By the will of the late Dorman B. Eaton 1. '50, the prominent civil service reformer of New York, Harvard University is bequeathed $100,000 for the establishment of a professorship of the science of government. The disposal of the money is explained in the following words of the testator:
"I do not attempt to prescribe the specific instruction to be given through this professorship; but I may say that I have endowed it not only in the faith that it will always be filled by an able and patriotic citizen, zealously devoted to its purpose, but in the hope that through its teaching; the great principles upon which our national constitution is based, and in conformity to which administration should be carried on, will be vindicated and strengthened; that the fit relations between parties and government will be made plain, that the obligations of the moral law and of patriotic endeavor in party politics and all official life will be persuasively expounded; that the just relations between public opinion, party opinion and individual independence will be set forth; that an effective influence will be exerted for making public administration and legislation in the United States worthy of the character and intelligence of their people; and that not only the statutory lessons of history will be presented, but that the most appropriate and effective means of practical wisdom in our day will be considered for preventing corruption and partisan despotism in politics and government; and for inducing and enabling the most worthy citizens fairly to exercise a controlling power in the republic. It seems to me that these lessons--and especially such as may be drawn from the history of the ancient Italian and Dutch republics, and from that of England--have been by no means adequately expounded in the teachings of our political science."
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