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Excerpt from An Oration Delivered at Chapel Hill on Wednesday, June 24, 1829, Being the Day Before the Commencement of the College: According to the Annual Appointment of the Two Literary Societies Belonging to the University
My Respected Audience:
I had hoped that this annual office of addressing you would have always fallen upon one of the alumni of this college, whose political standing, or whose space in the eye of his country, would have attracted public attention and curiosity. An annual appointment which would thus draw within these within and sequestered precincts some of our distinguished citizens, might confer several important benefits on the institution, by awakening afresh in their bosoms the recollections of youth, and brightening the links which bind them to their alma mater - while to the youth receiving their education, the presence and the addresses of such visiters would be received as a mark of attention, highly flattering, and fitted to inspire a noble emulation. I need feel no mortification of pride in informing the audience, that if the first wishes of the young gentlemen making the appointment could have been gratified, you would have had the pleasure of listening, this day, to some distinguished speaker from abroad; nor would the members of the university have had one selected from their body to fulfil a task which seems more gracefully and appropriately committed to a stranger. But the failure of their applications in other quarters having devolved the duty upon me, I shall be happy if I am able, in some slight degree, to fulfil the wishes of the literary body who have done me the honour of making me their representative on this occasion, and to compensate this polite auditory for the favour of their presence.
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