LD 1265 1890 Copy 1 ^^^> 3> > > ^ 5^£SSe©^5 ^^~^^ :^ ->? ^ i 4> >.> > > 8^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 1| Si 5Ae// \ ^^b- ^^UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. \ ^ ::^^ 3 ^ o>^ 3^ 53> -» ^ Jl^ ?^:^ >^0 .ofc> > ^ > ..r > )v s> _ > i> ^^»'^^ ;>:> :> >J J>'>»3^>> ->^ >^ :>^ ^> > ^ ^ 3> :> •I :>>^^5^>^ ^ '^ OV5) :> V^^0 _3. ;o >> » )\ :> ^^. >^ >3 >■ •. 5^V^^ jD ^ >> i:: >^ yz ^>^2 ^^ i! » :> :» i :>5 i> ^^ T >:> o>^y 3^ 33>>3 :3>» : ry JO yo) D ■x:> JO :>^)>:>') ^J> 3) Jf S>J) :v>o 3 ;:: ®oIttmt>ia ©olljcgje INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW February 3, 1890 PROCEEDINGS AT THE INSTALLATION SETH LOW, LLD. PRESIDENT OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK , FEBRUARY 3, 1890 -r NEW YORK PRINTED FOR THE COLLEGE APRIL, 1890 ^?y 1 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW The Honorable Seth Low, of the Class of 1870, was elected President of Columbia College in the city of New York, at the meeting of the Trustees of the College held on Monday, the seventh day of October, 1889. He accepted the office in the following letter : 201 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, Oct. 28, 1889. Gerard Beekman, Esq., Clerk of the Trustees of Columbia College : Sir: — I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your official communication informing me of my election by the Trustees as President of Columbia College. The honor is at the same time the summons to a duty which I may not decline. I accept, therefore, the position to which I have been chosen, with grateful thanks to my colleagues for this culminating mark of their confidence and good-will, and with the assurance that I will do every thing in my power to justify their judgment. If it is acceptable to the Trustees, I should propose to assume the duties of the President at the beginning of the second term, or about the first week in February. I am permitted to say, by the courtesy of my old and valued friend, the Acting President, Dr. Drisler, that this time commends itself to him, also, as the best time for the new presidency to begin. With great respect, I am. Yours faithfully, Seth Low. 4 COLUMBIA COLLEGE. A committee of Trustees, with the Acting President of the College, the Secretary of the Board of the College, and the President of the Association of the Alumni, made the preliminary arrangements, and, on its report and recommen- dation, the Trustees, at their stated meeting of December 2, 1889, authorized the leasing of the Metropolitan Opera House for the installation ceremonies, directed " that all the Faculties of the College be invited to unite in choosing a representative to make an address on their behalf on the occasion of the Installation of the President-elect " ; "that the Governing Bodies of the Alumni Associations of the College be invited to unite in choosing a representative to make an address on behalf of all the Alumni on that occa- sion " ; "that the members of the several Faculties, and other officers of instruction, of the College, be requested " to appear, at the Installation, in academic costume of cap and gown. The chairman of the Board of Trustees, the Hon. Hamil- ton Fish, LL.D., having been, at his own request, excused, by reason of uncertain health, from making the address of Installation, the Reverend Morgan Dix, S.T.D., D.C.L., was appointed to make the address on behalf of the Trustees. At the same meeting of December 2, the Trustees appointed a committee consisting of : The Hon. Hamilton Fish, LL.D., chairman, Joseph W. Harper, George L. Peabody, M.D., William C. Schermerhorn, John Crosby Brown, Prof. Henry Drisler, LL.D., Acting President of the College, Prof. J. H. Van Amringe, Ph.D., Secretary of the Board of the College, " to prepare and take charge of the proceedings on the oc- casion of the Installation of the President-elect." The committee appointed Professor Van Amringe its secretary, and charged him with the carrying out of such arrangements as might be made. INSTALLA TION OF PRESIDENT LO W. 5 Early official notice was received that all the Faculties of the College had united in choosing Henry Drisler, LL.D., Senior Professor and Acting President, to make the address on their behalf on the occasion of the Installation of the President-elect, and that the Governing Bodies of the Alumni Associations had united in choosing Frederic R. Coudert, LL.D., of the class of 1850, President of the Alumni Association of the College, to make the address on behalf of all the alumni. In the name of the Trustees, the committee issued invitations to be present at the installation proceedings to : The President of the United States and the members of his Cabinet ; The Chief-Justice and the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States ; The Senators of the United States from the State of New York; The Superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey ; The Chief Signal Officer of the United States ; The Superintendent of the United States Naval Ob- servatory ; The United States Commissioner of Education ; The following officers of the State of New York, viz. : the Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor, the Secretary of State, the Treasurer, the Comptroller, the Attorney-General, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Adjutant-General, the State Engineer, the Speaker of the Assembly, the Chan- cellor of the University of the State of New York ; The following officers of the city of New York, viz. : the Mayor, the President of the Board of Aldermen, the Comptroller, the President of the Board of Education ; The following officers of the city of Brooklyn, viz. : the Mayor, the President of the Board of Aldermen, the Comp- troller, the City Auditor ; The President, and a delegation from the Faculty, of each of seventy American Colleges and Universities ; A delegation from the Faculty of each of eight Theo- logical Seminaries ; 6 COLUMBIA COLLEGE. The Professors constituting the Faculty of the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the city of New York ; The Professors constituting the Faculty of the Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York ; The members of the Vestry of Trinity Parish in the city of New York ; A delegation from the governing bodies of each of vari- ous institutions and of scientific and learned bodies to the number of twenty-five ; The Trustees, and the Professors constituting the Faculty, of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Medical Depart- ment of Columbia College ; The officers and the members of the Standing Committee of the Association of the Alumni of Columbia College ; The officers and the managers of the Alumni Association of the School of Mines of Columbia College ; The Trustees of Barnard College, New York City ; The Trustees, and the Professors constituting the Faculty, of the Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. ; The Trustees of Packer Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Four hundred others, gentlemen of consideration and distinction in the various walks of life. The Alumni of the College, in all its departments, were notified through the public press, and to every alumnus, whose address was known, was sent a copy of the following circular : Columbia College, New York, January, 1890. The Installation of Seth Low, LL.D., as President of Columbia College, will take place at the Metropolitan Opera House, Broadway and 39th Street, on Monday morning, February the third, at half-past ten o'clock. The Parquette has been reserved for the students of the College, and the boxes for officers and invited guests. The Dress Circle, the Balcony, and the Family Circle, INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. J having together a seating capacity of about i,8oo, are for the use of alumni generally and members of their families. Tickets of admission may be had on application, in writing, to the Secretary of the Board of the College. The favorable responses to the invitations were very numerous, and, on the occasion of the Installation, the Metropolitan Opera House was well filled with a brilliant and representative assemblage. The Grand Marshal of the day was George G. De Witt, Jr., of the Class of 1867, who was assisted in his duties by MARSHALS. William G. Lathrop, Jr., George G. Kip, Abraham Van Santvoord, John V. Wheeler, Nicholas Fish, Fredk. de Peyster Foster, Henry D. Babcock, William A. Duer, Alexander B. Simonds, Gilbert M. Spier, Jr., John T. Williams, Robert C. Cornell, Edward S. Rapallo, Wm. de L. Benedict, John B. Pine, Edward E. Sage, James W. Pryor, Frederick D. Phillips, Wm. Fellowes Morgan, Alvan H. Van Sinderen, William S. Sloan, M. Orme Wilson, George A Suter, Lincoln Cromwell, Edward P. Casey, Thatcher T. P. Luquer, and by the following undergraduates, representatives of every class of students of each of the Schools upon the College Block, as AIDS. Marston T, Bogert, Thomas M. St. John, Charles L. Livingston, T. M. Randolph Meikleham, John A. Dempsey, Reginald H. Arnold, Charles C. Kalbfleisch, Rolla B. Watson, John F. Putnam, George C. Southard, 8 COLUMBIA COLLEGE. Lindley M. Keasbey, Arthur T. Hewlett, George H. Walker, Edward L. Dufourcq, Clarence C. Ferris, Harvey R. Kingsley, Robert A, Ashworth, Reginald G. Foster, Frederick E. Pierce, William R. Brinckerhoff, William A. Taintor. A delegation from the students of the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons, Medical Department of Columbia Col- lege, was present by invitation, under the marshalship of Herman C. Riggs. The guests proceeded from the Assembly Room to the stage in the following ORDER OF PROCESSION. 1. Trustees of Columbia College. 2. Regents of the University of the State of New York. 3. Representatives of the United States, State, and City Governments, and officers of the Army and Navy. 4. Chaplain of Columbia College. 5. Professors of Columbia College. 6. Instructors, Tutors, and Fellows of Columbia College. 7. Presidents of other Universities and Colleges. 8. Delegates from other Universities and Colleges. 9. The Reverend Clergy. 10. Other invited guests. TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. The Chairman of the Board and the President-elect, William C. Schermerhorn, Morgan Dix, S.T.D., D.C.L., Samuel Blatchford, LL.D., Stephen P. Nash, LL.D., Joseph W. Harper, Charles A. Silliman, Frederick A. Schermerhorn, Gerard Beekman, Abram N. Littlejohn, D.D., Edward Mitchell, INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. W. Bayard Cutting, George L. Rives, George L. Peabody, M.D., Charles M. DaCosta, William H. Draper, M.D., Talbot W. Chambers, S.T.D., Lenox Smith, John Crosby Brown, Henry C. Potter, D.D., LL.D. (Cantab.), Marvin R. Vincent, S.T.D. Heading the body of Professors of the College was Senior Professor Drisler, orator of the day on behalf of all the fac- ulties, accompanied by Frederic R. Coudert, Esq., LL.D., orator on behalf of all the alumni. The remaining Profes- sors, the Instructors, Tutors, and Fellows of the College followed in order of their appointment : PROFESSORS. William G. Peck, Ph.D., Theodore W. Dwight, LL.D., LL.D., John Ordronaux, M.D., J. Howard Van Amringe, LL.D., A.M., Ph.D., Ogden N. Rood, A.M., Thomas Egleston, E.M., Ph.D., LL.D., Charles F. Chandler, Ph.D., John S. Newberry, M.D., . M.D., LL.D., LL.D., George Chase, LL.B,, John W. Burgess, A.M., Ph.D., LL.D., William P. Trowbridge, Henry S. Munroe, E.M., Ph.D., LL.D., Ph.D. Richmond M. Smith, A.M., Charles Sprague Smith, A.M., Augustus C. Merriam, A.M., Thomas R. Price, A.M., Ph.D., LL.D., Frederick R. Hutton, E.M., Hjalmar H. Boyesen, Ph.D., Ph.D., John K. Rees, A.M., E.M., Benjamin F. Lee, LL.D., Munroe Smith, A.M., John D. Quackenbos, A.M., J.U.D., M.D., Pierre de P. Ricketts, E.M., Elwyn Waller, A.M., E.M., Ph.D., Ph.D., lO COLUMBIA COLLEGE. Jasper T. Goodwin, A.M., Frank J. Goodnow, A.M., LL.B., LL.B., Richard J. H. Gottheil, Edwin R. A. Seligman, Ph.D., LL.B., Ph.D., Harry T. Peck, A.M., Ph.D., Nicholas Murray Butler, L.H.D., Ph.D., William H. Carpenter, Ph.D., Alfred D. F. Hamlin, A.M. INSTRUCTORS. TUTORS. FELLOWS. The ceremonies attending the Installation proceeded in accordance with the following ORDER OF EXERCISES. Overture : Introduction to Act III Meistersinger (Wagner) Orchestra. Processional, Orchestra. L Prayer, By the Rev. Cornelius R. Duffie, S.T.D., Chaplain of the College. IL Address on behalf of the Trustees, By the Rev. Morgan Dix. S.T.D., D.C.L. in. The Installation, By the Hon. Hamilton Fish, LL.D., Chairman of the Board of Trustees. IV. Reply by the President. Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Orpheus (Gluck) Orchestra. INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. II V. Address on behalf of all the Faculties, By Professor Henry Drisler, LL.D. VI. Address on behalf of all the Alumni, By Frederic R. Coudert, LL.D., of the Class of 1850, VII. Reply by the President. Air on the G String (Bach) Orchestra. VIII. President's Inaugural Address. IX. Benediction, By the Right Rev. Henry C. Potter, D.D., LL.D. (Cantab.) Bishop of New York. March from The Ruins of Athens (Beethoven) Orchestra. This narrative may appropriately conclude with an edito- rial article from the accomplished pen of GEORGE WiLLlAM Curtis, which appeared in Harper s Weekly of February 15, 1890, entitled "A GREAT DAY FOR COLUMBIA." The Installation of the new President of Columbia Col- lege in the city of New York was an event of very great interest and significance. A man of scholarly accomplish- ment and training, of great experience in public and com- mercial affairs, of a singularly sound and wise judgment, of tried administrative skill, and of tranquil independence and courage, blended with admirable moderation, is called, in the full vigor of his manhood and before middle age, to the conduct of a College which had a close and intimate rela- 12 COLUMBIA COLLEGE. tion to the local and national life of the last century, but whose influence upon the modern life of New York and the country has been less marked. The proceedings in the Metropolitan Opera House, which offers a fitting and stately scene for so dignified and impressive a ceremonial, were worthy of the great occasion. The vast and sympathetic audience and the distinguished assembly of guests, which was probably as notable a gathering of men most eminent in institutions of learning as has been seen in the country, except perhaps at the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of Harvard, listened with unflagging sympathy to a series of admirable addresses, in which not only the highest proprieties of the occasion were observed, but in the more important of which the tone was signifi- cant and unmistakable. The chief address was the inaugural oration of President Low. Like all his addresses of the day, it was spoken without notes, and with the easy and simple self-possession of a master of the occasion and the situation. The address itself was briefly historical, and then passed naturally to a statement of the scope of a great university, and to a strong plea from one of the best representatives of the character- istic activities of New York for the generous support by New York of an institution which, with so fine an historic tradition, represents the intellectual and spiritual forces which are the enduring foundations of human society. It was a strong, wise, dignified, and eloquent appeal, and it was impossible not to feel that with the orator at the head of the College, now peculiarly prosperous if compared with previous years, and with public sentiment more friendly, than since its earlier day, the probability of a generous and effective local public sympathy would soon be apparent. In the evening, at the brilliant dinner of the Alumni, President Low made some very interesting and detailed statements in regard to the pecuniary condition and pros- pects of the College, and added the emphatic remark that while its resources seemed large, the expenses of such an institution, if adequately maintained and reasonably en- INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 1 3 larged, would be very much greater than any income now possible. President Eliot, of Harvard, in a frank and friendly speech, which fitly ended the proceedings of a memorable college day with the counsel and benediction of our oldest college, mentioned some facts in regard to Harvard similar to those respecting Columbia mentioned by President Low. Upon this subject the moral of the Har- vard President's speech was that Columbia required a more liberal support from New York than it had received, and that with such support it would become an institution in extent and variety, no less than in quality, worthy of the chief city of the country. His concluding remarks upon the true range and scope of such an institution were in a lofty strain, which was as delightful as it was natural, be- cause it was the true voice of Harvard. It was the close of a day of renewed hope and faith and energy, which had recalled Jay and Hamilton, Livingston and Morris, Clinton and Verplanck, to illustrate the early leadership of Colum- bia, and to stimulate the just pride of a great city in its oldest school. The chief colleges which were not too dis- tant had come to congratulate their comrade. A host of proud Alumni were gathered to cheer the happy event. " It is a great day for Columbia," said Mr. Coudert, the President of the Alumni, as with quaint humor and felici- tous eloquence he presided at the dinner ; " but it is a greater day for New York." ADDRESSES. 15 ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE TRUSTEES BY The Rev. MORGAN DIX, S.T.D., D.C.L. The Trustees of Columbia College have requested me to take the place of the honorable and eminent Chairman of their Board, whose uncertain state of health constrains him, to the regret of all present, to decline the exercise of a prerogative of his office ; and have directed me to address you in their name, on this auspicious occasion of your inauguration as our President. The official act of the day is per- formed without misgiving. If you were now coming to us, a stranger to the place, and not yet intimately known to our corporate body, we might perhaps have paused for a moment to scan the future, and endeavor to forecast your course. But it is not so ; you are no stranger, but one of our own official household. A distinguished alumnus of the College, and noted, from the outset, for your devotion to your Alma Mater, you were called, at the proper time, to a place in the governing body, and there have we sat together as colleagues. Your mind is known to us ; we are familiar with your lines of thought, your mode of handling practical subjects, your views on the ques- 17 1 8 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. tions of policy, and your patience and industry in affairs of administration. With the advantage of that intimate acquaintance, we took a step which attested our confidence in your mental qualities, your intellectual ability, your moral and religious charac- ter, and your personal honor, and, by our vote, entrusted the interests of this venerable institution to your care. That act, itself an evidence of the esteem in which you are held, dispenses with the customary use of formal congratulations. Indeed, the occasion is not one for complimentary speech ; a serious pur- pose moves and inspires the actors in this scene. Deeply sensible of their responsibility for the future welfare of this ancient seat of learning, the Trustees have selected as its President one who has given full proof of wisdom and earnest intention, and is consid- ered to be eminently qualified to bear the weighty burden laid on him to-day. It is an instinct with men, on such occasions as this, to cast a retrospective glance at the past. You, sir, are the eleventh in the list of the Presidents of Co- lumbia College. To recount the names of all your distinguished predecessors is unnecessary, but I crave permission to allude to the two next before you in order. On the evening of Monday, November 7, 1849, ^^ '^^ College Chapel, on our old site between Park Place and Church Street, Mr. Charles King was formally installed. The official acts were performed on that occasion by General Laight, Chairman of the Board ; the address of welcome was delivered by that reverend and accomplished gentleman, Professor John McVickar. It is worthy of note that the accession of Mr. King was hailed on the score of his practical ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE TRUSTEES. I9 familiarity with public affairs, in the belief that his administration would open a new sphere of popular influence, and strengthen the bonds of sympathy between our College and this great commercial metropolis. It may also be observed that in the addresses delivered on the occasion there is an echo faint, yet distinct, of the din of arms. On the right of the President-elect at the inauguration cere- monies, sat one of the most illustrious soldiers of his day, then decorated with laurels freshly gathered from the field of a successful foreign war ; for the treaty of peace with Mexico had been made February 2, 1848. The era was one of transition in our College history ; preparations were already on foot for a change of site, and an expansion of our educational system. Fifteen years passed by, and then, on Mon- day, October 3, 1864, on the present site of the Col- lege, and in the Chapel, the inauguration of that illustrious man took place whom it is the first of your distinctions to succeed. The address on that occasion was made by him who, for thirty years, has admirably filled the ofifice of Chairman of this Board, and still adorns our Coun- cil-room by his presence and illuminates our delibera- tions by his learning and wisdom, a man to whom the whole community do honor, whose fame is the possession of his country. Then, as at the previous inauguration, was heard the sound of conflict, and more distinctly than before ; for we were in the third year of a terrible war, which tried men's souls, and ended in the overthrow of every power opposed to the cause of the nation. To-day, in happy contrast, our ears attend no unwelcome or intrusive cry ; the 20 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. day of your inauguration is a day of peace ; favoring signs now bid us advance without fear, while learning unfolds her treasures, and science displays her wonders, and religion invokes a benediction from on high. We have no word of counsel to offer on this occa- sion. Yesterday your companions in office, to-day the supporters of your administration, it suffices that we pledge to you simply and frankly our cordial sup- port. You are well acquainted with the traditions of the College. You recall perhaps the words spoken by President Barnard twenty-six years ago ; words worthy of being engraved on tablets, and set up at the entering in of our gates. " I trust," said that great man, "that Columbia College may continue to be what she has ever hitherto been — a nursery of sound learning and a school of thorough intellectual training. I trust that she may continue to foster, no less assiduously than heretofore, the love of that noble literature of antiquity, which has ever been esteemed the indispensable basis of finished scholar- ship ; and that she may, at the same time, open wide the way to those rich treasures of science which the tireless spirit of modern investigation has wrung from nature by the direct interrogation of the glorious works of God. I trust that, while firmly holding fast that which is good of the accumulated learning of the past, she may show herself equally alive to the splen- dor of the intellectual triumphs which distinguish and illustrate the present ; and may even take rank as a positive participant in those grand movements of progress by which the boundaries of human knowl- edge are extended, and the human race itself lifted to a higher level in the scale of being." ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE TRUSTEES. 21 These aspirations are ours also ; we believe them to be your own. We desire to see the honor of Co- lumbia College maintained, as a school in which the entire man is educated, and the whole nature directed to a symmetrical growth. It is not merely the num- ber of students that constitutes the glory of a seat of learning, but the thoroughness with which the work of their instruction is done. It is not the popular voice which is to decide the form or limits of educa- tion ; come from what quarter it will, dictation to the governing body of a university is an assault on their rights, and an effort at usurping their authority ; for the business of education is to mould, and not to be moulded by, those on whom it operates. You, sir, will look not to what may be impatiently or ignorantly demanded of us, but solely to what ought to be, for the honor of the College, for the benefit of ingenuous youth, and for the greatest good to the people. In your efforts that way you may count on us to uphold you in every trial, and to second you in every design for the advancement of the age. Great is the contrast between the simple scenes of other days and that presented in this vast building, which is hardly capacious enough to contain the sympathetic spectators of this imposing ceremonial. You stand here surrounded by an admiring and en- thusiastic assemblage ; by the learned in every liberal profession ; by men distinguished for ability in the community ; by the fair, who regard you with that kind interest which is ever the spur and stimulus to honorable ambition ; by these young men whom we now solemnly confide to your care. You enter upon your office with great advantages : in the prime of 22 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. manly strength ; conspicuous in the community for knowledge of the world, experience in affairs, rever- ence for sacred things, an incorruptible fidelity to the right, an honest abhorrence of the wrong and the bad. What may not be hoped from a Presidency begun under such auspicious omens, and supported at the start by such a host of consenting and appreciative adherents as this which now surrounds you ? The work, from this day onward, must dilate and grow. You are to direct that growth. May you now go forth In the strength of powers higher than those of this mortal sphere, and may the chapter In our his- tory, to be penned by your hand, be among the brightest and best in our annals ! THE INSTALLATION By the Hon. HAMILTON FISH, LL.D., Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Doctor Low : It is with much satisfaction and confidence, that I have now to discharge the ministerial and ceremonial duty which falls to me, on this occasion, as the Chair- man of the Trustees of Columbia College. I am to deliver to you a copy of the Charter of the College, to whose head you have been chosen. It defines the extent and the limitations of the powers of the Trustees, as well as of the President. Further — I am, by authority, and in the name of the Trustees, to place in your custody, while you remain its President, these keys of the College, in testimony of the high charge, and responsibility placed in you, as such President, and of your duty to guard and pro- tect the property, and the interests of the College, and to maintain order and discipline within its precincts. It now remains only for me to congratulate both you and the College on your election to the Presi- dency, and, in the name of the Trustees, to present you to this vast assemblage ; to our distinguished Guests and Friends present and honoring this occa- sion ; to our Professors and other Instructors ; to our Students of both sexes ; to our Alumni ; as the duly elected and installed President of Columbia College. 23 PRESIDENT LOW'S REPLY TO THE ADDRESS ON THE PART OF THE TRUSTEES. Mr. Chairman, Reverend Sir, a7zd Gentlemen of the Trustees : Reverently, as one who recognizes the importance of the work, I accept the charge you have committed to my care. Enthusiastically, as one who believes in the greatness of its possibilities, I give myself to it. Loyally, as becomes one of her own sons, I will serve Alma Mater with every power that I have. It is to me an inspiring thought that the old College had been doing her glorious work for a century before I was born. The vision of the centuries to come to be blessed by her labors will never be absent from my mind. This vision will give dignity and solemnity to every act. It is as though in the life of the College our own lives were to be prolonged like those of the patriarchs of old, so that we can recognize distinctly the direct bearing of that which we do to-day upon conditions that are to exist long after we are gone. You have spoken, sir, of the installation of my two immediate predecessors. It is interesting to reflect that the terms of service of these two distinguished men cover a period longer than my whole life. I had not yet come to college when Dr. Barnard entered upon his illustrious career as Columbia's President. In 1864, when Dr. Barnard began his labors here, 24 THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY TO THE TRUSTEES. 2$ Columbia College was but the skeleton of the fair institution which to-day is committed to my care. Since the world began, men have labored and others have entered into the fruit of their labors. I gladly recognize for myself, and for all who love Columbia, the invaluable services rendered to the College by my great predecessor. He came to a college having an Undergraduate Department of i66 students, having a Law School of 169 students, and having a School of Mines in embryo, about to begin its work in the basement of the old college building. The relation of the School of Medicine, or the College of Physicians and Surgeons, to Columbia, was then, as now, a singular one. It is by law the medical school of Columbia College, and its degrees bear the signature of Columbia's President, but it has its own Board of Trustees, and provides its own funds. Dr. Barnard lived to see the modest institution to which he came in 1864, transformed into the Columbia of the present time, splendid in its equipments, buoyant in courage, and full of anticipations of a destiny worthy of its location in the great American metropolis. The undergraduate department has doubled in size since 1864. It has more than doubled the facilities which it offers to those who come to it as students. I scarcely recognize even the College of 1870 in the institution which I visit to-day. Many familiar faces greet me still ; men whom I learned to honor then, and whose friendship and confidence I cherish now as among the greatest of my own honors ; but the buildings in which they teach, and the facilities at their command for teaching, are improved almost beyond description. The requirements for admission 26 INSTALLA TION OF PRESIDENT LO W. have been raised, the course has been enlarged, and the opportunities for varied instruction have been greatly increased. The Law School has trebled its numbers, and, at the same time, enlarged its course. The able and distinguished man who came to Colum- bia as the first head of the Law School is at its head still, and gives to it the unique reputation among the law schools of the land of his own eminent and illus- trious name. Professor Dwight may reflect, with confidence, that the influence and importance of the school, to which he has given so many years of his life, will be enduring. It shall not last so long, how- ever, that what it owes to him will be forgotten. The School of Mines, which Dr. Barnard opened in the basement of the old building, he left in posses- sion of the largest quarters upon the College block. The historic name, the School of Mines, covers its manifold activity still, but it long ago became, in fact, a school of applied science. Beside fitting men to be mining engineers, it has courses in civil engi- neering, metallurgy, geology, analytical and applied chemistry, architecture, sanitary engineering, and electrical engineering. In all these departments it challenges comparison with the best work done in the country. It is a name to conjure with for a man who holds its degree. Beside the development of these existing schools, there has been added to them the School of Political Science, to meet the well recognized need for training in social and economic and constitutional questions. I was pleased to be told, the other day, in another city, by a man well competent to judge, that there was no place in the country where any thing like so thorough an educa- THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY TO THE TRUSTEES. 2/ tion in these subjects could be had as in Columbia's School of Political Science. Added to all this is the marvellous growth and the complete transformation of the Library. The Library, which was in my day substantially of no use to the students of the College, has become an invaluable instrument both to the instructors and to the students, and also to the scholars of New York. A Library building delight- ful in all its arrangements has taken the place of the bare and unattractive room. The number of volumes at command has more than doubled ; the quality of current additions is believed to be exceptionally high ; the policy of the Library has been completely changed. There is no library in the city, I venture to think there is none in the country, where the student is more welcome, where the facilities granted him are so great. No part of the college system is more liberally supported or more generously dealt with, for it is recognized to be a laboratory of all the departments of the College. Changes such as these imply three things : they imply an increase of resources, wise leadership, and generous support on the part of the Trustees. Dr. Barnard once told me, while I was still in College, that prior to 1867 there had not been a year, with a single exception, for many years, when Columbia had not spent more than its income. I apprehend that such a statement comes like a surprise to the ears of New York. What it cost the College, the efforts it was obliged to make to retain the property from which it now receives its endowments and to meet the heavy assessments for improvements, while the income from the property was based upon rentals fixed in the distant past, none 28 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. but the Trustees will ever know. It is worth while to point out that substantially all the growth which I have indicated has been made since 1867, through the fallinof in of leases that matured about that time. The same causes have led to similar conditions again, of late years, and the College is only now once more reaching the point where it can command still further growth. It is barely two years since it found its way out of embarrassments of the most serious char- acter. In this interval of less than two years the Col- lege has already established a course of electrical engineering, has erected a building for it, and is now equipping it, and has added a third year to the course in the Law School, making proper provision for the increased instruction. It is not to be doubted that, just as before, the College will expand its useful- ness as rapidly as it can do so wisely up to the full limit of its means. As to the leadership of Dr. Bar- nard I need not enlarge further. He is recognized by all to have been one of the most profoundly learned men on this side of the Atlantic. He brought to the service of the College a single pur- pose and a devotion that was complete. To the day of his death he remained one of the most progressive spirits of our time. With this learning, this devotion, this progressiveness, Dr. Barnard served Columbia for a quarter of a century. His achievements are recorded in the archives of the College and in the educational history of the country. His memory is enshrined in the hearts of all who love Columbia both far and near. I named a third element as con- tributing to the progress of these last twenty-five years. Without the support of the Trustees none of THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY TO THE TRUSTEES. 2g these improvements could have been made. The president of a college may plan ever so wisely ; he may devote himself to its service with an energy and devotion that know no fatigue, but unless the trustees of the college give him a glad and hearty support his best efforts will be of little avail. It makes no small part of the courage which has led me to undertake the duties to which you have called me, that I come to this position as one of your own body, chosen, as your spokesman has said, after mature considera- tion, with a full knowledge of my spirit and a large acquaintance with ijiy views. Such an one may rea- sonably expect from the Trustees the heartiest co- operation and support. Had I doubted whether I should receive these, nothing could have induced me to accept the obligations of this day. But it is my good- fortune to know the Trustees as well as they know me, and as a fruit of this knowledge I am here. I thank you for the confidence expressed in me in your words. I thank you for the still more conspicuous evidence of confidence involved in my election ; I pledge you my most earnest efforts to justify that confidence and to merit your support. In the full assurance that we are animated by a common pur- pose to maintain inviolate the trust that has come to us from the past, by a common desire to make the College serve our own day and generation to the full measure of our opportunity, by a common hope that we may plan wisely and build on the old foundations strongly for those who are to come after us, I am ready now to enter upon my new work. ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF ALL THE FACULTIES BY Prof. HENRY DRISLER, LL.D. President Low : Chosen by the united Faculties of Columbia Col- lege as their representative on this most interesting and memorable occasion, I greet you as our President with most hearty words of welcome. Among the many causes of our congratulations on your accession to the Presidency, not the least is the fact that the Trustees of the College, after long and careful con- sideration, found no one so worthy of the high and responsible office as one of her own sons. Forty years have passed since this post of honor has been held by a son of Alma Mater. This is not said in derogation of the distinguished and excellent men who have filled this position ; on the contrary, we regard their learning, their zeal, their labors for the advancement of the College, with respect and admi- ration. We merely point to the fact that Columbia has shown in past years her great liberality and free- dom from all narrow exclusiveness. The Charter and the Statutes devolve upon the President exten- sive powers and great responsibility ; they also consti- tute the Faculties advisory councils, " to assist the President in the government and education of the 30 ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE FACULTIES. 3 1 Students belonging to the (said) College." To us, therefore, the selection of a (new) President must naturally be a matter of serious import. Not alone the institutions of different nations have methods and usages which constitute, as it were, their intellectual atmosphere, but in the same nation in an institution of long standing its traditions become crystallized, and there arises an unwTitten law which is of bindinsf force. Educational institutions are conservative in their character; and, while admitting genuine re- forms or modifications, require that those reforms should be made only after calm and careful delibera- tion. A stranger to our traditions, therefore, must make his way by slow degrees, and will need time to accommodate himself to new conditions and secure the confidence of new counsellors. In the present case no such reserve, no such process, is necessary. To you, Mr. President, a loyal son of Alma Mater, trained under her teaching, imbibing her traditions, accepting the foundation principles of her existence, as expressed in her Charter, " for the instruction of youth in the learned languages and the liberal arts and sciences," we can, and we do, unhesitatingly pledge our implicit confidence and our loyal sup- port. Your entrance upon the administration of her affairs at this most important crisis in the develop- ment of our College system seems but the culmina- tion of a long but unconscious preparation. Strong attachment to the studies of your youth, not laid aside in maturer years, but cherished amid the pressing cares of an active live, the business habits formed in the management of extensive commercial enterprises, earnest participation in the promotion of good mor- 32 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. als and religion, the discharge with rare fidelity and general acceptance of the duties of the administra- tion of a great city, combined with a calm judgment free from bias, have shown you possessed of very many, if not all, of the essential qualities of a suc- cessful executive officer. We therefore look to you with confident reliance on your impartial treatment of the important questions that will, in the near future, present themselves for your advice and co-operation. The members of the several Faculties, as well as the educated public, will expect of you, while maintaining the long-tried and approved disciplinary studies that form the basis of the College course, in conjunction with the Trustees also to have ever in view the due, deliberate, and systematic development of new de- partments of study to meet the ever increasing and diverging demands of modern life. Out of the old College have grown already a well-established and highly successful School of Law, and School of Mines ; of later growth, but of increasing importance and wide usefulness, has followed a School of Political Science ; other schools and departments of study are taking shape and only waiting the fitting moment to spring, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, ready armed and equipped for active service. These matters be- long in their authorization to the Trustees and the President, to us in their development and applica- tion. In this development and application, it will be our pleasure as well as our duty to render you all aid and encouragement in our several relations. You will find each Faculty, and every member of each Faculty, ready and eager to aid in building up an in- stitution such as may be an honor to the great city ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE FACULTIES. 33 in which is its home and where must be its sphere of usefulness. More personal than the relation of coun- sellors will be the associations in friendly and social intercourse. In the smaller cities and towns, the University or College gives the tone to society, and its celebrations are the great events of each recurring season. In our great commercial city, the College influence is too slightly felt. We look to you to bring the College into closer relations with the life of this community. Already many learned societies cluster around it, and find hospitable accommodation within its walls. The liberal and thoughtful action of our Trustees provides each year for the benefit and instruction of the general public, who cannot avail themselves of its more serious studies, lectures on topics of literature, science, and philosophy. As the administrator of this liberality, you will have the opportunity and the power to extend the influence and usefulness of the College throughout the com- munity in ever widening circles. To you, Mr. President, who now enter upon your duties with the full confidence of the Trustees, with the loyal support of all the Faculties of the College, and with the enthusiastic approval of the Alumni, in the name of my colleagues and as their representa- tive, and for myself personally, I renew the words of welcome, and wish for you a long, honorable, and successful administration. ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF ALL THE ALUMNI BY FREDERIC R. COUDERT, LL.D. And now, Mr. President, come the Alumni to add their greeting, to testify their joy, and^to tender their counsel. This last and most important function they could not well omit, lest they fail in their duty to you and especially to themselves. For we are not unmindful that it has always been the pride of a good judge to amplify his own jurisdiction, and the lauda- ble effort of every body of men to assert their power and extend their authority. Whatever else we fail in to-day, we shall not be remiss or hesitating, when we advance the claims of the Alumni, to impress upon you at one and the same time the value of their counsel and the necessity of their existence. The Alumni of Columbia stand, in relation to the governing powers, much as the Third Estate of France did to the other two, viz., the Clergy and the Nobility ; both these orders being with us largely and well represented by the Trustees and the Faculty, in whose ranks may be found worthy members of the sacred profession, quite competent by their merit to leaven even a larger mass of laymen. The direction of Columbia's policy, the administration of her finances, a wise and patient concern for her moral 34 ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE ALUMNI. 35 welfare, the judicious appropriation of whatever may be useful in the new devices that agitate our educa- tional world — all these things have been committed to and dealt with by our two estates. As to this, our Third Estate, a prudent disinclination to indulge in boldness of speech prevents my claiming what was claimed for that subdivision of the French nation. " What is the Third Estate ?" once cried a member of that body ; " Nothing ! What ought it to be ? Every thing ! " Without venturing in this presence to echo the sentiment, even while quoting the language of this outspoken patriot, I may be pardoned when I look about me with exultation and find strong grounds for indulgence in something much akin to glorification. You, sir, are one of Columbia's hon- ored and favorite children — an Alumnus who always took a just pride in the title. The learned Professor who has just addressed us, and who has given us the best years of his useful life, belongs to Columbia's household and family. In our Board of Trustees the intelligence and care and wisdom of Columbia's chil- dren are predominant and most precious factors. Never before, I think, in her history has Columbia been so thoroughly herself as she is to-day. She may proudly defy all laws, wise or unwise, which embarrass the introduction of learning from abroad and prohibit the importation of foreign intellect by contract. Other institutions may suffer, but she, with her Alumni, is self-supporting — in that sense at least. Nor can it with truth be said that the accident of personal distinction accounts for the presence of our Alumni in these high places. We need no argument based upon exceptions to prove that Columbia has at 36 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. her back more than Ulysses or any dozen heroes — a compact, loyal, affectionate body of intelligent and self-respecting men to honor and to serve her. That she has these, and that they stand high on the roll of our city's and our country's most faithful servants, no man knows, sir, better than yourself. And these all stand by your side, loyal friends to applaud and rejoice when you shall have won great honor for yourself by doing full justice to her. But lest my language should create a wrong im- pression, let me add that the great distinction which Columbia has bestowed upon you is not the result of any narrow pride in her own children. You have been selected for the highest honor within her gift because of her full confidence in your capacity to do all that she expects from you. In proportion to the value of the gift shall be the return demanded ; she will exact full measure, to overflowing ; she will ex- pect all that your record teaches that she may demand : that your brain shall work and your heart shall beat for her and her glory, that you will respond to the inspiration of your surroundings, to the tra- ditions that will follow you at every step, to the eloquent admonitions of those who have gone before, and especially, as you take the seat so honorably filled for a quarter of a century, that you will resolve with generous ardor to follow him who filled it before you, not "with long interval and unequal steps," but with such earnestness of pursuit that the end of his career will prove to be but the beginning of a new one, destined, let us all hope, with the blessing of Providence, to be as long and as honored and as splendid in its results as his own. Else were the ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE ALUMNI. 37 promise of fruition from his great service to be broken before maturity. The past is not secure unless adopted, continued, and excelled by the future. That you are one of us in the best sense of the word adds much to our confidence. That Columbia has found a fitting successor for her great leader without crossing the boundaries of her own jurisdic- tion is a fact not without its bearing on the problems that she will have to deal with and to solve. These problems may seem many and arduous, but they will be shorn of their terror if you succeed in satisfying the citizen of New York that he is bound to Columbia by ties that he has no right to ignore and no power to break. Teach him, we pray you, that if there is any subject upon which he may well indulge in civic pride, it is the College that has worked so modestly and yet efficiently to train the men about him for every duty of life. Tell him, and impress upon him, if you may, that the glamour of distance, while it lights up with artistic beauty objects in the physical world, and conceals defects by suppressing them, does not add to the beauty of institutions whose excellence belongs to the moral order. Warn him against the delusive charms of a lovely mirage, against the fallacy which clothes the unknown with splendor, while the virtues of that which we possess become dwarfed by proximity and possession. It is not strange, perhaps, that our men of New York should seek far from home for that which they may find at hand. That is the story of every day and of every age. It is the key of much that would other- wise be unintelligible. Why do men change their sky when they cannot change their mind or heart ? 38 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. why do they, which is much more to our purpose, forget that Columbia is at their door, and yet fill the halls of other colleges with their sons — colleges great and good, no doubt, but possessing, we venture to think, no real claim to preference over your own Alma Mater. We at least may be pardoned for thinking that no paramount title exists in their favor ; none, perhaps, other than that which a glow- ing fancy paints, which Rumor, growing with dis- tance, boldly asserts, and which rests upon no securer foundation than the strange belief that the disruption of family ties is the first step to intellectual advance- ment. If you are at a loss how to impress upon the citizen of New York these teachings and warnings, turn to your old Horace, the universal medicine man in whose pharmacopoeia you will find a remedy for every ill that may be cured by common-sense and sound philosophy ; tell our citizens what he says to his friend Bullatius, the wanderer. He had visited Chios and Samos and Lesbos and lovely Mitylene, and yet the poet laughs at him for his pains, and chides him for his restlessness : "What you seek is herCy here at home, within your reach ; quod petis, hie est . , . animus si te non dejieit esquttsj' that is, if you have any judgment worth speaking of. Should they stubbornly refuse to listen to Horace, they are indeed far gone, and I must leave you to such devices as your experience of men, acquired in practical statesmanship, may suggest. Let me congratulate you upon the auspicious time which marks the beginning of your career as Colum- bia's President. The days of doubt and anxiety are past ; success has ceased to be a question. In friendly ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE ALUMNI. 39 rivalry for the front rank with her brilliant sisters, she occupies by common consent a most honorable place. She feels that with them she may share the great privilege of preparing the generations of the future to discharge all the duties of the citizen ; that she is doing and will do her part towards preserving the Republic. Upon the graduates of Columbia and Harvard and Yale and Princeton and others the suc- cess of our phenomenal experiment of governing our- selves must largely depend. General education, the most potent agent in our civilization, has removed old difficulties, but created new ones by enlarging the boundaries of our mental activities and opening new territories for the pioneers in the scientific and politi- cal world. There must be among us men who have the leisure to study, the brain to acquire, the oppor- tunity to advance ; who have the will, the ability, the learning, the equipoise that make the leaders, and they will be found to a great extent among college graduates. The delusion is disappearing that the science of government may be acquired by con- tagion ; the folly of trusting men upon their own statement of their own value has been ascertained by experience. Political science is not to be learned in a tavern and the experience of the past may not be disregarded without peril. Even the superstition that a knowledge of letters is inconsistent with a proper performance of public duties, or that it constitutes an impediment to serious business, has already reached its highest point and is in a condition of decline. Nor will you fail to rejoice in the good-fortune which enables you to broaden the usefulness of Co- 40 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. lumbia. An auspicious day has dawned upon our city, since woman may claim, if she will, equal oppor- tunity with man to drink at the fountain of knowledge, and to fit herself by study and preparation for the en- joyment of those literary and scientific pursuits which constitute the surest, safest, and most constant of all the charms of refined life. In spite of History, which proclaims on so many of its pages her ability to in- struct and delight the world, the indifference or selfishness of man had closed the doors of the Temple of Learning against her. Let Barnard College under your wise guidance stand henceforth as a protest against narrow intolerance, as a demonstration of woman's fitness for all that is good, and as a living proof that Columbia has turned her face to the light and thrown off the impedimenta of senseless prejudice. But I must stop — lest you do, what perhaps you have already done in your mind — namely, resort to Horace for consolation. I can give you the appropri- ate quotation, the one that you will find most apt ; it is the witch's prophecy that he heard when a boy : " This child neither shall cruel poison, nor hostile • sword, nor gout, nor pleurisy, nor cough destroy ; a talker shall one day demolish him ; if he is wise let him avoid talkative men as soon as he comes to man's estate." Hunc neqtie dira venena, nee hostis auferet ensis, Nee laterum dolor, aut tusszs, nee tarda podagra ; Garrtilus mine qua7ido eonsumet cunqtte ; loquaces, St sapiet, vitet simtil atque adoleverit cstas. Your life is too precious, sir, to be imperilled by farther speech. I forbear, and close with a renewed pledge of cordial and affectionate suppport from your brethren the Alumni. ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF ALL THE STUDENTS PRESENTED, BY PERMISSION, THROUGH THE CHAIRMAN OF THEIR COMMITTEE. To the Hon. Seth Low, LL.D., President of Columbia College : The students of Columbia College, in all its Schools and Departments, unite in welcoming you as their President. Your name has long been honored and beloved in the halls of the University over which you have now been called to preside. For nearly a score of years Columbia students have found in your ex- ample an inspiration, and in the record of your life a motive to earnest, unselfish, and enthusiastic endeavor. The loyal and steady devotion which you have manifested toward vour Alma Mater, both in the Association of the Alumni and on the Board of Trus- tees, has endeared you to the hearts of all Columbia men, and claims from us, as children of the same mother, that gratitude and respect the expression of which we now desire to convey to you. Your administration as Mayor of Brooklyn estab- lishes in us the confidence that your government here will be marked by wisdom, fairness, and progress. We take additional pleasure in the belief that the comparatively early age at which you have been called to this place of executive government, and your intimate identification with the varied interests 41 42 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. of college life, will cause us to find in you one who sympathizes fully with the thought and action of the undergraduate. Columbia's history is one of which we may well be proud. Her influence in the development of our civic and national life has been marked. We rejoice in the fame and honor won by her Alumni, and in the power which, through them, she wields in the com- munity. Among the students of the present time, college spirit is more intense than ever before. Ac- companied, as this is, by a hearty unanimity in all efforts to advance Columbia's standards, it argues well for the rapid advancement and development of the College in the near future. The true glory of a college consists not in the ex- tent of its domain, nor yet in the beauty of its walls, but rather in the worth and character of its men ; and in the lives trained here for useful work and ser- vice your administration will find its highest reward. In all your efforts for the welfare and upbuilding of the College we ask you to rely upon the heartfelt and unswerving loyalty of the whole student body. Respectfully, Thornton Bancroft Penfield, '90, School of Arts, Chair')na7t. Samuel Wakeman Andrews, Jr., '90, School of Mines, Secretary. Victor Mapes, '91, School of Arts. Rolla Barnum Watson, '91, School of Mines. Francis Herbert Brownell, '91, School of Law. Charles White Trippe, '92, School of Arts. Dudley Arthur Van Ingen, '92, School of Mines. Arthur Outram Sherman, '92, School of Law. Will Whyland, '93, School of Arts. Richard Bayley Post, Jr., '93, School of Mines. Committee. PRESIDENT LOW'S REPLY TO THE FACULTIES, THE ALUMNI, AND THE STUDENTS. Gentlemen of the Faculties and Gentlemen of the Alumni: I thank you for your cordial welcome to me as the President of Columbia. If the Trustees furnish the sinews for our work and give a general direction to it, the Faculties in reality make the College, and the Alumni certify to its value. In the best view, I think, we all belong to the Alumni rather than they to us. I esteem it one of the fortunate incidents connected with my Presidency, that I am assured in advance of their hearty support. In replying to the Faculties, I must needs say, sir, if you will allow me, first of all, a few words to yourself, who have spoken on their behalf. The friendship which began between us in our old relation of professor and student most happily has been an unbroken one. As I sat at your feet in college, so I have not ceased to learn from you those finer lessons which are taught by an upright and noble character. For more than forty years you have served Columbia faithfully and well. I like to think that in a certain sense I receive the Presidency at your hands. It comes to me largely, as I feel it, the gracious gift from age to youth, bearing with it for this reason a precious benediction and a large inspira- tion. The Faculties will appreciate, that as to the 43 44 INSTALLATION' OF PRESIDENT LOW. technical side of their work I must be for a long time a learner. I do indeed bring to your councils two new and different points of view, both of which may be valuable in the work we shall have to do together. I shall bring into your meetings the experience of a man of affairs and the point of view of the Trustees. I appreciate thoroughly the importance of the ques- tions that are awaiting the new order of things for determination. To these questions I can bring no better equipment than an open mind. I rely upon your patience and forbearance with me if matters which to you appear plain and simple on my part demand study and thought. I can promise you my most earnest efforts to acquaint myself promptly with the condition and needs of the College in all its parts. You will not expect me to-day to outline a policy. Were I to have a policy, under existing con- ditions, it would seem an evidence of unfitness for my post. Two points appear to me essential to the securing of the best results. We must conceive of the College as a single institution. In my view its various schools are as much integral parts of the College as the undergraduate department itself. This is fundamental, because, unless we have this view, it is impossible to make the different parts work to- gether to the best advantage toward common ends. This suggestion is entirely consistent, in my mind, with a belief that the School of Arts, the historic side of the College, is the foundation of the whole. I believe in doing better than ever, if we can, the work that the College has been doing from the beginning. But I see no reason why this work should not be so done as to co-operate with the different schools in the THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY TO THE FACULTIES, ETC. 45 work which they propose to do. Whatever can be made to grow out of the old root I should expect to be strong and sound. But I do not believe in de- stroying the old foundation in order to rest a new structure upon an uncertain base. While I say this I am in entire sympathy with the desire to see the College continue its development into a complete University adapted to the largest possible service to American needs. I hold myself open to conviction as to all details. I indicate simply what seems to me a fundamental condition of the problem. The other point which to my mind appears of vital consequence is a frank recognition of the fact that all parts of the work which the College has to do are honorable and worthy of our best service. Some men have the gift of leading students in research. Others have the gift of instruction, which is needed in the disciplinary work. It will be fatal to the best results if all the members of our Faculties wish to do either one rather than the other. Let us dispose our forces in such a way that each man shall have that kind of work to do which he is fitted for, and let each regard the other as employed in an equally honorable way as himself. I hope every man In the Faculties looks upon his own department as the most important one in the College. Of course the President may not hold this view. His duty is specially to observe and maintain the proportion of things. I cannot therefore promise to each of you that every thing which you wish will command my support ; but this I can promise to each and every one of you : that, in your efforts to make your own department conform to your highest ideal, you shall have my sympathy completely. You will 46 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. never feel, I trust, that you can trouble me by calling my attention to any matter which seems to you of consequence to the College. With your permission, I shall call on each of you in the same spirit. Acting thus together, we may reasonably anticipate, I think, a happy outcome of our labors. The Alumni of the College are those to whom we look specially for sup- port in the community. It is not enough for a col- lege to have large endowments. It must have living friends. The gifts of the past exhaust themselves. The bounties of the present should run in a perpetual stream. For the last few years the Trustees have sent to every Alumnus whose address was known an abstract of the President's report and a copy of the Treasurer's statement. It shall not be my fault if the Alumni in the future are not kept well informed as to the plans and hopes and doings of Alma Mater. They can bring to our aid, if they will, invaluable suggestions from their vantage-ground of experience. As there are none who have greater pride in the College, so there are none to whom the College should be able to turn with greater assurance of help. Columbia College, in my view, has an unequalled op- portunity by reason of its position in the city of New York. Its position here confronts it also with its special difficulties. The city is a great city, and it is not easy for any institution to make itself powerfully felt in so large a community. Nevertheless, gentlemen of the Alumni, that is precisely what we have to do. Much will depend, no doubt, on the attitude of the Trustees and the administration of the College. But both will fail unless the Alumni, entering into the life of the community as they do in a thousand ways, are thought- THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY TO THE FACULTIES, ETC. 47 ful for the good name of the College at all times. As has been said, it is forty years since an Alumnus of the College occupied the President's office. I am glad to believe that, in turning to my fellow-Alumni for counsel and support, I shall receive a glad and hearty response. I rejoice with you, sir, that in Bar- nard College Columbia has found a way in which she can with heartiness co-operate in advancing the higher education of women. Barnard College is governed, as you know, by its own trustees, and it is wholly dependent on the community for its support. But Columbia does undertake to shape its curriculum, to see that its standards are maintained, and to give to its graduates the recognition of a Columbia degree. For its name's sake and for its work's sake Barnard College may rest assured of my hearty and willing help. Gentleman of the Faculties and gentlemen of the Alumni, I thank you again for your warm welcome. Students of Columbia, I thank you for the warm welcome you have extended to me as the President of the College. No incident of the day is more grati- fying to me. I hope you will find me in sympathy with you in every matter which relates to your happi- ness as well as to your intellectual progress. Nothing which concerns you shall be foreign to me. I pledge you my best efforts to do every thing in my power to make your student days a bright and happy chapter in your lives. Again I thank you for your hearty welcome. PRESIDENT LOW'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. Mr. ChaiT'inan, Ladies and Gentlemen, Students of Columbia : In this majestic and historic city we are met to- gether at the call of Columbia College. No institu- tion in New York intertwines itself more closely with the city's history and the city's glory. George II. was still alive when, in 1754, the College had its beginnings in a New York numbering about thirteen thousand souls, of whom more than two thousand were held as slaves. The city and the College have grown together, until the College to-day, with its various schools, is among the foremost in the land. In the Revolutionary period the College, as repre- sented by its students and its graduates, was instinct with patriotism. Its name, Columbia, given to it to take the place of King's College, is not an accident. It was the natural selection for the Alma Mater of Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. Yet these men, if most conspicuous, were not singular among their college friends in their attachment to the American cause. The students of the College, like college stu- dents everywhere, had imbibed the spirit of liberty in the free air which men must breathe who follow after truth. All men know what services Hamilton ren- dered to the little republic which started on its marvellous career in this city a century ago. What 48 THE PRESIDENT'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 49 fitter gift could Columbia have made to New York, or New York to the nation, than the unequalled Minister of Finance whom Washington appointed the first Secretary of the Treasury ? As beneath the touch of Midas all things turned into gold, so beneath the skilful touch of Hamilton the nation converted into power resources which had been valueless. But the great minister did more than that. He made good the credit of the nation, and the great republic's credit has stood unshaken since, not so much because of our fabulous resources as because the high standard of good faith of which Hamilton set the example has been uniformly maintained. To-morrow, in this historic city in which the gov- ernment began, there is to be celebrated the centen- nial of the Supreme Court of the United States. To this great court, of which all Americans are proud, Columbia College gave its first chief-justice in the person of John Jay. Columbia College is worthily represented in the same court to-day in the person of Mr. Justice Blatchford. I like to think of John Jay that he set the standard to which, in point of character, all Columbia men should strive to attain. It was Daniel Webster who said of him : " When the spotless ermine of the judicial robe fell on John Jay it touched nothing less spotless than itself!" So we are not surprised to learn that the first strong impulse toward the emancipation of slaves in the State of New York came from John Jay. The first legislative act looking to the abolition of slavery in this State was passed while Jay was Governor, at his instance, and received his signature. Thus Co- lumbia's name is linked forever in the annals of the 50 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. Empire State with this high act of justice and of righteousness. At this time, 1795, and for many years there- after, the advantages of New York as a commercial centre were Hmited to her incomparable harbor and to her unique position on these two great waterways, the one reaching far into the interior and the other giving her a second line of communica- tion with the ocean by way of an inland sea, and both bringing deep water close to her shores. It is interesting to read that so late as 1 769 it was consid- ered a rash prediction that New York might one day equal Newport, R. I., as a commercial city. Before the beginning of this century New York had indeed stepped into the first place, but she was hard pressed by Philadelphia, and even by Baltimore. It was a son of Columbia College, DeWitt Clinton, who made New York's diadem secure. The statesmanship which opened across the State of New York a highway to the West, a highway for enterprise, and courage, and commerce, and civilization, and Christianity, the statesmanship which thus made largely tributary to this city the abounding plenteousness of that illimita- ble region, — this statesmanship received its earliest development in Columbia's halls. Springing naturally out of the city's maritime advantages, mightily rein- forced as these were by Clinton's great work, there grew up in New York an ocean commerce which drew to the city the ships of all the world. By 1 860 a large proportion of this commerce was carried on in American bottoms. The New York and Liver- pool liner and the New York clipper acknowledged no superiors on the broad seas. Then came the THE PRESIDENT'S IN A UGURAL ADDRESS. 5 I Civil War, and these stately merchant fleets were decimated by Confederate cruisers fitted out in foreign ports. At this juncture another son of Co- lumbia College, the venerable Hamilton Fish, for many years, and happily still, the revered Chairman of the Trustees of the College, as Secretary of State of the United States, negotiated the treaty of Wash- ington, under which were adjudicated without an appeal to arms our righteous claims for the de- struction of this merchant marine. Again I ask, what more fitting contribution could Columbia have made to New York in these later times, or New York to the nation, than the sturdy statesman whose masterful diplomacy brought this question within the range of peaceable settlement ? For the first time in history, a dispute so formidable between two nations of the first rank was settled without a war. The city and the College together produced the temper which met the opportunity and the need with such brilliant success. It thus appears that the distinguished services of Columbia's sons have covered the whole period of the College life. I like to recall how frequently these services have been chacteristic of the essential life of the city. It is largely true of all of them that the College and the city have combined together to produce the fine result. I have chosen conspicuous names, but they are only the choice sheaves of a harvest which has been perennial. Consider for a moment the significance to the College of the great city about it. First of all, it means for every one of us that there is no such thing as the world of letters apart from the world of men. There are such things, undoubtedly, as most 52 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. unworldly scholars, men oftentimes " of whom the world is not worthy," but such scholars are never made except out of men who see humanity, as in a vision, ever beckoning to them from behind their books. The scholar without this vision is a pedant. He mistakes learning for an end in itself, instead of seeing that it is only a weapon in a wise man's hands. The city surrounds us all with a large and bracing atmosphere. Something of the breadth of view and feeling which travel gives, the cosmopolitan city may bestow upon those who study in it. Beware, young men, lest by its size and wealth and power it make you supercilious. Rather, by the spectacle which it displays of the variety of peoples and their varied gifts, let it make you large in your sympathies and lofty in your aspirations. It may become to you, if you will not hinder it, a liberal education in itself. I can think of no finer supplement to the liberal culture which the College aims to bestow than that which may come from mingling in a fearless fellowship with the many kinds of men to be met with in New York. The simple conditions on the student's part are a recogni- tion of inherent worth, wherever it may be found, and an open mind. The ends of the earth, then, will bring to you their contribution, and you shall come to see that this great city is full of inspiration to a man who would be noble. Think what it may do for the different types of men who ought to be found at all times within the College walls. Here is your man aiming to open his nature on every side into the broadest possible touch with his fellows. The study of the classics may do much for such a man. They give him the companionship of the great minds of THE PRESIDENT'S IN-AUGURAL ADDRESS. 53 ancient times, and help him to reaHze that it always has been a glorious thing to be a man. They help him to see with a just perspective the claims of the present, and they illumine with a fascinating light the literature of all the times between and of our own day. But the real world is not to be found in books. That is peopled by men and women of living flesh and blood, and the great city can supply the human quality which the broad-minded man must not suffer himself to lack. There is a variety to life in this city, a vitality about it, and, withal, a sense of power, which, to my thought, are of inestimable value to the student whose desire it is to become a well-rounded man. For the young man who is seeking a professional or technical training I need not stop to point out the advantages the city offers. All men recognize them. There is but one New York on all this continent, and, for the purposes of technical and professional training, her location in New York supplements the work of Columbia with advantages not elsewhere to be had. So, also, I believe the great city will lend itself readily to the encouragement of profound re- search. As there is no solitude like that of a crowd, so there is no inspiration like it. And we may yet see the great thinkers and the great discoverers of our age the men of city breeding and of a city atmos- phere. A great man is apt to partake strongly of the habit of his times, and the tendency to-day sets so strongly toward cities on every hand that I do not expect to see great learning and profound scholarship exceptional as to that tendency. The city also may be made, to a considerable extent, a part of the uni- versity. All about us lie its galleries, its museums, 54 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. and its libraries. Best of all, here are its men, the most eminent in their calling in every walk of life. Let us bring these men in every possible way into vital touch with our work, and we shall see a uni- versity of which the whole country shall be proud. We Americans are accustomed to say that our greatest problems lie in the cities. These problems are to be found in New York, unquestionably, in their gravest forms. Is this fact without special meaning to you, young gentlemen, who are now getting your educa- tion in New York? From what quarter are the trained intellect and the consecrated purpose to come which are to grapple successfully with these problems in the coming time, if not out of New York itself, and out of the schools and colleges of New York ? I have tried to make you see that the conspicuous gifts which New York and Columbia have made to the nation have been singularly characteristic of New York's essential life. The well-ordered finances of the coun- try ; the Erie Canal, which did so much to develop New York, both the State and the city, and which developed in far larger measure the great West ; the peaceful settlement of the Alabama claims ; these are contributions to the national happiness and greatness which display, in a singular degree, the educational influence of the city upon the men trained in its midst. I do not claim for the city that it has every kind of advantage. Different locations, from an edu- cational point of view, have each their advantages and their disadvantages. But I do claim that an edu- cation in New York is likely to be of especial value to any man who wishes to be of service in meeting the great problems with which our cities confront the THE PRESIDENT'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 55 country. Such an one, it seems to me, will appre- ciate much earlier in life what a great city's problems are. To him the atmosphere of a city will be a familiar thing, and he will know, if he is a wise man, that, though the powers of evil in a city are great, the powers of good are greater. Victor Hugo once said : " God suffers not the precious fruits of sorrow to grow upon a branch too weak to bear them." In the same way great tasks are set to Hercules, not to a weakling, and the great- ness of New York's problems is the truest measure of her strength. Some men, as they recognize how far short the city falls in a thousand ways of what it ought to be, and see the difficulties attending all efforts at improvement, are apt to say : " It is no use. Let us eat and drink, and after us comes the deluge." But let it not be so with you. No more spirit- stirring call ever sounded in the ears of a generation of young men than comes to the youth of New York and America in connection with the problems of this mighty city. Splendid beyond imagination in what it may be made to be, it grieves our pride and shocks our love so frequently in what it is. Columbia may bring to you all the learning of the ages, she may surround you with all the opportunities and privileges which the times will supply, but she will fail of her truest and best«work if she does not send you forth into the community earnest and patriotic men. I do not ask you to be old before your time ; but I do ask you to acquire, in your student days, a sense of the seriousness of life and an enthusiasm for noble living, which shall never desert you. All this, I think, the city means to the College. 56 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. Let us consider now what the College means to the city. The value of the College to New York is not to be measured by the services of her con- spicuous sons. Her chief and permanent value to the city lies in the constant witness she bears to the usefulness and the nobility of the intellectual life and in the work she is always doing to develop and uplift that life. Columbia College, college and university both, as she really is, holds aloft this ideal in the great city where finance and commerce show alike their good and their bad sides. Her influence makes always to strengthen the things which are good. In her financial management she illustrates a business trust faithfully administered without a breach for one hundred and thirty years. On her educational side she displays the splendid use- fulness of money which is received, not to be hoarded, but to be well spent. She is profoundly conscious that what she is doing is but the earnest of what she yet may do, if New York will but make common cause with her, and enlarge and broaden and deepen her work on every side. She aims to-day to turn out three different types of men. Her historic work, that which she did for half a century before she did any thing else, she is still doing. She aims to develop the cultivated man, the educated gentleman ; the man who, without being a specialist in any thing, has been educated enough in all directions to be in sympathy with all learning ; the man who knows enough about the past to recognize the value of it and of all expe- rience, but who is not bound down by the past ; the man who knows enough about the present to glory in its achievement and its promise, but who never forgets THE PRESIDENT'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 57 what it means of indebtedness to those who have gone before, to be " in the foremost files of time." In a word, she aims to develop the thoughtful and well- informed citizen, and to fill him with her own high aspirations as to his citizenship and his life. The splendid products of this work adorn the history of the city and the nation from the beginning of our career. We want to do, not less of it, but more, according as we have opportunity. In the process of time something other than this, however, was seen to be needed. Columbia came to realize in due order that the times demanded profes- sional education in medicine, in law, in applied science, in the science of economics and of government. Theol- ogy she has left, for valid reasons, to other institutions about her. The broad fields in which men of differ- ing faiths could journey in friendly company, she has assumed for her own. One after another, as her means allowed, she has taken up those subjects upon which men needed special training in order to be useful, and her School of Medicine, her School of Law, her School of Mines, or of applied science, her School of Political Science, are at once ornaments to this great metropo- lis, magnificent a city as it is, and invaluable contribu- tors to the professional life and learning of the land. Columbia College believes that even for this tech- nical and professional work, it is well for a man to lay the broad foundation of a general culture, but she does not refuse to recognize the specializing tenden- cies of the times, and to permit those who will to obtain the one without the other. Nevertheless she does say that, if a man can spare the time, he is throwing away part of his life and part of his power 58 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. in the years to come if he does not submit at the beginning to the discipHnary training which cultivates the mind before he begins to plant the particular seed which he wishes especially to grow. Columbia College believes that the specialist, because he is a specialist, ought first of all to be a broadly developed man. Side by side with these men of a general culture and a professional training Columbia aims to con- tribute in increasing numbers still another precious type to the scholarship and citizenship of the times. She always has been doing something, she aims to do systematically more and more of the original work which belongs especially to our conception of a uni- versity in philosophy, in law, in science, and in every branch of learning. She aims to develop the patient student whose controlling desire it will be to add something to the sum of human knowledge. She aims to do her part to make return to Europe, for the benefits of research which Europe has bestowed with such lavish hand upon America. She looks assuredly for the day when European students shall come to New York and Columbia, where now our American youth go to Oxford and Paris and Berlin. No less a result than this, will satisfy Columbia's con- ception of what is within her power, if New York will sustain her in the work she seeks to do. To every one of these different types of men, in their studies and throughout their whole life, the Col- lege contributes that subtle and patriotic inspiration which comes from the accumulated glory of her history from the beginning until now. As there are some things which cannot be had without money, so there THE president's INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 59 are things of inestimable value which cannot be had except with the passage of time. The rich endow- ment of a glorious age, that is a precious possession and a spur to glorious deeds which only time can supply. If there are men and women in New York, and I hope there are many, who wish to give to the cause of sound learning in this city, to the advance- ment of science, or to the encouragement of research^ I commend to them the thought that whatever is added to Columbia's endowment is guaranteed to the object for which it may be given by a property already large, yet large enough to cover but a small part of the work that lies all about us to be done ; that such a gift tends to make more useful an educational plant already of the first order ; and, above all, that it acquires, on the instant, the unique inspiration and power of Columbia's historic name. Hamilton and Livingston and Jay and Gouverneur Morris and DeWitt Clinton and all the rest, who have served, and are serving well their day and generation, breathe upon it a benediction and add to it a subtle but a genuine power. The New York of the past, so far as endowment is concerned, has enabled Columbia to do all that she has done, all that she is doing. She summons to her aid now with a glad confidence the New York of to-day. She recognizes in the munifi- cent legacy of Stephen Whitney Phenix, in the last great kindness to her of her great and devoted Presi- dent, the late Dr. Barnard, in making the College his residuary legatee, in the welcome gifts of F. Augustus Schermerhorn, of Jesse Seligman, of A. A. Low, and of Charles F. McKim, the happy beginnings of a ten- dency which will yet make Columbia what she ought to be, beyond all controversy the university of the 6o INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. land. She looks to you, young gentlemen, and to her alumni, to add to her fair fame ; she looks to the living New York to build upon the foundations so nobly laid by the past ; she looks to her faculties to give sound instruction, to hold fast the learning that men have wrested hitherto from experience and from study, and to carry the ever shifting boundaries of human knowledge forward into the vast unknown. This is the work she is doing here in the great finan- cial and commercial city of the western world. Some tendency there is on every side of her to put a money value upon every thing. Where wealth is seen to be so powerful it cannot but be that many shall think that it is all powerful. Against this mistaken ten- dency the College is now a silent and now an out- spoken witness. Learning, in her view, resulting in knowledge on the one hand, and involving truthful- ness upon the other, is a greater benefactress of man- kind. Wealth is powerful, certainly. Beneficently used it may be made to bless the centuries. Columbia seeks its aid for her own work. But the work of the College would be valueless to-morrow, if even the wealth of New York could bribe her instructors to teach as true what they know to be false. Truthful- ness is the one essential, fundamental quality of a teacher. Without it he may not be a teacher. Yet it is not the only quality. The teacher, like the scholar, must himself be teachable. An ever height- ening sky for human thought, an ever widening horizon for human knowledge, an absolute truthful- ness in the expression of the light within, these are the distinguishing marks of a great university ; these are the aspirations in whose strength Columbia girds herself afresh for the work that it is hers to do. c c c c c c c C r ccm < ' c c_ ccc -.C.'..CC . Cccc: CfCC :cec "■■--^- ^" C C C CC_>«<: C C cc^ C C c c cc - C c CC ccc ccc . cc «^cC CCCdC' c( cc CSCC_. CC|^C ■ c ^c«c:" cc>''C ^c CC;.^:<3C' CMC f C CICC CC c t-'ACC^ V - C^ CICcc^CjC ^#C^ c. ^ < C^Cc^CCC mT^ C c cc ^:€£ L_Cc: c CC <^ C c: C ^ C'-^C c c cc ^ ^Cf'. C ^'-'C - t ^y ca c j^ V^ ' cc c cC ^I4iife%-irs:^' :ccc cccc otc -eft. ' ^- " C C_ ' "^^^^ I cc cx <^ec'*. t c c c c c>:CCCc^.:. ^/cic^^ -^^'^Sl <1C c c c:c c c^ < c tc^ c^t « ^^^^c' c -c ^^v^ <1 cc e^ ^ cc LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ill 029 929 205 8