ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI 
 OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890 
 
ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI 
 OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE 
 
 OF THc. 
 
 university ofiu-mots. 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE ANNUAL DINNER OF 
 EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY, WHICH WAS 
 ALSO THE INAUGURAL DINNER OF PRESIDENT 
 SETH LOW, LL.D., TOGETHER WITH THE 
 SPEECHES AND A LIST OF THOSE PRESENT. 
 
 PRINTED BY ORDER OF 
 
 THE ASSOCIATION 
 
* un iv 
 
 DINNER COMMITTEE OF 1890. 
 
 1867. George G. DeWitt, Jr., Chairman. 
 1862. William G. Lathrop, Jr. 
 
 1867. Nicholas Fish. 
 
 1872. John K. Rees. 
 
 1877. John B. Pine. 
 
 1886. Lincoln Cromwell. 
 
 1882. William S. Sloan, Secretary. 
 

 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF THE ALUMNI OF 
 COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 
 
 On Monday evening, February third, 1890, was held the 
 largest and most successful dinner ever given by the Alumni 
 of Columbia College. It was in all respects worthy of the 
 Inauguration ceremonies of the morning at the Metropolitan 
 Opera House. 
 
 The large dining-hall of the Hotel Brunswick was every- 
 where resplendent with the colors of Columbia. Broad 
 stripes of blue and white material covered the walls in 
 graceful folds, and garlands of blue and white formed a 
 frieze, beneath which hung banners and flags, trophies of 
 Saratoga and Henley, the Harlem and the Thames, en- 
 circling the rooms. Banks of ferns and growing plants 
 placed in front of the mirrors were surmounted by crossed 
 flags and palm branches. Blue and white cloths covered 
 the tables, and in front of each guest was a little volume, 
 beautifully bound, containing the programme of the day, 
 the list of speakers, and the menu . In addition to the 
 number in the main hall nearly one hundred of th 
 Alumni occupied the large corner room as an ann 
 
 Frederic R. Coudert, ’50, President of the Ass 
 presided, and upon his right were seated Preside 
 Low, ’70, Provost William Pepper, President Cha 
 Eliot, Professor Henry Drisler, ’39, Rev. Eugene 
 man, S.T.D., Dean of the General Theological Sen 
 General Alexander S. Webb, President of the City Cc 
 Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, and Mr. James W. Alex, 
 while upon his left were Bishop Potter, Chancellor C 
 William Curtis, Mr. Charles S. Smith, President 
 Chamber of Commerce, President Francis L. Patton, 
 dent Charles K. Adams, Rev. Thos. S. Hastings, 
 
 5 
 
6 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI . 
 
 President of the Union Theological Seminary, Rev. Dr. 
 Fairbairn, Rev. H. P. Putnam, D.D., Dr. Markoe, Vice- 
 President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pro- 
 fessor Charles F. Chandler, Professor John W. Burgess. 
 There were also seated on the Dais, William L. Boyd, ’32, 
 John Jay, ’36, John J. Jenkins, ’38, F. Hughson, ’39, Abram 
 S. Hewitt, ’42, Robert Jaffray, '42, Edward Cooper, '45, 
 Morgan Dix, ’48, Elliot Sandford, ’64 L., Prof. J. S. New- 
 berry, Prof. Wm. P. Trowbridge, Prof. Thomas R. Price, 
 Prof. Richmond M. Smith, Prof. Munroe Smith, Prof. F. J. 
 Goodnow, George H. Baker, and H. F. J. Porter. 
 
 Besides the speakers, guests, and Alumni seated on the 
 Dais, the following were present, the tables running parallel 
 with the street, and table A being nearest to 27th Street : 
 
 E 
 
 Peter M. Pirnie, ’44 
 Henry A. Bogert, ’46 
 
 John M. Knox, ’38 
 
 Edward S. Renwick, ’39 
 C. A. Silliman, ’50 
 
 Edward M. Kellogg, ’46 
 Lea Luquer, ’51 
 Wm. H. Draper, ’51 
 
 Walter R. T. Jones, '50 
 A. F. Cushman, ’50 
 
 W. A. Johnson, '53 
 Wm. G. Farrington, ’53 
 Wm. Irving Clark, ’53 
 Charles S. Knox, ’62 
 Joseph Larocque, ’49 
 
 Harmon Hendricks, ’58 
 Marvin R. Vincent, ’54 
 S. L. Woodford, ’54 
 
 Benjamin L. Curtis, '55 
 Herbert B. Turner, ’55 
 Wm. A. Perry, '55 
 
 Charles M. DaCosta, ’55 
 
 Wm. G. Lathrop, Jr., ’62 
 D 
 
 Hendricks, ’56 
 urry, ’60 
 
 Russell Stebbins, Jr., ’56 
 Abbott Brown, ’56 
 
 Mandeville Mower, '5 6 
 E. F. Browning, ’59 
 
 e Waddington, ’60 
 m A. Boyd, ’6i 
 e Whitehouse, ’61 
 d Mitchell, ’61 
 Haight, ’61 
 t McNulty, ’6 1 
 Lydig, ’60 
 
 Cortlandt deP. Field, '59 
 Gouverneur Cruger, ’59 
 Charles A. Jackson, '59 
 John Duer, '59 
 
 John Crosby Brown, ’59 
 George W. Maynard, ’59 
 Wm. Lummis, ’59 
 
 !, Jr., '61 William L. Raymond, ’59 
 
 J. Howard Van Amringe, ’6o 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 7 
 
 D. S. Everson, ’64 
 F. B. Van Kleeck, ’63 
 R. Stuyvesant, '63 
 Walter Satterlee, ’63 
 James H. Aldrich, ’63 
 Henry Y. Satterlee, ’63 
 R. M. Henry, ’63 
 Wm. M. Martin, ’63 
 Wm. H. Willis, ’63 
 Charles W. Ogden, ’62 
 Charles D. Fuller, ’62 
 C. B. Mitchell, ’62 
 
 George G. 
 
 Frederic W. Stevens, ’64 
 John N. Beekman, ’64 
 John F. Butterworth, '64 
 F. W. Jackson, ’64 
 Wm. H. Butterworth, ’64 
 Gerard Beekman, ’64 
 Charles S. Bull, ’64 
 William G. Low, ’65 
 James F. Maury, ’65 
 
 Abm. Van Santvoord, ’65 
 George G. Kip, ’65 
 DeWitt, Jr., ’67 
 
 George B. Johnson, ’67® 
 James M. Bruce, ’66 
 
 A. C. Merriam, ’66 
 George P. Smith, ’66 
 A. Floyd Delafield, ’66 
 Julien T. Davies, ’66 
 Horace Stetson, ’66 
 M. D. Getty, ’66 
 Clarence Brainerd, ’66 
 James L. Wells, ’65 
 H. R. Beekman, ’65 
 George W. Folsom, ’67 
 
 Nicholas 
 
 Julius Sachs, ’67 
 
 A. E. Vanderpoel, ’67 
 J. Henry Work, ’67 
 H. E. Pierrepont, ’67 
 John D. Quackenbos, ’68 
 Richard S. Bacon, ’59 
 
 B. H. Campbell, ’68 
 James P. Swain, ’68 
 William Mitchell, ’68 
 F. DeP. Foster, ’68 
 John McL. Nash, ’68 
 William M. Sloane, 68 
 Fish, ’67 
 
 Chalmers Wood, ’75 
 Walter Ogden, ’70 
 Deming B. Smith, ’70 
 F. D. Harmon, ’71 L. 
 
 Arthur Ingraham, ’70 
 R. Fulton Cutting, ’71 
 Brander Matthews, ’71 
 Wm. M. Geer, ’69 
 Oscar S. Straus, ’71 
 Henry C. Sturges, ’69 
 Charles A. Peabody, Jr., ’69 
 
 W. Bayard Cutting, ’69 
 
 Robert. C. 
 
 h; 
 
 Thomas L. Ogden, ’60 
 John A. Smedberg, ’69 
 Ludlow Ogden, ’72 
 James B. Murray, ’75 L. 
 Charles H. Knox, ’72 
 Dennistoun Wood, ’70 
 Frank D. Sturges, ’70 
 George L. Peabody, ’70 
 John C. O’Connor, ’70, L. 
 
 C. DeR. Moore, ’73 
 G. M. Speir, Jr., ’73 
 Frank L. Henry, ’82 
 Robt Waller, Jr., ’71 
 Cornell, ’74 
 
8 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 Charles E. Pellew, ’84 M. 
 H. T. Vulte, ’81 M. 
 
 Charles G. Curtis, ’8i M. 
 Arthur H. Elliott, ’8i M. 
 
 J. H. B. Browning, ’8o M. 
 H. A. Robinson, ’8o M. 
 
 H. H. Hendricks, ’80 M. 
 A. L. Beebe, ’80 M. 
 
 Elwyn Waller, ’70 M. 
 
 F. R. Hutton, ’73 
 George E. Harding, ’67 M. 
 H. S. Monroe, ’69 M. 
 
 D. J. Leary, ’81 M. 
 
 E. C. Fiallos, ’83 M. 
 
 F. B. Crocker, ’82 M. 
 
 A. R. Ledoux, ’74 M. 
 
 J. G. Mattison, ’8o M. 
 
 J. L. Greenleaf, ’8o M. 
 N. L. Britton, ’79 M. 
 
 J. B. Mackintosh, ’77 M. 
 E. G. Love, ’76 M. 
 
 S. B. Newberry, ’78 M. 
 J. T. Williams, ’73 M. 
 
 P. de P. Ricketts, ’71 M. 
 
 F. Augustus Schermerhorn, ’68 M. 
 
 N. Murray Butler, ’82 
 John B. Pine, ’77 
 Walter Howe, ’70 L. 
 James W. Pryor, ’78 
 T. Monroe Davis, ’78 
 Frank Drisler, ’74 
 Spencer Aldrich, ’74 
 Alfred Meyer, ’74 
 Edward S. Rapallo, ’74 
 George C. Kobbe, ’74 
 Charles R. Buckley, ’74 
 Geo F. Butterworth, ’74 
 F. W. Hinrichs, ’74 
 
 John 
 
 B 
 
 Charles A. Clark, ’77 
 W. Van V. Powers, '77 
 Henry L. Bogert, ’78 
 Randolph Hurry, ’75 
 J. A. Browning, ’75 
 Lefferts Strebeigh, ’73 
 George N. Williamson, ’73 
 B. McE. Whitlock, ’73 
 A. B. Simonds, ’73 
 George Sherman, '75 
 H. R. Marshall, '75 
 Clarence R. Conger, '71 
 K. Rees, ’72 
 
9 
 
 ANNUAL DINNER OF 189O. 
 
 Richard T. Bang, '76 
 David Caiman, ’76 
 W. E. Page, ’76 
 P. Henry Dugro, ’76 
 Louis C. Raegener, ’76 
 Theodore F. Lozier, ’76 
 Isidore S. Korn, ’77 
 Marlborough Churchill, ’77 
 Wesley Harper, ’77 
 John Murray Mitchell, ’77 
 I. A. Sprague, ’76 
 I. N. Seligman, ’76 
 
 Jasper T. 
 
 Sidney G. Ashmore, ’72 
 Richard Gottheil, ’81 
 Wm. C. Demorest, ’8i 
 
 E. T. Roberts, ’81 
 R. A. Anthony, '81 
 Edward Riggs, ’81 
 Thos. D. Rambaut, ’81 
 Edward Hinman, ’81 
 
 F. Benedict Herzog, ’81 
 Wm. A. Dunning, ’81 
 Frank Rees, ’74 M. 
 
 H. T. Peck, ’81 
 
 William 
 
 Michael Pupin, ’83 
 
 F. E. Laimbeer, ’83 
 
 A. V. Williams Jackson, T 
 
 G. F. Thomson, ’83 
 George B. Hussey, ’84 
 
 H. S. Hathaway, ’84 
 Joseph W. Cushman, ’84 
 F. E. Buckingham, ’84 M. 
 C. Van V. Powers, ’82 M. 
 S. B. Downes, ’82 M. 
 
 J. H. Wainwright, ’82 M. 
 
 Marshall ( 
 
 I 
 
 F. W. Holls, ’78 
 Jefferson Seligman, ’78 
 Mornay Williams, ’78 
 H. E. Gregory, ’78 
 
 B. Farquhar Curtis, '78 
 
 C. DeH. Brower, ’78 
 Wm. H. Russell, ’78 
 John L. Bogert, ’78 
 W. E. Verplanck, '76 
 N. P. Schenck, ’76 
 
 J. E. Hindon Hyde, ’76 
 Leighton Williams, ’76 
 Goodwin, ’76. 
 
 A 
 
 Charles A. O'Neill, '80 
 George E. Blackwell, '80 
 F. L. Marshall, '8o 
 Sidney B. Stuart, '80 
 Wm. G. Bates, ’80 
 L. H. King, ’80 
 W. Harris Roome, ’8o 
 
 H. A. Kingsbury, '79 
 E. R. A. Seligman, ’79 
 Stephen G. Williams, '81 
 Charles A. Moran, '81 
 Wm. Fellowes Morgan, '80 
 
 S. Sloan, ’82 
 
 M 
 
 Edgar T. Levey, ’83 
 A. Gudeman, '83 
 
 I. H. Schmelzel, ’83 
 A. P. Quimby, '83 
 
 D. L. Gibbens, ’81 
 John Webber, Jr., ’82 
 Edwin J. Gillies, ’82 
 Louis D. Ray, ’82 
 Wm. O. Wiley, ’82 
 Chas. H. Simonds, ’82 
 
 E. de P. Livingston, ’82 
 Rowland P. Keasbey, '82 
 
 rme Wilson, ’82 
 
IO 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
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 Lincoln Cromwell, ’86 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 I I 
 
 The formal Toasts and Speakers were as follows : — 
 Address of Welcome : 
 
 Frederic R. Coudert, '50. 
 
 “ Columbia College : ” 
 
 President Low, ’70. 
 
 “ The Ideal University: ” 
 
 Provost Pepper. 
 
 “ Columbia and the Intellectual Life of New York : ” 
 
 Chancellor George William Curtis. 
 
 “ Columbia and the City of Brooklyn : ” 
 
 Rev. Richard S. Storrs, D.D. 
 
 “ Columbia and Mercantile New York : ” 
 
 Charles S. Smith. 
 
 “ Columbia of the Future : ” 
 
 Bishop Potter. 
 
 Informal responses were also made by 
 
 President Eliot and 
 James W. Alexander, President of 
 the Princeton Club. 
 
 After an excellent dinner had been enjoyed, Mr. Coudert 
 rose and said : 
 
 “ Before we open our usual intellectual proceedings, I 
 desire, as representing the Alumni Association, to tender 
 my heartfelt and sincere thanks in your behalf to the 
 eminent and distinguished gentlemen who have honored 
 us with their presence to-day ; and if I do represent the 
 body and soul of the Association, I am very sure that in 
 the triumph of this day’s proceedings there is nothing that 
 has touched you more — for there is nothing that has 
 touched me more — than the earnest unanimity with which 
 men of the highest eminence in this country and of the 
 most pressing duties have testified their regard and respect, 
 and may I not say affection, for Columbia, by coming to 
 spend this day with us. If there were in the hearts of any 
 
12 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 Columbia men any thing like petty jealousy and envy, it 
 would melt away before such an exhibition of good-fellow- 
 ship and union and honest friendship. Indeed, I can hardly 
 dissociate the triumph of to-day from the honor of to-day, 
 in this gracious presence of men who are the superiors of 
 all other men, may I say, but themselves. 
 
 “ With this preface, having written an address for the 
 press, which makes me comparatively indifferent as to what 
 I shall say provided it be not the same as I have written, I 
 will proceed to make my annual report. And in order to 
 satisfy you that this is really an extraordinary occasion in 
 the fullest sense of the word, I shall not indulge in any 
 misdirected, though deserved, terms of eulogy on the sub- 
 ject of the Class of ’50; nor shall I find words of reproach, 
 however well merited, for the Trustees ; though I may be 
 quite sure that my speech will thereby lack its usual merit 
 and fail to present its chief claims to success. But I am 
 willing thus to contribute my mite to-day, even at my 
 own cost, to the success of Columbia. 
 
 “ This is a great day for Columbia. I have heard that 
 said many times before, but I know that it is expected 
 that I shall repeat it. It is as your instrument and your 
 voice that I again say that it is a great day for Columbia, 
 and having said it, abandon it to its fate, for there is 
 nothing particularly inspiring to me in that truism. Of 
 course it is a great day for Columbia, but I prefer to say 
 that it is a great day for New York. Those of us who have 
 been born and bred on this little island that we love, who 
 know that the doctors are right when they say on every 
 public occasion that it is a malarial district, and yet who 
 entertain in our hearts the warmest affection for every 
 inch of marsh upon the island, — we say and think that 
 it is a greater day for the city of New York. My learned 
 and distinguished friend on my right [Mr. Low] knew this, 
 though he would have realized even better how truly he 
 was speaking if the snows of age had marred the beauty of 
 his head. That New York has, under wise guidance and 
 tuition, awakened to the full dignity and understanding of 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 5 
 
 what it means to have a College like this, abundantly, 
 honestly, judiciously, and faithfully attending to all the 
 intellectual wants of her citizens, is proved by the reception 
 given us to-day, a reception that does even more honor to 
 the city than it does to the College. Let this then be 
 marked in white as a great day for both — for New York 
 has taken a step towards recognition of the great debt which 
 it owes to Columbia. 
 
 “ Even had not the best men of the town turned out en 
 masse , and the press reporter sharpened his quill, Columbia, 
 and the Columbia celebration would have been here, and 
 we should have presented the vigorous champion who has 
 just entered the arena, and who will carry the blue and the 
 white over many a field to honor and glory and victory. 
 That a purely intellectual celebration, such as ours of to- 
 day, should have attracted notice or created interest, is a 
 matter calculated to puzzle the philosophical observer. No 
 brawny athlete has exhibited his prowess, no maimed war- 
 rior has limped in disabled splendor from a well fought 
 field. Young and lusty throats have not grown hoarse be- 
 cause a meteoric ball had been checked in its career by a 
 masterly stroke, or smothered in a frantic embrace, or de- 
 fended as Leonidas with his three hundred did the honor 
 of his native state. Despite the absence of these tumultu- 
 ous attractions, our Columbia has for to-day fixed the atten- 
 tion of our people on herself! Let no man say after this 
 that Columbia has been entirely wrong, if she has persisted 
 in the wholesome belief that the cultivation of the intellect 
 should occupy a reasonable place in the curriculum of a 
 College — at least of this one College. 
 
 “ Our young President, in the enthusiasm of his office, — I 
 think he had hardly donned the robes which become him 
 so well, — this day undertook to affiance our young Univer- 
 sity to the great municipality of the western continent, and 
 in fitting and eloquent terms he did it. Marriage is some- 
 times considered to be a failure, a proposition in which I 
 do not concur. Marriage is not, never has been, and never 
 will be a failure. The failure is on the part of the people 
 
14 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI . 
 
 who get married. And if a marriage ceremony, like an 
 acid operating in the hands of a skilful chemist on gold or 
 silver, brings out the flaws in the metal of a man or a 
 woman, then marriage surely is not to be blamed, but 
 rather our poor humanity that needs more education. Let 
 us therefore hope that the efforts of our young President 
 have not been in vain. Most eloquently has he told us how 
 those two had been joined together and ought never to be 
 put asunder. I have heard the same thing preached by one 
 of the most accomplished children of Columbia, a gentle- 
 man whom we always hail with delight and listen to with 
 admiration and respect ; and I have heard the eloquent 
 voice of Abram S. Hewitt in the same way, in the same 
 tones, and with the same eloquence — I can say no more — 
 urge the same lesson upon us: that the city of New York 
 and Columbia College ought to be indissolubly united. If 
 that union proves a failure, let no blame rest upon Colum- 
 bia’s fair fame or good-will. If there is incompatibility of 
 temper, it must be that the richest and most prosperous 
 cities in America lacks the qualities essential to make a well 
 assorted union. Philip II., a gentleman for whom I have 
 not much tender consideration or respect, — still my preju- 
 dices might have worn out on a personal acquaintance, — 
 once said : ‘ Time and I against any two.’ Aye ! and New 
 York and Columbia against any dozen. 
 
 “ Here please-let me interject for this upper table a word 
 of apology. It may be that these terms of excessive 
 self-laudation may not appear in excellent taste to our 
 honored guests. If so, I apologize for you who tempt me 
 to say these things. Yet I know that they will bear with 
 us, and if we think much of our Columbia, if we magnify 
 her beauties and her virtues, we none the less honor the 
 giants of Harvard, and Yale, and Princeton, and the rest 
 of those who do such gallant work for the glory of 
 America. 
 
 “ But I should be remiss in the performance of my official 
 duty if, in some form or other, I did not give admonition 
 to some person or other, and, as I love a shining mark, I 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 15 
 
 will take our President to task to-night. I do not know 
 that I shall have another opportunity to impress upon him 
 the importance of one of his principal functions. We do 
 not intend to absolve him from the duty of proving before 
 the world that the youth of New York, under the wise 
 guidance of our Alma Mater, are ready to contest the palm 
 of victory on every field. Our champions have not left 
 their ability in the physical department of modern educa- 
 tion to conjecture. They have their records on lake and 
 river and field to show that they need ask no odds of our 
 vigorous rivals and need not rest upon the distinction of 
 superior scholarship alone to honor their parent. Little 
 as we may care for those splendors of physical prowess in 
 themselves, what a grand thing it is to see a splendid 
 temple encasing a beautiful mind ! It is not enough to 
 make the education of the minds and morals of our youth 
 a predominant subject of concern ; it must not be forgotten 
 that they have bodies and blood and muscle as well. It 
 must be remembered that there is a growing belief that 
 Olympian games were good things in themselves and pro- 
 duced great results. Give our boys a chance to vindicate 
 themselves by proving that the city thoroughbred is equal 
 to any strain on body or mind that may be borne by his 
 rural brother. Columbia need fear no dishonorable defeat ; 
 her rivals and friends will be worthy and manly champions, 
 and this is the field — this, our great city. Our President 
 may, and I believe that he can, make this great city of New 
 York the rendezvous and the home of the finest athletic 
 sports of the country. For, let it be well understood, Co- 
 lumbia will never be satisfied with mediocrity. She has 
 enjoyed that long enough. She has reached the point where 
 she must move backward or forward, and she will not move 
 backward. And then with Columbia well armed and thor- 
 oughly equipped — ready like Minerva for all occasions 
 where combined wisdom and courage are required — she may 
 look for the harvest which she will be entitled to reap. 
 Her benefactions must be felt from one end of the con- 
 tinent to the other ; I see no boundary which she shall have 
 
1 6 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 to fear in her attempts to enlarge the mind and soul of our 
 people. The age is hungry for progress; the victories of 
 yesterday are forgotten in the flush of to-morrow’s dawn ; it 
 is a necessity that each victory should be a stepping-stone 
 to something better and newer and greater. I am convinced 
 that Columbia, established as she is, with so many problems 
 solved — forever, let us hope, — starting with renewed and 
 freshened vigor on her intellectual path of distinction and 
 greatness, can not only equal but lead all the other institu- 
 tions in the country. And first she can leaven and save this 
 metropolis. This is not the home of cold and calculating 
 commerce alone; it is the temple where every divinity 
 worthy of adoration may be worshipped, and where every 
 enthusiast may find wherewith to feed his enthusiasm. 
 
 “ I think I have admonished our President sufficiently, 
 and with your permission, in order that he may not have 
 room for meditation and escape, I call upon him now: 
 The President.” 
 
 President Low in rising was greeted with prolonged cheer- 
 ing, and it was some moments before he could proceed : 
 
 “ Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Alumni : I am glad 
 that the Chairman of the evening expressed our feelings of 
 satisfaction and of pride that so many distinguished men 
 have honored Columbia by their presence to-day. That is 
 well. I want to say from the personal point of view how 
 gratifying it has been to me in entering upon an entirely 
 new field, as I do to-day, to be strengthened by such an 
 evidence of good feeling and kindness on the part of the 
 Presidents of so many of our sister colleges. I hope it is 
 significant of a working together on our part along the 
 whole line, so that the cause of education in the whole 
 country shall be the stronger for this meeting, not in New 
 York only, but wherever our influence may reach. 
 
 “Your cordial greeting does me good. It is the evidence 
 that in the new work to which I have been called I shall 
 have your hearty support. The Alumni of a college are 
 important to it in more ways than one. If they take pride 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 7 
 
 in it the community in which it is reflects that pride. If 
 they are indifferent to it their indifference is equally fatal. 
 Columbia, through its situation in a great city, is beset with 
 at least this difficulty, that it cannot hope to be proportion- 
 ately of the same importance as it might be in a smaller 
 city. On the other hand, Columbia has this real advantage, 
 that it is in the midst of a community where a quite unusual 
 number of its Alumni are influential men. There is every 
 thing to be hoped from a situation like this, when Alumni 
 and College work together to commend the College to the 
 affection and the pride of the city. As I have discussed the 
 College this morning in its broader aspects, you will not 
 expect from me to-night a similar treatment. I have 
 thought that I could do no better this evening than to 
 acquaint you precisely with Columbia’s financial position. 
 We want to take not only you but New York into our con- 
 fidence. There is a widespread feeling in the community 
 that Columbia is immensely rich — so rich that it is the last 
 institution in New York which need be thought of by those 
 who wish to give money for educational purposes. Colum- 
 bia has a large endowment, but it is not so large as to 
 measure fully up to her grand opportunity. There is no 
 way to substitute for the erroneous impression the right one 
 half so effective as to acquaint the community with the 
 exact situation. When our condition is understood of all 
 men a fair judgment can be formed as to whether we do 
 not meet our opportunities in a manner to entitle us to 
 further support. So long as our position is misunderstood 
 we are as likely to be praised when we do not deserve it as 
 we are to be blamed when we are at fault. The endowment 
 of Columbia College comes from two pieces of property in 
 the city of New York, one down-town, in the neighborhood 
 of College Place, being the site originally occupied by the 
 College, and the other up-town, stretching from Forty- 
 seventh Street to Fifty-first Street, with the exception of 
 the Fifth Avenue front, between Forty-eight and P'orty- 
 ninth streets, and running through from the Fifth Avenue 
 to within one hundred feet of the Sixth Avenue. The first 
 
1 8 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI . 
 
 piece of property was given to the College by Trinity 
 Church in 1755 ; the second piece of property was given to 
 the College by the State of New York in 1814. Five years 
 afterwards these up-town lands were valued at $5,000. 
 With the exception of small sums of money contributed in 
 England about the time of the formation of the College, and 
 of other small sums granted by the Legislature to make 
 good to the College its losses during the Revolutionary 
 War, these two pieces of property represent substantially 
 all that the College has ever received until very recent 
 years, except from the fees of its students. 
 
 “The first point to which I ask your attention is the fact 
 that the Trustees of the College have managed their estate in 
 such a way as to hold on to most of it for the benefit of the Col- 
 lege through all the vicissitudes of this long period. In this 
 respect they have at least been more fortunate than many 
 others similarly situated. The consequence is that the Col- 
 lege faces the future to-day with its estate practically unim- 
 paired and entirely unencumbered, and because this is the 
 case the College is able to command at the moment still 
 further enlargement of its work. The method by which 
 this result has been obtained accounts for one feature of the 
 College experience not understood by all. From the 
 beginning the College has leased its land on ground leases 
 having many years to run. As a consequence the College 
 income has grown by great leaps at long intervals. But the 
 charges upon the College springing from assessments for 
 the cutting through of streets, the laying of sewers, and the 
 general transformation of country property into city prop- 
 erty have pressed upon the College in times past with a 
 growing burden year by year. Not to go into the distant 
 past, the result of this situation was, what I stated in one 
 of my addresses this morning, 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. It was, in 
 fact, compelled to part with one block of its Fifth Avenue 
 front in order to preserve the rest. Ever since I have been 
 in the Board, until substantially the present time, the Col- 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 19 
 
 lege has been obliged to sail close-hauled. It had expanded 
 its educational work so fully up to the measure of its 
 ability that further growth was out of the question until 
 the upper estate, which was leased during the war, should 
 be producing an income based upon modern values. In 
 order to keep the architectural department, for example, up 
 to the creditable standard which it has displayed, one of our 
 Trustees during a series of years supplied it with $13,000 
 out of his own pocket. A year or two ago a settlement was 
 happily made with the tenants on the upper estate, and the 
 College is now receiving an income based upon the present 
 value of the property. The consequence is that our income 
 to-day is about $100,000 greater than our present basis of 
 expense. Naturally it will stay so only until we can deter- 
 mine how most wisely to use it. But while we realize this 
 fact with gratitude, the Trustees are keenly aware that the 
 College is now face to face with a situation which has never 
 confronted it before. It always has been reasonable to ex- 
 pect hitherto that every new adjustment of rentals would 
 enlarge the income of the College. No man to-day can 
 say with assurance that either the upper estate or the 
 lower will bring a larger return twenty-one years from 
 now than it does to-day. We may have the experience 
 which the Sailors’ Snug Harbor has had — the wave may 
 pass over us and leave our property of less value than 
 before. New inventions, on the other hand, may greatly 
 increase its value or correspondingly diminish it. In 
 other words, the Trustees believe that they must deal with 
 their present large increase of income upon the theory 
 that the income of the College from its present estate is 
 as large as it is ever likely to be. Our problem, therefore, 
 is exactly this : so to use this added income as to command 
 the co-operation and help of New York for added growth. 
 See what the last increase of income such as I have described 
 did for the College. All the new buildings upon the College 
 block have been built out of it and paid for. The College 
 itself has been converted from a small College into the great 
 institution which you see to-day. Already we have begun 
 
20 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 the work of enlargement with our new means. The course 
 in electrical engineering with its new building and equip- 
 ment, the third year in the Law School with its demand for 
 new and enlarged instruction, are the first-fruits of this 
 added power. 
 
 “The question which I wish to put to the Alumni is 
 this, and through them I put it also to all who have 
 pride in New York: Must Columbia at the present 
 time divert its income to the erection of buildings, or will 
 the New York of to-day provide the accommodation of 
 bricks and mortar which the College needs? You will per- 
 ceive, upon a moment’s reflection, that the College is in 
 position to make immediately effective for educational pur- 
 poses any gifts of buildings which are placed at our disposal. 
 But if out of our income we are obliged to divert a large 
 amount every year in order to provide the plant in which 
 and with which to do our work, it is manifest that the edu- 
 cational growth of the institution must be to that extent 
 limited. Am I not right in believing that Columbia is 
 justified in asking the New York of to-day to provide the 
 enlarged accommodations which the present demands? 
 Will not our own Alumni, or some of the people of New 
 York who value such work as Columbia is trying to do, and 
 who have high conceptions of the position New York ought 
 to take as an intellectual centre — will not such people give 
 to the College the brick and the mortar, so that the endow- 
 ments from the past may be used entirely and directly as 
 an educational power? Dr. McCosh told me the other day 
 that in his inaugural address as President of Princeton he 
 stated that Princeton needed a gymnasium. He devoted 
 to it but a single sentence, but that sentence echoed and 
 re-echoed throughout the building in the enthusiastic re- 
 sponse of those who heard it. Almost immediately two 
 citizens of New York, still living, gave to Princeton the 
 gymnasium that it needed. We at Columbia need a gym- 
 nasium. In my view no college in the country needs it so 
 much, because in New York the opportunities for exercise 
 are restricted by the conditions of city life. It is said that 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 21 
 
 there are gymnasiums all about us. So there are. But 
 they are not altogether convenient to us, neither are they 
 adequate ; and if we wish the College spirit to be strong in 
 our young men we must have a gymnasium where the Col- 
 lege students can get their exercise together and develop 
 and strengthen the College ties, which, under city con- 
 ditions, sometimes sit so loosely. I suppose such a gymna- 
 sium of adequate size would cost, with the land, in the 
 neighborhood of $250,000. Think what it means to divert 
 a sum like that from the revenues of the College for such a 
 purpose. Of course the College might borrow the money, 
 but that means simply that it spreads the payment over 
 a term of years. If we build it ourselves, payment must 
 come ultimately out of our endowments. Many colleges 
 have received gifts of gymnasiums. No college that I think 
 of has been willing to erect one out of its scholastic funds. 
 
 ‘‘You alluded, Mr. Chairman, to the importance of ath- 
 letics, and you expressed the hope that something might be 
 done on the part of the authorities to show their apprecia- 
 tion of the importance of physical training as well as of 
 intellectual. I am happy to be able to say, as the spokes- 
 man of the Trustees, that they have already shown them- 
 selves in sympathy with these views. At their last meeting 
 they unanimously adopted the following resolutions : 
 
 “ ‘ Resolved , That the Trustees authorize and permit the 
 use of the premises belonging to the College, known as the 
 Wheelock property, situated near One Hundred and Sixty- 
 first (161st) Street and Ridge Road, or so much thereof as 
 may be necessary for athletic purposes, from and after the 
 first day of May, 1890, during the pleasure of the Board, 
 under such regulations as may from time to time be ap- 
 proved by the Trustees; provided, however, that on or 
 before the first day of March, 1890, assurances be given 
 satisfactory to the Finance Committee that a sufficient sum 
 of money has been raised and will be contributed to the 
 College to lay out said grounds without expense to the 
 College, and in such manner as the Finance Committee may 
 deem suitable. 
 
22 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI . 
 
 “ ‘ Resolved , That the Finance Committee be directed to 
 include in the budget for the next fiscal year the estimated 
 expense of keeping said grounds in order, and of maintain- 
 ing a suitable person as custodian. 
 
 “ * Resolved, That in case the said premises be laid out for 
 athletic grounds, and the money needed for that purpose 
 be subscribed by friends of the College, if the said Whee- 
 lock property be sold at any future time, the Trustees will 
 devote to athletic purposes in some other form an amount 
 out of the proceeds of such sale equal to the amount so 
 subscribed/ 
 
 “ May I not hope that, through the way thus opened to 
 us, the commencement of this new administration may be 
 marked by a successful effort to unify and consolidate the 
 athletic interests of the College, while at the same time 
 surrounding them with conditions which will tend to pre- 
 serve athletics at Columbia from degenerating into pro- 
 fessional sports? The matter is in our hands, gentlemen. 
 There is the tender on the part of the Trustees. There is 
 the simple condition of the necessary funds to put the 
 grounds in proper order. In a College so noted for its 
 classical spirit as our Alma Mater, may I venture to leave 
 the subject, and to resume my seat, with this quotation 
 from the wisdom of the ancients : ‘ The gods help those 
 who help themselves/ ” 
 
 The College cheer was repeated again and again as Presi- 
 dent Low took his seat. 
 
 Mr. Coudert : “ Of course, of course. Horace has pro- 
 vided for the occasion ; he has said, ‘ Count every dollar 
 that we can get as gain. Whether it comes in small sums 
 or in large ones, it is gain.’ Before calling upon the next 
 speaker, let me say for myself that if I did injustice to a 
 Trustee who gave thirteen thousand dollars out of his own 
 pocket for any object connected with the College, I must 
 plead ignorance ; but even if I had known it I could have 
 accounted for it only by saying that he had ceased to be a 
 Trustee and had risen to the distinction of being a banker. 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 23 
 
 “ Before we proceed to the next regular toast, a very brief 
 historical narrative may be necessary. When Columbia 
 first started in life she was poor, and she kept it up a long 
 time afterward. She was so extremely poor that it took 
 her a great many days to get born. The consequence was 
 that by a combination with a sister university who was just 
 as poor as herself, and just as anxious to see the light, a 
 law was passed providing that that University and Columbia 
 might go into respectable mendicancy — that is just what I 
 mean — respectable mendicancy. And so they went from 
 door to door collecting money. Whether a distribution, 
 equitable and just to both, ever took place — I do not know. 
 But I do know that a gentleman by the name of Benjamin 
 Franklin was largely interested in the other concern ; he 
 was very sharp at a bargain, and he thought that honesty to 
 his employer was the best policy. Now I will call upon 
 Dr. Pepper to respond to the next toast, ‘The Ideal Uni- 
 versity.’ 
 
 Provost Pepper then arose and said : 
 
 “ Mr. Chairman and Alumni of Columbia : The story to 
 which your Chairman alludes should be told to a finish, in 
 common fairness to Benjamin Franklin. The respectable 
 mendicancy of Columbia and the University of Pennsyl- 
 vania was a fact, I am sorry to say. As regards the latter 
 institution I may say that it terminated, in a satisfactory 
 solution ; and the statement of President Low leads us to 
 infer that the establishment of Columbia College is indebted 
 to that same begging expedition, which was conducted by 
 Mr. Jay on your part and the Provost of the University of 
 Pennsylvania on the part of the latter, a charter for which 
 has come into my possession this year, under the royal sign- 
 manual, assigning the objects and the original boundaries. 
 A receipt for the sums collected is given, also for the 
 equitable distribution of those sums, Mr. Chairman, signed 
 by Mr. Jay on your part, and by William Smith on the part 
 of the University. For that purpose I would be most 
 happy to see you there and show it to you. 
 
 “ I gladly assume that I have been favored with a request 
 
24 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 to respond to this sentiment, solely because I have the 
 honor to be connected officially with the University of 
 Pennsylvania, an institution whose foundation and history 
 present such close analogies with those of her twin sister, 
 Columbia College. Alike in the brilliant success of their 
 early years, and in the serious reverses which befell them 
 during the last quarter of the last century, they have been 
 forced to struggle for the recovery of their early prominence 
 in the midst of great communities absorbed in industrial 
 and commercial pursuits, and profoundly tinctured with 
 prejudice against these institutions on account of supposed 
 aristocratic and sectarian tendencies. These long decades 
 of probation have passed ; the services which have been 
 rendered to these communities are beginning to be generally 
 and gratefully acknowledged ; and the closing years of this 
 century find us in a position of such assured strength as 
 to justify the brightest hopes and broadest plans for the 
 future. 
 
 “ I would gladly speak of the courageous work done by the 
 men who, as Trustees or Professors, have advanced the fame 
 and prosperity of Columbia to the proud position she occu- 
 pies to-night. To but one can I venture to allude, and I 
 know you will anticipate the allusion, for to omit mention 
 of the illustrious Barnard would be to fail in loyal duty to 
 one whose long life of unselfish devotion and wise zeal in 
 the cause of education — in the broadest and highest and 
 freest sense of the term — was for years an inspiration and 
 an example to the nation. Not only in Columbia College 
 — even when it is Columbia University, as it soon must be 
 — will his memory be cherished, but in all places where 
 lofty ideals of university work are upheld. 
 
 “ It is of such ideals that I am called upon to speak to- 
 night. I can say nothing upon the inspiring theme which 
 has not many times been far better said. But I cannot 
 refuse the chance of affirming my belief that such ideals, 
 remote and impracticable as they have been considered, are 
 among the things which many of us here will live to see 
 realized ; and, more than this, that their realization is of 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 189O. 
 
 25 
 
 absolutely vital importance to the elevation of our national 
 life and to the perpetuity of our national institutions. 
 
 “ I do not care to discuss the question whether the ideal 
 university will most readily be developed in a small town, 
 where the university is the town, or in a great city, where 
 the university can be but one of the forces influencing the 
 life of the vast community. No two institutions which are 
 really alive and growing can be alike. Each will respond 
 to special impulses, and will develop a purely individual 
 type and character. The essence of a university is a 
 breadth of view embodied in its organization, which makes 
 it keep touch with all the intellectual needs of the people; 
 an atmosphere of freedom, which encourages individuality 
 and original thought ; and a richness of equipment in library 
 and museum and laboratory, which stimulates research and 
 investigation. The tendency to conservatism in such an 
 institution is inevitable ; the danger is of too tenacious 
 adherence to tradition and of blind disregard of the ten- 
 dencies and needs of each new generation. The more 
 closely in touch it is with a great community — the current 
 of whose life-blood is thick with seething thoughts and 
 plans — the less likely is conservatism to harden into apathy. 
 
 “Such an institution, devoted to the study of all truth, 
 must, of necessity, be religious, but cannot be denomina- 
 tional. However it may be where a state religion domi- 
 nates education, in this country, at least, where free govern- 
 ment, free religion, and free education are our priceless 
 heritage, the university, just as the public school, must be 
 kept absolutely aloof from denominationalism of all kind. 
 When a university is then fortunate enough to be seated in 
 a great community, it should assert itself as a power in the 
 moral and religious life of that community. There is mis- 
 sionary work to be done in every quarter, and there are 
 schemes of conjoint work by the clergy and laymen of all 
 denominations, which will find no surer rallying-point and 
 no more zealous body of assistants than in the university. 
 
 “It is difficult to compute the resources needed for the 
 work of a great university. If it is to draw to it the great 
 
26 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 scholars of the world ; to accumulate the treasures of the 
 past and the present, and illustrate knowledge in all its 
 branches ; to provide ample endowment for research and 
 for scientific publications, and to enable worthy students to 
 do advanced work freely or at nominal cost ; the annual 
 cost of maintenance must be large — many times larger than 
 the total income of any American university to-day. But 
 if it is seated where it may do not only this, but may also 
 make itself the true centre of a vast community, influencing 
 profoundly its social life, and elevating and quickening its 
 intellectual life, there is needed not only vast material 
 resources, but the widest and most generous co-operation. 
 
 “ There are vast libraries and museums of art, of archae- 
 ology, and of science which need some bond of union to 
 render their treasures more available and useful. There 
 are many learned societies whose valuable collections and 
 important proceedings lose much of their just effect because 
 they are accessible or even known to but a few. The uni- 
 versity is the natural centre for all such. Rapid transit 
 removes the objections; the advantages are too many and 
 obvious to bear mention. The community must be appealed 
 to, be instructed, be interested in the work of the university. 
 There are agencies for the extension of university influence 
 which suggest themselves at once. The university should 
 be the purveyor of the best and most attractive public lec- 
 tures, and should be the leading patron of art and of music. 
 Associations which owe their dignity and their permanent 
 vitality to their connection with the university will readily 
 spring up, and, while imposing no tax upon its resources, 
 will carry on this university extension work not only in the 
 community immediately surrounding but in many outlying 
 centres. 
 
 “The constituency of our universities is not restricted to 
 any class; nor are they conducted for the profit or benefit 
 of any special group of people. It is likely that they are 
 the most unselfish, the most truly charitable, and the most 
 truly democratic of our institutions. So it will result that 
 the ideal university will become more and more a federation 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 189O. 
 
 27 
 
 of all the forces which work for the advancement and ele- 
 vation of society, and its life will become mingled with that 
 of all kindred institutions, and with that of the entire 
 community. 
 
 “ Every people have their standards and their ideals. We 
 Americans know well the value of material success, but it 
 is not true that our highest standards are commercial ones. 
 The mere possession of wealth must inevitably confer less 
 distinction as its possessors become more numerous. But 
 the wise use of wealth, the gifts of genius and the acquire- 
 ments of learning ; the fine qualities of personal character and 
 of public-spirited citizenship, — these challenge our highest 
 admiration, as they have that of all vigorous and progressive 
 nations. And it is precisely these excellences that the influ- 
 ence of an university fosters and develops. The time has 
 passed when the most interesting questions about university 
 work are whether Greek or German is the more useful study. 
 For now it may be fairly claimed — and I say this more 
 emphatically because I quote the evidence of one whose 
 authority will not be doubted — that ‘ we require of our 
 universities that they shall equip and thoroughly train 
 American citizens.’ We are trying, in this country, an ex- 
 periment in civilization of grand proportions and commen- 
 surate risk. Even if the tide of immigration has begun to 
 ebb, there are elements in the problem before us well cal- 
 culated to arouse anxiety. We are trying the incomparable 
 experiment of trusting to the power of education, religious 
 and secular, to enable sixty millions of people to govern 
 themselves. 
 
 “ The man on horseback is less than a spectre here, and 
 the immense part which the army and navy play in the 
 national life of other countries is barely recognized with us. 
 The absence of the throne and the aristocracy omits con- 
 servative elements which must be replaced, and which can 
 hardly be said to be replaced by our political forces. When 
 the separate sects of Protestantism shall federate, if not 
 unite, in support, at least, of organized charity and universal 
 free education, we shall have a constructive power of irre- 
 
28 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 sistible magnitude. But, for the moment, it may be safely 
 claimed that the development of our university system 
 towards an ideal extension is second in importance to none 
 of the practical questions of our national life. Alumni of 
 Columbia, have I sketched in this poor fashion any thing 
 that calls up the great work which lies clearly before you ? 
 Nowhere in America can the ideal university be more fully 
 realized than in this great city. Nowhere could a commu- 
 nity find a leader better equipped with ability, experience, 
 and enthusiasm than he in whose honor we are assembled 
 to-night. One of yourselves, he has already shown what 
 service his love for Alma Mater prompts. Raised to a 
 position of commanding influence, he needs but your loyal 
 support to insure the co-operation of the entire community 
 and the success of his boldest and largest plans. Let us 
 remember, too, that the extraordinary interest we see mani- 
 fested here is only the local expression of what is a wide- 
 spread feeling. The Alumni of Harvard, of Yale, of Michi- 
 gan, of Minnesota, are as truly rejoiced at the brilliant 
 prospects of Columbia’s future as you can be. 
 
 “ The more colleges and universities we have the better. 
 There is work for them all, and there is money enough to 
 endow them all richly. Let each strive hard for the attain- 
 ment of the loftiest ideal it can set up. Different as their 
 development must be, they will all at heart be one, and 
 will all be loyal to the common cause. But I confess that 
 the splendid system of American colleges and universities 
 will seem to me incomplete until we have at Washington a 
 great university, free from political as well as from denomi- 
 national influence, and representing, if not actually admin- 
 istered by, the leading institutions of the land. Just as the 
 ideal university may be viewed as an individual, as an aggre- 
 gation of many colleges, and a federation of all kindred 
 institutions accessible, so I hope to see, as the ideal national 
 university, an university of universities, formed as the cen- 
 tral government is formed, by the federation of many inde- 
 pendent institutions, planted strongly at the capital of the 
 nation ; using the unequalled collections which are forming 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 189O. 
 
 29 
 
 there for the prosecution of the highest studies under the 
 most eminent masters, and proclaiming to the world that 
 among the ideals which we Americans hold by is that of edu- 
 cation, thorough, pure, and free, from the cross-roads gram- 
 mar school to the groves and halls of the loftiest university.” 
 
 After three cheers had been given for Provost Pepper, 
 Mr. Coudert said : 
 
 “Gentlemen, I presume you have heard of the chancellor’s 
 foot, every lawyer has. They used to talk a great deal 
 about the chancellor’s conscience; a certain old writer said: 
 * What ! decide cases according to the chancellor’s con- 
 science ? You may as well decide according to the length of 
 the chancellor’s foot. Now one chancellor hath a long foot ; 
 another a short foot; another an indifferent foot.’ I am 
 going to present to you a new-born chancellor, who has a 
 very big foot. And every time he puts it down on a lie or a 
 sham or a fraud, that foot is felt. It is not one of the least 
 charming elements of this occasion that you will have the 
 rare pleasure of listening to the practised orator whom I am 
 about to introduce to you. There are two classes of people 
 who always want to hear him : first, those who never have 
 heard him ; and second, those who have. 
 
 “ I will now introduce Hon. George William Curtis, who 
 will talk of the College of Columbia and the intellectual life 
 of New York.” 
 
 Mr. Curtis, on rising, received a hearty welcome and said: 
 
 “ Mr. Chairman, after a day so memorable ; after a dis- 
 course so wise and eloquent; after a dinner so delightful, 
 the first exulting words that rise naturally to our lips 
 are, ‘ Hail, Columbia ! ’ In every glowing moment of this 
 day I have been remembering the lines of a poet whose 
 name I fear is not so familiar to this company as it should 
 be ; for his greatest poem was a song of Columbia ! He 
 was born about the time your College was founded. He 
 had the gift of foresight, and the gift of song. When you 
 have heard the lines that I shall quote I think you will be 
 at a loss to decide whether he were greater prophet or poet. 
 These are the lines : 
 
30 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 “ ‘ Columbia, Columbia, in glory arise, 
 
 The queen of the world, and the child of the skies, 
 
 Thy genius commands thee ; with rapture behold, 
 
 While ages on ages thy splendors unfold. 
 
 ***** * 
 
 “ ‘ Let the crimes of the East ’ 
 
 (Here the poet evidently refers to Harvard and Yale.) 
 
 “ ‘ Let the crimes of the East ne’er encrimson thy name ; 
 
 Be freedom and science and virtue thy fame.’ 
 
 “ I do not believe, Mr. Chairman, that there is a single 
 son of Columbia, with a perfectly unprejudiced mind, who 
 does not agree with Dr. Timothy Dwight, whose verses I 
 have quoted to you, one of the renowned presidents of 
 Yale, whose ample mantle has fallen upon the equal and 
 sturdy shoulders of his lineal descendant, the present presi- 
 dent of Yale, — not one unprejudiced son of Columbia who 
 does not think that he was great as a poet, greater as a 
 prophet, but greatest as a truth-teller. 
 
 “ It must be always delightful to dine with the queen of 
 the world, and the child of the skies. But there is to me 
 to-day a peculiar pleasure in sitting at this table, not only 
 because it is a tribute to Columbia and of honor to my 
 friend Mr. Low, but because Columbia College was the 
 nucleus of the University of the State of New York. And as 
 my friend Mr. Low to-day enters upon the presidency of 
 Columbia College, so four days ago, by the grace of my 
 colleagues, I was made Chancellor of the University of New 
 York. My first official duty, therefore, is one which, how- 
 ever long my term of office may be, will be surpassed by no 
 other in happiness to me. It is to offer the warm right 
 hand of fellowship and cordial congratulation of all the 
 higher institutions of learning in the State of New York, 
 which together compose the university, to your new elected 
 President, Mr. Low. 
 
 “ There is gentlemen, as you may remember — certainly if 
 you are Trustees of Professors of Columbia College you 
 may recall it — some vague tradition of a little collision 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 189O. 
 
 3 
 
 between the University and Columbia College. I have 
 heard it whispered that a distinguished predecessor of mine 
 in office once presented himself to the distinguished Presi- 
 dent of Columbia College. ‘ Mr. President,’ said the 
 Chancellor, ‘ I have come to visit Columbia College.’ 
 There was possibly a certain tone in the way in which he 
 made that declaration. The President of Columbia College, 
 with that dignified urbanity with which you may always rec- 
 ognize the gentleman who holds that office, — the President of 
 Columbia College said : ‘ Mr. Chancellor, do you claim a right 
 to visit Columbia College?’ My distinguished predecessor 
 remembering the greater chancellor of Queen Elizabeth, did 
 as that chancellor did, of whom the poet tells us that ‘ he, 
 smiling, put the question by.’ The President of Columbia, 
 with continuing courtesy, added : ‘ Mr. Chancellor, if you 
 claim a right to visit the College, all gates are hopelessly 
 barred. If you come as a friend, every door in Columbia 
 College is wide open.’ I trust that I am much too wise a 
 chancellor to run against any conservative traditions in 
 dealing with Columbia College, and I know only that so 
 long as I am the Chancellor of the University the University 
 will never knock at the door of Columbia College, except as 
 its oldest and its truest friend. 
 
 “Now, gentlemen of the Alumni, there is one distinction 
 of Columbia College which the sagacious and sonorous Dr. 
 Dwight seems to me neither to have foreseen nor to have 
 sung. For more than a century Columbia, surrounded by 
 the astounding material growth of the city of New York, 
 has calmly represented the dignity, the loftiness and value 
 of the intellectual life. Columbia, like all the Continental 
 colleges, did not, — and it was not in their time so great a 
 need, — did not so much train scholars as she trained patriots 
 and leaders of men. Some familiarity with the history of 
 men and of nations, some tasting of the golden fruit of 
 human genius, the accumulated literature of the world, en- 
 riched the minds of her pupils with lofty aims, with noble 
 ideals, and supplied them in their day, revealing to them 
 the priceless and excellent resources of liberty, and the 
 
32 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 splendid sophistries of arbitrary power. Like all those earlier 
 colleges, those pupils took their degrees ad eundem , with 
 John Payne, with John Marsden, with John Martin. They 
 did not edit Greek plays, but they made a great people. In 
 the great work of Hamilton and others was no fugitive or 
 scattered effort, showing to us the adversary and slinking 
 from the lists in which the immortal garland was to be run 
 for ; but they led, in great part, the great movements of 
 their time. The colonial college obeyed the first injunc- 
 tion of Bishop Berkeley to your first President before Kings 
 was transfigured into Columbia : ‘ My friend, first of all, see 
 that they are well taught in Greek and Latin ’ ; which was 
 simply the good Bishop’s way of saying : ‘ The moment 
 that Anthon and Drisler are born, secure them for Columbia 
 College.’ 
 
 “ What was said to the late Governor of Rhode Island, 
 Stephen Hopkins, might well be said of Columbia College 
 in that day, or of any colonial college: ‘We prize you for 
 your Honor’s superior abilities in the classics, in natural 
 philosophy, in mathematics ; but what we chiefly prize is 
 your wise government of the people.’ Your great Alumni, 
 whose names were recalled this morning, illuminating all 
 that fell from the lips of the President, John Jay, Alexander 
 Hamilton, Robert Livingston, Gouverneur Morris, Philip 
 Van Courtlandt, Henry Rutgers, and a long list more of 
 our most illustrious and familiar names were the leaders of 
 the thought that made the State of New York. The 
 colonial college largely led the Revolution and the move- 
 ments in the field. Independence secured and declared, 
 three fifths of the members of the constitutional conven- 
 tion were college-bred men. That great instrument adopted, 
 Princeton and Columbia joined hands and wrote the ‘Fed- 
 eralist,’ the great and resistless argument for national union, 
 and finally, to crown the mighty movement of a generation 
 in the forum and the field, that puissant son of Columbia, 
 Alexander Hamilton, lifted the Empire State of New York 
 into the American Union. 
 
 “ This educated leadership of American civilization first in 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 33 
 
 the settlement of New England, led by college men, then in 
 the great following movement of the Revolution, gives to 
 the proceedings of this da} 7 an historical significance. Those 
 were the men who blazed the path ; they were college men 
 who made the government ; they were college men who 
 were our first great leaders in the immortal race upon 
 which we have entered. And I know no praise, no compli- 
 ment to the college so great at this moment in this country 
 as the character and the career of the men who sneer at col- 
 leges and deride the higher politics, wiser statesmanship, and 
 political honesty as the moonstruck sentimentality of college 
 presidents, professors, and alumni. 
 
 “ I had thought, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, — I had 
 thought, as an American citizen, that educated intelligence, 
 the light of experience, comprehensive intellectual grasp, 
 and lofty moral principles were quite as safe, quite as 
 sound counsellors of the state as the ignorance of the 
 slums, the drunkenness of the saloons, or the corruption of the 
 bosses. Take from our political life its educated, its college- 
 educated leaders, and entrust the political destinies of this 
 country to the men who sneer at the college and fawn upon 
 the saloon, who regard government as a bargain, and politi- 
 cal honesty as flabby nonsense, and the American Republic 
 is smitten by its own children, and once more the Son of 
 the Morning falls from heaven. 
 
 “Now, gentlemen, that Columbia means to continue its 
 political leadership in this community, I think is very clearly 
 demonstrated by the fact that you have called to the presi- 
 dency of the College a man so fully inspired by the modern 
 spirit, and yet with that spirit who blends so ably a wise 
 and moderate self-control, that we are reminded of nothing 
 more forcibly than of the governor in an engine. As you 
 know, the mechanical function of the governor is very 
 simple. It is a contrivance for securing uniformity of 
 velocity against varying resistance. Now I suppose that 
 the resistance of the Columbia machine varies from the 
 rollicking radicalism of the Board of Trustees, down to the 
 conservative immobility of the Freshman class. I am sure 
 
34 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 there is no man who knows him doubts for a moment that, 
 whatever the resistance and however varying, the new gov- 
 ernor will maintain a uniform velocity of purpose and of 
 performance. For one, at least, in the noble and inspiring 
 words that he spoke this morning I detect this tone : that 
 the most insidious tendency, the most seductive, to which 
 the modern college is now exposed, is the danger — if you 
 will allow the word — of degrading all its enormous re- 
 sources to subserviency to the material spirit. For a college 
 has two hands : with one she leads the pupil to measure 
 heights and depths, to analyze the subtle forces and 
 explore the secrets of nature, to unlock all the treasures of 
 the earth for human service ; with the other she lifts him to 
 commerce with the skies. With one hand she gives him 
 knowledge; with the other, truth. With one hand she un- 
 folds to his eye and mind the exquisite structure of the 
 flower ; with the other she touches his soul with its trans- 
 cendent beauty. The hand that teaches and opens and 
 measures and unlocks, is the use of the college ; the hand 
 that lifts, is the glory of the college. Montaigne said 
 nobly: ‘ It is well to teach a young man to decline virtue ; 
 it is better to teach him to love virtue.’ Undoubtedly 
 a college is to impart information, to diffuse knowledge. 
 That is the function of Columbia College here to-day in this 
 city; but it has also that other and greater function, to 
 stimulate the intellectual and moral forces of this commu- 
 nity. Here stands the College at the very heart of our 
 amazing and incredible industrial prosperity. Here it 
 stands, where all material activities were never so active, 
 never so splendid, never so seductive. And Columbia, if I 
 heard aright the undertone of the voice that we heard this 
 morning, Columbia is the voice, serene, enduring, steadfast, 
 that says to the material spirit of New York, gorgeously 
 robed in the success that dazzles the world : * It is thy spirit, 
 my city ; but greater is he that ruleth his spirit than he that 
 taketh a city/ 
 
 4 ‘ It is no new ship, gentlemen, that we launch to-day ; it is 
 an old and familiar craft, whose flag has braved a hundred 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 35 
 
 years the battle and the breeze. No, it is not a new ship. 
 But it is a new captain whom we salute. In the British 
 navy it was a tradition and an ordinance that when an Eng- 
 lish fleet went into action, the Admiral of the Blue led the 
 van and the Admiral of the White held the rear. Columbia 
 is going once more into action. Her officers are tried and 
 true ; her crew is picked ; the eyes of a thousand veterans 
 are fixed upon her as she sails ; and we greet with a cheer, 
 which is in itself a triumph, her new captain as he steps 
 upon the quarter-deck — the Admiral who shall lead the van 
 and hold every point, — in himself alone the Admiral of the 
 Blue and the White, the victorious colors of Columbia.” 
 
 Mr. Curtis took his seat amidst prolonged and energetic 
 cheering, which only subsided when Mr. Coudert said : 
 “ I deeply regret that I shall have a disappointment for you ; 
 the accomplished scholar and most eloquent gentleman 
 whom we expected to-night to speak of Columbia and the 
 city of Brooklyn is detained by domestic affliction. I am 
 sure that you will sympathize with him, remembering the 
 kindness and cordiality with which he had agreed to 
 be one of us to-night. 
 
 “ I desire to say, however, as some consolation, that I 
 have requested a most eminent leader of thought in the 
 United States — one whose name stands second to none in 
 our obligation and respect ; I speak of President Eliot, — to 
 speak after the regular toasts shall have been exhausted. 
 You have therefore that pleasure in store.” 
 
 Mr. Coudert then introduced Mr. Charles S. Smith, Presi- 
 dent of the Chamber of Commerce, who responded to 
 “ Columbia and Mercantile New York.” Mr. Smith said : 
 
 “ I congratulate you, Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the 
 Alumni of Columbia College, that you have called to the 
 presidency of your ancient institution a cultivated merchant 
 who has inherited a name distinguished among the founders 
 of the commerce of New York, a gentleman to whom fame 
 came early, and in whose hands a kind Providence has 
 placed the reins of power. For, sir, what position is more 
 potential and far-reaching than his to whom is intrusted the 
 
36 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 training and education of the youths of this republic? Ex- 
 ecutive capacity and the faculty for organization are in- 
 dispensable qualifications for the head of a great college ; the 
 public record of your President gives ample assurance that 
 in these important requisites he is the man for the place. 
 The government of the large cities of the United States has 
 been for half a century, and until quite recently, a reproach 
 to republican institutions. I am sure that you will agree 
 with me that we are under great obligations to Ex-Mayor 
 Low for demonstrating, in the courageous administration of 
 his office as Mayor of Brooklyn, that business principles and 
 not partisan methods should be the rule for municipal govern- 
 ment. While I do not believe that the millennium of city 
 reform has arrived, nevertheless I am grateful to Ex-Mayor 
 Low for the lesson in practical politics which he has given 
 to us, and I believe his example is bearing fruit in a wide 
 field. 
 
 “ Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I hold that in your recent 
 choice of President you have given emphatic expression to 
 the toast you have assigned to me, for 1 Columbia and Mer- 
 cantile New York ’ are joined by your own act. 
 
 “ There has always been an intimate connection between 
 commerce and institutions of sound learning. They stand 
 in the relation of mother and daughter ; for commerce was 
 one of the earliest occupations of our race, commencing 
 almost as early as any thing human. It is older than any 
 patent of nobility, older than written history. The late 
 President Hitchcock asserted that ‘ commerce has from 
 remote antiquity always led the historic march of civiliza- 
 tion.’ The earliest merchant was of necessity a traveller. 
 He first appreciated the necessity of knowledge and acquired 
 his education in the world’s university, and down through 
 the ages he has been a founder and patron of the school, 
 college, library, and university. Commerce has in all times 
 contributed her quota of men who have taken conspicuous 
 part in the formation and upbuilding of great states and 
 empires. 
 
 “ More than a thousand years before the Christian era a 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 3 7 
 
 trading company of Ishmaelites, going down to Egypt with 
 their camels loaded with spices, myrrh, and aloes, bought a 
 boy and sold him as a slave in the great capital of that 
 famous land. This boy Joseph became not only a statesman 
 and ruler, the Bismarck of his time, but also a great mer- 
 chant. He made the first corner in grain, for we read that 
 he bought it without number, as the sands of the sea ; 
 he also was a great land speculator, for we find in history 
 that he bought all the land in the Delta of the Nile except- 
 ing that owned by the priests. In the first century of our 
 era, a Roman citizen, whose writings have probably influ- 
 enced more men than those of any other in history, became 
 in connection with his missionary labors the first Christian 
 commercial traveller, for the Apostle Paul tells us that with 
 his own hands he made tents, then an article of prime neces- 
 sity, and sold them to pay his expenses. 
 
 “ Nicholas Cruger, a nephew of John Cruger, who was the 
 first President of our Chamber of Commerce, brought to 
 New York a lad who was a clerk in his shipping office in 
 Santa Cruz. This lad’s name was Alexander Hamilton. 
 And Alexander Hamilton’s name honors the list of gradu- 
 ates of Columbia College. 
 
 “ DeWitt Clinton also received his education in your Col- 
 lege ; although the project of building the Erie Canal was 
 considered and recommended by the Chamber of Commerce 
 in 1786, yet we are indebted to Clinton for founding, in 1817, 
 the commercial supremacy of New York by his persistence 
 and energy in uniting the Lakes and the Hudson River by 
 this great waterway. 
 
 “ Warren Hastings went from a counting-house in London 
 to be the head of the Government of India, and he consoli- 
 dated and saved that great empire for the British crown. 
 Sir Robert Peel’s father was a Manchester manufacturer 
 and merchant, the son was one of England’s greatest prime- 
 ministers since the days of Pitt, and Richard Cobden was 
 also a manufacturer. John Bright, whose name will never 
 be mentioned in an assembly of Americans without pro- 
 found regard, for while he was the friend of humanity, he 
 
38 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 never failed in our time of trial to use his eloquent pen and 
 tongue in favor of American interests and for justice in deal- 
 ing with this country. He, too, was a merchant and manu- 
 facturer of cottons and carpets ; his firm still exists. Glad- 
 stone is the son of a Liverpool merchant. A member of the 
 British Cabinet, and the leader of the House of Commons, 
 who adds lustre to the name of “ Smith,” is a publisher of 
 books ; and Gambetta, the finest orator of his country since 
 Mirabeau,and who had the genius of common-sense, was the 
 son of a small retail grocer in France. 
 
 “After the battle of Sadowa, an Austrian and Prussian 
 officer, who had been friends and who were engaged upon 
 opposite sides in that battle, met in friendly conversation. 
 The Prussian said to his friend : * Your soldiers fought 
 bravely ; they were well commanded ; but our needle-gun 
 gave us the victory.’ ‘Yes,’ said the Austrian, ‘ that is all 
 true ; but that is not all. It was the educated brains at the 
 but-ends of your muskets.’ 
 
 “ And so, Mr. Chairman, the time has gone by when the 
 uneducated man can become a great merchant, although he 
 may acquire wealth. The ideal merchant must pass from 
 the discipline of the university to the counting-room and 
 the exchange ; and if this great city of New York desires to 
 retain her commercial supremacy she must sustain with en- 
 lightened liberality her institutions of learning. 
 
 “ I regret, sir, to find the distinguished father of your 
 President absent from this table to-night. In his long 
 career he has illustrated the type of the great Christian 
 merchant. No history of the commerce of this country 
 can be written that fails to record the name of A. A. Low, 
 prominently on its pages.” 
 
 Mr. Coudert then arose and said: “You have heard the 
 very instructive discourse from our distinguished friend the 
 President of the Chamber of Commerce and you have the 
 very best authority for what I have always suspected, but 
 never knew certainly, namely, that the first instance on 
 record of a legitimate business transaction was Joseph sold 
 by his brethren. 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 39 
 
 “ We all know something about the past of Columbia. 
 There is much of which we feel proud : nothing of which we 
 feel ashamed. We know much of her present situation in 
 which there is a great deal to gratify us, and nothing to dis- 
 courage us. But as to the future, which is concealed by a 
 thick veil, some of us not endowed with the prophetic vision 
 may have heard doubts about. They will all be removed 
 now by one of Columbia’s best, staunchest, truest, and most 
 loyal friends, Bishop Potter.” 
 
 As Bishop Potter rose the College cheer, “ Hurray ! 
 Hurray! Hurray! C-O-L-U-M-B-I-A ! ” re-echoed through 
 the room. The Bishop said : 
 
 “I am asked, Mr. President, to speak of the Columbia of 
 the Future. The text is significant, because just now they 
 have under consideration in Congress, I believe, a bill to 
 make it illegal to deal in ‘ futures.’ To be sure that legis- 
 lation is designed to apply especially to Chicago ; and this 
 only goes to show — what we all know — that a very objec- 
 tionable thing in Chicago may be a very excellent thing in 
 New York. 
 
 “ But if we may not deal in futures, I suppose we may at 
 least dream of them, and I am sure that, as others have had 
 their dreams of the future of this venerable institution, I 
 have had mine. 
 
 “ I have called it a venerable institution. The term is 
 relative, and when used to describe a College only some two 
 hundred years old, must, to other than American ears, 
 have an odd sound. A party of New Yorkers were crossing 
 a ‘quad ’ in Oxford, when one of them, an enthusiastic and 
 observant young matron, pausing to press the turf tenta- 
 tively with her dainty boot, exclaimed: ‘Why can’t we 
 have grass like that in America ? ’ to whom the attendant 
 janitor replied with a tone in which compassionate con- 
 descension struggled with contempt : * Madam, it takes a 
 thousand years to grow grass like that ! ’ Well, it takes a 
 thousand years more or less to make a venerable college ; 
 but in a country where nothing of the sort can be much 
 more than two hundred years old, — two centuries makes an 
 
40 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI . 
 
 antiquity of its own, and carries its larger responsibilities of 
 the future with it. Yes, that is the point. Accumulated 
 experience is, or ought to be, accumulated capital. ‘So 
 old a fool/ said an impatient friend of mine, in my hearing, 
 not long ago, ‘ and yet such a fool ! * A college, like a man, 
 ought with years to have outgrown some follies, even if it 
 perpetuates others. And I think we have. 
 
 “ One of them is the folly of thinking that what has been 
 must be and shall be to the end. The conservative force, 
 in education, as in politics, is a valuable one ; but it may 
 well discriminate a little as to what it conserves. The 
 present arrangement of the ordinary college curriculum , for 
 instance, is one which is endeared to American educators 
 by a tradition unbroken from our American beginnings. 
 There has always been in every college a four years’ course, 
 with Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years. But 
 there are a good many observant educators, I think who are 
 not clear that it is the wisest or most efficient system. One 
 thing is tolerably certain, that if, as we at any rate who are 
 here to-night believe, a college education is essential to the 
 adequate equipment of a man for the work of life, it should 
 be brought within the reach of the largest possible number 
 of young men. But a four years’ college course and a three 
 years’ course in a school of law or medicine or theology is 
 to the vast majority of young men simply an impossibility, 
 and as a consequence, statistics show us that the ratio of col- 
 lege graduates is steadily falling below the ratio of increase 
 of our population. Now, when you consider that there is 
 not only more wealth but more general culture and more of 
 that keen competition which makes exact learning in any 
 department increasingly valuable, this is a situation that 
 requires to be recognized and intelligently dealt with. For 
 myself, I do not hesitate to say that the Columbia of the 
 future may well consider the question of so reconstructing 
 her course as to make it possible for one, honorably and 
 equitably, to win her degree without so large an ex- 
 penditure of time and money. 
 
 “ And to this end the Columbia of the future, in view 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 41 
 
 especially of her peculiar and somewhat exceptional posi- 
 tion, may, I venture to think, wisely consider another step. 
 She is the one great College or University in this country 
 in a great city. It is often urged as an objection against her. 
 In one sense it is an objection. It is quite true that, as that 
 phrase is ordinarily employed, she cannot easily have any 
 college life. The associations, intimacies, enthusiasms, which, 
 in the case of young men temporarily removed from their 
 homes, so easily grow up are less probable and less practicable 
 with her. But, suppose that you were to 4 cut the college 
 course in two,’ — as some one has expressively phrased it, — 
 suppose that you were to relegate the work of the Freshman 
 and Sophomore years to a department of the College 
 locally removed from its present site yet adjacent to the 
 city, in which we could have something in space, in rural 
 environment, in dignity and attractiveness of structure and 
 fabric, worthy of an institution aiming to incarnate the best 
 traditions of Eton, and Harrow, and Rugby and something 
 more, and to carry its undergraduates so much farther as 
 would be equivalent to the first two years of the present 
 college course, you would then have achieved two results : 
 first, you would have advanced the youth who does not 
 graduate to a higher standard than ever before ; again, you 
 would have created the opportunity for that associated col- 
 legiate life which would endure after one has passed to the 
 intra-mural curriculum , so to speak, of the material Columbia 
 that is ; and in the third place you would have reduced the 
 actual college course as we now understand that term, to 
 two or, at most, three years. 
 
 “ This, I am strongly persuaded, gentlemen, is, in one 
 aspect of the College, no unworthy future for it, and no 
 impracticable way out of some of its present perplexities. 
 One of these, increasingly urgent every day with the 
 increasing life and many-sided activities of the College, is 
 the homely but imperative question of material space. The 
 buildings at present — shall I say huddled — together on the 
 present site are eminently worthy, at any rate the more 
 modern of them, of a fitter and more dignified setting. But 
 
42 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 the danger is lest, under the pressure of immediate neces- 
 sity, the present overcrowding shall be simply aggravated. 
 There is but one solution of the present problem. The 
 College must colonize. Part of its work, and that part of 
 it which is more distinctly identified with its earlier tradi- 
 tions, must seek its adequate opportunity amid surroundings 
 and under conditions such as may easily be found just 
 across the Harlem River (I am not, I beg to say, retained 
 in this matter in the interest of any especial real-estate 
 operation, and so I will add) or elsewhere, where buildings 
 capable of housing a thousand young men, and college halls 
 and dormitories, recitation-rooms, gymnasia, a dignified and 
 worthy chapel, and all that pertains to the higher and the 
 highest culture of youth just passing into the age of 
 responsible manhood could be had ; where there could be 
 a personal oversight and discipline which, two or three 
 years later, would not be needed ; and where there would 
 prevail a principle of administration which did not commit 
 the grave error of putting upon the shoulders of those 
 whose gristle had not yet hardened into bone the graver 
 responsibilities of full-grown men. Under such an arrange- 
 ment, when, amid such surroundings, the first half of the 
 present college course had been completed, a riper youth 
 would pass at once more intelligently and more responsibly 
 to the higher curriculum within the present walls. 
 
 “ This, gentlemen, in brief, is one of my dreams of Colum- 
 bia’s future. But it is interwoven and interlaced with many 
 others. In these midnight moments I may not tarry to 
 discuss them, but, as you will see from this single specimen, 
 they are dreams not of revolution but of readjustment. 
 
 “ And that is precisely what the future of Columbia waits 
 for. Its methods of administration wait for a wise re- 
 adjustment. Trustee and not Professor, though I am, I am 
 constrained to express my conviction that the governing 
 body of a university should be its Senatus Collegium. No 
 set of men can possibly have so large and vital a stake in a 
 university as its several faculties. And is there anywhere, 
 gentlemen Alumni and gentlemen Trustees, a body of men 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 189O. 
 
 43 
 
 more capable or trustworthy than the men composing the 
 various Faculties of Columbia College? Believe me, no 
 dream of a nobler future for Columbia can leave them out 
 as largely shaping and determining the policy of that future ! 
 
 “ And as with the administration of the College, so with its 
 relations to the community and to the educational institu- 
 tions about it. It is a noble distinction of Columbia Col- 
 lege that, already, she is the centre of an intellectual life 
 which, while having no definite or formal relation to her 
 own, is yet, in a most real and interesting sense, a part of 
 her. Did you ever walk up Madison Avenue of an even- 
 ing? For, if so, you must have seen that, at night, the 
 windows of the College gleam like a lighthouse — true sym- 
 bol of the illumination that streams forth on every hand. 
 And, if you were to pass in, you would find that on almost 
 every evening of the week there is meeting there some 
 society, literary, scientific, classical, or historical, which 
 finds within those walls a welcome and a home, and owes 
 the opportunity for gathering its disciples about it to your 
 Alma Mater s motherly and unstinted hospitality. As a 
 matter of fact, there are some twenty-five or thirty such 
 societies practically domiciled within the College walls, and 
 finding there their working and efficient centre. 
 
 “Such a fact is at once a symbol and a prophecy of what 
 the Columbia of the future may easily become. There are 
 in the city of New York schools of theology, schools of 
 mechanic arts, of music, of applied science, any one of 
 which would find in some of our courses of instruction in 
 valuable additions to their own curriculum. Let me take 
 those which train men of my own profession as an illustra- 
 tion of all the rest. Said a young divine to a professor of 
 this College, to whom I am indebted for the incident and 
 for a great deal more : 4 1 am not happy in dealing with 
 workingmen. They ask questions that I cannot answer, 
 and start subjects of discussion concerning which I am not 
 informed. They meet me with socialistic theories in which 
 I am sure there is a fallacy, but I cannot detect it or expose 
 it.’ And yet such a young man is a graduate of one of 
 
44 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 our foremost divinity schools, and has the history of all the 
 heresies at his finger-ends. But the questions that touch 
 the foundations of society to-day, the practical applications 
 and the sophistical perversions of the law of human brother- 
 hood as taught by the Founder of the religion whose ambas- 
 sador he is — these he knows absolutely nothing about. 
 John Stuart Mill, and Herbert Spencer, and Saint Simon, and 
 Karl Marx are names that, to him, only represent ideas to 
 be distrusted or abhorred. He has never been taught to 
 distinguish the wheat from the chaff. He knows nothing 
 of political economy, nothing of social science, nothing, in 
 other words, of realms of knowledge which concern those 
 burning questions which touch the family, the state, the 
 Church with equal closeness and directness, and to be 
 ignorant of which, in an age like ours, is for any man who 
 aspires to be a leader and teacher of other men to be equally 
 impotent and obsolete. There is a popular vulgarism (if you 
 choose to call it so) which just here is singularly discriptive. 
 In politics lately we have heard a superannuated political 
 leader called a ‘ back-number.’ He is out of date. His apti- 
 tudes are stale. They have no pertinence to the demands 
 of the hour. Such clergymen are ‘back-numbers,’ and, be- 
 cause of it, they are either out of touch with their constitu- 
 encies, or else, in their ignorant eagerness to get into touch 
 with them, the apostles of every folly and the preachers of 
 every crudity or fallacy with which some smart sciolist is 
 tickling the ears of the groundlings. 
 
 “Now then, there is an easy way out of this. It is not 
 necessary to revolutionize the curriculum of every theologi- 
 cal seminary, though it would be well very often to widen 
 it. But it is at once easy and practicable and eminently 
 desirable, that the seminary should be related to the Col- 
 lege, so that students of divinity shall come here as a part 
 of their seminary course, and attend lectures on such sub- 
 jects as I have referred to, and then, whenever they have 
 passed a creditable examination in them, should be entitled 
 to recognition of that fact, as has been happily suggested, 
 by receiving their theological degree with the additional 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 45 
 
 distinction ‘ cum laude .’ Such affiliation of the College to 
 institutions of various learning around it would at once 
 enlarge their usefulness and ennoble our own, and go far 
 towards the realization of one's dream of the ideal uni- 
 versity. 
 
 “ As you see, gentlemen, the theme you have given me 
 widens as we pursue it, and I may not do so farther. My 
 dreams of the Columbia of the future ascend to still loftier 
 heights and image to my mind’s eye schools and founda- 
 tions which concern that mightiest empire which we call 
 Christendom and which shall deal with the facts of human 
 history as they relate not alone to one world but to two. 
 
 “ But I may not pursue them. As I take my seat, how- 
 ever, let me say frankly that I am not insensible of that 
 capital omission which, to many minds, will seem simply 
 unpardonable. I have said nothing about athletics. Well 
 the fact is, gentlemen, I am afraid to ! Matthew Arnold 
 talks about a ‘ stream of tendency,’ and I am keenly sensi- 
 ble, in this matter of athletics, which way ours is moving. 
 
 “But be that as it may, I believe with all my heart in Co- 
 lumbia’s grander future ! Her honorable past predicts it. 
 The brilliant administration of the great teacher and leader 
 whose place we fill to-day, and the memory of whose rare 
 learning, splendid industry, and ever-fresh enthusiasm is a 
 crown of glory to the College, — these are at once the pledges 
 and the prophecies of victories yet to flower out of battles 
 which he nobly fought, and taught us how to win ! And 
 the robust manhood, the serene courage, the thoughtful 
 candor, the wide sympathies, the resolute integrity, and the 
 consecrated purpose of him whom we inaugurate to-day, — 
 these are the pledges of an ascending pathway up which, to 
 grander and nobler triumphs yet to come, shall advance the 
 Columbia of the future ! ” 
 
 Mr. Coudert then announced that over ten thousand 
 dollars had already been subscribed to lay out the Athletic 
 Grounds, and after the cheering had subsided said: “ Before 
 I call upon the eminent gentleman who has so kindly con- 
 sented to speak, I ought to say — not that it is necessary, 
 
46 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI . 
 
 even though he is taken unaware, but simply to emphasize 
 the obligation under which he places us — that he came here 
 with the idea simply of taking a quiet dinner and of listen- 
 ing. That he now submits to the torture of making an 
 address at this late hour, is an evidence of his right good 
 will towards Columbia. I present President Eliot of 
 Harvard.” 
 
 President Eliot, on rising, received a most cordial 
 welcome, and said : 
 
 “ Mr. Chairman , Mr. President , and Alumni of Columbia : 
 I am sure that you will appreciate the risk I take in in- 
 terjecting my quite unprepared words among all these well- 
 considered speeches, which, as the Chairman facetiously 
 intimated, have already been furnished to the morning 
 papers. But no risk is too great for me to take in the cause 
 which we to-day celebrate. 
 
 “ Several gentlemen who have spoken to-night have men- 
 tioned with pleasure that the faculties of many other col- 
 leges have been represented here on this occasion. It is a 
 great pleasure for these representatives of other colleges, 
 gentlemen, to be here — a pleasure of hope and expectation. 
 We see placed at your head a young and vigorous man ; a 
 man trained to public affairs ; a layman and a scholar ; a 
 man sprung from the people; a man from whom we may 
 expect an administration which will give to this city and to 
 this country a university which depends upon no class, no 
 denomination, and no party; but which comprehends and 
 serves all classes, denominations, and parties. It cannot be 
 said of President Low, as I have seen it said of myself 
 rather frequently of late, that he is an ignorant recluse, or a 
 moth-eaten student ; for he is a recognized master in admin- 
 istration. I say that these sister universities and colleges 
 come here in hope. Do you suppose, gentlemen, that it has 
 ever been a satisfaction to any educated American, or to 
 any man in university or college service in this country, 
 that Columbia has occupied heretofore a position which the 
 Chairman of this meeting ventures to describe as that of 
 mediocrity? Do you suppose, gentlemen, that we do not 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 47 
 
 all feel, — these sister colleges and universities, — that we 
 shall all be magnified and honored when Columbia stands 
 forth a university worthy of this magnificent city? 
 
 “ I confess, gentlemen, that whenever I walk past the 
 buildings of Columbia College they give me a deep sense of 
 humiliation and depression. The buildings of Columbia 
 ought to be the gifts of generous men who know what is 
 the finest monument that a man can build to himself, 
 his friend, or his family. That finest monument in all 
 the world is a college building. Around the old buildings 
 of Harvard, — around Holworthy, Stoughton, Hollis, and 
 Massachusetts, — cluster sweet memories and tender associa- 
 tions for thousands of men. Let the rich and public-spirited 
 men of New York seize upon these precious opportunities 
 which Columbia offers them; let them build you structures 
 worthy, not only of the past, but of the future of this city 
 and this State, — worthy to be the permanent home of litera- 
 ture, science, and art at the chief mercantile and financial 
 centre of the United States. 
 
 “And what, gentlemen, has been the method in which 
 the buildings of Columbia, have been procured ? They 
 have been procured, for the most part, by pledging the 
 future income of the College, all of which was sure to be 
 sorely needed for purposes of instruction. This may have 
 been a necessity, but it seems to the President of Harvard 
 University, — an institution which spends its whole income 
 but never borrows — a dire necessity indeed. 
 
 “ I wish I could convey to you my sense of the poverty 
 of Columbia, considering the work it is expected to do. It 
 has passed for a rich university ; it has been believed to 
 hold great properties which were to increase in value indefi- 
 nitely and produce untold thousands of annual income. 
 Yet I have heard here to-night, from my friend, Professor 
 Drisler, on my right, that the entire invested property of 
 the College may be set at $5,000,000, and we have all heard 
 from my distinguished friend on my left, that the total ex- 
 penditure of the College was last year $400,000, of which 
 $i35»ooo were procured from fees, and $265,000 from en- 
 
48 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 dowments. President Low further said, that the real estate 
 of the College could not be expected to yield in the future 
 much more than it does already. Now, gentlemen, we 
 spend at Harvard $800,000 a year, and we have received 
 in gifts of money during the past twenty years, $5,000,000 
 in addition to all the invested capital we had before, and in 
 addition to $2,500,000 given us in lands and buildings 
 withing the same period. Compare this record of a univer- 
 sity situated in a provincial village, gentlemen, with that of 
 Columbia, in the rich and luxurious metropolis of America. 
 It is simply impossible to carry on a great university in this 
 expensive city with any such meagre resources as those 
 which Columbia now possesses. She must have manifold 
 more. 
 
 “ I listened with great interest to the addresses of the 
 morning. They reminded me, and the position of your 
 young President, surrounded as he was by older friends, 
 reminded me, of a similar scene at Harvard more than 
 twenty years ago, when a still younger man took up a simi- 
 lar burden. And I have wanted to say to my friend, that 
 the difficult task which he has assumed would call for all his 
 faith, courage, strength, and enthusiasm, and all his patience, 
 and all your patience, gentlemen ; but that he would find in 
 his arduous work during the next twenty years heartfelt 
 satisfactions and lasting rewards. 
 
 “ President Low made one remark this morning to which 
 he had not time, perhaps, to give a needed development. 
 In urging that a great university could be built up in a great 
 city, he said that the mass of living human beings gathered 
 in a great city was in itself a world full of interest and 
 instruction for any body of students. That is doubtless 
 true ; and yet, gentlemen, are there not other and nobler 
 worlds which universities are especially designed to explore 
 and reveal? There is the great world of nature : the moun- 
 tains and seas, the rivers and plains, with all their multitu- 
 dinous inhabitants, — a boundless field of study and research ; 
 there is the world of history, the ample record of human 
 thoughts and deeds ; there is the still loftier world of the 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 49 
 
 human imagination, the world of poetry, literature, music, 
 and art. Those are the vaster and fairer worlds which Co- 
 lumbia should incessantly picture to this busy community. 
 They are worlds which lie beyond and above the bustle 
 and strife of factories and markets. Amid this overwhelm- 
 ing turmoil of the actual and real may she hold high the 
 standards of the ideal ; amid the whirl of machinery, the 
 din of traffic, and the ebb and flow of human tides, may 
 she keep ever green and fragrant a quiet garden of philos- 
 ophy and piety.” 
 
 At the conclusion of President Eliot’s speech, calls were 
 made for Mr. James W. Alexander, President of the 
 Princeton Club of New York, and Mr. Coudert, turning to 
 that gentleman, said: 
 
 “ If I inform the gentleman of our invariable rule, that 
 when a man is called upon to speak he must do it, it will 
 probably be effective. Mr. Alexander.” 
 
 Mr. Alexander at once rose and said : 
 
 “Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Alumni : It is my 
 
 custom to attend a meeting of this sort with my few sponta- 
 neous remarks in my pocket. But I have supposed that it 
 was usual to permit guests to sit and listen and not to call 
 them to their feet without notice, when there is a set pro- 
 gramme. I feel very much like the woman who went to 
 the clergyman to be married. Those of you who have lived 
 in a clergyman’s family as I have, know that it is a very 
 common thing for a couple to present themselves without 
 notice, and ask to be united. This particular couple called 
 on a clergyman in this city, whose name would be recog- 
 nized if I should mention it, and were seated on the sofa in 
 the parlor when he came down to marry them. He said to 
 himself, ‘ these people are unaccustomed to this sort of 
 thing ; they don’t understand what they ought to do ; they 
 have never either of them been married.’ So he said to 
 them : ‘ You will please rise.’ But they sat perfectly still, 
 and the woman said : ‘ We have usually sot.’ 
 
 “ I feel very much the same embarrassment that that 
 
5o 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 woman did in that situation. But now I am on my feet, I 
 will say that I was very much touched by the delicate com- 
 pliment to Princeton contained in that portion of the remarks 
 of the Chairman where he said that he was unwilling that 
 Columbia should be vanquished by Harvard or Yale, 
 because I felt that he meant it to be understood, just as 
 plainly as if he had put it into words, that he would con- 
 sider it a glory to be vanquished by Princeton. 
 
 “ I could not help thinking, as I sat here looking on your 
 President’s face, and remembering his past career, his great 
 attainments and qualities which fit him so well for his 
 high position ; I could not help thinking how remarkable it 
 is that you have found a man who combines those qualities 
 which to my recollection have never before been combined 
 in a college president, — the qualities of the scholar and 
 the practised business man. You have chosen a man who 
 has made himself famous not only as a man of affairs, but 
 as a man who has kept up, since his graduation from col- 
 lege, that love of literary lore and cultivated that academic 
 spirit, the maintenance of which elevates the life of the 
 citizen; who has kept up those nobler aims to a greater 
 extent I think than almost any other man engaged in mer- 
 cantile pursuits, unless I might place in the same category 
 that illustrious Alumnus of this University, Mr. Abram S. 
 Hewitt. 
 
 “And I heartily join the voices of the gentlemen who 
 have preceded me, in wishing every success to your new 
 President, whom you might well call your Columbiad, be- 
 cause he is your big gun. I thank you very much for call- 
 ing on me at this late hour in the evening, and for listening 
 to me so intently. And let me say that I hope your Co- 
 lumbia will go on from this time forth in one uninterrupted 
 career of prosperity, and I assure you that none will hail its 
 further prosperity with more enthusiasm and more pleasure 
 than the Princeton men.” 
 
 After Mr. Alexander’s speech the dinner was brought to 
 a conclusion, and the Alumni separated, having had a most 
 enjoyable evening. 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 189O. 
 
 5 1 
 
 Rev. Richard S. Storrs, D.D., had prepared the following, 
 which we are glad to be able to add to the other speeches. 
 
 “ I have been asked to say some words on the relation of 
 the city of Brooklyn to Columbia College. I do it with 
 very great pleasure. Of course, the relation of the two to 
 each other is immediately suggested, and abundantly em- 
 phasized by the fact that the College has called one to its 
 highest office, who was born in Brooklyn ; who had there 
 his early education ; who has always, until now, been 
 identified with that city, prominent in its social, religious, 
 political, and literary circles ; to whom it has twice entrusted 
 its highest office, and to whose future it has looked forward 
 with bright hope and large expectation. Nothing more 
 need be said, to show the close relations which do exist, 
 and which must exist, between that city and this College. 
 
 “ But it is still further to be noted, that this is not the 
 only personal connection between them. Of your professors, 
 lecturers, and teachers, fifteen, I find, are residents of 
 Brooklyn; and of your students, in the different depart- 
 ments, nearly two hundred, — one hundred and ninety-three. 
 In the Schools of Arts and Law alone, there are one hun- 
 dred and eight of these students. Among your graduates 
 also, many are resident citizens of Brooklyn, and are among 
 those most respected and honored in that city. 
 
 “ I confess that I have been, myself, somewhat surprised at 
 this result of my inquiries, since Brooklyn and New York 
 have been steadily growing apart from each other, as you 
 know, in the forty-three years of my residence in the one, 
 and my familiar acquaintance with the other. In the early 
 days, which seem now so long ago, when great concerts 
 were given in Castle Garden, when St. George’s Church was 
 on Beekman Street, and the Brick Church on Printing 
 House Square, when Columbia College stood between 
 Barclay and Murray Streets, and when stately mansions 
 arose around the Battery, and looked down upon the Bowl- 
 ing Green, we were near each other ; only a narrow strait 
 between us. Now that both cities have vastly expanded, 
 New York reaching up toward Poughkeepsie and Connect!*- 
 
52 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 cut, and Brooklyn out to Queens County and the ocean, 
 each is more distinctly separate from the other. Even the 
 Bridge, with the elevated railways, does not maintain them 
 in an equally close and complete combination. 
 
 “Visitors from New York come frequently to Brooklyn, 
 going out even to the Park and down the superb Ocean 
 Parkway beyond it ; but the social affiliations between the 
 two cities are less general than they were. A fair propor- 
 tion of the people in Brooklyn come to New York for daily 
 business, but they return at nightfall for rest and leisure 
 and the pleasures of home. We have our own libraries, 
 hospitals, asylums, and literary societies, on that side of the 
 river, only one or two of which were there when I was first 
 established in the city. We have our many churches, our 
 great and sufficient commercial establishments, our diversi- 
 fied industries ; and we have our own admirable training- 
 schools, for young men and young women, than which none 
 have a higher or more deserved repute among the colleges, 
 or with the public. 
 
 “ It has seemed to me, therefore, surprising that so many 
 students should still come from Brooklyn to Columbia Col- 
 lege ; that so many of your teachers should have the good 
 taste and the good fortune to find their pleasant homes 
 among us ; and yet, perhaps, there need be no surprise: for 
 Brooklyn is pre-eminently a city of homes, the homes of 
 intelligent and prosperous people ; not always of the 
 wealthiest class, but by no means of the poorest; of just 
 that sort of people who particularly desire education for 
 their children, and the best education which the country 
 will afford. The number of students going from the city, 
 year by year, to the different attractive universities and 
 colleges, is therefore very large. Many are drawn to 
 Harvard, by its manifold noble courses of instruction, and 
 by its great fame ; many others go to Yale, and many to 
 Princeton ; while not a few find their way to the smaller 
 colleges, Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, and the others, 
 where the personal contact between teachers and pupils is 
 perhaps more intimate than in larger institutions, and where 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 1890. 
 
 53 
 
 the beauty of the scenery around the college is a constant 
 delight, — is, in fact, no mean power of education. 
 
 “ But almost two hundred, it appears, find their way hither, 
 to the various schools at the head of which our friend, Mr. 
 Low, is hereafter to stand. I do not doubt, for one, that 
 this tendency will continue, will be even increased, as his 
 presidency continues, and becomes, as we all know it will 
 continually become, more distinguished and more fruitful. 
 There is one obvious reason why this should be, in the fact 
 that those studying here, who are from Brooklyn, can still 
 live at home, and remain enfolded in the family life. 
 
 “ I do not think that I, for one, overvalue this advan- 
 tage ; perhaps, even, I do not estimate it so highly as others 
 may. I have no fear of special dangers to be encountered 
 by a youth who goes from home into college life, even at 
 a distance. There are dangers everywhere. Temptation 
 is not wholly unknown even here in New York, largely 
 sanctified as no doubt the city is. A man may find tempta- 
 tion on the summit of Mount Washington, or on any lonely 
 island girt by the sea. Where the indolent, self-indulgent, or 
 immoral temper is in the lad, it does not matter very much 
 where he is sent. He will find, or make, temptation for 
 himself at Amherst or at Yale, as he would in any German 
 university. But if his spirit is sound and sweet, is chris- 
 tianly intellectual, if the home, in other words, has done its 
 fair work for him, he will meet less temptation, in my best 
 judgment, at either of the principal colleges of the country, 
 than he will in the counting-room, or in any department of 
 manufacturing enterprise, or in any newspaper office of 
 which I know. 
 
 “ His occupation will be regular and wholesome ; his asso- 
 ciates helpful to whatever is good in him ; the influence of 
 his teachers will be constant and salutary ; and his con- 
 tinual and stimulating mental work will be a great safeguard 
 to his moral life. There is a vast amount of nonsense 
 talked about the specially perilous temptations of college 
 life ; those of us who have been through it know better. 
 And my strong impression is, that if I wanted to put a 
 
54 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI . 
 
 young man, with right tendencies to start with, into the 
 place most favorable to a vigorous and noble moral devel- 
 opment, I would send him to college ; not out to sea, not 
 into business, not to any secluded hamlet, but into the 
 thick of college life, where the thoroughly democratic 
 temper prevails, and every man takes rank according to his 
 ability and work ; where young life throbs with high aspi- 
 ration : and where the general atmosphere of the place is 
 enlightening and uplifting. And, of course, there are some 
 advantages in sending one away from home, teaching him 
 early the lessons of practical self-guidance and self-control, 
 in circumstances and in scenes not previously familiar. 
 
 “ But when the family wishes, as multitudes of families do 
 wish, to keep their sons at home, and still to afford them 
 the best advantages of the higher training, and larger 
 acquisition, which only distinguished institutions can offer, 
 it is perfectly natural that, if living in Brooklyn, they 
 should turn to this College as the one for their children, 
 and the tendency will only widen, I am sure, and assume 
 constantly larger proportions, as our population, which has 
 multiplied already twelve times during my own life in 
 Brooklyn, shall multiply still further, into the millions. 
 
 “ There is yet another relation in which we stand to this 
 institution as its conscious and grateful beneficiaries. A 
 College like this, with its many harmonious and inter-active 
 departments, exalts always before the view of the commu- 
 nity in which it is placed, the beauty and power of intellec- 
 tual pursuits ; it holds up the ideal of a generously cultivated 
 manhood and womanhood. Mr. Bryce speaks of this, you 
 remember, as a vast and constant benefit conferred by the 
 smaller colleges upon those communities directly surround- 
 ing them. It is a just and discerning suggestion of that 
 admirable writer, a suggestion which may be fresher on the 
 other side of the ocean than it can be on this. It applies 
 as well to this vast community, and to that part of it which 
 expands so rapidly beyond the Bridge, as to that on this side. 
 
 “ The admiration for wealth, and the incessant pursuit of 
 it, are here presented, within a radius of a dozen miles from 
 
ANNUAL DINNER OF 189O. 
 
 55 
 
 yonder City Hall, in their most impressive and glittering 
 exhibition. The moral atmosphere around us is continually 
 charged and surcharged with influences from them, and all 
 who minister to the higher needs and nature of man have 
 to do their work under these conditions. Open a place of 
 stimulating amusement, it will be filled the first night. 
 Open a scheme of commercial profit, and you need po- 
 licemen at the doors to keep the struggling crowds in order. 
 But open a school of the higher class, and it grows slowly ; 
 publish a book of the highest character, and it makes only 
 slight and limited impression. We seem in danger, some- 
 times, of having mere metallic influences infiltrated into our 
 personal and social moral life, until the finer and tenderer 
 fibres of the spirit are hardened as into stone. It is well, 
 then, beautiful, full of promise, that such an institution as 
 this, and as the others allied and sympathetic with it, should 
 stand eminent and shining amid the rattle of trade, in the 
 sight of anxious and hurrying populations, and in front 
 of the homes of the wealthy, to show to all that there is a 
 good, higher and lovelier than the good of the purse ; that 
 training of the mind, and its equipment with large knowl- 
 edge, are better than mere success in business ; that what 
 makes a man freer in the universe of Truth is of finer influ- 
 ence than what makes his bank credit more sure and simple. 
 
 “ We honor charity when we house and equip it with all 
 appliances for its Divine work. We honor justice, when we 
 furnish it with buildings suitable and sufficient for its 
 august office. We honor and exalt Christianity itself be- 
 fore the eyes and thoughts of men, when we rear the solid 
 and stately church for the scene of its efforts and its tri- 
 umphs. We honor learning, when we give it that which it 
 needs as the fitting and noble material furnishing for its 
 preservation and distribution. And it, in turn, advances 
 and blesses the society which so confesses indebtedness to 
 it. Your College has done this in the years which are past. 
 It did it, as I remember it, forty years ago, when Charles 
 King left the editor’s chair to become its President. It has 
 never done it hitherto more signally than under the inspira- 
 
56 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 tion of President Barnard, at whose death we all were 
 mourners. It will do it, I am sure, and more largely than 
 ever under the influence of this dear and honored Brooklyn 
 youth and man who now succeeds him. 
 
 “ In that silent and far-reaching benefit, admonishing and 
 enriching life in all the circles on which it falls, we who 
 remain in the city which he leaves will always share with 
 you. I trust, therefore, that students from our homes, of 
 either sex, will continue to come in increasing numbers to 
 this honored institution, and I hope that even your funds 
 may be augmented when the need for it arrives, by the glad 
 and grateful gifts of those of my fellow-townsmen who feel 
 the value of what the College has done, and who inherit the 
 blessing of old, having neither poverty nor astonishing riches. 
 
ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI 
 
 OF 
 
 COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 
 
 1889-90. 
 
 OFFICERS AND STANDING COMMITTEE. 
 
 Frederic R. Coudert, ’50, President , 70 William Street. 
 George G. DeWitt, Jr., ’67, Vice-President , 88 Nassau Street. 
 A. B Simonds, ’73, Treasurer , 49 Wall Street. 
 
 Wm. S. Sloan, ’82, Secretary, 2 6 Exchange Place. 
 
 TERM EXPIRES OCTOBER, 1890. 
 
 J. H. Van Amringe, ’6o, 115 West 44th Street. 
 
 Nicholas Fish, ’67, 120 Broadway. 
 
 John K. Rees, ’72, Columbia College. 
 
 Robert C. Cornell, ’74, 52 William Street. 
 
 TERM EXPIRES OCTOBER, 1 89 1. 
 
 C. A. Sillim an, ’50, 25 Whitehall Street. 
 
 William G. Lathrop, Jr., ’62, 71 Wall Street. 
 
 Abm. Van Santvoord, ’65, 55 Broadway. 
 
 Wm. Fellowes Morgan, ’80, Arch 4, Brooklyn Bridge. 
 
 TERM EXPIRES OCTOBER, 1 892. 
 
 W. H. Butterworth, ’64, 115 Broadway. 
 
 Jasper T. Goodwin, ’76, Columbia College. 
 
 John B. Pine, ’77, 50 Pine Street. 
 
 Lincoln Cromwell, ’86, 1 Greene Street. 
 
 57 
 
53 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI. 
 
 The following are the conditions for membership in the 
 Association of the Alumni : 
 
 Article II. Sec. 2. — Any graduate from the Academic Depart- 
 ment of Columbia College, and any graduate from any of the 
 associated schools of Columbia College who shall have been for 
 at least three years a regular member of the Academic Depart- 
 ment, and who shall not have graduated from any other college, 
 may become a regular member of this corporation by signing the 
 roll of the members to be kept by the treasurer, and paying the 
 dues for one year or for life. 
 
 Sec. 3. — Any person who shall not have graduated from the 
 college, but who shall have been a member of a class in the 
 Academic Department, which shall have graduated, and any 
 graduate from the other departments, may be elected, by the 
 Standing Committee of this association, an associate member, 
 and become such member on signing such roll, and making such 
 payment as mentioned in the preceding section. 
 
 Article III. Sec. i. — Every regular and associate member 
 shall hereafter pay to the treasurer the sum of two dollars annu- 
 ally, or in lieu thereof a life-membership fee of thirty dollars as 
 a commutation for annual dues. All monies paid as commuta- 
 tion fees shall be funded under the direction of the Standing 
 Committee, and shall be deemed a permanent fund to an amount 
 not exceeding $1,500, and the interest only shall be appropriated 
 to the current expenses of this association. 
 
 The roll will be found at meetings of the association, and 
 at all other times at the office of 
 
 Alexander B. Simonds, Treasurer , 
 
 No. 49 Wall Street.