The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-29
A Brilliant Scene at the Academy

This morning at 10 o'clock the 1l4th Annual
Commencement of the Department of Arts of
the University of Pennsylvania took place at the
Academy of Music, which was thronged with
ladies and gentlemen. At a quarter before 10
a number of clergymen, judges, members of
Councils, the alumni association, and other
graduates of the University, with the faculty,
formed in line in the foyer, and proceeded in
this formal manner upon the stage, when the
Germania Orchestra struck up charming sere-
made. This concluded, prayer was made by the
Rev. DIR. Krauth. The programme of exercises
which then succeeded was as follows:-
Latin Salutatory-James Price Townsend
MUSIC.
'tNorthern Lights'-NewtOn Keim.
The Birthday Of the Race-Willism q. Freedley.
Public Opinion as a Social Force-John B.
Roberts. Excused from speaking)
MUSIC.
The Sources of Innuence-William r. Murphy
The Simian and the Aryan-Hampton L. Car
son, Jr.
Comparative Mythology - William B. Stoever
Excused from speakng9
The Masters grafton was then delivered, as
follows, by Joseph Cressou Fraley:-
The Masters Grafton, by j. G. Fraley.
In Bulwer's novel of "Zanoni," q book no less re-
markabe for the nobility of its sentiment than for
the beauty OF the mysticism in which 1t is yelled,
occurs the following passage. The author in de-
picting the last days of the Reign of Terror follows
his heroine through the gloomy gates OF the Concier
gerie, and writes:-"A squalid and yet gay world
did the prison houses OF that day present. There,
in the sepuchre to which they LED, all ranks
cast with an even-handed scorn, and yet there the
Natures first and imperishabe, and most lovely
and most noble law-the inequality between man
and man. Place was given by the prisoners whether
royasts or culottes, to age, TO learning to re-
nowl to beauty, and strength with its own Unborn
chivary raised into rank the helpless and the weak;
the iron snews and the Herculean shoulders made
way for the woman and the child and the graces of
humanity lost elsewhere, sought their refuge in the
abode OF terror"
That blurred anc blotted textbook that was
opened by the demagogues OF SO bears many lessons
for us who come af:er-lessons that all centre
10 rd Nnnn q ffu pnf
which liberty was but condition. as fraternity
It's cOrolary, and all converge more less directly
toward one central idea-the necessity of an aristO-
cracy in all human government, an element whose
power should not be in proportion to its numbers.
Aha IL Is 70 usSIaie tnls prIncple ana TO put ts
you, that have undertaken to preach a sort OF lay
sermon to-day upon the subject OF republican arls-
tocracy and for confession Of faith to start with
the proposition All men are created unequal.
Heretical and paradoxica though it may seem, it
not mine and all complaints must be addressed to
her. 1t Is only with its consequences that we have
to do in the regulation OF our own real Inconsistent
cies, not Natures seeming ones For it is position
which do not wish nor attempt to prove. With all
due respect to our friends the logcians, there are
yet questions where their sylogisms are at fault,
matters too deep to be sounded even by that infali
bile plummet.line OF linked hexameters All ask
is that each should look into the depths of his own
heart and see If he personally recognizes that
is there not an aristocracy of birth here in hose
veins the sang dZul has been purifying itself since
the re-historc colonial times? And, by far higher
we say that wealth has no preeminence or position
in this land OF railroad kings and merchant princes,
or deny that there was once, in the golden age OF
the Fire Department, potent arlstocracy of muscle?
1t is principle universally received throughout our
country in these matters and since this is the case
since we give equality the lie every day of our lives
why on earth 90 we recognize it in just the one
thing where 1t is most utterly and totally and dam
gerously false? mean the matter of politics.
We have grown up under system into which
those words of JetIersons are 30 universally inter-
that their constant repetition fails to arouse
10 a due sense Of their meaning yet think there
are but few to whom the paradox has not come
crushingly home at some time other. Have you
ever stood by on election-day and seen some dirty
ignorant emigrant hustled forward to the polls?
Have you watched him deliver his vote, and as he
went by you reeking with the whisky which had
been its price, tried on this matter OF equality then
and there, without asking yourself how, in the name
OF all that was true and just such thing could be?
Is 1t quite fair that this mans vote should kill yours
that his voice should reach as far? You who have
grown up amidst the institutions OF the country,
perhaps spent years in earnest, thoughtful study of
them. He, fresh from the vices and mischieyous
ana seeRng to % imnant Them in the New Yon Who
have hundred issues at stake, issues that stretch
far into the future. ana whose decision may per-
haps, influence your whole life. He, whom no turn
of Fortunes wheel can ever bring lower, and to
whom all issues are alike. 1t is not pleasant thing
to contemplate, and the feelings 1t arouses towards
ones fellow-men are not always the most kind and
Christian. Every Tory instinct OF ones nature is stung
into Indignation and cries. ''W rest the power from
these men while there is yet time. Restrict the SUI.
frage and bar out by some qualification or other all
but those who have interests at stake and principles
TO back them" Yes, and run straight into the trap
which has been the death OF all republics since the
world began distinct Sass governed but Gn: I5
other hand, some power must be upper.
most here, and If it is TO be in these mems
hands you have read your history to but little pur
pose If you cannot foresee the end. Do you think
that our civilization Is so firmly rooted that nothing
can uptuFn it? Do you think that, because fifteen
hundred years are past there are no barbarians left
to oVerrnn this Western world? Can you moi
see new Genserlc landing with his Irish
thousands strong, each week in New York
while second Attila - is LAUNDERING laundering "a, a.
those same innumerable oblique-eyed Huns thai
once swept over Europe like a blightiDg swarm o
locusts And there is Charybdls. But suppose thai
thing we were just TO take the dilemma by its horns
and look quietly In its face. Whom have we u
thank for all this? Whose fault is 1t that Legislator
is fast growing to be term Of opprobrium and dis
grace as politician" has come to be already? Whose
fault is it oices Of the highest dignity and trust arr
held by men whose contact you and would iustl
scOTn: that one by one all the branches OF the Gov
ernment have become tainted with corruption tina
smells 70 Heaven?
1t is the fault of Just such men as you and /. w
have trihed with our prestige, and loosened ou
hold upon the reins OF our country's destiny I'll
they have slipped through our hands. 1t is we VIII
have made ourselves the equals or THESE desplse
men by pulling ourselves down to their level-no
they who have Wrested from us power which wa
notthers. Equal votes 90 no; necessarily ~ iinpl mp
did not when there were Hancocks and Adamse
and Jenersons ia the word,
No. the fault is IN US we We nave seen t9lS river h,
perfection, grow from narrow muddy stream TO
turbulent torrent; and now, gathering our goWI
about us lest they should be wet, we are standing
with HoTaces cloWn-upon the brink and waitiL
for the river to now by. "Vosvitr etpo1ceter IN ON
scholaTship and culture, the true aristocracy
all true politics. have lost their hgn position, an
dethroned, have taken refuge In safe NIL admiral
ism that snsers at eSS SaS Tn 1shs, Is ssS VOC hs%
crowned In the company OF fanatics and MAD IN