The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-06-28
crowded the lecture hall at Bowdoin col
lege today In attendance upon the annual
cot,, nm A mn m m, ant arcio~s and tha rel bra


tion. Visitors from all parts of the state
and graduates who have not been
here for years are present The exer-
cises IN commemoration Of the an
niversary were elaborate and in
Chief Justice Melville w. Fuller of the
United States supreme court was the feat
nre OF the exercises, and was warmly APP
plauded. His address In brief was as
follows:
The name which our college bears Is as
sociated with precious memories, and the
inauguration of its government had a
picturesqueness all its own. Doubtless
the people of the district of Maine. pos
sessing distinctive characteristics derived
from the situation, nature and capabili.
ties of the province, desired their own es-
tablishment for the acquisition of higher
education. When that desire took formal
shape is matter of speculative interest
hut the movement is said to have begun
before the revolutionary war.
We know that the attempt in 1887 was
earnestly renewed in the fall Of l7sS. after
which the legislative journals show un-
remitting effort to attain the end. When.
finally. on June "a, 1874, Samuel Adams
approved the charter of Bowdoin college,
he must have recalled the ancient friend
with whom for so many years he had
been associated in the struggle for Ameri-
can liberty and American independence.
The annals of the time record the
harmonious action of these two patriots
as respectively mem bers of the Massachu-
sets council and the house of repre-
sentatives. They were elected together
to the Continental congress-, family sick
ness preventing Bowdoin's attendance,
thereby giving Hancock the opportunity
10 sign the Declaration Of Independence
in his place.
The Past and the Present.
Bowdoin's Huguenot descent; his en-
inent public career, so largely contribu-
ting to successful resistance TO arbitrary
power to the union OF the colonies and to
the formation of the new government, es-
pecially the part be took in respect of the
grant to congress of that unifying power,
the regulation of commerce with foreign
nations and between the several states;
his distinction in the cultivation of science
and letters, his intimate relations with
Washington and franklin. his unaffected
piefy and his Christian death, these things
carry their own lessons and give cause
Tor feiicitation that they are inseparably
connected with the day we celebrate.
James Bowdoin the son, succeeded to
close terms OF friendship with Washing
ton. But the second Bowdoin, although
filling responsible public positions, must
always be chiefly remembered for the
wise munifi .ence with which he sought
to advance the cause Of letters in the per-
petuation OF his fathers memory and the
family name
We are told by. his eulogist that at the
annual commencement OF 1912 he formed
his collection Of minerals and metals and
the models of crystallography, and depos-
fted them for the use of the college.
and he endowed a professorship of ma
thematcs and natural and experimental
Yet he could hardly have
that the first American work
on mineralogy would carry the name of
Cleveland aud OF Bowdoin throughout
the civilized world, or that the college
could boast in its centennial year, in the
Searles science building, of better facili-
ties for teaching the sciences than any
college Of its size possesses.
The Nestor of the old faculty. Profes.
sor Cleveland, appeared at the first COM
and Packard, Smythe. Up
ham, Newman and Goodwin came later.
No mist separates the memories of these
early laborers in the vineyard from the
later time They live not simply In the
published works by which most of them
won great distinction, but in the sweet
of those daily lives of faith
Iulness to duty through which precept re-
,eived Its chiefest value from example.
10
claimed to be. a university In the sense of
place OF universal instruction. or of
rather than teaching, body,
ior Is 1t school OF science or of profess
ional training. but it is school whose
cheme OF discipline and culture aids to |
1t the student for the pursuits of practi-
al life, or to advance In any line further
development. whether in the professions,
n letters or in science
The storm In respect to classic culture
'assed over its head undisturbed, and it
las adhered TO the mathematical and
lassical curriculum from the first, but
to embrace every department..
whether in the cultivation of the human
Ties, or OF the phenomena and laws of
ature, or of economics, according to the
dvancing standards OF the time.
What Has Been Accomplished.
And now. glancing back over the years
hat have gone. to what extent have the
lumni Of the college indicated the train
lg they have received aud the influence
Y whis1 they were surrounded during
ne formative period Of their livesP OBJ
iously, roll of alumni upon which ap-
ear a president and nine senators Of the
'nted States, q speaker of the national
ouse, 25 members OF congress- many
overnors, foreign ministers and mem
ers OF state legislatures attest marked
daptation to participation in political
fairs, and the consequent acquisition of
rominence in that direction, In respect
which, IL may be added, there has re-
entity been nothing to indicate any
iminution.
In the coming years. the higher educa-
on will play the most efficient and saving
art in the preservation of institutions
nd In the leadership essential to prevent
: TO control whatever crisis may be
lreatened or arise.
May the faith, the endurance and the
atience which characterized those who
nd the foundations OF this institution,
lteguided its early progress and secured