Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1915-07-02
SILAS WRIGHT.
Address of Judee Harrington Put
nam at the dwelling of the
Silas Wright Tablet at
M iddlebury College
June 23.

June rs.
The honor has fallen to me to assist
in celebrating the one hundredth ami
versary of the graduation from this
institution, at the 1915 Commencement,
of Silas Wright His career ended by
death in his prime, over sixty years ago,
and the story and memory of his life
have been followed by great national
events Yet his character holds US with
a charm and fascination unique among
our public men.
The great events of that career, over
twenty-five years of service to the State
and Nation, are outlined on this tablet.
Born Amherst Mass, May "a 1895
DIED Canton N. Y, August 27 lS47.
Student at Middebury College1811-
1915 Surrogate of st. Lawrence
County n. Y. 1S21-1823 State
Senator 1S24-1S27. Member of Con-
gress 1S27-1S29. Comptroller of
State Of New York 1S29-lS33.
United States Senator 1s33-1S44.
Governor of New York 1S45-lS46.
Great as they are, they would not
have evoked the respect and reverence
with which we cherish his memory. He
is revered for his fidelity to great prin-
ciples, which are now recognized by all
parties. for his staunch. firm, unbend-
ing integrity, and for that loyal dis
interestedness which he showed beyond
any other in our public life,
He had a noble ambition He did not
decline nominations for the love Of ease,
or reluctance to take the responsibilities
of office. Because Of high scruples and
a defeats sense of fidelity to his asso-
ciates, he declined in succession four of
the highest Offices of the United States,
for all of which he had marked fitness
and even gave up the United States
Senatorship when he was its Democratic
leader
We recall no other man who declined
the nomination for the Supreme Court.
for the Presidency, for the Vice
Presidency, and the powerful Office of
Secretary Of the Treasury, all because
Of a sense of duty to the cause of human
liberty, or of sacred obligations to his
political friends. Every time he was
tested, whether in the duties of his Of
fee, or in appeals to his ambition for
higher place, he showed himself so i'm
measurably above the pettiness of pn-
vate interest and narrow ambition that
his declinations and refusals now seem
to Us but natural and a matter of course
the one choice possible for Silas
Wright.
What was his secret? 1t was his
great deliverance from the obsession of
his personality and career. Can we not
believe that this lesson, which touches
deeply the spirit, was learned here in
This obsession assumes
various forms. In the century when
Wright began his public life, our states
men almost without exception showed
lnconcealed egotism, obtruded their
advancement, as for instance,
" ebster in his Fanueil Hall speech,
asking if the Wing party is dissolved,
Where shall | go?" as if that egotisti-
cal issue were great and momentous
Such a sense of the ego can best be
banished by thoughts of greater higher,
and more enduring things, which should
come from college studies. These should
teach and discipline the soul to take
without hesitation what the contin-
gencies of existence has assigned to it,
and then and there to DO one IS best Yet
the young man, feeling the impulse of
especially in these days of
specialized training, Is in danger of too
great concentration on his private in
terests, narrow view that is apt to
lead to self consciousness, which impairs
his strength and influence. Wordsworth
tells us:
The man whose eye
l. ever on himself doth look on one,
The least of natures works; one who
might move
The wise man to that scorn which
wisdom holds
Unlawful ever.
This tendency in public life is perhaps
greater in this country, where by the
liberalizing and strengthening effect of
our institutions it has so often come
about that, in national crises, the
country has gained its greatest leaders
from the people. Such con-
ditions inevitably tend toward personal
Ill. III l.. -, Il,