re among the best educated
men of England, and they recognized that education was the
corner-stone of civil and religious liberty. Pembroke, Delaware,
William Penn, Roger Williams, the Winthrops, and a large number of
worthy men who settled in the early colonies came from the classical
shades of Oxford and Cambridge, and retained the educational
predilections which were so firmly established in their mother
country. The spirit and principles of our wise and godly ancestry were
early introduced into the colleges, which have conserved and
perpetuated them down to the present day.

The American people owe much to the colleges for training capable and
worthy men to fill the posts of honor and power in the nation. The men
who have given shape and character to the early political
organizations and spirit have been mostly collegians.

These institutions for higher education have trained men in history,
philosophy, and the principles of government, who have become the
right hand of strength to the nation. Their extensive knowledge and
thoroughly disciplined and comprehensive minds have been largely
instrumental in perfecting our system of government, and in elevating
the nation to the rank of one of the greatest political powers.

The colleges have trained the intellect and conscience of the
majority of students so that they have gone forth as leaders, and have
exerted a prodigious influence among the people for right thinking and
right acting. They have not only disciplined the powers of the
masterly statesmen, but have fostered among them a sense of fraternity
concerning our civil destinies. The students that have been gathered
into the colleges from the different portions of the nation have
become imbued with one sentiment, and entered upon public life linked
together by the bonds of a common intellectual life and strong
friendships, which have resulted favorably for the republic.

Some of the colonial colleges have richly repaid the nation for all
the effort and sacrifice it cost to found them. William and Mary
College has sent out twenty or more members of Congress, fifteen
United States Senators, seventeen Governors, thirty-seven Judges, a
Lieutenant General and other high officers of the Army, two
Commodores to the Navy, twelve professors, seven Cabinet officers; the
chief draughtsman and author of the Constitution, Edmund Randolph; the
most eminent of the Chief Justices, John Marshall, and three
Presidents of the U