CHAPTER XXV
ADDRESS OF THE GRADUATES
"Here at the mellows of age. At that period in life when
men enter reluctantly upon untried schemes, and when they cling
most tenaciously to their possessions, you generously consecrated
the bulk of the fortune you had been patiently accumulating for
half a century, to found the Cooper Union for the Advancement
of Science and Artan institution that in the present and
all after time shall stand as a workingman's legacy to his countrymen,
at once 'royal in magnitude and beneficent in design.'
"The grand and solid success which has attended it in
the past will be vastly strengthened and extended in the future,
by the crowning act of your lifeyour noble birthday offering
of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to establish, in connection
with the institution, a valuable reference and lending library.
"Henceforth, through its School of Design, its School
of Science and Art, its reading room, library, lectures, and laboratories,
it will be the radiating center of mighty forces, from which,
year after year, as they deepen their channels and wisely their
sweep, will proceed influences which can never be fully estimated.
"But among the substantial results will be the advancement
and diffusion of that larger culture of hand, and head, and heart,
that molds the skilled artisan and upright, intelligent citizen,
without whom our country need hope for no broad and thorough development
of its boundless resources, nor elevation and permanency to its
free institutions.
"The mission of the Cooper Union comprehends more than
this. It has lessons for the rich as well as for those in the
humblest ranks of life. Rising here in the midst of the metropolis
of a continent, it is an 'everlasting protest' against the avarice
and ambition which rear overshadowing fortunes for mere personal
gratification. It teaches such how they may become the 'masters
and not the slaves' of their wealth; how they may render it an
imperishable memorial of their love, and a perpetual source of
public good; so that when they shall be seen no more forever in
the walls of men, they shall live on, through their benefactions,
in the embalming love and gratitude of mankind.
"As past and present students, we welcome this opportunity
to express, however inadequately, still publicly and collectively,
our profound appreciation of our obligations to you. We fervently
thank you, not only for the precious educational facilities you
have provided for us, but also for the ennobling example of a
long life, extending through either extreme of fortune, yet marred
by no vices and enshrouded by no dishonor.
"Prepared through that knowledge, and inspired by that
example, may each of us, and those who shall throng these halls
after us, pass through life, animated by deeper love of country,
broader sympathies for man, and loftier allegiance to God!
"In conclusion, sir, we can but renew our congratulations
that you have been spared to see the day that completes, under
such promising auspices, the twelfth annual commencement of an
institution that long years ago rose before your vision in distant
and shadowy outlines; that you have lived in a period without
parallel in the annals of time, for that wonderful progress in
the industrial arts and physical sciences which heralds the dawn
of a brighter era for the toiling millions; and that you have
labored so devotedly and effectual for its realization.
"A learner, so permanently useful and illustrious, is
the prelude to a fame neither transient nor uncertain. While virtue,
patriotism, and philanthropy, are honored on earth and recorded
in heaven, your deeds shall not drop from the memory nor your
name fade from the lips of men. In love and gratitude they shall
nevermore dedicate to you an exalted station in the Pantheon where,
from every age and clime, are enshrined in holy keeping that royal
brotherhood, the benefactors of humanity."
To this Mr. Cooper replied:
"MY YOUNG FRIENDS: If I needed any reward for my humble
efforts to benefit my fellowmen, the touching language of your
address, and this expression of your affection and gratitude,
would be ample compensation for labors however exacting and sacrifices
however great. Happily, however, works of benevolence carry with
them their own recompense, even though they do not meet with the
recognition which has fallen to my lot, and which makes me feel
that this occasion is the crowning happiness of a life which has
passed the eightieth anniversary.
"In that long experience I have learned lessons which,
if I could induce you, my young friends, who have your future
before you, and others who have left their past behind them, to
lay them to heart, and to practice in the conduct of life, would
greatly lessen the evils of society and improve the condition
of the land and the time in which we live. While yet a child,
I learned that the hand of the diligent machete rich,' and whatever
of wealth I had achieved has been due, primarily, to habits of
patient industry formed at the outset of my career. I soon learned
that 'waste-makers want,' and I therefore saved what I earned;
and, by taking 'stitches in time,' guarded against the loss which
unavoidably attends upon neglect and want of foresight. It did
not take long for me to learn that drunkenness was the parent
of the larger portion of the poverty, vice, and, crime which afflict
the American people; and hence, until advancing age seemed to
demand moderate stimulants, I carefully avoided alcoholic liquors
as the greatest curse of the young, and the most deadly foe to
domestic happiness and the public welfare.
"Next, I observed that most of the shipwrecks in life
were due to debts hastily contracted, and not of proportion to
the means of the debtor, and hence I always avoided debt, and
endeavored to keep some ready money on hand to avail of a favorable
opportunity for its profitable use. With economy and industry,
it is easy to do this in this favored land; and in my case the
result has been that, amid all the financial revolutions through
which I have passed, no obligation of mine has ever been a day
in areas. Debt is a slavery which every young man ought to avoid,
or, if assumed, ought not to endure for one day beyond the shortest
time necessary to set him free. Shunning intemperance and debt,
and practicing industry, rigid economy, and self-denial, it was
easy to be honest, and to acquire such knowledge as the opportunities
of this city offered in the days of my youth. But these opportunities
were so limitedthere being no free schools by day, nor any
night-schools whateverthat I found it far more difficult
to learn what I wanted to know, than to be industrious, temperate,
and prudent. Hence, I decided, if I should prosper in the acquisition
of worldly means, to found an institution to which all young people
of the working-class, who desired to be good citizens and to rise
in life, could resort without money and without price, in order
to acquire that knowledge of their business and science which,
in these days, is absolutely indispensable to a successful career.
Providence, in accordance with the declaration that to 'faith
all things are possible,' did bless my efforts; and this institution,
and these encouraging evidences of its value and its fruits presented
here tonight, is the result of this resolution, never lost sight
of during a business career of nearly sixty years, in which I
was cheered, comforted, sustained, and encouraged by the greatest
of human blessingsa diligent, wise, industrious, faithful,
and affectionate wife; and in the work of founding this institution,
aided by the earnest sympathy and active cooperation of my children,
who justly regarded as the richest portion of their inheritance
that part of my wealth which I desired to consecrate to the public
welfare. Hence, my last lesson for the young is to marry at the
proper age, when, aged not before, they can see the way clear
to a decent and comfortable support, and thus fulfill the first
law of Nature with a high and holy sense of its happiness and
its duties, the greatest and most serious in the path of life.
Love and duty I have ever found to be the passwords of all that
is true and noble in life, and, when they are separated, the fires
on the family altar die out, and life loses all its charms, never
to be compensated by the false jewels which are often worn in
the public gaze.
"These are, indeed, simple truths, which I have endeavored
to set forth in words equally simple, because I feel sure from
a very long experience that they will do good to every young man
and young woman who will firmly resolve to make them the rule
of life, and because I began life without means, and know the
truth of what I affirm.
"But, having also acquired what is regarded as riches,
have I earned the right, by the use I have made of them, to give
any advice or speak a word of encouragement to others, who, by
the will of God, are in trusted with the great responsibility
of wealth? Whether I have this right or not, I feel impelled to
record my conviction, derived from personal experience, that the
rich man who regards his wealth as a sacred trust, to be used
for the welfare of his fellowmen, will assuredly derive more true
enjoyment from it in this world than from the most lavish expenditure
on mere personal enjoyments and social display. I do not pretend
to prescribe any standard of expenditure for others; and I am
quite ready to subscribe to the doctrine that a just and faithful
trustee should be liberally paid for his services, and should
not be restricted in the reasonable gratification of his desires,
so long as the rights of others are not thereby infringed; and
I desire to give the fullest recognition to the sacredness of
private property, and the conservation of capital, as for the
best interests of society and all the members thereof: But I cannot
shut my eyes to the fact that the production of wealth is not
the work of any one man, and the acquisition of great fortunes
is not possible without the cooperation of multitudes of men;
and that, therefore, the individuals to whose lot these fortunes
fall, whether by inheritance or the laws of production and trade,
should never lose sight of the fact that, as they hold them only
by the of society, expressed in statute law, so they should administer
them as trustees for the benefit of society, as inculcated by
the moral law.
"When rich men are thus brought to regard themselves as
trustees, and poor men learn to be industrious, economical, temperate,
self-denying, and diligent in the acquisition of knowledge, then
the deplorable strife between capital and labor, tending to destroy
their fundamental, necessary, and harmony, will cease; and the
world will be no longer afflicted with such unnatural industrial
conflicts as we have seen during the past century in every quarter
of the civilized globe, and latterly on so great a scale in this
country, arraying those whom Nature intended to be firm allies
and inseparable friends into hostile camps, in which the great
law of love and mutual forbearance is extinguished by selfish
passions.
"The law of force, whether expressed in trade associations,
preventing other men from exercising their inalienable right to
labor where they can find work, or in combinations of capitalists,
seeking by lockouts to close up the avenues of labor, are equally
reprehensible, and should never be allowed, under any provocation
whatever, to take the place of the Divine law, 'whatsoever they
would that men should do unto you, do even so unto them;' nor
will such an unnatural and criminal substitution ever be possible,
if poor men will remember that it is the duty, and therefore the
right, of every poor man to strive to become rich by honest, intelligent,
and patient labor; and if rich men will remember that the possession
of wealth, which is the fruit of the general effort, confers no
right to its use, as an engine of oppression or coercion, upon
any class which is concerned in its production. Let me, then,
record that, during a long life passed in active business, I have
never known any but evil consequences to all classes, and especially
to the innocent, to result from strikes, lockouts, or other forcible
measures, designed to interfere with the steady and regular march
of productive industry; and I feel justified in an earnest appeal
to both workmen and capitalists, need to, to regard each other
as equals and friends; and to imitate the great example, so recently
set by the enlightened Governments of Great Britain and the United
States, in the submission of their differences to arbitration;
and not to expect to reform social evils by combinations designed
to force either side into the acceptance of unpalatable terms
by the stern logic of starvation and indiscriminate ruin.
"Reform, to be of any permanent value, must be based upon
personal virtue, not force; and it seems to me that the millennium
will not be far off when each individual shall set about reforming
himself, rather than society, and conforming his life to the great
law of loving God and his fellowman.
"While I thank you again, my young friends (I had almost
said my children), for this manifestation of your respect and
gratitude, so touching because so full of love, let me ask you
to accept of this feeble but heartfelt reply, as a kind of last
will and testy of the garnered experience of an old friend, whose
days are almost numbered, and who asks only to be remembered as
'one who loved his fellowmen.'"
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