Thursday evening an exhibition by the preparatory and primary departments closed the exercises of the week, and the delighted friends parted, feeling a greater interest than ever in their institution.
We feel grateful for the general good health and harmony of feeling during the past year, and we look forward with courage to the coming year.
Commencement Exercises——Theological Department.
The educational year at Howard University, Washington, D. C., closed with the last week in May. It has been one of success in all respects. The students instructed in the various departments were 236. The concluding exercises were largely attended and of great interest. At the college commencement the audience overflowed all accommodations, large numbers being compelled to stand, and various members of Congress who attended went away expressing the highest gratification at all that they saw and heard. The recent appropriation by Congress of $10,000 towards the maintenance of the University in the academic departments, is a great relief and encouragement, it having received the support largely of both political parties. The thoughtful Democrats are becoming convinced that the University is well managed, and is doing a good work, which could easily be quadrupled with suitable aid. At the recent annual meeting of the trustees, Hon. Thomas J. Kirkpatrick, of Lynchburg, Va., appeared for the first time, and at the close made very impressive remarks as a representative of the old slave-holders. He was an officer in the Confederate army, and is an elder in the Southern Presbyterian church. He pledged a hearty co-operation in our work, and declared the negro race to be a noble race and deserving of all that could be done for it. This brought to his feet another trustee, Frederick Douglass, the famous colored orator, now marshal of the district, who responded with great eloquence and pathos, and as an ex-slave cordially welcomed the ex-slave-holder to the common work of sustaining Howard University as a grand instrumentality for elevating the oppressed negro race. The scene was touching in the extreme, and ended with a prayer of thanksgiving by Bishop Brown, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.