TIE PAST AND THE PRESENT.
MR. S. B. RUGGLES
SEMI-CENTENNIAL ADDRESS,
AT
NEW H.A VEN, JULY 27, 1864.








THE PAST AND THE PRESENT.
SEMI-CENTENNIAL ADDRESS
TO THE
ALUMNI OF YALE COLLEGE,,ND
GRADUATES OF 1814,
AT THEIR ANNUAL MEETING,
JULY 27, 1864.
BY SAMUEL B. RUGGLES, LL. D.
Printed by order of the Alunni.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY D. APPLETON & CO.,
443 & 445 BROADWAY.
1 864.




Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by
SAMUEL B. RUGGLES,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern
District of New  York.
Wm. C. BRYANT & Co., Printers, 41 Nassau St., col. Liberty, New York.




SUMMARY.
PAGE
Historical interest and importance of the last fifty years,.        4
Empire of the First Napoleon —War with England-Victories of Man
over Nature —The present Napoleon-The Rebellion,.         5
Steady progress of the College during the fifty years,                5
Its wise distribution of Letters, Science, and Theology,.,      6
Dean Berkeley's " Bounty," —"Vanessa,"..                     7
Struggle of Science with Theology in Papal ages,....      7
Progress of Copernicus,-Galileo,-Newton,.....    8
Overthrow of the Ptolemaic Systerr in Yale,.....    8
Planetary and Meteoric Discoveries in the fifty years,...   10
Metals in the Solar Mass —Early Studies of Silliman,...   11
Contending Geological Theories,-Fire and Water,....    12
Gigantic pre-Adamite species,-animal and vegetable,...    14
Liberal encouragement of Geological Science by State of New York,    15
Continental efforts and teachings of Silliman-their results,..   16
Concordat between Science and Theology,....           17
Educating influence of Scientific Studies,.                         18
Character and Oratory of Pericles, and of Webster, elevated by their
study of nature,. 19-20
Hlistorical antecedents and accessories of the Class of 1814,        21
Overshadowing Power of the First Napoleon,.                        22
Aggressions on the United States by France and England,             25
Definition of Political Parties —their opposing theories,...   26
President Dwight as a politician,.                27
Sympathies with England struggling for freedom of the world,.   28
IHow repaid —"Alabama," —Long-standing malignity of London limes,   29




iv
PAGU
Victories of Macdonough and Jackson —Treaty of Peace,               30
Modification of views in respect to Napoleon,.                     31
Fanatical opposition to his civic reforms-Metric System in Italy,    32
Public Works of the last fifty years,.....          33
" Continental System " of Clinton and his followers,..       33
Enormous addition in the fifty years by steam to human forces,      33
Early prediction of Pacific Railway by Dwight,.             34
Uniform support by Graduates of Yale, of our Public Works,          35
Their high political importance to the National Union,..        35
Tribute to President Day and his teachings,...         36
Electric Telegraph —its triumphs and progress-Morse; Sibley; Field;
Collins,..,....36
Louis Napoleon-vigor and success of his civic administration,.   37
Comparative pecuniary growth of France and the United States,.   37
Future increase in the United States, will pay the public debt,.   37
Louis Napoleon's proposed Interoceanic Canal,.           38
Extracts from his pamphlet in 1846; his opinion then of Slavery,    40
Will he now interfere in favor of Slavery?.....   41
General character of pending Rebellion, as typified by destruction of
Light-houses,.........   43
Our power and our duty to uphold the Union,.....   44




AD DRESS.
BRETHREN OF TIlE ALUMNI OF YALE, AND FELLOW  STUDENTS
OF THE CLASS OF 1814:
Among the numerous works of art which we owe to the taste
and the feeling of our modern painters, is one which many, if
not most of us, have seen and enjoyed. It is the picture of the
aged grandfather, with silver locks and feeble limbs, bending
under the weight of many years, but gazing with tender interest and rekindling eye upon a portrait of himself, when a fairhaired boy in the early morning of life. The canvas faithfully
exhibits that peculiarity of man's intellectual decay, which obscuring or obliterating the busy scenes of active manhood and
even of advancing age, preserves, in imperishable freshness, the
sharply sculptured memories of his youthful hours.
I cannot but feel that a kindred emotion animates the timeworn Class of 1814, that has to-day come home to these
academic shades, to evoke, from the sleep of half a century, its
own youthful image, to retrace and recover its early lineaments,
to catch once more its lights and shadows, and fondly to reproduce and cluster around it some at least of the external accessories, which gave to that young life its form and features.
The stream of time, embraced within this interval, is surely
long enough to have become historical. It includes more than
a fortieth part of the nineteen centuries of the Cllristian era;




4
for it is now fifty years since our Class, then eighty-two in
number, went forth from this honored seat of learning, to bear
its part in the great drama of American life, to march onward
and forward with the young Republic of tle Western World.
The wayfaring has been long and sometimes weary.  Our path,
at times, has been strewed with thorns, or darkened by sorrow.
Nearly two-thirds of the youthful band have fallen by the way,
but, in God's kind Providence, a goodly remnant has been
allowed cheerfully and hopefully to reach the present eminence,
permitting a moment of repose in which to survey the widespread and varied landscape it has left behind.
To the youngest of these survivors, the undue partiality of loving friends has committed the task of sketching, however imperfectly, the leading outlines of this historic
picture. If he do not wholly fail, it will be because the magnitude and the grandeur of the prominent objects within the field
oft view, imprint their profile too sharply on the sky to be mistaken.
The great historical landmarks within the eventful era in
which our Class has been permitted to live, are manifest, indeed,
not only to ourselves, but to the world around us. In the dark
background of the picture is the French Revolution, with all its
sufferings and all its conquests, closely followed by its natural
and logical result, the great and overshadowing Empire of the
first Napoleon.  Side by side we see the American Union, just
emerging from its cradle, but waging war, even in its earliest
years, successively with France and England. The struggle
closes in the very year in which our Class left the College.
The broad middle ground of the picture, extending from 1814
to 1860, covers nearly all its surface. It brings in the golden
era of modern history, rich with the works of civilization and
humanity, and glorious with the victories of Man over Nature,
but curiously exhibiting, in bold relief, another Napoleon, who




proclaims his Empire to be Peace. The narrow foreground of
the last four years, alas! is deeply shadowed; for it is filled by
the opening scenes of a vast, unfinished tragedy, and is lurid
and ghrbastly with the fire, and blood and slaughter of the impious
and parricidal war, seeking to dismember, disintegrate and forever destroy our great Republic.
Amid all the lights and shadows of these portentous events, it
is cheering to perceive our honored  College, serenely and
steadily pursuing, with vigorous and elastic step, its appointed
course, and keeping fully up to the changing necessities and
vicissitudes of the surrounding world.  The thought is pleasant
and refreshing.  Let us briefly pursue it, and perchance forget,
for the moment, the madness and furv of the storm which rages
around us.
I am not here to-day to argue or to agitate any temporary question of party politics, and shall only state historically the political
attitude and influence of the College, fifty years ago.  Nor shall
I refer, except in very general terms, to the causes, condition or
probable results of the pending Rebellion.  5Nor amn I here to
discuss any educational question whatever, or any controverted
point on the comparative merits of classics, or mathematics, or
physical science, or theology, as elements of college culture. On
that subject, I hold to the very comprehensive and catholic
creed of a brilliant though somewhat fantastic writer of these
modern days, w\ho maintatins, that there are in this world
but three things which a man needs to know,-which are,
1st, TWhat he is; 2d, Where he is; and 3d, Where he is going;
-necessarily embracing under the first the whole history, and
literature, and intellectual constitution of Ma3n, with all his
deeds, words, and thoughts, ill all countries and ages;-under
the second, all the physical and mathematical laws which regulate and govern the material universe, of which he is a part;under the thirrd, his progress, individual and political, in the




6
world below, and his progress, moral and religious, toward the
Heaven above.  Condensed still more briefly, under the generic
heads of classics, science, and theology, I only claim, that
every wisely managed College will unite them all in due proportion.
It is the distinguishing characteristic of this venerable institution, now foremost among the first of American Colleges,' that
from her very foundation, nearly one hundred and seventy years
ago, she has commingled these three cardinal elements of educational culture, with nice and skilful hand.  Especially is it true
in respect to the contending claims of science and letters, which
she has ever kept in just and harmonious equilibrium; wisely using
the strength of the one to invigorate the elegance of the other,
and, in its turn, adorning the vigor of science with the grace and
polish of classic culture. iler earliest teachings in the very infancy of our colonial history, received their tone and flavor
from  BERKELEY, Dean of Derry, and afterwards Bishop of
Cloyne, eminent alike as a philosopher and a lover of letters,the income of whose well-timed and judicious endowment,
gratefiflly recognized for a century and a half as " The
Dean's Bounty," annually rewards the successful competitor in
the language and literature of Greece and Rome.  The germ
thus wisely planted, has borne its precious fruits, in the long
line of classical scholars, coining down through her early and
learned Presidents and Professors to their honored successors,
who now grace this assembly with their presence. It probably
has not chilled the ardor of the young aspirants for the prize to
know, that BERKELEY had been enabled to make this endow1 The competition of TALE and IAnRVARD is very close.  The triennial
catalogues of the two institutions show, that in the 162 years from the first
"Commencement" of YALE, she passed 7,116 academical students to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. During the same period, HARVARD passed 6,973.
The number graduated by the two Colleges in 1862, was precisely the same, being
96 in each.




7
ment, by a legacy of what CHARLES LAMB calls "a trifle of four
thousand pounds," lovingly bequeathed to him by the wellknown Hester Vanhomrigh, the " Vanessa" of SWIFT, whose ardent but scantily requited passion for that eminent but very
surly ecclesiastic, has made her name immortal.  May we not
trace even to this remote and romantic source, the lively perception by some of our accomplished graduates,2 of the peculiar
beauties of Catullus and Anacreon?
In cultivating the taste for polite learning, the College
has not lost sight of the proper claims of mathematical and
physical science, still less of sound theology; all of which she
has kept in wise conjunction. She has manifested her wis
dom especially in disregarding or reconciling those imaginary
antagonisms between the two great Revelations of the Divine
Being in His Word and in His Works, which halre caused
such unnecessary alarm in other quarters.
It is a noteworthy circumstance, that the College came into
being just as the morning was breaking on that long and dismal
night, in which ecclesiastical ambition had arrogantly assumed
not only to regulate the political affairs of Christendom, but to
establish authoritatively the history and the material laws of
the creation. Not content with fanatically burning the written
treasures of the classic ages of antiquity, it had practically banished physical science from Christian Europe, to find refuge
and protection, for several centuries, under the more liberal
rule of the Saracen Caliphs.  In this deep and memorable
eclipse, the great truths of astronomy, of mathematics, of medic
cine, with prophetic glimpses even of geology, for want of
Christian students on the Thames, the Seine, and the Tiber,
were uttered to Mahomedan ears on the Tigris, the Euphrates,
2 Mr. CHARBLES ASTOR BRISTED was a successful competitor in 1839 for "The
Dean's Bounty." He has since published an American edition of Catullus, with
interesting and valuable notes.




8
and the Nile. Every attempt in Christendom, by the votaries of
enlightened science, to pierce the gloom, was repaid by the prison
or the faggot. As late as 1543, near the middle of the sixteenth
century, and more than fifty years after Columbus had reached
America, COPERNICUS was excommunicated by the Church of
Rome for the deadly offence of asserting the sun to be the
centre of the solar system; while half a century later, BRUNo,
who ventured to avow the same belief with other heresies,
was burned at the stake.
In 1642, the aged GALILEO, whose newly invented telescope
had summoned down to earth the satellites of Jupiter, as witnesses to verify the heliocentric theory of COPERNICUS, after being
compelled by torture to assert the immobility of the earth, was
confined for the residue of his life in the prisons of the Inquisition; while the ancient Ptolemaic, or geocentric theory, with
the earth for the centre, entangled in a complicated and incoherent web of cycles and epicycles, was announced by Papal
authority as a dogma of scriptural truth, with fire, and flame
and death, as the penalty for unbelief. It is a little refreshing
to know that Alphonso the Tenth, the king of Catholic Castile,
had ventured, two centuries before, to creep out of this darkness far enough to earnestly assert, though with a tinge of irreverence, that if the creation of the world had been left to him,
he would have had no cycles or epicycles; but the general mind
of Christendom remained in manacles until emancipated by the
transcendent genius of NEWTON.
By a providential compensation, that illustrious mathematician came into the world in the very year in which GALILEO left
it, bringing with him the mighty engine of the calculus, measuring
all the perturbations, and unravelling all the intricacies of the
celestial system, and correcting any minor errors of COPERNICUS.
The immortal "'Principia " were first published in 1687, preceding, by less than twenty years, the foundation of Yale Col



9
lege. The fact is strange and curious, that even here in emancipated America, the Ptolemaic or geocentric theory, enforced by
Papal assumption upon the dark ages, was actually taught for
several years, within these very walls. It was not until 1718,
that the light of the heliocentric system was first let in, through
the efforts of the clear-sighted Doctor SAMUEL JOIINsoN, then a
Tutor in the College, and who in due season would have become
its President, but for his ill-timed doubts of the validity of
Presbyterian ordination. A copy of the " Principia," sent out
from Europe, had reached the little college library, upon which
the youthful JOHNSON entered with great avidity, after studying
the higher mathematics for the purpose. "Till then," says his
biographer, " the Ptolemaic system of the world was as strongly
" believed as the Holy Scriptures; but JoHNsoN was soon able
" to overthrow it, and establish on its ruins the doctrine of
" COPERNICUS."  The heliocentric system  at once illuminated
the College, and here it'will continue to pour forth its magnificent
light until the College, and the Earth, and the Sun, and the
Stars, shall be no more. Poor old COPERNICUS, who in his dying
hours had sought, by a letter of dedication, to disarm the opposition of the Pope, was lying in his grave on the Baltic, carefully
covered by the Papal excommunication, which was not formally
annulled by the Vatican until the year 1821, seven years after our
Class left college. Since that time, the Church of Rome, claiming
to be the chosen keeper and interpreter of Holy Writ, together
with the residue of the Christian world, have permitted the
students of the Pentateuch to read the Genesis, by the light
of CoPERNIcus and NEwTON.
It will be gratifying and comforting to know that our Class of
1814, since it left these walls, has been faithfully carried fifty
times around the centre of the solar system thus established,
punctually coming, as in College, and especially at morning
prayers, we did not always punctually come, "up to time"2




10
and further, that the sun himself, with his whole cortege of
planets and other minor attendants, has been carefully and safely
running his appointed course through the vast abyss of stellar
space, at the comparatively dignified pace of 400,000 miles a
day, steadily "making," in nautical phrase, for a point in the
constellation Hercules. Within this celestial period, the mathe.
maticians of the College have not been idle; although for
want of that enlarged Astronomical Observatory, which the
alumnni now and here assembled expressly admit and declare
that they owe the College,-its astronomers have not been
able, by their own visual organs, to fathom all the depths of
the heavens. But they have vigilantly and faithfully followed
in the wake of the actual observers. They have carefully chronicled the birth of the numerous family of Asteroids, now nearly
eighty strong, exhausting in their baptism nearly all the names
in the classic mythology, and throwing quite in the shade that
modest little group, that partie carqree, of Juno, Vesta, Pallas,
and Ceres, whom we knew in College. They profoundly participated in the sublime emotion kindled in the scientific world by
the recent discovery of Neptune, pursuing his remote and lonely
voyage along the outer circle of planetary space, and the consequent addition of more than two thousand millions of miles to
the pre-existing estimate of the diameter of the solar system.
But more especially has it been theirs, to share still more largely
and almost exclusively, in the labor and in the honor of the brilliant exploring expeditions in the great Archipelago of the
meteoric world. They have virtually monopolized the fiery
showers with which the earth is periodically greeted. One
of their number, who happily, and not unworthily, bears the
name of NEWTON, has just given to the world an acute and
learned memoir, reaching back through the Arabian to the
more ancient histories of the heavens, in which he demonstrates the orbit of this meteoric group, and its mathemati



11
cal relations to the pathway of the earth, and points out with the
certainty of scientific vision the very year, now near at hand, in
which our planet, in its regular course, must again push its way
through these celestial cldbris, the wreck perchance of other
worlds.
Ntor does the interest of our College in celestial affairs stop
even here. Our Scientific School,-offspring of the munificence
of SHEFFIELD, largely aided by the State, and now an integral
portion of the College,-not content with developing the metals
in the earth below, is now busily pursuing them in the heavens
above; carefully following in the track of IKIRCHHOF and
BUNSEN in those brilliant optical researches which have penetrated the vast, billowy effulgence of the sun itself. The skilful
analysis of these European observers has already detected in the
solar mass, more than twelve of the metals known on earth.
Strange and sad to say, no trace of gold or silver has yet been
found in that heavenly body, a fact remarkably akin to some of
the financial theories of the present hour.
But let us descend to earth, for there we shall find the crowning scientific achievement of our College, in upholding and dis.
playing the gigantic scroll of the vast bygone ages of the planet
we inhabit. In 1814 we left these walls under the belief that
the world was just 5818 years of age, and no more. In 1810,
when we entered the College, BENJAMIN SILLIMAN was in the early
bloom of that noble manhood which has since borne fruits of
such surpassing excellence. HIe had but recently returned from
Europe, where he had gone to study with the ablest masters, the
structure and history of the earth. The field was new and
nearly untrodden; but in Edinburgh he had come in contact with
fellow laborers, whose vigorous genius was grappling in the early
tnorning light, with a gigantic cosmogony, just becoming dimly
visible. The investigation required, at the threshold, a calm and
careful inquiry, whether the " days " of the Genesis, as recorded




12
by Moses, were necessarily limited to six diurnal revolutions of
the earth on its axis, or could be fairly enlarged to embrace six
great cosmical intervals of time. A devout Christian inquirer,
like SILLIMAN, iminovably convinced of the truth of the Holy
Scriptures, could not, and would not decide such a question
without long and conscientious study, and above all, the fullest
examination of the facts.
The two contending theories, at that time struggling for
mastery, were the aqueous, or that of WERNER, who attributed
the structure and present condition of the earth wholly to the
agency of water; and the igneous, or that of HUTTON, " Who
" had no faith in water, and was for fire alone." The struggle
has been graphically and characteristically depicted by DANA,
our highest geological authority, "' as when fire and water were
"' in violent conflict when the earth itself was evolved from
" chaos," so, out of the conflict at Edinburgh, " emerged the
"noble science of geology."
Among the liveliest and most cherished memories of our
Class of 1814, there can be none more clear and vivid than
those splendid and most attractive lectures we heard from
SILLIMAN; but I am confident that all of us now present will
unite in declaring that, up to 1814, he had pronounced no
definite decision on the two contending geological theories.
He may have stated to the Class. in general terms, the Iuttonian, or igneous theory, but it must have been with little
explanation or amplification, and with no adequate exhibition of
facts to sustain it. We certainly left the College under the reverent belief then universally prevalent in the religious world, that
the deluge of Noah had been the principal, if not the only,
agent in stamping upon the earth its present physiognomy.
It was not until 1819, that the Professor published the first
number of his "American Journal of Science," a work which
has now successfully reached its foirty-fifth year, and is read




13
with interest and instruction in every portion of the civilized
world. Among its other excellences, it serves to furnish a series
of land-marks, which chronologically show the progress of the
human mind in the last fifty years, including that of the editor
himself, on the subject of geology. The very introduction to
the opening number distinctly marks the first advance, in claiming for geology the rank of " an inductive science, the result
"not of theory or of baseless speculations on the origin of the
"globe, but of actual exploration and examination of the
"structure, arrangement and materials of which it is com"posed." But that opening number contained a passage still
more significant, in which the editor, after gratefully acknowledging the obligations which geological science would ever owe
to WERNER, quite ominously adds: "' but his pupils should not
" now demand the implicit and unqualified adoption of ALL his
" opinions."
Within twenty years from that date, we find the Journal
not only demonstrating with great force of evidence, the potent
and wide-spread agency of internal fire in upheaving, fracturing
and contorting the existing crust of the globe, elevating continents and dispersing oceans,-but bringing out to light an
astonishing array of fossil witnesses, disentombed by the energy
and skill of scientific inquirers, conclusively proving the preAdamite existence of vast races and series of races of animals,
aquatic and terrestrial, which had successively flourished through
countless ages, after our planet had sufficiently cooled from
the incandescent state in which it was evolved from original
chaos.
Nay, more, the Journal soon afterwards announced to its
awe-struck readers that there was a period, and that not very
remote, geologically speaking, " when the earth was peopled by
"oviparous quadrtzpeds of a most appalling magntitude," and
further, and in the same sharp italics, " that gigantic reptiles




14
" were the Lords of the creation! before the existence of the human
"' race." A brief statement of the size, form and features of the
interesting creatures thus enjoying this elevated rank in the
history of the world, may not be wholly out of place, even if it
should cause our present potentates and statesmen, the Napoleons and Alexanders, the Palmerstons and Sewards, of these
latter days, to hide their diminished heads. Be it known, then,
to the political world, that the Ichthyosaurus was a fish-like lizard
about thirty feet long, with a head four feet in diameter, enormous eyes, a short neck, and a very long tail, and furnished with
four broad and flat paddles. The Pterodactyle was an enormous
flying creature, having the structure of a reptile with the
wings of a bat, jaws furnished with sharp teeth, and claws with
long hooked nails. The Iguanadon, a herbivorous reptile, had
huge teeth like the incisors of a rhinoceros, with warts or horns
on its snout, and was nine or ten feet high, and from sixty
to a hundred feet long. Such was a portion of "the best
society" of that dominant, pre-Adamite race, introduced to the
American world by the " Journal of Science," at New Hlaven,
in January, 1832.
The fossil remains of these defunct monsters had been found
principally in portions of Europe, buried, I believe, in the
chalk, but it was not long before the vigilance of American
explorers detected the footprints of gigantic pre-Adamite birds
at least fourteen feet high, clearly stamped on the margin
of the Connecticut river.  Subsequent publications in the
"Journal" depicted the magnitude and the splendor of the
pre-Adamite flora, attaining enormous size during " the heated
term " in our cosmical history, and far exceeding in what are
now the coldest portions of the globe, the tropical products
of the present era. Its providential uses in furnishing the raw
material for the immense, carboniferous deposits which have
since become so necessary to Man, as the ultimate lord of the




15
earth, are displayed in that glowing and attractive style which
our venerable and gifted friend has always at command.
It cannot be surprising that the presentation of facts and ideas
so gigantic, should cause some little commotion, especially in
narrow minds. In behalf of the State of New York, I must,
however, claim, that she came at once fully up to the magnitude
of the subject. In 1836, her Legislature directed a geological,
zoological and botanical survey to be made of the State, for
which she then appropriated $104,000; which liberal amount
has been since increased to nearly a million by the enlightened
efforts of friends of science in the State Government, among
whom we are proud to number General LEAVENWORTH, an hon
ored alumnus of YALE, now present and presiding over our
meeting.
The original bill of 1836 passed the lower House unanimously. The few opposing votes in the Senate do not morally
diminish the lustre of that legislative act, being mostly given by
disciples of the political school (in the mercy of God now nearly
extinct), which holds that Government has no right to foster
science, or colleges, or schools, or charities, or to build lighthouses, or canals, or roads, or any other public work whatever, of
a beneficent or civilizing character. Nor did the Legislature
pass the act in ignorance of its high scientific aims, or merely
for utilitarian or economical objects. On the contrary, $26,000
of the appropriation was expressly inserted and retained for
zoological and botanical examinations, upon the earnest recommendation of the Secretary of State (General DIx), whose
elaborate and interesting report to the Assembly expressly
referred to the extinct species of the former geological ages, and,
what must greatly delight Nrew England, distinctly specified
a "Gorgonia! of an undescribed species, found on the Connect"' icut River, and proving, with other analagous facts, that its
"valley had once constituted, and for an immense period, the'bottom of a tropical ocean."




16
The scientific truths thus unfolded to the world were so
largely in advance of the ideas of the Genesis which our theologians had generally adopted, that their successful establishment
required the best and most active exertion of SILLIMAN'S intellectual powers. Far be it from me to dig up or bring back to
light the dull, dense mass of ignorance and bigotry which he was
compelled to encounter. Whenever the time shall come (far distant be the day) when the biographer shall sum up the whole of
his long and well-spent life, a curious and instructive chapter will
certainly be added to the history of science and its struggles.
Like Aristotle of old, who could not be confined to any "pent-up"
Attica, but carried science into Egypt and far distant Asia,
SILLIMAN made our whole continental republic his field of action,
traveling from Boston to Savannah, from Quebec to New Orleans, and up the Mississippi and its confluents, ever holding
aloft the torch of science, and shedding its light upon thousands
and tens of thousands of delighted listeners. With his imnmense and irresistible array of facts, compelling the acquiescence
of the judgment, lie came, he spoke, he conquered.  The
majestic ideas which he thus disseminated, elevated and enlarged the intellectual vision of the whole American people. It
is doubtless well to applaud the statesman whose annexations
of territory  extended  our political domain from  ocean to
ocean, but where can we find words to thank the  apostle of
geology, who annexed to our intellectual domain the transcendant knowledge that the planet we inhabit occupies no narrow
"inch of time," no petty segment of six thousand years, but is
the sublime continuation and prolongation of a pre-existing
creation, embracing a succession of innumerable ages, beyond
the power of human arithmetic to measure. The highest figures
of ascertained astronomical distances have been invoked, in vain,
to define the extent of those immense geological periods. By a
stupendous analogy, the smaller subdivisions of the strata of the




17
earth have been likened to the hundreds of millions of miles
which separate the planetary orbits, but the vast chronology of
its grand divisions has only found a parallel in the immeasurable abyss of the stellar spaces. Looking back on such a field
of scientific triumph, do we not find our great geologist occupying largely the academic era which we now commemorate?
Does he not stand out prominent and lofty, in the historic
picture we seek to paint?
I have already ventured to assert that in every wisely managed college, science and theology will be blended in due proportion, and that in this respect, the authorities of YALE have
been singularly successful.  The labors of SILLIAAN, so far
fromn weakening, have materially strengthened our faith in
the inspiration of the Mosaic record.  The flood of light
which geology has shed on the cosmical " days " of the
Genesis, has immeasurably widened the basis of our belief.
By removing in all rational minds every apparent antagonism
between Science and the Bible, it has practically established
a Concordat with all the Churches, reverently assigning to
theology all the spiritual portion of Man's complex nature,
and committing to science only the lower and inferior office of
discovering and declaring the physical laws and history of the
material universe which he temporarily inhabits. So lively
however, is the perception of the comparative progress of
the geological eras thus established, that DANA, in his admirable
and exhaustive "~vManual of Geology," complains, with somewhat of American impatience, that "the earth drcagged slowly
through its early stages i"
I have also said that the College has ever wisely and skilfully
mingled science and letters, as elements of education. For one,
I can never admit that the truths of physical science are useful
only for information, and not for culture. On the contrary, I
insist that they train, invigoi'ate and " educate" the mind, and
3




18
lead it onward and upward to its noblest and highest capacities.
Fully admitting the purifying and refining power of the classics
in chastening the taste and filling the imagination with immortal forms of beauty, and fully recognizing the condensed,
chrystalline and sharply sculptured diction they impart, as
furnishing the only fitting drapery in which to clothe the sublime
imagery which science brings to light, I yet contend that every
faculty of the head and heart is educated and elevated to its
highest pitch by the study and comprehension of the grand generalities of Nature.
The Church, in her magnificent " Te Deum," by the adoring
exclamation, "All the Earth doth worship Thee, the Father
Everlasting," proclaims her belief in the power of material
matter to elevate the soul; as she does in the surpassing grandeur
of her sublime generalization that Earth and Heaven are "full
" of the Majesty of His Glory." The joyous exclamation of her
glorious Canticle, coining down from the days of the Prophets,
invokes not only " all the Works of God," but " all the Powers,"
(in the original, "all the Power,") "of God, to praise and
" magnify him forever;" plainly recognizing, in the infinitude
of His might, the supreme motive power of the universe, subordinately working through every portion of created space, by
those immutable physical laws, which He established from the
beginning.
We are told by VOLTAIRE, that the age of PERICLES was the
most refined and truly glorious that ancient history records; but
who taught PERICLES?  He was the cotemporary and doubtless the personal friend and daily companion of iJEscrYLUs,
SOPHOCLEs, and EURIPIDES, the "Great Tragic Triumvirate;"
and also of PRIDIAS, preeininently the heaven-breathing sculptor
of immortal Greece. But was it from them that PERICLES imbibed his most majestic inspiration? Was it not from Nature,
and the great teacher of Nature? Was it not from ANAXAGORAS,




19
his ever-honored preceptor, who not only taught all the physical
science known to Greece, but who boldly traced its laws up to
One Supreme Intelligence? Does not PLUTARCH expressly and
fully inform us, that it was from ANAXAGORAs, that the eloquence and the character of PERICLES attained that god-like
elevation for which his admiring countrymen could find no
epithet short of " Olympian F"
You can hardly expect one, condemned by fate to dig only
in earthly things, to analyse the matchless oratory of this rarest
and richest specimen of what may be denominated the " composite" scholar, combining, in perfect harmony, the best and
purest spirit, both of words and things. The cornmingled elements of strength and grace, which he so finely unites, breathe
from every word of those soul-stirring and captivating Orations
transmitted to us by THUCYDIDES, who caught them fresh and
sparkling from the glowing lips of the great Athenian. They
typify so truly not only the majestic genius, but the splendid
personal qualities of PERICLES himself, that we are at a loss to
know whether it is the orator, or the man we most admire.
How gloriously do they embody his sublime but fond devotion
to his beloved Athens; his exquisite appreciation of her refined
enjoymIents; his unshaken fortitude amid her direst calamities;
his proud disdain of calumny; his supreme contempt of wealth
or station, when compared with honor! It possibly may be, as
some suppose, that his lovely picture of " the public recreations
" and sacrifices, which the laws of Athens provide for the mind' throughout the year, elegantly performed with a peculiar
" pomp, the delight of which is a charm that puts melancholy
"to flight," owed somewhat of its tender tone and delicate
finish to a female hand; but who could ever mistake the
masculine and impassioned eloquence, which urges on his
hearers, "to make the daily increasing grandeur of Athens
"the subject of their constant thoughts, until they should




20
"become wholly enamored of it," and displays "the means
" within their reach of rising to supreme dominion, a point
"pompous beyond poetic visions!"  Is he not laboring to
arouse not only Athens, but a f:ar off Western World, from
unmanly despondency, when he adds: "I see you beyond
"measure fearful and dejected; but I loudly aver, that you
are greater masters now, both at land and sea-those ne"cessary spheres for carrying on the services of life-than
"any other power; and may be greater yet, if so inclined.
"There is not now a king, there is not a nation in the universal
"world, able to withstand that navy which, even at this junc" ture, you can launch out to sea. Confidence rests not on'hope, acting only in uncertainty, but in the sedate determina" tion of what it is able to perform. We want no Homer to'' herald our praise, no poet to deck our history with the charms
"of verse. Every sea has been opened by our fleets, and every
"land has been penetrated by our armies, leaving behind them
" eternal monuments of our power to befriend or to punish."
Gently changing his tone, how consolatory, yet how lofty is the
well-timed compliment which he pays, in the Funeral Oration,
to his aged auditors bereft of their possessions by the disasters
of the war, in his noble and characteristic utterance-" it is not
" the love of gain or of wealth, but of honor, in which old age
" most delights; for only greatness of soul is immortal."
I confess that I love to dwell upon the character and the eloquence of the great patriot and orator of Athens, and all the
more, that they so vividly recall the majestic memory of our
great American statesman, now gone to his rest, but who in life,
like PERICLES, was " wholly enamored" of his country's glory.
A merciful Providence has spared him the unutterable anguish
of beholding that dark abyss of sin and folly, upon which
he so earnestly prayed that his eyes might never gaze. Mr.
WEBSTER loved to meditate upon the majestic structure, and




21
the possible destiny of the American Union. His "Olympian" soul, like that of PERICLES, had been educated and exalted by the study of nature and nature's laws, from which
exhaustless fountain he drew analogies worthy of his mighty
mind. A friend recollects him walking, near midnight, around
the Capitol. Their conversation turned upon the possible
dangers to the American Republic from an undue extension
of its geographical limits. Turning his face up to the starry
firmament, which shone reflected in his deep cavernous eyes, he
solemnly asked, " Did the discovery of Neptune, impair the stability of the solar system?" Do not the scene and the man reproduce the portrait, which Ovid had painted eighteen centuries
beforeOs...sublime dedit, coclumque tueri,..?
Even his pleasantry, on that occasion, was somewhat colossal
and elephantine.  Affectionately throwing his arm around his
friend, at parting, he said, in his large and grandly cordial way,
" Come down to Washington, and come often.  I want none of
"your short-legged sixty day fellows about me, with their three
" days' grace. I want mnen, —long-legged men, —who go striding' down the century, like those pre-Adaimite birds in the old
"Connecticut Valley!"
But we must humrry away from PERICLES and WEBSTER. We
must get back to our College walls, and our Class of 1814, and
see what company we kept in our Olympiad.
What then were the surrounding accessories, and what the
immediate antecedents, which gave to our Class its form and
features?
Historically and chronologically speaking, nearly all of our
number were born shortly after the foundation of our present
National Government. All of us lived in the atmosphere
breathed by WASHINGTON. Many of our number first saw the




22
light during the French Revolution, amid the horrors of the Reign
of Terror. When the good king, Louis the Sixteenth, the friend
of American independence, was beheaded, some of the Class were
old enongh to hear the widespread groan, coming heavily across
the Atlantic. While at school we heard the shouts of the victors
at Aboukir and Trafalgar. We followed on our maps, " the Little Corporal" from Lodi to Miarengo, to Jena and to Austerlitz.
In the year 1810, when we entered college, the French Emperor had reached the summit, the very culminating point of his
victorious career. He stood preeminent and aloft, at once the
dominant power and the terror of the world. Europe was ringing with the crash of its ancient thrones, and he was rebuilding
on their ruins the Western Roman Empire of Charlemagne, and
ambitiously imitating that of Augustus. A Senatus Consultum
of the Legislative Assembly of the Empire, at Paris, in 1810. preceded by a glowing exordium from Regnault de St. Jean d'Angely, in its own official language, " unites to the French Empire
"the city of Rome, the ancient patrimony of the Caesars and
"of Charlemagne; joins parts of the Roman Empire, which have
"long been separated; and establishes an alliance between the
"Tiber and the Seine, between Paris and Rome. In a short
"period, beyond the Pyrenees, the ports of Spain," so prophecies
the document, "shall be opened to our arms and closed to Eng." land. The peace of Europe from that moment will be secured
"by the sanctity of treaties, the extent of power, the uniformity
" of interests, and the superiority of genius!" Such was the
legal form of the imperial process of European consolidation.
Its details had been already partially carried out.  The
pre-existing legal "Departments of France" had been extended eastward to the Elbe, and southward to the northern
boundary of Naples, thereby formally absorbing and converting
into integral portions of France, all the territories of Holland,
Flanders, the Free Hanseatic Cities, and of Italy north of ZNa



23
ples, including the ancient Republic of Venice. The adjacent
territories in Naples, Spain and part of Germany, had been
erected into French monarchies, ruled by relatives of the
Emperor, and subject to change, at any moment, at his single
will. Politically speaking, the Rhine, the WVeser, and the Elbe
were no longer German rivers. The Zuyder-Zee ceased to be
Dutch.  The Alps and the Appennines became mountains
of France, while Vesuvius was transmuted by the fiery Conqueror into a French volcano, and Etna was only saved by
the naval force of England from the grasp of his lieutenant.
Napoleon was married, in 1810, to [Maria Louisa, of the House
of Austria, an event by which " France," in the ecstatic language of the Legislative Assembly, " was intoxicated with joy
" and transported with love!" It was but the prelude to his
plan of universal dominion. Their child, when born, amid the
unbounded acclamations of Paris, was formally created " King
of Rome"; the " Caesar" to the French Augustus.
In 1812, an army of five hundred thousand men, composed
of levies from France and all the conquered nations, and glittering with all the pomp and circumstance of modern war, was led
by this Agamemnon, this "King of Kings," to the ~Niemen,
to conquer and destroy the Empire of Russia. The mighty array
filled the whole world, not excepting England, with terror
and dismay.
The historian Alison, whose English partialities no one will
doubt, reviewing the state of the world at that eventful period,
states that " the power of Napoleon appeared to be too great to
"be withstood by any human effort; and even the strongest
" heads could anticipate no other issue from the war than the
" final prostration of Russia, the conquest of Turkey, and the
"establishment of French supremacy from the English Channel
" to the Black Sea."  " A general despair seized the minds of
" men: it seemed doubtful if even the British navy in the end




24
c" could secure the independence of their favored isle, and the
"general subjugation of the civilized world was anticipated,
"probably to be rescued from slavery only by a fresh deluge of
"northern barbarians.''
The belief that the mighty Conqueror was destined to universal dominion, was not confined to Europe, but largely filled
the American mind. His progress seemed so irresistible, that
the question was asked in all quarters, how soon he would
attempt to add the Western World to his conquests. It was
even made a theme for school exercises by boys of tender age;
for I find, among my own preposterous juvenilities, that I was
set the task, by the village schoolmaster, of discussing, at the
sapient age of ten years, in a written " Dispute" with an opponent but little older than myself, (who has since become thie
President of one of our best American Colleges) the remarkably
modest question: "'If Bonaparte conquers England, can he
conquer America?"
In 1812, by which time our Class had become "Sophomores,"
the alarm had risen to such a pitch, that it was quite seriously
contended by many worthy people, that Napoleon differed very
little, in name or in fact, from  "Apollyon."  All of us will
surely recollect the remarkable Essay which, in that year, went
the rounds of the newspapers, seeking to show from Scripture the
imperial usurper to be identical with, or twin brother of " the
" great red dragon" of the Revelations, which rather startling
proposition the writer strove to support by the coincidence of
the seventeen letters composing "Napoleon Bonaparte" with
the aggregate number of the " seven heads and ten horns,' not
to mention the " seven crowns," of his celestial counterpart.
The only European Power which had been able to resist the
progress of the Conqueror, was the United Kingdom of the British Islands, briefly denominated "England."  Her insular
position, and the splendid naval victories of her heroic NELSON3




25
had effectually secured her supremacy on the ocean; but they
drove Napoleon in his turn, to enforce on the land his celebrated
"Continental System," interdicting throughout the European
continent every species of commerce with the British Islands,
and by a singular legal fiction, declaring them to be " in a state
of blockade." As the necessary legal consequence, he claimed
the belligerent right to "burn, sink, and destroy" every neutral
vessel trading with England, or carrying its products or property. This brought on the English " Orders in Councils" in retaliation; so that the commerce of the United States on the ocean
soon fell a prey to the two belligerents, who agreed in nothing
but their undisguised contempt for our young Republic. The
whole ocean was lighted by the flames of our burning vessels,
destroyed without stint or mercy, while England superadded
the further outrage and indignity, of impressing into her navy
our American seamen by thousands. ZBy the year 1810, our
maritime commerce was virtually annihilated, and the only
question was, which of the two great ocean robbers we should
first attack.
The effects of that question in forming the political character of
the Class of 1814, will require a brief review of the origin and distinctive features of the two great parties, which had more or less
divided the country from the foundation of the government.
The Constitution was the work of WAsHINGTON aided largely
by HAMILTON and his associates. The character of that school of
political thinkers was essentially English and practical. In
erecting our political structure, they naturally sought to construct a machine which would not only steadily run without interruption, but would fully provide for its own preservation,
With that view, they created and established, as they supposed, a political " Union," a unit, undivided and indivisible,
absolutely supreme and sovereign within the limits prescribed
by the Constitution, with a judicial tribunal of its own creation)
4




26
clothed with full, and final, and exclusive power to define those
limits.
The opposing political school was that of JEFFERSON, denominated par excellence by his admirers the " Apostle of Freedom,"
and by others the "Apostle of Revolution." The character of
his school, if not altogether French, was decidedly theoretical
and revolutionary; for it holds, that the Government of the
Union, created by the Constitution, is, after all, practically only
a " Confederacy," in which each of the confederating parties retains an ultimate, independent " sovereignty," with the power at
any time, in its own discretion and upon its own separate judgment, without appeal, to nullify any act of the general govern-.nent; a theory establishing, as the logical and inevitable result,
the lawful right of any State to resist and overthrow the " Nation"
and the paramount national sovereignty, which WAVSHINGTON
and his supporters thought they had called into being.
The utter antagonism  between these opposing theories was
not immediately apparent in any practical results, but is now
painfully manifest in the pending Rebellion.  Without trespassing on any party topics, it may be safely affirmed, that permanent peace never will, and never can be re-established on this
American continent, until the conflict of those theories shall be
effectually ended. The question admits of no compromise; for
it is as morally certain as any fixed law of Nature, that if a
single spark of " State Sovereignty," containing within itself the
element of lawful " secession," shall be left to smoulder in the
framework of the Government, the revolutionary flame, may be
at any time rekindled, and with redoubled fury."
3 The American "Union" became a "2Nation," by the necessary political
operation of the Constitution, which conferred upon it paramount and transcendent sovereignty over the great national subjects of war, treaties, money, commerce, the post, &c., &c., distinctly specified in the Constitution. Precisely to
the same extent, the Constitution extinguished or abridged the pre-existing " sover



27
The fundamental difference on this vital point, gave its tone
to the two political parties at an early stage of our history. It
soon became evident that MIr. JEFFERSON and his adherents sympathized mnnch more fully aud sincerely with the revolutionary movements in  France, overthrowing its  former institutions, political and  religious,-than with the  Government of
England, which upheld  a monarchy  with  Christianity and  an
Established Chllrch.  On the other hand, the disciples of WASHINGTON and HIAMILToN, who largely predominated in New York
and in New England, preferred, as between the two belligerents,
England to France.
Such were the political accessories surrounding the  College
in 1810; but within its walls, there was a noble and commanding figure, deeply impressing its image upon our Class during
the whole  four years of our academic  life.   For who of us
can ever forget the teachings of President DWIGHT?  I shall not
attempt to paint a portrait which the greater artists who have
preceded me, have so faithfully  and glowingly executed: nor
to depict the rich, Johnsonian  rotundity of his intellect; the
noble elevation of his Christian character; his penetrating knowledge of the human heart; the lofty dignity of his carriage and
example. I shall speak of him only as a politician; as the
perfect type of the grand, old  Federalist of the better days
of the Republic: the lover of law, of justice, of order, of regueignty" of the separate States, which simply retained the residue, or residuum, not
granted to the Union. Certain legal powers may be concurrent, but " sovereignty'
from its very nature, must be exclusive. The national sovereignty of the Union,
within the limits specified by the Constitution, is necessarily exclusive and supreme. The only sovereignty the States can possibly possess, is a "residuary
sovereignty" beyond those limits, which are to be ascertained and defined only by
the national judiciary provided by the Constitution.
The Articles of Confederation, of 1778, commence by denominating the United
States of America a " Confederacy." The second Article distinctly and carefully
reserves to each State, "its sovereignty, freedom and inldepelndence."  No such
denomination or reservation, nor any clause of similar import, is contained in the
Constitution, —which was expressly and avowedly framed to remedy the manifold
evils of the Confederation, by establishing a " Union," with a Government partly




28
lated liberty; the friend and  companion of WASHaNGTON; the
firm upholder of the American Union in all its sovereign powers;
the " faithful soldier and servant of Christ unto his life's end."
The soothing hand of time, in fifty years, has softened and removed many political prejudices, which stood forth so sharp and
salient fifty years ago; for no one could possibly mistake the
political opinions of President DWIGHT in 1810. If I were to
select any one characteristic which would paint his political
portrait at a single stroke, it would be, not merely his disapprobation, but his utter abomination of Napoleon Bonaparte and
Thomas Jefferson. He took no pains to conceal it, but during
the whole four years of our college course, strenuously labored,
both in and out of the lecture room,-in and out of the pulpit,-to
impress upon his pupils his own solemn and deep-seated convictions. Who of us can ever forget those tremendous sermons
from the text, " Watchman, what of the night?" delivered on
the days of the ZNational Fast; or the unmitigated indignation
with which he denounced the French Rlevolution and the tyranny
of Napoleon?
The Government had declared war against England in June,
1812, about a week after the arrival of the army of ]Napoleon
on the Niemen. It was a just and necessary war; for of the
two great spoliators of our commerce, England only was accessible to our attack; but it did not blind the eyes of thoughtful
men to the gigantic danger to the freedom of the world, from the
federal and partly national in structure, but exclusively national in its specified
powers.
The official letter of WASHINGTON, as President of the Convention, sent forth with
the Constitution, in 1787, distinctly declared it to be " impracticable in the federal
"government of these States, to secure all rights of independent sovereignty to
"each, and to provide for the interest and safety of all."
The foreign writers who honestly speak of the Union as a " Confederacy," must do
so in ignorance of the Constitution. At home, the term is so applied by juggling,
party politicians, who wish to " play fast and loose,"-to appear to be upholding
at the same moment, the legitimate sovereignty of the Union and a directly antagonist sovereignty in the separate States,




29
victorious career of France.  In that view  President DWIGHT
taught us to rejoice, and most of us did rejoice, at every step in
that mighty struggle, which terminated in 1814, with the downfall of Napoleon-at the noble patriotism  of the Russian
Emperor; the magnificent sacrifice of Moscow; the tremendous
" Battle of the lNations," the V1ilker-Schlacht of Leipsic; the
final capture of Paris and the restoration of the Bourbons.
Subsequent events may have materially modified the views we
then took of that great event, but the Class left the College in
1814 almost unanimously rejoicing that "the Tyrant," as we
were taught to think hin, had ceased to be the terror of the
human race.
Nay more; although we were at war with England, capturing
her frigates on the ocean, and her fleets on our northern lakes,
we rejoiced at every step in her gallant defence of the freedom
of the world on the Spanish Peninsula, and gladly followed the
victorious career of WELLINGTON from his narrow foot-hold in Portugal, in 1810, to his triumphant entry into Paris, in 1814;
covering almost precisely the four years of our College life. English in descent, in language, in literature, in religion, we gave our
hearts wholly to England in that terrible struggle. How has
England repaid us?  Where have been her sympathies when
we, too, were fighting for the freedom  of a Continent?  We
leave the "Alabamanc," built of English oak, with English gold,
manned by English sailors, and sent down headlong with her
English cannon to the bottom  of the English Channel, to tell
the story. 4
4 It is a singular fact, that the most bitter enemies of the American Union in
England are found among the Tory party, upon whom we lavished our sympathies in their contest with the first Napoleon; while our most efficient and
valued friends, such as COBDEN, BRIGHT, FORSTER, LEFEVRE, MILL, GOLDWIN SMITH
and others, are " Liberals," who regard the political reforms and revolutions of
modern days, in a much more philosophic spirit. Some of the Tories, in their
speeches and published writings, recommend a division of the United States, into
four parts, to begin with; while others express their opinion, that six would be
a better number,-especially for England.




30
It would be a great mistake to suppose, that the malignity
towards America, which the London Times now exhibits, is a
feeling of recent origin. On the contrary, its editorial course
for the last fifty years has been quite consistent, reaching back
even to our College era. On the twentieth of April, 1814, N'apoleon abdicated the throne of France, and went into exile at
Elba. Peace between France and England immediately fol.
lowed, and was formally proclaimed on the 17th of May following. On the 20th of tMay, the London Timves expressed the
hope that " the Genevese democrat GALLATIN, or the famous ora-; tor CLAY," who had gone out to Europe to negotiate a peace
between America and England, " will be no more listened to
now than when they so earnestly pleaded the cause of the
" monster Bonaparte." It expressed the further hope, that " the
" British negotiators will not discuss the impt,2dent nonsense,
" called an American doctrine, about'imzressment and native
" allegiance, but will demand the safe and unzdizvided possession'of the Lakes, the abandonmeent of the lYew,'oundland Fish" ry, and the restolration of Louisiana and thie tesutrped terri-' tory of ]Florida i"  To insure the accomplishment of these
peculiarly British objects, the Times further recommended that
a large detachment from  the victorious army of Wellington,
then in the south of France, should be sent out at once to
America.
The British Government attempted to follow this precious
advice, but was slightly unsuccessful. By some accident, Commodore MACcnosouGI, on the 11th of September, 1814, swept
the whole British fleet out of Lake Champlain. By another
accident, on the 8th of January following, General JAcxsoN
evicted from the soil of Louisiana every veteran of Wellington's
army whllo had ventured to cross the Atlantic.
It is a curious coincidence, and one which serves quite accurately to define the chronology of our academic life, in connec



31
tion with cotemporary events, that the news of MACDONOUG11'S
victory reached New Haven on the Commencement Day of the
College, in September, 1814, and almost within the very hour
in which our Class was receiving its Bachelor's Degree; and
that one of our number, whose route homeward happened to
pass through Middletown, had the happiness of carrying the
joyful intelligence to the family of the gallant Commodore.
The completeness of his triumph so effectually stopped the
" impudent nonsense " of the Times about " the undivided pos" session of the Lakes," that the British negotiators consented
to sign the Treaty of Peace, on the 24th of December, 1814.
Let us hope that the good sense, if not the good feeling,
of Elgland may induce her to do no further act to disturb
it.
Napoleon was then quietly in exile in Elba. On his way
there, in April, in a British frigate, he told the captain that he
" had intended to give the Americans a good government, but
" that they were unworthy of it!" to which assumption, and to
that of every othllr European Sovereign, whether on or off his
throne, America may simply answer in the words of the noble
Peruvian: "We seek no change; and least of all, such change
as they would bring us."
The middle ground of our picture, embracing the Golden
Age of general peace, filled with the victories of Man over
Nature, and reaching from 1814 to 1860, now lies broadly
spread before us. The fiery form of Napoleon is once more
seen in the distance, flitting across the " Hundred Days," in
whichl he strove to burst his bonds and recover the throne he
had abdicated; for which offence he was chained, like Prometlhcus, to a reck for the remnant of his life.  HIe lingered
long enough, whllile the vulture was gnawing at his vitals,
for the world to look back more calmly on his eventful and
chequered  career.  We began to perceive that, after all,




32
the imperious but imperial Ruler had done some little good to
France, and perhaps to the world, particularly in his civic administration in simplifying the law, introducing sound finance
with a metallic basis, promoting scientific discovery, and eminently in the great public works, by which he strengthened
and adorned his Empire.  On the other hand, we discovered
that some of the restored monarchs, in their exile "had forgotten nothing and had learned nothing," but to do nothing
for the general advancement of civilization and the good of
Man.
We may take, as a specimen, the immediate suppression in every
part of Italy, by the dozens of fugitive princes, emerging from
their hiding places, of the splendid " Metric System," which had
been introduced by Napoleon, and was in general use throughout
the Italian Peninsula; and the sudden resurrection, from all its
nooks and corners, of the obsolete, worm-eaten and widely varying weights and measures of the ancien regime,-not to mention
the ridiculous restoration of the knee-breeches and wigs, and especially the queues, from  which attenuated " caudal" appendage,
the reactionary party in Italy derived their diminutive or
~sobriquet, of " codini."  The English Tories may have dropped
the queues, but they even yet retain much of the genuine spirit
of the " codini;" for as late as the present year 1864, they resisted, in Parliament, the passage of a bill merely permitting
the" Metric System" to be used in the United Kingdom; and
expressly on the ground that it was the offspring of the French
Revolution.5  So far did the returned runaways in Sardinia
carry the fanatical wish to efface every vestige of Napoleon's
rule, that it was seriously proposed for a time, to destroy the
5 The International Statistical Congress at Berlin, in September, 1863, unanimously passed a resolution, In which the Delegate from the United States actively
concutired, recommending to the "Inspectors of Schools," of the various nations
of the civilieed world, to introduce the study of the "Metric System," in all




33
noble bridge which he had erected over the Po at Turin. It was
only saved by their unwillingness to pay for building another.
It was my purpose to have grouped together some of the most
prominent of the great public works which have been constructed throughout the world, and especially on this Continent
during the fifty years just past; but my fleeting hour is already
gone, and I must reserve the sketch for some other occasion. I
confess that I thought it justly due to CLINTON and his followers,
to say something of their aims and their success in seeking to
establish hlere, in our America, our great " Continental System,"
commenced in 1817, and still in vigorous progress, for reducing
to the lowest attainable limit, the cost of transporting persons
and property by land and by water, through American territory,
from  the Atlantic to the Pacific; and in that view, to show
statistically the marvellous achievements of steam  during the
last fifty years, in augmenting almost incalculably the preexisting powers, physical and political, of the human race.
The Steamn Engines of England alone are estimated to do the
work of eighty millions of horses, or four hundred millions of men.
The increase of force added by steam to Europe and America, in
the last fifty years, is nearly, if' not quite equivalent, to the unaided power of one thousand millions of men, thereby virtually doubling, for dynamical purposes, the whole population of the globe.
Of this stupendous addition to the forces of our age, the increase
in our own Republic is equivalent at least to one hundred and
fifty, if not two hundred, millions of men. The world may
schools subject to their authority.  The schools of the United States, being
subject exclusively to the government of the separate States, their separate action
is necessary. The Legislature of Connecticut, in June, 1864, passed a resolution,
introducing the study into all her schools.
Between the years 1842 and 1860, Sardinia, in her career of reform, gradually
retraced her steps; so that the "Metric System" is now legally re-established in
every part of Italy, except Rome and Venice.
5




34
be less picturesque, but it is certainly morel populous than in
the days of SOLorox-; and we must admlllit, that for the loco"
motion of persons and property, a modern railway engine, with
its trainl is somewhat more expeditious and convenient than
the caravans of camels, used by that eminent sovereign and
wisest of men, in his overland trade with Afesopotamia, or even
by the Queen of Sheba in her royal progress to Jerusalem.  The
present is not the occasion for dry statistics, but I venture to
aver, and am ready to prove, that the pecunniary gain by the use
of steaml in the United States, in the various branches of hmnan
industry, at the end of the next ten years, will annually exceed
five if not tenfold the interest on our national debt; especially
if the Government shall meanwhile exert with energy and intelligence its legitimate powers to render our vast metalliferous interior, and our young empire, so rapidly rising on the Pacific,
cheaply and readily accessible.
It gives me profound satisfaction to recall the fact, that as
early as 1794, long before steam  had been rendered practically
available for locomotion,- either on land or on water, and at
least ten years before the acquisition of Louisiana, our own clear
sighted and'noble hearted DwIGHT, had predicted in glowing
verse, in his " Greenfield Hill," tie construction of " Appian
Ways," uniting the Atlantic to the Pacific.  The passage may
be less known and is possibly less poetic than the celebrated
prophecy of B1ERELEYr, but they breathe a kindred feeling, and
deserve to stand side by side.
The efforts of the last fifty years to complete and to improve
the various links of our great continental chain of canals and
railways, having among its highest aims the preservation in
all its vigor of our continental, political Union, have uniformly
enlisted the cordial support of all the widely scattered graduates
of YALE, not only in the field, but in the legislative halls, and
our great commercial cities,  Without making any invidious




35
selection, we may gratefully remember that our honored alumnus
JAMEs  KENT, the  distinguished  Chancellor of New  York, by
his casting vote in the Council of Revision, in 1817, saved the
original bill for constructing the Erie Canal, from defeat by a
narrow-minded political opposition; and I surely may be pardoned for openly thanking two of our alumni, now here, and at
my very side,-TALLMADGE, of the Class of 1811, whose genial and
generous nature, as well as his enlightened judgment, led him
unfailingly to support the warmly contested measures for the
Erie Canal Enlargement, during the four years of his service in
the Senate of New  York;-and  DANIEL  LORD, of the Class of
1814, foremost among  the  jurists of our great  commercial
metropolis, himself the very type of justice, truth, and patriotism; whose friendly and cheering words, at every stage of the
struggle, will never be forgotten. 
B The nationality of the effort to complete and perfect our continental system
of public works, will appear in the following extract from a report to the Legislature of New York, in 1838, urging their high political importance in strengthening
the national Union:
"It is not for New York or her sons to'calculate the value' of that sacred
"bond, But if we would catch a glimpse, however imperfect, of the gigantic
"stake which is depending upon our prudence and patriotism-if we would count
"the cost of ruined cities and desolated fields,-of our lakes and rivers, obstructed
" by fleets and fortresses in war, and by commercial restrictions still more de" structive, in peace,-we may contrast Europe as it is, convulsed by centuries of
"strife, and broken into jarring, disunited and discordant communities, with'Europe as it would have been, had its whole population been united, like ours,
"at the very origin of their governments, under one common law, speaking one
"common language, and bound by one common constitution."
Our experience in the last three years of the calamities of intestine war, with
"fleets and fortresses," and large contending armies on our wide spread and lately
peaceful waters, affords a melancholy proof that the passage above quoted did
not over-estimate the miseries and horrors of a broken and dismembered Union.
Unless the sovereign authority of the Government shall be fully restored, we
shall need no picture of " Europe as it is," and " Europe as it would have been,"but may find ample instruction in the contrast at home, between " America as it
is," and "America as it was,"
It is idle to hope for a peaceful dissolution or division of the American Union.
The structure must either be preserved entire, or it will break into fragments as
numerous as the debris of the Western Roman Empire in Italy and Germany,
which the efforts of fourteen hundred years have not yet succeeded in reuniting.




36
It gives me heartfelt pleasure to remember, and now to acknowledge, that the "Mathematics and Natural Philosophy"
needed in these efforts to serve the country, involving the
fundamental question of adequately meeting  " stress" by
" strength," —the true secret of all well directed effort,-were accurately and thoroughly taught to the Class of 1814 by Professor
DAY, afterwards the honored President of the College. Through
a kindly Providence, that most venerable preceptor still survives,
and is here to-day, in a very advanced but green old age, to cheer
us with his benignant smile and countenance. Ifis sun is slowly,
calmly setting amid golden clouds, the harbingers of that
brighter world, ready, in GoD's good time, to receive one so
pure, so just, so gentle, so fully ripe for Heaven.
Among the memorable events of the last fifty years, I had
also intended briefly to speak of the brilliant triumphs of
electricity, in diffusing instantaneous intelligence among the
wide spread nations of the globe; of our own alumnus,
MORSE, whose scientific labors in this magnificent field of action,
have done so much to elevate and equalize the condition of
men and nations; of SIBLEY, whose matchless energy, in response to an invitation from the Emperor of Russia to " meet
him half way," laid down in little over four months, a telegraphic line more than two thousand miles long, from  the
Missouri to the Pacific; of FIELD, whose indomitable perseverance is sounding and vanquishing the deepest depths of the
Atlantic; of PERRY  fACDONOUIGH  COLLINS, the civic hero
appropriately bearing the names of the two victors of the
Lakes, and now on his way to Behring's Straits to lay beneath
the Polar circle his telegraphic wire, inter-continentally uniting
the American Republic with all the civilization, ancient and
modern, of the Older World.
The picture of our fifty years would be singularly incomplete
were it to omit LouIs NAPOLEON, that a" mysterious and inscrutabIle " sovereign, who mainly governs France by governing himself, and preiminently the most commanding object within our




,37
field of view, at the present hour. Whatever ultimate designs
he may entertain  in respect to America, and how  much soever
we may  reprobate  his manner of reaching  the  throne, or his
recent interference with  the affairs of Mexico, we cannot close
our eyes upon the unexampled success of his civil administration.
He has certainly signalized his reign beyond that of any preceding ruler of France, by the permanent improvement and splendid embellishment of its cities, the vigorous prosecution of its
works of inter-communication, the canalization of its rivers, the
rapid increase of its commerce, and the immense augmentation
of the pecuniary value of the empire7; not to mention his political performances in the consolidation of Italy, and the recent, remarkable extension of the territory and power of France
over the African coast of the  Mediterranean.   It may well be,
that his very characteristic declaration, that " France makes it
a point of honor! to keep rivers and revolutions in their' The value of the real and personal estate of France, authoritatively stated in
debate in the Corvps Legislatif, May ith, 1864, was 249,000 millions of francs, about
forty-six thousand millions of dollars. In 1852, it was but 124,000 millions of
francs, showing an increase, in twelve years, of about twenty-three thousand millions of dollars.
The taxed vanlue of the real and personal property of the United States in 1850,
was seven thousand one hundred and thirty-five millions of dollars. In 1860, sixteen thousand one hundred and fifty-nine millions. Increase in ten years, nine
thousand and twentyfour millions.  During those epochs, the public works of both
nations were vigorously prosecuted.
The 9,024 nmillions added to the pecuniary value of the United States, in the
decade from 1850 to 1860, was occasioned largely by the increase of our population, shown ty experience for seventy years, to vary very little from  35 per
cent. for every decade. The increase in the last decade from  23,191,176 to
31,445,c89, (being 8,254,209) compared with the 9,024 millions increase of value,
shows a rate of $1,093 (in metallic currency) for each additional inhabitant.
T'1.e increase of population for the present decade from  1860 to 1870, may
poss;ibly fall s(.mewhat short of the previous rate, but will not probably be less
than ten millions for the whole United States, or seven millions for the loyal
States. The latter number multiplied by only $800 (in metallic currency) for
each additional inhabitant, would amount to 5,600 millions of dollars-nearly
threefold our present national debt.
All we require is an honest administration of our national resources,-and a
metallic basis for out national currency.




38
proper channels," 8 —condensing in a single phrase his whole
policy at home and abroad,-has offended the lovers of the
largest republican liberty, but every one will recognize his
noble and comprehensive statesmanship, in seeking so earnestly
not only to recover and reconstruct the canal of Suez, the
work of Ptolemy and of Trajanl, but to open through the
central portion of America, by his proposed canal of Nicaragua,
the way to the East Indies, which Columbus sought in vain to
discover.
The fact does not seem to be generally known that Louis
NAPOLEON, while a state prisoner of Louis Philippe, and actually
immured in the prison of IIam, deliberately signed a contract
to construct the canal of Nicaragua to pass vessels of 2,000
tons from ocean to ocean, and personally to expend on the
work seventy-five millions of francs. It so happened that the
progress of the public works of New  York, with which I
had been officially connected, having been unexpectedly and
rather rudely stopped, I had gone to Europe; where my business was, to ascertain whether France and England would join
the United States in constructing an inter-oceanic canal
through the Isthmus of Panama, to be free to all the nations
of the world, and to be forever consecrated to peace.  It was
on the suggestion, and indeed at the request of the ilinister
at Paris from  Nicaragua, that I met Louis  NAPOLEON  ill
London, in 1846, about a month after he had escaped from prison.
To external observers, he certainly then appeared to be very
far from  the  throne  of France, so  that the  conversation
between  us was  comparatively  free  and  unrestrained, als This imperial sentence so far as rivers are concerned, is a French paraphrase
of Horace's compact description of the Tiber, controlled in its inundations by the
vigorous arim of AUGUsTus-"doctus iter melius.' Every sovereign, ancient or
modern, dignified by history as " the Grdat," has regarded the improvement of the
rivers and the roads of his country, as a duty aud an honor. ALEXANDER TUE
GREAT, died at Babylon, while clearing the Euphrates from obstructions.




39
though his manner was at times, just a little imperial.  On
asking him if he thought that his proposed canal would yield an
adequate revenue on its cost, he answered with a princely air" Perhaps not: but you now see mne ouzt of mzy true  position,;' and I must do somlething worthy of the name I bear."  Iie
was then writing a pamphlet, in which lie fully and very ably
set forth, not only the commercial but the high political imn
portance of the proposed inter-oceanic canal. The pamphlet,
a copy of which, bearing the autograph of the writer, is now
before me, indicates so clearly the exalted objects which he then
had in view, and which he has since acquired the power, in
some degree, to accomplish, that I beg leave to read one or two
brief extracts. They are of peculiar interest at the present time,
not only in bringing boldly out the noblest features of the
golden age of civilization we have just been reviewing, but also
in manifesting the opinions then entertained by the prlesent
ruler of France, in respect to the abolition of Slavery, not alone
in America, but throughout the civilized world.
" The geographical position of Constantinople," says this now
imperial writer, " is such as rendered her the queen of the ancient world; occupying, as she does, the central point between
Europe, Asia and Africa, she could become  the  entrep6t
of the commerce of all these countries, and obtain over them an
immense preponderance; for in politics, as in strategy, a central
position always commands the circumference."
" This is what the proud city of Constantine could be,
and this is what she is not, because," as Montesquieu says,
" God permiltted that Turks should exist on earth, a people the
most fit to possess uselessly a great Empire."
" There exists in the New World a State as admirably situated
as Constantinople, and we must say, up to the present time, as,uselessly occupied; we allude to the State of Nicaragua. As
Constantinople is the centre of the ancient world, so is the town
of Leon or rather Massaqua, the centre of the new; and if




40
the tongue of land which separates its two lakes from the Pacific
Ocean was cut through, she would command, by her central
position, the entire coast of North and South America....The
State of Nicaragua can become, better than Constantinople, the
necessary route for the great commerce of the world, and is
destined to attain to an extraordinary degree of prosperity and
grandeur."' France, England, HIolland, tRussia and the United States,
have a great commercial interest in the establishment of a communication between the two oceans; but England has, more
than the other powers, a political interest in the execution of
this project. England will see with pleasure Central America
become a flourishing and powerful State, wllich will establish a
balance of power, by creating in Spanish America a new centre
of active enterprise, powerful enough to give rise to a great
feeling of nationality, and to prevent, by hacXking il~exico, any
further encroachment from the NorthA."
" The prosperity of Central America is connected with the
interests of civilization at large; and the best means to promote
the interests of humanity, is to knock down the barriers which
separate men, races, and nations. This course is pointed out to
us by the Christian religion, as well as by the efforts of those
great men whvllo have at intervals appeared in the world. The
Christian faith teacels us that we are all brothers, and that
in the eye of God TIIE SLAVE IS EQUAL TO I1IS 1[ASTEIR, —a the
Asiatic, the African, and the Indian are alike equal to the
European."
" On the other hand, the great men of the earth have, by their
wars, commingled the various races of the world, and left behind
them some of those imperishable monuments which, in levelling
mountains, opening forests, canalising rivers, has a tendency to
upset those obstacles which divide mankind, and to unite men
in communities, communities in  people, people in nations.
War and commerce have civilized the world. The time for war
has gone by; commerce alone pushes its conquests.  Let us
then open to it a new route; let us approximate the people
of Oceania and Australia to Europe; and let us make them
partakers of the blessings of Christianity and civilization."




41
It would not fall within the scope of the present Address,
which seeks to review the men and the sovereigns of the last
fifty years, not as potentialities, but as historical facts, with
actual, visible results, to look beyond the present hour, or to
inquire how far the reigning Emperor of France will probably
carry into practical effect the enlightened and far-seeing views
of the "Prisoner of Ham."  They now  apply not alone to
Nicaragua, but emphatically to Mexico, as furnishing a more
accessible and easier route for the great interoceanic channel
which he then regarded as voucllsafing such blessings to all
mankind, and especially to the colored races held in slavery.,
Louis NAPOLEON is a thoughtful student of history, and as
such, wisely covetous of lasting fame. After announcing his
purposes, so grandly Christian and philanthropic,-and in full
view, moreover, of the magnificent example hung high in the
Heavens by his great compeer in Russia, emancipating at a
single stroke a population of more than twenty millions-can it
be possible that he will so disregard the judgment of coming
ages, as to lend his aid at this late hour, to blacken the American continent with the blight of African bondage; still less
that he will openly uphold and abet the unholy and savage
effort to establish on the ruins of our young republic, a barbarian power proclaiming slavery as its corner-stone?
Louis NAPOLEON is, moreover, a mathematici',n profoundly
versed in the knowledge of quantities, material and political.
Will he forget the material and political science practically
taught by the first Napoleon, in ceding to the American Republic nearly one-half of its wide-spread continental area, for the
very purpose of building up in this Western Hemisphere a continental power of sufficient weight to preserve the political
equilibrium of the globe, which the constantly increasing possessions of England were disturbing?
6




But we must dwell no longer on these political'; eventualities," but come down to the dark and bloody foreground of the
picture at our feet, filled by the pending Rebellion.  Amid the
smoke and carnage, it were idle to philosophize, or seek to
portray even in outline its dismal lights and shadows.  We
may, however, select a single feature, and that, too, of a pacific
character; but it will sufficiently depict the whole, in presenting at once and in bold relief, the.highest civilization and the
lowest barbarism of the contending parties.
The Light-House system of the United States, peculiarly a
symbol of national sovereignty, attracted the earnest and early
attention of WVASINGITON.  Almost immediately after his inauguration at New  York, as President, he directed the light
on Sandy Hook, almost within his sight, to be kept burning,
until Congress should have time to legislate on the subject,
which they did, shortly afterwards.9  It soon became apparent
that " peculiar institutions"  of this  description found  no
favor with his political opponents, the advocates of " State
Sovereignty," who utterly denied the right of the general government to erect a light-house, or any similar structure needed
by commerce, and especially on the " sacred soil of Virginia."
A  light-house was nevertheless erected within the first two
years of the administration of WASHINGTON, on Cape HIenry,
which was so rapidly followed by others along our Atlantic
front, that by 1814, fifty years ago, more than forty lights were
standing, as faithful sentinels, to welcome the mariners of the
world to the coast of the American -Union.  By the year 1860,
through the ardent and untiring exertions of our patriotic men of
science, not only was the illuminating power of our lights
9 The original letter of WASHINGTON, giving this direction, is still in existence,
It is historically important, in furnishing unanswerable evidence of the cotemporaneous exercise by the highest authority, of the national power committed by
the Constitution to the Government of the Union, "to regulate commerce with
fo reign nations and among the States."




43
increased more than eight-fold, by introducing the beautiful
and costly Fresnel lenses,-but the total number, including
beacons, on the coast of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico,
with the adjacent waters, was increased to three hundred and
fifty-three, with twenty in addition gladdening our distant
Pacific shores. 1  That part of the system which encircled the
large peninsula of Florida was peculiarly brilliant and expensive,
far beyond the means or the inclination of that feeble and
sparsely populated State, to erect or uphold; guarding not
only the coast but the numerous reefs, which, stretching out
into the ocean, endangered the general commerce of the world
with the Gulf of Mexico and its numerous islands.
Will it not be deemed wholly incredible by after ages, that
any community claiming to be civilized, should be found willing
to vent its rage on objects of beneficence like these? When
the great SMEATON was erecting the Eddystone light, amid the
fury of the English Channel, the whole world applauded the
undertaking. The King of France, then at war with England,
specially directed his naval commanders not to molest or
retard a work so typical of Christian love. Must we not
hang our heads in very shame for human nature, when we
learn, that within three months from the first parricidal attack
on Sumter, its guilty authors extinguished the whole series of
lights, —one hundred and twenty-nine in number, —stretching
around all our Southern coast, from the Capes of Virginia to
the Mexican frontier!  Can it be possible, that a rebellion
breathing a spirit so brutal and devilish, will escape the retribution of offended Heaven?.Will the Great Architect of Nations
long permit the torch of civilization to be thus inverted, to be
thus audaciously held up, in the face of Christendom, the very
symbol of darkness, barbarism and death?
10In this important national effort, our eminent hydrographers, EDMUND and
GEORGE W. BLUNT, were particularly efficient. From their abundant stores of accurate knowledge, the writer has been furnished with these Light-House statistics.




44
MY IIONORED AND WELL BELOVED CLASSMATES:
Let us not be disheartened or deceived by the shadow, however dark, now passing over our historic picture. Let us seek,
with honest hearts and with unclouded vision to look off hopefully into the Future, our own irresistible Future, the predestined and inevitable result of our richly teeming Past.
Let us listen, with kindling hearts, to the animating appeal
whllichl has this morning reached us, from the clearsighted and
patriotic tHead of our national finances, and manfully re6cho
his earnest and well timed assurance, that the inherent, unextinguishable resources of the loyal American people, are and
ever will be adtquate to every emergency. Let us see and feel,
that when these barbarian war clouds blow  out and blow
over, as soon they must, our debt will disappear like the early
morning mist, and that our beloved land, in all its length
and breadth, will be re-illuminated by the ever blessed light
of peace.
Let us not forget, that of this bright and rapidly coming
Future, even we, of the time-worn Class of 1814, are still a
part; that our race is not fully run, and that much may remain
even yet, for us to do. While we mourn the cruel and unmerited sufferings of loyal men and of loyal women, both in
the North and in the South, let us exert, to the last and to the
uttermost, every faculty of our nature, to uphold that glorious
Union committed to our keeping by our honored fathers, with
the solemn and undying conviction, that the tranquillity and
happiness of a Continent, not for a day, but for centuries to
come, are staked upon the pending conflict.
Above all, let us ever devoutly trust to the wise and coniprehensive Providence of God, and always bear in mind, that in
the inevitable logic of events, guided by His superintending
hand, every present evil contains, within itself, the germ of great




45
and lasting good. If history be philosophy teaching by example,
let us reflect, that two centuries ago, the awful fire of London
drove out the plague forever; that even in our day, the dark and
dingy lanes of IIamburgh, abandoned to the flames, gave birth
to a new, and powerful, and brilliant city; and that the
continental Republic of the Western World, chastened by adversity, and purified by fire from blot or stain, may soon be
found calmly but proudly resuming its accustomed march, advancing with firm and unbroken step, onward and upward into
the coming ages.








THE COMMITTEE OF THE ALUMNI OF YALE COLLEGE, under whose order the
preceding Address has been printed, deem it proper to state, in explanation of
a personal allusion at page 19, that Mr. RUGGLES, immediately after receiving
his Bachelor's Degree, in 1814, in his fifteenth year, commenced the study of
Law, and pursued that profession at the City of New York, until 1831,
when he retired from active practice, to devote himself to the improvement
of the City, and to the public works of the State. From 1833 to 1838, he
was actively engaged in the necessary preliminary measures for securing
the construction of the Erie Railway, which now connects the City of New
York with Lake Erie, and has become a continental trunk of the existing
railway system extending westward from the Atlantic Ocean to the Missouri
River. The work was actually commenced on the Delaware River, on the
morning of the 3d of November, 1835, on which occasion, Mr. RUGGLES,
united with his co-Director, the late JAMEs G. KING, in depositing the first
load of earth in the embankment.
In 1838, Mr. RUGGLES was elected to the State Legislature, from the City
of New York, and was made Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means,
of the Assembly. In that capacity, he presented a report, earnestly recommending the more vigorous prosecution of the work of enlarging the
Erie Canal, which became for years the subject of animated party conflict.
He was one of the Canal Commissioners from 1839 to 1842, and afterwards,
in 1858, and was President of their Board from 1840.
In 1862, he was officially connected with the Pacific Railway Company, incorporated by Congress, to extend the existing railway system westward from
the Missouri River to the Pacific; and in that year was also appointed, under
Legislative resolution, Commissioner in behalf of the State of New York, to
urge upon Congress the further enlargement, for national purposes, of the
New York canals.
In 1863, he was sent, as Delegate from the Government of the United
States, to the International Statistical Congress at Berlin, to which body he
presented a report on the Resources of the American Union. He also participated actively in their proceedings in respect to the international action
needed to secure to the, civilized world a uniform system of Weights, Measures, and Coins. He has also discharged, in part, " the debt which every
lawyer owes his profession," by publishing, in 1856, an elaborate Report, on
a special reference from the Supreme Court of New York, on the " Law of
Burial," vindicating the legal right to protect the remains of the dead, by
their next of kin.
YALE COLLEGE, August 10th, 1864.