There speaks here with the voice of immortality one who loved
Massachusetts. On every side arise monuments to that enduring affection
bred not of benefits received but of services rendered, of sacrifices
made, that the province of Massachusetts Bay might live enlightened and
secure. A bit of parchment has filled libraries. A few hundred dollars
has enriched generations. The spirit of a single liberty-loving soldier
has raised up a host that has shaken the earth with its martial tread,
laying low the hills but exalting the valleys. Here Colonel Ephraim
Williams still executes his will, still disposes of his patrimony, still
leads the soldiers of the free to an enduring victory, and with a power
greater than the sword stands guard on the frontier marches of the
Commonwealth.

Honor compels that honor be recognized. In compliance with that
requirement this day has been set apart by this institution of letters
in testimony of the merit of her sons. Nearly one half of her living
alumni were under the direct service of the Nation in the great war.
Into all branches of the service, civil and military, they went from the
alumni, from the class rooms, from the faculty, up to President Garfield
himself, who served as Director of the Fuel Administration. From America
and her allies has come the highest of recognition, conferred by
citation, awards, and decorations. Their individual deeds of valor I
shall not relate. They are known to all. Advisedly I say that they have
not been surpassed among men. Their heroism was no less heroic because
it was unconscious there or because of befitting modesty it is
unostentatious here. There was yet a courage unequaled by the most
momentous dangers which were met by those now marked with fame and a
capacity in the others which would have matched equal events with equal
fortitude. In the most grateful recognition of all this, to the living
and the dead, by their Alma Mater the Commonwealth of Massachusetts