Then, as now, may the graduates of Harvard look backward with exultation and thanksgiving, and forward with confidence and high resolve.

President Devens: Brethren, At our table the Commonwealth of Massachusetts stands rather as a host than as a guest; so that I shall follow the usual custom, even before announcing our chieftest guest, to give you - The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the legitimate representative of the little colony which founded Harvard College. I shall respectfully invite Gov. Robinson to respond.

Gov. Robinson: Mr. President, the State of Massachusetts delights to join in the celebration of this festival occasion, which marks a great anniversary in the life and career of our ancient university. Our dear alma mater and our honored and progressive Commonwealth, have come down the centuries together, intimately allied for the advancement of sound learning, for a larger liberty, for a more intimate and patriotic citizenship, for a sympathetic support of the movements to improve the condition and welfare of our people, and to make universal the blessings of civil and religious freedom. To-day Massachusetts and Harvard university, receiving with gratitude the congratulations that come from all parts of the civilized world so abundantly, unite in joyful salutations to all the institutions of learning everywhere; to the common schools, that stand in our land as the sure defence against ignorance and oppression; to the sister states, those contemporaneous in foundation and in settlement, and those too, reared in later time, and established in peace and prosperity upon the virgin soil of our country. And more especially do we regard with tender but exalted veneration the union of the states of the mighty republic of America. [Applause.]

And so, Mr. President of the University, this is a rare felicity, that, as we stand together contemplating the grand triumphs of the centuries that have passed, we stand in the presence of that grand nation, born of the impulses that sprang up here and around us, and that we are permitted to signalize this event by our tributes of honor and appreciation to the distinguished, able, patriotic chief magistrate, the President of the United States. [Cheers; loud applause.]

Let me say, sir, what I know is in the hearts of all, that whatever of effort he shall make for sound and just government, for the preservation of the liberties of the people for clean politics, [cheers and loud applause] for an incorruptible administration of the momentous trusts of his office, he will find himself in close accord with the high aims that actuated the founders of Harvard College, and of the fathers that gave us our beloved Commonwealth. [Cheers and applause.]

Receiving to-day with abundant gratitude the high honors of the university, I bear to her my renewed allegiance and I salute her officers and my fellow graduates with cordial thankfulness and fraternal regard. It is the record of history that in the earlier days when my predecessors in the gubernatorial office visited the college, they held all their conversations with the president for the time being in the Latin language. [Laughter.) This delightful custom has lately fallen into disuse and the present occasion marks its complete abandonment. [Laughter.] Indeed, the intercourse between the high officials at the present time is expressed in words quite intelligible and widely current and the honorary degrees of the great university have today, for the first time in her history been conferred in the welcome vernacular. [Applause.] But sir, I know no higher duty at this time than the renewing of the heroic element exemplified in college life and character. When in 1775 the immortal Washington took command of the assembled forces of New England before the walls of the college, the instructors and students, exempt from the burdens of military life, repaired to the quieter precincts of old Concord, and the halls of learning became barracks for the patriotic soldiery of America. When rebellion threatened the disrupture of our union, another glorious scene was enacted here. The college sent forth her best and bravest, and their deeds became immortalized in glory; and the alumni have reared this magnificent temple and placed these monuments here to memorialize their valor and their sacrifice. Yet we treasure in our heart of hearts this grand memory of the past as a precious heritage, and we garner them to-day in the lap of our dear old mother as the rich assurance of our triumph and her renown. But, sir, time does not suffice, nor is it for one of us alone, when so many more eloquent are awaiting your call, to recall the grand record of the past or to express in prophetic language the still greater future that lies before this powerful institution. I know there is nothing better for me to bespeak for Harvard University in behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, than that all her sons in the coming time, standing on the vantage ground already gained, shall make their lives as honorable, as conspicuous and beneficent to mankind as those who laid the foundations here, in devotion to learning and pure religion, to sound morals and to upright statesmanship.

Venerable alma mater, we hail thee as the mother of a mighty race:

On thy brow shall sit a nobler grace than now,

Dipped in the brightness of thy skies,

May thronging years in glory rise;

And as they fleet,

Drop truth and riches at thy feet.

[Cheers and great applause.]

President Devens: It has been with the sincerest pleasure that we have welcomed here the President of the United States (applause). We welcome him cordially, personally for his many merits and high claims to individual consideration. We welcome him here politically as the executive head of the great nation of which Massachusetts is the component part. Everywhere all of us are interested in the success of his administration, and most cordially wish it success.

I give you therefore, my brethren, the President of the United States: wisdom to the head, courage to the heart, strength to the hands, always of him who shall bear aloft the shield on which are emblazoned the arms of the American Union. (Applause.)