"With no purpose of personal advantage, but with the deepest filial love and gratitude have we assembled this day. Of all professions and callings, from many States, from public business and from engrossing private pursuits,--you, my young friend who have just come, with hesitation and ingenuous fear, to add your name if you may, to the honored rolls of the college, and you Sir,[37] whose memory runs back to the beginning of the century, the oldest or nearly the oldest living alumnus of the college, the contemporary of Chapman and Harvey, and Fletcher, and Parris, and Weston, and Webster,--you who came from beyond the 'Father of Waters,' and you who have retreated for a moment from the shore of the dark Atlantic--you Sir,[38] our brother by hearty and affectionate adoption, who led our armies in that memorable march from the mountain to the sea, which shall be remembered as long as the march of the Ten Thousand, and repeated in story and song as long as history and romance shall be written, and you, Sir, who hold the even scales of justice in that august tribunal, from which Marshall proclaimed the law which insured to us our ancient name and rights and privileges, unchanged, untarnished, unharmed,--all of us, my brothers, with one purpose have come up to lay our trophies at the feet of our common mother, to deck her with fresh garlands, to rejoice in her prosperity, and to promise her our perpetual homage and love. Let no word of ours ever give her pain or sorrow. Loyal to our heart of hearts, may we minister so far as we can, to her wants, may we be jealous of her honor, and solicitous for her prosperity. May no ruthless hand ever hereafter be lifted against her. May no unholy jealousies rend the fair fabric of her seamless garment. May no narrow or unworthy spirit mar the harmony of her wise counsels. May she stand to the end as she ever has stood, for the Church and State, a glory and a defense. And above all and in order to all, may the spirit of God in full measure rest upon her; 'the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.'" [37] Job Lyman, Esq., of the class of 1804. [38] General Sherman received the highest honorary degree of the college in 1866. President Smith, whose character was a rare union of energy and gentleness, was preëminently a man of affairs. The results of his untiring efforts to promote the welfare of the college, in various directions, will be more fully developed upon subsequent pages. Having performed valuable service for thirteen years, he resigned his office, on account of failing health, March 1, 1877, and died on the sixteenth of August following, his wife, Mrs. Sarah Ann (Adams) Smith, surviving him. CHAPTER XIX. INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT BARTLETT.