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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 
 BY 
 
 William Pepper, M.D., LL.D. 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 ^■\ VR^nY^UU KUO \AkRSHN\.\. CO\.V.tG.t. L^UCkSTtR, ?\., OU AHt 
 1787-1887. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 Dando Printing and Publishing Company, 
 
 34 South Third Street. 
 
 1887. 
 
502 
 
 Tg K2 
 
AN ADDRESS 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 DELIVERED AT FRANKLIN AND MARSHALL COLLEGE, LANCAS- 
 TER, PA., ON THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF 
 ITS FOUNDATION, I787-I887, 
 
 WILLIAM PEPPER, M. D., LLD., 
 
 Provost and Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine, 
 University of Pennsylvania . 
 
 THIS decade will pass down to history as our 
 Centennial Epoch. Beginning with the 
 National movement, which culminated in 
 the World's Fair at Philadelphia, when for the first 
 time we gave to the astonished world the evidence 
 of o; r mastery over the material difficulties with 
 which we had contended for a century, we have 
 passed in review the leading incidents of those 
 marvelous years from 1776 to 1786, which witnessed 
 the successful struggle of the infant Republic for 
 existence. Many of the minor celebrations have 
 possessed more than a local or than even a State 
 
interest, owing either to the importance of the 
 original incident, the magnitude of the principle 
 illustrated by it, or the distinction of the leading 
 actors who played parts in it. 
 
 We have been brought to realize, as could have 
 been done in no other way, the richness and 
 picturesqueness and dramatic interest of the history 
 which America has already created. It seems fortu- 
 nate indeed, on the threshold of a new Century of 
 National life, when we are confronted with many 
 grave problems, widely different from, but no less 
 momentous than, those which have thus far taxed 
 the energies of the Nation, that pause should be 
 given to our eager steps, and that our closest 
 attention should be drawn to the character, the 
 methods, and the deeds of those great men, 
 the founders of our Government, to whom we 
 and the whole world owe so weighty a debt of 
 gratitude. 
 
 We are met here, in this famous old city, to cele- 
 brate such an incident, of striking historic interest 
 not only on account of its date, but of the princi- 
 ples it illustrated, and of the men whose names are 
 inseparably connected with it. 
 
 I have been invited, most courteously, by the 
 learned Faculty and the distinguished friends of 
 Franklin and Marshall College, to speak briefly of 
 
him to whom we owe the foundation of this vener- 
 able institution. I am well aware that this invitation 
 was addressed, not so much to me personally, as to 
 the office which I have the honor to hold in connec- 
 tion with another, and yet more venerable institution 
 of learninQT, which owes even more to the eenius 
 and the wise enterprise of Franklin. And, although 
 I was well aware how vain it were for me to attempt 
 to add to the interest of this occasion by any tribute 
 I might pay to that illustrious man, I could not deny 
 myself the gratification of appearing here to attest 
 my veneration for him, and my cordial brotherly 
 sympathy with the able, earnest men who are prose- 
 cuting zealously the good work started here a 
 hundred years ago, 
 
 I may not even attempt to sketch the salient 
 features of the rare character, or to enumerate the 
 leading achievements of the almost unique life of 
 our great scientist, statesman and philosopher. We 
 may be assured that could he be cognizant of what 
 we here do and say, no celebration were less to his 
 favor than a panegyric on himself. But how good 
 it were if, while our minds and hearts are full of 
 what he was, and of what he accomplished, we could 
 for the moment acquire some closer touch with his 
 spirit, and have some clearer view of the difficulties 
 and duties which press around us from the stand- 
 
 3 
 
point of that broad tolerant wisdom which was so 
 peculiarly his own. There are not many of the 
 great ones who have entered the Temple of Fame, 
 whom we should feel wholly safe in recalling to this 
 lower life ; some for their own sake, possibly more 
 of them on our account. But no one would hesitate 
 to recall a man whose unceasing work, until the last 
 hour of a life prolonged far beyond the wonted 
 term, was the service of humanity, and who could 
 write at the beginning of the story of his life, in 
 which all is recorded with unsparing candor that, 
 "I should have no objection to a repetition of the 
 same life from its beginning, only asking the advan- 
 taofes authors have in a second edition to correct 
 some faults of the first. But though this were de- 
 nied, I should still accept the offer." How often, 
 and how pleasantly he returns to this thought, as 
 when, while in England, after repeating successfully 
 the experiment of reviving, by exposure to the rays 
 of the sun, three flies which had been drowned in a 
 bottle of Madeira, he moralizes thus, "I wish it 
 were possible, from this instance, to invent a method 
 of embalming drowned persons in such a manner 
 that they may be recalled to life at any period how- 
 ever distant; for having a very ardent desire to see 
 and observe the state of America, a hundred years 
 hence, I should prefer to any ordinary death the 
 
 4 
 
beinof immersed in a cask of Madeira wine widi a 
 few friends, till diat time, to be then recalled to life 
 by the solar warmth of my dear country." Indeed, 
 as he had lived from early life to old age, as a man 
 who thought that nothing human could be foreign 
 to him; and had realized by his own exertions that 
 ideal of liberal education described by Huxley, by 
 so training himself in youth that his body was the 
 ready servant of his will, and did with ease and 
 pleasure all the work it was capable of; and had in 
 all stages of his advancement retained his pride in 
 the honest toil of his early manhood, being wholly 
 free from petty arrogance ; and had above all things 
 labored for the welfare of mankind, looking forward 
 with sublime confidence to the growth of peace, 
 prosperity and goodness among men, — he was one 
 who might return at any time to find himself again 
 among friends, and to be able intuitively to adjust 
 himself to the new ways of the once familiar planet. 
 
 He would rejoice, unspeakably, to find the second 
 century of our Nation's life begun with the Union 
 which he did more than any other man to institute, 
 cemented eternally and indissolubly by the tears of 
 brethren embracing after fratricidal strife. 
 
 Eminently practical in statescraft, as in all else, 
 he perceived, with the instinct of genius, that in 
 organization and union lie all strength and endur- 
 
ance. " I have long been of opinion," he wrote to 
 Lord Karnes in 1761, "that the foundations of the 
 future grandeur and stabiHty of the British Empire 
 He in America," and as Parton truly says, "his 
 entire influence, and all the resources of his mind 
 were employed, from the beginning of the contro- 
 versy in 1765, to the first conflict in 1775, to the 
 one object of healing the breach and preventing 
 the separation." Even at that early day he saw 
 clearly, and outlined distinctly, the grand conception 
 of an Imperial Federation of Great Britain and the 
 Colonies, toward which, after one hundred years of 
 delay, steps are beginning to be taken ; and in 
 1775, when almost despairing of making any im- 
 pression on the crass ignorance and prejudice 
 and class privilege then dominant in England, he 
 brought forward his bold plan for the union of the 
 Colonies, including Ireland and Canada, to last 
 until Great Britain should cease to oppress, and 
 make restitution for past injuries ; failing which it 
 should endure forever. 
 
 When convinced that perpetuation of the union 
 with Great Britain was hopeless, though he shed 
 tears over the destruction of that exquisite work, 
 the British Empire, he threw himself with unabated 
 vigor into the contest for freedom. Ihough old 
 and separated from family, friends and country, he 
 
 6 
 
adhered to his determination "with a firmness 
 which neither the advances of England, nor the 
 adversity of America, could shake." (Sir James 
 Mackintosh.) 
 
 Providence spared him to return to America to 
 revive, for the purpose of uniting the thirteen 
 states, the scheme of Union proposed by himself in 
 1754, and to overcome by his wise counsels and 
 adroit expedients, all opposition to the adoption 
 and final ratification of the Constitution. 
 
 When, in next September, the representatives of 
 the several states shall meet in Philadelphia to 
 celebrate the Centennial Anniversary of this deed 
 of ratification, the final and most important scene 
 of this period will be enacted ; and in that celebra- 
 tion large space should be made for the recital of 
 the part played by Franklin, who shares with 
 Washington the immortal glory of winning and of 
 keeping our freedom and our Union. 
 
 But do we not need his spirit of wise conciliation, 
 of moderation, and of firm regard for the equal 
 rights of all men, as much to-day, as they were 
 needed in those perilous times of old ? The days 
 of our worst political dangers may be passed, but 
 we have to face the struggle with social and 
 economic dangers no less menacing. If Franklin 
 performed invaluable services to his country by 
 
educating the people in a knowledge of their 
 political rights, and by advocating these at all times 
 and in all places, until finally the aid and friendship 
 of the most powerful nations were secured, he was 
 even more conspicuously useful as the teacher of 
 religious toleration, of sound morality, and of that 
 shrewd, practical common sense, which recognizes 
 sell interest as the mainspring of human action, but 
 which, at the same time, enlarges and enlightens 
 the conception of self-interest. 
 
 When Voltaire and Franklin embraced, amid the 
 plaudits of the thronged French Academy, one saw 
 the contact of the most powerful destructive and 
 dissolving force, and the most constructive and 
 conservative force then existing. Each had his 
 great work to do for the amelioration of the human 
 race, and there are not a few points of resemblance 
 between these remarkable men, but their fields of 
 action, and the masses to be moved, and the points 
 of attack were so different, that it led them to widely 
 different methods. 
 
 FVanklin was admirably equipped as a popular 
 teacher. Long study of the best models of English 
 prose, aided by his fine literary sense, gave him a 
 style unsurpassed for clearness and directness; 
 while his rich vein of humor, his command of satire, 
 of anecdote, and of terse, sententious phrase, enabled 
 
 8 
 
him to convey large truths in such portable and 
 attractive forms, that his teachings soon spread far 
 and wide, and fixed themselves in the memory and 
 speech of men. But here, as in all cases, that which 
 gave most weight to his teachings were the character 
 and the life of the teacher. 
 
 He made the newspaper press a power for good, 
 as it had never been before ; and he set the ex- 
 ample, and adhered to it throughout his editorial 
 career, of preserving the columns of his paper free 
 from all libelling and personal abuse, and all pur- 
 veying to the prurient taste of a section of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 He was ever ready to recognize a public need, 
 whether of school or library or hospital, and to 
 devote his time, his energy, his money, to supplying 
 the deficiency. 
 
 No man can carry through such public move- 
 ments who is not himself liberal, and who does not 
 give his full share in every way to support the enter- 
 prise. While the author of " Poor Richard" taught 
 all classes alike the value of money, the duty of 
 economy, the pride of independence, and the nobility 
 of labor, and often by language or simile which may 
 be misconstrued so as to advocate parsimony, the 
 same self-taught, self-made man was incessant in all 
 good and liberal deeds. 
 
He recognized early the advantages of co-opera- 
 tion, and his treatment of deserving MAorkmen is a 
 suggestive point in the history of the relations of 
 Capital and Labor. Our greatest problem of to-day 
 has to deal with these relations. Our very pros- 
 perity forces it into greater prominence. The lib- 
 erty and political rights of the individual give to it 
 unprecedented urgency and importance. It may 
 not be setded by force, nor by legislation, nor even 
 by the church; but I believe it will be settled peace- 
 ably and lawfully, and to the mutual advantage of 
 all concerned, by a wide extension of the principle 
 of organized co-operation, based upon a humane 
 yet shrewd calculation of the self-interest of both 
 parties to the bargain ; and I am glad to believe 
 that as Franklin would have delighted to aid in 
 consummating this, his spirit, and the influence of 
 his teachings yet survive among us to assist in its 
 realization, and to remind us that toil, thrift and 
 temperance, with true humanity, are the key-notes 
 of the successful solution of this great problem. 
 
 Lord Brougham wrote, "One of the most re- 
 markable men, certainly of our times, as a politi- 
 cian, or of any age as a philosopher, was Franklin, 
 who also stands alone in combining together these 
 two characters, the greatest that man can sustain, 
 and in this, that having borne the first part in en- 
 
larg-Ing science by one of the greatest discoveries 
 ever made, he bore the second part in founding one 
 of the greatest empires in the world," A mere 
 enumeration of the notable scientific publications of 
 Franklin would be too large for my purpose. All 
 that it behooves us to do is to strive to appreciate 
 the quality of this work, and the fact that it was 
 done without encouragement or assistance, with 
 the simplest self-made apparatus, and in the midst 
 of distracting and absorbing business or political 
 affairs. A keen observer by nature, he had 
 trained himself to such incessant activity of mind, 
 and to the employment of so pure an inductive 
 method, that scarce anything escaped him, and 
 every phenomenon observed started a train of 
 philosophic reasoning so clear, so direct, and so 
 well confined to the limits of the probable and the 
 demonstrable, that he was capable of securing 
 astonishing scientific results with means apparently 
 most inadequate. The only period of his life when 
 he gave himself up in any sense to scientific investi- 
 gation, the only period during which he was not dis- 
 tinctively engaged in some other absorbing pursuit, 
 were the five years, 1747 to 1752, when he began to 
 enjoy the leisure earned by hard but profitable 
 work. All know the outcome of this investio-ation, 
 and that the discoveries made by Franklin in elec- 
 
tricity, from their entire originality, the breadth and 
 boldness of the generalization upon which they 
 were based, the accuracy and conclusive nature of 
 the experiments by which the hypotheses were 
 established, the important practical results indicated 
 by him, and the still more important results which 
 have followed the further prosecution of the same 
 study, have conferred immortality upon him, and 
 placed him in the front rank of the natural philoso- 
 phers of all times. 
 
 Our amazement cannot be restrained when we 
 reflect that this work was accomplished before he 
 was forty-seven years of age, and that never again 
 did he, who was then incomparably the most emi- 
 nent American, and whose rank among European 
 celebrities speedily rose to the highest point, have 
 an opportunity of applying himself continuously to 
 scientific research, although from that time to his 
 death, at the age of eighty- four, he continued to 
 produce remarkable scientific papers containing 
 original observations, or striking generalizations, 
 showing that the philosophic faculty was in vigorous 
 action. It is idle to speculate upon what results 
 might have followed a continuance of Franklin's 
 scientific investio^ations. It has been o-ranted to 
 
 o o 
 
 but few men to arrive at even a single discovery of 
 such importance as that on which his scientific fame 
 
chiefly rests ; but in fertility of mind, originality of 
 suggestion, and prolonged intellectual and bodily 
 vigor Franklin appears to stand unrivaled. 
 
 We may more reasonably dwell on the joy it 
 would give him could he return to see the position 
 attained by his favorite branch of science, and to 
 note that it is o-rowina- to be more and more the 
 useful and reliable servant of man, ministering to 
 his daily wants, and rendering life more enjoyable 
 and more healthy. But still more would he rejoice 
 to see the laboratories erected in all parts of the 
 land, equipped with every appliance for scientific 
 investigation, and crowded with earnest, ingenious 
 students, for some of whom Fame holds high honors. 
 He would feel, and with just pride, that to him more 
 than to any other man, is due the splendid develop- 
 ment of the scientific spirit and of scientific edu- 
 cation in America ; and that the institutions, the 
 societies, and the libraries he founded, or whose 
 foundation he stimulated, are carrying forward and 
 diffusing with ever increasing force the precious 
 lio^ht of scientific truth which he kindled here. 
 
 Franklin hated war. He hated it as a Christian, 
 a philanthropist and an economist. He hated un- 
 just taxation scarcely less. To the familiar accusa- 
 tions against these he added one, possibly original 
 with himself, and at least very characteristic of him, 
 
 13 
 
He charged them both with the crime of preventing 
 the birth of children — the one by the downright 
 murder of many men, the other by the interference 
 with the normal ratio of marriages — whose possible 
 services to the world are unknown and well nigh 
 infinite. And this veneration for the possibilities of 
 the young lay at the root of his ardent advocacy of 
 education, equally with his belief in the conservative 
 and elevating influence of all sound knowledge. 
 "What is the use of this new invention?" some one 
 asked Franklin. "What is the use of a new-born 
 child?" was his reply. What, indeed, has not been 
 the use of the loom, or the steam-engine ; what not 
 the precious value of a Howard, a Newton, a 
 Franklin? 
 
 I have alluded to Franklin's work as a moralist, a 
 statesman and a scientist ; it would be strange in- 
 deed, if I were not to speak here of him as an 
 educator and as a philanthropist. He was essen- 
 tially a self-educated man ; and he has left us a 
 charming account of the methods he pursued in 
 educating himself. Some may imagine that much 
 of his characteristic strength and usefulness came 
 from these lessons of early hardship. To me there 
 certainly seems no ground for any such conclusion, 
 in this or other cases, and he certainly did not hold 
 that view. To assert that a great man who has 
 
 14 
 
educated himself is greater on that account involves 
 improbable assumptions. The number of very great 
 men is extremely small. They occur at irregular 
 intervals of time and space. When one such 
 occurs, who, in addition to the other qualities of real 
 greatness, has the added rare quality of deter- 
 mination to improve himself to the utmost, we have 
 the condition produced of a lad with an elective 
 course of studies, secured under the most unfavor- 
 able surroundings. Franklin was pre-eminently 
 such a lad. Throughout his life he was unwilling 
 to be "a speckled axe," in allusion to the anec- 
 dote in his autobiography of the man who, in buying 
 an axe of a smith, his neiehbor, desired to have the 
 whole surface as brioht as its edore. The smith 
 consented to grind it bright for him, if he would 
 turn the wheel. He turned, while the smith pressed 
 the broad face of the axe hard and heavily on the 
 stone, which made the turning of it very fatiguing. 
 The man came every now and then from the wheel 
 to see how the work went on, and at length would 
 take his axe as it was without further grinding. 
 "No," said the smith, "turn on, turn on; we shall 
 have it bright by and by ; as yet it is only speckled." 
 "Yes," says the man; "but I think I like a speckled 
 axe best." But while here and there lads of rare 
 qualities, but lacking educational facilities, surmount 
 
 15 
 
all obstacles and achieve greatness, the world can 
 never know how many fail to attain their legiti- 
 mate development. It is true that under no system 
 of education can we expect to produce many such 
 men as Goethe, who graduated at Strasburg; or 
 Voltaire, who studied at the celebrated Jesuit College 
 of Louis le Grand ; or Newton, who was an M. A. of 
 Trinity College, Cambridge ; or Franklin, who was 
 strictly self educated. But still less can we expect 
 to produce under any one fixed, unvarying educa- 
 tional plan even as many as should appear. No 
 system of education should be devised for the benefit 
 of these rare and exceptional natures; but it is 
 among the positive advantages of a well-arranged 
 elective system of studies that, while it provides for 
 the dull and lazy, it affords the freest facility for the 
 development and expansion of the gifted and the 
 industrious. It is not surprising, therefore, that 
 Franklin, having found in his own case that excellent 
 results were attained by the thorough mastery of 
 English, followed by a study of other modern lan- 
 guages, before taking up the classics, should have 
 been led to the conclusion that such is the natural 
 and best course. 
 
 Probably all are familiar with the interesting 
 history of the University of Pennsylvania. It had 
 its origin in the Academy of Philadelphia, which 
 
 i6 
 
was founded in 1 749 throug-h the exertions of 
 Franklin, In the tract which he pubhshed at that 
 time, entitled " Proposals relating to the education 
 of youth in Pennsylvania," he remarks: "The good 
 education of youth has been esteemed by wise men 
 in all ages as the surest foundation of the happiness 
 both of private families and of Commonwealths," 
 and then proceeds to describe with much detail 
 the course of study proposed. It is noteworthy 
 that he gives a foremost place to athletics, pro- 
 viding " that the scholars be frequently exercised 
 in running, leaping, wrestling, and swimming, to 
 keep tliem in health, and to strengthen and render 
 active their bodies." In this he anticipated the 
 systematic instruction in athletics which has been 
 introduced into our academies and colleges only 
 recently, and after much unreasoning and ignorant 
 opposition. Especial stress is laid on the fulness 
 and thoroughness with which English is to be 
 taught to all students, while in regard to other 
 languages the following is provided: "All intended 
 for divinity shall be taught the Latin and Greek ; 
 for physics, the Latin, Greek and French ; for law, 
 the Latin and French ; merchants, the French, 
 German and Spanish ; and though all should not 
 be compelled to learn Latin, Greek, or the modern 
 foreign languages, yet none that have an ardent 
 
 17 
 
desire to learn them should be refused, their Eng- 
 lish, Arithmetic, and other studies absolutely neces- 
 sary, being- at the same time not neglected." It is 
 needless to point out with what clearness the 
 fundamental principle of elective studies is here 
 recognized, and how thoroughly in accord his con- 
 clusions as to the study of languages are with those 
 which are now at last coming gradually to be 
 adopted generally. What followed in the history 
 of the Academy (later the University) may be 
 mentioned briefly, because, if I mistake not, an 
 analogous experience was repeated here in the 
 early days of Franklin College. So little heed was 
 given to the proposals of the original founders as 
 to the pre-eminent position to be held by English 
 studies, that the classicists gradually acquired con- 
 trol of the entire system of education in the institu- 
 tion, and in 1789, the year before Franklin's death, 
 we find him publishing a spirited and forcible pro- 
 test against a continuance of this perversion of the 
 original trust. It is here that the familiar passage 
 occurs, "at what time hats were first introduced we 
 know not; but in the last century they were univer- 
 sally worn throughout Europe. Gradually, how- 
 ever, as the wearing wigs and hair nicely dressed 
 prevailed, the putting on of hats was disused by 
 genteel people, lest the curious arrangement of 
 
 • 18 
 
curls and powdering should be disordered ; and um- 
 brellas began to supply die place ; yet still our con- 
 sidering the hat as a part of dress continues so far 
 to prevail, that a man of fashion is not thought 
 dressed without having one, or something like one, 
 about him, which he carries under his arm. So 
 that there are a multitude of the politer people in all 
 *i:he courts and capital cities of Europe, who have 
 never, or their fathers before them, worn a hat 
 otherwise than as a cJiapeau bras, though the utility 
 of such a mode of wearing it is by no means appar- 
 ent, and it is attended not only with some expense, 
 but with a degree of constant trouble. The still 
 prevailing custom of having schools for teaching 
 generally our children in these days, the Latin and 
 Greek languages, I consider, therefore, in no other 
 light than as a chapeau bras of modern literature." 
 It is not impossible that the estrangement of many 
 of the original patrons and trustees of the College, 
 brought about by this departure from the proposed 
 plan, may have aided, to some extent, in causing 
 the House of Assembly to arbitrarily withdraw 
 the charter and estates of the Collesfe, thus causing 
 a disastrous interference with its work during sev- 
 eral years. And now, after the lapse of a century, 
 we see, as well in the University of Pennsylvania 
 as in other prominent colleges, success beginning 
 
 19 
 
to crown the efforts of those who would insist on a 
 thorough and advanced study of Enghsh as one of 
 the essentials for all English-speaking students, 
 while arranging the other languages — Latin, Greek, 
 Hebrew, German, French, Italian — in associated 
 elective groups. 
 
 But Franklin's deep interest in education was not 
 confined to the ereat institution of which he had been 
 the founder ; nor was his zeal abated by an absence 
 in foreign countries at different times for nearly 
 thirty years, nor even by the attainment of the full 
 limit of four score years. For a long time he had 
 taken ereat interest in the welfare of the Germans 
 who formed the bulk of the population in some parts 
 of Pennsylvania. He aided in the establishment of 
 schools for them, and served as a trustee of a society 
 for the benefit of the poor among them ; and in 
 1787, although in his eighty-first year, he was active 
 in the promotion of the long-cherished scheme of 
 founding a college for the education of young Ger- 
 mans. On March loth of that year, 1787, an act 
 was passed by the Assembly incorporating and en- 
 dowing the "German College and Charity School, 
 in the Borough and County of Lancaster," in which 
 act it is recited that the college is established for 
 the instruction of youth in the German, English, 
 Latin, Greek, and other learned languages, in 
 
Theology, and in the useful arts, sciences, and litera- 
 ture." The same act of incorporation states that, 
 from a profound respect for the talents, virtues and 
 services to mankind In general, but more especially 
 to this country, of His Excellency Benjamin Frank- 
 lin, Esq., President of the Supreme Executive 
 Council, the said college shall be and hereby is 
 denominated " Franklin College." Franklin was 
 the larorest contributor to its funds, orivlna- of his 
 moderate fortune the sum of $i,ooo, which may be 
 considered large for those days ; and still more, when 
 in the spring of 1787 the corner-stone was to be 
 laid in Lancaster, he underwent the pain and 
 fatigue of a journey thither in order to perform that 
 ceremony. The able historians of Lancaster have 
 well described the causes which led the college to 
 languish at first, until an act of the Legislature In 
 1850, confirmed the union which had been agreed 
 upon, after long negotiations, with Marshall Col- 
 lege, founded in 1836, then situated in Mercersburg, 
 and named after the great Chief Justice who Is fitly 
 styled "The Expounder of the Constitution." 
 From that time forward, a career of usefulness and 
 prosperity has been pursued by this admirable insti- 
 tution, which honored by Its association with two of 
 the wisest and greatest men America has produced ; 
 fortunate in the possession of a President and Faculty 
 
renowned as able administrators, sound scholars, 
 and zealous and skilful teachers ; and enjoying 
 every advantage of location and environment, 
 seems surely destined to fill a more and more 
 prominent place among our colleges. 
 
 Yet will I be pardoned, I trust, for uttering a word 
 of earnest appeal to those with whom must rest the 
 fulfillment of this destiny. Were Franklin standing 
 now with us, so that he might survey the changes 
 wrought in a century in this college, in this city, and 
 in this grand county of Lancaster, what think you 
 must be his verdict? Though no record is pre- 
 served to us of what he said a hundred years ago 
 when the corner-stone of this college was laid, we 
 can scarcely doubt that he dwelt on the vast value 
 to any community of a strong and well-endowed 
 college in their midst ; of the claims which such an 
 institution has upon all classes on account of the 
 benefits, moral, educational and material, which it 
 ensures ; and of the consequent duty which all owe 
 to serve, to support and to strengthen it in all ways 
 possible. He would have said this with eminent 
 propriety and with convincing force, because his 
 whole life, nay, his very presence here, would attest 
 the sincerity of his words. 
 
 He was a self-made man, who had known in his 
 youth the extremes of poverty ; he became a sue- 
 
cessful business man with a remarkable capacity for 
 making and saving money ; he knew well the value 
 and importance of money, and the dignity conferred 
 by wealth; he had every motive to encourage him 
 in a course of keen absorbing gainful business. 
 Yet from his early manhood we see him steadily 
 maintainino- a hiorh resolve that his life should not 
 be consumed in the mere pursuit of wealth ; we see 
 him begin early and continue a course of liberal 
 contributions to all worthy enterprises, of religion, 
 charity and education ; we see him always willing 
 to devote a large share of his time and energy and 
 business ability to promote the successful prose- 
 cution of such undertakings ; we see him retiring 
 from active business as soon as a handsome compe- 
 tency is secured, in order to devote himself to study 
 and original investigation, and yet ready, again and 
 again, and even when broken with years and suffer- 
 ing, to abandon his well-earned leisure in response 
 to the call of duty to serve the institutions of 
 his city, or the City itself, or the State, or the 
 Nation. 
 
 He would see the City of Lancaster grown from 
 3,300 in 1787 to over 30,000 inhabitants, with taxable 
 property of ^13,000,000 value, and a debt of only 
 ;^46o,ooo ; and spreading around this beautiful and 
 wealthy city, he would see one of the richest do- 
 
 23 
 
mains that earth can boast — a county which is an 
 empire in itself, with a total area of 620,000 acres, of 
 which 556,314 are in farm lands (490,922 of im- 
 proved acres being divided among 9,070 farmers), 
 valued at ^70,000,000 ; the farm implements and 
 machinery at over |,2, 000,000 ; the value of the 
 stock almost ^5,000,000 ; the cost of a single year's 
 building and repairing fences, ^329,790; and the 
 estimated value of one year's product 5^9,320,202. 
 The taxable value of the property is $86,824,823 at 
 a value of two-thirds the real worth, and upon this 
 a levy of two and a half mills collects adequate 
 revenue for all its current expenses. 
 
 He would find this splendid territory occupied by 
 a population of over 150,000 (of whom 132,382 are 
 natives and only 7,065 foreign born), sprung from 
 the most sturdy stocks which enter into the forma- 
 tion of our composite race. He would hear many 
 family names, familiar as household words wherever 
 eminence and excellence in social, professional, 
 literary, or religious life are known and appreciated. 
 He would realize that here as well as elsewhere in 
 this country, the first century of national existence 
 has closed on a scene of unexampled prosperity, 
 and that in entering on its second century, it is upon 
 a true Augustan era that the rising sun of our 
 national greatness projects his dazzling rays. 
 
 24 
 
We are happily done with all doubt as to the 
 permanence of our Union or of our form of Govern- 
 ment ; we have wiped out the foulest blot on our 
 civilization ; we have developed our material re- 
 sources until the vast continent is subjugated ; but it 
 remains to be seen if we can cope with the more 
 insidious dangers of luxury and of overflowing 
 wealth; if we can respond to the call on us for the 
 development of higher and purer types of civic life 
 and organization adequate to the growing needs of 
 our teeming millions ; whether we can retain, amid 
 the allurements of materialism, our hold on the deep- 
 lying verities of life. But when that wise man 
 should see how, in a degree unprecedented in any 
 other age or land, the opening years of this new 
 century are marked by the splendid generosity of 
 individuals who bestow princely benefactions to en- 
 dow the sacred causes of religion, charity and edu- 
 cation ; when he should see religion rendered 
 thereby more tolerant as well as more powerful ; 
 charity more discriminating and truly helpful ; edu- 
 cation more broad and liberal and practical ; he 
 would feel his robust faith in mankind streng-th- 
 ened and his unwavering belief in the destiny of 
 America still more firmly rooted. 
 
 Men and women of Lancaster, you have here 
 institutions which stand as faithful witnesses of 
 
 25 
 
noble lives consecrated to the public weal, and as 
 silent but convincing appeals to us to bear in mind 
 what they did in the day of small things, that we 
 may be worthy stewards of the larger bounty en- 
 trusted to us for a time. 
 
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