Author. ^t*o^ Title L.C.... Imprint. Active Interests The George Washington Memorial 1897 Second Edition Thie George Washiirigtori Meniorial Conqriqittee* Was organized in Washington, April 8th, 1897. Its affairs are administered by an Executive Board aided by Executive Com- mittees in each State and Territory. Purpose. To promote a patriotic interest in the bequest made by the " Father of his Country " for the establishment of a National University, to be known as the University of the United States, for the higher learning, — an exclusively post graduate university, — that shall complete the American system of public education and lead in research and investigation. The committee proposes to raise in small contributions the sum of $250,000 for the erection of a building for educational purposes, the corner-stone of which shall be laid on or near the one hundredth anniversary of his bequest in this behalf. Membership. All persons who will actively promote this movement are invit- ed to enroll as members of the committee, addressing Mrs. S. P. Gage, recording secretary, Ithaca, N. Y. The practical co-operation of all educational, philanthropic, and patriotic organizations is especially solicited. Information May be had in detail by applying to the Secretary, Mrs. George B. Bigelow, Hotel Oxford, Boston. Mass. *The George Washington Memorial Committee has now become a permanent organ- ization, to be called the George Washington Memorial Association, EXECUTIVE BOARD OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE.* CHAIRHAN. Ellen A. Richardson, Copley Square, Boston. Vice-Chairnian=at-Large. Mrs. Henry R. Mallory, 128 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, N. Y. Recording Secretary. Treasurer. Mrs. Susanna Phelps Gage, Mr. Charles J. Bell, Ithaca. New York. Pres't Am. Security and Trust Co., Washington, D.C. Corresponding Secretaries. Auditor. Mrs. Clara P. Bigelow, Mrs. Charles M. Ffoulke, Hotel Oxford, Boston. Washington. D. C. Mrs. Cuthbert Pound, Press Representative. Ithaoa, jS Y. Gen. Geo. a. Harries, Washington, D. C- VICE=CHAIRnEN, Mrs. Phebe A. Hearst, California. Mrs. Calvin S. Brice, Ohio. Mis. Wm. T. Carter, Pennsylvania. Mrs. H. H. Adams, Connecticut. -Mrs. W. A. Roebling, New Jersey. Mrs. Clara R. Anthony, Massachusetts. Mrs. I. S. Boyd, Georgia. Miss Charlotte F. Dailey, Rhode Island. Mrs. Orange J. Salisbury, Utah. Mrs. William Reed, Maryland. Mrs. Clara Moody, South Dakota. Mrs. Laura Gillespie, Tennessee. Mrs. Hope S. Chamberlain, N. Carolina. Mrs. Harvey Ingerson, Iowa. Mrs. L. D. M. Sweat, Maine. Mrs. M. K. McNeil, South Carolina. Mrs. A. M. Fosdick, Alabama. Mrs. Mary T. Gray, Kansas. Mrs. Alice B. Castleman, Kentucky. Mrs. John M. Cochrane, North Dakota. And oiheis to be added. CHAIRHEN OF SPECIALTIES. Mi.ss Alice Carter, of Byrn Mawr, Chairman of Undergraduate Work in Univer- sities and Colleges. Miss Mabel R. Adams, Chairman of Seminaries and Private Schools. Anna A. Schryver, Normal and High Schools. ORGANIZATIONS. Mrs. Mary Lowe Dickinson, President Naiional Council of Women. Miss Frances E. Willard, President World's W. C. T. U. Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin, President General Federation Women's Clubs. Mrs. Ellen Hardin Walworth, Chairman National University Committee of D.A.R. Mrs. John Quincy Adams, President General Columbian Daughters of America, 1492-1892. Mrs. Flora Adams Darling, Founder-General, General Society U. S. Daughters of 1776-1812. Mrs. Edward P. Steers, President Dames of Revolution. Mrs. Flora M. Davey, National President Ladies of G. A. R. Mrs. Margaret Bottome, President King's Daughters. Mrs. Van Leer Kirkman, President Woman's Department Tennessee Exposition _ Kate Brownlee Sherwood, Chairman Committee on Patriotic Instruction of National Council of Women. *The above list is composed of the names of the original Committee, now an organization which is gov- erned by a Board of Trustees, composed of a President, seven Vice-Presidents, a Recording Secretary and four other trustees. An Advisory Council of seven has also been appointed. There are besides, the State Chairmen, the Chairmer of Specialties, Presidents of national organizations, the National Treas- urer, two Auditors and the Press Representative, TMP92-008144 Coraniittee at-Large: Mrs. Andrew D. White, Ithaca, N. Y., and Germany; Mrs. David Starr Jordan, Stanford University, California; Mrs. James Lyons Richmond, Virginia; Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, Melrose, Mass.; Mrs. Susan Look Avery, Louisville, Ky.; Mrs. Mary S. Garrett, Philadelphia; Mrs. Kate Seely Tnttle, University of Virginia; Mrs. Frank A. >forthriip, New York ; Mrs. Annie Howes Barus, Providence, Rhode Island ; Mrs. J. Henry Comstock. Ithaca, New York; Mrs. Jennie C. Croly, New York; Rev. Ida C. Hultin, Illinois; Mrs. Frances H. Sidwell, Washington, D. C; Mrs. Harry Hutchins, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Mrs. Frances iM. Swain, Kloomington, Ind.; Mrs. Ann Lowell Woodbury, Washington, D. C; Miss J. M. Arms, Boston, Mass.; Miss Sarah D. Hamlin, San Francisco ; Mrs. Rosa Smith Eigenmann, Bloomington, Ind. ; Mme. Van Norman, New York City; Mrs. Kate Dewey Cole, Washington, D. C. ; Miss Mary Proctor, New York City; Mrs. Eveleen L. Mason, Brookline, Mass. ; Mrs. E. G. Rhodes, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa; Mrs. Laura O. Talbot, Washington, D. C. Mrs. N. A. Keller- man, Columbus, O. ; Mrs. Chas. L. Morris, Wisconsin; Mrs. Oliver Crane, Boston; Mrs. John Vance Cheney, Chicago; 3Irs. C. Van D. Chenoweth, Shrewsbury, Mass.; Mrs Wm. B. Kehew. Boston; Mrs. Mary L. Goodloe, Kentucky; Mrs. May Wright Sewall, Indiana; Mrs. J. H. Tanner, Ithaca, N. Y.; Mrs. H. W. Hardin, New York; Mrs.Atrhur C. Clark, Manchester, N. H.; Mrs. Alice Russell Wiles, Free- port, 111. ; Mrs. Jacob Gould Schurman, Ithaca, N. Y. ; Miss E. T. King, Baltimore, Md. ; Mrs. Christine Ladd Franklin, Baltimore, Md. ; Mrs. W. S. Peabody, Denver, Col.; Mrs. Wm. E. Ware, St. Louis, Mo.; Mrs. Wm. D. Beard, Nashville, Tenn.; Miss Margaret J. Evans, Northfleld, Minn. ; Mrs. J. Bugher Kuhns, Dunlo, Penn . ; Mrs. F. B. Gault, Morcow, Idaho, and many others. Extract From Washington's Last Will and Testament, July 9, 1799. " It has always been a source of serious regret with me to see the youth of these United States sent to foreign countries for the purpose of education, often before their minds were formed, or they had imbibed any adequate ideas of tlie happiness of their own ; con- tracting too frequently principles unfriendly to republican govern- ment, and to the true and genuine liberties of mankind ; which, thereafter, are rarely overcome. For these reasons it has been my ardent wish to see a plan devised on a liberal scale, which would have a tendency to spread systematic ideas through all the parts of this rising f^mpire, thereby to do away local attachments and State prejudices, so far as the nature of things would, or indeed ought to, admit, from our national councils. Looking anxiously forward to the accomplishment of so desirable an object as this is (in my esti- mation), my mind has not been able to contemplate any plan more likely to effect the measure than the establishment of a university in a central part of the United States, to which the youths of fortune and talents from all parts thereof might be sent for the completion of their education in all the branches of polite literature ; in arts and sciences, in acquiring knowledge in the principles of poHtics and good government, and (as a matter of infinite importance in my judgment) by associating with each other, and forming friendships ill juvenile years, be enabled to free themselves in a proper degree from those loci'l prejudices and habitual jealousies which have just been mentioned, and which, when carried to excess, are never failing sources of disquietude to the public mind, and pregnant of mischiev- ous consequences to this country : under these impressions, so fully dilated, * * * "Igive and bequeath in perpetuity the fifty shares (value, $500 each) which I hold in the Potomac Company (under the aforesaid acts of the legislature of Virginia) toward the endowment of a uni- versity to be established in the District of Columbia under the auspices of the General Government, if that Government should incline to extend a fostering hand toward it; and until such a seminary is established and the funds arising on these shares shall be required for its support, my further desire is that the profit accruing therefrom shall, whenever dividends are made, be laid out in pur- chasing stock in the Bank of Columbia, or some other bank at the discretion of my executors, or by the Treasurer of the United States for the time being, under the direction of Congress ; and the divi- dends proceeding from the purchase of said stock is to be invested in more stock, and so on until a sum adequate to the accomplish- ment of this object is obtained." THE NATIONAL DEBT OF HONOR. From a paper entitled "The National Debt of Honor," by Dr. George Brown Goode of the Smithsonian Institution, in which he not only presents the main facts of Washington's efforts, but strongly urged the obligation of the nation, we quote : "The sum of ^4,401,000 (amount of Washington's bequest with compound interest to the present time), if appropriated for this purpose by Congress, and placed in the Treasury of the United States, there to remain paying interest at 6 per cent., would yield over ^264,000 each year, a sum that would provide for many pro- fessorships, lectureships, and scholarships, and fellowships, as well as for the current expenses of several seminaries or colleges. Private gifts would in time be added in large amounts, and Congress would of course erect such buildings as from time to time were found necessary. * * * "It appears from the records of history, not only that on this very spot sacred to liberty and independence the importance of such a university was urged by the framers of the American Constitution, but that several of the Presidents, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Ulysses S. Grant, and Rutherford B. Hayes, pressed its early establishment as a patriotic duty ; that President Washington even remembered it with a liberal gift in his dying bequest • * * * that the proposition to establish it has been sanctioned by other leading statesmen throughout the period of our national history, and finally, that such proposition has been thrice unanimously indorsed by that great body of American educat- ors, the National Educational Association." PLEA FOR THE GEORGE WASHINGTON MEHORIAL. To the Women of the United States : For nearly one hundred years the last will of Washington has stood as a monument to his sagacity in foreseeing the fact that a slate founded on popular intelligence would need facilities for the highest specialization as well as for universal education. So clearly did he see this that he bequeathed ^25,000 to found a National University for the highest education. His will is unfulfilled. Is it not a reproach to us as a people, that the wisdom of one of our greatest men has not been heeded? Education in politics and good government was a part of his thought, and the need is as great today as ever. The safety of the home and of individual liberty depends upon the proper education of statesmen. The future of the nation and of the race demt<.nds the service of the most carefully trained minds, that by public hygiene and preventive medicine, stalwart bodies may be the rule ; that the com- plex relations of sex and of capital and labor arising from the intro- duction of machinery may cease to threaten the welfare of children yet unborn; that a higher type of education for every individual child may be evolved ; and that material conditions may not stifle the spiritual life of the people. Opportunity for research, investigation, the factor of education which alone can produce these results, is slightly cared for in this country. Our students flock to Europe for it. Where in universi- ties it is provided, it is done by the uncertain gifts of individuals, and depends upon the fluctuations of interest-bearing securities. The nation could receive such gifts and give stability to the income, could confer grants and thus insure the highest opportunities to young people of genius. In a democracy still more than in a mon- archy this opportunity for genius should be given, because in a democracy the fruits of genius more readily become the property of all. The George Washington Memorial Committee desires to raise a fund of ;^25o,ooo for a building, the administrative home for a National University, and they vvish every man, woman, and child in the United States to hear of Washington's bequest, and to have the opportunity of giving a small sum for this memorial. February 2 2d, 1898, has been selected as the Offering Day to the memory of our honored first president. Shall not every club, every patriotic organization, every school, every individual in the country by this simultaneous effort, make possible on December 14th, 1899, the laying of a corner stone of an administration building for the National University ? Let us prepare this fitting commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of Washington's death. In behalf of the George Washington Memorial Committee. Susanna Phelps Gage, Rec. Secretary. FROM CALIFORNIA. Pacific coast women have organized, for the George Washington Memorial, an association to be afifiliated with the East- ern Committees and to work with them along harmonious and judi- cious Unes. Sept. 21st, a meeting was called at the residence of Mrs. John F. Merrill, 1732 Washington Street, San Francisco. Among those who spoke to the subject favoring the movement, and promising to help forward the noble and patriotic undertaking, were Mrs. David Starr Jordan, Mrs. John F. Merrill, Dr. Charlotte Blake Brown, Mrs. A. S. Hubbard, Miss Carolina Jackson and Mrs. Edna Snell Poulson. The vote to work for the cause was unan- imous. The Active Committee was formed ; consisting of Mrs, Edna Snell Poulson, chairman : Mrs. J. F. Merrill, Mrs. Irving F- Moulton, Mrs. A. S. Hubbard, Mrs. Henry Gibbons, Jr., and Mrs. Virginia Knox Maddox. The State is now organized with Miss Sarah D. Hamlin, 1849 Jackson Street, San Francisco, as the permanent chairman. FOR FEBRUARY 22d AND ALL TIME. Suggestions for Furthering the Work of the George Washington Memorial Association. These few plans present themselves as immediate steps which may be taken by State Chairmen towards arousing interest, and securing the offering for February 2 2d. Miss Elizabeth Porter Gould, 100 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Mass., is prepared to give a special lecture on the George Washing- ton Bequest and the Aims and Methods of the Memorial Association at special terms, teti dollars and expenses. 9 Miss Gould has prepared this paper with great care, devoting several weeks to research in regard to the historic facts, and it combines in a rare degree most valuable information and inspiring thoughts concerning the great Ideal of the Father of His Country. The Rev. Ida Hultin, of MoHne, Illinois, is also prepared to speak on this subject, her lecture presenting the subject from its ethical standpoint. Price, twenty-five dollars and expenses. Miss A. B. Hyde, of 53 West 47th Street, New York, is also prepared to lecture before clubs on this subject. Mrs. Kate Brownlee Sherwood, of Canton, Ohio, has prepared a special program for the use of schools on Washington's Birthday. The American Flag Co., Easton, Pa., will furnish these school programs free of cost, on application. The schools of the country should be reached, and a request made that a program be arranged for the last day of the school session before the 2 2d of Feliruary, informing the pupils of the movement, and the desire that they should have a part in it. It should be distinctly stated that the engraved certificates will be given to every school, or group of cliildren, or adults, who contribute ^5.00 or more. Will each State Chairman and each Chairman of City Councils on February 2 2d, 1898, see that some central station is opened, with or without program or attraction, where voluntary contributions of small or large amounts may be made. Each District Chairman may appoint such a station, to the end that there shall be a centre in every city, town, and county. Envelopes have been prepared for use, upon which the name of State Treasurer, with address, may be placed, together with the name of the donor and the amount of contribution. These may be ordered from the Chairman of this Committee, Mrs. H. R. Mallory, at the rate of ^2.25 per thousand. Mrs. Calvin S. Brice has kindly consented that her admirable papers, compiled for the use of her own State (Ohio), may be used as models by other State Chairmen. They may be ordered froni Mrs. G. S. Vicary, Lima, Ohio. 10 Our booklet, "Active Interests," may be ordered from Miss A. F. Grant, 21 School Street, Boston, Mass., at the rate of $1 per hundred. Any social function, such as a ball, tea, or reception, might be arranged, and would be especially suggestive if held in a historic house or hall. Some very desirable plaques, with historic decoration in blue and white under the glaze, also a loving cup, decorated in the same manner, by Charles Volkmar, R. A., may be handled by State Chair- men at a profit of one dollar or more on each placque. Further details may be had by applying to Chairman of this Committee. To bring success, we must have earnest work by every member, and as many focussing points as there are loyal women ready to do their share at this critical juncture. A leaflet, containing "A Few Words of Explanation," brief and to the point, which could be slipped into any letter, may be ordered from Miss A. F. Grant, 21 School Street, Boston, Mass., 100 copies 75 cents, 200 copies $1. Much must be done to spread information, secure hearings before clubs, schools and organizations, before February 2 2d. For other information, please apply to Mrs. Henry R. Mallory, 128 Columbia Heights, Chairman of Committee on Plans. Brooklyn, N. Y. It may be stated that February 2 2d only inaugurates our work with the public and the people. Whatever its results financially, it is but the beginning of an opportunity and new opportunities which will be made from time to time by the George Washington Memorial Association, which heartily believes in the justice, the needs, and the eventual fulfillment of George Washington's great ideal. The same arguments were used against the movement of the Government for the Smithsonian Institution, as — the comparatively few — objectors of to-day are advancing against the George Wash- ington Memorial Association. 11 FROM CORRESPONDENCE. " In working for this great purpose the women of America have promise of greater reward than has ever before been offered them." I here quote with pleasure the apt words of the brilliant young author of Peter Sterling, who remarks, "Say what you please, the strongest and most subtle 'pull' this world as yet contains is the undercurrent of woman's influence." And what will not that influence accomplish when it takes the form of an American mother's entreaty of the more perfect education of her children? It is therefore with profound belief in the inestimable value of this new and culminating glory for our growing country that the organization of women formed in its service appeals to every American woman to look into its history in the past and assist in assuring its magnificent future. Embracing in its genial scope every division of intellectual moral and physical research, broader and fuller than is possible or desirable under local or special limit- ations, it will hold in solution a thousand individual differences of opinion. Sectional prejudices will melt into patriotic zeal, and in- telligent political action take the place of blind obedience to party lines. Each student may well have acquired disciplined habits of thought consonant with his inward ideas, but which will not interfere with cordial co-operation with all earnest workers for human progress. This is only a hasty and imperfect sketch, but it will serve as a suggestion to the women of my State of the limitless possibilities it enfolds for those who are now the little children at their knees. As the scheme develops there will be many ways in which women ca work for it. They have already secured the privilege of erect- ing one of the University buildings, to be called the George Wash- ington Memorial Building, which will be a monument more eloquent than words, of what women can accomplish in the cause of human progress. Margaret J. M. Sweat, State Chairman for Maine. 12 I think the plan a good one, as good as another, and see no reason why it shall not be carried through. There is money enough in the country, and there will prove to be interest enough. Times are changed since Washington first broached this idea to individuals and to Congress, and there will be (have been) things said in discouragement of the movement, of which the chief is that there is little present prospect of a wise administration of an University of the United States, because it would be subject to political exigencies and vagueries. But I do not know that the argument has more than a present significance. If we ever get into that part of the political equinox where honest and intelligent principles rule our affairs, it would be good to have this institution all ready to take advantage of the prosperous conditions, and it is at least as wise to prepare for them now, as to assume that we shall never realize such conditions, and then find ourselves with no sails to our ships when the favoring breezes blow. Louise Tincker, Cor. Sec'y Massachusetts Board, George Washington Memorial. FROM CONNECTICUT. In many of the states the work of organization is gc ing forward enthusiastically, notably in Georgia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, California, Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts where local George Washington Memorial Cornmittees are being formed. The Greenwich committee held a meeting the last Saturday of September, at the residence of Col. H, H. Adams, Belle Haven, and listened to an address by Mrs. Ellen A, Richardson, chairman of the central committee. Among those present were : Mrs. Van Valkenbarg, Miss Baldwin, Mrs. Russell T. Hall, Mrs. Nathaniel Witherell, Mrs. C. A. Moore, Mrs. W. E. Carhart, Mrs. E. W, McClave, Mrs. Geo. Dayton, Mrs. Livinia Thorn, Mrs. A. A. Combs, Mrs. Hugh O'Neill, Mrs. E. H. Johnson, Mrs. Geo. Palmer, Mrs. Geo. Dominick, Mrs. Henry Mallory, Mrs. Chas. Armstrong, Mrs. L. P. Jones, the Misses Banks, Mrs. Cordez, Mrs. Bartow, Mrs. W. J. Tingere, Mrs. J. H. Hunt, Mrs. and Miss Baker, W. J. Johnston, and many others. Col. Adams thus expresses his sympathy with the movement : "The Pilgrims, Puritans, and the early settlers of Virginia established with their churches the district school and the town meeting. Out from these has been evolved this nation, with its greatest of all charters, the constitution of the United States, repre- senting a form of government created by the voice and ballot of its citizens. The home then is the birthplace of the government at Washington. Therefore we look to American mothers to rear loyal sons, who may become worthy citizens and who shall represent and perpetuate these forces that have redeemed woman and placed her in the vanguard of progressive civilization. It is therefore to you we make the appeal. To you belongs the initial movement. Your hands must lay the corner-stone of the nation's bulwark. There are four thousand graduates from our American colleges now in Europe seeking advancement in the sciences not obtainable here. They are breathing the air of Berlin, Leipsic and Heidlberg. Together with highest attainments in special science, they are absorbing the foreign idea, customs, habits, creeds and politics. They in turn, fill our honored and responsible positions. They have interwoven with the threads of American thought the musty fibres of declining monarchies, the heritage of twenty centuries. None but the rich can go to Leipsic or Berlin. The impoverished electrical student emerging from the farm and factory or trolley plant must stop at the school of mines or of technology. "What we must and will have ultimately is the University of the United States, non-political, non-sectarian, Smithsonian, for example, broad in scope, reaching out to all lands for the ablest 14 minds an(T most scientific appliances with which to teach and illu- minate modern science in its highest foiin. "We are today shipping five hundred tons of doors, sashes, and blinds in one vessel to Africa. We have just taken an order for ten thousand tons of steel rails for Johannesburg, Africa. We have just contracted to send one hundred miles of wrought iron pipe to China, and these items are only an example of what America is doing now in competition with European nations because of her natural aptitude for inventions and mechanics and for the higher sciences. In these departments and indeed many others we are sending to the universities of Berlin and Leipsic for knowledge. "There are nineteen acres of ground near Lafayette Square, Washington, D. C, now owned by the government and held for the purpose of a University of the United States. 'Die patriotic ladies of America are to build the administration building and they propose to make the 22d of February the nation's offering day for this purpose, asking no large contributions, begging nothing. America's seventy million of people must build this great monument. There are thirteen million children in the public schools in America. There are seven hundred thousand ladies in the Federation of Women. These, together with the W. C. T. U. society and twenty others, by making an offering of a penny each on Washington's Birthday would raise a fund sufficient to build the building and endow it. Let us then join hands and have an American Univer- sity, American sciences, and American ideas for American citizens. An interesting report of the December meeting at Washington by Miss Clara R. Rogers of Boston, who attended as a delegate from the New England Woman's Club, is given on page 24. 15 Washington and the National University.* By Susanna Phelps Gage, Ph.B. Sometimes it seems fitting to turn our thoughts to the larger interests of the past and see what lessons we, who are not historians, can learn from history, and find how we may help carry out some useful thought. Let us turn backward for more than a century, to a military camp lying not far from the town of Boston, where are a few thous- and men, ununiformed, poorly provisioned, untrained but enthusias- tic, rebels ; the foe lying at ease, confident, trained, and with a powerful nation behind them. The rebel leader is the man whom success has since made the idol of all liberty-lovers, for around him have centered all the dreams of idealists, and he has, by the pro- cess common in history, beer raised into a kind of demigod ; the incarnation of all good, the realization in human form of the dreams, the ideals, which the people were willing to lay down their lives for. But he had not at that time been thus transformed ; he was not the idol of even the few millions of people scattered along the Atlantic coast, who in a somew-hat uncertain spirit had begun a war without fully realizing what it meant. No ; Massachusetts had begun an insurrection and on the eve of the battle at Bunker Hill found on her hands a swarm of unpaid recruits to her army, and she must have help in paying them, she must win the support of the South, and so gave the honors to Virginia in return for financial support. Even Virginia held other candidates willing to serve the country as leader ; but at last Washington was shown, as we would now say, to be the most available candidate ; not that Puritan New England could not and did not find many a fault with him. After a careful reading of his latest critical biography by Ford, which mercilessly withdraws the haze and glamor from the hero, there are still left qualities in which we can see why he was the greatest and best, the leader, in a movement of world-wide importance. He had eminent common sense, a just mind, and a great-hearted generosity which could tenderly love a child, encourage a youth to noble living, cherish *Read at the Unitarian Churcli in Itliaca, N. Y., February 21, 1897, and reprinted from The New Unity, June, 1897. 16 a friend through all differences of opinion, treat with courtesy a public foe, and forgive a plotting, private enemy, and sometimes turn the enemy to a friend. And this man, only a httle better and greater apparently than his fellows, was the commander-in-chief who was encamped in Cambridge in the autumn of 1775. As the story is told in an old book if "Major William Blodget went into the quarters of General Washington to complain of the ruinous state of the colleges from the conduct of tlie militia quar- tered therein.'' A young relative of this major, Samuel Blodget, said : "Well, to make amends for those injuries, I hope after our war we shall erect a noble national university at which the youth of all the world may be proud to receive instruction." General Wash- ington replied : "Young man, you are a prophet, inspired to speak what I am confident will one day be true." Thus before the Declar- ation of Independence, before the contest for freedom was fairly begun, the seed of thought was sown which twenty years later ripened into a deliberate plan. The long toilsome war went on, with its discouragements — the people were poor, Congress wrangling, and jealousies and cabals rent the army. Finally, victory and peace came. The demoraliza- tion of industries, the poverty and dissensions, at last brought the people to see the need of a closer union than a mere confederation. A constitutional convention was called, and with all their differences, the leaders had one common thought — education must be a central care of the new state. Washington, Jefferson. Madison, Adams, Pickering, Franklin, and others wished to establish a national univer- sity by act of the Constitution they were framing; but finally the clause was omitted, not because opposed, but because it seemed self evident that this must be a prime motive of action in the new government, without special enactment. The press, from 1775 to 1789, contained articleson the National University, and so the people were prepared for references to the subject, in President Washington's address to Congress in 1790, in the eloquent farewell address, and the annual message of 1796. Letters to Adams, and Jefferson, and Governor Brooks of Virginia, show how near this plan was to his heart, and that he was consider- ing how, as an individual, not an official only, he could fiirthor it. Land was chosen by him, and set aside by the Federal commission- tSee list of references, Blodget. 17 ers, in the District of Columbia, as a site for the university Congress approved, but did nothing. As a last act for the public welfare, Washuigton showed how in earnest had been his talk and his thought, by putting in his will, make July 9, 1799, a provision which carried out his promise made some time before. The fourth provision of his will was for a free school for orphans, in Alexandria ; the fifth and sixth for a national university. Read his will carefully, thoughtfully; it expresses the ripe purpose of a great man. Before education are mentioned only the payment of his few lawful debts, the provision for his wife, and his private solution of the slave question — the gift of freedom to the slaves he owned. For the national university he gave five hundred shares, worth ^500 each, in the Potomac canal company. These shares he received for public services in having suggested the vast advantages which the community would derive from the extension of its inland navigation. He had refused these except on condition that he might be permitted "to appropriate the shares to public uses." Then he recites his desire that the youth of the country may receive educa- tion at home instead of abroad : in arts, sciences, politics and good government. Why should he so greatly desire the higher education of the country — he, a Virginia planter, in whose boyhood was so little schooling that spelling and grammar all his life long were his con- stant enemies, to be watched and guarded against, making him so diffident about writing a message that it is difficult to tell whether Hamilton or Madison are not more responsible than Washington himself, for the ideas as well as for the diction? Then, how could he have made a suggestion which should be so handsomely acknowl- edged by the legislature ? All his experience as civil engineer, as colonial soldier, as farmer and land-holder, had prepared him to see where the great highways of commerce must be, and how a rich country lying over the mountains awaited only the channels of communication before filling with fruitful industry. Though he did not have the education of schools, to-day he would stand among the greatly educated men who have eyes and brains to see the larger possibilities of national greatness. Such men as this hold no dearer wish than that the country may have all the men it needs thoroughly trained for the large seeing and careful doing of advancing civiliza- tion. The wish was, in Washington, due not only to a theory of general education, but it was a practical factor in his life, for with every ward of his, and with the sons of mari}^ old friends, as the young Lafayette, he made every effort to procure thorough educa- tion, l)Oth by advice and by money gifts. The first question asked by those for tlie first time hearing of his will is, With this generous gift as a foundation, with a site still waiting, who do we not have a national university? We can say that party feeling ran high, that congressmen, then, as now, were looking for re-election, that local interests crowded out the general, and the less loud-voiced needs were neglected. In the interval of neglect, the bequest became worthless, since the canal company failed. From then until now the measure for a national university has had the support of many thoughtful people. Jefferson, Madison, John Quincy Adams, Grant, Hayes, and Secretary Lamar under Cleveland, brought it before the people in repeated messages to Congress, but each successive attempt to get Congressional support has quietly ended in failure. During the more than fifty years in which slavery, war, and re- construction held the thought of Congress, the states have, many of them, evolved, and are constantly improving, a magnificent system of instruction from low to high, supported with ever-growing generosity by state and individuals. Many of the universities of our country are greater than Washington or the early leaders could have planned, and have left the old-time narrow college curriculum behind. Science and handicraft have no longer to do battle to be recognized as culture studies. This victory won in the strongholds of learning, the universities, the fruits of victory will be reaped in the common schools, fitting men and women for wider usefulness and giving them truer ideals of life. With this system growing so gloriously, can any one feel the need of a greater, a national university? There are many men who feel this need, as shown by the National Committee of over three hundred men who are working to bring it about. Its chairman. Governor Hoyt, gives of his very life to it, his labor and his thought ; and associated with him are leaders in statesmanship — men like Chief Justice Fuller and Senator Edmunds ; leaders in higher education, as Andrew D. White, and the presidents of most of the great universities, and the leaders in public instruction in various states j while educational and scientific associations heartily recom mend its establishment Thrice has the matter come befor- Congress within a few years ; again nothing has resulted. 19 And now it comes to be understood that the people of this great and wealthy and powerful country must see the need of a crown to the whole iabric of its education before it can be realized, for until they do see the need sufficiently to ask for it, Congress is not liable s,eriously to consider it. Why should private citizens, individuals in the mass, each strug- gling for life, each with more needs than his income will supply, trouble themselves about a national university, where only those who are graduates of a university or college may be admitted, and only the select few who have great ability in some special line may profit by its opportunities? With the growth of the country and it enlarged interests, and the need to make our every acre of ground productive, to preserve our forests, to make our manufactures ready to compete with those of any nation, to carry our goods to every part of the world, comes the demand for more highly trained experts in every field, to devise new methods and improve old ones. The present method of pre paring these experts is wasteful in the extreme. In the school of practical experience, with the stocks and bonds of their trusting fellow-men as capital, they make experiments. They dig oil-wells where no oil is to be found, and manufacture machines which cannot work. They get their experience and the people get theirs. Ufider wise direction vast amounts of this wild- cat experimenting might be avoided, and money be put into real improvements. Then for our civil service, with a properly equipped national university, we could demand men prepared for their work. Now our most responsible government offices, requiring special knowledge, have to be filled by men who learn their business under government pay. In the inter- ests of national economy, it seems wise that the nation should expend a small fraction of its income in the highest education that is possible to provide. Many of our young people go abroad for their final preparation for life-work. With a national university, some would continue to go, because a foreign language could be acquired along with the special training. Because they go, is it a reason why we should not furnish the opportunity at home? The argument on this ground in the negative seems very weak. We boast of our greatness, wealth, population, and then let army-ridden Germany and France give advanced education to our young people. No ; if the greatest, then we should be the most generous, and in return for all the years in 20 which our youth have gone from home to get ideas in political economy and finance and science and theology, we should now give of our great national resources, that the youth of Germany and Russia, as well as all America, may come and learn these things in an Anglo-Saxon and republican country. But, it may be said, we need to build from the bottom, — our common schools need more and better teachers and better facilities. Yes, they do need all this. But it is found that every time an advance is made at the sources of knowledge, every time that a new fountain of thought is opened, the high schools, then the common schools, get an inspiration for better work. Think what a source of help our colleges are in our common schools. At Albany, in the educational departments, and in the best high schools of the state, there are college graduates with great ideals working to improve the common school ; the inspiration they received from some college teacher they are giving their life to pass on, that through them all may be benefited. Could we give the ablest of our young people the best possible education and the best facilities for work, through them, in time, every common school in the land would be improved. Our universities are giving to their instructors some of this op- portunity for research which it would be desirable for all teachers to have ; for a teacher who is worthy of the name must come in direct contact with some of the facts which he teaches ; in other words, he must have time to see nature and to think what are the meanings of his observations. But again, think of the great disadvantage at which this is done. A man whose day is spent teaching in a labora- tory, has little energy left for research, and his summer must, much of it, be given to merely keeping abreast of the work of the year; these disadvantages are still more marked with normal and high school teachers. A greater university than the states or private benefactors can give is needed, toward which the thought of university and high school teacher may turn as a kind of Mecca where his inspiration may be renewed ; where he may meet "and exchange thought with the few others in the country or world who are advancing knowledge in the field in which he is engaged. Such a teacher extends his influence to every one who is ready to receive it, through books and lectures, and, best of all, through his students. No man who feels hat he has found a truth wishes to keep it to himself. The mission- ary spirit is not dead in those who have spent years in gaining a specialty. They feel that the regeneration of the world would be 21 helped, could the results of their study be applied in the daily life of the people. So that again the national university would send its influence to the common school and the citizen through the renewed enthusiasm of teachers in the higher grades. One thing more, somewhat less tangible, but one the less real, pure research to find the laws and facts of the universe, with no thought of turning the results into immediate use, for wealth or health or instruction, this will be the highest function of a national university. Think of the years which Priestly spent in finding oxygen, and the years which Lavoisier spent in finding the composi- tion of water, — facts at that time of comparatively little practical importance, and then think that now no practical art or science but is doing better work for the devotion of these men to an idea. Even if the physical comfort of the race should not be furthered by the investigation, there are other needs as imperative. There are great questions of interest to every one of us. How may a greater and nobler race of men and women be produced, to keep pace with the marvelously rapid growth of civilization, in com- forts and conveniences of living? How increase the brains and moral capacity of the coming generations? We need students to devote long lives to the solution of these problems which are grouped together under the name of heredity. No child but asks the nature of the unseen power which directs the forces of the universe. And he who would advance the knowl- edge of any one of the manifesting forces must have the conditions for his labor as perfect as possible, for as Jordan has well said, "All the easy things have been found out," and only the difficult ones remain, those which require time and thought and expensive appli- ances. The wealth of a nation could find no greater use than in increas- ing the knowledge of the laws of force, those immutable laws which give the most exact kno\vledo;e we have of the divine universal force and of those laws of life which to the scientist and philosopher are found to mean love, self-sacrifice, and demotion, and thus reveal throughout living nature another side of the divine character. For these reasons, then, — f )r the most economical preparation of experts in special work, private or governmental ; for the improve- ment of education, from the university and its teachers down to the tiniest country school ; and for the furtherance of study of those manifestations of God which we call law, and by which we come to 22 a better comprehension of the duties of Hfe, — for these reasons a National University is a purpose worthy for each one of us to give influence towards, and to sacrifice time and thought and money to make a reality. You and 1 may reap no reward, we may not live to see the begin- ning of this noble enterprise, but the highest duty of each generation is to leave behind it some work which shall increase the possibilities of those who are to follow and carry on the work of the world. To this end, co-operation of every force for good in the country is needed. Church and school and patriotic organizations may well unite to bring to fulfillment this dream of the patriots and scholars of the first century of our republic, and especially to do honor to the memory of one of its greatest men, Washington, whom any country would be proud to honor. Shall we not on December 14, 1899, one hundred years after the death of Washington, on the site in the city of Washington which he selected, lay the foundation of that univer- sity which he desired? In dangerous and troublesome times Washington and Jefferson and our Revolutionary patriots, by their efforts and high ideals, made possible the prosperous growth of our country. We, in peace, with only finance and tariff, not death, to face, can well say that our duty is to carry on their great work to completion, and give to every individual opportunity to attain the highest intellectual develop- ment, and in the search for abstract truth to gain moral power in order that the continuance of a republic based on universal intelli- gence and morality may be assured. We may well give our best thought to this work, which makes for patriotism and righteousness. Ladies visiting Washington, D. C, are recommended to try the Royal Blue Line. This route has earned the reputation of running the " finest, safest and fastest trains in the world," between New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. Pullman Palace Cars and Dining Cars are run on all trains. A feature of these trains is that they are vestibuled from end to end and lighted by the Pintsch System. Coke being used on the locomotives ensures un- usual freedom from dust and cinders. Round trip tickets to Washington are on sale all the year at reasonable rates. Special rates account D. A. R. and Women's Suffrage Conventions. Send to A. J. Simmons, New England Agent, 211 Washing'ion Street, Boston, for time tables and a "Guide to Washington." 23 Literature on Washington and a National University. Jared Sparks: Life and Writings of Washington; Vol. i, p. 569; Vol. 2, p. i 3, 14, 20, 22, 23 ; Vol. 12, p. 71, 322. W. C. P'ord : Writings of George Washington; Vol. 13, p- 37, 49, 342 ; Vol. 14, p. 276. Washington Irving: Life of Washington, Appendix. P. L. Ford : The True George Washington. Samuel Blodget : Economia, 1806. Old South Leaflets, Boston, Nos. 16, 76, and prize essay of 1889 by Caroline C. Stecker. In No. 76 the letters and will of Washington in relation to a National University can be had in the cheapest form. John W. Hoyt; Memorial in regard to a National University. Senate Miscella- neous Documents, Nos. 222, 1892, p. 123. This is the most complete history of the idea of a national university. Senate Report, No. 433, May 24, i8q4. Mr. Hunton, from the committee to establish a University of the United States. Speeches on the above by Hon. Eppa Hunton of Virginia,-and Hon. Wm. F. Vilas of Wisconsin, Dec. 13, [894. Senate Report, No. 429, March 10, 1896, submitted by Mr. Kyle, from the Committee to establish a University of the United States. Senate Document, No. 29, Dec. 21, 1896. Communication from David Starr Jordan, President of the Leland Stanford Junior University, transmitting the substance of his argument before the Committee to establish a Uni- versity of the United States, Dec. 17, 1896. This also appears in The Forum, Vol. 22, p. 670; Jan., 1897. H. B. Adams; Washington's Plan for a National University, Johns Hopkins University Studies, Vol. 3, 1885, p. 93. Chas. Kendall Adams : Washington and the Higher Education, Ithaca, N. Y., 1888, pp. Tp. A. D. White : The Forum, The Next American University, Vol. 5, 1888, p. 371; A University at Washington, Vol. 6, 1888-89, p. 622; Need of Another University, Vol. 6, p. 465. R. H. Thurston : Technical Education in the United States, Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Vol. 14. For extra copies address 12 West Thirty- First Street, New York City, C. F. Thwing: A National University, Internatio7ial Review, Vol. 13, p. 527- G. Brown Goode : George Washington's Plan for a National University, Lend a Hand, Vol. 7, p, 394. Charles W. Dabney, Jr. : A National Department of Science, Science. Jan. 15. 1897. John W. Hoyt; Of the National University proposed by George Washington. 77/1? Arena, March, 1897. Articles in Science, Jan. 5, June 4, 1897. Mary Proctor; A National University, School Journal, Oct. 1897. Articles in the Proceedinsrs of the National Educational Association, by J. W. Hoyt, 1870 and 1871"; A. D. White, 1874; W. T. Harris, 1874. Articles in Educalion, A. D. Mayo, Vol. 5, 1885, p. 331 ; W. A. Mowry, Vol. 10, 18S9-90, p. 73; E. P. Powell, Vol. 17, 1897, p. 282. THE DECEMBER flEETINQ. From Miss Clara R. Rogers' report of her visit to the meetings of the George Washington Memorial Association, in Washington, as the delegate of New England Woman's Club we give the following ; I give a few personal touches of my visit to Washington where I attended the great rallying meetings of the George Washington Memorial Committee and as one of the body was shown through the various National departments. The meetings impressed me as parliamentary, executive and earnest. They have indeed laid a foundation upon which to build this truly grand movement. All through those meetings I felt per- rect confidence in the officers, a fine body of representative women from their several states, who are bearing the brunt of this patriotic work. I am sure that they will have great reserves to draw from when the time for ripening comes. Beside the Executive Board we have an Advisory Board composed of strong, experienced women who will uphold us in all of our good work, and strengthen our hands in every way. There is much diffusive matter in Washington waiting to be focussed and made available in the various fields of knowledge by a systematic arrangement, a classification of fine ma- terial to feed our youths upon. To give you statistics let me quote from Mrs. Brice's paper : "Four thousand students annually seek in the institutions of Eng- land, Scotland, Germany and France the results of research which they do not find at home. Bureaus of science liave grown up one by on