e origin.
He used to be known as the Waltham Bobbin Boy. He worked
in his boyhood and youth in a factory in Waltham. He had
very early a passion for reading. When Felton was inaugurated
President of Harvard, Banks was Governor. As is the custom,
he represented the Commonwealth and inducted the new President
into office. There were famous speakers at the Dinner,--
Daniel Webster, old Josiah Quincy, Edward Everett, Dr. Walker,
Winthrop, and Felton himself. But the Governor's speech was
the best of the whole. He described the time of his poverty
in his youth when he used to work in a mill five days in a
week, and on Saturday walk ten miles to Boston to spend the
day in the Athenaeum Library and ten miles back at night.
He told how he used to peer in through the gate as he passed
Harvard College with an infinite longing for the treasures
of learning that were inside. That refined and fastidious
audience was stirred by an unwonted emotion.

The older public men of Massachusetts did not take very kindly
to Banks. He was a man of the people. He was sometimes charged,
though unjustly, with being a demagogue. He sometimes erred
in his judgment. But he was a man of large and comprehensive
vision, of independence, and exerted his vast influence with
the people for high ends. He might justly be called, like
the negro Toussaint, L'Ouverture,--The Opener. His election
as Governor extracted the people from the mire of Know Nothingism.
His election as Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
was part of the first victory over the Whig Dynasty which
had kept the State, contrary to its best traditions, in alliance
with slavery. His election as Speaker of the United States
House of Representatives was the first National Republican
victory. His taking a little slave girl on a cannon during
the War in his march through the Shenandoah Valley was hailed
throughout the country as an omen that the War would not end
until slavery was abolished. He rendered a special service
to the Commonwealth and to the cause of good learning which
I think never would have been accomplished without his personal
influence. When Agassiz had been in this country but a few
years he seriously contemplated going back to Europe. It
was understood that he would stay if a sufficient fund could
be raised to enable him to prosecute his researches here and
to establish a museum where his collections could be cared
for and made useful to