Response to the sentiment, “The University—The Child of the State;”
delivered at the banquet of the Alumni of the State University,
Lawrence, June 9th, 1885.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: It probably did not occur to your Committee, when
it selected the sentiment just announced, that the “Child” has just come
of age. But this is the fact. On the 20th of February, 1863, the
Legislature passed an act to establish a State University, to be located
at Lawrence, provided the city gave a site of forty acres of land and
$15,000. In November following, the Governor issued a proclamation
announcing that these conditions had been complied with. But it was not
until the first of March, 1864, that an act was passed organizing the
State University. Hence, as I have said, this “Child of the State” has
just come of age.
In the long, exciting and momentous contest waged by two civilizations
for the fair Territory of Kansas, four Constitutions were framed—three
by the champions of Free Soil; one by the advocates of Slavery. If the
students of the University will examine that admirable compendium of
Kansas history, “Wilder’s Annals,” they can read these old organic laws,
on each of which, for a brief season,
“Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,”
was hanging. And I think a reading of just one article of each—that on
education—will largely explain why the one civilization triumphed over
the other, first in Kansas and then throughout the Union. In each of the
three Constitutions which represent the aspirations, ideas and purposes
of the Free-State men, the Legislature is required to make the most
ample provisions for public education. The old Topeka Constitution,
framed in 1855, declared that “the Legislature shall secure a thorough
and efficient system of common schools, and establish a University.” The
Leavenworth Constitution, framed in 1858, makes it the duty of the State
to establish “a system of free schools, in which every child of the
State shall receive a good common-school education,” and also
educational institutions of higher grade, including a University. And
the Wyandotte Constitution, framed in 1859, makes it the duty of the
Legislature to establish “a uniform system of common schools, and
schools of higher grade, embracing normal, preparatory, collegiate and
university departments;” and, in another section, requires the
establishment of a State University “for the promotion of literature and
the arts and sciences.”
It is noticeable, too, that these three Constitutions indicate a growing
sentiment in favor of public education, that of 1858 embodying far more
definite and mandatory requirements than the one framed in 1855, and
that of 1859 being even more specific, exacting and peremptory than the
Constitution of 1858. The educational article of the Topeka Constitution
includes four sections, and occupies only fifteen lines in the “Annals;”
the same article in the Leavenworth Constitution embraces nine sections,
occupying thirty-three lines; and in the Wyandotte Constitution the
educational article includes nine sections, occupying forty-seven lines.
On the other hand, the article on education in the Lecompton
Constitution—the only organic law framed by the advocates of Slavery—is
ambiguous in language and feeble in direction. It is permissive rather
than mandatory. Its five sections occupy but seventeen lines, and
require only that “schools and the means of education” shall be
“encouraged by the State,” and that the Legislature shall establish “one
common school in each township”—that is, one for every 23,240 acres of
land! This would give the county of Douglas fourteen schools! It now has
nearly one hundred. No requirement for schools of higher grade, nor for
a University, is embodied in the article.
It is not strange that the contest between these two civilizations
resulted as it did. Although the one was sustained by all the power and
authority of the National Government, the other had Education as its
ally, and made Intelligence the most important stone in the foundation
of the State. The men who brought Freedom to Kansas brought in her train
the school and the printing press. Fighting Slavery, they fought
Ignorance also; upholding Liberty, they upheld her true friend and ally,
Learning.
The crowning glory of Kansas, from that day to this, has been her
schools, embracing those of every grade, from the rude dug-out on the
lonely frontier to the stately buildings on Mount Oread. These bright
children of the State are her jewels, and she can point to them with a
pride equaling that of the Roman mother. For they are worthy of her, as
she is of them—worthy of her love and fostering care, as well as of her
pride.
There is, occasionally, complaint that the State is not liberal in the
appropriations made for the University. But the figures, I think, will
not justify this assertion. In 1866 they amounted to $7,000; in 1876
they aggregated $22,519; while for the year 1886 they reach a total of
$63,000. Kansas is young, and has not yet accumulated vast wealth. But
surely such allowances as these do not indicate indifference to the
welfare of her Child. It is not yet nineteen years since the first
building for the University was completed, and the Institution, at that
time, had only four students enrolled. Less than thirteen years ago the
present main building was occupied, and 239 students were in attendance.
During the year just closed, 521 students were enrolled. The growth of
the University, it will thus be seen, has kept pace with that of the
State. So it will continue in the future. And as Kansas is destined to
be the greatest of American States, the University, her Child, will in
time rank first among American institutions of learning.
I can fairly and truly say, too, that this Child of the State has a
pretty large family of bright, intelligent children-young men and women
who proudly hail it as their Alma Mater. One meets them, now, in nearly
every section of the State, engaged in almost every honorable
calling—the law, journalism, medicine, commerce, education. One of the
graduates of the University is, for the first time, a member of its
Board of Regents. During a rather extended tour I made through the
State, last year, I found them scattered far and wide, and I am glad to
say that wherever I met them I heard good reports of their conduct. The
air on Mount Oread is pure; the winds here are strong and free; and the
young Kansans who have marched down from these heights to engage in the
battle of life are active, stirring citizens, not only doing honor to
their Alma Mater, but contributing their full share to the good work of
making Kansas a strong, pure, liberty-loving, law-respecting, and
preeminently intelligent American commonwealth.
If this good record is maintained as the years go by, no friend of the
University need fear that it will not continue to grow in the helpful
esteem and confidence of a generous people. For after all, the rank and
value of this Institution will be measured, not by the size of its
buildings, nor by its collection of books and apparatus, nor even by the
eminence of its Faculty, but by the conduct and careers of those whose
intellects and characters have been trained and formed under its
direction and discipline. And if each year adds to the number of young
men and women who, going from these halls into the every-day walks and
ways of human endeavor and duty, win for themselves honorable and
respected names, the reflected lustre of their usefulness and exaltation
will shine upon this building as does the sun in his daily journey—the
glad morning of their triumphs bathing it with brightness, the full
noontide of their worth and renown flooding it with warmth and splendor,
and the majesty of their declining years shedding upon it the gratitude
of a reverent benediction.