about the experiences of his regiment, that, when he marched from Massachusetts with a regiment of more than one thousand men, he had but twelve on the rolls who did not sign their names in legible signatures with their own hands. Of these twelve, if now living, every one can both read and write, having accomplished the task of acquiring this amount of elementary knowledge while in the field and in the camp, under the instruction of their officers. Two of the men of the regiment carried about with them their Latin grammars and other books, to continue their preparation for college; and one, having his ambition fired by what he saw, began, in the field and under arms, to fit himself for college. But when we captured the head-quarters and took the crack regiment of Virginia, in the valley, we found that the men who could read and write were the exceptional men.

Now, friends, we have the broad fields and savannas of the South open, with the population at present there, and an influx of the wild-industrious, but yet wild and semi-educated element of a foreign immigration, who will be attracted by all the hopes and prospects and ambitions of a new country, delivered from slavery and baptized into freedom. All this country and all this people lie before the educated mind of New England as a territory to be possessed by enlightened ideas. I say this, in what may be called a family gathering of the teachers of New England, not in any vaunting spirit of self-assertion, but to impress the idea upon us of what belongs to us. It is no merit of yours and mine, or of the people of New England, by which they ought to count themselves more worthy or more prized in the eye of God, that in his good providence he has permitted to us these instrumentalities of development at home, and of carrying forward the cause of our country in the largest way elsewhere; but since it has come to pass that here is this trained and edu

cated people, with all its means of influence, the burden and privilege, both of duty and of hope, is laid upon us; and woe be to us if we bear it not. And I am sure that unless the most thoroughly educated portion of New-England mind-I mean those who have given themselves to ideas in a large and liberal way, and who have rested themselves on foundations as broad and deep as the philosophy which underlies this great work of education- takes hold of this noble work, we shall fail; fail perhaps not utterly, but relatively, and painfully to say the least. I mean just this; that if we trust the lead of this great and tremendous hour, when the work of statesmanship is greater, more peremptory and commanding and difficult, than ever were the works of war, even in the most difficult hours of the Rebellion, to the unaided eye and arm of these men who are recognized as the political leaders of the country, of any sect or party whatsoever, we doom ourselves to a necessary failure.

We are living in an hour when there are no traditions by which politicians can be guided, and when they will fail us if we attempt to follow them. There is nothing which can be followed but that to which our fathers trusted when they launched upon the open sea of Providence, led by the eye of faith, and sustained by the providence of God.

Now, therefore, my friends of this Institute of Instruction, without the expectation of being able to say anything, by any poor words of mine, which would either add wisdom or ornamentation to this interesting and important meeting, I accepted your invitation to come, because I desired, as an official of the people and of the magistracy of the old Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to lay upon this altar any gift, however humble, and to add the testimony of the Commonwealth in behalf of the work in which you are engaged. I think I can speak for her people, that we are substantially united in this work of promoting the highest education; not merely the dissemi

nation of what is already known, not merely sowing broadcast the seeds of rudimentary and elementary knowledge, but pursuing in the loftiest ways the highest education.

It will be an incident of which our people will be forever proud, and of which you will be happy to learn, that at this moment under the auspices of the Museum of Zoology at Cambridge, Professor Agassiz is now prosecuting a tour of scientific exploration throughout South America, beginning at Brazil, and attended and supported by a scientific staff more numerous and powerful than royalty ever put forth, with carte blanche as to the expenditures, aided mainly in that material way by the munificence of an enlightened citizen of Boston, with whom heartily coöperates, in the spirit of the most enlightened science as well as statesmanship, his majesty the Emperor of Brazil, whose correspondence with Professor Agassiz, as I have seen it, seems so much to recognize the superiority of the claims of learning and science over everything else, as almost to apologize for his being an emperor.

Throughout the war, I have observed that almost all the colleges have prospered pecuniarily to an extent almost unparalleled before; and it is delightful to know that this distinguished university has in its treasury the largest unexpended fund, devoted to its uses for the purpose of extending its boundaries and deepening its foundations, that it has ever had since the founding of the college. This is only an illustration of what exists elsewhere. I think I know that the pecuniary condition of all the colleges in New England is very much like the pecuniary condition of Yale College. If there is anything of an impersonal and superficial character which should encourage you to farther exertion, and should lead you to believe that you can rely upon the material as well as the moral support of the people, this is a circumstance more powerful than anything else, when you recollect that these treasures have been poured into the lap of learning while the peo

ple have bled at every pore to maintain the war. The blessing of Almighty God seems to have been shed with richest profusion upon the people of New England. They have been blessed even by the very necessity which has compelled them to put forth these almost superhuman exertions. To be sure, the blood of her sons has been shed upon almost every battlefield of the South, from the Atlantic shore to the Rio Grande, from the Ohio to the Gulf; on every stream, in every bay and inlet where the thunders of Farragut, Porter, and Dupont, shook the ocean, and from every mountain height like that where Hooker, from above the clouds, rained down the thunder and remonstrance of the skies. In every valley where the Idead have fallen like the sheaves of wheat in the autumn harvest have come up the blades of grass from soil fertilized by the blood of your own brothers and sons. But the testi

mony of their blood is written on high; the remembrance of their heroic lives will last while the history or the memory of man lives. They have gone to the skies embalmed with the tears of millions who have sustained them at the fireside and the altar at home. They have sown the wayside seed of truth, furrowing the ground with their sabres, and moistening and enriching it with their blood. See to it that you follow after those brave and heroic boys, and that you continue, down to the latest hour of recorded time, the spirit of th heroic lives, and the maintenance of their principles universal liberty, spotless truth, and dauntless patriotiin, *, which they died. (Applause).

On motion of Mr. Sheldon, of Massachusetts

the Institute were tendered to Governor bac.or

address.

After an hour spent in pleasant social in

tute adjourned sine die.

t

717