ADDRESS. 



HON. JUSTIN S. MORIULL, 



United States Senator for Vermont. 



While having some words to which I may not unwillingly give ut- 

 terance, yet, not until within the past two weeks have I had any ex- 

 pectation of being able, in response to the invitation of January 

 last, to be present on this 25th Anniversary of the passage of the 

 act by which this and other similar colleges have been established in 

 the 'several states. I am glad to recognize your observance of the 

 day as evidence that these institutions have won some consideration 

 and hold here your cordial respect. I do not feel that the Land- 

 Grant Colleges derive any dignity from the author of the act of Con- 

 gress to which they owe their birth, however dear to me his reputa- 

 tion may very naturally be supposed to be. The existence of the 

 Colleges can alone be vindicated by the reason that they are not su- 

 perfluous but indisputably wanted ; and that their work is not Utopi- 

 an but practically of real service to our country. They must derive 

 all of their dignity, not from any real or supposed obstacles encount- 

 ered in their origin, but from the substantial equivalent they give for 

 the four years of vigorous life surrendered by students to their guid- 

 ance, and from the lustre reflected upon them by their alumni. 



The importance of the early training of the horse and the ox has 

 never been lost sight of by mankind ; a seven-years' apprenticeship 

 has been thought not too much to acquire the skill of a master me- 

 chanic ; and the importance of long terms of human training, for the 

 professions of theology, law, medicine, and pedagogy, has for years 

 been held to be indispensable. But these learned professions, impor- 

 tant as they are, numerically include only a small fraction, compara- 



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