The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1886-11-18
HARVARD COLLEGE.
Celebration of the 250th Anniversary
of Its Foundation.

Special Correspondence of THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE.
BOsToN, Nov. 9.-This last week has been a
round Of excitement and interest. Old Har-
ward is $50 years old, and hosts of its surviving
friends have come up TO Cambridge to congrat-
ulate the venerable institution of learning, the
Oldest, indeed, Of this continent. Prominent
among visitors were the President of the United
States, accompanied by Mrs. Cleveland. Though
primarily of importance to men as scholars,
these days have been full of thought to COM
rades of the late war. Nearly every poem and
address has made allusion to the Indebtedness
of our Nation to Harvard in the time of mill
tary need.
Ex-Minister Lowell in his address. referring
to the stalwart ancestors, accounted for their
valiant descendants. He told of the hardship5
borne by those who founded the college and
the rough experiences Of its first alumni de
said:
But was the stuff out Of which fortunate ances-
tors made, and 3 years ago their showed
in diminished measure the qualities of the breed
In every household some brave boy was saying to
his mother a. Iphgenia to hers: Thou bOrest me
for all the Greeks, not for myself alone" This hall
eomnlemOrates them, but their story 10 written in
headstones all over the land they saved
The poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, yielded to
the muse, which, mindful of '61l65, compelled
him to sing the following lines:
"A to that hour with backward steps turn,
Midway pause behold a funeral urnl
An, sad memorial known but all too well
The tale " hich thus its golden letters tell:
This dust, once breathing, changed its joyous life
For toll and hunger, wounds and mortal strife;
Love, friendship, learnisgs all-Prevailing charms
For the cold bvOuae and the clash of arms.
The cause Of freedom won, race enslaved
Called back to manhood. aud Nation saved,
These sons of Harvard falling ere their prime
Leave their proud memory to the coming time.
Judge Devens, in an after-dinner talk in
Memorial Hall, seemingly infused with the
very spirit which furnished the resources for
constructing the edifice, said:
Nor In the great crisis OF the Nation has 10 been
found heretofore that this college has been unwor-
thy OF its high PURPOSE In the struggles by which
the English people fought their own way To evil
| and religious liberty, ia the great debate which
preceded the conflict OF arms with Great Britain
| herself, the men educated here were ever promi-
nent- All the signers Of the Declaration OF indie
pendenee from Massachusetts were liz children
Nor IN the great struggle for national life, which
came TO our own generation were ITS sons wanting
Certainly, standing in this hail. which pious care
| has reared to their memory, cannot forget the
young. the beautiful, the brave who nObly periled
uT who nobly surrendered life in TINT terrible
iiict. subject race has been rescued from bond
age, Nation has been lifted from the lhraIdom to
which itself had been condemned by its own toler-
alton. and the integrity of tho Union has been es.
/ tabished forever. Such a cause has conSecrated
| those who have died in its defense.
! Gov. Robinson, following Judge Deven5,
| spoke in the same spirit, saying:
| When, in I775, the immortal Washington took
! command Of the assembled forces of New England
before the walls of the college the instructors and
students exempt from the burdens of military life,
repaired to the queter precincts Of old Concord,
and the halls of learning became the barracks for
| the patriotic soldiers OF America When rebellion
| threatened the disruption of our Union, another
glorious scene enacted here. The college sent
forth her best and bTavest and their deeds wrought
In daring and in death, were Immortalzed IN glory,
and the grateful survivors reared this magnificent
| temple and placed these monuments here To me
| mOrialize their sacrifice and valor. Applause
Yet we treasure in heart of hearts these grand
I % A. n nrRgIOua hPFIfRpyR
| garner them to-day in the lap of our dear old
mother the rich fruiiage OF her triumph and
| renown.
Senator Hoar made grand address. add
two quotations;
| When we come to consider those contributions TO
the public service by which the generations are
remembered can tell a far different story. The
| church. the town meeting, the General Court, the
college, were the four voices by which the States
| spoke. When we come 10 the great debate of lib
erty which settled the Revolution before gun was
| fired, the six names, with whom no other Mnssa-
| chusetts name is ever mentiOned-John Hancock
| aud sam Adams and James Otis and Joseph War.
| rem aud John Adams and Josiah Quincy-were al
Harvard men, Massachusetts divides with Virgins
the hOuors OF the Revolution, but she Is without
rival in the greater honor of having nodded anC
organized and developed the public sentimen
which gave freedom to- the slaves. Here. perhaps
the leadership of Harvard is less exclusive. blu
she contributed TO that cause DIR. Claiming anC
John Quincy Adams and Josiah Quincy ant
Charles Sumner and Richard Dana and Wendell
Phillips and the muse of Longfellow and the wi
! OF Hosea Bgelow turning and addressing Jane
Russell LOVELY 1t was the gray-haire'
clergy of Massachusetts at whose knees the patriot
of the Revolution learned the lesson of constitu
tional liberty. TWAS the gray haired John Quinc.
Adams who breasted the stormy waves of tn
House of Representatives. So and Josiah Quincy
| who saw the beginning and who foresaw the EN-
of the Revolution and dedat 80. and JOSIAH Quincy
who saw the beginning and foresaw the end of tn
| rebellion and died mt 90 were of the same spirit
though 10 seems To me that the grandson of 10 wa
the younger of the two--L.