The occasion for this gathering is a great war. This service is one of dedication; it looks ahead not back. Yet the future is born of the past and the present moment fixes the pattern of tomorrow.
In all our nation’s wars, Princeotn men have worked and fought; some through the serenity of death have earned the hero’s crown. Even before America’s formal entrance into the war, six months ago, Princeotn men had given their lives to the cause which we now acknowledge to have been our own from the beginning. Others have since followed them; some whose names we know, some whose names have not yet been revealed to us. What Princeton men are doing today on all fronts throughout the whole world — what they will be doing tomorrow — is bound up with what others have already performed in service to our nation. We recall them to memory this morning to invoke their courage and devotion and to receive strength from their strength, not merely to endure, but to conquer this malign and hateful thing loose in the world.
DEVOTION TO NATION
From her founding nearly two hundred years ago Princeton has been dedicated to the cause of sound learning and through sound learning to service to the state. In time of crisis her devotion to the nation has always taken on added significance. The University’s infant years were spent amidst the convulsions of a war overt wo contending viewpoints regarding the rights of man. When the outcome was most uncertain and the danger of its courageous position was still grave, the College of New Jersey did not hesitate to take its stand in favor of a dream for America, radical in its vision of a future for the common man. In 1776 President Witherspoon said, “I look upon the cause of America at present to be a matter of truly inexpressible moment, the state of the human race through a great part of the globe, for ages to come, depends on it.” Today we face an equal obligation and an even greater danger. Let us determine anew at this moment that, with God’s help, we shall not fail.
PROBLEMS OF PEACE
In rededicating ourselves to the downfall of the paganism that has challenged the American dream, let us also dedicate ourselves to a wise and just peace to follow. The problems of the peace will be grave and bewildering. When the war ends, the world will be facing economic exhaustion, starvation, pestilence, civil disorder over large fronts. Peace will not be guaranteed by a treaty, however wise and skillful it be. The making of the peace will be a continuous process. Love for the spirit of liberal democracy will have to be restored in large populations which seem to have lost a taste for it and to have forgotten their understanding of eternal human values. In the fatigue of war or the joy of victory may our nation not relapse into forgetfulness. If controlled by thoughts of immediate security or selfish materialism, our force will be weakened, our aspirations will be betrayed and the future of our children will indeed be dark.
In his Baccalaureate address in 1760, President Davies, the fourth president of Princeton, gave this sound advice to the senior class:
“Whatever be your place…imbibe and cherish a public spirit. Serve your generation. Live not for yourselves but the public. Be the servants of the church; the servants of your country; the servants of all…Esteem yourselves by so much the more happy, honourable and important, by how much the more useful you are. Let your own ease, your own pleasure, your own private interests, yield to the common good.”
In the present crisis, I can find no better words than these in which to express our aims and ideals. Since our entrance into the war, Princeton has endeavored to attune her spirit to these guiding principles.
ABIDING VALUES
We have sought to be alert in any and every adjustment that would quicken and increase our service to the state. We have tried to keep clearly before us the essential goal of our educational process, believing that a trained mind, a fund of accurate knowledge, discipline of mind and spirit, vigorous manhood are abiding values in time of war or in time of peace.
We are reassured in this belief by the roster of Princeton alumni, trained here in the peaceful years, who have already taken distinguished places in the armed forces of the United States and in other forms of national service directed toward the winning of the war and the establishment of a lasting peace.
But all that has been done by Princeton and Princeton men thus far should be regarded only as an earnest of greater efforts which we are yet to make.
In the name of the whole University — undergraduates, alumni, trustees, administration and faculty — I re-dedicate Princeton University with all its resources to the supreme task which lies ahead. It is a dedication of all that we have and all that we are, with no counting of the cost. Let every member of our Princeton family here and now resolve anew to think not of himself, but only of our common cause, remembering that
“He that is truly dedicate to war
Hath no self-love, nor he that
Loves himself
Hath not…the name of valor.”
This was originally published in the July 3, 1942 issue of PAW.
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