadowy landscapes, green and still, So, to my mem’ry’s gaze, that minster stands, In laiting mirage on that sacred hill. The tenuous shade still to the spirit speaks Nor hushedforever is the clear-voiced bell, Which challenged echoes from the mountain peaks, And tolled its throbbing rhythms thro’ the dell, Wilt listen to the metric tale they tell? *

Graduates will remember the old church that stood on the hill nearly in front of the Mansion House. It was burned down Sabbath evening, Jan. 14th, I866. 1.

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Then from the decades past, let airy hands Unwind the historic thread of many strands: Place to our ears attent the whispering shell, Brought from the shifting ocean of the Past, Upon whose hither shore, the Present, now are cast These gems of recollection by its heave and swel]. I am the village church! to-day I rise, Like Phcenix from his ashes. Now the skies Look down on peaceful homes, with starry smiles; As when, a hundred years agone, the tide Of Indian war had drifted north, beside St. Lawrence, laving all his thousand isles! Never the sun beheld a lovelier vale! In mythic lore, we read the witching tale Of Tempe, flow’r-clad, balmy all the year. The song and vaunting of the Switzer’s land Is Chamouni, the mountain-walled and grand; But Chamouni and Tempe both are here. For seventy years, upon this hallowed mound, Mine eye hath swept this strict horizon round, Nor asked a farther glance-for Beauty’s throne Is on these hill-tops, and the four-fold queen Of changing seasons, walks the vales between, And timely sheds the charms of every zone. Here, Greylock, peerless monarch of the chain Of circling vastness, domineers the plain; Crowned earliest with the wreaths of virgin snow, Caressing clouds around his forehead sweep; 42

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43 Upon his breast the evening shadows sleep, And morn’s first glories on his helmet glow. Here, Pisgah, northward, lifts his oval crest, As when the feet of Israel’s leader press’d His mount of doom in far Beth-peor’s wild; Here, east and west, the gentler slopes ascend, Whose autumn robe the frosts and rainbows lend, Like that bestowed on Jacob’s fav’rite child. Here, born of founts diverse, two rivers bless The closecut meadows-meet and coalesce, As meet and fuse the twilight and the dark,So, twain of human hearts are blent in one, So, wooing clouds are married by the sun, So, cherubs joined their wings above the ark. I see cloud-shadows creeping up the mountain; The chequered splendor of the various grain I see the sparkle of the Cold Spring fountain, The toiling farmer and his creaking wain. I see the meadows flecked with herds and cattle, Browsing by streams, or drowsing in the shade; I see the crinkling bolt and hear the rattle, As quick-brew’d storms come crashing down the glade. Then mottled skies - the lifting of the curtain, Which tempests dropp’d, in mimicry of eve; The heavens perplexed with mist, as if uncertain Whether in suns to smile, or tears to grieve. I see the oak, the gnarled, true-hearted giant, The graceful elm tree, with its fringing vine, The thick-boughed maple, and the willow pliant,

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44 The selfish poplar and the whisp’ring pine. Talk not of Rome, seven-hill’d, with heathen glory, Which Latin Tiber skirts with yellow stream! The three hills of my home, unsung in story, Baffle the limner, shame the poet’s dream. What waves of mem’ry now are breaking o’er me!

Quick, Muses! crystalize them in your verse What visions fresh, tho’

fleeting, flit before me Historic Pen! their wonders now rehearse They told me in my infancy, That war once rent this vale, That all its horrid, harsh alarms Rose on the rising gale. Lurked the red men in the copse and the glen, The tools of Frenchmen’s gold - Screamed the war-whoop, as with vulture’s swoop They fell on the white man’s fold. Fort Massachusetts kept the ward Of the valley’s eastern gate And the red skin horde made red the sward, As its lead sped hot and straight. And when the tide of Indian war swept up the northern gorge, Dieskau massed his motley crews by crystalline Lake George And in the van which faced the foe along that rocky steep, The gallant Williams, fighting, fell, and there his ashes sleep. But Lethe’s waves can never roll Over that brave and generous soul, While such a monumental pile remains To crown these hills - these consecrated fanes Where Learning’s vestal fires, with crescent flame, Burn lasting incense to his honored name.

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45 Another tale of war and fear Was whispered in my childhood’s ear. Of time’s fleet wave, another score Had broken on the hither shore Of the dim past, when clarions rung The call to arms, and tensely strung The thews of steel, and hearts of oak Of all New England’s sons, and woke The echoes from each hill and dell, Of Freedom’s Independence Bell. Ha! see! they come, from glebe and shop, Sequestered dale and rough hill top! Stern patriots, leaving plane and plow ear’s bugle blast is calling now! ” Break the oppressor’s chains and bars Up with the nation’s stripes and stars!

Down with the British rule and rod! Strike for the love of home and God!”

All day the sullen, booming gun Was heard from distant Bennington. Along the Hoosac’s stream it rolled And many a sick’ning tale it told, And many a funeral knell it knolled, On that eventful day. For sire and son to conflict went, And there, in ” one red burial blent,” Mid shattered arms and banners rent, On the field of carnage lay. But the eagle rose from the battle smoke, Unstained of wing; the lion’s stroke Was foiled -and struggles to be free

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46 Made good that early prophecy. Thank God, New England lives to-day!

Strong as her hills of granite gray. The fathers’ manly blood still runs In veins of undegenerate sons! Should madness thrust this daughter fair “

Out in the cold,” and leave her there, Let me her glorious exile share!

Next, Peace spread her white wings o’er wild woods and waters And Industry sang to her leal sons and daughters, In the ring of the anvil and burr of the loom, In the axe of the woodman, and rush of the flume To the overshot mill-wheel; in songs of the maid Driving homeward the kine,- in the dark, rustling blade Of the tall Indian corn, or the plash in the lake Of the fisherman’s oar, as the wings of night shake Their shadowy plumes, till the valley is still, And the sentinel stars set their watch on the hill.

Meet it was, when days were golden All war’s clanging trumpets blown, In that storied time and olden, Science should erect her throne. Here, her sky-born spirit hovered, Poised on pinions strong and fleet, Till her eagle eye discovered Where to rest her weary feet. Just between me and the morning Spread upon the eastern slope, With its stately pile, adorning

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47 That mid hill’s unwooded cope, Rose West College on my vision, First to realize my dream, When these hills and fields elysian Should with Learning’s temples teem. Dream no longer-as the years have marched in slow pro cession by, One by one I’ve seen these structures lift their foreheads to the sky. Cheerful halls, from out whose windows students watched the village stage, Or the lamp-ray gleamed at midnight, as they conned the classic page. Halls of relics quaint and curious, brought from Greenland’s icy strand, Every strange bird, stuffed and balanced by the taxidermist’s hand; Nameless creatures-or they should be -represented by their bones; Fossils - now in genus homo - then, huge bird-tracks in the stones; Rocks of every name and nature, crystals with their flashing lights, Slabs of Ninus, hieroglyphic, - galaxies of college wights; Halls where ancient tomes and modern, writ by men of every clime, ‘Side by’side, like pontoon bridges, span the rushing stream of Time; Hall of science astronomic, built by one* whose genius durst, In those tardy days of science, rear this dome, the very first; * Prof. Albert Hopkiits.. ~~~~~~~~~~ ~ . e e

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48 One who now, with bold step, follows stars unto their hiding place; Tracks the sun along the zodiac, stadium of his annual race; Scoops the valley for the lakelet, flecks the terrace with the flowers, Flow’rs both native and exotic, -trains the vines around his bowers; Builds the chapel in the purlieus,- treads the path the saints have trod, Owning every man his brother, living praises to his God. Then arose the Gothic chapel, strong to bear the tempest’s shock, Founded, like the Master’s kingdom, on the changeless, living rock. Last, that hall of strength and beauty, where the supple gym nast swings, And -(how sage old Rip Van Winkles stare to see such novel things!) Men of broadcloth, sleek and proper-maidens, lily-fingered, fair, Bowling at the battered ten-pins, pirouetting in the air; Eloquent in lore of ten-strikes, spares, cocked-hat, and pony balls; Oh! was ever known such frolic in these consecrated halls? Nay! but, bless the age! we’re learning to dissever false from true, Learning that the soul’s Creator formed the wondrous body too; Learning that the Lord who spreadeth out the heavens for His tent, For the dwelling of His Spirit wants no sickly tenement. Thank we, then, the noble Goodrich-last among his peers, we think, To the chain of Science giving here the only lacking link

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49 Now, again, my thoughts turn backward, from the temples to the men; Those who filled the chair of Praeses, richly honored now as then: Turn to FITCH, who, first unrolling parchment on Commence ment Day, Gave the boys his benediction, as he sent them on their way. How he bore his double burden,- President and Pastor too! How the Gospel message rang he, to his high commission true! Think you, shall his voice be silent? Never, while yon waving grove Weaves its tapestry of shadow on the sward, where, wrestling, strove, Like the patriarch with the angel, Hall and Mills, the men of God; Never, while the haystack’s mem’ry lingers round that sacred sod! While, to preach the truths be taught them, forth the missionary goes, And the wilderness is glad, and deserts blossom as the rose Next was MOORE - name more poetic-fall’n upon the adverse times, When dissensions wrought their mischief, and to near North ampton’s climes Some would fain have borne the college, pluck’d the valley of its crown; Till the Berkshire dwellers, rallying, rose and frowned the measure down. Next was GRIFFIN - Boanerges - worthy of our highest lays; Six feet three, with mass proportioned-” There were giants in those days “! 4

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Mien majestic, eye of eagle, voice of either breeze or storm, With the stride of a colossus, bore he on his regal form; On truth’s watch-tower now he standeth, rings the warder’s stern alarms, Or gentle as the lambs he tendeth, stoops to take them in his arms. If Philosophy says truly, that the whole material bound Takes an impress from our /iving, every deed and word and sound, Which the judgment shall exhibit, we shall see, at trumpet-roll, Graved upon this vale, his record, deathless as the human soul. Next was HoPKINS -but he livethb shall the Muse forbear her song, Waiting for the hours posthumous? Let the measures roll along! Did the tall Elijah’s mantle on this son of Williams fall? Yea! and fringed with fire celestial I With it he has smitten all Jordans of adversity, whose waters hasting to divide, Now the college safe have landed on the green and pleasant side. As the oak, by mighty wrestling with the storms, its strength has sought, So his might has come from conquests on the battle plains of thought! As the oak reflects the sunshine from his coronal of leaves, So his crown gives back the radiance which the thin hair over weaves Think we of the isle of Patmos, where the seer of glories won, Sweetly said, ” I saw an angel, Uriel, standing in the sun “! As sextons stand in old cathedral towers, And ring, not single bells to mark the hours, But pealing chimes; so :..:. *. —: 1.

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5 I So that word’angel,’ wakes in mem’ry’s cell Whole trains of echoes, welling up to tell Of olden times. I think me of the holy men, who spake God’s merciful evangel, for the sake Of Him who died; Gone now ad astra -
yea, beyoid the stars; Where saints and angels hymn accordant bars, The throne beside! One form I miss. Not less might Williamis mourn Than Westfield, when that righteous man* was borne To vernal tomb. Boast not, Oh Grave! thou hast no victory! Thy sting was foiled, thy power despoiled, for he Feared not thy gloom. I see processions creeping slow and still, As desert phantqms up the western hill; Then on its brow, Where stands the sexton leaning on his spade, The little children’neath the turf are laid 

They’re angels now. For them my bell has tolled, For young and for the old, Slow-slow! For them my bell has knolled, As they slept beneath the mold, Low-low! Hollow, faint, funereal, solemn, as the mourners come and go! * Rev. Emerson Davis, D.D., of W/estfield, Vice President of the College.

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52 Not always thus-for when the fire, The lambent, crackling, mordant fire, Has leaped in frenzied fury higher Than the hearth-stone, Then twanging, clanging peals of ire, Then clashing, jangling screams of ire, Have flashed alarums from the spire, In anger’s tone. Nor always thus, for liquid, silver notes, Mellifluous as the warbling from the throats Of song-birds crooning on the vernal sprays, My bell has chanted, in the merry days, When your fathers and mothers were wed, And the pledging words were said, That ring, the token; When under the trysting shade The sacred vows were made, And never broken. Farewell Old Bell! Thy funeral knell This song shall be! Raised from thy molten grave By cunning hand, which gave Thy being first, Oh save One moan for me! One vision more. On yonder chapel mound, On gradual plinth, the Soldiers’ Monument! Hush! softly tread upon that hallowed ground, Tho’ with its soil no patriot’s dust is blent,

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53 For thought can hallow place. Stand there and muse Of serried graves beneath a Southern sky No tear-drops fall there, save the pitying dews, No plaint is heard there, save the breeze’s sigh These are the men who felt the Saxon blood Leaping and burning hot in every vein, When Treason’s cursed shot hissed o’er the flood That chafes old Sumter in the Southern main. These sent their death-song thro’ the battle cloud, Mori pro patria decorum est “! These heroes, dying, asked no nobler shroud Than Freedom’s banner for their martial vest. Oh shame! that those whom our Columbia nursed, Who basely bit the breast which gave them life, Who tore her jeweled robes with hands accursed, Whose hell hot breath blew on this mortal strife Whose puny ordinance would rend the land, Cleated with mountain bands and streams, by Him Who made the worlds,-yea, touched with Uzzah’s hand, The ark of Freedom with its cherubim Oh, shame! that these men, reeking with the blood Of half a million, starved, imprisoned, slain, Should cheat the gibbet of its rightful food, And live to spawn their treason o’er again Weep, weeded skies! not that the rehel dead Have traitor hands to strew their graves with flow’rs; But that the leal and loyal may not spread Their floral offerings on the graves of ours! Shame is it, too, that Northern men endorse The Ukases of Freedom’s foulest foe, And breathe reviving on the reeking corse

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54 Of Slavery, king of sin and sire of woe! That men we trusted, palter with the clay, No less God’s image for its sable hue; And by official edicts steal away The rights, as native unto them as you Oh, Charity! take up thy robe! (Of old, The sons of drunken Noah did the same,) And, backward stepping, wrap them in its fold, That none may see their nakedness and shame! Was it to give the halls of Washington To pistol logic and the slaver’s threatTo yield the ocean to the pirate’s gun, Whose boom has scarcely ceased to echo yet - That Gettysburg, war’s pivot, marshals now Its silent, ghostly army, thousands strong? Was it for this, that on the kingly brow Of Freedom’s martyr, gathered thick and long Care’s serried furrows,. till the travailing soul Well nigh outwore its casket, but was given The joy to see and touch the appointed goal, Then, on the assassin’s bullets sped to Heaven? Great God! forefend! Oh, let this bloody sea Give up its dead, if we betray our trust! And every finger point to Thy Decree ” The nation shall not live that is not just!” We leave thee, Monument! The rising day, Memnonian music wakens on thy crest; The chrism of stars is on thee! so, we pray, May heavenly baptism on the soldier rest

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55 Oh, fateful years! Oh, classic realm! Oh, metric muse, adieu! Oh, cruel flames! your tongue proclaims, “Old, yield thee to the new!” Not on this sacred hill, but down the midway slope, Another fane of God shall rear its modern cope! I rest in peace I some, bless that Sabbath fire, Yet others weep above that funeral pyre! Tho’ hard my fate, may angels wait Attendant on thine earthly gate Hark! spirit bells I hear! Back to thine ashen bier Mine eye grows dim! Cease, struggling hymn! My lute Is mute! Mute!

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