200 POLITICAL LIFE-X 



being unable to defray his expenses, the young man de- 

 termined to strike out for himself, and so began one of 

 the best careers known in the history of American politics. 



At this same commencement of Cornell University ap- 

 peared another statesman, Justin S. Morrill of Vermont, 

 author of the Morrill Bill of 1862, which, by a grant of 

 public lands, established a college for scientific, technical, 

 military, and general education in every State and Terri- 

 tory in the Union. It was one of the most beneficent mea- 

 sures ever proposed in any country. Mr. Morrill had 

 made a desperate struggle for his bill, first as represen- 

 tative and afterward as senator. It was twice vetoed by 

 President Buchanan, who had at his back all the pro-sla- 

 very doctrinaires of his time. They distrusted, on various 

 accounts, any system for promoting advanced education, 

 and especially for its promotion by the government; but 

 he won the day, and on this occasion our trustees, at my 

 suggestion, invited him to be present at the unveiling of 

 his portrait by Huntington, which had been painted by 

 order of the trustees for the library. 



He was evidently gratified at the tribute, and all who 

 met him were pleased with him. The time will come, I 

 trust, when his statue will stand in the capital of the Union 

 as a memorial of one of the most useful and far-seeing 

 statesmen our country has known. 



A week later I addressed my class at Yale on "The 

 Message of the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth." In 

 this address my endeavor was to indicate the lines on which 

 reforms of various sorts must be instituted, and along 

 which a better future for the country could be developed, 

 and it proved a far greater success than I had expected. 

 It was widely circulated in various forms, first in the 

 newspapers, then as a pamphlet, and finally as a kind of 

 campaign document. 



From July to September of that year (1883) I was 

 obliged to be in Europe looking after matters pertaining 

 to the university lawsuit, and, on returning, was called 

 upon to address a large meeting of Germans at the funeral 



