Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1859-06-15
.IAs Standard.

- ne SfaHoar0.
rHE LATE GoMMENcEMENf AT THE UNI
VERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA.
SpeecA6s Of Coz. Satin, Of Preident BueAaana,
and Secretary fnompson, at Chapel HM
We extract che following reports Of the speeches
Il the reception of President Buchanan and Secre-
|ary Thompson, at the University, from 1.-The IN
Weekly South. Carolinian," to whose accomplished
reporter, Mr. Woodruff, the public IS indebted Tor
IA account Of the proceedings at commencement
more full and minute than any we have seen. Ills
ire the only reports Of these speeches and arc very
creditable to him, because of tho difficulties under
which they were secured We have taken the lib
erty of correcting them in few unimportant par
ticulars:
President SWAIN said: When your predecessor,
Mr. President twelve years ago. visited this instr
tuition he was regarded as paying . grateful and
graceful compliment to his Alma Mater. He re-
turned to the scenes and associates of his boyhood
RE Secretary Of the Navy in the Cabinet OF which
you were the Premier, the present estmable Minis
ter to France came with him one of his collegiate
companions. Your visit is the more complimentary,
because your associations less intimate than his
The selection of two children of this institution, Zone
of whom we rejoice to see standing by your side,
while we mourn the absence of the other with I'M
affected sorrow,) as members of your Cabinet is
compliment which entities you to grateful consid
Grafton at our hands Your presence as that of the
Chief Magistrate of the Republic is distinction Of
which we may we'll feel proud. Still We welcome
you not merely in your official character. but also
as Mr.. Buchanan, citizen of Pennsylvania.
1t is somewhat remarkable, Sir, that two States
80 distant from each other as North Carolina and
Pennsylvania should be so intimately connected and
blended in their history. The greatest of Pennsyl
vanians, and with single exception, the greatest
electric wand, and the waters of Liberty gushed
forth for the healing of nations Benjamin Franklin
was the main spring of the Revolution at the South
as well as at the North.
North Carolina was originally settled. to a very
great extent by emigrants from Pennsylvania As
early as 1856, VIM Penn in a letter to confiden-
tal friend, states that fifteen thousand of the most
substantial citizens of his province were about to
seek home in the wilderness of Carolina. But it
that constitutes the bond of union between North
Carolina and Pennsylvania The Scotch-lrish came
at subsequent period, and among them the Alex
anders, the Caldwells the Davidsons, the Grahams
the McDowells the Osbornes, the Folks and the
Steeles found their way to our borders through
Pennsylvania. jackson and Dave and others came
to the Waxhaws through South Carolina. The third
element in population, for which We are indcbt
ed to Pennsylvania, are the Lutherans, descendants
of the Protestants, who fought under William the
Silent in the memorable contest with Philip the
Second The Phifers, the Barringers and their
neighbors were among the earliest of these emil
grants.
These united stocks formed a race of men rarely
equalled in any age or in any country. God forbid.
Mr.. President that should disparage in the small
est degree, the character of the Puritan. 1t is
matter of honest pride to myself that am hum
bic scion of that Stock But feel free to declare
that believe in my conscience that no portion of
our countrymen during the Revolution loved liberty
so WELL and fought stoutly to maintain it, as the
Mccklenburg men. There are considerations which
mark the Revolution in North Carolina rs peculiar
and distinguish it from that in any other portion of
our country. With the Puritan it was war against
taxation; in Mecklenburg it was eminently con-
test for civil and religious freedom. The Scotch
Irish, wherever they were found, were emphatically
the sons of liberty and the population Of the val
leys of tie ladkin and the Catawba that gave rise
to the Mecklenburg Declaration, were Scotch Irish
and Pennsylvanians among whom you also number
your own forefathers.
The country Immediately west of you was the
final resting place of these emigrants. They fur.
nished those who are known as the Regulators and
on the 18th of May, It'll, four years before the
Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, they
fought the battle of Aiamance within twenty five
miles of the place where you stand Whether you
consider the principles involved, the number of the
cOmbatants, the number that was slain the affair
at Lexington, in April 1875, was less imposing in
circumstances and in consequences The great chic
OF the Regulators was Herman Husbands who is
understood to have been a relative of BENJAMIN
Franklin, and to have acted as his confidential agent
In the battle the Regulators were unfortunate, but
many of them retreated successfully from It, ant
found safe retreat in the wild gorges of the ALE
ghanies, whence they returned and wrcaked ampl
vengeance for their wrongs at the battle of King
Mountain, on the 18th of October, 1880.
The defeat of Major Ferguson was the pivot OF
which the war in the south, if not upon the cont
nent turned. 1fFerguson had not fallen the battl
OF Gu'lford would not have been fought. and tn
Revolution would not have closed at Yorktown
Alamance was the initial, Kings Mountain the dc
csive, and Guiford the closing battle of the Revo
luton Yorktown was q siege. Very recently
have been impressed more deeply than before wit
this state Of facts by the papers of CORVALLIS
which have just issued from the press The defcs
OF Ferguson was fatal to the invasion of 1850, an
CORVALLIS, in the volume to which REFER expires.
ly states the fact that before attempting the secon
invasion in 1871, he had, by his emissaries invol,
ed our whole western border in the flames Of a sa,
age war. But for this, the men who foiled him ,
Kings Mountain would have turned his finally fat
triumph at Guilford into an Immediately disastro,
defeat. In a brief note written after his retreat
Wilmington to Sir Henry Clinton, he says tn
much to his surprise he found the NORTH Carolina,
comparatively united people, and was well satisfi.
that owing to the peculiar condition and sineul
character Of the country, it would be the most diff
cult OF the thirteen provinces to subdue.
Such. Mr. President are the characteristics ar
antecedents of the people, to whose University
bid you heartfelt welcome, welcome to which "
have the strongest personal and ancestral claims.
To which President BUCHANAN replied:
thank you for your kindness, and am tbankf
for the cordiality with which have been receiv
by the citizens of North Carolina have .lwa
had partiality for this good old North State. a
e1ninently prudent wise, and conservative sons ha
always stood by the Constitution and the Laws. :,
are destined in the history Of this country to
much to preserve our glorious Union.
thank you most heartily for the kind referen
which you have made to nv native State. 7 =,
proud to hear her associated with NORTH. C.rol;r
The two sisters have generally agreed together