in a Joint Senate, the societies still maintain the rivalry in a more congenial way. Shortly after the societies split, they each took a color. The Dialectic Society took a light blue, today known as Carolina blue, while members of the Philanthropic Society took white. Following a football game against the University of Virginia, in which UVA students displayed orange and blue pennants, the Societies' colors were adopted as the University's official colors. Throughout the 19th century, the two societies engaged in an intense rivalry with each other for campus supremacy. The Societies trained students in oration, writing, and literature. In the thirty years before the Civil War, they also invited distinguished speakers (often alumni) to address the school at graduation. The addresses, which were multi-day graduation exercises, brought politicians, lawyers, physicians, and others to campus. One of the most important graduation speeches came from North Carolina Supreme Court Justice William Gaston in 1832, in which he urged the end of slavery. Those graduation speeches have proved an important source for gauging public attitudes towards union and constitutional law in North Carolina. They illustrate that U.N.C. was substantially more moderate and more supportive of Union than other universities in the south. It became the tradition of the societies to handle the funeral expenses of members who died while attending the University, and several members are now buried in the Societies' adjoining plots in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. The Dialectic Society Chamber is located on the 3rd floor of New West Hall and the Philanthropic Society Chamber is located on the 4th floor of New East Hall. At one time, each Society's library was located on these floors with their meeting room (or the odeon) on the floor below. The Societies suffered a steady decline in membership after the University ended the requirement that all undergraduate students be a member of one of the two societies. In addition, in 1904, the University established an independent student government, thus taking away a large amount of the power wielded by the Societies. By 1946, the last vestige of general student governmental power had been given over to the new Student Congress. The Societies still host an annual Student Body President debate for prospective candidates to the office of UNC Student Body President. By 1959, the Societies had joined together as a Joint Senate for the purposes of preserving their membership rolls and