ADDRESS TO PRESIDENT NORTHROP To Cyrus Northrop, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws, Doctor of Laws, formerly Professor of English in Yale University and second President of the University of Minnesota on the occasion of the twentysixth Commencement of his regime and the fortieth year of the University. Presented on Alumni Day, June the eighth, year of our Lord nineteen hundred ten. We the members of the General Alumni Association of the University of Minnesota, through our Board of Directors, on this, probably the last, Alumni Day of your presidency, desire formally to express to you our appreciation of your invaluable services and to present to you this testimonial of our affection and gratitude. You came to preside over a small faculty and a student body of a few hundred; you will withdraw from a faculty of several hundred members and a student body of several thousand. Departments have been multiplied and the campus and farm have been extended far beyond the original limits,-in short, during your peaceful reign the material wealth of the University has come to exceed the most sanguine expectations of your early days. You came to the presidency as a Professor of English, a lover and master of English literature, a firm believer in the cultural and disciplinary value of the classics and mathematics, and yet with a breadth of mind and a catholicity of spirit that never prevented you from recognizing each and every part of the University as important and vital to the whole. We look with satisfaction upon the attitude you have at all times. held toward the various departments of the University, and the tact and wisdom you have made a part of the history of our Alma Mater. It is with pride that we note the record is unmarred by fad or advocacy of any one branch of knowledge to the exclusion of others. Appreciating the inestimable value of the idealist and the merits of the practical man, you have fostered not only the languages, literature and art, but you have also given your support to the natural and physical sciences and the profession of agriculture, engineering, law, and medicine. Research too, so far as possible, received your encouragement, so that contributions to human knowledge, the distinctive character of a university, enrich the record of the past and the spirit of to-day points encouragingly to the future. Marvelous as the development of the University has been during your regency, it fades into insignificance when we think of you as our beloved President,-the man with a large and loving heart whose life 250055 was ever sweetened with the milk of human kindness, and who consistently placed the development of noble manhood and womanhood above the mere acquisition of knowledge. In the forum and on the athletic field-in all student activities tending to prepare for a useful citizenship and a cheerful life your heart and spirit have been with the students. Through your kindliness you have won the affection of both your colleagues and the students, and to those who have gone out from the University with your "God bless you" following them, your chapel talks will ever be reminders of high ideals, unselfish and pure living. We are grateful for the support you gave to as well as the support you received from him whom we affectionately call the Father of the University John Sargent Pillsbury. And we affirm that so long as the University shall continue, your years of service and his will continue as golden threads from the fabric made into the fabric in the making. In evidence of our gratitude to and affection for you, we would give you the assurance that we shall not weep over the desires not realized, but, rejoicing in the encouraging prospects you bequeath to us as alumni, shall strive to do what we can to blend the glorious past into a still more glorious future, believing that by so striving we shall demonstrate an active faith in the high ideals you have held before us. In token of our appreciation and grateful acknowledgment of all you have been to us, to the University and to the state, our Board of Directors hereunto subscribe their names. SIGNED FOR THE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE AND THE ARTS, HENRY F. NACHTRIEB, '82, PRESIDENT. FRED B. SNYDER, '81. FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, WILLIAM I. GRAY, '92. THOMAS P. COOPER, '08. WALTER N. CARROLL, '95. SOREN P. REES, '97. PREFACE The close of the administration of President Northrop is a fitting time to bring together, in a volume such as this, the material available to show the origin and progress of the University. We are sufficiently near the original sources of the history to be able to determine with a fair degree of accuracy the facts and to have the benefit of the word of mouth information from those who participated in the events which have helped to make the University what it is to-day. The disadvantage of proximity, which does not allow of a proper weighing of events in the light of subsequent years, is more than offset by the availability of material. Some day the history of this period of the University will be written by someone who will have the advantage of perspective, but, we trust that when that time comes, the one who writes will find in this volume the greater part of the information which he will need to get the proper values for his pen picture of the period covered by this volume. AUTHORITIES. The material from which this history has been compiled has been gathered at odd times through a period of more than twenty years. The chief sources of information have been official publications of the University-catalogues and reports of the board of regents, supplemented by reports of the proceedings of the legislature (both state and territorial), and the newspapers, especially the St. Anthony Express; also the laws of Minnesota relating to the University. Among various other publications that have been consulted are:- The Ariel, A speech by Governor Pillsbury before the alumni in 1893, A report of the proceedings at the unveiling of the Pillsbury Statue in September 1900, Several reports previously compiled by the author after many months of painstaking research. Some of the most valuable material has been gathered by word of mouth from the men who lived the history, and no small part of the events chronicled in this history have taken place under the direct observation of the author himself. Among the persons who have aided by giving information based upon personal observation are: Colonel John H. Stevens, Reverend Elijah W. Merrill, Governor John S. Pillsbury, Dr. William Watts Folwell, President Cyrus Northrop. January 25, 1910. The Author. |