Address to the First Graduating Class of Rutgers Female College

A commencement address presents a case for equal educational opportunity for women, arguing that moral and religious teachings support parity while acknowledging natural differences that permit diversity without inferiority. The speaker contends that liberal education should aim chiefly to strengthen memory, discipline reasoning, and enlarge judgment, and therefore should be extended to women to the same extent as men before specialized training. He critiques college curricula that overemphasize classical languages, urges greater attention to natural sciences and the study of scripture and modern tongues, and welcomes recent reforms that place practical and scientific studies alongside traditional classics.