Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1896-10-29
TALKS To STUDENTS.
President Cleveland Makes an AID.
cress at Princeton.
His Theme Is the PART Universities should
Play in National Lite JuteI-
Hgent Patriotism Is
Needed.

dnder hall, Prlnceton university, on
Thursday. His theme was the influence
Of universities and colleges on intelli
gent patriotism. A synopsis of his adj
dress follows:
MIR. President and Ladies and Gentle
man: To-day, while all of us warmly share
the general enthusiasm and felicitation
which pervades this assemblage. / am sure
its various suggestions and meanings
assume a prominence in our respective fields
OF mental vision dependent upon their re-
lation TO our experience and condition.
Those charged with the management and
direction Of the educational advantages OF
this noble institution most plainly see
with welI-earned satisfaction, proofs of its
growth and usefulness and its enhanced
opportunities for doing good. The graduate
OF Princeton sees fiji st the evidence of
greater glory and prestige that have come
TO his alma mater and the added honor
thence reflected upon him, while those still
within her student halls see most promin-
emily the promise of an increased dignity
which awaits their graduation from
Princeton university.
But there are others here, not of the
family of Princeton, who see. with an in
terest not to be outdone, the signs of her
triumphs on the fields of higher education,
and the parts she has taken during her
long and glorious career in the elevation
and betterment of a great people. Among
these l take a humble place; and as /
S4SAu " tue lnIluSHCeS VI lillS OCCdSlOH
cannot resist the train of thought which
especially reminds me of the promise of
national safety and the guaranty of the
permanence of our free institutions which
may and ought to radiate from the univer-
sites and colleges scattered throughout
our land.
obviously a government resting upon
the will and universal suffrage of the peo-
pie has no anchorage except in the peoples
intelligence. While the advantages of a
collegiate N
necessary to good citizenship, yet the col
lege graduate, found everywhere, cannot
smother his opportunities to teach his fell
low-countrymen and influence them for
good nor hide his talents in a napkin. with
out recreancy to a trust. In nation like
ours, charged with the care of numerous
and widely varied interests, a spirit of con-
servatism and liberation is absolutely es-
sential A collegiate training, the study OF
principles unvexed by distracting and mis-
leading Influences and a correct appre-
hension of the theories upon which our re-
public is established, ought to constitute
for the college graduate a constant mont
tor. warning against popular rashness and
excess.
THE character of our institutions and
our national seIf-interest require that a
feeling of sincere brotherhood and dispo-
sition to unite in mutual endeavor should
pervade our people. Our scheme of gov
eminent in it's beginning was based upon
this sentiment and its interruption has
never failed and can never fail to grievous-
~ menace our national health. Who can
better caution against passion and bitter
ness than those who know by thought and
study their baneful consequences and who
are themselves within the noble brother
hood of higher education? There are nat
ural laws and economic truths which COM
mand implicit obedience and which should
fix the bounds of wholesome
popular discussion and the limits of polit-
ical strife.
Government Not Gift Maker.
THE activity of our people and their
restless desire to gather to themselves
special benefits and advantages lead to the
growth of an unconfessed tendency to re-
gard their government as the giver of pri-
vate gifts and to lock upon the agencies for
its administration as the distributors of
official places and preferment Those who
In university or college have had an OPP
portunity to study the mission of our
institutions and who in the Hight of history
have learned the danger to a people OF
their neglect of the patriotic care they owe
the national life intrusted to their keeping,
should be well httcd to constantly adj
monish their fellSw-citizens that the use
fulness and eenehcence of their plan of
government can only be preserved through
their unselish and loving support and their
contested willingness to accept in full re-
turn the peace, protection and opportunity
which it impartially bestows.
Not more surely do the rules of hon
dividual character in a community than
do these same rules determine the char
aeter and standing of a nation in the world
of civilization. Neither the glitter of it's
power nor the tinsel of its commercial
nor the gaudy show OF it's peo-
pies wealth can conceal the cankering rust
of national dishonesty and cover the
meanness of national bad faith. A con-
slant S ream of thoughtful, educated men
should ceme from our universities and coll
ri md inf
rity and teaching that belief in the neces-
sity of national obedience to the laws of
God is not born of superstition.
II do not forget the practical necessity of
political parties nor do I deny their de-
STABILITY. 1 recognize wholesome differ
ences of opinion touching legitimate gov
ernmental policies, and would by no means
control or limit the utmost freedom in their
discussion. / have only attempted to sug-
gest the important patriotic service which
our institutions of higher education and their
graduates are fitted to render to our people in
the enforcement of those immutable truths
and fundamental principles which are re-
lated to our national condition, but should
never be dragged into the field of political
strife nor impressed into the service of
partisan contention. When the excite
ment of party warfare presses dangerous
" near our national safeguards 1 would
have the intelligent conservatism of our
universities and colleges warn the con-
testants in impressive tones against the
DEIlAS VI d DTedCll lIlpQSSlDle 10 repair.
Asked to Sound an Alarm.
when popular discomfort and passion
are stimulated by the arts of designing
partisans to pitch perilously near to class
hatred or sectional anger l would have
our universities and colleges sound the
alarm in the name of American brother
hood and fraternaf dependence. When the
attempt is made to delude the people into
the belief thar their suffrages can change
the operation of natural laws. 1 would
have our universities and colleges pro-
claim that those laws are inexorable and
Tar removed from political control. When
selfish interest seeks undue private bene-
fit through governmental aid and public
places are claimed as reward of party
service, l would have our universities and
colleges persuade the people TO a re-
linquishmeDt of the demand for party
spoils and eNnort them 10 disinterested
aid patriotic love Of their government for
its own sake and because in its truo nd
justmsnt and unpsrysrted operation it w.
cures TO every citizsnthis just share Of the
safety and prosperity It holds in store Tor
all"