UNION DEDICATION.

The Harvard Union was formally transferred last night from its giver, Major Henry L. Higginson h.'82, to the University. A number of invited guests and hundreds of graduates and undergraduates of Harvard had filled the living room and the balconies above it when Mr. Charles Francis Adams '56, after a hearty personal tribute to Major Higginson, introduced President Eliot. President Eliot spoke in detail of the purposes of the Union, and of its possibilities in bringing together under conditions of perfect equality all men in the University, of whatever associations and interests. Malcolm Donald '99, following President Eliot, spoke of the Union and its future from the standpoint of the undergraduate. C. Warren '89 read a poem to the Union, and J. H. Hyde '98 spoke of the early growth of the idea for the Club.

Mr. Charles Francis Adams then introduced Major Higginson and Malcolm Donald led the cheering for him.

MAJOR HIGGINSON'S SPEECH.

Mr. President, teachers, graduates and students of Harvard University-friends all.

This house is finished and you all are welcome to its halls. Of its origin and history you have known something, and now will you listen to a few facts about it, and to a few thoughts concerning it, which have come to me during the past summer?

For several years men have dreamed of and striven for such a plan, and thus have laid the foundation for it. Two Harvard professors especially have given it much thought and labour, and a large committee of students, with the help of other teachers and graduates, have threshed out the constitution and selected the books. When the building was set on foot, three graduates at once asked to furnish the house. Mr. James H. Hyde of '98 has given us the library-both fittings and books. Mr. Francis L. Higginson of '63, and Mr. Augustus Hemenway of '75, old and proved friends of the University, have given us the furniture.

These carved panels, these mantel-pieces and coats of arms at either end of the hall as well as the brass wreath in the floor yonder are gifts of various graduates, students, and friends. The bust of John Harvard is the work and the gift of the distinguished sculptor, Mr. Daniel C. French, and the bust of Washington together with the eagle and the staghorns we have from the hands of our great architect.

The chief happiness of this architect seems to lie in the beautification of our College grounds, and with the help of his able lieutenant, a late graduate, he has made this building a labour of love. He has outdone even himself.

Thus you see that our house springs from the imagination and the work of many men, and you may be sure that the work and the joy of building it have gone hand in hand.

It is pleasant to record such an united effort in behalf of Mother Harvard, for she exists only through the constant labour and bounty of her friends. It is her whole mission in life to pour out her blessings on us, and we as grateful children, can do no less than hold up and strengthen her hands, thus emulating the example of her friends outside, who have of late showered her with gifts in so splendid and thoughtful a fashion.

Wandering through Europe during the last six months I have again been deeply impressed by the wonderful beauty of the Gothic cathedrals, their noble architecture, their windows of splendid colored glass, their numberless memorials to men and women of all degrees for public services and private virtues, to children, to rich harvests, to plagues, to victories; and I have again been filled with awe and with admiration of their builders.

The architects and rulers planned, the stone cutters and masons wrought, the peasants put in their pennies, the old guilds of workmen and of tradestolks, the kings, the bishops, the gentry-all bore a hand, and the cathedrals arose.

This fine idea running through them all struck me forcibly, namely, the great house of meeting built by many men for all men, where they together might sing praises to God and join with each other in friendly intercourse and mutual help.

The same idea presents itself to us of this century also in the shape of schools and colleges founded and carried on by the many for all-a true democracy.

Some Harvard graduates conceived a meeting-house for Harvard students, joined heads and hands, and the house is here-a house open to all Harvard men without restriction and in which they all stand equal-a house bearing no name forever except that of our University.

Harvard Students, you come here to be educated in the lecture-room and in the laboratory by your teachers, and to be educated by your daily life with each other; and it is a question which form will profit you more.

With the former part of your education, we laymen may well be content, trusting to your own zeal for work and to the powers of this chosen band of teachers.

For the latter part of your education the chances are less because the opportunities of free social intercourse among yourselves have not kept pace with the increasing number of students.

Excellent as are the existing clubs they do not furnish the required field, for by their very nature they are limited in numbers and restricted by elections. Hence the need to you of this house for meeting each other, for meeting your teachers, who would gladly see you more freely, and for meeting the older graduates, who ask for the sunshine of your young, fresh years. One common meeting-ground we already have.

Yonder on the Delta stands a hall built in memory of Harvard men, who gave all they had or hoped for in this life that their country should be one, and should be ruled in the spirit of a broad and generous democracy. So high were the hopes of these men, so strong were their wishes, so firm their resolves, that our land should be the home of a free, united people, a field for the full development of the human race, that they thought no price too great to pay for that end.

Such was their problem and such their spirit, and in future years you will meet your great questions in the same spirit.

It is much to give up home, health, even life, in order to carry out one's national ideal, and yet it is the plain, over-mastering duty of the citizen in a free land. It is much for the loser in such a fierce struggle as our civil war, to give up the ideal for which he has paid the last price, and to accept the outcome with a fine magnanimity as our brothers of the South have done. They have recognized that this whole country is theirs as well as ours.

We older men can hardly enter the cloister of Memorial Hall without a quickening of the pulses and a moistening of the eyes, without a feeling of sadness at the loss of our comrades, and of gladness that they never hesitated in their course.

But it is not the memory of these men alone, whose names stand there on the roll of honor for all time, which moves us. We think of other friends who have run equal chances of danger, and have fought the long battle of life as bravely; men who have made this University what it is, or who have rendered distinguished services to their fellow-citizens and their country - we think of the many men who, leading useful lives in the background, are rarely mentioned, but whose memories are cherished by their classmates.

We think of all these comrades with equal tenderness and respect, and as one after another, worn out with work or by the hard blows of life, drops, we close up the ranks, and drawing nearer to each other, we move on. It is the record of deep mutual trust and friendship, and such a boon we would pass on to you.

Our new house is built in the belief that here also will dwell this spirit of democracy side by side with the spirit of true comradeship, friendship; but today this is a mere shell, a body into which you, Harvard students, and you alone can breathe life and then by a constant and generous use of it educate yourselves and each other.

Looking back in life I can see no earthly good which has come to me so great, so sweet, so uplifting, so consoling, as the friendship of the men and the women whom I have known well and loved-friends who have been equally ready to give and to receive kind offices and timely counsel.

Is there anything more delightful than the ties between young fellows which spring up and strengthen in daily college life-friendships born of sympathy, confidence, and affection, as yet untouched by the interests and claims of later life?

We older men would offer to you a garden in which such saplings will grow until they become the oaks to whose shade you may always return for cheer and for rest in your victories and your troubles. Be sure that you will have both, for the one you will win and the other you must surely meet; and when they come, nothing will steady and strengthen you like real friends who will speak the frank words of truth tempered by affection; friends who will help you and never count the cost.

Friendship is the full-grown team-play of life, and in my eyes there is no limit to its value. The old proverb tells us that we have as many uses for friendship as for fire and water. Never doubt it, for you know all these things, and bye and bye you will feel them all around you-in your hearts.

It is this education, this joy which we would bring to you with your new house. We hope that in years to come, you on returning to Cambridge, will experience the same feelings that we have in Memorial Hall, when you think of your comrades here, who in due course will have done nobly their part in life.

Already on these walls stand tablets to great sons of Harvard, whose memories will ever be green, and much space remains for others who deserve well of their fellows. It may be that you will wish to record in this house the names of our young brothers, who went to the Cuban war and never came back. Perhaps you may establish here, as at Oxford, an arena, where you can thresh out the questions of the day, and learn to state on your feet, your opinions and the reasons for them.

One point pray note. The house will fail of its full purpose unless there is always a warm corner for that body of men who devote themselves to the pursuit of knowledge and to your instruction-the whole staff of Harvard University, from our distinguished and honored President, the professors, librarians and instructors to the youngest proctor. And if you see an older graduate enter the hall, go and sit beside him, tell him the College news and make him a welcome guest, for this is the house of friendship. He wants your news and he likes boys, else he would not have come. Old men are more shy of boys, than boys of old men. I have been one and am the other and ought to know. Like the Arabs, nail wide open your doors and offer freely to all comers the sait of hospitality, for it is a great and a charming virtue.

Harvard students, we ask for you every joy and every blessing which has fallen to our lot, and we ask of you higher aims and hopes than ours, together with better work and greater achievements, for your problems will be harder and your tasks greater than ours have been.

Remember that our University was founded for the public good and that it has a great history-that steady progress is essential to its moral and intellectual health and that the health and true welfare of our University and our country go hand in hand. Thus have they been made and only thus shall they endure.

Henceforth the government of this house is in your hands. May it be used only for the general good, and may private ends never be sought here.

In these halls may you, young men, see visions and dream dreams, and may you keep steadily burning the fire of high ideals, enthusiasm and hope, otherwise you can not share in the great work and glory of our new century. Already this century is bringing to you younger men, questions and decisions to the full as interesting as the last century brought to us. Every honor is open to you, and every victory, if only you will dare, will strive strongly and will persist.

Ours is the past and to you the future, and I am sure that the welfare and the honor of Harvard is as safe in your hands as it has been in those of your forbears.

Let Memorial Hall stand a temple consecrated to the spirit of large patriotism and of true democracy.

Let this house stand a temple consecrated to the same spirit and to friendship.

One word more to you future citizens of the United States.

We as a nation have suffered a terrible blow, aimed at our national life, which while resulting in the death of our chief magistrate, leaves our country absolutely unhurt, because we have a government of laws and not of men, and because our people are sound and true.

No one in his senses will for a moment offer any palliation of the cowardly, treacherous crime.

We reply by a renewal of our confession of faith, and by a stern resolve to square our daily thoughts and acts with our national faith and polity.

While we recognize that normal social conditions must constantly change, we meet such false and fatal insanity of thought and deed by a noble sanity of thought and conduct,-for ours is a government of healthy progress and not of anarchy.

May God keep safe and guide aright our fellow-graduate, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States