The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-04-18
ADDRESS OF DIR. E. A. ALDERMAN
Delivered Yesterday When He Was Indicted Into Office
as President Of the University Of Virginia.
Immense Crowd Gave Enthusiastic
Hearing and Hearty Applause.

CD To harmonic and promote the
interests of agriculture, manufactures
an dcommerce, and by well Informed
views of political economy, to give a
free scope to the public industry;
(4) To develop the reasoning fac
ulties of our youth, enlarge their mlnds,
cultivate their morals. and fnstili Into
them the precepts of virtue and order;
(5) To enlighten them with ma-he-
NAUTICAL and pnvsical sciences, which
health, the subsistence and comforts
of human life;
60 And, generally, to form them 10
habits of reflection and correct action
rendering them examples of virtue to
others and Of happiness within them
selves"
The character of an institution is the
resultant of it's ideals and of the social
forces that cry out to it for direction.
The first three decades in the life of
this university, like the first three in
the life of man, forever fixed its char
acter. The revolutionary dynasty had
passed away, their battle for equality
and human sympathy securely Won a
! young republic, it's concept Of democra-
cy suddenly shifted from sovereignty
to omnipOtence, stood up before the
world, lacking the instinct of unity, vi
rile and maynard in its confident
strength.
Steam and inventive genius touched
its heart with desire and pointed the
way for material advancement. A vast
untouched empire beckOned adventur-
Gus spirits from all lands to enterprise
and conquest. There was brewing the
storm of a great argument as to the
nature of this Union, made necessary
by the silence and %indecision of the
Constitution, and made imminent by
the presence of a vast human problem
i'll economics, ~bequeathed to us by the
Industrial need and moral c~allousnesS
of ages past. Men in America have
never been SO much in earnest about
vital things as they were in these
days. Their hearts were touched with
fire and their very lives did not appear
to them so Indispensable as their ideas.
The passion of the time was a passion
for principle and loyalty. THE aptitude.
of the time was for the building of
states. There was no. room in high
places for the cynic, the idler, the self
seeker. Cleared of human weakness
and hot temper, one sees in these sad,
earnest years a time Of single-minded-
ness and sincerity, of the upifted
heart, and of steadfast gazing upon
the heights of honor and duty, and
they must ever remain the epic period
of the struggle of democracy, under
crushing difficulties, after self-con-
seriousness and unity of purpose.
The youth who came here to learn
were such youth as such times breed.
They were needless of much that is
needed now. But they were afire with
the impulses of their generation. There
dwelt in them the root of a deep seri-
BUSINESS, an earnest ambition for ser
| vice to the state, and a calm faith in
the power of the cultured will and the
honorable life. 1t was the golden age
of education in the Southern States
the highwater mark Of individual eff
| fort in behalf of the training of picked
youth. Studies were blooming and
| minds awakening" More than eight
thousand young scholars, from d va
ried territory, passed through these
" allS between $4,000 to the larger life
of leadership in church and state, as
cabinet ministers, juriSts, physicians,
senator's, governors, scholars, preach
ers. and great cultured gentlemen. The
spirit of the time sent most Of them
| into the public service, where they
made of politics a lofty profession, the
| tradition of which informs and emo
| bles American political life today. But
they may be found all along the wide
| lines of life. finding eternal beauty In
form like Poe, searching the Arctic
| seas like Kane, joining New England's
| scholars in the great movement which
| brought Germanic scholarship to our
shores: seeking and serving Good like
their lives in righteous conservation on
the battles edge.
The Americans of the Southern
| States are the only Americans who
have known in direSt form the discip-
line of war and the education of defeat
They alone of this unbeaten land have
had intimate experience OF revolution
and despair. The University of Vir'
ginia as their chiefeSt servant has
shared with them this stern self-re'
vealing tutelage. One can never know
what fair visions of it's destiny filled
the eye of Thomas jefferson. He be
held it guiding wisely the local life OF
Virginia. He beheld it as a training
/ place for democratic leadership in the
state and nation; rs an inspirer to the
great Northwest and Southwest, as
these states swept into ordered life
but his optimism. as well as human
limitations, shut it out from his sight
in its sacredest relation, as the source
of light to a land left in darkness and
silence by the storm of war. Is there
in academic annals such a story Of pre-
cious privilege and fulfllment? AS
each stricken state found heart to re
light its ancient torches Its sons came
here for the sacred fire, where patient
hands had kept it burning. or to oul
sister university in the valley, where The
i great soldier sat at b teachers desl
revealing a moral Splendor more touch
E~---