THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 THE COLLECTION OF 
 NORTH CAROLINIANA 
 
 C378 
 
 UK3 
 
 I895w 
 
UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00031674064 
 
 ^ 
 
 This book may be kept out one month unless a recall 
 notice is sent to you. It must be brought to the North 
 Carolina Collection (in Wilson Library) for renewal. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/antebellumuniverOOwadd 
 
The Ante-Bellum University. 
 
 CITATION 
 
 Delivered at the Celebration of the 
 
 CENTENNIAL 
 
 -OF THE- 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, 
 June 5th, 1895, 
 
 By Hon. ALFRED M. WADDELL. 
 
 WILMINGTON. N. C. : 
 
 Jackson & Bell, Printers and Binders. 
 
 ] s95. 
 
 >^ 
 
ORATION. 
 
 Ladies and Oentlemen : 
 
 On the Western horizon of our State, like some vast slumber- 
 ing Titan, looms above the rolling wilderness of lofty peaks the 
 great form of Grandfather Mountain. From its balsam-clad 
 breast ripple countless rills of pure water, and from the dense 
 laurel at its base rushes a crystal stream, which — wrestling with 
 gnlrled tree-trunks, and granite boulders, and leaping preci- 
 pices, and bursting through rocky barriers — falls among the 
 foot-hills, and, gathering volume in its course through fertile 
 valleys, sweeps, a mighty river, to the sea. 
 
 Projected in grand proportions upon the morning horizon of 
 our history are the forms of the great and good men, from 
 whose lofty minds and pure hearts flowed the educational 
 influences which, gathering force and conquering all obstacles, 
 swelled into the great stream of this University, which bears 
 those who embark upon it to another boundless sea. How can 
 we pay them adequate tribute ? 
 
 Was not the ancestor-worship of the Hindus the expression 
 of an elevated type of natural religion ? It, at least, approxi- 
 mated the truth in that it deified virtue according to their con- 
 ception of virtue, and was therefore essentially honorable and 
 uplifting. 
 
 It would improve the religion of some people who live in the 
 light of Christian civilization if they would adopt the Hindu 
 practice, to the extent of cherishing with pride and reverence the 
 memory of their forefathers, and striving to emulate their virtues 
 It might, at least, secure for themselves the same tribute from 
 
 ■ '■ f *• f^. 
 
their descendants, and thus save them from obHvion, from which 
 probably no man who ever Hved did not, consciously or uncon- 
 sciously, hope to escape. 
 
 However this may be, I confess my cordial sympathy with the 
 sentiment underlying the Hindu worship, as being one of genuine 
 piety, however misdirected ; and I am sure you will as cordially 
 sympathize with me in the attempt which I shall make to illus- 
 trate it to day by presenting for your contemplation the services 
 of our forefathers, who established and maintained, through 
 countless vicissitudes, this venerable institution. I say " the 
 attempt " in all sincerity, for colossal would be the egotism, 
 immeasurable the self-esteem, which could accept this duty 
 expecting to fully meet all its requirements. 
 
 The truth is — and it is my only claim to your indulgence — 
 that the President of the University, recognizing the fact that 
 unselfish love is the most potent principle of human action — that 
 it is blind to all obstacles and never calculates — and knowmg 
 that my love for the University was inherited through three 
 generations from the time of its foundation, and was intensified 
 by the happy years which I myself passed within its walls — con- 
 fidently, tempted me with an invitation to risk this service, and — 
 succeeded, as he always does in everything he undertakes. 
 
 And yet, the story to be told needs no gloss of rhetoric, or 
 embellishment of imagination, to make it attractive to enlightened 
 men Its simple facts are its truest eloquence, and its strongest 
 lesson. This story began one hundred and nineteen years ago, 
 and its very first incident was noble and pathetic. 
 
 The people of North Carolina, numbering about a quarter of 
 a million white persons, who were scattered from the Atlantic 
 coast to the base of the Blue Ridge, after declaring thtir inde- 
 pendence of the mother country, prepared to frame a govern- 
 ment for themselves and their posterity. They were poor in 
 everything except intelligence, courage, and patriotism — they 
 were in the first throes of an unequal struggle for liberty with 
 the greatest power on earth — the continental army had recently 
 been defeated on Long Island, and New York had been cap- 
 tured — they had no army, or navy, or military supplies — they 
 
were divided in feeling as to the war, as well as in their local 
 afifairs, by those sectional jealousies which have not even to this 
 day entirely disappeared — they were, in a word, wrestling with 
 adversity of almost every kind. 
 
 But, even amidst such surrounding gloom, when their dele- 
 gates met at the little village of Halifax in December, 1776, and 
 proceeded to frame a constitution of government, they inserted 
 therein these words : 
 
 " All useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted 
 in one or more universities." 
 
 There is a profound pathos in such a sentence, written at such 
 a time, and under such circumstances. That provision could 
 have been entrusted to future legislation after the perils of war 
 had passed and peace had come again to the country, and men 
 of ordinary character and capacity would, most probably, have 
 so reasoned ; but they were not ordinary men, and, appreciating 
 most fully the inestimable importance of education as the chief 
 basis of free institutions, they incorporated this command into 
 the fundamental law. The dreadful exigencies of war delayed 
 the execution of this wise and noble design for some years, but 
 it was not forgotten, and in 1789 the charter of the University 
 was granted, and forty of the leading citizens of the State were 
 appointed Trustees. It is doubtful, to say the least, if any other 
 institution of learning in America ever had such a distinguished 
 Board, and certainly none of that period had, for it embraced 
 the names of men who were United States Senators, Judges of 
 the Supreme Court of the United States, and of the District 
 Courts of the United States, Governors of the State, members of 
 Congress, Judges of the State Courts, and men prominent in 
 every profession and business. 
 
 These Trustees met for organization -on the i8th of December, 
 1789, and subscriptions were received, the two largest of which 
 were made by William Cain of Orange, and Alfred Moore, of 
 Brunswick. In November, 1792, the same year in which the 
 capitol of the State was located, the site of the University was 
 selected. On the 12th of October, 1793, the corner-stone of the 
 first building— the " Old East " — was laid in the presence of the 
 
6 
 
 Governor of the State and many distinguished citizens by Gen, 
 Wm. R. Davie, Grand Master of Masons, who had distinguished 
 himself as a Revolutionary officer, and was afterwards Governor 
 of the State and United States Minister to France, and who 
 because of his numerous and valuable services in establishing it, 
 was, by the Trustees themselves, named " father of the Univer- 
 sity." At the same time an admirable address was delivered by 
 Dr. McCorkle, an eminent educator. The I2th of October is 
 now observed as " University Day." 
 
 On the 15th day of January, 1795, the doors were opened, 
 but there was only one Professor and not one student present. 
 The season was a very severe one, the roads were in terrible 
 condition, the means of transportation were very limited and of 
 the most primitive kind, and, consequently, the arrival of students 
 was very slow. Hinton James of Wilmington, the first student, 
 arrived about three weeks after the opening, and a few days later 
 came three more Cape Fear boys, Alfred Moore, Jr., Maurice 
 Moore and Richard Eagles, and at the same time Hutchings G. 
 Burton and Robert Burton of Halifax, and John Taylor of 
 Orange. Thus the li% of the University began, but in the next 
 year there were one hundred students. 
 
 I will not dwell on the circumstances attending these different 
 events, because they have been fully portrayed by the more skill- 
 ful hand of the distinguished Professor of History of the Univer- 
 sity ; and, for the same reason, I will not attempt to give 
 biographical sketches of the founders, but will content myself by 
 the general statement that it would be almost impossible to 
 exaggerate their claim to our reverence. 
 
 There has been much misrepresentation in regard to the 
 educational status in North Carolina before the beginning of 
 this century. It has been asserted in some histories, written by 
 New England men, that there was a total absence of all educa- 
 tional facilities in the State at that time. This is far from the 
 truth. The means of education, and particularly of classical edu- 
 cation, were slender enough at that time, but they were not half so 
 meagre as represented. This will appear from the Colonial 
 Records, and from various historical essays written in late years 
 
Y^, 
 
 by our own people. Instead of there being no good schools 
 before the Revolution, as. stated in the histories referred to, 
 " there were many creditable institutions, several having a wide 
 reputation," says the United States Commissioner of Educa- 
 tion, who obtained his knowledge from Charles Lee Smith's 
 History of Education in North Carolina. And the records also 
 show that from the close of the Revolution to the beginning of 
 the century there were- -besides the private schools — more than 
 twenty incorporated schools and academies. 
 
 At that time, however, the University was the only institution 
 of higher learning in the State, and its establishment unques- 
 tionably gave a tremendous impulse to educational advancement 
 ^vA among the people. So rapid, indeed, was this growth that — as 
 was stated in 1821 in the North American lievtew — " in the year 
 18 16 the number of students at Academies within the compass 
 of forty miles amounted to more than one thousand." It is an 
 error, therefore, to describe the educational condition of our 
 people in the early days as destitute, although it is quite as cor- 
 rect as many other statements in regard to our early history, 
 coming from the same sources. 
 
 The plan of instruction first recommended by a very dis- 
 tinguished committee of the Trustees, and adopted for some 
 years was, as Dr. Battle has pointed out, remarkable for the great 
 prominence of scientific studies and those of a practical nature. 
 " The scheme," he says, " is almost identical with that adopted 
 by Congress for the colleges to be formed under what is knowrt 
 as the Agricultural and Mechanical College Land Grant Act of 
 1862. Not many years elapsed, however, before classical studies 
 were given the prominence usual in the colleges of the day." 
 
 At the beginning of the University there seemed to be among 
 the Trustees a strong aversion to conferring upon any one the 
 title of President, but for what reason does not appear They 
 elected, from seven persons whose names were presented, a 
 " presiding professor " to whom they gave the title of " Profes- 
 sor of Humanity;" and, according to what I have always 
 regarded as characteristic of our North Carolina civilization, 
 they chose for this position an Irishman, Rev. David Ker, who 
 
8 
 
 was a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. He did not stay 
 long, of course, and swapped teaching for the law, and Calvinism 
 for Voltarieism, and became Jefferson's Judge for the District of 
 Mississippi, where he died in 1 8 lo. The only other- Professor was 
 Charles W. Harris, of Cabarrus, a graduate of Princeton, and a 
 man of very great promise, who afterwards became a lawyer, and 
 died at an early age, very much regretted. 
 
 It is, perhaps, worth mentioning that the place where he died, 
 Sneydsboro', on the Pee Dee, in Anson county, now no more, 
 was settled by a brother of Honora Sneyd, the lady to whom 
 Maj. Andre was engaged to be married, and who afterwards 
 rharried the father of Maria Edgeworth. 
 
 To Professor Harris the University was indebted for its first 
 President, Dr. Caldwell, who had been his classmate at Prince- 
 ton, and who came to Chapel Hill upon his recommendation. 
 
 With Dr. Caldwell's arrival the real life of the University com- 
 menced. He has been justly pronounced "an extraordinary 
 man." He was not only a scholar, but a man of action, strong, 
 energetic, kindly but stern in discipline, a gentleman and a 
 Christian. 
 
 He bore the burden of the University for thirty years through 
 trials which would have utterly discouraged any ordinary man, 
 and finally placed it in the forefront of Southern institutions of 
 learning. He was, as his career in North Carolina amply 
 proved, a man of broad views in regard to all matters of public 
 interest, and it was, doubtless, largely due to his influence, as 
 well as to that of his associate trustees and faculty, that the 
 capacity for dealing with questions affecting the public welfare 
 which characterized so large a proportion of the earlier alumni 
 was developed. Perhaps no man has ever lived in the State who 
 was a more zealous and enthusiastic advocate of a public school 
 system, or a more efficient one in proportion to the instrumen- 
 talities then available, than he. He was the father of the move- 
 ment for an east and west trunk-line railroad to connect the 
 Atlantic seaboard of the State with the transmontane country, 
 which, if it had been effected at that early day, would have been 
 of incalculable benefit. He erected here, it is believed, the first 
 
9 
 
 observatory in the United States, and certainly the first con- 
 nected with a college. He was, indeed, a remarkable man, who 
 merited and received the veneration and love of the people, and 
 who sent out from these halls many who became illustrious — 
 among them "a President and Vice-President of the United 
 States, members of the Cabinet and Foreign Ministers, National 
 and State Senators and Representatives, Judges of the highest 
 Courts, Governors, Professors in colleges and eminent teachers, 
 great divines — in fact, men eminent in all the pursuits of life." 
 
 Upon his death in 1835, the Trustees, to the great astonish 
 ment of many persons, chose, as his successor, the just- retired 
 Governor of the State, who, although only thirty-four years old, 
 had been successively Solicitor, Judge, Governor, a member of 
 Assembly, and a member of the Constitutional Convention of 
 1835. The Trustees, wise as they were, builded wiser than they 
 knew. They rejected the names of very distinguished scholars 
 which were presented for the Presidency, and selected in their 
 stead one who had no claim to that title, but who, because of his 
 personal popularity, his manifested executive ability, and his 
 thorough State pride, would, as they believed, infuse new energy 
 into the life of the University. They were not mistaken, as the 
 result abundantly testified Governor Swain's administration was 
 a marked success from the start. Almost contemporaneously 
 with his inauguration an endowment of $150,000, arising from 
 the sale of escheated lands in West Tennessee which belonged to 
 the University, was realized, and the light of assured prosperity 
 which now beamed upon her cheered all heiirts, and gave an 
 immediate impulse to her progress. The growth was steady, 
 until in i857-'58 four hundred and sixty-one students were in 
 attendance 
 
 Governor Swain was •'??«' (/o^eris. He was the most unpromis 
 ing-looking man, perhaps, in the State. Tall, large, with sloping 
 shoulders, and joints loosely set at odd angles, with a long, 
 dark and profoundly melancholy countenance, and a most pecu- 
 liar throaty intonation of voice, it is not surprising that his per- 
 sonal appearance was freely commented upon by students ; and 
 
10 
 
 the sobriqibet of " Old Bunk," which they gave him in honor of 
 his native county of Buncombe, intensified their criticism. 
 
 The most unique and original observation in regard to his 
 personal appearance that I remember to have heard was made 
 by a student a short while before I joined college. This student, 
 who was a little fuddled with wine, and not very accurate in his 
 knowledge of Genesis, said " Old Bunk reminds me of chaos ; 
 he is without form' and void." 
 
 And yet, with all his personal disadvantages, there was some- 
 thing imposing and attractive in his presence, and when he began 
 to pace to and fro in the lecture room, and discuss the great men 
 and the great questions which had agitated society, he clothed 
 himself and his subject with a sort of fascination, which fixed the 
 attention and excited the admiration of his hsarers. He was a 
 gentle spirit, with a kindly humor, and an innocent vanity in 
 regard to some things, but endowed with large intellectual 
 capacity, a wonderful memory, and, last but not least, an unerring 
 tact. He possessed as extensive and accurate a knowledge of 
 the history of the people of North Carolina as any man of his 
 generation, and made some valuable contributions to our histori- 
 cal literature He was a walking encyclopaedia of information 
 upon the genealogy of the State. 
 
 The ante bellum University reached its highest development 
 and prosperity under the administration of Governor Swain, and 
 was still advancing when what ignorant or underbred people call 
 " the war of the rebellion " occurred, and emptied it of seven of 
 its professors, and nearly all of its students. It had at that time 
 as wide an area of patronage as any institution of learning in 
 the country. In a circular letter to its patrons, dated September 
 4th, i860. President Swain said : " Half the States of the Union 
 are represented in our college. We have students from about 
 thirty colleges in various parts of the country, from Vermont to 
 Texas, and are thus enabled to compare ourselves with other 
 institutions. The comparison gives us much reason to be 
 satisfied with the condition of things among us, and, we may add, 
 that at no previous period has our corps of instructors been 
 
11 
 
 more efficient, or the morals and scholarship of our students 
 more encouraging." 
 
 Alas ! soon thereafter came the storm which blasted all his 
 hopes, and amid the wreck and ruin which it wrought he himself 
 ceased from his labors, and fell on sleep. 
 
 It would be a grateful task, if my hour permitted, to give a pen- 
 picture of the associate professors of Governor Swain, who were 
 personally known to me as a student. I cannot, and I am sure no 
 other student of that day can, think of them except with reverent 
 affection. I can see before me now the splendid dome in which 
 was housed the brain of Dr. Mitchell, and which, among all the 
 heads I ever saw, was the noblest in form and proportion ; and 
 the sturdy frame, the quick step and the circular glasses behind 
 which beamed the kind brown eyes of Dr. Phillips ; and the 
 refined and dreamy countenance of Dr. Hubbard ; and the 
 courtly grace of Dr. Wheat; and the sensitive diffidence of 
 Prof. Fetter; and the grave and gentle manners of Prof. Shipp 
 
 I have gazed, with strange emotions, into the clear pool on the 
 shaggy slope of our highest mountain, into which on that June 
 night in 185^ Dr. Mitchell was precipitated to his death ; and to 
 me the rostrum of Gerrard Hall has been invested with a sacred 
 interest since that venerable servant of God, Dr. Phillips, in 
 1867, even in the act of prayer, was called thence to his reward. 
 Like these two, but without the tragic incidents which accom- 
 panied their taking off, all the other professors who were here in 
 my day have also passed away. 
 
 And now, let us for a little while examine the claims of the 
 ante-bellum University as a factor in Southern civilization and, 
 especially, as the very light and life, the very head and heart of 
 North Carolina. 
 
 There is not a State between the Potomac and the Rio Grande 
 which has not numbered among its statesmen, or orators, or 
 eminent lawyers, or divines, or soldiers, or leaders of thought 
 and action in other spheres of life, alumni of this University- 
 Take the catalogue and scrutinize it, and you will see that the 
 University was a mirror of what was best in Southern civilization. 
 
12 
 
 There is no distinguished position which has not been filled 
 by her sons in the Southern and Western States. Their names 
 alone would fill a volume, and every one of them always bore in 
 affectionate remembrance his Alma Mater. Why? Not merely 
 because of the sentiment which the memory of his early associa- 
 tions excited, but because he realized that the training received 
 here was the real basis of his success in life, and of his ability to 
 serve his country and his fellowmen. If he had been an " honor " 
 man while here he felt that he had received a training, and 
 acquired a scholarship comparable with the best anywhere, and 
 upon which he could build, if he would, a reputation limited 
 only by his capacity. He may not have been an " honor" man 
 while here — he may not have tried to be -he may even have 
 neglected his studies, and sometimes have engaged in the riots 
 and rebellions which occurred ; but he realized that, under the 
 self-government which always prevailed here, even these riots 
 and rebellions, like the Athenian mobs, produced uien, and lead- 
 ers. This training bred that spirit of manly self-reliance which 
 confronts and conquers all opposing forces in the battle of life. 
 And this is the e.xplanation of the long list of statesmen, gen- 
 erals, bishops, judges and other distinguished characters in other 
 States whose nanies adorn the catalogue (^f the Univer.«:ity, and 
 who reflected honor upon her by their lives nnd public services. 
 
 The influence of the University upon the welfare of the people 
 of North Carolina cannot be overestimated. It is not too much 
 to say. that to it, directly or indirectly, must be ascribed what has 
 been noblest, most glorious, and useful in our history for the past 
 century. 
 
 Search the catalogue again, and behold the bright array ofi 
 worthies who have illustrated our annals. Find, if you can, one 
 sphere of honor, or usefulness which has not been adorned by 
 her sons. In church and State, in army and navy, in forum and 
 hospital, in laboratory and factory, in counting-room and 
 machine-shop, on farm and railway, in school, and college, ancj 
 university, their power has given impulse to our civilization. 
 
 To the University we owe in very large measure the um/fcatioij^ 
 of our State. From the earliest period our people were divide^ 
 
13 
 
 by sectional jealousies. Albemarle was against Bath ; then 
 Edenton against Newbern ; then Wake Court House against 
 Fayetteville on the question of the location of the capital. These 
 were disputes between Eastern localities. Then came the great 
 controversy between the Eastern and Western sections of the 
 State, which raged for a long time. But meanwhile young men 
 from all sections were coming to the University, and the common 
 association and comradeship, the common instruction 'received 
 and ambition experienced here, and the intermarriages resulting 
 from meeting the lovely women from all parts of the State who 
 have always graced the commencements by their presence, 
 tended powerfully to eliminate all sectional feeling, and to con- 
 solidate and weld together the people as North Carolinians, 
 making one of the Quaker, the Scotch Presbyterian, the Cape 
 Fear Episcopalian, the Methodist, the Baptist, the Dutch, the 
 Moravian, and all others. 
 
 The inner and social life of the ante-bellum University was 
 well adapted to intensify this spiiit, and to develop those charac- 
 teristics to which I have already alluded. The real governmg 
 bodies of the institution were the two Literary Societies. They 
 were not only arenas for debate and oratory, but were the 
 discipline-enforcers of the University, and the fear of incurring 
 their censure was far greater than that of offending the Faculty. 
 There was in the village a refined and cultured society, which 
 afforded opportunities for the practice of the amenities of social 
 life, without the least display or affectation of *' style ; " and, 
 although there was not, as now, a gynasium, there was an 
 unlimited field for athletic sports. Some students, sons of rich 
 Southern planters, brought servants, and horses, and guns, and 
 dogs, and kept house (club style), and spent their holidays — and, 
 perhaps, some days that were not holidays — in field sports. 
 
 At commencement the belles and rose-bud debutantes flocked 
 from all parts of the State, and there was a carnival in which 
 flashed gay equipages, and gorgeous sashes, and fine raiment, 
 (including tight boots and other agonies) ; and tender speeches 
 were made, both on the rostrum and in private ears ; and there 
 was much dancing (of the pigeon-wing order and performed 
 
14 
 
 with a gravity that "was almost severe) and some farewell wine- 
 bibbing — after which, until the beginning of another session, 
 Chapel Hill wore the air of a deserted village. 
 
 With every year the numbers grew, and each commencement 
 surpassed its predecessor in display and enjoyment. Before 
 1850, there being no building suitable for the purpose, the 
 dining-ropm of the old hotel was used for a ball-room, and for 
 years its walls rang with the sound of the fast and furious fiddles 
 of Frank Johnson's band, and its floor swayed and trembled 
 beneath the springy tread of a hundred dancers. After that date 
 a great improvement in the music, and a more elegant style pre" 
 vailed, and Smith Hall, the present library — which was, perhaps, 
 unequalled in the State for such a purpose — was used. 
 
 It has been my fortune to see many great and distinguished 
 men, but none were clothed with such radiancy of glory as 
 seemed to my eyes to invest the marshals and ball managers of 
 that period. The President and Professors appeared absolutely 
 inconsequential beside them Their glory lasted only for a 
 week, but all human glory is short-lived, and no warrior or 
 statesman ever enjoyed his brief-hour more keenly than they. 
 
 In the year 1859 the University was in splendid condition, and 
 was in receipt of an income largely exceeding its expenses, but 
 with the next year fell the shadow of those coming events which 
 brought desolation and ruin to it, and the South. At the first 
 call to arms it was almost deserted. As I have already said, 
 seven of the faculty and nearly all the students entered the Con- 
 federate army. 
 
 Governor Swain tried to keep the handful of boys who were 
 left, and his appeal to President Davis in the early part of the 
 war, secured from him the promise that " the seed corn should 
 not be ground up ; " but. to quote the language of Senator 
 Vance, " as the exigencies of the country increased this wisdom 
 was lost sight of, the collegians were again and again called 
 upon, till at the time of Lee's surrender there were but about a 
 dozen here still keeping up the name and forms of a college. 
 But even while the village and the University were occupied by 
 
15 
 
 4,000 Michigan cavalry, the old bell was rung daily, prayers 
 were held, and the University was kept going." 
 
 " The terrible blow to higher education by the disastrous strug- 
 gle," says Dr. Battle, " may be gathered from the simple fact that 
 out of the 95 Freshmen who matriculated in 1857-58 only 10, out 
 of the 80 Freshmen of 1858-59 only i, and out of the 68 Fresh- 
 men of 1859-60 only 5 remained to receive their diplomas at 
 graduation Taking the three classes together, 227 out of 243 
 lost their opportunity of higher education ; nearly all of them 
 enlisting in the army." Yes, they lost their opportunity of 
 higher education from hooks, but they entered the school of 
 patriotism, and learned the bitter lesson that the purest and 
 noblest sacrifices made for liberty are often, to human ken, in 
 vain, and that in human government prevails 
 
 — "the simple plan 
 That he may take who hath the power 
 And he may keep who can." 
 
 They learned, at the cost of wounds and death, that sacred 
 compacts are rags, and plighted faith a laughing-stock, in the 
 eyes of greed and power — that in civil wars success makes 
 patriots, the want of it, rebels and traitors — and that in national 
 ethics might makes right ; but they also proved that " duty is 
 the sublimest word in our language," and that " human virtue" 
 not only " should be," but is, " equal to human calamity." Bap- 
 tized in the same fire were a thousand of their predecessors in 
 these classic groves. I look around me here, and see inscribed 
 upon these tablets the names of two hundred and seventy of the 
 Alumni of this University who gave their lives, a willing sacri- 
 fice, in defence of constitutional liberty. 
 
 Shades of my brave and noble comrades who, with your great 
 commanders, now walk in green pastures beside the still waters ! 
 ye, who, frosted by the years, or in the full flush of manhood, or 
 in the rosy freshness of youth, went forth to battle for home and 
 liberty, and returned no more ! ye still live, not only in the 
 realms ye now inhabit, but here in the heart of your Alma Mater. 
 She too died as you did with the State, in the common massacre 
 of Southern rights and liberties, but rose again with her to new 
 
16 
 
 life and energy, still clasping to her breast the record of the 
 proud achievements of her sons. There, with a mother's grasp, 
 will she hold them, until her groves are silent and her walls 
 crumble into dust. 
 
 I will not pain this audience by a recital of the experiences of 
 the University during the night-mare that succeeded the war- 
 It was but a page in that chapter of our history from which 
 every self-respecting American citizen turns away with shame 
 and indignation. I would rather rejoice with you in the knowl- 
 edge that the people of North Carolina— proud of her noble 
 history and prizing her as a precious heritage left to them and 
 their children — with the first breath of their new life, resolved 
 that she, too, should live again, and with renewed energies and 
 added glories should resume her ancient service to God and man. 
 
 That she has done so, and how she has done so, you will hear 
 to-day from one of her gifted posihelJum alumni to whom has 
 been entrusted that grateful task, and to give place to whose 
 glowing picture of the new regime I now gladly withdraw my 
 homely sketch of the old. 
 
 Fellow students of the old days ; nineteen years ago, at the first 
 commencement after the reopening, being honored with a similar 
 duty to that assigned me to day, I made the most earnest appeal 
 of my life for the restoration of the University to the full measure 
 of her ancient prosperity and renown. The prayers and labors 
 of her faithful sons were answered and blessed, and, on the one 
 hundredth anniversary of her existence, we assemble with grate- 
 ful hearts to offer unto 'her the homage of our undying 
 love, to receive her benediction, and to rejoice in the hope that 
 she will be the nursing mother of our latest posterity. She has 
 not only recovered her youth and vigor, but has decked herself 
 in richer apparel and lives in finer houses than she did in the 
 olden days; and, therefore, naturally carries her head a little 
 higher, and assumes more airs. But we love her, if possible, all 
 the more for it, and our aspirations for her will only be satisfied 
 when she is recognized and saluted as the queen of Southern 
 Universities. 
 
 d 
 
17 
 
 Many of you, probably, have never revisited these scenes since 
 you left them in your youth. Some of you, I know, have not 
 been here in forty, a few not in fifty years, or more. What 
 language could express your emotions when the old campus, 
 and the gray buildings again greeted your vision? 
 
 What a flood of memories broke over you, and what music 
 they made within you ! 
 
 And, after looking again upon all the old familiar places, and 
 recalling the early friends with whom they were once associated, 
 how does the life to which you then so eagerly looked forward 
 now appear in your sight? How many of your hopes, and 
 aspirations have been realized ? If only a few or none, do you 
 feel that there is really, after all, any very great difference in the 
 outcome between your own, and what the world calls the most 
 successful lives ? If all, and more than you hoped for, has been 
 bestowed upon you, is there not 
 
 — "something still which prompts the eternal sigh?" 
 
 And, if so, has not your experience taught you that that some- 
 thing is not to be found in this world ? I would not trespass 
 upon a province which is not mine, but surely it is permissible, 
 even for a layman so far advanced upon life's journey, when 
 addressing his contemporaries on an occasion like this, to remind 
 them that there is but one Kindly Light to lead us in the night 
 which fast approaches, and to express the hope that each of them, 
 when lookmg back upon his life, and recalling the vanished 
 forms that peopled it, will turn, worshipping, to that Light, and 
 say : 
 
 ' ' So long Thy power hath blessed me, sure it still 
 Will lead me ou 
 O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till 
 
 The night is gone 
 And with the morn those angel faces smile 
 That I have loved long since, and lost awhile." 
 
I