Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/74

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

6o

��Early Harvard.

��a pine-tree dying, and many things came to his remembrance." As it was with Count Roland in Spain, so it was with Colonel Webster in Virginia. In the multitude of memories which rushed upon him as he lay dying on that ill-starred battle-field, we may be sure that Boston, Bunker Hill, and the home and grave of Marshfield, were not forgotten.

The body of Colonel Webster was wiUingly given up by the Confederates, and after lying in state in Faneuil Hall, and adding another to the immortal recollections which ennoble " the cradle of Kberty," it was buried near his father's grave by the sea.

The Grand Army Post at Brockton, containing survivors of the Webster Regiment, has adopted Colonel Webster's name ; and on each Memo- ' rial Day, members of this Post make a pilgrimage to Marshfield to decorate his grave. His life is remarkable for its apparent possibilities rather than for its actual achievements, — for the capa-

��bilities which were recognized in him, rather than for what he accomplished, either in public or professional hfe. His military career was cut short by a Confederate bullet before opportunity demonstrated that capacity for high command, which his superior officers, as well as his soldiers, believed him to possess. The instincts of the soldier are often as trustwoithy as the judg- ment of tlie commander. All his soldiers loved him, —

— " honored him, followed him, Dwelt in his mild and magnificent eye, Heard his great language, caught his clear

accents, Made him their pattern to do and to die."

While the regret still lingers, that he was not permitted to witness, and to contribute further effort to secure, the triumph, which he predicted, of the cause for which he died — that regret is mitigated by the reflection, that he could never have died more honorably than in a war which could only have been avoided by the sacrifice of the Constitution and the Union.

��EARLY HARVARD.

By the Rev. Josiah Lafayette Seward, A.M.

��The valuable histories of Harvard University, by Quincy, Peirce, and Eliot, and the wonderfully full and accurate sketches of the early gradu- ates, by John Langdon Sibley, the ven- erable librarian emeritus, are treasu- ries of interesting information in regard to the early customs and the first presi- dents and pupils of that institution. From these various works we have gathered the following items of interest, which we will give, without stopping at every step to indicate the authorities. Mr. Sibley has preserved the ancient

��spelling, which is so quaint, that we shall attempt to reproduce it.

October 28, 1636, the General Court of Massachusetts "agreed to give 400 (pounds) toward a schoale or colledge, whearof 200 (pounds) to be paid the next yeare, & 200 when the worke is finished, & the next Court to appoint wheare & what building." On Novem- ber 15, 1637, the " Colledg is ordered to be at Newtowne." On Novem- ber 20, 1637, occurs the following record of the General (Jourt : " The Governor Mr. Winthrope, the Deputy

�� �