eceived its
charter from 'our right trusty and well beloved John Wentworth,
Governor of the Province of New Hampshire,' and said that the
venerable name was 'borne, to-day, by an honored citizen of
Illinois,[36] who, like his ancestor, towered head and shoulders above
his fellow men. He also happily referred to the descendants of the
other founders of the college. 'When the college was organized the
third George was heir to the British throne. Under the great Empress
Catherine, Russia was prosecuting that career of aggrandizement then
begun which is even now menacing British empire in the East. Under the
fifteenth Louis, in France, that wonderful literary movement was in
progress, which prepared a sympathetic enthusiasm for liberty in
America, at length overthrowing, for a time, monarchy in France. China
and Japan were wholly outside the modern community of nations. A
hundred years have passed, and what a new order has arisen! Great
Britain has lost an empire, has gained other empires in Asia and
Australia, and extends her dominion around the globe. France, so great
in arts and arms, has seen an empire rise and fall and another empire
arise, in which a wise and skillful ruler is seeking to reconcile
personal supremacy with democratic ideas. Russia, our old friend,
seems to withdraw, for the present, at least, her eager gaze from
Constantinople and seeks to establish herself on the Pacific Ocean and
in Central Asia. China sends one of our own citizens, Mr. Burlingame,
on an embassy throughout the world to establish peaceful, commercial,
and industrial relations with all the civilized nations. Japan, too,
awakes to the necessity of a more liberal policy, and looks toward a
partnership in modern civilization. Who, seeing this, and reflecting
on the manifold agencies at work in the old world and the prodigious
movements in the new, which I cannot even glance at, can help
exclaiming, in the language of the first telegraphic message which was
sent to America, 'What hath God wrought?' How great a part has this
college, antedating the Republic, played in all the enterprises of
America! It has been well said of it that three quarters of the globe
know the graduates of Dartmouth. Every State in the Union, certainly,
is familiar with their names and their works, and the influence which
they exert is the influence of this college. What an insignificant
beginning was that which has been described, to-day;--what splendid
progress! Ho