CLASS OF 1857

The last issue of the BI-MONTHLY contained an account of the semi-centennial reunion of the class. At that meeting the following letter from President Tucker was read:

"Nantucket, June 21, 1907. "To THE CLASS OF '57:

"I very much regret that my enforced absence prevents me from paying my respects to you upon your fiftieth anniversary The traditions of your class held the mind of the College when I entered in 1857. Much as the seniors meant to a freshman, the men who had just crossed the threshold into the world loomed very much larger. I think that they have justified the proportions which we then gave them. The Class of '57 has brought high honor to the College. As you return in person, bringing with you the memories of those who have fallen by the way, I trust that you will accept the estimation in which you are held, as individuals and as a class, by those whose office it is to take note in behalf of the College of all the graduates who have added the most to her reputation and influence.

"The College environment has changed since your undergraduate days, but no little of the responsibility for the change rests upon one of your number whom the alumni nominated as their first-representative upon the Board of Trustees. I hope that you are making yourselves altogether at home in the Hall which bears his name. The oatward changes are more obvious than those in the internal development of the College. The subject matter and the method of college discipline have, however, changed in corresponding degree. Of course it is yet to be seen with what result. The Class of 1907 may or may not reach the high level of the Class of 1857 in attainments and in public service. But the changed conditions of their college life were a necessity. The curriculum of your time could not repeat its splendid results in the men of today. For better or for worse the College must minister to the mind of each new generation in ways which are the most persuasive and compelling to the mind of that generation.

But underlying all these changes without and within I think that you will have the assured feeling, as you leave Hanover, that the College is the same as of old — set to the same ends and pervaded by the same spirit. The men whom yon are to greet or the first time as graduates are what you were and are in their affection and loyalty, or this I can vouch. From the Class of 1837 to the Class of 1907 there is but one Purpose actuating the alumni — to see to it that the College meets its increasing opportunity. I think that we have all come to believe that in so doing we keep faith with the past. And of this spirit no class has given clearer or more tangible proof than the Class of '57.

"I am, in high esteem, Most sincerely yours, "W. J. TUCKER"

Secretary, Dr. John H. Clark, Amherst, N. H.