FRANCIS AMASA WALKER. 641 



His work Avas done in Massachusetts and in Boston, and tliat means 

 that he had behind him as generous and liberal a community as ever 

 existed on the face of the earth — a community sjiecially alive to the 

 value of institutions like this. It would be a dishonor to the great 

 old presidents, the Josiah Quincys, the James Walkers, the Mark 

 Hopkinses, the Woolseys, the Jeremiah Days, and the Timothy 

 Dwights, who administered our colleges in the days of their poverty, 

 to measure their success either by money or bj^ the number of their 

 students. General Walker's title to gratitude is that in his time this 

 institution grew toward the zenith as well as toward the horizon; it is 

 that while the number of students grew, the efficiency and fitness for 

 their life's work, to which their diplomas certified, grew in like propor- 

 tion; it is that the personal character of the i^resident exerted an 

 ennobling and enlarging influence on the character and intellect of the 

 pui)il. Kever, if we may trust the testimony of those who know best, 

 was it surpassed in this country, unless possibly in the single instance 

 of Mark Hopkins. He understood every need of the institution. The 

 school felt his touch in every nerve. He brought his great adminis- 

 trative abilities to bear in every dej)artment and upon the smallest 

 detail, as will be seen if you read his reports. He was a lover of 

 young men. He symj)athized with them in their studies, in their 

 athletic sports; he had a kindly tolerance for their foibles and faults. 

 The pupils and the younger teachers of the Institute of Technology 

 loved the president, and the president loved them. * * * 



He had inherited a spirit of independent thinking and an aptness 

 for economic study. His father, a successful merchant, without college 

 training, had been attracted to such studies by the desire to understand 

 the laws on which the success of his own business depended. He became 

 deeply interested in the currency, wages, and freedom of commercial 

 intercourse. He was a thinker and investigator of great independence; 

 early an antislavery man, and an influential advocate of cheap postage 

 and sound banking. He was everywhere respected and had much 

 influence in his day. During the war he saved Secretary Chase from a 

 grave error, the evil of which we could not easily have gotten rid of. 

 Mr. Chase had purposed to issue an adulterated silver coinage, to make 

 the value far above the true value, and had prepared a bill and sent a 

 letter to the Senate and the committee of the House of Representatives 

 recommending it. This ho showed to Amusa Walker, who was then 

 in Washington, and gave up the plan in consequence of his sharp 

 exxiostulation. 



In dealing with this part of (leueral Walker's life I am afraid some 

 of my audience will think it is as if I were to deliver an address on 

 Shakespeare and were to begin by saying that 1 would not undertake 

 to estimate Shakespeare's rank as a dramatic poet. But the time has 

 not come for a final oj^inion as to General Walker's rank in the depart- 

 ment of political economy. I should be presumptuous if I were to 

 SM 97 41 



