Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-06-02
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY.
commencement at tho CoIored Mans Col.
lcSe.

lcS6s
The commencement of the Lincoln uni
versity near Oxford, Chester county, yes
terday, was one of the most largely attend
ed and successful occasions of its
kind in the history of this
institution. AS usual it was a gala
day for the colorcd population for miles
around, who tlocked in from early in the
morning until the noon hour for the OPEN
ing of the exercises while the trains from
New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia
brought many representatives of the race
and white friends of the institution to the
literary and social festival which always
marks commencement day at Lincoln.
By noon there were at least 1000 colored
and 500 white persons on the grounds, and
as no auditorium there suffices to hold such
numbers and the state of the weather made
an outdoor gathering more pleasant, a
stand was erected in the grove south of
the university buildings, and seats were
provided covered with canvas tent shelter.
The procession, headed by the fine look
ing and we'll skilled colored band of Ok
ford, marched to the grounds at noon, and
the following order of exercises were OBJ
served:
Music.
james T. Potter, Pa. Latin Salutatory
Augustus 5. Bascomb, S. c., English Saluta-
David W. Ogden, n. j.. Philosophical Ora
ton.
Music.
Clayborne NJ. Webb, " C., The Duties of
William H. Dover. Pa, What Shall We Seek
Arnold u: Howell, n. C., Elements of Ma
tional Stability
Music.
Masters Oration-Lawrence Miller. Mo.
Address to the Alumni-Willam H. lIar-
grave. Md.
Confelring of Degrees
Julius B. McGinncss, Nd yaledictory Ora
ton.
Music.
1t will be remembered that the aim of
Lincoln university is to afford complete
educational advantages to colored youth
and men, with special view to preparing
them for the future effective work of teach
ing and preaching among their own race
in the South and in Africa where the field
is white for the harvest. That this high
aim is being realized in a philanthropic
and scholarly no less than practical
manner has been shown by the career of
usefulness which has almost universally
attended the Lincoln graduates and the
favorable impression made by some of
them who spoke before the Presbyterian
synod meeting in Lancaster last fall will
not soon be forgotten by our people.
The commencement exercises, as eXem-
plitied yesterday, serve to confirm this i'm
preston with the public. Commencement
at Lincoln is somewhat after the manner
of 4 picnic or the Old-fashioned and popu-
lar woods meetings of the lower end'' of
Lancaster county. Hundreds of vehicles
of every description drive in with their
human freight and lunch baskets, and the
venders of refreshment have their booths
stationed in the limits of the grove. But
for all these diverting circumstances the
best of order is maintained and
stricter attention paid to the literary exer-
cises than at the average commencement
audience observes The best class of white
people in the neighborhood show their in
tcrest in the institution by attendance upon
this festival the gray haired "uncles :"
and "aunties,' from many miles around
flock hither to hear and see the prodigics of
learning middle aged cOlOred men and
women, across whose countenance shades
of regret for opportunities that never oc-
cured to them arc chased by the sunlight
Of satisfaction and hope for the rising
generation, constitute a large portion of
the audience gay colored youth, gentce!-
ly dressed and decorated with J0u-
toanieres, ushers and students, and keen
witted lads, with bright wistful counten-
ance waiting their own graduation day,
deferential to all and yet modestly assert
ing sense of their own self-respect, tell
of a bright future for their people to which
this institution is leading them.
The professors of Lincoln are of no less
high culture than of earnest purpose
Ranking in comprehension of all the ele-
ments of liberal culture with the faculties
Of our best colleges, they are eminently
endowed with practical ability to direct
their difficult task of providing at once for
the material, moral and intellectual
welfare and development of the peculiar
class entrusted to them. When it is said
that they receive ignorant field hands
from the South, or the native African from
the dark continent, totally without a SIN
gle educational qualification, unlettered and
undeveloped, the only requisite of admis-
sion being desire to learn" some idea
of the nature Of the work attempted may
be conceived, When it is added that this
work is accomplished, that men thus taken
in are turned out cultured teachers and
preachers, entirely fit to bear comparison
with graduates of Lafayette and Princeton,
Dickinson and Franklin & Marshall, some
idea may be conveyed of the labor which it
involves and the success which has at
tended it.
The speeches of yesterday bore testimony
to all of this. Through them all ran a
vivid appreciation of the special mission of
the university, and of the peculiar work
that lies before its graduates, of the dark
past and the more hopeful future of the
,olored race but in thought and express
sion, in rhetoric and in practical good
sense, they were fully up to the standard
Df college commencement OratiOns. In a
certain vigor of composition, seriousness
Of style, practical appreciation of the
significance of education, no less than in
5lc grace and fervor of delivery, they were
better than will be heard at three-fourths |
Of the collegiate cOmmencements of 1880. |
After the valedictOry, President Kendall |