Posted on Jun 11, 2006
The only advice I remember from a Commencement speech is this: “You must start from where you are.” Very wise advice, I believe. This, after all, is “Commencement,” a beginning of a new part of your lives.
There are some of you who have made the best of your opportunities – challenged yourselves by seeking out the most demanding courses and instructors, by throwing yourselves fully into community service, acting or the performing arts or into athletics.
There are others of you who have floated along, perhaps drifted, and who have not come close to exercising your full potential, like perhaps a former student who confided to me two weeks ago something I already knew, that he had not worked much as an undergraduate.
He said to me, “But I kept my books and notes and now I am reading those books” – and he started to discuss with me one book I had assigned in my course. The place he had come to by the end of four years was not a very good one, but that was not the end of his life – it was for him a beginning. He has a Master of Arts in Teaching and is happy in what he is doing, and 10 years after the fact he is indulging his innate intellectual curiosity and reading the books he didn't always read carefully as an undergraduate.
That student is not the only person who “started from where he was” and managed to get to a good place. I offer myself as a second example. Except when I found myself in a class with a very demanding professor, I was an indifferent student. But like my former student I kept many of my books. Do I regret that I was often an indifferent student? Certainly I do. I had a lot of catchup in front of me when I graduated… but over time I somehow developed an ambition to know everything about everything.
I do hope that you will reach deep inside and find something that will enable you to say what a student athlete at Union wrote as being her or his to top “natural high”: “knowing you could not put more into it either mentally, physically or emotionally.”
Always try to get the natural high.
When you leave here, you should not forget that you are graduating from a place that may have produced more leaders or achievers and innovators per graduate than any other college in the nation.
Whether the field is politics, business, education, literature, the arts, science, engineering, journalism or the military, Union graduates have been in the forefront.
How many of you have seen the “Rocky” films or what is probably the best boxing film all time, “Raging Bull” or “The Right Stuff?” You should know that Union alum Robert Chartoff Class of '55 was co-producer of all three, as well as several other notable films.
It is likely that you have seen “Field of Dreams,” perhaps the best baseball movie of all time. But how many of you know that the film was directed by Phil Robinson, Class of 1971, and I am pleased to say, both a former student of mine and former Commencement speaker. As screenwriter and/or director, Phil has to his credit other fine films, including “Sneakers” and “Sum of all Fears.” He also directed one of the segments of HBO's “Band of Brothers,” a miniseries that won six Emmy Awards and the Golden Globe award.
The editor of the first art magazine in America was William James Stillman, a classmate of President Chester Arthur. Edward Bellamy authored one of the best-selling books of the 19th century, “Looking Backward,” a brilliant attempt in 1888 to portray how difficult it would be for Americans living in Bellamy's imagined utopian society in the year 2000 to fully appreciate what he viewed as the social and economic barbarity of the 1880s.
As many of you know, John Howard Payne, Class of 1812, composed “Home Sweet Home” in 1823, a song that for more than 100 years was familiar to every American (Payne was also a noted playwright). The main entrance to campus honors Payne.
And, of course, all of you seniors know, I hope, that Fitzhugh Ludlow composed the most beautiful alma mater of any college in America.
The list of distinguished scientists and engineers who are Union graduates is long indeed, including Baruch Blumberg, Class of 1946, Nobel Prize winner in medicine; Gordon Gould Class of 1941, inventor of the laser; George Westinghouse, Class of 1868, inventor of the air brake for trains, developer of alternating current for transmitting electricity and founder of the Westinghouse Electric Company and the Westinghouse Air Brake Company; and John Ostrom, Class of 1951, distinguished paleontologist who was the first to propose the now widely accepted theory that dinosaurs were warm-blooded and closely related to birds.
The face of American's transportation systems would be much different without the contributions of Union engineers. To name just two examples – Royton F. Weadon '08 was in charge of the construction of both the George Washington Bridge and the Triborough Bridge. Solomon Le Fevre was chief engineer in charge of the construction of the first subway in New York City.
At our recent Memorial Day event our student trumpeter, Michael Gillin, played “Taps,” a melody familiar to all, especially those who have served in the military. “Taps” was created by Major General Daniel Butterfield, Class of 1849. But Butterfield was distinguished in other ways. He served as chief of staff of the army of the Potomac during the Civil War and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in battle.
Henry Halleck, Class of 1837 and military theorist, went one better than Butterfield – he served as general-in-chief of all Union armies.
The list of prominent educators, scholars, inventors and innovators who graduated from Union is truly extensive.
The first superintendent of public instruction in New York was Gideon Hawley, a man whose career we honor by giving a prize to high school teachers nominated by Union's students. Newspaper publisher and diplomat John Bigelow, Class of 1835, was the creator of the New York City public library system.
Also: several of the most important university presidents in U.S. history, including Francis Wayland, Class of 1813, an innovative president who transformed Brown University; and Henry Philip Tapoon, Class of 1825, president of the University of Michigan and a leader in the development of the modern universitiy.
Very few colleges or universities can claim that four of their alums were largely responsible for creating an entire discipline. Union can. Franklin Gidding was one of the three founders of the discipline of sociology, and Lewis Henry Morgan is credited by many as being the founder of anthropology in America.
Finally, Armand and Donald Feigenbaum, who created Total Quality Management, a field whose tenets underline much of the increasing economic productivity throughout the world over the last several decades.
The numbers of public officials produced under President Eliphalet Nott alone are astonishing.
If we set aside from this list Chester Arthur and William Seward, there remain many who made notable contributions. One of these was John Bigelow, who, as editor of the New York Post, a Democratic newspaper, put aside his Democratic loyalties and worked hard against slavery and for the Union. Then as counsel-general in Paris working with Seward, he played a key role in keeping France from recognizing the Confederate government and in blocking that government's scheme to build and equip navel vessels in France. It was after the Civil War that he created the New York City public library system.
After a distinguished career as a jurist, Robert Porter Patterson, Class of 1912, served as secretary of war during all of World War II and then as secretary of war under Harry Truman.
A number of notable legislative leaders have graduated from Union, including Victor Fazio, Class of 1965 and for 20 years a member of Congress and ultimately chair of the Home Democratic Conference. Currently, two Union alums serve in the House of Representatives and one serves as attorney general of the State of Hawaii.
Among distinguished Union journalists and editors in addition to John Bigelow were Morris Gilbert, Class of 1917, editor of the Smart Set; Howard Simons, Class of 1951, an editor at the Washington Post, who helped direct that paper's coverage of Watergate; and Richard Roth, Class of 1970, award-winning correspondent for CBS News. Kate White '72 serves as editor of Cosmopolitan magazine and is a successful novelist as well.
This tradition of producing leaders, achievers and innovators continues to the present day.
To cite but a few examples in the recent past, two Union graduates have won MacArthur Foundation so-called “genius” award of half-a-million dollars for their achievements and their future promise. Andrea Barrett is winner of a National Book Award and finalist for a Pulitzer, and Sue Goldie uses computer–based analytic methods to identify the best strategies for dealing with diseases such as HIV and cervical cancer that present major public health challenges. A
A third Union graduate, Phil Di Sorbo, a pioneer in Hospice care is about to embark on the task of overseeing further development of the Hospice network in Sub-Saharan Africa, a part of the world that is currently being overwhelmed by the AIDS pandemic.
But what about you? Is there anything or anyone in Union's history relevant to your lives?
In his first Commencement address, Eliphalet Nott, to be president of Union for 62 years, advised graduates: “Whatever seas you may navigate, or to whatever part of the habitable world you may travel, carry with you your humanity… divide your morsel with the destitute; advocate the cause of the oppressed; to the fatherless be a father; and cover the shivering limbs of the naked with you warmth.
“Even there, soothe the disconsolate, sympathize with the mourner, brighten the countenance of those bedimmed with sorrow, and, like the God of mercy, shed happiness around you, and banish misery before you.”
I especially like Nott's advice to “carry with you your humanity.” We don't always do that when we're young.
We who are privileged to be here owe an obligation to ourselves to make the good community that is ours into a truly superior community, one that is “an oasis of civility in a desert of incivility,” the desert that many believe American culture has become.
Until I read Nott's 1805 Commencement address, delivered when he was about 30, I had not been able to articulate what might seem to be the foundation of every superior community, namely that the members of such a community each carry with them their humanity. Unless that is the case, we will always run the risk of failing to assist each other and of isolating community members because they do not share the characteristics of the great majority within the community.
But it is not enough to passively carry with us our humanity.
Whether at Union or in the world beyond, we all have an obligation to act on the basis of that common humanity. That, I believe, was the point that a very wise Eliphalet Nott was trying to make in his first Commencement address in 1805. Throughout his life Nott managed to carry his humanity with him.
I want to talk about two of Nott's students who, without a doubt, I believe, carried their humanity with them and acted in accordance with that humanity.
William Seward is thought by many historians to have been the most accomplished of all of our secretaries of state in American history. Chester Arthur is an underestimated president, but he is finally beginning to receive his due from scholars.
By the way, Arthur and Seward have remained close, or at least their images have. The statue of one, Arthur, sits at the southwestern end of Madison Square, a small park on the east side of Manhattan, and the statue of the other, Seward, sits at the southwetern end of the same park. Is there any other college whose two most famous graduates sit in the same park in Manhattan?
In the popular mind, Seward is most identified with the purchase of Alaska, an act that was for many years dismissed as “Seward's folly.” He's the most important member of Lincoln's Cabinet and Lincoln's closest confidante, supporter and social companion. But as a model for living a life, perhaps more important is politician Seward's willingness to risk making enemies and losing friends by following his conscience and doing what he saw as the right thing to do. As governor of New York, he infuriated nativists by defending immigration and immigrants and championing measures to provide education for Irish Catholic children who were despised in New York City. He gained the vicious hostility of friends and neighbors in Auburn, N.Y., by defending against a murder charge a black man who had previously suffered brain damage. Seward lost the case and he lost many friends. Painful as the loss was, he was willing to accept it as the price of doing the right thing.
Chester Arthur was a machine politician who as collector of the Port of New York had once made more money than the president of the United States. Nothing was expected of him when he ascended to the presidency upon the assassination of James Garfield. Contrary to the legend, he did not champion civil service reform. In fact, he had great reservations, but when the legislation passed, he signed it, and then to everyone's astonishment he enforced the law with great vigor.
The political price he paid for this action was enormous. Accusing him of disloyalty, his political allies abandoned him. Reformers gave him little help because they didn't believe that he was actually doing what his personal history told them he could and would not do. The result was that Arthur had to fight with every ounce of his being for an agenda that was truly a progressive one, and the sad truth is that he usually lost, for example, failing to gain sufficient support, protect those who needed protection, including Chinese laborers in the west and native Americans in the south.
But Chester Arthur's commitment to unpopular causes started very early in his career and quite conceivably was prompted by the teaching of Eliphalet Nott. While at Union in the late 1840s, he delivered a strong anti-slavery speech at a meeting of Union's debating society. Then in 1854, he won a case that desegregated the New York City public transportation system. It is worth remembering that there was enormous anti-black sentiment in New York City at the time, sentiment that continued into the Civil War period and that resulted in riots in which many black people were killed.
By the time Arthur became president, a widespread reaction had set in against the gains black citizens had made as a consequence of the Civil War. Nevertheless, his support for black citizens remained constant, expressed both in tangible and symbolic ways.
In 1863, the Supreme Court declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional, thus ending for a long time Congressional attempts to expand rights of black Americans. Arthur attacked that decision. And on three separate occasions, he proposed federal aid for the education of black children, made notable appointments of black persons to federal positions. Finally, knowing the importance of symbolic acts, he invited the Fisk University choir to perform at the White House and personally handed out diplomas at a black high school in the District of Columbia.
From today's vantage point, what he did might not seem exceptional. But at that time, Arthur's actions were exceptional.
We know that Nott was a continued presence in Seward's life. We know, for example, that when Seward was being attacked viciously by southerners for his “Higher Law Speech,” Nott wrote and urged Seward, ‘Don't reply in kind, stick to your principles.' Unfortunately, we have no correspondence between Nott and Arthur, but Arthur could not help but know that Nott was fervent in his opposition to slavery and that Nott believed in putting principle into action.
The most important things about these two models are that at key moments they acted without regard to the personal or political costs their actions might entail.
In essence, Union gave Seward and Arthur the best lesson for life that anyone can ever give, carry you humanity with you and listen to your own inenr voice. I can tell you from personal experience that whenever I have failed to listen to my own inner voice, I ended up regretting it.
We must make a practice of listening for that inner voice. We must cultivate the habit because that inner voice, always there, does not necessarily shout, and sometimes it barely whispers.
And we can be true to ourselves only if we adhere to Nott's advice and listen to that voice very carefully – not only when big questions face us but in our everyday relationship with our families, co-workers and friends.
Before I conclude, let me offer some quickie bits of advice:
- Turn off your cell phones occasionally.
- Never stop trying to be fully adult, even if you're 50.
- Don't forget to give your money away, to friends, relatives, people who need it.
- Don't forget your college.
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