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redltary monarchy and a hereditary nobility. Now I vfill tell you how 

 this word came to be abused. Certain men in olden time, by violence 

 and fraud, got possession of the land and the power, and they called 

 themselves the best men, or the aristocrats, simply because they were the 

 strongest. And since then, it has become the fashion to call all those 

 aristocrats who gain influence through the mere possession of wealth, 

 or through any unfair means, as well as those who inherit wealth and 

 power from their ancestors. Thus the word came to mean something 

 just opposite to its tiue meaning, taken etymologically — thus it came to 

 mean power and influence wielded by the undeserving. In our country 

 we can have no aristocrats by inheritance. The only aristocrats in the 

 bad sense, possible in our country, are demagogues who have no merit 

 but their cunning, and rich men who have no merit but theii- money. 

 And these may arise among men of all pursuits and trades. Now the 

 only way to put down this false and pernicious aristocracy, is to raise 

 up the true one. Let intelligence, moral character and worth, be the 

 test of merit. Let those be called the first class, whatever be their con- 

 dition in hfe, who really in the eye of reason and of God, are the first 

 class. Let, I say, all wise and good and truth-loving men, be accounted 

 aristocrats, and let them hold the commanding influence in the State 

 and in society at large. And let the nimaber of such aristocrats be mul- 

 tiphed indefinitely. Would to God that the whole people of Michigan 

 — that all who bear the honored name of American citizen — might be- 

 come such aristocrats ? And these are just the aristocrats that we are 

 trying to raise up in the University of Michigan, and in all the schools 

 and seminaries of our State. 



I say, Farmers of Michigan, that our great desire is to make the Uni- 

 versity useful to you, and we are determined to do it. We will educate 

 all your sons who wish to be educated for the different professions. 

 We will educate those who wish to take a particular course to fit them 

 for a particidar business. We will educate those who wish to become 

 strictly literary and scientific men. And beyond all this, we have es- 

 tablished and will carry on, an Agricultural Department for those who 

 intend to devote themselves particularly to Agriculture. Whatever be 

 the determination of the people of this State in respect to an Agricul- 

 tural School, we know not how to teach Chemistry, Botany, Mineralogy 

 and Zoology, without gi^ing a course of agricultural science. The sci- 



