~me7~c ams a -FiOeZ6 for t7e   xert-o7s of
tAe C7stin SooZar.
AN ADDRESS
DELIVERED  BEFORE THE ALUMNI OF
I LLIA M S  O L L E GE)
BY
HON. WILLIAM BROSS,
[OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS,]
CLASS OF I 838,
At the Commencement, Tuesday Afternoon, July 31, 1866.
Song of t,7'e Old (hu,rch at, Williarnstoun,.
3 LOEM,
DELIVERED ON THE SAME OCCASION,
BY
REV. J. CLEMENT FRENCH,
OF BROOKLYN, N. Y.
CLASS  OF  I 8 5 3.
CHICAGO:
PRINTED AT THE TRIBUNE COMPANY?S BOOK AND JOB OFFICE.
I 8 6 6.
1.,r-  
0. 
To Lieut. Governor, WILLIAM BROSS, Chicago, Ill.
To Rev. J. C. FRENCH, Brooklyn, N. Y.
GENTLEMEN,
The undersigned, having listened with great
pleasure to the Address and Poem, this day delivered before our
Society of Alumni, respectfully request of you copies of the
same for publication.
JONAS KING.                 JOSEPH WHITE.
S. H. CALHOUN.              JOHN L. T. PHILLIPS.
JAMES A. GARFIELD.          WILLIAM HYDE.
A. C. PAIGE.                HENRY L. SABIN.
C. F. SEDGWICK.             CALVIN DURFEE.
DAVID DUDLEY FIELD.         N. H. GRIFFIN.
J. Z. GOODRICH.
WILLIAMS COLLEGE, July 3 I, XI866.
To Rev. Drs. JONAs KING and SIMEON H. CALHOUN, Major Gen. J. A.
GARFIELD, Hons. A. C. PAIGE, C. F. SEDGWICK, DAVID DUDLEY FIELD,
and others:
GENTLEMEN,
We-thank you for the compliment contained in
your note of July 3ISt.  Such a request from such a source, we
do not feel at liberty to refuse, and, therefore, we most respectfully submit our manuscripts to your direction.
Very Truly, your Obedient Servants,
WM. BROSS.
CHICAGO, Ill., Aug I O, I 8 6 6.
J. CLEMENT FRENCH.
BROOKLYN, N. Y., Aug. 8, I866. 
ddress.
Mr. President, Brethren Alumni,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
NOTHER year has passed away, and again
,  our Alma Mater bids her sons a cordial
welcome to her  time-honored festival.
The  occasion prompts to a review of
duties performed and plans to be matured
for future usefulness.  It is our pride
in all respects a just and an honorable one -that
Williams College was intimately and largely identified with the origin and the development of those
great Christian movements, which, within the last
fifty years, have planted the Gospel in every quarter
of the globe, and which, it is believed, will expand
and grow, till, by their life-giving power, they banish
ignorance and vice and despotism from the face of
the earth. Then shall " The kingdoms of this
world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his
Christ."
t -   G:- l 
6 4  
4
It may be well for the graduates, the students,
and the friends of a college whose history is thus
interwoven with the religious progress of the age,
occasionally to examine its home field, and to discuss their duties with reference to that. The higher
the standards of social and religious excellence rise
here, the more overshadowing and powerful will
their influence for good be upon other nations.
The truth of this statement will not be disputed,
and therefore, without further preface, I announce
as the subject of this address
AMERICA AS A FIELD FOR THE EXERTIONS OF THE
CHRISTIAN SCHOLAR.
And first, a few words as to what has been accomplished in the past.   When, amid  the blasts of
December, I620, the Pilgrim fathers landed upon
Plymouth rock, they planted upon this continent the
germs of a new principle.  "Freedom  to worship
God" is the religious element of that principle, and
the political is expressed in the Declaration of Independence, "Governments derive their just powers
from the consent of the governed," and under their
combined influence, in less than two centuries and a
half- a far shorter period than nation ever before
matured in the world's history -America has taken
rank as a first class power, and though among some 
5
of our religious denominations the term bishop is
still retained, practically we have "a church without
a Bishop, and a state without a King." It was a
cardinal maxim among the founders of our free institutions, that in order to keep the church free
from superstition, bigotry and intolerance, the christian must be educated; and in the state, as no despotism is so remorseless and insatiable as that of a
debased and vicious rabble, that the safety and the
stability of society must rest upon the virtue of the
people.  Hence, they planted  the church and the
school house side by side, and he who assumes to
be an American statesman, and would undervalue or
ignore  either of these  in his  principles or his
practice is an empiric-  a disgrace to the name and
the fame of his country. It was the vital power of
an intelligent Christianity that enabled our fathers to
subdue the savage wilderness, on the borders of
which they settled, and the more savage men who
dwelt in that wilderness, and finally to wrest our
independence from the British crown. Subsequently
it addressed itself to developing the resources of our
vast country, to establishing common and high
schools, founding colleges and universities, and building churches in the new towns and cities that were
rapidly growing up, as settlements pushed westward.
So thoroughly did they do their work, and so effi 
6
cient has it been in moralizing the people, that as
Greece, a mere speck upon the map of Europe, gave
philosophy and literature and law to all succeeding
ages, so will the little valleys of New England and
the Middle States give religion and liberty and law
to all this vast continent.  To  practice the passive
virtues was also imposed upon them, for the christian spirit of the country had to bear as best it could
the arrogance and the brutality of the "sum of all
villainies," which had entrenched itself in the fairest
portion of the land. Having feasted for three generations upon the toil of the submissive African,
insolent by years of swaggering rule in the council
halls of the nation, and reaching the climax of insane
wickedness described in the adage "whom the gods
will to destroy they first make mad," in I86I the
slave power grasped at the very life of the Republic.
The christian patriotism of the land at once rushed
to the rescue.  During  the ever varying  struggle
for the next four years, more than a million of men
met the foe in mortal combat; and hundreds of
thousands, upon the battle field, or starved in the
dens of Libby, of Salisbury and of Andersonville,
sacrificed their lives upon the altar of American
freedom. When defeat came, as it often did, and
thick darkness brooded over the land, the still
small voice of Him "who holds the nations in the 
7
hollow of his hand," whispered in the ear of the
slumbering soldier at midnight, breathed around the
family altars in thousands of Christian homes, and
cheered the soul of the immortal Lincoln, saying,
"Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed,
for I am  thy God."   It is not superstition,  but
sanctified faith, to believe that that Spirit watched
over the strife at Donelson and Vicksburg; fought
with Farragut below New Orleans; drove back the
rebellion on the bloody fields of Gettysburg; guided Grant and his heroes amid all the thunders of
the Wilderness, and bore the flag of the nation in
triumph above the clouds on Lookout Mountain.
It was that Spirit, infusing courage and endurance
and power into the patriotism of the land, that gave
us the victory. To that we owe the proud consciousness that the foot of the slave pollutes not
the soil of American freedom.
The venerable temporary chairman of the Baltimore  Convention, that re-nominated Mr. Lincoln
in 1864, enunciated the striking historical truth
"that the only enduring,  the only  imperishable
cement of all free institutions, has been the blood
of traitors."   The  foundations  of the Republic
during the last four years were laid broad and deep
in that cement, and the temple of the nation's glory,
from foundation to cap-stone, is sacred to the mem 
8
ory of thousands of the noblest patriots who have
shed their hearts' blood to give that temple immortal renown. The principles of the Declaration of
Independence are now understood and acknowledged,
and " life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are
the heritage of all. A new era has dawned upon
the nation, and it becomes the christian scholar to
inquire what new duties the change has imposed
upon him.
To understand and to appreciate the importance
of those duties, the christian scholar must study the
extent and the resources of the field which Providence has still ready for him to cultivate. I am well
aware that to state how large and how rich that field
is, even in the exact language of sober facts and
figures, will subject me to the charge of dealing in
Western exaggeration.  To speak of our country as
an ocean-bound Republic, stretching nearly four
thousand miles from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
savors strongly, in the minds of thousands of our
own people, of the "spread-eagle" style of oratory;
and the complacent Englishman, whose vision
reaches all the way from John O'Groat's to Landsend -the entire length of a little island which we
could drown out of sight in Lake Michigan -would
receive the statement with his most sarcastic sneer.
I can be charitable towards these feelings, for dwell 
9
ing myself, for nearly a score of years, a thousand
miles away towards the setting sun, and having for
all that time studied carefully the extent and the resources of the Mississippi Valley,  I had,  till the
last summer, no just conception of the magnificent
heritage which  Providence has reserved for us and
for our children.  Having  crossed the continent
with the Honorable Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the shores of the Pacific, I feel that
I have some right to speak of the magnitude and
the riches of that heritage.  I beg you, therefore,
in imagination, to go with me to the top of that
peak in the Rocky Mountains which looks down
from the north upon the South Pass, and there
spread out before you the map of the Republic.
Look eastward, and, if you please, stretch your
line upon the map, and you will find yourself more
than two thousand miles from the eastern rim of the
Valley of the Mississippi, where its most easterly
springs murmur among the mountains of Western
New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Your eyes
rest upon, but it is about impossible for the imagination to grasp, the capabilities for good that slumber in the largest and the richest valley upon the
globe. Geographers tell us that it contains 1,237,31 I
square miles, or nearly one-half of the area of the
entire Republic, and that steamers can navigate the
*.    I:I'I: ELI. -
-   -    n....  
I0
great river and its branches for seventeen thousand
miles. Gathering its strength from the snow-capped
peaks of the Rocky Mountains, from the beautiful
Itasca, far away towards the frozen zone, and from
the western slopes of the Alleghany mountains, the
Mississippi pours its mighty wealth of waters into
the Gulf of Mexico, amid the rice fields and the
orange groves of Louisiana. The vast valley which
it drains embraces all the productions of the tem perate and the torrid zones-  everything that can
minister to the necessities and even to the luxuries of
the highest civilization. In agricultural and mineral
resources, with the population to develop them, it is
no exaggeration to assert that the capacities of this
valley are equal to those of all Europe combined.
The child is already born who will see it contain at
least a hundred millions of people. Now there is
only about one-tenth of that number there, and it is
safe to say that not half of the Mississippi Valley
is now settled.
What a mighty work is there here for the christian
scholar to do! Not only are hundreds of thousands
of farms to be opened; mines of untold richness to
be developed, towns and cities and railways and
telegraphs to be built; but schools and colleges and
churches are to be planted and endowed, and thor oughly established, in the western half of the Missis 
II
sippi Valley, for fifty millions of people. The foundations for all these should be laid before the last student that graduates from our venerable 4lma Mater
on the morrow is gathered to his fathers.  It should
be added that no line can be drawn equally and exactly dividing the valley of the Mississippi; but it
is entirely safe to say that not more than half of it
has been brought directly under the influence of
christian civilization. Hundreds of thousands of
people are pouring into this great valley every year.
They come from all the older States and from
Europe -Ireland and Germany furnishing by far
the larger number.   The  christian preacher and
teacher, the farmer and mechanic, the merchant and
business man, the physician and the politician - for
though too rare, he also should be a christian
should all be mingled with this ever increasing
stream of foreign emigration, in sufficient numbers
to thoroughly imbue it with the spirit of our free
christian institutions.
But what is needed for the millions who are soon
to inhabit the Mississippi Valley is equally essential
to the settlement and the safety of the other portions
of the Union, and, therefore, again recurring to our
position upon the Rocky Mountains, with the map of
the Republic open before us, let us turn our attention
to the South-West. The streams that you see leap
.   *       *o *:.I
*e $ 9999 
12
ing down from the mountains, unite to form Green
river, the principal branch of the Colorado of the
West. Skirting along between the western slopes
of the Rocky Mountains and the eastern rim of the
valley of Great Salt Lake, the Colorado breaks
through the Pacific coast range, forming, for a hundred miles, the most wonderful and sublime scenery,
and enters the head of the gulf of California nearly
a thousand miles from the South Pass. The valleys
along the upper branches of the Colorado, are undoubtedly capable of sustaining a very considerable
population, especially if, where needed, a thorough
system of irrigation is introduced, and besides, as
portions of this great valley are doubtless very rich
in the precious metals, it will, in a generation or two,
be a very important section of the Union. Comparatively little is yet known about it, and in almost
its entire extent, whatever capacities it has, are open
to the direction and the moulding influence of the
christian civilization of the age.
Still retaining our elevated position, and looking
west, the streams course towards the north, and form
the south fork of the Columbia.   Looking across
the adjacent valleys, we can see, or imagine that we'
see, the north-eastern rim of the valley of Salt
Lake. This valley is some four hundred miles long,
north and south, bv three hundred broad. The 
13
mountains that almost surround it, are the peers of
the great ranges five hundred miles to the east and
west of it, and hence they wring the moisture from
the winds that sweep over them, and thus become
the source of several large rivers.  All these fall
into Salt Lake, from which there is no outlet to the
ocean. Evaporation and the winds of heaven furnish its only relief from the waters that constantly
pour into it.  Scarcely any rain falls in this valley
during the summer; but by supplying its place by
irrigation from the rivers and streams that flow down
from the mountains, the Mormons have proved that
it can be made immensely productive.
Salt Lake is a very beautiful and most prosperous
city, of some twenty thousand people, and there are
a hundred thousand in Utah, living mainly by agriculture. Now that slavery is abolished, one of the
most important works for Christianity to do upon
this continent, is to wipe out polygamy from the
beautiful valleys of Salt Lake. Whether, like
slavery, the blood of traitors and patriots, mingled
in fearful torrents, can alone rid the earth of this
stupendous crime against the morality and the decency not to speak of the Christianity of the nation,
no right-minded man can doubt that its days are
numbered. From a week's somewhat intimate acquaintance with Brigham Young and his leading 
I4
men, we were satisfied that they understand this
perfectly; but whether they will determine "to die
in the last ditch," defying the laws of the government; whether Brigham will have another revelation
peremptorily abolishing it; or they will all remove
quietly to the islands of the Pacific ocean, remains
to be seen.   Certain it is, that in some form it must
yield to the christian civilization of the age, for the
nation cannot endure so deadly a cancer upon the
body politic.
It is, in round numbers, a thousand miles between the Rocky and the Sierra Nevada mountains.
The country has a great number of valleys of which
that of Salt Lake is a type. Many of them are capable of sustaining a very considerable population,
and in Nevada, in the hills and mountains that sur round them, are found the most extensive and the
richest silver mines upon the globe. The mineral
riches of Nevada must, in a few years, make her a
leading State.  In these central valleys, therefore,
we find the most ample fields for the best exertions
of the christian scholar.
Looking from where we are supposed to be, to
the north and west, the valley of the Columbia, the
third in size, but, if its mineral wealth be taken into
the account, the second upon the continent, lies
spread out before us. Among the western slopes of 
I 5
the Rocky mountains, drained by the Columbia, are
scores of rich and beautiful valleys, whose resources
are all still untouched by the hand of the white
man, and of which this generation should take possession and appropriate them to freedom and the
church of the living God. From the South Pass it
is more than a thousand miles to where the Columbia pours its immense floods into the Pacific ocean.
Up among the mountains of Idaho and on the
lower Columbia, there are some settlements and  a
few towns and cities, but the christian scholars of
the older States have an opportunity to lay here the
foundations of several great States, the power and
the wealth of whose future no finite mind can
estimate.
Lying mainly west of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada range, and stretching for a thousand miles
along the Pacific ocean, are California, Oregon and
Washington. The two former are States, it is true;
but they contain only about half a million of people,
and in large districts the country is unsettled, and
of course christian institutions, in all their numberless specialties, should be established there.
The christian philanthropists of the Pacific coast
have made the most astonishing progress in founding
schools and colleges, and in building churches, for it
is now only seventeen years since our Protestant 
i6
civilization fairly began to take possession of that
most valuable and important section of the Union.
But the work has, in fact, just commenced, and the
older States should give them their prayers and their
money, and, what is of still greater importance, send
them their sons and daughters, thoroughly educated
for the high duties imposed upon them. A single
hundred years will suffice to build up a vast empire
upon the Pacific; and the present generation of
educated men must determine what the character of
that empire shall be.
Looking north and south along the Rocky mountains, for five hundred miles in either direction,
there is territory enough to make a dozen Switzerlands, and in the 2,ooo000,000ooo of square miles of which
we have taken so rapid a glance, making all allowance for settled portions of it, for mountains and
for sections incapable of cultivation, at least one half of it is still open to settlement. Here we have
ample territory to form twenty States as large as
Ohio.
I have spoken briefly of the agricultural resources
of the country; but he who studies its mineral
riches becomes absolutely bewildered with the as tounding developments already made, and the cer tainty that a very few years will suffice to pour into
the lap of the nation such golden streams of wealth 
I7
that all the civilized world will look on in utter
amazement.   Before the nation celebrates the cen tennial anniversary of its Independence - it is to be
hoped at least three or four years before that - the
Pacific Railway will span the continent. Then will
Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Utah and Nevada,
bring forth their vast treasures of gold and silver,
that have been stored away in their mountains since
the dawn of creation, to pay off the debt incurred
to save the Republic from being destroyed by the
most infamous rebels that ever cursed the earth.
It seems providential that this wealth in solid gold
and silver-the dream of De Soto and all the old
explorers   of the continent-should have remained
hid away till precisely when it was wanted for the
noblest  purposes.  The richness of these mines and
the rapidity of their development, are among the
most          astonishing facts  in  the  world's  history.
Twenty years ago California was a Mexican State;
now her chief city of more than a hundred thousand
inhabitants sits like a queen at her golden gate, and
she gathers beneath the stars and stripes the commerce of Asia. Yearly California contributes nearly
fifty millions of dollars to the treasures of the
nation. Five years ago Idaho was inhabited only
by bears and Indians; we met last summer on the
Columbia  river in a single shipment from that terri
Z 
tory, by Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Express, $g9o,ooo in
gold, and we were assured that in I866 the Owyhee
mines would actually yield silver by the ton.  Four
years ago Montana was not known upon the map;
last year she gave an account at the government revenue office for a yield of sixteen millions in gold.
The mines of Colorado have produced some thirty
millions since they were opened in I859, or I86o,
and with new and improved methods to reduce the
ores, there is really no assignable limit to the
amounts that may be secured from them. Utah is
undoubtedly rich in gold and silver, the latter especially, as Gen. Conner and his brave soldiers have
abundantly proved. The silver mines in and about
Virginia City, and in the Reese River range of mountains in Nevada, have already surpassed, both in
their extent and richness, any others heretofore
known. We saw last summer more than a ton of
silver bricks in the express office at Virginia City;
and to make shipments of that amount is there a
very common occurrence. I have no question that
these mines will yield more than twenty millions
during the present year. From a somewhat extended visit among them I can fully indorse the
opinion of Bishop Simpson, who stated in the
Cooper Institute after his return from Nevada,
that "there was wealth enough there to give every
I 8 
I9
solder who has returned from our battle fields a
musket of silver instead of iron, and there would
be silver enough left to plank our noble iron-clads
more heavily than they were ever plated with
iron.
There are now upon the eastern slopes of the
Rocky Mountains and in the valleys between them
and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, perhaps three
hundred thousand people. Complete the Pacific
Railway, as it will be within six or eight years, and
in twenty years from to-day, from three to five millions of prosperous freemen will be there, and our
gold and silver mines, from a yearly product of less
than a hundred millions, will pour into the coffers
of the nation five hundred millions of dollars. The
responsibility imposed upon the church by so vast an
amount of money, placed every year within the reach,
may we not hope within the control, of the Christianity of the nation, is almost overwhelming. Let
our people fully adopt and act upon the principle,
"The silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the
Lord of Hosts," and who could estimate the intellectual and the moral grandeur to which the Republic would attain!  But should the christian scholars
of the land, shrinking from the toils incident to the
development of these new countries, prefer to live
at their ease amid the refinement and the elegance of 
20
the old States, then will vice seize this vast wealth,
and decking herself in scarlet, "sit at the door of
her house in the high places," and the most fashionable avenues, as well as the most filthy lanes in all
our cities, and political and social corruption will stalk
at noonday throughout the land. Then, though
you count your wealth in untold millions, shall
"your gold and silver be cankered, and the rust "aye, the rust, not the right use   " the rust of them
shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your
flesh as it were fire."
This fearfully graphic language of inspiration describes perfectly the effect of unsanctified riches
upon individuals and nations. How often have the
older members of my audience seen large estates,
accumulated by the most rigid economy and the
most untiring industry, squandered in idleness, fashion and vice by the children who inherited them;
and in the second, if not the first generation, these
children -it may be of pious parents -end their
days in the poor house, perchance with tile delirium
tremens, or it may be upon the gallows!  So also
with nations. The luxury and the vice engendered
by wealth have destroyed more governments than
the sword ever did; and this should warn the educated men of the nation to guard against the next
great power that will threaten the life of the Repub 
21
lic. It is the power of unsanctified wealth to corrupt and debase the national mind. The history of
the great armies and the terrible navies which four
years of rebellion brought into being will, while the
nation remains virtuous, cause all other nations to
let us severely alone; and future projected rebellions, with the fearful punishment of the last staring them in the face, will not dare to commit the
first overt act of treason.  There is, it should be
stated, no direct and necessary connection between
wealth, and social and individual demoralization.
So far from that, thousands of our christian patriots
are proving that it can be used for the wisest and the
holiest of purposes.  Let the yearly surplus profits
of our bankers, merchants and business men generally
be consecrated to sending the gospel to other nations;
to establishing schools and colleges and churches in
our own land; to sending your educated christian
sons and daughters, or the sons and daughters of your
poor neighbors, to the new States and territories of the
Republic; to starting them in business there, and thus
giving them the means to control the very foundations of society: let that surplus be devoted to establishing and sustaining everything that is noble and
true and good, and more especially, as Dr. Chalmers said of Scotland, to " plying the boyhood of
our land with the lessons of the Bible," and then 
22
shall the gold and the silver, though there be five
hundred millions poured every year into the lap of
the nation, not " eat your flesh as it were fire," but
like the dew and the rain, the sunshine and the lifegiving breeze to the waiting fields, they shall quicken and strengthen and adorn every capacity of our
ocean-bound, and what is far better, our Christian
Republic, and it shall expand and grow in wealth
and virtue and power, and become the joy and the
glory of the whole earth.
In order to secure for our country this last and
highest achievement of our christian civilization, it
should be the life-toil of each educated man to
make that specialty to which he devotes his energies, subserve the best interests of his fellow men
and of the church of our Divine Master. Almost
every department of business, and certainly every
profession, afford ample scope for the best exertions
of the christian scholar. To illustrate and enforce
these general statements, it may be well to specify
several particulars.
The immense and varied agricultural interests of
the country need the best efforts and the direction
of the christian scholar. For him
"The sluggish clod which the rude swain
Turns with his share and treads upon,"
has themes of most important study. How he 
23
can make it yield more largely to the toil of the
husbandman, and thereby contribute more to individual and national wealth and progress, is a most
important problem. It is one which the noblest
minds have not thought it beneath them to investigate. For ages it has been conceded that farming
pursuits have the most ennobling effect upon individual character, and what higher sphere of duty can
be found than to improve and give direction to
these great interests?  Educated men should alone
aspire to that most responsible position, for they
alone can fill, and therefore retain it.  No other interest at present certainly is so large, and contributes so much and so directly to the wealth and the
life of the nation. Where else can we look as to
what are sometimes called the " rural districts"
with such entire confidence for that sterling integrity, high-toned moral and religious character; sound,
shrewd, practical common sense; that unswerving
patriotism, which alone can save the church and the
state from empiricism, chicanery and vice? Great
cities are too often festering sores upon the body
politic, whose deadly influence it requires all the
energy and the virtue of the country to counteract.
The educated christian farmer can and should exert
an influence scarcely second, and in some respects
superior, to that of any other man in the commu 
24
nity. It is largely his duty to keep our social life
and political power pure at their very source, and
"woe  worth  the day" when  he shall cease  his
efforts, or for any reason they shall become abortive.
Educated christian manufacturers and business
men have a wide and most productive field to cultivate. As their profits are larger than those of the
farmer, so are their responsibilities to use them in
those efforts which tend directly to promote the social
and the religious welfare of society, proportionably larger and more pressing. What opportunities
does the manufacturer who employs hundreds of
operatives, have to influence them for good, and
how nobly do many of them fulfill the duties of
their position!  To our business men and merchant
princes in the past, and now upon the stage of active life, are our educational and other benevolent
institutions largely indebted for their efficiency and
wide-spread elevating influence. Need I point you
to this noble edifice,*- or mention the names of
William E. Dodge, Amos Lawrence, and the patriot soldier who sleeps by the granite rock near
Lake George I mean, of course, Ephraim Williams?  The  history of American colleges and of
* The exercises were held in the Gymnasium, a noble building erected by the munificence
of Hon. J. Z. Goodrich. 
25
our christian institutions and societies for spreading
the gospel in our own and foreign lands, furnishes
hundreds of examples worthy of imitation by all
our patriotic wealthy citizens. The man who piles
up a large fortune for hungry and too often worthless heirs to squander in fashion and vice, dies "as
the fool dieth," while he who through life uses it to
promote the intellectual and the religious welfare of
society, and after providing sufficiently for those
nearest to him, bestows the balance, when leaving
the world, upon some institution or object for the
elevation of his race, has fulfilled many of the
noblest objects of his being.
Of what are called the learned professions, one, at
least, is devoted to the moral and religious welfare
of the race, and as such, it needs little more than a
passing notice here. While it is necessary that the
pulpits in the older States should be supplied, let
me say to those young men who have the ministry
in view, that America furnishes now almost as wide
and certainly as important a field for you to cultivate, as was spread out before the divines whose
self-denying labors have become identified with the
early history of the Republic.   More than half the
territory of the Union is still open to the establishment of churches, the founding of schools and
colleges, and manning them with christian teachers 
26
and professors, and in fact there is no limit to the
necessities of the new States and territories for the
labors of the educated, enterprising, devoted preacher
of the gospel. I submit that it is much easier to
establish churches when society is forming in the
new settlements, than it is to break down the barriers to the truth which vice will be sure to build
with every year of their growth. Let the churches,
therefore, whenever the young and the enterprising
determine to leave their midst to dwell in the unsettled portions of the magnificent Valley of the
Mississippi, or among the rich mines in the Rocky
Mountains, or in the great valleys west of them,
send, with the same train that takes them, the educated and thoroughly earnest preacher of the gospel, and give him the means to establish the church
and to open the Sunday school at once wherever
your sons and your daughters decide to make their
home.
And let the christian physician go with them too,
as the efficient promoter.of everything that is good.
In all the vast unoccupied territories of which I
have spoken, he can wield, as in fact he does everywhere, a commanding influence in promoting the
best interests of society. True, in the new settlements he may not immediately obtain that pecuniary reward which is justly due to his services; but 
27
growing up with the country, and his early investments, small though they be, growing with it, he
will in the end generally find his highest ambition
in this regard more than realized. America not
only furnishes a wide field for the medical practitioner; it also prompts him to the highest exertions
as an observer of natural phenomena. The sciences
to which he devotes his attention, and from which
he derives his remedies, are still far, verv far from
perfection. Be it his to detect the footsteps of the
"pestilence that walketh in darkness, and the destruction that wasteth at noonday," and to discover
the means and to find out the remedies to stop their
ravages. Be it his duty to be learned in all the
mysteries of chemistry; to seek and to find
through them, and from every other source,
new healing agents in the animal and the vegetable
kingdoms, and let him apply them to the relief of
human suffering, and to increasing the span of human life.  Every life he prolongs or saves; every
new and valuable remedy he discovers; every contribution he makes to human knowledge, benefits
his country. And when called away from communing alone with nature, he stands by the couch of his
suffering fellow man, looking beyond mere second
causes, let him  contemplate the wisdom and the
goodness of Him who gave us life and being; who 
28
made man so fearfully and so wonderfully; who
established the relations between disease and  the
remedies by which he hopes to check it, and let him
devoutly point the suffering to the Holy One who
alone can bless all these to his recovery. Thus
laboring as a physician, the christian scholar will do
what he can to advance and sustain that reverence
for sacred and divine things, those elevating and
ennobling influences, which alone can save the nation
from  a deluge of infidelity and vice.   I  need
scarcely add that they would inevitably destroy it.
To specify still further, America furnishes the
most ample field for the exertions of the christian
lawyer and jurist. His influence is specially needed
in all the new States and territories to neutralize and
counteract that of the soulless shyster, and the
degraded judge, whose decisions are made for
money or to shield his companions in crime.  Our
statutes may be ever so wise, our laws ever so just
and comprehensive, we must have the christian lawyer to advocate and the christian judge to administer them, if they are to punish the guilty and
protect the rights of the citizen.  Into all the rich
mineral districts the very refuse of humanity -the
gambler, the thief and the murderer - first rush, and
make society, if society it can be called, a very
pandemonium  upon  the earth.   Such a state of 
29
things soon becomes intolerable, and the American
asserts his love of justice and his reverence for law
by the summary code of Judge Lynch. Murder
and robbery are then granted but a short shrift, and a
stout cord and the nearest tree rid the world of
these monsters in crime. No mawkish sentimentality, no solemn mockery in the shape of pleas
of insanity, come in here to cheat justice of her
dues. True, such things are irregular, yet they are
the homage which necessity forces men to pay to
those broad fundamental principles of right and
truth which lie at the very foundations of all government.   In the history of California, Nevada and
all our new States and territories, there are abundant illustrations of all these statements.   W'hen
vigilance committees'and lynch law have done their
work - for they seem about inevitable in the early
settlement of rich mining districts - then it is that
the christian lawyer and judge come in to lay the
foundations of society in the principles of universal justice; to prove to their fellow citizens that
liberty and law are alike essential to each other.  If,
looking beyond the rewards of the present, the lawyer and the jurist aspire to a name that shall be
immortal, where among the nations of the earth can
fame be so surely attained, and where else can it be
so widely extended and so enduring? Long before 
the second century of our national existence has
passed away, two hundred millions of intelligent
freemen will honor the memory of those noble
christian men who now lay the foundations of our
statutory and national law in the principles of
equal and exact justice to all men. All decisions
based upon caste -upon the wicked dogma that
one class of citizens "have no rights which another
is bound to'respect," must be wiped from our jurisprudence. He who most ably defends or most
wisely interprets the constitution of his country as
the supreme law of the land; he who with the ripest
scholarship and the most commanding eloquence,
protects the right and denounces the wrong, will be
sure of a high place in the hearts and the history of
his country. Fortune and fame in the present, and
immortal honor in the future, will be his sure reward.
The legal profession has mainly furnished statesmen for the Republic. The wide and critical
acquaintance with history and literature essential to
success in it; the sharp and vigorous contact of
mind with mind at the bar; the enthusiasm and
effort and eloquence to which the defense of all that
is good and true and right constantly prompts, and
the thorough study of political economy, of the
common and constitutional law which it demands, 
31
all tend to make the successful, accomplished statesman.   If, with all other essential attainments, he is
thoroughly a christian man, he has the widest and
the surest opportunities to inscribe his name high
upon the records of his country's fame. To be, if
possible, more explicit, let me add that however
exalted the genius, and however powerful the eloquence of the statesman may be, his highest claim
to immortality must rest upon his firm and his consistent adherence to those broad principles of right
and duty which are laid down in the teachings of
the Holy Scriptures.   Moses upon Sinai and our
blessed Saviour upon the mount, enunciated truths
which are deeper and broader, more profound and
more enduring than all the arts of diplomacy and
all the wisdom of mere statesmanship. In the
ratio which our President and Cabinet and Congressmen who have to make laws to reconstruct
society in the States lately in rebellion, conform
their action to these holy principles, will their work
endure and will posterity honor their memory. It
is for them to choose between the scheming of the
merely selfish politician, the low arts of the demagogue, and the enduring contempt which they will
be sure to inspire; and the principles of divine
justice and eternal truth embodied in the laws they 
32
enact, and the immortal renown which that action
will secure.
Need I mention that the art and the literature of
the land, to attain the highest achievements and the
most enduring fame, should be deeply imbued with
the spirit of our holy religion? Alas, too often in
the past has genius made the canvas and the marble
speak the language of vice. But has not the history of the world proved that genius with all her
magic power cannot stamp the seal of immortality
on that which is vile and degrading? To borrow
a figure from our honored President, " Genius
deeply imbued with religion is as the evening cloud
that lies in the sunlight, radiant and skirted with
glory; without piety it is the same cloud, cold and
dark, when that sunlight is gone." Let therefore
the brush of the painter and the chisel of the
sculptor, guided by the loftiest genius and inspired
by those holy emotions which a pure faith alone
can cherish, bring out only those works which make
the nation wiser and happier, purer and better, and
the hand that wields them shall be immortal.
And how often has literature been made to minister to the worst passions and the most debasing
propensities of the race.   Yet,  though  genius
march with stately dignity through the magnificent
periods of Gibbon; though it charm and glow and 
33
flash in the graphic numbers of Byron, if blotched
all over by vice and sin, its most finished efforts
must be consigned to an immortality of infamy.
But I mistake. They have no real, not even a bad
immortality, except to the mere student; for among
the people their memory, like that of all the wicked,
"shall  rot."   I submit, therefore, that he who
aspires to the front rank in American literature
should be an humble, devoted christian. He should
see and recognize in all our history the wisdom and
the power of Him who reserved this continent for
the home of a freer, a purer and a nobler civilization than the world has yet seen one whose tree
of liberty is planted upon the banks, and whose
roots are nourished by  "the waters of the river of
life, and whose leaves are for the healing of the
nations." Where else in the wide world can the
genius of literature find such examples of lofty
patriotism; such heroic energy in battle; such
patient, sublime suffering in the hospital and the
prison - a country with brighter skies; wider and
richer fields;  grander rivers;  more  magnificent
lakes, and lofty mountains - a progress, in all that
adorns and ennobles the race, more rapid and glorious! How wide and how inviting, therefore, is the
field which America offers to him who would discuss
and develop these noble themes in prose or, make
3 
34
them thrill all future ages in the magic numbers of
poetry!  Let the christian scholar whose culture and
whose genius fit him for the task, address himself
earnestly to the work, for therein shall he reap honor
and fame, and efficiently promote the purity and the
stability and the glory of the Republic.
Finally, I insist that it is of vital importance to
the nation that its high priests of science should be
humble, decided, and thoroughly christian men.
In all ages scepticism has seized every new fact in
science to cast doubt upon, and if possible, to
invalidate the divine authority of the scriptures.
If at first there is found to be any apparent discrepancy between the commonly received interpretation
of the Bible and the facts of science, a more careful
and correct study of the sacred word, and a wider
induction and a more searching analysis of the
facts, have always shown that man's ignorance was
at fault; not the wisdom of Nature's God, nor his
teachings in the scriptures of truth.  The christian
scholar believes that so it will always be in the
future. Whatever pathway he pursues through the
wide domains of science, let him  ever be on  the
alert to find new illustrations of the personality and
the goodness of " Him who is excellent in counsel
and wonderful in working." In our vast country,
stretching nearly four thousand miles from ocean to 
35
ocean, and fifteen hundred north and south, the
objects of scientific interest and investigation are
practically without  limit.   While  the observer,
beginning with the most tiny grass or the humblest
flower, scans each variety of the vegetable kingdom
till he stands in amazement beneath the big trees of
California, or searches into the deeper mysteries of
animal and vegetable life; while the geologist runs
his cross-section four thousand miles across the continent, and reads in the rocks of the "everlasting
hills" the silent and solemn history of our planet
from the earliest dawn of its existence; while the
astronomer points his telescope to the skies and
detects  new  suns whose  light has  just  reached
this far-distant planet; while he defines and illustrates those laws which bind the universe together,
linking the mote that floats in the sunbeam with the
mightiest sun that circles the throne of the Eternal;
while the philosopher studies the capacities and the
wonderful workings of the human soul as the most
correct image of the mind of Him who made it;
let the christian scholar, whose pure and exalted
genius fits him to grasp the truths of all science,
illustrate from them the wisdom and the goodness,
the power and the glory of Him "who spake and
it was done, who commanded and it stood fast."
Year by year let him post up the science of the 
36
world, and show, as he surely can, that the God of
Nature is the one only living and true God; that
He whose hand formed all worlds, and who made the
laws that govern them, is the christian's God - the
Divine Author of the Scriptures - the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, by whose atonement we
have sure hope of redemption and eternal life. So
doing, the christian scholar shall control the leading
minds of the nation, and thus hold the entire people
in the belief and the practice of those fundamental
truths of the gospel which alone can give stability
and vital power and enduring glory to the Republic.
BRETHREN ALUMNI: I have illustrated, as best
I could, our  duties  as  christian scholars  to our
country.   To  many  of us who  for more  than a
quarter of a century have been fighting the battles
of life, the time for aggressive labor may be nearly
over.  It is not for us to change our homes or the
pursuits to which our energies have been devoted.
Be it ours to direct, with all the wisdom and the
experience and the strength we possess, the national
wealth and the national mind  into those channels
which shall the most efficiently promote the intellectual, the social and the religious welfare of the
Republic. 
37
To the younger graduates let me say, gird up
your loins like men, for you have a magnificent
heritage.  The work you have to do is a noble
work. The progress of the country since we graduated has been truly amazing. Then, a few short
lines of railway in the Eastern States were all the
country could boast, and the steamship and the telegraph were unknown. Now, the ocean steamer
vexes every sea; the locomotive has leaped over
the Alleghany Mountains, and is now far away
across the Missouri, a thousand miles beyond them;
and you can send your messages of love and of
mercy, far outstripping the sun in his course, across
the continent by the lightning line.  But yesterday
we heard that the Atlantic cable was successfully
laid, and Europe, Asia and Africa exchange congratulations with the great Republic by the lightning's flash through the dark, slimy caves of old
ocean.   The press, from being a state, almost a
mere neighborhood affair, gathers its news by telegraph from every quarter of the globe, and scatters
thousands upon thousands of copies daily from all
our large cities. The gold and silver mines of California, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Montana and Colorado, exhaustless and absolutely fabulous in their
richness, have all been discovered within the last
twenty years.  Science in all its departments, has 
38
made the most satisfactory progress, and slavery,
that terrible incubus upon the prosperity and the
integrity of the country   that loathsome plaguespot upon our national honor- has been wiped out
by the blood and carnage of the last four years.
Your means, therefore, to achieve great results for
good are vastly increased, and your responsibility
to use them wisely and well is also increased in a
corresponding ratio. Study to know how great and
how rich is the field which, as christian scholars,
America has spread out before you. Wherever
your lot may be cast -in the great valley of the
Mississippi; way up among the gold and silver
mines and the magnificent parks of the Rocky
Mountains; on the banks of the great Columbia,
or upon the Pacific coast, where the breezes from
Japan and China shall play upon your brows; there
do you become identified with every effort that can
elevate your fellow men; there do you practice and
diffuse all around you the principles you have been
taught here in Williams College; seize every new
discovery in science; control, as near as may be, all
the wealth, and so direct every capacity and power of
the. country that they may the most effectually promote and secure the social, the intellectual and the
religious welfare of the race. So may you see what
never has been seen, a whole people moral, intelli 
39
gent and virtuous, and therefore free, prosperous
and happy. May it be yours to contribute efficiently and most largely to so glorious a result,
and thus may you see and realize for our country
the brightest anticipations, and for yourselves the
reward of the American christian scholar. 
TRIENNIAL CATALOGUE.
0
CLASS OF  1838.
*Edvardus-Payson Hawkes, Mr. 1851 at1'
Rowland-Sears Howes, p. Mr.
Johannes Isham, j.
*Foster Lilly, Mr.             1855 st 44
Theophilus Page, j.
Josephus -          Christophorus - Yates
Paige, j.
Carolus Peahody.
David Pease.
Johannes-Van-Pelt Quackenbush,,
Mr., M. D. Coll. Med. Alb.
1842, ibique Obstet. Prof.
JOHANNES WELLS, j. Mr.
*Edvardus Whiting.            1844 at 25
Franciscus W4illiams.' 3
Davis Alton, j.
Willard Brigham.
GULIELMUS BROSS, e. Mr., Vice  Gub. Reip. 111.
Josephus-Merrick Bush, j.
Daniel-Reed Cady, Mr.
JAcosus-DENIsoN COLT, j. Med.
Juris. Prof. Schol. Med. Berk.,
Curator.
Cole-Heman Denio, j.
Gulielmus-Norris Edwards, p. Mr.
Henricus-Martyn  Field,  e. Mr.,
S. T. D. 1862.
Thomas- Elmory    Hall.
FREDERICUS-HERRING HASTINGS, j.
OF I853.
Marcus-Nelson Horton, p. Mr.
Nathanael-Woodhull Howell, j. Mr.
Georgius-Gilchrist Martin, Mr.
Robertus-Carolus McEwen, M. D.
Coil. Med. et Chir. Nov. Ebor.
I856.
Harvaius-Gulielmus Milligan, Mr.
M.  D. Univ. Louis. I863.
Henricus-Austinus Miner.
u Crthurus Mitchell, Mr., Laf. Tutor.
Yohannes-Keep Nutting.
t3   Franciscus-Nathan Peloubet.
Carolus-Enochus Perkins, j.
Henricus-Millen Sabin, p. Mr.
Henricus- Jugustus Smith.
Carolus-Augustus Walters, p. Mr.
,eremias-Evarts W4alton.
(Carolus-Carroll Whitney, Mr.
Robertus-Henricus Williamson, Mr.
*Jacobus-Samuel Woods, M.  D.
alibi.                  37  1860 et29
Robertus-Johannes Adams.
Johannes-Ezekiel Baker.
Samuel-Davis Barr, p. Mr.
Johannes-Steward Barry.
ERASTUS-NEWTON BATES, j. M
Georgius-Boughton Bates, a.
Orlando-Cullen Blackmer, p.
Edvinus Byington, M. D. U
Nov. Ebor. I859.
Gulielmus Cheney, merc. Mr.
Jacohus-tlpheus Clark, Mr.
*Jacobus-Lawrence Clarke, p.
Henricus-Ellsworth Daniels, j.
Leveus Eddy, Mr.
Egbertus-Henricus Fairchild.
Tho mas-Burton  Forse.
,ustus-Clemens French, Mr.
Theodorus —4dolphus Gardner, h
Carolus-Franklin Gilson, p.
Georgius Hazeltine.
)ohannes-McClellan Holmes, I\
* Stelligeri.
CLASS
1863,t 3
Mr. 
Aong of the  Id  hurch
,4t  W7Liiabmstow n, Nass.*
BY REV. J. CLEMENT FRENCH, Brooklyn, N. Y.
T was- is not- yet is- old ruined shrine,
GROWThick matted now with mem'ry's greenest moss;
The hill is bare- its glory gone - no sign
Save fire-swept rocks, which sunset glints across,
Erst builded with a snowy-fingered spire;
That fall'n, it wore a huge pine apple crown
Then, tower and temple, the remorseless fire,
Unheeding Sabbath's sanctity, struck down.
Yet, as the wanderer over sun-beat sands,
Sees distant, shadowy landscapes, green and still,
So, to my mem'ry's gaze, that minster stands,
In laiting mirage on that sacred hill.
The tenuous shade still to the spirit speaks
Nor hushedforever is the clear-voiced bell,
Which challenged echoes from the mountain peaks,
And tolled its throbbing rhythms thro' the dell,
Wilt listen to the metric tale they tell?
* Graduates will remember the old church that stood on the hill nearly in front of the
Mansion House.   It was burned down Sabbath evening, Jan. 14th, I866.
1. 
Then from the decades past, let airy hands
Unwind the historic thread of many strands:  Place to our ears attent the whispering shell,
Brought from the shifting ocean of the Past,
Upon whose hither shore, the Present, now are cast
These gems of recollection by its heave and swel].
I am the village church! to-day I rise,
Like Phcenix from his ashes. Now the skies
Look down on peaceful homes, with starry smiles;
As when, a hundred years agone, the tide
Of Indian war had drifted north, beside
St. Lawrence, laving all his thousand isles!
Never the sun beheld a lovelier vale!
In mythic lore, we read the witching tale
Of Tempe, flow'r-clad, balmy all the year.
The song and vaunting of the Switzer's land
Is Chamouni, the mountain-walled and grand;
But Chamouni and Tempe both are here.
For seventy years, upon this hallowed mound,
Mine eye hath swept this strict horizon round,
Nor asked a farther glance- for Beauty's throne
Is on these hill-tops, and the four-fold queen
Of changing seasons, walks the vales between,
And timely sheds the charms of every zone.
Here, Greylock, peerless monarch of the chain
Of circling vastness, domineers the plain;
Crowned earliest with the wreaths of virgin snow,
Caressing clouds around his forehead sweep;
42 
43
Upon his breast the evening shadows sleep,
And morn's first glories on his helmet glow.
Here, Pisgah, northward, lifts his oval crest,
As when the feet of Israel's leader press'd
His mount of doom in far Beth-peor's wild;
Here, east and west, the gentler slopes ascend,
Whose autumn robe the frosts and rainbows lend,
Like that bestowed on Jacob's fav'rite child.
Here, born of founts diverse, two rivers bless
The closecut meadows- meet and coalesce,
As meet and fuse the twilight and the dark,So, twain of human hearts are blent in one,
So, wooing clouds are married by the sun,
So, cherubs joined their wings above the ark.
I see cloud-shadows creeping up the mountain;
The chequered splendor of the various grain
I see the sparkle of the Cold Spring fountain,
The toiling farmer and his creaking wain.
I see the meadows flecked with herds and cattle,
Browsing by streams, or drowsing in the shade;
I see the crinkling bolt and hear the rattle,
As quick-brew'd storms come crashing down the glade.
Then mottled skies - the lifting of the curtain,
Which tempests dropp'd, in mimicry of eve;
The heavens perplexed with mist, as if uncertain
Whether in suns to smile, or tears to grieve.
I see the oak, the gnarled, true-hearted giant,
The graceful elm tree, with its fringing vine,
The thick-boughed maple, and the willow pliant, 
44
The selfish poplar and the whisp'ring pine.
Talk not of Rome, seven-hill'd, with heathen glory,
Which Latin Tiber skirts with yellow stream!
The three hills of my home, unsung in story,
Baffle the limner, shame the poet's dream.
What waves of mem'ry now are breaking o'er me!
Quick, Muses! crystalize them in your verse
What visions fresh, tho' fleeting, flit before me
Historic Pen! their wonders now rehearse
They told me in my infancy,
That war once rent this vale,              That all its horrid, harsh alarms
Rose on the rising gale.
Lurked the red men in the copse and the glen,              The tools of Frenchmen's gold -
Screamed the war-whoop, as with vulture's swoop
They fell on the white man's fold.
Fort Massachusetts kept the ward
Of the valley's eastern gate
And the red skin horde made red the sward,
As its lead sped hot and straight.
And when the tide of Indian war swept up the northern gorge,
Dieskau massed his motley crews by crystalline Lake George
And in the van which faced the foe along that rocky steep,
The gallant Williams, fighting, fell, and there his ashes sleep.
But Lethe's waves can never roll
Over that brave and generous soul,
While such a monumental pile remains
To crown these hills - these consecrated fanes      Where Learning's vestal fires, with crescent flame,
Burn lasting incense to his honored name. 
45
Another tale of war and fear
Was whispered in my childhood's ear.
Of time's fleet wave, another score
Had broken on the hither shore
Of the dim past, when clarions rung
The call to arms, and tensely strung
The thews of steel, and hearts of oak
Of all New England's sons, and woke
The echoes from each hill and dell,
Of Freedom's Independence Bell.
Ha! see! they come, from glebe and shop,
Sequestered dale and rough hill top!
Stern patriots, leaving plane and plow
ear's bugle blast is calling now!
" Break the oppressor's chains and bars
Up with the nation's stripes and stars!
Down with the British rule and rod!
Strike for the love of home and God!"
All day the sullen, booming gun
Was heard from distant Bennington.
Along the Hoosac's stream it rolled
And many a sick'ning tale it told,
And many a funeral knell it knolled,
On that eventful day.
For sire and son to conflict went,
And there, in " one red burial blent,"
Mid shattered arms and banners rent,
On the field of carnage lay.
But the eagle rose from the battle smoke,
Unstained of wing; the lion's stroke
Was foiled -and struggles to be free 
46
Made good that early prophecy.
Thank God, New England lives to-day!
Strong as her hills of granite gray.
The fathers' manly blood still runs
In veins of undegenerate sons!
Should madness thrust this daughter fair
" Out in the cold," and leave her there,
Let me her glorious exile share!
Next, Peace spread her white wings o'er wild woods and waters
And Industry sang to her leal sons and daughters,
In the ring of the anvil and burr of the loom,
In the axe of the woodman, and rush of the flume
To the overshot mill-wheel; in songs of the maid
Driving homeward the kine,- in the dark, rustling blade
Of the tall Indian corn, or the plash in the lake
Of the fisherman's oar, as the wings of night shake
Their shadowy plumes, till the valley is still,
And the sentinel stars set their watch on the hill.
Meet it was, when days were golden  All war's clanging trumpets blown,
In that storied time and olden,
Science should erect her throne.
Here, her sky-born spirit hovered,
Poised on pinions strong and fleet,
Till her eagle eye discovered
Where to rest her weary feet.
Just between me and the morning
Spread upon the eastern slope,
With its stately pile, adorning 
47
That mid hill's unwooded cope,
Rose West College on my vision,
First to realize my dream,
When these hills and fields elysian
Should with Learning's temples teem.
Dream no longer-as  the years have  marched in slow pro     cession by,
One by one I've seen these structures lift their foreheads to the
sky.
Cheerful halls, from out whose windows students watched the
village stage,
Or the lamp-ray gleamed at midnight, as they conned the classic
page.
Halls of relics quaint and curious, brought from Greenland's
icy strand,
Every strange bird, stuffed and balanced by the taxidermist's
hand;
Nameless creatures-  or they should be -represented  by their
bones;
Fossils - now in genus homo - then, huge bird-tracks in the
stones;
Rocks of every name and nature, crystals with their flashing
lights,
Slabs of Ninus, hieroglyphic, - galaxies of college wights;
Halls where ancient tomes and modern, writ by men of every
clime,
'Side by'side, like pontoon bridges, span the rushing stream of
Time;
Hall of science astronomic, built by one* whose genius durst,
In those tardy days of science, rear this dome, the very first;
* Prof. Albert Hopkiits..
~~~~~~~~~~   ~
. e e 
48
One who now, with bold step, follows stars unto their hiding
place;
Tracks the sun along the zodiac, stadium of his annual race;
Scoops  the valley for the  lakelet, flecks the terrace with the
flowers,
Flow'rs both native and exotic, -trains the vines around his
bowers;
Builds the chapel in the purlieus,- treads the path  the saints
have trod,
Owning every man his brother, living praises to his God.
Then arose the Gothic chapel, strong to bear the tempest's shock,
Founded, like the Master's kingdom, on the changeless, living
rock.
Last, that hall of strength and beauty, where the supple gym    nast swings,
And -(how sage old Rip Van Winkles stare to see such novel
things!)
Men of broadcloth, sleek and proper-maidens, lily-fingered, fair,
Bowling at the battered ten-pins, pirouetting in the air;
Eloquent in lore of ten-strikes, spares, cocked-hat, and pony
balls;
Oh! was ever known such frolic in these consecrated halls?
Nay! but, bless the age! we're learning to dissever false from
true,
Learning that the soul's Creator formed the wondrous body too;
Learning that the Lord who spreadeth out the heavens for His
tent,
For the dwelling of His Spirit wants no sickly tenement.
Thank we, then, the noble Goodrich- last among his peers, we
think,
To the chain of Science giving here the only lacking link 
49
Now, again, my thoughts turn backward, from the temples to
the men;
Those who filled the chair of Praeses, richly honored now as
then:
Turn to FITCH, who, first unrolling parchment on Commence     ment Day,
Gave the boys his benediction, as he sent them on their way.
How he bore his double burden,- President and Pastor too!
How the Gospel message rang he, to his high commission true!
Think you, shall his voice be silent?  Never, while yon waving
grove
Weaves its tapestry of shadow on the sward, where, wrestling,
strove,
Like the patriarch with the angel, Hall and Mills, the men of
God;
Never, while the haystack's mem'ry lingers round that sacred
sod!
While, to preach the truths be taught them, forth the missionary
goes,
And the wilderness is glad, and deserts blossom as the rose
Next was MOORE - name more poetic-fall'n upon the adverse
times,
When dissensions wrought their mischief, and to near North    ampton's climes
Some would fain have borne the college, pluck'd the valley of
its crown;
Till the Berkshire dwellers, rallying, rose and frowned the
measure down.
Next was GRIFFIN - Boanerges - worthy of our highest lays;
Six feet three, with mass proportioned-" There were giants
in those days "!
4 
Mien majestic, eye of eagle, voice of either breeze or storm,
With the stride of a colossus, bore he on his regal form;
On truth's watch-tower now he standeth, rings the warder's
stern alarms,
Or gentle as the lambs he tendeth, stoops to take them in his
arms.
If Philosophy says truly, that the whole material bound
Takes an impress from our /iving, every deed and word and
sound,
Which the judgment shall exhibit, we shall see, at trumpet-roll,
Graved upon this vale, his record, deathless as the human soul.
Next was HoPKINS -but he livethb  shall the Muse forbear her
song,
Waiting for the hours posthumous? Let the measures roll along!
Did the tall Elijah's mantle on this son of Williams fall?
Yea! and fringed with fire celestial I With it he has smitten all
Jordans of adversity, whose waters hasting to divide,
Now the college safe have landed on the green and pleasant side.
As the oak, by mighty wrestling with the storms, its strength
has sought,
So his might has come from conquests on the battle plains of
thought!
As the oak reflects the sunshine from his coronal of leaves,
So his crown gives back the radiance which the thin hair over     weaves 
Think we of the isle of Patmos, where the seer of glories won,
Sweetly said, " I saw an angel, Uriel, standing in the sun "!
As sextons stand in old cathedral towers,
And ring, not single bells to mark the hours,
But pealing chimes;
so
:..:.  *.  --:   1. 
5 I
So that word'angel,' wakes in mem'ry's cell
Whole trains of echoes, welling up to tell
Of olden times.
I think me of the holy men, who spake
God's merciful evangel, for the sake
Of Him who died;
Gone now ad astra -  yea, beyoid the stars;
Where saints and angels hymn accordant bars,
The throne beside!
One form I miss.  Not less might Williamis mourn
Than Westfield, when that righteous man* was borne
To vernal tomb.
Boast not, Oh Grave! thou hast no victory!
Thy sting was foiled, thy power despoiled, for he
Feared not thy gloom.
I see processions creeping slow and still,
As desert phantqms up the western hill;
Then on its brow,
Where stands the sexton leaning on his spade,
The           little children'neath the turf are laid —
They're angels now.
For them my bell has tolled,
For young and for the old,
Slow-slow!
For them my bell has knolled,
As they slept beneath the mold,
Low- low!
Hollow, faint, funereal, solemn, as the mourners come and go!
* Rev. Emerson Davis, D.D., of W/estfield, Vice President of the College. 
52
Not always thus-for when the fire,
The lambent, crackling, mordant fire,
Has leaped in frenzied fury higher
Than the hearth-stone,
Then twanging, clanging peals of ire,
Then clashing, jangling screams of ire,
Have flashed alarums from the spire,
In anger's tone.
Nor always thus, for liquid, silver notes,
Mellifluous as the warbling from the throats
Of song-birds crooning on the vernal sprays,
My bell has chanted, in the merry days,
When your fathers and mothers were wed,
And the pledging words were said,
That ring, the token;
When under the trysting shade
The sacred vows were made,
And never broken.
Farewell
Old Bell!
Thy funeral knell
This song shall be!
Raised from thy molten grave
By cunning hand, which gave
Thy being first, Oh save
One moan for me!
One vision more. On yonder chapel mound,
On gradual plinth, the Soldiers' Monument!
Hush! softly tread upon that hallowed ground,
Tho' with its soil no patriot's dust is blent, 
53
For thought can hallow place. Stand there and muse
Of serried graves beneath a Southern sky
No tear-drops fall there, save the pitying dews,
No plaint is heard there, save the breeze's sigh 
These are the men who felt the Saxon blood
Leaping and burning hot in every vein,
When Treason's cursed shot hissed o'er the flood
That chafes old Sumter in the Southern main.
These sent their death-song thro' the battle cloud,
Mori pro patria decorum est "!
These heroes, dying, asked no nobler shroud
Than Freedom's banner for their martial vest.
Oh shame! that those whom our Columbia nursed,
Who basely bit the breast which gave them life,
Who tore her jeweled robes with hands accursed,
Whose hell hot breath blew on this mortal strife
Whose puny ordinance would rend the land,
Cleated with mountain bands and streams, by Him
Who made the worlds,-yea, touched with Uzzah's hand,
The ark of Freedom with its cherubim
Oh, shame! that these men, reeking with the blood
Of half a million, starved, imprisoned, slain,
Should cheat the gibbet of its rightful food,
And live to spawn their treason o'er again
Weep, weeded skies! not that the rehel dead
Have traitor hands to strew their graves with flow'rs;
But that the leal and loyal may not spread
Their floral offerings on the graves of ours!
Shame is it, too, that Northern men endorse
The Ukases of Freedom's foulest foe,
And breathe reviving on the reeking corse 
54
Of Slavery, king of sin and sire of woe!
That men we trusted, palter with the clay,
No less God's image for its sable hue;
And by official edicts steal away
The rights, as native unto them as you
Oh, Charity! take up thy robe! (Of old,
The sons of drunken Noah did the same,)
And, backward stepping, wrap them in its fold,
That none may see their nakedness and shame!
Was it to give the halls of Washington
To pistol logic and the slaver's threatTo yield the ocean to the pirate's gun,
Whose boom has scarcely ceased to echo yet -
That Gettysburg, war's pivot, marshals now
Its silent, ghostly army, thousands strong?
Was it for this, that on the kingly brow
Of Freedom's martyr, gathered thick and long
Care's serried furrows,. till the travailing soul
Well nigh outwore its casket, but was given
The joy to see and touch the appointed goal,
Then, on the assassin's bullets sped to Heaven?
Great God! forefend! Oh, let this bloody sea
Give up its dead, if we betray our trust!
And every finger point to Thy Decree   " The nation shall not live that is not just!"
We leave thee, Monument! The rising day,
Memnonian music wakens on thy crest;
The chrism of stars is on thee! so, we pray,
May heavenly baptism on the soldier rest 
55
Oh, fateful years! Oh, classic realm! Oh, metric muse, adieu!
Oh, cruel flames! your tongue proclaims, "Old, yield thee to
the new!"
Not on this sacred hill, but down the midway slope,
Another fane of God shall rear its modern cope!
I rest in peace I some, bless that Sabbath fire,
Yet others weep above that funeral pyre!
Tho' hard my fate, may angels wait
Attendant  on  thine earthly  gate
Hark! spirit bells I hear!
Back  to thine ashen bier
Mine  eye grows dim!
Cease, struggling hymn!
My lute
Is mute!
Mute! 
6.