reunions at commencement time, a new departure at Madison, were instituted by the Class of 1846, in 1852.
The Jubilee Celebration, or Semi-Centennial Anniversary, held the day after the 1869 graduation, was, of course, the great reunion for all alumni and friends of Madison University. Planned for over a year in advance, it attracted a thousand guests. The morning program featured: President Dodge’s address of welcome, Dr. Eaton’s interminable “Historical Discourse,”
its sections on Removal illuminated by his kindled feelings, an ode sung to the tune of “The Star Spangled Banner,”
and the Jubilee Poem, “Retrorsum.”
Following an excellent dinner, served in a tent pitched on the brow of the Hill, came numerous speeches of greeting and affection, one of the most interesting from Robert Powell who recalled Hascall, Kendrick, and the other founders. When Treasurer Spear announced that only $8,500 was lacking to complete the Jubilee Fund of $100,000, the audience enthusiastically subscribed $12,000.
The visitors could take pride in their associations with MadisonUniversity as she celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the Education Society from which she sprang. After long years of extreme poverty and the blighting Removal Controversy, the institution not only continued to live but had expanded. The reorganization of the curriculum, wise additions to the faculty, renovated buildings, the greatly improved condition of the treasury, and the leadership of the new President augured well. Looking forward to the institution’s second half-century, which he was to have a large part in molding, Dr. Dodge told the Jubilee visitors:
Madison University is to have a great future. Our great memories
are more than balanced by greater hopes. The Centennial will witness
larger endowments, larger facilities, larger attendance, higher grades of
study, and more ample accommodations and facilities of instruction.
Let us, then, forgetting the narrowness of our selfish ends, seek to con-
tribute to that grand consummation.*
*The First Half Century of Madison University, 1819-1869 (New York, 1872), 21.