CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY gentian ^dd^ lAlpha Delta Phi 1 89 1 Prest. Daniel Coit Gilman, LL.D. Hon. Clarence Armstrong Seward, LL.D. Hon. Ellis Henry Roberts, LL.D. Rev. William Alvin Bartlett, D.D. Hon. Henry Stochbridge Prof. Charles Sprague Smith, M.A. Talcott Williams, Esq. Hon. Edward Patterson The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031782729 Convention Addresses Alpha Delta Phi 1891 ADDRESSES Delivered at the Public Exercises in connection with the $gth Annual Convention of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity Held with the Johns Hopkins Chapter OAay 7 and 8, 1891 at Lyceum Theatre and Lehmantfs Hall Baltimore, DAd. ADDRESSES DELIVERED BY Prest. Daniel Coit Giltnan, LL.D. Hon. Clarence Armstrong Seward, LL.D. Hon. Ellis Henry Roberts, LL.D. Rev. William Alvin Bartlett, D.D. Hon. Henry Stochbridge Prof. Charles Sprague Smith, M.A. Talcott Williams, Esq. Hon. Edward Patterson Printed for the Fraternity, New York, iSgi GILLISS BROTHERS 400 * 40S WEST 14TH STREET NEW YORK DELIVERED AT THE PUBLIC EXERCISES AT LYCEUM THEATRE, MAY 7, 1891 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS DANIEL COIT GILMAN, LL.D. President, Johns Hopkins University Ladies and Gentlemen : *T* HE College Fraternity, though perhaps a novelty to many in this audience, is nothing really new. It is only the form in which the nineteenth century expresses the love of companionship which characterizes the student in every age, — of every clime. Unions of students for mutual instruction, friendship, and support, are as old as Harvard and Yale, Oxford and Cambridge, Heidelberg and Bologna. In some form or other, young scholars have always formed, and will always form, associa- tions with one another, to be governed by ties of residence, congeniality, nationality, aptitudes, tastes, acquisitions, purposes. The college societies of the United States afford opportunities not only for the cultivation of literature, poetry and oratory, but also for the study of human nature, the formation s DANIEL COIT GILMAN, LL.D. of intimate acquaintances, and the bestowal of those gentle offices of counsel and assistance, of encourage- ment without flattery, and of admonition without censure, that are so rarely bestowed in the habitual reserves of modern society. College discipline, on the part of the faculty, is made easier, indeed in these days it is seldom called for, in colleges where the fraternities do their duty. But do they always do their duty? Probably not. To use the phrase of an English don, " none of us are infallible, not even the Junior Fellows." None of us are infallible, — not even the faculties, not even the fraternities. But fraternities and faculties, in the colleges where I am most at home, work together for the general good. That form of the college associations which is known as the Greek letter society, differs (as those of us who have been initiated are well aware) from the general societies, like the Whig and Clio of Princeton, like Linonia and the Brothers in Unity of old Yale, and also from those that are of still more limited and local significance, like the Hasty Pudding Club of Harvard. The Greek letter socie- ties are the peculiar outgrowth of American life. In the year of independence, at William and Mary, in Virginia, the Phi Beta Kappa Society was born. Its chapters, before long, were established in other colleges. Its in- fluence united educated men in every part of the 6 DANIEL COIT GILMAN, LL.D. country, for the support of scholarship and patriot- ism. Now there are scores of associations whose mysteries are concealed under the euphonious symbols that Cadmus brought from Phenicia to Greece. You have assembled to honor the Alpha Delta Phi, — venerable, wide-spread, respected, and beloved, — more than this, made illustrious by the names of jurists, scholars, orators, poets, preachers, bishops, who have been in their youth its active members, in their advancing years its counsellors and guides. We thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your courtesy and respect. Brothers of the Fraternity : — It may surprise, it may disappoint you, when I say that the President of the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, whose presence has been promised you, can- not be here this evening, — I mean " officially." He regards himself as the friend and protector of all honorable fraternities in the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, even though the entire Greek alphabet to- gether with iota subscript should be needed for their titles. So he cannot appear to-night " officially," as the Admiral of the Pinafore used to say, — lest he should seem to bestow on one association exclusively the good will that he feels toward all. But he has delegated to represent him a former student of Yale, with whom he has been intimately ac- quainted, whose hair has prematurely turned gray, DANIEL COIT GILMAN, LL.D. and this Yalensian, with the enthusiasm of his noviti- ate, bids you welcome to the hospitalities of this hospitable city. He does not believe that an Alpha Delta Phi man can ever grow old, for when- ever he hears the footstep of approaching age, he has only to enter our Chapter house and taste afresh the springs of eternal youth. However he may appear to others, — to himself he becomes a boy again. That student of Yale College joined this Frater* nity from these considerations. It was an old society dating from 1832, and in a college "where four years makes an immemorial custom, and five years a period when the memory of man runneth not to the contrary," 1832 belonged to remote antiquity. It was a fraternity that had its chapters far and wide. It included many distinguished men, at a distance, Blatchford, Curtis, Coxe, Lowell, Jay, Cooley, and many of his most honored friends. Not long before Donald Grant Mitchell, the gifted writer, had been an active member of the chapter in Yale ; Timothy Dwight, predestined to be the President of Yale College, was still to be seen from time to time in the Chapter house ; so were William L. Kingsley, Editor for many years of the New Englander and Yale Review ; Hubert A. Newton, the distinguished mathematician ; and Ellis H. Roberts, the orator whom we have invited here this evening. 8 DANIEL COIT GILMAN, LL.D. Ladies and Gentlemen : — It remains for me to introduce to you the Presi- dent of the Fraternity, our honored brother Hon. Clarence A. Seward, a leading member of the bar of the City of New York. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS THE TEACHINGS OF ALPHA DELTA PHI CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. President of Alpha Delta Phi Brethren of Alpha Delta Phi, and, through you, the ladies and gentlemen who have honored you with their presence, but more particularly and es- pecially, Brethren : /^\UR most puissant, never-forgotten and always- ^"^ venerated mother bids us assemble here to- night, and so we are gathered to do her homage. The order of exercises announces as a prelude the official address. Official addresses are usually very much alike. They consist partly of the His- -torical and partly of the Suggestive. The precedent thus established will be followed, but with brevity, for brevity is the demand of the hour. Steam and electricity have produced a universal desire for cel- erity and condensation. One wishes to get to his destination in the shortest possible time and to have CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. another's thought expressed in the fewest words. Therefore, the day for long utterances, whether in the pulpit or in any other forum, has gone by, and what is now demanded is compactness of thought with conciseness of expression. The " limiteds " and the " telegrams " are typical of the desire of all audi- ences. This is true even in Congress, so that it is now said that when the member from Oshkosh is wearing out patience with verbose platitudes, the member from Towson quietly and satirically moves that " the gentleman have leave to print the rest." Our Society is now fifty-nine years old. It still reveres as its founder the one whom we now know as " Father Eefls." It still recalls the original Ham- ilton Chapter, with its five members, as his handi- work. During that period our Fraternity has had in all twenty-four Chapters, whose aggregate existence has been 784 years, and the total of whose mem- bers has now reached in all 6,642. Think of that ! Fifty-nine years, expanded into 784 years of organic life, and five members grown to be 6,642, and all animated by the spirit and principles of Alpha Delta Phi. It is true, some of our sister Chapters have de- ceased, my own among the number, but I have taken the liberty to inscribe upon her monument " Resurgam," and when that is accomplished I hope that whenever oyr roll is hereafter called " Geneva " will always answer " Adsum." CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. There are now nineteen existing Chapters, hav- ing within them all the elements of a successful perpetuity and a roll of 520 undergraduate mem- bers, and to you, as representing their numbers, I shall shortly have to say a few words in very sober earnest, and which it is hoped will be received in the same sense in which Ophelia bestowed her pan- sies. These 6,642 brethren of ours have been, and are to be found wherever it is honorable for an Alpha Delta Phi to be. They are divines and parishion- ers ; doctors and patients ; lawyers and clients ; edi- tors and readers ; engineers ; architects, — indeed, — of their own fortune. In fine, they are in every walk in life, save one. It is not known that any Alpha Delta Phi ever wore a felon's garb. Born though we were in the genial atmosphere of Central NewYork, our Society seems from the start to have absorbed so much of the ice and granite of New England as to render an Alpha Delta Phi in front of the warm and tempting hands of crime al- ways cold and immovable. Thanks to Father Eells and his successors who founded such a Society, and thanks to those also who have kept it so pure, that its ranks have never embraced a criminal. Imitating the sturdy Scotch in their adherence to their Covenant, our brethren have adhered to their Constitution. They have understood it to imply the reconstruction of the individual, so as to insure 13 CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. the habitual observance of that commandment which is second only to the " first and greatest," and when that is effected the gates of pearl will be so near that one can almost hear the anthem beyond. Those who are thus animated cannot by any possibility reinforce the ranks of criminals. The outlook is one of peaceful continuance. More bright and clever and intelligent young men will go to college; will be there selected as members of Alpha Delta Phi ; will adorn and bring new renown to their Chapters ; will go out into the world and achieve honored names, and will then pass away to learn for themselves in heavenly space what lies be- yond the Star and Crescent. It would not be right, in the presence of such an audience as this, to terminate the historical and official part of a presidential address without trying to satisfy the curiosity of the uninitiated as to the meaning of our Greek letters. It is naturally sup- posed that they represent some words, and that such words have some meaning. Can there be any harm, or any breach of rule or contract or confi- dence, express or implied, in stating at this late day what they have been said to be ? " Akerios damalis pheretai." If anyone should ask you what those words mean, you can say, " They will not bear trans- - lating." This will be the safest answer for them and by far the easier one for you. Turning now, and in accordance with precedent* 14 CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. to the Suggestive, I ask your attention for a few moments to some of the teachings of Alpha Delta Phi and their possible results. A forgotten and therefore unknown and probably never existent, but always veracious historian, is as- serted to have narrated that a New England lady of uncertain age, at the conclusion of a wedding's festivities, and after the happy couple had started upon the tour which happy couples always take, if they have money enough, astonished the remnant party by sorrowfully and sighfully asking, " For what was I created ? " This anxious inquiry of this desolate and unmated spinster was not then and there original. It had been sounding down the corridor of ages since vo- calization became intelligible. It has been uttered in every language and has been asked by every hu- man being capable of speech. The answer has been often essayed, and gener- ally, but with such variations as were occasioned by time and locality, the answers have been in sub- stance the same : To secure or to avoid something in some future state, condition or world. This has been the drift of both mythological and religious teaching and thought, whether the former word be understood as Max Muller defines it, or the latter with the meaning which Paley ascribed to it. These answers have in a certain sense been ac- ceptable. They were in accord with an instinctive is CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. belief that there was something in human nature which survived its dissolution, Assuming this, and what survived must of necessity have its foundation and a form. Art and poetry, therefore, long ago produced the one, and the oldest literature, as well as the youngest, describes a heaven. Where literature was unknown and where tradi- tion alone existed, and among those of the time and place of whose birth there is no absolute assurance, the same instinctive belief prevailed. The North American Indian had his " happy hunting ground," and he ascribed to it, also, " many mansions," and, more charitably than all others, he opened the door not only to his race, but to his horse and his dog. He had never heard of the Psalmist nor of his writings, but he alone, of all mankind, seems to have united with him in the belief that, " Thou, O Lord, shall save both man and beast." The literary gratification or education of this in- stinct, like the instinct itself, is entirely an effort of belief and faith, and not of knowledge in its scien- tific sense. The actual visits of the angels have been so few and far between that even at this late day it cannot be said that their existence is known. It is believed only. The location of the admitted heaven does not proceed beyond an upward and encircling gesture. Astronomy asserts the infinity and inexhaustible- ness of the space so indicated, as well as the multi- 16 CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. plicity of the worlds which it contains, but it does not aid in denning the whereabouts of the " happy hunting ground." Unlike knowledge, belief and faith not only im- ply, but necessarily involve controversy and shades, and therefore it has always resulted, and always will result, that one's faith and belief vary with his ori- gin, his birthplace and his moral and intellectual en- vironment. But variant and discordant as have been opinions and beliefs, they concur in their conver- gence upon two points — a heaven and a survival there of what Darwin is said to have asserted to be the rule here, " the fittest." The sum of the answers, therefore, which have been given to the never-ending inquiry, has been so to conduct and cultivate one's self as to insure a survival among the fittest. The incentive to this is the future reward or escape. Of late, however, there has been a marked and growing change of opinion concurred in, not only by those who reject all faith, but also by those who hold fast to and prize the one which they inherited. It may be thus formulated : " It is not true that the only defined and ultimate purpose of individual creation was personal safety in a subsequent stage of existence ; nor is it true that survivorship is con- fined to a continuation of individual identity in such subsequent stage. Heaven does not exist in a here- after alone, nor is all that which would make it de- 17 CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. sirable, as we now understand the word, impossible of accomplishment by living men and women here and now, and such accomplishment, if attained, secures for those who effect it an absolute per- petuity of existence." This is the burden of the teaching of innumerable volumes, essays and articles of the present day. Rightly considered, it is not only not in antagonism with that which we of the Anglo-Saxon race hold with deepest reverence, but is actually in aid thereof. Such also would seem to be the teaching of the constitution of our organization. Like the Ameri- can it is written, and, like the British, it reposes in sound humanities. The principles which it incul- cates for the guidance of its members are precisely those, the observance of which produces the highest moral character and secures the general advance- ment of the community which such a character irradiates. Translating our motto with freedom, and carrying it to the extent intended, and it sums up thus : " So live as to make some one else happier and wiser and better because you have lived." He who accomp- lishes this has done his part to prove that heaven, at least in some of its imagined characteristics, is attainable here on earth. By so doing, he secures for himself also the perpetuity of his identity as the creator of a never-ending and unbroken chain of acts of beneficence. 18 CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. The most potent argument ever made against. pro- fanity and vulgarity was the assertion that the waves of sound put in motion by an oath or a foul word went on and on through all eternity and per- petuated through the ages the words which started them. So, conversely, a good act done leads to its repeti- tion, and by example influences others, and so the influence of the original act flows on until it reaches the shores of time at the gates of eternity. To live up to this rule requires that one should be a man, — not a mere human being, — but a man, try- ing to make his own all those elements of nobility of character which inspiration instructs are possible of human attainment. On these elements our Society places a special value. First, is Self-Control. This, like a magnet, radi- ates its influence in all directions. It repels things without and it represses things within. It conserves both body and mind. It prevents the doing of acts which require an explanation, and as to the satisfac- toriness of which a jury may disagree. It rejects vanity, and tempers pride with humility. It enables one to hold himself in superb equilibrium, and to afford the example of a happy combination of dignity and of courtesy. Next comes Culture, and this not in the restrict- ed sense of a familiarity with what others have writ- ten, but in the broad and comprehensive and Alpha 19 CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. Delta Phi sense of a cognizance of men and of their affairs. However widely the certainty of an im- pending final disappearance and departure may be acknowledged, the consideration of its approach is, by a wise law of nature, habitually postponed, and that which engrosses present attention relates to the needs and necessities, of this busy throbbing world of which we form a part. In this regard the teeming issues of the press, valuable as they are, are not the only instructors. Observation shows that society is perplexed and harassed by questions, deep and wide, which are born of the conduct and strife and needs and ambi- tions of an always struggling and not infrequently jealous and envious human nature. These inquiries are the subject of daily discussion and the decision thereon, though earnestly demanded, has not yet been reached. The debate is still open. At the threshold lies the question of a good municipal government. How, in this democratic organization of ours, where age and residence are the only qualifications of- suffrage, this problem is to be resolved, depends upon the understanding and wisdom of the young men of the country to whom, as they successively come upon the stage of life, is given the privilege of acting. If their voice and vote can be made to rise above purely political influences, the selection of pure and good men as legislators will be assured. When this is accomplish- CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. ed, chaos will cease to reign ; corruption and brib- ery will become unknown, and order which is Heaven's first law, will reign. When that time has come, a gentleman will not omit,— as he now does, to ask his alderman to dine with him. Then there come the questions of the relations of labor to capital, — of the combinations of the latter, — of production to transportation, — of education, compulsory or otherwise, — of civil tenure, — of free coinage, — just taxation, — protection and free trade, —national arbitrations, and the drift and trend of the Farmers' Alliance. All these questions, as you enter upon the duties of the active life of an American citizen, will be aggressive and burning, and they will require from you, as from others, a solution. Doubtless you will bring to their consideration all that culture and thought can contribute, but you will have to go be-' yond that and exercise a wise and inventive judg- ment in discovering how demands originally irrecon- cilable can be harmonized and adjusted without loss of positive right and with contentment. To decide these questions properly, therefore, requires that one should read and think, and learn something of the ethics and utility and purpose of government. To do this, one must study politics in its just and true sense, — and one can do this with- out degrading himself to become a politician pure and simple, which is but a synonym for an ultimate CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. office-beggar, — and he should familiarize himself with men and their relations and necessities, and with affairs, their bearings and their needs. He should also devote time and attention to the solution of the race problem, and in this he should not be weary of well doing. He should recall the fact that it was a gentle Athenian who first erected an altar to Pity, and that it was not until centuries after that sentiment had permeated the city that sat on her seven hills that a Roman poet found occasion to say " Homo sum." Delay, therefore, is not Defeat. To you, my young brethren, will eventually be remitted the discussion and decision of these most grave and interesting problems, and when they are happily resolved there will be the initiation of a reign of peace and goodwill which will make the difference between earth and heaven vastly less material than it is now. There will be less of wickedness to trouble and less of weariness to rest. The possibility of meeting these grave occupations at the entrance of manhood's life ought to act as a conservator of abilities and to induce the reflection that athletics are not thoughts and that muscles are not brains. It may be that some or all of these inquiries may seem to be of the earth, earthy ; but, nevertheless, and in all existing civilizations, they are earnest and living issues, in some of which men see their lives and bread involved, and which, and not without CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. threats of force, they demand shall be speedily and satisfactorily decided. Moreover, things temporal here take precedence. It is not until after their homes and school-houses have been cared for, that our pioneers construct their churches. You need no more worthy object — you cannot have a higher aspiration than the cultivation of those abilities which will enable you to discharge the high duties of free citizenship with the education and knowledge of a well-equipped statesman, and thus to do your part in removing evil and introduc- ing good. Finally our Constitution is illuminated and made resplendent by the glorious trinity of Alpha Delta Phi characteristics — Faith, Hope and Charity — or, as the Revision more preferably renders it — Faith, Hope and Love. Whatever these may be, and how- ever they may originate, whether by birth or nature, or by self-control and cultivation, they are the chief factors of our social organization and the falcrum of the levers of the world. Most glorious combina- tion of aspiration and of acts ! Without your in- fluence our Fraternity would be impossible and the social compact unbearable. Faith, instructed by example, believes that human good, the summum bonum, can be accomplished by human effort. Building its own Bridge in advance of its own footsteps, it reaches heaven, and returns with the knowledge of better things which it be- 23 CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. lieves are possible of human reproduction. It essays the effort, and each attempt brings the world nearer to the perfect light. The knowledge of bet- ter things improves first the individual, and then, through him, society at large. Hope precedes Faith, sustains it, and struggles on while the latter falters. It is the mother of all human ambitions, whatever the word may signify, and the stimulant of all individual exertion. It is the mainspring of all endeavor to live up to our own standard and to prove that the possibilities of life imply the perfection both of individuals and of governments. It crosses the interval between the imperfect and the complete, and, carrying its burden with it, hopes that there may be no neces- sity for a returning footstep. When its work is done it dies, like the phoenix, to be re-born, to animate new and further labor. Love is the highest type of all things, human and divine. It is of many origins and has divers duties. Properly applied to self, and it is a conservator of virtue and self respect. Applied to others, it rec- ognizes the rule, "Noblesse oblige" and whatever that may require it freely yields. It is forgiving, generous and charitable. It seeks to render others equally so, and when all are similarly engaged, the work of humanity will be the work of the angels, and earthly homes the types of heaven. These, then, are some of the teachings of our So- 24 CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD, LL.D. ciety and the results which are possible therefrom. Whether they shall follow depends upon you and those whom you represent. To you are confided abilities, and they are not to be kept as in a napkin. If they are properly used they will secure not only the happiness and prosperity of the commonwealth at large, but also "the peace and quiet liberty " of every individual citizen thereof. So, then, brethren, it results that we have in our own Society that which teaches us what is true manhood and what are its privileges, its possibilities and its duties. He among you who improves the privileges, essays the possibilities and fulfills the duties, will benefit society, will justify his own ex- istence and his membership in Alpha Delta Phi, and will bring new lustre to our catalogue, already re- splendent with the names of Lowell, Blatchford, Dwight, Chase, Jay, Coxe, Gilman, Bartlett, Roberts, Carter, Storrs, Hale, Choate, Curtis, Pat- terson, and hundreds of others. Lastly, if we all, whether younger or older, do the right as it is permitted us to see it, it is quite certain that we shall " stand side by side at the same little door when all is done," and that it will open inward, and with the promised benediction. 25 A SCHOLAR'S TRAINING FOR A CITIZEN'S DUTIES ELLIS HENRY ROBERTS, LL.D. Brother President, Brothers of Alpha Delta Phi, Ladies and Gentlemen : '"THE urgency of your committee's invitation to ■^ me was perhaps prompted by the wish to show that the Fraternity answers the prayer of the Psal- mist not to forsake its members when old and grey- headed ; and my response here is proof that one in that state of Nirvana is still loyal to Alpha Delta Phi. Qr is there indeed such a thing as old age in this life which hag, and is to have, no end ? This convention, the songs you sing, the enthusiasm of this glad occasion, this magnificent and beautiful audience in the hospitable vicinage of one of the youngest and most lusty of our universities, bear testimony that the fountain of youth which the Spanish navigator sought so far, bubbles and spark- les perennially in the chapters of our brother- hood. In this presence and with this environment we may assume that the regular college should pro- 27 ELLIS HENR Y ROBERTS, LL.D. duce the scholar. If ever, not now is a white liver the badge of virtue, nor is dyspepsia a title to honor. The brain which is cleared, and the blood which is stirred by the swing of the oar, or the rush and tus- sle of the foot-ball, or the pitch and catch and run of base-ball, are better fitted for study, for thought, for high mental endeavor ; and for one I put in my plea for athletics under due restrictions and subor- dinate to the class room, and deem it not unbecom- ing to cheer with Yale whenever victory perches on her banners on land or water, and urge her to re- solve to do better whenever defeat befalls. The scholar as a man among men, has all the du- ties of his fellows. He is not likely to fail in what he owes to the family ; bright eyes keep him true to society, and his obligations to the church the pulpit will teach him. All the voices of history call upon him to see that the republic receives no detri- ment. Yet in our age and country, the case is an exception where the educated man rises to his full responsibility to the State. The themeproposed to me is a Scholar's Training for a Citizen's Duties, and the limits of time permit suggestions rather than an elaborate and exhaustive discussion; for your feet are eager for the delights of Terpsichore, and fair maidens await you elsewhere. The essence of high politics is a generous altru- ism. It is easy to hide one's self between the cov- ers of his books, and to shut one's eyes to abuses 28 ELLIS HENR Y ROBER TS, LL.D. and struggles and efforts for amelioration outside his library. No mere selfish purpose can prompt the best work for the commonwealth. In every human sphere the personal element enters, the greed for power, the thirst for pre-eminence. But the wish to benefit others, love of country, feeling for our common humanity, can alone inspire and nour- ish fidelity in the citizen, and they lie at the source of all noble statesmanship. We are afloat together on the ocean, where the storms beat wild ; strange shores are before us ; aboard with us are crew and officers whose skill, and often whose purpose we cannot fully trust. Selfishness takes the lifeboat to save itself, risking everything for a transient ease. Altruism stands by the ship and the ship's company, intent on saving our companions as well as our- selves, and sailing the vessel with all on board into the haven of safety. Duty, like Lawrence on the Chesapeake, shouts thro' all danger, " Don't give up the ship," and spurns a base pessimism. In order to love your neighbor, you must know him, not him of yesterday, but him as he is at this hour. The alcove of books, the cloister and class room tempt to ignorance of persons about us. You can not be too familiar with Solon and Pericles, with Cicero and Caesar, with Cromwell and the Stuarts, with all ancient philosophies and policies ; but you need to know fully as much about Washington and Lincoln and Grant, and not less about the restless 29 ELLIS HENR Y ROBER TS, LL. D. spirits who now put society in a tumult, and threaten the foundations of parties and even of the State, and those who are following the Athenian fashion of Paul's day, and "spend their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing." You will be wise to study the Republic of Plato ; but the prime help it can give will be to aid in grappling with the problems of to-day. Revel in the Atlantis of Sir Thomas More, and, discover there the fallacies of the new-school socialists. Enter with Lord Bacon the House of Solomon, and behold there the skeletons of plans for government control of all human concerns. Make of all drama and poetry, all history and fiction an electric light to illumine the ground on which you stand, and mankind as it is around you. Find out what your classmates are pondering over, what your butcher and baker and tailor are troubled about ; what your carpenter and mason, the laborer and the idler think, need, wish ; the grounds of their com- plaints, the aims they set up, the aspirations which control them. The walking delegate of to-day. is of quite as much concern to you as the ancient peri- patetics. Know your fellows, in order to act with them, to follow them, and on occasion to lead them. The instrument you must use is organization. In the State, the machinery of combined effort is as necessary as are the engine, the motor, the resources 3° ELLIS HENR Y ROBERTS, LL.D. of applied mechanics, in the processes of industry. Outside of organization, one is a bush-whacker, con- fronting the march of Sherman to the sea. Do not merge your personality in machinery, but penetrate the mystery of the ward caucus ; know the influences and forces which direct conventions and legislature and Congress. The political machine in recent years has now and then taken on the phase of an ogre ; but all power is liable to abuse. The nation itself is a machine, and so is the State, the county, the town. Organization is not an affair of politics only ; it is a vital factor wherever men act together, a main im- petus in the civilization and progress of this century. The scholar must master the fires which create the steam ; the wheels, the gearing, the bars, the levers, of the vast engine, from which he can not separate himself ; must watch the dynamo from which elec- tric light and power and speech go forth. Timidity may prefer the quiet and ease of the study and the library. The scholar has gained little from converse with the vikings of thought and action in the world's chronicles, if he has not learned the courage of his convictions and the joy of battle for the right. A delicacy too nice to meddle with politics is not the chivalry of Bayard, without fear as without reproach ; it is not the nobility of Sir Philip Sidney, giving drink to a common soldier; it is in- fidelity to the practical teachings of all the books ; it is treason to the republic of letters. 31 ELLIS HENR Y ROBER TS, LL.D. Now, the organization of Alpha Delta Phi is meant to foster brotherhood, to help a student to mingle with his fellows, to take him a little out of himself, and to impress him with esprit de corps. Ours is one of the college societies which ought to contribute to training a scholar for a citizen's duties. I have all proper respect for educators who discern in these organizations, incitement to rivalries, to dis- traction from study, to combinations for control, even temptations to dissipation. An estimable and accomplished lady friend of mine faints at the per- fume of newly gathered roses. An eminent gentle- man well know in political circles, once an officer of my native State, and a trustee of a great university, suffers from a feverish rash in the presence of straw- berries. Shall, therefore, the rose be banished and the strawberry excluded from our tables ? It may be that some institutions can not endure Greek let- ter societies. Fortunately Yale, Harvard, Amherst, Johns Hopkins, a score of our leading universities and colleges do not belong to that category. In our fraternity seven thousand graduate members, speak ■ with love and pride, from sentiment and judgment, of the value to heart and brain in endeavor and achievement of Alpha Delta Phi ; and among these seven thousand are presidents of universities, six of the chief of them (one of whom honors us with his presence here), bishops and leaders in the church, masters in literature and law and affairs, whose 32 ELLIS HENR Y ROBER TS, LL.D. names begem the annals of our country in every walk of life. In the army of education, universities and colleges are corps and divisions, and these societies are regi- ments and battalions. The diplomas of our in- stitutions are decorations, incentives to honorable effort. We differentiate a step farther, and the Greek letters mark the regiments which have their history, their specific aims, their well-defined and in- spiring distinctions. The revolt of the British Gren- adiers at Chelsea, and the transfer of battalions to Bermuda, are tenfold more a blot on the scutcheon of the army of Britain than like incidents in a regi- ment less famous. In university and college, the authorities should be able to count on Alpha Delta Phi, as Caesar relied on his tenth legion in crisis of battle, as Cromwell trusted his Ironsides for blood- red earnestness, and to look in it for uncalculating gallantry like that of the Light Brigade at Balaklava. How in the stirring days of the civil war, some corps, some division, some regiment, some battery of the blue, or to some of you of the grey, stormed and held our hearts by its deeds of valor, until its badge came to be the symbol of highest heroism, of noblest worth ! Such and more must Alpha Delta Phi prove itself before and after graduation. Our organization is a microcosm of the Republic. Its chapters answer to the states, and its conven- tion to the nation, and in another view it resembles 33 ELLIS HENR Y ROBERTS, LL.D. a party in the commonwealth, and the contests of college societies run on lines similiar to those of political parties. My memory recalls without a tinge of remorse the canvass to secure members for our respective societies, the generous competition for college honors, the rather obvious strategy for fair distribution of offices in the class. Of all that happens in Chapter hall, we are content to let the fruits stand for witnesses. The efficient member of our brotherhood is by its training better fitted for doing his share in the directory of corporations, for asserting his manhood and his rights in the control of his ward and his city, and for a yeoman's part in the conventions of his party, while there are brothers, not a few, who gratefully testify that in this Fraternity they have learned lessons helpful in legislature and in Congress. With generous rivalry let all of our Greek letter societies teach the sagacity, the self-poise, the en- during faith, the measure of men, which can main- tain the majesty of principle and the supremacy of law, and can confront heresies like the free coinage of silver, transient frenzy like the excesses of the Farmers' Alliance, even the natural impatience of industrial inequalities incident to our humanity, and on an international stage can bring about reci- procity and meet the passion and audacity of Rudini with the calm, masterly statesmanship of Blaine. 34 ELLIS HENR Y ROBERTS, LL.D. And so, let my " chaire, Alpha Delta Phi," be also an appeal for unselfish devotion to the land which blesses us, and for the steady courage and resolute will which recognize the problems of our Republic, and pledge to solve them. Let us so en- list for a crusade worthier than that led by Peter the hermit and Godfrey of Bouillon, which shall not end until the stars and stripes shall float over a na- tion answering the noblest conception which the scholar can form and portray.- The Rev. William Alvin Bartlett, D.D., delivered an address on " The Incidental Influences of College Life," but a copy for publication was not obtain- able by the Publication Committee. 35 ADDRESSES Delivered at the Banquet in connection with the 59TH ANNUAL CONTENTION •*>-' RESPONSES TO TOASTS AT THE ANNUAL BAN- QUET AT LEHMANN'S HALL, MAY 8TH, 1891 ALPHA DELTA PHI, THE PAST AND ITS MEMORIES HENRY STOCKBRIDGE XTATURALISTS have often dreamed of the marvelous revelations that might be made if they could but cause the currents of life again to move in some latest found fossil and open its lips to tell the tale of eozoic daily experience. It was probably some such fancy which led the committee of arrangements for this evening to subject you to the peril of torture by the garrulity of age, when they ventured to impose upon you the burden of reminiscences which might be brought by the fossil which they have found. Cer- tain it is that if one, like myself, whose privilege it was to become a member of this Fraternity in the first decade of its existence, once begins to speak of the trials of our Society's early days, and of its triumphs, of the brothers whose kindly, helpful words sweetened life and strengthened manhood — 39 HENRY STOCKBRIDGE " intercourse with whom was itself a liberal educa- tion" — and most of whom have passed away from earth, it is no easy task to tell when the end will be. Fortunately it is no difficult matter to fix the beginning : for though our good brother Dr. Alden once insisted that our Fraternity was of Apostolic origin, all the followers of our Lord being called in Scripture A. D. P. (Adel Phoi) clearly the succes- sion was not maintained, and " dark ages" were a consequence. But in the fullness of time (1832) the change came. It seems almost like an inspiration granted to the gifted Eells and his associates, undergraduates of Hamilton College, by which our Constitution and Covenant were framed, and our organization per- fected as they have stood, our bond and delight, for more than half a century. That act and that date mark an epoch in Greek-letter societies. None of those which previously existed in our colleges could with any propriety be called "fraternities." They were chiefly an end — a decoration for a certain amount of attainment in some particular line, — not a means of developing and enlarging what was noblest and best in the scholar. They afforded no precedent to guide the young men who, without counsel or aid from Alumni, and with no favor from faculties, shaped a true Fraternity, with a well de- fined purpose of uniting the best element in all the colleges, in bonds of brotherhood, formed of moral 40 HENRY STOCKBRIDGE worth, superior scholarship and ability, and those social qualities which endear man to his fellows. And yet, strange to say, a Fraternity with such an object found no favor with college faculties. It was to be expected of course that undergraduates, who, not measuring up to the standard which secured an election to the society, were left by it, would have no good word to say of that which passed them by. But though better things might be expected of fac- ulties, the truth is that one of our Fraternity's great- est embarrassments in its early day was found in the opposition of Faculties. They could not deny that the Society embraced the best element of their students and that its influence was always on the side of right ; but they were reluctant to tolerate an organization which had an attraction for the students beyond that of any reward or honor which they could offer, and the secret of whose charm they could not comprehend. In at least one instance in my recollection a member of a faculty offered him- self for initiation that he might be " the Society's mediator and advocate in the faculty"; he was wiser, but no better inclined towards us, when told politely but firmly that " Alpha Delta Phi selected and elected the men it wanted ; it was not accepting volunteers." Though at Amherst our opposition from the authorities was perhaps less pronounced than in some other institutions, yet we had enough fully to appreciate and sympathize with the Chapter 41 HENR Y STOCKBRIDGE whose secretary wrote us, that the source of their troubles was " in the hoary-headed old intriguer " who sat on their college as its president. Recalling by memory those times and scenes and contests and trials, after the lapse of fifty years it is plain, as has often happened in worldly affairs, that the opposition encountered was no unimport- ant element in the development which secured success. The cavils aimed at the Society, the buffets given it, made the members cautious, diplomatic, resolute, strong. They were determined that the badge of the Society should never be disgraced by being worn by one for whose character or reputation they should ever have occasion to blush. They selected only those who proved themselves ambitious of do- ing honestly and well what they professedly came to college to do. But mere scholarship was never permitted to unlock the Society's doors. They recognized the fact that the broadest and most enduring intellectual growth must rest upon the soundest moral worth, and that true fraternity could exist only where congenial tastes, and sym- pathies, and aspirations made social contact a de- light. Intimacies thus formed were welded, by adherence to the letter and spirit of our Constitution, helpful then, glad and delightful afterwards, into bonds as lasting as life. 42 HENR Y STOCKBRIDGE Kindly, faithful criticism always helps us, " to see ourselves as others see us," and is the be- ginning of improvement. Under its influence sympathies broadened, narrowness and envy were unknown ; ideals were raised, and college boys grew into men inspired with the loftiest earthly ambitions — the ambition of helping to make the world bet- ter. Though we could not point then as we can now, to established reputations and grand achieve- ments, yet with such brothers as James Russell Lowell and Edward Everett Hale at Harvard, and Horace Maynard and Frederick Dan Huntington and Henry Darling and Francis A. March at Am- herst, . and William Pitt Lynde and Joseph P. Thompson and Donald G. Mitchell at Yale, and Samuel Eells and Theodore W. Dwight and Glenni W. Scofield at Hamilton, we flattered ourselves that the future would have occasion to be grateful to A. D. P., for the work it was doing, and the sons it was sending forth. Time has more than verified the fondest anticipa- tions then indulged. The boys of that day who still survive cherish its memories among their most valued treasures ; — its friendships, broken only by death, and warm as fifty years ago, among the greatest blessings of their lives ; and they have had the joy of seeing brothers of that and of a later day holding by just desert and with marked success the highest places in literature, in pulpit, at the bar, 43 HENRY STOCKBRIDGE among instructors and men of science, in journalism, in the halls of Congress, on the bench of Justice, on the bench of Bishops, as Cabinet Ministers, and as diplomatists at the ablest most exacting and proud- est courts of the world. Names which illustrate and prove this statement crowd into the mind in array as long as Homer's famous catalogue ; but time forbids their utterance. The influence of the Fraternity in giving power to these brothers, and making them leaders in every field of honorable ex- ertion is not obsolete. There may not be the struggle with outward opposition — the strife with faculties, when Amherst and Harvard and Hamilton and Yale and Johns Hopkins and others are blest with Presidents, and nearly every college in the land has its best professors furnished by our Fraternity ; but the same high ideals remain, and the young ambition can scarce fail to be aroused almost to the point of enthusiasm by association upon the roll and in life with men who are examples of all that is most inspiring in a high, and honorable, and suc- cessful career. " The Past " is secure. Its " memories " are a pride and honor. The Society's future rests with the young men, such as are gathered here to-night, and who are so soon to take up the burdens which we lay down, and to reap the fruits of our labors as well as their own. To them we commit it with hope and entire confidence. 44 ALPHA DELTA PHI, THE TRESENT AND ITS OPPORTUN- ITIES CHARLES SPRAGUE SMITH, M. A. A LITTLE golden-haired philosopher asked me recently the question; What is to-mor- row ? With all the wisdom of the ages inspiring me I answered : " to-morrow is — to-morrow.," Yes ; replied my eager questioner, " but, when to-mor- row comes, will it be to-morrow,?" The wisdom of the ages was confounded, the oracle could give no answer — and so, when I consider the exact significance of the toast you have as- signed to me, the opportunities of the present, I find myself in a similar quandary. If I give to it its most limited interpretation, your pres- ent opportunities and mine have been diverse. You, knights of Terpsichore and of the trencher, this hall has been the witness of your opportunities and of the masterful way in which you have improved them, and you, knights of the tongue and pen, the academic halls of Baltimore have been the theatre 45 CHARLES SPRAGUE SMITH, M. A. of your no less doughty deeds, your eloquence, wherein wit and wisdom have blended in due pro- portions. My present opportunities have been of a differ- ent character. When about to join you, Madame La Grippe presented herself, and, in courtly French, said ; " Monsieur, vous ne pouvez pas y aller,' ' to which I of course stoutly protested ; whereat Madame translated her French cognomen into an Anglo-Saxon action and I succumbed. The defeat was, however, only temporary, and thus while you were enjoying the opportunities of Fraternal inter- course, I had abounding opportunity, afforded by two accidents en route, added to the selection of a slow train, of becoming acquainted with the Penn- sylvania Railroad. But, were my little philosopher near, I am sure she would ask, " When the present is past, will it be the present?" And this suggests the strange way the present has of extending back into the past and reaching out into the future. In this larger sense, I am naturally led by my profession to consider first the educational oppor- tunities of the present. A score of years ago we knew nothing or next to nothing about Universi- ties. Occasionally an American, returning from a pilgrimage to Berlin or elsewhere, tried to give us some inkling of what constitutes a University ; but with indifferent success. At last, 4 6 CHARLES SPRAGUE SMITH, M. A. under the leadership of a brother Alpha Delt, an earnest attempt was made to translate into cor- porate existence the University idea. I need not tell you what measure of success has attended the Johns Hopkins effort. In New York City a similar transformation has been going forward more re- cently, and there again a brother Apha Delt, Pro- fessor Burgess, has been among the most active and efficient workers. As a result of this agitation, the limit of general liberal education has been advanced far beyond its old position — and, as is the case with everything here — our spring-time does not enter stealthily, but comes irt with a bound — this trans- formation is advancing with giant pace all over our country. In political life there is a spirit of revolt abroad : a breaking away from the old hard and fast party ties. The watchword to-day, at least as it seems to me, among earnest forethoughtful minds, is not so much party as principle. And in the religious domain, what does this gen- eral questioning and unrest mean? To one who stands apart and contemplates disinterestedly the en- tire field, it would seem as though a light were break- ing, a consciousness dawning, that all temples, reared by sects, rest upon a common foundation. As these temples slowly crumble and fall apart — for crumble and fall they must — we behold a new temple gradu- ally rising, into which shall be builded many a noble 47 CHARLES SPRAGUE SMITH, M. A. pillar, many a finely chiseled block of the old. Its foundations are eternal truth, its forms perfect beauty, its architectural plan existed before all time in the divine mind. Opportunity, as I understand it, is the field await- ing the hoe, the plough, the energy of the individual. I saw many such a field to-day ; whose brown brok- en clods suggested earnest thought and persistent toil ; whilst the fresh yellow green of the woods, dashed with wild flowers white and purple, and the richer moister green of the meadow, spoke of the ecstasy of nature, left to work its own wanton will. What hoe or plough, what energy, what force shall we bring to these fallow fields ? I need not tell you where we are taught the value of truth. But truth is more even than our Fraternity inculcates ; it is the power of living ; it is that which gives to limited human life its outreach into the limitless. The present needs men of truth, true from the lips all the way down to the heart and then all the way back again from the heart to the lips. And I would say to you, brothers in Alpha Delta Phi, let the first quality demanded for admis- sion into our Fraternity be manliness. Talent is worthy and should not be despised, but manliness is of more worth to humanity. Within your Chapters cultivate this quality and, if so be, which heaven for- bid, some one gains entrance, who does not possess this primal requisite, implant it within him, that 4 s CHARLES SPRAGUE SMITH, M. A. truth and manliness may be forever, as they are the seal of the initiate, so also the mark, by which to recognize the children of our Fraternity. But I must whistle " down brakes," for fear lest you accuse me of having missed my opportunity in not becoming a clergyman. The toast " Alpha Delta Phi, The Future and its Possibilities," was responded to by Talcott Williams, Esq., but the Publication Committee were unable to obtain a copy of his speech for publication. DELIVERED AT THE BANQUET AT THE 57TH ANNUAL CONVENTION, NEW HAVEN CONN. MAY 1889. "OUR HONORARY MEMBERS" HON. EDWARD PATTERSON Mr. President and Brethren : T TNTIL this evening no opportunity has been pre- sented me to thank you for the honor of my ad- mission to the Fraternity. I do so now. I do not know what the duties of honorary membership may be, I have learned to-night what its privileges are — good company, a good dinner and good fellowship. In undertaking to answer to this toast, I find myself in a peculiar position. To adopt the words of an English poet, " I feel as one whose thoughts half linger, half run before." I am one of the youngest members of the brotherhood and yet among the oldest in years ; representing two generations and really belonging to both ; in sympathy with all that is present, I stand, not as a monument of the past, but as one of those fast being elbowed from the active scene; part of the rear guard of one generation mingling with the head of the column of another ; and this may fit me to speak to the coming men si HON EDWARD PATTERSON as of them and yet not of them, and as if I were the young man who desired to begin life with the wisdom of an old one, or rather as the middle aged man who wished he might start over again with the experience he had acquired during the greater part of half a century. If young men could temper the impulses of youth with the qualifying influence de- rived from a knowledge of the world and friction with competitors they think they would be able to accomplish more, if not for themselves, then for the benefit of their fellow beings. As representing and being part of two generations, permit me to say, that view of life is something of a fallacy. Each gen- eration must perform its own task, and do it in its own way; taking up the work where its fathers left it and marching to the music of its own day. The great thing it has to accomplish is to push the world forward ; not retard progress, and above all not permit retrogression. We young fellows — I am now speaking as a boy — must try to learn two things ; first, what is left for us to do, and second, how are we to do it? We have just finished the celebration of a great event in our national history. That celebration has been a somewhat noisy, ostentatious and confused one. Part of it may be ascribed to the exuberance of enthusiasm, and part of it to the so called ardor of patriotism. Whatever may have induced it, let us be thankful for the success of what it com- 52 HON. EDWARD PATTERSON memorated, and that we have lived to see the crown finally settled on the dynasty of the people. But now we come to the summing up of the occurrence and the thought becomes prominent.what will this ris- ing generation do, not merely for itself, not solely for personal advantage or the promotion of personal in- terest, but for the benefit of the State, for the good of mankind, and for the advancement of those ideas of liberty regulated by law which are after all the very soul of the institutions under which we live? For in what direction should all our education tend ? We are citizens of a great Republic founded upon ideas, with an objective point and with an under- lying principle. Each individual is a unit in the general sum and as such makes his contribution to the general welfare. He finds his personal success in that contribution, and his achievement, while bringing prosperity and happiness to himself, aids and advances the good of all. He works with the mass of workers, adds to the sum of prosperity, takes his own dividend and leaves the surplus to the world. How should he do it? You, young men, can solve this question, you can and must determine it, and how will you do it ? Now, for a moment let us go back to the older generation of our brethren: with our distinguished and venerable President Hale and Presidents Dwight, and Gates, and brothers Carter, and Choate, and Curtis, and Phillips Brooks, and Everett Wheeler S3 HON. EDWARD PATTERSON and Seward, and going a little beyond that to Low- ell and John Jay, and Bishop Coxe, and Dr. Storrs. Let me remind you in the words of William Wirt in delivering an address to the young men of Rutgers College, they were of the crew that carried the ship "around Cape Horn in the winter season arid grappled with the gigantic spirit of the storm that guards the Cape." How did they ever " survive the fearful encounter and live to make a port in the mild latitude of the Pacific ? " It was by faith and by loyalty to that faith, an unshakable belief in and an undeviating adherence to principle. Serious, sober-minded pursuit of a purpose, the devotion of themselves to the public good and the suppression of mere private ends conflicting with that purpose. There is nothing Utopian in this. It implies neither self-sacrifice nor martyrdom. Pursue your own fortune on the lines of private enterprise within the scope of legitimate effort, and all you do will neces- sarily add to the sum total of public good ; but do not seek private ends against the public welfare, for we are confronted to-day with two growing evils, a plutocracy and a proletariat ; and what Bishop Potter said the other day at old St. Paul's in New York, has suggested what I want to say now to our young brethren. You may try to disguise the issue, you may put it on false grounds and you may seek to avoid it by a multitude of sophis- 54 HON. EDWARD PATTERSON tries and generalities, but the fact remains that we are threatened with a government either dictated by the money power or controlled by the ignorant and dissolute elements of the community. How is this to be avoided ? We can never return to the simplicity of our forefathers. That day has passed. Life has assumed complex relations, but each man of education, refinement and intellectual force can contribute to the promotion of political and social well-being, and each such man may be a leader. You who are to follow us can inculcate the civic virtues on which the prosperity, nay the endurance, of the Republic depends. Help in the advancement of high ideas of personal character ; help in the de- struction of the notion that mere wealth is the test of worthiness and teach that character is the standard of excellence, and help in spreading the idea that vulgarity and coarseness are not sincerity and strength, but that the vital force of the nation is in the men who, while quietly laboring for themselves, strive also to advance the general good. These are but common places, but it is well to think of common places occasionally and to take off the strain of artificial living, for the great vice of our time is the artificiality and affectation of our daily lives. I remember reading, years ago, in an old magazine, a statement that Alexander Hamilton had a theory that we should be a Republic governed by gentlemen as contradis- ss HON. EDWARD PATTERSON tinguished from an aristocracy. For many years that idea seemed to prevail. Help bring us back to it, not on the. false notion of what, constitutes a gentleman, but on the true comprehension of the word. Such a body as this can do much in the work. Public duty may be done without the arroga- tion to one's self of personal superiority. The unedu- cated man may be useful in the work of the world, and has his honest share in that work, but leader- ship belongs to the educated. Your example, when you come to control affairs, may make a complete revolution in the ways of conducting public business, and if you can influence others in the direction I have referred to you will be doing a great public good. I have, as I stated in starting, given you the views of one of an older generation, who finds himself drawn into and forming part of a younger one, and in clos- ing I shall only repeat a few lines I once heard Mr. Thackeray read, when I was a very small boy at school, when he made us a visit. It is from one of his own poems and has lingered in my memory ever since. " Go forth and conquer if you can ; But if you win, or if you lose, be each, pray God, a gentleman." The exhortation in the last line is not needed, I hope, but if you are surrounded by temptations s6 HON. EDWARD PATTERSON and beset by entanglements, and it is sometimes hard to know what to do, keep in mind your own high ideals ; keep in mind what you of the Alpha Delta Phi are, and remember that your careers are identified with ours, that we should deplore your failure but rejoice mightily in your success. 57 arW38688 0me " UniVers!ty Ubrary ^nmnMiteSf!,..,?, 1 ,he P ubl 'c exerei on n ,J 1924 031 ™2 729 m