Within cannon-range of this city stands an institution of learning which was one of the earliest cares of our forefathers, the conscientious Puritans. Favored child in an age of trial and struggle,--carefully nursed through a period of hardship and anxiety,--endowed at that time by the oblations of men like Harvard,--sustained from its first foundation by the parental arm of the Commonwealth, by a constant succession of munificent bequests, and by the prayers of good men,--the University at Cambridge now invites our homage, as the most ancient, most interesting, and most important seat of learning in the land,--possessing the oldest and most valuable library,--one of the largest museums of mineralogy and natural history,--with a School of Law which annually receives into its bosom more than one hundred and fifty sons from all parts of the Union, where they listen to instruction from professors whose names are among the most valuable possessions of the land,--also a School of Divinity, fount of true learning and piety,--also one of the largest and most flourishing Schools of Medicine in the country,--and besides these, a general body of teachers, twenty-seven in number, many of whose names help to keep the name of the country respectable in every part of the globe, where science, learning, and taste are cherished,--the whole presided over at this moment by a gentleman early distinguished in public life by unconquerable energy and masculine eloquence, at a later period by the unsurpassed ability with which he administered the affairs of our city, and now, in a green old age, full of years and honors, preparing to lay down his present high trust.[82] Such is Harvard University; and as one of the humblest of her children, happy in the memories of a youth nurtured in her classic retreats, I cannot allude to her without an expression of filial affection and respect. [82] Hon. Josiah Quincy. It appears from the last Report of the Treasurer, that the whole available property of the University, the various accumulation of more than two centuries of generosity, amounts to $703,175. Change the scene, and cast your eyes upon another object. There now swings idly at her moorings in this harbor a ship of the line, the Ohio, carrying ninety guns, finished as late as 1836 at an expense of $547,888,--repaired only two years afterwards, in 1838, for $233,012,--with an armament which has cost $53,945,--making an aggregate of $834,845, as the actual outlay at this moment for that single ship,[83]--more than $100,000 beyond all the available wealth of the richest and most ancient seat of learning in the land! Choose ye, my fellow-citizens of a Christian state, between the two caskets,--that wherein is the loveliness of truth, or that which contains the carrion death. [83] Executive Document No. 132, Twenty-Seventh Congress, Third Session.