PRELIMINARY ORGANIZATION.

The Johns Hopkins University was incorporated under the laws of the State of Maryland, August 24, 1867.  Three years later, June 13, 1870, the Trustees met and elected a President and a Secretary of the Board.  They did not meet again until after the death of Mr. Hopkins, when they entered with a definite purpose on the work for which they were associated.  They collected a small but excellent library of books, illustrating the history of the universities of this and of other lands; they visited in a body Cambridge, New Haven, Ithaca, Ann Arbor, Philadelphia, Charlottesville, and other seats of learning; they were favored with innumerable suggestions and recommendations from those who knew much about education, and from those who knew little; and they invited several scholars of distinction to give them their counsel.  Three presidents of colleges gave them great assistance, answering in the frankest manner all the searching questions which were put to them by a sagacious committee.  Grateful acknowledgments will always be due to these three gentlemen:  Charles W. Eliot, LL.  D., President of Harvard University, Andrew D. White, LL.  D., President of Cornell University, and James B. Angell, LL.  D., President of the University of Michigan.

INAUGURAL ASSEMBLY.

The election of a President of the University took place in December, 1874.  He entered upon the duties of his station in the following spring, and in the summer of 1875, at the request of the Trustees, he went to Europe and conferred with many leaders of university education in Great Britain and on the continent.  At the same time he visited many of the most important seats of learning.  During the following winter the plans of the University were formulated and were made public in the Inaugural Address of the President, which was delivered on the 22nd of February, 1876, before a large audience assembled in the Academy of Music.

On this occasion, the Governor of the State, Hon. John Lee Carroll; the Mayor of the City, Hon. Ferdinand C. Latrobe; the Presidents and representative Professors of a large number of Universities and Colleges; the Trustees and other officers of the scientific, literary and educational institutions of Baltimore; the State and City officers of public instruction and other invited guests, together with the Trustees of Johns Hopkins, occupied the platform.  The house was filled with an attentive audience.

At eleven o’clock, the chair was taken by the President of the Trustees, Mr. Galloway Cheston.  The orchestra of the Peabody Institute, directed by Professor Asger Hamerik, performed several pieces of classical music.

A prayer was then offered up by Rev. Alfred M. Randolph, D D., of Emmanuel Church, now Assistant Bishop of Virginia, after which the Chairman of the Executive Committee, Mr. Reverdy Johnson, Jr., said: