forth to adorn your State, to benefit your country, to bless your race. Go forth in the panoply of truth and the strength of the Lord, and may the blessings of Israel's God go with you.

And should any stranger this day put the question, Who are these that this venerable mother is sending out into the world? I am proud to answer by pointing to the men. There you see the pale student, and the pale student of college is always likely to be the hero of action. In all you see honourable men, men of principle and character, whom the State may cherish and trust. There are no cowards there-no sycophants or parasites. All, all, I believe to be good men and true, and I turn you over to the commonwealth in the precious hope that as no son of South-Carolina can ever be ashamed of her, so she may never be ashamed of you. Nay, I know that of some of you, in after days, she will be proud. Go on, gentlemen, as you have begun. Noble ends by noble means pursue. When your last summons comes, let it find you with harness on your backs. Live for excellence, and you shall reap the reward of everlasting glory. Farewell.

2

ORATION

DELIVERED BY

HON. JAMES L. PETIGRU.

When Alexander the Great complained of his illustrious master, for having exposed philosophy to the knowledge of the vulgar; he uttered a sentiment familiar to antiquity, and in complete unison with the spirit of his age. The principle of exclusion pervaded all early societies; hence distinctions of caste of classes—of orders and sects. Even where superstition had erected no bar against common right, opinion in some degree, supplied the place of law; and the learned who considered themselves a class, were little disposed to share with the multitude the accomplishments by which they were honorably distinguished. Such was the spirit of antiquity, and such the way of thinking in the Middle Ages. But since the revival of letters, there has been a steady and progressive tendency to a more liberal view of social duty. Society is thought to owe more to its members, and individuals are taught their solidarity in the duties which unite society. Government is held responsible for the evils which it has the power to remove, but suffers to exist; and the duty of government is the exponent of that obligation by which all the members of society are bound to one another.

It is consoling to reflect on the changes which have been operated in a long course of years by the influence of this principle. The debtor, the lunatic and the criminal have felt the benignant influence of the change. Misfortune is no longer

confounded with crime; the barbarous laws that submitted the debtor to the cruelty of his creditor, after having long excited the abhorrence of mankind, are by general consent, laid aside. The sphere of charity is extended to the inmates of the asylum; and force is restrained even against those who are bereft of reason. Nor is crime itself excluded from the pale of humanity. For ages no voice was raised in favor of the vanquished and the weak, except in Schools or Churches; but now, statesmen have learned to venerate Humanity, and the people to feel for the rights of their common nature. But nowhere is the triumph of Humanity more signal than in this, that the obligation of educating the people is now freely acknowledged.

It was no proof of narrow bigotry then on the part of the magnanimous Conqueror, and Builder of cities, to consider philosophy the privilege of greatness; and ignorance the proper lot of all who were not raised by fortune above the reach of sordid cares. Such was the sentiment of the age in his time; and if a more liberal and generous way of thinking characterizes the opinions of rulers in the present day, we are indebted for the change to the spirit of the age in which we live. But the spirit of the age itself depends no little on the state of education. Public opinion does not represent the ideas of the majority; for the majority is made up of individuals who do not think alike. The diversity of private sentiment is endless and proverbial; but public opinion is something definite and intelligible, not a mere aggregation of inconsistent things. It is a motion produced by the collision of opposing forces--a spirit distilled from the fermentation of various elements but differing from them all. And the spirit of the age represents not the opinions of any particular portion of the civilized world; but the general tendency of the human mind at a particular era. But education is the external power that gives activity to the intellect; which produces that fermentation of the mind out of which opinion proceeds. Therefore, the spirit of the age is modified by education and an improvement in education is not only a positive gain, but an evidence of general progress—for as education improves, the spirit of the age will partake of that improvement.

But of all social improvements, the greatest is the diffusion of light the increase of the educated class. To educate is to civilize-and to add to the number of educated persons, is to advance the boundaries of civilization. To educate is to develope the faculties of the human understanding; and to extend the blessings of education, by making it universal, is to raise the people in the scale of being. Who, then, can doubt that it is a duty to educate the people, or deny that the obligation which this duty imposes is binding on the high and low, the governors and the governed? This is Solidarity. It is the bright side of Democracy, and if Egotism and Envy could be chained below, there would be but one opinion of it.

It was in the year 1801 that the initiative was taken in the first Legislative Act for founding this College. The period is remarkable as coinciding with a transfer of civil power-with a revolution that changed the relations of the parties which then divided -perhaps to some small degree may still divide the opinions of men--if not in this, at least in other States. It was in a House of Assembly, where the victorious party held yet only a divided rule; and their adversaries, though vanquished, still kept the field; that this great measure was originated. It came like the last will and testament of the expiring party; and sounded like the proclamation of the conquerors, announcing the terms granted in the hour of victory. It is fortunate to find hostile parties agreeing in a great principle. Indeed it is a proud reflection that whatever may be the extravagance or madness of party, opposition to learning is no instrument of popularity in America.

But though the spirit of our countrymen is too high for an alliance with ignorance, there were not wanting objections, both popular and specious, to the endowment of this College out of the public Treasury. The immediate benefits of a college are received by those only who are educated in it: the number of these must necessarily be few; and the assistance which they derive from the State, is a species of Protection; rendered still more invidious by the fact, that it is in a great measure confined to those who are already in a more eligible situation than the generality. In such circumstances, the opportu