ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 13 



in the organization and management of these institutions, no 

 fault can be charged home to the original bill. It was eminently 

 a wise measure, and suggested an outline of organization and 

 management that has not as yet been improved upon. Its 

 significant words are as follo^vs : "the endowment, support 

 and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object 

 shall be, without excluding scientific and classical studies, and 

 including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as 

 are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner 

 as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in 

 order to promote the liberal and practical education of the indus- 

 trial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life." No 

 branch of learning peculiar to the old colleges was to be neces- 

 sarily excluded ; but the new^ colleges were to push on to the 

 practical application of the sciences they taught, and they were 

 to train all their students as defenders of their country against 

 domestic rebellion or foreign invasion. In a word, tkey were 

 to educate their students as men and as Atnerican citizens. The 

 rank of the education given is " liberal " the term applied to the 

 education given by the highest institutions then known. It was 

 to be so broad as to fit men for the " several pursuits and pro- 

 fessions of life." If we should criticise any ])art of the language 

 it would be " industrial classes." In the European sense of the 

 w'ord, we have no " classes." We have men of various pursuits, 

 but in the same family may be found farmer, minister, merchant, 

 mechanic and governor, all of one class and on perfect equality, 

 though representing the different pursuits of life. But as the 

 words "industrial classes" are generally used, they simply 

 indicate those who have chosen a certain pursuit in life, and not 

 a social class. 



The object of these colleges was to obliterate the supposed 

 superiority of the so-called " learned professions," by securing 

 a " liberal," that is, the highest education, for those who chose 

 industrial pursuits, thus lifting agriculture and the mechanic 

 arts from the plane of mere routine labor to the dignity of 

 learned professions, founded upon scientific knowledge and 

 allied to, or connected with, those branches of learning essential 

 for a broad and generous culture of the whole man. Many who 

 have attempted the management of these colleges, as well as 

 many who have criticised them, have apparently overlooked the 



