LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: It probably did not occur to your Committee, when it selected the sentiment just announced, that the “Child” has just come of age. But this is the fact. On the 20th of February, 1863, the Legislature passed an act to establish a State University, to be located at Lawrence, provided the city gave a site of forty acres of land and $15,000. In November following, the Governor issued a proclamation announcing that these conditions had been complied with. But it was not until the first of March, 1864, that an act was passed organizing the State University. Hence, as I have said, this “Child of the State” has just come of age. In the long, exciting and momentous contest waged by two civilizations for the fair Territory of Kansas, four Constitutions were framed—three by the champions of Free Soil; one by the advocates of Slavery. If the students of the University will examine that admirable compendium of Kansas history, “Wilder’s Annals,” they can read these old organic laws, on each of which, for a brief season, “Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years,” was hanging. And I think a reading of just one article of each—that on education—will largely explain why the one civilization triumphed over the other, first in Kansas and then throughout the Union. In each of the three Constitutions which represent the aspirations, ideas and purposes of the Free-State men, the Legislature is required to make the most ample provisions for public education. The old Topeka Constitution, framed in 1855, declared that “the Legislature shall secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools, and establish a University.” The Leavenworth Constitution, framed in 1858, makes it the duty of the State to establish “a system of free schools, in which every child of the State shall receive a good common-school education,” and also educational institutions of higher grade, including a University. And the Wyandotte Constitution, framed in 1859, makes it the duty of the Legislature to establish “a uniform system of common schools, and schools of higher grade, embracing normal, preparatory, collegiate and university departments;” and, in another section, requires the establishment of a State University “for the promotion of literature and the arts and sciences.”