696 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
The Immediate Pre-Period of Preparation 
The thirties, the forties, and the early fifties of the last century 
were eminently pioneer days. With the sixties came the Civil War, 
and with the mid-sixties, its close. It left the natural aftermath of 
war, diverse currents and counter currents of thought and feeling 
setting in devious directions—on the one hand, a desire for peace and 
rest, for cessation of serious thought, for physical, mental and even 
moral relaxation; on the other hand, when these first desires were in 
some measure satisfied, a resumption of the tension that had become 
habitual in the war, a new impulse to tenacious pursuit, a new will 
to victory. The larger vision that came with the wider interests and 
experiences of the war, visions of that which was national rather 
than personal, entered into the new mental attitude. The man whose 
pre-war thoughts had centered on his farm, his town, or his county, 
had been forced to dwell on his state and his county at large and 
he could not permanently shrink back to his former limitations of 
interest. The man who had marched shoulder to shoulder with his 
fellows could not well relapse into personal isolation. And so the 
half decade following the war became the generative period of those 
broader views and those generous instincts of coordination that led 
to the organization of a common effort for the intellectual develop¬ 
ment of the state. This was the immediate pre-period of the found¬ 
ing of the Academy. 
The Formal Founding of the Academy 
During this half-decade, voluntary organizations were formed here 
and there for the promotion of science and for personal culture, and 
some futile efforts of a more general order were made, all of which 
were more or less tributary to the coming general movement. En¬ 
couraged by these symptoms of readiness. Dr. J. W. Hoyt, Secretary 
of the State Agricultural Society, worked out a comprehensive scheme 
for a State Academy. He sent printed copies of this to such citizens 
of the state as were thot to be interested in such a movement, 
whether or not they were likely to be able to engage in research or 
to make contributions to any phase of science, arts, or letters. He 
also proposed that a convention be called to organize such an Acad¬ 
emy. The proposals met with a cordial response and a special call 
for the proposed convention was issued bearing the signatures of 105 
representative men of various callings and intellectual interests. In 
explanation of my presence here today and my effort to serve you 
as requested by your President, I may be permitted to say that my 
name formed the tail end of the list, and that is perhaps why “the 
rider of the pale horse” has thus far overlooked me in his frequent 
and fateful visitations. If he shall continue to feel that the vanish¬ 
ing end of the long list is too immaterial to require any notice on his 
part, his good judgment will meet with my most hearty concurrence. 
