Year: 1868

ness Of thought and beauty of diction
Mr. s. is evidently young man of fin
premise.


The Cincinnati oration was delivered b,
Mr. J. Harvey McLeary, A. B. of Texas
on "The Power ofthe Mind, and the Vale
dictOry address by Mr.. r. s. Broken
brough, A. B., of Virginia. Both thesO
gentlemen did decided credit to them
selves and to their Alma Mater. At th'
conclusion of these addresses the diplO'
mas were conferred and medals awarded
by the President. The great event o
the day, however, was the address O
Gen. Wade Hampton, Of South Carolina
before the Literary societies When be
was introduced by Gen Lee, he was
greeted with enthusiastic applause and
began his address thus: "In compliance
with the invitation your societies have
done me the honor to extend to me, ] have
come to participate in the agreeable eere
monies of this occasion, an oecasi on which
fraught as it must be to you with the
highest interest is scarcely less interest
ing to myself To you these eommemoa
ration days of your honOred Alma Mater
mark important epochs in your lives, for
each one in its annual occurrence brings
you one step nearer to that goal, to
which youth looks with so much
impatience and such bright hope, an
entrance into the great world
On each anniversary Of this day part
Of your number leave these halls forever,
to assume, with the Toga Yisilis of man
hood, the grave duties and responsible,
ties Of the citizen. These circumstances
cannot fail to lend to this scene absorb-
ing interest for you, while in my heart it
awakens many and deep emotions. Locke
ing on your bright and joyous faces l re-
call those of your kinsmen-my bronzed
and battle-stained comrades of Virginia.
Contemplating this grateful scene, over
which Peace and Learning combine to
throw their softening and benign infu-
ence, contrast it with that when embata
tied hosts confronted each other on this
soil, and remembering who it is that now
directs your steps along the paths Of
virtue and knowledge, memory brings
back the time when ], too, had the honor
to serve under the same great chief
Surrounded by the brave sons Of Virgil
MIA and her fair daughters, need | tell
you how deep an interest this scene pos,
sesses for me, or how willingly | obeyed
your summons hither? Had any other
hduccment been needed to bring me
here, it would have been found in the
opportunity thus offered me of manifest~
ing my profound respect and yeneratiOn
for your illuatrious. President whose
deeds in war have shed imperishable
lustre on has country, and whose conduct
in peace has shown that peace hath her
victories no less renowned than war"
These memories call up the grand history
Of Virginia, and remind me Of the strik-
ing fact that the men who made Virginia
what she was, did so not more by the
greatness of their actions than by the
high principles which prompted them,


The speaker then announced his sub
ject "A firm, constant, and uncompro
missing devotion to duty necessary to
achieve true greatness, or to secure lasts
ing happiness" He then referred to the
circumstances under which these young
men would enter upon active life, as well
calculated to arouse them to an apprecia-
tioR of duty and faithful endeasor to
discharge it, Let the young men of Yir-
ginia obey the order givenby Rome to her
sons: See that the republic suffers no
detriment" Virginia cannot now coBl~
mand her sons in this proud language of
naughty Rome, for her voice that once
was so potent, is stiAed but in mute
agony she points to the heroic sons she
has borne to teach her younger born here
to live for her, and if need be, to die for
her. He drew vivid picture of Vir-
ginia, calling up her heroes of the past
to speak in her behalf Towering high
above all these was the man who was
afrst in war, first in peace and first in
the hearts of his countrymen. " He then
spoke Of Wellington as an example of
answering devotion to duty, and quoted
him as saying Some Frenchman has
said that the word duty is to be found in
every page of my dispatches, and the
word glory not once This is meant, |
am told, as a reproach, but the foolish
fellow does not see that if mere glory had
been my object the doing my duty must
have been the means"


He adduced other examples from his
tory, illustrating the same principle. lie
then spoke of the material resources Of
Virginia, and urged that our young men
should dignity labor and honor their old
mother in developing them. After nu-
merous and eloquent appeals, he closed
with the following:


Should you ever be disposed, for the
sake of expediency, to sacrifice duty, go
to yonder quiet chureh>yard, and as you
look upon the grave Of Jackson, think Of
that great soldier, pure patriot and hum-
BILE Christian


"Who taught Us how to live and. oh too high
| For such q price, who taught us how TO die"


Should any further incentive to con-
firm your wavering faith be then Reeded
turn from the dead hero aud Christian
to contemplate the living one, and learn
10 live like him whose inspiration has
been patriotism, and whose poler-star i;
duty


This has been beyond doubt the most
I N Tohr Aad