National Republican., 1883-06-07
COLLEGE oF LAW.


of the exercises. Below this again
in the same red and white flowers was the
word class, Immediately above a circle of
greenery studded with roses and peonies,
and inclosing an inscribed star Of white
flowers. In tho center of this star the
figures "s3," of crimson buds, flashed out
their rich color in the CLEAN of the gas jets
The front of the stage was piled high with
floral tributes and tropic plants filed the
corners of the stage and boxes.
At about $50 o'clock the graduates and
faculty advanced to their seats on the stage
to the music of Sousa's Wolverine March,"
As the occasion was the graduating Of addi-
tional lawyers the audience felt that the
title of tho march was appropriately So
lected Besides the students and the faculty
there were on the floor Hon. Jere M. Wilson,
J. Hubley Ashton, G.. W. Gof Hon. Van II.
Manning Of Mississippi, Mr.. Richard L.
Merrick, and others.
At the conclusion of the march, Rev. James
A. Doonan, president of the university, ad.
vanced to the front of the stage and conferred
the degrees as follows:
DEGREE OF MASTER OF LAWS (LL ny.
Thomas j. White ......:...................K Kansas
DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF LAWS I'll. b..
Paul Arnold d............,.... District of Columbia
Linnotr Burton .....:, oregon
AInasa Scott Crosshed. Dakota
William Henry Dc Lacy. District OF Columbia
Matthew Gerlng ....''....s'''''''.''' .''.DaKOta
Harper Hamilton ..........................G Georgia
Beckford Mackey ..................S South Carolina
Francis I. Martin, ,jr.............,. Pennsylvania
Charles I. MORE. District of Columbia
psul Nenn9ns w.,
Charles Wells Russell. West Virginia
Charles Sims. District of Columbia
Frank W. stockstill ...........".,.......... Ohio
James 3: walker. ,.......................N New YORK
Samuel NJ. featman. virginia
The famous cornet player, Mr.. William
Jaeger, at this point varied the exercises with
a cornet solo, "The Last Rose of Summer"
Then Hon. Jere Wilson was introduced and
made the address to the graduates Mr. Will
sons address was brief, pointed, and practical,
devoid of the usual dryness which charac-
terizes opening addresses to law classes. He
said:
GENTLEMEN: You do not need to be told to-
night that the profession into which you are
about to enter is one intimately associated, of
necessity, with all the private affairs of life.
Nor do you need to be told that it more than
any other shapes and controls the laws under
which peoples live, and the policies which
nationapursue.
1t need not be said to you that it has al
ways been, especially in this country, step
ping stone to honorable station in private
life; and because of its relations to govern
ment the highway to political influence, and
official preferment; that from its ranks more
largely than from those of any other, are
summoned the men who make, execute, and
administer the laws which give shape and
tone to the affairs, small and great, Of man
kind.
Without doubt these facts, thus limited at,
have allured you to the selection of the pro-
fession of the law as the business of your
future lives.
You have discovered in it field offering
rich harvest to the reaper and a fair return to
even the gleaner-a domain from which
may be gathered not merely home comforts
and honorable private station, but which
gives opportunity for great intellectual
achievements and the qualification of the
highest ambition of man.
To panegyrize it would be of no special use
to you tonight. If that were well done, it
might please for the moment, but when the
glitter had passed away, as soon it would
your minds would turn back to a sober, prac-
tical, and all important question-this, viz:
"What is to be my status in this great and
conspicuous profession 2"
You are different from all others if you
have not many times in dubious way pro-
pounded to yourselves that question.
No one can answer that question until you
have answered it, and when you have an
swered it, no one else will need to do so. The
answer that you give is your life work. 1t
will not be answered by you to-day, nor to-
morrow nor at any specific time, but it is an
answer that you are continuously and con-
tinually making by your daily life and work
III this profession. You may go up and up
or you may up and down again you may
climb to the top, but a misstep may drop
you speedily to the bottom from whence you
started, or even out of sight altogether
Your status will be and must be the result of
your own individual work, and you cannot
too soon recognize that fact. High profess
sonal position is something that the prayers
of an anxious mother cannot bring to you,
nor the purse of u devoted father buy.
The profession of the law is peculiarly one
in which every man finds his level, or rather
the public finds it for him, and holds him in
exOrably to it,
He can't pass current for moro than he is
worth. He can't pass for dollar when he is
only IL trade dollar.
Then dwelling upon the necessity of con-
slant application to business, and of the quail
ties requisite for success, logic, honesty, fldel-
ity, and knowledge Of the law Mr.. Wilson
concluded as follows:
These suggestions, and they are only sug-
gestions, that have been making to you, are
made with confidence that they arc not
needed, and with q certainty that they can
do no harm. If needed, though made in a
homely way, they will prove no obstacle in
your future paths if not needed, you will
find distractions and pitfalls at every step.
AT best the road you have to travel is long
and weary one; at every step there is toll,
strife, struggle, and il you suffer yourselves
to be handicapped by Incidence, by wayward
lives, that the end will be failure can scarcely
DC Une buDJeCU OF uOuDU. Dul WIN ulllRenCc,
fidelity, answering integrity, and all the
qualities of true, genuine manhood, this pro-
fession into which you are entering holds out
to you the temptations of rich reward. Into
it bid you welcome, with the sincere wish
and expectation, in which know am Joined
by all these friends who have come TO greet
you tonight, that your careers will prove
blessings to yourselves and an honor 10 the in
stitution which tonight has conferred its
honOrs upon you.
Mr. f. w. Lusby here gratifed the au.
dience with a xylophone solo, Echoes from
Ebony" and Mr.. Richard Il. Morrick made
the award of prizes
In awarding these prizes Mr. Merrick
said the faculty had instructed him to say to
the classes that too much honor could not be
awarded them. The faculty had more trouble,
he thought in awarding the prizes than the
students had in winning them. He compli-
mented them highly on their earnestness, aud
trusted that their perseverance would be of
the permanent sort The earnest man, he
said, was the one who achieved victory in
the contest Of life. The applause which fol-