Addresses at the Celebration of the Completion of the Twenty-Fifth Academic Year of Vassar College, June, 1890 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ... 0 ADDRESS. GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS, LL.D., L.H.D. On a summer day like this, nearly fifty years ago, the anniversary of West Indian emancipation, Mr. Emerson described that event as "a day of reason, of the clear light, of that which makes us better than a flock of birds or beasts." It is another day like that, a day of another emancipation, of a distinct step of higher civilization, that we are assembled to commemorate. For events of historical importance the imagination craves a fitting scene and here the imagination is satisfied. We stand upon the banks of the Hudson and the Hudson is our most historic river. Its charm is blended of natural beauty, of patriotic story, of literature and legend. It was the channel by which Hendrick Hudson sought a shorter route to Cathay. It was the war path of France and Great Britian contending for continental dominion. Its possession was the tactical object of the war of our independence. Upon its shores the controversy culminated in the decisive surrender of British arms and the open French alliance. Upon these shores, also, Washington put aside the crown, and at the mouth of the Hudson he saw retiring England furl her flag and sail away. At Kingston on the Hudson, sat the Convention that adopted the State Constitution. At Fishkill the commemorative Cincinnati was organized. Here in Poughkeepsie, beneath the watchful eyes of George Clinton, like the contending Gods in the Homeric legend, Alexander Hamilton and Melanchthon Smith strove in the great debate upon the constitution of the United States, and here, New York consented to the constitution, and once more, upon the Hudson, the career of Washington reached its crowning glory as he entered upon the Presidency of the United States. What memorable events...