I. H. Bates

“ Italy, with millions of hearts throbbing for liberty, counting the gain more than the loss, placed her manly sons and her treasure on the altar, and with Garibaldi for the leader, bravely fought her way through the minions of oppression to civil and religious freedom. ”

“ We make for ourselves other issues—we may fight only for separate and selfish interests; but interests involve principles: what is begun for an interest ends in developing a principle. "A man's heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps."
History shows that the continued practice of injustice by a government will cause its destruction. We have no reason to suppose that the God of justice will make us an exception and suffer the injustice of making man-property to go unrebuked. Slavery or the Government must die. ”

“ Wherever they meet, whether in a conflict between different nations or different parts of the same nation, one or the other must peaceably yield, or the strife must be settled in blood or, what is still worse, a disgraceful compromise. The last has been the mode in our own country until this glorious day. The various forms of contention, from the petty lawsuit up to the shock of armies, are only so many struggles for existence and influence between great and opposing principles—only parts of that sublime battle between right and wrong. ”

“ An unquenchable love of liberty led Hungary to strike a determined blow at the despotism which oppressed her; though overpowered—not conquered, she will yet see a more propitious time to avenge her blood and achieve her independence. ”

“ The signs of the times demonstrate the power of the undercurrents of principle in society. Tempests violently agitate the surface of the ocean and threaten destruction to its floating treasure; soon quiet follows, while the influence of its deeper currents is constant and all-pervading. ”

“ Men being the voluntary representatives of these opposing principles, that will finally prevail which is most congenial to his nature, and just principles being more congenial, must at length come off victorious.
The highest degree of civilization is the greatest development of man. Man being made for happiness, where the means to secure it are the most abundant, there development is greatest. These means are wealth, knowledge and morality—wealth being a means to secure the other two as well as the physical comforts of life. ”

“ Forty millions of emancipated Russian serfs today give proof of the genial influence of just principles on the heart of the Russian bear.
The warfare of great principles is going on in our own country. The logic of words is becoming effectual in the logic of the sword. Charleston's guns did more to arouse the nation than all the political speeches of the last twenty years. The oligarchy have already acknowledged, by their acts, that slavery and freedom cannot exist in the same government. ”

“ We have a broader field of civil and religious liberty, and to labor in it an increased number of good men—scholars, philanthropists, statesmen, Christian teachers and ministers—who are not hirelings, but dare be bold and fearless advocates of truth as applied to human relations and human duty. ”

“ So in the great human sea on which floats the ship of state exist vast undercurrents driven on by the power of truth, whose force is also constant and vigorous, and acting with the whirlpools and tempests of madness and ambition which so often disturb its surface will cause the craft not made of the genuine stuff to go down or render it unseaworthy. ”

“ These are some of the present means for spreading just principles and leading man on to the highest state of development. When these were fewer there was no progress; a more rapid progress, but a fiercer a strife is before us. For the final consummation no time can be set. The perfection of civil institutions is not hot-house development—it is the work of ages. ”

“ Civilization has reached its present position by struggling through many fluctuations. The organizations of society have sometimes been broken up and the strongest governments overthrown; but history shows that after each succeeding revolution the institutions of society have been reorganized on a firmer basis. Egypt attained a respectable elevation in learning and civilization and fell. ”

“ These men and the influences that make such men must come out of the colleges. Though dark and threatening clouds hang over our country today, let us act with a firm assurance for the future; for the God of heaven is pledged for the ultimate triumph of justice and right. ”

“ The great transformations that have been going on in various civil and religious organizations of Europe, and the fierce conflict for the establishment of freedom and the overthrow of tyranny and intolerance have fixed the attention of every enlightened country. ”

“ The appliances for securing the highest state of civilization were never so ample as now. We have the results of science and art combined, in all the infinite variety of improvements which inventive genius has produced: the increase of schools and colleges ”

“ You have been preparing yourselves to act more efficiently in the cause of right. Your lot has fallen upon pregnant times. The cause of truth lacks zealous workers who are trained to strike. Students more than any other class of men belong to their country. ”