20
THE BATTALION.
peace resumed her sway this act resulted to the great ben
efit of Mr. Davis and his people, and they became the fast
friends of those institutions so started. This shows the homo
geneousness of the American people, their adaptability to
to self government and that we are a people with common
interests and a common destiny and bears testimony in sup
port of the statement of that great American, Henry Watter-
son, a few days ago in London, when he said that no intelli
gent American desires anything but the most cordial and
friendly relations between the two sections. Mr. Davis not
accepting, the presidency, largely upon the recommendation
of Mr. Davis was conferred upon Thos. S. Gathright of Miss
issippi, who served in that capacity for about three years.
May I not here lay a tribute upon his grave, as he has
rested for fifteen years beneath a spreading oak in Eastern
Texas ; our soil holds within its bosom the remains of many
of the brave, the great, the good, yet there is intermingled
with it nobler no dust than that of the unpretentious scholar
who first presided over the destinies of this institution. A
man of almost universal knowledge, professionally learned in
nature and nature’s laws, as well as the master of books, and
the erudition of the closet; classical but no pedantic ; digni
fied but delightfully democratic and approachable. He could
read the heart and disposition of a boy as well as he could
read the lines of Virgil and doubtless he deemed it more im
portant. A man of business and of affairs, yet a pleasing
and fascinating speaker. In his Saturday evening lectures
to the corps he inculcated the most sound and elevating views
of life. At his bidding sublime conceptions sprang forth
and stood before us and high behavior took enticing form
while vice both great and small, became abhorrent and re
pelling, and withal so encourageingly and with such earnest
ness spoken that he seemed to add as admonition : “When I
am forgotten, as I shall be, and sleep in dull, cold marble,
when mention no more of me is heard, then say, I taught
thee.” May the grass grow green and the flowers blossom
fair and sweet where he lies,
With him were elected a faculty of five members, filling