LETTERS

To the Editor, ALUMNI MAGAZINE:

At the New Hampshire Festival, held in Boston, November 7th, 1849, about 1500 former residents of New Hampshire met for a reunion. Daniel Webster presided. One of the after dinner speeches was made by Charles B. Goodrich, Esq., of Boston, a lawyer, who responded to the sixth regular toast—Dartmouth College. In closing his speech he introduced the following resolutions:

"Resolved, That this Association give such sum, as its members may voluntarily contribute, to the Trustees of Dartmouth College, in trust, as the commencement of a fund with which to establish a Professorship, to be designated, 'The New Hampshire Professorship of the Law of Nations.'

"Resolved, That a committee of five, to be appointed by the President, be authorized to receive and remit such contributions as may be made for the purpose expressed in the first resolution, accompanied by an abstract of the proceedings of the Association."

Mr. Webster then said:

"I do not feel at liberty to proceed to the announcement of the next regular sentiment without an expression of my hearty concurrence in the proposition, which has been made by the honourable gentleman who has now resumed his seat. A Professorship of the Law of Nations, at the College of New Hampshire, is an idea which strikes me with grandeur.

''Gentlemen, every year of our lives, the events of all the world occurring every day, show us the importance of that great code; a code which power cannot trample upon with impunity, a code which upholds the weak against the strong, a code which minor nations may appeal to against more powerful nations; in short, it is that universal Law, that, next to the Laws of the Universe, holds the world in its power. Gentlemen, I concur most heartily in this proposition. If I were rich, I would endow such a Professorship.

(Hear, hear.) If I were young, I would proffer myself as a candidate to lecture in it. (Enthusiastic shouts of applause). But I am neither the one nor the other, yet I hope that I shall be the first man who, with the smallest sum, shall sign that paper." (Cheers.)

Later on in the festival Mr. Webster put the resolutions which were adopted, and in accordance with the second one Mr. Webster named as the committee Charles B. Goodrich, Nathan Appleton, Isaac Parker, James W. Paige and John S. Jenness.

These facts appear in what is called the "Phonographic Report by Dr. James W. Stone," of the proceedings of the Festival. I found a printed copy of the report in a London bookstore and purchased it. I suppose there are other copies in existence, but I do not know where. Whatever became of the proposition, I do not know. The resolutions were read and Mr. Webster's speech repeated at the dinner of the New York Alumni Association in January, 1917. A motion was made that the resolution be readopted by that and it . was declared carried by President Charles A. Perkins. A few offered to subscribe, but the Association action should not be taken too seriously. In my mind Webster's speech is rather interesting, but it does not do to take too seriously the enthusiasm of a crowd of men who have lived in New Hampshire and are having a reunion and have reached the sixth regular toast after dinner.