Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-10-14
ASA PACKER.
A FITTING EULOGY
Mr.. Raudall's Address ON g Founders Day
at Lehlyh University.

Mr.. Kaudall's Address on ' Founders Day
at Lehl:h University.
Yesterday was Founders Day. ,at
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa. Oh
served in memory Of Asa Packer, and Hon.
S. J. Randall! was orator of the occasion.
President LambeIton fittingly introduced
Mr.. Randall, referring to him as one who
had not only kept spotless his name in
private and public life, but who had added
lustre to it and was worthy to he called
honorable. Mr.. Randall read his address
from manuscript in an even strain, and il
was an able eu!ogy on the late Asa Packer,
founder of the university, and while de.
failing his career, drew forcible lesson
from his successful battle for fortune.
At the outset of his address Mr.. Randall
said; " 1t is pious and praiseworthy Gus.
tom which you have established of setting
apart one day in the year to keep green
the memory of a man whose life was full
Of usefulness and profit to all about him.
Gratitude would at least prompt the con-
slant and loving remembrance;of a public
benefactOr as munificent as Asa Packer,
and yet whose munificence, extraordinary
as it was, is no greater than the wisdom
Of its bestowal. Tracing his career the
orator asked "Did the same calm, quiet,
resolute, brave, sound judgment that
carved out his splendid future remain with
him when it had all been perfected? Was
his brilliantly successful career made still
more brilliant by the noble objects he
sought ,"
The speaker then referred at consider
able length to Mr.. Packers life history,
giving the details of his career from his
birth December 90, 1906, in New London
county, Conn.,, to the close of his earthly
existence May II, 1879, and dwelling with
emphasis upon his success in every enter
prise he undertook. Continuing, Mr..
Randall said !:
1T is written that great wealth gotten
by i'll means is all eternal reproach, and so
it is but in tie order of Providence such
wealth remains not long in the same
hands, for the inEamy which produces it
at the same time engenders the cOrroding
vices by which it is dissipated. Great
wealth, however, when the gradual pro-
duct Of a long life of activity and struggle,
is a source of unlimited happiness to the
possessOr. But rich or poor, Asa Packer
pursued the even tenor of his way. He
was the same modest, persistent and sue
cessful man. And how unlike some rich
men of the present Gay. His was not the
unwisc or foolish wealth, which by it's os-
tentation invites envy or enmity. He was
of the people, and he never forgot it. His
carly struggles had subjected him to hard
but profitable discipline. He might have
squandered his means upon useless things,
but he did not. His life was a series of
good deeds.
"EducatiOn easily gained in ordinary
schools of learning, uninterrupted by want
Or difficulty, does not give us the practical
wisdom found in a life such as Asa Pack
er's. Amid the strife of men and near the
heart of nature we find that the real and
true alone command the confidence Of the
many. Tho demagogue may hido his
falsehOod under disguises, but surely the
piercing eye OF the people will penetrate
them, and then the fall will be all the
moro by the unnatural height to which his
pretense has elevated him. Asa Packer
has perpetuatcd his name and fame by
building upon solid rock Of common
sense. He established and endowed a
stately university, whose learning in the
higher branches of knowledge is to be for
nourced to the Right Reverend William
Bacon Stevens, the Episcopal bishop of
Pennsylvania his intention to appropriate
woodland park of about sixty acres on the
borders OF South Bethlehem, to found an
educational institution, in which he 6e-
signed opportunity should lie afforded to
young men of limited means to acquire, be-
sides liberal education, a knowledge of those
branches of science which directly bear
upon the industrial pursuits concerned in
developing the natural resources Of the
country, in schools of civic mechanical
and manufacturing engineering, of chem
istry, architecture and construction. The
buildings were erected between 1866 and
1860. MIR. Packer, by his will, beIueathed,
in addition to the million in the aggre-
aheady given, the sum of two million dol
lars to tie purposes of the university. He
modestIy named it "The Lchigh Univer-
sity: :"
Thomas Jefferson the immortal author,
of the Declaration of Independence, asked
to have inscribed upon his tombstone, in
addition to that authorship, the further
fact that he was the founder Of tho uni
versity of Virginil. Laying the foundation
of free and Independent government, and
laying the foundation of a university for
teaching higher branches of knowledge
were, in his belief, equally honorable or
deserving of fame. Tho munifcence of
Asa Packer is a monition to you, for if
with the poor means given to him he did
so much, it is for you to see to it that
with the funds so generously bestowed this
noble university shall rival in scholarship
and science the greater seats of learning
of every age and nation lie has dwarfed
others by the greatness of his gift. Let
us hope in these schools you will excel in
like degree.
'1n Shakespeare we learn that 'Ignor-
ance is the curse of GOd-Knowledge the
wing whcrewith we fly to heaven In
our free country, which at the end of the
present century will in all probability rum
ber q hundred million Of inhabitants,
in width from ocean to ocean,
and in length from the frigid zone to the
burning equator; blessed with the bound |
less physical resources, and daily becom-
ing the mightiest of the mighty, We can
be sure our institutions arc secure as long |
rs education is general. 1t is the sheet |
anchor OF our gO7crnment without it we !
shall fall into decay with it we shall hold |
our own. Ii in the race and competition |
with other nations, wc shall dominate the |
markets of the world with our manufac- |
lures and agricultural productions, we
must keep ahead of everey improvement
in labor and cost-saving machinery. This
can best be done by keeping up the sup
ply of that high scientific education which
is here provided by the foresight of one
man forever free.
when Asa Packer commanded his
own canal boat, while engaged in tranport-
ing coal and iron to New York and Phila.