Six lectures delivered at Cornell University on the Messenger foundation in the year 1943, in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the opening of that institution in the year 1868: together with fifteen interesting but hitherto unpublished documents relating thereto. The whole further adduced in explanatory and commentative notes and supported by exact references to the original sources according to the practice of the most eminent historians; with all of which is included an address entitled 'The Cornell tradition,' delivered on April 27, 1940, in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the signing of the charter.