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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFO: 
 
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 ^Accessions No. 
 
 , 189 
 7,/ss No. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 ALUMXI OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, 
 .July ^ 1 9 l^OQ, 
 
 ONE HUNDRED YEARS 
 
 AFTER THE 
 
 FOUNDING OF THAT INSTITUTION. 
 
 BY SAMUEL OILMAN BEOWN, 
 
 PltKSIDKST OF HAMILTON COLLEGK. 
 
 '. 
 
 BRSIT* 
 
 HANOVER, N. H. 
 [NTED AT THE DARTMOUTH PRESS. 
 
 1870. 
 
A. TV 
 
 .:* 
 
 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 ALUMNI OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, 
 July 21 , 18OO, 
 
 ONE HUNDRED YEARS 
 
 AFTER THE 
 
 FOUNDING OF THAT INSTITUTION. 
 
 BY SAMUEL OILMAN BROWN, 
 
 PRESIDENT OF HAMILTON COLLEGE. 
 
 HANOVER, N. H. 
 PRINTED AT THE DARTMOUTH PRESS. 
 
 1870. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT AND BROTHERS OF THE ALUMNI : 
 
 A HUNDRED years, within a few months, have passed since 
 Dartmouth College received its charter from the hands of JOHN 
 WENTWORTII, the last Royal Governor of New Hampshire. It 
 would have been an unpardonable forgetfulness if we had suffered 
 this century to be completed without some public recognition of 
 the good Providence which has so long sustained the College, 
 and conferred upon it such prosperity ; without assembling for 
 mutual congratulations, for a review of the past, and promises 
 for the future. Historically considered, no century of modern 
 times has been more fruitful in great men and great events than 
 that which closes with the present year. None has been so fruit- 
 ful in discoveries and inventions for bringing the earth under the 
 dominion of man, or in the developing of those principles of civil 
 liberty and self-government which have taken such profound hold 
 of the popular mind, and given to free nations a variety and 
 extent of power altogether unknown before. 
 
 The third quarter of the last century was a memorable era 
 to England and her colonies. Then was generated an intellectual 
 and spiritual movement which has widened and deepened down 
 
4 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 to the present time. The political power of England, from a 
 state of anxiety, distrust, and depression, rose buoyant, confident, 
 and invincible, mainly through the courage, patriotism and civil 
 genius of one great statesman. In both hemispheres and in every 
 zone the arms and spirit of England became ascendant. The 
 colonies in America caught the impulse, asserted more strongly 
 their manhood, enlarged their aspirations, and felt that a wider 
 scope was opened to them too, as the French cordon stretching 
 round from the Canadas to the gulf was broken. A manlier and 
 more independent spirit developed itself in a race essentially 
 manly, noble and aspiring. 
 
 There was another influence also, still more potent perhaps, 
 in its effect upon the common mind, which was widely felt in 
 both England and this country, throughout the middle of the 
 last century. I refer to that remarkable religious awakening 
 which spread over the land with such powerful results ; not 
 always indeed well ordered, yet in the main renovating and 
 exalting, filling the mind with unselfish purposes, and inspiring 
 the most beneficent plans. There was hardly a minister or parish 
 in New England which did not feel the unusual excitement. It 
 stimulated the thought as well as startled the conscience. It 
 encouraged, in the general New England mind, a delight in 
 subtle theological discussions, and threw a charm about the 
 profoundest metaphysical theories. The grand and vast problems 
 of human accountability and human destiny it made the topics of 
 frequent and familiar discussion, and thus rendered the mind at 
 once more grave, more penetrating, and more independent. It 
 did far more than this. It inspired an humble, zealous, earnest 
 spirit for the wide diffusion of Christian truth. It directed the 
 energies of the benevolent to the moral wants of the land, to 
 enlighten the benighted, to raise the downcast. 
 
 Among the actors in these moving scenes, inspired by them 
 and inspiring them, wasELEAZAK WHEELOCK, the minister of the 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 5 
 
 secluded little town of Lebanon, in Connecticut. He was an 
 eloquent and powerful preacher, familiar with the leaders of 
 religious thought in New England, of a truly devout spirit, and 
 with plans for doing good which could not be limited by the 
 boundaries of his parish. Among the schemes of benevolence 
 which found a home in his inquiring and active mind,, was one 
 for christianizing and educating those wandering, untamable 
 races, whose cunning, ferocity, and cold blooded cruelty had made 
 them such formidable enemies to the colonists, and invested the 
 early wars with uriimagined horrors. Here were heathen and 
 pagans, worshipers of demons, implacable and vindictive, impa- 
 tient of the restraint of civilization but quick to catch its vices, 
 at the, very door of Christian men, and should not an effort be 
 made to -save them, to give them Christian knowledge, to change 
 their nature and impart, if possible, the virtues and security of a 
 Christian commonwealth ? 
 
 The problem of Indian civilization presented to him the 
 same difficulties that it does to us, nor has our experience taught 
 us any better way to solve it. He felt that to accomplish any- 
 thing for the permanent good of a race so restless, wandering 
 and unstable, he must subdue their native aversion to labor, must 
 change thejr ideas as well as their practices, and by bringing 
 them into early and familiar contact with civilized life, relieve 
 them of fear and distrust, disarm their hostility, and habituate 
 them to the quiet, diligent and persistent methods of Christian 
 societies. Apparently more fortunate than Goldsmith's village 
 preacher, 
 
 "passing rich with forty pounds a year," 
 
 Mr. WHBELOCK had been settled at a nominal compensation of 
 one hundred and forty. But as this was paid not in pounds 
 sterling, nor even in lawful money, but in provisions reckoned at 
 
6 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 high prices, and diminished in amount as prices became more 
 reasonable, for many years he received less than the good minis- 
 ter of the "Deserted Village." In order to meet his necessary 
 expenses, therefore, he established a kind of school for boys. 
 Into this school, in December 1743, he received a young Mohegan 
 Indian called SAMSOX OCCUM. This boy remained with him for 
 several years, and became finally a preacher of no small influence. 
 Indeed, standing as an example of what might be hoped for 
 under favorable auspices, no more powerful argument for Indian 
 civilization could be addressed to the benevolent mind than that 
 afforded by his presence. It is possible, indeed, that had this first 
 experiment turned out unfavorably, the benevolent effort of Mr. 
 WHEELOCK might have assumed a different form.* 
 
 Encouraged however, by what he saw, and stimulated by a 
 true missionary spirit, he set about in earnest carrying his scheme 
 into execution. In doing this he manifested a large degree of 
 intelligence, energy and wisdom. It was an untried enterprise, 
 and required to be commended to the good judgment, as well as 
 urgently and persistently pressed upon the conscience of the 
 community. He appealed to the civil prudence of the people as well 
 as to their sense of Christian rectitude. "It has seemed to me" he 
 said, "he must be stupidly indifferent to the Redeemer's cause 
 and interest in the world, and criminally deaf and blind to the 
 intimations of the favor and displeasure of God in the dispensa- 
 tions of his providence, who could not perceive plain intimations 
 of God's displeasure against us for this neglect [of our heathen 
 natives,] inscribed in capitals on the very front of divine dispen- 
 sations from year to year, in permitting the savages to be such a 
 sore scourge to our land." "And there is good reason to think," 
 
 *The hymn "Awaked by Sinai's awful sound," is usually ascribed to 
 OCCUM. If this be so, it shows that he possessed not only deep religious 
 feeling, but a certain loftiness of poetic conception not common in his 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 7 
 
 he goes on, "that if one half which has been for so many years 
 past expended in building forts, manning and supporting them, 
 had been prudently laid out in supporting faithful missionaries 
 and schoolmasters among them, the instructed and civilized party 
 would have been a far better defence than all our expensive for- 
 tresses, and prevented the laying waste so many towns and 
 villages." 
 
 For the success of his plan, two things were necessary : first, 
 to induce Indian boys to attend the school, and secondly, to 
 obtain the means for their support. To accomplish the former, 
 he used all the methods that he could command. He sent agents 
 in different directions. He corresponded with Sir WILLIAM JOHN- 
 SON and with other persons of influence in the neighborhood of the 
 Indians. At length, in 1754, two boys of the Delaware tribe / 
 were sent to him by the Rev. JOHN BRAINERD, and the experi- 
 ment began. This number gradually increased, notwithstanding 
 the interruptions of war, till in 1761 the school numbered eleven 
 pupils.* To carry on the benevolent scheme, Mr. WHEELOCK 
 solicited funds from the generous and benevolent at home and 
 abroad. The first decisive and important gift came from a com- 
 paratively humble source. I hold in my hand the indenture, 
 dated July 17, 1755, in which a plain farmer of Mansfield, Ct, 
 Mr. JOSHUA MORE,| gave to Col. ELISHA WILLIAMS, Rev. 
 SAMUEL MOSELY, Rev. ELEAZAR WHEELOCK, and Rev. BENJA- 
 MIN POMEROY, a small house and about two acres of land situated 
 in Lebanon in that State, in trust for the founding, use and sup- 
 
 *Among the early pupils of Mr. WHEELOCK was the celebrated 
 Mohawk Chief, JOSEPH BKANDT, Thayendanegea, who seems to have 
 always retained a grateful recollection of his instructor. In a list of 
 the members of the School from September, 1765 to May, 1767, we find 
 the names of fifteen Mohawks, four Oneidas, four Mohegans, two Mon- 
 tauks, four Delawares, and eight Narragansets. 
 
 tThe name is spelt in the Indenture More, and not as we find it 
 later, Moor. 
 
S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 port of a Charity School. This is Mr. MOKE'S passport to an 
 honorable and grateful fame. It was not a very large donation, 
 but it was both generous and seasonable, and it is fitting that his 
 name should be retained affixed to the School, to be remembered 
 as long as it, or the College which sprang from it, shall continue 
 to exist. Here was afforded the nucleus around which other 
 donations might crystalize. Nor did an enterprise so unique, so 
 promising, so benevolent, fail of friends. A fund of five hun- 
 dred pounds, lawful money, was soon subscribed. Mr. WHEE- 
 LOCK, with great wisdom, courtesy, and earnestness, appealed for 
 aid to the royal Governors and legislatures of nearly all the 
 Northern colonies, and he did not appeal in vain. Looking 
 higher than this even, he commissioned SAMSOX OCCUM and Rev. 
 NATHANIEL WIIITTAKER, of Norwich, Ct., to solicit funds in 
 England. OCCUM was a curiosity, and as the first Indian 
 preacher who had appeared in Great Britain, attracted great 
 attention. He preached hundreds of times with general accept- 
 ance and SUCC3SS. The King gave two hundred pounds, Lord 
 DARTMOUTH fifty guineas, and altogether the subscription in 
 England and Scotland amounted to the generous sum of nearly 
 ten thousand pounds. This was deposited in part with a Board 
 of Trustees in London, of which Lord DARTMOUTH was the 
 President, and the remainder with the Society in Scotland for 
 Propagating Christian Knowledge. 
 
 For fourteen years after Mr. MORE'S donation, the School' 
 went on doing its wearisome yet beneficent work with as much 
 success as could be expected considering the material to be 
 wrought upon. Indian boys and girls were faithfully taught to 
 labor as well as to study. They mingled freely with children of 
 English origin, and were encouraged to adopt the customs and 
 learn the arts of civilized life. Their habits of listlessness and 
 indifference were in part overcome. They were taught to look 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 9 
 
 upon agriculture as honorable, and to depend for sustenance upon 
 the sure returns of the grateful earth, instead of the uncertain 
 results of hunting and fishing. They were instructed above all, 
 in the -Christian faith, and their moral culture was watched over 
 with zealous care. . And yet nearly or quite half of those who 
 came under the care of Mr. WHEELOCK disappointed his hopes, 
 and returned again to the vices of savage life. 
 
 The experience of Mr. WHEELOCK thus taught him that, for 
 permanent influence among the Indian tribes he must rely upon 
 men more stable, more thoroughly rooted and grounded by 
 inherent disposition in things which are good and make for peace, 
 than it was reasonable to expect from the children of the forest, 
 drawn for a few brief years into contact with civilization and 
 then sent back to resist alone the mighty influence of blood and 
 race, and character, and national habits. He began therefore to 
 think of the enlargement of his plan, and as a natural conse- 
 quence of this, the removal of the school to a place where he 
 might have freer scope, better facilities of access to the Indian 
 tribes, and enlarged resources for carrying on his work. 
 
 During these twelve or fourteen years, by the energy of Mr. 
 WHEELOCK, by his correspondence with men of distinction, his 
 memorials to the State assemblies, and the agents which he sent 
 abroad, the School had become famous. When, therefore, his 
 purpose to remove it became known, he received solicitations 
 and proposals from various parts of the country. The inhabi- 
 tants of Stockbridge in the -western part of Massachusetts, where 
 an Indian School had already once been established under the 
 direction of the Missionary, JOHX SERGEAXT, made a generous 
 offer for the School, and accompanied the offer with a sound 
 statement of the principle which should determine the location. 
 Pittsfield presented its claim. Albany offered a square in the 
 city overlooking the Hudson, and there is now in the State 
 
 2 
 
1 HISTORICAL DISCO URSE. 
 
 Library in that city, a map drawn with a pen, giving the bounda- 
 ries and position of the proposed location. This proposal was 
 seconded by PHILIP SCHUYLEE, General SCHUYLER that was to 
 be, who promised to use his influence to secure desirable advan- 
 tages. Lansinburgh, then just laid out, offered land within and 
 without the town. A reservation on the Susquehanna, "delight- 
 ful Wyoming," innocent then of wars and massacres, stretched 
 its fair valley, soliciting and wooing. The far-off Ohio endeav- 
 ored to draw the School to that thinly inhabited region. It was 
 urged by some that it should migrate beyond the Mississippi; 
 while Sir WILLIAM Jonxsox cast his vote for Xorth or South 
 Carolina. 
 
 Another anxiety, besides that of location, perplexed the 
 mind of Mr. WHEELOCK. A school, to be permanent, must have 
 funds. To produce security and confidence, the funds must be 
 entrusted to a board authorized to receive and manage them. 
 But as yet there was no legal corporation. A board had been 
 formed, but the character of it as interpreted by the law, to say 
 the least, was unascertained.* 
 
 *Mr. WHEELOCK had made several strenuous efforts to obtain a 
 charter for the School, but had been met by insuperable obstacles. An 
 extract from a letter, (dated October 16, 1700,) to WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, 
 Esq., an eminent member of the bar in New York and New Jersey, who 
 afterwards became Governor of New Jersey, and a delegate to the con- 
 vention which framed the Federal Constitution, will indicate the kind 
 of perplexities which he was obliged to meet. After stating that the 
 instrument by which himself and others had been appointed trustees 
 of the property given by Mr. MOKE, had been judged by Governor 
 AVoLCOTT and others learned in the law, not to be a legal and sufficient 
 incorporation, lie goes on : ''Whereupon we made application for the 
 Royal favour of a Charter. A memorial on the head by Dr. B. A VERY, 
 Esq., and Mr. DE BERDT of London, was preferred to Lord HALIFAX, 
 who approved the design, but to avoid expense advised us to get a law 
 i.i this Government establishing such a school, and promised it should 
 be ratified there in council. Accordingly I waited on our Assembly in 
 May, 1758, with a memorial. A committee from both Houses reported 
 in favour of it. The House of Representatives concurred. The upper 
 
HISTORICAL DISCO URSE. 1 1 
 
 Among those with whom correspondence was held, was the 
 Royal Governor of New Hampshire, the second Governor who 
 bore the name of JOHN WENTTVORTH. He had succeeded his 
 uncle BENXIXG WEXTWORTII, under somewhat peculiar, and cer- 
 tainly favorable, circumstances. He had obtained office through 
 favor of the Marquis of Rockingham, then at the head of the 
 liberal ministry through whom the odious stamp act had been 
 repealed, a result which Mr. WENTWORTH had done something 
 to secure. The Governor was a gentleman of conciliatory tem- 
 per, of popular manners, of liberal taste, and possessed withal of 
 a resolute spirit of improvement. He explored the forests, built 
 roads, paid a careful attention to agriculture, and both by precept 
 and example did much to develope the resources of the Province. 
 His correspondence marks him as an enlightened, courteous, and 
 liberal ruler, ready and willing to cooperate with others so as to 
 produce the best actual results. 
 
 Anxious to promote the interests of the Province, and wise 
 enough to see that civilization cannot be greatly advanced with- 
 out intelligence, he brought to bear upon the removal of the 
 School to ]STew Hampshire all the influences at his command. 
 He oifered lands for an endowment, and promised his personal 
 aid and sympathy. The establishment of a college had been at- 
 tempted under the administration of his predecessor, but Gover- 
 nor BEXXIXG WEXTWORTH, closely attached to the Church of 
 
 House negatived, and that for these reasons, as Colonel TBUMBULL, 
 (who was one of the committee appointed to debate on the different 
 votes of the Houses) assures me, viz: 'That the sending an act home 
 for ratification would be such a precedent as may be of hurtful conse- 
 quence to this Charter Government : That an act here though ratified 
 at home will not answer our design, because it will not enable us to act 
 without the bounds of this Government in which are comparatively but 
 few Indians : That a corporation within a corporation may be trouble- 
 some, as our College (tho' our glory) has sometimes been.' But no 
 objection was made against it as being in itself a device unsuitable to 
 the end proposed." 
 
12 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 England, had refused a charter, unless the College were placed 
 under the control of the Bishop of London. But JOHN WEXT- 
 WORTII, more sagacious and more liberal, solicitous for learning, 
 solicitous that the State, overshadowed somewhat, as it was, by 
 the larger and more populous provinces to the south of it, should 
 rise in dignity and influence, not only offered no obstacle but the 
 heartiest cooperation and assistance. To him more than to any 
 other man was it probably owing that the college was established at 
 that time with so liberal and sound a charter, indeed that the Col- 
 lege was established at all. To him was it largely owing that the 
 school did not wander beyond the Hudson, the Ohio, the Missis- 
 sippi, but soberly and quietly seated itself on the banks of the 
 beautiful Connecticut. To him to his popularity and familiar 
 acquaintance with the British Ministry, was it due perhaps that, 
 in that period of growing irritation between the Colonies and the 
 Mother Country, any grant of privileges, least of all one so ample 
 and so unrestricted by vexatious limitations, was obtained. Still 
 more than this must in justice be said. The ideas of Governor 
 WEXTWORTH were apparently broader than those of the Con- 
 necticut Minister. Dr. WHEELOCK proposed to remove his school 
 to New Hampshire on condition that it should be incorporated, 
 and certain lands given for its support. An original copy of the 
 charter, proposed for the consideration of Governor WEXTWORTH 
 incorporated the institution by the name of "Dartmouth Acade- 
 my" It seems to have been Dr. WIIEELOCK'S purpose to obtain 
 an incorporation of the Indian Charity School, in the govern- 
 ment of which the trustees of the fund in London should retain a 
 share. He founded and "builded better than he knew." 
 He asked the charter of an academy, he obtained a college. 
 He aimed first to instruct the aborigines, yet comparatively few 
 and infrequent have been the pupils of Dartmouth from the 
 fleeting and fading tribes, but who can estimate the influence on 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 13 
 
 that stronger, firmer, more persistent, more noble race who have 
 here drawn in their intellectual life ? But that the institution 
 assumed here its larger dimensions, that its purpose became com- 
 prehensive of the grandest circle of sciences and arts, that it was 
 without dispute raised at once in generic character, to the high- 
 est level of literary institutions in our country, with constitu- 
 tion flexible and plastic, capable of natural and easy enlargement 
 to meet any want, hospitable to schools of kindred purpose that 
 might cluster about the central organization, and inviting them 
 by its liberal policy this original capability is to a considerable 
 extent due to the large nature and magnanimous spirit of the 
 last of the Royal Governors of New Hampshire. 
 
 For some reasons which it is not quite easy to understand, 
 perhaps from some subtle and hardly acknowledged jealousies, 
 perhaps from some undefined suspicions, perhaps from fear that 
 the benevolent purposes of the school would be overshadowed by 
 the more ambitious and secular purposes of the College, perhaps 
 from observing that the charter named the whole board of Trust 
 from the Colonies and no one from England for these or other 
 reasons the project was regarded abroad, even by good men 
 whose liberality and friendliness had been unquestioned, with no 
 favor but rather with aversion. "It was certainly" writes one of 
 them to Dr. WHEELOCK in July, 1770, "a very wrong step for 
 you to take without consulting us. It is the sentiment of us all, 
 that by lodging the power in other hands, it has superseded the 
 trust here, and we shall desire to have done with it." And in 
 April, 1771, the London trustees again write, "We cannot but 
 look upon the charter you have obtained, and your intention of 
 building a college anil educating English youths, as going beyond 
 the line by which both you and we are circumscribed." 
 
 Xevertheless the charter had been given, bearing date 
 December 13, 1769, not superseding the original School, nor 
 
14 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 enlarging and giving it a new form, for that still continued and 
 remains to this day, but establishing a NEW INSTITUTION, with 
 different purposes and more noble and efficient powers. 
 
 To this institution, that liberal nobleman, Lord DARTMOUTH, 
 had made no contributions, yet remembering his help for the 
 Charity School when such endorsement was of worth far beyond 
 its pecuniary value, it was a natural as well as a graceful tribute 
 to give the College his name. It strikes us too, as an exhibition 
 of true magnanimity, that Governor WENTWORTII, who might 
 lay claim to be the chief benefactor and patron of the college, 
 seems never to have thought of his own agency, nor to have 
 sought any advantage or honor beyond what would naturally 
 accrue to the Province over which he presided. 
 
 Although the charter fixed the College in the Province of 
 New Hampshire, its exact location was still a matter of question, 
 and the advantages offered by many towns on the Connecticut, 
 from Lebanon up to Landaff were carefully considered. Governor 
 WENTWORTH recommended the latter, while others were in favor 
 of towns still farther south than either of those named. The 
 precise position seems to have been determined by its general 
 advantages, and by grants of land in the immediate vicinity, and 
 other promises of aid. We may remember, too, that Vermont 
 did not then exist as a State, and the jurisdiction of Xew Hamp- 
 shire was thought to extend rather indefinitely westward. Han- 
 over was then a somewhat central position in the territory, within 
 a region sparsely peoj le 1 indeed, yet not inaccessible from the 
 seaboard, an;l what was thought to be of considerable impor- 
 tance within easy distance of Crown Point on Lake Champlain, 
 and of the Canadas ; quite at the door, as one might say, of the 
 Indian tribes of the North and Xorthwest, and yet within call of 
 the "English youth" for whose welfare the charter was good 
 enough to make some provision. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 15 
 
 Thus was the College started on its career, in a year memo- 
 rable for the birth of great men and the occurrence of important 
 events ; the year in which NAPOLEON and WELLINGTON, CUVIER 
 and HUMBOLDT, NET and BEMADOTTE, SOULT and CHATEAU- 
 BRIAND, Sir THOMAS LAWRENCE and DsWiTT CLINTON first saw 
 the light ; the year in which ARKWRIGHT received his first patent 
 for the spinning jenney which wrought a revolution in manufac- 
 turing, in which the Letters of JUNIUS first stimulated that liter- 
 ary and political curiosity which they have baffled for a whole 
 century, and DANIEL BOONE the type of the earlier emigrant, 
 crowded and in want of breath, if within fifty miles of a white 
 settlement, was first exploring the picturesque valleys and fertile 
 plains of Kentucky. 
 
 Was it not a notable mark of the enterprising intelligence 
 and Christian energy which governed our fathers, that in this 
 thinly peopled region, so nearly on the borders of civilization, the 
 primeval pines towering nearly three hundred feet* above the 
 plain were cut away to give room for a college, where science 
 and letters and arts and religion might find a shelter and a home ; 
 where the seed might be planted to' spring up in laws and liber- 
 ties, in eloquence and arts, in philanthropy and missions, in virtu- 
 ous and refined communities, in an ennobled State. The whole 
 county contained less than three thousand inhabitants, but our 
 fathers divined the widsom of providing for future necessities. 
 Their provision was prevision. It was prophetic of the coming 
 generation. And has not this been instinctively our national pol- 
 icy, the open secret of our success? We do not wait, in build- 
 ing our Pacific railroads, till towns and cities have sprung up 
 along the track. We anticipate and direct the course of emigra- 
 
 *Mr. McCLUBE in his life of President WHEELOCK speaks of a pine 
 cut upon the plain which measured two hundred and seventy feet. 
 
16 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 tion. We entice it along the paths which commerce sees to be 
 wise. 
 
 It was not till the summer of 1770 that operations under the 
 charter were fairly commenced in Hanover. On the 5th of July 
 of that year, ELEAZAR WHEELOCK, JOHN WENTWORTII, THEO- 
 DORE ATKINSON, GEORGE JAFFREY, DANIEL PIERCE, PETER 
 OILMAN* and BENJAMIN POMEROY, at Portsmouth, N. H., took 
 the oaths and subscribed the declaration required to be taken and 
 subscribed by the Trustees. The members who resided in Con- 
 necticut subscribed the same at Hartford on the 17th of the 
 same month* In August, with a company of nearly thirty stu- 
 dents, Dr. WIIEELOCK took possession of the place, much in the 
 spirit of a pioneer, of a missionary, much as a soldier would 
 plant a fort far within the unbroken regions of barbarism. 
 
 For a temporary shelter, he built a log hut about eighteen 
 feet square, without stone, brick, glass, or nails. Then with 
 thirty or forty laborers, he set about building a house for himself, 
 forty feet by thirty-two, of one story, and another, eighty feet 
 by thirty-two, for the students. Before finishing the first 
 structure, he found it necessary to take it to pieces and remove it 
 about seventy rods, because, having dug one well forty feet and 
 and another sixty-three fevt deep without sign of water, it was 
 evident that he had fallen upon a dry place.* The household 
 
 *Tke place first chosen for the log hut is said to have been on land 
 now owned by the Chandler Scientific School, and west of the house 
 now occupied by Miss McMuRPHY. From this it was removed when 
 half finished to a spot a little north of Reed Hall. It was occupied at 
 first by the family of the President, and afterwards by his servants, and 
 was finally demolished in 1780. The larger framed house was built on 
 the common westward from the well, and fronted the south. It was 
 afterwards enlarged, and one portion of it made to serve for a chapel 
 while another part was used for a common hall. It was demolished in 
 1779, having already come ruinous. A President's house was built in 
 1773 on the site of Reed Hall. It was a spacious and well built mansion, 
 and was occupied by all the Presidents in succession, excepting Presi- 
 dent BROWN and President DANA, until 1838, when to make room for 
 
HISTORICAL DISCO URSE. 1 7 
 
 furniture, together with the stroll personal comforts brought iroin 
 Connecticut was stored in the "hutt," which was also occupied by 
 Mrs. WHEELOCK and the other females of the family, while the 
 young men, through a season of early cold and snow, slept in 
 booths made of hemlock boughs, until the 29th of October, when 
 the houses were in a condition to be occupied, the rooms were 
 made quite comfortable, "and love, peace, joy, satisfaction and 
 contentment reigned through the whole."* Nor was the relig- 
 ious spirit which actuated this movement lost sight of here. The 
 23d of the next' January was observed as a day of solemn conse- 
 cration and prayer, and a church was organized, so that religion 
 and learning might go hand in hand, and the sacred purposes to 
 which the Institution was consecrated might not fail. 
 
 The first meeting of the Trustees was held at Keene, October 
 22, 1770. The first Commencement was held on the 28th 
 of August, 1771, when four students, LEVI FRISBIE, SAMUEL 
 GRAY, SYLVANUS RIPLEY and JOHN WHEELOCK, were grad- 
 uated. RIPLEY gave the Salutatory in English, "drawing 
 tears," says the President in his brief journal, "from a great num- 
 ber of the learned." FRISBIE followed with a "Clyosophick 
 oration in Latin. GRAY held the question, an vera cognitio Dei 
 luce naturce acquiripotest?" WHEELOCK pronounced the Yale- 
 Reed Hall, it was removed to River Street, just west of Mr. EMERSON'S 
 where, altered somewhat externally, it still stands. The first College Hall 
 was finished in 1771. It stood in the southeastern corner of the com- 
 mon, facing the west. It was a wooden building painted red, of two 
 stories in height, with an attic. In each story were eight rooms for 
 students, and four rooms in the attic. After the completion of Dart- 
 mouth Hall, it was sold to PHINEAS ANNIS, and by him subsequently 
 taken down. Mr. ANNIS seems to have paid for the building wholly 
 or in part by erecting the old academy, hi which he very likely used 
 some of the material of the College building. This old wooden acad- 
 emy was removed to the Rope Ferry road more than thirty years ago, 
 and fitted up as a dwelling house, by Mr. PHIXEAS CLEMENT. 
 *President WHEELOCK'S narative. 
 
18 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 dictory in Latin. "Their performances met with universal 
 acceptance and great applause." The College had at last fairly 
 begun to move. A quorum of the Board indeed failed to be 
 present, and therefore no degrees were actually conferred. But 
 here were the. men, here the ceremony, here were life, spirit, pur- 
 pose, actual fulfillment of the cherished plan. The rock was 
 smitten and the waters gushed forth. The very next day, 
 August 29th, as if to show the prevailing missionary character of 
 the enterprise, the journal says, "Mr. AVERT was ordained Mis- 
 sionary to the Onoidas.* as colleague with Mr. KIRTLAXD,* to 
 whom JAMES DEAN,f a member of this College was appointed 
 Interpreter pro tempore, or till another could be provided." 
 
 Cast your eye back for one moment to that humble begin- 
 ning. See that little company, pioneers of learning and religion, 
 a motley crowd, the ladies on horseback, some of the men on 
 foot, toiling along the narrow pathway called a road, through 
 valleys shaggy, rough, and solitary, into the heart of the cold 
 northern wilderness, the primeval forest unbroken all around 
 them, a little spot on the level plain cleared away to give place 
 for a "log hutt," an humble dwelling house, and a modest 
 
 *I preserve in both these words the spelling of Mr. WHEELOCK, Mr. 
 KIRKLAXD, the father of President KIRKLAXD of Harvard, and the 
 founder of Hamilton Oncida Academy which afterwards became 
 Hamilton College, seems himself to have signed his name as given by 
 Mr. WHEELOCK. 
 
 tJAMES DEAN passed his early life with a missionary, the Rev. 
 EBENEZER MOSELEY, among the Indians, and became familiar with 
 their language. In 1773 and 1774 lie went on a mission to the Caghna- 
 wagas and to the St. Francis Indians in Canada. He was subsequently 
 employed by the Continental Congress to consiliats the northern 
 tribes, and after the Revolutionary War began, was retained as Indian 
 agent and Interpreter, being stationed at Fort Stanwix, now Rome, X. 
 Y. His influence with the Oneidas was great, and he received from 
 them a liberal donation of land. He was many times in great peril of 
 his life from the treachery or superstition of the savages, but escaped 
 all dangers, and after a highly honored life, died in Westmoreland X. 
 y., in 1823, aged 75 years. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 19 
 
 structure with fifteen or twenty rooms styled a college in a 
 region almost literally unpeopled, where the students, if solitude 
 could make them contented and happy, might have abundance 
 of enjoyment, not within call of flourishing towns, not in the 
 midst of prairies loaded with fertility, not by the side of the sea 
 with commerce brought to their doors, but in this narrow valley 
 of the upper Connecticut rich in granite and ice, under the cold 
 shadow of the Crystal Hills. Was ever such seed planted where 
 it required more faith to foresee the harvest? 
 
 Yet here was the home of contentment, diligence and piety, 
 Here grew up a little community, cultivated, intelligent, refined, 
 learned and religious. The College thus started, moved on with- 
 out interruption, and with quite as much success as could be 
 anticipated. It never, I believe, rejoiced in its "Freshman class 
 of one," and certainly never graduated its Senior class of one, or 
 passed its annual commencement without conferring a single 
 degree, as Harvard did several times in its earlier history. It 
 felt indeed, soon enough, the pressure of the public anxieties, and 
 looked with apprehension to the possibility of a hostile invasion 
 which might follow down the water courses from Canada. But 
 its fears were never realized, and the peace of the valley was 
 never broken by the tread of hostile bands. 
 
 For the first eight years, the work of instruction was con- 
 ducted by the President and three Tutors, a Professor being first 
 formally elected in 1778.* 
 
 *It may interest some to see the agreement entered into between 
 President WHEELOCK and Mr. JOHN SMITH, the first Professor, as found 
 among Dr. WHEELOCK'S papers : 
 
 "An agreement between the Reverend Doctor ELEAZAB WHEELOCK, 
 President of Dartmouth College, and Mr. Jonx SMITH, late Tutor of 
 the same, with respect to said Mr. SMITH'S settlement and salary in ca- 
 pacity of Professor of the languages in Dartmo. College. 
 
 "Mr. SMITH agrees to settle as Professor of English, Latin, Greek, 
 Hebrew, Chaklee, &c., in Dartmo. College, to teach which, and as many 
 of these, and other such languages as he shall understand, as the Trus- 
 
20 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 The administration of President WHEELOCK was somewhat 
 patriarchal and magisterial, as became the leader of an emigrat- 
 ing colony. The College was, of neccessity very much under his 
 personal guidance and direction. lie was President, Trustee, 
 Treasurer, Instructor, Minister, all in one, and had besides, 
 
 tees shall judge necessary and practicable for one man, and also to read 
 lectures on them, as often as the President, Tutors, &c., with -himself 
 shall judge profitable for the Seminary. He also agrees while he can do 
 it consistently with his office as Professor, annually to serve as Tutor to 
 a class of students in the College. In consideration of which Dr. 
 WHEELOCK agrees to give him (the said Mr. SMITH) one hundred 
 pounds L. My. annually as a salary to be paid one half in money and 
 the other half in money or in such necessary articles for a family as 
 wheat, Indian corn, rye, beef, pork, mutton, butter, cheese, hay, pastur- 
 ing, etc., as long as he shall continue Professor as aforesaid, and that he 
 shall have these articles delivered to him at the same price for which 
 they were usually sold before the commencement of the present war in 
 America, viz: that he shall have wheat at 5s per bushel, rye at 3s, 
 Indian corn at 2s6d, fresh beef at 3d per lb., salt beef at 4 l-2d, fresh 
 pork at 4 l-2d, salt do. at 7d. fresh beef at 18s per Ct,, do. pork at 25s, 
 mutton at 3d per lb., butter at 3d, cheese at 3d, bread at 2d, hay at 30s 
 per ton, pasturing per season for horse 30s, for cow 2Cs, and also to give 
 him one acre of land near the College for a building spot, a deed of 
 which he promises to give him whenever he shall request the same. 
 Doctor WHEELOCK also agrees that Mr. SMITH'S salary, viz: one 
 hundred pounds annually diall not be diminished when his business as 
 Professor shall be so great that it will render it impracticable for him 
 to serve as a Tutor to a class in College ; and that Mr. SMITH shall not 
 be removed from his Professorship except the Trustees of Dartnio. Col- 
 lege shall judge him incapacitated therefor, and also that Mr. SMITH'S 
 salary shall begin with the date hereof. Doctor WHEELOCK also prom- 
 ises to lay this agreement before the Trustees of Dartm. College to be 
 confirmed by them at their next meeting. Mr. SMITH also promises 
 that whenever he shall have a sufficient support from- any fund estab. 
 lished for the maintenance of a Professor of languages, he will give up 
 the salary to which the agreement entitles him. 
 
 "In testimony whereof, we have hereunto interchangeably affixed 
 our hands and seals this Oth day of November, 1777. 
 
 ELEAZAR WHEELOCK. [L.S.] 
 JOHN SMITH. [L.S.] 
 
 "In presence of: 
 
 SYLYAXUS RIPLEY. 
 
 JOSEPH MOTTEY." 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 21 
 
 received a commission as Magistrate. According to ideas derived 
 from England, and in order to exercise efficient control over all 
 who might disturb the harmony of the settlement, or interfere 
 with the morals of the students, it was thought best that the 
 College should control, to a certain extent, the township in which 
 it was situated. This indeed was one of the conditions on which 
 it was located in Hanover. Accordingly in 1771, the towns of 
 Hanover and Lebanon agreed to petition the Legislature that a 
 district of land at least three miles square, taken equally from 
 the southwestern corner of Hanover, and the northwestern cor- 
 ner of Lebanon, be set apart as a distinct township bearing the 
 name of Dartmouth. As this purpose was not consummated, 
 owing to the "public confusions," as a paper subsequently drawn 
 up affirms, a new effort was made in 1778 by the people in these 
 adjoining portions of the two towns to incorporate themselves, 
 as it seems to be supposed they could legally do. Why this 
 effort failed I can find no record. 
 
 A grave instance of the magisterial authority of President 
 WHEELOCK is found in a bond executed in 1773, by twenty-eight 
 members of the College,* three students of the Charity School, 
 and one "shop-keeper," as he is styled, by which they jointly and 
 severally bind themselves, their heirs, executors and administra- 
 tors, to pay to the "Hon. ELEAZAK WIIEELOCK, Esq.," ten pounds 
 lawful money of the Province, the condition of the bond being 
 that "if CAESAR, a negro man now residing in the kitchen at 
 Dartmouth College, who ha.s been convicted and fined for defa- 
 mation, shall for the future be of good behavior and conduct, 
 then this present obligation to lie void and of none effect, or else 
 to stand and remain in full force and virtue." 
 
 *Among these are found the names of JOHN SMITH, afterwards the 
 first Professor of Language, JOSEPH M'KEEX. the first President of 
 Bowdoin College, Jonx LED YARD, the famous traveler, and EBENEZEIJ 
 MATTOON, afterwards General MATTOOX who served under GATES in 
 the Revolutionary War, and died in 1843, full of years and of honors. 
 
%2 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 It is pretty evident that philanthropy, taking occasion by 
 the law, got an early start in the College, and that CAESAR, 
 whose faulty tongue led him into temptation was after all 
 regarded as a man and a brother. 
 
 Dr. WHEELOCK'S administration as President of the College 
 was on the whole, marked by no peculiar difficulties, except such 
 as attended the starting of a new institution, and these his good 
 judgment, energy, prudence and Christian fidelity enabled him 
 successfully to overcome. The Revolutionary War affected the 
 College less than might be supposed. The fear of invasion at 
 one time alarmed the community so that the President felt it 
 necessary to apply to the Government for arms, but foreign 
 troops never set foot in New Hampshire, and being so far 
 removed from the scenes of conflict, the number of students was 
 not immediately much diminished, and as to pecuniary resources, 
 there was very little to take away. Already, in February, 1775 
 the London Trustees had informed the President that the funds 
 committed to them had been expended, and of course that their 
 trust had expired. Little else remained besides the tuition of 
 the students. The cannonade at the battle of Bunker Hill was 
 heard in Hanover,* but it could not rouse an anxiety equal to 
 that felt upon the coast, or in regions more exposed to the march 
 of hostile armies. 
 
 From 1775 or a little later, Dr. WHEELOCK'S health began 
 to decline. The original purpose with which he commenced his 
 Charity School, though most beneficent, and attended with kindly 
 influences fir more effective than could at once be seen, had not 
 
 *In President WMKK LOCK'S journal I find the following entry, "June 
 16, 1775. The noise of cannon, supposed to be at Boston, was heard all 
 day. June 17. The same report of cannon. We wait with impatience 
 to hear the occasion and event." A letter from him to Governor TIIUM- 
 BULL. dated June 19. mentions the fact in almost the same words, "Last 
 Saturday and Sabbath we heard the noise of cannon, we suppose, at Bos- 
 ton, and are now impatient to be informed of the occasion and event," 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 23 
 
 been carried out with all the success that he had anticipated, but 
 something more hopeful, of larger promise, and more fruitful in 
 result had taken its place. The energy of that untiring mind had 
 not wrought in vain. He was a man fertile in resources, of per- 
 severance and force, dignified in address, and resolute in purpose, 
 and long before he died he reaped the fruit of his benevolent toil. 
 By the charter of the College he had the privilege of nomi- 
 nating his successor who should remain in office until the 
 appointment was disapproved by the Board of Trustees. By his 
 last will, he appointed his son, JOHN WHEELOCK, as his successor. 
 President JOHN WHEELOCK assumed his office at a time 
 when the College felt most severely the effects of the Revolu- 
 tionary War. Its classes were small, its income was uncer- 
 tain, its means were largely encroached upon. The war pressed 
 heavily upon all classes in the community, and the result was a 
 still unsolved problem. Nevertheless there were some encourag- 
 ing circumstances also. The institution was fairly established, 
 and its friends felt that its promise had been fulfilled. It had 
 firmly taken root, and was drawing sustenance from an en- 
 larging population, and from an increasing public favor. 
 Though suffering, of course, from the war, it was not driven 
 from its seat like Harvard, nor made the field of battle 
 like Princeton, and when the independence of the country was 
 secured, it started on a career of unchecked prosperity. The 
 classes became large, and, as the event proves, had their full share 
 of men of decided ability. The administration of JOHX WHEE- 
 LOCK extended over thirty-six years, a period longer, by a little, 
 than that of any other President of the college, longer indeed, 
 if I do not mistake, than that of any President of any College in 
 New England. It was marked by a gradual and decisive 
 enlargement of all the means and appliances of effective educa- 
 tion. New professorships were founded, and better modes of 
 
24 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 teaching brought into use. A manly and energetic spirit had 
 always marked the College. An unusual tone of civility and 
 grace, somewhat foreign, it might bo imagine 1, to a region so 
 secluded as ours, visibly pervaded the little society, and spread 
 its humane influence far over the region. 
 
 The first college edifice proved to be small and inadequate, 
 and during the lifetime of the first President, preparations were 
 made for the erection of a better. Accordingly in 1786, the 
 foundations of a new college the present Dartmouth Hall 
 were laid, and the building itself was completed during the next 
 year. It was a structure of some pretension in its day. It has 
 lines of beauty arid fair proportion that please every eye, and 
 although of wood, suggestive of decay, if not of conflagration, 
 no one of us, I am sure, remembering all that it has seen, remem- 
 bering the footsteps of classmates and friends, of great men and 
 good men that have walked up those well-worn stairs, remem- 
 bering the benches in the old recitation room where we sat, and 
 the beloved and revered teachers whose voices of encourage- 
 ment and direction still sound in our ears, no one of us can 
 look at it without a stirring of the heart. Why, its long entries, 
 homely and rough as they are, are to me full of beauty and mu- 
 sic, and I would rather worship in its humble chapel than under 
 the sounding arches of Westminster Abbey. 
 
 In 1790 a further accession to the conveniences of the place 
 was made by the erection, at an expense of- 300, through the 
 joint contributions of the College and citizens of the town, of a 
 building nearly square and standing a few rods diagonally south- 
 west of Dartmouth Hall, which was afterwards used for a chapel. 
 It had no architectural beauty without, but within it possessed a 
 virtue which has made some buildings quite celebrated. Its con- 
 cave roof formed a complete whispering gallery, and from corner 
 to corner, a distance of seventy or eighty feet, the ticking of a 
 watch, or a whisper inaudible at the distance of a yard from the 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 25 
 
 speaker, could be distinctly heard. It was a building without a 
 chimney, and never profaned by a stove ; and here before break- 
 fast on the cold winter mornings, and in the dim twilight of the 
 evening, muffled in their cloaks, officers and students gathered 
 for prayers with as much of punctuality and order as characterize 
 the more comfortable devotions of our degenerate days. This 
 structure, which ought to have been preserved for its accoustic 
 qualities, did duty for nearly or quite forty years, when, on the 
 renovation of Dartmouth Hall, the formation of a new chapel 
 within and the erection of new edifices, it migrated to the other 
 side of the plain, and then, as if the soul of a restless Indian 
 were in it, it started again farther north, and sunk, I am sorry to 
 say, to the humble service of a barn. 
 
 During the latter part of the last century, were founded the 
 two great literary societies which divide the College, the "Social 
 Friends" and "United Fraternity." Their influence on the Col- 
 lege has been most marked and most salutary. There comes a 
 period in the life of almost every young man in a course of edu- 
 cation when he specially craves books. Throw him then into a 
 well selected library, let him roam at will through it. become 
 acquainted with authors and subjects, -read, inquire and exam- 
 ine, let him take part in the selection and purchase of books, 
 and you have done the best thing you can do towards cultivating 
 his taste for letters, and stimulating a spirit which he will carry 
 with him through life. All this and far more these societies with 
 their excellent libraries have done for the many hundreds who 
 have belonged to them. Among the general influences of the 
 College, those which go to make up the genius of the place, I 
 hardly know one to be placed before them. Other societies stand 
 on a somewhat different basis, but yet have proved to be of great 
 value. Among the most prominent of them are the Phi Beta 
 Kappa, whose character for dignity and discrimination has been 
 
 4 
 
26 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 felt in so many classes ; the Theological Society which has done 
 so good a work in preserving and guiding a true religious spirit ; 
 and the Handel Society which through a long succession of 
 classes has preserved and cultivated a taste for the noblest music. 
 
 Another circumstance which marked the enlargement of the 
 College was the establishment of the Medical School. Dr. NA- 
 THAN SMITH was a man of remarkable medical insight. He had 
 many of those qualities which have given fame to such men as 
 JOHN HUNTER and WILLIAM CULLEX. In 1796 he proposed to 
 the Trustees of the College to deliver lectures to the students, 
 and to form classes for special instruction in medicine. While 
 approving in the main of his plan, they did not find themselves 
 at that time ready to fall in with it entirely. The proposition 
 was respectfully deferred, and it was not till 1798 that Dr. SMITH 
 received an appointment as Professor of Theory and Practice, 
 and Professor of Anatomy and Surgery, with authority to teach 
 and to employ assistants according to his own wishes. The State 
 subsequently lent its assistance, and erected a building, and the 
 School which has borne such honored names upon its rolls, which 
 has done such thorough work for the science and art of healing 
 started on its beneficent mission. 
 
 The early days of the College were days before we had got 
 rid of the idea that respect and deference paid by the young to 
 the old, by the son to his father, by the pupil to his teacher, are 
 virtues to be commended and enforced. In most of our colleges, 
 as in the English schools, a marked respect and sometimes actual 
 service was required from the younger to the older classes, and 
 certainly from students to the college officers. It was one of the 
 "orders and customs" of the College of New Jersey that "every 
 scholar should keep his hat off about ten rods to the President 
 and about five to the Tutor," and "every Freshman sent on an 
 errand shall go and do it faithfully and make quick return." 
 
HISTORICAL DISCO URSE. 2 7 
 
 Similar customs were prevalent in Harvard and Yale and to some 
 extent here. Bat these gradually disappeared before the com- 
 mencement of the present century, while of the custom of cor- 
 poral punishment administered by the President to a delinquent 
 student, common at one time at Harvard, I can find no trace. 
 
 We come now to times and events which tried to the utmost 
 the firmness, the principle, the popularity and usefulness of the 
 College ; events which it is impossible to pass over without 
 notice, and difficult to speak of fairly and yet briefly as the occa- 
 sion requires. The years between 1810 and 1819 were years of 
 public and private controversy. An unfriendly feeling had grad- 
 ually grown up between the President and some of the Oificers 
 and Trustees, the causes of which belong to the fuller records of 
 history. This unfriendliness soon spread beyond the limits of 
 personal relations, and beyond the Institution and parties imme- 
 diately concerned. Ministers and- laymen throughout this and 
 the adjoining States invoked by one or another of the disputants, 
 took sides and added to the general excitement. Political feeling 
 which ran high, was appealed to, and the question became com- 
 plicated, and assumed unexpected magnitude. 
 
 The Board of Trustees was composed of men of remarkable 
 ability, of great legal attainments, and of high character. Among 
 them were such men as NATHANIEL NILES, a strong politician 
 on the democratic side, a subtle theologian, an unwearied and 
 powerful disputant, and of unblemished integrity ; THOMAS W. 
 THOMPSON, a lawyer of large experience, familiar with affairs, and 
 well acquainted with public events ; TIMOTHY FAKRAR, a jurist 
 of great prudence and integrity ; ELIJAH PAINE and CHARLES 
 MAESH, lawyers of great learning, acuteness and power, of pro- 
 found convictions, thoroughly independent and fearless; Rev. 
 ASA MCFARLAND and Rev. SETH PAYSON, among the best rep- 
 resentatives of the clergy in this or any State, earnest leaders of 
 
28 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 religious opinion, and wielding the influence which belongs to 
 pure lives and high moral purpose. The Trustees felt that the Col- 
 lege was approaching a crisis, difficult to meet, sure to be attended 
 with anxiety, distress, personal alienations, and unforeseen costs. 
 But they were not men to be afraid or to shrink from a painful 
 duty. The disagreements having become too deep and compli- 
 cated to allow hope of easy, or perhaps of any adjustment, the 
 Board, acting on its undoubted right, removed the President 
 from office, and appointed in his place a young minister* who 
 had already, several years before, declined an earnest invitation 
 to an important and delightful chair of instruction in the College, 
 and was now the happy pastor of a parish on the seacoast of the 
 then District of Maine. With great reluctance and self distrust, 
 and with sensibilities fully alive to the delicate and peculiarly 
 trying duties of the position, he yielded to the repeated, urgent 
 and powerful appeals which came from many quarters, and forsook 
 the quiet and satisfying labors of a united and affectionate parish 
 and a beautiful home, for a life of unwelcome contention, for 
 unremitting toil cheered only by the inward reward of an approv- 
 ing conscience, for unusual mental solicitudes, for an overtasked 
 frame and an early grave. The action of the Trustees awakened 
 intense feeling throughout the State. It was condemned by 
 some as unjust and illegal, and by others as harsh and impolitic. 
 It was defended as the necessary issue of a long controversy some- 
 what obscure perhaps, in its origin, reluctantly engaged in, yet 
 having in the end but one possible result, a result forced upon 
 the Board by their conscientious convictions and a deep sense of 
 their responsibility as the guardians of an important institution 
 in imminent danger of serious injury, perversion and loss. 
 
 *FKAXCIS BROWN, then Minister of the parish of North Yarmouth, 
 Maine. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 29 
 
 The Legislature of the State entered into the controversy 
 and took sides with Dr. WHEELOCK. The charter of the College 
 was at once superseded, and a new institution formed, to be 
 called the Dartmouth University. A new Board of Trust was 
 organized, and fines and other penalties threatened against any 
 one who exercised authority under the old corporation. The 
 college buildings and books passed to the hands of the new 
 Board, and the old officers took refuge in an adjoining hall, and 
 heard recitations where they could find a place. Their situation 
 was precarious and uncertain. They were contending against 
 the State, and the State, right or wrong, is no mean antagonist. 
 They seemed to be in the position of rebels against the supreme 
 authority ; a small minority not only against presumed law and 
 justice but against an eager political majority. Without funds, 
 without personal wealth, without keys or seal,* the Board of Trus- 
 tees nevertheless determined to contest the great question of ves- 
 ted rights. They determined that the question should be settled 
 not by political majorities, not by personal feeling, or private 
 interests, but by the quiet unswerving principles of law, ex- 
 pounded by the most exalted tribunal in the State, or, if need 
 were, in the land. They felt that it was not their own interests 
 merely that they were defending, but those of Harvard and Yale 
 as well, and of every eleemosynary trust in the country. Were 
 these to be fixed on the immoveable basis of a charter impregna- 
 ble while inviolate, or were they to rest on the fluctuating opin- 
 ions of changing majorities? 
 
 In advocacy of her cause, the College looked first to the 
 legal talent of the State, a State which in her bar and her bench 
 has always been represented by the highest learning and ability 
 in jurisprudence. Her cause was argued in the State Court by 
 JEREMIAH SMITH, JEREMIAH MASON and DANIEL WEBSTER, and 
 
 *The Seal of the College was presented to it in 1773, by GEORGE 
 JAFFREY, Esq. 
 
30 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 to name them is to name all that is profound in the law, and 
 subtle and convincing in advocacy. It was opposed by the ele- 
 gant skill and powerful legal acumen of ICHABOD BARTLETT and 
 GEORGE SULLIVAN. Chief Justice WILLIAM M. RICHARDSON, with 
 whom were associated as Justices, SAMUEL BELL and LEYI WOOD- 
 BURY gave the decision of the court at the November term of 
 1817, and it was adverse to the College. The case was at once 
 carried up by appeal, to the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 and argued at Washington in that lucid and powerful speech 
 which first gave Mr. WEBSTER his national fame as a profound 
 lawyer, aided by the silver eloquence of Mr. HOPKINSON of Phil- 
 adelphia. Opposed to them were JOHN HOLMES of Maine, and the 
 Attorney General, Mr. WIRT. In February 1819 Chief Justice 
 MARSHALL pronounced his luminous and convincing decision in 
 favor of the College; that decision, to borrow the words of CHAN- 
 DLER KENT, which "did more than any other single act proceed- 
 ing from the authority of the United States to throw an impreg- 
 nable barrier around all rights and franchises derived from the 
 grant of government', and to give solidity and inviolability to 
 the literary, charitable, religious, and commercial institutions of 
 our Country?* 
 
 There are some of us here who can remember the irrepres- 
 sible enthusiasm, the cannon and the bonfires, which followed 
 the announcement of the result in a letter from Mr. WEBSTER to 
 the President of the College : "All is safe and certain. The 
 Chief Justice delivered an opinion this morning, [Feb. 2, 1819,] 
 in our favor, on all the points. In this opinion WASHINGTON, LIV- 
 INGSTON, JOHNSON, and STORY, Justices, are understood to have 
 concurred. DUVAL, Justice, it is said, dissents. Mr. Justice TODD, 
 is not present. The opinion goes the whole length and leaves 
 nothing to be decided. I give you my congratulations, on this 
 
 *KENT, Lect. 19th, Vol. I. p. 392. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 31 
 
 occasion ; and assure you that I feel a load removed from my 
 shoulders much heavier than they have been accustomed to 
 bear." 
 
 Out of this severe and protracted contest the College came 
 erect, indeed, but worn and weakened ; having held her honor 
 and her rights, but with little else to boast of; with vigorous spirit 
 and purpose, but exhausted in resources and with the sole privi- 
 lege of enjoying her ancient charter, of re-occupying her dilapi- 
 dated buildings, and of going on unmolested in her unobtrusive 
 labors. The exposures, anxieties and toils of those years, cost 
 one member of the small Faculty his life, and seriously wore 
 upon the others.* An important victory was gained, and honora- 
 bly acquiesced in on all sides, but as in greater contests, it left to 
 those who were disappointed, a legacy of prejudices and unfriendli- 
 ness which a whole generation could hardly eradicate. For the per- 
 petual honor of the College is it, however, that to her insight, to 
 her resolute energy, to her unflinching determination, in adverse 
 times and under great difficulties, is it owing that other institu- 
 tions and other charities have moved on unharmed, undisturbed, 
 in their' beneficent work. This contest was the great but unwel- 
 come labor of the short administration of the third President of 
 the College. 
 
 During this period of agitation and doubt, when it was un- 
 certain whether the authorities would be sustained, and the reins 
 of discipline would seem of necessity to be lightly held, the order 
 
 *The permanent officers of the College at this time, were but three, 
 President BROWN, Professor SHURTLEFF, and Professor ADAMS. The 
 Tutors from 1815 to 1820, were HENRY BOND, WILLIAM WHITE, 
 KUFUS W. BAILEY, JAMES MARSH, NATHAN W. FISKE and RUFUS 
 CHOATE. It was during the height of this controversy that Dr. BROWN 
 was strongly urged to accept the Presidency of Hamilton College in 
 New York, then rising into importance, and with large promise of use- 
 fulness. He felt, however, hound to Dartmouth until the case was 
 finally decided, and declined the generous and nattering proposal. 
 
32 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 of college and the spirit of study and improvement were admira- 
 ble. The records of the Triennial Avill show that never, perhaps, 
 in proportion to the whole number of students have classes con- 
 tained more young men of high ability, or those whose lives have 
 since been more honorably distinguished. 
 
 After the death of President BJROWX, the Rev. DANIEL 
 DANA was chosen to succeed him. Of beautiful character arid 
 graceful scholarship, he found the annoyances and perplexities of 
 the office too unwelcome, and he resigned the position after a 
 single year of service, a time too short to allow the influence of 
 his delicate and refined nature to be very strongly felt. He was 
 succeeded in 1822 by the Rev. BEXXET TYLER, a graduate of 
 Yale, and a minister in South Britain, Connecticut. His labors 
 for the College were untiring and efficient. He did much to en- 
 large its funds and advance its general interests. He increased 
 the confidence, especially of the religious community, in the 
 soundness of its principles and the excellence of its discipline. 
 New officers of great ability and admirable skill were brought 
 into the Faculty, and the whole scheme of instruction was made 
 broader and more effective. During a part of his Presidency, the 
 pulpit of the College Church being vacant, he took upon himself 
 the public services, and in no way perhaps did he make his in- 
 fluence more strongly felt upon the minds of the students. A 
 powerful religious awakening marked some of those years, and 
 transformations of character were effected which have stood the 
 test of life-long experience.* 
 
 *I believe that no student was ever excluded from the College on 
 account of color, but during the Presidency of Dr. TYLEE an incident 
 occurred which compelled the College authorities to make a decision on 
 this point. In 1824, EDWARD MITCHELL,, a native of Martinique, W. I., 
 a young man with some African blood and color, who had accompanied 
 President BROWN on his return from the South, of irreproachable char- 
 acter and conduct, applied for admission to the Freshman class. The 
 Trustees, fearing-that his presence would be unacceptable, at first de- 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 33 
 
 In 1828, on the retirement of President TYLER, commenced 
 the administration of the Rev. NATHAN LORD, which for its 
 great length, the number of students who have been graduated, 
 the enlargement of the departments of instruction, the addition 
 of new schools, and the wisdom and steadiness of its conduct, 
 may be considered among the most important in the history of the 
 College. But I am coming now to times which have not yet quite 
 passed into history. You are familiar with the scenes of these 
 later years, and will recount them to each other. More than half 
 the whole number of the Alumni were graduated while Dr. LORD 
 occupied his official position. The large majority of us received 
 our diplomas at his hands. O that he were with us to-day, as we 
 confidently expected he would be, that he might receive our 
 respectful and affectionate greetings, that we might listen to his 
 recollections, and receive once more his welcome and his bene- 
 diction. Long may it be before lie shall "go over to the majority," 
 and when the inevitable hour does come, may he be gathered 
 like a "shock of corn fully ripe in his season."* 
 
 clined to receive him. Hearing of this, the students at once held meet- 
 ings and sent a committee to request that he might be permitted to join 
 the incoming class. The sole objection being thus removed, he took 
 his place, went through the college course with honor, and was gradua- 
 ted in 1828. Many young men of African lineage have since entered the 
 College, subjected to 110 special disabilities, nor has one, so far as 'can 
 now be recalled, been treated by his fellow students or by others, with 
 disrespect on account of his race. 
 
 *In 1851 the means of education under the direction of the Board 
 of Trustees received a decisive enlargmeut by a bequest of ABIEL 
 CHANDLER, Esq., a native of New Hampshire but a graduate of Harvard, 
 who gave $50,000 for establishing a School for education in the practical 
 and useful arts of life. This School has proved of great service to many 
 young men, more than a hundred of whom have already completed in 
 it their course of education. 
 
 It may be proper to state here that after the resignation of Dr. 
 LORD, Rev. A. D. SMITH, D. D., Pastor of the 14th St. Presbyterian Church 
 in New York, was chosen President and was inaugurated Xov. 18th, 1S63> 
 It is gratifying to observe that the funds of the College have since 
 
34- HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 There is not much time to speak of the general policy of the 
 College through these hundred years of its life, but I may say in 
 brief, that it has been sound and earnest, conservative and ag- 
 gressive at the same time. As the motto on its seal, vox da- 
 mantis in deserto, indicated and expressed the religious purpose 
 of its founders, so this purpose has never been lost sight of. 
 Through lustrum after lustrum, and generation after generation, 
 while classes have succeeded classes, while one corps of Instruc- 
 tors have passed away and others have taken their places, this 
 high purpose of presenting and enforcing the vital and essential 
 truths of the Christian religion, has never been forgotten or neg- 
 lected. The power of Christianity in modifying, inspiring and 
 directing the energies of modern civilization, its art, its litera- 
 ture, its commerce, its laws, its government has been profoundly 
 felt. Nor has it for a moment been forgotten that education, to 
 be truly and in the largest degree beneficent, must also be relig- 
 ious, must affect that which is deepest in man, must lead him, 
 if it can, to the contemplation of truths most personal, central and 
 essential, must open to him some of those depths where the soul 
 swings almost helplessly in the midst of experiences and powers 
 unfathomable and infinite, where the intellect falters and hesi- 
 tates and finds no solution of its perplexities till it yields to faith. 
 Within later years there have been those who have advocated 
 the doctrine that education should be entirely secular, that the 
 
 that time very considerably increased. In 1866 the Legislature of N. H. 
 passed an act establishing the NEW HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE OF AGRICUL- 
 TURE AND THE MECHANIC ARTS, on the basis of the Congressional land 
 grant, and located it in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College. 
 In 1867 Gen. SYLVANUS THAYER, of the class of 1807, for sixteen years 
 from 181-7 to 1833, Superintendent of the Military Academy at West 
 Point, by a donation of $40,000, subsequently increased to $60,000, made 
 provision for establishing a special School of Architecture and Civil 
 Engineering in connection with the College. The means of education 
 now concentrated at Hanover are such as to meet the wants of almost 
 every person who may seek knowledge or culture. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 35 
 
 College should have nothing to do with religious counsels or ad- 
 vice. Now while I do not think that this would be easy, as our 
 colleges are organized, without leaving or even inciting the mind 
 to dangerous skepticism, nor possible but by omitting the most 
 powerful means of moral and intellectual discipline, nor without 
 depriving the soul of that food which it specially craves, and des- 
 titute of which it will grow lean, hungry and unsatisfied, as a 
 matter of history, no such theory of education has found favorable 
 response among the guardians of Dartmouth. At the same time 
 while the general religious character of the College has been well 
 ascertained and widely recognized, while the great truths of our 
 common Christianity have been fully and frankly and earnestly 
 brought to the notice of intelligent and inquiring minds, it has 
 not been with a narrow illiberal and proselyting spirit, not so as 
 rudely to violate traditionary beliefs, not so as to wound and re- 
 pel any sincere and truth loving mind. And this is the consis- 
 tent and sound position for the College to hold. 
 
 With respect to its curriculum of studies the position of the 
 College has been equally wise. She has endeavored to make her 
 course as broad, generous and thorough as possible ; equal to the 
 best in the land ; so that her students could feel that no privilege 
 has been denied them which any means at her disposal could 
 provide. She has endeavored wisely to apportion the elements 
 of instruction and discipline. She has provided as liberally as 
 possible, by libraries, apparatus, laboratories and cabinets for in- 
 crease in positive knowledge. She has equally insisted on those 
 exact studies which compel subtleness and precision of thought, 
 which habituate the mind to long trains of controlled reasoning, 
 which discipline alike the attention and the will, the conservative 
 and the elaborative powers. She has given full honor to the 
 masterpieces of human language and human thought, through 
 which, while we come to a more complete knowledge of peoples 
 
 t 
 
36 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 and nations, of poetry and eloquence, we feel more profoundly 
 the life of history, and comprehend the changes of custom and 
 thought, while the finer and more subtle powers of fancy and 
 imagination stir within the sensitive mind, and gradually by 
 constant and imperceptible inspiration lift the soul to regions of 
 larger beauty and freedom. 
 
 So may she ever hold on her way, undcludcd by specious 
 promises of easier methods, inuring her students to toil as the 
 price of success; not rigid and motionless but plastic and adapt- 
 ing herself to the necessities of different minds; yet never con- 
 founding things that differ, nor vainly hoping on a narrow basis 
 of culture, to rear the superstructure of the broadest attainment 
 and character, but ever determined to make her instructions the 
 most truly liberal and noble. 
 
 Thus, Fathers and Brothers of the Alumni, have I endeavored 
 to perform the duty assigned me of portraying briefly the course 
 of our beloved and benignant Mother, from youth to venerable 
 ago. I should love to enlarge upon some of the familiar names 
 which, when hers is mentioned, rise unbidden to our lips; of those 
 teachers venerable and ever to be revered, in all the depart- 
 ments of learning, to whom Ave have owed so much, of Pro- 
 fessor ADAMS and Doctor SHURTLEFF, Professor CHAMBERLAIN, 
 and Professor HADDOCK, Doctor NATHAN SMITH and Doctor 
 MUSSKY, Doctor DANA, and Doctor OLIVER, Professor PEABODY, 
 Professor YOUNG, and Professor LONG, Professor CHASE and 
 Professor PUTNAM. I should like to call up for special honor 
 those generous patrons from THORNTON and PHILLIPS to CHAND- 
 LER, rind ArrLETON, and SIIATTUCK, and HALL, and BOND, and 
 YViLi.AKn, :md THAYER, and FLETCHER, and CULVER, and Bis- 
 SI:LL, whose liberality has provided for the generous enlargement 
 of its privileges or has founded new schools, whose names shall 
 be remembered ks long as yonder walls and spires shall cast their 
 shadows over these lovely plains. I should delight to speak of 
 
HISTORICAL DISCO URSE. 3 7 
 
 the manifest wisdom of the State in concentrating here her 
 schools for Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, knowing how 
 well it is for different departments of learning and skill to look 
 on each other with friendly eyes, and lend each to each, a 
 helping hand. But all these must be left to other times and 
 other tongues. 
 
 With no purpose of personal advantage but with the deep- 
 est filial love and gratitude have we assembled this day. Of all 
 professions and callings, from many States, from public business 
 and from engrossing private pursuits, you, my young friend who 
 have just corne, with hesitation and ingenuous fear, to add your 
 name if you may, to the honored rolls of the College, and you sir,* 
 whose memory runs back to the begining of the century, the 
 oldest or nearly the oldest living alumnus of the College, the 
 contemporary of CHAPMAX and HARVEY, and FLETCHER, and 
 PARRIS, and WESTOX and WEBSTER, you who came from be- 
 yond the "Father of Waters," and you who have retreated for a 
 moment from the shore of the dark Atlantic you sir, our brother 
 by hearty and affection ate adoption,! who led our armies in that 
 memorable march from the mountain to the sea, which shall be 
 remembered as long as the march of the ten thousand, and 
 repeated in story and song as long as history and romance shall 
 be written, and you, sir,$ who hold the even scales of justice in 
 that august tribunal, from which MARSHALL proclaimed the law 
 which insured to us our ancient name and rights and privileges, 
 unchanged, untarnished, unharmed, all of us, my brothers, with 
 one purpose have come up to lay our trophies at the feet of our 
 common mother, to deck her with fresh garlands, to rejoice in 
 her prosperity, and to promise her our perpetual homage and love. 
 
 *JoB LYMAX, Esq., of the class of 1804. 
 
 tGeneral SHERMAN received the highest honorary degree of the 
 College in 1866. 
 
 fit is necessary only to strangers to say that Chief Justice CHASE 
 was the President of the Alumni Association. 
 
38 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 Let no word of ours ever give her pain or sorrow. Loyal to our 
 heart of hearts, may we minister so far as we can, to her wants, 
 may we be jealous of her honor, and solicitous for her prosperity. 
 May no ruthless hand ever hereafter be lifted against her. May 
 no unholy jealousies rend the fair fabric of her seamless garment. 
 May no narrow or unworthy spirit mar the harmony of her wise 
 counsels. May she stand to the end as she ever has stood, for the 
 Church and State, a glory and a defence. And above all and in 
 order to all, may the spirit of God, in full measure rest upon her ; 
 "the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel 
 and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the 
 Lord." 
 
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