nd continued till the question of the admission of Missouri
came up in 1820. The third reaction was a failure; it commenced in
1861, and resulted in the overthrow of the institution.

In the year 1791, the date that Dr. Buchanan delivered his oration at
Baltimore, the College of William and Mary, in Virginia, conferred
upon Granville Sharp, the great abolition agitator of England, the
degree of LL. D. Granville Sharp had no other reputation than his
anti-slavery record. This slender straw shows significantly the
current of public opinion in Virginia at that time. If Granville Sharp
had come over some years later to visit the President and Fellows of
the College which had conferred upon him so distinguished a honor, it
might have been at the risk of personal liberty, if not of life.

Colleges are naturally conservative, both from principle and from
policy. Harvard College has never conferred upon Wm. Lloyd Garrison
the least of its academic honors. Wendell Phillips, its own alumnus,
the most eloquent of its living orators, and having in his veins a
strain of the best blood of Boston, has always been snubbed at the
literary and festive gatherings of the College. Southern gentlemen,
however, agitators of the divine and biblical origin of slavery, have
ever found a welcome on those occasions, for which latter courtesy the
College should be honored.

If the visitor who records his name in the register of the
Massachusetts Historical Society, will turn to the first leaf, he will
find standing at the head the autograph of Jefferson Davis. Whether
this position of honor was assigned by intention, or occurred
accidentally, I can not state. But there it is, and if you forget to
look for yourself, it will probably be shown to you by the attendant.

Mr. Davis, with his family, visited Boston in 1858, and was received
with marked attention by all. During this visit he was introduced, and
frequently came to the Athenaeum, where I made his acquaintance. Among
other objects of interest in the institution, I showed him
Washington's library and this oration of Dr. Buchanan. Nothing so
fixed his attention as this; he read it and expressed himself amazed.
He had heard that such sentiments were expressed at the South, but had
never seen them.

I am conscious that while I have taxed your patience, I have given but
an imperfect presentation of the subject. If this endeavor shall serve
to incite members of the Club to investigate the subj