LID 11 
 
 SPEECHES 
 
 IN BEHALF OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ALBANY, 
 
 Hon. SAM'L B. RTJGGLES, Rev. DUNCAN 
 
 KENNEDY, Hon. AZOR TABER, 
 
 and Rev. RAY PALMER. 
 
 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 (Committee of % fjoung MtrCs Association 
 
 CITY OF ALBANY— March, 1852. 
 
 ALBANY: 
 
 CHARLES VAN BENTHUYSEN, PRINTER. 
 No. 407, Broadway. 
 
 1852. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ALBANY: 
 
 Jh-opcseft Branches of 0tnoti in % Scientific IPcnartmtnt. 
 
 Scientific and Practical Agriculture. — Chemistry, Geology, and Mine- 
 ralogy — Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, applicable to Agriculture ; Struc- 
 ture, Functions and Diseases of Domestic Animals, and Veterinary Surgery; 
 and the Study of Insects in their Relations to Plants ; Rural Architecture and 
 Horticulture; Botany, and Diseases of Plants. 
 
 Civil and Mechanical ENGiNEERiNG.-^Including Architecture, the Arts 
 of Design; Mathematics, Geology, and Mineralogy, applicable to Engineering 
 and Geographical Surveys; also Metallurgy, and the Science and Art of 
 Mining. 
 
 The Mechanic Arts. — Natural Philosophy and Mechanical Technology, 
 embracing the Applications of the different Motive Powers to Machinery. 
 
 Astronomy, and the Applications of Mathematics, Geometry, Celestial Me* 
 chanics, Meteorology, and Navigation and Commerce. 
 
 Chemistry, in its Applications to the Manufacturing and Useful Arts. 
 Physical Geography, Political Economy, and History, in its Relations 
 to Civilization. 
 
SPEECHES 
 
 IN BEHALF OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ALBANY, 
 
 Hon. SAM'L B. RUGGLES, Rev. DUNCAN 
 
 KENNEDY, Hon. AZOR TABER, 
 
 and Rev. RAY PALMER. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 Committee of tlje fjoung ittcn's Association 
 
 CITY OF ALBANY— March, 1852. 
 
 ALBANY: 
 
 CHARLES VAN BENTHUYSEN, PRINTER. 
 No. 407, Broadway. 
 
 1852. 
 
kj 
 
 ft i 
 
 Ac: 
 
 The Committee, in presenting to the public, on behalf of the Association, 
 this publication, feel both a pride and a pleasure in reminding its numerous 
 members of the vastly beneficial results which their united efforts have in times 
 past accomplished; and they entertain the confident belief, when the objects 
 of the University are rightly understood, and its benefits properly appre- 
 ciated, that this and all similar Associations will exert themselves in its 
 
 behalf. 
 
 JAMES I. JOHNSON, 
 
 Maurice E. Viele, Chairman of Committee. 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 * 
 
SPEECH 
 
 HON. SAMUEL B. RUGGLES, 
 
 IN BEHALF OF 
 
 A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Samuel B. Ruggles, Esq., of the city of New-York, having been 
 called on to address the meeting, said in substance as follows : 
 
 It happened to be my fortune, said Mr. Ruggles, fourteen years ago, 
 for good or ill, to pass a winter in this Assembly Chamber as one of the 
 Representatives of the city of New- York, occupying the place from 
 which I now address you'. The undue partiality of the eminent individual 
 then presiding over that body had placed me, much against my will, in 
 a conspicuous position on one of its committees ; and in that way my 
 humble name became accidentally connected with some of the questions 
 of Internal Improvement then agitating the public mind. I will only 
 claim that I discharged the duty thus imposed upon me as best I coidd — 
 that I sought, with feeble but honest endeavor, to advance the highest 
 interests of the .State — with what success is not for me to say. Many 
 thought my action mischievous — others thought otherwise — and in the 
 war of words which sprung up, and for a few years raged with violence, 
 my name got mingled in many a " heady fight." I can only hope that 
 my participation in the important discussions of the present evening 
 may not expose me to similar visitations. 
 
 As there never yet was a War that did not end in Peace at last, so 
 the Internal Improvement struggle in this State has found its end, and 
 Peace prevails. In the language of a distinguished personage on another 
 occasion, " the era of good feeling has arrived." Anti-improvement 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 men have disappeared and cease to exist. "We are all improvement 
 men — all determined and desirous, however differing as to the mode or 
 degree, to do all we lawfully can for the physical, and, as I trust it will 
 be found, for the intellectual improvement of the State. 
 
 These two branches of improvement, though seemingly different, are 
 in truth closely connected. The success of the one was indispensable 
 to furnish adequate means for the other ; and it is but justice to the 
 distinguished individuals with whom I had the honor to act in 1838, 
 that one leading aim in their urging forward the public works of the 
 State, was not merely to augment its commercial facilities and material 
 wealth, but that it had a further, a higher, a better object — the laying 
 the foundations, broad and deep, for the most efficient and comprehen- 
 sive measures for carrying forward the education of the people. We 
 then held, and we yet hold, that public works and public schools are 
 alike intended for the good of the whole people, and are alike democratic 
 in their object, tendency and effect. 
 
 For, what was the theory in regard to public works ? Was it not 
 that they would lessen not only natural but commercial and social 
 inequalities ; that they would place the poor by the side of the rich — in- 
 ferior districts by the side of the superior ; the agricultural by the side 
 of the trading communities ; and, so far as Nature's laws would permit, 
 would equalize the condition of all ? 
 
 We hold to a similar theory in regard to education ; and that it is its 
 true aim and best effect to raise up the low, the helpless and the down- 
 trodden ; — to lessen the inequalities that prevail in the intellectual 
 culture and condition of the people — to remove or batter down the 
 obstacles that retard the advancement of the sons of poverty and mis- 
 fortune, — and to place them side by side, on equal terms, and in fair 
 and open competition with the more favored sons of Fortune. 
 
 By a similar analogy we also hold, that in education as in public 
 works, in military achievements, and, in truth, in all the great efforts of 
 mankind, the secret of success is found in concentrating strength. The 
 steam engine, concentrating within itself the strength of hundreds of 
 animals and thousands of men, furnishes a single power by which we 
 traverse earth and ocean. It does more. It breaks down and obliterates, 
 not only commercial, but social distinctions ; for, does it not place in 
 the same vessel, and seat side by side in the same vehicle, the high and 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 the low — the lofty and the humble — the lender and the borrower — Dives 
 and Lazarus? Does there, can there, exist in nature or art, a truer, an 
 honester, a more unterrified democrat, than a Steam Engine ? From 
 the moment Steam entered the world, aristocracy was doomed, and the 
 final enfranchisement of society from artificial distinctions, absolutely 
 and most effectually secured. And what is the whole magnificent series 
 and chain of railways, spreading throughout our land and binding every 
 part in harmony and union, but one vast democratic machine for equaliz- 
 ing the condition of the people ? 
 
 As to the degree of success which has attended our efforts to advance 
 the physical improvement of the State, as I have before said, I forbear 
 to speak. But I will say that, if ever, under Heaven, actual experi- 
 ence established one truth more strongly than another, it is that the 
 Canals of New- York have not impoverished the State, nor the people 
 of New-York. I cannot trust myself to speak of those if any such 
 yet exist, who deny or even doubt the pecuniary value of these noble 
 works ; still less of those who would venture, at this late hour, to stig- 
 matise, as bankrupt, our glorious commonwealth — except to say, that, 
 for all such the necessity of a higher and better education is manifest 
 indeed. 
 
 Now, with a community prospering like ours — stretching from the 
 ocean to the lakes — its very channel swelled to overflowing with the 
 streams of commerce — its opulent and thriving cities — its rich and 
 teeming soil — all bound together by a panoply of public works so 
 wide-spread and magnificent, and with the most comforting amount of 
 eleven hundred millions of assessed value in the pockets of her citizens, 
 can she refuse, dare she refuse, to educate her offspring ? What would 
 we say to an individual miser, that, after accumulating his million, 
 should refuse to send his children to school ? 
 
 But here, just at this very point, we suddenly encounter a school 
 of political philosophers, not very numerous — for God be praised, the 
 race is nearly extinct — whose great delight it is to proclaim aloud that 
 " the world is governed too much" and that government has no right 
 to do more than " protect every man in his life, liberty and 'property ', 
 
 AND THERE TO STOP." 
 
 They, therefore, hold broadly and boldly, not only that it is not wise, 
 but that it is not lawful for a State to educate its people — that it has no 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 right to found public schools, build public works, endow public chari- 
 ties, guard the public health, or in fact to exercise any one of the bene- 
 ficent functions, which have so much exalted the character and pro- 
 moted the happiness of our people — but that all these objects, no mat- 
 ter how large or how important — no matter what amount of concentra- 
 ted means or power they may require — may be safely left to the libe- 
 rality of individuals. 
 
 Now if this miserable dogma were true, even to its letter, it would 
 not be difficult to show that the protection of " property" itself would 
 imperiously require ample and extended education, as its only means of 
 safety against ignorance, its deadliest enemy. But we descend to no 
 such special pleading. We meet the proposition at once in its full 
 extent, and deny that any such limitation of the great blessing of 
 human government, the greatest of all social blessings, God has bestowed 
 upon man, has any foundation or justification in experience, reason or 
 authority. We brand and denounce the whole doctrine as mischievous, 
 cruel and destructive — the diseased offspring of feeble heads and can- 
 kered hearts. Why could we, the people of this great State of New- 
 York, — would we, in this day of Christian civilization and expanding 
 humanity, merely to gratify a dreary and barren political abstraction, 
 depopulate our ten thousand school houses, and all our seats of learn- 
 ing, — turn out into the field and forest our eight hundred thousand 
 children — empty into the streets all our orphans, all our aged, all our 
 helpless — cast forth into outer darkness all our sick, all our insane, and 
 fill our whole land with lamentation and wailing ? Would we, could 
 we, in the face of all our swelling commerce, dry up all our noble chan- 
 nels of intercourse, tear up all our railways, root out all our aqueducts, 
 and throw down all the monuments of energy and perseverence, which 
 have made our favored commonwealth the admiration of the civilized 
 world ? If it were for a moment possible that a State like ours, 
 the very parent of American progress, with all its vast responsibilities 
 to the present and the future and to all around — standing foremost in 
 the National Union — holding the very gates between the Old World 
 and the New, between all the East and all the West, could consent to 
 be thus vilely mutilated, thus shorn of all its manhood and all its crea- 
 tive eneroy — that cold blooded theorists could thus be permitted, like 
 unclean birds, to pick off all its flesh and features, leaving oiily the 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY 
 
 naked skeleton of a State b.diind, — letter were it blotted out forever 
 from the family of civilized nations, and stand no longer a lifeless 
 spectacle to disgust and shock mankind. For one I am willing to leave 
 all such theorists and all such vagaries to the clear, calm, good sense 
 of our intelligent people. 
 
 I have said that the true element of modern success in works of 
 physical improvement has been found in the concentration of strength, 
 and that the same may hold true in our scientific organizations. Gov- 
 erned by this cardinal idea, the friends of the proposed University, and 
 who have for their eventual aim the establishment of a great institution 
 which shall exert its influence not only within this State but far beyond 
 it, have proposed to unite and combine in one mass, a body of learned 
 men, far exceeding in number and strength anything that has yet been 
 presented to the American world. The list of the eminent individuals, 
 upwards of twenty in number, is now before you, containing names 
 unsurpassed in scientific reputation, and worthy the great task they have 
 attempted. Their preeminent merits are known and admitted where- 
 ever learning is honored at all. The departments committed to their 
 care will embrace every variety and subdivision of literature and 
 science. 
 
 It is then, this unequalled variety, this unprecedented combination of 
 intellectual strength, which is to impart to the University its distin- 
 guishing characteristic Here the pupil of every taste and aim can 
 select the subject which he wishes to study and pursue, each and all^to 
 any extent he may desire. Without intending, in any way, to question 
 the usefulness of our existing colleges— for they will always remain 
 most valuable portions of our educational system— it may be safely 
 claimed that they lack the elements of variety, combination and extent 
 presented by the present plan. For those who would pursue a general, 
 and, so to speak, an elementary coarse of classical and mathematical study, 
 the present colleges will, doubtless, prove amply sufficient. But foul- 
 er five professors, however erudite or accomplished, aided only by two 
 or three youthful tutors, can hardly come up to the varied demands of 
 the aee. It requires something broader and more diversified — some- 
 thing more capable of assisting the student to pursue special depart- 
 ments of knowledge to their extremest limits, and perfect himself in the 
 practical applications of science. This we could not reasonably expect 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 from a system like that of the colleges, which are obliged to provide 
 one common course of broad, fundamental culture, which may be 
 enforced upon all, and at the same time be so elementary and so limited 
 in the number of subjects, that all may be crowded into three or four 
 years. 
 
 Not being in any sense a man of science myself, and knowing little 
 else than my duty to hold it in the highest respect, it is with unaffected 
 diffidence that I venture to speak on such a subject and in the presence 
 of men like those around me. But these men of learning have now 
 brought their cause before us, the people, and it is needful for us to 
 know at least our own necessities. Of some things, however, even as 
 laymen, we may be sure. We may assume at once that the science 
 existing at the present day, is vastly amplified in all its parts from that 
 which was taught in the days of our fathers. Indeed, it is so enlarged, 
 so transformed, that those of us who left the college walls for active 
 life some thirty years ago, find ourselves in quite another world — unable 
 to comprehend its vocabulary, still less its general outline and features. 
 In these same thirty years, in which our young republic has pushed 
 out its boundaries till they embrace the whole continental expanse from 
 ocean to ocean, Science with equal ardor and equal vigor has enlarged 
 its territories till it spreads its wide domain throughout the Earth and 
 the Heavens. Not to speak of the widely extended researches of the 
 analytic-alchemist — not to advert to the sublime discoveries of the geolo- 
 gist, disentombing and bringing bodily out to attest and record the 
 chronology of the great globe itself, the millions of long buried wit- 
 nesses, slumbering in stony beds and in more than Egyptian darkness 
 during millions of centuries — not to follow the microscope, descending 
 deeper and ever deeper into the minutest subdivisions of created things, 
 and finding all, from the depths of the deepest oceans to the peaks of 
 the loftiest mountains, filled not only with organized beings, instinct 
 with present life, but innumerable multitudes of the microscopic tenants 
 of our earth in its most remote geological ages, — have we not seen the 
 telescope, with the vast augmentation of its power during these thirty 
 years, pushing far out beyond the solar system, ascending into the 
 countless systems and series of systems of the stellar worlds — unfixing 
 the fixed stars themselves, and tracing their wanderings through the 
 sublimes t fields of time and space ? Nay more, is not the upturned 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 9 
 
 eye of the awe-struck astronomer even now, at this very moment, with 
 that same telescope of these modern clays, penetrating through the tan- 
 gled wilderness of suns and stars, and piercing deeper and deeper into 
 the vast abysses of the universe, detecting infant, new-born worlds, in 
 the very act of coming into being ? And yet all this science, disclo- 
 sing truths thus august, achieving discoveries thus sublime, comes down 
 daily with its homely and practical application to the ever-varying wants 
 and necessities of Man. Never at any former period in human history 
 have its useful applications been so constant, so valuable and so numerous. 
 Not only has it gladdened all earth and man by its applied results, but 
 it has extracted new powers from elemental nature and delivered them 
 over to the service of our race. The ruder, the grosser, the more pal- 
 pable mechanical powers which had sufficed since the earliest antiquity 
 for our use — even the great and all-pervading power of gravitation 
 itself are, one and all, superseded by a band of laborers, snatched from 
 the Heavens, brought down and subjugated, and made to toil as the 
 slaves of man. For was it not reserved for our day and generation to 
 witness the crowning achievement of science — its brilliant and matchless 
 victory over the imponderable agents of Nature ? — agents so ethereal, 
 so delicate, so evanescent, — and yet so faithful, so efficient, so untiring ? 
 
 And when did Man ever possess a better set of servants ? Is there 
 any office or any use, however exalted or however humble, to which 
 these heaven-born agents are not applied? Are they, indeed, the com- 
 panions only of the learned philosopher, the curious student ? Does 
 not that same vivid, electric fluid which carries on its wings Thought, 
 Eloquence and Genius, condescend to enter the shop of the plodding 
 artizan, and actually plate the very tea-pot on his table ? And is not 
 light, polarized light — so exquisitely analyzed as to detect the occult 
 laws of the far distant stellar worlds — placed by the philosopher in the 
 hands of the lowly sugar- boiler, that he may send it in as one of his 
 daily workmen to watch Nature herself in her most secret process of 
 crystallization ? Do we not discover at every step, and in every direc- 
 tion, increasing proofs of the hidden harmonies of the Sciences them- 
 selves — their indissoluble connection each with all, and the necessity, 
 the indispensable necessity, of all to the service of their master, Man ? 
 
 The question, then, for an intelligent community Uke ours, willing, 
 
 2 
 
10 ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 at least, to benefit its material condition is this — Shall science, so exalting 
 and yet so useful— -so sublime, yet so humble, be monopolised by the 
 learned few who chance to be the first to seize it, or shall it belong to 
 all the people, and be distributed in the largest and most liberal measure 
 among all alike ? We think they can give but one answer. We think 
 they will claim, as they may lawfully claim, the same inherent, pri- 
 mary, fundamental right to knowledge, which they claim to liberty 
 itself; and will take due care that nothing shall stand in the way of 
 their acquiring this, their greatest treasure. We believe them sufficiently 
 sagacious to see and know that it is not the end nor aim, nor effect 
 of knowledge 'to rear an aristocracy, or elevate a race of scholars 
 above or beyond the people — that, on the contrary, they will see and 
 know, because it is true, that knowledge will be made democratic, by 
 being extended equally and liberally to all who will seek it — and that 
 they will also see and know that it is the very spirit and essence 
 of our plan, to draw our pupils from the people, that they may return 
 instructed to the people, and themselves become active agents in 
 improving and elevating all around them. 
 
 The objection, therefore, that we begin by strengthening the summit 
 instead of the base of our educational edifice, is not well founded. 
 On the contrary, we strive to improve both base and summit, and 
 in such mode as best may strengthen both. 
 
 But we may be told that the education now furnished to the 
 people in the Common Schools, is quite sufficient for their purposes. 
 As well might it be claimed that the common roads of the country 
 are adequate to all the travel and transportation of the State. Do 
 not those common roads now owe at least a portion of their value to 
 their connection with the great commercial arteries of the State ? 
 And so with these secluded schools. Will they not feel the beneficial 
 influence of easy access and constant intercourse with the central 
 institution? Through such channels the people will receive streams 
 of knowledge that will render them rich indeed. It is this golden 
 bond of connection, this ceaseless flux and reflux, which constitutes 
 one of the most effective portions of the plan proposed. 
 
 We plant ourselves, then, by the side of the people, and from that 
 position we will not be driven. They shall see and know our aim — 
 that we seek, by imparting to them the invaluable wealth of a sound 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 11 
 
 education, to furnish them the means of advancing their social con- 
 dition, of enlarging their individual power and influence, refining and 
 elevating their pursuits and enjoyments, increasing in every way their 
 efficiency and value, and may we not add, without irreverence, fitting 
 them in some small degree for that future Heaven of Intelligence 
 we all hope in time to reach ? 
 
 A good example of an institution like that we propose, made for the 
 people, and composed of pupils coming from the people, is furnished by 
 what was once our sister republic of France. It was among the earliest 
 results of the downfall of the Royal power in 1792. The Polytechnic — 
 then called the Central School of Paris, was born and baptised in blood 
 and slaughter, amid the most frightful spasms of the revolution. But 
 it contained the one vital, all-important, all-preserving element of pupils 
 collected by fair, free, open competition among all the people. France 
 had possessed for centuries other colleges for the favored sons of rank 
 and wealth ; but this was the college of the people — the first fruits of 
 their new-born liberty. So uniformly and inflexibly just has been its 
 administration — so strict ' the impartiality of its examinations — that 
 during the reign of Louis Phillippe, his son, the Puke d'Amaule, sought 
 in vain to obtain admission. He entered into the competition, but was 
 defeated by some other son of France, not of royal blood, but of superior 
 merit. Need we say that the school has stood impregnable from the 
 hour of its foundation to the present ? — defying every attempt of every 
 successive government, the Pirectory — the Consulate — the Empire — the 
 Restoration — the second Republic — and even the present Usurpation, 
 to destroy it ? 
 
 Has that institution ever proved itself a nursery of aristocrats? 
 Sending out from its body the most distinguished individuals that 
 French science can boast, has it ever been found on the side of arbitrary 
 power? Let its gallant resistance to tyranny during the Three Pays 
 of 1830, and its recent indignant refusal to vote for the despot whose 
 power had overawed all else in France, answer the question. Rely 
 upon it, my friends, like elements on this side of the Atlantic will 
 exhibit like results ; and these pupils of our University — these chosen 
 sons of the people and the State — will ever be found, in unbroken 
 phalanx, champions alike of democratic equality and of well regulated 
 law and order. 
 
12 ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 On one or two points, then, let us be understood, for they are essential. 
 In collecting together this great mass of literary and scientific talent, 
 which is to attract to itself, with resistless force, the pupils who can best 
 profit by its instruction, it is not our aim to establish a College, in any 
 sense in which that term can properly be understood. On the con- 
 trary, the selection of studies will be entirely free and voluntary, 
 according to the particular tastes, aims and objects in life of each pupil, 
 subject only to such reasonable regulations as shall secure adequate 
 attention to the departments he may select. No pupil will be compelled 
 to " dig out G-reek roots," to use the sneering phrase of those who 
 decry the classics, nor any roots of any tongue, or any sort, unless his 
 own good sense should lead him to the task. But the pupils will all go 
 up as to a great magazine, where knowledge — scientific, literary, prac- 
 tical knowledge — will be supplied in amplest measure, and where all 
 who hunger may feed and be filled. 
 
 The standard, therefore, of admission need not be very high, but may 
 always be kept low enough, for pupils with such elementary education 
 as our common schools can afford. The far-famed and most excellent 
 Academy at West Point, requires scarcely more than the humblest 
 rudiments taught in our common schools — little more, indeed, than 
 reading, writing and spelling, and does not always get the best even of 
 that. There is not in this State a common school so poor that it cannot 
 prepare a boy to surpass that standard of admission. Surely the young 
 sons of New- York — cultivated New- York — can attain the same level 
 which candidates for that academy, from the remote States on our 
 Western frontier, find no difficulty in reaching. 
 
 But in one very essential particular, the State pupils of the University, 
 as a body, may, and probably will, far surpass those at West Point. 
 Instead of being selected, as in that institution, by the members of 
 Congress, from each Congressional district, sometimes most carelessly 
 and improperly, and too often through personal or political favoritism, — 
 and subjected to no competition or even examination as to their personal, 
 moral or intellectual fitness, — our own State pupils in the University 
 will be chosen only after Ml, open aud public competition, under the 
 very eye of the public, each in his own Assembly district, and subject 
 to the judgment of competent and impartial examiners, to be elected by 
 the people themselves. In the one case, the youths selected will be the 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 13 
 
 very flower of the State. In the other, they must be merely the types, 
 the representatives, of the Congressmen who select them. As might 
 be expected, some are pre-eminently excellent — others of more moderate 
 merit — and some most particularly poor. It is true that this mischief 
 is only temporary in its effects. The unrivalled discipline of that 
 noble institution, with its learned and accomplished academic board, soon 
 roots out and expels the imperfect material, but were it not better that 
 all should be perfect in the first instance ? Even with that evil, — and 
 there is really no cure for it, unless by some great dispensation of 
 Providence, the sifting operation to which the cadets are thus subjected, 
 could also be performed on the Congress itself — even with graduating 
 classes, necessarily reduced to little more than half their original num- 
 ber, does not the whole country know what a flood, not only of military 
 talent, but of other public usefulness of the highest order, has been 
 poured out within the last thirty years from the walls of that institution ? 
 Now, will any one contend that our people would feel no interest — 
 would take no pride in a similar institution, established within our own 
 State and under its own supervision ? President Fillmore has, at the 
 present moment, lying on his table, fifteen hundred applications for the 
 ten only vacancies at West Point within his gift. If there was one 
 vacancy for each of the one hundred and twenty-eight Assembly districts 
 of this State, would it not be sought for with the utmost avidity ? Rely 
 upon it, if our proposed measure could be submitted to the people, it 
 would at least receive the enthusiastic support of all the 1 2,000 school 
 teachers in the State, and of all the 400,000 youths under their charge, 
 if it did not enlist all their fathers and all their brothers ; and is there 
 a mother or sister in the whole length and breadth of our territory, that 
 would not at once cheer on and animate her youthful son or brother in 
 the competition ? The very preparation for that competition — the 
 struggle itself — would operate, to a fair extent, to educate even the 
 unsuccessful competitors. The holding up of such a prize would at 
 once excite an increased appetite for study, not only in the midst of 
 crowded and bustling cities, but in the loneliest and most secluded of 
 our rural districts. In the felicitous language of a friend, whose clear 
 judgment and honest heart are deeply interested in this cause, it would 
 "pass a magnet over our whole community," — drawing out from dark 
 and hidden places, and bringing into the cheerful light of day, hundreds, 
 
14 ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 nay thousands, of our best and brightest spirits, now struggling, per- 
 chance, with penury and adverse fate, but needing only this timely and 
 parental aid to stand forth erect, and side by side, with their more 
 favored brethren. From the ocean to the lakes — from the seagirt coast 
 of Suffolk to the blue waters of St. Lawrence — it would fill our whole 
 commonwealth with gladness and rejoicing. The pure lamp of Science, 
 kept brightly burning in the University, would send forth its illumina- 
 tion into the most benighted regions, while the local districts, each and 
 all, would glow with the generous emulation of the young aspirants for 
 the high distinction, and which they could not fail to feel through all 
 their after lives, of having fairly won the honors of the State. Let 
 Antiquity point, if it will, to its Olympic games, or the struggles of the 
 Amphitheatre, — we will show the world a grander, a more soul-inspiring 
 spectacle, — a State with its hundred fields, all animated and vivified by 
 its youthful combatants, struggling in intellectual conflict. 
 
 The influence of such an institution, in elevating the standing and 
 relative importance of our State in the National Union, also deserves 
 the profound attention of our public men. With a nucleus of a hundred 
 and twenty-eight pupils, such as we have described, all improved by 
 mutual contact, — with such a healthful germ of life, the University 
 would have no infancy, — it would start at once into full and vigorous 
 action. Hundreds and thousands of additional students would speedily 
 flock in from our own and the surrounding States, attracted by its 
 success and the unrivalled strength of its organization. Other States, 
 willing also to aid their youth, might, and probably would, be induced 
 to follow our democratic lead, and use this University for that purpose, 
 until the extending intellectual culture of the country should allow each 
 separate State to secure, what no other State than ours can now secure, 
 the combination of such a mass of scientific strength. Without being 
 a National University in name, it would become one in fact, with the 
 great superadded advantage of being free from the caprices of National 
 Legislation or federal supervision. We need no subsidy from the coffers 
 of the Union, nor the overshadowing influence of any of its dignitaries. 
 We ask no foreign aid. In population and pecuniary resources, our 
 State already exceeds Holland, Sweden, and the portions of Italy most 
 famous for their seats of learning. Would that we could say as much 
 for our intellectual wealth ! 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 15 
 
 And now, my democratic friends, we are about to tread upon what we 
 are told is dangerous ground ; but we do not think it so. We intend 
 fco urge the establishment of this University for the express purpose of 
 elevating and purifying the popular taste ; for we are yet to learn that 
 a democrat has no head to comprehend, nor heart to feel all that is 
 chaste in design, correct in execution, or beautiful in form, color, or 
 proportion. That demagogues may sneer at these refining influences, 
 We are well aware, ---and many a ribald jest will be aimed at him who 
 would venture to weave a single thread of poetry, fancy or feeling into 
 the coarse drapery of daily life. And yet we might ask if there really 
 is anything in the stuff of which an American democrat is made, which 
 disqualifies him from enjoying what delighted the democrat of Athens, 
 the peasant of Italy or the boor or burgher of Holland ? Classic Italy 
 was also philosophical, mechanical, commercial Italy. The land of 
 Virgil and Raphael produced Gallileo to scale the Heavens, and Colum- 
 bus too, to find the very world we live in, and Volta, to build the 
 galvanic pile which spreads its tendrils over all our daily life. And 
 Leonardo da Vinci, whose magic and immortal pencil delights all 
 mankind with its grace and dignity and tenderness and beauty — did not 
 that same Leonardo also build the largest and the best canal in his 
 native land ? And need his example be wholly lost even upon canal 
 building, railroad building, democratic New- York? Have we indeed 
 accomplished all, in connecting the ocean with the lakes ? 
 
 AVhat constitutes a State ? 
 Not high raised battlements or labored mound, 
 
 Thick wall or moated gate ; 
 Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned ; 
 
 Not bays and broad armed porU : 
 No! Men, high-minded Men! 
 
 Here, then, at last we find our truest, our richest treasures — Men — 
 living, vigorous, intelligent, creative Men, standing thick around us, 
 dawning bright in early youth, sons of our love, inheritors of our names, 
 the only foundation of our fixture hopes. 
 
 Fathers of New- York ! will you not at once come forward, and carry 
 forward and onward these youths in the great path of duty which lies 
 before them? Our race is nearly run, but to them we must leave a 
 whole continent to try their powers. Upon its magnificent area their 
 energy must erect millions of edifices, subdue millions of stubborn 
 fields. Mountains and rivers, befitting such a continent, intervene 
 
16 ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 between the two great oceans which it is theirs to subjugate. In this, 
 their great battle of life, amid all its lights and shadows, shall not our 
 hearts go with them ? Will they not need all the aids that science can 
 impart — all the taste that art can teach — all the solace that letters can 
 bestow ? 
 
 But let us come down to more precise details. What do we ask of 
 the State, and what will it cost ? 
 
 Let us first state what we do not ask. We do not ask nor wish the 
 State to erect buildings of any description, — nor found professorships, — 
 nor purchase scientific collections, — nor a library, — nor any of the 
 apparatus of a college, — for all these are provided by the liberality of 
 the citizens of Albany, who have been incorporated for the purpose. 
 
 Nor do we ask, or wish the State to appoint professors or any officers 
 whatever, in or about the University, — nor to exercise any power which 
 may involve it in the fluctuations or excitements of party strife. 
 
 But we do ask of the State, to allow the people of each of the one 
 hundred and twenty-eight Assembly districts, at regular periods, to 
 elect two competent, impartial examiners, and in such mode as to be 
 secure from political bias — and that those examiners shall respectively 
 select from such district, and, after a fair, full, and open public com- 
 petition, at least one pupil, to be sent to the University for such period 
 as may be fixed by law, and not leS3 than two years — and that during 
 that period, such pupil shall be supported at the expense of the State. 
 We have reason to believe that the yearly cost of such support, inclu- 
 ding tuition, will not exceed two hundred dollars, — making $25,600 
 annually. 
 
 The great advantage of the plan is, that it will not involve the State 
 in any necessity for permanent appropriations. They can discontinue 
 the system the moment they find it unsuccessful. 
 
 The question, then, is brought down to this, — can the State afford to 
 try the experiment for a single year, and thus provide for one pupil 
 from each district ? It has expended nearly forty millions of dollars, 
 in opening its channels of commerce, not to mention the eighty millions 
 in addition, expended by incorporated companies. It possesses, more- 
 over, pecuniary funds of about seven millions of dollars, the interest of 
 which it devotes to the support and improvement of Common Schools, 
 Academies and Colleges. 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 17 
 
 Cannot such a community afford to expend twenty-five thousand 
 six hundred dollars yearly for an object like that we point out, so 
 beneficent, so equal, so truly democratic ? Will the burthen it would 
 impose be so very grievous ? Let us look at it and measure it, not in 
 dollars — for it will not be measured in dollars — but in cents. 
 
 The total assessed taxable value of the real and personal property of 
 the State is eleven hundred millions of dollars. Its real value cannot 
 be less than two thousand millions, and its annual increase alone, 
 through its natural and irresistible progress in population and wealth, 
 cannot be less than fifty millions. This immense amount is so divided 
 among its very numerous proprietors, that the annual burthen of 
 $25,600 would hardly be perceived, and certainly could not occasion 
 any very serious suffering or discontent. Calling ourselves worth only 
 one thousand millions, the dreaded burthen would annually amount to 
 one fortieth of one mill on the dollar ; that is to say, a farm, a house, 
 a, manufactory, or bank stock valued at ten thousand dollars, would 
 pay just twenty-five cents! 
 
 Now we will not, and we do not believe that one man can be found 
 in this whole State, from Montauk to Buffalo, who has the good fortune 
 to possess $10,000, that will refuse to contribute those twenty-five cents; 
 but on the contrary, that the moment the admirable effects of the 
 University should be exhibited in its actual working, he would insist on 
 doubling, if not quadrupling the amount, and with it the corresponding 
 number of pupils from each of the Assembly Districts. We do not 
 believe that many men could be found to think even a dollar too much 
 for the luxury of seeing five hundred and twelve youths, each containing 
 within himself all the noblest elements of a Man, rescued from penury 
 and wretchedness, placed on a level with his fellows, and brought out 
 into open day to exert for the good of his species, the faculties which 
 God had given him. 
 
 For who shall count in cents, or even dollars, the value of a Man ? 
 Who shall say that among the hundreds and thousands of students thus 
 snatched from poverty, the University may not foster into life some 
 second Newton, or Watt, or Milton, or Shakspeare? Who would not 
 give the price of a year's support for a living Fulton, or a Raphael ? 
 
 We further contend that no State, and especially no working State 
 
 3 
 
18 ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 like ours, can afford that any one of its people shall needlessly be 
 deprived of any of his natural powers, or that those powers shall be 
 lost through want of proper culture and development — and that in a 
 merely economical view, the State suffers positive pecuniary loss, when 
 any useful faculty is thus needlessly neglected or suffered to lie 
 dormant. 
 
 And it was in this light that the prudent and calculating, but 
 sagacious Dutchmen, ancestors of those who founded this same goodly 
 city of Albany on which we are now standing, viewed this matter. It 
 was in Holland, — economical, industrious, thrifty, liberty-loving Hol- 
 land, — that learning was most highly valued. It was amid the sunken 
 fens and marshes of the Rhine and the Vecht, holding fearful and 
 unequal conflict with the ocean, that the hardy burghers, — who sent 
 forth the Rhinelanders and the Van Vechtens to carry the virtues of 
 their parent land into another hemisphere,— founded the cities where 
 science loved to dwell. In the early days of their republic, while 
 battling with the whole power of the Spanish crown, it fell to the doom 
 of the city of Leyden, — heroic Leyden, — to struggle for their new-born 
 liberty, through a siege attended by slaughter, and famine, and all the 
 superadded sufferings and horrors which cruelty could inflict or courage 
 endure. And what was the magnanimous, the magnificent answer of 
 these gallant but far-seeing Dutchmen to their grateful Stadtholder, 
 when he proffered to them Exemption from Taxation, as a reward for 
 their matchless constancy and valor? Like their descendants, they 
 loved their guilders, but they rejected the proffered boon, and, with a 
 love of letters only exceeded by their love of country, to a man they 
 exclaimed, " Give us a University /" And thus the great University 
 of Leyden came into the world, where for centuries it has stood, and 
 still stands, the proudest monument of Dutch courage and Dutch 
 intelligence. From its ancient and honored halls, hosts of illustrious 
 men have gone forth to benefit and bless mankind. Need we do more 
 than name Grotius, the jurist, — whose exalted equity and transcendant 
 genius, curbing the violence of war, has given law to Nations, — or 
 Boerhave, the physician, whose world-wide fame, spreading far beyond 
 the uttermost limits of Christendom, brought mighty potentates from 
 distant Asia, to acknowledge his consummate, his unequalled skill ? 
 
 My friends, let not such examples be lost. Let the world see, that 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 19 
 
 we, too, like brave old Leyden, can look ahead, — can discern through 
 coming centuries what vast effects may flow from forecast and energy, 
 wisely directed. Some of us are passing, others have passed the bright 
 meridian of life. Must we therefore close our eyes on all around ? 
 What if the noon-day cloud or evening shadow have fallen on some of 
 us, let us remember that we are to live onward and onward, through 
 our children and our children's children forever. Let us plant the tree, 
 that they may see the flower, — may gather its rich and ripening fruit. 
 Heaven has cast our favored lot in the early morning of our national 
 existence, — let us, in grateful remembrance, hand down to our descend- 
 ants proofs of our wise and provident regard, in institutions deeply 
 engrafted upon the best affections of the people, and which shall 
 brighten and adorn the coming days of our Bepublit, — great and 
 enduring seats of science, where learning and liberty, knowledge and 
 virtue shall flourish, side by side, with law and order, in ever increasing 
 vigor, to the latest moment of recorded Time. 
 
SPEECH 
 
 REV. DR. KENNEDY, 
 
 IN BEHALF OP THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ALBANY. 
 
 Mr. Chairman : — We have met on several occasions before this, to 
 confer in regard to the enterprise which is to engage our attention 
 again this evening. Many valuable suggestions have been submitted 
 by gentlemen, far better qualified to give wise and salutary counsels, 
 than I profess to be. I do not expect, therefore, to offer anything new 
 upon the subject ; and I rise rather to give expression to the deep in- 
 terest I cherish in the object proposed, than with the hope of saying 
 anything that will contribute to its advancement. 
 
 It seems to me, that the first question which presents itself to our 
 consideration is, whether there be a real demand for such an institution. 
 Is there that in the condition of things among us, — in this State and in 
 the country at large, which renders such an institution necessary and 
 desirable? It is important that this question should be fairly met and 
 definitely solved, before we engage ourselves, or consent to ask others 
 to engage in such an enterprise. Unless the demand can be shown to 
 be real and imperative, we can not, and ought not to expect success. 
 We are called a practical people, — not much given to theories and specu- 
 lations. This I do not regret. We are also said to be deeply imbued 
 with a utilitarian spirit, and hence men are ever ready to ask, when 
 called upon to invest their capital or lend their influence for the promo- 
 tion of any object, what are the returns that maybe reasonably counted 
 on? To a certain extent, this also is right, and we ought to be able to 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 21 
 
 give a satisfactory answer, before we solicit the public to favor our 
 views. Now, sir, I do not profess to be expert in calculations about 
 dollars and cents. It has never been my fortune — good or bad — to be 
 troubled with any considerable amount of that commodity, nor has my 
 calling been such as to make me an adept in the arithmetic of gold and 
 silver ; but there are others, thoroughly versed in such calculations, 
 who have expressed their convictions freely and clearly in favor of the 
 proposed enterprise of a National University. They favor it upon the 
 ground of the pecuniary advantages that are to accrue from it. Gen- 
 tlemen engaged in the various business departments of life, in the habit 
 of calculating closely in regard to all kinds of investments — whether 
 bank, railroad, canal, or steamboat stocks, have pronounced upon the 
 necessity of such an institution to promote our financial interests, and 
 have unhesitatingly affirmed, thai its legitimate returns will put a thou- 
 sand fold its own cost, into the coffers of the State and country. I 
 believe it, not because I can demonstrate the fact myself, but because 
 men of intelligence, judgment and integrity have said so. They have 
 looked closely at the value of such an institution in developing the 
 resources of the country, have calculated the results with deliberation 
 and care, and have zealously committed themselves to advance the 
 enterprise. 
 
 But I am more disposed to look at the intellectual relations of this 
 subject, and in view of these, to ask whether there is a demand for such 
 an institution as is contemplated. And in my opinion, sir, such a 
 demand clearly exists. It must be obvious to every one who has bestowed 
 any thought upon the matter, that the present grade of our existing 
 institutions of learning, does not meet the necessities of the age and 
 country. I am the last one to speak disparagingly of any of our col- 
 leges, or other educational schools. They are all good, and in my 
 judgment, are accomplishing all they are fitted to accomplish, and are 
 answering the ends for which they were established. And it is by no 
 means derogatory to them to say, that there are existing exigencies 
 at this day, which they cannot meet ; there are pressing wants which 
 they cannot supply. Hence the necessity for an institution of a different 
 character from any now existing. 
 
 When a young man graduates at one of our colleges — from the very 
 best of them — he is not distinguished for his acquaintance with any 
 
22 ALBANY UNIVERSITY, 
 
 one department of science whatever. He can not be. Indeed he is 
 not expected to be. When he enters college he is compelled to engage 
 in a great variety of studies. He is to engage in the study of lan- 
 guages — dead and living — while the whole circle of science is to occupy 
 a share of his attention. How is it possible, that in the space of three 
 or four years, he should become proficient in the various departments 
 which thus engage his energies ? The truth is,that when he graduates, 
 he has received only the rudiments of a perfect education ; he has a 
 smattering of everything, but is master of nothing ; and this without 
 any fault on his part, and without any reproach to his Alma Mater. 
 Everything connected with his educational course has, by necessity, 
 been so arranged, that the result cannot be otherwise. Hence, when 
 he leaves the institution, he is not fitted to engage, with intelligence, 
 in many of the most ordinary pursuits of life : he is not qualified to 
 become a farmer : he knows but little of Chemistry : he can neither 
 analyze soils, nor determine what qualities of soil are best adapted to 
 the different kinds of grain : he is not qualified to be an intelligent 
 miner, and extract from the bowels of the earth, the treasures which 
 nature has there deposited for his use. The relative value of ores has 
 never engaged his attention, and of the process of smelting and 
 amalgamation he is utterly ignorant. There is not one of the mechanic 
 arts with which he has any better acquaintance. The truth is, there is 
 not, under ordinary circumstances, a single department of art or science, 
 of which he is master. He is, at best, after he has graduated, only 
 ready to commence the study of that branch or department of general 
 science, which he designs to make the object of his special pursuit in 
 life. Hence the necessity of an institution that can receive him at this 
 point, that can aid him and perfect him in the department of learning 
 to which he has resolved to devote his energies. If he make choice of 
 the law, there are institutions of law which he may enter ; if he desire 
 the practice of the healing art, there are medical schools where to 
 receive instruction ; if he intend to be a theologian, there are theologi- 
 cal seminaries open to receive him ; but if he make choiee of some 
 department of natural science, be it Agriculture, Chemistry, Botany, 
 Geology, Navigation, or Astronomy, or any kindred department, there 
 is not within the limits of the entire country, a single institution com- 
 petent to benefit him. He looks in vain for those facilities and 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 23 
 
 appliances that are essential to meet the exigencies of his condition, 
 and the result is, that he must either abandon the object of his aspira- 
 tions, or seek its ultimate acorn plishnient by resorting to a foreign 
 country. Sir, this ought not so to be. During the earlier periods of our 
 history, there was an apology for this deficiency. We were poor, and 
 all our efforts had to be directed to the development of our physical 
 resources. But we are poor no longer, and wc should now begin to 
 regard our mental improvement. 
 
 I have sometimes thought, that a young man in the circumstances I 
 have described, was like a traveller in Switzerland. He has come a 
 long journey to see Mont Blanc ; not only to see it, but ascend to its 
 summit. He has already visited neighboring mountains and cliffs, and 
 these he may have ascended alone ; but now he aspires to something 
 higher — to engage in a bolder enterprise — to plant his foot upon the 
 hoary crown of the monarch of mountains. But though he had ascended 
 other heights alone, or with moderate assistance, he now finds that 
 alone he can accomplish nothing- — that he must have guides, men of 
 tried courage, of strong nerve — enterprising and experienced, who are 
 able to bear him over deep gulfs, and lead him along dizzy precipices, 
 and help him to scale perpendicular eminences. By the help of these, 
 he will ascend step by step, rising higher and higher, till at length his 
 toil is rewarded with success, and he stands exultingly amid the glory 
 that crowns the summit. 
 
 Now, sir, there is a Mont Blanc in the intellectual, as well as in the 
 physical world ; it is found in America as well as in Europe ; and there 
 are multitudes of young men, vigorous and ardent, panting to ascend 
 its highest summit. They come to its base from every section of the 
 country, from the college, the academy, the common school. Among 
 them are the farmer, the mechanic, the artizan of every grade, the 
 votaries of every department of science, the rich and the poor, all 
 animated by one controlling impulse — to ascend ! They have visited 
 other intellectual heights, it is true, but this has only served to strengthen 
 their desire to reach a still higher point of observation. But they find 
 they must now have guides, for they can accomplish little or nothing 
 alone. Where are they to find men of intellectual stature, bold, enter- 
 prising, experienced to lead them successfully onward and upward ? 
 There are such guides in the country, it is true ; but they are scattered 
 
24 ALBANY UNIVERSITY - . 
 
 about and found at points distant from each other; and in these circum- 
 stances, they can accomplish little or nothing for the throngs that need 
 their assistance. They must then be brought together in one place: 
 they must combine their energies, unite their efforts, concentrate their 
 powers. Then only can they act efficiently, and render their individual 
 qualifications essentially serviceable. This is the demand that now 
 exists — the demand that we propose to meet, and which can be met 
 only by the establishment of the proposed National University. 
 
 But farther, the character of our political institutions obviously 
 requires that greater facilities for proficiency in the higher departments 
 of education, should be amply furnished. These institutions rest upon 
 the fundamental principle, that all men are born equal. This princi- 
 ple is indigenous to the soil of freedom. It is with us, practically, an 
 original one, and in its legitimate operation, it constitutes every person — 
 so far as human agency is concerned — the arbitrer of his own fortune ; 
 it places all upon a level, and gives to all an equal chance. Distinction 
 here, is not made to depend upon contingencies of location or birth. 
 Fortune indulges in none of those fantastic freaks, by which the brow 
 of one, however low and contracted, is encircled with a crown, to which 
 another, however lofty and expanded, is doomed to bow in reverence: 
 we have no feudal institutions with their servile enactments ; no privi- 
 leged orders claiming the prerogative to trample upon the rights of 
 subservient masses ; no nobility but the nobility of worth ; no King 
 but the " King of Kings." The American Lord is one who depends 
 upon a higher distinction than a hereditary title ; his name is to be 
 found in nature's own peerage, and he carries his patent of nobility in 
 his heart. These, sir, are glorious features, deeply enstamped upon 
 the character of our institutions. Let us more distinctly recognise 
 these features, and more thoroughly and practically honor them, by 
 opening the way to intellectual eminence equally to all, by furnishing 
 ample facilities to all who aspire to become great and useful. Let 
 intellect alone be made the secret of success, well balanced, well 
 cultivated, and directed with persevering energy, to the accom- 
 plishment of noble objects. As we have no moneyed aristocracy 
 in this country — because wealth is so generally diffused among all 
 classes of the people — it becomes a prime consideration with every 
 person engaged in the productive pursuits of life, how to accomplish 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 26 
 
 the greatest amount of labor with the smallest amount of capital. 
 Hence it is, that mechanical genius and agricultural science become 
 so important to us ; and these should ever be most highly prized. 
 The native strength and richness of our soil is diminished by constant 
 cultivation. The farmer has now something more to do than simply to 
 break up the earth and cast in the seed— he has to restore the exhaust- 
 ed energy of the ground he cultivates, to supply the elements that have 
 been abstracted by defective culture, and for the want of which his 
 land will fail to give an adequate return for his labor and toil. This 
 creates a necessity for agricultural science. The farmer can no longer 
 remain ignorant of those interesting laws which are so intimately 
 connected with his ancient and honorable pursuits as " tiller of the 
 ground" with impunity. The time has come when he must understand 
 his business, and be able to give a reason for what he does. The field 
 will retaliate his neglect or abuse, by withholding the rich products 
 which he might otherwise secure ; and the sterile aspect of many a 
 farm in the older portions of the country — once rich and productive — 
 furnishes a proof, both of the violence which has been offered to 
 nature, and the retributive vengeance with which she resents the. abuse 
 of her generous prerogatives. This demand for mechanical skill, for 
 an intimate acquaintance with the laws and resources of nature, and 
 the plain instructions of a rational and practical philosophy, is increasing 
 upon us every year and every day. It is our duty to meet it. We 
 must meet it in order to secure increasing and permanent prosperity. 
 We should encourage the desire and furnish the means by which to 
 gratify the aspirations of those who wish to be master of whatever 
 pursuit or calling in life they may choose to select. 
 
 But, sir, there is another consideration which makes a demand for 
 the establishment of a National University. There is a native energy 
 peculiar to American character, which, it seems to me, calls most 
 distinctly for the means of a far greater development than have yet 
 been furnished. As a nation, we are as yet in our infancy, and hitherto 
 we have labored under many disadvantages. Still we have accom- 
 plished much — we have accomplished wonders ! Not, however, by 
 reason of peculiar facilities enjoyed, for in means and instrumentalities, 
 we have, to a great extent, been strikingly deficient ; but by reason of 
 
 4 
 
28 ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 the indomitable energy of our national character. Though we may 
 be deficient in many things which are supposed to constitute the charm 
 of ancient institutions ; though we have no fabulous origin dating 
 back among the mists of antiquity ; and cannot read the page of an 
 ideal history ; still we have always had a richer and more generous 
 inheritance — -we have ever had the presence of the spirit of freedom to 
 inspire to noble exertions, and the genius of liberty to animate, to 
 elevate, and protect. And under this moulding influence, our charac- 
 ter has been formed, our greatness has been achieved. Inured from 
 the beginning to independent effort — finding it necessary to originate 
 with our own heads, and produce with our hands, American in- 
 genuity, American enterprise, and American success have become 
 proverbial in the world. Like the child whose nursery is the broad 
 canopy which nature has stretched over him, whose breath has been 
 the pure air of heaven, and whose earliest associations are blended 
 with the mountain cliff, the majestic forest and the beating storm, we 
 have early reached a manhood of physical and mental energy, never 
 attained in so short a period, by any other nation on the globe. Let, 
 then, this native energy of character be fostered ; give it scope for its 
 fullest developments ; furnish ample appliances for the largest expansion 
 of American genius, and you will have occasion to record still greater 
 achievements than those of having built the fleetest vessels, manufac- 
 tured the best ploughs, constructed the safest locks, and made the 
 sharpest reapers in the world. 
 
 Were our government like some of the governments of the old world, 
 this important feature of national character would be of little worth, 
 for it would be so effectually checked, that we must despair of any 
 decided advancement — of any permanent improvement. But we have 
 a government whose philosophy is entirely new, the foundation princi- 
 ple of which is freedom of opinion. It furnishes the most ample encour- 
 agement and protection to free inquiry ; it invites to unlimited investi- 
 gation ; its motto is, there is nothing that may not be examined ; and 
 no dungeon is prepared for him, — no torture awaits him who acts in 
 obedience to this law of nature, and of Grod. Let the national intellect 
 be cultivated and disciplined And thus, in the unrestrained collision of 
 mind with mind, in the free conflict of thought, in the unembarrassed 
 struggle of opinion with opinion, those great truths will yet be elicited 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 27 
 
 that will shed an ever brightening radiance along the path that conducts 
 to the highest elevation of national greatness and glory. 
 
 But again : Let us look at the physical resources of our country, and 
 see whether we will not discover still another demand for a National 
 University. Who is able to form any estimate of our agricultural or 
 mineral resources ? Possessing unoccupied territories, in almost every 
 variety of climate, and capable of furnishing an endless variety of food 
 for the sustenance of animal life, our country is able to support an 
 extent of population, of which we have as yet formed no adequate con- 
 ception. Who can compute the extent of our mineral wealth ? We 
 have literally exhaustless mines of iron, copper, silver and gold, with 
 equally exhaustless beds of coal lying in juxtaposition, and nothing 
 necessary but moderate labor and skill to make them available to all the 
 useful purposes of life. Almost every point of our country is accessible 
 by ocean, lake, river, or canal navigation; or capable of being reached 
 by the railcar, so that its varied productions can reach a market at the 
 very moment they are prepared for use. It can not be denied, that we 
 have resources in this land, more extensive and more enduring than are 
 to be found in any other. We have advantages for moral, intellectual, 
 and political greatness, such as are enjoyed by no other nation on earth. 
 Nature has operated here on a larger scale, and seems to have contem- 
 plated a corresponding development of American mind. She appears - 
 here in a more magnificent garb than in any other portion of the earth. 
 There is a vastness and a freshness in her works, fitted to expand the 
 intellect, to exalt it with sublime conception, and to invite its profound 
 research ; it is indeed a " new world," where nature seems to have made 
 her grandest efforts, and furnished a theatre for mental achievement 
 commensurate with the utmost capabilities of the human mind ; and in 
 order to the just improvement of these advantages, and the appropriate 
 development of these resources, the intellect of the country must be 
 educated and enlarged, and every department of science and art must 
 be assiduously cultivated. Every passing generation is loudly chal- 
 lenged to yield its quota of potent energy to that tide of moral and 
 intellectual influence, that is to waft us onward to a great and glorious 
 destiny. 
 
 And now the question is, shall these demands be met ? Shall we 
 establish an institution that will meet the wants of the country and the 
 
28 ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 age ? A democratic institution, that will throw open its doors to all 
 classes and conditions among us — to the poor as well as to the rich — 
 that will bestow the garlands of its praise upon the deserving, irrespec- 
 tive of the accidental distinctions of life ? Shall we say to the young 
 men throughout the land thirsting for knowledge, you shall no longer 
 suffer disappointment — "Come, for all things are ready?" Shall the 
 State of New- York secure the honor of being first in making this 
 proclamation ? Shall this intellectual Mont Blanc be rendered accessible 
 to our children, and our childrens' children? Shall we at one of the 
 angles of its base — at the capital of the Empire State — bring together 
 those intellectual guides who are so eminently qualified to point the 
 traveler to the summit and lead the way ? Do it, sir, and you will have 
 accomplished a noble work, you will have met the imperious demands 
 of the period in which we live, and the necessities of the country of our 
 pride and our love. 
 
 We have one of these* guides present with us this evening. Others 
 visited us a few weeks since. We have looked upon them, we have 
 heard them, and heard of them, and we know them to be adequate to 
 the great work in which so many are anxious to have them engage. I 
 am glad, sir, that we have, as I trust, established Prof. Mitchell in 
 this city. And I assure you, that I feel no small degree of pleasure in 
 referring to one, to whom I am permitted to sustain an honorable rela- 
 tion — as mainly instrumental in securing the services of the gentleman 
 to whom I have just alluded. She has contributed largely, nobly, to 
 found the department of astronomy in the University of Albany. The 
 name of Dudley has long been known, and as long cherished in this city 
 and in this State. It is connected with the highest official honors our 
 city could confer, and has its place on the records of the highest councils 
 of the nation ; and the Dudley Observatory will long continue a noble 
 monument, to perpetuate alike the munificence of the living, and the 
 cherished name and memory of the dead. By this endowment, the 
 first astronomer in the country is brought to Albany ; but he should 
 not be permitted to labor here alone. I know, indeed, that he will be 
 conspicuous any where — will shine in the deepest solitude as a star of 
 the first magnitude. But other orbs should be fixed in the same sphere, 
 
 * Professor Mitchell. 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 29 
 
 that their blended radiance may shed forth the splendors of a glorious 
 constellation. 
 
 Bring together these guides at the foot of this intellectual eminence, 
 and travelers will be found flocking to them from all parts of the 
 country, and from every quarter of the world. And then shall be sung 
 of the University of Albany, as one of the noblest of God's works in 
 the material world : 
 
 " Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains : 
 They crowned hira long ago ; 
 On a throne of rock, in a robe of cloud. 
 With a diadem of snow." 
 
SPEECH 
 
 REV. RAY PALMER, 
 
 IN BEHALF OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ALBANY. 
 
 The Rev. Rat Palmer, of Albany, was called on for some remarks ; 
 and on rising, said — that he felt the disadvantage of being obliged to 
 follow Prof. Mitchell, whose eloquent address had so deeply interested 
 the house. But, said he, there is so much of impressiveness and interest 
 in the great idea which the occasion brings before us, that it is difficult 
 for one to hold his peace. The proposal to establish such an institution 
 which has been sketched in outline, is fitted to seize the attention of 
 every man of liberal tastes at once ; to stir the enthusiasm of all who 
 have enlargement of mind enough to enable them to appreciate the 
 worth of knowledge. It is doubtless to be expected that there will be 
 some who cannot comprehend the bearings of the subject, and with 
 whom it will find but little sympathy or favor; but that any really 
 enlightened and large minded man can fail to be impressed with its 
 immense importance, must be taken to be impossible. 
 
 It is worth our while to notice, particularly, the seasonableness of 
 the present movement. There are many reasons for believing that it 
 has started at just the right period in order to succeed. It has, for 
 some time, been apparent, that the want of facilities for scientific study, 
 was beginning to be widely felt. Our older colleges have been doing 
 all they could, consistently with the elementary character of the course 
 of study to which they are obliged to limit themselves, to meet this want. 
 Some of them, as for example Yale and Harvard, have established special 
 departments for the purpose of teaching the higher branches, and also 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 31 
 
 the practical applications of some particular sciences ; and one, at least, 
 has been entirely revolutionized, with a view to the extension of its 
 range of instruction. But I believe it is the general opinion, that these 
 experiments promise, at most, but a partial success. The truth is, the 
 present allowance of time, for college residence, forbids the attempt to 
 accomplish much more than a mere commencement of such an education, 
 in many of the sciences, as is needed to qualify for professional emi- 
 nence, or even for the emergencies of practical life, in the present 
 condition of our country. It is plain, therefore, that the time has come 
 when, not another college for ordinary academic education, but a genuine 
 school of science, far more elevated in its aims and means, should be 
 established. The want has been distinctly recognised ; it has not yet 
 been met ; it is becoming every day more urgent. 
 
 Now, just as our country has advanced so far that men are needed, 
 who would creditably fill the places of instruction in such a University 
 as that proposed, a number nearly or quite sufficient have been found. 
 Ten years ago, it would have been impossible to find them. Ten 
 years hence, the demand for the labors of such men may have 
 become so great that their services could not be commanded for such an 
 enterprise. It is certainly remarkable, that such men as Agassiz, 
 Pierce, Guyot and Mitchell, with the other distinguished gentlemen 
 who have encouraged us to expect their aid, should all, as it were with 
 one accord, stand ready at the present moment to assist in building up 
 here a national institution such as is desired. It seems as if a special 
 Providence has thrown them in our way. If we fail to seize the 
 treasure when it is thus within our reach, we shall lose it irrecoverably, 
 and we shall deserve the loss we suffer. Others will be sure to profit 
 by our folly. I say, then, that we are moving at a most seasonable 
 moment. 
 
 In the establishment of a Universiy, on the plan proposed, there are 
 two general objects which it will be intended to accomplish The first 
 is the advancement of Science itself; the enlargement of its boundaries 
 by new discoveries. It is to be anticipated as a thing of course, that a 
 body of such men as will be here associated, and furnished with means 
 and opportunities for prosecuting their inquiries, will distinguish them- 
 selves and do honor to our country, by bringing to light new facts and 
 principles, and so making positive additions to the useful knowledge of 
 
32 ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 the world. , Why should they not ? What do our men of science need 
 but the incitements and advantages which such a field of labor would afford 
 them, to urge them on to do whatever it lies within the power of genius 
 and application to achieve ? On this point, probably, there will no 
 doubt arise. 
 
 The second object of our institution is to be the practical application 
 of scientific knowledge to all the purposes of life. And here we meet a 
 difficulty in the minds of some. There are those who are under an 
 impression that science is something for the closet, and that scientific 
 men cannot be practical men, by any possibility. Nothing can be more 
 at war with facts than this idea. The truth is, that science is essentially 
 practical, in its very nature. For what else is true science, but a 
 knowledge of facts — a knowledge of the real constitution, relations and 
 capabilities of things ? How can it possibly be true, that the more 
 thoroughly a man knows the nature of the materials on which he is to 
 act, and of the instruments by which he is to produce results, the less 
 competent he is to do any thing successfully ? Such an opinion is so 
 absurd, that one would hardly know how to characterize a person who 
 should seriously maintain it. As if a man blind-folded and groping in 
 the dark, were more likely to give his efforts a right direction than one 
 whose eyes were open in the clear light of day ! 
 
 And as regards scientific men and their labors, we appeal to the 
 history of both. Where can men be found whose labors have more 
 effectually reached with incalculable benefits every walk of common 
 life, than Kepler, Galilleo, Newton, Laplace and Bowditch? What 
 have not chemistry, mineralogy and geology done for agriculture, for 
 the arts, for the comfort and aggrandizement of society ? What single 
 science is there which has been cultivated with success, which has not 
 poured its tributary stream into the life-giving current which has carried 
 good to all parts of the social system? What eminent discoverer in 
 the fields of scientific observation has not most obviously been a bene- 
 factor of his race ? It is altogether a shallow view of the matter, to 
 suppose that he is the most practical man who is always talking about, 
 or talking to, the masses ; it is he, rather, who most effectually reaches 
 them with solid benefits resulting from his labors, that is entitled to be 
 so regarded, although he spends the greater part of his life in solitary 
 studies. 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 33 
 
 Allusion has been made to the Universities of Europe. How come 
 it that they are now so rich in all the facilities for study, and in the 
 fruits of learned investigation ? It is because that hundreds of years 
 ago, a work was done like that which we now propose to do. The 
 University of Paris originated so far back as the twelfth century, in the 
 popular impulse towards learning produced by the lectures of Peter 
 Abelard and others. In the fifteenth century it is said to have had 
 thirty thousand students; and special provision was made for their 
 boarding and lodging in the most economical manner. Oxford, even in 
 the thirteenth, the authorities tell us, had a similar number. Bologna 
 was but little if any behind these, at an early period. Imagine, now, 
 the thousands of young men going from every part of Europe to these 
 and similar institutions, and there being brought into contact with men 
 of liberal culture, attending on their instructions and catching their 
 enthusiasm ; and then returning to their homes to mingle with all 
 classes, and to make their influence felt in every walk of life. Will 
 any body doubt that each of them, who in any good degree improved 
 his opportunities, must have become a centre of light in those dark 
 times? and that the result of their united influence on society must 
 have been eminently salutary, helping to bring in the morning of a 
 higher and a happier civilization? It is not to be questioned for a 
 moment. 
 
 So it must be always, from the nature of the case. So it will be 
 here. You wish to distribute water through all parts of a city. How 
 do you accomplish it ? You construct a reservoir ; and you are careful 
 to make it large enough to afford an adequate supply, and high enough 
 to give the requisite momentum ; and then you lay your pipes, and it 
 flows wherever you desire it. It is proposed to do just this in establish- 
 ing here a University. This is to be an ample fountain of sound 
 knowledge, so copious, and so elevated, that it is ready to send its 
 fertilizing streams to every part of our population. Your students, 
 going out from year to year, will be the conduits through which shall 
 be carried to every corner, not only of our State, but abroad over the 
 whole country, the living waters. It is impossible that inestimable 
 practical benefits should not in this way be conferred on all. 
 
 But can the State afford to do what is desired ? I would much rather 
 ask another question. Can the State afford to lose so great advantages, 
 
 5 
 
84 ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 when easily within her reach ? Can she afford to leave to be appropriated 
 by some other State, so many practical benefits, and so much of a dis- 
 tinction? We talk sometimes about the illiberality of the arbitrary 
 governments of Europe, and accuse them of indifference to what relates 
 to the improvement of the people ; but in some of these things, they 
 set us an example worthy of imitation by our governments. Under the 
 government of Louis Philippe, in France, for example, there was an 
 annual exhibition of the best paintings produced by living artists. A 
 committee appointed for the purpose decided on their merits ; and the 
 artist whose work was pronounced most meritorious, was sent abroad 
 for three years' study, all his expenses being paid out of the public 
 treasury. And shall our own governments, whose glory, nay, whose 
 stable existence, depends on the general cultivation, the sound intelli- 
 gence of the people, be so short sighted as to withhold such liberality 
 when it is needed ? There certainly is reason to pity the littleness of 
 the man who is himself so destitute of true intellectual enlargement, as 
 not to feel the claims of such an enterprise as that which we are now 
 discussing, to all the assistance requisite to its success. 
 
 Let us go forward a little in our thoughts. Suppose that we now act 
 wisely, and place the proposed University on a sure and liberal footing ; 
 and then that it goes on to yield its rich and precious fruits for a couple 
 of centuries, sending abroad throughout the country its hundreds and 
 thousands of students, and fulfilling properly its high mission. What 
 will it not in that time have accomplished for mankind ! What an 
 interest will gather around these steps which we now are taking, as 
 those who will then live shall look back upon them from that position ! 
 Be sure that they will do homage to the names of those who are fore- 
 most in the work ; and to them, as the greatest benefactors, they will 
 pay the offerings of a hearty and an affectionate gratitude. 
 
EXTRACTS 
 
 FItOM THE 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. AZOR TABER, 
 
 Made in the Senate of Mew-York, March 15, in 
 
 Reply to Senator Pierce, on the Colonization 
 
 and College Appropriation Bills. 
 
 What is asked of this Legislature, is aid in establishing a Univer- 
 sity — not in name merely, but in character — one like those which 
 abound in Europe, but which, to our shame be it spoken, have hitherto 
 been a desideratum in this country — one which shall fit the learner for 
 his chosen pursuit, by completing his education in special reference to 
 his particular profession, art or calling. 
 
 Our Common School system is an honor to this State and an example 
 to others. Our Normal School, Academies and Colleges (for these latter 
 are no more than colleges, whatever name they may assume) perform, 
 sufficiently well, all that they promise — all for which they were designed. 
 But they teach, for the most part, abstract science only, which is wholly 
 inadequate to the wants of a peculiarly enterprising people, in an 
 eminently practical age. The colleges and the spirit of the age have 
 parted company. The great mass of the talent of this country is 
 uneducated, because it cannot find here the means of being educated to 
 usefulness. Send your son, Mr. Chairman, to any one of our colleges, 
 with its scanty allowance of qualified professors, and its extended circle 
 of studies which are essential to a collegiate degree, and be not surprised 
 if he returns with a diploma, which, whatever it may express, does not 
 truly import that he is fitted for a single practical duty of life. He 
 may be able to extract Greek roots, but knows nothing of the aids of 
 modern science in causing large and profitable roots to grow to the tops 
 of esculent vegetables. He may have learned the nomenclature of 
 
86 ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 chemistry, but will know nothing of its application to agriculture and 
 the arts. Deem yourself fortunate if he has fathomed the difference 
 between an acid and alkali, and can explain the phenomena exhibited 
 by a tumbler of pearlash and cider. He may be familiar with the 
 technicals of trigonometry and mensuration, but can no more survey, 
 and calculate the contents of a farm, than he could create one. If you 
 intend that he shall enjoy the utmost attainable advantages of education, 
 you must send him to Europe, to a foreign land, away from the watchful 
 care of family and friends, to be exposed to the influence of manners, 
 morals and political principles, more or less corrupting ; and to return, 
 in all probability, half cockney and half monarchist, to the discharge of 
 the earnest duties of a republican citizen. 
 
 The pernicious error of the ancient schools of philosophy, that science 
 should busy itself with abstract thoughts and not with deeds, and was 
 degraded by becoming useful, has been eradicated from the community 
 by the pervading genius of Lord Bacon, and the spirit of the age ; but 
 it still lingers among the fixed habits of our higher institutions of 
 learning. What cares an American parent whether his son has a 
 smattering of the dead languages to be directly forgotten ? has some, 
 knowledge of Caesar's campaigns, of Virgil's and Homer's metre, and 
 of unapplied triangles andhypothenuses,if he is to be outstripped in the 
 race of emulation by one who knows nothing of all these things ? He 
 grudges the contribution of his own substance, and his son's more 
 precious time, to a system of education which stops short of utility. 
 Hence our colleges are neglected and fall into hopeless decline, and our 
 people are more and more exposed to the reproach of being uneducated 
 in all the higher walks of science. Where are the Hamiltons, the 
 Livingstons, the Clintons, the Spencers, the Emmets, of other days ? 
 They are no where to be found amongst us. The pursuits in which they 
 were engaged have lost their hold on public attention. Their successors 
 and compeers in intellect are engaged in widely different employments,- — 
 in the multiplied products of invention, and in adapting the wonders of 
 applied science to the practical affairs and benefit of mankind ; pursuits, 
 let it be remembered, in which they are left to grope their way in com- 
 parative darkness, because there is no institution in this land, which 
 affords the means of appropriate and adequate instruction. Our Ameri- 
 can inventors, unequalled in ingenuity, are left to waste their time and 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 37 
 
 strength upon subjects, which a proper education in mechanics would 
 have shown them had been already invented or exploded. In like 
 manner those who construct and manage the wonderful and mighty 
 agencies, contributed by science to annihilate time and space, supersede 
 human labor, and increase our wealth, must first pay tribute to the 
 Universities and workshops of Europe. Even the all-pervading opera- 
 tions of agriculture, and the mechanical trades, in this country, are 
 conducted in comparative darkness and imperfection, for the want of 
 scientific instruction. 
 
 Now, Sir, these things ought not so to be. The remedy proposed is 
 the establishment of a University of our own, in which shall be taught 
 and exemplified, all knowledge which has hitherto been attained by 
 man. It should have, and can obtain, an ample corps of professors, 
 competent to teach, and unsurpassed in their attainments, in every 
 department. No expensive and imposing buildings are required for its 
 reception ; for science, like its Almighty Author, " dwells not in temples 
 made with hands." An astronomical observatory, the only indispen- 
 sable structure, with all its instruments and furniture, has already 
 been provided for, by the liberality of citizens of Albany. Rooms 
 sufficient and convenient for all other purposes, can be supplied in this 
 city, or any other in which the Legislature may direct its operations to 
 be conducted. No endowment of professorships is either asked for 
 or desired. These, we believe to be, for the most part, a detriment 
 and a curse to such an institution any where ; and peculiarly unfitted to 
 our republican habits and the genius of our people. Let those who 
 teach in a university, like those who follow any other calling, be furnished 
 with suitable rooms, which are their work-shops, apparatus which 
 constitute the tools of their trade, young minds as the subjects on 
 which their skill is to be exerted, and then let their fame and emolu- 
 ment depend on their own efforts. A better and richer field for both, 
 can no where be found, than a university in this country, conducted 
 upon proper principles. It should offer instruction to all, upon one 
 subject or several, for a single term or a full course, as the inclination 
 or means of a student may allow, and furnish to each a diploma, 
 expressing his actual attainments. It would thus contribute directly to 
 the elevation and emolument of its graduates, each in his particular 
 business or profession, whether as a farmer, a mechanic, a physician a 
 
38 ALBANY UNIVERSITT. 
 
 lawyer, an architect, an engineer, a miner, an inventor, or in whatever 
 capacity he may have received instruction. Its teachings would be of 
 immediate value to their recipients, would be eagerly sought, and 
 cheerfully paid for. It would draw students from this State not only, 
 but ultimately, from the whole Union, and the whole continent. 
 
 It would neither supersede nor injure existing academies and colleges ; 
 but by its post-graduate courses, would impart value to their preliminary 
 instructions. It would become the head, the cerebro spinal axis, so to 
 speak, of their organization; sending nervous influence, sensation and 
 motion through the whole system, and exciting all the parts to har- 
 monious and energetic action. 
 
 The time is propitious for this enterprise. At no previous period in 
 our history could we have secured a body of professors, each eminent 
 in his department, distinguished at home, and known and honored 
 abroad, like those who are ready to embark, and whose hearts are in 
 this undertaking. To some of them we have listened in these halls with 
 interest and instruction, and all are awaiting our decision. Let but this 
 opportunity pass, let it be seized by some wiser State, and it may never 
 return. Ages will probably pass, before more than one such institution 
 should, or can be organized and sustained in this country. 
 
 The place is well chosen. It is Albany ; not from any merely local 
 interest or motive, but because it happens to be the Capital of this great 
 State, which has already accomplished so much for the cause of educa- 
 tion, and has the power, with but a slight effort, to complete what it 
 has so successfully begun. It is, as it should be, in the opening of the 
 Allegany ridges, through which so large a portion of this nation pass to 
 and from the Atlantic sea-board. It should be near that sea-board, 
 whence social and educational influences extend so rapidly and ener- 
 getically to the interior States, while their return is slow and feeble. 
 Such an institution there, would affect us but slightly; while one 
 planted here, would pervade with its influence the innumerable popula- 
 tion destined ere long to inhabit the great basin of the Mississippi and 
 its tributaries ; and by a progress different but equally certain, the 
 inhabitants of the rising States upon our Pacific coast. "Westward" 
 the reign of science, like " the star of empire, takes its way." 
 
 One word, Mr. Chairman, as to what has already been done. The 
 University is incorporated. A college of medicine, for years in success- 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 39 
 
 ful operation, is ready to unite and become one of its departments. A 
 department of law is organized, and placed under the charge of able and 
 distinguished professors ; and is giving instruction, so much needed in 
 the transition state of our legal practice, to a respectable class of students. 
 A department of theology, which would be so certain to introduce the 
 distracting element of sectarian differences, is wholly excluded from the 
 design. Several eminent professors in the scientific departments, are 
 now delivering lectures, on subjects of practical importance, especially 
 that of 'agricultural chemistry. Suitable rooms and apparatus are at 
 hand, or will be supplied, and as perfect an astronomical observatory as 
 any on the globe, the entire expense of which is already contributed by 
 private liberality. All this has been brought about by the untiring 
 efforts of individuals, whom I may not now name, but who will one day 
 be known and duly honored, for their noble efforts in this great cause. 
 Its main reliance is now upon the character of those chosen as profes- 
 sors, who are not only conspicuous before the world for learning and 
 abilities, but are ardent, energetic, practical men, distinguished for the 
 great quality which is in all cases indispensible to success — i?itrepidily 
 in action. 
 
 What, then, is asked of the State ? I answer, first, its sanction, its 
 character, its countenance, in this great undertaking. The next, and 
 only remaining request, is believed to be in entire consistency with the 
 position assumed by the University as a self-sustaining institution. In 
 its comparatively feeble beginning, it applies to the State, as it might 
 honorably apply to any parent, to furnish pupils to be instructed, and 
 to pay a just compensation for the tuition which they receive. The 
 bill before us provides, that one such pupil shall be selected by each 
 Senator and member of Assembly from his own district, whose tuition 
 fees, when earned, and not before, shall be paid by the State. Each 
 legislator would thus have the scholar chosen by him under his personal 
 observation during the winter, and could judge whether the instruction 
 imparted was equal in value to the expense ; if not, the remedy is at 
 hand, for the act provides that it may at any time be repealed by the 
 Legislature. These tuition fees are to be paid by the State during 
 each of the next two years, in consideration of which, each pupil is 
 entitled to gratuitous instruction at the University for the two suc- 
 ceedingyears ; a period sufficient to complete an entire course intheUni- 
 
40 ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 versity. It is believed that sending abroad one hundred and sixty men, 
 highly educated in every department of usefulness, will he an ample 
 return to the State, in honor and advantage, for the assistance received. 
 
 But it may be said, this will cost sixteen thousand dollars this year, 
 and a like sum the next ; and will enure to the benefit of Albany, 
 which has advantages enough already. I know, Mr. Chairman, that 
 it has ; ometimes been said, and probably believed, that Albany was a 
 stereotype Dutch city, destitute of liberality, enterprise and public 
 spirit. Now, Sir, I must claim once more to be indulged in a few 
 remarks in vindication of my immediate constituents and neighbors. I 
 aver that this ancient Dutch city abounds with as generous hearts, as 
 open and liberal hands, and minds as earnestly engaged in enter- 
 prises for the advancement of the best interests of the whole com- 
 munity, as are to be found elsewhere upon earth. Its inhabitants 
 neither advise nor solicit any degree of generosity which they are not 
 prompt and willing to practice. 
 
 Let me attempt to prove this by an example. This great State is 
 both rich and generous. I have taken some pains to ascertain what 
 sums she gave away, during the last year — not in the distribution of 
 the income of any of her permanent funds, but from her general fund, 
 corresponding with the annual income of an individual. That sum, as 
 nearly as I can ascertain, was $132,750. Now, the citizens of Albany, 
 within the same period, irrespective of the innumerable claims for 
 local and temporary charities, freely gave, and bound themselves to 
 give, to the object now under consideration, and other specific objects 
 here and elsewhere, which promised no pecuniary return to the donors, 
 about the sum of $125,000. This approaches nearly to the whole volun- 
 tary bounty of the State, and would be equal, in proportion, to about a 
 million and a quarter by New- York, and nearly half a million by Brooklyn; 
 and when these or any other cities shall have done more, we will 
 endeavor to show that the pecuniary means and liberality of this 
 favored metropolis, are not exhausted. I must add, in justice, that the 
 largest and most liberal of these donations were made by Dutch citizens, 
 of the ancient stamp, and of the full blood. Albany deserves not such 
 a reproach. But were it otherwise, the interest or detriment of a 
 single city, in an object of such vast and general importance, is wholly 
 unworthy of regard. 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 41 
 
 Thus much, Mr. Chairman, in support of the bill under considera- 
 tion, and in behalf of my constituents and other friends of the measure 
 which it embodies. Now, sir, one word more for myself, and my own 
 individual views. I am not a politician. My hopes, and fears, and 
 aspirations lie not in that direction. I was nominated and elected to this 
 Senate while confined by sickness, without any agency or procurement 
 of my own, and for reasons even now better known to my constituents 
 than to me. This error, which they never committed before, they will 
 probably not repeat. But were this otherwise, let me say to my friend 
 the Senator from the 10th, that were I intent on political advancement, 
 and desirous of commending myself to popular favor, I would take the 
 direct opposite of the position he assumes on this question. I would 
 advocate this measure not only, but insist on its being carried out to its 
 full results. I would insist that the board and expenses of the pupils, 
 as well as their tuition, should be paid by the State ; and the proposed 
 benefits thus extended, to those unable to meet even the smallest expense. 
 I would have the objects of the public bounty selected by persons chosen 
 by a vote in the districts, that it might be extended equally to the highest 
 talent and merit, whether found in a freestone palace or a tenement of 
 logs. I would humble the aristocracy of mere wealth, by elevating 
 the more dignified and potent aristocracy of cultivated intellect. For 
 all this, I would appeal to the liberality of the State, whose treasury, 
 whatever may be said to the contrary, is in a prosperous condition, and 
 whose assessment rolls exhibit an aggregate of more than eleven 
 hundred millions of property ; and show, that if this object could be 
 attained only by taxation, which is not true, a rich man's proportion of 
 the requisite tax, would be the merest trifle, and that of a poor man 
 inappreciable. I would rest confidently on the intelligence of the 
 people to sustain a measure calculated to exalt the intellectual character 
 of the State, even at the expense of a trivial tax upon its abounding 
 
 wealth. 
 
 ######## 
 
 Permit me, in conclusion, to refer to a familiar incident not in- 
 appropriate to the occasion. It relates to a Roman matron to whom a 
 neighboring lady was exhibiting her gems and personal ornaments ; and 
 knowing that matron to be the daughter of the illustrious Scipio 
 Africanus, and the widow of a distinguished consul, supposed she had a 
 
 6 
 
42 ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 rich store of such ornaments, (as in truth she had,) and desired her to 
 show them. "These," replied the matron, pointing to two noble boys, 
 whose manly countenances beamed with intelligence — "These are my 
 jewels." For the sake of those her sons and pupils, Rome reared a 
 monument to her memory ; and her reply, which never fails to awaken 
 a response in the heart, became immortal. that my native State 
 were more deeply imbued with the spirit of the mother of the Gracchi ! 
 — that pausing for a brief space in her absorbing pursuit of material 
 wealth, she would strive also after the richer treasures, the nobler pre- 
 eminence, of cultivated mind! Would that her abounding gems of 
 intellect were raised from the dust and rubbish of their native mines, 
 and wrought and polished in Ihe institution we seek to establish, to 
 sparkle ivith matchless rays, in the diadem of the Empire State. 
 
 [From the N. Y. Courier & Enquirer, March 30.] 
 
 'UNIVERSITY OF ALBANY. 
 
 We have attained a point in our development from which the next 
 step must be to the establishment of great institutions of learning ; 
 institutions so largely planned that they may now and hereafter minister 
 effectually and worthily to the great needs of a people whose powers and 
 whose position are without a parallel in the history of the race ; a peo- 
 ple which has done more for the world in a shorter lapse of time, than 
 is recorded of any other since there were deeds to write and historians 
 to write them ; and which yet stands, as it were, but on the vantage 
 ground for the actual commencement of its grand and inevitably success- 
 ful struggle for an eminence which will dwarf the memories of glory 
 which lift themselves above the ruins of by-gone ages. Such institutions 
 must sooner or later exist, from the mere gathering together by natural 
 affinity of the eminent men who have sprung in native strength from our 
 own scarce cultivated mental soil, or whom our great and remunerating 
 needs have transplanted to our shores from the time-honored nurseries 
 of learning in other countries. Such men in all ages of the world have 
 come together, and such in this age cannot be, either alone or united, 
 
ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 43 
 
 without the endeavor to teach to others that which they know them- 
 selves, or at least the best method of acquiring it ; and such teachings by 
 a body of such men, learned in all the various departments of knowledge, 
 make a University. No place for such instruction now exists in this 
 country. It is true, we have the needful opportunities for education ; 
 for that, as Hooker says, is the means "to make by use our natural 
 faculty of reason both the better and the sooner to judge rightly between 
 truth and error, good and evil." Education is, in fact, the teaching how 
 to learn. But after we have made this great and indispensable acquire- 
 ment, we still lack the place in which each man thus educated for the 
 task can pursue to the best advantage that special department of know- 
 ledge in which he has chosen to labor, " to its extremist limits." All 
 exertion of this kind must now be unassisted by the instructions of 
 those who have toiled over the same path, unstimulated by rivalry with 
 those who are striving for the same goal. And here is a great need 
 which demands a great remedy. 
 
 That remedy is supplied by the well considered features of the pre- 
 sent plan. Its principal features cannot be more clearly and suscinctly 
 stated than in that speech, and we will only mention here one of its 
 provisions, which is in truth its life, the very condition of its being ; 
 that is, the sending of one pupil from each Assembly district in the 
 State to pursue their studies at the University, at the expense of the 
 tState ; these State scholarships being the prize to be contended for in 
 public competition by all the youth in each district, judgment being 
 passed by examiners elected by the people themselves. This provision 
 of itself should, and in the end must, ensure the establishment of the 
 projected State University. It makes every school house an arena of 
 honorable strife, every school-boy the possible hero in an intellectual 
 conflict, in which those who are nearest and dearest to him watch and 
 cheer his efforts ; and the prize has to its own intrinsic merit added the 
 dazzling charm that it is bestowed by a Sovereign State. It gives to 
 every father, every mother, however humble their lot, a direct and 
 personal interest in the greatest institution of learing in the land, and 
 lights a student's lamp at every hearth within our borders. Its benefits 
 do not stop with those to whom its honors are directly awarded. There 
 they but begin ; behind the successful competitor, when he leaves for 
 the honored place which he has won, remain crowds of others, of whom 
 
44 ALBANY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 he is but the best, and who will soon swarm after hhn to renew the 
 contest, perhaps victoriously, upon the very ground which he has 
 gained. 
 
 These one hundred and twenty-eight pupils upon State scholarships 
 will of course be but the nucleus round which will gather a great body 
 of students from all parts of the State, and from every extreme of the 
 land. The great Universities of the old world count their students by 
 hundreds. Decaying Padua has fourteen hundred, and Pavia, nodding 
 over her accumulated lore, as many more; and why should we in the 
 fulness of our resources and the pride of our strength, number less ? 
 
 How many Heidelberg and Leyden gather within their toga'd arms 
 we do not remember ; but there is an army at each who call it 
 " mother," — and an army, be it remembered, which always is ranked, 
 and always, through ages past, has fought on the side of liberty against 
 oppression. There is no greater or more mischievous error than the 
 doctrine taught by some that learning sustains despotism and thrives 
 best under it. In knowledge, enlightened liberty finds her truest and 
 most powerful ally, and, as a consequence, unbridled license her deadliest 
 foe. 
 
 The subject leads beyond the limits of our time and space; but we 
 cannot leave it without asking our readers to look forward with us to 
 the influence for good, for advancement in all that elevates the life of 
 man and bestows upon it the purest and greatest happiness, which the 
 assembling together of twenty such men as Agassiz, Mitchell, 
 Dana, Pierce, Gould, Guyot, and co-laborers worthy of them, 
 would exert upon the whole people, through the hundreds of pupils 
 who would crowd to their teachings yearly. Fifteen such must be 
 established in professorial chairs before the projected law allows the 
 sending of the State pupils ; and with the founding of these fifteen 
 professorships a great University, a body which heretofore it has taken 
 ages to form, springs instantly into being. It is born at once, like a 
 great thought ; at once, though the years before have borne its germ 
 within their teeming bosom, and it sees the light because its full time 
 has come. Once born, such a thought never dies; and this will not, for 
 it will find recognition and welcome in the breast of every right thinking 
 man who has a son to live after him. 
 
 LofC. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 020 773 459 7