the combatants of the army, and the facility they displayed in adopting
the profession of arms affords an admirable addition to the argument by
which it has been heretofore maintained that the general education of
our college was best for all who could obtain it, as affording a basis
upon which any superstructure of usefulness might be raised. Readily
mastering the tactics and detail of the profession, proving themselves
able to grapple with its highest problems, their courage and gallantry
were proverbial.

It would be a great mistake to suppose that all that was added to our
army by such men as these was merely what it gained in physical force
and manly prowess. Our neighbors on the other side of the water, whose
attachment to monarchy is so strong that it sometimes makes them unjust
to republics, have sometimes attacked the character and discipline of
our army. Nothing could be more unjust. The federal army was noble,
self-sacrificing, devoted always, and to the discipline of that army no
men contributed more than the members of this university and men such as
they. They bore always with them the loftiest principle in the contest
and the highest honor in all their personal relations. Disorder in camp,
pillage and plunder, found in them stern and unrelenting foes. They
fought in a cause too sacred, they wore a robe too white, to be willing
to stain or sully it with such corruption.

Mr. President I should ill do the duty you have called on me to perform
if I forgot that this ceremonial is not only a reception of those who
return, but a commemoration of those who have laid down their lives for
the service of the country. He who should have properly spoken for us,
the oldest of our graduates, altho not of our members who have fought in
this war,--Webster of the class of 1833, sealed his faith with his life
on the bloody field of the second Manassas, dying for the constitution