40 
both sides, who led them to victory or defeat, and the men who composed them 
were in the main the descendants of the pioneers whose ancestors had lived for 
thirty generations within the four seas of Britain. Lee and Jackson and Stuart and 
Hampton and Gordon, McClellan and Grant and Sheridan and Sherman and 
Thomas are as thoroughly British names as Cromwell and Marlborough and Wolf 
and "Wellington. With this people, its noble ancestry, its inspiring traditions, its 
stupendous achievements, and its glorious history, I would have the most ample pro- 
vision made in every institution in this association for its students to become 
acquainted. The educated American should know the history of his own people in 
itself and in its relations. We go back beyond 1776, beyond 1620 and 1607. The 
roots of our being are identical with those of the patriots who worked out patiently 
and laboriously for six hundred years the problems of parliamentary government, of 
the relation of the subject to the state, of taxation to representation, of the coordi- 
nation of liberty and authority. English history before 177(> belongs as much to 
Americans as to Englishmen, and American institutions are unintelligible if dissev- 
ered from their rational relationship. The American Constitution without the prior 
existence of Magna Charta, Habeas Corpus, and the Bill of Rights would have been 
impossible. 
On one occasion Lord Beaconsfield gave utterance to a felicitous expression which 
roused to an intense self-consciousness the hearts of the British people. "Libertas et 
imperium" struck a note which vibrated through the British Isles. They felt that 
they had achieved empire through freedom. 1 would strike a kindred note here 
to-day. I would have this association adopt the motto: Education and Empire. 
Freedom we have. Freedom forms the basis of our national existence, the air which 
it breathes, the inspiration of the life which it lives. But the inspiration and the 
vitality of freedom and of empire must henceforth be intelligence — developed, 
strengthened, exalted, purified. 
Not long since a conference of allied colonial universities was held in London. 
There were present men like Lord Kelvin and the leader of the House of Commons, 
eminent representatives of learning and science, men high in authority in the old 
universities of the mother country, and men of distinction in the more recently 
established universities of the King's oversea dominions. Mr. Balfour announced 
the object of the meeting to be "An alliance of all the universities that in an increasing 
measure are feeling their responsibilities not merely for training the youth which is 
destined to carry on the traditions of the British Empire, but also to further those 
great interests of knowledge, scientific research, and culture, without which no 
empire, however materially magnificent, can really say that it is doing its share in 
the progress of the world." What the statesmen of the kindred people beyond the 
Atlantic; seek to do, we have already been doing for years. This federation of colleges 
and universities has been addressing itself to realize the objects set forth in the lan- 
guage just quoted, viz, the furtherance of the great interests of knowledge, scientific 
research, and liberal culture, "without which no empire, however materially magnifi- 
cent, can really say that it is doing its share in the progress of the world." No such 
federation of educational agencies and activities as this association of ours has ever 
been seen. It is the first, the greatest, the most far-reaching in its aims, and the most 
successful in its results. It has long since passed beyond the embryonic stage. 
Embracing within its ample scope all that is valuable in the old and incorporating it 
with new ideals, it presents to the nation and the world a system complete because 
all-embracing, and, inspired by the vigor of youth, goes on conquering and to con- 
quer. "To the solid ground of nature trusts the mind which builds for aye." 
American institutions have materially influenced the principles of government in 
the Old World; American education is accomplishing a similar work in influencing 
the educational systems of Europe. Germany has felt its power, great though Ger- 
many be in intellect, in pure science, in discovery; England frankly acknowledges 
her obligations to American methods in university training and in the application of 
science to industrial production; Russia in her commercial exclusiveness pays a 
reluctant tribute to American enterprise. All these are legitimate sources of an 
honorable pride, and all the more gratifying because the federation of American 
colleges and experiment stations is the exponent of the idea. The precedence which 
we have won we must maintain. 
In hoc signo vinces. State and nation are alike interested in the existence and 
development of the units which form this organization; and State and nation will 
respond with equal liberality in order to maintain the most comprehensive, most 
economic, most fruitful educational activity which human wisdom ever devised. 
From a glorious past, through a marvelous present, to an illustrious future, the 
transition is natural and easy. If the growth and prosperity witnessed within the 
memory of living persons have been unexampled, it is because conditions — intel- 
