Collation of Alumni Association.

Shortly before three o'clock, 1,200 alumni and invited guests sat down to the collation. Judge Devens, president of the Alumni Association, presided. On his left were seated President Cleveland and his cabinet officers, and on his right President Eliot and the representatives of foreign universities. Dr. McKenzie was requested by Judge Devens to ask the blessing, after which all rose and joined in singing "St. Martin's" hymn. Judge Devens opened the speaking with a long and very able address.

After Judge Devens had ceased speaking, two verses of "Fair Harvard" were sung by the anniversary chorus. Judge Devens then said:-

I give you, brethren, our first sentiment: Our alma mater - In grateful memory of her instructions, her sons come to-day by thousands to do her honor.

As President Eliot arose, three hearty cheers were given.

Mr. President, Graduates of Harvard College: At this high festival, in which tender recollections and hopeful anticipations, thanksgivings for the past and aspirations for the future, are mingling, we all think first of our beloved country -

Old at our birth, new as the springing hours,

Shrine of our weakness, fortress of our powers,

Consoler, kindler, peerless 'mid her peers,

and we salute him who here honorably represents her. [Colonel Lee proposed three cheers for the president, which were heartily given.]

The reply to the toast was the following: -

Next, we give thanks and praises to Massachusetts, colony, province, commonwealth. Hers was the far-seeing and far reaching act we celebrate; hers was the generative deed, done in loneliness and poverty, but in faith. Today 50,000,000 of people in wealth and strength and liberty share its fruits.

Then we greet the representatives of other institutions of learning who have come to rejoice with us, and we welcome the men distinguished in the public service and the professions, in letters, science, or art, whose favoring presence adds lustre to our assembly.

To all these guests you, the graduates of Harvard College, bid hearty welcome. But who shall welcome the welcomers? You need no welcome here. Familiar rooms and paths, hands of comrades and friends, joyous and tender memories, and the visions of your youth have welcomed you.

Why has this throng come up, out of the bustle and strife of the forum and the market place, to our academic seat? What spirit stirs this multitude to-day? You have come to pay homage to the university of your love, and through it to all universities; because in them truth is sought, knowledge increased and stored, literature, science and art are fostered, and honor, duty, and piety are taught. The spirit in which you come is a spirit of profound and well-grounded hopefulness.

And universities are among the most permanent of human institutions; they outlast particular forms of government and even the legal and industrial institutions in which they seem to be embedded. Harvard University already illustrates this transcendant vitality Its charter, granted in 1650, is in force to-day in every line, having survived in perfect integrity the prodigious political, social and commercial changes of more than two centuries. And still, after more than two centuries, do Winthrops, Endicotts, Saltonstalls, Bulkleys, Danforths, Rogerses, Hoars and Wigglesworths represent at these tables the founders of the college and the Commonwealth. Here, too, by our sides sit Adamses, Quincys, Cushings, Paines, Wards, Warrens, Emersons, and Pickerings, recalling the qualities, and even the features of our heroes, of the Revolutionary period. So may our descendants shout in this very hall, when 50 years, hence, the President shall recall heroic names of our day, and shall exhort another generation to be worthy of their father's fame.

Then, as now, may the graduates of Harvard look backward with exultation and thanksgiving, and forward with confidence and high resolve.

President Devens: Brethren, At our table the Commonwealth of Massachusetts stands rather as a host than as a guest; so that I shall follow the usual custom, even before announcing our chieftest guest, to give you - The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the legitimate representative of the little colony which founded Harvard College. I shall respectfully invite Gov. Robinson to respond.

Gov. Robinson: Mr. President, the State of Massachusetts delights to join in the celebration of this festival occasion, which marks a great anniversary in the life and career of our ancient university. Our dear alma mater and our honored and progressive Commonwealth, have come down the centuries together, intimately allied for the advancement of sound learning, for a larger liberty, for a more intimate and patriotic citizenship, for a sympathetic support of the movements to improve the condition and welfare of our people, and to make universal the blessings of civil and religious freedom. To-day Massachusetts and Harvard university, receiving with gratitude the congratulations that come from all parts of the civilized world so abundantly, unite in joyful salutations to all the institutions of learning everywhere; to the common schools, that stand in our land as the sure defence against ignorance and oppression; to the sister states, those contemporaneous in foundation and in settlement, and those too, reared in later time, and established in peace and prosperity upon the virgin soil of our country. And more especially do we regard with tender but exalted veneration the union of the states of the mighty republic of America. [Applause.]

And so, Mr. President of the University, this is a rare felicity, that, as we stand together contemplating the grand triumphs of the centuries that have passed, we stand in the presence of that grand nation, born of the impulses that sprang up here and around us, and that we are permitted to signalize this event by our tributes of honor and appreciation to the distinguished, able, patriotic chief magistrate, the President of the United States. [Cheers; loud applause.]

Let me say, sir, what I know is in the hearts of all, that whatever of effort he shall make for sound and just government, for the preservation of the liberties of the people for clean politics, [cheers and loud applause] for an incorruptible administration of the momentous trusts of his office, he will find himself in close accord with the high aims that actuated the founders of Harvard College, and of the fathers that gave us our beloved Commonwealth. [Cheers and applause.]

Receiving to-day with abundant gratitude the high honors of the university, I bear to her my renewed allegiance and I salute her officers and my fellow graduates with cordial thankfulness and fraternal regard. It is the record of history that in the earlier days when my predecessors in the gubernatorial office visited the college, they held all their conversations with the president for the time being in the Latin language. [Laughter.) This delightful custom has lately fallen into disuse and the present occasion marks its complete abandonment. [Laughter.] Indeed, the intercourse between the high officials at the present time is expressed in words quite intelligible and widely current and the honorary degrees of the great university have today, for the first time in her history been conferred in the welcome vernacular. [Applause.] But sir, I know no higher duty at this time than the renewing of the heroic element exemplified in college life and character. When in 1775 the immortal Washington took command of the assembled forces of New England before the walls of the college, the instructors and students, exempt from the burdens of military life, repaired to the quieter precincts of old Concord, and the halls of learning became barracks for the patriotic soldiery of America. When rebellion threatened the disrupture of our union, another glorious scene was enacted here. The college sent forth her best and bravest, and their deeds became immortalized in glory; and the alumni have reared this magnificent temple and placed these monuments here to memorialize their valor and their sacrifice. Yet we treasure in our heart of hearts this grand memory of the past as a precious heritage, and we garner them to-day in the lap of our dear old mother as the rich assurance of our triumph and her renown. But, sir, time does not suffice, nor is it for one of us alone, when so many more eloquent are awaiting your call, to recall the grand record of the past or to express in prophetic language the still greater future that lies before this powerful institution. I know there is nothing better for me to bespeak for Harvard University in behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, than that all her sons in the coming time, standing on the vantage ground already gained, shall make their lives as honorable, as conspicuous and beneficent to mankind as those who laid the foundations here, in devotion to learning and pure religion, to sound morals and to upright statesmanship.

Venerable alma mater, we hail thee as the mother of a mighty race:

On thy brow shall sit a nobler grace than now,

Dipped in the brightness of thy skies,

May thronging years in glory rise;

And as they fleet,

Drop truth and riches at thy feet.

[Cheers and great applause.]

President Devens: It has been with the sincerest pleasure that we have welcomed here the President of the United States (applause). We welcome him cordially, personally for his many merits and high claims to individual consideration. We welcome him here politically as the executive head of the great nation of which Massachusetts is the component part. Everywhere all of us are interested in the success of his administration, and most cordially wish it success.

I give you therefore, my brethren, the President of the United States: wisdom to the head, courage to the heart, strength to the hands, always of him who shall bear aloft the shield on which are emblazoned the arms of the American Union. (Applause.)

President Cleveland: Mr. President and gentlemen: I find myself today in a company to which I am unused; and when I see the Alumni of the oldest college in the land surrounding in their right of sonship the maternal board, the reflection that there nowhere exists for me an Alma Mater, gives rise to a feeling of regret, which the cordiality of your welcome and which your reassuring kindness can only temper. If the fact be recalled that but twelve out of twenty-one who occupied before me the chair which I now have the honor to fill, had the advantage of a collegiate education, a proof is presented of the democratic sense of our people and not an argument against the supreme value of the best and most liberal education in high public position. (Applause.) There is no reason why the walks of the most classical education should be separated by any space or distance from the ways that lead to public place. Surely the splendid destiny which awaits patriotic effort in behalf of our country will be the sooner reached when the men of education and our best thinkers, deem it a duty of citizenship to actively and practically engage in public affairs. (Applause.) The disinclination of our best men of education to mingle in political matters, thus consequently leaving all political activity in the hands of those who have but little respect for the student and the scholar in politics, are not the most favorable conditions under a government such as ours. (Applause.) And I think I see indications that in the future the thought and the learning of the country will be more plainly heard in the expression of popular will.

If I am to speak of the President of the United States, I desire to mention as the most interesting, pleasant and characteristic feature of our system of government the nearness of the people to their president and all their high officials. The close view given the citizens of the acts and conduct of those to whom they have entrusted their interests, serves as a regulator and check upon temptation in official life; and it teaches that diligence and faithfulness are the true measures of public duty. [Loud applause, cheers, and cries of "Good! good."] Such a relation between the people and their president ought to leave but little room in the popular judgment of conscience for unjust and false accusations and for malicious slander, invented for the purpose of undermining the people's faith and confidence in the administration of their government. [Applause.] No public officer should desire in the least to see checked the utmost criticism of all official acts. But every fair-minded man must conceive that your president should not be put beyond the protection which American fair play and American love of decency accords to every American citizen. [Loud applause, cheers, and cries of "Good] good!"

This trait in our national character would not appreciate, if their extent and tendency were fully appreciated, the silly, mean, cowardly lies that appear in the columns of certain newspapers, violating every instinct of American manliness, and, with ghoulish glee, desecrating the most secret relations of private life. [Applause.]

Surely, my friends, surely there is nothing in the greatest office which the American people can confer, which should make your president necessarily mean, sordid, selfish, ambitious and untrustworthy. On the contrary, the solemn duties which confront him tend to a sacred sense of responsibility. The trust of the American people, and an appreciation of their mission before the nations of the earth, should make him a patriotic man; while the tales of distress which reach him from the humble and the lowly, from the afflicted and from the needy in every corner of the land, cannot but awake his tenderest sensibility and his kindest impulses. [Applause].

After all, it has come to this. The people of the United States have a solemn mission, one and all, to perform; and their President, not more surely than every man who loves his country, must assume his share of the responsibility of demonstrating to the nations of the world, the success of popular government. [Applause.] No man can hide his talent in a napkin and escape the condemnation which his selfishness deserves, and the stern sentence which his faithlessness invites.

Be assured, my friends, that this day and its privilegas, so full of improvement, and the enjoyments of this hour so full of pleasure, will never be forgotten. And in parting from you now, let me express the earnest wish that Harvard alumni may always honor the venerable institution which has honored them, and that no man who forgets or neglects his duty, as a citizen, and to American citizenship, shall ever find his Alma Mater here. [Loud Applause].

It was intended that addresses should be made by the four members of the cabinet who accompanied President Cleveland, but being obliged to leave in order to attend a reception at Fanueil Hall, they were presented by President Devens and their addresses were omitted.

The next toast was given by President Devens as follows - The founders and the benefactors of Harvard College. May the seed which they have sown be gathered in an abundant harvest.

Hon. Robert C. Winthrop said in substance: -

I am most happy, sir, to be remembered in connection with the grand jubilee of Harvard fifty years ago. I remember well doing not a little hard work on that occasion, as secretary of the Committee of Arrangements, and it was my pleasure, sir, to lead off more than fifteen hundred of the Alumni. There may have been rather more still on this occasion, but there were then over fifteen hundred of the Alumni whom I lead in the procession to our Anniversary festival and exercises.

I look back upon that procession now to see only a host of shadows. Out of a committee of forty, two only beside myself are left, the prominent lawyer of Boston, Sidney Bartlett, and our illustrious poet who gave the charming little song upon that occasion and who has given a noble poem upon this occasion and who, we all rejoice to perceive, has renewed his youth like the eagle, after that brilliant flight across the Atlantic and that rapturous reception by old England. [Applause.]

Mr. Winthrop spoke with fervor of the festivities of fifty years ago, and eulogized "that young Henry Vane who presided over the little General Court of Massachusetts as Governor of the Commonwealth in that year, 1636, at the time the vote was passed endowing and founding and establishing this college."

His closing words were as follows: I am the only survivor of those who made speeches in the great pavilion, which resounded for three or four hours with the eloquence of Quincy and Everett and Shaw and Story and Saltonstall and Sprague and Daniel Webster, [applause] whose presence alone was enough to give dignity and grandeur to any occasion. Nor must I omit to allude to the fact that among those speakers was that accomplished and eminent scholar and orator, Hugh Wesley Green, who, only six years later died at the home of his friend, George Pickering, of Boston, having visited Boston as secretary of state of the United States.

Sir, I have done. I ought to have taken my seat long ago. I am conscious of the infirmities of age, of health, of voice, which incapacitate of justice either to myself or to the occasion, and I am more than conscious that there are distinguished guests here from other colleges and from other climes who have a right to be heard, and that I enjoyed my right fifty years ago. Let me only in taking my seat, give honor to my alma mater on this birthday of hers in the presence of all her assembled sons, my heartfelt hopes and wishes and prayers for her ever continued and increasing prosperity.

The president called for responses for various toasts upon the following persons: Rev. Dr. Creighton, of Emmanuel College; Dr. Charles Taylor, of St. John's College, Cambridge; Rt. Hon. Sir Lyon Playfair, University of Edinburgh, Dr. Dwight, Mr. Angell, J. R. Lowell, Senator Hoar. Mr. Rivers, Prof. Agassiz, G. W. Curtis, Dr. Holmes, Dr. Mitchell of Yale, Prof. Thayer.