The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1902-05-22
COLONEL MILLS, SUPERINTEN DENT, AND THE SUGGESTED
ACADEMIC BUILDING AT WEST POINT.

list and one that does credit TO West
Point.
Major (afterward ColoneD Thayer
was perfectly equipped for his impor-
tant task by study of the European
military schools, notably the School OF
| ST. Cyr. in France, founded about the
same time as the West Point academy.
and the Polytechnic OF Paris. founded
1TH. Though he adopted all that was
best in the European military schools.
he built up the academy along original
lines until IL became, what N Is ac-
knowledged TO be today, the best mill
tary school in the world, and its nearly
5000 graduates have exerted an appre-
ciable effect upon our army. Said
Henry Ward Beecher This country Is
Indebted 20 the West Point Military
academy fOr as noble d bano OF grad
uates as the world can Drooucs. The
standard OF honor is nowhere higher.
Respect and reverence for law and lib
erty are nowhere more profound Seru-
pulous fidelity TO duty is nowhere more
nearly religion. and the honor of hon
esty is nowhere so signally illustrated
az in the graduates of the West Point
Military academy"
The growth of the United States and
the unvarying advance OF the collie
giate movement in this country find
their exponent in the Military academy
at West Point. Respecting its founda-
tion. II stands about midway between
the oldest and the newest colleges of
liberal arts. Like the more ancient of
our institutions of learning. il was sug-
gested by. il not founded upon, Euro
pean or English models, for Bologna,
Paris. oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh,
all had their universities before our
government was conceived. IL Is the
more 10 our credit that, having started
out with only the raw material afforded
by nature, hundreds of years after Eu-
rope possessed Established colleges and
universities. we should have achieved
such conquests in the realm of educa-
ton as TO compel the respect and ad-
miration of thinking peoples all over
the world.
The first so called university in Amer
lea was of Spanish foundation in the is
land OF Santo Domingo about 1920, and
the first within the present confines OF
the United States was in the state OF
Massachusetts,. Oct. 2S. 1886. The court
agreed to give 100 pounds towards a
schoole or colledge," and in 1859 1t was
ordered that the colledge agreed upon
formerly TO bee built at Cambridg shall
bee called Harvard colledge" IN recog-
milton OF John Harvard's bequest of
f700 in 1888. AS many OF the earliest
settlers of New England-the most in
duential Of them-had been educated at
Cambridge, England, they very nat
uraily patterned their first institutions
of learning after English models, and
these were mainly copied by all those
that rarpe after for more than a cap
tury. Thus was founded the Oldest.
now the largest of our colleges. which
heads the list Of nearly 500 institutions
of It's kind with more than 5000 stu
dents on its rolls.
The honor of being the Oldest college
in the United States might have be-
longed to William and Mary at Will
liamsburg, Va, had not the plans OF
the early settlers miscarried, but a
charter was granted in 1893 and build
ings were erected that were designed
by Sir Christopher Wren. The year 1901
witnessed the foundation of Harvard's
great rival Yale. in New Haven. Conn.
l74O that of the University OF Pennsyl-
vania at Philadelphia; i7i6. Princeton
college at Princeton. N. J.; l749. Wash
ington and Lee at Lexington, Va; 1854.
Columbia university in New York: 1864.
Brown university. now at Providence.
r. l.. 1856 Rutgers. New Brunswick
n. j.: 1859, Dartmouth Hanover. N. H.;
1876. Hampden- Sidney, Virginia: 1883,
Dickinson college. Carlisle. Pa. and
Washington college at Chestertown.
Md; 17s5. the University of Nashville,
at Pittsburg and the Franklin and Mar