LD 1385 1885 Cornell University Library LD 1385 1885 Proceedings and addresses at the inaugur 3 1924 013 395 573 Cornell University Library 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/cu31924013395573 PROCEEDINGS AND ADDRESSES AT THE INAUGURATION OF Charles Kendall Adams, ll.d., TO THE /' i PRESIDENCY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY, November 19TH, 1885. PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY. 1886. (2 ■ " . •' / / / SYRACUSE, N. Y. PRESS OF D. MASON & CO., 1886. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction 5 Letter of Resignation of President White 5 Resolutions of the Trustees 7 Letter of President White declining the office of Honorary President , 8 Resolutions of the Faculty 9 Resolutions of the Alumni 9 Election of President Adams 10 Letter of Acceptance of President Adams 10 Preliminary Arrangements for the Inauguration 11 Programme 12 Exercises of Inauguration 13 Prayer of the Rt. Rev. Bishop Huntington 13 Mr. Brooks's Address in behalf of the Trustees 16 Mr. Norton's Address in behalf of the Students 34 Mr. Frankenheimer's Address in behalf of the Alumni 37 Dr. Wilson's Address in behalf of the Faculty 40 Mr. Sage's Address, presenting the Charter and the Seal 43 Dr. Adams's Address accepting the Charter and the Seal 47 Inaugural Ode by Professor Hale 49 Inaugural Address by the President S 1 Reception at the Armory 77 INTRODUCTION. At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of Cornell University, held June 17, 1885, the following letter of resignation of the presidency was presented by President White : — To the Board of Trustees of Cornell University ; — Gentlemen : The present meeting completes twenty years since'with our dear and venerated friend, Ezra Cornell, I took part in securing the charter of the University, submitted its plan of organization, and entered this honorable Board. And now in accordance with a purpose long since formed, I hereby pre- sent my resignation as President and Professor of History. In doing so allow me to thank you for the steady and hearty' support you have given me during all these years, and to say that the labors and cares necessarily attendant upon such a form- ative period have been more than compensated by the kindness of Trustees, Faculty, alumni, and students. The University is at least in such condition that its future may well be considered secure. Thanks to your wise administration, its endowment has been developed beyond our expectations, its debt extinguished, its equipment made ample, its Faculty in- creased until it is one of the largest and most effective in our country, and an undergraduate body brought together which by its numbers and spirit promises all that we can ask for the future. But whatever pride we may take in the growth of the insti- tution under our care, I feel that we have a far greater cause for satisfaction in the triumph here and elsewhere of those principles in which our University was founded and which, in some respects, it was the first to represent. Among the facts resulting from these principles I may name the consolidation of resources for higher education ; a closer union between the advanced and the general educational system of the State ; unsectarian control ; the equal eligibility of all candidates for trusteeships and pro- 6 THE INAUGURATION OF fessorships, irrespective of sectarian or partisan connections ; the presentation of various courses of study, each carefully framed to give a discipline and culture suited to the different characters, needs, and aims of various classes of students ; the placing of all students in all courses on an equal footing as regards privileges; the development especially of a well planned course in History and Political and Social Science adapted to the practical needs of men worthily ambitious in public affairs ; the more thorough presentation of the leading modern literatures, especially that of our own tongue ; full attention to technical studies both on the scientific and practical side ; and, in general, the steady effort to abolish monastic government and pedantic instruction. All these ideas and tendencies, of which our University has been a leading champion, and for which it incurred in its early days much op- position and some obloquy, have now so far taken hold upon the leading American universities that their speedy and complete triumph is certain. At two different periods when about to leave the country for a time I have placed my resignation in your hands, and you have not thought best to accept it. I now contemplate another absence from the country in obedience to what seems to me a duty, and must respectfully insist that I be now permanently relieved and my resignation finally accepted. Although I have but reached what is generally known as the middle period of life, I feel entitled to ask that the duties hither- to laid upon me be now transferred to another and that I be left free to take measures for the restoration of my health and strength and to carry out certain other plans of work to which I have for several years looked forward with longing, and which I hope can be made eventually useful to the University and pos- sibly to the public at large. In thus taking leave of an institution which has become very dear to me, permit me to suggest that there are many reasons why the Board should provide for the election of my successor at the earliest moment consistent with a proper choice. Who- ever he rrmy be, may I not also ask for him the same hearty ' support that has been extended to me ? With renewed thanks for these years of cooperation and sup- port and for the personal friendship which has been extended to me in such full measure, I remain, Very respectfully and truly yours, Andrew D. White. Cornell University, June 17th, 1885. CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, LL.D. 7 The following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted by the Trustees, fifteen members being present : — The resignation by Andrew D. White of the Presidency of Cornell University becomes an era in its history. For twenty years he had devoted his best exertions, energy, and industry, his large intellect and loyal zeal to the organization and growth of this institution. The project once conceived, he, hand in hand with its benefactor and founder, pressed it to a successful issue. Their dreams have been realized and their efforts crowned with noble and generous results. How great have been the cares, anxieties, and labors of Mr. White during those twenty years few if any can realize; how large and generous his benefactions, equally bestowed on the University and its students, few will ever know. How beauti- fully he has created for us friends by his social and personal character, how great has been his influence in our behalf, is become a part of our history. During these twenty years the respect and affection of all con- nected with the University towards him has grown and strength- ened. The purity of his character, blamelessness of his life, his noble ambition, his generous and self-sacrificing devotion to the cause of education, his wisdom and kindness of heart have made his name and presence very near and dear to all his associates. It is a matter for congratulation that during this long period of time the utmost confidence has been extended to him by the trustees as a body and by the members as individuals. He has always had their generous support, his services have been by them highly appreciated, and mutual respect and esteem have always existed between the President and its members. The Trustees, in common with the public, deeply regret the personal considerations which have made this resignation, as Mr. White believes, a matter of duty to himself. But it will always be a pleasant thought that regrets for such necessity are mutual and that no unkind remembrances will accompany or follow the act. Let us hope that in the near future, after a period of needed change and rest, our honored friend may renew his relations to the University, in a more congenial and less exacting position, and give to us the- prestige of his high character and attain- ments. Let us also hope that his successor may be able to follow in the path marked out by him and magnify the work so wisely begun and continued during the whole of his administration. Therefore, be it Resolved, That in consenting to accept President White's res- ignation, the Board not only sincerely regret the causes which 8 THE INAUGURATION Of prompt his separation from the chief office of the University as its intellectual teacher, adviser, and friend, but trust and believe that his interest in its welfare will continue for all time to come. Resolved, That with this end in view we desire that he ac- cept the nomination of the Board to act as Honorary President of the University. Resolved, That for the reasons set forth in his letter to the Board of Trustees, the resignation of President White be ac- cepted, the resignation not to take effect until the commence- ment of the next university year, in September, 1885. Resolved, That the Legislature of this State be and is hereby requested to amend the charter of Cornell University so as to make Andrew D. White, the first President of the University, a member of the Board of Trustees for life. Though President White frequently expressed his purpose in regard to the Honorary Presidency and the Trusteeship for life, yet no communication that could be made a matter of record was received from him before his departure for Europe. A note was therefore addressed to him, calling attention to the fact that he had given no official reply to the special request of the Trustees of June 17th. In response to this note the fol- lowing letter was received. Paris, Dec. 22, 1885. Chas. Kendall Adams, LL.D., President, etc. : — My Dear Sir: — Referring to your letter of December 5th, just received, I appreciate in the hightest degree the confidence and kindness shown by the Trustees in unanimously electing me to the Honorary Presidency of the University, and for this, as for the other tokens of good will which they have showered upon me, shall always cherish sincere gratitude. But I feel obliged to decline the especial honor above referred to on various grounds — the most important being the consideration that there should not even seem to be any division in the executive responsibility. As to another feature in their action, — while I feel not less grateful for it — it seems my duty to decline that also. I refer to the resolution requesting the State Legislature to make me — by amending the charter — a Trustee for life. While I greatly prize the close personal and official relations which have so long existed between the members of the Board and myself, as well as the opportunity to aid them in continuing the development of the University, and you in your administra- tion of it, my dislike to special legislation of the sort required, and my distrust regarding the precedent which would thus be established, oblige me to request and even to insist that no such CHARLES KESDALL ADAMS, LL.D. 9 effort be made, and that the resolution be allowed to rest simply as a most striking expression of confidence. Will you please to renew to the Trustees the sincere expression of my thanks ? I remain Very respectfully and truly yours, Andrew D. White. At a special meeting of the Faculty of the University convened on Wednesday afternoon, June 17, the following min- ute was, by unanimous vote, placed on record : — We have read with deep emotion the letter of this date, in which President White resigns his positions as President and Professor of History in this University. While we can but ad- mit the justice of his claim to be released from the heavy labors borne by him in these offices for nearly twenty years, it is im- possible for us without sorrow to think of the sundering of a relation which has lasted since the earliest existence of the Uni- versity, has formed an essential part in the official life of every one of us, and on his side has been sustained with great wisdom and great labor, with an inexhaustible enthusiasm, with con- stant self-sacrifice, and with unceasing anxiety for, the sound growth and welfare of the University. We desire to express to him our sense of the large and far-seeing spirit with which, in association with Ezra Cornell, he laid the foundations of the University ; of the energy, sagacity and success with which, surviving his venerated associate, he has since wrought in build- ing up the University to its present prosperity ; of the generous attitude which he has maintained toward the Faculty in all mat- ters of administration ; and of the strong and inspiring influence which he has exerted upon the body of undergraduates and alumni. It would be a source of profound gratification to us if, while relieving himself of executive work, he would still consent to remain with us as a part of the teaching body of the Univer- sity, giving to us in our deliberations the benefit of his ripe ex- perience, and to future classes of our students the same instruc- tion and stimulation in historical work that have been enjoyed by all classes that have thus far been graduated from the Uni- versity. In any event, we beg him to be assured that in retir- ing from the Presidency he bears with him not only our respect and gratitude, but our best wishes and our warm personal re- gard. At the annual meeting of the Alumni, held at Ithaca on June 17, 1885, the following resolutions were adopted by a unani- mous and rising vote : — Whereas, It has become known to the associate alumni of Cornell University, now assembled in annual session, that it has IO THE INAUGURATION OF seemed best to our honored President, Andrew D. White, to resign his high charge, compelled thereto by imperative need of rest and watchfulness over his health, it is Resolved, That the members of this association, while deeply- conscious of the weakness of formal expression and the inability of words to voice our feeling, do hereby express our deep regret and profound sorrow that such a step has been found necessary. There is mingled, however, with our sadness at his resignation, a thought of congratulation to him and to ourselves when we bring to mind the rounded completeness of twenty years of un- selfish' devotion to our University, whose success and proud posi- tion are so largely owing to his jealous care and wise counsel- ings. We would further express our joy that his valued counsel will yet remain to us and would all unite in the prayer that many years of usefulness may be vouchsafed to him. At a meeting of the Board of Trustees held on June 18, the following resolution was adopted : — Resolved, That a special meeting of this Board be held at the Cornell Library Building at 7.30 o'clock p. m. on Monday, July 13, or at a date as near that time as may be found in the opin- ion of the Executive Committee most convenient, for the purpose of electing a President of the University to succeed Andrew D. White, resigned, and for the purpose of transacting such other matters of business as may then be offered. At the meeting held pursuant to the above resolution, sixteen members of the Board were present, and fifteen ballots were cast for President of the University. Of these twelve were cast for Charles Kendall Adams, and he was accordingly declared elected. A committee consisting of Trustees White, Sage and Boardman was appointed to communicate the action of the Board to the President elect. In response to the official communication informing him of his election, Mr. Adams sent the following letter of acceptance: — Ithaca, N. Y., July 21. Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication informing me officially of my election to the office of President of Cornell University. Before accepting the grave responsibility of this important trust I have felt it necessary to make a somewhat careful personal examination of the condi- tion and prospects of the University. Fortunately my famil- iarity with its history and its general condition has made such an examination an easy task. My investigations have confirmed the good impressions I had formed. The foundations of the University appear to me broad and strong. Its scope has been CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, LL.D. 1 1 well defined. Its buildings, its library, and its apparatus are in good condition. It is fortunate in having an able and united Faculty. Its financial condition, thanks to the munificent gen- erosity of its benefactors and the wisdom of its governing offi- cers, is such as to give ample encouragement to the hope of still further development in the future. I should not dare to assume the responsibilities of directing these educational forces but for encouraging assurances of cooperation from the Faculty and the honorable Board of Trustees. But such assurances have- not been wanting, and, therefore, in full view of the great and solemn importance of my decision, I accept the high office with which the Trustees of the University have honored me. In tak- ing up these new duties it is my prayer and my hope that Di- vine wisdom will bless our common efforts to the welfare of the University and the advancement of all good learning. I have the honor to be Very sincerely and truly yours, ' Charles Kendall Adams. To the Hon. Andrew D. White, LL.D., President of the Uni- versity and Chairman of the Committee. At a meeting of the Executive Committee held on the 18th of August the question of the time of the Inauguration of Pres- ident Adams and of the semi-annual meeting of the Board of Trustees was referred to a special committee, with power to make such provisions as would best suit the convenience of members of the Board. After some correspondence the com- mittee fixed upon the 19th of November as the day for the Inauguration, the meeting of the Trustees to be held on the day following. Provision having been made for holding the ceremonies of Inauguration in Armory Hall at 2 o'clock, on the nineteenth of November, all the regular exercises of the University were sus- pended on that day by special announcement. At half-past one o'clock the procession was summoned together by the " In- augural March," composed for the occasion by Harry Falkenau, Master of the Chime. The procession was formed in the fol- lowing order : The Freshmen met in front of Morrill Hall; the Sophomores in front of the McGraw building; the Juniors in front of White Hall; the Seniors and Special Students in front of the Chemical and Physical Laboratory; the Faculty, Trus- tees and invited guests in front of Sibley College. Under the I2 THE IJSAUGUBATIOiY OF 0. K. ADAMS, LL.D. direction of Professor Schuyler, who acted as Marshal of the Day, and preceded by the 54th Regiment Band, of Rochester the procession, numbering about eight hundred, marched to Armory Hall and were seated at a few minutes after two o'clock. The following was the Programme. Music — Te Detan, sung by the Ithaca Quartette. Prayer — By the Rt. Rev. F. D. Huntington, D. D., Bishop of Central New York. Music — By the Orchestra, Address in behalf of the Trustees — By the Hon. Erastus Brooks. Address in behalf of the Students — By Mr. A. S. Norton, President of the Senior Class. Address in behalf of the Alumni — By John Frankenheimer, Esq., President of the Society of Alumni. Address in behalf of the Faculty — By Prof. W. D. Wil- son, D.D, LL.D, L.H.D. Music — By the Orchestra. Presentation of the Charter and the Seal — By the Hon. Henry W. Sage, Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Acceptance of the Charter and the Seal — By President Charles Kendall Ad-ams. Ode— By Prof. W. G. Hale ; sung by the Cornell Glee Club. Inaugural Address. Music — By the Orchestra. Benediction — By the Rt. Rev. Bishop Huntington. EXERCISES OF INAUGURATION. After the singing of the Te Deum there was offered the fol- lowing Prayer by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Huntington. Almighty and Everlasting God, Father of Jesus Christ our Lord, from whom alone all Life and Light come, we praise and worship Thee. Without Thee nothing is strong, nothing is" holy; for Thou hast laid the foundations of the earth in their order ; the heavens are the work of Thy hands ; Thou hast set the stars in their places. By the breath of Thy Spirit there is a spirit in man, Thy child, and Thine inspiration hath given him understanding. Let the words of our mouths and the medita- tions of our hearts be now and ever acceptable in Thy. sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer! For all the benefits of good learning, for the heritage of an- cient wisdom handed down from generation to generation, for the awakening of men's minds in these later days, for the ven- erable and sacred trusts of liberty and law, for every increase of true knowledge* and every faithful labor of discovery and in- vention, for the schools and colleges of this land, for right- eous enterprise, consecrated wealth, gracious charities, and for all the real advancements of mankind, we give Thee hearty and humble thanks, — for all precious things come of Thee. We especially acknowledge Thy great goodness in the plant- ing and the enlargements of this University. Continue forth to it this mercy of Thy Providence, we beseech Thee, blessing its guardians, its government, its officers of discipline and edu- 13 ! 4 THE IN A UG UBA Tl OX 01 cation, and all its benefactors. Direct them in all their counsels with Thy most gracious favor, and further them with Thy con- tinual help, that in all their works begun, continued and ended in Thee, they may glorify Thy holy name, and finally by Thy mercy obtain everlasting life. ,. _"~ Grant Thy heavenly favor in particular, we entreat Thee, to this our brother who is called and is this day set apart to be its head, whom we bless in Thy name. Make him to be in all things a willing and obedient servant of Thy perfect will. Make him to be humble and modest and constant in his administra- tion, reverent towards Thee and Thy Scriptures and all holy things, fearless in duty, wise in action and in word, devout with- out hypocrisy, forbearing without partiality, so merciful that he be not too remiss, so executing justice that he forget not mercy, a wholesome example to all those who shall be com- mitted to his charge, in conversation, in purity, in courage, so that faithfully fulfilling his course to the end he may receive at Thy hand the crown which fadeth not away. O Lord God, who wiliest that the sons of men should be brought up in the keeping of Thy holy word, pour down per- petually, we pray Thee, the gifts of Thy loving kindness upon this place, that all who shall be gathered and trained here may be established in every virtue and every grace. Open Thou their minds to receive and hold fast all truth. Quicken the sense of their consciences. Illuminate the eyes of their understandings with the bright beams of Thy Spirit, that they may daily grow in the knowledge of Him in whom are hid all the treasures of that wisdom which is pure and peaceable. Cast forth out of them whatever displeaseth Thee, all hardness of heart, unbelief, pro- faneness, uncleanness, intemperance, contempt of Thine ordi- nances, rebellion at Thy rule, and whatever exalteth itself in opposition to Thy holy commandments. This also, O Spirit of Grace, who didst impart to man intellectual and spiritual light at the first creation as the consummation of Thy workmanship, we fervently implore, — that human things may not in any of them prejudice such as are divine, neither that from the unlock- ing of the gates of sense and the kindling of a greater natural light any darkness of spiritual incredulity or doubt may arise in their minds towards Divine mysteries ; but rather that, having CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, LL.D. 15 their hearts thoroughly cleansed from errors and vanities, but subject and perfectly given up to the divine Oracles, and know- ing that none shall enter into the kingdom of heaven except by becoming a little child, they may always render unto knowledge the things of knowledge, and unto faith the things that are faith's. Send abroad bountiful blessings to Thy great Family of all the nations of the earth. Exalt this our nation by a pure pat- riotism and homage to law, by disinterested rulers and a godly people. Reconcile all classes to one another by the spirit of the Son of Man. Incline the hearts of employers and those whom they employ to mutual fairness and good will. Save us from helpless poverty and ill-gotten riches. Remember those who by reason of misfortune are forgotten, or by reason of weakness are overtasked. Turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, and of the fathers to the children. Make wedlock sacred and steadfast. And may the Vine which Thy Right Hand has planted stretch its branches to the seas, and yield its fruits to all the brotherhood of mankind. These petitions and intercessions we commend to Thy ever- lasting love through our Saviour, Thy Son Christ, 'blessed for- ever more, saying as he hath taught us, — Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the king- dom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. — Amen. , 6 THE IN A UG URA TWN OF Address of the Hon. Erastus Brooks in Behalf of the Trustees. Mr. President, Trustees, Faculty, Alumni, and Students : — The hour of the day. the precedence due to the new Presi- dent, and the long services to be held admonish me that it is due to time and place and others who are to take part in these prescribed inaugural proceedings that I should present at pres- ent but a brief part of the address prepared by me in the spe- cial name of the Trustees of the University, past and present, and of all those who are interested in Cornell University.* While here to-day I am reminded of the return of Ulysses to the classic and ancient Ithaca after his twenty years' absence at the siege of Troy. You remember that his marvelous ad- ventures had so changed his appearance that even his wife, who all these years had mourned his absence, did not recognize him, and it was not until he had drawn his bow, which no man but he could master, that Ulysses was known to be himself again. Remembering the changes on this hill in our modern Ithaca in the past twenty years, I see little or nothing of old- time beginnings, — nothing indeed but wonderful changes in form, substance, and reality. All that was in Xature rough and rocky, as hard to climb as the hill of difficulty in the Pilgrim's Progress, — all that then seemed forbidding to common effort for use or ornament, — has been transformed in twenty years into a paradise of order and beauty, and in one form or another made the abode of attractive domestic homes and convenient halls for study. The garden and grove in the suburbs of Athens, known as the Academy, where Plato taught and his followers learned, — the favored resort of those who loved meditation and philosophy, — were the gift of Cimon, as the hills we see were * The report here published is the whole of the address prepared, at the special request the Board of Trustees, by Mr. Brooks, one of the charter members of the University. CHABLKS KENDALL ADAMS, LLD. 17 the gift of Cornell. The munificent Cimon embellished Athens and opened the gardens of the Academy to the people. The practical and munificent Cornell not only embellished his native town but founded "an Institution where any person can find instruction in any study," and " in any study " meant and means sound learning in all studies. The one was a real-life workingman of our time and country, and the other belongs rather to a remote and classic age. While in many ways in study and politics and governments old things have passed away and all things have become new, we must not undervalue the past. In art and courage, in work and patience, in faith in the future, where there was little or no divine light in the present, in the training and philosophy of thought — in a word, in the human mind and heart — only by continued cultivation and greater knowledge has the world moved forward. The larger intuition, genius, or talent has not been visible. The lost arts every now and then come to light, showing the skill and wisdom of the past ages. Nevertheless the world does move, and in this fact the men and women of to-day and here have their greatest interest. We must preserve what is good in the past, but never forgetting that eternal pro- gress is the law of our being. One evidence of this advance is a more liberal faith in religious liberty abroad, and I am therefore glad to read the recent words of Cardinal Manning: "No system of popular education which is not based upon the visible facts of religious divisions, and ' which does not provide for full liberty of conscience can adapt itself to the kingdom." This may not be important here; but in England, our old mother land, it means in time, in some form, a disestablished Church, but not a Church without endowments, nor a Church which if true to itself will separate true religion from research and study in all that belongs to the great first cause of our be- ing, nor to any thing which belongs to moral or physical science. Recently we have seen the endowment of three American Fel- lowships by Professor Tyndall, one at Yale, one at Columbia, and one at the University of Pennsylvania, and this record simply means that all that belongs to natural science at home and abroad is to be studied with an enthusiasm that will rather j8 the inauguration of encourage, if wisely investigated, the real Christianity born of the Creator, and resting upon the life and character and espec- ially upon the direct teachings and example of the Son of God. The gift of Tyndall, principal and interest, is the sum of $32,- 400 and was the amount of his earnings as a lecturer in the United States. On this last topic let me say, fully and heartily approving the last words of President White to the students of 1885, — and I think these are the thoughts and wishes of all the Trustees, — that we but voice his own expressions in regard to the real but liberal Christianity taught from week to week in the Sage Chapel, when he said: "If I thought that this University was simply to strengthen your intellect, I would pray that all these buildings might slide down this hill and into yonder lake. It is the object of Cornell University to strengthen men, both intellectually and morally. In no other place in this country is there such a course presented as here. Attend them all. You cannot but receive an impetus that will help to elevate your manliness and religious character." This is the first meeting of the full Board of Trustees since the address of the President of the University. The welcome to its new President was shown by the votes of the Trustees when the necessary election took place. We hail and honor both the rising and the setting sun, — the one now our Honorary President, whose last words were to the students, — your and their tried friend of twenty years. All around us are the noblest evidences of his faith both in Cornell as it was, as it is, and as he contributed so largely to make it, and especially as it is in the successor whom he knew, and who above any other man was the man of his choice, and of our choice in the light of his experience. The cordial welcome which distinguished the President's recent reception by the Faculty and students, and the hearty thanks to the latter, in his own words, for " the evi- dent disposition to promote in all practical ways the good order of the University," and " for the spirit discovered here," we be- lieve is but the foreshadowing of t"he future. The past is secure; and the present, in the number and character of new students, and in the work of those who are now here (the number, 612, being larger than ever before), gives promise that in the progress of events the future will better the past. Cornell will take no CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, LL.D. '9 step backward. Her young men, recalling the past, will neither be discouraged by poverty where it exists, nor too much en- couraged by riches where there is wealth. Inherited honors of high places, like inherited riches, are often in this free land a stumbling block to promotion. " Worth makes the man" and always, if it be real worth, step by step, year by year, men advance until success or failure be- comes certain. This advance has been seen in our fellowships and scholarships, University and State. In all of these we see increased numbers, until for State scholars free education is af- forded to more than two hundred pupils, with the door open to as many more, and until, as the natural inspiration of estab- lished fellowship and scholarship work, there is a higher grade of preparation and more competition for the honors and rewards of scholarship than ever before. The Trustees desire to see every Assembly District in the State represented by at least one State scholar, who comes here in the two-fold evidence of his own success and the pride of the people of the district who send him. Of the Fellowships and Scholarships we must not forget how and when they were established. We owe them, first of all, to the necessities of the University. In this way, as so often in the life-work of people and nations, our real poverty Jn 1872 is not only the source of our present benefactions but the promise of future honors from the same source for all time to come. It was at the Trustees' meeting, held November 23, 1872, that in consequence of this suffering for the means of support Ezra Cornell made a special gift of $70,000. President White; Henry W. Sage, Hiram Sibley and John McGraw added $20,- 000 each to this gift. The purpose was " to provide suitable instruction and equipment, without sacrificing the landed prop- erty of the University.'' All honor and sincere thanks to his and their large" generos- ity in saving this landed property, the whole of it then and now an absolute necessity for future support. It was this timely gift that lifted us from very dense darkness into that almost instant brightness which at once imparted the fondest hopes and re- vealed the clearest light. This $150,000, be it remembered, is the source of our fellowships, scholarships, and loan funds, and 2 THE IN A UU URA T10N OF it was resolved by the donors as trustees to establish them, whenever " the finances of the University shall permit, for meritorious and needy students or other benefactions." This large gift in 1872 I may say saved to the University nearly ten times the amount given, as otherwise the land, which is the source of nearly all our income, would have been sacrificed for the then and now pressing work. The interest of this free- will offering yields substantially all the support required for our fellowships and scholarships, and I need not add that like boun- ties from other friends will increase these desirable honors and benefactions for those who need them. Harvard has, large and small, 128 scholarships and fellowships, Yale 22, Columbia 21, Johns Hopkins 58, Princeton 9, but these numbers give no correct indication of their real value. Of Finances and Economics. — At the present time I may con- gratulate the friends of the University that they are in that most blessed state for institutions, churches or people, of being out of debt; but in a University there is always, with the passing cloud in the sky and the temptation for creating expenditures, debts crippling the real needs of the present by commitments to the uncertain future. A wise man or corporation will always live within his or its means. About nine-tenths of the sources of in- come for this University, it must be remembered, is apart from tuition fees paid by students, and it is because we have this in- come from lands, endowments, and personal benefactions that we impose upon ourselves in the form of obligations far more than the law imposes upon us. I need not add that in the nat- ural wants of a college there is always room for more, whether it be in departments, studies, books, buildings, and especially is this true of income, teachers' salaries, and honors. The best of us in this struggling world, like Oliver, are always asking for more, and when the little of yesterday is made the much of to-day we are still looking for a little more the day after. As Americans, young or old, we are an aspiring, aggressive, pushing, restless, determined people, and hence it is that with so many life is short* and time is short, and there is so much that in both is brief and uncertain. * About twenty-two and a half in each one thousand people die in this State, where the mortality should not exceed seventeen or eighteen, and in perfect living of air or diet ought not to be more than fifteen. CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, LL.D. 21 Daniel Webster once said to me, when a young admirer of his in the city of Washington, and after I had written columns of my country newspaper in his defense from the attack of John C. Calhoun on Mr. Webster's public conduct during the war of 1812-15, — "My young friend, I passed twenty years of my life in learning to discard words, and I want you to profit by my example." My vanity, I confess, suffered at the time, but thereafter most of my metaphors, comparisons, and illustra- tions, rhetoric and hypercriticisms, disappeared. I did profit by the teacher, the lessons and the example, and most of us who are not brief enough may at least in our correspondence and conversation, addresses and compositions, learn to discard the use of too many words. In a hundred ways silence is not only golden but more expressive than words, and apart from all the natural calamities, follies, and blunderings of every day life there may be too much speaking. " Words are like leaves and where they most abound, Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found." Too many Colleges. — Cornell is among the twenty-two lite- rary colleges in the State, and the number is far too many for the best systems of complete education. This one is among the youngest of these schools of learning, and we believe it to be among the best in the State or country, and as trustees, fac- ulty, students, and friends, we shall be disappointed, judging by its past growth and present advance, if it is not for all purposes of education kept in the front rank of the oldest and best col- leges in the land. We desire, however, in our growth rather to be right than to be fast, while not unmindful of the two facts that almost every- thing in our land tends to rapid transit and growth. But, if we are to be abreast of the times, there must be constant life, move- ment, and progress here. The old-time teaching of fifty years gone by meant little in real college work but lessons in Greek and Latin literature, in- terpreted and scanned in prose and verse. Certainly there was very little of past or present history, still less of what is now known as scientific work. Even at the English Cambridge there was but a limited amount of mathematics. But the Greek and Latin, as men learned them aforetime, were full of memories, 22 THE INAUGURATION OF histories, biographies, as in the lives of Plutarch. The Greek was not only the original of the New Testament, but the old Bible was first translated into the Greek tongue. It is in the language of St. Paul and the tongue of Greek orators and writers — of Paul, and Plato, and Thucydides, — it is in the Latin tongue, the language of the Roman law, of the forum, and of some of the greatest orators and discoverers, that we find the story of what has been called the golden age of history. The oldest Latin school in the United States is still kept up in Boston as a specialty. Phillips Brooks has recently recorded its history. I, as a Massachusetts boy, remember one incident in this history, which he may have forgotten, when this even then very old school was visited by Governor Barbour, of Virginia, who seemed wonderfully impressed with the advance of some of the Bos- ton boys who figured upon the Boston stage somewhere between 1824 and 1828. There was a trial of platform scholarship and skill in the studies of the day. Two of the boys were in very different conditions of life, and one of them far be- hind in worldly goods, and in what is called " Society ; " but this advantage, if it was one, no doubt stimulated the least favored of fortune to do his best. "And who is this boy?" said the Virginia governor, " And who is his competitor ? " " The for- mer," said the principal, "is the son of the President of the Unit- ed States, and the boy who has won the prize is the son of the man whom you see sawing wood in front of the school-house." These two conditions of life and of success admirably illustrate what is both so equal and so grand in the common schools of the whole country. In just such boys you may if you choose see the rising man, and better to him his poverty and his work than his mate's prosperity. You remember also, as children of the larger growth, Rob Roy's answer to the question: "Who are you?" And the answer was, "I am a man!" "A man! That is very brief." "And I have no other answer to give " was the con- clusion of the whole matter. And just here at Cornell is a good place to form the right kind of a man; and that kind of a man means not alone the faith, hope, and charity which St. Paul so grandly and tersely presents, but what also may be expressed in the plainer words of pluck, gumption, and a manly ambition to excel in whatever, guided by an honest purpose, the hands may find to do. CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, LL.D. 23 Of our brief age this is to be said to show our youth in com- parison with other universities : Harvard came into existence in 1636, William and Mary in 1692, Yale in 1700, Princeton in 1746, King's, now Columbia, in 1754, Liberty Hall, Va., in 1782; but old St. Andrew's came into life in 1411, and Cam- bridge and Oxford in England have an age in excess of 500 years. In passing upon this brief record of times and places let me mention the fact, recalling, if possible, the fresh — because some- times neglected or forgotten — virtue of George Washington, that, in recognition of his great services to his State and to the Nation, Virginia gave him a large number of shares in the James River and Potomac Navigation Companies, and that Washington accepted the gift only upon condition that he might give these shares in part towards the endowment of a National University. Hence the college which now bears his name in the Old Domin- ion, and it was thus christened at the time of his death. Thus it was that the Father of his Country, — and more than any one else the founder of its liberties, — in his message to Congress in 1797 said that "The assimilation of the principles, opinions and man- ners of the people by the education together of youths from ev- ery quarter will greatly increase the prospect of permanence in the Union." In his will he points out how such a plan of edu- cation would tend to overthrow local prejudices and jealousies. Age, Health and Diet. — While speaking of the age of uni- versities, I may add that in the greatest educational country of the world, which is Germany, there are in the universities 160 professors between the ages of seventy and ninety years, and recently nearly half a score of them were beyond the age of eighty-five; and in Paris one, M. Cheveuil, was lecturing and conducting experiments in the laboratory close upon the age of a hundred, and has now, if living, passed his hundredth year. And here, too, perhaps better than elsewhere, I may without intrusion, — and as one of the State Commissioners of Health, — say a word more upon the subject of health, — to which the new president in his Annual Address called the attention of the stu- dents of this University. Prof. Von Ranke, of large fame, was a teacher in Germany at the age of ninety, and may be one now, 24 THE INAUGURATION OF and Prof.'Elvenick, his junior by a month only, was at work and in full vigor of his faculties at the same time. Mark Hopkins nearer home is a teacher at eighty-five. We do not as a rule in this land live and work to this old age because of many things. I shall name but one, but in this resting upon study as well as belief founded upon observation. Emerson gives one reason for the fact when he says that "the broad avenue of the stomach is with all the Anglo race the shortest cut to their hearts.'' Solo- mon led the way to this conclusion when, in one of his many wise proverbs, he said, " When thou sittest to eat with a ruler consider diligently what is before thee ; and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties for they are deceitful meat." Rapid eating and too much eating, — and this is my health lesson to myself and others, — is the great enemy of student life and of all life. Louis Cornaro, the Italian, whose book upon the right diet and the right kind of living, brief and full of wis- dom, I hope is in the library, was no doubt right when he said, — what the Psalmist, however, in his time did not quite agree to, — that the proper age of a well fed body and of a really temper- ate life was not the prescribed limitation of three score and ten years, but not less than a round one hundred years, to which age one with a good constitution might add twenty years more. The natural end should be bodily dissolution, rather than bodily decay and waste brought on by a stomach or mind worn out by disease. Sir James Thompson gives abundant reason for the Cornaro theory of living in his series of popular lectures on the right kind of food to eat as adding much to the right kind of living. From the beginning of this University one of the first studies imposed upon the student, in the form of lectures on hygiene, has been the proper care of his own health, and the result has been a remarkable absence of ordinary mortality and an exceptionable presence of personal health. If disease should come, the University is well prepared to meet it. When the student hospital is built and equipped, and educated trained nurses are in service, and the will of the loved and lamented Jennie McGraw-Fiske executed, there will be the most ample provisions for all students who are unfortu- nately ill. CHARLES KEXDALL ADAMS, LL.D. 25 Student College-Life and Government. — The example of lib- erty here for many years, is, as I know it, in the freedom of stu- dent life, in advance of most of the colleges of the country. At Harvard the undergraduates are just entering upon closer relations with the Faculty. Five seniors, four juniors, three sophomores, and two freshmen are now either made or select a committee to hold direct conference with the Faculty there in the interest of both teachers and taught. Time has demonstrated that the world is governed too much, and that where there is the least of what is called government there may be the best administration, and time has also demon- strated that self-government is the best of all, or that kind of gov- ernment which is dependent upon individual character and duty. In all our lives, whether of government or service, real merit is limited to about these three possessions, which belong to the brain of every true man and woman : First, integrity of character; secondly, industry of pursuit; and, finally, the right use of each. The seed thus planted in youth will bear fruit in middle life, in old age, and to the end of time. The inner or self conscience, under the first head, is the best creator of every good life. I need not say that this vital principle needs con- stant cultivation of the sentiments and the best education of the mind. Moreover where the temperament is not sluggish, and the man, in one word, indolent or lazy, this cultivation of what is known as conscience stimulates the second, which is neces- sity, or what may be called and known as personal work. Be it remembered always that in this cultivation of mind and con- science " Every noble deed is a step towards Heaven. Great souls, by nature half divine, soar to the stars And hold a near acquaintance with the gods." What I wish as layman and observer to impress upon gov- erned and governors in college life is simply the true standard of right and wrong between man and man and women and men of all ages and classes, rather than between young and old. Where this standard exists there will not be, — what we now too often see, — any want of reverence for years, nor the absence of respect for a larger or better experience or for greater talents and genius. 26 THE INAUGURATION OF The mind in these respects is guided by a true heart, a wise head, and of itself makes and takes its proper place. True free- dom never means a licensed hand nor tongue, nor rude man- ners, nor coarseness of any kind. I may say I believe that at Cornell there are no masters in the sense of bondage, nor servants in the sense of forced sub- mission. Criticism, not hypercriticism, is lawful enough and proper enough, but with the teacher it does not, and as a rule ought not, to mean censure nor animadversion. When it means and says the right thing of persons or work, it is simply an impartial judgment of the man or the subject. The cynic is never a just critic of men nor of work. The stoics who never see any vir- tue out of their own creed or class are equally stolid in their pretensions of superior wisdom, their supposed freedom from all joy and grief, and their assumption that all things are gov- erned by unavoidable necessity. Diogenes lying in the dust outside the wall of Corinth illustrated this kind of man when he refused to talk to Alexander, and, upon the latter asking him whether he could do anything for him, answered, after raising himself upon his elbow : " Yes ! Get out from between me and the sun !" Government, Federal and Stale, and Personal Gifts. — We are not as Trustees nor as Faculty and students to forget the bounty of the Federal and State governments. The former gave 990,- 000 acres in land scrip to the State, and the State gave all this scrip conditionally to Cornell. The Federal government ex- acted, " without excluding other scientific and classical studies and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learn- ing as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts." The purpose was and is " to promote the liberal and practical edu- cation of the industrial classes in the several pursuits of life." The State, April 27, 1865, incorporated "The Cornell Univer- sity," and set apart for its support the income arising from the sale of this land scrip. The exacting conditions were, first, that Ezra Cornell should give $500,000 to the University, sec- ondly, that agriculture, military tactics and the mechanic aits should be primary objects of education, and, thirdly, that it should receive without cost for tuition one student annually from each Assembly District of the State. To this large bounty of CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, LL.D. 27 money Mr. Cornell, whose name is always to be remembered and honored for his gifts, — and still more for the purpose which prompted them, — added two hundred acres of land with the buildings upon the land as a part of the Agricultural Depart- ment of the University. Cornell's Benefactors. — I need not add that before Cornell received an acre of government land the Peoples' College at Havana was offered the whole grant if the Trustees there would secure an endowment of $170,000 to meet the condi- tions of the State law; but patient delay failed to produce the sum required. Nor need I say in this presence that each and all of Cornell's obligations to the Nation and to the State, to the peo- ple and to students, have been fulfilled, and not in the letter of "the law alone, but in its entire purpose and spirit. By the bounty of another of its Trustees, in 1872, women were admitted to the University, above the age of seventeen years, on the same terms as men, and like provision was and is made for their qualifications and education. Sage College is their home now and for all time to come, and in equipment and comfort it is in every respect a home worthy of the best scholars and the best results — a grand gift from a large-minded man for a noble purpose, and one for which all women in this State and elsewhere who believe in the higher education for their sex ought to be most grateful. Whether we believe in co-education or not, those who believe in complete or full education in like or in different studies, not less for women than for men, can find it here. To recount all the benefactors of the University and the gifts they have made is not my purpose, but there are names which cannot be omitted upon an occasion like this. John McGraw and his daughter are two of this class, the former — and he was one of the earliest benefactors, — in his building for the teach- ing of Natural History; and the latter, Jennie McGraw-Fiske, had upon her mind and heart for the University, a Cottage Hos- pital to cost $45,000, the Memorial Chapel to cost $20,000, her beautiful residence which cost $210,000, while the library which was set apart both by will and good will in the remainder of her estate and valued at more than $700,000. The institution which she loved and honored she meant by word and deed to 2 8 THE ISA UG URA TION OF lead all others by her own helping hand. Those of us who were here at or near the beginning of the University organiza- tion in 1865 and remember the pealing bells from the hill where they discoursed their morning and evening chimes, and those who have been here since, will always recall, and with all the pleasure which belongs to the double music of the concord of sweet sounds and the personal charms of a good life, this first gift of Tennie McGraw. Her voice and heart were always in full ac- cord with this welcome summons of time for duty, for pleasure, or for work. And so also of the many gifts in books and pho- tographs of President White and of Goldwin Smith, each of them in twenty years of positive service, and the latter, though alien born, adding to his gift of time 3,500 choice books when books were a real necessity. The full library embraces beyond all these the Anthon, Sparks, Bopp, Kelly and May libraries, numbering in all more than 56,200 volumes and 15,000 selected pamphlets. The McGraw Library fund promises, if the pend- ing suit is won, all that three-quarters of a million of dollars can buy in the knowledge which belongs to books. By the gift of another benefactor and Trustee " The Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering " has become as perfect a department in all the branches of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering as any in the country. If there is room for any- thing better it will come. Of this department in the great uses of life too much cannot be said. The graduates who have made practical engineering their special study have found a steady demand for their work, and the demands for service have been made in many cases in advance of retirement from their full courses of study. No one fact in our more recent experience has afforded me so much real pleasure as the frequent calls for work of real value from the great workshops of the country. And here let me say a few words upon this kind of practical education as wholly apart from what are called more profes- sional studies. It is not necessary to undervalue the latter any more than it is necessary to undervalue or overvalue the uses of Greek and Latin in a full course of university education. Both of these are wise, even if not necessary for a full profes- sional life. If one as a student only is in the enjoyment of CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, LL.D. 2 <) what is called perfect leisure, without real head-work and hand- work for needed support in life, — and if there be such a one here or elsewhere, I am almost sorry for his or her embarrassment of riches, — then he may emphatically choose what may be called " the leisure of scholarship " or the luxury of books ; but books, it has been truly said, can never teach the use of books ; nor can leisure without toil and real work and much thinking, and what Burke calls " comparing and collating," make a wise man, nor a valuable citizen of the State. In my judgment, if any man was ever killed by hard work in study it has been less than one in a million, and this one might almost if not quite lap over into another million. Leisure time may be very pleasant time, and many may prefer leisure to care or employment, just as one might prefer — there is the broadest distinction between the two — genius to talent ; but for uses and successes in life and for general contentment of character give me the talent that means work rather than genius that is regarded as a kind of divine inspiration and originality. The one is inborn and the special faculty of a gifted soul or nature. The other works and wins and holds what it wins by work and patience. While the latter executes, the former perceives and conceives, as did Galvani, as did Watt, noting the steam forcing his spoon, as do true poets like Homer, Shakespeare, Milton and men of their type or tem- perarhent, or discoverers like Galileo, who, because he had seen the moving of the bronze lamp in the cathedral of Pisa and noted the beating time of his own pulse, placed the sun where the Creator put it, and who was outlawed and pronounced a heretic for his faith in God and knowledge of his works in the light of heaven, or like Sir Isaac Newton, or Franklin, who had both genius and talent, as have many others. But as the general law the great men of the world who have governed states and people, the great philosophers of the world who have come to conclusions in the light of reason and experience, have been men of that kind of talent which rests upon application and arrangement, acquisition and understanding, rather than men of commanding genius and brilliant imagination. Take — what is in one sense a lesser discovery — the work of Knowlton, which in sawing ship timber by one machine 3 THE IN A UG URA Tl OK OF performed in two hours what before occupied thirty-two hours, and by another machine peeled the surface of metal as a child would peel an orange, and by another bored blocks of granite twenty-two inches an hour and with a pressure of 300 pounds upon the drill; take the case of John Fitch, the steamboat in- ventor, in 1788, working hard at the age of eleven to get money to buy a copy of Salmon's geography which he exultingly said, '• will teach me the knowledge of the whole world," and Rumsey, of New York, in the same work of invention just two years in advance of Fitch ; take the invention and work of Robert Fulton in the experiment of the Clermont on the Hudson, thirty-two hours to Albany from New York and thirty in returning ; of Oliver Evans and his engine for transit on railways ; of Thomas Blanchard and his machine which made 500 tacks in a minute and balanced them in a half ounce weight, and his steam gun sending off 250 balls in a minute and 15,000 in an hour and by a movable joint shooting the balls round the corner ; and, more than all, of Eli Whitney and his cotton gin, which at once produced a social revolution, — all these are simply the work of generations gone by, but the effect should be to make the young men of to-day at least moderate in their claims of superior gifts. The Bard of Avon was one who, as Coleridge said, " studied patiently, meditated deeply, understood minutely, till knowledge became habitual and intuitive," and just here is developed both the highest talent and in intuition the greatest genius. He en- couraged by toil his natural capabilities. Franklin in a different way, and every way a different man, illustrated his genius when in 1752 with his kite, his hempen string and little key, — to him the key of know ledge, — he sent his kite to the sombre clouds and soon witnessed the fibres of his hempen string glistening in the air, and then almost, if not altogether, conscious of the great future before him and the world, cried out " I would be con- tent if this moment had been my last." His and all other great lives have been lives of hard work. There was more faith then, and there is more science now. The conclusions from all these examples, and they are but events and facts preceding the telegraph and the telephone and a thousand other marvels in art and skill, prove that talent added CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, LL.V. 31 to genius, the thought and wrought of brain and work in suc- cessful invention, in the examples I have named and seen in the same one head and pair of hands, makes the complete man. Here is the Minerva coming almost at once from the brain of Jupiter; and Vulcan also is the natural offspring of this Jupiter, with his wondrous work in metals, arms, forges, sceptres, and all that belongs to human force and human skill. Apart from great endowments my Lord Paley taught me when a student that " no man can rest when he has not worked." Just here at Cornell then is the place where work brings to the true man rest, peace and success. All men, and women more than men, know how work changes and varies, but it is work all the same, and this I esteem as the greatest gift of God to man. It may not always be easy or attractive work, but be it remembered, even as "The pure, limpid stream, when foul with stains Of rushing torrents and descending rains, Works itself clear, and as it runs, refines," so is it with the activity of man. Beyond this and no more, be it remembered that all work of brain or hands is honorable, and as honorable, — and not alone because it is a greater necessity — in the servant as in the master. Here at Cornell now it is to be finished work in agriculture, chemistry, in all kinds of engineering, in botany, arboriculture, entomology, zoology, in hygiene, and especially physical cul- ture, in anatomy, physics, veterinary medicine and surgery. All these subjects are eminently practical and most of them relate to every day business work, and also to bodily life, com- fort, and support. THE COLLEGE OF MECHANIC ARTS Which this year receives a new advance, I dwell upon as meaning what belongs, and in time, all that belongs to arts and trades and mechanical engineering. Lecture-rooms, rooms for drawing, numerous work shops, machine shops, milling and grinding machines, machines ready for cutting plane, bevel, and spiral gears, cutters, drills, scales, circles, gauges, machines and cupolas for melting brass and iron, the foundry, the smithy for 3 2 THE IN A UG URA TLON OF forging, melting and tempering, the laboratory with all kinds of machines for tests of weight and for measuring the ten-thou- sandth of an inch of space, and chronographs for counting tenths of seconds, all that belongs to the strength and ductility of fibrous materials, to the value and endurance of lubricants, to steam indicators and correctors, all these and more, are here. The new and welcome Director of Sibley College says and knows of all these, what all our friends may through him see and know, that " the collection of mechanical laboratory appa- ratus in these departments is already exceptionally rich and com- plete." To these present purchases and gifts will hereafter be added all that invention can supply to what is now pronounced " exceptionally rich and complete." The world in nothing else moves so rapidly as in labor-saving machines, and while they have at times reduced handwork from two to ten-fold, they have proportionately reduced the cost of living, and in many ways added to the real comforts of life. I may be partial as a Trustee in recounting the advantages to stu- dents and others in these departments of work and of the pro- gress made in each and all of them here and elsewhere in the past twenty or thirty years. Take one illustration for example. When the cable was first laid across the Atlantic in a vast loop line, all in all of 3,700 miles, it was supposed that very great pow- er was necessary to force the needed current through this great dis- tance. The first experiment was a battery of fifty cells and later on of 500 cells. The effect of this great power was direct in- jury. Time proved that a battery of twenty cells was better than one of five hundred, and soon it was known that enough acid may be put into a lady's thimble, with bits of zinc arid cop- per, and thus equipped the signal pass through these 3,700 miles of wire in little more than a second of time. If I dwell too long upon what belongs to scientific work and study, it is for two reasons : first : because long before these studies had a real start in the United States the schools of France, England, and Germany were far in advance of our own in all that belonged to the best technical teaching of industrial pursuits; and secondly, because the learning of trades and kindred work is almost killed by the combinations, quarrels, and jealousies of those who are leaders in what belongs to capi- tal and labor. CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, LL.D. 33 We have now reached a period, strange to say, when even many parts of a mechanical trade can sooner and will be better learned in the workshops of a university like this than perhaps in the largest tradeshops in the country. Here the learner is vexed neither by capital, labor, nor combinations of any kind, and, as a correct sentiment, let me say that when bad men com- bine good men should unite. The law of Congress of 1862 settled the possibility among other things of securing a complete mechanical education in this University. Beyond this, as we have seen here, this law was a stimulus to splendid benefactions to promote every kind of useful knowledge. In the twenty-two years since the great college land act became a law more has been done for scientific education than in the one hundred years before. Very properly Cornell has bestowed honors upon one United States Senator who shared largely in the Act of Congress which gave to New York 990,000 acres of land, and whose por- trait adorns these walls. To Cornell was secured — large de- mands for distant-land and home expenses excepted — the benefit of this splendid gift for the best education of the children'of the State and other States who seek a complete, and if need be, the cheapest possible education. All honor then to the Federal Government for its bounty, and to the State for its grant of this bounty to Cornell University and to all of its benefactors. As intelligent stewards may we so administer this public trust and all private benefactions as to secure the satisfaction of work wisely planned, well performed, and for all time discharged in the sole interest of the thousands past and present who have been and will be entrusted to the administration of the present Board of Trustees and their successors in office. 34 THE IN AUGUR AT10S OF Address of Mr. A. S. Norton in Behalf of the Students. Preside7it Adams : — The undergraduates of this University extend to you the assurance of their welcome and the pledge of their loyalty. You come among us under circumstances that might at first seem, in one respect at least, unfavorable. Your predecessor took with him, when he left Cornell, a wealth of affection such as few men have ever carried from any field of labor. But it does not follow that he impoverished us, and left none for you. On the contrary, the very depth of our feeling for him makes us the more ready to be true to you. We like to believe that our Alma Mater rears her sons to be not only large-brained and large-bodied, but large-hearted also. But even if she did not, the hearts that have so long been the throne of such a man could not be small. To that place we now invite you, rejoic- ing that you do not come as a stranger, to jostle old memories, but are in sympathy with them — for he was your life-long friend ; rejoicing that we may cherish these memories without wrong to you — for the stronger they are the more we shall be drawn to you, his own chosen successor; rejoicing, in a word, that all circumstances and all associations make it easy to merge the old loyalty into the new without a shock. President Adams : As the students of Cornell come day by day to better understand what we have won, in your coming, and what another University so reluctantly relinquished, we grow more and more glad. We are proud to have as our president the man who stands second to none in introducing and fit- ting to American needs a plan of college work, the best yet found for stimulating a student to original research and for helping him to form habits which will lead to fruitful scholar- ship rather than mere barren learning. We are proud to have here with us the source of that quiet but deep influence which has in another State started in right directions so many student minds, which, as their powers unfold, are taking no small part in making the history of that great section of our common coun- try. We are proud in the hope that we, the disciples of your later years and riper knowledge, may prove worthy of our elder CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, LL.D. 35 cousins of a sister college, and that we, though starting later, may rival them in doing honor to your name by our achieve- ments. We congratulate ourselves that you come to us from a great University and a liberal one ; that your life has been spent among influences similar to those here ; that your convictions and purposes are in harmony with the policy of Cornell. We heard with joy on the occasion of your first formal appearance before us the liberal sentiments you expressed ; we were grati- fied that you announced so great confidence in the plan of leaving to students in so large a measure the responsibility for their own college career ; we do not think that any one could go away from such words without a resolve to use every power to merit that confidence. We have this response to what you then said to us : We realize that the world has duties for us when we have finished here ; that we shall stand or fall accord- ing as we do, or fail to do those duties ; that no power outside ourselves will be there to direct or compel us ; that the world will be keen, searching, merciless in the questions " What do you know ?" " What can you do ?" — beyond that it will be indiffer- ent. We realize, in a word, that we shall be what our own , strength of will enables us to be — and no more. We feel, then, that an important part of a college training is to develop this strength of character. We feel that college is the best place we shall ever find for this development. Here the counsel of our instructors, the high regard we have for them, the pervading atmosphere of earnest application, all inspire us to right con- duct and to our best effort. And therefore we deplore all regu- lations and restrictions that take away from us any part of our self-control, not so much because they are vexatious and humil- iating, as because they defeat one great purpose of our college course. We welcome the fullest freedom and try to deserve it. We trust that we do deserve it. A whole year sometimes passes without a single case of marked misconduct. A simple request from the President that smoking on the campus be discontinued met with as implicit compliance as though it were the most strin- gent decree, framed with penalties and fulminated with threats. We should be glad if the opportunity were given us of proving ourselves equally worthy of confidence in all other directions. 3 6 THJS IN A UG URA TION OF Those of us who are nearing the close of our college course look back with amazement at the changes of even four years. We have seen departments develop into well equipped and richly- endowed colleges ; we have seen eminent men called to head these colleges ; we have seen the number of students almost double, aud this in the face of a steady advance of requirements ; we have seen a bitterly hostile outside sentiment dying out or sullenly receding before the words and works and lives of the men Cornell has trained and sent out. Under the influence of this teeming activity, this s-wift advance all along the lines, our pulses bound, our nerves thrill, our whole being is filled with an eager courage to go out and try whether we can keep pace with our Alma Mater in the growth of our lives. And yet, as we greet those just entering the portals of a college greater than the one we found, we almost envy them and regret that our col- lege days were not cast later and amid these great advantages. This advance that we have witnessed has been, however, only a part of a steady progress. Our feelings of devotion to Cor- nell change to pride, when we remember thatin less than twenty years she has grown from the first crude beginnings to be one of the most complete schools of learning in America; that she in her young vigor stands in the foremost rank, shoulder to shoulder with colleges whose history makes them venerable ; that she is taking no small part in making the name of Ameri- can scholarship respectable throughout the world ; that when a foreign man of letters refers to a few of the foremost seats of learning on this continent we may look with confidence for the name Cornell. Can any future our imaginations can conceive seem too bright a sequel for such a beginning ? Standing here to-day between the brief but glorious past and the wide-opening, prophetic future, we, the students of Cornell, invite all Cornellians of all years to unite with us in rejoicing that a leader has been found worthy of that past, able to lead into that future. CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, LL.D. 37 Address of John Frankenheimer, Esq., in Behalf of the Alumni. Mr. President, l^adies and Gentlemen : — It is eminently fitting that the Alumni of Cornell University should be represented here to-day. I only regret that their offi- cial representative is one so little qualified as myself to do honor to the occasion. It is true that some of the Alumni enter- tained views upon the question of the Presidency of Cornell which were not entirely in harmony with the final action of the Board of Trustees. These views were presented in a respectful manner and were accorded a respectful hearing. No one had a right to demand more than this. And speaking for myself, I feel impelled to say that the action of the Board of Trustees seems justified by the result. The quiet, thorough and efficient manner in which the new President of Cornell has entered upon the discharge of his duties is leading many of the doubters to believe that in the choice of his successor President White has given but another illustration of his wisdom, fore- sight, and deep interest in the welfare of Cornell. The Alumni of Cornell acknowledge that every right implies a correlative duty. They recognize that the right to be repre- sented in the Board of Trustees and to be kept informed of the progress and condition of University affairs carries with it the duty of a live and intelligent interest in all that concerns their Alma Mater, and the further duty of advancing the influence of the University, directly by active propaganda, and indirectly by their own reputation and standing in the community. I main- tain that the Alumni of no other college or university in the land have shown as active and intelligent an interest in the welfare of their Alma Mater as have the Alumni of Cornell. It may be true that the manifestation of this interest has not always been as conservative as it was active. But this is to be accounted for by the fact that the Alumni of Cornell are, like their Alma Ma,ter, full of the lusty strength and independent spirit of youth. It is true they have not yet acquired the staid formality of con- servative old age, but the very turbulence of their spirits is proof of the vigor of their feelings. Their attachment to their Alma 38 THE ISA r