35 



man nature. Will you leave those who are to become 

 the actors in the great business of the future, to strug- 

 gle without aid, and without means, towards the im- 

 proved condition of their day ? Look at the youth of 

 the land now awaiting the action of the State, provid- 

 ing for the universal education of her sons. Is it ne- 

 cessary, at this day, to remind you, or to enforce by ar- 

 gument, that the foundation of our government is virtue, 

 that virtue springs from education, and that a state of 

 ignorance is the worst of all states, a state successive- 

 ly of superstition, barbarity, despotism, crime? Are 

 there none of you proud of the patronage of the virtue 

 and talent which will issue from the gallaries of this 

 University? Are there none looking forward to the 

 time when your memories will be blest as the consis- 

 tent and popularity, sacrificing friends of an institution 

 which nurtures youthful wisdom, and assists poverty, 

 stricken genius 1 When a long line of illustrious men 

 will claim their al?na mater here ; when a Socrates will 

 die to vindicate truth ; when a Washington will rise to 

 save a bleeding country; when a Franklin will exalt 

 science and philosophy to the portals of the firmanent ; 

 who would not be proud in the reflection, that he bore 

 some part in the glorious patronage of their virtue, 

 their patriotism, and their genius ? When some of these, 

 before us, will prove the Howards of your country's 

 charities, the vindicators of your religion, the martyred 

 advocates of your political liberty. When your chil- 

 dren will stand admiring, while these brilliant lights 

 in the nation's history rise resplendent in their orbits, 

 will they turn blushing from the pageantry of a na- 

 tion's triumphs, and say, my parent did nothing towards 

 all this \ Awake men of a meridian age — arouse states- 



