sophical apparatus of one telescope-and comparing that state of things with the present numerous and learned Staff-with the well stored Library, copious Instrumentality and convenient Halls of the present day-it is equally just-to applaud the generous policy of the State; and to utter the heartfelt vow-that the hundredth anniversary of this institution may confirm the example of past usefulness, and justify the hopes of future progress. CORRESPONDENCE. The Hon. Wm. F. De Saussure, Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements of the Trustees of the South-Carolina College. MY DEAR SIR: On my return home from the mountains, now some days ago, I received your commu nication of the 4th instant, as Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements of the South-Carolina College, inviting the presence and co-operation of the Trustees of the College of Charleston, to celebrate on the 4th proximo, with becoming solemnity, the 50th Anniversary of your Institution. The Trustees of the College of Charleston, previously to my return, had adjourned to meet yesterday, the 20th instant, and it was deemed advisable to await that day to lay your letter before them. They met according to adjournment, and, on hearing your letter, they unanimously Resolved, That this Board accept with great pleasure the invitation of the Trustees of the College of South-Carolina, through the Chairman of their Committee, the Hon. W. F. DeSaussure, to attend on Monday, the 4th day of December next, the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Institution. Resolved, That every member of this Board be, and is hereby earnestly requested to give, if it can be made at all convenient, his personal attendance and co-operation on this auspicious occasion. It is very gratifying to me to be the organ to lay these resolutions before you, my dear sir, and through you, if you please, before your Committee and the Board of Trustees of the South-Carolina College. Earnestly do I hope to have the satisfaction of waiting on you on the 4th proximo, and of participating in the solemnities of the day. The State has just reason to be proud of her noble institution. In the distinguished men whom it has reared, it has repaid her manifold for all the support and patronage that she has given it. She owes for it a debt of immeasurable gratitude to the men of the revolution, and their associates, by whose advice and wisdom it was founded. In it they laid the surest foundation for the maintenance and security of that enlightened and regulated freedom which is dearer than life to every son of South-Carolina. I have the honor to be, With the highest respect, my dear sir, Your obedient servant, Charleston, Nov. 21, 1854. M KING, President T. C. C. BOSTON, Nov. 18, 1854. MY DEAR SIR: I duly received your favor of the 4th instant, inviting me, on behalf of the Committee of Arrangements to attend the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of South-Carolina College, on the first Monday of December next. I am much obliged to the Committee for this distinguished act of courtesy, and I beg to assure them, through you, that nothing of the kind could have been more agreeable to me than to have it in my power to accept this kind invitation. I am, unfortunately, prevented from leaving home by controlling personal and domestic circumstances. I beg you to be assured that I deeply feel the extent of the sacrifice I am thus obliged to make. It is no small privation to lose the pleasure (though I would fain hope not finally,) of a visit to the only great section of the country of which I have not already seen some part; and the still greater pleasure of renewing my acquaintance with many distinguished citizens of Carolina, whom I have known at different periods of my life-some from my school-boy days. I should, indeed, have missed from their places at home several of the most honored sons, I will not say of South-Carolina, but of our common country, with whom, in the course of my life, I have had personal and friendly intercourse-Lowndes, Hayne, Legare, McDuffie, Poinsett, Calhoun-men from whom I have more or less differed on those questions which, during the thirty-five last years, have divided North and South; but to whose eminent ability as statesmen I have always done justice, and whose amiable and attractive personal qualities I have been able by experience to appreciate. It would especially have delighted me, had I been able to accept your invitation, to see again some of the friends and associates of my college days. I should have met at your festival, had I been able to attend it, several well-remembered fellow-students, yourself among the number; two respected and valued classmates, Chancellor Dunkin and Mr. John Rutledge; and not a few who were, at a little later period, my pupils at Harvard, one of whom, Mr. R. W. Barnwell, greatly distinguished even then, has since represented you in both houses of Congress, and presided with much credit over your College. I should also have been able to renew my acquaintance with many Congressional associates, whose intercourse and friendship I have enjoyed at Washington, and among them, my highly esteemed friend, your late President, Col. Preston, to whose rare and fervid eloquence I have often listened with admiration, unimpaired by differences of political opinion. In a word, at a moment when sectional differences have reached so painful and alarming a height, I should have derived heartfelt pleasure, retired as I am from public life, in meeting the friends of literature, science and education at the South, upon an occasion of so much interest, on common and neutral ground. Though not able to be with you in person, I pray you to accept the assurance of my cordial sympathy, with my best wishes for an agreeable and successful celebration. It cannot fail to be so with the attractions held out by the selected orators of the festivalMr. Petigru and Gov. Floyd. I remain, dear sir, with great regard, Hon. W. F. DESAUSSURE. EDWARD EVERETT. |